His Absolute Arrangement: A Scandalous Billionaire Love Story (Jessika, #1)

by du Lys, Cerys

  When the snow began to melt, he tried to leave me. He thought he could save me from himself, from his control. I didn't let him. I was already his.

  Six months ago my entire life changed. I never meant to fall in love—especially not with Lucent—but his allure transcended common sense and tapped into a dark, primal need inside me that I didn't know existed. The snow melted, our lives quieted, and everything seemed to be going perfectly.

  Until today.

  I thought I knew Lucent, but I realize now I never really did. A mysterious calm exists even within the eye of the darkest storms. I love Lucent. I am his and he is mine. I want to believe he is a good man. After seeing another side of him, after being the object of his absolute obsession, I fear I might have fallen in love with a monster.

  ***

  Sometimes it's best to start at the beginning—the calm before the storm—because what comes afterwards can change everything. In the blink of an eye our comfortable lives are overthrown, and what we were like before, what our world consisted of, seems like an impossible dream.

  This is that kind of story. This is my story. Enjoy the calm while it lasts, because it won't last forever.

  ***

  I was gone. Lost. Lucent Aiden Storme and I, together, trapped in a library. People did crazy things when they were trapped, didn't they? I wasn't in control of my actions, was I? Well, actually, Lucent wanted to be in control of them, from what he said. He wanted to tie me up and spank me and...

  No, no, no. I stared at my laptop screen, stared at the words I'd just typed. No, definitely not. This wasn't good. The beginning was alright, but the rest of it flowed strangely in my mind, especially considering this was how I planned to start my story. My story, meaning it was actually mine and I'd lived through it, but also mine in that I was currently writing it.

  Except I couldn't start like that! Ugh. Gone? Lost? Well, yes, I'd felt like that when it happened, but I was getting ahead of myself a little bit there. Lucent and I had been trapped in a library; the library where I used to work, in fact. But the rest of it seemed weird.

  Crazy things? It sounded like the beginning of some psychological thriller novel, where the main character was going to go insane and hurt someone. Seeing as I was writing about myself, albeit a somewhat fictionalized and embellished version, I thought I'd rather not have myself be insane.

  Why was I even embellishing this story, anyways? It already seemed like fiction as it was, so, really, I should just write it as it happened, right?

  Yes, but maybe starting a little earlier than that. I wanted to start at a good part, but honestly most of it was good. I needed tension, though! And a beginning. Tension at the beginning? Yes, but not with the craziness and the spanking and all of that.

  Truth be told, sometimes I did feel crazy around Lucent, though. He was so... something. I couldn't even explain it, didn't know what to say about him, nor how to describe exactly what made Lucent Lucent. He did want to tie me up, though. And spank me.

  I kind of liked it. I really liked it, actually.

  Shh, I typed, sharing a private moment with my computer and my mind. Don't tell anyone that I like being tied up and spanked by Lucent.

  And then I deleted everything I'd typed; the note, the first few sentences, everything.

  Maybe I should start with the description? Every book needed a description, right? If I started with that, I could go from there and have a good grasp of how to proceed. This was important and far more serious than anything else I'd ever written. I mean, it didn't have to be entirely serious, but I wanted to write something good. I wanted to...

  Enough of that, Elise, I told myself. Stop worrying about things you can't do anything about.

  I began typing again.

  Trapped in a library during a blizzard, Elise finds herself forced into isolation with Lucent Storme, the untoward magnate who's rumored to have more than a few forbidden desires and darker passions. Both appalled and allured by his sordid sophistication, struggling to come to terms with what she knows and what she feels, she finds herself drawn to this man who seems both powerful and fractured all at once. Lucent's secrets and dominant obsessions may be more than Elise can handle, though, and her gentle curiosity is just as likely to cause her pain and heartbreak as it is to bring her happiness...

  Ooh. That sounded good! I sat back and admired my handiwork. Really good. Good stuff, as my roommate, Vanessa, would say. I didn't even know what that meant. Anything could be good stuff, couldn't it? I mean, if something was good, and it was also stuff, then... good stuff?

