"I have things to take care of," I said, as I quickly moved through the door and turned the corner. Once I was a bit away, I faced forward and nearly sprinted down the hall.
Sure, I could have stuck around, but I didn't want to risk running into Pip again. He had to stay close to Pharrell since he was acting as bodyguard. I had the freedom to move around between the house and the casino. I was very happy to use any excuse I could to get away.
Avoiding Pip was going to have to be my plan of action moving forward. The man was dangerous, and as much as he occasionally intrigued me, there was no chance of us being together.
I had to have control any time I took someone to bed, had to have their full submission. Pip was never one to submit. He wouldn't do what I said without asking a million questions or arguing with me.
Maybe if he did follow my rules, something could happen between us. Then again, we were far too opposite. There was a rift between us that couldn't be crossed. It was better that way. We had work to do. There was no time for anything else.
Only when I made it to the car did I realize the error of my ways. Because not once had I looked back to see what Pip was doing. If I had, I would have noticed him leaving the room right behind me.
I would have realized that the man had taken his own route to get outside and would be casually leaning against the car.
Fuck.
I met him there, standing at a decent enough distance to not be tempted for more.
"You ran, Henny," he said.
There was no flirtation in his tone. None of the teasing I was used to. It was as if he were reading off an item from a grocery list.
It unnerved me.
"I didn't run.”
He tilted his head to the side, eyebrows rising.
“You absolutely ran. You left a trail of smoke behind with how fast you booked it. Any particular reason you were in a rush to get away from me?"
I wanted to cross my arms, wanted to demand he leave and wrap up this evening so I could move on with other work tasks.
I needed to check in with Pierre and Dario to see how things were running. There was money to be moved around. There were non-illegal shipments that floated between the casino and the clubs we had that I needed to take care of as well.
So distracted in my thoughts, I didn't realize he'd moved until he was right upon me.
He didn't touch me, didn't put his hands anywhere on my body. And yet I felt as if he has rubbed completely against me. As if he had somehow crawled inside of me and invaded the calm I usually maintained.
"Are you bothered by me, Henny?"
I shook my head. "No, I'm just leaving.”
"I don't think you are. I think we need to have a talk."
"A talk?" I asked.
"Yes, a talk."
There was no time for a talk. I had no clue what he wanted to say, but it couldn’t be good.
Besides, I functioned better when I had an itemized list of things to go over. I preferred rules and guidelines. I needed to know what I was getting into.
Pip was too far removed from that. He was a wild card. Proved by the fact that he crowded my space even more. “Why are you so afraid of what's happening here?"
I shook my head. "Nothing is happening here, Pip. You need to get that straight. I'm not some booty call or someone you can fuck out of your system. This isn't a relationship, and you're not going to dominate me."
He leaned forward, his face close to mine.
"Who says that I wanted to dominate you?"
