It had been so long since I'd known pleasure so intense, so all-consuming. I'd thought, only a few short hours ago, that it had been exactly what I needed. And on so many levels, it was exactly that. If only I'd never heard the words that passed from his mouth mere moments after he'd drew his body back out of me. If only I could forget what he'd said to me, and how incredibly complicated it was about to make my life.
“Bella, you can sleep here tonight if you want. I actually need to be getting back to my place. I have to be at work early tomorrow. It’s my first day at Roman Enterprises and my father would kill me if I was late.”
God. Help. Me.
The situation was bad enough on its own. I had just gone to bed with the spoiled son of my gazillionaire boss, without even having a clue as to what the hell I was doing. How I hadn't pieced that all together felt totally ridiculous to me in hindsight, but now that it was out in the open I felt like I'd been totally blind from the get-go.
And if the simple fact of having wound up in bed with the man wasn't bad enough, threatening the position of Chief Financial Officer at Roman Enterprises that I'd busted my pretty little butt to achieve, it was also entirely worth mentioning that I was scheduled to begin training that same sexpot of a man a few short hours from now.
That's not even to mention the fact that the job he was being trained for, as Vice President of the company, was one I'd been desperately gunning for for some time now. I'd been naively certain it would be mine, but of course the position had ended up going to CEO Alaric Caesar's arrogant son. The very same man who'd just had his face pressed up between my legs and his tongue wrapped up inside me.
How many times over was this one man going to end up screwing me, and in how many different ways?
I'd lain in silence next to him for a good five minutes or so after he'd told me the awful truth about himself, not even aware of the gravity of what he'd just gotten through saying. I mean, how could he? I was just some bimbo he'd met in a bar. A classy, business oriented bimbo he'd met in a bar, but a bimbo in a bar all the same. He had no way of knowing that I was the woman who was set to be training him the following morning at the very same job he'd stolen from me, and I was too humiliated by it all to even think about saying a word to him about it.
I waited until he'd closed his eyes again, and leaned over the edge of the bed to retrieve my scattered clothes from the floor. My face felt hotter than fire as I picked up the shed black lace of my bra and panties, thinking of how enthusiastically I'd let that man husk me out of them with those perfect hands of his. How the hell was I ever going to hold any sort of authority over him now? How would he ever look at me with anything even remotely resembling respect, when he'd seen how desperately, almost bestially I'd thrown myself at him?
I'd just finished sliding into my panties and pulling up my pantyhose, when suddenly I felt the burning touch of his fingertips against the small of my back. I forgot for just a moment, and allowed myself to savor it. My spine arched toward him, and my shoulders pushed back, and if I hadn't caught myself when I did I think I might have been tempted to lean right back around, and kiss those perfect lips of his with the fiercest of hungers.
With a herculean effort, though, I managed, thank God, to cool myself off just in time. I straightened back up again, running a hand through my hair in a way that I hoped looked professional- even though I was still sitting on the edge of his bed in a pair of black panties and transparent stockings, and absolutely nothing else.
“Going somewhere, caro mio?” he asked, in that low, deep voice of his that could convince a woman to do anything. I was living proof of that...
I fixed him with a cold glare from the corner of my eye. I didn't want him to think I wanted him as much as I did. But God it was hard, staring at that naked body tucked away under the covers, his chest broad and delectable, his chiseled Adonis muscles pointing to that tremendous morsel of his, hidden away beneath the sheets.
Forget about me not having any authority over him. Once this son of a bitch was fully trained and eased into the position of vice president, how was I going to survive him having that much authority over me?
“What you said just got me thinking,” I said. “I have an early day tomorrow as well. I should really get going and prepare for it.”
He smirked at me. “Well. If you're going to be that way about it. How about one last kiss before you go?”
I turned away from him, my cheeks burning.
“I really just need to get going,” I said, sliding into my bra, and fumbling with the straps behind me.
“Oh,” he said, clearly trying to hold back the disappointment in his voice.
A man like him must not have been used to being turned down by women in this way. I'm sure most of the bar tramps like me he slept with were willing to do whatever he wanted them to to stay in his good graces, and I could tell he was struggling with how to follow up my rejection.
“Well,” he tried again. “How about you give me your number then? I would love to see you again.” Then, when I didn't say anything, “Or better yet, why don't I just give you mine? That way you can get a hold of me if-”
Thankfully by that point I'd made it back into my skirt and blouse, and had one arm pushed into the sleeve off my blazer.
“How about I just see you around?” I said, more of an insistence than any kind of question.
“Oh... Alright then. Ciao, I guess...”
