All Chapters of Before He Was My Boss.: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Donovan Reynor. Just when I thought I was done getting mad at her for coming with Rand, I turned and saw her with Mr. Ross. Hugging him. So warmly, so comfortably, like he was the only thing keeping her together from breaking apart. Oh, I was furious. What the hell was wrong with her? And why couldn’t she listen to simple instructions? Even though I knew that she’d left to meet him to save my face, to spare me from a scene, I was still angry. Because tell me why, after I successfully managed to take you away from the hands of a traitor, after you stood me up, you have the audacity to walk right into the hands of another man. Something cracked in my chest. Sharp and painful and devastating. For a moment, I felt like running toward them and tearing her away from him. But I couldn’t. Because that would mean I was unprofessional. And Mr. Ross was a very valued client of mine. I begged my brain to keep it together, I begged the voices whispering defeat in my ears to sh

Aurélie Tess Blackwood.I stumbled out into the night, cool air hitting my face, but I wasn't feeling a thing.My chest felt tight, suffocating, like someone had wrapped their hands around my lungs and squeezed.I pulled out my phone with trembling fingers and booked a cab, staring at the screen without really seeing it.What the hell was I thinking, kissing him like that?The question echoed in my mind, relentless and unforgiving.If he didn’t pull away, would I have really allowed it to escalate?Oh my God.The answer was unsettling because I knew that I would have.I would have let him take me right there on his desk. I would have let him rip that dress off my body. I would have let him do whatever he wanted to me.That realization made my stomach drop.What the hell is wrong with you, Tess? Why did you even let it happen?But I knew why. It was too big to admit.My mind rerouted back to that woman.The image of her hand on his shoulder, his hand on her waist, the way he’d smiled a

Why was he so uneasy? As though my presence almost irritated him.I saw myself out of the room, giving them whatever shitty space they thought they deserved.What’s my business with them anyway.I crossed my arms over my chest, the tip of my foot tapping a slow, restless rhythm against the floor.But seriously, who is that woman?Lord. I hated that this whole situation was getting to me like this.I walked over to the coffee machine, two tea glasses in hand, my thoughts moving faster than my feet.Was she... was she his girlfriend?My grip tightened around the glass.Oh my God. Had he fucked her?The thought landed like something physical. I set one glass down before I dropped it.What the actual hell?Now I feel horrible for even wanting him.Wanting him?I paused at that. Turned it over slowly, the way you test ice before you step on it.I guess I do. I do want him.That was exactly why I needed her gone. Fast. So I didn’t have to feel like some greedy, hollow thing that took things

“What else do you want me to say?” I asked. “That I enjoyed it? Because I sure as hell didn’t.”“Yeah, right.”I looked up then. Really looked at her for the first time since she’d walked in. “Excuse me?”“That you didn’t enjoy it.” She held my gaze. Steadier than I’d expected. “From what I remember, you did the exact opposite. Yes, I kissed you first. But you kissed me back. You quite literally ate me up.” A beat. “So don’t sit there and try to make it look like it was some kind of inconvenience you tolerated.”I said nothing. I held the quiet between us. Let it sit. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”“Then tell me, Mr. Reynor.” Her hand moved — a small, frustrated gesture between the two of us. I watched it. “Because from where I’m standing, you’ve been punishing me since the day I walked in here, and I still don’t understand what I did that was so unforgivable.”She waited. Her eyes pressed on mine like something physical.“I don’t owe you an explanation,” I said finally a

Aurélie Tess Blackwood.I stepped out of the office without a care in the world. Because even if I had no job to return to after this, at least I’d said my piece.And he’d listened.Because it wasn’t okay to walk over just anyone. I wouldn’t have him think it was acceptable to continuously hurt people’s feelings and feel nothing.I cancelled his second meeting, because I knew better.I walked out to get some air after that. The office had grown too constricted, too full of him, too full of everything I’d just said and couldn’t unsay. So I grabbed my phone and my bag and when I ran into Mike in the corridor and he offered to grab lunch, I thought to myself — why not?I agreed without hesitation, because the distraction wasn’t just a want. It was a need.Mike had that way about him — natural, easy, warm in all the ways that cost nothing. He had a way of making me forget things I constantly worried about, of making the air around him feel lighter just by being in it. He was the nice one.