Rascal (Edgewater Agency Book 2)

by Kyanna Skye

  It was only then that she realized she was still holding the phone to her ear even though Terrance had hung up. Confused and disoriented, she puts it away, takes a deep breath, and heads for the center stage. There’s a spotlight shining directly on her, and the heat of it makes sweat bead up on her brow.

  “You can begin as soon as you’re ready.” The faceless voice says. She can’t see a damn thing because of the bright light shining directly in her eye.

  “You don’t know–.” Lucy stammers the first words of the line but then the impossible happens. Her mind goes blank. Well, not entirely blank. All she can see is Owen Trent, tall, imposing, and so handsome it makes her mouth go dry whenever she thinks of him. Like it does now. She tries to start again.

  “You don’t know how…oh, shit.” That’s it. She can’t remember any of the lines. She turned then and ran off the stage, her heart sinking.

  Lucy knocked on the door to Owen’s palatial house and just like last time the door opened immediately, as if Terrance somehow knew exactly when she would be there, or that she would be there at all after his cryptic phone call.

  “Hi, T. I can call you T, right?” Lucy asked, tongue in cheek as the somber, too serious man led her inside. His only response was a suffering sigh, and she barely held back a chuckle. Her humor dwindled however when she thought of the dismal audition she had just bombed, and her horrendous living situation with Tina. At this point, she was willing to do anything to get out of that situation. After all, it can’t be much worse, right?

  Terrance once more takes her up the winding grand staircase, and Lucy stops suddenly when she sees him standing there. Owen. He was obviously waiting for her, and as we neared Terrance slowed, disappearing down a long narrow hallway and leaving Lucy and his employer, and her own now too, all alone.

  “Hello, Mr. Trent.” She finally works up the courage to say.

  “Please, call me Owen.”

  “Well, then. Hello, Owen.” Lucy tries again, attempting to cut through some of the stifling tension that seems to always exist between them. She’d never felt anything like it, but whenever they were in the same room, it was like she couldn’t breathe like he was sucking up all the oxygen and leaving her panting and light headed. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he’s drop-dead gorgeous, she tried to tell to herself as he turned, gesturing for her to follow.

  Lucy trails after him as he walks into the nicest bedroom she’d ever seen. Tall, vaulted ceilings, lush drapes and subtle but luxurious color palette of light blue and gray gave the room an expensive, glossy feel that made it seem like she was walking into an expensive suite. There was another door on the opposite wall that led to a private bathroom the size of Tina’s entire apartment and a massive bed takes up another wall entirely. There’s a glittering dress laid over the comforter but before it really registers Owen is talking.

  “You have some time to change out of your clothes,” he nods at the loose pair of old sweats she has dismissively and then at the dress on the bed, “we’ll be dining in a half hour.”

  “Dining? Wait, I don’t understand–.”

  “What is there to be confused about, Lucy?” The way he says her name has chills tripping down her spine but she has to stay focused.

  “Well, then, what…what are my hours? I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t get the job, so–.”

  “There are no hours,” he said, interrupting her again, “I may need you at a moment’s notice. You must be available at all time.”

  Lucy swallowed hard at the words. What, exactly, does that mean?

  “For…For what?” She asked but he doesn’t answer. Instead, he nods his head in a brief goodbye and leaves, shutting the door behind him. Lucy circles, gazing around the room in awe. This was where she was going to stay? She ran her hand over the soft, satin sheets and almost shivered in delight. But she still had her doubts. Like, what exactly was she going to be asked to do? Dine with Owen? Why did that thought have both anticipation and dread swirling through her?

  It doesn’t matter, she reminded herself. As of that morning she was officially homeless. She had gone back to the apartment to find the locks on all the doors changed and her stuff dumped in a pile just outside. Lucy stared at the bed again. That sure beat the hell out of sleeping on Tina’s raggedy old couch. She might actually get a good night’s sleep.

