Page 2 of Daring Wicked Love (Wicked Dade #2)

“There’s nothing else I can do, truly. You have no idea how much I hate this part of my job.”

The caramel iced latte turned to cement in my stomach.

Why hadn’t I taken my horoscope seriously before leaving my apartment?

It clearly stated ‘ mercury has moved and left an uncertainty that should be avoided in its place’ — I didn’t know exactly what that meant but it sure as shit didn’t sound positive.

I always found it amusing how vague those things were, and how much faith people put into them. I mean, people based their whole personality on them, using them as an excuse for their strange quirks and weird behaviors.

Sorry I hit you with my car, I’m just such an Aries.

That being said, it didn’t stop me from reading mine every morning before going to work and drawing connections to my everyday life.

Funny how it didn’t read Orla, mercury fucked off and now you will lose your job. Sorry, babe .

“Is there something I’ve done?” I dared to ask. “Something that I can fix?”

Jenny shook her head. “You’ve done nothing wrong. You’ve been the perfect employee. Seriously, if I could clone you, I would replace every single person in here.” She offered an uneven smile. “It’s nothing personal, it’s business-wide budget cuts, and our section is being downsized.”

“I’ve been here two years.” I swallowed against the tightness in my throat. “I thought I was doing a good job.”

“You’re doing an amazing job,” Jenny assured me. “This has nothing to do with you as a person or your work. It’s all down to profit margins.”

“I’m guessing there isn’t any possibility of being placed somewhere else in the company? I’m a fast learner and willing to adapt to whatever the company offers.”

“I really wish there was somewhere I could place you, but they are laying off twenty-five percent of the entire workforce. They won’t admit it, but the company is drowning.

This is just their way to try and save a sinking ship,” she sighed.

“I wish there was, but there truly is nothing else I can do.”

When had it gotten so freaking hot in here?

Stay calm.

Stay positive.

“I’ll give you a reference whenever you need it, a stellar one, I promise,” Jenny continued, busying her hands with a piece of paper. “You’ll find a job in no time, I know it.”

I nodded like a brain-dead goldfish.

“I realize the job market is a bit feral at the moment,” she said, “but anywhere would be lucky to have you as an employee.”

My entire mind was short-circuiting, unable to compute a single thing Jenny was saying to me anymore as I attempted to mentally tally up each of my living expenses.

Rent was due in a fortnight, and without a full month’s paycheck, there wasn’t a chance I’d be able to cover the rest and eat a decent meal for the rest of the month.

Never mind the call I was anticipating from my little sister any day now, which was going to end with me agreeing to help her financially, as always, and completely draining my savings account.

I was screwed.

Stay positive.

I was positively screwed.

“Look at this way, you always said this job wasn’t your dream but just a way to pay your bills,” Jenny said. “Think of this as your push. A way to finally pursue your true aspirations and dreams.”

“Yeah,” I managed to say with a strained smile. “Maybe you’re right.”

Unfortunately, my dream career goals didn’t pay the bills.

It was downright impossible to make money as an undiscovered artist, and not from my lack of trying. My online shop was lucky to sell one painting every six months, and trying to get a single art gallery to take a chance on me was like trying to win the lottery.

An unknown nobody wasn’t worth taking the risk on.

There was only so much rejection a woman could take.

It was why I took the job at Cherry Cosmetics in the first place. I was sick and tired of being overlooked, all because it turned out it was about who you knew, not what you created in the art world.

I told myself the job was temporary, just a way to pay the bills and my overpriced rent. A simple means to an end for a short period of time until I figured out how to do more with my art. But it turned out, as shit as I was at selling my own paintings, I could sell cosmetics without even thinking.

A month turned into six, and before I knew it, two years flashed before my eyes.

“Make sure you stop by payroll on the way out and get your last commission check before you leave.” Jenny cleared her throat. “Again, I am truly sorry, Orla. If I could have it any other way, I’d keep you here without question.”

During the two years we worked together, Jenny never acted like a boss with me, especially compared to how she treated the others in the sales team. For whatever reason, she opted to treat me differently in the best way possible.

And I never questioned why she did it, after all, having the boss on my side was a bonus.

