These are my last moments in this office.
He does that straight-backed walk that says he owns this place. Even if he didn’t own it, that’s what he exudes. Where the bloody hell are we going and what is happening?
Before I know it, we’re in a tiled hallway I didn’t even realise we’d entered. The gym entrance?
He stops and turns to me. “What the fuck is your deal?” he asks in a low, menacing tone.
“I—”
He holds up a hand to stop me and pinches the bridge of his nose with the other, his chest rising as he inhales deeply. Standing this close to the man for the first time is intense. The moment stretches out, and my heart pounds in my ears. I can’t help but notice how the tailored navy suit struggles around his biceps, and the appearance of lightly tanned skin between his designer watch and his crisp, white cuff. I bet he’s got magnificent forearms.
“Look,” he starts, and I jump out of where my thoughts were heading. “Don’t lie to me. Tell me what you were doing at the session.”
My mouth opens, but no sound comes out. He knows about Nia’s report. Why else would he ask like that? Is he going to believe me regardless of what I say?
“I was there to assist Horace,” I answer, looking him straight in the eye.
His jaw works overtime while he searches my face. What is he, some kind of lie detector?
“Why the fuck did you laugh?”
“You really should think about your language,” I say before my brain catches up, and I clap a hand to my mouth. “Shit!” I squeak through my fingers. “Oh, bugger.” I wave my hands around as if I can fan away my blabbering self. “Sorry,” Imanage finally and stand still, clutching my hands in the skirt of my dress.
Mark glares at me, and it freezes me to the spot.
“Are you done?”
I nod, keeping my mouth shut, worried I’ll say more stupid shit.
“Answer my question.”
“I—”
“No lies.”
“Well, I guess I thought it was a little over the top, you know?This is life. Umm, it’s just a job to most people, that’s all.”
His brow knits and the hazel eyes appear darker. They move across my face again and skim down my body. It’s swift, but it’s as if he’s stripped me naked. It makes me feel exposed. Vulnerable. I should be screaming in fear, but I suck in a breath, taking his delicious, manly cologne in.
Holding my breath, I’m waiting for him to yell at me, or threaten me. But he does something worse.
He shakes his head.
In that condescending-as-shit way.
That judgemental shake I’ve seen a thousand times. It turns my heated centre to ice in an instant, and I want to roar at him the way I never dare do to my mum. I deflate like a balloon instead.
He narrows his eyes at me. “Get back to work, if Horace needs you so badly.”
I step back. Is that it?
I’m so beneath him he can’t even bother to tell me off properly.
“Okay,” I say and pull open the heavy fire door, leaving the intimidating man behind.
The adrenaline pumps so hard I might throw up. I need to get away from this door so I don’t see Mark again right away,and so he can’t see me like this. I look guilty as fuck, but it’s only because he’s scary as fuck. Nia has never asked me to report on him to her. I think she’s kept me out of Mark’s way intentionally, and I’m happy about that. Just after this morning, I can see why.
I breathe deeply in and out as I walk back to the auditorium. The glowing glass waterfall structures that reach the ceiling, and the sounds of trickling water soothe me the second I step through the doors (it strikes me that’s probably the intent of this elaborate design). Horace’s careful voice carries around the bend. I can’t have been gone long at all.
