Too much information. Save the sexting for your man.
Fair enough. Thanks for being my girl.
Setting the phone down, I scanned the books on the shelf. They were all erotic, of course. Some of Kama Sutra. Others a lot more devious. The one that held my attention was a history book on the Gabinetto Segreto. It was heavy and laminated, like a picture book for the indecent.
No, not the indecent, I corrected myself, thinking back to what Rawn had said in Italy. The artifacts in this room should be celebrated, as they were in Pompeii and Herculaneum.
With the book in hand, I went to the bed, but the text soon began to blur. Listening to the music of the rain, I fell asleep.
Chapter Nine
“Madison.”
In the dark, I heard my name murmured. Night still consumed the earth, and Rawn still consumed my dreams, making it difficult to open my eyes. They fluttered, holding on to all the joys of my subconscious desires. Desires that my body ached for. Beside me, my hands touched the laminated cover of the book I had been reading. The book had inspired my dreams. I wanted to live within its pages with Rawn.
“Madison.”
There it was again—the voice that called to me so sweetly, like a king playing a harp.
“Please don’t make me wake,” I beseeched the voice. “Please let me dream.”
“Madison, it’s me. Rawn.”
Immediately, I was awake. And joyously so. “You’re back,” I said. “I wasn’t expecting you back until the morning.”
“I couldn’t wait,” Rawn said, brushing a piece of hair away from my face. I had been sweating in my sleep, causing my hair to stick to my skin. “I was a fool to think I could.”
Though still in my midnight daze, I kissed him, pouring all of my desire into his lips, letting him know how much I wanted him. He kissed me back, wrapping his hands into my hair, clinging to me, unwilling to let go. It was romantic, but though this room spoke of love and passion, I knew there was nothing civil about his intentions.
“Wait here,” he instructed as he moved away from the bed and towards the wardrobes. “I see you have already found something appallingly delectable to wear. Now it’s my turn to pick out something you’ll find just as…tantalizing.”
My heart skipped a beat within my chest as he considered the row of chains and then the whips. Leaving the leather to rest on the black velvet, he selected a particularly frightful chain with grooves on the end—a sadistic form of handcuffs. Returning to me, he slipped the end of the chain around my wrist, and then he fastened the other end to the bedpost. The metal was heavy, but it was sleek against my skin, almost like the black satin of my camisole and shorts, which were now the only things I wore after Rawn removed my robe.
I’m not sure if I’m ready for this, I thought.
“Prepare to experience your body in a way you never have before. I know this may seem forbidding at first, but trust me, you’ll appreciate sex in a whole new way. Your body is capable of so much pleasure, more than you have ever known.”
“I trust you,” I avowed. “Do what you like to me.”
From the drawer beside the bed, Rawn pulled out a gilded pair of scissors. Tugging at the bottom of my camisole, he cut away at the fabric and tore the material off me so that my breasts spilled out. He then did the same with my shorts, leaving me naked and at his mercy. To my dismay, he kept his suit on, a gorgeous warden about to sentence his prisoner to what I hoped was a candy kind of torture.
Returning to the display, he picked out a purple vibrator in the shape of a large pill and the whip with the tassels at the end. Naked and chained to the bed, I knew all I could do was relax and enjoy what was to come, but I could not help but feel a small dose of fear rise within me. Somehow, the fear heightened the arousal I already felt being so close to Rawn, awakening my body more than I thought a chain, vibrator, and whip could.
Sitting beside me on the bed, he ran his hands across my stomach, his touch as light as a feather, soothing me before the pain.
“Spread your legs for me,” he ordered. “Spread them wide so that I can see exactly what I’m doing to you.”
Having already revealed myself to him, this time I had no shame inviting him into everything that made me feminine—what made the Leo want the lioness.
He turned on the vibrator, and he ran it over the delicate skin of my thighs, close to my core, but not close enough. The pulse in my core caused a puddle to form on top of the satin comforter, spurred on by the movement of the purple pill that I knew would soon be plunged inside of me.
