In His Cuffs

by Sierra Cartwright

  She recollected some of his comments from last night. He’d been verbal about her undergarments and that made her hesitate over what to choose. Every day, she wore stockings and a garter belt to work because she liked the feeling. Today, though, he’d know what was beneath her skirt.

  Even if he didn’t comment, their work dynamic would be altered.

  She’d always been able to separate her BDSM scenes from the rest of her life, compartmentalising each piece. Of course, until now, she’d never had to face her Dom at the office the next day. Well, not that she’d ever had a true Dom before, either.

  Maggie shuddered. She had been certain she could manage to work with him. After all, the contract wasn’t forever and they didn’t care about each other.

  She snagged her lingerie for the day then shoved the drawer closed.

  Before the scene had occurred, it had been easy to convince herself it was a good idea. Now the workday and reality loomed. Things appeared complicated.

  In the mirror she saw a reflection of a red mark—a single welt—above the back of her knees. She fingered it the best she could with the awkward angle. Breath evaporated from her lungs. Even if she should, she didn’t regret last night. In fact, she wanted more.

  There it was. Honesty.

  She wanted to see him again.

  When he’d been selecting toys last night, he’d announced that they were spending the weekend together. Since the air between them had been charged with eroticism, she wasn’t sure he’d meant it.

  This was one of her biggest fears—the more BDSM scenes she got, the more she wanted.

  With grim determination, keeping up a constant internal dialogue about how she could face him as if last night hadn’t happened, she dressed.

  For fortification, she added a blazer and took extra time with her hair.

  She entered the offices feeling as if she were in control.

  “The tyrant hasn’t shown up yet,” her mother said.

  Agreeing with Gloria would feel disloyal to David.

  “It’s becoming a bad habit,” Gloria continued.

  “He was the first one here yesterday,” Maggie said. She refused to add that she had no idea what time he’d made the drive from Littleton to Castle Rock.

  Gloria had one elbow propped on the reception desk. A maxi skirt flowed over her hips and ended at her ankles. She wore thong sandals that showed off her toe rings and bright blue was splashed across her nails. Specks of white seemed dropped on the tops. She wondered if they were supposed to be flowers but couldn’t be bothered asking.

  Barb was leaning back in her chair, cup of coffee in one hand, as if enjoying the show.

  “Is there more of that?” Maggie asked, pointing at the coffee.

  “Knew you were coming in,” Barb responded. “So it’s extra strong.” She made no attempt to go get a cup for Maggie.

  Gloria’s neon-green painted fingernails were in stark relief against her white drink.

  “It’s a tropical smoothie,” Gloria explained without prompting. “Coconut water, pineapple juice, orange juice, with whey protein and an energy booster.”

  “Is that whipped cream on the top?”

  “Non-dairy.”

  “Uh-huh,” Maggie said.

  “That’s what I told the girl I wanted. Anyway, when the tyrant can be bothered to drag his carcass in for the day, I wanted to have a talk about the Tyler account.”

  “Isn’t the meeting scheduled for ten o’clock?”

  “No sense waiting.”

  “Which means you stayed up all night so you’re already exhausted and want to go home?”

  “Creative genius knows no bounds.”

  “Of course not.” Maggie wondered how any left-brain activities had been done in the last few years. Had Gloria always been this eccentric? Or had David allowed her full artistic personality to blossom? Some might label her a nut, but she was turning out the best work Maggie had ever seen.

  Their musings were interrupted when David walked through the door.

  “Ladies.”

  Barb rolled her chair forwards and pretended to be working on the computer.

  “There you are,” Gloria said.

  Did he have to look so freaking delicious? He wore a charcoal-grey suit with a crisp white shirt, accented by a conservative blue tie. No one looking at him right now would suspect he could swing his belt with such precision that he left almost no bruises behind. As she looked at him, she couldn’t help but imagine him unknotting the tie and stuffing the silk in her mouth to muffle her screams. Until him, she hadn’t fantasised about gags. But now that David had introduced her to one that he wore, she couldn’t focus on anything else.

  “Do I have something on me?”

  She shook her head. “Sorry. I was lost in thought.”

  “Did you not sleep well?”

  She met his gaze. The blue he wore made the colour of his eyes more startling than usual. Maggie felt heat creep up her neck to settle on her face. “I slept all the way through.”

  “Good to hear.”

  “If it’s okay with you, can we cut the chit-chat and start the meeting early?” Gloria said.

  “Am I allowed a cup of coffee first?”

  Gloria made a dismissing signal with her free hand, jangling her requisite bracelets together.

  “Twenty minutes?” David suggested. “As long as the conference room isn’t booked?”

  “It’s free,” Barb said after checking a calendar.

  “Does that suit you, Maggie?”

  “Me?” God, she wished that hadn’t come out as a squeak rather than the cool question she had intended.

  “You’ve got the final draft for approval, don’t you, Gloria?”

  She kept them waiting while she took a drink of her tropical, non-dairy whipped cream beverage. “I do.”

  “Good, then, Maggie, I do want you in the meeting.” Briefcase in hand, he moved towards the break room.

  “He’s a hot man. I wonder if he works out. He has to, right?” Barb mused.