My blazer was on, my heels were in hand, and I was out of there like a bat out of hell. Never in my life had I been so relieved to be out of a place as nice as that one had been. I got in my car and let out a deep sigh, the outside of my body cooling off, but my insides remaining as sweltering as they had been mere moments ago.
All I'd really accomplished was to leap out of the frying pan, and straight into the fire.
::
It was a very, very long time until morning. And yet somehow, not by any means nearly long enough.
I'd lain in bed wide awake from the moment I got back to my place, staring up at the ceiling. Trying not to think about that man's perfect, sex body, but of course fixating on nothing else besides it.
I kept trying to figure some possible way out of all this. Something, anything, I might somehow be overlooking that would let me off the hook. The best case scenario, of course, would be that I would just wake up in an hour or so and realize this had all been a dream. I hadn't just had the lights screwed out of me by the Vice President of my company, and everything in the world was still just hunky dory. Maybe I would even wake up and find out that I'd been promoted to VP after all, if I was going to let myself being all fantastical about things.
Short of such a miracle, though, I knew I was going to have to start thinking more realistically about the possibilities. Maybe I would luck out and he would end up having been too wasted the night before to remember me. Maybe he would forget my face. And my name. And every detail about myself I must have shared with him over the course of our evening together.
I mean, he did have a reputation as a playboy, didn't he? Maybe after a while all of his conquests in the bedroom just started blurring together for him, and at the end of the day he wouldn't be able to tell me from Eve herself.
Yeah... That sounded good, right?
But as the dawn slowly broke, and the sunlight crept in through the curtains in my bedroom, I knew how desperate the idea seemed. I didn't ever want to leave the safety of these blankets again, yet I knew I really had no choice in the matter as I kicked my legs over the bed, and set my feet down slowly against the floor.
I was simply going to have to face the music...
:::
9:07 AM.
I'd arrived late to work, despite having been awake for so long. I just hadn't had it in me to motivate myself to step into that place, knowing as I did that I had nothing less than eight hours of sheer hell to look forward to once I arrived.
So far, though, as far as I could tell, the coast seemed to be clear. I looked
around, astonished by my luck, and wondering for a moment whether I'd been right all along. Maybe I had simply dreamed Dane into existence, or at least that version of him, and things might end up turning out okay after all.
I mean, of course it made sense. I'd already established that my previous night's bedfellow was an entitled little prick, so yeah of course he would be late for his first day, regardless of whatever plans he had to the contrary.
I ventured a sigh of relief, but I knew I wasn't out of the woods yet. Still far, far from it.
Heading into my office I kicked off my shoes, already feeling a little bit more relaxed than I should have allowed myself to be. I logged onto my computer and scrolled through my e-mail. And there I saw my second stroke of luck for the day, in the most unexpected of places- a message from Mr. Caesar himself, the spoiled stud's father.
“Good morning Jayla,
I know you were due to begin training my son to prepare for taking over the position of Vice President starting this morning. However, something has come up which I believe takes precedent over that for at least the next couple of days. I left early yesterday, so I didn't notice the e-mail until late last night. But someone in the accounting department noticed a few fairly significant errors in some figures over the course of the past month or so. It's probably no coincidence that this took place while you were out of the office on your big trip. It's like they say- when the cat is away, the mice will screw everything up for her until she gets back.
Obviously I place no blame on you for any of this. If anything I blame myself- I should know better by now than to let you out of this place for that long and let myself believe that things will just keep going on like business as usual. But, rather than to risk allowing the problem to get even worse than it already is, I thought it would be best to hand the situation over to you and let you see what you can figure out with all of this. No one in accounting seems to be making any headway with the problem, even as far as figuring out what the issue might be is concerned.
So, I'm going to go ahead and send along to you all of the relevant documents they've sent me. Like I said, all they've really found is that there's a problem, but maybe you'll have better luck pinpointing where we're off, and help us figure out how we can get things straightened out. And again, don't concern yourself with trying to do any kind of training with my son today. I'll find some other way to occupy his time until we get this all sorted out.
Let me know as soon as you find out anything, and thanks,
-Alaric”
I blinked a couple of times to make sure I was reading all of this correctly.
And then I smiled.
So okay, this wasn't exactly tremendous news. Someone had screwed something up, and now I was being asked to straighten out whatever dumb mistake they must have made. Today, though, I don't think things could have worked out any more perfectly for me. I may just be delaying the inevitable in my head, but that didn't really matter right now. I would at least have the chance to catch my breath before having to deal with Dane again, and under the circumstances I thought that was just about all I could really ask for.
