Page 6

SIX

Ashley

Holy shit .

I scrubbed my unrestrained curls back from my face and forced my eyes open. Waking up in my own bed was an immense relief. For a little while, I hadn’t felt all that confident I would.

My cellphone’s alarm was chiming, and I reached over, knocking an unidentified object off my bedside table. When I finally swiped my notification to the off position, I sat up and nudged down the front of my pajama shirt to peek at my breast.

Unblemished skin glowed in the low light. I flopped back on my pillow, a huge wave of relief flowing through me. It was just a dream, thank God.

There was no way I’d be able to look Micha in the eye if I’d really been all over him like a dog in heat. Just thinking about his hot mouth on mine had me breaking out in a sweat all over again and with a familiar pressure building between my thighs. Even now, I could still feel his lips all over my body. The way he’d gripped my legs, like he couldn’t get enough. He was dark, dangerous, and addictive. By no means should I have been having these feelings.

He’d called me a waste but that hadn’t stopped him from manhandling me as if I were the one thing that gave him life. Remembering how he always looked at me when we were in the office, as if he wished I’d drop dead on the spot, that was vastly different from the dream Micha.

Dream Micha could barely restrain himself from devouring me with a reckless passion that would’ve consumed both of us.

Letting out a little laugh, I got up out of bed. These thoughts would not serve me well while employed at Ipomoea.

As a matter of fact, I probably wouldn’t get out of there alive. After what Andy told me, I’d be shocked if I did.

It was awkward, walking into Ipomoea a couple hours later. The security guards’ eyes felt like they lingered a second too long, hyperalert to my proximity. As I sauntered past them, the woman at the check-in desk spent an extra moment appraising me. Did they know? Maybe I was just being paranoid and imagining things. Maybe all they’d heard was that I was working for Micha now. No longer was I just sitting in a cubicle and coming up with copywrite and photos; it sounded like a promotion to be in personal service to one of the CEOs. You’d think it was—at a normal job.

Maybe my new, assumed, status had them staring.

In reality, I was their boss’s new slave. This felt like a morning-after walk of shame. It was so hard to act like everything was normal and as if I were still one of the top employees in the marketing division. There was no telling what waited for me once I got upstairs.

But I did just that, acted like all was mostly well, slipping my key card into the right scanners, stepping onto the correct elevator. Smiling at the faceless associates milling about the hall as I walked by. I was one of them, a business professional.

“Ahh, there’s the little thief.” Micha sneered at me. He was standing leaning on the inside of his door frame, and he grabbed my arm and dragged me stumbling into his office. He’d been lying in wait, the asshole. No one in the hall batted an eye as he dragged me into his cave. Apparently, brutish behavior didn’t raise anyone’s concern but my own.

Yanking my arm from him, I yelped, “Let go of me.” He slammed the door shut and I backed away as he came at me. “What?” I groaned.

He was in all black today, strangely reminiscent of my dream only now he had on a suit jacket and a black tie. Different tie bar though, this one was encrusted with deep red gemstones. The material of his necktie almost looked like upholstery, with a raised pattern. He was too good looking for my own sanity. How could someone so evil be so beautiful? It wasn’t fair.

Micha had tucked his hair back into a low ponytail, exposing a stud earring and small hoop. My eyes drifted down to his hands and when I looked up, he raised an eyebrow at me. “Stand in your spot,” he directed, holding his hand out toward the side of his chair. If he’d had on the rings I saw in my dream, I would’ve lost my mind. It was bad enough the earrings matched. How had I not noticed them before?

“Busy night last night?” I asked, nodding toward his hair. The only thing I could think of was he hadn’t washed it, he never wore it in an elastic.

He lowered himself in his seat and rested an ankle on his knee and stared at me. I couldn’t tell if he was undressing me with his eyes or thinking up ways to viciously butcher me and hide the body.

“Your job is to be quiet and do as I say. My personal life is none of your business.” With that, he twisted around and began banging away at his laptop, flying through emails, and intermittently barking out orders on either his cell or the phone on his desk.

Throughout the day, one of the managers I’d seen on my floor came in, a man named Dashiell. It sounded like he was getting promoted, as Micha was transferring him upstairs. He’d brought in a stack of paper files and left it on Micha’s desk.

Then later, a man as tall as Micha and almost as good looking, but with a scar down the side of his face and much darker skin came in. The two of them argued politely over what sounded like a proposed merger, and then the man left. No one paid me any mind, as if it were normal to have a woman randomly standing around for hours doing absolutely nothing like a department store mannequin.

At one point during my vigil, Micha poured himself some cabernet from a bottle he’d kept tucked inside a cabinet. Then he ate an apple while once again staring at me. When I rolled my eyes, an arrogant smirk transformed him from hot, to devasting. If I had a knife I would’ve stabbed him in the throat.

I fucking hated him more than I’d ever hated anyone in my entire life, just then. He couldn’t even be bothered to let me have lunch or feed me something. He was enjoying watching me suffer. He wouldn’t let me sit down, my legs and back ached and I had to pee.

“Micha?” I asked quietly, trying not to wake the bear. He ignored me. “Micha,” I tried again.

