Bedroom Bully by Harper West

10

Rebecca

It didn’t takeme long for me to correct the error of my ways. That night, after clocking out thirty minutes early just to fuck with Joseph, I took the smallest bit of my work home and opened up the dating app. I shot him a message asking if I could have a second chance at a decent first impression, and he was all too keen to take me up on my offer. We made plans for Friday night after work, so I relegated myself to a few later evenings to make sure I had everything squared away.

But I should have known that JoJo was right around the corner, ready to ruin my prospects while he tortured me.

“Miss Loren,” he said as he knocked on my door.

“Come in,” I said flatly.

He cracked my door. “I wanted to peek in and make sure you got my email?”

I didn’t bother looking up at him. “I’ll check it on my lunch break.”

“That’s fine. My accountant is out sick today, so you’ll be taking over her work as well as yours for the weekend.”

I whipped my head up. “What?”

He stepped into my office, but didn’t close the door. “Nothing I can do about it. There are things she was working on that I need done before Monday morning, and she’s in the hospital.”

I wasn’t sure whether or not to believe him. “I’ll take the work home with me.”

“You can’t. Sensitive information and all.”

“Then, it won’t get done.”

“Then, you’ll be fired.”

I leaned back in my chair. “Then, fire me.”

He nodded. “All right, you’re fired. Pack up your desk and--.”

I leapt to my feet. “I have plans tonight, Joseph, and you can’t just dump work on me--.”

“This is my company, right?”

I sighed. “Yes, but--.”

“And I sign off on your paycheck, right?”

I rolled my eyes. “Also, yes, but I know--.”

“Then, do the work, or come Monday morning someone else’s name will be on your door plaque.”

And that’s when an idea occurred to me. “Okay.”

He tilted his head. “Right, okay. Get it done. I want it on my desk by Monday at eight.”

I sat back down in my chair. “Fair enough, but close the door on your way out. I need to focus, after all.”

A beat of silence passed before he reached for the doorknob. “Fine with me.”

The second he closed my door I dug out my phone. I had to flip some plans on Michael, but if I had to stay late that didn’t mean I had to ditch the man. I simply had to get him to agree to pick up the food so he could bring it to my office. It took a bit of finagling, especially since he had made reservations once again. But, with him being a doctor he understood a hectic and unreliable schedule.

So, it only took fifteen minutes to move our date from a French bistro across town to my office.

* * *

I’m not an idiot.I knew the game Rebecca was playing. I knew what she was doing, and it sure as hell wouldn’t work. Eavesdropping had become a skill of mine, and she really needed to learn how to lower her voice when talking on her cell phone during her lunch break.

I knew she had a date for tonight.

And I knew she had managed to shift the date into her office since I had dropped all of that work in her lap.

“Guess it’s on to Plan B,” I murmured.

After everyone had left for the evening, I made my way down to the secretarial desk on Becca’s work floor. I stood midway between the two elevators, waiting for whoever the fuck this guy was to pop up. I relaxed in the chair and swiveled between the two metal doors. I kept checking my watch, wondering when the hell this asshole was going to show up.

Then, I heard the elevator to my left kick into gear.

“There we go,” I whispered as I stood to my feet.

I walked into the middle of the hallway and clasped my hands in front of me. I stood there with a pleasant smile on my face as the elevator grew closer. The whirring finally came to a stop before the metal sliding doors eased open, and I found myself face to face with a plain-looking man donning a white coat.

He didn’t even bother getting dressed up for the occasion.

Idiot.

“May I help you?” I asked.

The man smiled. “Hi there. The name’s Michael. I’m looking for Rebecca Loren’s office.”

I nodded. “Right, right. Well, she obviously didn’t tell you about our late-night policy.”

He snickered. “Your what?”

I plucked the food bag from his hand before taking the drink tray he balanced in the other. “No dates while someone is still clocked in for work. But I’ll see to it that she gets her meal.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s a real thing,” he said as he tried to take the food back.

But my face fell into a scowl as I withheld the food. “Turn around and leave the way you came.”

“Or what?”

I took a step toward him and gazed down at him since I clearly had at least four inches on the man. “Or I will see to it that my security guards downstairs escort you out.”

He lifted his head. “You must be him.”

“Sure, I can be whoever ‘him’ is, but the woman you’re meeting is inundated with sensitive information. I can’t have just any eyes on the paperwork she’s got sprawled out on her desk right now. I’ll make sure she gets the food, but you’ve got fifteen seconds to get your ass back on that elevator before I call security and have you blacklisted from the building. Understood?”

“Wow,” he said as he took a step back, “you really are a piece of work, just like she said.”

I plastered on another smile. “Nice to know she talks about me. I’ll make sure to give her my regards. Now, get the hell out of my place of work.”

“Michael?” Becca asked behind me.

His eyes peered over my shoulder. “Brought you food. Hope you enjoy it.”

She scurried up to my side. “I’m not sure what he said to you, but you can follow me. My office is just--.”

Michael turned his back and scoffed. “Have fun with whatever you’re doing.”

“Michael!”

I handed her the food. “I’ll eat with you, if you’d like company.”

She glared at me. “Over my dead body. Michael, wait!”

