Chapter 50: Chapter 50

CASSANDRA BATES

ELEMENTALLY, ROYALLY, FUCKING SCREWED.

And that was because I didn’t have any other words to describe the situation, I was in.

Wait, wait there was another word. I HAD HIT ROCK BOTTOM.

I might have acted brave enough to reject Ice’s help but two days sleeping in my ex-roommate’s walk-in closet advised me that I should have done otherwise.

But did I want to risk that?

Did I want to risk owing Kade anything let alone running paths with him after he had avoided me in weeks?

No, I did not need such toxic relationships in my life at the moment.

I did not need Kade and I absolutely didn’t need violence dictating what my life should have been.

I came back from my whirlwind romance with a vigilante poor as fuck.

My apartment had been merrily given to another couple with a labradoodle.

My job, well Nicolas Amato was dead, everything he owned had been confiscated by the cops so bye fucking bye to my job.

I was back to square one, back to factory settings and pushing my whole sleeping in the closet situation aside the only upside to things was where I was now.

A temp at an electric car company called Elite Motors.

They were the only company in a square foot radius in New York that got back to me in a day. The other companies claimed to either have no vacancies or I was too overqualified for this and too underqualified for that.

And basically, being a temp here was like being a call girl. The permanent employees here treated us like servants.

Get me coffee why don’t you?

Be a darling and get me smores from across the street.

The printer isn’t working, do you know how to like fix it?

Five hours in and my bones were screaming at me with exhaustion.

“Don’t worry, it gets better with time”, Linet, another temporary employee here encouraged peeking from her cubicle to mine.

That didn’t stop me from sighing again like I had in the last past hour.

“Yeah? How much time are we talking about because I’ve only started today and I’m this close to biting someone’s ears off”

She laughed, her chubby cuter face creasing to form a pity pout directed at me. She was the first friend I made today by the printer.

She showed me how things worked here and when I got to my little workspace, I was grateful her cubicle was next to mine.

“They are only hard on us because the boss is hard on them too”

I sat up in my chair etching a brow at her revelation. No one talked about the boss since I got here.

No mention of how he looked, how he spoke, quite frankly the company’s website didn’t have a picture of who ran the place or if he or she existed in the first place and since I found out my ex-boss was some psychopathic mobster who trafficked humans let’s just say I was adamant in knowing who I worked for.

“The boss, how does he look like? And on a scale of one to ten, how worried should I be about him or her being hard on me too?”

She waved her hand off,

“Oh, don’t worry he rarely appears around this part of the company. He rarely appears in the company at all but rumor has it he keeps tabs on everyone”

So, he was a he…

“As for what he looks like, I heard from Mercy who heard from Belly’s boyfriend that he’s kinda intimidatingly hot”

“Intimidatingly hot?” I muffled a laugh.

“As far as the rumors go, yeah. Anyway, I have something to take care of but I was wondering whether you would like to join us for drinks. Just us temps and some cheap beer nothing fancy”

“I love the sound of cheap beer, count me in”

I was making friends at work already look at me go!

“Right, see you after work Cass”

And slowly she retreated to her cubicle, I pushed my chair forward even more to be at a good distance with my desk.

I was running through the files the blonde hick called Ralph had told me to countercheck when a pop-up sound and a Gmail notification leapt from my computer screen.

A little bit alarmed, I pressed on the email.

From: kadehawkins@elitemotors.com

To: cassandrabates@elitemotors.com

Red,

I expected a lot from you but running wasn’t one of them.

So the question still lingers,

Why did you run?

Concernedly,

Your boss.

SHIT.

I choked on saliva, I backed away from my computer like it had lasered my hands and then I stood up and then I was moving out of my cubicle and into the cubicle of sweet sweet Linet Martins.

“Cass? Anything wrong?”

Blood drained from my face; I shot her a questioning look.

“The boss? What’s the boss’ name?”

“You are too obsessed with him, aren’t you? I mean I said he is intimidatingly hot but I don’t think he would settle for people like us”

“Linet? His name?”

My tone came out harsh, I didn’t care because really what were the chances?

“Kade Hawkins”

And just like that, I was back in my cubicle, my heart pacing like a grandfather clock, like if time had stopped, in a good way? Or in a bad way?

I did not even know because Kade—Kade found me and he was my boss and I was mad at him still and I was feeling things I shouldn’t have.

Boldly, my hands shaking a little, I re read the email again, my fingers inches away from the keyboard.

From: cassandrabates@elitemotors.com

To: kadehawakins@elitemotors.com

Dear Boss,

I highly think stalking someone counts as a crime… as to why I ran, I’m afraid you have the wrong missus Sir.

If that’s all, I would like to get back to work.

Yours faithfully,

My name’s not RED.

I shot the email to him, resuming to my work with my head held high.

Five minutes later, another notification pinged, I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel like I wanted to pee.

From: kadehawkins@elitemotors.com

To: cassandrabates@elitemotors.com

Red haired Cassie,

Stalk—pursue or approach stealthily.

Crime—an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law.

Unless the definition of crime changed within the last 24 hrs. I still remain innocent of your accusation.

In a black pantsuit, a white tucked blouse, a ginger ponytail and in cubicle 654, I think I have the right missus.

With that said, have dinner with me.

PS—DITCH THE ‘BOSS’ ACT. I LIKE IT WHEN YOU CALL ME ‘SIR’ THOUGH, it turns me on.

