Blackout

Being with Seth was so much better than I could have ever imagined. Two months passed. Two glorious, passionate months filled with late night romps in his office, occasional sleepovers at his place, and the kinds of bruises I wanted to flaunt but thought best to cover up.

Everything about Seth was animalistic and carnal. He was rough in the best ways and tender where it counted. I was living the dream, and I never wanted to wake up.

He was everything I wanted and more. Getting ten years of Seth was more than I could have ever hoped for and I was definitely going to enjoy it to the fullest extent.

We were by no means official. We weren’t a couple, or at least we didn’t do everything that normal couples did. We occasionally had dinner, went out to bars or a club but I knew now that we both had only one thing on our mind: fucking each other.

I could not get enough of him, and he clearly couldn’t get enough of me. I could tell by the way his hand would grip my waist when we were out, how he would hold me possessively close. There were even times when he would call me into his office on the pretense of needing to discuss the upcoming week of appointments, but instead I would end up on his desk with my skirt pushed up around my hips, his hand pressed firmly over my mouth to keep me quiet.

Essentially, everything in my life was going perfectly. Until it wasn’t, of course.

---

“I feel like I never see you anymore,” Bree whined over the phone. “You’re not worming your way out of this one, even if the sex with Mr. Big-shot Lawyer is mind blowing. We’re going out tomorrow night and staying in the city at my cousin’s apartment.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes, but smiling anyway.

“Fine,” I said. “Can we get ready at your cousin’s place too? I don’t want to have to come all the way back home and then go back out after work.”

“Yeah of course,” she said. “We’ll grab some dinner, get ready, have a few drinks at her place, and go out.”

“Okay, sounds good,” I said, yawning loudly. “I’m gonna go to bed now. My boss has been working me hard lately.”

“Oh, fuck you,” Bree laughed. “I’ll meet you outside the office when you’re done work.”

---

I knocked lightly on the doorjamb of Seth’s office and he looked up at me with a smile.

“Yes Sophie?”

“I just wanted to go over next week’s schedule with you, Mr. Linwood,” I said, holding up a folder that we both knew was empty.

“Come on in,” he said, standing up and coming around his desk. “And close the door.”

I did as I was told, and as soon as the door was closed Seth’s lips were on mine, teeth and tongues clashing in a way that made it hard to pull away. But somehow I managed it.

“I’m not going to be able to come over tonight,” I said, Seth’s teeth now pulling at my earlobe, his hands on my lower back, holding me close to him. He pulled away, looking down at me with his eyebrows furrowed.

“Why?”

“Bree’s getting annoyed that I don’t hang out with her as much,” I said. “We’re going out tonight.”

“Are you staying in the city?”

“Yeah, her cousin has an apartment.”

“Where are you going?” he questioned. I shrugged.

“We’ll probably just go to a few clubs,” I said. “Is that okay?”

I couldn’t help that he’d gotten a faraway look in his eyes. He focused his gaze back on me and smiled.

“Yeah, of course,” he said. “Just call or text me if you need anything.”

“Definitely will do,” I said. “Now about those meetings next week…”

He smirked.

---
“So are you and your boss in love or just fucking?” Chloe, Bree’s cousin, asked as she handed me a cranberry vodka. We were basically ready to go out, but it was still a little early to go out to the clubs.

“Oh my god, Bree,” I said, grinning at her. “How many people did you tell about this?”

“Just Chloe,” she said, rolling her eyes and taking a sip of her drink. “And maybe a few other people.”

I glared at her this time and Bree grinned.

“Hey, my life is boring,” she said, with a shrug. “Show Chloe a picture of him, so she can join in on the jealousy party that I’m holding by myself.”

I rolled my eyes but pulled out my phone anyway and pulled up a picture. Sure, I acted annoyed about Bree telling people about Seth and me, but honestly I loved it. If I could I would climb to the top of the Empire State building and shout out that he was mine for all of Manhattan to hear. But that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

I held up my phone to show Chloe a picture, and I relished the impressed look on her face.

“Wow, okay I’m officially jealous,” she said, finishing her own drink. “But seriously, are you two a couple or just sleeping together?”

“I don’t know really,” I said, gulping down some of my drink. “Right now just sleeping together, I guess. We don’t really talk about it.”

I suddenly felt my phone vibrating in my hand and looked at the screen to see “SL” flashing on the screen.

“Speak of the devil,” I said, standing up quickly. “I’ll be right back.”

I went into Chloe’s bathroom and shut the door before answering the phone.

“Hey, what’s up?” I asked.

“Not much,” Seth said. “Just thinking about you and wishing you were here in my bed.”

“Wish I was there too,” I said, smiling into the phone as I double checked my eye makeup in the bathroom mirror.

“Still no chance of you not going out tonight?”

I laughed.

“Nope,” I said. “I put too much effort into hair and makeup to not go out now.”

“Do you know where you’re going yet?”

“I think we’re gonna go to Marquee in a little bit,” I said. “We’re just having a few drinks here first to try and save money.”

