Chapter 5

The man who’d rendered me helpless pushed me through the back of the crowd, around the back of the office building we had congregated in front of, and then through the elevators to the twentieth floor.

The doors opened, and he led me into a room. He had answered none of my questions about where he was taking me, who he was, or what any of this meant.

“You can use the bathroom through that door to clean yourself up,” he said robotically, before banging the door shut behind him.

I stood quietly for a few moments, looking around me. The large room was like none I had ever been in before, both futuristic and minimalistic. This had an immediate calming effect on my nerves, even though I wanted to remain riled up. I wanted to fight somebody. But I was alone in this room, decorated in varying shades of white and gray.

Water trickled somewhere, and I turned to find an elaborate pond in the corner. A slow-trickling fountain supplied water to it, and when I stepped closer, I found delicate koi fish swimming around.

None of this was threatening, I wasn’t scared for my life, but I was definitely confused. Who was Casper? What had he ordered that security guard to do?

I found the door to the bathroom easily, and I stepped in to quickly wash my face. The bathroom was as elaborate and sparklingly decorated as the rest of the building. A full-length mirror faced me, and I splashed water on my face from the sink, wiping the caked blood streaks away from my cheeks with a clean white towel.

I stared at my face in the mirror for a few moments longer. My curls were as unruly as ever, forming a thick halo around my head. My eyes looked tired and larger than usual and had turned a deep blue. My lips, which I now realized I had been chewing incessantly, looked thick and pouty. I dragged myself away from the mirror and stepped out of the bathroom.

Casper was standing in the middle of the room with his hands thrust into the pockets of his pants.

“What am I doing here?” I asked.

He looked more natural in these surroundings. He appeared just as clean and neat as the decor of the room, his hair carefully styled and brushed away from his face. None of the action outside had moved a single hair on his head out of place. His skin looked darker as well, and it glistened smoothly in the dim lighting. He didn’t come closer to me, and I stayed away from him, too.

“Why do you think you’re here?” he asked, and this time there was no humor in his voice. A chill ran down my spine. My body was caving in again. I had an incredible urge to run my fingers down his chest, to feel his skin on my fingertips. I felt like I was losing my mind. His voice was strong and effective. I gulped in response.

“Who are you?” I asked him instead of answering the question. From the way he was looking at me, I started to get a feeling that I was here for reasons aside from the picketing going on outside.

“My name is Casper Argent,” he said flatly, like he expected no reaction from me.

My body shook when he told me his name. His last name. He wasn’t just a mere employee in the company; his family owned it.

“Argent? Are you serious?” I thundered, a crazed laugh escaping my mouth. It almost sounded too fantastical to be true.

“I’m as serious about my name as I am about how easy it will be for me to fuck you,” he said. Very seriously.

I couldn’t believe my ears. Had he actually just used those words? I straightened my back and raised my chin up at him.

“You’re highly mistaken, Mr. Argent. You’ve pegged me for the wrong kind of girl,” I said, dropping my arms to my side. His eyes were on me – not on my face anymore, but on my body. He was trying to guess what I might look like with my clothes off, and his gaze was awakening goose bumps on my skin. As hard as I was trying to remain mad at him, I didn’t want him to stop looking at me.

“Yes, I know who you think you are, Lily. A conservationist, here to protest the construction of our wind farms, etcetera,” he said, crossing his arms across his chest. His muscles bulged beneath his t-shirt, and I could see his body clearly through the fabric of his clothes. I pressed my thighs tightly together as I felt myself growing embarrassingly wet. He wasn’t even anywhere near me, and I could feel my stomach reeling, my skin desperate for his touch.

“You’re also a girl who can’t stop picturing me naked,” Casper said, a soft smirk forming on the side of his lips. I gulped again. He had seen it in my eyes. He had caught me staring. I looked away from him.

“I know you’re wondering how it might feel to have my mouth on the hollow of your neck, and don’t get me wrong, Lily, I would like that very much, too,” he continued.

I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even protest. I was wet and breathless, embarrassed, and turned on all at the same time. I wanted to scream at him, I wanted him to stop saying all this, but I couldn’t get a single sound out of my throat. He had some sort of magical grip on me, even though he was standing several feet away from me.

“Which is why I have an offer to make to you,” he added.

No offer he could possibly make to me now could be good news. No offer that he made could be something that I, in my right mind, should even consider.

“What offer?” I finally managed to squeak in a small, weak voice. My temper had all but disappeared. I was ashamed. Despite my fury, my attack on him, Casper Argent had seen right through me, and he knew exactly what I thought of him. I’d wanted him inside me from the first second I laid eyes on him.

“The position of Conservation Consultant at my company,” he said, finally taking a few steps in my direction.

I stepped away from him, aware that I was getting closer to the koi pond in the corner. A few steps in the wrong direction, and I might tumble into the water and further embarrass myself.

“And why would I be interested in that?” I asked him, my mind whizzing with contradictory thoughts. Of course, I needed a job. I needed the money, but an offer from Casper Argent, in the middle of all this, didn’t exactly seem like a good idea. What did he even mean by that title?

“Because you can’t stop thinking about what it’ll be like when I finally make you come with my tongue,” he said, and this time, his face broke into a full, wide smile. He was enjoying watching me squirm and writhe. I breathed in deeply to steady myself. I needed to get a grip on my mind.

“And you think that is a good reason to take on a job at your company?” I said, licking my lips, hoping I was managing to sound prideful. He stepped in my direction again, and this time I didn’t step away. I didn’t want to fall into the koi pond, and also, honestly, my body wouldn’t let me move away from him. Subconsciously, I wanted him to come closer. I wanted to get a whiff of his scent again.

“I haven’t explained yet what your responsibilities are going to be; you’ll see the reason in it when we’ve talked about it at length,” he said self-assuredly.

My breathing quickened as he moved closer to me, my heart beating out of my chest. My nipples hardened again; this was the closest I had ever gotten to passing out from a sexual experience. And he hadn’t even touched me, not yet.

And if I could help it, I wasn’t going to let him touch me, because then I might explode.