“Good,” he said, approving of my response to the vibrator. “Enjoy it. But don’t enjoy it too much. Save your thirst for my cock.”
I closed my eyes as he moved the vibrator higher up my thigh. “This is good, but there is nothing better than your cock.”
“No talking,” he reprimanded. Reaching for a piece of the black satin he had ripped off me, he pushed it into my mouth, gagging me so that I could not speak, but I could still easily breathe. “Otherwise, you’ll just make me come before the show has begun. I want to make you scream before I come.”
Finally, the vibrator met the flesh of my slightly bushed lady lips. Rawn circled it around my opening before settling it over the bud of my clit. It sent a shockwave through my body, electricity that coursed even into my ass, leaving every part of me open to him. He could take whatever he wanted, wherever he wanted, and I would be okay. I would be more than okay. I would be in heaven.
“Do you like that?” he asked tauntingly. “Your body tells me you do.”
Unable to speak, I nodded my head, and I opened my legs wider, inviting him in to ravage me fully.
Instead, he took the vibrator, and he rubbed it sinfully over the lips of my mouth so that I could taste myself. Knowing it would heighten his own arousal, I placed my lips over the tip and sucked as much as the gag would allow.
With flames in his eyes, Rawn turned me over onto my stomach and pulled my ass into the air so that I was propped on all fours. Just like an animal. With the vibrator still in hand, he ran it mischievously around the rim of my ass, and then he charged it into my crevasse. The metal was cold inside of me and foreign, but though it lacked the warmth of Rawn’s cock, the way it massaged my insides turned on every fiber in my body. Even my feet tingled. I began to feel numb, the type that occurs right before explosion.
I didn’t believe foreplay could get any better than this, but then Rawn showed me that it could. He spanked me with the whip, causing a rush of blood to pound into my core. It amplified all sensation, especially that of the vibrator, which was still inside of me. My chest began to heave with my breath, and I moaned loudly.
When he spanked me with the whip again, I screamed out loud. Not because it hurt, even though it did leave a sting, but because of the ache of my mounting pleasure as he worked me so ruthlessly with objects I never thought could make my body come alive in such a way. This was unlike anything I had experienced before. It was not obscene; it was bliss. I liked the chains. I liked the vibrator. I liked the whip. But most of all, I’m liked that Rawn was the master of all three. He was the painter, and I the painted. The toys were the tools of paradise.
“And now it’s my turn,” he growled, setting the tools of paradise down.
I heard the sound of foil ripping open, and then he was inside of me, his thrusts matching the strokes he’d used with the vibrator— rhythmic and stimulating but not forceful. With my body already in a frenzy, the satisfaction of his warm flesh against mine was almost my breaking point. He put his hands against my hips so that he could drive himself deeper into me, but he kept his steady pace. When my body flushed with orgasm, it almost came as a surprise, one that hit me hard, sending me out of my body to a higher place full of joy, sweat, and pools of love.
He followed soon after, roaring as he released himself.
Afterward, removing my gag, he took me into his arms. I felt safe and serene, despite the rowdiness of our lovemaking. I trul
y did trust him. It was insane. We had only recently met. But—unlike the stars—not everything took millions of years to form. Some things just were, the moment immediate.
“You really are hung like a bull,” I whispered into his ear. “This may be our own secret room, but after what you just did to me, I’m certain it’s not a secret to our neighbors anymore.”
***
Standing beneath the florescent lights of the tech lab, I was in awe. The lab was massive. I knew there was more to Cepheus Scientific than product development, such as manufacturing and administration, but I had never visited the lower floors of the building before. In the tech lab, a legion of wide metal tables filled the room, each with a bounty of parts on top that for some reason made me think of the Victorian Era steampunk movement. Except there was nothing Victorian about what the engineers were building. It was all very futuristic, and quite impressive. I understood why Rawn visited his father here as a boy. To a young, curious mind, the lab was like a playground.
