Page 6 of Her Bully Alpha (Honeycomb Valley Alphas #1)

I tapped my foot impatiently as I rode the elevator up to the second floor. I was tired from little sleep last night. The room that Jay gave me was extravagant. It had a large king bed with a canopy. A huge chest was at the foot of the bed filled with blankets. The bedroom had a massive walk-in closet and a bathroom with an oversized soaker tub. I had been tempted to use it last night, but decided against it.

I stripped out of the wedding dress and tossed it aside. As amazing as I had looked, I felt it was an insult to me. I wore it because I was forced to, not because I wanted to.

I found my clothes had already been put in the closet, and I hated it.

I grabbed myself a shirt and pulled it on, crawling into bed, wishing I could dream everything away. But it was all real and waiting for me the following morning.

I had showered and watched the makeup and curls disappear. I dressed and headed downstairs. I looked around the house since I'll be living in it. The entryway was grand, with a huge chandelier and a wide hallway that led into an enormous kitchen.

I cringed at the amount of wasted space. Why someone would want to live in a place like this, with such terrible color, was beyond me.

I made myself some oatmeal and sat down at the island. I ate quickly, not wanting to run into Jay.

I left the house and drove to work as quickly as I could. I had forgotten to grab myself a coffee and wished I had at least given myself a few minutes to have one.

The elevator doors swung open, and I stepped off. Almost everyone's offices were upstairs. There were a handful downstairs, but most of the rooms were meeting rooms for clients.

I took a left, headed down the hallway, and yawned. I pulled my hand up, trying to hide it as I opened my office door. I flicked my light on and pulled my jacket off.

"Mooorrrning!" A voice spoke up brightly, and I looked over my shoulder at Joshua. He was wearing his normal suit with his curly blond hair falling freely around his head. But my eyes went to the two cups of coffee he was holding, and I smiled.

"Morning, Joshua. I'm hoping one of those is for me."

"You know I was missing you yesterday. Why the sudden need for a day off?" he asked as he handed me a coffee. I didn't even need to look at it to know it was a macchiato with two espresso shots in it. He had been buying me coffee for months now, and I, in turn, bought us late dinners when we worked late.

"I had a thing come up," I said as I took a deep sip of the coffee. I smiled, tasting it and allowing the coffee to kick in.

"Things like what?" Joshua asked, leaning onto the door frame.

I smirked. "Is this an interrogation? Should I get my lawyer for this?"

He snorted at the joke and shook his head. "No, but I was just wondering. Cathy said you called her and that the Council wanted to see you. So, I imagined it was something serious. It's good to see you're not dead. I wouldn't know who would drink that coffee."

I rolled my eyes at him. "You're a bit of a smartass today. You should really save that for your clients."

Someone cleared their throat, and I looked past Joshua and found Jay standing just a step behind him, looking pissed. His arms were crossed, and his nostrils flared as he looked at Joshua and then at me.

My heart stopped beating, and I swallowed, placing the coffee down.

"Can I have a word?" Jay asked, his lips formed a tight line.

Joshua turned to Jay, and his demeanor switched. "Who are you, buddy? Clients aren't allowed up here unless authorized."

Jay growled, literally growled at Joshua, who took a step back. "I'm not a client," Jay snapped. "I'm her husband. Now, if you will excuse yourself I want to speak to my wife. Alone."

I felt my entire face go red as Joshua looked at me with wide eyes. I nodded. "Yeah, you can leave him with me, Joshua. Thanks for the coffee."

Joshua slipped back into the hall, and Jay stepped into my office. I never thought the space was small. I had a huge L-shaped desk and a large cushy chair across from it. It was always spacious, but as he stepped into the space, the room suddenly seemed to shrink.

He closed the door and crossed his arms. "You're married."

I looked at him, confused. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"You shouldn't be getting flirty with people."

I snorted, shaking my head as I looked away from him. "Wow, Jay." I grabbed my coffee and took a seat in my chair. "You know it's a little early for you to be so grumpy and dickish. Do you ever take time off?"

I watched him work his jaw and run a hand over his face. He took a deep breath in before he spoke again. "Sam, I'm serious. You're married. You can't just go around and…"

I waved a hand, stopping him. "Whatever you are about to say, I can rebuttal." As nice as Joshua was, we would never date. The company had a policy against it. "Work doesn't allow fraternizing."

"That doesn't mean shit." He waved at the door. "These are solid walls, Sam. You could be fucking on the damn desk, and no one would fucking know."

"Do you think that little of me that I would fuck someone when I'm married?" I pulled my hand up and wiggled my finger at the ring that sat there. "And Joshua is a colleague and a friend. That's all."

"That's not how it seemed," Jay said, crossing his arms. "He brought you coffee."

I glanced at the drink and then back at him. I shrugged. "And I buy us dinner when we work late. We've been doing it for months."

Jay growled. "Well, that's not happening again."

I placed my drink down and pulled myself out of the chair. "You don't get to say what I can and can't do at my employment, Jay. You might be able to say what you want at home and in public, but when you come into my work, come into my place of business, you shut up."

