Seducing Sophie

Seducing
Sophie
(At
The
Billionaire’s Command Part 1)

Sophie
hadn’t had the easiest start to life. Her mother did her best after her father walked out on them when
Sophie
was three, but life as a single mother had b
een difficult.
She worked two jobs to make ends meet, and knew that she hadn’t been there for Sophie as often as she would have liked.
Still, despite her mother wishing she could have been there more often,
Sophie
hadn’t been a bad kid. S
he didn’t hang out with the wrong crowd, but she wasn’t an A student either.
Quite simply put, she was an average, small-town girl who expected to live an average, small-town girl’s life.
She got good enough grades, and when she graduated from high school got a job as a waitress at the local diner along the highway.
She made ends meet,
and figured she’d be there for a good chunk of her life.

When she was twenty one years old, however, everything changed.
Sophie saved up every cent she’d earned at her job working at the
diner
and took a three day trip to New York City.
Sophie
discovered there was a whole wide world outside of her small town, and she wanted to be a part of it.
She had never experienced anything like it. She went to Times Square, the Empire State Building,
the
Statue of Lib
erty and walked along Broadway
and saw the bull on Wall Street
. The lights of the city, the energy of
the city absolutely amazed her.
When she got back home,
Sophie
immediately applied for student loans and
began attending
her state college
the following semester
.
Suddenly,
Sophie
had a goal in life. She worked like a maniac, juggling two jobs and full time studies to make ends meet.
She was going to be a city girl. She was going to move to New York City.

Sophie
had been impressed by the tall, glass towers and the women in their high heels and business suits who walked around with the confidence
Sophie
had ever felt she had.
She wasn’t at the top of her class, but
Sophie
was very easily one of the better students in her program.
She wasn’t the smartest person in her class, but she worked
extremely hard, moving her hours down to part time at the diner
and attending classes year round.
She would study on her breaks at the diner and spend most of her free time in the college library.
Her marks were good enough that when
Sophie
applied
to every single internship
she could find in New York City, she got three interviews. And one of the
companies,
Carey and
Ulhman
, one of t
he largest investment banks on Wall S
treet, gave her the job.
Sophie
had been ecstatic
when she got the phone call congratulating her
. When she got the ne
ws, she jumped around her
apartment like a madwoman
. It was hands down the most exciting day of her life. She began packing immediately. Her mom and her both cried as she boarded the plane to the city,
her mother pinching Sophie’s cheek and telling her how proud she was,
and as they arrived at JFK Airport late at night, the lights of the city shining bright, Sophie knew this was where she belonged. This was where she was going to start her new life.

Now
Sophie
was starting her
new job, her
first day
working
in New York City, as an inte
rn.
Oh my God, I can’t even tell if I’m more nervous or excited
she thought to herself as she pushed through the
revolving glass
doors of the
forty story
building.
Everything
was so fast-paced in New York,
Sophie
felt as though if she stopped to look around she’d be run over.
Men and women, all in suits, hustled around her,
their lives completely focused on themselves, their phones and the piles of papers they carried.
No one paid Sophie any attention as she slowly walked through the building’s lobby, never having seen anything like
this.
There are more people in this building right now than live in my hometown
she thought.
S
ophie
smoothed down the skirt of her new suit, which she’d bought the other day with one of her credit cards, hoping to make a good impression.
After all, she had to look the part. She had never needed to
wear a suit in her life before, but now she was a city gir
l
.
Sophie
took a breath and went up to her new job.

For the next four hours,
Sophie
started learning everything she had to know
about interning at Carey and
Ulhmann
. By the time lunch rolled around, her head spun with instructions and figures. She worke
d on one of the trading floors,
and while she’d learned all about how fast paced and demanding the jobs can be when she was in class learning about derivatives, hedge funds and all of those
related financial terms
, it was nothing compared to the pressure of working in the environment for real.
No wonder all the traders always seem so stressed
she thought to herself.

Her coworkers had mostly been nice. Sophie only
thought
mostly because of her encounter with one woman,
Ellie.
Ellie had gone to Harvard or Stanford or one of those places,
on her family’s dime,
and thought she was so much better than the other interns.
She was gorgeous, with long blonde hair and
a perfect body which she flaunted to all of the trader men
, who had definitely noticed
.
She looked down on Sophie,
announcing to her that she didn’t have to worry, Ellie would soon climb her way up the ladder here at the company, and that soon Sophie would be considered pretty, compared to everyone else on the floor at least.
Well, every office needs to have a total bitch, I guess
Sophie thought.

