Chapter Five
Faye
Six months later
Okay, keeping calm had to be something to do. A new job at Dunce International is a piece of cake. Going back to college isn’t happening, and with Kerry now recovering from her illness, an apartment, and sending her to a good school, I need more money. A good job will provide that for her.
Getting the job hadn’t been easy. The program had been a month long with over fifty applicants, all of them college dropouts.
Yep, Dunce International actually has a program within their company to help with college dropouts like me and of course fifty others. On the application I was given, they demanded a brief explanation as to why you quit. I wonder what the other applicants put. For me, I put personal problems as I had to adopt my sister and she’d been sick.
My grades had been brilliant up until that revelation.
It hadn’t exactly been a revelation. I’d gone home early, at least two hours before I was supposed to, when I saw my stepfather raping my sister.
Yep, it had been a huge change in my life.
Fortunately, Kerry is a fighter. She is also in counseling, but that doesn’t seem to be helping. We live in a small apartment, and she goes to a great school.
All from my virgin money.
It had been a shock to get the amount that I had.
Every single cent of it went to helping Kerry.
So, back at work. After one month of tiring shifts, of proving myself, of showing that I had what it took, I got the job, along with four other people.
I’d heard some of the employees gossiping about us behind our backs. There was a bet on to see who would last the longest.
I don’t know where I fit into it all.
It would seem my name had been placed around the middle. There was some entitled jock who they thought would shine brighter because he had a good last name and came from a well-to-do family. The rest of us didn’t stand a chance.
Still, it’s why I’m standing outside the elevator at seven in the morning, carrying sixty files in my arms, holding them tight against my chest. Glancing at my reflection in the metal doors, for a brief moment I allow myself to think about him. The man who had completely blown my world apart.
He’d given me a night to remember, and when I was alone in my bed, staring up at my ceiling, I allowed myself a chance to dream. To think of his hands as they held me. We’d fucked more than once. He’d surprised me by how many times he wanted to go. The way he held me in place, putting me on my knees or back, or making me take him, to stare into his eyes as he filled me.
I’d been raw for days.
Walking had been a problem, but seeing as I had to take care of Kerry, I’d not allowed myself to dwell.
Walking, talking, pretending everything was fine, I’d gone about my business until I got to this moment.
The memories are all I have left.
Dating isn’t part of my life.
Kerry and now work fill my world.
I’d cut my hair though.
Every chance he got, he’d run his fingers through it, gripping the length tight, driving me wild and making me just fall apart from the pleasure I could have at his fingertips.
Tapping my foot on the floor, I wonder if the stairs will be easier. Whoever is keeping the elevator is at the underground parking level. They are probably talking and keeping the door open.
Just as I’m about to turn to walk the stairs, the elevator starts to move. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t wait now.
Glancing over my shoulder, I see I’m the only one waiting.
The door pings open, drawing my attention. Turning around, I step onto the elevator, not staring at the other three people inside because it would show my impatience and I love my job.
Not causing any waves is part of the job.
“Floor?”
“Top for me.”
The man presses the button, and away we go.
Lifting my head up, I gasp as I see him. His blue eyes are staring right back at me. The man that I sold my virginity to. The man I wasn’t going to see ever again is standing in the elevator with me.
My cheeks heat as my heart races. Holding onto the files with a death grip, I try, and probably fail, to look calm and collected.
This is a nightmare.
Malcolm didn’t tell me what to do if I was ever to come face to face with the man.
Please move. Please move. I need to get out of here.
My palms are sweaty.
The elevator stops three floors from where I need to be.
The doors open, and as I’m about to step out to make my escape, he catches my arm, stopping me. No one looks back as I’m trapped.
There is no way I could scream or draw attention to myself.
This job pays well. It would allow me to make a damn good life for me and my sister. Ruining all of that by screaming about a potential client wouldn’t allow that.
“You don’t need to run off.”
His grip tightens around my arm, pulling me back.
In the next second, he reaches out, pressing the stop button, and we stop still.
I watch as he goes to the panel of the elevator and suddenly flicks a button.
Being in small, confined spaces is a real problem for me. A few seconds as I go from one floor to another is fine, but right now I’m panicking.
He turns back toward me, and I keep hold of the files.
“Now isn’t this a surprise? What are you doing here?” he asks.
“I work here.”
His gaze looks at the files then back at me. His eyes seem to narrow as he stares at my hair.
Shit, suddenly getting it cut doesn’t seem like a good idea.