Or so I thought.

Jenny folded the piece of paper into several neat folds, her fingers trembling as she did it.

“It’s okay, I know it’s not your fault.” My legs operated without the use of my brain, carrying me to the office door. “Thanks for everything, Jenny, it’s been a pleasure working with you.”

She blinked several times before making eye contact. “Good luck, Orla, I’ll miss… You’ll definitely be missed around here.”

The rest of the afternoon was a surreal blur of emptying my little cubicle, which held a lot of my stuff despite its cozy size, saying goodbye to those who were staying behind and to those who were in the same position as me, and stopping to get my final paycheck.

Before I knew it, I was sitting in the back of a cab with a cardboard box of my stuff nestled on my lap, half listening to my driver’s story about the one time he got fired and how he got revenge by shitting on his old boss’s desk.

The seed of impending dread took full bloom as we pulled up outside my apartment building, and my phone started to ring.

Lo and behold, my sister’s name lit up the screen.

Although my sister and I lived on different ends of the planet, I could still read her like an open book. She operated like clockwork, ringing me every six months with the usual awkward small talk about our lives before asking me to help her out, again.

I wasn’t sure what was worse, her asking for my money or the obligation I felt from our shitty childhood to always say yes.

She wouldn’t care that I just lost my job; she would only care how it would affect her.

There was only so much I could handle in one day.

Staring at the screen until it went black, I swallowed the familiar sour taste of guilt and got out of the cab.

In the apartment foyer, I was greeted by a team of hired movers stacking packed cardboard boxes together. Nick, the apartment’s on-site security, who looked as thrilled as a polar bear in the desert, was barking out orders to the movers to keep the boxes away from the fire exit doors.

“New tenants?” I asked Nick. “Are they finally filling that empty apartment on the first floor? I swear that place is haunted, that’s why no one lasts longer than a month in it.”

Nick arched a brow. “You know ghosts don’t exist, right?”

“Ye of little faith,” I said. “The kid on sixth told me he heard a woman crying in there once.”

“And that’s bizarre, why?”

“Because it was vacant at the time, and that kid doesn’t look like the lying type either, I can tell. I’m telling you the place is haunted.”

“If you say so.” He shook his head with a chuckle. “No new tenants, but you’ll never believe it.” He looked around before whispering. “The Ice Man is leaving.”

“No way!” I gasped. “I wonder why he’s leaving.”

Nick shrugged his shoulders. “No idea. I only received word today to expect a moving team in the building and to assist them with access to the top floor.”

Now that was something I never saw coming.

The Ice Man was a staple of the apartment building. Everyone knew about the terrifyingly beautiful man living in the penthouse on the very top floor.

I was pretty sure the apartment company used his presence as a selling point for their apartments, drawing people in by mentioning that a well-known billionaire lived within.

If someone as powerful and rich as Frederic Dade wanted to live in the building, why wouldn’t anyone else?

Considering the eye-watering price tag attached to the penthouse’s monthly rent, the owners of the building would most definitely be in a state of panic.

Unable to probe further as Nick begrudgingly agreed to help the guys start to move the boxes outside, I grabbed the open elevator, juggling the box of my things, and pressed the fourth-floor button.

I was in desperate need of a long, hot bath to wash away the day.

That and a large glass of red wine.

I was pretty certain the five-dollar box of wine I bought last week still had at least one glass left in the dregs.

Before the doors got a chance to close, a black polished shoe appeared between the crack and pried the doors open painfully slowly.

Because clearly the universe wasn’t quite finished fucking me over for the day.

Standing on the other side was none other than the Ice Man himself. Pale skin, raven-wing black hair, and a pair of the most intense blue eyes stared a chilled blaze straight through me the second he spotted me.

His lips thinned as he surveyed me like a bad smell.

A look I was sure made many a person piss their pants on the spot, but I was well versed in being under Frederic’s glares of disdain.

In the three years we’ve lived in the same building, there hasn’t been a single time Frederic greeted me with a smile or an ounce of warmth. He looked at me like I was a dung-infested fly that needed swatting, an annoyance he was forced to ride the elevator with more than he wanted to.

