by ANDREA SMITH
“You know, I’ve wanted to get back on my golf game for quite some time. Denise and I have been planning a trip to Hawaii as well. I’ll get a prospectus to you next week. How soon after will you be able to provide Baronton’s proposal?”
“I shouldn’t think it would take more than a couple of weeks, tops.”
“I think this just might work out well for all concerned,” he replied, reaching to shake my hand. “I’ll look forward to pursuing this merger. You’ve somehow managed to put my mind at ease with your plan, Easton.”
“Splendid,” I replied, giving his hand a shake. “I think this will be a win-win for all concerned, but for now, let’s keep this confidential. It’s been my experience that rumours of a merger or acquisition make employees skittish on both sides, interrupting productivity.”
“You have no worries there,” he assured me. “I’m not a novice by any means.”
“Very good, sir. I’ll be in touch.”
We exchanged business cards, which listed our private mobile numbers. I paid for lunch and departed feeling the satisfaction I always felt when a negotiation went as planned.
Having attended to the business that delayed my departure from D.C., I instructed Carlos to take me to the private airfield where my pilot was preparing for our flight to New York. Back to New York for a few weeks, back to Lacee’s pouting face and the surliness she’d direct towards me for banishing her from the long weekend she’d planned for us in D.C I could handle Lacee, I always had, only this time would be different. I’d handle her upon my return, not with cuffs, clamps or crops and not with a sheathed cock either. It was time Lacee focused solely on her career with Baronton and not on its President and CEO.
It was a short flight from D.C. to New York. The best kind. I managed to fall asleep on the leather couch in the cabin, dismissing the first officer’s offer of refreshment. The flight time would allow for a quick power nap before I faced my staff in New York.
I was almost nine years old when Mother hired a live-in governess for me; one of the many times Mother had forbade my grandparents from seeing me or coming to our house. Mother was an only child and her tantrums were notorious. I never knew the details of her snits with my grandparents, only that during one of them, I might not see Grammy and Papa for weeks; not until one of them came begging for her forgiveness in order to spend time with me. I loved spending time with them. Life was normal—with them.
The governess’ name was Gennifer DuValle; her bedroom adjoined mine through a connecting door. A door which had no lock, or I would’ve used it.
It happened the first time just after my ninth birthday. I’d been so enraptured with the presents Mother had lavished on me that I hadn’t done my lesson plan from the previous day. Gennifer had spent most of the day sequestered in her room, drinking rum and Diet Coke, the way she always did. Mother was traveling; it was just Freda the live-in housekeeper and Levon, the groundskeeper, Gennifer and me at the estate. I noticed Gennifer took more drinking liberties when my mother traveled, not that Mother would’ve noticed anyway.
I’d spent the better part of the day playing the multiple video games I’d received for my birthday. My father had sent money, so I begged Gennifer to take me shopping and bought even more games. I was addicted to Nintendo. Just after tea, whilst Freda took her daily nap, Gennifer came into my room.
“Time to review your lessons,” she half-way slurred, coming over to where I was and shutting off the game system.
“Please Miss Gennifer,” I whined, “just let me play for a few more minutes?”
“After you’ve shown me your completed lessons,” she said, pointing her finger at me.
“Sorry, Miss,” I conceded, lowering my head. “I haven’t completed them as of yet.”
“What?” she hissed loudly. “Easton, your first priority is your studies. That’s what I’m paid to do; to make sure you stay current with your study plan. How do you think your mother will react should I tell her I’ve failed in this?”
“I’m not sure, Miss,” I said softly, feeling ashamed I’d put her in such a precarious position with my mother.
“Well, I’m sure,” she snapped. “She’d take disciplinary measures you can be sure. Maybe even the ultimate disciplinary action by dismissing me from her employment. Then I’d starve or be forced to peddle myself on the streets of London like a common strumpet in order to eat!”
“I’m sorry, Miss,” I mumbled sincerely. “I’ll get to it straight-away.”
