ALYSSA

There was nothing said between Andrew and myself for the rest of the day. There was just the awkward silence as neither of us really knew what to say, or even what to do, when we were around each other because we knew that, no matter what happened, it would only end in some argument between the both of us.

I did as he had demanded of me this morning on the way to the office and, surprisingly, I had managed to finish it all on time too. I had slipped the contract, which I had thoroughly checked through four times in the last two hours, onto his desk and I was now waiting for him to finish in his meeting with Darren Brent—a man who had the potential to rival Andrew for ass of the year award because of both his arrogance and his lame attempts at flirting with me when he first arrived on this floor.

I hoped, no matter how small the hope was, that for the duration of my time at the company, Andrew would only call on me when he wanted me to do something for him or when he needed my advice on something he wasn't totally sure about, perhaps there was a chance that we may at least be able to be civil with each other. But, in reality, I already knew that the best I could hope for was that we would be able to make it through the day without a smartass remark from Andrew which would, inevitably, end in an argument with him.

"Miss Lopez," I wasn't even shocked when I saw that it was Jenni who was standing in front of my desk. She had taken it upon herself to constantly make sure everything was fine with me, though I am sure she was only trying to check out the competition as so many other female employees had already done, so I didn't care for her concern and I simply wished for her to leave me the hell alone.

"Yes?" I put my pen down with a sigh. I had been making corrections to a document which I had been sent by The Board and, despite it not being anything of major importance, I would still rather have checked over the document than have some conversation with a bitch who couldn't give a damn whether I smiled or I cried.

"I just wanted to make sure everything was going well for you. I mean—"

"I'm fine. Thanks for the concern," I gave her the best smile I could muster and I crossed everything I could in the hope that she would get the message and that she would leave me alone, and that she would allow me to get on with the work which needed to be done before the end of the month.

"I know Andrew ca—"

"Not being funny, Jenni, but I don't want to hear another word about how nice Andrew is or how he's not really a bad person or, even, how I should give him a chance. I just want to be left alone so that I can finish what needs to be done because, the sooner I am done with everything, the sooner I can go home," I didn't need another lecture on Andrew because, in the last two days alone, I had obtained more than enough information to be able to write a best-selling biography on the man. And, it didn't matter how many people told me the same thing or in how many ways they told me that he was a good guy, it wasn't going to change the outlook which I had on the man.

He may have had the power to stir up feelings that I had never felt before, not even when I was with my husband and was in love with him, but that didn't mean I was going to put the effort into being his friend, especially when he was so adamant that he was going to keep me a safe distance away from him. I also didn't need a real man to do the job for me, not when I had a decent battery-operated boyfriend back home, as well as a bloody good imagination and I could imagine any man I wanted to.

"Was there anything else?" I looked away from the blonde so that I could resume with my work, signing the papers and reorganising them in way that you were able to find what you were looking for, without having to throw everything else on the floor beforehand.

"Mr Collins would like you to file these for him," Jenni added another round of papers and folders onto my desk before she turned and walked away, her heels clicking against the wooden floor and a slight sway of her hips which she probably used when there was something she wanted from Andrew himself, but that was their business and I wasn't going to get into that with either of them.

But, on the up side, I could now add her to the list of people I had managed to piss off. I hadn't even been here for two days and I was already managing to piss off the people who had worked here for years before me, I had even managed to piss off the boss himself and, if the rumours were anything to go by, I was the first person who had ever dared stand up to him in the way that I had done and I was also the first person who was brave enough to ignore him when he wanted my attention.

As I continued to make my way through the ever-mounting pile of work, which Andrew thought appropriate to thrust upon me, I found myself glancing at the clock a little too often for my liking. I knew that time would only feel slower if that's all I did for the rest of the day, but I was counting down the minutes until I had my freedom for the evening, until I could return to the solitude of my apartment and enjoy a somewhat relaxing shower.

"Ah. Miss Lopez. I would assume?" I wish that people would stop interrupting me every thirty bloody seconds. My work wasn't going to do itself and, if people kept talking to me, I was going to be here longer and I was never going to be done by the time it reached seven o'clock tonight and, because of Andrew's ridiculous attitude, he would keep me here until I had done whatever it was that he wanted me to do.

"And what can I do for you Mr—?"

