Page 51 of Irresistible Temptation
I stood from the chair, desperate to get out of there, but also desperate to shake him and ask what the hell was going on. I went with the former and slipped out of his office with tears burning the backs of my eyes, closing his door behind me. I shut myself in my office, drawing the shades, not wanting anyone to see the tears stream down my cheeks.
The thoughts that swarmed my head pierced into me like daggers…
You are a fool.
You are a tramp.
You are nothing.
I internally batted each insulting, intrusive thought away, before trying to piece together what went wrong from 2 a.m., when we left each other, to now, six hours later. It wasn’t like I expected him to take me in his arms or kiss me, but I wasn’t expectingthat.I didn’t even know that man in there. That was the Chester Brandfield everyone else knew, but not me. He always treated me different.
He got what he wanted and now he’s done.
I shut my eyes tight at the thought. Maybe this whole job transfer had been for a chance to sleep with me again. Now that he’d had me, he was bored. The chase was over and it was no longer fun for him. It made sense, but it didn’t hurt any less.
I didn’t know what I was expecting out of all of this. An intense office affair? A relationship? A flirty friendship? As much as I tried to pretend I hadn’t seen this going anywhere, last night changed something for me. The way he looked at me almost made the sex seem meaningful, especially the last time. The way we moved together. His deep kiss. The intensity of his gaze.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The next few days were mostly spent out of office on a wild goose chase trying to accomplish the lengthy to-do lists Chester had set out for me. He would email me early each morning a list of bulleted items I needed to complete by end of day, and none of them had anything to do with seeing him or speaking to him. I was officially his errand girl, running around town picking up dry cleaning or hand-delivering contracts that could have beenemailed or looking at event spaces for potential charity events that weren’t even on the calendar yet. They were things to keep me far away from him, and each one hurt more and more.
Three days after we had slept together, I arrived early to the office, no longer hurt, but angry that I had given up my job in accounting to be bossed around like a petulant teenager. I knocked on his office door in the most modest suit I had in my closet, my hair pulled back into a slick ponytail, and my lips pressed into a tight smile. I was done with whateverthiswas.
“Come in,” he said through the closed door.
“Good morning,” I said coolly.
“Did you not receive my email?” he asked, raising a brow.
“Oh, yes. I did receive it.”
“Then you know what you need to do for the day.”
“I’m just wondering when I will start being a personal assistant again and not your errand girl.” I crossed my arms and narrowed my gaze.
“This job entails a lot of tasks. If you’re not up for it…”
“I’mmorethan capable,” I interrupted.
“Good. Because I’m going on a business trip this evening, and I need you to finish everything I assigned you by the time my flight takes off.”
He was leaving. As much as I had hated the past few days, I hated the idea of him not being here even more. I had hoped I would get some answers, but now I just felt like a little kid in a suit too big.
Not wanting to cry, I nodded without a word and strode out of his office, closing the door firmly behind me. Whatever we had was over. He had made that much clear. I suddenly regretted ever taking this job, not only as Chester’s personal assistant, but coming to work at Brandfield Enterprises at all.
The next morning, Chester was gone. According to his digital calendar, he was in Vegas meeting with a client. Vegas was already far, but right now, it felt like it was across the world. I looked over at his closed office door, the light off and his desk empty through the window. Surprisingly, he had hardly left me anything to do, just proving that he had been keeping me away from him these past few days.
I wondered if I hadn’t slept with him again that night, if I would be in Vegas with him. The thought made my stomach hollow out. It also made me feel like a fool for even entertaining the idea that if I had just kept playing games, he would still be interested in me. That wasn’t healthy. That was a walking damn red flag.
I had never been this girl. I really hated her.
The first day he was gone, I tried to find things to do, even asking the junior associates if they needed help, which left them scratching their heads. When that didn’t pan out, I decided to be proactive in getting my life back on track, starting with finding another job. I sat down at my desk and opened up the search bar, typing inaccounting jobs in Manhattan. I scrolled through them, hating the idea of starting over with cover letters and résumés and interviews. I also hated the idea of asking Chester to be a point of reference.
I sighed and put my head in my hands as the computer screen glared back at me harshly. Maybe I could move back to accounting. I had only been there a day, but maybe I could transfer back. I picked up my phone and dialed Sarah’s extension to the downstairs accounting office.
“Brandfield Enterprises. You’ve reached accounting.”
“Sarah. It’s me, Juliet.”
