Bedroom Bully by Harper West

5

Rebecca

“Rebecca, can we talk for—?”

I put my hand in Brit’s face. “No.”

“But, I just need—”

I turned and started walking backwards toward my office. “My answer is ‘no,’ whatever it is.”

I waltzed into my office with my head held high and my shoulders rolled back. I closed my office door and made my way toward the floor-to-ceiling windows, admiring the view from my perched point. I drew in a deep breath as the air conditioning kicked on. I cocked my hip out and folded my arms across my chest, getting comfortable as the makeshift wind blew the skirt of my dress around against my legs.

Usually, JoJo caught me off-guard. But this time, I saw him slip into my office silently through the reflection of the mirror.

“Come to gloat?” I asked.

He closed my door without a sound before he flipped the lock. And that’s when he charged me.

“Joseph,” I said breathlessly.

I turned around just as he grabbed my wrists. My eyes widened as he pinned them over my head, pushing me against the ice-cold glass. I shivered as his glare settled upon my face. He jammed his leg between my thighs, teasing me with his movements as he brushed his knee softly against my clothed pussy.

“Oh, Joseph,” I whispered.

His growl puckered my nipples. “Were you heading to H.R. to defy me?”

My eyes widened. “Wait a second. Where did--?”

He took both of my wrists in one of his hands before gripping my chin with his other one. “Don’t you dare lie to me, Rebecca. I’ll know if you’re lying.”

I shook my head. “No. No, JoJo, I had no plans to report you at all. Believe me.”

He tilted his head. “I’m trying to, but you’re making it difficult.”

“I swear, I wouldn’t have--.”

He tapped my cheek with his hand. “There are consequences for your defiance, Rebecca. Big ones.”

His words shivered me to my core. “Consequences, huh?”

His eye twitched. “Yes. Consequences that would dwarf the images currently bombarding your mind. You have no idea what I’m capable of doing to someone. You have no idea the lengths I’ll go to in order to prove to you that you’re mine.”

“Yours,” I whispered softly.

His free hand reached up my dress. “Who do you belong to?”

I bucked softly against his feathered touch. “You, Joseph.”

He shoved his hand down my panties. “Say it again.”

I moaned softly. “You. I belong to you.”

His fingers parted my pussy lips. “Only me, that’s right. So, tell me, Rebecca: why do you want to belong to that accountant?”

My eyes quickly focused on his face. “What did you say?”

He slid his fingertips along my aching clit. “You’ll never belong to that accountant. He’ll never fulfill you the way I do. No man will. Do you understand me?”

I bucked against him, but not in a good way. “Joseph, get off me. How the hell did--?”

He ripped his hand from between my legs and pinned both of my wrists against the window. He came so close that his hot breath pulsed against my lips, tainted with the smell of mint and tobacco.

I had no idea Joseph smoked, yet somehow it seemed to suit him.

“You were dumb enough to try that shit on the closed-circuit internet connection in this building. You don’t think my I.T. sector monitors every device hooked up to it? That’s how I protect my trade secrets. That’s how I fish out rats who try to expose my tactics to other companies in exchange for a quick buck. Of course, I know you created a dating app account just this morning. Of course, I knew you were talking to some asshole. You really should be more careful with your passwords, Rebecca.”

I shoved him away. “Fuck you.”

His face turned red with anger. “Which is exactly what you want to do, am I right?”

I straightened my back. “You will never touch my body again without permission, is that understood?”

His eye twitched. “Just remember who you belong to, Miss Loren. Remember who infiltrates those nasty dreams of yours at night.”

My face paled. “How did--?”

He grinned. “I know exactly the effect I have on women, and you are no different.”

His sentiment crushed me. I wanted to be different. I didn’t want to be just another Maggie; another ex that broke his heart. Tears percolated behind my eyes, stinging them as I turned back toward the view. And as I crossed my arms back over my chest, blocking his view of my tightened tits, I swallowed down my tears.

“Get out of my office,” I said flatly.

My head spun with so many things, but I knew one thing was for certain. From this point onward, I used my data on my personal phone while I was at work. I had no idea why the hell it didn’t occur to me that he monitored every device hooked up to the company’s internet. I mean, it made sense. Most businesses did that in order to be certain that employees weren’t dicking around on porn sites or bullshit like that when they were supposed to be working.

I wondered how much of the pathetic conversation Joseph saw before deciding to approach me.

“Time to change all of my passwords, I guess,” I murmured.

I didn’t want to take any chances. If this business was JoJo’s palace, then the least I could do was make it hard on him. I rushed over to my purse and dug out my phone. I started by taking my phone completely off the internet before changing the password on my dating app. Then, I started changing the passwords on all of my major accounts. I mean, I didn’t think that JoJo would somehow try to get into my banking information. He was a dick, sure, but he wasn’t a thief. Nevertheless, I didn’t take any chances.

And after I had changed every major password I had, I flopped back into my office chair.

“What have I done?” I asked with a sigh.

I thought I had been doing a good job of keeping my personal world and my professional world separate. But, apparently I wasn’t doing as good of a job as I thought. Then again, why would I want to keep them separate? I wanted to keep having encounters with JoJo. I wanted to keep working on those walls of his. I wanted to finally drag out of him what the hell my sister did all those years ago that was so damn bad, even by today’s standards.

I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of deleting it, though.

I wanted him to know I was keeping my options open.

“Jesus, this is so insane,” I whispered.

I turned my attention to work in an attempt to distract myself, but it was slow-going. But I managed to distract myself long enough for the day to pass. And when the clock struck four-thirty, I packed up my things and headed out. I passed by Brit’s office, sauntering toward the elevator at the other end of the hall just so she could see my head held high after all the shit she tried to pull with me.

“Becca, wait!” she exclaimed.

Bingo. “Yes?”

I turned around and watched her rush up to me. “Look, please, I just want to put all of this behind us. I fucked up, I know I did. But I’m hoping you’ll give me a second shot to be a friend.”

I tilted my head. “Why?”

She heaved a heavy sigh. “Because no one here ever wants to be my friend, if we’re being honest.”

I nodded. “Maybe you should take a good, hard look as to why no one wants that. Maybe then, you could make better decisions in the future. Like keeping your nose out of other people’s business.”

She held her hands up in mock surrender. “Hey, whatever’s going on between you and Mr. Ryker isn’t any of my business.”

“And that’s the issue,” I said, “Nothing’s going on. Do we have tension? Yes, but the tension comes from the fact that I remind him of someone he doesn’t want to remember. That’s it.”

“Your sister really did a number on him, huh?”

“Seems like it.”

She chewed on the inside of her cheek. “Maybe we could start with a nice lunch this weekend? You know, just to sit down and talk for a bit? It doesn’t have to be long. I just miss having a girlfriend, if that makes any sense.”

I kind of missed it, too. “Lunch sounds great. How about Saturday, around noon?”

She smiled brightly, and it seemed genuine enough. “I’ll text you around eleven and we can figure out what we want to eat.”

I found myself excited for the plans to come. “Great. I’ll talk to you then.”

As much as I hated wanting a man who had dedicated his entire world to embarrassing me, his cruel tactics had stirred something within me I’d never known existed. His touch brought me more pleasure than all of my other lovers combined, and I still had yet to explore all of him. And now that I had found the pair of balls I needed to buck back against him whenever he was overstepping some serious boundaries, I had plans for our little arrangement. Plans that would force him to see me as his equal instead of his underling.

And I couldn’t wait until I got him behind closed doors once more.