  “He’s a tyrant,” Gloria said.

  “I heard that,” he said as he moved past them.

  Humiliation crawled through Maggie, and she felt torn between loyalty to her boss and to her mother. “Keep it down next time,” Maggie said. “Or better yet, strike it from your vocabulary.”

  “Whose side are you on—?”

  “You are the artistic talent, Mother,” Maggie said. “And he’s giving you freedom to explore that.”

  “By having him look over my shoulder at every turn? Submitting my work for his approval? Checking up on me to be sure I got everything turned into his bookkeeper the moment I finish each step? It’s suffocating.” She broke the word into four distinct syllables.

  “Then why are you producing more than you ever have before?” Maggie went in search of her own caffeine jolt.

  When she returned to the reception area, Gloria was gone, but her waft of perfume was not. Barb grabbed an incoming phone call and avoided Maggie’s gaze.

  Maggie considered searching out David. But if this incident had happened before they’d slept together, she wouldn’t have. If they were indeed keeping business and sex separate, she couldn’t seek him out. Besides, she had a pile of her own work to do, including finalising plans for the open house. A save-the-date email blast had gone out a while ago. Formal invitations were already in the mail. RSVPs had started to trickle in, and she and her mother would follow up with phone calls today.

  It took only a few gulps to finish her coffee, and she refilled the cup on the way to the meeting.

  David sought Maggie’s opinion on the project then initialled his approval at the bottom of Gloria’s work. “Nice job,” he said.

  “I’m going home to rest,” Gloria said with a heavy, exaggerated sigh.

  “You’ve earned it.”

  Leaving an aura of her drama behind, Gloria breezed from the room, leaving Maggie alone with David. He sat back and perused her, his attention ma
king her body tingle.

  She had a couple of things on her mind. First up was apologising for her mother’s behaviour. Next came the assorted loose business ends she needed him to agree to. Most importantly, she was desperate to know if he was as affected by the previous evening as she was.

  The moment she was about to break the silence, his cell phone rang. Excusing himself, he grabbed his belongings from the table and left the room as he answered his phone.

  She collapsed against the chair, exhaling a breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding.

  Determined to be as cool as he was—after all, she’d insisted they could be professional—she gathered her belongings then returned to her office. She sent David a couple of emails. He responded to one right away, the other took a couple of hours, frustrating her. She pounced on his incoming messages while he ignored hers?

  When she left at the end of the day, his office door was closed.

  The next morning, she found a piece of paper on her desk. His bold scrawl filled the page. He’d given her his home address and added that he expected to see her mid-afternoon on Saturday.

  She gripped the note. From anyone else, she might find the instructions and assumptions off-putting. For her, this was like much-needed oxygen. For the first time since he’d left her condo, she relaxed.

  Later in the day, they met in the privacy of his office to discuss the potential merger and for her to solicit his input on the first drafts of the logo for the combined companies. He approved the picture of the eagle but said he was not pleased with the font selected for the company name. She agreed with his revisions then brought him up-to-date on plans for the open house.

  When they’d exhausted their agenda items, she waited a moment to see if he had anything to add. Since he didn’t mention their upcoming weekend, she didn’t bring it up.

  * * * *

  The remainder of the week dragged, each minute seeming like two. Maggie was excited and edgy like she was before her trips to the Den. She’d ordered new shoes and couldn’t wait to wear them for him.

  She filled Saturday morning with a trip to the gym, doing laundry then cleaning. She even took a trip to the grocery store for the following week. With any luck, she wouldn’t be home until late Sunday.

  David hadn’t given any instructions on what she should wear, so she chose a shelf bra to leave her nipples exposed, knowing he’d accept the unspoken invitation to touch. She added a matching garter belt and fishnet stockings before slipping into a short skirt and figure-hugging shirt. She finished off with new, hot-as-sin, spiky heels and hoped she didn’t regret the selection. If the terrain around his house was uneven, she might end up sprawled at his feet.

  When she neared his home, her phone beeped, signalling an incoming text message.

  He’d sent her a single word.

  Soon.

  Her speedometer read ten miles an hour over the posted limit. Getting stopped by a police officer while dressed like this wasn’t on her to-do list.

  She eased off the accelerator, cranked up an oldies song on the satellite radio and sang along. She couldn’t carry a tune, but the noise drowned out the nervous thoughts skittering through her mind.

  After she left the highway, she turned down the radio so she could follow the instructions from her GPS. She meandered west for several miles. Houses became farther apart and civilisation seemed to disappear.

  She left the main road and still had to drive a few miles to reach his place.

  Though she’d lived in Colorado almost her entire life, she’d had no idea that these houses on acres of verdant, rolling land existed.

  As the GPS showed she was nearing her destination, her pulse picked up. She was cognisant of her exposed nipples and the sensitive way they felt against the fabric of her shirt. She and David had been together twice before, and she told herself she should be nonchalant about their upcoming night together. She was anything but.

  Thoughts crowded into her mind, jostling for position.

  She’d slept badly again last night, and had tossed the bedding off her perspiration-drenched body. She’d climbed out of bed, had a glass of water and waited for the nightmares to recede. What had replaced them was scarier—the realisation that David held the key to keeping the bad dreams at bay.

