Page 27 of If You Could Only Imagine
“Understand that I was off the clock, as of ten minutes ago, when I decided to stay back and come talk to you,” she replied, her hands on her hips now. “And since I’m off the clock, let me just say this. You are out of your fucking mind if you think I’m not done with you.”The fuck she was.“I knew getting involved with you was a mistake, but I willingly did it, anyway. I’m a big girl. I can admit when I’m wrong.” Her eyes raked over my body from head to toe and back up again. “I’m not going to put this on you, because this isn’t your fault. I could have and should have said ‘no’, but I didn’t. I…” Her bravado faltered a bit, but then she remembered herself, and her eyes were as serious as I’ve ever seen. “I will not be making the same mistakes in the future, Mr. Buchanan. So, stay away from me unless you have something business related to discuss with me, but even at that, I’m sure hierarchy dictates you would speak to my immediate boss first. And before you think this is a declaration in a fit of rage, it is not. It’s me taking responsibility for my poor choices and if I have to quit and go live with my parents while I get my shit together, then I will. I will because that’s part of taking responsibility for your fuck-ups.”
Everything Mason, Shane and Michael advised me flew out the window at hearing her tell me she was done with me. I wonder if this is what it felt like when Mason had been threatened with the idea of not having Shane in his life, because I felt motherfuckingunhinged.
I stepped and kept stepping until I backed her up against my desk. I leaned over her until she had to bow her back slightly to be able to look up at me. “I’m going to say this,Denise,and I’m going to only say this once.” I waited until I was sure I had her undivided attention. “I’m very aware of how badly I fucked up with Sampson. I’m, also, very aware how pissed you are and that you have every right to be mad at me. But there is no way in hell I’m letting you walk away from me over one, little fuck up.”
Her eyes rounded and I almost winced. I should have not used the phrase ‘one, little fuck up’, because it was a big fuck up. This was her career and respectability we were talking about. “One, little fuck up?” she screeched. “One, little fuck up?!” And then being off the clock took on a whole new meaning. Denise slapped at my chest and started full-on reading me the riot act. “You jackass! That was not one, little fuck up! Raymond Sampson is very important, very prominent, and very connected. How do you think it’s going to make me look when he starts telling his colleagues how you’re not even one month in and your employees are already in line to fuck you?!”
“Denise…” I reached for her flailing hands, but they were like slippery octopus tentacles, flopping all over the place.
“I’m going to lose all credibility and clients will start thinking they can fuck me if they have enough money, status and power!”
Her words brought me up short. I was finally able to get a hold of her hands, and squeezing them in mine, I asked, “What did Raymond Sampson say to you?” If that motherfucker disrespected her in any way, I was going to fuck him up. I’ll just have Mason call the same lawyer Dad used to use for Michael when we were younger.
Denise yanked her hands out of mind and shoved me backwards a step. I let her. “He said he guesses he better learn how to call me Ms. Hart from now on, or should he address me as Mrs. Buchanan!” she was screeching again by the time she was at the end of her sentence.
I couldn’t help it.
I was already in deep shit, but I just couldn’t help it.
Denise was threatening to have nothing more to do with me-and I believed she was serious-but what did I do? I let the extremely inappropriate smile take over my face and said, “Mrs. Buchanan sounds about right.”
My balls ran for cover, while my common sense just, sadly, shook its head at me.
Denise’s eyes were the size of dinner plates. “You are serious cracked in the head, Aiden Buchanan,” she breathed. “And since crazy people are not my cup of tea, stay the fuck away from me!”
She went to step around me and leave, but I reached out, and grabbing her upper arm, yanked her back towards me. I ignored her gasp. “I’m going to let you leave because, again, I was wrong and you have every right to be pissed, babe. But this is not over,” I told her. “Weare not over. Hell, we willneverbe over,” I stressed. “But we will figure the rest outtogether.”
Denise shook her head at me. “I’m not doing this, Aiden.” At least, she was back to using my first name. “I will not risk everything I’ve worked so hard for just to be some rich white guy’s flavor of the month.”
Her words had rendered me so shocked, I didn’t even notice when she broke free from my grasp.
Chapter 15
Denise~
It was Tuesday morning, and I was still solidified in my decision to take the blame for the mess I was in. I meant what I had said to Aiden. I wasn’t going to blame him, even though his behavior was ultimately his responsibility.
From the moment I first laid eyes on his tall, broad, muscular frame, I knew he was bad news. And the second my hand was encased in his, I knew he was dangerous to everything I’ve worked so hard for. I knew it and I let my hormones, dry spell, and Kelly’s bad advice turn me into a cliché.
I was that sleazy secretary screwing the boss. Well…I wasn’t a secretary, but the title applied for the purpose of self-deflagration.
And Kelly totally sucked donkey balls.
I had called her last night as soon as I had gotten home, and insisted she come over and help drink my sorrows away, since she was partly to blame for this mess, but she claimed she had a business dinner. She promised to drink with me tonight and I was holding her to it. Something told me I was going to need it.
And that something proved correct as soon as I walked off the elevator to my office floor.
Sarah was standing at her desk, her smile…off. “Good Morning, Denise,” she greeted.
“Good Morning, Sarah,” I replied as calmly as I could manage. “What have I missed?”
Sarah was a tall blonde with very expressive blue eyes. She looked like the perfect girl next door. And just as her eyes were expressive, so was her face. She was guileless and didn’t have a poker face worth a damn. “You know I love you, right?”
I couldn’t stop the eye roll or the heavy sigh. “Spit it out, Sar,” I told her, wanting to get this over with.
Her pretty lips rolled in between her teeth and then she let them out with a pop before saying, “Okay, so it might sound bad, but it’s not,” she tried to assure me. “But…the building wasn’t quite as empty as you might have thought when you…uh, you and Mr. Buchanan were…talking…”
No.
