And today is my last day of work before my so-called jury duty. We fly tomorrow, and Elaine, who is now fully briefed on my darkest secrets, has vowed to hold the fort for Brendan.

If I’m honest, I’m looking forward to putting some distance between me and him. The vibe’s been weird this week, to say the least. I was so, so mortified when I woke up in his arms the other day. He had to wake me—we’d been lying there for an hour, apparently. He forked out all that money on a suite and it was wasted because I was too busy being unconscious to do my job properly. The job he pays me very well to do.

I will say it was the best (and most badly needed) nap of my life, and waking up in the warm, hairy, muscular cradle of Brendan’s body was fairly spectacular, too. As soon as I had my wits about me, I started apologising profusely and kind of grabbed his dick, but he just laughed very sweetly and said he considered napping an even better use of time and money than sex.

He was definitely only saying it to be nice, but he did prise my fingers off his dick before he pulled me back into his arms and cuddled me some more. I’m pretty sure he sniffed my hair, too.

If napping with my boss-with-benefits is a red flag on every level, then his behaviour since then has been even more of a red flag. Once we left that suite behind us, the caring, cuddly Brendan I’d woken up with disappeared. In his place, I’ve had to deal with childish, cocky, mercurial, alpha-hole Brendan, who’s more interested in throwing his weight around and getting quick fucks than anything approaching the intimacy we’ve enjoyed in recent weeks.

Yesterday morning he called me into his office, told me to lock the door, pushed his chair away from his desk and pulled out his dick. As soon as I’d made him come with my mouth, he uttered the immortal words, Go on. Clear off now. The day before that, he fucked me wordlessly over his desk while he was muted on a conference call, something that was indescribably hot and yet left me feeling grimy. Especially because he pulled out, wandered off to deal with the condom, and then threw himself on the sofa to continue the call, leaving me bent over and exposed.

While this kind of treatment is nothing worse than I expected when I took this job, it’s a far cry from the treatment he gave me in his bed and in that hotel suite, and that makes it a million times worse.