CHAPTER FOUR
Emma
My eyelashes fluttered of their own accord. I looked back into his icy orbs, then tried to look away. But there was nothing else to see. The man hovering over me was suddenly everything. His grip on my arm, his musky scent. His breath washing down against my face.
I licked my lips and forced myself to speak despite the heat in my cheeks. “A weekend?”
“Yes,” he breathed, the sweetness of the one word making me shiver. “A weekend. Forty-eight hours spent with just me.”
I swallowed hard. Was the man actually suggesting what I thought he was?
“What would we do?” I asked. My voice sounded weak and fearful, so unlike how it was supposed to.
One corner of his mouth twitched. “Things I’m sure you’ve only dreamed of.”
Okay. So he was suggesting just that.
The heat from my cheeks swooped down to occupy the spot between my thighs, my body betraying me in that one quick second. Just having Mr. Lambert so close, his gaze so fixed on me, had an effect I’d never experienced.
I braced my feet, using all my strength to reach deep down in myself and find some semblance of rationality. “Is this a threat? Are you telling me you’ll try and get me fired if I don’t sleep with you?”
Mr. Lambert’s head cocked slightly. His grip on my arm loosened, his fingers trailing down my white sleeve. My whole body shivered from the touch. I tried to hide it, tried to not let him see the effect he had on me. It was futile though. I could tell from the look on his face that he knew all too well he possessed the upper hand.
Clearing the last bit of space between us, he leaned forward to let his mouth hover right near my ear. “I can see you like my touch. My presence.”
I swallowed hard, desperately trying to think of an answer.
He went on. “I can give you so much more than just that. I can show you pleasure you’ve only dreamed of. The kind that you’ll be craving the rest of your life once we’re done. I can possess you, twist you around my finger.”
His mouth moved closer, his lips grazing my skin. “I can dominate you, make you beg for me. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
My breath came out ragged. “You’re propositioning me.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “I’m giving you the opportunity to live out your most forbidden fantasies. Tell me...” He leaned back slightly so he could look down into my eyes. “Do you ever think about pain and pleasure? How the two are so inherently bound together?”
I didn’t say anything. I thought about pushing him away; thought about running. But God help me, I didn’t want to. What he suggested was something no man had ever offered me. Not the one serious boyfriend I’d had. Not the men I’d casually dated since then. Not the one drunken one-night stand I wanted to forget.
Pain and pleasure... so inherently bound together.
My body ached to understand the full extent of his words. Just what it craved I didn’t really know. But I intuitively knew the man before me held the answer.
“I...” The sentence was impossible to finish. I wanted to tell him no, but I just couldn’t.
“Think about it,” he purred, removing his hand from me and stepping back. A white business card appeared between two of his offered fingers. “You have twenty-four hours.”
With that, he turned and disappeared around the hall’s corner. Still frozen in place, I stared at the wall in front of me, trying to steady my shaking knees and trying to make sense out of what had just happened.
***
The rest of the shift passed in a daze. Deeming me too much of a disappointment to continue to wait on Mr. Lambert’s table, Chris gave the party to another server, which was fine with me. I got busy tending to my other customers, making my main task avoiding the man who had so quickly upended my world.
Six hours later, the torture was finally over. I sat cross-legged on my living room couch, my two roommates nearby, hanging on every word of my story. When I finished the account, they just stared at me for a second... then exchanged looks... then stared at me again.
Jess’ mouth hung open, her big blue eyes even wider than they usually were. “What... the... fuck?”
Laine adamantly shook her head. I knew the words that were coming before they even left her mouth. “Don’t do it, Emma. No.”
Jess made a dismissive noise. “Whatever.”
Laine pursed her lips and shot our roommate a reprimanding look. Although they had been friends for years, the two of them were like night and day. With her long blonde hair and bohemian wardrobe, Jess often liked to say that she let the moment guide her. If something felt right, she did it.
Laine, on the other hand, tended to think through everything. That included her wardrobe comprised mostly of polos and button-up shirts, which Jess constantly made fun of. She shook her head, her black hair sweeping along her shoulders. “No, Emma. Don’t do it. You don’t know what could happen.”
