by Tara Sue Me
I snorted. “Accosted, my ass. He was assaulting her or getting ready to. However you want to put it, he was in her room, she asked him to leave, and he didn’t, so I took care of it. I threw him out of her room, and yes, I may have been a little rough, but Mia was safe and I’d do it again the same way if I had the chance to do it over. Except I might actually hit him if given the chance.”
Piers nodded as if he’d already heard the story. “Yes, he said that’s the story you’d tell.”
“Of course I would. It’s what happened. What I don’t understand is why he felt the need to send you an email only to say I was physical with him when he was clearly in the wrong.” I didn’t understand one damn thing about this entire conversation other than the fact that it was making me angry and I was about to lose my shit all over Piers.
“The thing is, Douglas claims it wasn’t assault.”
“Horse shit. I was there. I saw it. I heard it.”
But Piers was shaking his head. “According to Douglas, it was consensual non-consent.”
“What?”
“In the kink world it’s when two or more people agree to engage in non-consent play. Some women have rape fantasies. A scene like this would allow her a safe way to explore it.”
“I know what consensual non-consent is, nimwit.”
He held his hands up. “You asked what.”
“As in, what the fuck?” I closed my eyes trying to calm down and make sense of what I’d just been told. I didn’t believe it, not for one second. The memory of the fear in Mia’s eyes and the way her body shook beside mine while we sat on the couch after, was too vivid and real. I opened my eyes and looked at Piers. “I don’t believe it.”
But as much as I didn’t believe it was role play, it was obvious he did. “Douglas said she didn’t tell you because she was embarrassed. Especially after you threw him out. She was afraid of what you’d think of her and that you wouldn’t understand.”
“I’m still not buying it. You don’t get why because you didn’t see her. I did. I was there. It was real.” There was no part of me that could for one fraction of a second think she’d been acting.
“Maybe she’s a really good actress,” he said and before I could tell him no one was that good, he asked, “Have the two of you done any role play? I’m only asking to verify if it’s something she’s into.”
It was one my lips to say ‘no’ when I had a flashback of Mia in the moonlight, her expression playful and her voice full of mischief as she asked, “Come here often?” But surely that didn’t prove anything. “Come on,” I said to him. “Be reasonable for just a minute. Do you know how many people role play? Seriously? If that’s all you have, I can’t believe they let you out of law school.”
Piers wasn’t backing down, not one little bit and the only possible reason as to why hit me with the force of a speeding train. He had more. Fuck.
“Hit me with the rest of it, Piers.” I didn’t want to hear anymore, but whatever it was had been important enough for him to make sure he was here when I arrived. And I had a bad feeling I hadn’t heard the worst of it.
“Let’s go sit down.” Piers motioned toward my kitchen table.
“What the fuck’s wrong with you? How old do you think I am, ninety? Tell me what else you have that is so important and so damning that you had to be waiting for me in my fucking driveway so you could attack me without even giving me a chance to put my suitcase down.” I shouldn’t have been mad at him, but unfortunately, he was the only one present at the moment, so he was the one who had to deal with my wrath.
“Mia told Douglas she knew you wanted to sleep with her and she didn’t know how to get out of it.” He was very calm as he spoke, eerily calm. “If you slept with her last night, I’m fairly certain it was a set up.”
I froze in place. This was what happened when I acted without regard for my career and my company and the name I’d worked so hard to build. All those years of doing the right thing, saying the right thing, and for always standing firm, even when it was hard, all those years could so easily be wiped away with one bad decision. “Did he say what they wanted?” I asked, even though I still couldn’t believe it to be a set up. Maybe if we’d only done it once, but I had her three times. Three.
“He hasn’t made any demands yet, but I’m sure they’ll be coming. He probably wanted to wait for her to get home.” He took a deep breath. “I feel partially responsible. I never should have let you hire her. It was too much. How else could we have expected her to act when she had no other choice but to work for you?”
It made sense when I looked at it from that perspective. I’d taken away her business, her livelihood, shortly after her mother died. For the first time in her life she was alone and I’d done nothing but taken more away from her.
“I did think it was very strange that Benjamin Douglas just happened to show up right as we were checking in.” Had she really faked the excitement when she saw him? Damn, she was an excellent actress, but I was still pissed that I hadn’t been able to see through her. Not to mention, I was embarrassed she might have been faking with me. “What do we do now?”
Piers straightened his jacket. “We aren’t going to do anything. I’m going to take care of this for you.”
“No, I can’t let you do that.” It would be wrong of me to not talk to Mia and hear her side of the story. I owed her that much. No matter how convincing Piers sounded, I needed to see her eyes when I asked her. “Absolutely not.”
“I think this is a mistake,” he said. “You should let me take care of it.”
“It’s a mistake I made. I’ll take care of it.” But not today. Today the memory of the night before was too strong and I feared I wouldn’t be able to be objective. I’d work from home the rest of the day and talk with Mia in the office first thing tomorrow. “I’ll call you in the morning as soon as I talk with her.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re not going in today?”
