“Is that the contract?” I asked, pointing at the papers in her hand.

“It might be.”

I tried not to smile. I failed. I couldn’t help it. “I don’t know how you managed to find them, nor how you persuaded them to sign, all in four hours. But you’ve done it and if that doesn’t deserve a drink, I don’t know what does.”

I brought her into the red room, so named for the deep crimson wallpaper and sofa. It was where I’d been sitting before she arrived, rereading the same paragraph in my book over and over again, taking nothing in, continually looking up at the grandfather clock and wondering if she’d make it in time.

When I first got home, I burned off as much energy as I could on my exercise equipment, alternating between weights and the treadmill. But I couldn’t stay in the gym all night and eventually I headed, panting and sweating, for the shower.

When she rang the bell, I’d been trying to read for half an hour, trying and failing. I just couldn’t see how she could succeed and yet she’d seemed so damned confident about it all. It didn’t add up.

I poured us both a generous measure of whiskey, passing her the crystal glass before raising mine in the air. “To you and your ability to never stop surprising me.”

“Thanks,” she replied, taking a sip from the glass. “Now are you going to tell me why you look so stressed?”

“I haven’t been honest with you and it’s time for that to stop.”

“What do you mean, you haven’t been honest? Do you not work in publishing? Did you just turn up at the office and hope no one would notice?”

“Not exactly.” I took a deep breath. “I’m not sure exactly where to start.”

“How about at the beginning?”

“Our big blockbuster release for the summer schedule was supposed to be Marty Berghaus’s eagerly awaited new book.”

“And now it isn’t.”

“Exactly. It was eagerly awaited because he doesn’t seem to have done any writing since God knows when. The woman who had your job before you had a special contract drawn up that I wasn’t aware of.”

“What kind of contract?”

“Basically, I could only cut him loose and reclaim his advance if I had a replacement book lined up to take his place in the release schedule.”

“But you’ve loads of books in the works. What’s the problem?”

“The problem was that it needed to be a smash to replace his else we’d lose as much as he would get in severance payments. Lose money and we lose investors. Lose investors and we have to let people go. Let people go and word gets round that we’re tanking. More investors leave, people start selling stock and before you know it, I’m alone in the office with just a pencil and my desk being taken out from under me.”

“But-”

“Let me finish. I should have told you all of this at the start but I thought I could sort it all out for myself. That’s always been my way, get things done for myself. But I couldn’t with this. I needed your help.”

“Finding the author?”

“Exactly. At the conference I got handed the most amazing book, the only thing that could replace Marty’s, but I managed to lose the cover note that came with it. Without that, there was no way of getting proof to Marty’s lawyer that we had a replacement lined up. I have until midnight tonight to let my lawyers know it’s all ready to go. They'll fax Marty’s lawyers a copy of the contract.”

“Fax and then relax.”

“You said it.”

“There’s something else though isn’t there?”

I nodded.

“What is it?”

I sighed, looking her straight in the eye. “I’m the CEO.”

Her face wrinkled, as if she was about to laugh. Then she frowned. “This is a joke, right?”

I drained the last of my whiskey. “Nope.”

“You’re the CEO? You’re the man in charge of Snow Day Publishing? The billionaire reclusive owner who keeps his life so secret, I don’t even know what he looks like? That’s you?”

“Yep.”

She breathed out slowly. “That explains the castle at least.”

“I’m sorry, Lucy. I should have told you.”

“Yes, you should. So all that time I was bossing you around, you were sitting there laughing to yourself that you could fire me whenever you wanted?”

“I wasn’t laughing at you. I was enjoying watching you at work.”

“Yeah, right. Hang on. Anna spoke to the CEO at the conference. She gave him her book.” She groaned. “So that’s how you ended up with a copy. She gave it to you. God, I’m so stupid.”

“No you’re not,” I said, taking the contract off the table and heading for the door. “But I am a world class idiot if I don’t get this faxed off before midnight.”

I walked out into the hallway and across to my study. The fax machine was sat on my desk and I flicked through the pages one by one before feeding them into the machine.

“Suits you,” she said.

I looked up to see her standing in the doorway, two full glasses of whiskey in her hands.

“What does?” I asked as the fax machine came to life.

“Sitting at that desk. Suits you better than the one in the office.”

“Why’s that?”

“I don’t know. It just does.”

“Can I ask you a question, Lucy?”

“You’re the boss.”

“Why didn’t you tell me the author of our new bestseller was your housemate?”

“You’ve worked it out then.”

“The name and address on here. That’s your address. Why didn’t you tell me when I came round?”

She shrugged. “I felt like teasing you.”

“I almost had a heart attack.”

“Well, you teased me by pretending I was your boss in the office. Let me guess, you own Future Trends as well?”

“Uh huh.”

“That explains a lot.”

