“I think that you might be protesting a little bit too much and it’s getting on my last nerve. Let your hair down and enjoy yourself. We only have this one life to live and we can’t just be all about the business.” His words were slurred and the liquor of choice was something that I was quite familiar with. My mother was happy all the time, but it was with a bit of help from several glasses of wine. It would appear that August and my mother would have made great drinking buddies.
“I don’t need liquor to have a good time. I hope that you remember this in the morning. Overindulging is only going to leave you with a headache to beat the band. I’m going to give you something, but it’s against my better judgment. This is my own remedy. After you drink it, you’ll feel like hell, but then that will pass quickly enough. Take my word or not and I really don’t care.” I wrote it down with him behind me breathing on my neck. I turned quickly to see that his hands were poised to cup my ample posterior.
I grabbed his hand and I placed the piece of paper in between his fingers. He could’ve easily had his way with me and those hands really did dwarf my tiny little digits. I had always been the bigger of my dates, but that was not the case with August. He had to weigh in at over 200 plus pounds of solid muscle. I didn’t think that there was an ounce of fat on his body. Whatever regiment that he had put himself through had the desired results.
“I want you and I’m going to have you. It would be better that you just give in now. If you leave here without doing something about this heat between us, then you’re going to end up having one very restless night. You’ll toss and turn and you’ll have only yourself to blame. Grab onto a little bit of happiness.” The happiness that he was referring to was the stick of dynamite that was quite pronounced and looking ready to burst through his pants.
I still had his hand in mine and then he lowered it and placed it against the lump of his arousal. I gasped thinking that this was unbecoming of a professional relationship, but not able to tear myself away from the thumping presence. It had a life of its own and a pulsing rhythm that had me squeezing it.
“I… I…can’t do this. It will ruin what we already have. I’ve seen too many people go down this road and the awkwardness after it all falls apart leads to one of them having to quit. I won’t risk… I won’t… I have to leave and you haven’t heard the last of this.” I used whatever resolve that I had left to push him back away from me. He looked a little stunned by my behavior and tried to pursue but got the slam of the door in his face.
I saw through the window that he had gone to his desk and had gotten a bit of the hair of the dog. I didn’t know
that he had liquid refreshment in his desk. The way that he slugged the bottle back made him look like a caveman. I could almost imagine the way that he would rip off my clothes, strip me of my defences and leave me vulnerable to his manly persuasion.
I breathed deeply, feeling my heart beating in my chest and knowing that I was one move from turning and going headlong into a disaster of a decision. It took all of my willpower to press that elevator button.
I heard the clanging of the bottle and I turned to see that he was standing there swaying on his 2 feet and looking me up and down like I was a delectable dessert.
“You have one chance to make it right. Come back here and let me put my hands on that beautiful big body of yours. I don’t think that I’ve ever had someone like you and that is a cherry that I want to break. Your lips say no, but your body is screaming yes. You’re thinking about it too much and that’s precisely the reason why you are alone.” His words stung and there was some truth behind them.
I found my anger rising and I walked with defiance over to him before I started to point and poke at his chest. “How dare you say something like that to me without knowing me at all? I’ll have you know that I’m a warm and wonderful person. You would be lucky to be with me. I have a passion that cannot be measured, but you’re never going to find out.” I could still smell the combination of liquor and his cologne. I wanted to kiss those lips and let him manhandle me into submission, but that would only be feeding into his ego.
“I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m usually a pretty good judge of character.” He looked like I had slapped him across the face and metaphorically speaking; I suppose that was exactly what I did with my verbal abuse.
“I have a lot to give to the right man and you’re not him. You’re callous and you don’t care about anybody else’s feelings but your own. It’s no wonder that you like to work alone because nobody else can satisfy your high expectations. I’m going to forget that this even happened and I suggest that you do the same. Tomorrow, we start over with a clean slate and none of this ugliness to get between us. I still think that we can make something spectacular. Don’t mention this and you can bet that I’m not going to.” I had said my piece with my clothes sticking to me like a second skin.