  Maybe.

  I thought this was definitely good, though. I liked how some of the words fit in there. "Forced into isolation" went well with "untoward magnate" and then the "forbidden desires" and "darker passions," too. They sounded really powerful and provocative and I immediately thought of Lucent. He was demanding and controlling, but in a good way. An exciting way, yes, and I didn't even understand half of the things that went through his mind at any given moment, but what I did know was that Lucent wouldn't hurt me.

  Or, there was a difference between feeling pain and being hurt, just like there was a difference between crying when you're sad and crying when you're happy. Sometimes pain wasn't such a bad thing, and Lucent knew exactly how to make it delightful.

  Oh! Oh, this was good! I remembered something Lucent had said and typed it down quick before I forgot it.

  "Pleasing," he said, his voice smooth and hot and urgent. "Means different things depending on what I find pleasing, Miss Tanner. Do you want to know what it means when I say you look pleasing?"

  I did and I gulped and I gave him a faint nod of my head, whispering, "Yes."

  "You look pleasing to me right now," he said. "And I'd like nothing more than to fuck you. Right here. On the rug in this library. Hard."

  I laughed and squirmed, remembering the incident that had caused all of that. Well... I'd done something that was perhaps not proper library etiquette, and... after that, Lucent had also done something that wasn't quite proper library etiquette. We sure did a lot of improper things in the library, huh? I wasn't certain what I should think about that. I didn't necessarily mind, but...

  I needed to write all of this down. Except I was trying to write something good and important. I'd recently graduated from college, gaining a bachelor's degree in Creative Writing with a specialization in fiction, and after meeting Lucent, going through a lot of difficult things, and learning so much about myself and the world around me, I was working at Landseer Enterprises.

  The Landseer Enterprises, owned by Asher Landseer, billionaire CEO. I supposed that made Landseer Enterprises a billion dollar company? It sounded really impressive, fancy, and powerful, but my job wasn't much to speak of. Yes, I worked with Asher's wife, Jessika, but we weren't really doing much as of yet. Writing, or trying to, as part of some new initiative to provide future entertainment opportunities for the Landseer business.

  It kind of made sense. I didn't want to say it entirely made sense, because I didn't really know. I kind of felt like maybe Asher had started up this Landseer Publishing thing to be nice to Jessika. She was nice, and Asher was nice, too, but before this Landseer Enterprises just ran a bunch of tourism places, like casinos, college hot spots, travel and hotels, and resorts of that nature. Books weren't really touristy, unless they were travel books, maybe. Jessika and I weren't writing travel books, we were writing fiction.

  She'd written something before and had it published through a regular publishing house, too. I... hadn't done any of that. We'd each written a short story to start this venture off, hoping to begin from there, and I didn't think we were doing so well with that. I enjoyed writing mine, but...

  Well, Jessika had done a nice, thought-provoking love story about people who could give each other parts of their life. Something like that? In the story, if I was going to live to be eighty years old, I could give someone a year of my life, so they'd live one year longer, and then I'd only live to be
seventy-nine. I really liked the idea of it, and it was neat to think about.

  My story, on the other hand, was an erotica short story about Lucent and I having sex. Which, at the time, seemed like a good idea. In hindsight, maybe it was a bad idea, but I still thought it was a good idea. It was sexy! I really liked it. I wrote about Lucent tying me down and using a vibrator on me, and...

  I wasn't on birth control, but he didn't care, and oh my.

  I reminded myself I shouldn't be thinking about any of that at the moment, because I was supposed to be working.

  I put myself to task, and started writing again. What I should do, I thought, was start right at the beginning of what I remembered of that day. It was the day Lucent and I first met. Right before the weekend started, and I was still in college then. They'd canceled classes that day, but I went to work at the library anyways.

  Snow fell in fluffy white flakes outside, covering the empty streets in a heavy winter frosting. I stood inside behind the library's counter, warm, staring at it. It was a Friday afternoon and the library was almost entirely empty. No one wanted to go out during the storm, and honestly I couldn't blame them. I didn't want to go out in the storm either, but this was my job, and...

