Authors: Susan Wright
But Kali was right about one thing. As Minx
sat on his floor talking to him, he had realized that she did expect things
would pick up with them again at some point. Hell, if he was honest with
himself, he couldn’t imagine never spanking another ass other than Kali’s, as
fine as hers was. Maybe he had been telling Kali what she wanted to hear while
secretly believing that she would be loosened up by the scene. So many people
were.
He went to the window, looking down at
the darkening street. He wanted to run after her. It was almost a spinal reflex.
He wanted a re-do of that entire argument. He should have left Minx sitting on
the steps instead of inviting her in. Minx was probably staying with Jeremy
just to get to him, and he let her do it. Better yet, he never should have run
out on Kali this morning as a way to manipulate her into reaching out for him.
He should have just talked to her about
the collar, and told her what he wanted. The collar meant that she belonged to
him, and he was dedicated to making her happy.
But she wasn’t happy now.
He really wished Minx wasn’t still
wearing his collar. She had worn it last night to taunt him. And again today.
Kali wasn’t stupid, she could see that.
He felt like he was grasping at a
shadow. He wanted to crush Kali in his arms and hold on until this feeling went
away.
But she was gone and he was alone.
Chapter 16
Kali had a really bad night. Hunter
texted to make sure she got home all right, and she responded with one word:
yes
.
After that, nothing. She kept thinking about him and Minx together; there was
nothing to keep Minx away from Hunter. As she left, Kali had seen her at the
other end of the corridor, crouched against a door.
Kali had to accept the facts—she was in
love with Hunter. And he wasn’t in love with her. He wanted a sex toy. He wanted
her because she wasn’t easy to get, like those other girls.
He didn’t love her. If he did, he would
have said
I love you…
But he never did.
It was a big aching ball inside of her.
She was more sad than angry because Hunter would have loved her if he could
love anyone, she was sure. But he was so far away, living in a different world
from hers. No wonder they wanted completely different things.
Monday morning, going to work was really
hard for her. She knew she would have to deal with Hunter because it was a big
week for the project. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to him like
nothing was wrong. But the truck was arriving from the foundry today to unload
the sculpture, and she had to make sure the permits were posted and the street
cleared of cars. Hunter had posted the signs on Friday to warn people not to
park there on Monday, but of course there were two cars there when she arrived.
“Call the tow company,” Selina ordered.
Her voice was hoarse.
“Are you okay? You sound like you have a
cold.”
“Shut up, Kali!” Selina snapped. “I
don’t need you to tell me what I sound like. Get those cars towed now!”
Kali hated it, but she had to do it.
Soon enough one of the cars had moved, but the other was stubbornly parked near
the gated entrance they would need to use to unload the sculptures. The tow
truck arrived and she watched Hunter go up and talk to the driver, so she went
back into the building to let him deal with it.
She intended to avoid him as long as
possible. Every time she saw him, she kept wondering if Minx had gone back to
his place after she had left.
Up in SunTech, Selina was berating their
graphic designer. When Kali arrived, Selina turned her full force of curses
against her.
“God damn it, Kali! You’re the one responsible
for this! Are you so stupid you approve things without my sign off?”
Kali felt her stomach clench, like she
was suddenly falling. This was it! The fatal flaw that would get her fired.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked, rushing forward.
“Just look at this!” Selina shoved the
launch party invitation into her face.
Kali tried to get hold of it to see what
was wrong, her heart in her throat. The box was sitting open on Debby’s desk,
just delivered from the printers. She scanned it as Selina continued to yell at
her. “You never learn, do you? You have to get your shit together, Kali!”
“I don’t see any typos,” Kali finally
said, looking up.
“It’s the logo! I wanted it on the top
not the bottom! I told you that, Kali, a hundred times. And now there’s no time
to get it fixed, and it looks like crap!”
The phone rang on the interoffice
channel, and without missing a beat, Selina answered it like nothing was the
matter. She listened for a moment, then said, “I’ll be right there.” Shaking
the invitation at Kali, she said, “I’m running up to see Mr. Ryan. We’ll see
what he says about this.”
When she was gone, Kali turned to Debby.