“I might have gone a little overboard, but you can’t blame me. You come in looking like that, wearing a dress that leaves little to the imagination and you expect me not to do anything about it. You are either delusional, or you really don’t know the kind of power that you have over a man. I think that it might be time to teach you a lesson. Teasing and showing what you have is only going to get you into trouble. I don’t think that you have truly lived a moment in your life and that’s a crying shame. I want to rectify that. I wonder how long you’re going to last before you realize that you are on the losing end of this battle.” He had unbuttoned the first couple of buttons on his white starched shirt.
“I think that you’ll find that this attraction that you feel is one-sided. I could never be with anybody that thought that they were god’s gift to women. It would be in your best interest not to push this any further.” I was afraid and intoxicated by the very idea of being taken control of. No man had ever been able to handle me like that, but this guy might be able to do what others couldn’t do.
“This game of playing hard to get is going to get old quickly. You’re fighting me when we should be going at it like wild dogs.” He stumbled and fell to his knees still holding onto the bottle like it was a lifeline. It could mean that he had a problem. The signs were all there including the bottle in his desk.
“That is no way to talk to me. I’m tired and I don’t need this. Don’t even think that I’m going to be party to sexual harassment.” I had to get some distance. I was showing that I would not take this kind of behavior from anyone. I wanted him to believe that, but deep down I wanted him to put his hands on me.
It had been almost a year since I’d been intimate with anyone. That relationship fizzled from my lack of interest. He wanted to introduce toys and even another woman, but I wasn’t ready to jump in feet first. I was happy to dip my toe in by changing positions, but his constant demands had made me run for the hills.
“I don’t see a lady. I see a sexually available woman that is letting an opportunity slip through her fingers. It’s a mistake and one that you’re going to realize sooner than later.” He slumped back against the wall with his head falling forward and his eyes closing. He was soon breathing heavy with his chest rising and falling with each labored breath.
I could have made him an example. The very thought of stripping him naked and taking his clothes did put a smile on my face. This was no way to start our business partnership. I’m sure that he thought that I was just hired help, but I wanted to become the Ying to his Yang.
I breathed a sigh of relief as the door to the elevator closed. I had to lean back against the glass wall. I felt the cool surface through my clothes and it brought down the fire that had become more than a blaze. I didn’t need this hassle. This was not what I considered a healthy work environment. The only thing that I could hope was that this was a momentary lack of judgment on his part. I would find out in the morning one way or the other.
I wasn’t sure how much more that I could take. It was only lucky that he didn’t see any crack in my demeanor. He was not the type of man that was ready for a commitment. He would have his way and then he would toss me to the curb like yesterday’s garbage. I’m sure that other girls had already felt his abuse of power. Those that had any self-respect would have walked away, but there would have been some that felt that the only way to get ahead was to climb the ladder of success by using their bodies.
I’d spent all night thinking about what had happened and it wasn’t fair. Just because he was the boss, he thought that he could have any woman wrapped around his little finger. He was going to learn the hard way that my affections were not easy to come by. I wanted a man to treat me right, give me his undivided attention and not just want one thing.
I had my heart in my throat, thinking that I was going to get my walking papers by the time that I stepped out of the elevator. He didn’t get what he wanted and that was more than enough grounds to end this probationary period.
I found Miss Timmons wringing her hands and looking a little dishevelled. “I haven’t seen him like this. He’s on a tirade and he’s looking for somebody to fight with. Tread carefully. He’s lucky that I have a thick skin.” I walked down the hallway, careful not to make too much noise and knowing that what he was going through was something that I’d only experienced once.
Tina managed to drag me to a frat party and I ended up lying on the grass wearing no panties. It was not like me. To this day, I still didn’t know which of the frat boys had my panties as a souvenir. I knew that nothing happened, but losing them was degrading. It made me feel like people were looking at me differently in the morning.
That was the one and only time that I had taken things too far. I was conscious of every drink that I had in a bar from that moment on. I could still get that buzz, but there was no way that I was going to become that fall down drunk that didn’t know what they did.
I opened the door slowly, gritting my teeth together to give the illusion that I was trying to be as quiet as a mouse.
He was sitting behind his desk with his hand on his forehead. “I don’t want to hear it. I can’t even remember how I got here. I woke up sleeping outside my office. The last thing I do remember is some scantily clad stripper giving me a private lap dance. I don’t even know if I should call the client and apologize for my behavior. You would think that I would know better.” He was kicking himself, but I did notice that he had not mentioned the way that he had acted with me.