“JUST GET ME THE NUMBERS. I’m not having this conversation again.”
I hang up on Simmons. I know he’s hesitant, and that my father wouldn’t approve of my choice. But he’s not here, which makes this decision mine. I’ve spent the morning putting out fire after fire. That little spitfire, still fast asleep in my bed, is causing more of a headache than pleasure for me.
It’s been years. Dammit, possibly forever since I allowed someone the ability to make me lose my composure the way I did last night. I told myself no. I warned myself if I touched her the way she wanted, there would be consequences. But that mouth. She had no boundaries when it came to disobeying me. And that made me snap.
I only meant to scare her. Bring her to the brink and walk away. My plan was to cause her such distress, she would retract all the things her little mouth was spewing. Using those brash words, just last week she found offense in. I wonder what changed in her. What made her want what I was forcefully pushing on her.
Last week, after Fredrick threw her out, the days that followed were unbearable. No one bypassed my wrath. Staff was fired at the drop of a hat, members were pulled, and still, I felt the need to destroy. I went in search of a warm body—someone willing to submit to me and take the built-up aggression I was drowning in. But I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy them. I ended up getting my rocks off by my hand with the mental visual of one little mouthy girl.
I knew the moment she walked into Exquisite last night. The phone tracker notified me. She was still carrying it around. When she arrived, and not alone, I saw red. How dare she enter my club with someone else. A boy, no less. I watched through my mirror as she dragged him onto the dance floor. I saw right through her intentions with him. The way her body didn’t react to him the way I’ve witnessed. There was nothing there. Just deceiving intentions. Little did she know, I don’t fall for child’s play.
I asked Fredrick to finish the rest of the member tours and went downstairs to drag her and her boy toy out of my club. Not to mention the little brats trying to get drinks at the bar. But again, her mouth infuriated me. She thought she was going to make me jealous. Toss her little boy toy at me, as if I thought for a second she would let him touch her. She wouldn’t. That was a given. Because I knew what she really wanted.
I wasn’t going to give it to her.
But I did.
And as I stare at her still sleeping, naked and barely covered by the sheet in my bed, I debate over waking her with my cock in her mouth and my hand across her ass. Maybe tie her to my bed and fuck her in places my darkest desires ache to be.
I fucked her hard. And I can’t stop thinking about doing it again. And again. Her perfect little cunt submitted to me in the sweetest way. I knew having her in my mouth was going to test my patience, but when I snapped and shoved my dick so deep inside her, it felt like heaven. Her moans of pain and pleasure sifted through my eardrums like music. She was so tight. So wet. So willing.
She was a big fucking headache.
I swipe my palms down my face, trying to pull my eyes away from her perfect tits, exposed and taunting me. I should put my dick between them and fuck her until I blow on her chest. Come in her mouth and make her lick me clean. Jesus. I turn away from her. But not before noticing the faint bruises just above her hip bone. Pleasure mixed with guilt fill me. She is little. Delicate. I shouldn’t have been so rough with her.
But she loved every fucking second of it.
Fredrick watched me drag her off the dance floor. His tone this morning while giving me the breakdown of what I missed last night was more than telling. He disapproves of what I’m doing. He’s stated on more than one occasion he feels Jensen is nothing but trouble. And I completely agree with him. She shouldn’t be in this club. She can ruin everything my father built. Everything I’ve worked to maintain since the day I took over. But for the first time since I took the reins of Exquisite, I’m feeling a sense of clarity. And it’s all because of her. She makes me remember the person I was before I landed here. Before I became the man I am now.
She allows me to remember what freedom tastes like. Because that’s how I feel when I’m with her. And maybe that’s what makes Fredrick so on edge. He sees it in me too.
He knows damn well what my meetings with Simmons are about. He’s been smart to keep his mouth shut and his opinions to himself. But with each meeting, I can sense his urge to confront me. And after last night, he sees I’m slipping in my sternness to run this club—something my father would never allow to happen if he were still alive.
But it’s a good thing no one tells me how to run things. I’m the one who makes the rules, not Fredrick. And I don’t give a rat’s ass if my father would approve or not. He’s buried so deep, his opinion on the matter is just that: dead and void.
I’m still staring down at Jensen when the realization fully hits me. It’s her who’s going to give me the push I need to finally walk away. She’s the breath of fresh air I needed to finally think clearly. My savior. I see such life in her. So much of my old self that I know I can be that person once again. I see myself being that person with her. Holding a camera once again, capturing life’s beauty as I once embraced it. Having her flawless skin fill my screen. Whisking her away to all the beautiful places in the world, which wouldn’t hold a candle next to her. Never return to this town. The place that has destroyed my youth.
Hard realization hits me. She’s still in her youth. She has her whole life ahead of her. Why would she leave everything for a man like me?
She’s just going to have to be convinced.
I toss my phone on the chair and pick up the file Fredrick dropped off this morning. Jensen starts to stir, and her hands wipe away some drool from her chin. She flips, now laying on her stomach, her cute little ass cheeks on display.
I smile, and the reaction feels foreign. I fucking smile at the way this girl just sprawls out in my bed, as if she just got the best night’s sleep. Then again, this is the second time she’s slept like a baby in my bed. My smile fades, thinking about what kind of beds she’s forced to sleep on in those dorms.
Her little groans let me know she’s starting to wake up. She begins to stretch, pulling one leg to her chest, exposing that sweet pussy of hers.
She lifts her head, her hair a complete mess. “Shit, what time is it?” She’s looking for a clock, which I don’t have. I stand there and wait for her to remember she’s naked and gets shy with me. My smile is back on my face at the confusion growing on hers. Then it happens. She squirms to grab the sheet, covering herself. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to pass out. I’m getting up.” She sits up, clenching the sheet for dear life, looking for her clothes.
