Page 18 of The Butterfly Effect
“That’s not appropriate.” The rejection in my voice wiped the smug grin from his face. “As I was saying, we have an excellent social media specialist here who is more than happy to assist in getting your marketing team up to speed.” Next to me, William chuckled under his breath.Is he enjoying this?
“But how do we getyourhelp in getting them up to speed? I wouldn’t mind seeing you more.” As he talked, Sandra rolled her eyes, and the glare she aimed at me was unmistakably full of judgement. I was sure that with Roger’s big mouth, her sitting in on this meeting would become a challenge point in my career.
I cleared my voice again and narrowed my eyes. “Mr. Hepburn, please be professional.”
He smirked at me. “Maybe if you call mesir.Mr. Hepburn is my father.” The way he tapped the back of his hand against the teammate on his right, like a couple of guys in the locker room, made my stomach churn.
“That’s enough.” William’s voice stilled the room like a growl from a predator. His face was stern as he glared a warning. He turned his glare to me, and my stomach sank like it was filled with sand.
I quickly finished explaining the strategy, handing them a file of Grant’s designs to review. When they all rose to leave, Sandra escorted them to the elevator. She may be the director, but she often said she had the best customer service and seemed to twilight as the receptionist part-time.
William remained in the room, staring at me expectantly, his already dark eyes somehow darker and brooding. It took no deciphering to know he was pissed off. I made a show of grabbing my things from the table before politely nodding to him as I slipped through the door. “Have a good evening,” I said when I passed by him.
“Julianna.” I pretended not to hear him, and he didn’t call after me again, but his eyes bore through me as I walked.
I was thankful it was a few minutes after five because it meant the rest of the office was empty. I quickly gathered my things and hurried towards the elevator. The click of William closing his office door behind him meant he wasn’t going to come after me. Part of me wished he would, and that he’d do every dirty thing he’d threatened to do for the last couple of days.
I imagined him buried inside of me on top of his desk as I walked into the parking garage. The horn on my aging Jeep Cherokee beeped when I unlocked the door, and as it echoed against the concrete walls, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I swallowed the feeling that somebody was watching me, and I turned around, hoping William had followed me after all.
In a breath, I was thrown against the side of my Jeep and trapped by a muscular body. The metal of my car was cold against my stomach and chest, the body holding me close to the door, and a sharp pain radiated through my wrist and shot up my arm and into my elbow. Panic set in, and as my heartbeat echoed in my ears, I tried to arch my body to help the angle of my arm. An involuntary whimper fell from my lips when he pulled my arm farther back as I cracked out, “Please.”
“Relax, sweetheart. I’m not going to hurt you.” The familiar voice was grisly and full of frustration. “Look at me.”
Tears welled under my eyelids, and I forced myself to open them. I turned my head over my shoulder, meeting Roger’s hazel eyes.
“Oh god, please no.”
Nights of watching true crime alone on my sofa had prepared me to fully expect the worst, but in an instant, all the self-defense videos I had watched slipped my mind. As I imagined being thrown in the back of my own car and driven to an abandoned warehouse, bile burned the bottom of my throat.
“You embarrassed me in there,” he said, squeezing my wrist harder when I looked away.
I cried out, hearing my voice bounce off the walls and wishing the parking garage wasn’t so empty. Warm tears left trails on my cheeks when they fell.
“Please, you’re hurting me. Let go.Please.”
He didn’t let go and leaned closer to me, twisting my wrist until it threatened to break. “I kind of like hearing you beg,” he hissed in my ear, stale coffee on his breath. His erection hardened against me, and a heavy wave of nausea overtook me.
“I’m going to throw up. Please.”
When I gagged, he released me and stepped back quickly. “Fine, but we’re not done,Julianna,” he said, mocking the way that William said my name. “Be a good girl, okay?” He slapped my ass before walking away, and the sound mixed with my gasp and echoed.
I yanked my car door open and climbed inside, locking it behind me before frantically looking in the backseat to make sure he didn’t somehow follow me in. The coast was clear, and when I could no longer see him or hear the click of his steps, I let the sobs take over. My breathing hitched in my throat, and I choked on gulps of air.
My wrist continued to throb, and I held it gingerly in my other hand, knowing it would bruise. It would probably be a bad one. What would William do with the account or to Roger if I told him? The stubborn need to prove I could handle it all overcame that thought. We needed Great Lakes Brewing on our roster. Otherwise, we may not have as much of a future as we thought. Or at least, that’s what I told myself. The nausea returned, and I leaned down to rest my head on the steering wheel. I was going to end up hiding this situation for the sake of my career.
My phone rang on the seat next to me, and for a split second, I was hopeful. I wasn’t sure who I expected the call to be from, but it wasn’t my sister. I stared at her name on my phone for a second before I cleared my throat and perked up. “Jenna, hey!” I kicked myself when my voice cracked.
“Jules? What’s going on?” Suspicion was thick in her voice.
I was never good at hiding my emotions like Jenna was. It was one of many things I envied about her growing up. “It’s nothing. I just, uh, got off work. It was a long day.”
My sister was a workaholic like my dad. She was the successful one, you could say. She was a corporate lawyer and easily made twice what I did. Dad reminded all of us often of how proud he was of her.
“Oh.” The hesitation in her voice was uncharacteristic of my always-confident sister. “You… you work with William Carlisle now, right?”
“Yeah.” I debated how much to tell her about him. I definitely wasn’t going to tell her about my attraction to the man, but a shameless part of me hoped for brownie points if I told her he assigned me to his primary account.
She sighed. “I have worked for the Carlisle family before. Just be careful. They tend to steamroll over small companies, and you have to really hold your own with them.”
