Chad grins and his face looms closer. “The animal attraction.”
I nearly choke on my own spit.
“Animal attraction?” I repeat in disbelief.
I swing my head side to side, desperately searching for someone, anyone, who can help me out.
His hand comes down and his knuckles stroke against my cheek. I recoil and my skin crawls where he touched.
“Like I said, you can stop pretending, Zoe. Tomorrow, I’ll no longer be your boss and you can stop fighting your attraction to me. There will be nothing stopping us from being together…”
“Uh, yeah, except for your wife!” I cry out, and shove at his chest.
He’s slow to react. Several seconds pass before he frowns down at my hands. “What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”
Oh yuck. I can’t believe he just said that. That’s like the line every sleazy, cheating scumbag says in the movies. Doesn’t he realize how stupid he sounds? How stupid he’s acting?
Reaching down, Chad grabs my hands and I try to fight off his grip, but he’s too strong. Crap. This is getting out of hand, fast.
Chad pins my hands to my sides and leans down again, his face getting all up in my face. “Do you know how many nights I’ve laid in bed at night thinking about you? Stroked my cock to the thought of you?”
Yeah, I just threw up a little in my mouth.
“Every goddamn night,” he growls.
His grip tightens around my wrists and he pushes them against the wall. I can’t believe he’s doing this right here, right now.
“Let go of me, Chad,” I try to say firmly, but my voice still trembles at the end.
“No, Zoe. Not until I get my kiss.”
I flinch, partly because of what he just said and partly because of his awful breath.
“Stop it,” he growls, leaning in until the tip of his nose is touching my nose. “Stop pretending you don’t want it.”
“I don’t want it,” I snap out, but that doesn’t stop him from moving in.
His wet, sloppy lips push against my lips and at first I want to freeze. To just suffer it. But then an anger boils up inside me. An anger I’ve been carrying around for months. In his own words, he probably won’t be my boss tomorrow, so I no longer have to put up with his bullshit.
I react on pure instinct. My teeth sink into Chad’s bottom lip, but it doesn’t seem to register at first. For five long, torturous seconds, my teeth dig into his lip as I suffer his foul breath and unwanted touch.
Then he suddenly jerks away as if his brain has finally recognized that he’s been injured.
He takes two stumbling steps back.
“What the fuck, Zoe?!” he growls as his hand lifts and he explores the damage I’ve done to his lip.
The coppery taste of his blood on my own lips is enough to make me gag. It takes every ounce of will I possess to keep from spilling the contents of my stomach all over the floor.
I suck in a deep breath of air to settle my stomach as Chad winces before shooting me a withering glare.
“So you like it rough, huh?” he asks, dropping his hand and taking a big, ominous step towards me.
“Fuck no, Chad. I don’t like ‘it’ with you, period,” I say, straightening from the wall.
Maybe it’s the pain from the bite, or maybe it’s the look on my face, but Chad hesitates, looking unsure.
I’ve seriously had it with this guy and this night. With my impending termination hanging over my head, and all the alcohol still swirling around in my system, I finally find my nerve.
“That was just a warning. Touch me again and I’ll bite something off!” I declare.
And I will. I so will.
I’ve suffered for months, constantly walking on eggshells, always worried about being alone with him, just because I couldn’t afford to lose my job. Well, the job is probably gone tomorrow so there’s no harm in standing up for myself.
Chad’s face flushes red with anger and he sputters, “Do you know who you’re threatening? Did you forget who you’re talking to, Ms. Adams?”
Oh, that’s rich. Resorting to my last name in an attempt to intimidate me with his position of power.
“No, I didn’t forget, Chad.” I sneer and push away from the wall. “Did you forget already? ‘Tomorrow you’ll no longer be my boss.”
Chad’s face flushes a deeper red, a red that creeps all the way down his neck.
A warning bell starts to go off in my head.
Knowing the longer I stand here, arguing with him, the more and more likely he is to lash out again, I throw my shoulders back and walk away from him like he’s of no importance at all.
My bravado is fading quickly though, and my heart rate picks up as I move past him, afraid he’s going to grab me again.