"He—he owns this high rise?" Charli said in a small voice. The man owned a skyscraper?And she'd thought he only—only—had the six floors that were Almatto Tech Sport.
"Yeah, at twenty-seven, right? It all started after he worked a government deal for his safety mechanisms for backpacks and survival equipment. Now it's required for use in military and civilian products. He totally wiped up by the time he hit twenty. You didn't know? Where've you been?"
Charli shook her head and said weakly, "The company I work for has contracts with him, but we focus on the lifestyle of our clients, not their lives before they became rich and famous." She didn't add, And I never paid much attention to him before last week, when I scoured the Internet to see the kind of woman he went around with.
"Oh, he was born into money, but not quite in this league. Which has got to be why he's never gotten serious and put a ring on another woman's finger. I mean, what chick wouldn't marry him for his dough and then take him for all he's worth, since he's guaranteed to go through, like, five divorces in his lifetime? Oops, my floor. See ya!"
After the woman stepped off the elevator, Charli caught people sneaking looks at her dress, which she knew was far different from the power suits everyone wore in this place. Great. Now even more people know that Charli Fontina's picture is on Draken Almatto's phone.
Which picture???
Crap. She'd had no idea she was even a thing.
Just like last time, the whole deal felt surreal. Draken's obsession with her made no sense. She wasn't in his class. She looked about as provocative as...as apple pie. Well, maybe cherry cheesecake, in this dress. But still. She wasn't a triple S—sparkling, slutty and sultry—like the women Draken was always seen with.
She wasn't a loser or anything. She crocheted an awesome throw rug, she was on the verge of getting a nice promotion at work, and dozens of people read her webcomics. Her personality could even be called scintillating when she wasn't nervous about speaking in front of a certain hot male executive. But he didn't seem to care about any of that. He was only interested in her body and displaying it for his staff. He'd probably have her show her breasts again. So everyone could see how long and taut her nipples were.
Oh fuck.
Plus he'd forbidden her to wear panties. He might ask her to flash everyone her crotch...
Oh, God. It always made her so horribly wet, anticipating the things Draken Almatto might make her do in this meeting. She kept her gaze down. The people in this elevator had no clue her pussy was leaking and swelling under her short skirt as she thought of exposing her most private parts to a bunch of businessmen. If they knew...
Which thought made her pussy more engorged! Aargh!
It was his fault. Those questions he'd had the attendant ask her! There was no reason to do it except to get her juiced-up. She didn't need further juicing, dammit. Hopefully the panty-and-skirt thing was so he could just reach under there and quickly give her the orgasm she needed.
Needed so. Badly.
Already.
Because twelve days. Without an orgasm.
While thinking of goddamn Draken Almatto almost constantly.
Because he'd told her she was not to have one anywhere but at Almatto Tech Sport.
Which like a fool, she went along with. Because she wanted him.
The elevator had emptied out by the time it dinged on her floor and the doors opened with a snick. She stepped out into a decadent luxury suite, with black marble floors and bronze sculptures. The receptionist looked up, but Charli didn't want to talk to her. She slipped by with a little wave, and the woman just smiled and nodded.
Finally she found what she was looking for. Severely rattled by now, Charli stared at the double doors marked Conference in gold lettering. Her heart thumped madly as she grasped a handle (made of real ebony, for sure) and opened it.
She didn't see Draken at first, for her focus was on the room itself. It was large and crowded.
Very crowded.
There had to be forty people milling around.
Including at least a dozen women. Not to mention a handful of older men who had MARRIED practically emblazoned on their paunches.
Oh, shit.
Chapter 3
Dismayed, Charli halted inside the conference room. This couldn't be right. It had to be the wrong room. Taking off her clothes in front of a small—well, smallish—group of guys was one thing. But performing in front of a much wider audience...uh-uh. She started to turn away.
"Ms. Fontina, terrific to see you, glad you could come today." Draken Almatto was suddenly there, his hand grasping her elbow.
