Because He Torments Me (8 page)

“None,” I agreed.

“It’s like she’s living in a fish bowl.”
 

I took a sip of my wine and continued looking
around the club, hoping to spot a familiar face.
 
Were all of the people here my work
colleagues?
 
I hadn’t met anyone
else during my disastrous first day – just Kiersten and the Betty, the
receptionist.
 
Was I supposed to be
mingling, introducing myself to people?

I took a long sip of my wine, suddenly nervous
and feeling out of place.

I would have given anything for an Ativan.

It was my go-to when my social anxiety was
roaring out of control.
 
It kept it
at bay.
 
But Callum had destroyed my
pills and I hadn’t had a chance to call my doctor back in Michigan to get more.

The music suddenly got turned up, and Isaac
grabbed Nessa’s hand, the two of them heading for the dance floor and throwing
their bodies into the throng people who had started gyrating to the heavy beat.

“Do you want to dance?” Garrett asked.

“I’m not much of a dancer,” I said
apologetically.

“Me neither.”
 
He grinned.
 
“So you work with these people?”

“Yes,” I said.
 
“But I don’t know any of them.
 
Today was my first day.”

“First days are the worst,” he said.

“Yeah.
 
I just
....I
wanted this job so much, and now
I’m worried it’s not going to be all it’s cracked up to be.”

“It’s probably a bit too early to be thinking
like that,” he said.
 
“First days
are hard on anyone, no matter what the job.”

“True.”
 
I sighed and drained the rest of my wine.
 

“You know what you need?” he said.
 
“You need a stress release.
 
Do you want to go to a game this
weekend?
 
The Yankees are at home,
have you been?”

“No.”
 
I shook my head.

“It’s fun,” he said.
 
“We can watch the Red Sox fans get all
upset when the Yanks win.”

My first instinct was to say no, but then I
realized there was no good reason not to.
 
Garrett was cute.
 
He was
nice.
 
He was my age.
 
He was in grad
school,
he was inviting me out to a perfectly normal activity.
 
 

“Okay,” I said.
 
“Yeah, that sounds great.”

“Good.”
 
He smiled and then indicated my empty glass.
 
“You need another drink?”

“That’d be great.”

“Be back in a sec.”

He took off toward the bar, and I leaned
against the wall, tapping my foot in time to the music.
 
The alcohol had relaxed me a tiny bit,
and I watched as Nessa and Isaac danced, Nessa’s head thrown back in ecstasy, a
smile on her face as Isaac put his hands on her hips and pulled her toward him.

This wasn’t so bad,
I told myself.
 
Today might have sucked, but nothing happened
that was irreparable.
 
And tomorrow
is a chance to start over.

And then Garrett was back, handing me another
glass of wine.

What happened next was so fast I almost couldn’t
process it.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Callum was there.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Callum demanded, shoving Garrett away from me.

“Wow,” Garrett said cockily.
 
“Relax, man.
 
What’s your problem?”

But Callum wasn’t messing around.
 
He grabbed Garrett by the shirt, pushed
him up against the wall.
 
“Stay away
from her,” he growled.
 
“Do not talk
to her.
 
Do not look at her.
 
If I hear of you even looking at her,
trying to contact her, I will destroy you.
 
Do you understand?”

“Callum,” I pleaded, reaching out and grabbing
at his arm.
 
But he was so strong,
his body seemingly made of granite, that there was nothing I could do.
 
“Let him go.”

Callum shook Garrett again.
 
“Do.
 
You.
 
Understand?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Garrett said, holding his hands
up.
 
“I understand.”

Callum let him go, and Garrett rearranged his
shirt.
 
“Crazy fuck,” he muttered
before heading for the exit.

“Garrett,” I called after him.
 
“Garrett, wait!”
 
I started to go after him, but Callum
grabbed me around the waist.

“Let him go,” he said.
 
“He’s a loser.”

I turned on him, my eyes widening.
 
“How dare you.”

“How dare I what?” he asked, undeterred by my
anger.
 
“Come in here and save you
from some college dickhead who was trying to get you drunk?”

“He wasn’t trying to get me drunk,” I
said.
 

“He was plying you with wine.”

“I had one glass.”

“For now.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, tears
filling my eyes.
 
“Why are you
tormenting me this way?”

He loosened his grip on me, and I looked
quickly around the club, trying to see if anyone had noticed what was
happening.
 
Luckily, the music was
so loud and the club so packed that it didn’t seem like anyone was paying
attention to us.

My heart pumped in time with the music, the
blood pounding at my temples.

If there’s even any hint that the two of you
are engaged in anything inappropriate, I will fire you immediately.

“Tormenting you?” Callum
growled
“You’re the one tormenting me.”

“What?” I cried.
 
“I haven’t even – ”

And then his hands were on my hips, and he
pulled me toward him, his pelvis pushing into mine.
 
I could feel his erection through his pants
as he brought his mouth to my neck and kissed me softly, his hands roaming over
my ass.

