Page 3 of Second Chances
“God, Beth,” he began, strained. “I’m sorry. I don’t... I haven’t... Fuck me. I’m sorry.” He was clearly angry at himself for how he had treated her. At a loss for words, he abruptly stalked into the bathroom, returning with a warm moist washcloth.
When he sat down on the bed next to her, she inched away from him, anger and confusion in her eyes. Defeated, he held out his hand for her to take the washcloth.
“What is wrong with you?” she asked accusingly, “How could you do that — push me against myself?”
“I know,fuck,I’m sorry, Beth. I can’t explain what came over me.” He ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “I just needed you so badly,” he ended quietly.
Grabbing the washcloth from his hand, she quickly slid off the bed.
“Well, you need to figure out a way to explain it because if you keep using my need, my desire for you against me, I don’t know what is going to happen.Now, I need to go to work.” With that threatening statement, she stormed into the bathroom and slammed the door.
Leaning back against the door she took a shaky breath to calm herself, ignoring the rogue few tears that trailed down her cheeks.
How was this ever going to work?!
Yes, she was pissed at him for tying her up and pleasuring her into submission but she was even more pissed at herself because she was such a pushover around him. She wanted him; she wanted to be with him;she wanted to stay home from work with him.But that wasn’t the point. She needed to maintain her own life if this was ever going to work - and especially if it wasn’t. The struggle between the part of her that was her independent, proud self, and the part of her that was the closet, hopeless romantic waiting to be swept off her feet made keeping Darcy in his place difficult. She knew that for both their sakes, for the sake of their relationship, he had to relinquish some control; it was hard to force him to do that when all her body wanted to do was to let him take control.
She turned the shower on cold and stepped right in - a frigid punishment for letting her emotions get the best of her around him.Well, no more,she thought as she took the fastest shower ever. Wrapping her towel tightly around her, she steeled herself to face him again, knowing that whatever needed to be said was going to have to wait until tonight because she needed to be to the office five minutes ago.
She opened the bathroom door to an empty bedroom. Too stressed and rushed and just emotionally unprepared to confront him again, she quickly got dressed - thankful that he had left her in peace. The limited wardrobe she had at his place luckily contained a long-sleeve blouse and pants to hide the red marks marring her wrists and ankles. Walking out of the bedroom, she didn’t see or hear him anywhere. She wished she was less nosey as she began to quickly check all the rooms in the penthouse. As angry as she was, she wanted to see him before she left but he was nowhere to be found. She’d just checked the spare bedroom past the office when she heard a loud crack coming from behind the locked door at the end of the hall.
Startled, she placed her ear up against the door but heard nothing.
You don’t have time for this, Beth.
Her mind was right, she had to get to work. She didn’t know what was behind that door in the first place, let alone if it was actually Darcy in there. Grabbing her laptop bag and purse, she rushed out of the apartment praying that traffic wouldn’t be a nightmare this morning.
Chapter Two
Only thirty minutes late.Not so bad, right?
Beth grimaced as she sat down at her desk and opened up her computer, waiting for the emails to roll in.
Knock.“Beth?” Phil opened her office door and stepped inside, closing it behind him.
“Hey, sorry I’m late this morning. It’s been a crazy weekend,” she apologized lamely.
“That’s alright. I know your family has had a lot going on lately but I wanted to talk to you about a couple of things,” Phil began, taking the seat across from her desk.
“Of course.” He looked serious and Beth wouldn’t blame him if he threatened to fire her, she’d been so distracted lately.
“First, about the DeBourgh account, Mrs. DeBourgh did contact me and she does still want to continue to use us; however, she asked that I, personally, be in charge of her account. I don’t know what happened, but after your email I was prepared for the worst. However, while she was very displeased with you, for what seemed like personal reasons, she doesn't want to change firms at this point. So, if you could email me all of your files and notes for that account I would appreciate it.”
“Of course.” She hesitated for a moment out of surprise at his revelation.
She was sure after their last conversation that Mrs. DeBourgh was going to fire Gardiner - or worse, because of her.
What was she planning?
Her thoughts immediately went to an ulterior motive. There was no way this wasn’t part of some grander plan to ruin her or at the very least spy on her. Beth knew how determined Mrs. DeBourgh was that Darcy should end up with Anne and this could only be another move to make sure that came to pass.
“I’m sorry about that whole situation. All I can say is that because of my family and our relative closeness to certain people, she was using me and our business relationship for personal reasons that I wasn’t comfortable with; when she began making demands on my personal life, I had to put my foot down. I don’t trust her and I would be very careful in how you handle your future dealings with her.”
“I see. You know you are like family to me and I know that you would never do anything to purposefully jeopardize the work that we do here. Having spoken with her, I get the sense she isn’t used to people standing up to her or denying her what she wants. So, I can understand where the conflict might have arisen and I will be cautious with her in the future.”
Beth nodded in agreement.
“I also wanted to talk to you about, well, you,” he began again, “I know we try to keep our relationship professional but I’m asking you this both as your boss and as your family. Are you ok? Your father and I have both noticed how distracted and lost you’ve seemed lately; it’s really been out of character for you and I just want to let you know that I’m here if you need anything.”