The last page fell out of the fax machine. I piled them neatly before leaning back in my chair, taking the glass she offered me. “Thanks.”

She sat down on the other side of the desk. “Do you really think the book will do well?”

“I have no doubt. I think your housemate is soon going to be quite a bit richer than you.”

“Really?”

“Unless I give you a substantial bonus for finding our new bestseller of course. What would you do with an extra two hundred thousand a year?”

“You want to know the truth?”

I nodded. “Of course.”

“Anna and me, we run a food club for struggling families. That kind of money would mean we could expand out of London.”

“How much would it take to spread across the whole country?”

“I’ve no idea. A million? Maybe two?”

“Then we better hope the book does well, hadn’t we?”

“I’m sure it will. I’ve not read anything as good in ages.”

“You’ve read it then?”

She smiled. “Of course I’ve read it. Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know. BDSM? Spanking? I thought it might be a bit much for you.”

“What makes you think I’m not into that?”

I sat up straight, looking at her closely. “Interesting.”

She managed to hold her eyes on me. “Is it?” There was that fear again in her face but this time she was holding it in check.

“Stand up,” I said, using the commanding voice I always used.

She was on her feet at once. I felt my cock twitch in response as how submissive she was to my command. “Close your eyes.”

She did as I asked and I examined her closely. She looked beautiful, wearing the dress she’d worn at the hotel. It clung to her curves so perfectly, it made me ache for her, like I was seeing her afresh.

I’d been so convinced she wouldn’t give me a second shot, I had been blinded to the truth. She wouldn’t have come wearing that if she didn’t want to try again.

“Keep your eyes closed,” I said as I got to my feet, scraping back the chair and moving around the desk, stopping behind her, looking down at her ass.

As I looked at her a realisation came to me, as if a curtain had lifted and the truth had been unveiled in all it’s glory and vibrant colour in a single instant. I didn’t just want her to be a sub. I wanted her to be the sub. I wanted her to be my submissive forever. That was why I’d struggled with my feelings about her. It was because my subconscious knew before I did. I wanted her. Forever.

I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her back against me. Brushing her hair aside, I gently kissed her neck, lightly touching her skin before moving up to her ear. I nuzzled the lobe, listening as her breathing changed.

Her chest heaved under my hands as I kissed her neck again, then I stepped back. “Keep your eyes closed,” I commanded. “And remove that dress.”

She didn’t hesitate. I watched eagerly as she reached up to her shoulders, pulling away the straps and letting it slip down her body, revealing her back, her hips, that ass of hers, then her legs as it pooled on the floor underneath her.

She could have opened her eyes, facing away from me as she was, I wouldn’t have known. But something told me she wouldn’t disobey me. She wanted to please me.

I hadn’t been expecting this. I hadn’t been expecting the evening to pan out this way but nothing would have made me change things. She was standing naked in my study, the only thing on her were her heels. She looked so sexy, my cock throbbed, pressing painfully against the front of my boxer shorts.

“Bend over the desk,” I said. “Eyes still closed.”

She groped forwards, arms flailing before she found the edge of the desk. Gripping it tightly, she bent at the hips, her legs coming apart just enough to give me a flash of her pussy. Was it wet already?

“You shouldn’t have teased me at your house,” I said, shifting my position, getting ready for what I was about to do.

“No,” she replied. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry is not good enough,” I snapped, raising my hand and bringing it whipping down through the air a split-second later. It landed on the middle of her left buttock, the air filling with a delicious smacking sound. She gasped in shock, jolting forwards in place.

“Don’t move,” I said, watching the wriggle of her hips fade as she forced herself to keep still. “Or you’ll get twice as many.”

I raised my hand again, bringing it slamming down onto her right buttock. “You work for me, you do what I tell you,” I said, spanking her again. “Understood?”

“Yes, Sir.”

The Sir made my cock twitch again. She really was the perfect sub. I looked at the red marks on her ass, marks that became redder as I landed half a dozen more spanks.

With each one, her shrieks became louder but this time there was no one to interfere, no one to interrupt, to give her a chance to escape. Because she wasn’t escaping. She wasn’t going anywhere until I was finished with her. The chance for getting away from me was long gone.

I smacked her again, this time letting my hand linger on her ass, cupping it, knowing how much her nerve endings would be on fire, the slightest touch as intense as the blow that had come before it.

Lowering myself to my knees, I looked closely at her ass, spreading her cheeks, glancing down at the glistening wetness forming on her pussy. Each time she shifted position, more came out of her, the scent of it driving me wild. I moved my hand down, brushing lightly towards her thighs, nudging her legs further apart. “When you’re good, you get rewarded,” I said, both hands on her ass again, spreading her cheeks, my tongue darting forwards, ready to show her just how much of a reward the perfect sub would get.