Page 37 of Over My Dead Boss
“You like to live vicariously through your characters, don’t you?”
I turn redder than the sun that is about to set on the horizon and feel like I might have revealed a lot more about myself than intended. “I… write the characters I want to read.”
“Right,” he says and turns his body towards me. “Who did they kill?”
Did he read my book?“Just, uhh, their former boss.”
“Interesting. Is that Isabella or me?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” I shake my head and try hard not to grin. “Isabella is still my boss, so…”
“So am I. You even made me sign that made up contract of yours.”
“Oh, right. You refused to sign it with your own blood. I almost forgot about that. Well, your pick then.” I chuckle a little as Phoenix goes back to reading his book. My limbs feel like they’re about to fall asleep, so I stretch them out and in doing so block Phoenix’s view onto his book. Almost reflexively, without saying a word, he grabs my calf and puts it into his lap, continuing to read as if nothing happened. Like on autopilot, his right hand massages the muscles in my lower leg while his left hand is propped up on my ankle, holding his book. My mouth opens slightly becausedamn,that feels good; it’s not even those powerful hands of his massaging all the stress out of my muscles. What feels best is the intimacy. He has never touched me like this and yet it feels like we have done it a hundred times already. He doesn’t even seem to notice what he’s doing because he’s so entranced in his book and I have to do my best not to sigh and moan and ruin this. So instead, I lay back down and pretend to read while the heat of his hand travels all the way up my inner thighs and I grow acutely aware of my own heartbeat, worrying he might be able to hear it all the way over there. I bite down on my lip as his hand travel a little further up, his fingers firmly moving in slow circles. I really don’t want this to stop, but I also don’t know how much more of this I can take, so I try to shake the thoughts in my head and force myself to focus on the book I am reading:
At the look of his throbbing veins, she wondered if he would be just as forceful when he’d take her, if he could keep his composure or if he would just make her his, while she’d slowly melt to a puddle underneath him.
22
“Son of a—”, I shout and sit up straight, causing Phoenix to look up from his book and towards me with a slightly shocked, slightly questioning expression. I shake my head. “No, sorry. Not you. It’s…” I swing my legs off his lap and onto the ground and I can practically feel how fucking wet I am. “This book. It’s this book and I can’t…” I throw my kindle onto the couch and adjust my shirt before storming off. “This book is terrible, and I have had enough,” I exclaim and walk all the way around the couch so that I won’t have to climb over Phoenix’s legs and be nearer to him than is safe. “Anyway, I am turning in for the night. I know it’s after eight, but you can stay and read some more. I’ll allow it.” With a loud bang, I close the door behind me and lock it. The key goes flying into the farthest corner of my room. Otherwise, there would be no telling what I would do. And whatever that would be, it would be wrong. Good, but wrong. Fantastic even, probably, who knows, but not something I should ever even consider.
Thirty minutes of ice cold water and thirty more minutes of unsuccessfully trying to get myself off, I lay down in my bed and stare at the ceiling, at the shadows of the trees moving slowly from left to right. I reach for my phone and check my messages.
Sienna: Don’t leave me hanging. I want updates.
Olivia: You should have sent me my vibrator instead of sexy lingerie.
Sienna: Uff, is he that bad? Too quick? That’s ok, you know. Take it as a compliment and then go a second round.
Olivia: Nothing happened.
I think about it for a second. I think about how Phoenix turned out to be different from what I expected him to be, how he is surprisingly sweet to his grandma, how he cares for Dog, how he treats the people around him, like Liz’s son and the lady at the grocery store, how he handled Mr. Jackson. I think about his hand protectively touching my neck, his hand massaging my leg, him saying I put all those professional models to shame. Sure, he just said that in the spur of the moment, even so, it makes me feel like something did happen. Lots of things happened. And when I think of them, they make my knees weak. Which is convenient because otherwise I might get up, take that key, open that door and walk straight into Phoenix’s bedroom to jump his perfectly shaped bones.
Olivia: The writing is coming along, so I hope I’ll be home soon. I miss you guys.
Sienna: Hm, we miss you too. But we’d prefer if you stayed away a little longer. Nude Wednesdays are really working for us right now. Is it Wednesday? Who knows.
Olivia: Please, don’t talk about nude people.
The word ‘nude’ is enough to make me sweat once again and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say I was in heat, like a wolf-shifter from one of my novels. I take off my shirt and short pants, now only wearing a lace bralette and matching panties.
Sienna: Well, you know my stance. Nude anydays are an international thing, by the way. You’re totally allowed to do that where you are right now. Maybe with someone else even.
I throw my phone to the other side of the bed and turn around, trying hard to fall asleep, but it takes hours and hours. When it finally happens, something is different. I know I am dreaming. I can feel it. I am right there and yet it makes the hair on my entire body stand up, shudders running down my back. A friend of mine and I are in an abandoned building. I don’t know the person, I just know that we are friends. We slowly walk through the dark hallways, holding each other’s hand, and I think we are looking for a way out. The floorboards squeak under our steps and from far away I can hear laughter that somewhere along the way turns to screams. I grab my friend’s hand harder and we hurry. We check one decrepit door after another, but they’re all locked. We run faster and faster, the feeling of being followed creeping up my spine. Like someone, something is hunting us. We turn a corner when at the end of the hallway, a door opens. As fast as our legs carry us, we sprint inside and the door slams shut right behind us. We’re trapped. The cold is crawling under my clothes, when in a corner of the room a candle is lit, throwing a dim light onto a face that I can’t quite make out. I swallow hard and suddenly feel how my friend is being ripped away from me. More hands grab me too, forcing me down onto the rough wooden floor. I see an old wooden rocking chair where the candle is, my head turned towards that chair, not able to move anymore. I want to scream, but I can’t. The person rocking on the chair begins to cry, their gaze focused in on me. I try to get up, to reach out but I am paralysed, something heavy pressing down on my chest, making it hard to breathe. I know I have to help the person on the chair, but there’s nothing I can do when suddenly, from far away, something knocks on the door. The knocks coming closer quickly. My breath is running out and I am getting lightheaded. Another knock. I try to scream. But nothing. My vision turns black when just in time, a bright light flows in from the door that has just sprung open and I am being shaken awake by two hands on my shoulders.
When I open my eyes, I look straight at a tattoo of a semicolon. A tattoo on a naked chest that belongs to Phoenix. I am awake. He pulls me close and I take the deepest breath I ever have, reaching around his strapping body and holding onto him as hard as I can.
“It’s ok,” he says and kisses my head. “It was just a nightmare.” His hand caresses my back and I don’t even care about the disgusting cold sweat all over me. I just need him to be closer. He lifts me out from under the blanket and onto his lap, allowing me to wrap each limp around him like a little monkey. “Breathe. Slow and steady.” His voice calms me down like nothing else, and after a few minutes, I feel my pulse drop a little. I wipe away some tears and the hair from my face and pull back slightly, which calls my attention to what has happened here. I look around the room, still shredded in darkness, only the moonlight coming in from the door. The door damaged, with a lock that is no longer intact. Phoenix notices my confusion and explains what happened. “Dog called me. She barked outside my bedroom, so I knew something was up. I came to look after you, and you were screaming, but your door was closed… until it wasn’t.” He motions toward it.
“You kicked it in?”
“It was surprisingly easy. I should probably buy better doors in the future.”
“Thank you,” I sob as more tears make their way down my cheek.
Phoenix laughs a little, wipes them away and pulls me close again. Our skin touching, causing lightheadedness in me.
“I thought I was going to die,” I snivel and notice how I once again succumb to panic.
