“You’ll have to let me set the rules – all of them.”
Those had been Nick’s words, on the very first day we met in his office to discuss the “terms” of our new arrangement.
For thirty days, I was to give myself over to him – mind, body, and spirit. I’d let him do to me what he wanted, when he wanted.
“I’ll be respectful of your limits,” he had said. And that was true. But he had definitely been the one in control.
And so far, I had known that to be true. He picked when we met and where, and I was to do as I was told – no questions asked.
That might sound crazy. What kind of girl would agree to a thing like that?
“I like to think of it as a ‘gentle restraint,’” I’d joked to Katie the day before.
“A gentle restraint?” she’d repeated.
“Like using a silk tie instead of hand-cuffs.”
She’d raised an eyebrow. “So does this mean you’re letting him tie you up?”
“Maybe,” I’d teased. But the truth was, no. Or, perhaps, more tellingly, not yet. I wasn’t sure what exactly I was letting Nick do to me, but I suspected, the answer was, Anything he wants. I had agreed to his terms, after all.
And I didn’t know exactly where that would lead me…but I was dying to find out.
# # #
Nick’s driver had picked me up in a black Lincoln town car, and he’d kept the partition up the entire time. When I tried to ask where we were going, he’d declined to answer.
As it turned out, he was taking me to a place called Colette’s. I’d heard of it before, but I’d certainly never been. To say Colette’s was out of my price range, was like saying Jupiter was outside of my travel zone. In other words, I wasn’t even close to being able to afford a place like this.
But Nicholas Colby certainly could. He could even afford to rent out the entire place for the night – which, I soon discovered, was exactly what he’d done.
“Mr. Colby thought you’d prefer some privacy,” his driver, Davis, explained as the owner rushed to the front door to greet me.
I noticed a paparazzi photographer lurking nearby. It wasn’t uncommon for Nick to have the paparazzi following him, but I didn’t know if I was quite ready to have my face splashed all over social media.
I hurried inside.
“We’re so happy to have you tonight, Miss Lewis.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I’m happy to be here.”
I stepped inside the restaurant, and there he was.
Nicholas Colby, in the flesh.
My heart was in my throat as I walked towards him. I didn’t know how it was possible, but he looked even better than the last time I’d seen him.
He stood to greet me as I arrived, stepping forward and embracing me in a tantalizingly brief hug.
“Violet.” Nicholas leaned in and brushed his lips across my cheek. “It’s good to see you.” His breath tickled my ear, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up. He pulled the chair out for me, and I took my seat at the table.
“How have you been?” Nick asked, walking around and taking a seat across from me at the table.
“Good,” I answered nervously. “And you?”
“I’m very well, thank you.” He motioned and a waiter appeared with a bottle of white wine. He poured some for Nick to sample. The wine was met with approval, and soon the waiter was fixing a glass for me, as well.
“To a wonderful evening,” Nick said, and I raised my glass to meet his.
I took a sip of the wine. It was delicious. Cool and smooth, the perfect summer drink. As usual, Nick’s taste was impeccable.
“So, Violet, did you enjoy this morning?” he asked.
“Yes,” I gushed, “it was amazing!” Instantly, I wanted to smack myself. Be cool, Violet! I scolded myself. You don’t have to act like a lovesick schoolgirl.
“Very good,” Nick said, fixing his piercing brown eyes on mine.
“But there is something I’m curious about.”
“Ah?” he raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”
“How did you know Tabor’s was my favorite bakery?”
Nick laughed. “A magician never reveals his secrets.”
I screwed up my mouth into a flirty smirk. “So it was magic, was it?”
“Something like that.” He took a sip of his drink. “So you liked it, then?”
“I loved it,” I blurted out, and I instantly wanted to kick myself. I was failing royally at this ‘being smooth thing.’
Nick laughed lightly. “I’m glad.”
“I am curious, though, how you got Tabor to deliver. I know for a fact that normally isn’t possible.”
