Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 59659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Telling her that I had that thought would only weaken my ability to negotiate and my authority to get anything done. I had to play that close to the vest.
I had ideas for what I wanted to do, and I’d come back to Murdock with the express purpose of doing them. I’d moved here and settled into the rental house, restarting my life in my hometown because I felt like this could be not just a short-term deal but a long-term commitment. I wasn’t just going to give it up because she got screwed over.
I felt bad for her, though. She was right about how the board had sold the company out from under her, and it was entirely possible that if she did take it to court, I might have a problem. But at the end of the day, I wasn’t just going to give up, so if that was the route she took, I would just have to take my chances.
I walked in the door and tossed my keys in the bowl on the buffet table, one of the few pieces of furniture that had ended up staying from the pre-furnished stuff. Kicking my shoes off, I padded over to the bedroom and undressed, getting into a pair of loose shorts. My phone dinged from where I’d tossed it on the bed, and I checked it to see a notification. An email.
From Sarah.
I opened it up against my better judgment.
I read the letter and then tossed the phone back on the bed. I couldn’t believe the gall of that woman. The presumptuousness. She expected to be able to email me and ask me questions about clients and aspects of the business that she now owned after taking it from me in the divorce. She really expected me to just open up and tell her whatever she wanted to know and be at her beck and call.
She even had the balls to state at the bottom of the email that she needed to hear from me “immediately.” As if it was my fault, she had to suddenly take the responsibilities of the business that she fought so hard to take from me. I was disgusted. And angry.
I checked the time. It was after seven.
I went into the garage and got back to my weights. I pumped iron for at least two hours, pushing my body past where I knew I should stop and working every last bit of aggression and anger out of my system. It took a while.
Every time I felt myself calming down, Sarah’s face popped into my head, and I would get angry again. But then a curious thing would happen. As the endorphins started to flood my system and my arms turned to jelly, the anger seeping out of me like a sieve, Sarah’s face would fade. Another would take its place.
Melanie’s.
I envisioned her dressed not how I had seen her at the store or at Mark and Carmela’s, but in a dress. A floor-length gown, black and glittering. The proportions were all there, the same body that I’d seen stretching out the tight shirt sitting across from me in Mark’s dining room. But her hair was down, brushed over one bare shoulder.
My stomach would tighten, and I had to put the bar down. I had worked up a hell of a sweat, and begrudgingly had to get a shower. There was no way I could get in bed like that. After wiping the bench down, I headed inside, stripped off my clothes, and turned on the water.
As I waited for the water to get to the right temperature, I glanced back at the mirror. The vision of Melanie returned, only this time, she was beside me, undressing herself by pulling the zipper down her back of the long gown my mind had put her in. Underneath, she wore a red lace bra and thong panties that showed off her perfectly round ass. An ass I had admittedly gotten a few good glances at in her tight pants at Mark’s.
In the mirror, I saw my cock harden, rising from its flaccid state to full-strength. I rolled my eyes and opened the curtains, stepping into the water. I couldn’t think about Melanie like that. She was my colleague. Sort of.
Really, she was a fellow owner and employee at the same time. The taboo nature of a relationship between us only seemed to complicate my feelings. And the fact that I knew I was going to see her the next night complicated it further.
But as the hot water started to relax my sore muscles and I made my body slick with soap, I let my eyes close, and the vision of Melanie returned again and again. Enough that I couldn’t ignore it anymore, or how my body was responding to it. Her bickering with me had only added to the attraction. I could imagine the two of us, full-throated yelling in the back of the office at the store, in a way the yelling fights with Sarah had never been. There was a tension in them. A desire.