“Oh, no! She’s going to get me fired! And she’s the one who approved the
layout.”
“Where’s her initials?” Debby asked
frantically.
Kali dug through her files, but she
couldn’t find the copy of the invitation with Selina’s signature. “Don’t you
remember us showing it to her? She made you change the font size on the title.”
“That’s right. And she liked it when it
was done. But I don’t see her signature on my proof.”
Kali smacked her fist against her desk.
“She knows she approved it. This is just more of her stupid power-bullshit!”
Debby looked at her in surprise. “I’ve
never heard you say that before.”
“I’m getting sick of these control
freaks in my life. Maybe it’s my own fault I’m surrounded by petty dictators.”
Debby laughed nervously. “I’m not a
dictator. Or petty.”
“I don’t mean you.”
“I wonder if she’s going to get us both
fired,” Debby ventured. “I did the layout, you know.”
Kali paced back and forth, her arms
wrapped around herself. It was finally happening. The worst was here.
Ironically she had been telling Hunter just last weekend that everything at
work was going well, and she finally knew how to handle Selina.
Suddenly it was all falling apart—her
job and her relationship with Hunter.
It was the longest ten minutes of her
life. Finally, Selina burst in. “If you lousy fuckers don’t back off, I’m going
to call the police!”
The building’s chief of security was
with her, as was the director of Human Resources. Neither said a word as Selina
went to her desk and began rifling through the drawers.
Kali looked from Selina to Mrs. Chapel.
“Is something wrong?”
“Selina has been dismissed for cause,”
Mrs. Chapel said quietly.
“You better watch what you say about
me!” Selina exclaimed. “I’m calling my lawyer about this.”
Mrs. Chapel warned Kali with her eyes,
and she knew enough to shut up and not respond to Selina’s jabs, as her
now-former boss packed up her belongings in a cardboard box.
But when Selina tried to sit down at her
desk, Mrs. Chapel stopped her. “It’s company policy that you can’t access your
computer once you’ve been terminated.”
Selina got even madder. “I’ve got
private personal information on there! You can’t stop me from accessing my own
computer.”
“It belongs to the company, and you’re
not supposed to have ‘private personal’ information on it.” Mrs. Chapel wasn’t
backing down, and the security chief stepped in between Selina and the terminal.
“But if there is, we will send you a copy once we go through everything.”
“My contacts! Those aren’t SunTech’s!
They’re mine.”
“They belong to SunTech, but you will
get a copy of the information. Now is there anything else?”
The security chief held open the door
for Selina to leave the big PR room. Mrs. Chapel took a moment to tell them
both, “Stay here. Don’t talk to anyone about this. I’ll be back as soon as
she’s escorted from the building.”
Kali huddled together with Debby like
they had just witnessed an accident. She was sort of in shock.
“Hell to the no!” Debby exclaimed as the
door shut behind Mrs. Chapel. “Did that just happen?”
“Spitting mad! She was spitting mad!”
Kali started laughing a little hysterically in relief. It was like a win for
the good guys for once. “Hopefully now we won’t get fired.”
Debby’s eyes lit up. “They can’t fire
all
of us. And whoever they get to take over has to be better than Selina.”
Several people looked in to ask what was
happening. Apparently Selina had made a lot of noise leaving the building. Kali
grinned and shrugged every time. “I don’t know what happened.”
Then one of the IT guys came in and
asked, “Which one is Selina Stern’s computer?”
Kali pointed, and he went to work
copying everything. Mrs. Chapel returned before he was through.
“Can you tell us what happened?” Kali
asked.
Mrs. Chapel sighed. “Let me access your
computer, and I’ll show you.”
Mystified, Kali let Mrs. Chapel sit down
at her desk. She went to YouTube and typed “kicking glass” into the search,
calling up a video. The opening shot was a grainy still, but as soon as she
clicked play, Debby cried out, “That’s Selina!”
The shot looked like it was from a
surveillance camera mounted near the ceiling, angled down to look at the
employee side of the glass display counter and cash register. Selina marched
into view on the other side. Her perfect face contorted as she let out a stream
of curses, calling the guy behind the counter “sissy boy” and worse names. Kali
had almost gotten used to how nasty Selina could be with her tongue, but this
was a whole other level. She kept saying, “How do you like it when I come to
where you work and expose you? How do
you
like it?”
