Untamed (New York Unraveled #1)

Chapter Three.

KAREN.

I wish I could say I stopped thinking about Nathan Black. But I can't even utter such a vociferous lie. When I told him I would prefer we ignored it ever happened, he took it way too seriously than I'd meant it. The thing is, I hadn't meant it at all. But what was I supposed to do? Have him throw me out with some lame excuse after he woke up "with" me? I'm sorry but I had a little more self respect than that and I wasn't about to put it on sale just because a very handsome man wanted to buy it, exploit it and discard it in the nearest trashcan.
For the next couple of months, he practically ignored my existence as a human. That was his revenge. He treated me like I was his maid, not his PA. He dismissed me as quickly as he called me, talked to me in a brisk manner, didn't even bother to look my way twice and basically tried to make me feel like as much of a shithead as possible.
All of it would have affected me and made me cry, except for the fact that my infatuations were like a switch. I could switch my feelings off if I knew it was hurting me or making me feel low. The way people had pushed me down as I grew up, I had taught myself to run the other way from a person or situation that made me feel bad about myself. And even though I still over thought about it on the bad days, it generally went on smoothly because I didn't care who Nathan fricking Black was taking to bed at night as long as he wasn't rubbing it in my face.
Once or twice, I did get a glimpse of what a proficient playboy he was. Some women that came for a meeting with him would be drooling over him all over the place and that smooth motherfucker didn't even need to touch them to make them have an orgasm right there. They literally fawned over him, clearly hitting on him till they ran out of lines and neither did he lead them into thinking of anything more nor did he discourage such behavior.
Even in those few situations, he would ignore the shit out of me but the women still managed to give me the stink eye even though he dismissed me with a flick of his wrist every time, not even sparing me a glance. However, all the men in the office who asked me out did suspiciously get demoted, fired or ended up in some legal problem.
On my part, I ignored all of his shenanigans. Because that's how you deal with spoilt kids- by not giving them the attention they crave.
This cold war between us ended because of a full-fledged argument and the scene that took place afterwards. I was cleaning up the mess on his desk because somehow he managed to make it a pile of junk in three days straight. He was so disorganized that I was shocked how he survived up until now without me. Because organizing his desk wasn't part of my job description but it irritated the clean freak in me so much that I started doing it anyway, and then it became a kind of an expected duty. For holding up his end, he was helping me out a little by taking the calls I was supposed to take as I cleaned. It was a fair quid pro quo.
"It's Shirley. Isn't she the representative of Volkswagen? I told you to cancel that," he said with a growl that seemed to have taken permanent residence in words directed towards me.
"Ignore it. She apparently doesn't understand the meaning of 'no'," I replied.
"Yeah. Ignore. That's what you do best," he muttered under his breath. He didn't mean for me to hear it but I did. And damn it, it pissed me off.
"That's nice coming from you," I said sweetly, standing up from my perch on the floor and dusting my skirt off.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he said with narrowed eyes. His angry look was intimidating but after being on the receiving end of it for so long, I'd become immune to it.
"It means what I said. Or are you having problems in verbal comprehension, sir?" I pouted haughtily.
"Not liking the taste of your own medicine, Ms. Miles? I thought you preached ignorance as the road to peace," he said, each word uttered with utmost menace.
I laughed unbelievingly. "Is it some kind of twisted revenge in your mind? What are you still stuck on?"
"People usually tend to get stuck when you leave them hanging in the middle. If you don't have the balls to face it in the morning, it's better to not lift your skirt for every guy around the block," he snapped coldly. His words were like a bucket full of ice thrown over my face.
I threw the file I had been holding down on his desk, turned on my heels and went back to my office calmly. It was only once I had sunk in my chair that I realized my eyes were starting to tear up. It was college all over again. The only difference was that this time, it wasn't a rumor that I'd slept with the stud.
How does that even matter? All humans are alike. They act nice until their purposes are served, then turn around and call you a slut anyway, or some other derogatory term like that. I swear, all girls have to do is exist on this planet and that's it, they're street whores. It doesn't matter if she's a virgin or a ten year old for that matter. If she has pissed off a member of the great male species, she's a slut. Deal with it.
