Page 21 of Wolfish Player
“I’m not paying you to stare at me or take naps, Miss Barrett,” he says, flipping a page. “Get back to work.”
“I’m in the middle of a task,” I say to Joanna. “What’s going on?”
“You texted me a super crazy question a couple hours ago.” She pauses. “I just wanted to give you the answer.”
I blink. I don’t remember anything except staring at pages.
“It would take you twenty-eight years of donating your plasma weekly at every city location to pay back the advance, so…I don’t think that’s an option.”
“What do you think someone would pay for my kidney and my wisdom teeth, then? Like if I bundled them together?”
She hangs up in my face.
Later that night,I open my laptop with an urge to escape from my life.
At first, nothing. Just the same mocking cursor on the same blank page. But then—maybe out of spite, maybe out of exhaustion—my fingers move. A single line. Then a paragraph.
I hate my boss. I hate his smug smile, his sharp suits, the way he looks at me like I’m already undone. But every night I imagine him bending me over this desk, shoving that thick cock into me until I forget my own name.
Suddenly, a page of my delayed office romance pours out faster than I can catch it. Every sentence is fueled by the days of hell I’ve endured. By the smug tilt of Mr. Wolfson’s smile, by every glare and task he’s sent in my direction. And the worst part is, the more I write, the more I realize it’s him I’m chasing on the page—his voice, his stare, the way he invades my head when I’m too tired to fight it.
My wrists ache and my cheeks burn as the hours pass, but I don’t stop. Not until the first light of morning spills across my desk.
I save the document and see that I’ve finished four chapters. Four whole chapters. The first real progress I’ve made in almost a year.
But the victory curdles fast. My six a.m. alarm pulls me back into reality. It’s time to face reality.
THE CEO
ADRIAN
I’m avoiding Heather at all costs today. I don’t want to see her face, her lips, or hear another word from her smart-ass mouth.
Settling in my chair, I try to focus while reading over this week’s highest contracts.
Heather would look even better bent over this desk…
“Adrian, we have a problem.” Theresa suddenly storms into my office without knocking. “We need to talk.”
“Is part of my building on fire?”
“No.”
“Has someone stolen money from our accounts?”
“No, Adrian.” She groans. “That’s not it.”
“Then we don’t have an emergency.” I uncap a pen. “Hold your breath and tell me whatever it is later.”
“Another one of Allyson Harmony’s books is climbing the charts.” She ignores my tone. “Well, one of her series rather.”
“Still sounds like a non-emergency.” I underline a clause. “Get out.”
“The series is taking off and it looks like it’ll be just as popular or even more popular than the office romance series.”
“Did you lose your hearing in the last twenty seconds?”
“I’m sure other publishers will be reaching out to her about it.” She keeps talking. “I think we should beat them to the punch while we can.”
