Chapter 3

***

"Nikita, are you crazy?!" I snapped at her.

"What's your problem? I can't drive you to work everyday, I also have things to attend to with my personal life, now get out of my car." She unlocked the doors.

"Why'd you stop driving mid-way? HamIX International is still far away from here." I grumbled.

"That isn't my problem, you know?" She smirked at me. "You can walk to the nearest bus stop which is twenty minutes away then go with a public bus."

"You know I don't like going with public buses." I folded my hands across my chest, squeezing my enormous breasts. "Where the hell are you even going?"

"If you don't like going with a public bus then buy yourself a fucking car!" She started with a low tone but yelled the last five words. "I'm going on a date."

"I don't have money for a car yet. Well… I need to save my money for other things." I frowned harder. "Can't you drive me there before you go to wherever the hell you want to go?"

She groaned, muttering cuss words to herself. "I have a date and can't bear to be late, Dash's a very busy man." She informed me through gritted teeth.

"Arghhh…" I groaned. "I hate you!" I spat.

"Well, duh! I hate you too." She rolled her eyes. "Hop out of my car."

"I hate you more." Aggressively, I opened the door then got out of it. I didn't know when I stuck my tongue out at her. I was just too frustrated.

"Bye, sweetheart." She wiggled her fingers at me, sniggering. "I definitely notice the change in your dressing style since the last 1 week you've been working with him." She smirked then started the car.

"Knucklehead." I snorted. She burst into a spree of mocking laughter then zoomed off.

I gripped onto my bag really tight. I had been trying my best not to be late to work but Nikita had surely ruined it, now I was going to be damn late.

I waved my hand in the air, calling for a taxi but the dumb man ignored me. I huffed then resumed waving my hand for others.

After a few minutes of calling for taxis but to no avail, a call pulled right in front of me. It didn't seem anything like a taxi so it was probably an asshole trying to hit on me or a random person that pulled over.

I ignored the car and resumed searching for any random cab. The next bus stop was way too far for me to walk all the way down there. My extremely high stiletto heels weren't going to make my legs walk without spraining my ankles.

"Hey, babe." A thick masculine voice called for me through the opened window of the car.

I cast a sideways glance at the person but couldn't get any figure so I decided to totally ignore whoever it was.

"Hey, sugar. I'm talking to you, hot miss. Gosh, what a piece of hotness we have here." He said sultrily. I could tell he was licking his bottom lip through my sideways glance but I still ignored.

"C'mon babe, don't ignore me like this. Let me give you a ride, I can't bear to watch a sexy damsel like you standing here, waiting for a taxi that won't arrive anytime soon. You seem to be in a hurry, I'll drop you off." I still ignored him.

'I am not Kade and you have to follow my rules, get that?' Hames' voice rang into my head. Jeez Imogen, you are so stupid! Someone's offering you a free ride, yet you're ignoring him. Hames would kill you!

With a fake smile on, I averted my gaze to the man. Oh my gosh, what a handsome dude we've got here.

"Hi." I waved at him with a sheepish smile.

"Great, you finally answered me." He smiled at me. His bold blue eyes examined me like I was a piece of cake he could eat at once.

"Can you give me a ride to HamIX International?" I asked with a sweet grin.

"Why would I say no to a request from a queen like you, hop in." He winked.

"Why thank you." I giggled then turned around the car to get into the passenger seat. I locked the door after doing that then pulled my skirt downwards by the hem of it since it shifted up.

"I'm Tyler Jones, 26." He introduced himself then ignited the car engine back to life.

"I'm Imogen Mark, 25." I replied.

"Wow! Such a nice name you have. Your name is as beautiful as you are." He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

"Thank you." I felt heat rise from my neck to my face, forming a blush.

"HamIX International." He nodded then started driving.

***

"This is my phone number, call me." Tyler winked, giving me a card.

"Sure, thank you." I slipped the card into my bag. "I really appreciate your help."

"Oh, I'm glad I was able to be of help to you." He winked again. It was probably a habit. "Bye."

"Bye." I waved at him, immediately turned around on my heels.

I was scuttling inside the building, for the first time ever, feeling very nervous for being late.

"Nothing will happen, nothing will happen." I uttered encouraging words to myself. I got into the building, walking really fast.

"Imogen, you're late today? Damn, you don't know who Hames is yet." Sarah's deep voice welcomed me.

Not even a 'Good morning'? I glared at her, wrote my name down in the attendance book as quickly as I could and continued running. I sprinted to the elevator, hitting the buttons endlessly.

The elevator didn't respond on time, making me grow more impatient. With frustration, I kicked the side of the elevator.

