Taken By Him (Obsessed With Him, Book Four) (4 page)

“Don’t you want to know what it is, Princess?”
He was still whispering huskily into my ear, his breath brushing deliciously
against my skin.

I nodded.

I didn’t trust myself to speak.
 
My heart was throbbing so fast and hard
in my chest and he was standing so close to me that I was sure he was going to
be able to hear it, to feel it, betraying the effect he was having on my body.

“Say ‘yes’,” he instructed.

“Yes.”

“Yes what?”

“Yes, I want to know what you have that I
want.”
 

Colt grinned wickedly.
 
“What I have… that you want… is Declan’s
address.”
 
He reached into the
pocket of his shorts and pulled out his phone, holding the screen out to me.

My cheeks burned with disappointment.

“What did you think I was talking about,
Princess?” Colt asked innocently, like he knew exactly what it was I’d thought
he’d been talking about.

“Let me see that,” I said, grabbing his phone
out of his hand.

Declan Keene

102 Huckleberry Street, Apt 3D

Just seeing Declan’s name there, in black and
white, filled me with a calmness I hadn’t experienced in a long time.

I closed my eyes.

Declan.

Finally.

Finally, I knew where he was.

“I’m going to see him tonight,” I
declared.
 
“Can you… can we write
this down?”

Colt took the phone out my hands and shoved it
back into his pocket.
 
“I’ll print
you out a copy when we get to the office.”

I nodded.
 
I wanted to say ‘thank you’, but then I thought, screw that.
 
He’d been teasing me, messing with my
mind, getting off on playing with my mind.

I hated that my body responded to his touch,
his presence,
his
body.
 
I couldn’t wait to get away from
him.
 
I would never tell Colt this,
but I was hoping Declan would offer to let me to stay with him.
 
And if not, all I had to do was buy my
time until I got my first paycheck from Colt.

And then I could stay far away from him.

I had to.

He was making me feel things.

Uncomfortable things.

Things I couldn’t afford to feel.

Things that would only lead to pain.

**

When we got into the office, Colt immediately
went into business mode, all traces of teasing and cockiness wiped from his
voice.

“Here,” he said, placing a cell phone down and
a ten dollar bill down on the desk in front of me.

I picked it up.
 
“What’s this?”

“Your phone.”

“My phone?”

“Yes.
 
You need a phone if you’re going to be working here.
 
So that I can reach you.”

“Why can’t you just reach me on the office
phone?”
 
I picked up the cell and
felt its lightness in my hand.
 
It
was a shiny new iPhone,
gun-metal
grey and
beautiful.
 
I’d never had a phone so
nice.
 
I’d had cell phones
before
 
-- tracphones and flip
phones, the kind of phones that didn’t take pictures and charged for each text
message, the kind of phones you had to buy prepaid cards in order to use, the
kind of phones that would get broken if you so much as jostled them.

“I might need to get in touch with you after
hours,” Colt said.

“Oh.”
 
I ran my fingers over the smooth surface of the phone.
 
“Okay.
 
Well, thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” he said, making it clear that
he wasn’t doing me any favors.
 
“It’s a company phone.”

I nodded.
 
“And the ten dollars?”

“In case you want lunch.”

He sat me down at the computer and showed me
how to start entering figures from vendor receipts into spreadsheets.
 
I’d had computer classes in my group
home that had taught me how to use all kinds of different programs -- Microsoft
Office, Word, Powerpoint, even Quickbooks and Photoshop.

I caught on quickly, and after a few minutes,
Colt left me to my own devices.
 
I
found the work soothing, the monotony of tapping away on the computer providing
my normally racing mind with something to focus on.

Colt was out of the office most of the
morning.
 
Every so often I would
hear him talking to Jessa as they passed by in the hallway outside, his voice
low and gruff, hers loud and flirty.

It was around lunchtime when a man knocked on
the open door of the office.

“Oh,” he said when he saw me.
 
“I’m sorry, I’m looking for Colt.”

“I’m not sure where he is,” I said.
 
“I can try to find him if you
want.”
 
I started to get up, but the
man motioned for me to stay seated.

“That’s okay,” he said, wandering into the
office and plopping down in one of the chairs sitting in front of the
desk.
 
“I can talk to him later.”

He was about thirty, attractive, with dark
blonde hair and a perfectly cut suit.
 

“Oh,” I said.
 
“Um, okay.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Olivia,” I said.
 
“I’m Colt’s secretary.”

He grinned.
 
“Secretary, eh?
 
Is that what Colt’s calling them these
days?”

Before I could figure out a response, Colt
appeared in the doorway.
 
He took in
the scene, his eyes darkening into a black storm.
 

“Joseph,” he said.
 
“What are you doing here?”

“I brought you an offer,” Joseph said, making
no move to get up from his chair.

“Not interested,” Colt said, not even bothering
to try and hide his annoyance.
 
“Is
there anything else?”

Joseph rolled his eyes and then winked at
me.
 
“This guy,” he said, pointing
at Colt.
 
