Chapter 14 Episode 14
1642 Words
Something about the way he says “accountant” feels like aninsult. But Belle is different from the long string ofinterchangeable accountants who have audited us in the past.All of them were willing to roll over for far less than the tengrand I offered her, but Belle barely even flinched beforerefusing. Matter of fact, she pushed back. She brought thepolice to my office and tried to steal my car.
“That’s because you don’t know her yet.”
I can tell by the look in Arslan’s eyes that he’s suggestingsomething. Something I don’t want to encourage.
“She’s a fighter. That’s all I meant.”
He wags his eyebrows. “She likes it rough, then?”
Arslan laughs and holds up his hands in surrender. “Sorry,mate. I can see you’re feeling possessive. Don’t worry, theaccountant is all yours.”
“She isn’t mine. The only thing I want from her is an auditfree of discrepancies. As soon as I have that, she can leave.”
Because she did bring the police into my office and nearlystole my f*****g car. The woman is fiery. Between the two ofus, things could be explosive. And I don’t have time for that.
“But you might as well enjoy her until then, right?” Arslanprods.
I roll my eyes, but somewhere in the back of my mind, theidea takes hold. The image of Belle pressed against my officedoor, skirt hiked up over her hips. Of her sprawled nakedacross the leather backseat of my car, the air heating with thesteam of her breath.
After the tension between us last night, I went home andjerked off twice. Even now, my d**k is hard at the simplethought of her. I feel like a teenager again.
“s**t, man,” Arslan chuckles. “You’re into her.”
“No, I’d like to be in her,” I clarify. “There’s a very bigdifference.”
But usually, being in her once would have been more thanenough. My brain’s singular focus on the girl is a little outside
the norm. But it’s nothing to worry about. Nothing that can’tbe fixed with a round two, anyway.
I wave Arslan out of my office. “Go on. I have work to do.”
“By ‘work,’ do you mean ‘an accountant to do’?”
“f**k off,” I say again.
Arslan leaves, laughing all the way.
I avoid the conference room where Belle is working all day.Partly because I’m busy and partly because I like the idea ofleaving her on the hook for a while.
I’m sure she expected me to be lording over her, watching herevery move. I like the idea that she spent the day peeking overher shoulder like I’m the boogeyman hiding in the shadows.
But when I do finally round the corner to the glass-encasedconference room in the middle of our floor, Belle isn’t lookingover her shoulder. She’s talking on the phone.
I step into the doorway behind her and listen.
“… I’m managing fine on my own,” she is saying. “It will takeme a couple extra days to get through everything, but theowner is… well, he’s very involved. It will all be fine.”
“That’s perfect,” a male voice says. “That’s why I hired you,you know? You looked… flexible.”
I frown. The man’s sleezy tone of voice alone is reasonenough to file a s****l harassment claim. Who is this asshole?
“You’re welcome,” he says as if he did her a favor. “I am sorryyou’re stuck there by yourself, though. I wish you could havecome to Aruba, too. You deserve the break. A skimpy littlebikini and a mai tai would do you some good.”
“I’m not much for tropical vacations,” Belle says.
“What a shame. You’d look great on a beach.” Suddenly, theman laughs. “Weirdly enough, I accidentally stumbled on atopless beach today. Quite the surprise. You should have beenthere.”
“Mhmm.” Belle is sketching something in an open notebook,barely paying attention to the phone call.
“It’s upscale, too,” he continues. “They only let in the best.Beautiful bodies everywhere. You’d fit right—”
“Hey, Roger?” Belle says suddenly. “I actually have to getgoing. I’m working late tonight and I have a lot to getthrough.”
“Yeah, sure. But while you’re working, just imagine you’re onthe beach with me. That will make the time pass faster.”
Belle says a rushed goodbye and hangs up the phone.
“Not gonna happen, you nasty creep,” she mutters once theline disconnects.
I step into the conference room. “No office romance for youtwo, then?”
Belle nearly falls out of her chair in her hurry to spin aroundand see who is behind her. She clutches at her chest, and Ican’t say I completely blame her boss for imagining her on atopless beach. I’m doing the same damn thing.