On the screen, an older woman joined the
younger man at the counter. Her back was to the camera, and she was shaking her
finger at Selina as she ordered her to leave the store.
Selina shouted, “He’s wearing girl’s
panties!”
You could only see the back of the guy’s
head, as he flung a towel at Selina’s face. The older woman started screaming
back at her in Spanish, gesturing like she was shoeing Selina out.
Selina lifted up her leg, leaning back
to give the glass front of the counter a vicious kick.
The glass exploded under her Jimmy Choo.
Screams erupted on the video, and even Selina ducked to avoid the geyser of
broken glass.
Kali had her hand over her mouth,
watching the video as Selina slunk back out of camera view. It went to black.
She checked the view count. 8,541. And it had only been posted four hours ago.
“It’s going viral,” Kali realized.
Debby pointed at the comments. “Selina’s
been recognized. Look what they’re saying about her!”
“SunTech’s PR Director goes bonkers,”
Kali read in one comment.
Mrs. Chapel looked grim. “Mr. Ryan has
already written the press release you’ll need to send out, Kali. We’re
announcing that Selina no longer works for SunTech. That’s all we’re going to
say about this.”
“Good idea,” Kali said faintly. She
never had to deal with a PR disaster before. It seemed like the best thing to
do was distance the company from Selina’s actions, and then decline to say
anything else.
Debby asked Mrs. Chapel, “Who will be
the new PR Director?”
“I don’t have any good candidates right
now, but it shouldn’t be hard to find someone soon. In the meantime, Kali,
you’re in charge. Put all your efforts toward the sundial project. I know it’s
a huge amount of pressure on you with the launch party in two weeks, but Mr.
Ryan and I are sure you can handle it.”
Kali was shocked into rising to meet her
eyes. “Thank you, Mrs. Chapel. I won’t let you down.”
“I know we can depend on you. Debby,
help Kali any way you can.”
“I will,” Debby agreed. “You can count
on it.”
“I’ll put out an internal memo letting
everyone know that you’re in charge,” Chapel said.
When Mrs. Chapel left, Kali stared at
Debby for a few silent moments. Then they both let out a whoop of pleasure.
“The wicked witch is dead!” Debby exclaimed.
“More than dead. That video is going to
haunt
Selina.” Nobody deserved it more. Kali eyed the IT guy at Selina’s computer.
She would love to get her hands on it. There were a bunch of people she needed
to tell—construction subcontractors, the party planner, the permitting office…
Hunter.
Hunter! Why hadn’t she thought of him
sooner?
Technically she was Hunter’s boss now.
Since she was in charge of the project, he would have to answer to her.
She wasn’t allowed to date a
subordinate. Until they hired another PR Director or Hunter’s contract was done
with SunTech, he was off limits.
But I don’t want to stop seeing him
,
was her first thought.
She hated the idea that she couldn’t be with him.
But then again, they weren’t doing so
great together anyway. She didn’t want him to have sex with other people, and
she didn’t want to be his slave. He wanted those things, not her.
“Are you okay?” Debby asked.
“Yeah, it’s just a lot to take in.” Now
she was really glad she hadn’t let it slip that she and Hunter were dating. It
would be a lot less awkward if nobody else found out.
She sat down at Selina’s computer after
the IT guy left and tried to concentrate, but thoughts of Hunter kept
intruding. Just before lunch time, she got a call from the security guard
downstairs that the truck with the sundial had arrived.
With a sinking feeling, she knew exactly
what would happen when she looked into Hunter’s eyes. She would crumple inside
and want to throw herself into his arms and swear that she would serve him if
that’s what he wanted. She would try to win his love any way she could.
That was a dangerous feeling, leading down
a slippery slope. She had spent her life giving her mom what she wanted in
order to feel her love. She was poised to fall into that same kind of
relationship with Hunter. But she had to resist, for her own good. He would
swallow her up and there would be nothing left of herself. She wanted him so
much that she was losing all good sense.