“I know that he can have me fired,” I argued. “He’s one of the most powerful people in the city, if not the most powerful.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You can get another job.”
“Where? Waffle House? People tip in change there. I don’t know about you, but I like eating something other than ramen.”
Jess interrupted. “On a scale of one to ten...”
“Eleven,” I immediately answered.
“Don’t say that if you don’t mean it. Don’t use the rating scale so liberally.”
I fell back into the cushions. “I’m not,” I sighed. “Google him if you don’t believe me. He’s an eleven. There isn’t even a celebrity to compare him to, because no one else on Earth is that good looking.”
“Oh, I will Google him. Believe you me.”
“I can’t do it,” I suddenly decided, the words popping out of my mouth before I knew they were coming. “I can’t.”
“Good,” Laine answered, falling back on the cushion.
“Hold on,” Jess said. “Emma, you’re practically breathless talking about him. You already sound like someone’s got their hand down your panties.”
“So?” I countered.
“So do it.”
Laine tossed a throw pillow at her. “She can’t whore herself out like that. She’s better than that.”
Jess picked the pillow up and chucked it back over. “I’m not even thinking about her job. I’m thinking about what an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity this is.”
Laine crossed her arms. “This isn’t a chance to go to Disney World.”
Jess’ nose crinkled. “I’m going to ignore the fact that you think that is a big opportunity.” She turned to me. “Emma, listen. It’s obvious you’re turned on by the thought of this guy, and it’s obvious you’re at least curious, or else we wouldn’t be talking this much about it. If you don’t do this, you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been.”
I chewed my lip. “I guess...” I sighed, absolutely done with the day. After hours of classes, the excitement at the restaurant had been the last thing I needed. Every part of me ached, especially the arches of my feet and the spot between my eyes.
“I need to go to bed,” I announced.
Laine straightened her back. “Just make sure you think this through. Please.”
Jess nudged her with her foot. “We know who’ll she’ll be with. We’ll call the cops right away if she doesn’t come home. We’ll use the secret code. What’s the worst that could happen to her?”
Good question.
“Good night, guys.”
Trudging to my bedroom, I shut the door and stripped down to bra and panties. I briefly glanced in the direction of the bathroom, knowing I needed a shower. In the end, I decided against it. Surely, every once in a while, a girl was permitted to put off personal hygiene until at least the next morning. After such a day as the one I’d been through, hopping into bed before midnight was a luxury.
I turned the fan on and nestled down under the sheet. Though the window was closed, the sounds of traffic still permeated the walls. The apartment wasn’t exactly in a quiet area, but it allowed me the ability to walk to both work and classes at the university.
I stared at the shafts of light sneaking through the curtain’s sides. Niall Lambert’s stoney eyes entered my vision. They’d been so calculating, so cold... and yet there was something about them I couldn’t resist.
Was it the way the people around him bent to his will? Each time I’d seen him in the restaurant, the people he came in with practically ate out of his very hand. It was clear he wielded immense power.
Or was it just the fact that he was a man who knew what he wanted? As inappropriate as he was in the restaurant, and as much as I knew I should have been appalled and offended, I couldn’t help but like the move he played on me.
And the way his fingertips had danced up my arm...
A delicious shiver went down my back at the thought. And then there was his breath.
What would it be like to have it tickling parts other than my ear? To have his lips float down my neck, his tongue swivel across my breasts, suck on my nipples?
They got hard at the mere thought. Niall hadn’t been specific about what he would do to me if I were to take him up on his offer, but he had promised me something about pain and pleasure together.
I gulped hard and shut my eyes, willing all thoughts of him to go away. Unfortunately, they did anything but disappear. I could practically feel his hands gripping my hips, first massaging my thighs and then spreading my legs. The heat from his cock hovered close to my entrance. Any second and it would plunge into me, filling me up and taking me to a place I’d never before imagined.
I rolled over and buried my face in the pillow.