She almost gasped as she looked up at him—all right, she did gasp. At the careless auburn hair, the laughing blue eyes, the whole freaking gorgeous facade she'd managed to put out of her head. Plus she'd forgotten how tall he was—he had at least twelve inches on her with her heels. And, though lean, he was shaped like an athlete.
He looked awesome.
And utterly professional. His slim tie was chocolate brown, his shirt shimmered like a pearl and his suit was the color of rich sand and obviously bespoke. What's more, he wore it with casual style. Draken Almatto made his clothes rather than the other way around. She could as easily picture him in jeans or a tux.
What the hell was he doing, a man like this, picking her to stalk?
Draken raised his voice. "Folks, those of you who are clearing out early, now is the time. We're set to start with part two." Bending down, he murmured, his breath softly steaming her ear, "We did some preliminary business with those who aren't staying for the extended meeting. Don't worry, most of these people are leaving."
Whew. Because Charli couldn't imagine taking off her clothes in front of all these people. But why reassure her? He hadn't seemed exactly sensitive before.
And...yowl.
His touch on her arm, his unique spicy smell, were swamping her senses. Uncomfortably she shifted her feet. Just from her standing beside him, her breasts were plumping and the nipples stabbing forward. Body, thanks for betraying me. Again.
Foggily she stepped aside as people filed out of the room. None of those exiting commented on the fact that the executives who lingered were all uniformly young, male, and—presumably—single.
Young, good-looking males who were gradually becoming aware of her and looking at her curiously.
"Are they..." she said, her voice low, making him dip his head to hear.
"Aware of what's going to happen?" he finished for her, smirking. "More or less."
Charli recognized only a few of the men who stayed. Matthew, who, she recalled, was his assistant—he was kind of extra gorgeous, Charli noted today. The tattooed guy. The blond man named Jude.
The rest were total strangers.
She didn't know why she'd expected mostly the same people from last time. Charli started chewing on her lip.
"Nervous?" he murmured, smiling down at her.
"You like that I am, don't you?"
"Indeed I do. Okay, gentlemen!" He raised his voice as he kicked away the doorstop, allowing the heavy door to shut, leaving Charli alone in the room with nearly twenty men. "Listen up!"
The din of voices was instantly muted. Draken slid his arm around Charli's shoulders and walked her a few steps into the room.
"This is Charli, everyone."
There was a chorus of greetings as they all took their seats in upholstered conference chairs. Everyone except her and Draken, that is. And as all attention centered on Charli, her hands grew clammy and her cheeks warm.
"Charli's with us today as a special treat. It's post-holiday, so I know everybody's got the blues. Charli here is going to lift the mood for us, kind of like a mascot."
A ripple of appreciative chuckles swept the room.
"Some of you know Charli gave us a rather dynamic presentation the Friday before last. We all liked her performance so much we asked her back. I've talked with each of you personally about this and I want to reiterate that, like la
st time, what we're doing in this room is intended to be safe, fun and friendly for everyone. You know what I'm talking about. No sharing what goes on in this room with anyone outside this room, not your buddies, not your brother-in-law, not your goddamn urologist. We unanimous here or does anyone need to leave?"
Only when every single man had nodded in compliance did Draken move on. Charli was impressed. All these men were top management. They each earn fifteen times your salary, easy. And they treat Draken like he's the new messiah.
Okay. Maybe she could do this. Her hands relaxed out of fists she hadn't realized she'd been making.
"Hey, Draken, rumor has it you guys have something going on, you and Charli," Jude asked. "True or false?"
Draken said tersely, "No comment. Suffice it to say touching her is a special privilege only I can award, and don't get your hopes up. And call her Ms. Fontina."
"So this is a new level of freakishness even for you, Draken," one man in a sleek blue suit laughed. "What's she gonna do?"
"Vince says she's a stripper," another tossed out on a yawn.
