I stared at him, mustering up every ounce of willpower I had not to knee him in the balls. But my brother was a twisted product of the Coleton machine my father built. The real bad guy—the real problem was at the head of the snake. I silently promised to go extra hard on father for what Mikey had just said, then plastered a winning smile on my face. “That sounds real nice,” I said.
25
Juliette
My last stop before leaving North Carolina was to have Anastasia over to my place. She took one end of my thrift store couch, and I took the other. I’d just finished summarizing everything that had happened, and her eyebrows were officially raised.
“Wow,” Anastasia said. “When you texted that things were ‘spicy’ I expected you to say some creep at the office tried to pinch your ass.”
“Well,” I said. “I guess I should’ve known this secret of mine was eventually going to explode.”
“So you really like this guy?” she asked. “Adrian.”
“Yeah.” I smiled. “He expected the world from me as soon as I started working for him. He was unreasonable, aggressive, and abrasive.”
“Sounds charming,” Anastasia deadpanned.
I grinned. “All the guys I knew before thought I was a spoiled princess. Just some useless wallflower who was only good at swiping daddy’s card. Adrian was the first who actually expected me to be capable. Or maybe he thought I couldn’t manage, but he appreciated what I could do when I did it. He values me for what I’ve done.” I shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean that’s just part of it. I also feel like jelly every time I’m within a few feet of the man. And I respect what he’s trying to do. He makes me feel safe, too. Like in a kind of overprotective, caveman sort of way. But it’s still nice.”
Anastasia nodded. “Sounds perfect. Have you checked him for a power cord? He could be a robot. The real ones always have a flaw somewhere.”
“I’d say I’ve thoroughly explored him. If there was a power cord, I would know it by now.”
She arched an eyebrow. “You dirty dog.”
“I’ve been sneaking into his office once or twice a day now,” I admitted. “Until he left for New York, at least. He just takes me on his desk. Or against the wall. Or on the floor.”
“Jesus. Look at how my little girl has grown,” Anastasia said with a half smile. “Practically a porn star now, aren’t you?”
“Stop,” I laughed. “It just has all kind of been based around work. We both work so late and get up so early. I don’t really get to have him over or do a whole lot of actual dating. So the office is really the only place where… yeah.”
“Sounds hot. Do the employees watch? You should give him a blowjob while making eye contact with them to assert dominance. At least that’s what I’d do.”
I rolled my eyes. “Maybe that’s why you don’t work for Maxi anymore.”
“I don’t work for Maxi anymore because she’s an uptight bitch who wouldn’t know a useful employee if they yanked the stick out of her ass and crawled up there themselves.”
“Vivid image,” I said.
“Yeah, well, fuck her.”
I laughed. “Fuck her,” I agreed.
“And fuck your new boss. On the floor. Or on his desk. Or against the wall,” she said.
I shook my head. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Considering the story you just told me, I think you have no room to talk. I’ve never pressed my face into my boss’ boner in an airplane bathroom.”
“I’ve only done that once,” I said, as if that was a valid defense.
“I don’t usually say this to people,” Anastasia said. “So if you repeat it, I’ll claim you’re lying. But I’m going to miss you. If you come back to visit, you’ll let me know, right?”
“Wow,” I said. I rushed across the couch and hugged her, but she started pushing me off. I hugged her anyway, smiling into her shoulder. “I’m going to miss you too.”
“Don’t make it weird,” she groaned, awkwardly patting my back.
“Too late,” I said. “And I’ll come visit you whenever I can, bestie.”
Anastasia groaned.
* * *
I’d never actually been to Adrian’s place in North Carolina. If our relationship had been normal, I would’ve considered that a red flag. But I was with the man almost every hour of the day when he was working, and I sensed that he’d wanted to at least keep one boundary between work and our personal lives. Oddly enough, that boundary seemed to be that we had generally only interacted at work.
Now that was all going to change, I supposed. In fact, it was going to completely reverse, and I hoped our fragile relationship could handle it.
The apartment he secured in New York was a pleasant surprise. I’d seen what a lot of multi-millionaires did with their money. They bought the biggest, most pretentious space they could afford and expected everybody who entered to fall on their knees and begin worshipping.