“Callum,” I said.
 
“Are you
insane?”
I tried to push
him away, but he held me close, his grip on me like a vice.

“I want you to feel what you do to me,” he said.
 
“Do you know I haven’t been able to stop
thinking of you?”
 
He kissed my neck
again, his teeth nipping at my skin, like he wanted to convey the ferocity of
what he was feeling.

The music pulsed around us, and I felt myself
giving into him, the way I always did, letting the hope of having something
more with him invade my soul even though I knew it was impossible, knew that
letting my guard down with him, even for just the slightest of moments, could
only lead to devastating heartbreak.

“Stop,” I said, but my voice was weak.

“No.
 
Leave with me.”

“I can’t,” I said, but my resolve was wavering.

He pushed himself further into me, his hard
cock pushing against my dress, his hands holding me firmly against it.
 

He leaned down.
 
“If you do not leave with me right now,”
he growled.
  
“I will be
incapable of stopping myself from doing something we will both regret.
 
I will pick you up, and I will take you
out of here.
 
And when we get to my
apartment, I will spank you so hard for disobeying me you won’t be able to sit
for days without remembering the consequences of your actions.”

He sounded like a man who was going to do
exactly what he promised.
 
I glanced
around again desperately.
 
It still
didn’t seem as if anyone had noticed we were talking.

“I’m here with my friend,” I said, trying once
more to wrench out of his grasp.
 
“She’ll worry.”

“Text her.”

I struggled against him, but he held me as if I
was nothing, as if my strength was completely inconsequential.
 

My
heart beat
with
even more intensity, it’s strong rhythm pushing the blood through my body, my
fight or flight response on full alert.
 
My first instinct was to fight, but that wasn’t going to work, and
neither was getting away from him.

If anyone caught me with him, his arms around
me, his hips grinding into mine, I would surely be fired.

I felt my knees go weak.

“Okay,” I said.
 
“Okay.
 
I’ll go with you.”

He wrapped his hand around mine and led me
toward the door.
 
I was grateful he
was walking quickly, because the less time we were in here, the less chance
there would be of someone catching us.
 

That was the only reason I was leaving with
him, I told myself.

But deep down, I knew it wasn’t true.

***

When we got onto the sidewalk, I took in gulps
of fresh air, trying to calm myself.
 
Callum led me down the street and around the corner, dragging me along
behind him.

“Who the fuck was he?” he demanded.

“Who the fuck was who?”

He was walking quickly, dodging people deftly
as he went, and I slammed into a woman holding a brown paper grocery bag.
 
But Callum was pulling me along again
before I had a chance to apologize.

“Callum,” I said.
 
“Stop!”

But he didn’t listen, instead turning another
corner, pulling me into the lobby of some random building and pushing me up
against the wall.
 

“Who was he?” he demanded.

“Who?”

“The boy you were with.”
 
He spat the words, saying ‘boy’ instead
of man or guy.

“Garrett.”

“Garrett.”
 
He repeated the word, his eyes blazing.
 
“Did he touch you?”

“No.”

“Did he kiss you?”
 

“No.”

“Tell me you’re mine.”
 
His body was still pressed up against
mine, his eyes crazed, the aggression and desperation evident on his face, in
the set of his angular jaw, in the intensity of his expression.

“I’m yours,” I said, breathless.

He pushed my hands up over my head.
 
“Again.”

“I’m yours.”

“Tell me I own you.”

“You own me, Callum.”
 

His lips pressed into mine, his tongue invading
my mouth.
 
“You will not see him
again,” he said.
 
“Do you understand
me?”

I nodded, unable to speak.

“Good.”
 
He took my hand and pulled me back out onto the street, led me back
around another corner and to his car, a different one than I’d been in before,
the day we’d gone to lunch.
 
This
one was flashier, black,
low
to the ground, with tinted
windows and shiny silver rims.
 
“Get
in,” he commanded, and I slid into the leather seat, watching out the window as
people streamed toward Unicorn, toward the party I was supposed to be at.

Callum didn’t drive far, only a few streets over.

He parked the car and led me up the steps of a four-story
brownstone and into a dusty elevator, one of those old fashioned ones with the
kind of door that slid shut with a gate.

The elevator began its ascent to the top of the
building.

Callum seemed to have calmed down some, and I
had too, my breathing and heart rate slowing.

Now that I’d had time to think, my stomach was
flipping over how much of a bad idea this was.
 
This man was obviously slightly
unhinged, the way he kept showing up places, pushing me up against buildings,
kissing me.
 
He’d told me many times
he would leave me alone, only to show up wherever I was.
 
It was unsettling.

I watched him out of the corner of my eye.
 
God, he was so fucking sexy.
 
He was wearing jeans that hung low on
his hips, work boots, a white t-shirt under a black bomber jacket.

I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

When the elevator doors opened, we were in a
small loft.
 
It looked like it had
been some kind of industrial space at one point, the walls exposed brick, the windows
small.