It was that year that my sister had left me alone to take care of my mother who was bedridden with cancer. It was that year that I lost all my friends because they'd rather believe the popular jock and his rumors than support me. It was that year that for the first time in life, I was truly lonely.
Now with Rayne working small jobs overtime to cover up for her underemployment and me working late hours, we hardly had time to even say hi to each other. It had been half a year since I'd been in the city and I didn't really get opportunities to make a lot of friends. The few that I had were temporary. My sister was still flocking from country to country and shooting lifestyle documentaries on different cultures. My mother was in institutional care. And my father... He'd left us when I was very young. I didn't even remember him.
There goes my life in a jiffy. And poof- now my boss wanted to humiliate me.
After a couple of minutes, he opened the door to my cabin and knocked for formality. I didn't even grace him with a reply. "Did I upset you?" he asked but his voice was small.
I glared at him with my eyes that were red because of the unshed tears. His mouth formed an 'O' when he noticed.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that," he said and he did sound sincere but I was pissed beyond hell. I wasn't that meek little eighteen year old anymore who would bow down to anybody.
I nodded, acknowledging his words.
"You know, you're supposed to say something like 'it's okay'," he said.
"Well, it's not, so..." I shrugged.
He stood with his elbows braced on the doorframe. "Don't give me that attitude."
"Or what? You're gonna fire me? Go ahead." I put my pen down obstinately and stared at him with my arms crossed.
"What's wrong with you?" he exclaimed.
"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?" I shouted back. "You've been treating me like I'm not even human. Did I complain? No. You've been prancing around with a big temper on your nose that you always feel comfortable to unload on me. Did I say anything? No. But this is going way too far, okay? You don't have the right to call me a slut. Especially when you know you've tapped this booty."
"I don't even have the right to be mad at you? After you insulted me that badly?" he retaliated. "Okay, granted I shouldn't have said all that I did. But I have all the rights in the world to ignore you, Karen. You know why? Because that's exactly what you did to me. And that hurt."
"You do not have any fucking right. If your big ego can't handle the fact that not all girls are going to loll their tongues around you and wag their tails, then that's your problem, not mine. And if you find it impossible to get over, then you can fire me anytime. Trust me, it wouldn't even matter to me then," I said bitterly.
He stared back at me for a few seconds. "You know I won't," he sighed, suddenly looking very exhausted. He came over to kneel in front of me on one knee and said, "I really am sorry. My tongue tends to slip when my mind is heated up. I didn't mean it."
I was shocked to see him act civil with me, that too after the screaming match we'd had. It was as unexpected as it was new. I nodded at him again and said, "Okay."
He spread his hands in bewilderment. "A guy is on his knees. What more does it take to get you to forgive?"
"Well, that's actually just one knee," I pointed out.
He put the other knee down as well with a raised eyebrow. "I'm sorry. Do you also want me to hold my ears?"
For the first time, this man brought a slight smile to my face. "No, it's okay."
"Can I get up now?" he asked.
This time, a silly laugh escaped my lips. "Yes."
He rose to his full height again but before going out, he wiped off the little tear that had escaped my eye and fallen down my cheek. "Doesn't look good on you."
I touched my cheek where he'd wiped off the tear from in shock. Even though shivers still ran through me at his touch, I wasn't going to admit that. Not again. Not after one drunken mistake led to this whole drama.
I didn't see more of him until the end of the day when I was tying up the lose ends and he was waiting for me to finish up so we could leave together because everyone else had left by that time. The whole complex was empty.
"Can you hurry up?" he said impatiently.
"Can you stop glaring at me?" I said, peeking out from behind his desk. God knows he made enough of a mess to give an OCD patient a field trip.
"Why do you shout at me so much? I'm the boss," he said, as if stating it would surely establish the fact.
"Why do you hate me so much? I fricking work under you," I said in the same tone.
"I don't hate you. I just- I just-" He settled for screaming through his teeth.
"Want to kill me?" I said dryly, dusting my hands in satisfaction as I finally finished.
He raised his hands towards my neck, his fingers dangerously curled as if he was choking me in his mind already.
"I don't feel like worshipping you either. So at least we're good on that, Richie Rich." I smiled sarcastically.
