My heart is racing. The blood pounding in my ears sounds like the rushing of the sea.

“What!” I squeak – an exclamation of fear, rather than a question.

“Hurry, Skye,” Harlan repeats, unfazed. I can only guess at the amused smile teasing his lips. “You wouldn’t want Tyler to see you like this now, would you?”

“I’m done!” I cry. “I’m done playing your games.” I crouch down, reaching for my discarded skirt and shirt.

“Skye,” Harlan says, using a voice that's a throaty mix of menace and desire, “Stop.”

I freeze, muscles locked as if they’ve been set in concrete.

“You don’t…” I say, my voice dying in my throat.

“Don’t what, Skye,” Harlan replies. “Control you?”

I squeeze my eyes shut and nod slowly. Sensible Skye is telling me that I should be embarrassed right now, or else terrified – but the truth is, I’m not. For one of very few times in my entire life, I’m completely turned on.

Harlan has me in the palm of his hand, and he knows it.

“Yes.” I whisper.

“Stand up,” he says.

I do.

“Open your eyes,” Harlan orders.

I do.

“Look up, into the camera.”

I follow Harlan’s cool, confident order to the letter.

“Good girl,” Harlan says again. A tingle runs down my spine as he says it. “I want you looking at me when you do this…”

My eyes meet the camera. The red, blinking light entrances me, but I’m uncomfortably aware of the metronomic ticking sound of my office clock that’s sounding out my demise. Tyler’s on his way up, and that means that time’s running out.

“Now hook your thumbs into the waistband of your panties,” Harlan says, lowering his voice to a whisper.

The adrenaline running through my body spikes yet again and my knees go wobbly. I sway on the spot, but do as I’m ordered. My hands move quickly – aware that I could be discovered at any moment, my movements are jerky and awkward.

“Slow down,” Harlan commands, taking delicious satisfaction in my discomfort. “I want to savor you, Skye.”

There’s something unbearably sexy about what’s happening to me. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I want a man to bend me over and have his way with me, right now.

And not just any man – Harlan Wolfe. He’s the kind of man I thought I could never have, the kind of man I never knew I wanted.

But right now, he’s the man I need.

And I do as he orders.

My mind flashes back to the night before, in that high-end Manhattan strip club. Suddenly I realize that I’m that girl. Right now, I’m the stripper, and just like last night, when every pair of male eyes were turned in the direction of the stripper’s pale, alluring flesh, right now, Harlan only has eyes for me.

What a fucking turn-on.

“Do you think I’m sexy?” I ask.

My voice is halting – not yet confident in my newfound profession.

“I think you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on, Skye,” Harlan replies down the phone, his voice hoarse with desire. It’s as good a lie detector as I’ll ever need.

“That’s not what I asked,” I reply, digging courage from somewhere. It surges through me, giving me a new lease on life, and a strength I didn’t know I possessed.

“Sexy, then” Harlan inquires, dragging out the question in more delicious torture.

Then, in an aside, “The elevator’s moving, now, Skye. He won’t be long.”

I feel the danger of discovery in yet more adrenaline streaming into my body. And yet for some reason, this time I refuse to be dissuaded. Harlan will answer me, no matter the consequences.

“I’m not moving another inch,” I threaten, toying with the waistband of the panties, biting my lip and staring directly into the camera, “until you answer me, Harlan.”

My billionaire boss groans down the line. “Jesus, Skye, we need to go to Vegas. We’d make a killing together. With your poker face and my –”

“The clock’s ticking,” I say firmly, cutting him off.

“You already know the answer,” Harlan says, his voice quickening with desire. It sounds hoarse and gruff, laced with adrenaline just like mine. It’s how I imagine he would have spoken years ago, in combat, barking orders into his radio.

“But I can tell you if you want,” he continues. “I want to fuck you, Skye. Give me the word and I’ll have Tyler hold your diary all day. I’ll fuck you right there in your office, against the glass. I’ll fuck you with the whole world watching, marking my territory if that’s what you want.

“Is it?”

The question echoes in my head.