  That reminded her that before she could that, she had to have dinner with Owen first. How bad could it be? It’s just dinner. She picked up the dress and gasped as she read the familiar designer name on the tag. It must have cost a fortune, probably more than she would make in an entire year. With a grin she walked towards the bathroom to clean up and change. Maybe this job really was the answer to all of her problems.

  The dinner goes surprisingly smoothly. Owen is gorgeous and turned out to be just as charming and gentlemanly as he was fine to look at. It crossed Lucy’s mind more than once to wonder why he didn’t have a million pencil thin women at his beck and call. Why would he need to pay her to dine with him? A more than curvy, relatively unattractive woman who doesn’t have any money to her name.

  She takes another sip of the dark red wine from the glass in front of her, watching him over the rim as he told her another story of living in LA. Confusion floats away with the alcohol and she can’t help but wonder what it would feel like to have him touch her. What it would be like to kiss him.

  Whoa! Whoa! Slow down a minute. Lucy takes a deep breath as she carefully puts the wine glass down. Where the hell did that thought come from? Hadn’t she said she wouldn’t stoop to sleeping with people for money, and that’s essentially what it would be. She peers up at him through a thick fringe of lashes. But damn, he was so handsome it was almost impossible to look at him and not at least…wonder.

  Delicious food and two glasses of wine take their toll on her system, relaxing her and she finds she’s been actually having a good time with him for the past few hours they’d been sitting in the homes regal dining room. But wouldn’t it be even better if he asked me upstairs? The thought flies through her head and she freezes. Get a hold of yourself, Lucy Harrison! She tries to put a damper on her wayward thought, and even more wayward body but nothing seems to help. Distance. She needs distance. Now.

  “I…I’m sorry,” Lucy stammers out, interrupting Owen mid-sentence, “I’m exhausted. It’s been such a long day and I really should be getting to bed.” She starts to rise, hopeful when he makes no move to stop her. She makes it a single step away from the table.

  “Wait.” His voice is suddenly harsh, with a note of something bittersweet underneath that she doesn’t quite understand. “Please, wait a minute.”

  Lucy stops and turns towards him, wondering what it is he might say.

  “I need one more thing from you first.”

  Oh, shit. Here it comes. Her heart sinks to sit heavy and solid in her gut and she just knows what’s coming next. He expects her to sleep with him. Before she can even think of a way to back out of the situation he is out of his chair, his strong grip at her elbow unbreakable as he leads her down a long hallway. Think. Think. Think.

  Before she even realizes, they are stopping gin front of a large, vault-like door that she hadn’t noticed before. Come to think of it, Terrance had specifically steered her away from this part of their employer’s home when he had given her a brief tour earlier in the day.

  Owen presses a few numbers into a keypad mounted on the wall and the door slides open soundlessly.

  “Um, Owen, Mr. Trent, I mean…This, uh…” Lucy’s words trail off as she takes in the contents of the small room. It’s dark and the walls are lined with a metallic material that gleams dimly in the small amount of light radiating from the bare overhead lightbulb.

  But what really captures her attention is what’s on the walls themselves. Various lengths of chain are strung through the room, and giant padlocks that look like they could keep out anything short of a battering ram. Whoa. Wait a minute. Is this some sort of s
ex room? Her doubts turn to dread as she takes it all in, trying to take a step backwards but Owen’s grasp on her arm hasn’t slackened in the least and he leads her inside. Lucy tries to ignore the small kernel buried deep inside her that sparks hot like a match being lit at the mental image of being chained up all for Owen’s pleasure.

  But instead of moving closer, he quickly backs away from her and she notices the expression on his face. Not the face of someone intent on ravaging a poor girl, but resigned, tired, and surprisingly…gentle.

  “This isn’t what you think.” He said, finally breaking the heavy silence between them. He walks over to the wall, shrugging out of the black blazer he wore to dinner. “I need you to chain me up.”

  Lucy stared at him for a long moment.

  “This is some sort of joke right? Like a test or something?”

  “No joke. No test.” He said, and the sincerity in his tone told her he was being serious.