“Olivia, can you let him
know that selling this place could be a cash windfall?”

I frowned and looked at Colt.
 
“You’re thinking of selling the club?”
“No,” Colt said at the same time Joseph said,
 
“He should be.”

Joseph shook his head, then pulled out a
briefcase and popped it open.
 
He
pulled out a crisp sheet of paper and set it down on the desk.

I couldn’t help but notice the number on the
front of the page.
 

Three million dollars.

Holy shit.

“Is there anything else I can do for you?” Colt
asked, his tone making it clear he didn’t want to do anything else for Joseph
and definitely wouldn’t even if Joseph were to ask.
“Mr. Personality this guy, huh, Olivia?” Joseph asked me.

I laughed.
 
“Tell me about it.”

I saw the annoyance flash on Colt’s face.

Joseph stood up and grabbed his briefcase.
 
“Let me know if you change your mind,
Colt.”
 

“I won’t change my mind.”

“It was nice to meet you, Olivia,” Joseph
said.
 
“I hope to see you again.”

“Yeah, you too,” I said, giving him a smile.

As soon as he was gone, Colt turned to me.
 
“I don’t want you talking to him.”
“What?”

“You heard me.
 
I don’t want you talking to him.”

“I don’t even know him.”

“I don’t care.
 
If he comes back, call me immediately.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because he’s a dick.”

“What did he do?”

“Did he try to hit on you?”

“No, he didn’t try to hit on me,” I said.
 
“I hardly even know the guy, he came in
and asked for you.
 
He was only here
for like two minutes before you got here.
 
He seems nice.”

“Yeah, well, he’s not.”

“Oh my God,” I said, swiveling around in my
chair so I could face him
straight-on
.
 
“Are you… are you
jealous?”

“I don’t get jealous,” he said.

“You seem jealous.”

“I’m not,” he growled.
 
“If I want something, I take it.”
 
He crossed the room and picked up the
piece of paper Joseph had left sitting on the desk.

“Three million dollars is a lot of money,” I
said.
 
“How much is still left on
the mortgage?”

“It’s paid off.”

“Wow.”
 
I shook my head and stood up, made my way to the mini-fridge in the
corner of the room and pulled out a can of Diet Coke.
 
I cracked open the can and took a sip.
 
“If you sold, you’d be a millionaire.”

“I’m already a millionaire.”

He said it so cavalier, so casual that it made
my heart ache.
 
What would that be
like, I wondered, to have the money to be able to do whatever you wanted, to be
able to create whatever life you desired?

“Yeah, but this way you could do whatever you
wanted,” I pressed.

“I already do whatever I want.”

“Oh, really?” I pressed him.
 
“This is what you want?
 
To be working in some strip club?”

He laughed, tipping his head back.
 
“That’s what you think I do?
 
That I just work in some strip
club?”
 
He slammed his fist down on
the desk again, the way I’d seen him do yesterday after he’d been in here with
his uncle. “You have no idea what goes on here, Olivia.
 
You have no idea what it takes to run
this place.”

Anger poured into my veins.
 
How dare he talk to me like that?
 
“I know that I saw some girl here
yesterday, with her face black and blue and her hair cut.
 
I know that your uncle said something to
you that made you so angry you punched the desk.
 
I know that last night some guys almost
assaulted me.
 
So if the last
twenty-four hours are any indication, then yeah, Colt, I think I have a pretty
good indication of what goes on here.”

“So what?
 
After just one day, you think you know me?
 
You think you know anything about me?”

“I know you’re better than this,” I said
quietly.

He turned on me then, his eyes blazing
fury.
 
“Don’t you dare judge me,
Olivia.
 
I’ve
never done that to you.”

“I’m not judging you,” I said.
 
“I just think that if you keep this up,
you’ll – ”

“Enough!” he raged.
 
“Stop!
 
You can sit there and give your opinions
all you want, but you had no problem staying at my place last night, had no
problem using me for the things this club bought.”

My mouth dropped open.
 
“Using you?
 
Is that what you think I’m doing?
 
Using you?
 
If I remember correctly, I wanted to get
the hell out of here last night.
  
It was
you
who made me go home with you, it was you who wouldn’t
let me go.”

“What the hell was I supposed to do,
Olivia?
 
You cut the shit out of
your
arms,
you almost had sex with me after knowing me
for one day!
 
You were obviously
confused and lost.
 
What was I
supposed to do?
 
I felt sor –
”
 
He
cut himself
off before he could say it.

But it was too late.

I’d known what he was about to say.

I felt sorry for you.

It hit me like a sucker punch, right in the
gut.

In that moment, I hated him with a fiery
passion.

I didn’t want anyone’s pity.

“Fuck you,” I spat and then I headed for the
door.
 
I didn’t need him.
 
He was just a guy I’d met yesterday, a
guy who I’d somehow allowed to work himself into my brain, to invade my mind
with his good looks and his cocky attitude.
 
But he was nothing to me.
 
He’d served his purpose.
 
He’d given me Declan’s address.