The Reckoning of Love ( Sophia Yancey )

Chapter 40 Helping Her Get Dressed

Joseph frowned, but after pondering for a moment, he thought he couldn’t keep on butting heads with this lady, who seemed open to persuasion but would not be coerced. “You want to have Greek food?” He had heard that from Howard, that annoying brat, just now.

Sophia looked away. Joseph, could you stop being like this? I’m not used to this!”

Joseph was stunned. “What did I do? All I did was ask you what you’d like to eat, no?”

Sophia laughed. “Mr. Lynch, when did you ever care about what I’d like to eat?”

Joseph’s face slowly fell.

Sophia continued, “Now that we’re speaking of this, Mr. Lynch, I’ve been with you for five years now. Do you know what I like or dislike eating?”

Joseph fell silent for a moment. “You can tell me now.”

“Is that necessary?”

As Sophia spoke, her phone rang; it was a phone call from Thomas. “Mr. Ulmer,” she answered the phone in a cold and distant voice. “I was asleep this afternoon, and my phone got switched to airplane mode by accident. Have you arrived?”

Instead of answering her question, Thomas asked, “Why is your voice hoarse?”

“A bit of a cold, probably,” replied Sophia. “Do we need to meet up before tomorrow’s meeting?”

“How about we have dinner together, then? We can talk over dinner.”

Before Sophia could answer that, Joseph snatched the phone away from her grasp. “Find a Greek food restaurant and send me the address.”

Thomas was dumbfounded. “Who are you?”

“Your boss,” replied Joseph before hanging up.

Not bothering to argue with the man, Sophia was going to get dressed.

Joseph followed her “What are you doing?”

“Getting dressed”

All of Sophia’s clothes were matching sets. Just when she reached into the wardrobe to get one of them, Joseph poked his hand out from behind her and took it for her with little effort. Then, taking her uninjured hand, he led her aside

Sophia frowned in puzzlement. “What are you doing?

Tm helping you get dressed Joseph said, sounding juntied

“I don’t want that Sophia refused decisively

“Of course, you want that Joseph looked at her. How did you take care of me when I previously fractured my arm while playing golf

“It was part of my job, and I got paid for it.”

“You can pay me now,” replied an importunate Joseph.

“Joseph… enough of your shenanigans!” Sophia said helplessly.

“That’s my line, Sophia.” Joseph wrapped his arms around her and pulled her toward himself. “You know how little patience I have. Or if you refuse to listen when I’m talking nicely, I’ll have to take a different approach…” he said while darting a glance toward the king-sized bed behind them.

A shudder ran down Sophia’s spine; she knew full well what ‘approach’ the man was referring to. She didn’t even have to weigh the consequences. Gritting her teeth, she relented, letting Joseph help her get dressed.

Joseph’s hands were klutzy. If Sophia were to get dressed on her own, she would’ve finished in several minutes at most, yet it took him over 10 minutes to help her get dressed. “It’s done.” He withdrew his hands from her before wrapping his arms around her waist again. Then, he leaned closer and kissed her attractive clavicle and the hickey on her neck. “You still need a silk scarf.”

“No, it’s not necessary!” Sophia pushed him away. Joseph loved to plant hickeys on her like a dog, so she always used concealers with super full coverage. A moment later, the hickey on her neck was no longer visible.

At the sight of this, Joseph felt uncomfortable. He picked up the concealer with a frown, saying, “Why do you have such a stupid thing?”

“Without this stupid thing, I’d have had to wear silk scarfs in summer over the past five years, retorted Sophia while walking straight outside with her laptop bag in hand.

Joseph immediately followed her. When he warily opened the door, Howard was no longer there.