Free Losing Control by Summer Mackenzie Page A

left standing outside, with my mouth open.
    “What the hell was that all about?” Penny asked, jolting me out of my fantasy state.
    “Nothing,” I said.
    I felt tired even though it was just morning and I had woken up less than an hour ago. I was tired because I wanted this thing with Nick to stop. I wanted it to go away. But the way Nick had behaved today it was more than a little obvious that he wasn’t about to just sit back and wait for his heart to move on. And of course there was this other little inconvenience—Thorne Ryker. What the hell was I doing getting all excited over him? He was my boss, this could get complicated! But I couldn’t help that every time I saw him I felt something, deep down inside me, an urge, a thirst, a craving if you could call it that—something that I’d never felt before and it was annoying the way every time Thorne was around, it resurfaced. I needed to make more of an effort to kill that stupid feeling.

THORNE

     
     
     
     
    “What was that about?” Lane asked when we found a table.
    “What?”
    “Elena,” Lane said, and he looked at me in a strange way. “You like her, don’t you?”
    “What? That’s absurd!”
    “No, it’s not,” my brother was adamant. “You were threatening the guy like he had really pissed you off and I don’t remember you standing up for people at your workplace before.”
    “That guy was being an asshole.”
    “To her. I noticed.”
    “Lane, could you shut up about this?”
    Lane grinned. “No.”
    Even my brother’s teasing couldn’t get me to relax. That guy, Nick, sounded like trouble. I couldn’t help but think what would happen if he tried to do the same to her when she was unprotected. I should get her to file a restraining order, really make sure he stays out of her life.
    “What would you like to have, sir?”

ELENA

     
     
     
     
    The next day at work I was back to avoiding Nick’s calls. This time around there were more texts, stupid, annoying, threatening and he still kept trying to call. I had to leave my phone aside and forget it even existed in order to distract myself. But he had been at it since the previous night. Why couldn’t he just give up? Couldn’t he see I was not the same person who had been staying with him all those years? He probably didn’t realize that moving on had changed me in ways that he couldn’t imagine, and made me understand how stupid I had been and I was not about to repeat that stupidity. But of course, there was no way I could have explained that to him. I just hoped that soon enough he would find someone else to follow around, and charm into a life with him and I would be history. Until then, I was going to have to accept this frustration and annoyance as part of my life. In an effort to forget about the incident I didn’t even tell Tristan and Alex about what went on outside the breakfast place, even though I had gotten into the habit of discussing things with them the minute they happened. Sometimes they knew things before Penny did because we worked together and they were always nearby. Perhaps I should have called in sick; I was too distracted to work. But calling in sick at a job you’ve just begun, it hadn’t seemed like the best way to handle things. So here I was, trying to focus on the task at hand, but unable to concentrate, hoping that people won’t notice. When the beautiful young brunette came towards my desk I thought that I must surely be in trouble.
    “Mr. Ryker would like to see you in his office,” she said in her usual professional monotone. I recognized her as Thorne’s assistant, the gorgeous woman everyone thought he was sleeping with. Actually most people thought Ryker was having sex with every female he could get his hands on. Somehow it didn’t seem like a fair judgment of him, but what did I care. So what if he was the man-whore everyone kept talking about? It wasn’t my problem.
    “Mr. Ryker?” I repeated, just to be sure. That had never