"Brent. Darren Brent," I had to hand it to the guy. He was smooth and it was obvious that he had done this many times before, but I had also done this more than enough times before myself to know the sort of man that Darren Brent was, and he's a man that I don't want in my life right now because he's a man who is bad news.

"Is there something I can help you with, Mr Brent?" I was giving it my best shot at being polite, given that he was one of Andrew's best clients, and I didn't really want to be the reason that he took his services elsewhere. Andrew would never let me live that down if that happened, and my life was already hell enough here, so I wasn't looking for more reasons to make Andrew hate me.

"You're beautiful, Miss Lopez. I don't suppose you're free this evening?" the last man who had been as forward as Darren is being now was the man who became my boyfriend, husband and ex-husband, all in the space of twelve months.

"I am not, Mr Brent. I have to finish typing up three contracts before the end of tomorrow, sign countless papers before the end of the week, and then organise everything into a system which I understand," I gestured to the mess around me to reiterate the point I was making but, being a man with one hell of an ego and a point to prove, he didn't understand what I was telling him and he didn't want to accept that I wasn't interested in his offer at this moment in time.

"How about tomorrow?"

"Look, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I'm really not interested in anything right now. I am sure you're a nice and everything but, after a previous experience, I tend to avoid the male species these days," I didn't want him to think that I wasn't interested in him at all. Any other day, and had I not been raped by the man that claimed to love me, I would have willingly jumped his bones without a second thought—he was easy on the eye and, despite acting like a total ass in the company of Andrew, his personality wasn't all that bad either.

"I never said it was a date. I simply wanted to show you the city and, if I was lucky, hope that you would allow me to take you to dinner at my restaurant in town," his hands were now on my desk and he was leaning down slightly, his eyes now level with my own, and there was an intensity to his stare which drew you in. His eyes were an incredible shade of green and I definitely wouldn't have any issues staring into them every single day.

"I have only been here for two days, so I don't think Mr Collins will appreciate me taking the time off work, just for a tour of the city. Even less so given the amount of work that I actually have to do for him already."

"Don't worry about that. I ca—"

"Why the hell are you still in my building, Darren? And, further to that, why the hell are you speaking with Miss Lopez?" Andrew's voice called from across the office. I looked up just in time to see his strides increasing in length as he came from one side to a stop in front of my desk.

"Just introducing myself. That's all," I didn't miss the smirk which now covered Darren's face as he turned away from me and faced Andrew, and I also didn't miss the look on Andrew's face which told me that I was in trouble once Darren was gone—I hated that I hadn't actually done anything wrong and he was still going to punish me for something which was the fault of another.

I quickly tore my gaze away from Andrew's as I slipped the papers I had just signed back into their folder, adding it to the growing pile on the floor beside my chair, and I made a mental note that I needed to find a cabinet into which I could put everything I had sorted through already today. I had arranged them so that they were alphabetical by company and, when I had done what needed to be by three for Andrew, which had taken up the rest of my afternoon, but it was worth it and I would easily be able to find the files whenever he wanted them now.

"I think you can be off now. Miss Lopez still has work to do," Andrew challenged Darren. With his arms across his chest, his muscles were more prominent in the jacket he was wearing, and I could see each small movement he made as his anger clearly grew. I had never pegged Andrew as a guy who would work-out but, as my father had always told me, you should never judge a book by its cover.

"I hope that you shall at least think about my offer, Miss Lopez. I will be in contact soon enough," the smug grin covering Darren's face before he turned to look back at Andrew, the two of them caught in a brief stare off, which Darren was the first to break as he walked away towards the elevator. And, just before the doors closed so that he could begin his descent, he gave me another smile and a quick wave.

"I want you to stay the hell away from, Alyssa," Andrew glared at me. His tone reminded me of my father when he was reprimanding me as a child and, for a moment, a sinking feeling settled in as I thought about the last time I had seen either of my parents. They weren't married anymore, they divorced when I was seven after falling out of love with each other and my mother had since remarried to their marriage counsellor, but they were happy and they were still friends with each other for the sake of Rebecca and myself—though the last time I had seen either of them had been on the day Dean was sent to prison, it had been a day full of tears and I was glad that I had the both of them there to keep me together, but they flew back out to Spain three days later and I haven't had the time to see either of them since that day.

"Why?"

