Pulse 3 (Pulse Series) (12 page)

“
I just want you to know that whatever happens, I know that you’ll be a great man. And I’m here for you. However you need me.”

Rafael stared at me.
The muscles in his face tightened as he clenched his jaw.

“
I don’t… want you to stress yourself out like this,” I said. “I know that you have a lot of responsibility. But if this is something that you have to do, I understand. So, you don’t have to apologize to me if you want to talk about business or the company.”

He slowly nodded his head, a slight smile appearing on his face. I smiled back at him as I saw some kind of understanding in his eyes. As we stared at one another, the grins on our fac
es grew even larger. To see that he got my point filled me with excitement.

“
I… appreciate that, Alice. And I appreciate you. But you and I both know that talk about business would put you to sleep.”

He shoved a piece of food into his mouth. The sly smile
on his face as he chewed made me burst into laughter. I almost forgot about everything I just said to him. But I didn’t mind because the tension in the room was gone, at least for the time being.

“
Okay,” he said. “No talk about business or the company.”

“
Let’s just enjoy this dinner while we can.”

“
But we have to talk about something. I can’t just sit here and watch you eat.”

“
Why not? You don’t like the way I look when I eat?”

“
Now you’re just trying to twist my words, Alice.”

“
I’m not twisting your words. That’s what you said.”

“
That’s not what I said.”

“
You said
you can’t watch me eat. So, what is it? Is it the way I chew? Do I not close my mouth sometimes?”

“
Alice—”

“
No. Please, Mr. Barnett. I need more help on trying to be a lady. I could use some lessons.”

I stuffed two forkfuls of food into my mouth. I held my mouth open as I chewed for his amusement. The smile on Rafael
’s face grew wider until he finally started laughing. He shook his head at me before returning to his meal. I wiped my mouth and two of us enjoyed our dinner without thinking too much about anything else.

After a hard day of work, it was nice to see him smile. I didn
’t know how often I would need to do it but it wasn’t hard for me. It was something I knew I was capable of. This is the reason Rafael wanted me to work alongside him. This was why he wanted me in his office. And now that I was here, I was willing to do whatever it took to make his job that much easier.

Chapter 13

Rafael spent his time late in the office every night that week. When I left at night to finally get some sleep, he would still be at his desk going over the latest data that was sent to him. When I arrived back to work in the morning, he was already at his desk going over what was undoubtedly the same information. If it weren’t for the fact that he was wearing a different suit each time, I would have thought that he actually slept at his desk.

The long nights were taking a toll on me just as they were on him. He was always on my mind, regardless of where I was. At work, I couldn
’t organize the notes he needed fast enough. At home, I wondered what he was doing at every moment. I wished that there was something I could do but I knew that there wasn’t. I didn’t want to admit that being alongside of him in his office was actually beginning to feel like work.

The end of the week came and it felt like he hadn
’t made any progress. The phone calls he made sounded like a broken record. The numbers and data I sorted all looked the same. Rafael said that it was just a matter of time before they finally came to terms everybody could agree upon. That time was starting to look like months instead of days.

It wa
s a Friday night. Even though it was the end of the workweek, I wasn’t sure that Rafael could tell the difference between this night and any other night. The city looked like it was full of life tonight. Everybody was coming out to celebrate the weekend. But Rafael sat at his desk, still focused on all of the work laid upon it.

I made my way over to him but he didn
’t look up at me. I placed my hands on his shoulders like I was so accustomed to doing and massaged his muscles. His stress was obvious. I pressed hard to try and get rid of all of the knots in him.

“
It’s Friday,” I whispered into his ear.

“
Don’t remind me.”

“
Come on. Let’s go out. Have some fun. Relax. This work will still be here when you get back. Nobody will notice if you’ve taken a few days off.”

“
I’ll notice. And that’s more important than anybody else’s opinion.”

I took my hands off of him and positioned myself next to him. I turned around and sat on the
edge of his desk. I looked down at him but his attention was still on all of the work laid out in front of him. He shuffled through all of the papers like I wasn’t even there. I sighed then put my hand upon his to get him to stop. He finally looked up at me. The stress from a week of overtime was more apparent than it had ever been. But he still managed to look as handsome as he usually did.

“
What are you doing, Alice?”

“
What am
I
doing? What are
you
doing?”

“
I’m trying to work.”

“
Rafael, this work isn’t going anywhere. A few hours aren’t going to make a difference.”

“
It will. I’m close, Alice. Once I get through all of this, I can relax. But not now.”

“
It feels like a long time since we’ve actually spent any time together.”

“
We’ve been working together this entire time.”

“
That’s not what I meant,” I sighed. “I mean, it’s been a long time since we’ve actually… you know…”

Rafael stared at me. I gave him an impish little grin to try and coax him into thinking what I was thinking. But there was a desire burning
inside only one of us. If Rafael felt amorous at this point, it wasn’t enough for him to act upon it.

