Chapter 33 - 33

I managed to walk in the front doors with only moments to spare and just in time to see a car pull up. Surprise ran through me when I saw Reed dash out of it looking just as frazzled as I was. His dark, wet, hair was pulled back in a ponytail tied off at the base of his neck leaving a damp area on the back of the dark blue suit he had changed into, the color complimented him so well that my breath caught at the sight of him. The despondency that was etched into his face made my resolve weaken and caused me to hurry inside before my feet started walking in his direction on their own accord.

I briskly sat down at my desk and attempted to pull out all the paperwork I could find in a petty effort to keep him from talking to me. My eyes stayed focused on the work in front of me as I tried to act like his presence wasn't affecting me at all even as my body began to tingle in awareness. I felt him make a beeline straight to my desk and the next thing I knew two giant hands were planted on the form I was working on. I slowly looked up and met his burning hot angry gaze with my own cool facade and swallowed back a squeak of fear that threatened to burst from me when I saw how close he was to my face.

"As soon as I'm done here, you will come into my office and we will discuss your insubordinate behavior," he said in his deathly calm voice.

"What do you mean, Mr. Callaghan?" I asked innocently praying my voice was not sound as shaky as I thought it did, "I'm being on my best behavior, given the situation.”

He shoved angrily away from the desk and paced away as he ran his hands through his hair again, I was beginning to realize he did this when he was feeling frustrated or inept, it was an adorable habit, but right now I was too angry to appreciate it. He turned back to me and I could see he was about to explode when a short scrawny man with an unusually long neck walked up behind him and whispered into his ear distracting him.

Reed glared at the man as if he could ring his chicken neck with one hand while bashing his skull in with another.

"I said, I'll be right there after I'm done talking to my secretary. Go wait for me in my office," he gritted out between clenched teeth.

The man immediately backed away murmuring an apology as he basically ran into Reed's office and closed the door as if he was afraid Reed would come after him at any moment.

Any other time and I knew I would have burst out laughing. But the anger I had been feeling suddenly turned into a flash boil and I wanted nothing more than to wring Reed's neck. Oh, I was his secretary now, was I? I sneered to myself.

"Will there be anything else, Mr. Callaghan? After all your secretary has things to do," I snapped at him.

"That is enough, Amiliana," he snapped back.

The weak, cracked dam that had been holding my anger back suddenly burst and I stood up to face him seeing red as if a demon had taken over my body leaving me unable to control what came out of my mouth.

"Mr. Callaghan," I started, "This weekend was a mistake. A mistake that will never happen again. So, I think it'd be best if you just went back to work and leave me the hell alone."

I saw hurt cloud his eyes before he blinked it back behind the steel wall that he kept his emotions under. I had a moment of doubt when I saw a bit of the naked emotion on his face, but I steeled my aching heart against him by reminding myself that this man was a two-timing little weasel not worth my time and ignoring the tiny voice telling me I was wrong.

His expression softened for a moment as he reached out to caress my face. However, I stepped back quickly before he could touch me almost causing tripping over my chair. Happily, I caught myself. Unfortunately, I was not so quick to recover the chair that landed on the floor with a bang. Muttering profanity under my breath, I set it upright and I turned back just in time to see Reed walk into his office slamming the door shut so hard it rattled the pictures on the wall.

I slumped into my chair with a heartfelt groan and slammed my head onto my desk almost painfully. Instead of feeling proud of how I had handled the situation, I felt guilty, depressed. As well as this intense need to go running into Reed's office and throw myself on his mercy. Because somehow, I knew this was not over.

I smacked my head against the desk a few more times to drive out the doomsday feelings. After a small headache began to form, I proceeded to dive headfirst into memos, notes, and whatever else I could find on my desk that needed looking at. I had barely pulled ahead of the massive pile on my desk when Reed's door opened two hours later, and the scrawny little chicken-necked man came walking out.

"Yes, sir, Mr. Callaghan, sir. I'll get right on it," the man reassured Reed.

The man wiped his overtly sweaty brow and giving me a weak smile as he headed out of the reception area.

I felt the heat of Reed's gaze on me so fiercely that I could not resist the pull to look at him. When I did, I noticed for the first time today the look of utter exhaustion in his eyes. I wanted to ask him what was going on, but he didn't even give me a chance to speak as he slapped a new pile of paperwork in front of me and stalked back into his office just barely closing the door at an acceptable strength.

The guilt and pain started gnawing at my gut until I couldn't stand it any longer. I set my pen down to talk to go talk to him. I was almost at the door when the phone rang interrupted me. I quickly grabbed it intent on taking a message so that we weren't interrupted.

"Reed Callaghan's office, Mia speaking, how can I help you?" I asked distractedly as I began searching for the pen and the notepad that I knew I had to have on this cluttered chaos of a desk.

"Patch me through to Reed immediately," demanded a sickeningly sweet voice on the other end.