Free Sweet Surrender (Sweet Jealousy, Book Two) by Morgan Garrity Page A

phones as they hurried to work. Exhaust fumes filled the air, and the city pulsed and hummed with the normal electricity and vibrancy of rush hour.
    Now that she was out of Nathan’s apartment, Addison’s anger was being to fade, replacing itself with a dull ache. She tried not to think about what had happened last night, tried to ignore the way her skin felt like it was on fire from where he’d punished her.
    Instead, she tried to focus on what to do next.
    She checked her watch. 6:48 am.
    She needed to be at work by eight. But she couldn’t go there looking like this.
    Her hair was a rat’s nest, her skin was blotchy, and she was wearing the same clothes she had on yesterday. She wasn’t sure if Nathan was going to fire her, but she couldn’t just not show up.
    Shehadto go to work.
    And in order to go to work, she was going to have to shower and change.
    Which meant she was going to have to go back to her apartment.

    ***
    Addison took the subway back to her building, thankful, for once, that the car was full. Usually she hated being crushed against the person next to her, hated the way she had to grasp onto the pole for dear life to avoid slamming into someone’s coffee cup.
    But today, she was thankful that everyone was packed in and off in their own little worlds. She worried that if people were a little more observant, if they’d taken the time to really look at her, they’d somehow be able to figure out that she’d spent last night getting into more trouble than she wanted to think about.
    When she emerged from the subway, she walked quickly toward her apartment.
    But when she got there, she hesitated in front of her building. Mr. Gold was probably in his office, and after what had happened last night, she obviously was in no rush to see him.
    Standing out there on the sidewalk, she realized she couldn’t go inside. There was no way she’d be able to face Mr. Gold. She was scared, and she’d never felt more alone in her life. If she were back in Georgia, she would have been able to call her parents, or her best friend Katie, or one of the dozens of other friends she’d had ever since she was little.
    Here, she had no one.
    Although that wasn’t exactly true. She had Tia. But Tia lived in the same building, and therefore wouldn’t be the best help. Besides, calling Tia would only invite a bunch of questions about Nathan Sweet, and he was the last person she felt like talking about.
    Addison peeked inside through the windows of the building. She didn’t see Mr.
    Gold anywhere, but she couldn’t see all the way back into the office. It was definitely best not to risk it. She would buy a cheap dress somewhere, and then shower and change in the fitness center at work.
    When she arrived at the Intuition offices half an hour later, a shopping bag full of clothes in her hand, she headed right for the gym on the first floor. She swiped her employee I.D., careful not to make eye contact with the man working the security desk.
    Was he used to seeing women sneaking in early in the morning, new clothes in hand?
    Worse still, did he know that she’d been with Nathan Sweet? That she’d let him do unspeakable things to her, that she’d actually enjoyed it? Probably not. It was ridiculous to think the man working at the desk knew anything about Nathan Sweet’s personal life, especially since Nathan had just started working there.
    Even so, Addison felt like she was doing something wrong as she snuck into one of the empty shower stalls. Once inside, she stood under the hot water, letting it wash away the memory and smell of what had happened last night.
    Taking a bath at Nathan’s house hadn’t counted– after spending the night in Nathan’s bed, letting her hair dry on his satin pillowcases, she felt like she needed to wash him off of her all over again.
    Once she was done washing and conditioning her hair, Addison dressed carefully in the simple black dress she’d picked up, then dried her hair with one of