Page 3 of Tamed

Dad would be even more disappointed in me than he already was if Caleb fired me because I couldn’t control my tongue; he didn’t think much of people who couldn’t control themselves, especially when he had a multi-billion-dollar company he wanted to pass on.‘If you can’t hold down a job, Izzy, how the hell are you going to manage being CEO?’

It was a good question and one I had no answer to. I just hated unfairness. I hated being talked down to and dismissed, and I hated it even more when men were doing the dismissing. Perhaps if I was CEO, it would be different, but no amount of telling Dad that had made him change his mind.

I had to do my trial at Cross International and that was that.

A trial that looked like I was on the point of failing right now.

I braced myself, waiting for the ax to fall, trying to look meek and mild, but probably only ending up looking sullen and belligerent.

Caleb pinned me with that hard, black stare for what seemed like a whole lot of long, uncomfortable eons, his features unreadable.

Then unexpectedly, he smiled.

It was a lightning strike that smile, arrowing through my body, pure electricity. His smile had always had that effect on me, making me forget what I was doing. Making me forget my own name.

“Good point,” he murmured. “Run along then, there’s a good girl.”

The casual dismissal instantly got my back up and I could feel yet more hot words pouring into my mouth. This time, though, I had enough presence of mind to bite them back, turn on my heel and stride for the exit before they burst out and dug the hole I’d already dug for myself even deeper.

I wanted to slam the big double doors of his office, but I wasn’t a rebellious teenager anymore, so I closed them very gently before stalking past Sally’s desk in the direction of the elevator.

Sally was his chief secretary and she guarded him like a lioness with a favorite cub. She was in her sixties, with expertly coiffed platinum hair and the most exquisite bone structure. It gave her an ageless, slightly distant quality, as if she was an angel on some higher plane of existence to the rest of humanity.

Armored in classic Chanel, she gave me an intent, assessing stare as I went past, no doubt x-raying me for any possible threat to her beloved employer.

It was ridiculous. As if I could be any threat to that asshole. Though to be fair, in that moment, I might have punched him in the face if I’d had been given half the chance.

“Everything okay, Miss Fox?” she asked with icy precision as I paused in front of the elevators.

“He’s fine.” I punched the button with a little more force than was strictly necessary. “Is walking and talking and has all his limbs last I checked.”

Sally sniffed disapprovingly and I was so mad I wanted to punch her too.

Run along,he’d said.There’s a good girl.

As if I was a naughty kid at school who needed a late slip.

Asshole. Why was he making my life so difficult? Why?

Mercifully at that moment the elevator dinged, and the doors opened, and I was able to escape.

As the elevator went down from his lordship level to peasant level, I leaned against the back wall and let out a long, shaken breath.

I didn’t know why I’d let him get to me the way I had. It shouldn’t matter, yet somehow it did. It was as if he was trying to make me quit, trying to make me fail and I hated that thought.

I suppose I could have asked him, but I didn’t want him to know I’d thought about it. I didn’t want to betray the fact that I’d even noticed.

Yeah, that’s going really well. He’ll certainly know now.

Sadly, he would. He knew me. He knew me better than anyone apart from Dad and their other close friend, Atlas Blackwood. The three of them had been constants in my life and they all knew what I was like.

Headstrong. Stubborn. Disobedient. Spoiled. And those were just the good things.

I knocked my head against the back wall of the elevator. Not hard, but hard enough to get rid of some of my excess irritation. “They’re all assholes,” I said to the elevator at large. “Complete, fucking assholes.”

Perhaps not so much Atlas. He was relaxed and nothing was a drama. He was chill. But Dad? Uptight and anal? Yep, asshole. Caleb, bossy and hot AF? Yep, asshole.

I wished I could just chuck the whole thing in, but I didn’t want to give Caleb the satisfaction. And I certainly couldn’t stand the idea of disappointing Dad.

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