He remained rooted on the spot, his hands curling into tight fists at his side.

“Hello, elevator buddy. You getting in?” I asked. “Because I don’t really have time to play human statues with you right now. The bubbles in my bath are already calling to me.”

His shoulders bunched closer to his neck. “Miss Connell,” he greeted tightly as he stepped in and turned to stare directly at the panel of buttons.

“Mr. Dade,” I replied with a grin that I knew would only annoy him more. “How are you?

He pressed the button for the top floor. “Fine.”

“How’s your day going?”

“Fine.”

Silence.

It was like trying to draw blood from a stone when it came to Frederic.

First floor.

“I’m good too, thanks for asking,” I chirped on, filling the thick silence the only way I knew how. “The barista who always makes my iced lattes gave me a free muffin this morning. I mean, what better way to start your day?”

He rolled his neck from side to side.

“It was a blueberry muffin, which is my favorite, by the way. Especially these because they add white chocolate chunks, which, c’mon, a match made in heaven, am I right?”

More silence. The man could give a monk a run for their money.

Second floor.

It was always the same between us. He said nothing and I said enough for the two of us because I refused to let his void of negativity suck me in.

Frederic slowly turned his head, giving me the perfect look at his razor-sharp cheekbones and strong jawline. Everything physically about him called to me, because goddammit, the man was unfairly attractive.

His frosty gaze trickled down from the top of my head until it landed on the box of my office belongings.

“Oh, this.” I forced a laugh. “After the best way to start my morning, the rest of my day didn’t really turn out very well.”

“I see.”

Could the elevator be any slower?

“Nick was telling me that you are moving out,” I dared to say. “Are you moving anywhere nice?”

Third floor.

“That’s not any of your concern,” Frederic said bluntly, making me want to throw my stapler at his head. “Nick should learn when to keep his mouth shut if he wants to keep his job.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s hardly a secret when you have a moving team bringing boxes down from the top floor in the middle of the day.” I shifted closer to the door. “Are you moving somewhere nearby?”

Surprise, surprise, he didn’t answer.

“Your family is from Monaco, right? Are you moving to be closer to them? Gosh, the weather during the summer must be beautiful there.”

“Are you always this nosey?”

Hell no.

I was normally a private person, never wanting to intrude on anyone’s life, but there was something about being in Frederic’s presence that made the verbal word vomit trickle out of me like a leaky faucet.

“Only when it comes to my elevator buddy.” I grinned again, silently thanking the stars when the doors opened on the fourth floor. “Well, wherever it is you’re disappearing to, I wish you all the luck, and I hope you don’t miss me too much.”

“I’m sure I’ll cope.”

Stepping onto the safety of the fourth floor’s solid ground, I turned on my heel to look at the beautifully lethal man once more. This was our last drawn-out, awkward elevator ride.

After all, our paths were highly unlikely ever to cross again.

Artic blue eyes connected with mine, stealing the breath from my lungs every time. It wasn’t fair that the universe made him so attractive, especially when he didn’t have the personality to match it.

It didn’t stop my cheeks from flushing like a schoolgirl anytime he looked at me, rather than through me.

“Goodbye, Frederic,” I said genuinely. “My elevator rides to the fourth floor won’t be the same without you.”

Maybe I was going mad, but I swore the corner of his mouth twitched upward. “Goodbye, Miss Connell,” he said as the doors closed.

Back in the safety of my apartment, I quickly headed straight to the bath with an oversized glass of wine and my latest cowboy romance book.

Nothing like reading about a surly cowboy with a dirty mouth to take my mind off the fact that I was unemployed and likely to lose my apartment if I didn’t find a new job pronto.

Yet no matter how long I remained soaking in the fading bubbles, re-reading the same five sentences over and over, I couldn’t ignore the sight of the six missed calls and twenty-five text messages from my sister lighting up my phone.

Without a steady income, there was no way I could help her and continue to live my own life, and though part of me screamed to simply tell her that enough was enough, the other part of me couldn’t do it.

Not after everything we’d been through.

I promised her I’d always look after her, even if it meant putting her wants and needs before mine like always.