We had inched very close to each other, breathing hard on each other's faces, masking our lust as anger. But neither of us even realized that.
"Shut up," he said in a voice worthy of being cast for Scar in The Lion King.
"Make me." I'd said that just like that, not exactly meaning it. Or at least not in the sexual sense. I can't tell you what happened next for sure. Maybe both of us reached for the other at the same time. Within ten seconds, we both were gnawing at each other like hungry animals, which isn't far from the truth.
He, like the last time, was mercilessly rough with me and I loved every second of it. He grabbed my hair and pulled them back to expose my face even more to his carnal tendencies. As his tongue pushed inside my mouth, exploring its deepest depths, his other hand was already inching my dress up. He backed me up against the desk as he smoothly removed my dress, letting it fall to the floor in a heap.
His hands were like an unforgivable sin on my skin. Every breath of his that I inhaled clogged up a little hole in my heart I hadn't known had been bleeding. He turned me so that my back was pressed against his muscular body and removed the rest of the unnecessary articles of clothing adorning me. I could feel each and every one of his rock hard abs digging into my back through his clothes. He had a body that Greek Gods would be jealous of and I wanted to lick each and every delicious inch.
But he wasn't giving me free reign this time. He bent me over the desk, his erection pressing against my ass. I heard him unzip his fly and pull down his trousers as he slowly kissed down from the nape of my neck to my waist.
"Damn it, Black, I just cleaned the desk," I muttered through the haze of concupiscence that was blinding me. I loved the challenge he posed of who would get the upper hand. It thrilled my inner goddess to see him lose but it also felt heavenly when he took control. This man knew what he was doing. And he did it well.
He spread my legs a little wider and slipped inside me, pounding me like a jackhammer right from the beginning. I could feel every inch of him inside me. It pained; I had never been treated this roughly before, but I couldn't have stopped it if I tried. I loved what he did to me. I loved how he could bring me to the edge and then get me back down, only to bring me there again, until I was ready to take the fall with him.
He pulled my hair back, using it like the reigns that could control me, and my back arched. The velvety softness of his shirt rubbing against my skin made it even more erotic. He licked the sensitive area beneath my ear and bit my shoulder lightly, making me gasp. "You look good when your mouth is shut," he breathed in my ear.
"You look good when I can't see you," I retorted and it made him smirk.
My nails clawed at the wooden facade of the desk, desperately finding something to hold onto as I exploded. He put his arms around me, enclosing my hands in his as he burst into a million fireworks with me.
It was only once we were panting like dogs in heat, trying to catch our breath after the most phenomenal experience of our life, that we realized what we had done, and also that we'd done it without protection.
It took him two seconds to pull up his trousers and zip up again. But me? My clothes were strewn in different spots all over the floor. "What the heck, Nathan?" I said, picking up each clothing article one by one and wearing them while he comfortably sat on a chair, staring at me with a smug smile. "It's cold, I'm naked because of you and you don't even have the courtesy of helping, you bastard?"
"You know, it's the greatest fantasy of any man to watch a hot lady strut around in his office with nothing but panties on," he said and laughed with his head thrown back when I glared at him.
I managed to wear all my clothes without freezing to death. Truth be told, it wasn't that cold but the way he was looking at me was making me shiver. He had a way of raking his eyes over my body that brought goosebumps on every part that his smoldered gaze landed on.
He opened the door for me as I adjusted the strap of my heels. I don't even know how he managed to mess that up. "What are you doing tonight?" he asked.
My head snapped in his direction. "Not much," I said, which wasn't true. I had to check my email, confirm calls for all his meetings tomorrow, check on my roommate to see she was still alive and not lying in some dumpster, order dinner because I didn't have the energy to cook and, of course, think about what just happened. This jerk was always piling work on me.
"Can I take you out?" he asked.
"You know, that part usually comes before what we just did," I said sarcastically, biding my time to think whether I should or not.
"I'm aware. I'm also aware that things with you don't tend to go the conventional way," he said impatiently, "So will you go out with me or what?"
I stood on my tiptoes to press a soft kiss to his cheek. "Sure. I'd love to."    

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Author's note: Hey guys! Thank you so much for reading this. Please vote and comment if you liked it. Any feedback is appreciated. :)