by Alice Raine
At the time I had felt an overwhelming confusion swamping my life. My parents were gone, my brother was damaged, and my sex life new and totally bizarre. The upheaval had left me with tumultuous emotions and I’d gotten angry very easily. The rage inside me was just another source of confusion, unsure whether to be annoyed at my father for beating Nicholas, Nicholas for getting my father imprisoned, or myself for not doing something about the whole screwed-up situation earlier. Thank God for David Halton at Club Twist; he might not know when to shut the hell up, but he’d practically saved my life. And God did he have a knack of interviewing new applicants and finding them compatible partners, Louisa couldn’t have been a better starting partner for me and now the partnership with Stella was looking like an almost perfect match.
Now, some 13 years after my first experience with Louisa, I was 31 years old and could at last admit that I’d finally burnt out the initial anger that had consumed me for so long, settling myself into a more manageable lifestyle. Control was still important to me, vital really, but the violence that had ruled my father no longer had a hold of my emotions and the punishments I used with my submissives were related to power and pleasure, not pain. I looked down at Stella sleeping beside me and smiled at just how well she’d followed my instructions tonight. She’d been fucking perfect, just as I’d thought.
Not wanting her to think me weak and emotional if I stayed in her room I gave Stella one last lingering gaze and then made myself get up and move to my own cold bed so she would wake up alone tomorrow morning.
Chapter Seventeen – Stella
I woke up grinning. And I’m talking a face-stretching, lips-splitting, eye-crinkling grin. This isn’t exactly a usual thing for me, normally when I wake up it’s with a yawn, a stretch, or a grimace at just how bloody early it is, but today I was definitely grinning like a Cheshire cat. The cause of my smile? Easy – the delicious dream I’d had last night about Nathan. Ooooh, the things I’d imagined him doing to me!
Rolling over to quench my thirst I suddenly forgot my drink as I realised just how stiff my body was. Sitting up I blinked myself more awake and began experimentally to move my limbs one by one. Interesting. My body was achy and tired in some very unusual places. Some very intimate places.
It took me a while, but my brain finally woke up and allowed me to realise what had happened. Nathan – also known as my bad boy, or my sex God – had finally taken me to bed again. Wow, after so long waiting for Nathan and I to have sex I had genuinely thought I’d dreamt it – it certainly wouldn’t be the first time I’d had an erotic dream about a certain Mr Jackson – but now as I felt my deliciously achy muscles and the soreness between my legs I realised it had been real.
Very real and very good. Flopping backwards, I hugged myself gleefully then glanced around to see if he was still there. Damn, he was gone. A blush spread on my cheeks as I took in the state of the bed with its tangled sheets and no doubt sticky stains hidden amongst the rumpled cotton, but even in my sated state, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment that Nathan was absent.
Reaching across I touched his pillow and found it completely cold, indicating that he had probably been gone for most of the night. Even with all the orgasms he’d given me last night, I would have happily accepted more if I’d woken up and found him next to me, I thought, giggling naughtily.
Biting my lip in satisfaction, I rolled back over and pondered the fact that Nathan had left me sometime in the night and returned to his own room, which was to be expected given our arrangement I suppose, it was hardly like he was my boyfriend was it? More like my sex toy really, or perhaps I was his sex toy … with a giggle I decided that I didn’t care who was whose sex toy as long as the action continued in the same way as last night.
Rising from the bed I was about to go directly to the shower when I remembered Nathan’s rule about it being my job to clear up the mess we made during sex, so I turned back to the rumpled bed and quickly striped it, piling the sheets by the door to sort out later. Then I showered and dressed in a simple cotton shirt and knee length skirt before getting myself ridiculously nervous about the idea of seeing Nathan. What would it be like today? Would he talk to me or simply disappear into his office and ignore me? All the other weekends that I’d been here I’d been blindfolded so Nathan had sort of been obliged to stay with me, but today was different, like a new start to our time together.