“No, I don’t think that would be the wisest thing for me to do.”
“I understand.” He paused for minute and then smiled. “Why don’t you let me take you out to lunch? I feel bad for dropping this on you.”
“No thanks. I appreciate the offer, but I’d be rotten company. And no need to apologize, I know you have my back. I’m grateful to have you on my side.” Even so, I still let out a sigh of relief when he left.
Maybe in the silence of my house I could piece together what happened and locate at what point it went horribly bad.
16
MIA
* * *
Sara smiled brightly when I made it into the office two hours after landing. In those two hours, I’d showered, unpacked, and had an ugly cry. Not necessarily in that order. I’d also told myself that we were back in Boston and that meant not dwelling on what happened in Atlanta. Initially, I’d told myself I wouldn’t even think about what happened in Atlanta, but that hadn’t seemed reasonable or likely, so I’d settled on dwell.
“Is Mr. Butler in yet?” I asked her, while trying to act like my heart wasn’t nearly pounding out of my chest at simply saying his name.
Her smile faltered. “No, he called about an hour ago and said he’d be working from home the rest of the day.”
That fucker. “Really?” I asked, managing to keep the smile on my face. “I’ll just call him there then.”
I moved past her and into the hall that led to my office. All in all, I thought I handled my first encounter back in the office, post boss sex, very well. I recalled everything I said, my tone of voice, and body language, and decided there was nothing that even remotely suggested I’d left his bed hours ago.
I felt pretty good when I pushed open the door to my office and stepped inside. I froze, however, at the sight of the man sitting at my desk and looking for all the world as if he belonged there. At first sight, one would think he was comfortable and relaxed, however, the longer I looked at him, I saw it was only an act. He was only pretending to be at ease. Th
ere was a tremor of energy that ran through him he might think he hid, but it didn’t work. At least not on me.
Only secondarily did I take in his looks. On another man, the nondescript brown hair and eyes would be considered unfortunate at best and boring at least. However, on him the features became striking and boring became anything but.
“Hello, Mia,” he said, proving it was my office he intended to be. I tried to place his slight accent, but failed. “I’m Piers Worthington, Bachelor International’s head of legal counsel. Why don’t you close the door so we can talk privately?”
Legal counsel? My brain threatened to short circuit. “I’d rather keep it open if it’s all the same with you.”
He shrugged. “It’s completely up to you. I thought you might not want the rest of the office to hear about how you and Mr. Butler spent your time in Atlanta.”
I stood dumbstruck. Did Tenor call his legal counsel first thing when he walked in the door to his house? I couldn’t believe it. There was no way. Unless… this Piers guy wasn’t talking about Tenor and I having sex after all.
I worked to keep my voice steady, even though inside I was shaking. “Mr. Butler and I did a lot of things in Atlanta. You’ll have to be a bit more specific.”
“Before he hired you, I advised Mr. Butler that if he wanted to fuck you that he do it before you signed the employment contract.” Piers’ expression showed no emotion. “It didn’t happen that way, did it, Mia?”
I turned around and shut the office door. Tenor had told him. Not only had he told him and not only was it one of the first things he did when he arrived home, but he didn’t even have the courage to come in and face me. Damn his lying, good for nothing, ass. He sent his lawyer to do his dirty work. How had I so badly misjudged him?
“What do you want Mr. Worthington?” I asked him, even though I really didn’t want to know.
“I want what I’ve always wanted, Mia. Whatever is best for Mr. Butler and his business interests.” He smile was fake, I could see right through it.
“I fail to see how that has anything to do about our time in Atlanta.”
“I know about Benjamin Douglas,” he said as if that explained everything. All it really did was confuse me more. But when I started to say something, he held up a hand to stop me. “Let me talk for a few minutes. You see, you and I are a lot alike. In fact, between the three of us, you and I are a lot more alike than Tenor is to either one of us. You and I didn’t grow up the way he did. We weren’t born into a wealthy lifestyle. We weren’t given the best of everything growing up. We had to work and fight for every little thing, didn’t we?”
I had no idea where this conversation was going and I knew nothing about this Piers guy, other than he seemed like a dick. I wasn’t about to engage in this conversation. I remained silent, but stood where I was and crossed my arms over my chest so I wouldn’t hit him, and waited for him to continue. I tapped my foot, each tap a second closer to the time I could tell him to get the hell out of my office.
“A person who grows up like that is very different than a person who grows up like Tenor,” he continued on, not minding that I’d ignored his question. “Tenor sees things differently than you and I do. He’ll never understand why you acted the way you did.”
The way I acted when? I wanted to ask, but the entire conversation dumbfounded me.
“But I get you. I do. And I understand why you did it. Because of that, I’m going to do something for you that Tenor never would.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, glad that I had finally found my voice.
“Come on, Mia. You can drop the innocent lines with me. I know everything. He told me.” His tone was gentler now. He wanted me to trust him.
Fat chance.
“Tenor?” I asked, even though I didn’t know who else he’d be talking about.
“No. Not Tenor. I know about the plans you made with Benjamin Douglas.”
