Page 67 of A Good Girl's Guide to Dominance
I let out an exasperated sigh as I nod, knowing that Jeremiah is right, but also not wanting to even get into the conversation with Jaz about all of this. Although I've made the point before, I didn't require a conversation about our friendship when she married Michael. I was simply there for her and was patient as she dived into her marriage and swam through her honeymoon phase. I never made their relationship about me even when they were dating and I was still heartbreakingly single. All I want is the same courtesy, and not getting it is starting to rub my nerves raw.
“I guess so,” I force myself to say, but before I can push anymore words through the filter before they reach my mouth, I see Rome standing by the bullpen looking directly at me. When he sees that he has my attention, he motions for me to follow him.
“I’ll figure something out,” I say to Jeremiah as I stand, watching as Rome turns and goes into the breakroom. “Anyway, talk to Jackie and let me know when she's rolling on the online placements.”
Jeremiah nods before walking out of the office and going straight into Jackie’s. Once he's gone, I speed walk through the bullpen, brushing past a sour-faced Sierra on my way to thebreakroom. I place my hand on the knob and turn around to make sure no one is coming, then I step inside. The second the door closes behind me, Rome pulls me over to him, wraps me in his arms, and kisses me like he couldn't stand to be apart from me a second longer.
His tongue presses against mine as he kisses me, creating pure lust out of thin air and making me forget that we’re in the breakroom at work. It takes a few reckless seconds for us to realize what we’re doing before Rome takes a hesitant step back.
“Sorry,” he says, but his grin suggests otherwise. “I just really needed that. I've spent all day talking about budgets for each campaign, and I desperately needed something to re-energize me. Turns out, you're just the jolt I needed, my little goddess.”
I release a long sigh, doing my best not to focus on his lips or his chiseled jaw. “You shouldn't call me that here. It makes me forget that there are public indecency laws.”
“Oh? You know I like having you on edge, so maybe I’ll just keep doing it,” Rome says.
“Ugh. Always the tease,” I say. “Anyway, we shouldn't stay in here long. I need to get back out there and make sure Jackie starts the social media placements and doesn't give Jeremiah any shit for asking. Your place after work tonight?”
Rome takes my hand in his and pulls me close. “Absolutely, and it’s not getting here fast enough.”
“I agree,” I reply, just before we kiss again. I maintain control this time, pulling away before my mind wanders off too far. “Okay, I’ll see you later.”
Rome squeezes my hand as I try to open the door, making me giggle like a schoolgirl.
“Okay.Ciao.”
I should be embarrassed by how uncontrollably wide my smile is, but I can't help it as I pull the door open and step out.However, my smile vanishes the second I step over the threshold and bump directly into Sierra.
She stands just outside the breakroom, only inches from the door with a disgusted and angry look on her face, and I can see it in her eyes that something major just happened.
“Hey,” I say, hoping she’ll just greet me like normal and move on, but I have never had that kind of luck.
“I bet you thought none of us would ever find out, huh?” she asks, and icicles immediately form on my heart.
“What?” I reply, but I know it’s pointless.
“Don't play stupid with me,” she says, making no effort whatsoever to keep her voice down. “I saw the way you rushed into the breakroom after Rome went in there, and I had a gut feeling that if I just happened to glance through the window in the door that I would see something that wasn't meant for my eyes. Turns out my intuition was right. I saw you, Nia. Just now. I saw you kissing Rome in the breakroom.”
Thirty-Six
My vision zooms out as the world zooms in, and I'm suddenly off balance. As I stand at the edge of the bullpen with Sierra staring straight at me, I can hear the blood flowing through my veins as my heart pounds like a sledgehammer driving a spike. I don't know what to say. How do I respond to this? For nearly three months we’ve kept this a secret, and all of it is going up in flames in the blink of an eye. Do I deny it? Act indifferent? Be dismissive? A hundred different flimsy solutions play out in my head, but only one word manages to make it to my lips.
“What?” I say, practically whimpering in the face of Sierra’s icy glare.
“Don't play dumb, Nia,” she replies, and it’s clear that she will not be doing me the favor of whispering to protect my privacy. “I saw you, and I always knew that it would come to this. I saw the way you would stare at him in meetings, drooling all over yourself when he would speak, clutching your fucking pearls when he would say something in Italian. You did a terrible jobof hiding how badly you wanted to sleep with him, and now the truth has come to the light.”
“Sierra, it’s not what you think,” I say, trying to force myself to say words that actually make sense, but being caught red handed has me reeling.
“Oh, it’s not what I think? You sure about that?” Sierra keeps firing, quickly turning the office into a warzone. “Because what I think is that you've wanted to sleep with Rome since the moment he arrived here. I think you've been lusting after him like a teenager crushing on a rockstar this entire time, and there was some private moment where you took the opportunity to seduce him, and it worked. He is a man after all. Luckily for you, he’s single. There’s no wife at home wondering why her husband has suddenly lost interest, but that doesn't absolve you. The rest of us are in here trying to get by on our merit, but you figured you could skip the line by shaking your ass and flashing your tits every day.”
“Flashing my tits?” I say with a frown as I look down at my white top that reveals no cleavage whatsoever.
“Yeah, that’s right. Your tits. Maybe no one else in here noticed, but I did, and I think this is sickening,” Sierra goes on. “You should be ashamed of yourself—using your body to get ahead while the rest of us work our asses off to get Rome’s attention. If I had the power to, I would fire you right here, right now. In fact, had Mr. Thomas chosen me to replace him, I would have fired you on the spot. Luckily for you, that’s not within my responsibility, but now that everyone knows the kind of shameless person you are, maybe you’ll just do us all a favor and quit.”
With wide eyes, I slowly look around the room and find every person employed at Sandcastle staring at us. We are the trainwreck that no one can pull their gaze away from, and I don't know if it’s embarrassment, the shock of being caught, orthe fact that Sierra is my superior, but my emotions come to a boil like water in a pot. I want to lash out to defend myself from the insanity of Sierra’s accusations about my tits and inability to hide how I felt about Rome. I want to tell her to go fuck herself because I don't let anybody talk to me the way she just did. I want to quit my job, because disrespect is never allowed from a superior—I don't give a fuck how long I've worked here. But I don't do any of those things. Instead, my boiling emotions result in them spilling over in the form of stinging tears sliding down my face.
I hate crying in general, but I loathe doing it in front of other people. I'm not some weak little girl who can't keep herself together. I'm much more powerful than the submissive title gives me credit for, but I'm also human, and the feeling of being overwhelmed is crippling to almost anybody. So I can't speak right now, even as Jeremiah pleads with me through his shocked expression, waiting for me to snap out of it and go off on Sierra for calling me out in front of everyone. I can't. I just lower my eyes to the floor and let the tears fall. They come like raindrops splattering at my feet, and I'm frozen in that position until I hear the sound of the breakroom door opening.
“What the hell do you think you're doing?”