"He's bad news," I would have congratulated him for the limited information he had just provided me with, had he not already been pissed with me and just about ready to blow his top over something which really was no concern of his. Even if I had been friends with him, he should have known that I was never going to listen to him, and that he also had no control over the people I associated with.

"Is that all I get?" I laughed humourlessly.

"Trust me, Alyssa, I am warning you for your own good. If you go anywhere near Darren, you're only going to get hurt," his tone was cold and emotionless, much like the expression he was wearing and, for a moment at least, I could have been mistaken for thinking that Andrew actually cared about me and he wanted to protect to me from whatever it was that Darren was capable of doing to me.

"Tell me why. Or I am going to accept his offer," I had always been stubborn as hell and that wasn't about to stop now just because one infuriating man thought he was helping me.

"You seem to forget that I know of your serious distrust towards all males. I know you won't go anywhere near him," I wanted to slap him for using that against me and for thinking that, just because I had told him my darkest secret, he knew everything little thing about me and that he had some weird stake on my life.

There was something smug about the look on Andrew's face and, when he brought both his hands down on the desk opposite me and bent over so that he was looking me straight in the eyes, it was that which did it. He had this gleam which put knots in the pit of my stomach and send shivers right down to my core, I was practically begging for the touch of a man and, even worse than that, I was begging for the touch of Andrew Collins.

I hadn't allowed a male to touch me intimately since Dean but, for the second time in the space of one day, I was more than willing to throw myself at Andrew and seek the release which only a real man could give me. I may have told him that I wasn't ever going to throw myself at him, and he would be lucky if I so much as flirted with him, but he was so damn attractive and, when he had the look in his eyes which he has there right now, it sent my sex drive into overdrive and skyrocketed my sexual frustration to whole new level.

Damn the things this man could do to me. I didn't want him to have that power over me, I didn't want him to be the one who invaded my thoughts, but I was probably, shamelessly, going to end up pleasuring myself to an image of Andrew before I fell asleep this evening.

Have you no self-respect, woman? You've known him two days and he treats you like shit. But, just because he gave you a look, you want to touch yourself?

I ignored the voice in the back of my mind, mostly because I knew that she was right, I was an idiot and I didn't need her to tell me just how ridiculous the idea was.

"You want a bet?" I really did need a filter on my mouth because, one day, I was going to say something and it was going to get me into a whole lot of shit with the wrong person.

"Fine. Call him," Andrew unlocked his phone and slid it across my desk, Darren's name already highlighted, so all I had to do was press the green button and hope that he answered the call. It was simple really and, there was always the added bonus that Andrew would be incredibly pissed off because I hadn't listened to his warning, and there was something about that which was almost too hard to resist.

But he hadn't given me a reason to hate Darren, and he hadn't provided me with reason to distrust the guy either. Darren had even told me that it wasn't a date. He was just taking me out around the city, followed by dinner at his restaurant, and that would make a nice change to being cooped up in my apartment—I had never really taken the time to appreciate the beauty of the city in which I lived and, it was with that thought, that I picked up the phone and pressed the green button.

"Aw. You have only just kicked me out, Andrew. Are you missing me already?" Darren's laughter filled the other end of the line after just a couple of rings.

"Darren? It's Alys—I mean, it's Miss Lopez, and I would kindly like to accept your offer," I didn't even give myself time to change my mind as I rushed the words out with ease.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to refuse my offer. Shall I pick you up tonight?" I thought for a brief second and, I could tell him that I was busy and we could pick another day, but that was too much time in which I could change my mind and, right now at least, I was living in the moment so tonight was as good a night as any to meet with Darren and have him show me what New York is really all about.

"Perfect," I smiled.

"Half eight?"

"Sounds good to me. I will have Andrew message you my address and I looked forward to seeing you this evening," I quickly ended the call without another work and slid Andrew his phone back across the desk. He really didn't look impressed with what I had just done but, to be honest, he wasn't my father and he sure as hell wasn't my father, so he didn't have the right to tell me what I can and can't do—I was, after all, a single twenty-nine year old female who really needed some fun in her life without the requirement of worrying about everyone else around her for once.

"You've just made the biggest mistake of your life," were Andrew's last words before he turned away from my desk, and walked back into his office, slamming the door when he eventually got there which was soon followed by inaudible shouting and the echo of him throwing things around his office.

© 2015 Emma Norman. All Rights Reserved.