“The fact remains, Easton, you still need to be punished so you won’t forget your priorities again. Your mum may allow you to do as you will, but I happen to think you’ve lacked discipline in the past, which needs to be rectified. That pretty face of yours will only get you so far in this life. Perhaps now is the perfect time for you to get a lesson in paying the consequences of irresponsible behaviour. Don’t you move,” she hissed, waggling her index finger in my face.
I stood like a statue hearing her going through her dresser drawers in the next room. I was frightened by her tone, the smell of rum on her breath, and the anger in her eyes. She returned to my room carrying an armful of items I didn’t recognise. She approached me, tossing the items on my bed except for a long scarf. She instructed me to open my mouth. I did as instructed, fearful to resist, while she tied the rolled-up scarf around my face to serve as a gag. I felt the panic set in that I’d suffocate.
“Breath through your nose,” she instructed harshly. She grabbed both of my wrists and pulled them roughly behind my back, placing a pair of handcuffs around them so I was immobile except for my feet. I immediately pushed my body against her, trying to run for the door, though of course I had no way of opening it and no means of screaming for help.
“If you resist, I’ll be that much harder on you,” she warned, coming up behind me and leading me back to the bed. She unzipped my pants, lowering them to my ankles; she grasped my boxers and did the same.
“Well, what a nice little willy you have already even at your age,” she said, laughing harshly. I watched as she took a stick that had long strips of leather attached to it, noticing there was a metal edge at the end of each of those leather strips. I had no clue what it was.
“You’ve earned a flogging, Easton,” she purred. “Miss Gennifer’s going to show you what happens to bad boys who don’t complete their lessons.”
She turned me around so my back was to her, then shoved me face-down onto the bed. I turned my head to the side so I could at least see what she intended to do in my peripheral vision. As she got nearer, I felt my eyes widen in horror as she straddled my legs, raising her arm high, ready to deliver the first blow of the flogger against my bare ass.
“Excuse me, sir. We’re getting ready to land and I wanted to make sure you were buckled in safely.”
“I’m fine,” I snapped, sitting up abruptly, taking a deep breath. I should’ve been grateful to the first officer for interrupting the horrible dream I was having, rather than reacting so harshly.
“Sorry, sir,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s quite alright, David,” I said, composing myself. “Just a bit overtired from the weekend.”
“Very good sir. We should be on the ground in five minutes or so.”
I fastened the seat belt on the leather couch and prepared to deal with being in New York and not in D.C. I wondered how Darcy was doing, immediately chastising myself for even thinking about her. I wouldn’t go there. She was a diversion for now. No more than that.
chapter 14
God! Would this work day ever be over? I looked up at the clock on the wall. Shit! It was only twelve-fucking-thirty. I hadn’t even arrived until eight-thirty, so four hours seemed like ten. It was my own damn fault. I should’ve listened to the angel on my shoulder instead of that rat bastard devil. I didn’t mean it; I didn’t regret the choice I’d made, though my ass was still throbbing from the lashing I’d received. Christ!
Easton was a freak, but hey, I was so down for something different than the generic fucking I was used to.
You can imagine my surprise the other night after we’d had our “break-in” fuck when he’d placed a stack of boxes on the bed. I almost felt as if Easton had a soft spot and was lavishing expensive gifts on me, though God I don’t know when he would’ve had the time. Hah! From inside one box, I pulled a black, leather bustier with a matching thong. Another box contained matching leather wrist and ankle restraints, the third box contained a beautiful purple, single rose that I discovered was also made of leather! Dude obviously had a thing for leather. I must’ve had a look of shock on my face because, very soon after extricating the contents, I heard a chuckle from Easton. He saw my puzzlement over the items.
“It’s for play, love,” he explained. “Are you into it?”