“Since when?”
“Since when, what?”
“How long have you worked here?”
“A month. I’m part of the college dropout program.” I hate saying that. It’s like admitting failure.
“You’ve been here a month?”
I nod.
“What’s your name?”
“I don’t have to tell you that.”
It was the wrong thing to say as he advances toward me. Still keeping hold of my files, I stare right back at him. His hands move out to trap me in the corner of the elevator. We’ve stopped, and I’m guessing he’s turned the security camera off, so no one knows I’m here.
Tilting my head back to look at him, I wait.
His lips are pressed into a smirk.
“My name, angel, is Chase Dunce.” He pauses, clearly giving me a few seconds to realize that he’s the boss. “Yeah, I see. Now, tell me your name.”
“I don’t like this.”
“We’re not at Cherry anymore. There’s nothing for you to like or hate. Just tell me your name.”
“It’s Faye Carter.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Faye.”
His gaze moves down my body, and I hate that I respond. I like him looking at me as if he wants to eat me.
“I can’t believe it has been six months since I last saw you. When you left me without a backward glance.”
“I really need to get to work.”
Suddenly, this job doesn’t exactly look like a good idea.
He doesn’t move.
His gaze still on me. Waiting.
My pussy is slick.
The scent of his cologne is turning me on; that and the closeness. He’s got that alpha caveman thing going on right now.
He’s so much taller than I am.
It’s almost surreal that we’ve been naked together, screwing. That he was my first.
I’ve not been with any other man, so right now, he’s still my only one and boy, did he make it hard for me to even think of getting someone to compare him to.
His cell phone rings, breaking the spell.
He doesn’t step back as he answers the call though. I watch him click a button and place the cell against his ear.
“Yes.”
I can’t make out the conversation, but he shakes his head.
“It’s all fine. No need to panic.” He listens a few minutes and then pockets his cell phone.
Both of his hands go back to the wall on either side of my head, trapping me.
“This is new,” he says. He takes a lock of my hair. It’s short, to my neck and feathered. I like the look.
Suddenly, his fingers are gripping my hair, very much like the way he did back at Cherry. The action takes me by surprise, and I drop the damn files I’ve been holding onto.
His lips are so close and the action has caused me to press my body against his. Grabbing onto his shoulders for support I cry out as his lips suck on my pulse, kissing up to my mouth.
The kiss he gives me is hard. He tightens his grip in my hair, making me cry out as he attacks my mouth, ravishing me.
It feels so good.
It shouldn’t feel like this, but the instant hit of arousal floods my panties as he presses me against the wall. His other hand goes to my hip, locking me in place, and there’s nowhere to go.
His tongue plunges inside my mouth, and I taste the coffee on his breath.
This is so wrong.
He’s the boss.
I’m a mere employee.
This is bad. So very bad.
Finally, getting some sanity and maybe a backbone, I don’t know which, I grip his shoulders and pull away.
“We can’t do this.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“You’re the boss.”
“And as the boss, I can do whatever I want, and I want you.”
Putting my hands on his chest, I shake my head. “I need this job.”
“That money I paid wasn’t enough for you? You need more? What will it take?”
Like a switch, I turn cold.
Jerking back out of his touch, I sink to the floor and quickly start picking up the damn files. “Could you please turn the elevator back on? I need to work.”
“Faye?”
“Please, I need this job.” I want this job. Hard work isn’t something I’ve ever shied away from.
This job, even knowing he’s here, I love it. It is filled with challenges and rewards, and everything I love.
This man, who’s just managed to wound me deeply with a few choice words, isn’t going to change that. Unless he has a cause to fire me and I am not going to let that happen.
“Angel.”
“Look, I want to keep this job, okay? I don’t want to do this with you. You had what you paid for, and can we just leave it at that?”
Seconds pass, maybe even minutes, before he finally relents. As I pick up the last of the files and stand, I feel tears glisten in my eyes. I fight them back.
Crying isn’t going to help.
In a few cutting words, he’d taken a night that I’d loved and turned it into something ugly.
I am going to have to look for another job.
No doubt about it.
There’s no way in hell I’ll work for him now.
Stepping off the elevator together, I am very much aware I am following him. That’s because these files are for him.
As he enters his office and I step through, I don’t linger as I place the files on his desk. Even as he calls my name, I just want to get out of there. Instead, I stop and glance back at him.
“This isn’t over,” he says.
With that, I leave. I can’t stay, and I need to go to the bathroom to try to compose myself.