Chapter 9

Eva put the finishing touches on her make-up and piled her hair on top of her head to accentuate the plunging neckline of her full-length gown. Matt said he would take her somewhere fancy. She could only hope she wasn’t too fancy. She would be massively overdressed and make a fool of herself.

He better not pick her up on his Harley, either, or she would never speak to him again. She collected her handbag and put it with her keys on the hall table. She checked the clock for the thousandth time and paced around the living room waiting for him to show up.

Eight o’clock rolled around, but she didn’t hear the thump of a chopper outside. All at once, a firm knock rattled her door. She didn’t hear any car pull up to the curb, but when she opened it, her breath caught in her throat. There was Matt in a tuxedo and diamond cuff links. A black stretch limo sat at the curb behind her. She never even heard it pull up.

He raised his eyebrows at her dress, and his eyes sparkled. “Good evening. You look stunning.”

“So do you.”

He crooked his elbow and turned side-on to her. “Shall we go?”

She placed her hand inside his elbow. “Where are we going?”

“That’s a surprise.”

“I don’t like surprises.”

“You’ll like this one.”

He handed her into the limo and sat in the seat opposite her. She kept her knees together and folded her hands in her lap. He appraised her up and down with his eyes. “You don’t look very comfortable.”

“Maybe because I feel like I’m about to be the main course.”

He flashed his perfect white teeth. “I like that. You look delicious from here.”

“Is this going to be another one of your kinky sex games?”

His smile evaporated. “Nothing like that.”

“You haven’t texted me since you dropped me off last night.”

“I thought you might want a break from that after….what we did.”

“Yeah, I guess I did.”

“You haven’t texted me, either.”

“I never have. It’s always you texting me.”

“I know. Why is that?”

“I don’t know. It just worked out that way when you first got in touch with me on that dating site.”

The limo glided to a stop. Matt peered through the window. “Here we are.”

He got out first and offered her his hand. He led her up to the sidewalk to the front of what looked like a locked office building. “What is this place?”

“Only the most exclusive restaurant on the Eastern Seaboard.” He passed her hand through his elbow. “You’ll love it. I promise.”

He led her to another plain concrete wall and touched the corner seam between two concrete blocks. A panel opened, and he pushed a button. The slab slid back, and he stepped into an elevator cab with Eva at his side.

She stared at him. “What’s all this cloak and dagger stuff?”

“I told you this place is exclusive.”

“I didn’t know it was that exclusive.”

“No one knows about this place but me. It has a clientele of one—actually two now.”

The elevator closed and whizzed into the air. The G-force dragged on Eva’s legs, but the ride only lasted an instant. The doors hissed open again, and Matt stepped out onto a pebbled concrete patio set all around with trees. The starry night sky sailed high above them, and the summer wind rustled the leaves.

Thousands and thousands of fairy lights illuminated the building’s roof, but no one could tell it was the roof of a plain office building. Flower beds, rose bushes, and stately trees grew all around that roof and turned it into a Garden of Eden.

Matt conducted her along a beautiful walk to an opening in the garden. A small table set for two waiting for them between the trees, and candles lit its crisp white tablecloth and bone china.

Matt steered her into her chair before he took the chair opposite. He rang a small bell by his plate, and a tuxedoed waiter came forward with a white napkin draped over his arm. “Wine, sir?”

“Yes, thank you.”

The waiter disappeared and came back with a bottle and two glasses. He poured, and Matt raised his glass to Eva. “To you, and to a job superlatively done today.”

The heady mixture of alcohol and sugar rushed to her brain. She couldn’t comprehend all this extravagance for her sake. She’d only been doing her job today, the job he hired her to do.

She ran through a few possible excuses in her mind to explain away the work he thought was so exceptional. Anyone could have done it, but before she could decide what to say, he slid his hand across the table and picked up hers from the tablecloth. “I’ve waited a long time for this moment.”

“You have? How long have you been planning this?”

“Since I first emailed you on that dating site.”

Eva stared at him. “As long ago as that?”

“You didn’t know, did you? You thought it was all about sex for me, but it wasn’t. I knew from your first messages you were something special. Even then, I planned to bring you here. I dreamed of this moment more times than I dreamed about laying you across my bike.”

Eva turned bright red. Talking about their illicit sex life didn’t make sense at this table.

“You never thought about this with RipRoarer, did you?”

“You said RipRoarer was the leader of a criminal biker gang. I never thought RipRoarer was capable of this.”

“Well, he is. I am. I wanted you to see this part of my life, and I wanted you to share it.”

“What do you mean by share it?”

“I want us to be more than just a boss who bonks his assistant. I want us to be more than chat buddies and fuck buddies.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“You’re the first person I’ve trusted to share my business with. I want to know I can count on you when the chips are down.”

“You can count on me. I proved that today, didn’t I?”

“You proved it as my assistant. I want you to be more than that. I want you to be an equal force for leadership and change in my company.”

“If I was an equal force along with you, it wouldn’t be your company. It would be our company.”

“Exactly.”

“I still don’t understand what you mean. You’re not going to share your company with me. That would be unheard of.”

“You just heard of it.”

“You’re daft.”

