Bitter Revenge

Chapter 17

(Stella King's POV)

Warning!

What the hell is going on? I tried to make it look like I was working, but I'm not. I can't get what happened out of my head. She so casually pulled her clothes off! As a vampire, her body is unnaturally strong and fit. And it reflected in the tightness of her stomach, the peeking shoulder blades, the somewhat hidden biceps, and back in general. Faded pink scars stretching from her back to her side and pelvis, the olive tone turning peachier and redder around the scars. The image of her bare upper body, aside from a gray Nike sports bra, filled with too many freckles to count- was burned into my brain. Every. Little. Detail.

She read and then occasionally typed something, which weirded me out. Her work mode was so different from her all the other times. For starters, she's wearing transparent glasses! I'm almost jealous of how perfectly they frame her face, making her look softer and gentler. Second, she's fully focused on a singular thing. She leans forward in her chair, sometimes writing things on a sticky note for whatever reason. And thirdly, she's not even doing her work begrudgingly! I thought she'd blow it all off because she didn't want to do this, but it's the opposite. She's working diligently.

After a while, her head whipped up to me, catching me looking at her. "I received an email I don't know what to do with, come take a look at it." Instead of just opening my mailbox to make my life easier, I got up and walked over. I leaned on my hand that gripped the armrest of her chair, reading the email over her shoulder. Her scent intoxicated my senses, distracting me from what I was supposed to be doing. Cherry blossoms and lavender. The scent of my body wash. The idea made my brain scramble for an invisible problem. "What do you think? They want to schedule the interview for Tuesday, that's 5 days away."

Her voice broke me from my cluttered thoughts, and I looked down at her to find her looking at me too. She raised her right, scarred eyebrow at me, searching my face for an answer. I cleared my throat and stood up straight, trying to get my brain on track. "Ask them if they can Thursday instead. Tuesday is too soon." She nodded and started typing away at a response, and I just watched like an idiot. But I managed to rip myself away to sit back in my chair. I've only got a paragraph done since then, it's been 2 hours total. I looked at the time and sighed, 2 hours until lunch time. I stood abruptly, frustrated at my distracted behavior, startling Fiona with the sudden movement.

***

Once the clock hit 10 a.m., I was so relieved to finally catch a break. I would eat during other times of the day, but sometimes my boss walks in to check on me. "Let's go out and get something to eat." I stood up and Fiona just nodded at my request, pulling the glasses off and stretching. Unlike me, she actually worked. On our way out, some people threw compliments my way, alongside questions for my new assistant. We managed to escape the questions and get into my car, relaxing against the leather seats. "Where to?" I turned to her and she just shrugged, grinning at me. "I'm not exactly eating anything so, wherever you'd like." Oh... Right.

We ended up going to Chipotle so I could eat a burrito bowl, while Fiona quite literally asked the employee, "Can I have an apple?" It was, for some reason, the funniest thing I have ever witnessed. I laughed so hard I started crying, holding my stomach from the pain. The employee looked so shocked and just shook his head, making Fiona pout at him and scowl at me. "What? It's not that funny."

Next thing I knew, all of this was becoming routine. Wake up in the morning, go to work together, work, go out to eat, talk over some food- for me at least, get back to work to mostly chat it up the rest of the time until 2 p.m., then go home. We even interviewed at a mechanical company together, she did great. A week flew by, marking this Sunday as the, probably, month mark of her being here. While we have been the friendliest during this past week, Calvin has been putting a huge strain on my opportunity to get close to her.

He visits me at the office, visits me at home, and one time slept over. That night, Fiona was especially angry. Calvin has been pushing for a relationship a bit harder this week, throwing the hints very obviously at first then he just started asking me to straight up be his girlfriend. I never knew how to respond so I just told him I'd think about it. The routine repeated for another week, and Fiona wasn't pushing me away necessarily but because of Calvin I've been spending less time with her. I need answers soon, time is seriously running out. It seems Calvin thought so too.

"Seriously Stella, be my girlfriend. I don't get what you need to think about. We've been seeing each other for 2 weeks, don't you also want more?" We were watching a movie before he decided to pop the question again. Ugh. "Now is not the best time Cal, I told you this. I'm busy." My head was laying on his shoulder, before he pulled it out from under me to lean on his elbow and look down at me. "Doesn't seem like you're busy. We're sitting watching a movie. Just be my girlfriend, it's a simple yes." I groaned and sat up, getting fed up with his pushy attitude lately. "I said no okay? I don't really want a relationship right now."

I'm starting to see why Fiona gets so annoyed. He grabbed my elbow and yanked hard, damn near popping my shoulder out of its socket. "Don't be such a little bitch! A simple yes." The moment I felt a hand on my stomach, the entire situation hit me. Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit! "I said no Calvin! Get over it and get your hands off me!" I tried throwing his hand off my stomach, but now it was starting to get more physical. Much more like assault with every passing second. I struggled to get out from under his weight, and I really wished in that moment I'd brushed up on my fortis magic so I could literally throw him off me.

Panic started setting in deep into my brain, making my struggling much more erratic. But I just couldn't summon my fire, the memory of Calvin being sweet and kind to me in school stared at me behind my eyelids, while the real Calvin attempted to get ahold of my shorts. The second I felt his grip on my shorts and underwear, I screamed aimlessly. Please. No. Not again. I'll be your girlfriend if you stop. I'll do whatever just please, don't. Tears trailed down my cheeks, previous experiences with previous boyfriends replaying in my head. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

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Ugh, the art for Fiona's back is bad (as in anatomically poor) but it's just so you guys can get the main idea.

-ChaseDarling