Chapter 2 #2
He laces his fingers together and rests them on his desk, the leather in his chair creaking when he leans back. “Haley from HR will investigate. It’s a good thing Rachel is claiming it was consensual.”
I sit up with a frown. “Of course it was consensual.”
How could he think I’d ever force a woman?
His lips tighten. “You’re lucky I’m not firing you, and if you weren’t my godson, you would already be on your way with your personal effects in a cardboard box.
” I open my mouth to complain. He glares me into silence.
“You read and signed the employment contract. No relationships between employees where one is in a position of power and the other is not. It is precisely to avoid situations in which I could be sued if an assistant claims she was pressured into a relationship with her boss.”
“I didn’t pressure Rachel into anything,” I snap.
She’s been my assistant for the last year, brought in as a new hire to help me manage the paperwork with Cochran’s Logistics taking on more clients from outside Michigan.
We’d gotten on great when Dennis first introduced her to me, and we worked well together.
Sure, I’d noticed she was attractive, but in a distant way.
I wasn’t looking to sleep with her then, or ever, really.
And then the kiss happened.
“So she pressured you?” His raised eyebrow communicates his disbelief.
He knows and likes Ellary, and he’s my dad’s best friend. That Ellary is a stay-at-home wife reliant on my income is likely the only reason I still have a job. And he’s my godfather. Anyone else, he’d have fired without hesitation.
I rub a hand over my face. “It wasn’t like that. It just… it just happened.”
Months of accidental brushes when she’d lean over my shoulder to point at something on my screen…
laughing over coffee in the break room… her hand squeezing mine as I told her about trying for a baby with Ellie and it not happening.
She’d comforted me and told me things just take time. It would happen for Ellie and me.
A month ago, it had led to a kiss in the break room. Her boyfriend had dumped her. I’d been consoling her. The next moment, I was breaking my wedding vows. I’d pulled away immediately and walked away before it could happen again.
I hadn’t told Ellary about the kiss, but every time I looked at her, guilt had eaten me alive. And I told myself—and Rachel—that it was a mistake and it wouldn’t happen again.
Yet it had.
Not a kiss this time. Something worse than that. A betrayal that I’m sitting here, struggling with how to explain to Ellie, but I don’t know how.
I’d taken a quick ten-minute nap, wanting to rest my eyes for a bit after a conference call from hell. Then Rachel was there. Close.
I don’t know how things had progressed from a kiss to her dropping to her knees, her hand on my cock, cupping me. She’d told me to get up, pull my pants down, and she’d make me feel good.
Even knowing it was wrong, I’d done it.
The warm suction of her mouth on my dick. My eyes drifting closed, my hands buried in her hair, tilting my hips, pushing her to take me deeper into her throat. No strings. No expectations. She just wanted to make me feel good, she said, and I hadn’t refused.
I love my wife, but I have hurt her in ways that I don’t deserve her forgiveness.
And I don’t know why.
“Two weeks,” my boss repeats, drawing me out of my thoughts, shooting me a disgusted look that reveals how little he thinks of me.
“That’s how long you’re suspended for. Unpaid.
Maybe at the end of those two weeks, I’d have strangled this need to break your nose for what you did to Ellary.
I would take the time to think long and hard about what you did and why. Maybe you can save your marriage.”
The tone of his voice suggests he has serious doubts about that.
I push myself to my feet and grab my suit jacket from the chair beside me. “Does my suspension start now? I’d like to go speak to my wife.”
“Clear the work on your desk, then go.”
I open my mouth.
His glare slices into me. “There are three work hours left in the day. After spending however many minutes or hours having your dick sucked at your desk by your assistant, you will damn well spend the next hour doing the work I have been paying you to do.”
There’s no response to that other than a nod. “Okay.”
“Get those estimates completed. I want them on my desk at the end of the hour, and then I don’t want to see you for two weeks. If HR needs to talk to you, Haley will contact you, and you will answer her calls and tell her everything she needs to know.” His stare warns me what’s at stake if I don’t.
“I’ll get started on those files.” I start to turn, then stop. “Rachel?” I feel disgusted with myself for even saying her name, knowing what I did. What Ellie saw.
“She’s no longer your assistant.” His voice is so glacial, I nearly shiver. He continues. “She no longer feels comfortable working here.”
“I wasn’t asking because I wanted to see her. Just… I made a mistake, and I’d like to know if I should expect her to walk into my office. I’d like to avoid that if possible. And I’d like to move offices when I come back to work.”
His tone softens a touch. “She resigned, and she wanted to apologize to Ellie—”
My eyes widen. “That isn’t—”
“A good idea,” he cuts in. “I know. She told me what happened and went to see HR to write a statement so this doesn’t come back later to bite us all on the ass. She’s gone.”
Relieved I don’t have to worry about running into her, I rake a hand through my hair. “That’s, uh, that’s good. I didn’t want her to lose her job over something we were both guilty of.” But I can’t say I’m not grateful that she quit.
“Well, she’s gone. I’m paying her for the rest of the week, and that’s the end of it as far as I’m concerned.”
I nod. “Thanks. That’s all I wanted to know.”
The second I’m out of his office, I pull my cell phone from my pocket, bring up Ellary’s number, and hit dial. I was in my boss’s office for fifteen minutes. Ellie has to be home by now.
My cell phone rings out on my walk to my office. Five more calls and Ellary shows no sign of picking up. She isn’t taking my calls, but she will see a text.
I quickly type:
Baby, it’s me. I know you’re upset about what happened, but I can explain. I love you. We can get through this. Please, just text back to say you got this?
I hit send, and I wait.
Five minutes later, I’m still waiting.
She got the text. I don’t know if she read it, but she’s not responding.
I consider getting up and walking out to find her. But right now, I need to get this work done. It’s an hour, and I get to keep my job. I can’t afford to lose it with a mortgage to pay.
For the next hour, I focus on work while I think about how I can save my marriage.