Clicking my tongue I gave myself a sharp talking to, I never let men intimidate me in the business world so I damn well wouldn’t let Nathaniel Jackson intimidate me here. Raising my chin, I plucked up my courage and headed out the door to find breakfast, or Nathan, which ever I came across first.
As I approached the kitchen, my nose suddenly locked onto the delicious scent of bacon hanging in the air and my nervousness was forgotten as my stomach gave an embarrassingly loud grumble of approval. Gosh, I hadn’t realised how ravenous I was, although given just how much sex I’d had last night it was hardly surprising really, I’d probably burned a week’s worth of calories in one go. Making my way down the corridor towards the kitchen the smell grew stronger and my mouth started watering with hunger almost to the point of drooling.
Unfortunately, my drooling only got worse when I actually entered Nathan’s stunningly stylish kitchen and my gaze fell upon the man himself.
Oh – my – good – lord.
How the frigging hell had I managed to forget how bloody stunning he was? The beauty of the kitchen paled into insignificance when compared to its owner. Dressed in just a pale blue T-shirt and loose jeans, with bare feet and his hair damp from a shower, Nathan was as casual as I’d ever seen him, but just as breath-taking. Casual definitely suited him, I decided as I slumped against a wall to observe him properly. Mind you, I loved the way he looked in his superbly tailored three-piece suits too.
Fanning my flushed face with my hand I tried to calm my breathing; I was basically panting like an overheated dog. Luckily for me, Nathan was busy at the cooker with his back to me and hadn’t noticed me having a mini meltdown in the corner of the room.
By the time he turned to pick up a box of eggs from the counter, I had pretty much got myself under control, which was lucky because Nathan appeared to be rather shocked by my presence and stopped his cooking to stand staring at me.
‘Hi,’ I murmured, thankful for the support of the wall behind me as Nathan’s inscrutable blue gaze continued to bore into me. Well, more specifically he was looking somewhere near my cheek bones, Nathan had rarely made direct eye contact with me last night, and after his statement about disliking it I doubted he ever would.
‘Good morning, Stella.’ I watched as Nathan’s stare ran briefly over me before settling on the leather collar around my neck. I’d taken it off to shower, but when I’d glimpsed it on the dresser as I’d dried myself I’d luckily remembered to put it on again afterwards. I was glad I had now, Nathan wasn’t smiling as such, but from the way his gaze lingered there and heated I could tell he was pleased that I was wearing it.
‘I didn’t hear you come in,’ he murmured, his accusing tone almost made me feel a need to apologise for my apparently stealthy entry, but thankfully he changed the subject by indicating to the frying pan with a nod of his chin. ‘Hungry?’
I nodded briskly, suddenly so hungry that I was seriously tempted to pinch a rasher of bacon straight from the pan. A smile began to break on my lips as I imagined what Nathan’s response would be if I did exactly that, but my thoughts were stopped as he placed down the spatula with a bang and turned to face me crossing his arms across his chest.
‘We need to readdress your habit of nodding Stella. It is not an acceptable method of communication for me and frankly I find it extremely disrespectful,’ he snapped irritably.
Crikey ! He sounded livid and my eyes immediately shot from the sizzling bacon up to his face. Foreboding didn’t even get close to describing Nathan’s expression, and I gulped nervously. Yep. He was mad. ‘Uh … sorry.’ I was
tempted to add a ‘Sir’ on to try and soothe him further, but in the stark light of the kitchen, it didn’t quite seem right somehow.
‘The next time you nod at me I will punish you, Stella. Do you understand?’ He threatened in a low voice, but the implications of Nathan’s words somehow sent a thrill through me. What exactly would he do to me if I nodded? Was I ready to find out?
Thinking of the act of nodding very nearly made me do it in response to his demand and I had to mentally slap myself back to attention before finally finding my voice. ‘Yes, I understand.’
Giving a curt nod of his own, he seemed appeased for the time being. ‘Good, come and wash your hands before breakfast.’ Wandering over to his side I took a second to inhale his delicious scent and then watched in fascination as Nathan proceeded to give his hands such a thorough scrub it would rival a top heart surgeon.
