/> “Just concerned by the... break in routine, I guess.”
I’d had no contact with anyone but him all week, and it was starting to take its toll, truth be told. But I didn’t want to let him know that.
“Is that all?” he asked, brow raised in that questioning way that made me want to spill every secret I ever held to him.
It got me to confess to something I never meant to.
“Do you… do you intend me to do… y’know,” I said.
“What?” he asked pointedly, plucking a grape from the bowl and feeding it to me, touching his thumb to my plush lower lip in the process. I chewed and took my time before answering.
“Sexual… things,” I said, my cheeks burning blood red.
“Is that what’s on your mind?” he asked, looking not amused nor even upset, just… unfazed by it all. “Would you like that then, hmm?” he asked, and he let his free hand trail low, grasping my round rear through my skirt rather pointedly.
I swear, I was on fire. My skin felt so hot, and my heart was racing.
What’d I just say?
I couldn’t look at him, because I did. Because I fucking did, and that was a horrible thing for me to want. It wasn’t even about revenge.
It wasn’t even the fact that I hadn’t had a boyfriend in ages.
It was about all the things I was afraid to admit in myself. That I liked it.
“I...”
I couldn’t speak, or eek out more than that one word, that one letter.
“It’s okay if it is,” he said with that handsome smile of his plastered across his chiselled face, his hand giving my rear a firm squeeze. “But no, I wasn’t intending to take such liberties with you… beyond the pleasure of viewing your shapely form,” he said, his smile evolving into a wry smirk.
Come on, Tish. This couldn’t be your idea.
The things he was making you do!
So why did I believe him? And why was I the one that brought it up?
I fluttered my eyes, and was so aware of his hand on me. I hated this man, I told myself over and over again. He’d cost me so much.
He was arrogant and strange.
But I was drawn to him.
His strong hand wandered low, and I felt vulnerable… like I’d give into him and his cruel charms at any second. But then something popped out of my mouth, some way to deflect that I both instantly regretted and felt grateful for.
“Is this how things were with your former maid?” I asked, and my face burned red.
It only got worse when he laughed at me.
“Bertha?” he said and laughed again, shaking his head. “Oh no. Oh my no,” he took such amusement in my question as he took another sip of his wine.
“Why not?” I asked, confused, embarrassed.
“She was more than twice my age, and took care of me since I was a boy. It wasn’t like that… like this,” he said, looking me over again, with that hint of lasciviousness.
“Why is it like this with me then?” I continued blurting out things I didn’t quite want to say, but did all the same.
“Because I saw you around the office. And my mind… burned with questions. Possibilities,” he said, his eyes going wide as he looked at me.