Page 35 of The Damaged Billionaire's Obsession
The thought of losing that control sends flashes of unspeakable pain and horror spearing through my head, making me grind my teeth to get through it.
First, Will was nowhere to be found, and then, I got into my office to find that all the lights were left on and the blinds up. I dimmed the lights until my eyes adjusted to the darkness,irritation settling in my gut, although I can't exactly blame her for leaving the lights on.
But this? How much of a mess can one tiny woman make in an hour?
“Bonnie,” I growl under my breath. My heart races, and I fist my suddenly trembling fingers. It’s crazy, but the sight of litter or disarray in my private space is like being repeatedly pierced in the back of the head with an imaginary blunt needle. The same way I feel when I can’t understand or control a situation.
This feeling is the exact reason I avoided her from the start, and especially since the night in the kitchen. I’ve denied myself the pleasure of seeing her and being near her. Hell, even the edge of her sharp tongue now leaves a delicious sting on my skin.
I’ve avoided all that because, with Bonnie, nothing is conventional or predictable.
Ever since she lifted that single, perfectly arched eyebrow and delivered her first jab, I’ve had an insane need to tear through that cold veneer of hers and drag out the sultry woman lurking underneath the surface.
The woman I caught a glimpse of three weeks ago in that kitchen.
Since that evening, the need for her has morphed into an obsession. A compulsion. The complete opposite of my need to put things together. This woman, I’d like to break open.
Which is why I’ve avoided her like the plague for both our sakes.
Until she starts to hound me to get a software update. She’s moved the senior executives to a new encrypted platform to exchange secure messages, and I’m the only one not on the platform. The new hardware looks sleek and nice.
I haven’t even had a chance to see what she’s done, but I know it’ll be brilliant. I have to admit, she’s one of the smartest people I’ve met—too bad she drives me fucking nuts.
I can’t even sit at the desk without getting a splitting headache from all the smudges on it.
In a fog of fury, I type a curt message summoning her.
It doesn’t take long. She comes in with her dark eyes flashing. I get that she doesn't like being summoned like a dog.
Well, I don’t like feeling like I’m wearing a torture helmet, either.
She lifts an insolent eyebrow “You barked?”
I can’t help the way my eyes rake over her. She’s wearing a black, long-sleeved top that ends in a knot above her belly button, which is adorned with a glittering ring. Her toned legs are encased in leather and her feet are in flat red loafers.
Christ. How is anyone able to get work done around her? I know she doesn’t dress any more differently than the other women on the tech floors dress, but everything about Bonnie is just obscenely sexy. Even her unruly pixie cut is such a turn-on.
But first, there are more pressing matters to address.
“What’s this?” I ask, looking around my dirty office.
“What’s what, Ethan?” she snaps.
“Did you, or did you not have lunch in here?”
“Yes, I worked through lunch. That’s what you wanted, right?”
“And so you thought it was okay to eat in here?” My bottom jaw is starting to hurt from grinding my teeth so much.
She looks at me like she would a slow child. “What, did you expect that I’d work through my lunchandalso starve?”
“What I expect is that you clean up after yourself.”
She looks around, perplexed. For a moment I feel a need to explain to her why what she did here is a trigger for me. Why she needs to stay away and when I tweak her schedule to ensure she's far from me, she needs to work with me.
I wonder what nickname she'd come up with if I told her that.
I squash that need, determined to push her as far away as possible. I reach into the drawer, and pull out a perfectlyfolded square, pushing it across the desk. She collects it without thinking, then after a moment begins to unfold it. Her eyes widen in surprise when she sees that it's a trash bag.