Page 10 of Hated By the Boss

Rough sex, Rita had once candidly admitted to him, was the only thing that turned her on, while all those post-coital cuddles and affectations made her skin crawl with disgust. But upon seeing Dmitry's secretary, Rita had turned herself into an adoring girlfriend in a heartbeat, using the most ludicrous nicknames to refer to the billionaire and clinging to him like she couldn't even bear being separated by mere inches.

Dmitry had seen through her act easily of course, and it irritated the hell out of him. Didn't Rita realize she was laying it a little too thick, and only an idiot would fall for her ruse?

Pissed at the way his mistress was giving the whole thing away, he then turned to face Tahey...and that was when he realized how big of an idiot his secretary was.

One look in her eyes...

Fuck.

Their gazes clashed for a fraction of a second, but it was enough. She quickly spun around, but it was too late. Dmitry had learned a lot about her in the past few months she had been working for him, learned quite enough that he knew...

Right now, Tahey was doing her very best to keep herself from crying, and her pain, silent as it was, seemed to poison the very air he breathed.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

He hated himself for caring. Hated her for making him care. But even so, it was suddenly no longer bearable to have Rita or any other woman's lips brushing against his skin—-

Not now.

Not when the woman he both despised and desired was struggling to contain her hurt—-

FUCK.

He watched his secretary spin around to face them again, but this time she no longer lifted her gaze to his, and her words, upon tumbling out, were barely audible as she excused herself and wished them an enjoyable date.

She left without looking back, and he let her leave, knowing that she hadn't seen him push Rita away. He let her leave, even knowing that she was convinced Rita was his girlfriend. He let her leave, knowing that after this...

It just had to end.

He would stop hurting her.

Stop despising her for something she wasn't responsible for.

Stop punishing her for something she knew nothing about.

And after that...

He would find a way, would fucking die trying if that was what it took.

He would not stop until he was rid of his desire for Tahey, permanently.

Chapter Four

TAHEY ONLY HAD HER heart broken once. It was when she had learned the truth about Thomas, and the world she knew had instantly become revoltingly evil. Even now, the wound of her father's betrayal still hurt, and she had come to accept that it would always do so. What Thomas had done was unforgivable, and if she compared it to what Dmitry had done...

Her father was still the bigger asshole hands down, Tahey thought numbly, so why, dammit...why was she hurting like this? Why did the pain seem just as bad, so damn bad she found herself struggling just as hard not to give in to tears?

The billionaire owed her nothing. He had not made her any promises. He hadn't even done anything that could be categorized as remotely evil. He had simply let her know that he already had someone in her life...and rubbed salt in her wound while he was at it. Douchebag move, definitely, but it still wasn't evil.

Was it because she wasn't just infatuated with him?

Could she be hurting this much because she was in lo—-

"No!"

Tahey was so horrified at the direction of her thoughts that she actually found herself shooting up to a sitting position in her bed, heart banging against her chest at an alarming rate.

She was not that.

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