After the chime, indicating for me to speak, I leave a message asking for someone to call me back, but to be honest, I know it’s a long shot. Even if I can get someone on the line, they won’t tell me anything, certainly not what the codes are.
I’m up against a rock and a hard place. I wonder if we have a PI on staff. I’m sure we do with the clients we have, but contacting them is a different matter.
I’m about to step out and ask Nancy, the office manager, when my door swings open and a very angry Tobias is storming toward me. He looks larger than life. Way too big for this small space.
His jaw is rigid, but it’s the throbbing vein on the side of his face that gives me pause.
He is pissed. But not normal pissed.
Nope. This is next-level pissed.
I stand and make my way over to him, about to tell him where to go and gesturing to the door when he steps forward.
On reflex, I take a few steps back until my back hits the wall.
“When I call, you answer.” His nostrils flare. “You don’t send me to voicemail.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I roll my eyes. “I was busy.”
Real mature. But I’m over being professional right now.
“Bullshit!” he bellows, and I swear it bounces off the walls like a ping-pong ball.
Paying him no mind, I give him a smile, a cheeky one. “I was.”
“Doing what? Because I don’t remember giving you a task I needed you to complete?”
I shake my head and tsk. “You. Are. Not. My. Boss.” Overkill, maybe, but again, zero fucks given. The man is an ass. A sexy one, but an ass.
“Oh, no?” He moves in closer. Shit.
His arms lift to close me in.
The more distance he eats up, the fuzzier my brain gets. By the time we are mere inches away, I forget what he’s saying and why I’m saying, “No.” The man makes my knees wobble. What are we even talking about? Get your shit together, Skye. I give myself a little shake, knocking the fog away and remembering the conversation. I shove his shoulder. “You might be able to buy my boss, but that doesn’t make you mine, nor am I for sale.”
“Everyone has their price.” His face is close enough that I can feel his chest expand as he speaks.
The soft fragrance of his cologne surrounds me, and I want to bask in the smell.
Crisp and fresh.
Hints of cinnamon and woods.
I’m not even sure it’s his cologne. This might be all him, and it’s delicious.
“Not me,” I hiss. He’s a planet and has a gravitational pull.
Fuck.
I need out. That way, I’m no longer under his spell. I sidestep, then duck under his arm.
Now, with a little distance put between us, I can think again. “Just because Mr. Williams says I’m going to work for you doesn’t mean I’m going to drop my life for it. If you want my help, you need to back the fuck off.”
“Let’s go. I’m sick of having an audience.”
He grabs my arm and begins to pull me out of the office. That’s when his words hit me. Audience? What audience? We aren’t alone? There is a group of assistants gathered and staring.
Damn glass window. I forgot to pull the blinds shut. Whoever thought having a window looking into an office was a good idea was actually an idiot.
As I follow him, I see my boss’s eyes are wide.
“No other clients,” Tobias snaps at him, or maybe at me, probably at both of us.
I’m too pissed to object.
Or . . .
Tobias has officially broken me.
21
Tobias
All I see is red.
I’m at a boiling point.
This woman is going to be the death of me.
She fucking sent me to voicemail, and if that isn’t bad enough, she gave me shit when I called her out on it.
There’s no speaking as we head down to the lobby. A part of me expects her to object, yell, kick, or scream, but she is resigned to her fate.
In the lobby, she’s docile, but I know this is fleeting. I’m sure once we are out of the watchful eyes of her colleagues, she will let loose, and I welcome the fire. I can’t wait to be burned.
That’s the fucked-up part. When I had her cornered against the wall, I have never been so fucking turned on in my life. This girl drives me crazy. We keep moving, and the doorman is quick to give us an exit.
Now outside, I’m pulling her toward the street, toward my waiting car, and for what? Fuck if I know.
I have no idea where I’m taking her, but I can’t stand the watchful eyes in the damn office. One thing has become painfully obvious to me—I have lost my mind.
I’m not even sure why I’m so pissed. Maybe it’s a culmination of her not fucking remembering me and then, on top of it, dismissing me.