He stood up from his chair and placed one of his hands upon my neck. I closed my eyes as he slowly pulled my face toward his. He gave me a slow and sensua
l kiss. His lips didn’t linger long enough. As he pulled his mouth away from mine, I reached out for him but found nothing. When I opened my eyes, he stared back at me almost resigned to the fact that nothing more would happen.

“
You get more beautiful every single day,” he said. “I find myself just as attracted to you as I was when I first saw you standing across the bar.”

“
But…”

“
But I can’t think straight when I’m with you. And I
need
to be able to think straight. This is… important.”

“
I know,” I sighed. “I know. Dinner?”

“
Of course.”

“
It
is
Friday night though. That shouldn’t stop you from going out. Maybe you should call Danica and have some fun tonight.”

“
Fun? How am I supposed to have any fun without you?”

“
Well, maybe not too much fun. But you should relax. Have a good time for the both of us.”

“
Rafael—”

“
That’s what
I
want, Alice. Please do what I want.”

“
Is that an order from my boss?”

“
It’s a request from your boyfriend.”

He took my hands in his and stared at me. His deep brown eyes were just as mes
merizing as they always were. I was hypnotized. And I knew that there was nothing I could do to make him see things my way.

“
All right,” I said. “I suppose it’s been awhile since I’ve spent some time with Danica.”

“
Invite Wesley and Travis out to. You can go wherever you want. Everybody knows who I am. I’ll take care of it from here.”

“
I’ll miss you,” I sighed.

He leaned forward and kissed me again. I wrapped my arms around his neck and tried to hold him close but he eventually pulled away from me.

“If you ever need me, you know where to find me,” he replied.

* * *

“So, you just left him sitting in his office?”

“
I didn’t leave him there. He told me to go. So I went.”

“
I don’t know how he can sit in his office on a Friday night and actually try to get some work done.”

“
What can I say? He’s an amazing man.”

“
That’s an understatement.”

Danica had trouble understanding as to why Rafael wasn
’t with us to enjoy the start of the weekend. Even though she would have appreciated Rafael’s company, Danica had no qualms about accepting his offer to spend a night out on the town. And with all of the wealth and luxury of a billionaire at my fingertips, neither could Wesley or Travis.

My friend and I sat in the VIP booth, secluded from the rest of the clubgoers. Even
though Wesley and Travis had both accepted our invitation, they spend most of their time mingling with everybody else. Just like their internship, neither one of them felt it was appropriate to spend time away from the people they had more in common with.

“
So, what are you going to do?” Danica asked me. “Are you going to hook-up with someone else tonight?”

“
What?” I exclaimed. “Why would I do something like that?”

“
He wasn’t very specific. He
did
say that you should go out and have some fun.”

“
And I’m having fun now. He didn’t say go out there and look for someone else to fuck.”

“
Doesn’t he realize that you need it? How long has it been since the last time?”

“
That’s not the point. What matters is that we’re in an exclusive, monogamous relationship. Do you even know what that means?”

“
If you say so. I guess it’s a little different when you have an entire year’s salary always there to remind you of that fact.”

Danica motioned at the diamond bracelet on my arm as she took a sip of her drink, the grin on her fac
e hidden behind her glass. I raised my hand up and ran it along my wrist. Even in the dim lights of the club, the diamonds and emeralds still sparkled with a brightness that made my wrist shine.

“
You’ve really changed, Alice.”

“
What’s that supposed to mean?”

“
Here we are. You’ve finally figured things out. You’ve got a steady boyfriend, a steady job and you’re sitting in a club thinking about both of them. It’s like you’re all grown-up.”

“
I’ve still got a long way to go.”

“
I don’t think so. It sounds like you’re married to this guy. He’s still your boss, you know.”

“
He’s my boss second. He’s my boyfriend first. I can separate the two.”

“
If he’s your boyfriend first, where is he? Did he really let you go out on the town by yourself?”

“
I’m a good girl. I know how to behave myself. He knows that I won’t hook-up with anybody. Besides, the last thing I want to do is jeopardize our relationship with someone else.”

“
Fine. Fine. Don’t fuck anybody tonight. But how about a dance? Can you at least dance with me until I find someone to take home?”

“
All right.”

“
Thank you, Alice.”

Danica stood up and pulled me up from my seat. She dragged me out onto the dance floor. It felt like she was practically pulling my arm out of its socket. It was a relief t
o get onto the middle of the dance floor.

My friend quickly lost herself to the music. She danced and moved her body to the rhythm of everybody around us. It had been such a long time since I
’d been in this kind of atmosphere. I looked around and almost felt out of place. Even though they were around my age, I didn’t feel like I belonged.

“
Alice!”

I turned and looked at my friend. She shrugged her shoulders at me as she continued to dance.

“What are you doing?” she shouted at me over the music. “Don’t just stand there!”

I nodded my head to her and slowly got into the rhythm of the music. It was coming back to me, albeit not very fast. I took another gulp from my drink in the hopes that the alcohol would accelerate the process. As the night wore on, I eventua
lly found myself back in the swing of things. I danced around on the floor with my friend and forgot about everything else on my mind. Now it was just about having fun just this once.