Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 81584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
“Of course.”
“You don’t have to do anything,” I said quickly. “Just, you know, help me carry my stuff out of my office.”
“You needed me to stand on one foot, pat my head, and rub my belly, I’d do it,” he replied easily.
“I don’t think that will be necessary.” I patted his chest.
For the first night since we’d broken the seal, we didn’t have sex. I fell asleep curled up next to him, his arm curled tightly around my back. He kicked the top quilt off of us at some point because he got too hot, but I didn’t even notice. I actually hadn’t even missed the weight of the blankets our entire trip—the arm around me had been the only thing I’d needed.
When I woke up the next morning and found Gray looking at me, I groaned and rolled away.
“Mornin’.” He smiled.
“I told you I was a yeller,” I reminded him with a wince.
“You weren’t lyin’.”
“To be fair, you yelled, too.”
“I’m sorry about that. I shouldn’t have.” His expression was full of remorse.
“Well, now I just feel worse,” I whined.
“It’s different,” he said, shaking his head.
“How exactly is it different?”
“I could hurt you,” he replied bluntly. “You get mad and yell, I don’t like it, but I wouldn’t be afraid. A man yells at a woman, and her first instinct is fear.”
“That’s not true.”
He looked at me like I was crazy.
“I would never think you’d physically harm me.”
“I yell at you enough, you would.”
I considered it and finally nodded in acceptance.
“So, if you never yell, but I do, then I’ll just look like the crazy one,” I accused.
“That’s your burden to bear,” he teased, his eyes crinkling.
I climbed out of bed with a huff and tossed a throw pillow at his head. Gray laughed and caught it, then he followed me into the bathroom. Showering together was far from sexy considering the size of my tub, but the intimacy was superb. I got to watch as he soaped up that muscular body and drive him crazy while I did the same.
By the time we left for my office, I was surprisingly relaxed. There wasn’t much that anyone could do to me now that I’d already lined up a new job, and I figured the threat of Scott doing something nuts was practically zero while Gray was there.
“You ready to say goodbye to this place?” Gray asked as he parked the truck.
“It was good to me for a while,” I replied, throwing open my door. “But, yeah. Let’s do this quick.”
I’d already printed my resignation letter at home, and I carried the crisp sheet of paper inside with us. I hadn’t bothered to give them two weeks’ notice. I wasn’t willing to be in that office more than the fifteen minutes it took to pack my things, and they probably would’ve just told me not to come in anyway. I hoped that they’d find someone to fill my position quickly so the guys on our jobs wouldn’t suffer, but it really wasn’t my problem anymore.
“You’re back,” Linda said happily as we walked into the office.
“Just grabbing my stuff,” I replied, waving my letter.
“Really?” She stood up from her desk.
“Got another offer,” I said easily.
“Congratulations!” She smiled knowingly and looked at Gray.
He stepped forward and introduced himself.
“You traded way up,” she muttered out of the corner of her mouth as she shook his hand.
I laughed. I was still giggling a little as we walked toward my boss’s office. I rarely saw Tate since his way of managing the entire branch was to golf and take long lunches with customers nearly every day, but thankfully that morning he was sitting behind his desk.
“Hey, Frankie,” he greeted, leaning back in his seat.
“Hey, I’m just here to give you this—” I handed over my letter. “And thank you so much for the opportunity to work here.”
“You’re leaving us,” he said with a sigh, glancing at Gray and then back at me. “I had a feeling this was coming.”
“You did?”
“Well, Scotty was in here ranting about how your boyfriend beat him up,” he said, glancing at Gray again. “And alternately talking about how much you wanted him. I figured you wouldn’t want to deal with him.”
“My boyfriend’s been with me in California all week.”
“Figures.”
I looked over at Gray and then back to Tate. “You know, Scott and I were seeing each other for a while over a month ago.”
“I’d heard that.”
“And then when I broke up with him, he wouldn’t leave me alone. He harassed me relentlessly. Flowers, notes on my desk, standing in my office even after I’d asked him to leave. He even said something really appropriate about my ass in front of one of our vendors.”
“Shit,” Tate hissed. “Did you report it?”
“No.”
“You can still—”
“I’m just letting you know,” I replied, gesturing for him to stop. “So you can keep a closer eye on things. Everyone saw it. Everyone was talking about it. No one did anything about it—probably because he’s the owner’s nephew, and they were too afraid. That’s why I didn’t report it. You’re his boss. You could do something about it.”