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.
6
Joseph
The week passedby in a blur and I growled as I clicked out of my security team’s monitoring system. Becca had taken her phone off the internet, and not once had she connected her laptop to it. So, as far as looking her up went, all I had to go on was her professional desktop in her office.
Which was clean as a whistle, as far as I was concerned.
“Damn it,” I growled.
Friday had crept up quickly, and if I didn’t play my cards right, I’d go the entire weekend without seeing her. And as much as I tried not to care about that fact, I didn’t like it. I pushed away from my desk and stormed out of my office, leaving my secretary to call out after me as I charged for the stairs.
I took them down a level and approached Becca’s office. But I found that it was locked.
And dark.
“She left early for the day.”
Miss Krist’s voice sounded behind me. “Is that so? Who gave her permission for that?”
She snickered. “I didn’t know that she needed anyone’s permission to take work home with her. “
I slowly turned to face her. “She does, yes. She’s still an employee of this company and she’s not a department head. That means she needs permission.”
She folded her arms over her chest. “Well, I’ll tell her you stopped by.”
I slid my hands into my pockets. “Actually, now that I’ve caught you, I’d like to speak with you as well.”
She made her way back into her office. “Busy, but try again in a bit!”
I followed her inside before she got the door closed and I closed it myself. I stared her down as she looked up at me with eyes that seemed to regret every decision that had brought her up to this point.
I relished that look on some of my more complicated employees. “Please, have a seat.”
She sat behind her desk. “What is it you need, Mr. Ryker?”
