Filed to story: Sinful Mates (Imogen) Book by Jessica Hall
I don’t have a choice at the moment. “Fine,” I say through gritted teeth. This is so degrading and embarrassing. I have never accepted a handout, and it’s killing me inside that I’m being forced to.
Tobias nods, accepting my answer. “Theo will take you home and help you unpack. I will see you in the morning.” He chuckles for some unknown reason. I raise an eyebrow at him. Theo motions for me to follow and I do. Walking into the foyer, Theo grabs my handbag that I keep under my desk and helps himself into it, fishing out my keys.
“We will go get your car from the storage locker, then head to your new apartment.” I roll my eyes at him but follow anyway. What else can I do? The elevator trip down to the ground floor is silent, I don’t want to speak to him. When the doors open, Theo grabs my hand and pulls me towards the exit. I must admit I like his big hand holding mine. Weird, it is a little chilly. I would have imagined it to be hot. He keeps rubbing circles into the back of my hand while he tugs me along.
He walks through the park cutting through the woods taking my short cut towards the storage facility. Has he been this way before? I can’t really picture Theo in his suit just marching through here, and what possible reason would he have to walk through the woods to a storage facility in the first place? It is literally the only thing there on the other side of the small forest.
He moves too fast for me, I jog to keep up with his long strides. When we come to the mesh fence, he stops. He sniffs the air for a second. I observe him closely, it is such a strange thing to do, but if it’s a tick, I don’t want to embarrass him. I open my mouth to tell him where the entry is, when he spins around and strides towards the broken bit of fence. He pauses and runs his fingers over a piece of wire that sticks out. The same wire that slashed me open. I’m filled with the desire to find a pair of wire clippers and kill the thing for causing me all this trouble. It doesn’t make sense but I have nowhere else to vent my rage.
“I take it this is where you received that cut?” Theo questions, pulling me from my violent wire-ripping daydreams. I nod to his question, but stop, how did he know that? I can barely see any blood on it. Shaking my thoughts out of my head, he pulls the mesh aside and I step through the opening. He pauses, grabbing that bit of wire and snapping it off from the fence like it is a stick. Huh, maybe my blood weakened the wire or something? Not wanting to be left behind, I hurry to catch up again.
I walk over to my car, which is still sitting in the garage inside. I turn to retrieve my keys, knowing I’ll have to use my last twenty dollars in my account to put fuel in my beast. I’ll just have to survive on water until payday. What other choice do I have? I turn around with my hand out, and wait.
Theo cocks his head to the side, examining my car. “This is what you drive? It has more dents than a golf ball.” I roll my eyes at him and snatch my keys from his hand. Unlocking my car, I walk around to the passenger side. Theo follows and watches as I frantically try to clean the passenger floorboard.
I toss clothes and empty bottles of liquor over the seat and into the back. When I finish, I stand back and motion for him to get in. I’m tempted to bow like he’s some prince, but my side hurts too much for that kind of childish behavior.
“What?” I snap when he just stands there staring. He’s probably never taken a ride in a vehicle like this. So what, it’s his fault about this entire situation. Him and Tobias both are determined to ruin my life and I can’t do anything about it since they hold my job captive.
He shakes his head and climbs in. The seat is scooted all the way forward and his knees are nearly pressed to his chest. He pulls the lever to slide the chair back but grabs the wrong one and is thrown backwards with enough force for his head to bounce off the headrest and he’s stuck in a reclining position. I snort, laughing at his unamused face.
He looks funny enough crammed into my tiny car. But this? This is comedy gold. I’m loving every minute of it. He cocks his eyebrow, not finding the funny side. I slam the door and walk over to the driver’s side and hop in. Theo adjusts the chair and finally manages to get the seat to slide back, giving him enough room to put his legs down. Regardless, he looks squished in my Civic and everytime I glance over, I chuckle to myself.
Putting the key in the ignition, I turn it over. My car starts and the fuel light turns on. Pulling out, I drive to the closest gas station. Theo glances around my car, studying the loads of crap I have stored in it. He opens the glovebox, well, that’s rude. I try to warn him, but it’s too late. Paperwork that I’d stuffed in there shoots out like a confetti all over him, his lap, and the floor. I snort while laughing again and he slowly turns towards me. Theo holds up the glove compartment door in his hand that’s no longer attached to the car.