Then again, maybe it was still asking for a little bit too much...
I opened up the documents Mr. Caesar had sent me, and immediately began poring through the figures on the screen. I could immediately tell that things were a mess, and it was going to take me a nice long time to get things sorted out- and that was once I actually figured out where I should even begin with all of this.
No sooner had I breathed a sigh of relief about my luck, however, than I heard the sudden tap tap tap of a knock on the door. Instantly I withered inside, certain I knew who it was, but unable to figure out why the hell he was here.
As if I needed any further proof of his arrogance the door slid open before I gave him permission. He stepped inside and began speaking, and it took him a moment to realize exactly who he was talking to.
“Hey, I'm supposed to come and see a Miss Anderson about-” he trailed off at the moment our eyes locked. “about- training me... Anderson, huh?... Jayla Anderson...”
My throat tightened. I suddenly felt I couldn't breathe.
“Well. What an interesting situation we find ourselves in,” he said, a cruel smile twisting across that oh to kissable mouth. “I assume you still remember me, don't you, bella? It's only been what... Six hours or so?”
Damn it.
Damn it, damn it, damn it all!
“Oh God...” I said, putting a hand to my head, trying to think.
“Wow, you really don't seem that happy to see me,” he said, his tone still playful. “You sure seemed a lot more cordial last night than you're being right now.”
“What are you doing here?” I deflected, forcing myself to look him in the eye.
“I work here now,” he said, grinning. “Or don't you remember me telling you that last night in bed? I guess maybe you had other things on your mind though, didn't you?...”
I ran my palm across my forehead, wiping away sweat. My heart was racing. “Didn't Mr. Cae- didn't your father tell you? I'm not supposed to be training you today, something came up. You're supposed to go see him, and he'll give you something to do...”
“Oh yeah?” he asked, leaning back in his chair. “Well. I just got in, so I didn't know.”
“Well now you know,” I said, a little too forcefully. “So now you can get out of my office and let me get back to work...”
He looked at me for a long time, and raised an eyebrow at me. “I don't think you're quite as busy as you're trying to make yourself seem right now. I think you just aren't very thrilled to see me here...”
I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath. It was bad enough that he was here right now, but the fact that he was seeing through me so transparently was close to unbearable.
“Look... I'm sorry I'm being so curt. But yes, I am a little but unnerved by my situation right now. I normally don't- I don't date people I work with, as a rule. I got to where I am today by keeping my business life and my personal life separate.”
“Well,” he said, flaring his nostrils at me, “I can't say I really mind if you do. I had a wonderful time with you last night, and I don't see why a little thing like work should-”
“You don't get it, do you?” I snapped, growing impatient. “You're the spoiled kid of a rich old man, so of course you don't get it! You did absolutely nothing to get to where you are today! You just walked into the door and they gave you the second best office in the building! But I stand to lose everything if I'm not careful. One wrong move and I could have everything I've worked for taken away from me. And I don't want that wrong move being your father finding out about what happened between the two of us, and him throwing me out of this place on my ass!”
I went way, way overboard, I'm well aware. I shouldn't have said even half these things to him, and especially not if I was as worried about losing my job as I claimed to be.
None of it seemed to really faze him though, or at the very least it didn't seem to offend him. He just sort of kept studying me, and smiling, until finally he rose up, giving me a nod.
“Alright. I'll go ahead and get out of your hair then. I'm sure there are plenty of other ways for me to get into trouble around here. I'll see you around...”
He turned and stepped out the door without another word. I stared after him, my ears ringing, and my head spinning. I turned back around to my computer, and stared blankly at the figures sprawled out across the page.
Could it really have been that easy? Or had I just made my entire situation one hell of a lot worse?
:::
I remained holed up in my office nearly the rest of the afternoon. I alternated between actually getting work done and just zoning out into space, thinking about the one subject in the world I wanted most not to think about.
Five o'clock rolled around before I even knew what hit me. I actually ended up getting pretty invested in what I was doing, so that by the point that it was time t
o go home I didn't really want to tear myself away from my computer screen.
I decided it wouldn't kill me to stay a little bit late tonight. Obviously, this project was the only thing that was keeping me from having to leave my office and deal with the problem I was having with Little Caesar, but I also didn't want to let on with his father that I was dragging my feet on this. I wanted to seem like I was being productive and staying on the ball, and since it had taken me so long to get started that morning, I thought it couldn't hurt to stick around and get caught up a little bit.
Mr. Too Big: BWWM Hitman Romance Novella Page 11
