Lost in You (#Book 2)

Chapter 10

I open the door without knocking I need to make a dramatic entry. My gaze meets two sharp grey eyes. Their owner details me with circumspection. “Rach? Wh..”

“Yes, I managed to escape from your glided prison!” I close the door behind me, loud enough to show my irritation in case he hadn’t already figured that out. Austin looks at me without a word. He calmly puts down a file he was leafing through, closes his pen, arranges his folders, then sighs lightly.

In an incredibly destabilizing gesture, he straightens himself and smooths down his tie. Finally, in a fatal blow, he turns his penetrating gaze to mine. “My gilded cage…”

“Seriously, Austin, did you really think you could force me to stay there?”

He steps around his desk, buttoning up his jacket. “That’s what I hoped, yes.”

“Using a bellhop to do your dirty work was all you could manage?”

“I thought he’d be more tenacious.” He says a bit annoyed.

“Oh, please, don’t take it out on Chris!”

Austin gives me his damned smirk. “You know his name?”

“Yes, the charming bellhop whose job it was to stop me from leaving.” I provoke him. He clenches his jaw. I accentuated the “charming” word. He has power over me but I know I have some over him too. And if there’s anything that Austin hates, it’s seeing the object of his desire taking an interest in another, whoever it is.

He moves slowly closer. Too slowly. I have the impression that the cat’s out hunting. “Don’t play that game.” I warn him.

“I’m not playing. I just want to protect you.”

“Protect me from what?”

“Have you forgotten the horde of paparazzi hanging out in front of your place yesterday?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

“No, I haven’t forgotten, but I have to carry on living normally.” I argue back.

“That’s not possible, and you know it.”

I’m nailed to the spot. “Oh! And may I ask why?”

“Because you’re with me.” his answer is as delightful as it is scary. My heart stirs, and I feel lost. By now, he’s so close to me that I have to raise my head to continue looking him in the eye. “We loved each other last night, and we’ll love each other, other nights, Rach.”

My little heart resists with difficulty, my hormones panic, an invisible flame licks my spine… I challenge him “It’s me who decides whether I give myself to you or not.”

He then passes a thumb over my lower lip and looks at me with such desire that my free will immediately evaporate. I hold back from closing my eyes. “Don’t talk like that…”

I wriggle away from him as if I’d just been burned and take two steps back. “That’s what I said to you yesterday already. You mustn’t just expect me to stay where you’ve decided I should be. I want you to talk to me before making decisions about our relationship. And especially that you play fair, that you stop moving me around as if I were a pawn in a game of chess. And seeing that you’re always three steps ahead, it’s tiring… Especially when you feel like a pawn, not a queen.”

“What I want is to share your life, to wake up at your side, to have breakfast with you, to have a real role. I don’t want to be just another file that you treat as it suits you. You’re not trying to protect me, Austin, controlling everything, you’re trying to protect yourself.” The problem with Austin is that I love him so much that my attacks hurt me as much as they hurt him.

“Please stay where you are.” He approaches, but I put my hand up to stop him. He stops. This time his mischievous smile is wiped off his face. “And until proven otherwise you haven’t officially fired me, so I’m here to do my job and I intend to do it properly!” Austin reaches out to try to hold me back but too late! I turn round and rush out of his office.

In the corridor, I head without further ado to my own office. I’m devastated. “Rachel, wait…” Austin’s voice rings out in the corridor. I just want to get to my office and take refuge, although I know it won’t last long. But my safe haven’s going to close in on me like a trap. Because when I open my door, I almost bump into a pair of buttocks molded into a pencil skirt. A woman sorting books on my shelf… MY Shelf! Two beautiful jet black eyes turn to look at me with surprise. What’s going on?

We stare at each other for a few seconds in silence. Just as I’m about to speak, the unknown woman’s glance moves to my right. It changes in intensity. I know who she’s looking at with those eyes.

“Miss Davis, let me introduce Miss Brown, who’ll be taking over the position of Executive Assistant.” Austin’s sentence rings out in the air like gunfire.

“I…” he replaced me?! I feel so humiliated, ridiculed, so lousy in the face of this woman who’s just taken my job that I can’t say a word. She seems to sense my dismay. She carelessly pushes her hair back with a shake of her head, then takes the books in one hand and holds out the other. “Pleased to meet you.”

I shake her hand like a robot. I think I introduce myself too, but I’m not sure. We were interrupted by an employee who comes over to show Austin a file. He steals him away from me even before I can have a minimum of explanation. I feel replaced as if I weren’t important.

Austin disappears down the hallway, frowning and holding the file in his hands. He gives a series of incomprehensible instructions to the guy who nods his head. “You wanted to see me?” Miss Brown in front of me asked. What? I get a hold of myself and turn to the absolutely young woman facing me.

She has the real working girl look. Impeccable clothes. Impeccable hairdo. Impeccable attitude. “You wanted to see me?” she asks again.

“I…” It’s like I have no words to say.

“You’re Miss Davis, I presume? Mr. William’s former assistant?” Former…? Actually, I don’t know what I am anymore. Apart from a laughing stock. She turns to her desk and leans down behind the screen. She comes out with a cardboard box in her hands. “Your things, I think everything’s there.”

I hold out my hands and barely feel the weight of the box in my arms. I’m anesthetized. So much so that it escaped my hands and everything falls to the ground. I rush off down the corridor and frantically punch the digital panel of the elevator. I have to leave this place. Right now!

“Miss Davis!” Austin’s voice sends a direct discharge into my guts. Don’t look back… get away! My subconscious screams at me. When the doors of the elevator open I rush into it, without a backward glance. Panicking I look for the button to close the doors, but I’m trembling.

Austin’s powerful hands grab the doors at the last minute. I lean back against the wall, my heart thumping inside my chest. Austin’s body slips into the gap between the half-open doors. They then close and imprison us in heavy silence. My chest rises and falls at a dangerous pace. I’m almost suffocating. I’m about to burst into tears and lose the little dignity I have left. How could he do that to me and so fast!