Page 42 of Enemy Boss

He doesn’t give me a chance to refuse him. He leans in and tries to kiss me. I pull back just seconds before his lips touch mine and he pulls back too, the soft look on his face melting away to anger once more.

“Oh, so it’s like that is it? You’re too good to even kiss me now, are you?” he snarls.

I don’t respond because I know anything I say at this point will only anger him further. He jumps up from the coffee table.

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself bitch? No clever excuses this time? Do you think I’m stupid Max? Do you think you can just tell me any old crap and I will believe it? Well, you can’t, and I won’t,” he shouts.

Maybe if he shouts loud enough for long enough, one of my neighbors will call the police. I doubt it though. As far as I know, the other people close enough to hear anything from my apartment all work so they likely won’t be home in the middle of the afternoon on a week day. And even if they are home, they probably won’t call the police for a bit of shouting. I wouldn’t if I heard my neighbors having a row, and to anyone who doesn’t know the dynamic between me and Ross, that’s all this would sound like at this point.

He raises his hand, his palm open and swipes towards my face like he is about to slap me. I hate that I cringe away, showing my fear. I didn’t want him to know how scared I am, but I can’t help it. It’s a natural reaction when you’re about to get hit by someone bigger and stronger than you are.

The hit doesn’t come. Instead, Ross grabs a handful of my hair. I squeal as he pulls me to my feet by it.

“Shut up,” he snarls. “Stop fucking squealing.”

“You’re … you’re hurting me,” I say somewhat pointlessly, I guess. He must know he’s hurting me – he’s pulling me about by my hair for fuck’s sake. He knows.

“No Max. Your actions are hurting you. I’m just showing you what happens when you defy me,” Ross says.

Several smart ass remarks run through my head, but I manage to keep them in. Now really isn’t the time to rile him up further than he already is. He still has a fistful of my hair in his hand, and although he isn’t actively pulling it now, if I set him off, I know from experience that he won’t hesitate to rip it out of my scalp.

He looks at me for a moment and then he nods to himself like he has come up with some sort of a plan. I don’t know what it is and to be honest, I don’t want to know what it is, because the one thing I do know is that whatever it is, it won’t be pleasant for me.

“I think you have forgotten how good we were together,” he says.

He releases my hair from his fist, and I feel a moment of relief. It doesn’t last long though because his hand caresses my cheek again and I have to make a conscious effort not to recoil away from his touch.

“Let me kiss you and you will remember. Don’t fight me on this Max,” he says.

Chapter 31

Max

He leans in to kiss me, but of course I do fight him in the only way that I can. I pull my head backwards as he moves his forwards. He sighs like me not wanting him to violate me is annoying him. Boo fucking hoo.

“I’ve tried to do this the easy way Max. I have been gentle and understanding and I have tried to ease you back into being with me, but you have thrown it back in my face at every turn. Please remember that,” Ross says.

He looks at me for a moment longer and I don’t know what he’s waiting for or what he wants me to say to that. I have no words that will help my cause right now, so I just stand there looking back at him. Despite that, he still takes me by surprise when he bursts into movement. He grabs me by my shoulders and forces me past the end of the couch and then he slams me against the nearest wall. I cry out and he puts his hand over my mouth.

I try to kick him, but he brings his feet down on mine, one on each, holding them in place. I punch at him with my fists on his back and arms and chest, but he is so much bigger than me and so much stronger than me that my touches probably feel like nothing more than a minor annoyance to him.

He lets me attack him for a few minutes longer and then he grabs my wrists. He pushes my hands above my head against the wall and puts them together so that he can grip both of my wrists in one of his much bigger hands. It’s only when his other hand starts back towards my mouth that I realize I was free to yell again for a moment there, and I missed my chance. I was in too much of a horrified state from losing both my hands and my feet as weapons.

He puts his hand back over my mouth and I make an “mm” sound as I try to get away, my nostrils flaring as I breath frantically through them. I try to get my hands free and then I try to get my feet free, but nothing is working. and Ross isn’t even building up a sweat restraining me. He is just watching me with the expression a child might wear whilst watching a fly stuck in a spider’s web. And my thrashing against Ross has about as much of an effect on him as a fly trying to free itself from the sticky web would have on the spider.

I need a new tactic, something to force him to release me. I still don’t know what I will do if he does release me, but I remind myself that I’m working in baby steps here – one at a time and no more - and I need him to get off me. I can’t stand the feeling of his skin against mine, the closeness of his body to me.

An idea comes to me, and I do it before I can change my mind and wuss out. I quickly bite down on the palm of Ross’s hand. I know I will only get one chance at this and so I make it a good one, biting down hard enough to make him cry out. And I don’t let go when he tries to pull his hand away. Instead, I dig my teeth in harder and shake my head from side to side like a starving dog killing its prey.

But this is like a role reversal because sharp teeth or not, I’m still the prey and Ross is very much the predator. I sense rather than see movement at my side and a second later, I hear the clapping sound of flesh against flesh. I feel a stinging pain in my cheek so intense that it makes my skin feel wet. Instinctively, I open my mouth to cry out and this releases Ross’s palm from my grip between my teeth as my head flies to the side.

The pain in my face is so intense and I can feel heat flaring up where I’ve been hit too. If I could see myself in a mirror right now, I know I would be able to see a red and inflamed hand print on my face. I go to bring my hand to my cheek, to press it against the pain, but Ross still has both of my wrists in his one hand, and he isn’t letting go of me.

“You just had to, didn’t you? You had to spoil our reunion and make me hurt you,” he says. “I don’t know what sort of people you have had in your life since you walked away from me, but they have turned you into some sort of filthy animal. You … you bit me Max. That’s what animals do, not ladies.”

He sounds so surprised when he says that I bit him, and he brings his palm up in front of his face to have a look at it. In other circumstances, the shocked expression on his face, his open-jawed mouth, and wide eyes, would actually be funny, but I’m really not in the mood to laugh right now. Not even close to it.

“I’m done being nice now. I am going to kiss you. You will kiss me back and then you will tell me that you love me. Or I will make you do it,” Ross says.

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