Willow stepped forward and waved while the room greeted her and offered her welcome. Once she was through greeting everyone, I stepped forward to claim the room once more.
“Now, it was brought to my attention in a rather displeased manner that some of you are less than optimistic about some of the endeavors I have taken up. I want to make it clear that my father is no longer head of this company, and unless he fires me, I am the only one you report to. If you are in disagreement about a business decision I have made, feel free to schedule an appointment to speak with me on the matter. From this day forward, anyone who shares accusation, complaints, or strategies with my father will be fired. Do I make myself clear?”
*
I needed to take the edge off. I was pissed and my cock was hard and I had an errant fiery-headed female on my hands.
I watched her in my peripheral as I drove us home. She kept her head turned away, staring out the window at nothing remotely fascinating. I knew it was her way of ignoring me. She was nervous and she should be. Her confession last night was a game changer. I learned that she couldn’t be trusted but that she also needed protection.
I shouldn’t have felt responsible for her. I had an international company to run and a fiancée to keep happy.
“What happened between you and the guy in accounting?”
“I met a lot of guys in accounting.”
“It's not the time to try my patience.” I shook my head, and once again, wondered what she was doing to me. I’ve never had to threaten as much as I did as when I was with her.
“You’re not seriously jealous, are you?” She never stopped staring out the window as she spoke. “I should hope not—when you can’t even recall his name.”
“Can you?”
“Nate.” Her expression was smug when she turned to face me.
“Ok. So what happened between you and Nate to make him fall head over heels in love?”
“I think Celesha exaggerated a bit.”
“Celesha never exaggerates.”
“There’s nothing to tell. He asked me out. That’s it.”
“And you said?”
“I turned him down. After all, I wasn’t under the impression I would be sticking around long enough to be accepting dates. Had I known sooner that I would be forced into slavery, I would have accepted.”
“You should have told him you belong to someone. That someone being his boss, who could have him fired and out on his ass if he so much as looks at you again.” I fell silent and waited to see if my threat would take.
“You’re a bastard,” she whispered, once again staring out the window.
“If I’m a bastard, it’s only because you pushed me this far.”
“Right. I pushed you to lie to me and to purposely make me fall—” She stopped short and took a deep breath. “It doesn’t matter anymore. We’ll never be together because we aren’t meant to be. Have you ever given the possibility any consideration?”
“No. I control my future and now I control you. The only things I can’t control are my feelings for you.”
“You don’t have feelings for me. You’re obsessed with being in control. Your ego doesn’t like that I didn’t fall for your mind games and walked away from you after finding out what a manipulative, lying bastard you are.”
“Manipulative?”
“That’s what I said.”