It sickened me, how she dashed after him. I wrinkled my nose and watched as he got into the elevator. She jammed her arm between the doors to get them to stop and I watched as they bickered like some pathetic old married couple. It really was an embarrassing spectacle. I sat the food on top of the secretary’s desk and watched as Michael banished her from the elevator.

And after the doors closed, she turned her anger to me. “Why the fuck would you do that!?”

I shrugged. “You’re working with sensitive documents. Did you really think--.”

She rushed me in the blink of an eye before a resounding crack resonated throughout the corridor. The stinging sensation made my eyes water, but I didn’t give her the satisfaction of her seeing. Instead, I reached for both of her wrists and pinned her to the closest wall before I got in her face.

“You’re lucky we aren’t on the clock,” I said curtly.

She bucked so hard that I lost my balance. I stumbled and she rushed for the food. She snatched it up before barreling toward her office, but I pursued her with the swiftness of a lion.

Because I was hungry for more.

“Come here,” I growled.

“Get off me!” she shrieked.

And the instant I heard the unwelcomed desperation in her voice, I backed off.

Before her wild eyes found mine. “If we’re going to be honest with each other, then let’s just do it. You didn’t do that because of sensitive whatever-the-fuck-you’re-peddling. You did it because you can’t stand to see me with someone who treats me in a way that you’re incapable of.”

Her words cut to my core, but I didn’t let it deter me. “And yet, your nipples are puckered.”

Her arms quickly linked in front of her chest. “Because you scared the hell out of me.”

I took a step toward her. “Your cheeks are also flushed.”

She swallowed hard. “That happens when I run in heels.”

I backed her into a corner before I tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “And your knees are positively quivering.”

She scowled up at me. “I hate you.”

I gripped her chin. “That may be so, but at the end of the day you know that I’m the one you crave. The structure. The overwhelming nature of my presence. You love it more than life itself, and that you can’t deny. Did you really think you’d be capable of being with someone else? Even that big oaf admitted that you talk about me with him. You can’t even date without me infiltrating your mind, and that should tell you something, Rebecca.”

She shoved me away. “What the fuck do you want from me? Why the hell can’t you just let me be happy instead of abusing me the way you wished you could abuse my sister?”

And that’s when I snapped. I grabbed her hair and whipped her around before pressing her back into the wall. Her cheek fell into the cold, hard plaster as my lips found the shell of her ear.

“Stop it,” she whimpered.

I hissed my words. “Because I want to ruin you, Becca. I want to ruin you so badly that anyone else who comes across you will pale in comparison to how I make you feel. No cock will be good enough once I’m finished. No nickname other than “good little girl” will make your pussy quiver more than the one I’ve assigned to you. And when I’m done having my fill, you’ll be alone and wanting me for the rest of your life.”

She snickered. “Funny, that’s the same exact fate I figured you’d end up with since you fixate on me so much.”

I moved away from her. “Be careful what you wish for.”

She slowly turned to face me. “You forget how long I’ve known you, JoJo. You forget how we first met. I’ve seen you at your worst. I’ve seen you at your best. But I’ve never seen you like this. Even when you were dating Maggie, I never saw this obsessed side of you.”

I swallowed hard as her eyes kept staring into my own. Some days, it felt like she was staring into my soul, ready to pull out all of the nasty secrets I kept. I wouldn’t tell her, though. No matter what she did and no matter what I said, I’d never tell her what her sister did to me.

Because then, there might be two of us that wished her sister dead.

“I will find out, Joseph,” she warned as my back pressed into the secretarial desk on her floor. “I’ll find out exactly what happened between you and my sister. I’ll figure out what you did to each other, because I’m sure you’re not innocent in the matter at all, and when I do, I’ll understand you. Mark my words on that. You think you’re the only one running a game here? You think you’re the only manipulative bastard under this roof? You’re about to see exactly why my family was ecstatic for me to move halfway across the damn country. So, keep pushing. Keep trying to lock me out of my own life and see what happens.”

With her heated eyes burning a hole in my soul, she snatched up the food and drinks. She sauntered off, her hips swaying effortlessly as I stared after her. I’d never seen that kind of command come from her. Her confidence had stiffened my cock against my work pants. I jammed my hand down behind my boxers and righted my girth, trying to relieve some of the pressure.

And it wasn’t until I heard her slam her office door closed that I jolted out of the trance her hips put me in.

* * *

“Son of a fucking bitch,”I groaned.

I tossed the food onto my desk before I plucked a drink from the carrier. Two servings of food, yet only one of me. I might as well have been in my apartment, ordering enough food to eat my feelings away. I dropped down into my office chair and closed my eyes, giving myself a moment to recuperate.

Because finally standing up to Joseph made my body tremble with excitement.

“I just don’t get it,” I whispered to myself.

There were days where I felt that the JoJo I saw on a regular basis here certainly wasn’t the man he wanted to be. I mean, he’d been a wonderful man when he helped me with Tommy, and he seemed genuinely concerned during the entire ordeal. But as I sat there, thinking about what he had just done to my date night, I started having second thoughts.

Maybe he wasn’t redeemable.

Maybe he had let his anger and fear and frustrations eat away at too much of him.

Maybe people really didn’t change that much during their lives.

Or maybe—just maybe—this was his way of trying to scare me off the right path.

“I will find out,” I promised myself.

Even if it cost me the life I was trying to build.