  "You have a pleasant cadence to your writing, Miss Tanner," someone said from behind me. "It flows smoothly with a casual rhythm that makes it easy and enjoyable to read. But..." He paused for a brief moment. "May I ask why you've commandeered my office for your own purposes?"

  I flipped my laptop shut suddenly and looked up at him over my shoulder. "That wasn't anything," I said. "I didn't write that. That was just something I'd heard about. And..." I smiled serenely at Lucent, hoping to distract him. "I missed you?"

  Lucent sighed and shook his head, though the hint of a smile played upon his lips. "Miss Tanner, Miss Tanner, Miss Tanner... what am I going to do with you?"

  "Well, I suppose you could—"

  "Shh," he said, shushing me with a word and a finger to my lips. "Don't."

  I shushed. I didn't.

  ***

  "Up," Lucent said, commanding me.

  I stood. I'd been sitting at his desk in his office at Landseer Tower while he was away, which was probably not the most ideal place to situate myself. Lucent had a grand office with a view of the city; and, as well he should, considering he was a prominent figure at Landseer Enterprises. Lucent Storme, Director of Public Relations, figurehead for the public front of Landseer Enterprises. He attended press conferences, spoke about new and exciting deals, went to events, traveled, and overall he just did a lot of things. He did more than his title dictated, too, but that wasn't for everyone to know. I probably shouldn't know, either, but...

  "Kneel," he said, pointing to the carpeted floor in front of his feet.

  "Lucent, I—"

  He interrupted me with a sharp gesture. "Miss Tanner," he said. "Kneel."

  I sighed and rolled my eyes at him, then knelt on the carpet in front of him. We stood (or he stood and I kneeled) behind his desk. The large window to the side gave me a wonderful vantage point of the city and I found myself glancing at the streets.

  "You're an extremely difficult woman," Lucent said, demanding my attention once again. "You sneak into my office without my permission, use my desk for your own pleasure, and then you have the gall to act as if nothing is amiss. Have I missed anything?"

  "I certainly didn't use the desk for my own pleasure," I said. "I was trying to get some work done."

  "I recognize that you have a mouth, Miss Tanner, but I don't want you to use it at the moment."

  "You asked me a question!"

  I didn't get to say much more than that. Lucent grabbed my chin in his hand and lifted it up, making me look skywards and towards him. He lifted my head high, straining the muscles in my neck, then he squeezed my jaw slightly, forcing me to part my lips.

  This was all cause for surprise, but then he surprised me more by kissing me. Bending low, Lucent descended upon me, bringing his mouth to mine and kissing me with such passion and fervor that I forgot nearly everything.

  His tongue teased at my lips and he nibbled on my bottom one, sucking it into his mouth. My eyes widened and I stared at him with a gasp of shock and a shiver of delight. This... was not at all what I expected, but I liked it.

  Then he stopped.

  "Why did you stop?" I asked with a whine.

  He let go of my chin, but I kept my head craned upwards, staring at him.

  "I needed a moment to contemplate your punishment," he said.

  "You could spank me?" I offered. "You did say that I was using your desk for my own pleasure, but I don't think I was, so if you want, I can, and you can spank me there?"

  "You do realize that you're awful at this, still, don't you?" he asked.

  "I'm trying! I knelt on the floor, didn't I?"

  He smiled down at me. "I find your inquisitive nature pleasing, Miss Tanner. Truly, I do. I even enjoy your playful banter more often than not. I'm completely unsure if you'll ever be a proper submissive, though."

  "I'd like to try," I said. "I do like it. I just have a lot of questions and sometimes I don't understand."

  "Do you trust me?" he asked.

  I nodded. "Yes."

  "We can progress slowly, if you're willing. You don't have to do anything you don't want to, though. Please believe me when I say that. While I generally do prefer and enjoy relationships with a higher degree of domination and submission involved, I would gladly make an exception for you. It's not necessary, but if you're willing, I would enjoy teaching you. Consider it pleasant training, if you will."

