Jules ignored Ceaser for the rest of the week and instructed Alice to deny her absence when he showed up at her office. He had called but she had ignored every single one of them and his messages made her want to smash her phone against the wall.
Why aren't you picking my calls?
C'mon Jules, you wanted us to talk.
Jules, what's going on?
Did I do something wrong?
Damn it, Jules, pick up the damn phone!!
The messages kept coming through and she didn't want to read them but her hands kept betraying her. Since she found out that he was in fact her boss, she'd tried to avoid him.
She'd been safe all week and during the weekend, she had ignored the doorbell, the banging and the yelling. She knew she wasn't going to get away with it for long, she'd have to face him sooner or later and she preferred later, much later. Probably when she's fifty.
She hadn't been able to concentrate well since she found out the truth, that stupid kiss kept popping back into her mind and it only made her angrier with herself for not being able to get her mind off it.
Who was she kidding?
It hadn't been popping back into her mind because it never actually left her mind. Now, it was work that was running through her mind which she was grateful for. It reminded her that she had to finish her day's work before she went home. So, she spent seventy-five percent of her time daydreaming about the kiss and the remaining twenty-five on work.
She honestly didn't even know how at the end of the day, she completed her work.
As for Ceaser?
She didn't know and didn't want to know. All she knew was that she got herself into the mess in the first place and she had to get out before things got messier.
She wouldn't have been in a position of being slightly depressed if she had stuck to being a happy single mum without complications.
This is what she gets for trying.
Before she could even let another thought into her mind, someone barged into her office which made her jump in her seat as she stared at the intruder in shock.
Oh goodness, why?
She said much later. Not now.
"I'm sorry Ms. Jenna, I told him you weren't in but..." Jules watched the intruder glare at Alice.
"You're fired." Said the man she had been avoiding for the past couple of days.
"No, she isn't." Jules objected as she stood from her seat. Ceaser turned to look at Jules, rage in his eyes as they pierced through her oh-so-happy soul.
"You!" Ceaser was going out of his mind because of the woman that stood behind her desk so calm and collected it frustrated him because he was the total opposite.
"Alice thank you. I'll take it from here." Jules told her and Alice quietly and quickly made her way out of the office to avoid another wrath from the devil.
Ceaser made his way towards Jules' desk after the door was shut close.
"What can I do for you?" Jules asked in the most professional voice she had at that moment with her heart beating so fast along with her pulse.
"What is going on with you?" He asked loudly.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Jules said in the same professional tone.
"Oh, now you have amnesia." Ceaser paced in front of her desk as he raked his fingers through his hair. "Let me refresh your mind. Wednesday, we went out, we had fun, I kissed you, took you home and everything was fine until I left. You haven't picked up my calls or replied to my messages."
Jules was fuming.
"I have no idea what your mean...sir."
Ceaser stopped pacing then and turned to look at her, confused
"Sir?"
"Yes sir." She watched as realization hit him and a sad smile found residence on his lips "You seem to have laced your name with a lie, Mr. Thomas or would you prefer if I called you by your real name, Mr. Thompson?" Jules finally got that out.
Ceaser felt a tightening in his chest.
Dammit. He should have guessed.
"I didn't think it mattered." He said moving closer to her desk.
"Which one?" She asked, "Your real name or the lie you told?"
"My name."
"If that were true you wouldn't have lied in the first place." She said "You were probably having a good laugh about it. How long did you think you could hide it from me?"
"Jules, I didn't..."
"Ms. Jenna to you, sir." She interrupted him.
He closed his eyes and sighed.
She was infuriating.
"Ms. Jenna, I don't know why my name matters. I never told you because for once in my life, a woman didn't know who I was. Not just any woman, a woman I wanted." Jules swallowed down the lump that started forming in her throat, but the darned thing didn't go "I didn't tell you because I couldn't afford to lose you before I even had you."
"Or maybe you just didn't tell me because I was so naive to the world, I didn't know who you were." She said furiously, "What happened? Were you so tired of going after single women, you thought it was time to try your luck with single mothers?"
He placed his palms gently on the edge of her desk as he sighed with a little laugh that didn't sound like a happy one.
"Why would you think that?"
She shrugged still trying to keep her emotions in check.
"I don't know. You just seem like the type to enjoy the thrill of something new."
"Did you come to this conclusion before or after you found out who I was?" Ceaser clenched his fists but released them,
He had her there.
Jules thought.
"Mr. Thompson I..." Jules made her way around her desk which she realized a little too late that it was a wrong move.
"Oh, quit the formalities, Jules!" He almost yelled.
"Fine Ceaser, I do not mix..."
"Business with pleasure?" He asked.
"No." She said. "Pleasure would mean something that pleases me which in this case doesn't. This is far from pleasurable, it's plain stupid; on my part though." She neared him thinking it would make her seem strong and maybe intimidate him a little.
But boy-oh-boy was she wrong?
"I don't mix business with my personal life, Ceaser. And with you, my personal life was one heck of a mistake." She said as calmly as she could "You may leave now."
She then turned to go back to her seat but she felt his grip on her waist as he pulled her against him, her back against his rock-hard chest, her heart did a double-take. She heard his sharp intake of breath which matched hers. His right hand curled around her front to the other side of her waist pulling her even closer. His left hand left her waist and she felt him shift her hair slowly from the right to the left. She swallowed audibly at the way it made her mouth dry up. His fingertips brushed against her nape making her goosebumps have goosebumps. Her lower lip trembled.
"Was the kiss a mistake?" He asked with his husky voice that sent waves of desire through her and down between her legs. "Does this feel like a mistake?" He grazed his teeth under the spot near her ear and bit it. Her body shivered from the effect as she shut her eyes.
"Ceaser..." A soft sigh escaped her.
"Is this pleasurable enough for you?" His hands roamed the sides of her body, and as much as she hated him for what he'd done, her body couldn't deny that she was very much attracted to him.
Judas!
She cursed her body for loving his touches.
Before Jules could even realize what she was letting him do to her, Ceaser spun her round to face him and stared into her eyes as his hand slid to the back of her neck. Her heart hammering in her chest as his gaze roamed her face like he was searching for something. She was completely out of it, lost to the intensity of the feeling.
When he leaned in, she expected him to have that same confidence as when he'd grabbed her wrist and pulled her into him. But she was surprised when his lips touched hers and he kissed her oh so slowly, she thought she would pass out. He took his sweet time kissing her, exploring her mouth with his like he had all the time in the world and she fell deeper into that haze. That lavender haze was filled with a growing fog of feelings she was yet to understand.
His other hand went behind her to the small of her waist and then slowly went to cup her ass, and pulled her into him.
Jules was in over her head but it took just a second of sanity for her to snap out of it,
"No!" She pushed away from him.
They stared at each other, both breathing heavily after what had just transpired. All Jules saw in his eyes was desire. She was certain she had the exact same look in hers. But that didn't mean she wanted this to go any further. Not after what he'd done.
She could hate him and be angry at herself all she liked but she couldn't deny that there was flame within her anytime he was around and he had just turned up the heat. All she had to do now was accept it, deal with it, learn to get over it, and move on.