"Imogen, be careful not to ruin the elevator." Sarah yelled, laughing at me mockingly.

I scoffed at her. The door finally opened then a few people walked out of it. I hastily rushed into it then the doors shut.

I hit the 68 button. It felt like a billion years before the doors re-opened on the 68th floor. I ran out of it. My stupid bag just had to fall from my hand due to my rushing so I bent to pick it as quick as I could. I hoped no Male was behind me, else he was getting a free view of my big round ass. I continued running to our office door. Like with Kade, my office was inside Hames' office and separated with glass walls and a door.

I took out my card from my bag then inserted it into the right hole, hit the buttons of the code for the door to open. I wondered why they changed the lock of the door. *For security purposes, dummy.*

Pushed the door open, I scurried into it. The door automatically closed, leaving me to stand before the Devil himself. "Good morning, sir."

He raised his head from his table with a blank expression. I stared at him for a while, expecting him to scold me. He didn't utter a word, leading me to a confused state.

I furrowed my eyebrows in perplexity. He just kept staring at me, scanning me from head to toe, taking sips of whatever was inside the mug in his hand, still not uttering a word.

Since he didn't say anything, I decided it was best to walk away so I started walking towards my office, feeling his gaze on me.

"Miss Mark, come here." His voice contained so much authority and it sent a shiver of fear to flow through me. I gulped, twirled to him with a nervous smile. As he had instructed, I walked to him. My legs didn't seem like they were balanced anymore as they moved in the wrong manner. It seemed like I had forgotten how to walk all of a sudden. His gaze fixed on me was both scary and annoying, I wondered what was in his head.

I stopped right in front of him, gripping onto the handles of my bag in front of me. "Yes, sir?"

He still didn't say a word for a few minutes before he finally spoke, "Sit there." He pointed to one of the chairs opposite to his, behind his table.

I did as I was told and sat there.

Once again, he said nothing for a few minutes, taking long sips of what I now identified as coffee in his mug. "You have a problem."

Jeez, that was so random but kinda expected. I opened my mouth to say something but I didn't know what to respond to that with.

"I said, you have a problem, a big one." He reiterated.

"I'm sorry." I lowered my head to avoid staring into his threatening light brown eyes.

"Don't say sorry!" He hollered, slapping his hand on the table. I flinched; I swear I thought life went out of me at the loudness of his voice.

"Oh… o–okay." I stuttered.

"You're late, again?" He didn't yell this time but his voice still possessed that scary tone.

"Traffic," was all I could utter.

"Really? Can't you wake up really early?" He took another sip of the remnant of the coffee, dropping the empty mug on his table.

"I did, but… tra— traffic." I heaved a sigh, raising my head to him. He had an unpredictable expression.

"You're my secretary, you don't seem to need your job. Are you a secret Billionaire or what?" He huffed.

"No." I said in more of a whisper.

"You ought to make my coffee but someone had to do it for me, I needed some files and needed to sort some things out but you weren't here so I had to do it 'myself'." He placed stress on 'myself'.

"I promise it won't happen again." I apologized.

"It mustn't, else you'll be punished gravely." The way he said that sounded like a threat.

"Yes, sir." I nodded.

"Good. Now, first off, you should cancel all my appointments for tomorrow." He started, pulling out a big file from his drawer then placed it in front of me. You should work on this, take notes of the words printed in red. You should also fix an appointment with Mr. Gravely for me." He took out another file and placed it on the last one. "Also, take notes of the words printed in yellow." He took out another file and dropped it on the last two. Damn! "You should print these out, okay?"

"Okay, got it." I nodded at him.

"Take these for now. When you're done with them, come back for more. Now get up and out of here, quickly." He ordered. I rose to my feet and picked the heavy files up. Jeez! I hated this stress. I never worked this hard at Kade's. It was kinda good, it made me more serious with my work.

"Firstly, return this mug." He pointed to the empty mug.

"Oh." I dropped the files then moved closer to him to pick the mug. I held the mug, ready to leave his presence.

"Wait!" He stopped me abruptly, and wiggled his fingers for me to move closer to him.

I moved closer to him. He indicated that I moved closer. I did that. Well… too close…

He shut his eyes then drew in my scent. "Hmm." He nodded. I wasn't certain but I think I saw him smile though it didn't last up to 2 seconds. "Risha's perfume, right?" He asked and I nodded at him in skepticism. "You have a nice choice of perfume unlike other things."

Was that supposed to be a compliment or an insult? "Thank you?" That came out as a question instead.

"Now leave, you're too close to me." He stated.

I moved away from him. I felt his eyes on me as I walked out of the office to return his mug. What a creepy person. Mr. Hendrix…

***