“What?” he snapped, focusing on whatever document he was reading.

The last thing I wanted to do was tell him I had to use the bathroom. I had the feeling he’d use the event to humiliate me in some way. “I need to step away for a moment.”

It was like he never heard me. He picked up his cellphone, tapped an icon, and lifted the device to his ear. “I could use your help,” I heard him say, his voice bitter. He paused and said, “He’s busy.”

“Yes. I’m fully aware I’m increasing my debt.” Micha’s voice was strained, and I listened intently. “I’d rather it was you than the demons downstairs.”

My boss seemed oblivious to the fact he himself was the demon in the building.

“Mores,” he said, his voice still tinged with annoyance. He let out a sigh. “Okay. Thank you.”

Micha slowly turned to glance at me. My legs were crossed at the knee and nausea was building in my belly. It wouldn’t be long before my disgrace was complete.

“Is there a problem?” He asked. “I don’t require much of you. My only request has been you stay by my side and remain quiet. It's not my problem you’re covered with a vile stench.”

I would’ve relieved myself on him just then, but I didn’t want him marked as my territory. “I have to use the restroom,” I said, desperately attempting to modulate my voice. There was no way I smelled bad; my careful maintenance wouldn’t allow for it.

Micha’s shoulders fell and he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fucking humans,” he muttered.

Yes, Micha. Clearly, you’re a god and can’t be bothered with body functions.

“Please?”

Shoving his chair back, he stood up. I stumbled a step, uncrossing my legs, and felt a warmth in my bladder that scared me for a moment before I realized I hadn’t had an accident. While that part worked out for me, my slow-motion steps did anything but for my very own personal tyrant.

“You can stop glaring at me. Just let me go,” I bit out.

By the time we’d reached the restroom, and I sat down, it felt like I was on fire. Nothing happened, at first, and internally I panicked I was going to have a medical emergency and be left here for dead. Was my urine backing up and poisoning me? I needed Della. Why wasn’t she here to reassure me. We always swore we’d have each other’s backs. I missed her fiercely.

The relief when my parts started working again had me sagging forward, and then back, taking a deep breath.

I couldn’t do this anymore; this was insane. If Micha wanted to kill me, he needed to get it over with. He could send me to jail, and I’d gladly do my bid and pay the price for my supposed actions.

It was unintentional theft; it wasn’t like I’d get twenty years to life or something. How was I supposed to know someone left pills on the counter? In my head, that said more about Micha’s hiring standards than my own lack of conscientiousness. I hadn’t even put them in my pocket or left the room. It wasn’t until he’d pried my fingers open that I saw them.

My hands shook so bad I could barely wash them. It was as if they had a life of their own and my fingers dodged the water pouring from the sink. Defeated, I tugged paper towels from the dispenser and feebly tried to dry off.

When I opened the door to the exit, it was blocked by a body. Micha would’ve gotten knocked out if anyone had gone barreling out of the room.

“What the hell? Were you listening to me pee?” I hissed at him.

The look of horror and then disgust was almost humorous. “You didn’t wash your hands.”

“How the fuck would you know? And for your information—I did.” The teeny smears of soap left between my fingers was slimy evidence of the fact I’d tried.

Micha snared a hand and lifted it to his face, one of his fingers dipping between mine. Next thing I knew, he’d dragged me back inside and caged me in at the sink. He waved a hand under the faucet until the water flowed and started rinsing my hands off, rubbing away at the stubborn soap.

My dumbfounded look must’ve prompted him. “There are germs in here. You can’t see them, but I don’t want them on your skin, they can be harmful.” His voice was softer than I expected and didn’t match his rough movements with the cleanser.

He backed away and tore paper towels from the holder I’d just used and proceeded to gently dry my hands, paying extra attention to my nails.

I stood there unmoving, unsure how to handle this side of him. He held my hands as if they were breakable objects needing special care and then lifted them to his face. I half expected him to kiss them. I held my breath. Then, the moment was over.

“Can’t have my little pet contaminating my office now, can we?”

Tearing my hands from his, I stormed out the door, the man hot on my heels. Motion at the end of the hall caught my attention but before I could make a move or call for help, Micha had grabbed me by the neck as he seemed prone to do. He’d known what I was thinking before I’d had the chance to form a complete thought.

“Don’t you dare take off,” he growled in my ear.

That was all it took. Pulling away as hard as I could from him, I broke into a run, my shoes pounding down the hallway like the hounds of hell were chasing me. I heard Micha bark an order but the roar in my head was too loud to decipher his words. It almost sounded like, “Seize her.”

My finger was banging against the elevator panel when I was swooped up into the air and thrown over his shoulder. I kicked at his chest, punched his back, but it was like fighting a tree. He was an immovable solid mass.

There was no way I was giving up. I grabbed his tie, tearing it out from his vest and sending his pin flying. A crunch told me it didn’t survive the assault. Didn’t matter, he continued to ignore the flailing woman pounding against his back.

Despite my lack of stability, I was able to push against him with one arm, lifting myself slightly to reach around while he strolled down the corridor. My nails were long enough to attempt to inflict some damage, and I would not miss the unique opportunity to do so.

I knew I got him when I felt something wet.

Then he roared.