Reciprocity

CHAPTER 9

The alarm went off, blaring in my ear, and I groaned as I slapped my hand down on it. I stared at the time, sighing as I registered it was Monday and we really did have to get up.

Going back to work was rough. Being on vacation had been a heaven of sorts, and reality was brutal, making me appreciate every moment away that much more.

Granted, it wasn’t all bad—Lila was with me. My wife.

“Come on, get up,” I said as I yawned, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed and stretching.

She whimpered, face down in her pillow. “Only if you promise Starbucks.”

I snickered. “Trust me, baby, I don’t want to leave this bed either. And I promise we’ll stop.”

Her head tilted up and she huffed, blowing the wild strands of hair from her face. She was pouty and grumpy, making her fucking adorable and my urge to hug her ferocious.

With a growl and a graceless stiffness, I jumped on top of her. She squeaked, trapped beneath me. I nibbled at her neck, biting like an animal, making her writhe and me stiffen in another way.

I smacked her ass and pushed off the bed before I got carried away. “Come on, before I shove my cock in you and we miss the chance to get coffee.”

Her eyes popped open wide and she jumped from the bed. Apparently coffee won out over my dick—what the hell?

A few minutes later, we were out the door and on our way. The smile never left her face. I’d never seen her smile so much.

Sitting at a red light, it dawned on me. “You’re thinking about the Boob Squad, aren’t you?”

“Maybe.” Her voice was light and playful.

“Ready to rub it in their jealous noses that you are Mrs. Nathan Thorne.”

“Maybe.” Her smile grew wider.

“You don’t have to admit it. I know you are, and so am I. Those insipid bitches piss me off.” My fingers flexed on the steering wheel. “I hate the way they think they can treat you, and for no reason except that you’re with me.”

She shrugged. “Before you came, they pretty much ignored me and were never friendly. Then again, I didn’t make it easy—I didn’t want to get to know them.”

“They’re shallow cunts anyway.” I shivered in disgust when I remembered Jennifer grabbing my hand and putting it up her skirt. I’d been inches from her pussy and whatever disease it held.

She nodded. “Pack mentality, with Jennifer at the helm.”

I snorted. “She is the worst of them, followed up by Tiffany.”

Lila laughed. “Oh, yes, Tiffany trying to seduce you in the copy room. That was priceless.”

I quirked my brow at her. “You saw that?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I stuck around, waiting to see if you needed rescuing.”

I shook my head and brought her fingers up to my lips, placing a kiss. She never failed to surprise me. Or turn me on.

By the time we arrived, she was buzzing with energy, staring down at the rings on her fingers. I glanced at mine, still getting used to something being there after so long.

“I wonder if my new nameplate is up.”

I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her close as we walked in the building. “Another way to stick it to them, huh?”

She nodded. “Oh, yeah. Plus, I love my new name. I want to scream it from the rooftops.”

I laughed and kissed the side of her head. “You still need to get it changed legally.”

“Yeah. I’m doing that tomorrow at lunch.”

I quirked a brow as I held the door open for her. “I’m surprised you can wait that long.”

She elbowed me in the ribs. “I figured there wouldn’t be time today. I’m afraid to see what my desk looks like…and poor Owen. He hasn’t been in the position long.”

I pushed the call button for the elevator. “He can handle himself.”

She pursed her lips, silent as the doors slid open and we stepped in. A loud sigh came out of her, and I looked down.

“What?”

“Yesterday we were on the beach. I want to go back.”

The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened to our floor. I took a moment to lean into her. “Soon.”

“Tomorrow?”

I chuckled as I grabbed her hand and started walking down the hall. “Not quite that soon.”

Of course, turning the corner would put us right in front of the fucking BS bitches—some of their cubes were right in the hallway. I fucking hated seeing the lust light up their eyes, then turn to disdain when they noticed Lila. Then again, I’d rather have them not look at us at all.

“Another vacation? Jeez, Delilah, I’m surprised Mr. Holloway still has you on.” The vile skank known as Jennifer rolled her eyes.

The other diseased one, Tiffany, held her hand up to her mouth, as if we wouldn’t hear her. “You know she’s only still here because Nathan was his son-in-law.”

My eye twitched as my jaw tightened and flexed. When did my past start circulating? We were already water cooler gossip, but my relationship with Jack had been kept quiet.

“It’s none of your business how I use my vacation time. I have a lot saved up over the years, and still plenty to go—I’ll use it how I want to.” Lila was cool and collected, and the venom in her voice turned me on.

My fingers flexed on her hip. I loved to see her fight back—it was so fucking sexy. She wasn’t weak, no matter what that shithead or the bitches in front of us thought.

They rolled their eyes. “I’m surprised you have any left after all the time you took off last year.”

Lila shook her head before narrowing her gaze on them. “You really are the stupidest bunch of rat-pack bitches, aren’t you? I was hit by a car, unable to take care of myself, let alone work. That classifies as sick time and medical leave. Company policy allows a certain number of weeks to be taken with half pay in the event you are unable to work for medical reasons. Vacation time is not used for medical leave.”

She glared at them as she explained in terms their collagen-filled brains might understand. I cringed and backed up when Jennifer puckered her lips at me. Fuck, if her lips got any bigger, they were going to explode. It was bad enough she put her hands on me and shoved her breasts in my face every fucking chance she got, but there was no way I’d want those monsters near me.

The BS bitches were tsking and getting riled up and yammering—pissing me off. It was too fucking early to listen to their squawking. I’d had enough.