“You were pretty wrapped up in your phone call. He a friendof yours?”
Maybe I’ll kidnap him, too. I could get Arslan to Aruba on thenext flight out. Anyone who talks to their female employeeslike that deserves Arslan’s knuckles tattooed across theirfucking face.
And anyone who talks to Belle like that deserves far, farworse.
She looks back over her shoulder, her auburn waves catchingthe fluorescents. “That was Roger.”
“The one and only.” She sighs. “He was checking in on howthings are going.”
“By telling you about the topless beaches he went to?”
She shrugs. “That’s just Roger.”
I walk around the table. Belle doesn’t look at me, but I can tellshe’s watching. “You should have told him to f**k himself.”
“He’d probably take that as an invitation to beat off on thephone.”
I snort, surprised by her quick response.
Belle looks surprised, too. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“It’s inappropriate,” she says. “And I shouldn’t bad mouth myboss. He’s—”
She blushes. “Yeah. That. A s*x freak.”
“Then again,” I say, “we don’t have much room to talk, youand I, do we?”
Her long lashes brush against her cheeks and her full lips pullinto a nervous smile. The reminder of our airplane rendezvousdoesn’t do my d**k any favors. I’m already at half-mast.
“The difference is we both wanted what happened on thatairplane,” I say. “You asked for it. Did you ask for Roger totalk dirty to you during work hours?”
I shake my head. “You should tell him to choke on his owncock.”
“Exactly,” I say. “You should make him as uncomfortable ashe makes you.”
“That’s not possible. Because he has the power to make mehomeless and unemployable,” she says in a rush. “So I can’tsay whatever I want to him. He’ll fire me.”
“You should face your problems head-on.”
She spins around to fully face me. “Like this?”
“Close. But you should pick a battle you can win.”
Belle rolls her eyes. “I forgot. I shouldn’t pick a fight with agod.”
“And thankfully, your boss isn’t anything of the sort. I shouldknow.”
Belle’s eyes flash with panic. “You know Roger?”
Hearing another man’s name on her lips has my hackles rising.Especially because she looks guilty. Like she’s been caughtwith her hand in the cookie jar.
“No, but I’ve seen him.”
“For a man who wants to get into bed with his employees, hedoesn’t care much about personal grooming. He should lookinto professional headshots for the website. Or at least apicture where he isn’t actively sweating.”
“He doesn’t want to get into bed with his employees,” she saysbitterly.
“He just wants to see them topless on the beach? You’re right,much better.”
She spins around to face me again. “I’d rather my boss want tosleep with me than kidnap my sister.”
“Maybe that’s why you roll over and take his bullshit,” Isuggest icily. “Because deep down, you like it.”
Her face flushes an angry red, and I think I’ve cracked throughher veneer. Tapped into the fiery woman beneath.
But then she takes a deep breath and turns back to the table,grabbing for the notebook she was drawing in before. “I needto get back to work.”
I look over her shoulder at the sketchy drawing in front of her.I can’t see much of it, but I know it isn’t work-related.
“Am I paying you to doodle now?” She tries to cover the pagewith her hand, but I reach around her and snatch the notebookaway.
“While you’re working here, you and everything you ownbelongs to me.”
I hold the page up to the light. Her pencil lines are light,feathery gray against the lined page, but the vision is clear.
It’s a tall, narrow house with a deep, shaded porch. The pitchof the roof is steep and there’s a stained-glass rose window onthe gable. Certain elements of the house are more detailed thanothers. For instance, the porch has intricately-crafted railings,the pencil marks darker in those areas. But the details aroundthe roof are barely visible. Still in their first pass of design.
I look up at her. “You did this?”
She chews on her lower lip and nods. “It’s just something I dowhen I get bored.”
“If you can draw like this, why are you working for Roger?”
She seems surprised by the tucked-away compliment. To hercredit, I don’t give them out often. She pushes her hair awayfrom her face and then lunges for the notebook once again.
- Writer