Handing me a nailbrush, he stood and watched me intently as I also washed my hands, even making me re-do my left one because apparently I’d missed a bit. Wow, he definitely had a thing for cleanliness, didn’t he? Not that I was going to say anything after my earlier telling off, no, my plan was to stay quiet this morning and let him take the lead with our new arrangement, but it would certainly be interesting to see how the day panned out.
Chapter Eighteen – Nathan
After spending my entire breakfast wanting to bend Stella over the kitchen counter and spank her enticing little arse for being so bloody distracting, I had now removed myself to the relative peace of my office to get a few hours of work done and try to take my mind off my new tempting submissive. Jesus, she had been just perfect last night, submissive, pliant, and keen, with a sexual appetite that seemed to almost rival mine. God when she’d walked into breakfast still wearing the collar, my collar, fuck, it had nearly done me in there and then.
I ran my hands over my face to try and clear my thoughts. For fucks sake, focus. Blowing out an exasperated breath I picked up the urgent memo that Gregory, one of my senior directors, had faxed me late last night and rescanned the details of the latest tender that my company had been beaten to. This had happened repeatedly over the last two months, with business getting stolen from under my nose by some mystery firm that was somehow managing to massively undercut my bids.
No matter how many times I read the damn document I just couldn’t understand it. By using my own contractors for the builds I’d managed to significantly reduce prices for clients, and I knew for sure that the bid I’d put together had been exceptionally competitive, so how this mystery company had undercut me by a whopping 18 per cent again was beyond me. Fuck.
The loss of this one deal wouldn’t sink Nathaniel Jackson Architecture, far from it, but it was still fucking irritating and if it carried on then I might start to have some issues. I was the best in the market, how was some untraceable company managing to undercut me? Growling in annoyance I suddenly caught a glimpse of movement in my peripheral vision and glanced up to see Stella standing in the doorway to my office holding a coffee mug in her hand.
Seeing me look her way Stella obviously took my glance as permission to enter because she made her way into the office, placed the mug down on my desk with a small sweet smile and then turned in the direction of the door. I hadn’t asked for it, but I had to say the coffee looked perfect – strong with just the correct amount of milk – but at that moment my focus wasn’t on the coffee, it was on Stella. She’d headed to the gym to work out after breakfast and had obviously showered since, but was now wearing a tight white tank top, black shorts, and absolutely nothing else if her visible nipples were anything to go by.
Fuck . They weren’t just black shorts, I realised with a sharp inhale; they were a pair of my tight Calvin Kleins. Why the sight of Stella wearing a pair of my boxers was so arousing I had no idea, but it was, and below the desk I now found myself rock solid and throbbing. Where the hell had she got them from anyway? Silently cursing her for distracting me from work –again – I just couldn’t seem to get the thought of Stella’s bare pussy rubbing against the inside of the shorts out of my mind. I might have to wear that pair tomorrow.
Suddenly I was consumed with the thought of pushing the infuriating paper work from my desk, spreading Stella out for my display, parting her sweet lower lips and plunging myself into her until she screamed my name. Perhaps I’d remove the boxer shorts and use them to bind her wrists above her head, that’d teach her for being cheeky and borrowing my clothes.
‘Stella?’ I growled huskily, blinking away my daydream and wondering if I could spend the next ten minutes making it reality. She paused and glanced my way with wide innocent eyes and a small smile that made her look so bloody sexy that I had to bite my lip in an attempt at maintaining my fading self-control.
She was so – fucking – sweet. Too sweet for the likes of me, I thought with a grimace. What she’d done wrong to deserve me I had no idea.
As much as I wanted to take Stella here and now, I debated the temptation and decided that I was way too frustrated with work, not to mention too aroused, to take her and not risk hurting her by being too rough. Especially after all our activities last night, she must be feeling a little sore today and even I wasn’t that much of an animal, so instead I shook my head. ‘Nothing,’ I murmured irritably, causing Stella to frown in confusion at my remark as she left the room.