Sophie
ha
d been given an hour for lunch. She wandered down the street
a little bit, trying to find a good place to eat
until she found a small cafe
with a cute patio where she could people watch and refresh her brain for an hour. Ordering a salad and a coffee,
Sophie
sat.
As she watched the people of Manhattan walk by,
Sophie
wondered to herself if she would ever be those people.
She watched the women in particular.
They looked so confident, with their hair tied back, on their phones, walking with purpose.
Sophie
decided she would try the same walk on the way back to the office. She flipped open a mirror from her purse and had a quick look.
Sophie
was definitely pretty: she had long, light brown hair with a small nose and a cute mouth. Her eyes were dark brown and deep, giving her a mysterious look.
Sophie
’s suit pressed against her slim frame,
kept so by a healthy d
iet and daily runs in the park.
Yes, she definitely had the potential to become one of these women. Now she just needed the attitude.

Suddenly, just above the frame, her eyes met another pair.
A man was sitting facing her, three tables away.
He was probably around ten years older than
Sophie
, in his mid-30s.
His skin was light, but not pale.
His jet black hair was professionally combed back,
but couldn’t quite hide t
he slightly rugged look of his face, complete with a day or so worth of stubble.
He looked as though he would be more at home rock climbing or
heli
-skiing than being just another suit in New York City.
He was definitely handsome
and for some reason he looked familiar, like Sophie had seen him before somewhere, but she couldn’t quite place where
.
Sophie
’s heart skipped a beat as she looked at the man who’d caught her eye.
She felt a tingling in between her thighs.
Suddenly, her brain started working again.
Get it together
Soph
,
smile at the guy and go back to people watching. He’s not interested in you.
Don’t be creepy.
But hot damn is he sexy.
Sophie
tried a casual,
small smile, then turned away before she could notice if the man smiled back.

When she glanced back quickly two minutes later,
the man had
gone.
Sophie
blushed in embarrassment at how quickly she’d become infatuated with the man.
You’re not a teenager anymore
Sophie
. You’re a twenty four year old woman. You know better than to get turned on by a man just looking at you in the street, even a man as sexy as the one who’d been sitting there.

The instant Sophie walked back to the offices and got back into work, the man slipped from her mind.
He was just another passing moment in her New York City life.
She rushed around, getting folders, filing reports, making copies and learning about business at the investment bank.
When the clock struck six,
she was finished for the day. Sophie
left,
took the train home and collapsed onto her couch, rubbing her feet.
It had been quite the day.
She smiled to herself. So far, it had been fantastic.
She loved the city. She loved her studio apartment with the dingy walls on the fifth floor of a five-floor
walkup
.
She loved falling asleep
on her mattress on the floor
to the sou
nds of sirens, cars and people.

The next day, at her lunch hour, Sophie went to the same cafe as she had the day before.
She pretended to herself that it was because the food had been so good, but she knew deep down she simply wanted to see if the man would come back.
Once again, she ordered a salad, and this time two coffees. Her work was tough, and she had to admit it was tiring.
Twenty minutes after she sat down, he had.
This time, Sophie felt a little bit more confident. After all, she’d survived her first day in the Big Apple.
She smiled
at the man, and he smiled back, sen
ding tingles through her veins. She suddenly got shy, blushed, and went back to her salad, trying to hide her red face.
This is unlike you, Sophie
she thought to herself.
What happened to bold Sophie, Sophie that went straight up to that cutie Bobby Ray in fourth grade and planted a kiss on his lips just to see what it would feel like?

She gathered her confidence after her small pep talk to herself, but o
nce again, when she looked up the man had
gone
.

Every day for a week Sophie ate at the cafe. Every day the man eventually showed up, and Sophie got bolder and bolder. She didn’t have much experience with men,
but she did her best at flirting.
Then one day,
the man didn’t show up.
Sophie felt her heart sink, and tried to convince herself that it was nothing.
I’m sure he’ll be back
tomorrow,
he probably just has something to do at his job.
Still, Sophie wasn’t concentrating. As she glanced down the street,
she accidentally knocked over her fork and spilt a dressing-covered tomato onto her suit.
“Oh shit” Sophie muttered
to herself
. She knew the cafe had a bathroom, and
made her way into the building to wash off the dressing before it stained.
What an awful day
Sophie thought to herself as she scrubbed off the dressing and stood under the hand dryer, breathing a sigh of relief when the spot
dried, leaving no hint as to Sophie’s adventure with the tomato.

The door behind Sophie opened quietly.
A few seconds later, Sophie felt someone behind her.
She turned around and took a step back, gasping.
What on earth is he doing in the ladies bathroom?
Sophie asked herself, looking up at the mysterious stranger
with whom she’d flirted for the past week
.
He ha
d shown up after today after all.