Is it?

I reply simply. “Thank you.”

And then – satisfied – I give Harlan what he wants. Biting my lip and staring up at the camera, I shoot him the sultriest gaze I can muster. It’s a look that encapsulates a decade of frustration and desire and every obstacle that’s stood in my way.

I drag my panties down until I can’t tug at them an inch more.

They fall around my ankles, and then I stand there – in front of him – wishing even for a small fuzz of fiery hair as a barrier between my nakedness and Harlan’s greedy gaze. But that’s gone already. There’s nothing left to hide me.

“Jesus, Skye,” Harlan groans for the tenth time. He momentarily seems to lose control of his tongue, but not for long.

“Step out of them,” he says. “And take off your bra. I want to see you wearing my gift.”

The rush of blood to my head from exultation – of my nakedness, my boldness – almost threatens to overcome me. But I don’t let it. I remember that the clock’s ticking. And there’s no way that I’m going to let a decade’s hard work to get to where I am fly out the window in one morning.

I reach around my back, and unclip my bra strap in one quick, practiced movement. It loosens, letting my breasts sinks forward an inch, and I jerk my right shoulder forward, then my left, to free up the bra straps. They topple off and hang loose around my arms.

“I wish you’d let me record this,” Harlan whispers. “But there’s no need. I’ll be replaying this in my mind all day.”

That comment – a pure, untainted honesty – sends a shiver running through me. I know it’s true. The way Harlan spoke those words – there’s no way he could be telling a lie.

For the first time in my life, I feel attractive, I feel wanted.

And I feel horny.

I’m half-tempted to take Harlan up on his offer. Maybe I don’t care about the world finding out that I can be a secret slut. Maybe sexual satisfaction is worth paying that price?

“Put it on,” Harlan says, the tempo of his voice picking up.

I crouch down, and pluck the black lace panties from inside the gift box. They are gossamer thin – more string and lace than anything else. I step into them, and slowly – deliberately – pull them up my thighs.

Next I put on the bra. It’s a man’s idea of what a bra should be – all lace and no support. But I can tell from Harlan’s labored breathing that it’s having the effect he desired.

And I’m becoming the woman he desires.

I fasten the clasp, juggling the cell phone in the crook of my neck.

“There,” I whisper coyly into the phone. “Is that what you wanted to see?”

There’s a long pause during which – I imagine, in full, luxurious detail – Harlan’s forced to readjust his pants.

“No,” he replies, dealing me a blow that he quickly salves. “It’s so much more. But…”

“But what?” I reply, a touch of anxiety infecting my voice. I wince, hating the way I sound.

“But you better get dressed, Skye,” Harlan laughs, “Because Tyler’s coming down the corridor.”

Shit, Tyler…

I hear a click as Harlan hangs up the phone. For a second I just stand there, stunned that he’s abandoned me after putting me in this situation. But I don’t have time to reflect, or to feel irritation.

Bastard.

I unfreeze myself, drop the phone, and dive for my discarded clothing. I step into my skirt, wriggling and squirming as I pull it up my body and fasten it at my waist. Then it’s the shirt’s turn. I throw it onto my shoulders messily, do the buttons up in a hurry – just hoping they are in the right order – and desperately tuck it in.

I hear Tyler’s footsteps outside, now. I know he’s going to do what he does every morning – poke his head around my door and ask me if I need anything. In a panic, I kick at the discarded underwear and the gift wrapped box, hiding them underneath the nearby treatment couch.

And not a moment too soon. I hear a click at the door and turn away, pretending to focus on something on my desk as I glance down my front to see if I look presentable.

Barely.

“Hey, boss?” Tyler’s soft voice asks. “You need a coffee?”

“I’m fine, Tyler,” I snap, more irritably than I intend … my heart still racing from the events of the last few minutes. I soften it. “Come back in a few minutes, okay?”

“Sure thing, Skye,” Tyler replies, sounding chastened.

“Oh, and Tyler?”

“Yes, boss?”

“Don’t open my mail for a while, okay?”