“Anything’s possible, Violet. You just have to know the right way to ask.”
Something about the way he said it was exciting. I could feel myself getting wet. “So does that mean if I ask you nicely you’ll tell me what’s really going on with you? With your work, I mean.”
His face darkened and I was immediately sorry that I’d brought it up. Ever since we’d met, Nick had been increasingly evasive about his business dealings. Not that it was any of my business – not really – but Nick had promised to explain why he had disappeared so suddenly a few days ago. And that was a promise that, so far, had not been kept.
Nick had returned to town the night before last after abruptly leaving on a business trip. His sudden departure had sent me into a tailspin. On the phone he’d promised to fill me in on what had happened, to explain why he’d gone away without a moment’s notice. But once he’d arrived, he’d dodged my inquests. And after handing me a beautiful bouquet of daisies, and kissing me passionately on the lips, I’d let him slide. And before long, we’d found ourselves in my bedroom, furiously undressing each other…and Nick’s mysterious business dealings hadn’t quite seemed so important anymore.
“My work is complicated,” he said now. “It’s also rather unpleasant.” Nick poured me some more wine. “I’d much rather talk about your work.”
“Oh!” I said, beaming. “That reminds me. I’ve got some news to share with you!” I told him about Mariah offering me a lead feature story assignment.
“Violet, that’s fantastic!” He smiled widely. “And you more than deserve it. You’re incredibly talented.”
“Thank you.” I blushed at the compliment.
Nick reached across the table and took my hand, and I felt my body jolt in excitement. The wetness between my legs was starting to grow.
“You look amazing tonight, by the way. Although this,” he leaned forward and fingered the yellow scarf adorning my neck, “is going to have to go.”
“It is?” I asked.
“How am I going to kiss your neck when you’re wearing that?” he said.
Oh. God.
“So,” I asked, “what are we doing tonight?” I asked.
“That depends,” he turned my hand over, and traced his fingers on the groove of my palm, “on what you’re up for.”
I squirmed in my seat, squeezing my legs together. I wondered what Nick had in store? We’d enjoyed some amazing times together – two, to be specific. But, thus far, we’d only engaged in oral sex. We had yet to make love, and I was desperate to feel him inside of me.
“I’m up for anything.”
“We’ll see about that,” Nick said. “I had something, rather, unique in mind.”
Unique?
Before I could respond, the waiter appeared.
“Mr. Colby, I have an urgent phone call for you.”
Nick’s brow furrowed. “Tell them I’ll call them back.”
“I already tried that, sir. They absolutely would not take no for an answer.”
Nick slowly let go of my hand. “Violet, I’m afraid I’d better take this.”
He stood up from the table and headed toward the back of the dimly lit restaurant.
As I watched him go, I exhaled slowly, letting out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. I felt dizzy with anticipat
ion. Simply being near Nick was enough to make me feel weak in the knees. I couldn’t wait until I was alone with him tonight. My, God, the things I would do to him….
Nick reappeared suddenly. “Violet.” There was something in his voice that told me, even before he said it, that this would be bad news. “I wouldn’t normally do this, but I’m going to have to cut our evening short. I’m afraid an emergency has come up.”
I fought hard to keep from reacting. An emergency? Was he joking? He couldn’t be doing this to me again, could he? Not another disappearing act, not now, not when things were just starting to get good.
I stood up from the table. “That’s okay. That’s fine,” I said, not really meaning any of it.
“Violet, I –”
“No, it’s fine.” I turned to go.
Nick stepped in front of me, blocking my path. “It’s not fine. At least, not to me.” His hands gripped both of my arms. “Violet, look at me.”
I stared down at the floor, refusing to meet his eyes.
“Please.”
There was something in his tone that gave me pause. I raised my head, to meet his face, and when I saw his eyes I was taken aback. They were searching, pleading. Scared. “I don’t want to keep doing this to you.”