  “Are you…are you sure?” Lucy asked, taking a step closer, still suspecting a trick.

  “Lucy, I’m paying you a lot of money to do what I ask of you. This is a simple thing. Please. Chain me up.” His eyes bored into her own and she couldn’t look away as she took the chains and padlock and trapped him to the wall by both hands and feet. Because the truth was, he was right.

  “I need you to return in the morning at six to let me out. The code is 1487. Can you remember that?”

  Lucy almost snorted. She could remember an entire scripts worth of dialogue, as long as her brain wasn’t too fuzzed by a tall, dark and handsome stranger.

  “Repeat it to me.” He demanded.

  “1487.” Lucy said. He had her say it five more times before he was satisfied and she turned to go.

  “Thank you.” His words, so softly spoken that she barely heard them has her turning around and staring back at him. The sadness in his eyes is like a physical blow and she has to bite back a tear as she slowly shuts the door, locking him in. Why? Why does he want to be chained up? Is it some weird fetish? And why did she suddenly feel like she wanted to cry a million tears, all for Owen Trent.

  Lucy spent the entire night tossing and turning in the biggest, most luxurious bed she had ever not slept in. She was bleary eyed once six o’clock in the morning rolled around but was dressed and standing in front of the vault door that she had locked Owen in, ready and waiting. All night she had fought against those same feelings of sadness that had seemed to emanate off of Owen before she had shut the door on him and now a million questions and worries tumbled through her head. Would he be angry? Would he be okay? What would she find when she finally opened the door?

  The alarm she’d set on her phone went off, making her jump in the empty hallway. She had set it just in case she had managed to fall asleep the night before. Fat chance of that happening. Hastily she typed the four digit code into the keypad. 1487. And the door once more slid open.

  Lucy gasped when she saw him, squinting through the dim light. The light bulb itself, the only illumination in the room to begin with, was gone, shattered into tiny glass fragments on the floor so she could only make out his outline but even that was enough to let her know that he’d had a rough night, much rougher than her own sleepless one.

  Owen was slumped against the wall, his breathing rough and shallow and as Lucy walked closer she could just make out the dark growth of beard shadowing his jawline, and something else that she hadn’t been able to see from the safety of the hallway. He was naked! Completely naked! His clothes, the same ones he’d been wearing the night before were now nothing but a pile of shredded rags littering the floor around him.

  She gently unlocks the padlocks, sliding an arm around him instinctively when he takes a step and stumbles. But with his large, naked body pressed against her she can’t seem to make her legs work any longer, or her brain.

  “Owen, what…what happened?” Lucy finally manages to ask. He just shakes his head refusing to tell her.

  “Please, just tell what happened. Maybe I can help?” They are still standing there, Lucy supporting as much of his weight as she can.

  “Help?” He growls, and as she looks up into his eyes she notices for the first time just how gold they truly eye, like molten metal shining down at her. Tired one moment, but the next flashing all heat. “Help?” He repeats, and the before she can move he’s pressed even closer against her, his lips closing in on hers and for a breathless moment all she can do is stand there and let him kiss her.

  It washes over her, overwhelming her with sensation and she doesn’t even notice the moan that escapes but he does. It spurs Owen on and he deepens his kiss, deepens the hypnotizing hold he seems to have over her. Lucy can’t move, can’t speak, all she can do is hold on for dear life as his mouth moves over her own in ways that has her entire body igniting. Everywhere skin brushes skin another fire is started, spreading, adding to the heat already burning them both up from the inside out.

  Owen’s arms wrap around her, pulling her even closer against his body and it’s impossible to miss the hard erection pressing against her thigh. The intense feeling shocks her back to reality and she pulls back, breathless and more than a little alarmed. This is her employer. She had just locked him up in chains for an entire night for Christ’s sake and now she was…was…Lucy pushes away the mental image of herself pressed full bodied against Owen and taking a step back. She tried to regain a little composure but her breath is still coming in short, sawing inhales.