“You know, I could just come out and buy you all the drinks you want.”

“You know I would love that, but it would kind of defeat the purpose of a lady’s night.”

“True,” he laughed. “So what are you wearing?”

“I’ll send you a picture,” I said. “I have to get back to my girls though.”

“Be careful tonight.”

“I will.”

We said a quick goodbye and hung up. I snapped a picture of myself in the mirror, and then leaned forward so my cleavage was more visible and took another picture. I sent both to Seth and went back out to the living room to find Bree and Chloe setting up shot glasses.

I finished the rest of my cranberry vodka and felt my phone vibrate with an incoming text from Seth: Gorgeous. Don’t get into too much trouble.

I smiled and slid my phone into the clutch I would be bringing out with me.

“Let’s get this party started!” I exclaimed, taking one of the shot glasses and raising it.

---

At some point close to midnight I was quite drunk, and still drinking because honestly, who wants to stop drinking when you’re having such a good time. Beside, the drinks were free courteous to the cute stranger I was flirting with. And I was only flirting for the free drinks.

He’d tried to pull me close to him and kiss him a few times, but I just pushed him away gently and laughed. Bree and Chloe were somewhere out on the dance floor where I had left them. I had originally stumbled to the bar to get us new drinks when this guy had roped me in with a free drink, and then another, and another. I didn’t like passing on free drinks. But I think I was going to have to get away from him soon because he had clearly had more to drink than me and was steadily getting more and more hands-y.

I finally found my exit when he was shouting an order to the bartender over the loud music and I turned quickly to get away, only to be blocked by a body. With the bar behind me and people on both sides of me, there was no getting out.

I let out an agitated sigh and turned my face up towards the person only to realize that it was Seth. His arms came up on either side of me, resting on the bar which I was now leaning against as Seth moved closer. He leaned down to speak in my ear.

“Having a good time?” he asked. I almost didn’t hear him over the loud music.

“Hey man, she’s not interested!” the guy who had been buying me drinks yelled. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding and closed my eyes briefly. I had a bad feeling about this whole situation.

I opened my eyes just in time to see Seth giving the guy what could only be described as a death glare. He was angry. I had never seen him like this before. Annoyed, maybe, at one of the interns or paralegals in the office. But never angry. And the guy had definitely got the hint because he was gone a moment later, only to be replaced by Chloe and Bree.

“Sophie!” They yelled, and Bree noticed Seth.

“Hey Seth!” she shouted so she could be heard. Chloe looked at him and then at me and winked.

Seth leaned away from me a bit, but wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me to this side.

“I hope you ladies don’t mind, but I’m stealing Sophie!”

The two girls shook their heads, both beaming. Bree gave me a wink of her own and motioned for me to call her later. I forced a smile and waved at the two of them as Seth started pulling me through the crowd toward the exit.

Once we were outside, I exhaled loudly and enjoyed the feeling of the cooler air on my hot skin. Seth didn’t let go of me and led us to the edge of the sidewalk to try and hail a taxi.

“Do you enjoy flirting with other men?” he asked suddenly. I looked up at him, the world spinning for a moment. He didn’t look at me.

“It was completely harmless,” I said. A taxi pulled up and Seth opened the door and let me get in first. He gave the cab driver his address and we rode in silence.

Seth was watching me now, his eyes dark. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. I still had that uneasy feeling.

When we got to his apartment he helped me out of the taxi, which I was thankful for, seeing as I was still quite drunk. I tripped over the curb as I tried to get onto the sidewalk and almost fell, but thankfully Seth grabbed a hold of me in time. I laughed loudly, my uneasiness momentarily forgotten.

But it wasn’t forgotten for long. Seth grabbed onto my arm and led me into his building and into the elevator, without letting me go.

And then I noticed his grip was getting tighter. I tried to pull my arm away but to no avail.

“Will you let me go?” I asked, staring at him angrily. He didn’t say anything or acknowledge the question. I huffed and rolled my eyes.

The elevator dinged and we were on his floor. We went to his apartment and he used his free hand to unlock the door before yanking me into the apartment.

“Ow!” I yelled. He let go of me and I rubbed the red mark on my arm from where his hand had gripped me. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

He pushed me into the nearest wall, his face close to mine and full of anger. I swallowed in fear and let out a shaky breath.

“I don’t like you flirting with other men.”

“It was completely harmless,” I said. “I was just doing it for the free drinks.”

“I don’t care why you were doing it,” he said. “You’re mine and I don’t want other guys pawing at you.”

I didn’t say anything. I stared into his eyes and saw anger, want, power, and control.

“Do you understand me?” he finally asked. I nodded my head.

Seth’s eyes cleared and he smiled, and now there was only lust. He pressed himself against me and set his lips on mine.

“I missed you,” he mumbled.

And that’s when I realized that what I had sold my soul for had its downsides. I had asked that Seth want me, and boy, did he want me. He wanted me to himself, and I was now frightened at the lengths he would go to make sure that’s what he got.