“Good. Be dressed and ready to go in five minutes.” I walk away just as a pillow hits my back.
“Seriously, are you ever not a prick?” I turn to her and offer my deviant smile.
“No.” I wink at her, then head toward the kitchen for coffee.
It doesn’t take long before she’s dressed, and the stomping of her feet echoes across my tile floor. “Thanks for the ride last night, asshole.” She walks past me, then stops. “Oh yeah…and here’s your stalker phone.” Pulling it out of her purse, she sets the device on the counter. She goes to leave when I stop her.
“Where are you going exactly?”
She twists to face me, her eyes throwing daggers. “Uh, I’m leaving, as you so rudely requested.”
I toss the file I’m holding on the long counter, forcing her to catch it before it falls to the ground. “I told you to get ready. I didn’t tell you to leave.”
“You said be ready. Pretty much same thing.”
“Correct, because I want to show you something. I’d hate for you to walk through the club naked…unless that’s what you prefer now that you’ve earned your naughty stripes.” I can’t hide my smile. Her blushing cheeks please me like no other. She doesn’t know what to say, which makes me even happier. About time I found a way to shut her up.
She loses our little stare down battle and brings her eyes to the folder. “What is this?” She opens the file and scans the documents inside.
“It’s the numbers from last night. Total capacity, bar totals, private room fees. Profit and loss. I want you to look at it.”
Her head snaps up. “Why?”
“Your major is business, isn’t it?”
She returns with a peculiar look. “Yeah, but I know nothing about running a business.”
“You know enough to point out the club is over capacity. The bar is losing money. The private rooms are lacking toys.” I throw the last one in to mess with her, and her eyes go wide.
“I know nothing about—”
“I’m kidding. Now, if you’re ready, walk the floor with me.” I place my coffee mug on the counter and escort her to the main floor. I start reading off the information I know from what I scanned earlier.
“You’re right in your observations. The bar is losing money. Since the increase in membership over the last two years, the place is overbooked. We’re packed every night. That’s even after allowing the headcount to go over capacity by three percent.”
I walk Jensen through the closed bar area. The bar is so different in daylight. If I didn’t know what really took place at night, I would easily mistake this club for a normal establishment. But after all these years, the things I’ve seen…endured…the person it’s turned me into, I won’t change my decision, and I need someone from the outside I can trust. Fredrick has shown his true colors as of late. I need someone who will give it to me straight. Besides Simmons, there are very few people I trust to handle this. And strangely enough, Jensen is one of them. I want out, and she’s gonna help me do it.
“So, I’m still confused. What exactly is it I’m looking for?”
We walk across the empty dance floor to the other side of the club, and I lead her into the conference room off to the side. I had Fredrick retrieve all documents showing the figures from the past six months—another issue he pushed back on. “I want you to tell me where the profit and loss is within the club. What the total worth of this club is to a buyer.”
Her eyebrows go up, offering me another curious look, but doesn’t respond. Once she sees all the paperwork laid out neatly in stacks, she nods and gets down to business. I sit on my phone and return messages while I watch her work. When I had Fredrick find anything and everything about her, I learned about her scholarship in business. The program only handed those out to five of their top elite applicants—and she came in second on that list. Her test scores were close to perfect. Her high school GPA was a 4.0 with honors. She was top of her class in math, ranking seventh in the entire district of her state. She could have gone anywhere and been accepted.
I gave her the tools she needed. She sat on Excel for the first hour, punching in numbers and highlighting specifics: room fees, bar tabs, liquor orders. Curiosity had me at a standstill, wondering what she possibly could find that my men, even Simmons, couldn’t. Another hour went by and she still hadn’t lifted her eyes away from the computer. Once we hit the third hour, I begin to get restless. The last hour is spent staring at her lips while she mumbles numbers. I can’t stop imagining my cock in her mouth, working me…those small whimpers that leave her lips as she sucks me off.
“It’s getting hard to work with you staring at me. And kinda starting to creep me out, to be honest.”
I snap out of it, realizing she’s looking at me. “Yes, well…how much more time do you need? It’s past lunchtime and I’m starving.” I want to say for her sweet cunt, but the fact guilts me. I have yet to offer her food and it’s nearing one in the afternoon.
“Right. I’ll just get out of your hair then. It shows that—”
“Jensen, I’m planning on taking you to lunch.” I shake my head at her. I guess I haven’t done a thing to lead her to believe I want her in my presence. The way she satisfied me last night, I’m not sure I’ll ever let her out of my sight.
“Oh. Got it. Right. Lunch. I’m actually really hungry. Starving…” she trails off. Back is the uncomfortable shy girl I first met.
I suggest we table her findings until later and head to a highly sought Asian restaurant in the heart of downtown. I need to get her in a public setting and shut down the urges telling me to make her ride me right here in the conference room, then take her back upstairs and fuck her in every single crevice of my loft. My mind takes me to a dark place at all the things I want to do to her. All the things I want to teach her, train her, discipline her.
“I’m not the lunch, am I?”
She’s dressed in a fitted white tank top, accentuating her perfect tits, and an even tighter pair of yoga pants. I sent Fredrick out before she woke to grab her some clothes since I trashed hers. She looks absolutely edible. The things my mind already has me doing to her. I’m not sure a simple lunch will ever cure the appetite I have for her. The way she stirs the beast inside me is alarming. I’m a sexual man, with very strong restraints, but with her, my mind struggles to set limits.
I snap out of my dark haze. “Excuse me?”
“You’ve gone quiet. And the way you’re looking at me makes me think I’m the lunch.”
Feasting on her would most definitely fill me, but she wouldn’t be my lunch.
She’d be my dessert.