Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (69 page)

“I don’t want
it.”

“Then you can
go home nude.”

“No, I don’t
think so.”

He buttoned his
cuffs.
 
“Don’t test me, Nicole.
 
I’m in no mood.”

“Neither am
I.”
 
She met his gaze.

He smiled
harshly.
 
“Fine.”
 
He went to the trunk and kneeled down,
opened it.
 
After some rummaging, he
came out with a man’s dress shirt.
 
“How about this?”

“One of your
shirts,” she said.

He didn’t
reply.
 
“You want it or not?”

“Fine.”
 
She took it, secretly pleased.
 
She wanted a piece of him with her at
all times, and this shirt would do.
 
She put it on, feeling the softness of it, buttoning it up.
 
It was huge on her.
 

“You want a
pair of khakis to go with it?” he said sarcastically.

“My skirt’s
still in one piece.
 
You owe me a
new shirt by the way,” she said.
 
“I’m not forgetting that.”

“Come on,” he
said.
 
“We need to get you home.”

***

She arrived
home exhausted, and Danielle was up waiting for her.
 
She was furious.
 
“What happened to you?”

“Danielle,
please…” she shuffled past her towards her bedroom.
 
“I just want to take a shower and go to
sleep.”

“Did you get
raped or something?”

“Raped?”
 
Nicole couldn’t help but laugh.

“Look at your
shirt.
 
What happened to the one you
left in?”

Nicole didn’t
know how to answer that.
 
“Listen, I
appreciate the concern but I’m fine. Really.”

“That wasn’t
some old friend,” Danielle said.
 
“That’s a new guy.
 
Some big
shot you met at work, right?”

“So what if he
is?”
 
Nicole spun on her.
 
“I don’t judge you for the guys you
sleep with.
 
Justin
 
Bieber and company.”

Danielle made a
face.
 
“I don’t sleep with tons of
guys, first of all.
 
Secondly, I
don’t scare the wits out of you, disappearing and coming back looking like I
just came home from war.”

“You’re being
overly dramatic.”

“Have you taken
a look in the mirror?”

“I’m sure I
look a little messy…”

“Whoever he is,
he doesn’t seem to have much respect for you.”

“You don’t know
a thing about him.”

“I’ve dated a
rich, older man before.
 
When I was
a senior in high school.
 
I’d just
turned eighteen and—“

Nicole put a
hand up.
 
“Danielle.
 
If I want your advice on romantic
relationships, I’ll come ask for it.
 
But I’m tired now and I want to take a shower and go to bed.”

Danielle’s
expression turned stony.
 
“Fine.
 
But maybe I won’t be
around next time you happen to need me.
 
I guess you’re showing your true colors, Nic.”

“I’m
sorry if—“

“Whatever,”
Danielle said, spinning on her heel and quickly going to her bedroom.

The door
slammed.
 
Nicole shook her
head.
 
This wasn’t what she
needed.
 
She felt confused and tired
and emotionally drained.

When she got in
the bathroom for her shower, she looked in the mirror.

Danielle was
right.
 
She looked awful.

***

She didn’t get
into work until almost nine the next morning.
 
First, she got up late and then the
train was delayed for some reason.

When she
arrived, the girl in the next cubicle stood up and peered over.
 
Her eyes were wide.
 
“Mister Jameson was looking for you,”
she said in a hushed, awed voice.

“He was?” Her
heart began to instantly race.

“He said you
should go immediately to his office when you arrive.
 
He seemed upset.”

“Thanks.”
 
She fumbled for her purse and then
stopped off to tell Glen she was here.
 

He waved her
in, blinking furiously.
 
“Nicole,
did you just get here?”

“I’m
so sorry.
 
The train—“

“Red Jameson
came down wanting to speak to you.
 
Twice.”

“Twice?”

“I told him you
came in between seven and seven-thirty.
 
Imagine how foolish I felt when eight forty-five rolls around and you’re
still not in, and no phone call.”

She was
mortified.
 
“I’m so sorry, sir.”

Sir.
 
Now she was doing her submissive thing
with Glen Goldman.

He blinked a
few times.
 
“This was highly
embarrassing for me,” he told her.
 
“Please don’t let it happen again.”

“I won’t.
 
I should go, he left a message for me to
go to his office when I got in.”

“Go.
 
Go.
 
I can’t imagine why he wants to see you so urgently…” Glen shook his head,
more bewildered than usual.

She ran down
the hall, took the elevator up to Red’s floor.
 
Then she ran to the doors and
knocked.
 
The door cracked open and
Red saw her.
 
His expression was
unwelcoming to say the least.
 
“Please wait here,” he said.
 
“I’ve got something I need to attend to.
 
I should only be a few minutes.”

And then the
door shut.

The time ticked
by.
 
Nicole shuffled, shifted her
weight from one foot to the other.
 
