Devastated (Anger Management Book 1)

by R. L. Mathewson

  So, when she’d shown up bright and early this morning, dragging herself into his gym without waiting for him to summon her, his respect for her had doubled. Without a word, he’d climbed onto his treadmill and started it while she did the same, periodically reaching over to pick her up when her feet gave out as he wondered what he was going to do with her.

  “Now, did you need me to contact an escort service as well?”

  Beside strangle her that is.

  “I don’t need an escort service,” Hunter bit out, narrowing his eyes on the devious little thing that was clearly enjoying herself and truth be told, so was he, probably more than he had in years.

  “No, no, of course not,” she murmured, making his lips twitch as she scribbled something on that list he’d created simply because he’d wanted to see what she would do.

  “And this personal lubricant, should I look for oil-based? Flavored? Is warming a deciding factor?” Kylie asked, as she continued making notes.

  “Surprise me,” he drawled, leaning back in his chair as he watched her.

  “Well, if that’s everything then I should probably head to the store before they run out of edible glitter,” Kylie said with that determined look in her eye that told him that this bullshit list of his hadn’t fazed her in the slightest.

  “Get back to work, brat,” Hunter said, as he reached over and snatched the list out of her hand.

  “Of course, Mr. O’Mallery,” Kylie said with a nod and a triumphant glimmer in her eye that had him giving this round to her as she stood up, gathering her things, and left his office to finish today’s list of bullshit.

  He’d get her next time, Hunter decided, as he shifted his attention to the emails that she’d flagged for him, wishing that he could call it a night, only to dismiss the idea because he could only take so much television before he lost his fucking mind. Before he’d been sentenced to house arrest, and he really wished that he’d kept walking that night instead of letting some drunk asshole take a swing at him, he’d never watched television, never had time for it. But now, that’s all that he seemed to do. He needed to find something else to do before he lost his fucking mind.

  Then again, he thought as a chime alerted him to the fact that the email that he’d been waiting for was finally here, maybe he already had.

  *-*-*-*

  She was dying, Kylie realized later that night with a small groan as she lay there, waiting for the hot water to do what five ice packs, four Advil, and a heating pad hadn’t been able to accomplish. Everything hurt from the top of her head all the way down to the tips of her toes and she had no idea how to make it stop. The only thing that she knew was that she was expected to do it all over again tomorrow.

  Oh, God…

  She couldn’t do it.

  She just couldn’t.

  But even knowing that it was most likely going to be physically impossible to move, she knew that she didn’t have a choice. She was going to have to do whatever it took to drag her ass down the hallway and back onto that treadmill because she refused to give up. Not now. So, for that alone, she would suck it up, get her ass back on that treadmill and handle everything Hunter threw at her with a smile.

  No matter how much it hurt she could do this, she told herself with a firm nod, hoping the positive affirmation would help, but unfortunately, it only reminded her that she was only a few hours away from having to jump back on that treadmill. She really didn’t want to get back on that treadmill or do another pushup, Kylie thought as she reluctantly forced herself to sit up so that she could drain the tub and call it a night. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed hold of the side of the tub and pulled herself up, biting back a gasp of pain as every muscle in her body screamed in agony.

  It took a few minutes, but she eventually managed to get a towel wrapped around herself. Once that was done, she headed for the bathroom door, wondering as she went if she should get another ice pack only to immediately dismiss the idea since it meant stairs, something that she really wasn’t sure that she was going to be able to manage at the moment.

  Telling herself that she’d be fine in the morning, she headed for her bureau and grabbed a tee shirt and a pair of panties. It took a few minutes, and a lot of squirming, but she finally managed to get dressed. Deciding that sleep was the answer, she glanced at her closed bedroom door before she managed to fall face-first on her bed. It took a few wiggles, groans, and hysterical sobs, but she finally succeeded in pulling the covers up.

  With that done, she closed her eyes with a sigh only to snap them open again out of habit to make sure that the lights were still on and that there was no one standing by the side of her bed. Once she assured herself that everything was as it should be, she pulled her blankets up to her chin and reluctantly closed her eyes, doing her best not to think about all those things that she’d really rather not think about.

  Chapter 10

  “Good morning, Mr. O’Mallery,” the woman who he couldn’t figure out said with one of those forced smiles that he really fucking hated as she slowly, ever so fucking slowly, walked into the room and headed for the second treadmill.

  As he watched Kylie try to climb onto the treadmill, he couldn’t help but think about everything that he’d learned about her last night after he’d taken a quick look into her background. At least now he knew why she’d taken this job. She was beyond fucking desperate. He also knew that she was twenty-seven, had been divorced for five years, separated for a year before that, had great references, had a decent bank account, and didn’t have a single emergency contact on file. It was more than he knew about any of his employees and should have been enough to satisfy his curiosity. But, as he stood there watching her while she struggled to raise her foot so that she could climb onto the treadmill, he realized something important.

  He was beyond fucking intrigued.