He chuckled. “I can see this subject makes you uncomfortable.”

“Only because you’re not making any sense. You don’t intend to make me a business partner, do you?”

“No, not a business partner.”

“There. You see? I knew it. So what are you talking about?”

He rolled her hand between his fingers. “Just this.”

“You already have that.”

He turned away with a wistful smile, but he wouldn’t say anymore. After the wine came the salad and the appetizers and finally the main course and dessert. Every dish came prepared for royalty. Eva struggled to keep her composure through each successive revelation, but Matt only smiled at her.

When it was all over, he led her on a long, winding tour of the garden. He held her hand and even put his arm around her waist, but he never took it any further. He never even kissed her.

He talked about a thousand things, but never work, and he never revisited that subject he tried to broach at the table. He let it drop and kept her at her ease throughout the evening.

After several hours, he migrated back to the elevator. Without mentioning it, he guided her down it to the street where the limo waited for them. He handed her into the seat, but this time, he sat next to her.

As soon as the limo started moving, he scooted along the seat to press against her. His thigh touched hers, and he leaned in to kiss her. He cupped the back of her neck, and his tongue slithered into her mouth.

Warm wetness drenched her between her legs to welcome his hand sliding up her thighs along the slit in her gown. He found the moist cleft and drenched his fingers in her gushing font.

She gave herself over into his hands. Wasn’t this what she always wanted, his love and tenderness. She traced the hard contours of his muscular chest. She knew the dark patterns underneath his spotless shirt. She knew everything down to the inked hooks marking the curve of his hips.

All too soon, the limo stopped and Eva pulled out of his embrace with a sigh. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She turned and opened the door—and froze. She wasn’t in front of her own apartment. She was somewhere she didn’t recognize. A huge old Victorian house jutted into the night sky, and a man in a uniform waited outside the door with his gloved hands crossed in front of him. “What is this place?”

Matt got out of the limo behind her. “This is my house. I thought you might like to see it for yourself.”

“Your house?”

So this was where the uber-rich lived. Before she could say a word, he escorted her up the long walk to the front steps. The uniformed servant opened the door. Eva looked back to see the limo disappearing down a long, curving driveway. Where it went, she never knew.

Matt pressed her hand. “Come inside. I want to show you something.”

“What is it, your underground dungeon?”

“I don’t have an underground dungeon.”

“Nothing could surprise me after that place where you took me for dinner.”

“Good. Then you won’t be surprised.”

He led the way into a high-ceilinged foyer and up the sweeping staircase. On the second floor, he turned off into a large bedroom with a curtained canopy bed in the center. Blood magenta velvet curtains surrounded the bed and hung around the windows.

Eva stared at everything in wide-eyed wonder. “What’s this?”

“This is my bedroom.” He took a step closer. “I want you to spend the night here with me.”

“Spend the night with you—here?”

He moved in on her, and that old tension, half fear, half excitement, made every breath a torture. He kissed her once on the lips. Then his powerful hands fell on her shoulders with the weight of elephants. He could crush her in one blow.

He turned her around to face the bed. He kissed down her neck to her bare shoulder. “Would you like to spend the night in that bed with me?”

She tried to swallow, but her parched throat ached. “Yes.”

His voice rumbled in his chest. How well she knew that voice! “Are you turned on for me right now?”

“Yes.”

“Would you like to bend over for me on that bed and let me take you like the bad girl you are?”

“Yes. I want you to.”

“Let me see you do it then. Let me see you display yourself to me.”

She didn’t have a chance to slip her shoulder straps down. He did it for her, and her gown dropped to the floor. He caressed down her bare back to her hour-glass hips. He propelled her forward, and she set one knee on the velvet-trimmed bed.

She crawled forward on hands and knees until she positioned herself in the center of the bed. She looked back over her shoulder to see him glaring at her. He towered over her in all his massive, dominating power.

The gentle compassion of his business personality melted away. Nothing remained but the pure animal, and she was his hunted quarry. He put out his hand and grazed her aching tissues. He came away with fingers smeared with the sparkling elixir, and he licked the juice from his hand. He bared his teeth and snarled at her.

“You’re a bad girl, aren’t you? You’re my rotten little Princess, and you know what Daddy does to bad girls.”

She gasped in spite of herself. “Oh, Daddy.”

“You know it, baby. You’ve been dying for this for a long time. You’re gonna taste my belt tonight.”

Why did she think this wouldn’t happen? She whined in pathetic tones. “Oh, Daddy, please.”

He circled his flat fingers over her burning petals. He rubbed her juice all over her engorged clit and back up over her ass. “Are you begging me to strap you, or are you begging for mercy?”

“Oh, Daddy, please.”

“I asked you a question. Do you want my belt across that sweet ass of yours?”

She couldn’t stand it anymore. She wanted whatever he did to her. “Yes, Daddy. I’m a bad girl, and I know what Daddy does to bad girls.”

He tore his belt off. It shone in the soft yellow light. He doubled it over and slapped it against his pants. It made a dull thunk against the fabric.

Eva turned her head to face forward. She closed her eye and moaned. She rocked her hips back and forth through the air and waited for the first blow to fall.