And I believed him.
“This is not part of my plan. This is not how I intended things to be. Never.”
In his words, in his voice, I knew he was telling me the truth.
“You’re not leaving town again, are you?” I asked.
Nick nodded slowly. “I’m afraid so. But only briefly. I’ll be back the day after tomorrow.”
I fought hard to keep from showing my emotions. How could he keep doing this to me? We only had thirty days together – thirty days and that was it. Or was it? If he was going to keep skipping out of town, did that mean we’d be spending longer together than our initial agreement entailed? I didn’t dare ask – I was not going to humiliate myself by inquiring about such a thing.
“Take my car for the evening,” Nick offered.
“No,” I told him. “I can find my own way home.”
“It’s raining out, Violet. Please. Take my car.” His tone was firm, insistent.
I obliged. “All right.”
“Take it for the weekend,” he said. And then, suddenly, his face brightened. “In fact, I’d like it if you’d meet me at the airport Sunday when I return.”
“Oh, you’d like that, would you?” I asked, taunting him lightly.
Nick stared me directly in the eyes, almost challengingly. “I’d like that very much. We only have one month together, if you’ll recall. One month, before my schedule takes me abroad permanently.”
So it was still on. The original terms of our thirty day agreement were still in place.
“All right, I’ll come to the airport,” I agreed.
“Wonderful,” Nick said. “Before you come to my house on Sunday night, have Davis drop you off at my place. I’ll have a little surprise waiting for you there.”
Chapter Three
I had just climbed back into the Lincoln town car when my phone beeped, alerting me that I had a text message.
It’s Nick! I thought excitedly. He’s canceled his business trip so he can spend the weekend with me instead!
As I grabbed the phone out of my purse, I realized that the text was not from Nick, but from Katie.
Dinner and drinks tonight? It read.
I was hit by a surge of disappointment, which was immediately replaced by guilt. Once upon a time, I would have been thrilled at the prospect of spending a Friday night on the town with my best friend. Katie was drop-dead gorgeous and, as such, usually had a date on Friday nights. Even though we were best friends, we tended to hang out more during the weekdays.
Sounds great! I wrote back. When and where?
She suggested a chic bar downtown and, since I still had use of Nick’s driver, I offered to pick her up.
Go, Violet! You rock. Katie replied
See you in 20 minutes. I texted back.
I pressed the button to lower the partition, and Davis said, “Yes, Miss Lewis?”
“I know I said I was going home for the evening, but is it too late to change my mind?”
“Not at all, Miss Lewis,” he said. “I’m happy to take you anywhere you’d like to go.”
“Thank you. And, really, you can call me Violet,” I insisted, laughing a little. “And don’t worry about keeping the partition up,” I told him. “Unless you want the privacy,” I added.
“Not at all,” Davis smiled broadly. “I always enjoy meeting people and talking with them. However, most of my guests prefer to read or talk on their phones, so I leave it up as a way of not bothering them.” I was reminded of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine fakes deafness in order to avoid talking to a chauffeur who’s driving her to a tennis match. I’m shy by nature, but I’ve certainly never thought myself ‘too good’ to talk to someone.
“Well, you’re not bothering me,” I told him. “I promise.”
He seemed genuinely pleased. “I see why Mr. Colby has taken such a shine to you,” Davis said, giving me a wink. “Very few people feel the way you do.”
Nick had ‘taken a shine’ to me? So did that mean he’d been talking about me to his staff? I didn’t want to look desperate and beg for information about myself. Instead, I asked Davis how his day had been. He responded by telling me a hilarious story about his granddaughter’s high school pageant.
Twenty minutes later, we were outside Katie’s apartment building. Per Katie’s request, Davis drove us to the bar she wanted to visit.
“Wait til you hear my news!” I told her, once we’d been seated at a high top for two.
“Mariah offered me a lead feature article!” Before she could respond, I rushed on, “And I’m picking Nick up from the airport Sunday night!”