I wondered if he’d shopped at some “One size fits all” perv shop. I won’t bore you with the details, but obviously, I was game for it or my ass cheeks wouldn’t be burning now like they were on fire. Okay—don’t misunderstand me, I was down for it all. It was new, different, and like anyone else, I was a FSOG whore, I admit it! We’d spent a delicious several hours fucking, fucking hard, and fucking harder. I was spanked several times when I’d been naughty in ways that didn’t please Easton. The funny thing was, I had no clue what constituted ‘naughty’ behavior. I supposed I’d learn soon enough, according to Easton.
I shifted for the umpteenth time in my chair, continuing to add raw data into my computer, which was boring enough. It wasn’t interesting enough to take my mind off the pain in my freaking ass!
I knew my dad was pissed when he saw me trying to discreetly sneak in at 8:34 this morning. I got the familiar ‘Darcy what’ve you been up to?” look, and I heard an audible grunt from him as I wished him a “good morning.” And that was never a good sign. But the truth was, I couldn’t get comfortable in bed yesterday; I was restless and had overslept. Eli hadn’t bothered to make sure I was up before he left for his morning ritual of meeting some of his buds for coffee at Starbucks before he went into work. Finally making it into work, albeit late, I quickly sat down in my cubicle and started this data-entry shit that I’d been working on for better than a week.
Yeah…this was so not what I had in mind when I went to college to pursue my Bachelor’s degree.
The pain on my ass cheeks might not have even been noticeable had I been able to walk around, but being planted firmly on the thinly-padded chair at my desk only exacerbated the discomfort. I mean it wasn’t like I had bleeding welts or anything; just some read streaks that, at the time they were administered, actually felt delicious. My God, I’d come so fucking hard over and over again! I’d even antagonized Easton verbally, knowing quite well by that time he’d only be too willing to dole out more punishment for the disrespect I’d shown him. I wondered if this made me some kind of a perv. I was contemplating the pros and cons of that when I decided to quit reflecting on everything Easton and find something that would make each and every reminder of him a little more…work appropriate.
I slipped from my cubicle and went down the long, winding hall to where the executive offices were located. Hopefully, Daddy was out for lunch and his executive assistant as well. As I rounded the corner to the glass-enclosed offices, I could see that the lights were out. All clear! Thank God!
I quickly and silently crept into his office, looking around in his closet for what I needed. There it was; thank God! It might make me more comfortable right now. Hopefully no one would pass me in the hallway on my way back and wonder what the hell I was doing! I’d stayed in over lunch to make up for my missed time this morning.
See, I do have a work ethic, despite those spoilage comments made by my oh-so-loving parents.
I made it back into my corner cubicle with the item, and sat back down to resume my data entry, feeling much more comfortable.
It was probably twenty minutes later when I recognized Eli’s whistling as he came into my department and poked his head over the top of my cubicle.
“Hey sweetie! Glad you finally made it in,” he teased. “Want me to bring you some—what the fuck?”
“Shhh,” I hissed, squirming in my chair, trying to pull my short skirt down to cover the inflatable donut I was perched on. There was no way that was going to happen with the skirt I was wearing.
“What the hell’s that?” he whispered loudly, trying to contain his laughter. He moved inside my cubicle, his eyes glued to the inflatable donut my sore ass was resting on. He finally looked back up at my face, waiting for some type of an explanation.
“I think you know what it is,” I halfway snapped at him.
“Hemorrhoids, babe?”
“No,” I whispered through gritted teeth. “I don’t have hemorrhoids! These things have multiple uses.”
“Uh huh,” Eli replied. “How’d you over-sleep this morning?”
“I just didn’t sleep well,” I snapped, nearly flinching as I moved in my chair.
“Don’t be snippy with me,” he warned. He was looking at me a little more shrewdly now. “I’m sorry you’re in pain.”
“No, I’m good,” I gave him a small ‘sorry for being a total bitch’ smile. “But please tell me you’re cooking tonight?”
“You got it, sweetie. Pasta sound good?”
“Pasta sounds great.”
“You got it. See ya at home.”