I watched her go, grinding my teeth testily as she finally vanished out of sight before shifting on my seat to relieve the pressure in my damn groin. Then, huffing out a breath I picked up the phone, dialled Gregory’s number, and sat back listening to the low hum of the ring tone. Shifting again in my chair I leant forwards for my coffee and realised with a grimace that I hadn’t even thanked Stella for the drink, God, I really was the worst kind of arsehole when it came to women and manners.
Once Gregory answered, I didn’t bother wasting my breath for an introduction. ‘Greg, how the hell have we been undercut again?’ I barked harshly. ‘Have you found out who this fucking company is yet?’
I heard a heavy sigh down the line from Gregory; apparently, this wasn’t how he had planned on spending his Saturday morning. Well tough shit, he was my chief advisor as well as a director and I paid him well enough to answer a few fucking phone calls on a weekend. ‘No Nathan, they’ve somehow made themselves untraceable, all I’ve found is a post office address and I’ve got guys on it trying to trace it so we can find an actual person we can speak to. The thing is …’ He paused and I rubbed my forehead in frustration.
‘Just fucking spit it out, Gregory,’ I muttered, realising that I was swearing out loud far more than usual lately and wondering if that was down to work stress, or Stella stress.
‘Well … it just seems a bit strange that they keep managing to undercut us by the same amount each time, the bids last month were both undercut by exactly 18 per cent too, it’s almost like they have an insider in our organisation and they’re trying to taunt us.’
Sitting up straighter, I chewed on the inside of my lip as I considered this possibility. It was true, being undercut by exactly 18 per cent each time was too much of a coincidence. ‘Look into it, background checks on anyone in the organisation that has access to my office.’
‘Will do Nathan,’ he agreed immediately before I shut off the phone and slammed it down on my desk.
Twenty minutes after my phone call with Gregory, my rock solid erection had reappeared with a vengeance. Just knowing that Stella and her fuckable little body were somewhere within my apartment had sent my blood pumping down to my cock so hard that it was pretty much making me light headed. For fucks sake, why the hell was I letting Stella affect me so badly? I was never like this over a woman. Someone was stealing business from under my nose – a problem that needed all my focused attention to remedy – but was I thinking about that? No, I was thinking about burying myself balls deep in Stella and fucking her fast and hard to relieve this incessant throb.
Christ, get a grip. Shoving my chair back, I stood up and
prowled around my office for several minutes clenching and unclenching my fists. My entire body was tense, I felt like a tightly coiled spring ready to explode at any minute. I briefly considered the idea of having a quick wank to ease my discomfort, but I dismissed it with a scowl, what was I, a fucking randy teenager? Besides, it wouldn’t be half as satisfying as a shag with Stella so instead I stalked towards the kitchen to get a coffee to try and distract myself.
After making a drink I moved through to the lounge and stood by the fireplace, putting my coffee on the mantel and gripping the thick marble surface so tightly my knuckles whitened, but at least the stress in my hands seemed to be marginally reducing my raging hard-on.
I had assumed Stella would be tucked away in her room working as she usually was during her free time over the weekend days, but suddenly I felt warm hands settle on my shoulders and my entire body tensed up as my cock sprung straight back to attention. For fuck’s sake, I’d only just managed to get control over it! At this moment in time, I was fairly sure that if I clenched my teeth any harder they would shatter into fragments within my skull.
‘Not now, Stella,’ I managed to growl. Then remembering how I’d been rude to her earlier by not even thanking her for the coffee I begrudgingly gave her a simple explanation. ‘I have issues with work that are causing me stress; I just need to be left alone.’ Plus I can’t get my mind off spreading you wide and pile-driving my raging erection into you, I thought with a grimace, but she was too sweet for me when I felt like this, too innocent, I’d take what I wanted and no doubt hurt her in the process, and as horny as I was right now, even I wasn’t depraved enough to do that.
But she ignored me, bloody stubborn woman, and began massaging me more purposefully, rubbing her hands across the hard muscles of my shoulders and working on the tense knots.
