Chapter 35
Mia
“ONE SECOND.” I SCRAMBLED out of the shower, grabbing a towel to wrap it around me. Only the briefest of moments had passed when I barreled out of the bathroom, but nothing could have shocked me more than watching as my bedroom door crashed open.
“Jameson! What on earth are you doing?”
“Who the fuck is in here with you?” He stormed in and immediately went to my bathroom to search it before he looked under my bed, then in my closet, and then strode over to my open window to look out it.
“What are you talking about?” I walked over to look out the window with him, clutching my towel. Did he think there was an intruder? Was someone really out in the forest like I’d thought days before? “Did someone break in?”
“Darling devil …” He turned to me, and his eyes were brimming with anger so dark that I couldn’t even see where his pupils began. “Do not lie to me when I ask again. Who was with you? Archer? You had dinner with him. I’m going to fucking kill him.”
“Why would he be in my bedroom?”
My confusion must have pushed him over the edge, because one of those calloused hands went to my neck to shove me up against the wall. His grip was firm as he leaned in close. “I heard you through the fucking walls.”
He must have heard me moaning in the shower through the vents.
“Oh God. I moaned that loud?” I said mostly to myself, but his grip on my neck tightened, and he leaned closer.
“And now I see your cheeks are flushed. You look like you’ve been properly fucked. And your lower lip is swollen like you’ve been biting it. So, where the fuck is Archer? Did you sleep with him?”
“Jameson, seriously? You have some audacity to mention him when you were down there with Valerie! I should be asking you if you slept with her … Again!”
“What?”
“I smell her perfume all over you, Jameson,” I whispered, trying to explain away the fact that I’d heard them down there.
How could I admit the rest? But then I knew I had to be honest, knew that if there was going to be something real between us, I didn’t want it based on lies.
He needed to know. I sighed and closed my eyes.
“And I can hear most everything in this room if I’m listening.
The vents connect, which is how you must have heard me. ”
Recognition registered in his eyes, and they hardened as he asked, “And exactly why were you listening?”
I looked away as shame burned on my cheeks. “Because you said Valerie was going to be here, and I wanted to know if you’d do the same as you’ve always done.” I shrugged.
“Darling Mia. You’ve listened to us before.” He sighed out as if he pitied me. I just nodded, not wanting to speak it out loud. A wave of emotions flickered over his face. “Most people would die before they admitted that to me.”
“And do you think that’s because you wouldn’t let them live after eavesdropping?”
He hummed. “You aren’t the least bit scared of me now, are you, Darling?”
At one point, I had been. Now, I trusted him with my life more than I did any other person. So I just whispered, “Should I be?”
“No.” He pulled at his hair. “And it’s fucking bad that I don’t want you to be. You should realize I’m not a good man, realize that I’m asking you if you fucked Archer because I’m going to beat him within an inch of his life if you did.”
“He’s a friend of yours, Jameson. We’ve been over this,” I reminded him.
He didn’t even blink as he continued to stare at me. His icy blue eyes told me all I needed to know.
“And he takes care of Franny and this house when you’re away. He’s irreplaceable.”
Jameson shook his head slowly. “No, Mia. You’re irreplaceable. And it’s a problem because normally I operate under the belief that any one of my staff can be replaced at any time.”
“You need people that you care about and respect as your employees.”
“No. I need hard workers. Not people who cause weakness.”
His words were cruel. “You think I’m weak.”
He growled. “You’re not understanding. You’re my weakness.
You’re now a person that any one of my enemies can target, and they could cause hell on earth quite literally if they hurt you.
” He took a deep breath. “You’re also the person a friend of mine or even a trusted employee could look at wrong and I’d dispose of them. ”
“Jameson, that’s—”
“The truth. Like I said, you’re irreplaceable now.
You’re mine. Not just my daughter’s teacher or my employee, darling Mia, but mine.
And I won’t share. Not with Archer or anyone else.
” He searched my eyes as he stepped forward, like he was looking for reassurance, but I wouldn’t give it to him quite yet. “Tell me you understand.”
“Are you mine, then, too?” I asked as Valerie’s perfume wafted in the air between us.
His hand skirted up my thigh past my towel to my pussy.
The embarrassment of being soaked all over again was evidence enough that I needed to distance myself.
Yet, I was too close to consider it now and couldn’t stop from mewling out his name after how sensitive my body was from touching myself moments ago.
“Your pussy is still pulsing. Still wants more.” He circled my clit with his thumb. I tried to move, but he had me firmly against that wall, going nowhere.
“I already got off,” I said now that fury and jealousy were surfacing with the pleasure he was creating. “I’m sure you did too.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” His eyes widened for a fraction of a second before he thrust a finger into me.
“I told you—I listened. I heard her beg you, Jameson.”
“And …” he coaxed me, rolling this thumb over my arousal.
“And I didn’t want to hear the rest. So, I went to the shower and got myself off.”
“So let me get this straight.” I heard the scrape of his five-o’clock shadow as he roughly dragged his hand over it. “You touched yourself thinking I was with another woman when I practically tore through the walls to get into this room thinking you were with another man?”
“Guess we handle our jealousy a bit differently within this convenient employer-employee arrangement we have.” I tried for casual, hoping to remind us both that this was only supposed to ever last the rest of the summer.
“Convenient arrangement?” Jameson tore his hand away from me and then swore fluently over and over.
“That’s what you call this? A convenient arrangement, Mia?
It’s a fucking obsession. It’s not fucking convenient that I can barely see straight thinking another man had you.
” His thumb swept up to my jaw and pushed my face to tilt toward his.
He leaned down so that his lips were just a breath from mine.
He looked so wild and out of control that I knew he hated it. “Does that mean you want this between us to stop?”
“No. It means I want to give you whatever you want to make sure you don’t look at another man other than me ever again,” he rasped, his voice strained and almost primal.
Like it took everything in him not to unleash whatever rage was underneath.
And I didn’t know if it was just the heat of the moment, but I wanted to believe him.
A part of me hoped he meant it.
And a part of me was scared that even if he did mean it, I’d never fit in enough to find my place here. “Then I want it rough.”
“What?”
“… like you’ve done with her.”
“Mia, you’ve had it rough from me already,” he said as if to pacify me.
So I repeated, “Like you’ve done with her.”
I wanted to feel like I belonged like she did, like I could fit into his world, like I could have all of him even if just for a moment.
His eyes locked on mine, sharp and searching, as if trying to make sense of my request. As if to make sure he heard me correctly.
But then, a realization seemed to dawn. An understanding settled across his features before he motioned me toward the door.
He gave me a single, measured nod. “Let’s go to the office then. ”
I walked out of the room in just my towel, my head held high. I wasn’t going to cower or hide my desires for a second longer. I’d done that enough and it got me here, to a place where the man I was falling for was sleeping with another woman.
But right before I passed him in the doorway, he leaned in and murmured, “I’m going to fuck you just like I have her, darling devil, and still, you’re going to learn it will be completely different because it’s you, Mia. You’re the one that belongs by my side. No one else.”