  “What are you doing?” Hunter asked when she gave up trying to raise her right foot, shifted awkwardly, closed her eyes and bit her lip with a wince, and he was guessing a silent prayer, as she tried to raise the left one.

  “Nothing,” Kylie said weakly, as she opened her eyes and gave him another forced smile as she threw the treadmill a nervous look that clearly said it all.

  “What did you eat after we worked out yesterday?” Hunter asked, already heading to the small refrigerator in the corner.

  “Advil,” Kylie said, making his lips twitch as he grabbed a protein shake from the fridge and handed it to her.

  “You need protein after a workout if you want to be able to move the next day,” Hunter explained only to sigh heavily and take the bottle back from her when it became obvious that she wasn’t going to be able to open it.

  “Thank you,” she said with a shy smile as he handed it back to her.

  “Go lay down before you pass out,” he reluctantly said, as he shifted his attention to his own treadmill, wondering how he was going to manage to get through another day of this bullshit sentence when movement from his right drew his attention.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he couldn’t help but ask as he watched the woman who should be making her escape grab onto the treadmill and tried to pull herself onto it.

  “Working,” Kylie said with that determined look in her eye that he was becoming familiar with as she dragged herself up and-

  “How about we just have you going back to taking notes during the morning meeting?” Hunter suggested, wondering if he should pick her up only to shrug it off when she managed to roll off the treadmill with a pained groan and a mumbled, “Okay.”

  *-*-*-*

  April

  Maybe she should see if he wanted something for lunch?

  “Do your fucking job!”

  Maybe not, Kylie decided with a sympathetic wince for whoever was on the other end of that phone call. Doing her best to ignore the large angry man pacing in front of her desk, she shifted her attention back to the email that she was supposed to be reading and resisted the urge to sigh as she deleted it since
it was no longer relevant because that’s what she did.

  Busy work.

  That’s all she did, all day, every day, which was probably the reason why she was bored out of her mind. Every day was the same. She got up, told herself that today would be different, got dressed, grabbed her iPad, forced a smile on her face, and reminded herself that things could be worse as she wrote down all the tasks that he gave her to keep her busy and out of his way before she did it all over again the next day. Whenever she made the mistake of offering to do more, he leveled a glare in her direction and sent her out for more honey glazed soy nuts by a company that didn’t exist.

  So, instead of doing the job that she’d been hired for, she was going through old emails and running the occasional errand when she should be helping him, making phone calls, and doing anything and everything that he needed help with to ensure that his business was running smoothly. Instead, Kylie was sitting here, looking through old emails and doing her best to pretend that she didn’t see the large stack of files on the coffee table that had her boss reducing another unfortunate soul to tears over.

  “You didn’t send the file!” Hunter snapped, barely sparing a glance at the stack of files that she would love to get her hands on, but unfortunately for her, it just wasn’t meant to be. With that depressing thought in mind, she deleted the next email and decided to grab something for lunch before she moved onto the next batch of sexually explicit emails meant to entice her boss into becoming someone’s sugar daddy.

  “You didn’t send the fucking Rerum Corp file over!” Hunter snapped angrily as he stormed back her way right around the time that she decided to take the scenic route back around the desk, through the sitting area and past that stack of files where she came to a stop.

  “Find the fucking file or find a new job!”

  Deciding that she’d rather spend the next four hours hitting grocery stores looking for phantom nuts instead of listening to him yell, Kylie knelt down by the coffee table, and quickly searched through the stack of files until she found the file that he was looking for. Once she pulled it out, she quickly headed towards the nearest exit, pressing the file into Hunter’s hand as she made her escape and quickly made her way to the kitchen. When he didn’t yell for her to come back, Kylie decided that she had time for a quick bite. After she whipped herself up a sandwich, she grabbed a bowl of grapes, and after a slight hesitation, she grabbed another plate and made him a sandwich, because even though he was an asshole, he actually wasn’t that bad.

  In the past five years, she’d had six different bosses who’d treated her like crap, talked down to her, snapped at her, and went out of their way to make her life a living hell simply because they could. They’d never succeeded, but not for a lack of trying. They simply didn’t have what it took. Hunter O’Mallery on the other hand…

  Could very easily make her life a living hell thanks to that contract that she couldn’t figure a way out of, but so far, the only horrible thing that he’d done to her was make her get up before the crack of dawn, exercise, and fill her day with boring, repetitive busywork to keep her out of his hair. This probably wouldn’t end up being her favorite memory, but it sure as hell wouldn’t be her worst. Realizing where her thoughts were heading, she forced herself to focus on making lunch.

  Normally, they grabbed their own food, but she knew that if she didn’t make him something that he’d probably forget to eat. After she made him a sandwich, she rinsed another bowl of grapes, added a bowl of chips, and made a glass of chocolate milk for him since that’s what he usually drank for lunch when he actually remembered to eat, which wasn’t often. When she was done, Kylie placed everything on the tray that she normally used so that she could eat alone in her room and headed back to the office where she found him sitting at the coffee table, glaring down at whatever was in that file she’d handed him.

