Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Madison
" H oly shit!" I heard the voice suddenly say. The sound echoed so much through the room that I jumped again and almost fell down and broke my head for the second time within the space of five minutes.
With my hand to my chest, I went still and tried to calm myself so I wouldn't permanently dislocate my neck. Eventually, when I felt stable enough, I opened my eyes and glared at the phone positioned against the wall on the vanity. Emma's face filled up the entire screen, and her attention was so rapt it was almost amusing.
"First of all, that was your boss, right? And secondly, oh my God, I think he saw you."
Walking slowly toward the sink, I rolled my dry eyes at her drivel.
"No kidding."
"Shit," she was amused. "This is kind of intriguing."
"I almost died, you ass."
"Well, I swear I saw the spider. It was crawling behind you. Didn't you see it?"
"You really want me to turn around to check again?" I asked. "With my broken neck?"
Her smile turned sheepish. "I'm sorry, Maddy. You’re right, it could have been so dangerous. When you screamed, my heart was pounding so fast. If you hadn’t responded to him, I would have called the police or emergency services right away. That was scary."
I ignored her as I grabbed the robe hanging on the wall and put it on.
"This is what I should have freaking worn in the beginning. I didn’t, and as a result, I've just given my boss a show. The show he specifically asked not to have from the first moment he hired me."
"Yeah," she replied. "He didn’t see all of it though, did he?"
I gave her a nasty look but had to consider her question. Eventually, I couldn’t help but respond, scared for my life, literally.
"You were watching, right?" I asked. "Did he? Did you?"
“All I could see was his back. He's huge and broad. I couldn't see anything else."
My heart sank once again.
I couldn’t lower my neck, so of course I can't tell what he saw and didn't see.
“Did you feel a breeze?" she asked.
"Please stop talking about it. In fact, I think it's time for you to leave. I'm already running late, and I can't be late when it comes to him. I can't believe I was looking at lingerie samples with you when I was supposed to be rushing for work."
"I would have said something rude about that, but given that you can't even move right, I'll accept the blame. I'm so sorry."
I went quiet then as I continued rapidly with my skincare while trying my best to slightly turn my neck to wrinkle out the ache. Perhaps it would be fine. It had to be. I was the only one that had come along with Mr. Swift on this trip, so I had to be on top of my game, especially now that I had crossed his one line.
My main problem from all that had just happened should have been just physical, but now when I considered the fact that I might literally get fired for this, my mood plummeted.
"Should I leave?" Emma asked as I quickly moved on to my makeup.
"No," I replied. "My thoughts are spiraling."
"Oh, come on," she said. "Even if he did see some parts of you, that doesn't affect anything, does it? You’ve called him a monk before. If he is so uninterested in the females that work for him, then why be bothered?"
I shrugged. "Is it strange for me to be? I have literally been dressing like a nun the last few months, all to fit his specifications. How can I not be worried?"
"Yeah," she replied. "I understand. But it will be fine, and if it isn't, be bold, state your case, and tell him that if he fires you for this, you will sue for wrongful termination."
I gave her a look. "Really, and who’s going to cover the cost of that?"
"I will," she replied. "I’ll handle your lawsuit. Trust me. I might have quit the law firm to start this business, but I’m still legally a lawyer and a damn good one at that."
I couldn’t object to this, but it did make me smile at the thought of threatening him with this, not that I could ever. I had worked with him for quite a while now, and still, I got so nervous around him, as stiff as a stick. He was so damn impressive, and with my experience of him so far, I couldn’t stop my heart from turning soft when he was concerned, though for my own good, this was and will never be known.
"I have an idea," she said, and I glanced at the phone lens.
"What?"
"Why don’t you use this opportunity to pursue something with him?"
"What?" My face scrunched up in incredulity. For someone so smart, she sometimes spoke like an airhead.
"You've had a crush on him forever. At this point, and given how much you know about him, you are more or less in love with him, yet you have never even been able to consider anything between you two."
"He's my boss," I replied in disbelief.
“So? So, you're just going to not try? I think you should. He's seen you naked now, and if he's a man and not gay like I have suspected, then he should have felt something. Now I think more than ever now is your only chance to act."
"And what exactly would you have me do?" I asked, absolutely not taking her seriously at all.
"I don't know," she replied. "You two are also taking this whole conference trip as something of a mini vacation as well, right?"
"Right."
"Well, this will give you plenty of chances to dress a little more alluring. Plus, I'll ship you one of our new lingerie pieces. You can test it out for me on him.”
"And how exactly am I supposed to do that?" I asked, absolutely not taking her seriously at all.
"Fall down again, but this time truly be unconscious so he can see my lingerie on your body. Trust me, your body is sick, and the moment he sees my lingerie on your body, he's going to lose it. Plus, you could wear it to the beach as well. Are there beaches where you are in Thailand? Do you both have any plans for it?"
"We have a resort vacation planned in Phuket.”
"Perfect, I'll send you something."
"Please leave me alone," I said and reached for the phone. "I'm done; I'm leaving. Go work on your business some more and stop trying to ruin my life. I like my job and my boss. We flew here on his private jet, and my salary is insane. I'm not going to give any of that up just because I have a crush on him. It’ll die and I'll come to my senses when he gets with someone, and that's bound to happen sooner or later."
"That someone could be you," she said, and I ended the call. She was always putting these ridiculous ideas in my head, trying to save me from my unrequited love narrative. I wasn't going to listen to her because I truly had spent too much time so far with Hunter not to understand him, and any distraction whatsoever from his work was like cancer that he wouldn’t hesitate for even a minute to get rid of.
I stretched my neck a bit more, testing the extent of the strain, and I felt a little better. My prayer was that it wouldn’t get worse during the day, so I found some aspirin to take in advance and hurried out of the bathroom.
I had to get dressed and present myself before my boss and pretend he'd never seen me almost naked.