I stop laughing and rub my dash. “You have to be gentle with her. Stop going through everything.” I want to add he’s being nosy but keep it to myself. He’s still my boss and I’m probably in enough trouble for openly laughing at him twice now.
“Gentle? There is nothing gentle about this car. What did you do to it? It’s falling apart at the seams. I’m surprised it even runs.” He clicks his tongue and shakes his head.
How dare he! My baby has got me through too much to be talked about like that. “Leave my car alone. Hey, I said stop going through my stuff!” I growl as he rummages through the back. Turning back to the front, he holds out a pair of my panties and an empty bottle of vodka. I see red.
“Looks like someone was having fun back there,” he chuckles, swinging them around on his finger. I snatch my panties out of his hand. I seriously consider taking the empty bottle and bashing it over his head. What right does he have to go through my things? My panties! Thank God he didn’t grab a used pair. I can only imagine what Mr. Sniffer would do with that. How could I ever fantasize about this asshole? I jerk the wheel and turn, making my car squeal from the mistreatment but at least I get to see Theo be crushed against the window, his eyes wide at the suddenness of it all. Serves him right! I park by a pump and pop the cap as I scramble out and away from him.
I fill it up, trying to calm myself down, completely ignoring Theo. He can rust inside the car as far as I care. At this point I don’t even care if he wants to fire me. He pushed me too far. The tank clicks, letting me know it’s full and I set everything back, prepared to go spend the last of my funds to feed the beast. Hopefully, this apartment of theirs won’t be too far that I spend all my income on gas. I can survive on water for one week, but more than that and I’ll be the one in the hospital.
Just as I reach the station doors, out steps Theo. “Come on, I paid already. Let’s see if that death trap will start again.” He says, ignoring me and walking past me towards my car. I watch him open the driver side door and slide in and my eye twitches. Maybe I should be grateful he paid for the gas, but his smugness is just too much to deal with after the day I had.
“You don’t know where we are going, hand the keys over.” I look down at my keys clutched in my hand. “I’ll be gentle, I promise,” he says, emphasizing the word gentle and rubbing my car’s dash. I throw my keys at his chest, which he easily catches and scramble into the passenger side. The drive to the apartment block isn’t long, only about ten-minutes. So the gas will be able to last a while at least. When we pull up to the front of the apartment block, I gasp.
The place looks like some fancy hotel. All white with beautiful hedges and gardens full of roses. It also has a roundabout driveway with a valet out front.
Theo pulls up next to the man. The guy’s lip curls when Theo tosses him the keys. I feel more embarrassed knowing a stranger is going to see the state of my car. Shit, the panties! I wrench around in my seat and grab the damned things, cramming them into my pocket. I can’t find my bag for some reason.
Theo walks over to my side of the car, my handbag slung over his shoulder like he owns it. Reaching towards me, he grabs my hand and pulls me toward the entrance. There’s no other choice but to follow him and see what else awaits me on this horrible day.
Once inside, Theo pulls me towards a desk sitting in the large foyer. Is this how it’s going to be from now on, Theo just pulling me wherever he wants me like I’m some damned pet? Off the side of the desk are some elevators, I can see my own reflection in the stainless-steel doors. Suffice to say, I have something else to be embarrassed about. I look down feeling very out of place. Theo is talking to the receptionist. The place is indeed like a hotel with its red and gold d?cor and thick black carpets.
Turning around, Theo thanks the woman, who’s eyeing me with the fakest smile plastered on her face. “Come, the movers left everything in the apartment.” I follow after him. I’m on the bottom floor, which I’m relieved about, as I always thought apartment buildings were fire traps.
Stopping in front of a black door, Theo pops the key in and opens the door. He strides in and turns the lights on. Stepping inside, the room is spacious, the carpets are a dark smoky gray color with lighter gray walls and white trim. A bookshelf sits on the wall in the living room. The place is open plan, and I can see the marble counters in the kitchen at the back of the apartment from the living room.
There are three doors that Theo walks over to, opening them one after the other like he’s some stage magician. One is a huge bathroom with large black tiles on the floor and gray tiles on the walls. The bathroom has a large shower that can easily fit a few people and a garden bathtub off to the side. I’m not looking forward to having to scrub those tiles. It may be pretty to look at but it’s going to be a real bitch to clean.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?