  Maggie turned the car into his driveway and braked to a stop on the steep concrete. The setting was idyllic, remote and quiet, a contrast to the high-density area where she lived. Out here she heard birds, including the screech of a red-tailed hawk.

  Hands shaking from the sudden onslaught of excitement, she killed the engine and reached for the bag she’d placed on the passenger seat.

  She exited the vehicle to see David standing in the entryway with the door open. His left shoulder was braced on the doorjamb, his feet were crossed. He held a glass of something that might be white wine.

  The bright sunshine danced on his dark hair. Damp ends clung to his nape.

  She’d seen him dressed for business both in suits and in jeans with an armband when he’d been serving as House Monitor. Whether he was bare-chested or had rolled back his shirtsleeves and exposed his forearms before he beat her, the sight of him stimulated her.

  Here on his own turf, he seemed somehow even more competent and in control. The Den was Master Damien’s territory. At her condominium, she felt comfortable. This sprawling house and grounds was his domain. He didn’t own it, he dominated it.

  Maggie knew she hadn’t made a mistake coming here, and the butterflies battering around in her tummy were more thrilling than upsetting. She wanted everything he had in store for her.

  He moved towards her as she slammed the car door shut.

  His black T-shirt conformed to his muscular frame. Blue jeans rode low on his hips. He’d skipped a belt, but his motorcycle boots added a rakish air.

  David Tomlinson made her mouth water.

  “Welcome,” he said, his voice thick and foreboding. He took her bag and indicated she should precede him inside.

  The massive, sun-drenched foyer took her breath. Arched windows soared two storeys. She hadn’t expected his place to be such an interesting mix of modern and eclectic. Metal and wood. And stunningly, a waterfall flowed down the far living room wall. Sectional furniture had been positioned to take in the ambiance, and she could imagine sitting there, lost in creative thought. “I might never leave.”

  “Good plan.”

  Their gazes met.

  She’d said her words with flippant disregard, like she did when she vacationed at a fancy resort. But he’d responded with a seriousness that resonated deep inside her.

  For a moment, she considered what it might be like to have him come home to her and the expectations that went with that. She wasn’t sure she could manage it.

  He placed her bag at the bottom of the stairs. “How about a glass of wine? We’ll have dinner a bit later. Steak and salad? You’ll need to keep your energy up for what I have in mind.”

  “I…” The reminder that they would be spending the night together chilled her. “Yes. To both. Thanks.”

  “Let me show you around so you feel comfortable. If you need anything, ask for it or help yourself. I don’t stand on ceremony.”

  She followed him into the kitchen.

  A bottle of wine stood on the stone-topped island with a glass next to it. The appliances were top of the line.

  “Hot tub outside,” he said as he poured a glass. “I’ll put you in it before bed to loosen your muscles.”

  “I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”

  “You wouldn’t be allowed to wear it even if you had.”

  When they were together, he exerted his dominance in dozens of subtle, thrilling ways.

  “Join me?”

  She accepted the glass of wine and took a sip while he opened the French doors and walked onto the deck. Maggie was careful with her shoes so she didn’t get her heels jammed between the redwood boards.

  “Naked is better,” he said.

 
; “What about splinters?”

  “I have the wood refinished every year. Believe me, Maggie, your safety is of utmost importance.”

  The tub was in its own gazebo off to the right of the deck. There were numerous built- in benches and a couple of different tables placed near them. The southern portion of the area was shaded by a trellis covered with vines, and other areas were exposed to soak up the sun. “Is this where you have your morning coffee?”

  “Even when I have to shovel off the snow. The colder it is, the better the hot tub feels.”

  There was a manicured area then the wilderness claimed the property.

  “Is that a deer out there?”

  “Very likely.”

  She followed him back inside. “I love the living room.”

  “We’ll begin our play there.”

  He picked up her bag and carried it up the stairs. A loft overlooked the first floor. He had a home office, all black and chrome with a glass desk. Two enormous flat-screen monitors formed a straight line. That left little space for personal effects.

  “This looks like command central.” Only more sterile.

  “I spend most of my time here,” he said.

  He needed someone to jazz up his life.

  After showing her a couple of guest bedrooms, he led her to the master bedroom. A bed dominated the space, and it had a slatted headboard. That sent chills of possibility racing through her system.

  David placed her bag in an empty closet.

  “This is yours to use. Feel free to leave anything you’d like. Not that I’ve forgotten that I want to go through your toy box and all your lingerie as well.”

  His words hinted at something more serious than she’d been anticipating. Since she didn’t know how to respond, she remained silent.

  She peeked inside the bathroom and didn’t see a bathtub, not that he needed one. The massive shower unit had no door. Outside of designer magazines, she’d never seen anything like it.

  “I want you to feel comfortable here, Maggie.”

  “In that case, I may take several showers a day.”

  “I understand the temptation.” He grinned. “I’ll be downstairs. Feel free to clean up, if you wish. Towels are in the drawers beneath the vanity. I’ll see you in the living room when you’re ready.” At the door, he paused and looked back at her. “Be naked.”