Page 12 of The Sounds of Her
“You’re being childish.”
“Childish?” I shout. She doesn’t even flinch, just stares at me.
This bitch. I’ve never wanted to hurt a woman before and I never will, but I sure as shit can fantasise about throttling her right now. It’s hard to be in the same room as her. I can’t believe she pulled this shit to get me here. There is nothing wrong with the recording.
Madison is beautiful on the outside, dark blonde hair and blue eyes, with porcelain skin, a pouty mouth, and cheekbones a supermodel would be jealous of. Except, where every other human being has a heart, she has a block of black ice.
Madison’s always been cold, professional and something of a bitch. I figured it’s because she has fought her way to the top of a man’s world and, as the only female exec at the label, has to be ruthless to run with the big boys.
That isn’t it at all, it’s her natural state of being. She isn’t putting on a front to make sure she can swim with the sharks. She is a shark. She is a fucking bitch. I can barely stand to look at her.
“What do you want, Madison?”
She pulls the chair Dean was sitting in from the desk and sits down. I don’t move. She sighs like I’m a disobedient child. Crossing her legs, she tilts her head, her scowl hasn’t faltered. It would take a facelift to remove it. I wait her out, having learnt all of her tactics, I’m not filling any awkward silences.
I won’t offer any platitudes or an easy way out of this either. She’s the one who brought me here under false pretences. I can happily leave without hearing a word of the poison sure to spew out of her mouth.
“I hold all the power here. Don’t forget that.”
“If you’re threatening the band, then you can save your breath, Madison. BreakNeck is bigger than you. You have no power to threaten us.”
Oh, she didn’t like that. For a moment, I feel a small sense of power over her, but it doesn’t last. Not when I remember what she did.
“We agreed anything that occurred between us would be confidential.”
“Yeah, we also agreed it would only happen once,” I say. “I recall that changing. How many nights did you show up?”
“You were an itch I needed to scratch.”
Wow. Fuck. “Funny how I’m the one left with the rash. Whatever you want to say, say it.”
She pulls papers out of a folder and sets them down on the edge of the desk.
“This is a Non-Disclosure Agreement I had my lawyer draw up. Sign it.”
“What the fuck?” I laugh, but she is serious. “An NDA for what?” I don’t give a rat’s ass what her lawyer has written in that document.
“There will be no further relationship between us, other than work related, and I want to ensure you discuss nothing that occurred during the time we were together.”
“Are you serious?” I can’t even wrap my brain around what is going on. She wants me to sign an NDA not to talk about our relationship? “Little late, everyone knows.”
Her lips tighten. I told Nick after the first time I slept with her back in LA, when he was going through all the shit with his bio dad. And it came up one night at McAllister’s when the whole band was together. I took some shit for it, Madison is hot, we all agreed years ago we’d fuck her if we got the chance.
No one could believe I’d talked my way into her bed. I never told anyone we kept hooking up. Mostly to respect Madison wanted it kept quiet. It was no skin off my nose.
“No one fucking cares,” I add.
“This isn’t just about the intimate relations.”
I bark out a laugh, no amusement in the sound that comes out of me. “Intimate relations?”
I take a step towards her, she is regretting sitting down now because I tower over her. I lower my voice as I lean in. “Do you mean when I made you come so hard, you called me God? Or the time when I ate your cunt until you cried, Madison.”
I can show her vulgar, she’s so damn cold though, if my words affect her, she doesn’t show it. She is a fucking statue.
“Read it, sign it, and send it back to me by the end of the day.”
“Get fucked, Madison.”