Jay stepped closer to me. His body dropped a shadow over me as he stood just inches from me now. I could feel his breath on me. "I think you're forgetting who you're talking to, Sammy."

I felt a shiver run down my entire body, and his scent filled my nostrils. He had just showered, and it was intoxicating. With him so close to me, I could see his gray eyes. There were swirls in them, and as cruel as Jay was speaking, his eyes remained soft.

"I am speaking to my husband," I tell him. Just because he was the Alpha didn't mean I couldn't speak how I wanted to him. We had to draw a line somewhere.

"You are speaking to an Alpha."

"That doesn't matter in our marriage," I snapped back. "Titles do not matter. Your title does not go above mine."

He laughed, and I shoved at his chest. Jay quickly grabbed my hands, his fingers wrapped around my wrist. I scowled at him. He frowned back at me. "They do matter."

They couldn't because I would never be important then. Everything he did would always trump me. I knew that clearly we weren't equals, but he had to at least try to think we were equal.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "They don't. If we want this to be civil, you have to respect that I work and my job is important. And you can't come in here acting like this."

"I'm acting like this because that man clearly has an interest in you, and the last thing I need is a rumor going around that my wife is working late and getting fucked on her desk."

I shoved at him. Anger built up. "I take my work seriously! And again, I'm married. While I might despise the entire idea, I'm not going to spread my legs open."

Not like I'd done that anyway. I'd only had three relationships, and only two of them got sexual. I didn't let people in often, and it took a long time before I did.

"Good," Jay gave me a smirk. "Because I don't want to monitor you."

That just angered me again. I curled my hands into fists, trying to keep my composure. "Jay, if I was going to cheat, it wouldn't be in my office. It would be in your home, on your bed." I smirked smugly. "And I'd make sure to let the smell linger just as a big fuck you afterward."

He growled a low warning growl. But I didn't care. I tilted my head. "Are you jealous? Is that why you came here acting like a bull in a china shop? It's not a good look for you."

Jay stepped closer and pinned my legs against my desk. My eyes widened in shock as his hands pinned my wrist to the desk. I swallowed, staring at him, and quickly realized I'd been right.

Was he jealous? How could he be jealous? We hardly knew each other.

I blinked, trying to figure out why. The marriage might be legit, but that didn't matter. I'm sure, eventually, he was going to want to seek a woman outside of it soon enough.

"Be careful, Sam. I am a very possessive man that holds a lot of power."

I swallowed, looking at his lips. They were so close….

I looked back up at him and realized he was also looking at my lips.

Bad. This was bad.

"I'm not something you get to call a possession, Jay. I'm a person."

He chuckled softly. "Sam, you're mine, whether you like it or not. No more late nights at the office with Twinkie out there. No late nights with anyone."

I swallowed when there was a knock on the door. It was pulled open, and Janice, the receptionist from downstairs, poked her hair into my office. Jay didn't bother moving, and I felt my face go red. The position wasn't great. I was half sitting against my desk with my wrists pinned to my side. Jay was clearly overpowering me.

Her eyes widened, and Jay pulled his hands back, stepping back from me. He gave Janice a tight grin, and she blushed darker.

"Mr. Williamson."

I sighed, disliking how this looked. "Yeah, Janice? Did you need something?"

She nodded. "You have a client downstairs."

Shit. Of course, I did. "Thanks."

The door shut, and I glared at Jay. "What did you say to her?"

He shrugged and stepped back. "I told her who I was when I arrived."

I ground my teeth together, disliking how this looked. Janice would tell people about this, and people would think Jay and I were doing stuff. Which, in retrospect, wasn't terrible. Plenty of the guys were caught doing things to their significant others, but I wasn't that type of person. Jesus, I hadn't had sex anywhere besides my bedroom because I was very private.

"She's going to tell people. It looks like we were doing something."

Jay looked smug down as he stepped towards my door. "Good, people will understand you're taken then."

I grabbed my notebook and threw it at him. The notebook smacked him in the shoulder, tumbling to the ground. "This is my workplace! You don't get to decide what people do and don't know!"

Jay scowled at me. "I don't care. I want everyone here to know you're taken."

I felt my nostrils flare as he stuffed his hands into his pocket. "And my folks have invited us to dinner, so be sure you're off a little early. We will head over at five."

My stomach dipped, and I felt like I needed to vomit. It was clear that Jay's parents didn't like me. It didn't take much to get that from the scowl his father had the entire evening.

"And if I don't want to go?" I asked.

"You don't have a choice. My mother invited us, so we're going." He opened the door and stepped outside into the hallway. And I noticed a handful of the guys were waiting just a few feet away. They were watching Jay as he left, and I threw my head down on my desk.

Great. Just fucking great.

I squeezed my legs together, thinking that just moments ago, Jay and I could have kissed. And I hated it. I hated how he ordered me around and how he just expected me to fall in line. I hated how it was already changing everything. I hated everything about this.