  I gulped and nodded. I understood; I really did. Before I met Lucent, I didn't know any of this, though. I'd heard rumors about him, heard that he was into the darker side of sexuality, which I mistook for meaning that he was an abusive asshole. Sometimes he came across as arrogant, too. His tone was more than a bit formal, which I think threw a lot of people off guard.

  Lucent was so nice, though. He was caring and kind. He sounded stiff and pragmatic sometimes, but not always. He was careful and guarded, for a lot of reasons and a lot of purposes. I liked that, though. I liked all of his BDSM domination and submission things, too. I liked when he spanked me. And when he held my hands above my head and pinned me to the bed; I liked that, too. We did things together that I never even imagined doing with anyone before, but when I did them with Lucent they seemed so natural and right.

  "I'm willing," I said. "I do like it. I like everything, Lucent, I just get nervous sometimes."

  He smiled down at me, then bent low again and kissed the tip of my nose. When he pulled away from me, I strained my head upwards further without thinking about it, trying to keep him close.

  "It's just us," he said. "You and I, Miss Tanner. There's nothing to be nervous about. Nothing you do is wrong. I apologize if I made you feel that way. I'm still coming to terms with what sort of relationship we have."

  "What about..." I started to say more, but paused. Honestly, this was a stretch, and I didn't know if Lucent would agree to it. He agreed sometimes, but what I wanted to suggest wasn't an occasional thing. "If I knew that we were being a little more serious sometimes, it'd be easier for me. It's hard to switch, you know? You aren't actually upset I was in your office, right? It was just a part of... of a game, sort of?"

  He nodded and held out his hand to help me to my feet. "Yes. I'm not upset with you."

  I refused his hand, though. I shook my head, then looked away, casting my gaze down to his shoes. "I do want to, Lucent, it's just difficult sometimes to go from one thing to another. You do it so easily and seamlessly. I don't know if I can do it like that. But maybe if..."

  He placed his hand on the top of my head, teasing my hair between his fingers. "Yes?"

  "You always call me Miss Tanner, so if you used my first name and you called me Elise I would know when you wanted me to be more submissive, you know? If you did that, I think it'd be easier for me. And... I do, I want to
make you happy, too, Lucent. I swear it. I..."

  He lowered himself to the ground in front of me, kneeling and joining me. Touching my cheek lightly with his thumb, he caressed my skin towards my lips, pressing softly in the center of my mouth. I kissed the tip of his thumb and smiled.

  "I love you, Lucent," I said.

  He smiled back. "I love you, too, Elise."

  "Can we start over? I'll get back in the chair and pretend I was writing and you just came in on me, then we can do it all again. Is that alright?"

  He winked at me, grinning a conspirator's grin, then nodded towards his office desk chair. I scrambled to my feet and jumped into the chair. To add authenticity to the scene, I flipped open my laptop and pretended to be typing.

  ***

  "Miss Tanner, Miss Tanner, Miss Tanner. What am I going to do with you?"

  I didn't speak this time. I looked towards Lucent, but not at him, keeping my eyes downcast.

  "Up," he said. "Kneel."

  He didn't need to point, nor did he have time to. I hurried from the desk and knelt in front of him.

  "Good," he said. "Do you have anything to say before I punish you?"

  I shook my head, no. I didn't say anything.

  He smiled and grabbed my chin like he had before. My head lifted, neck craning upwards, and Lucent pressed his lips to mine, kissing me. I kissed him, too, kissed him back. I wanted this, I wanted more. If this was all there was to it, I thought I could do it forever. I still had a lot of questions; I always had a lot of questions. I wanted to ask Lucent about them, and sometimes I did, but now wasn't the time.

  Before he left me, before he stopped kissing me, he licked at the front of my lips. I opened my mouth for him, desiring his kiss. He squeezed my jaw lightly, pinching just beneath my ears. His tongue caressed my bottom lip again, this time sneaking slightly into my mouth. The tip of his tongue touched against the back of my teeth and the front of my palate. It... Oh God. I trembled at his touch, the feeling on the roof of my mouth sending shivers through my body. His tongue finished its journey, ending on my upper lip, and then he lifted himself away.