Beyond Broken(19)

"I told you-"

"Do we have to get into it already?" she asked, swinging her purse down by the door. "I just got here. Surely we can have an argument in, let's say, an hour from now? It'll be a nice break."

Why that little …

"Also, I'm eventually going to need a computer today once I get everything organized. Shall I use yours?"

Caleb could feel a muscle ticking in his jaw. "There's a laptop you can use," he said, begrudgingly.

"Perfect. Does it have a bookkeeping program on it?"

"Yes." At least he thought so. His uncle had used it often enough in the office.

Maddie nodded once and then she turned towards the stack of boxes she'd been looking through yesterday. Immediately, she returned to work. And just like yesterday, Caleb watched her out of the corner of his eye, feeling like some crazy, perverted stalker.

As she thumbed through the stacks, Caleb noticed her nails were painted a bright red and his cock hardened. In his mind, he saw them raking down his chest as she was screaming though the force of her orgasm.

That bothered him. For one, he hadn't had sex with a woman whose hands weren't bound in some way for almost ten years. Even Charlotte, his high school girlfriend, that treacherous, backstabbing bitch, had allowed him to tie her to the bed. To fantasize about Maddie, freed and uncontrollable, was troubling.

But the image was so vivid in his mind that he cursed, drawing Maddie's attention, before she turned away again.

Caleb didn't consider himself a Dom by any means. He was only into the 'B' in BDSM and it wasn't necessarily a kink as it was a necessity. If women were free to touch his body or act on their desires when he wasn't prepared, he'd, for lack of a better term, flag.

None of this answered the disturbing question as to why he had this unnatural obsession with the brunette in his office, however. He gave one last look at her nails and then forced himself to look away. If he acted on his impulses, it would be disastrous. For both of them. So he did the next best thing and ignored them.

For an hour, they worked in complete silence. The clock on the far wall ticked to seven and that was when he felt Maddie's eyes on him. He met her gaze, raising a sardonic brow in question.

"An hour has gone by," she informed him with a small smile gracing her pink lips. "You may start an argument now, if you'd like."

His own lips almost quirked up in amusement but then he caught himself.

She mocked gasped. "Did I almost get a smile?"

"Has anyone ever told you how obnoxious you are?"

"My brother tells me almost every day."

So, she had a brother. Caleb didn't know why he found himself filing that piece of information away.

"Get back to work," he grumbled.

She approached his desk. "What, no scathing remark? No complaint about how I breathe too loudly or that I breathe at all? Come on, there must be something."

Just to appease her, he said, "Now that you mention it, I hate the way you rustle through papers. Fix it."

"Did you just make a joke?" she asked. Her eyes were twinkling with merriment and Caleb didn't remember the last time he'd talked to a woman with that look of ease on her face. Sure, he'd socialized with his friends' girlfriends, but he only interacted with them sparingly, and they knew to keep their distance. "Why, Caleb, I'm shocked."



       
         
       
        

The sound of his name rolling off her tongue did things to him. More things than what she already did to him. He was glad there was a desk between them because for more than a brief moment he entertained the notion of bending her over it.

Again, that feeling of discomfort came over him.

"Well, you'll be pleased to know that I won't be rustling through papers as much. I think I've finished organizing and I'll need that laptop you said you had."

"You should go home," he found himself saying. Maybe he wouldn't feel this way if she was out of his office. Out of his immediate reach. "You can start with the laptop tomorrow."

She cocked her head to the side. "I'd rather start tonight."

"Why? I thought you'd love getting out of here as quickly as you could."

"I'd just like to get a jumpstart while all of this," she waved a hand behind her at the newly organized and stacked boxes, "is fresh in my mind. Besides, I have fewer lectures tomorrow, so I don't have a ton of work to finish tonight. Tomorrow night is a different story though and I might be a little late getting here because I have to meet with a professor around four in the afternoon. I forgot to mention that but-"