  After she placed her food on the desk along with the bottle of water she’d grabbed for herself, she carried the tray over to the sitting area and placed it on the coffee table, noted that his glare was now directed at her, and bit back another sigh as she headed back to the desk where a fun-filled day of sorting through old emails awaited her. Picking up her sandwich, she took a bite, moved onto the next email and-

  “What did you do to it?” her boss demanded as he placed the plate of food that she’d made for him on the desk in front of her.

  “Made it?” Kylie said, not really sure what he was asking.

  “Did you spit in it?” Hunter asked, as he narrowed his eyes on her.

  “Was I supposed to?” she couldn’t help but ask.

  “Drop it?”

  “No,” Kylie asked, unable to help but frown at this point.

  For a moment, Hunter didn’t say anything as he continued to stand there, glaring at her until she considered offering to find those soy nuts for him when he reached over and plucked the sandwich out of her hand before he stole her plate and headed back to the couch, leaving her sitting there, admittedly confused. That is until he turned right back around and returned her plate.

  “There’s no mayonnaise,” he said accusingly as he stole his original plate back, took a bite out of the sandwich that she’d made for him, glared at her, and went back to the couch and devoured his lunch all while glaring in her direction.

  She really couldn’t win, Kylie decided with a small sigh as she picked up her sandwich and returned her attention to the email telling her boss how much the sender enjoyed it when he’d used his tongue to-

  “Have them organized by dinner,” Hunter said, as he dropped the large stack of files that she’d been eying all day on her desk before he walked away, leaving her sitting there, wondering if he would mind if she color-coordinated them, too.

  Chapter 11

  May

  There was no longer any doubt in Kylie’s mind.

  Her boss was going to hell and he was most likely going to end up taking her with him, she thought even as she did everything within her power not to do anything to encourage the large man tormenting his latest court-appointed therapist.

  “What would you like to talk about today, Hunter?” the therapist, whose name she hadn’t bothered to learn since she would probably never see him again, murmured with a sympathetic smile for the large man who had turned torturing therapists into an art form.

  Leaning back in his chair, Hunter continued glaring at the therapist until that sympathetic smile slowly slipped from his lips and he shifted nervously in his chair as he threw her another questioning glance while she sat there, doing her best to appear innocent as she stared at the computer screen. She should probably get some work done, she told herself, reluctantly forcing herself to focus on today’s deeply disturbing emails waiting for her so that she could get them out of the way.

  “How are you adapting to house arrest?” the therapist asked, as he reached up and pushed his glasses back up his nose as he moved closer to the edge of his seat, only to move right back, swallow nervously, and decide to shift his attention back to her when Hunter only continued to glare.

  “Miss Poppins?” the therapist said, making her bite back a sigh as she glanced at Hunter to find his lips twitching.

  “Yes?”

  “She likes to be called Mary,” Hunter drawled, never taking his eyes off the therapist.

  “Mary, perhaps it would be for the best if Hunter and I spoke privately?” he suggested, giving her the same apologetic smile that every therapist before him had when they’d asked her to leave.

  “She stays,” Hunter said, shifting his attention to her while she struggled to focus on the sexually explicit emails that she was supposed to be going through while he watched her every move.

  Biting back another sigh, she forced herself to focus on the email explaining just how much the sender enjoyed it when Hunter bent her over the table and-

  Decided that it would probably be for the best if she erased this email and the mental image that it created and moved onto the next email.

>   Oh…that was…that was disturbing, Kylie thought, unable to help but cringe as she started hitting delete, somewhat frantically, as the words “penetrate” and “moist” kept flashing through her mind along with all the really disturbing words that linked them together. Forcing herself to move onto the next email and-

  Quickly deleted the next one when the image of a naked bleached blonde woman with her legs spread apart and her fingers doing…things opened. Unable to help but wonder just how many women Hunter slept with, and she had to admit that she really didn’t want to know, she quickly moved onto the next email and came to the decision that she should probably look into making a doctor’s appointment for Hunter so that he could get a shot of penicillin…or maybe two.

  She should definitely make an appointment for him, Kylie decided when she clicked on the next email and winced when she saw the email describing in minute detail how much the sender liked it when Hunter used his tongue to do things that really didn’t sound like fun or sanitary.

  “Oh, that’s…that’s disturbing,” she mumbled softly, deleting it as she looked up only to find Hunter giving her the sexiest grin that she’d ever seen and-

  “Wait. Where’s your therapist?” Kylie asked, glancing around the large office, looking for the therapist that was supposed to be there.

  “Something came up,” Hunter drawled.

  “What? Oh, my God, no!” Kylie said, trying not to panic as she pushed her chair back and headed for the front door, hoping to catch the therapist before it was too late, but something, mainly the fact that the therapist was peeling out of the driveway, told her that it might already be too late.

  “Where are you going?” Hunter asked, sounding bored.

  “To stop him from leaving before it’s too late,” Kylie said, although she wasn’t really sure how she was going to do that, but she was willing to beg if that meant-