I shivered remembering his rough hands on me and my voice was small when I replied. “I still don't know what you're talking about.”
“There's no reason to hide the truth from me. I've already told you I understand. Frankly, I think just about anyone in your situation would do the same thing.” His voice was soothing as if he wanted to put me at ease, but it wasn’t genuine. His tone smacked of insincerity, no matter what he tried to convince me otherwise. “You lost your mother and business partner. Then you find out she had taken a sizable loan from one of your competitors.” He shook his head. “It's a vexing situation to find yourself in.”
“I still don’t—"
“Stop.” He interrupted. “I'm letting you out of your contract."
He paused, obviously expecting me to say something, but I had no words.
“The agreement is this: You are released from the requirement to work for Tenor. In addition, I make the quarter of a million go away. You have ten thousand in your bank account. My recommendation is that you use it to get out of Boston. Go somewhere new. Make a new start.”
He made it sound so tempting. But nothing came without a cost. I didn’t know what to do. I needed to talk to Tenor, but that seemed less and less likely. It was too hard to think at the moment. “What do I have to do in order for this to happen?”
“Simple.” He smiled. “You stay away from Tenor. You leave him alone and that means Douglas does as well.”
“What's in this for you?” I asked because I knew he had to be getting something. He wasn't doing this for completely altruistic reasons and I’d yet to figure out how Benjamin played into all of this.
“Bachelor International is safe,” he said. “But most important, Tenor is safe. He's one of the few remaining gentlemen and I don't like to see him taken advantage of.”
Every word that came out of Piers’ mouth did nothing but add to my confusion and anger. According to him, I was nothing more than a scam artist, always looking for my next target. “This deal makes it sound like I’m guilty of something and I’m not. What if I don’t take it?” I asked.
“I don't suggest that.”
“I didn't think you would and that wasn't my question."
“If you don't sign, I will make sure you wished you had. Remember when I said I grew up the same as you?” He waited for my nod before answering. “Growing up I met a lot of different people. Not all of them were model citizens then and they are even less so today. I'm still in contact with a good number of them. They aren't the type of people you'd like to meet alone, if you know what I mean.”
His voice was still just as calm as it had always been. It was a bit unnerving for him to be so calm when I was anything but. Especially after that last statement. He didn’t say anything else, just raised his eyebrow. I swallowed hard. “Are you threatening me?”
“Absolutely not. The only thing I’m doing is telling you what will happen if you don’t take the deal.”
“It sorta sounds like the same thing from where I’m standing,” I said with a lot more calm than I felt. I didn’t know what to think or what to do. And for the first time in my life I didn’t have anyone to ask for help.
What made Tenor change his mind from the short period of time from his bedroom to his house? And even then, why did he first go to his lawyer instead of coming to me? A hundred other similar questions ran through my head. Like how did Benjamin Douglas fit into this conversation? Piers shouldn’t even know the man’s name. Unfortunately, no matter what the question was, the detail that laid the foundation for the problem never changed: Tenor didn’t want me anymore. Not just working for his business, not just in his bed, but he didn’t want any kind of relationship with me.
My chest tightened and it hurt. It hurt so bad. But what hurt the most was, in the end the decision was made for me. If he had been at least willing to talk to me, I’d be willing to try to stick it out and uphold my end of the contract. But what viable option did I have other than to take Piers’ offer?
I took a deep breath. “I don’t feel as i
f I have a choice in this matter.”
Piers templed his fingers on my desk. “Don’t be dramatic, Mia. You always have a choice. No, you don’t have to take my offer, but let’s not forget, it was your choices that put you in this position in the first place.”
Not totally true, I wanted to argue. Mama had made the choice to involve Tenor without even asking my opinion in the matter. I didn’t tell Piers any of that, though, because one, it was my mother and two, she was dead. It didn’t seem fair to lay all the blame at her feet with her not able to defend herself.
“Fine,” I told Piers and suddenly my legs were wobbly and I’d give anything to crawl back into bed. Probably mostly due to only having two hours of sleep the night before, but I refused to think about that right now. Especially with Piers in the room. “Just tell me what I need to do so I can get out of here and try to pretend as if the last few weeks haven’t happened.”
17
Tenor
* * *
It took damn near all night but by the time the sun came up I had a workable plan, or at least, I hoped it was. I hurried through getting dressed, wanting to get to the office before Mia did.
My plan was to go into her office as soon as she arrived, close the door, and have a long talk about the allegations Piers had been all too happy to throw her way. The fact that I thought she was innocent would carry zero weight. I needed to talk to Mia in order to try and understand what the hell Benjamin Douglas thought he was doing.
Sara wasn’t at her desk when I walked into the office, but that wasn’t surprising since I was so early. I stopped by the break room to make some coffee before I started my wait for Mia.
Three hours later she still hadn’t arrived. Deep inside I knew something was wrong an hour and a half into my wait, but I decided to give her a little more time. When I could no longer pretend everything was okay, I walked back to the front to Sara’s desk.