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As they began walking down the hall to her room, he slid his hand from her wrist to her fingers and encapsulated her palm within his. The movement caused an imbalance in her already messed-up system. When he came to a halt at her suite, the fact that he knew exactly which room was hers somehow didn’t surprise her.
With trembling fingers, she pulled her card from her pocket and swiped the door. It opened with a ding and when she went to move through, he stopped her by pulling on her hand. She stood in the threshold, and he leaned against the doorframe with a look of intractable command. A barrage of emotions hit her belly as she pulled on her hand.
Once again, he transferred his fingers from her hand to her wrist where he held her in place. “Stay still.”
His words only made her pull harder.
His fingers clenched more tightly and a look of menacing retribution touched his features. “Stay still and listen up. If I catch you in the stairwell again, there’s going to be hell to pay, understand me?”
She remained infinitely still and totally silent, staring at him from under her lashes.
He flexed his jaw and antagonistic displeasure screamed off him in waves. “Follow me, babe? I get that you think that you’re the boss around here, but there’s one person who can tell you what you can and can’t do, and that’s me. Whether you like it or not, you don’t get a fucking choice, you have to do what I say, understand?”
Although her stomach was jumping around in crazy little feminine quivers at the primal caveman holding her captive, her anger came to the rescue and stomped all over any residual hints of desire she was feeling and pushed them below the surface. And thank God for that. “Fine. I’ll stay out of the fucking stairwell, mister boss man,” she hissed in sarcastic anger. Then she stood on tiptoe and brought her face as close to his as she could reach and glared up at him. “But if you want to be the fucking boss man, you better stay the fuck out of my panties, understand me, asshole?”
When a look of stunned comprehension crossed his face, she used his momentary shock to pull on her hand with all her might. She broke away, and not giving him a second to recover from her outburst, she slammed the door in his face and locked it and then bolted it for good measure.
****
The next day was brutal for Maria. As much as she tried, she couldn’t get the memory of that amazing orgasm, or of his words, out of her head.
Garrett made his displeasure with her exceedingly obvious. He slammed doors all day and went out of his way to make sure she knew that he was ignoring her. He didn’t speak to her, even when he needed to. Several times, she heard him bark for Beth and then question the poor girl about something or other. Beth, in turn, would come from his office, stand in front of Maria’s desk while shaking, and ask the question that Garrett should have asked her in the first place. Maria would answer Beth as calmly as possible, trying her best not to bring the girl into the middle of their fight. At that point, Beth would walk back and give Garrett the answer, and then he’d bark out her dismissal.
This went on for hours, until finally, at about two in the afternoon, with Beth questioning her about something ridiculously trivial, Maria felt her temper erupt. “Surely you know the answer?”
“Of course,” the other woman answered with a look that said she was beginning to understand that something was going on. “I told him but he said I had to check with you.”
Maria stood to her feet and pasted on a smile. “It’s all right, I’ll handle him, okay?”
Beth looked relieved. “Are you sure?”
“Of course, don’t worry. This isn’t about you. Go back to work.”
As Maria headed in the direction of Garrett’s office, Beth went back to her station at the front. Trying to contain the fury racing through her veins, Maria walked into his office and shut the door with a silent click, and then turned, leaned against it and waited for him to raise his head from the document he was perusing.
After a long moment went by, she realized he knew that it wasn’t Beth in his office, and now he was blatantly ignoring her, or possibly, playing some sort of demented game, waiting for her to speak first.
She accommodated his wish without hesitation. “I think it’s time for you to go back to St. Louis,” she said without inflection.
He immediately raised his head and seared her with a look that spoke volumes. His expression clouding with fury, he bit out contemptuously, “What, exactly, makes you think you have the right to tell me what to do?” He continued to stare and then bit out way too softly, “Who do you think you are?”
