Chapter 51: Chapter 51 Morning After
Elara
I woke to Linda’s voice outside the door.
"Luna Elara isn’t in her room? Did she go out early?"
Footsteps got closer. "Alpha Dominic, breakfast is ready."
My brain wasn’t working yet. But I felt the heavy arm around my waist right away. When I moved a little, that arm got tighter. It pulled me back against the warm body behind me.
Everything from last night came back. It wasn’t a dream. It really happened.
I closed my eyes tight. I wanted to disappear.
Dominic moved my hair away from my ear. His lips touched my earlobe.
His voice was rough from sleep. "Got it, Linda."
I hit him hard in the ribs with my elbow. "Get off me."
He made a sound, then laughed quietly. "What’s wrong? Already done with me?"
I turned my head fast. "Who was done with who?"
Dominic showed me his neck and shoulders. They were covered in purple marks. "You really went crazy on me. Want to explain this?"
My eyes got wide. I stared at what I had done to him. I couldn’t believe I left all those marks.
I looked away fast. "Bug bites."
Dominic almost choked laughing. Then he bit my earlobe gently. "Bug bites?"
"Must have been some really mean bugs."
I was tired of him acting so smug. "Stop. I have to go to work."
I grabbed the sheet and wrapped it around me. Then I went to the bathroom and locked the door.
When I saw myself in the mirror, I almost passed out. Dominic had no right to complain about his marks. I had twice as many as him.
I touched the dark bruise on my neck. Now I was worried. It was too hot outside to wear a turtleneck. That would look weird.
And I wasn’t sure makeup could hide this mess.
We came out of the bedroom together. Linda saw us from the kitchen. She couldn’t hide her happy smile.
At breakfast, I gave Linda an angry look. She touched her nose and quickly disappeared back into the kitchen.
I was even madder at Dominic. The way he sat there so calmly, drinking his coffee like nothing happened. Like last night was just another Tuesday for him.
This was supposed to be a gay man.But there he was, acting like sleeping with me was no big deal.
I felt like an idiot.
The smugness on his face made me want to throw my coffee at him.
I grabbed my bag and stood up. My heels clicked loudly on the floor as I walked to the garage. I got in my car and slammed the door.
I could feel him watching me through the kitchen window, but I didn’t look back. I just wanted to get as far away from him as possible.
As I drove away, I kept thinking about how stupid I was. How did I let this happen? How did I fall for his act?
And why did part of me still want to go back?
--
I made it to the office just in time.
Then I’d been moved from Human Resources to an office right next to Mark’s.
My new position was the same level as Mark’s. He had already used his connections to dig up information about my background.He seemed surprised by how young I was.
But while he knew, nobody else did.
Mark gave me way too much praise during the morning meeting. His team clearly didn’t trust it.
I had stirred up trouble in HR, and now I was in their department. Everyone was nervous about what I might do next.
In the ladies’ room, two women from the business department were fixing their makeup.
"So what’s the story with this new director who suddenly gets to be Mark’s equal?" one asked.
"She turned HR upside down. Haven’t you heard about all the changes she made?"
"You think she’s planning to mess with our department too?"
"Mark won’t let her run wild here."
"It’s so annoying. We’ve worked our asses off for years, and now we might get bossed around by some woman who sleeps around."
"Sleeps around? What makes you say that?"
"Didn’t you see those marks on her neck? Even makeup couldn’t hide them. She probably screwed her way into that director job!"
I pushed open the stall door and walked calmly to the sink beside them. I turned on the water.
Both women froze.
I looked at the name tag of the woman who’d just accused me of sleeping my way to the top. "You’re Susan."
Susan’s face turned bright red. She looked down. "Director Elara."
"Getting caught talking shit behind someone’s back and then going silent isn’t very smart," I said calmly.
"I hope you don’t act this unprofessional with clients."
I walked out.
Susan bit her lip. Her face went white.