Draken smiled and shook his head. "Not quite. No, Ms. Fontina's purely on the up-and-up. Her profession is public relations. In fact, she's an unusually shy and modest young woman. Aren't you, Charli?"
"Yes," she said, looking away and blushing.
Draken eyed her for a moment. "Here's the deal. We got lucky, because it just so happens that Ms. Fontina—Charli—can get pretty uptight but enjoys herself immensely when she's helped to relax. That's what we're going to do today. Help her to relax. In return, she'll willingly assist us in our business."
The men looked amused and intrigued, and Charli found herself edging closer to Draken.
"Charli, tell everyone what you're doing here today."
"I'm facilitating your meeting," she mumbled.
"Charli's in training, so I'll guide her," Draken said. "We do need to get a lot done this afternoon, unfortunately, not just watch Charli's tits jiggle. Now it's time for introductions. Everyone?" Draken moved away to take a seat, gesturing for Charli to take her place at the head of the room.
Charli stood paralyzed at the mention of her jiggling tits. She shot a lethal glare at Draken, who returned it with a kind of questioning innocence. Somehow she forced herself to stride over to where he indicated.
Charli listened as each man rattled off his name and the particular tier of the empire he had control over. These were powerful men indeed. Most of them were from out of town; several from out of the country. This meeting had been planned for months.
"Charli?" Draken prompted. "Go ahead and introduce yourself.
Oh, lord. She cringed inwardly. "Ah, I'm Charli Fontina, as you know. Well, of course you know, Mr. Almatto told you."
Good job! Real eloquent, Charli!
"Ah, I've worked for GudRelashuns.com for about three years, starting as an intern while I was still in college, and I'm an assistant to the media director, Bill Scarsborough, who also owns the company." She wrung her hands. Anxiously she peeked at them through her eyelashes, but nobody was putting out contemptuous vibes at her lack of a career. She stood up a little straighter.
"What do you do for hobbies?" somebody asked.
"I, uh, like to crochet throw rugs. And I draw a little. And you know, bake, whatever. I'm, ah, not especially interesting."
"About that," Draken drawled. "I beg to differ. Charli underestimates herself vastly. For one thing, she acts like she's pretty average, when as you can all see she's absolutely stunning. Though her wardrobing could use some assists. Been making any inroads on that, Ms. Fontina?"
Charli stared at him, wondering if her cheeks could get any redder. Because not only he, but every man in the room was now assessing her up and down, openly. Like last time, her prominent nipples got pride of place in their survey.
"Not yet. I...I need to go shopping."
He nodded. "Besides being a real darling when she's speaking to a crowd, Ms. Fontina has fantastic tits and a mouth-watering ass, and you'll see both later. As for her pussy...well...Charli, why don't you tell us all what you've had to do to prepare for this meeting."
He hadn't just said all that.
Her mouth opened and closed like a fish. So did her fists.
He laughed, then tipped his head to the side. "Okay, I'll do it. Charli's not wearing panties. She also hasn't come for—what—almost two weeks? And Charli likes to come. So she's eager to be here today and get that taken care of—she hopes. Charli, why don't you go ahead and pull off your dress. You can give it to Matthew. He'll make sure you get it back at the end of the meeting."
"But Dra—" She remembered the name thing. "Mr. Almatto. I—I can't just take off my dress, just like..."
"No, Ms. Fontina?" Draken looked surprised. "Why is that?"
Everyone could probably tell how badly she was shaking now. It was one thing to agree to perform as a sexy entertainer for his staff while on the brink of an orgasm. It was another to actually do it when crunch time came.
"S—see, if I take off the dress, you'll see—as you said, I don't have any—" She swallowed. "Okay. Right. I will. Do it. Because that's why I'm...yeah."
"You're doing great, Ms. Fontina," said a smiling voice off to the side. It was Matthew. He had vivid green eyes that were bewitching. An intriguing man, she thought. An assistant, but not exactly obsequious. Charli nodded at him.
