The gentle voice whispers again. No. Wanting that can’t be good.I lightly jostle my head back and forth, shaking the idea away.
“So, then,” Brexton breathes, heavy and idly intimidating, as he buttons the middle part of his suit. “We’ll cut to the chase and settle this fast. I don’t like you, and I’ve changed my mind. You’re not getting my fucking money, and you’re leaving. Now. And if I hear one peep about you harassing any of my workers on your way out, I’ll track you down and pluck out your fucking eyeballs with my fingernails.”
A terrifying and messy picture—also hot. But it sure as hell shouldn’t be. What is wrong with me? I scowl at myself, struggling to fight the clenching of my core. I’m only feeling like this because he’s defending me—something no one’s really done before.
I keep telling myself that as our rude guest scurries away without another word.
A slight smile creeps across my face at the sight. He looks so small, so small and impotent.
The smile, however, flees when Brexton spins around to face me. Something about his stony features steals my breath—in a good way, I think.
His face is taut. “He didn’t hurt you, did he? Did he touch you?”
“No.” I shake my head, running my hand across the frame of the printer. “He was just an asshole.”
“Good for him. I guess he’ll keep—” His jaw tightens, revealing a razor-sharp edge as he suddenly stops talking. It’s like he’s been hit with lightning, and while he stares at me, the hard edges of his face round.
A knocking thud beats at the base of my skull at how soft and altered Brexton looks right now. My mouth splits open, and all too suddenly, my entire body feels parched, for everything—air included.
The knot of his tie strains at his neck, and he adjusts his weight. “Don’t look at me like that.” His statement barely breaks over the noise of the printer.
“Like what?” My tone matches how I feel inside.
“With your eyes wide, like you’re turned on.” His broad shoulders tighten. “It will make me think you enjoy seeing me act like a sadist.”
I gasp. That’s exactly what I just saw, but with the growing ache between my legs, I’m fully aware the warning voice in my head is fading away, and that I like not being able to hear it very well.
Meekly, I bob my head, almost smiling. “Maybe I do enjoy—”
“No,” he cuts out. “Don’t say that.” A lightness hits Brexton’s eyes as he tugs the sleeve of his suit. “It will make me like you even more for an entirely different reason, and that’s not good.”
“Why?” I wheeze out.
“Because…” His chest vibrates with a tremor as he tries to steady his now shaky breathing. “Because that’s a whole new layer of what we could be, and while I don’t have time for that kind of involvement in my life, I’d sure as hell make time for it.”
I’m dizzy now. Lust swims heavy in my core, with the room swirling all around. He doesn’t know it, but he could probably do whatever he wanted to me right now. Instead of attention, though, I’m granted with frustration roiling under my chest, shooting into my helpless fingertips as Brexton nods and backs away.
“I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”
I blink, then he’s gone, and I hate it. For the first time since I’ve started working for him, I despise him walking out on me—and I don’t know why it’s pissing me off to the point that I want to scream. I don’t know why there’s a weird gush of baffled tears cutting at the corners of my eyes.
All I do know is that I wish he would have stayed.
I wonder if he feels the same way each time I walk out on him.