God, she was still so tired.
 
Like she’d been drugged.
 
Her
eyes were heavy.
 
No chance yet for
coffee, and she needed some caffeine badly.

The time
dragged on.
 
She pressed her ear to
the door and listened but there was nothing.
 
It didn’t sound like he was in a meeting
or anything.

She checked her
cell phone.
 
It was now 9:30.
 
She’d been up here waiting almost half
an hour.

After another
twenty minutes torturously passed, she sank to the floor and sat with her back
against the wall.
 
Had he forgotten
she was out here?

Of course
not.
 
This was all planned,
deliberate, just like everything else Red did.
 
Unfortunately, he was still the head of
this company and she was just an intern, so she couldn’t disobey him now.

Another half an
hour passed and she started to nod off.
 

“Well, well,
this is cute,” a voice said.

Startled, she looked
up to see a tall, statuesque brunette coming towards her.
 
Nicole got to her feet, her cheeks
burning.
 
“Sorry, I’ve been waiting
out here for so long, I just got tired—“

The woman
laughed condescendingly.
 
“No need
to apologize darling, I myself have had one too many cocktails on a Friday
night.
 
Of course, it’s not Friday
yet, is it?”

Nicole
stammered incoherently.
 
The woman
stared down her nose at her.
 
She
was tall, very well put together.
 
She was obviously older, more experienced, but still beautiful in a kind
of frighteningly serious way.
 
She
reeked of money and class and even sex.

And then she
was knocking on the door to Red’s office.
 
He opened it slowly, smiled at the woman.
 
“Ah, Talia, how nice to see you.
 
Come in, come in.”

Talia walked
inside.
 
As Red shut the door
without so much as glancing at Nicole, she heard the woman laugh.
 
“I see you have a little wrinkled hobo
laying outside your door.
 
Trying to
recreate skid row right here at Jameson International?”

Both of them
laughed and the door clicked shut, muffling their brutal guffaws.

Nicole held
back her tears.
 
She was
furious.
 
At herself for allowing
him to make a fool of her, and at that bitch for thinking she could treat her
like a piece of dirt.
 
But more than
anything, Nicole was angry with herself.

Maybe Danielle
was right.
 
Red didn’t respect her
at all.

She considered
leaving, just walking out of the building and never returning.
 
Ignore his calls, if he made
any—get a new job.
 
Move on
with her life and forget Red Jameson ever existed.

But she knew
that she couldn’t really do that.
 
Which only made her more angry and hurt.
 
She was at his mercy in every way and he
knew it.

Another forty
minutes went by before Talia left.
 
She left as she’d entered, laughing and joking intimately with Red.
 
On her way out she brushed by Nicole
without so much as a word.
 

When the woman
disappeared from view, Red turned to Nicole with a brutal expression.
 
“Get in here.”

“She’s a
bitch.”

“I said get
in.”

She strode past
him and he closed the door behind her.
 

“What was all
that about?” she asked.

“You don’t ask
the questions around here,” he spat.
 
His voice was barely controlled.
 
She saw that he was absolutely as furious with her as she was with him.

“I
didn’t do anything wrong.
 
I don’t
deserve—“

“You don’t
deserve?” he scoffed, walking to the bar and pouring himself a glass of water
from a pitcher.
 
He didn’t offer her
anything.
 
“You don’t even know what
you deserve.
 
You’re a child.”

“I know that I
should be treated with respect.”

“Bullshit.
 
Who told you that?
 
One of your little teeny bopper
friends?”

She
flushed.
 
Everything she thought, he
seemed to know it.
 
“Is this because
I came in late to work today?”

He drank some
of his water.
 
“You say that as if
it’s a minor detail.”

“My train was
delayed.”

“You think that
because we have a relationship outside of work, you can waltz in here after
nine o’clock, you think you can get away with murder now.”

“No.
 
That’s not true.”
 
But she doubted her own words.
 
She
had
gotten up late this morning.
 
Would she have done that if she hadn’t felt secure in her relationship
with Red?

He glared at
her.
 
“I put my trust in you,
Nicole.
 
Obviously I made an error.”

An error.
 
Like it was an accounting mistake he
could fix with a swift stroke of his mighty pen.

“Am I not
allowed to be human?” she asked.

He looked
surprised.
 
“Don’t be glib.”

“I’m not.
 
You want perfection.
 
I never said I was perfect.”

He strode
toward her.
 
“What I want is
effort.
 
Dedication.
 
Don’t come into my place of business and
make me look like a fool.”

His eyes burned
into her.
 
She met his gaze and
didn’t falter.
 
“I’m sorry I came in
late.
 
You’re right.
 
I was being disrespectful.”

This admission
seemed to mollify him slightly.
  

“But I’ve been
punished enough,” she told him.
 
“You humiliated me in front of that awful woman.”