I grabbed the back of Lila’s head and turned her to me, fisting her hair. My other hand grabbed on to her jaw as I devoured her lips with mine. I turned, pressing her against the wall as I shoved my tongue in her mouth, claiming her as mine, hips thrusting as I practically fucked her in front of them.

It made me remember our honeymoon, just two days prior when I had to lay claim to her in front of a bunch of idiots who were trying to buy her a drink at the pool bar. I kissed her harder, deeper, fucking her mouth with my tongue. She was whimpering and moaning, her hands gripped tight on my lapels.

I pulled back, panting, happy at the complete desire and want on her face. I looked over to the bitches, their stunned expressions making me want to laugh.

“My wife.” More than one of them gasped in shock, apparently unaware what had transpired the week before. “I don’t want anyone but her, so stop trying to tear her down to make yourselves feel better or think you have a chance at getting to me. Women like you make me sick.”

“You can’t!” Jennifer screamed out, jumping up from her seat.

My spine straightened, and I turned to face them, glaring down at them. Tiffany’s eyes widened and she scurried back behind the cube wall. Kelly, the least aggressive of the bunch, sat down in her seat when my head cocked in her direction, scooting it back to her desk.

“What can’t I do?” My voice was even, smooth. From their shuddering, it also had the desired chilling effect. “I’ve been fairly tolerant of your advances, but your bleached brain doesn’t seem to grasp that I am in a relationship and therefore unavailable. You have chosen not to respect that, and are no better than an insect, in my view.”

Jennifer was defiant, yet to be broken. “She’s an insect.” Her lip curled up in insolence as she looked at Lila.

I stepped forward, looming over her and flashed my left hand so their leader could see. “I asked Lila to marry me, to be my wife. I wanted to marry her, to have her with me forever, to have her body on mine whenever and wherever I want. Not you. Never any of you. Only her.”

Jennifer’s jaw jutted forward and her arms crossed over her chest. “So, what you’re saying is you married your whore.”

My eyes widened and my body vibrated.

“Jenn, I think you should stop.” Kelly’s voice was low, reserved.

“Say that again, skank. Call my wife a whore again and I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” She stepped forward, her body so close I could feel the heat of her devil fire on my skin.

“Have you fired.”

A hand clapped down on my shoulder and I turned to Jack. The BS bitches all gasped, and Jennifer’s mouth was gaping open, stumbling over words as she stepped away from me. I relaxed back toward Lila, my muscles uncoiling at her touch.

“M-Mr. Holloway, welcome back.” Jennifer blinked at him, a bead of sweat forming on her brow.

“Hmph. I don’t see how getting accounts of you threatening another employee while I was away, witnessing the beautiful wedding of Nathan and Delilah on the beach, as much of a welcome.”

She shook her head desperately. “No, sir, I didn’t do anything like that.”

Jack rocked back on his heels and stared at her. “I don’t much like emails like that while I’m away on vacation. Especially when they are from your supervisor’s supervisor with multiple accounts from different women in the office stating they’d been attacked by you.” Jennifer’s face paled and she sunk back. “Make sure your schedule is clear this afternoon, Miss Watson.”

“Y-yes, sir.”

“Now, I believe you all have work to do.” He smiled at them with an almost eerie calm.

They all slunk back to their cubes, pretending to work—something I still wasn’t convinced they ever accomplished.

Jack turned to us and beamed. “I’m missing that beach about now.” He laughed as he patted my back and walked us down the hall.

“Thanks, Jack. I was about to lose it.”

Jack nodded. “I noticed. You didn’t even hear your wife calling your name and tugging on your arm.”

I looked over to Lila, who nodded. “I was afraid you were going to punch her.”

I sighed and pulled on my neck. “I almost did.” I glanced at Jack. “Was that true?”

Jack smiled and leaned close, looking around to make certain no one overheard. “There have been whispered complaints going on from some of the senior staff for some time. While we were away, Owen took it upon himself to detail their actions. Some of it was on video. He emailed Stanley Wick, stating that her supervisor refused to take action and it was upsetting many of his coworkers.”

Lila was right—Owen could hold his own. I laughed.

“Stanley looked into it. Seems Jennifer has been…coercing good progress reports from her supervisor, Daniel.”

Lila scoffed at the news. “Doesn’t surprise me in the least, especially after watching the way she went after Nate.”

Jack looked around again. “David and I have taken an interest in the matter, especially seeing as a supervisor was involved and in a way that violates many company policies.”

I looked at Jack when he referenced his brother—the other Holloway in the company name. “I thought David retired.”

“He still pokes around from time to time, keeping tabs. Stanley contacted him first, since I was away.” We stopped in front of Lila’s door and Jack held out his hand, shaking mine before taking Lila’s. “Have a good day, you two.” He turned to leave, then looked back. “I’ll keep you apprised of the situation, seeing as you both are involved and have had altercations. We’ll probably need to meet with each of you later.”

I nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” I pulled Lila close as he walked away. She looked up at me as she leaned in, arching into me.

“Ahem.”

We blinked at each other and peeked into the office. Owen was peering over his monitor, staring at us. “If you’re going to make out, can you do it somewhere else?”

“Ha.” I flipped him off and leaned down for one last succulent kiss to get me through the day.

It was hard to let her go, to be separated from her. She pushed away with a reluctant sigh and headed to her desk, a deep frown as she looked over all the files covering the top.

“Hey, thanks, Owen.” I tipped my chin at him.

He looked up at me and smirked. “For what?

I nodded in agreement to his sneaky maneuvers and gave him a thumbs up. “You’re all right, man.” I looked back to Lila and kissed the air at her. “Have a good day, Mrs. Thorne.”

She beamed at me. “You too, Mr. Thorne.”