Draken's eyes narrowed at Matthew, then returned to Charli. "Time to get down to business. Dress. Off. Now."
Charli looked at him in surprise, then hesitantly gathered the hemline of her dress in her fingers.
And swiftly pulled it up over her head.
As had happened last time, there was nothing particularly smooth or seductive about her disrobing. She struggled with it over her head, twisting a little. Despite her clumsiness, there were no derisive laughs as she half expected. The room, in fact, had gone dead silent.
She finally tore it off her head and walked hurriedly around the enormous conference table to Matthew, who accepted it with a respectful nod.
Meanwhile, every eye in the room followed every step of her little body.
And saw everything.
Saw her pretty green satin bra, pushing her large breasts out and up and creating a deep valley in between.
Saw her tiny hand-span waist.
And saw, of course, that she indeed had gone pantiless. So every eye saw her neatly snipped mound, the hair there just wisps of brown over a softly curving cleft.
"Very nice, Charli," Draken said. "I like the shoes and I like the bra."
"And I fucking love the pussy," the tattoo guy said.
"That, too, definitely," Draken said, laughter in his voice. "All right, Ms. Fontina. Why don't you come over here so we can get your baseline. I want to find out how wet your pussy is after all this time without coming. According to Ben from the lobby, you've behaved this week, but I'd like to see for myself, if you wouldn't mind."
Charli froze.
No! Fuck, no!
He couldn't possibly mean he was going to examine her. Just like that. In front of all these people.
Charli's teeth gnawed at her inner lip. Why had she trusted him?
Because somehow he has the inside scoop about what turns you on and you know it.
Did she want this?
Well, as to that...
Moisture was trickling out of her swollen tissues from deep inside her, dampening her thighs even before she started walking around the table.
So yeah.
Fuck oh fuck. Draken Almatto knew how susceptible she was, how starving for an orgasm. He knew what displaying herself for a bunch of hot men did to her. And in a few moments he'd see just how bad the situation was.
He'd see everything when he inspected her. The damn man knew her kinks better than she did. Before him, she didn't even have any kinks.
And soon everyone in this blasted room would know, too.
"No—wait. I've changed my mind," Draken said
, holding up a hand to stop her. "It'll be easier if you climb up on the table, then crawl across it to me. Let's clear everything off so nobody's computer gets smashed." Draken whipped his tablet off and slid his chair back and, following his lead, the other men backed up their chairs and grabbed their equipment.
In ten seconds the table was bare and everyone was looking at her expectantly. Charli bit her lip, then put her palms on the table and hoisted herself smoothly up onto the surface. The movement caused her breasts to bounce once in her bra. She landed in a crouch.
Done.
The men whistled.
She met Draken's eyes in a panic. The amusement there calmed her. That wasn't too awful.
But...crawl? While she was elevated on the table and they all watched her?
Was he kidding?
Apparently her question showed in her face, because he regarded her calmly and said, "I'm being straight with you, Charli. That's what I want you to do. Crawl over here. Think of yourself as a kitten going on all fours to meet a new master. Let's inspect you—check what sex you are, if you will—" laughter greeted this—"and then let's get the meeting started. I'm afraid we're again on a bit of a time crunch."
"Oh, God. Okay. Okay." She eased forward onto her hands and knees. Without looking at anyone, she crawled across the table toward Draken, terribly conscious of how her breasts practically fell out of her bra. Thank goodness nobody was behind her to gawk at her swaying, naked ass.
"That sounds kind of painful, Ms. Fontina," somebody offered when her knees knocked loudly on the table.
"It's not too bad," she mumbled, keeping her head down.
When she reached Draken, she stopped.
"Good job. Now sit back and just open those pretty thighs for me, Ms. Fontina. This won't take long."
She closed her eyes and did as he ordered.
Her Alpha Lover: A Draken and Charli Boxed Set Page 6
