The Office Rival: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance

My head starts to throb, slowly forming into a migraine as I struggle to ignore the sadistic thoughts running through my mind. Blame the dress. This ridiculous dress caused a massive argument between us earlier. Stubborn woman wouldn’t back down, calling me a caveman or some bullshit like that. I just knew what every jerk would be thinking. After all, that used to be me.

The room is dark and slowly morphing into a lions’ den. The beasts are hungry, waiting for their prey to make a move—a wink, even a sly smile—a gesture that will have the beasts moving in leaps and bounds, thirsty for some meat. My eyes dart back and forth—one on the prey, the other watching the beasts. The one on my left I’m certain will be him. He’s covering his mouth with a bottle, but his eyes have not left her. Then, he does the unthinkable. He moves his hand to his crotch and adjusts his cock.

Motherfucker has a hard-on already!

“You all right?”

Lex Edwards is beside me, having just stopped the waiter for a drink. I lose my focus, but only for a second. If it weren’t for him buying a share in Lantern Publishing, this stupid party wouldn’t be happening.

“Yeah… it’s just… never mind.”

He chuckles as if he’s in on some joke. “You’ve got to let it go. Otherwise, you’ll drive yourself insane. Trust me, I know. And you should know since you so eagerly tried the same move on my wife last year.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, man,” I apologize.

“So, the tables have turned, and you’re about to smash every guy in this room for looking at your woman.”

“I can take them out easily, especially that fucker on the left,” I grit.

“You’ll spend a lifetime fighting it off. You need to find a way to control the jealousy. It’s a balancing act. Let her think you’re cool but never, and I repeat never, take your eyes off the prize.”

I don’t know how Lex is so calm about all of this. His wife is standing next to Presley. The beasts are probably thinking of how to bag both of them in one go. The waiter returns but not quickly enough. I grab the scotch and down it in almost one gulp, burning my throat and following up with a numbing sensation, but it doesn’t stop me from seeing red.

“If that’s what I gotta do, then I’ll spend my life fighting every fucker who thinks they can go near her.”

She doesn’t realize what she does to me, or every man in this room, except for Lex. He’s fighting his own battles, despite being in denial.

It’s been over a year since I made it my mission to crawl under her skin—the woman who drove me to the brink of insanity. And she had no clue either. Because beneath her mass of curls was a hardheaded, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, feisty woman who rubbed me the wrong way. Boy, did that backfire. I thought fucking her in the alley and leaving her pussy wet with no happy ending would teach her a fucking lesson. It taught me a lesson. You play with fire, you get burned. The amount of shit I did to forget her was all a waste a time.

But I wouldn’t change it.

My son is my fucking life.

And running through his veins is the blood of this woman who consumes me. It’s not just her wild hair that cascades down her back and covers her body like a Greek goddess. It’s everything about her—the way her big brown eyes stare back at me, drawing me in enough that I could climb into her soul and bury myself there and how her body begs me to take her, whenever and wherever.

Whenever. Wherever.

I’ve got it. Why didn’t I think of this earlier?

You did, moron. You’re always thinking about it. This is what happens when you’re in love with a beautiful woman.

I finish the drink in my hand and place it on a table, abandoning Lex without another word. Walking straight to her, I don’t break my gaze until she stops mid-sentence as my body presses against her back. My hands move around her hips, and I pull her closer until my cock is nestled in her ass.

Yeah, I’m hard. What’s fucking new?

“Look who’s here. What, aren’t we allowed to talk to your girlfriend?” Kate teases, laughing along with Lex’s wife, Charlie.

“Stop teasing him, Kate. It’s this man thing they all have to do,” Charlie chastises.

Kate rolls her eyes at Charlie. “Yeah, you should know. Your man is over there practically eye-fucking you.”

Charlie scans the room and spots Lex. “Oh… the joys of being eye-fucked. I’ll see you ladies later.”

I don’t give Presley an opportunity to say anything as I excuse us from Kate.

“Haden, what’s wrong? Where are we going?”

Pulling her along, I weave my way in and out of the crowd until we are outside in the lobby. I look to my left, then to my right. There it is, my savior for tonight.