“This isn’t the same lab as when I was a child,” he told me. “There have been many improvements over the years. Time has a way of changing things, for better or worse, but it is the lab my father worked in leading up to his retirement. Being here brings back so many fond memories. I would prefer to work here than in any other office, but the Fates had another idea.”
“You mean the CEO did.”
Rawn didn’t respond to my comment, likely out of loyalty to the woman who had kept his family fed for the past two generations. “To honor my father, I had his original desk preserved.”
We went to the back of the lab, passing through a jungle of spare parts, to a small wooden table pressed against the wall and surrounded by red rope. It looked ancient, something out of a Shakespearean drama, but I assumed it was no older than Rawn’s father. I pictured a young Rawn standing at the table, looking over the blueprints assigned to his father, a crayon in his hand making corrections, giddy as a lamb. Almost as confirmation of my imagery, on top of the table, scratched into its surface, were the signatures of father and son.
“Have you ever considered leaving your position as President of Product Development and coming down here to work?” I asked.
It was clear by the longing in Rawn’s eyes that he had considered it many times before. “It’s not a possibility for me,” he stated with remorse. “I am strong within the position I have in Product Development. That’s the job I was hired for. Technicians, like my father, have to be able to do more than just find errors in the product design. They have to actually build a prototype. In this matter, my mind may be strong, but my hands are weak. There is little I can build.”
“Except for an entire company,” I asserted.
He laughed. “I can’t take credit for all of it. The company was around long before I was, but I may have helped it to become the empire that it is.”
“I still think you would benefit from spending more time down here, especially if it is your only source of happiness within the company.”
“It’s not my only source of happiness here. Not anymore,” he said, looking my way. “I wish there was a way I could convince you to be my assistant.”
“Maybe one day,” I said, even though I didn’t think it would be true. “You never know what the future brings.”
I said it as reassurance to Rawn, but the truth was, it was the future that held me back.
***
“Where have you been?” Russell demanded as I walked into Ms. Goldstein’s office.
“I was…” I stammered, not sure how to respond. “I was conferencing with Mr. Jackman,” I told him, forcing my brain to function.
Russell did not seem to care. “Listen, I understand that you’re part of the team overseeing the launch of the telescope. I respect that. But that doesn’t mean you can diverge away from your duties here—in this office. What it does mean is that you have more work on your plate, and less time to do it. That’s the nature of this business. Congratulations, your schedule just got a whole lot busier.”
He was right. I sensed no animosity in his tone, only the bitter, hard facts. I was new to the company, and though I had already shown my potential, I was only profitable if I could finish the work they assigned me. I could not make excuses. I could not ride on Rawn’s favor. I wanted to prove my worth, to myself if no one else. That meant no more sneaking away, knowing Rawn could cover for me. At the end of the day, I had to answer to myself. And the only way I could do that with any sense of self-respect was to complete the work I was hired to do.
“Give me everything you’ve got,” I said to Russell. “I’ll work as hard as it takes.”
“That’s a relief to hear,” he began, “because the last thing I want to do right now is worry about filling the third assistant position. There’s already too many fish in the fishbowl that is Cepheus Scientific. I’ve already emailed you a list of your duties for the day, but I have to ask something of you. It goes outside your job description, but you would be helping the department out in a big way.”
“Okay…” I said, unsure of what he would ask, but glad that he considered me reliable enough to carry out the task.
“Mellissa is still out sick. I hear she has a bad chest infection, and though she has offered to come into work, the last thing we need around here is a virus. Do you mind completing your duties while also taking over the reception desk? All you have to do is answer the phone and point visitors in the right direction. But don’t fret. There likely won’t be many calls to take; the place is pretty quiet today. I’ve tried to get in a temp, but the agency hasn’t returned my calls yet. With hope, by the time things begin to pick back up, Mellissa will be better.”