I expected my best friend to be happy for me, but instead she looked distracted. “Where’s that waitress?” she asked. “I need something to drink.”
“Are you doing okay?” I asked, genuinely concerned.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good.” She shrugged her shoulders and flagged down a server so we could order cocktails.
Once our drinks had arrived, she loosened up. “So tell me what’s been going on with Nick?”
“He’s amazing,” I told her, taking a sip of my drink. I sighed deeply.
“Amazing, eh?” Katie didn’t look impressed. Then, she added, “The way you talk about him, he almost sounds too good to be true. You know fairytales aren’t real, right?” She rolled her eyes.
I was taken aback. “Of course I know that,” I said.
“Well, that’s good to hear.” She paused. “Because the way you’re going on about Nicholas you’d think he was Prince Charming or something.”
“Katie, I – ”
“It’s not like the guy’s flawless.”
“I know that.”
She set her drink down, and fixed me in her gaze. “Do you?” she asked, “Do you really?”
“Yes, of course,” I said. “Nick has plenty of flaws. Everyone does.”
“Name one thing you don’t like about him,” she challenged me. “Because I’ve yet to hear you say anything bad about him. Anything at all.”
Before I could answer, Katie rushed on. “The way you’ve been talking and behaving this past week…it just isn’t healthy, Violet. You can’t put somebody up on a pedestal, especially not some guy you barely know. Especially not some guy who has already told you he only wants you for thirty days. You’re romanticizing him. Only seeing the good and ignoring all the bad parts about him. And as for Mariah and the promotion? Ugh, don’t even get me started on that.”
I was dumbfounded. Where was this coming from?
Slowly, a thought started to creep in. And it was unsettling. Was Katie jealous of my sudden success – in both my career and romantic life? Was my best friend trying to sabotage me?
It seemed far-fetched, and I foun
d it almost impossible to believe that Katie – someone who had always had my back, from day one – would ever try to do me harm.
But, still…something didn’t quite add up.
Katie was no stranger to ‘romanticizing’ guys. How many times had I heard her rave about a man she’d just met, telling me how he was incredibly brilliant or perfectly handsome or phenomenally skilled in bed?
And I’d listened. Always. To every word. But now that I had some great things going on in my life, she was the one who was turning sour.
“I don’t understand where this is coming from,” I began, choosing my words carefully. “What do you have against Nick?”
“For starters, he’s only giving you thirty days,” she pointed out.
“I know that,” I said hotly.
“And that might be all fine and good right now,” Katie said, “because right now you’re still in the thirty days. You’re having fun. You’re seeing him every night. What happens when the thirty days are up?”
It was a good question, one for which I had no answer. At the same time, though, why did I owe her an answer? All my life I’d lived what you could call a “risk-averse” existence. I never took chances. I tried my best to play it safe, to keep from getting hurt. I’d been the good girl for all my life.
And guess where that left me? Bored, lonely, and sad.
It was only once I started taking risks that things began brightening up in my life. Even so, I understood Katie’s point. Nicholas Colby was a notorious playboy, and thirty days was not a long amount of time. We were already more than a week into it.
Katie shrugged off my questioning, and spent the rest of our time together – a paltry thirty minutes – playing around on her iPhone. Then she gave me what sounded like a flimsy excuse, and bailed on getting dinner.
What was the deal today? Everyone was making plans with me, only to immediately break them. It was depressing.
By the time Davis dropped me off at home, all I wanted to do was crawl in bed and forget this day had ever happened.
# # #
I thought Sunday evening would never get here. It had turned out to be a terrible weekend. After our crappy Friday night conversation, I’d tried calling Katie all weekend, to no avail. She’d finally texted on Sunday afternoon to say she wasn’t feeling well and that she’d call me Monday.
Dangerous Curves 2: The Good Girl (A Billionaire and BBW erotica romance) Page 2