  “Lucy, I’m so sorry. That,” Owen shakes his head as if at a loss for words, “That won’t happen again.”

  She opens her mouth to say something, anything, but can’t think of a single thing. Lucy pushes back the part of her that’s disappointed at his words.

  “Please accept my apology,” He pleaded, “Sometimes, after a night like last night, it’s hard for me to stay in control. It can be…overwhelming.”

  “Overwhelming. Right,” Lucy breathes out the words, “Sure, apology accepted.” She helps him out of the room with the chains, her thoughts still scattered and her pulse still racing and never once thinking that she should just turn around and leave. Because something had occurred to her. Owen Trent really did need her. But for what?

  The days turn into weeks and they develop a routine, one that neither is completely okay with. Every night at ten o’clock Lucy locks Owen up, chaining him to the wall and securing him with padlocks thicker than her fist. Owen remains kind and gentle, if distant and she can’t help but wonder about what’s going on. What is he hiding? Why does he have her chain him up every night leaving her all alone to restlessly wander the empty house?

  But their days spent together have meant more to Lucy than she could ever put into words. Every moment in his company, every new thing she learns about him, draws her ever closer to him. In the mornings she finds herself holding her breath, waiting desperately to let him out of his self-induced cage just so she can see him, talk to him. But even as her attraction to Owen grows, so does her restlessness. After a month and a half of near solitude, besides her constant attempts to rile the imperturbable Terrance, Lucy can’t help but feel a little trapped.

  That morning as she sat at the small breakfast table across from Owen that restlessness just popped out, despite her best attempts to keep it under wraps.

  “I feel…I feel a little bit like a prisoner here, Owen.” The words just seem to appear, falling out of her mouth and Lucy watches in horror as Owen freezes, his fork halfway to his mouth and turns his burning golden gaze on her.

  “A…prisoner?” He asked, repeating her words.

  “Yes. I’m not allowed to leave, I’m cooped up here all day, every day and I’m getting a little antsy I guess.” Lucy squirmed in her seat, pushing the pile of uneaten eggs around her plate in an attempt to show how she was feeling.

  “Antsy.”

  “Yes, antsy.”

  “That’s absurd.” He snorts, going back to his breakfast as if she hadn’t said anything at all.

&
nbsp; “How is that absurd?” Lucy shoots back, irritation peaking at his seeming nonchalance.

  “You knew it was a part of the job when you started,” he said calmly, only irritating her more, “Besides it didn’t seem to bother you before.” Owen continued eating as if their conversation was over and she supposed it was. There was obviously no way she was going to convince him to loosen up about his rule, and if she had to be honest she would rather be here with him than outside with anyone else. But it was getting a little claustrophobic.

  Just then her cell phone rang, it was a new smart phone that Owen had given her the second day she had worked for him claiming that he might need to reach her at any time. Lucy picked it up, glad for the distraction.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, is this Lucy?” A familiar male voice said on the other line, but it took her a minute to place it.

  “It is. Is this…Peter?”

  “Yeah! It is. I’m glad you remembered.” It was Sarah’s friend, the one who had flirted with her whenever Lucy had dared to go out.

  “Of course. How could I forget?” Actually, most of their conversations had been fairly forgettable and all centered on him, but still it was a nice change of pace and she had to admit the thrill as Owen overheard her phone call and looked up with one dark eyebrow raised. Was that a hint of jealousy shining in his golden eyes? No, it couldn’t be. Not the imitable Owen Trent.

  “Hey, I was wondering if you would want to go out some time. Get a drink, catch a movie or something?”

  It was on the tip of Lucy’s tongue to say no but just then Owen shook his head slightly.

  “I need you here, at ten.” He said with a significant look and the devil in Lucy had her agreeing before she could think better of it.

  Owen sighed. “There’s a theater here, at the house. You can…invite him over. You can be alone there.”

  Lucy stared at him for a long moment before relaying the information along with the address to Peter. Before she’d even hung up the phone Owen had cleared his plate and left the room without another word.