Eli left just as Rollins the Retch walked by giving me the hairy eyeball to make sure I was busy pecking away on my keyboard, entering this fucking mundane bullshit. Whatever.
I ran into Daddy late afternoon as I went to the food commissary to get some iced coffee. He seemed different than this morning; he was no longer pissed, but acted a tad guilty about something. What was that about?
“Hi Daddy,” I said, as I filled my cup. “Are you having a good day?”
“As a matter of fact, Darcy, this has been a very uplifting day for me. How are you? I noticed you arrived a little late looking under the weather. Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine. Just the whole weekend wedding stuff, ya know? The partying did me in a little bit. I’m just not used to it. Don’t worry; I’ll be back at 100% tomorrow.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing that,” he replied, walking back towards his office.
What’s that about?
I went back to my cubicle, thankful I only had thirty minutes until I could blow this pop stand. Eli would prepare a great pasta dinner, complete with the appropriate wine and we’d chat about our mundane jobs at Sheridan & Associates. Then, I’d crawl into my nice, soft bed and drift into blissful sleep.
When five o’clock finally rolled around, I was so ready to be outta there. My cell rang on the way down to the front lobby. I didn’t recognize the number, but my instincts told me it was Easton, and I instantly felt butterflies in my tummy.
“I see you got my note,” I greeted, hoping like hell it was Easton on the other end.
“I did,” the familiar voice replied from the other end, “I didn’t, however, appreciate the way it was delivered.”
“Is that right?” I teased, hobbling down the front steps of the building, not oblivious to the odd look I was getting from a woman I passed on the sidewalk. “You know, I meant to leave a tip for you with it for services rendered, but I just didn’t have anything less than a hundred dollar bill. Sorry about that.” My smile was now turning into a full-fledged, shit-eating grin.
I heard his slow chuckle. “Keep the money, love. Just know that in the future, I won’t tolerate your leaving my bed without my knowing. I’ve punished women for less.”
Oh shit.
“Got it,” I replied, finally reaching my car in the lot.
“I enjoyed this weekend; I hope you did as well,” he stated seriously.
I nodded, swallowing nervously at his intensity. “It was a very unique experience for me,” I said softly.
“I’ll see you again, Darcy; I’m not sure when, but I will. In the meantime, you’re to refrain from having any sexual activity with anyone else. Is that understood?”
I nodded, surprised at his request. My understanding was that we were now going to have sort of a no-strings-attached type of relationship. I mean, I got that he seemed to be overly concerned about his health and STDs and such, but my God, how much of a skank did he take me for?
“Why’s that important?” I dared to ask. I swear I could almost hear his sexy frown through the phone.
“Because I’m not ready to let you go,” he answered flatly.
“Where are you now?” I asked.
“New York.”
“What’s in New York?” I asked.
“My U.S. headquarters,” he replied, as if it was of little consequence.
“So, as in, you have your own company then?”
“Correct.”
“What’s the name of it?”
“Baronton Global.”
“Interesting,” I replied, “So, can you elaborate on what it is your company does?”
“You’d only be bored.”
“Actually, I’m interested in what you do. And it’s bound to come up in conversation at some point, right?”
“My company’s quite diversified in its activities; primarily involved in mergers and acquisitions in Eastern Europe and security software in the U.K. In the U.S., the majority of the focus is sub-contract work for various government agencies such as the CIA and the FBI; we maintain updates on software and hardware for Interpol as well.”
“Interpol? That’s pretty major stuff there,” I commented, impressed, but trying not to show it. “So, are you a G-Man of sorts like your brother Taz?”
“We’re half-brothers, and no, I’m not employed directly by any government; my company does sub-contract work for many governments.”
“I see. So, does that ever present a conflict of interest?” I asked.
“If you mean do I sell my products and resources to the highest bidder, the answer’s an adamant no. My company wouldn’t be where it is today if the integrity wasn’t rock-solid.”