Apologetically,

Your dinner date.

I fanned my face pushing away the warmness that invaded both my cheeks and my heart.

No, I was not falling for a badly written email.

No, I was not doing this.

I decided to shoot one more email and that was it.

As much as I wanted to quit even as a temp, the salary here was good and quitting meant my only resort to get back on my two feet was going home like a loser.

I missed home but I was not going back there with my tail between my legs.

From: cassandrabates@elitemotors.com

To: kadehawkins@elitemotors.com

Dear cold-hearted Boss,

While I’m sure company emails shouldn’t involve canoodling with the boss or getting ‘turned on’ by three letter words, I feel the need to remind you that one cannot ditch someone for two weeks and appear later with the excuse of dinner.

No to you.

And no to your so-called dinner.

Scornfully,

Your number one hater.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Three shots of tequila, a bottle and a half of Sam Adams and I was tipsy.

Tipsy to the point of my worries were all going away like a flying cloud and tipsy to the point of I grinned like an idiot as Linet poured as another round.

The minute she did, my hands were already on our small round table taking my glass and downing the drink like a thirsty man left in the desert for a fortnight.

“Rough day?”

The man next to me asked.

I knew him, um—he started out with Linet at Elite Motors. Brown hair, onyx eyes, bulky like a college athlete, his name was something with an A—Andrew, no he did not look like an Andrew, umm—

“Adam”, it’s like he could read my mind. He stretched out his hand for me and I took it, grinning again like the aforementioned idiot,” The name’s Adam in case you forgot”

“Well it’s been more than a rough day, Adam. It’s been a rough week”, I cackled dryly.

Adam’s mouth curled into a smile. A drool worthy smile and normally when I got like this.

Drunk to the point of I was smiling and laughing at anything, my hormones turned all wacky and the urge to devour any man in close proximity came as easily as breathing.

Adam was cute.

He was big too.

And with those big arms, I didn’t doubt for a close second, he would be able to fling me across the wall and fuck my brains out—

“I can see that, Cass. My first day working at Elite, I ended up getting in a scrawny bar fight”

He looked like a boxer in that suit.

“Did you win?” I slurred, scooting to him even more.

I was definitely digging Adam whatshisname. And I was definitely trying my best to push away the scarred Dark Knight who asked me out tonight and I refused.

“Well no but you should have seen the other guy, I did a number on him”

Ooh he was definitely trying to preach about his strength and his raw masculinity and normally that would have turned me off but I hadn’t gotten laid in a while, my pussy wept.

“I bet you did. These big muscles definitely came in handy that night. I wonder what else these muscles can do?”

“Ooh a lot, Cassandra. Wanna a sneak peek?”

I giggled,

“Wanna get out of here?”

“Heey! NO one’s leaving, we are doing this like tradition dictates”

My eyes flung to Linet who was seated two people away from me and Adam. Well kudos to her hearing I guess, she placed an empty bottle of Sam Adams on the table.

“What tradition?”

“A drink or dare”, Adam said casually like it was somehow supposed to make sense to a newbie like me.

“And what does that mean exactly?”

“You drink or you dare”

Ok.

“I’m down for a dare…with you”

There was no holding me back tonight. I was going to have fun like it was my goddamn right to do so.

Linet started the spinning, the bottle spun and landed on Jane—she did some small stuff like biting the lip of the coworker next to her.

The bottle spun again and by God’s mercies it landed on me.

Let the red headed menace be unleashed.

“Adam”, Linet started staring between us with the smuggest grin, “A body shot on Cass. I’ve seen you look at each other all night so as your fairy god mother, I grant thee your wishes”

Adam seemed shy, I snagged a lime from the cocktail next to me putting it between my teeth.

And just for the fuck of it, I unbuttoned my blouse…the first two buttons only.

I might have been a rogue and drunk to my mind but there was no way I was stripping down my bra and allowing Adam to lick salt from my nipples.

I swear Adam’s eyes went even bigger once he saw my cleavage.

Salt was sprinkled where my boobs smudged together all the way up to my collarbone. The dare was seconds away from beginning.

I closed my eyes; everything went silent as I waited for Adam.

It took him like a fucking century before I felt his breath slapping the pores on the upper side of my breasts, the mere action made me pant as shivers shimmied their way down my spine.

He was teasing, my nipples poked through my shirt at the smell of him, at the feel of him just there.

I didn’t think Adam was capable of making me wet without inserting anything in me but he was doing it right now.

When I felt his lips on my skin, Christ I whimpered.

Soft yet hard, his teeth picking the salt along with my skin, his tongue licking every place he left burning. When he finally reached my collarbone, I could smell my own arousal.

Purposefully, calculates, he licked his way along my collarbone to places where the salt hadn’t been.

I didn’t hear anyone cheering like they did before.

Were they disgusted by my intimate sesh with Adam? Most definitely.

Did I mind? No.

I thought he would take a minute to take his shot of tequila before he took the lime out of my mouth but Adam went straight for it.

No pause, no giving me time to breathe, Adam was on my lips and he didn’t take the lime from me.

No, he crashed our lips, pushed the lime into my mouth before his tongue fished it out of my mouth and into his mouth.

It was hot. So fucking hot. My eyes remained shut trying to grasp for air and when I opened them, dark brown eyes were shooting daggers in mine.

Kade stared back at me, chewing on the lime, swallowing it and cornering me with his face close to mine.

“You’ve been naughty, Red”