I hope so, I thought. For her sake as well as mine. I had never answered calls before. I wasn’t even sure I would know how. But I didn’t tell this to Russell. I wanted to prove to him that I could do this. I didn’t know why. It wasn’t like he had a reputation for treating people well around here. But knowing his story, I felt a tad bit guilty. I wouldn’t let that guilt stop me from climbing ahead, but that didn’t mean I had to push Russell down as I did.
Grabbing the laptop from my desk, wondering when exactly Rawn’s assistant would be back from her my honeymoon to collect it, I went to the reception desk and settled myself in. It was actually quite cozy behind the high desk, like my own little office. The only deterrent was the rather large phone in front of me. It had more buttons than a rain jacket. Scratch that. A closet full of rain jackets. As I tried to make sense of all the different colors and codes that accompanied the buttons, I wondered if, “Please call back in two weeks,” was an inappropriate way to handle the calls.
Certain there must be a key guide around somewhere, I scrambled through the desk, but I stopped when a sticky note caught my attention. The handwriting on the sticky note was scratchy, but its message was clear.
Don’t trust Conrad
Chapter Ten
“You must like volcanoes,” I mused, watching with awe as orange lava spewed in the air, glowing bright against a night sky, like a firework. “First Vesuvius, and now this.”
I thought today would be a normal day. At least, as normal as the day could be working at Cepheus Scientific. I had sat at the reception desk, like Russell had asked. Surprisingly, I’d gotten a lot done, even with the calls I received, which I somehow manage to transfer okay without hanging up on anyone important. At least, I hoped so. That was the problem when the line went dead after the transfer. I didn’t know where the person had gone. But no one called back, so I took that as a good sign.
The last hour of the day was the team meeting, where I occasionally peeked over my notepad at Conrad, wondering about the sticky note. I could usually read people well. He seemed like a candid person. There was no doubt that he was a bit of a rascal, in the sense that he didn’t mind adding a bit of spice to his sugar, but he seemed warm-hearted.
I knew Mellissa had not written the note, because she had never met Conrad, based on th
e mistake he made the first time we met when he thought I was Mellissa. But someone had written the note. Was it Russell? Did he know something about Conrad that I didn’t? Was this his way of trying to help me…or to sabotage me?
This was not the type of mystery I found intriguing. It was frustrating. If Conrad was up to something, and if that something involved me, such as the product launch, then I wanted to know what it was.
But it was hard to believe there was anything to worry about as I watched how easily he interacted with everyone at the meeting. He listened carefully to the opinions of others and answered any questions they had regarding the PR of the launch. Not that he led the meeting. Rawn did. The table was full of representatives from almost every department within Cepheus Scientific, especially the manufacturing department, who had to be on their best game since the launch was only two months away. Rawn was the boss of them all. In charge, as he liked to be.
After work, Rawn had asked me to join him in his car. I thought we were heading to our secret room. I hadn’t expected to drive to the airport or to board the private jet.
I hadn’t expected Hawaii.
We were only on the island for a few hours—long enough to visit the Mauna Kea Observatories. Rawn said it was for inspiration regarding the product launch, but I knew better. Italy had been a business trip, but this, Hawaii, was all for me.
But we couldn’t stay long, not with all the work we both had to do. There would be no hotel, no ornate bedroom. Our jet would leave before the sun rose, delivering us back to Portland, to our commitments at Cepheus Scientific.
“Perhaps it’s my Leo side,” he said, answering me in regards to the volcano. “Fire is the sign of the Leo, so I’ve heard.” The color of orange reflected against his face as he spoke, even though the Kilauea volcano of the Hawaii National Park was in the far distance from our spot on an adjacent high ridge. “Or maybe it’s just you. You bring out the fire in me.”
The TROUBLE With BILLIONAIRES: Book 1 Page 9
