He ran his fingers through her hair then he grabbed it up and twisted it, holding it in his hand so he could gently guide her. She’d thought that might freak her out, but she felt her core pulse.
No more. I can’t take any more orgasms.
Urgh, her pussy was such a poor listener. It needed a spanking.
No, wait. No pussy spankings. That sounded like something she should put on her hard limit list.
“Fuck, Poppet. Fuck, yes. You feel so damn good.” Aric drove his hips forward and she took him as deep as she could as he came, swallowing him down with a murmur of pleasure then licking her way back up his shaft as he took deep, heaving breaths.
“Dying. I’m dying.”
She crawled over him to lie on his chest and he ran his hand up and down her back.
Yeah, he wasn’t the only one.
“I love you, Aric,” she whispered to him.
His hand paused. “I love you too, Poppet. You’re my whole world. Please don’t scare me by retreating again.”
“I won’t. I promise. No more hiding.”
25
Pippa stood outside Kassim’s office in their country house. She stared down at herself. She felt pretty silly standing here in work attire.
With her naughty notebook under her arm.
This wasn’t going to work. This was silly. What if he thought she was being ridiculous? What if he told her to leave?
What if he rejected her?
It bubbled deep inside her. Gary had rejected her.
Gary was a dick.
She sucked in a breath. The others seemed to think this would work. After a brief nap, for all of them, Matek had told her his plan.
He thought that she should tell Kassim that she felt guilty over Matek being hurt. And that she needed him to punish her.
She really wasn’t sure how this was supposed to draw Kassim out of whatever place he’d gone to. But since she didn’t have a better idea, here she was.
Aric had been the one to dress her. He’d insisted on business casual, claiming that Kassim had to have plenty of fantasies of taking her in his office.
Well, it wasn’t like she hadn’t had those fantasies herself. Still . . . it was kind of hard to believe that Kassim would have thought about her like that. He was always so professional. She really wasn’t sure he’d ever thought about bending her over his desk, lifting her skirt.
Or ordering her to her knees so she could suck him off as Aric suggested.
Pippa shook her head. Go in. Don’t go in. But she had to make up her mind soon.
If you don’t do this, if you chicken out then you’ll never know if it would have worked. You’ll forever wonder.
And he might stay closed off from her. She couldn’t allow that.
So gathering up her courage, she knocked on the door.
“Come in,” he called out.
She opened the door and stepped in. He didn’t look up from his laptop. “Are the new guards here yet, Judd?”
“Um, I’m not sure, Sir,” she said, slipping easily into her role as his personal assistant. That part of the fantasy would be easy. It was the part where she told him about her feelings then begged him to spank her that she had issues with.
Where she told him that she wanted to fuck him. Where she made herself vulnerable.
Kassim’s gaze shot up to hers. Shock filled his face.
“I could, um, go find out.” She half-turned as though she was about to walk out the door.
She winced. Wait. No. This wasn’t part of the plan. Leaving wasn’t either. She had to stay here. She had to convince Kassim to open up to her.
With her mouth around his cock. That had been Aric’s suggestion. Although the others had all agreed.
Bastards.
Mouth dry, she instead locked the door.
“Miss Jones?” Kassim asked. “What are you doing here?”
“I thought you might need some help, Sir,” she said primly as she turned back to him.
Show no fear.
Well, she wasn’t afraid of Kassim. Just of his reaction to what she had to say.
“Help? Miss Jones, you’re on sick leave.”
“I’m not sick, Sir.”
“Holiday leave then.”
She shrugged. “It’s hard to be on holiday when I know you’re working, Sir. Maybe I could help you and we could get through everything quicker.”
Kassim leaned back in his chair and looked her over. “Is that why you’re here? To help me work?”
“Yes, Sir.” She eyed him warily. What was he thinking? It was hard to tell with Kassim. He had a very good poker face.
“Then why did you lock the door?”
Uh-oh.
She licked her lips, tasting the red lipstick that Aric had also insisted on. Shoot.
“And why are you nervous?”
“Nervous, Sir?”
“You’re licking your lips.” His gaze narrowed in on her mouth. “And you’re wearing lipstick. You never wear lipstick.”
Oh, shit.
“You also never wear skirts that short or blouses with your buttons nearly undone to your navel.”
“I . . . I’m sorry, Sir.” She reached for the buttons to do them back up. That was it, she was never going to let Aric dress her again.
“I didn’t say you needed to do them up, Miss Jones,” he told her in a firm voice.
She froze. Okay, maybe this wasn’t going to be so hard after all.
“It’s very unprofessional of me, Sir.”
“It is.”
She licked her lips again.
Crap. Stop doing that. Stop showing him how nervous you are.
“Miss Jones, would you like to tell me what’s going on? I’m going to assume you aren’t here under your own accord. That outfit and make-up has Aric written all over it. Although I’m sure he wasn’t the only one behind you turning up like this. They sent you to tempt me, didn’t they?”
“Sir?”
“The outfit. Half-professional, half-sexy. The red lipstick. Your natural shyness.”
She frowned. Was she shy? Not really. Just reticent. She was guarded. Maybe that came across as shy.
“I just, I . . .”
“Yes, Miss Jones?”
“I need you to punish me, Sir.”
He froze. “Punish you? How? Why?”
“Um, well, my outfit is a bit risqué.”
He ran his gaze over her. “It is. Did anyone see you on the way down here?”
“No, Sir.”
“Then I see no reason to punish you for it.”
Shit. She was crap at this role play.
“Would you like me to do anything for you, Sir?” she asked, hoping he would lead the way.
“No, Miss Jones. Like I said, you’re on leave.”
Her shoulders slumped. Right. No punishment. No blow job. No sex.
Stupid girl. Why did you think this plan even had a chance?
“I’ll leave you alone then, Sir.” Turning, she fumbled with the lock. There was silence behind her and she started to sniffle. This was just pathetic.
Wait.
What was she doing? Was she just going to walk away? If she left now how much longer would he hide away? And would he do this every time he thought he’d messed up? Was there even going to be a future for them?
Maybe this time, it was up to her to fight for what she wanted. She was too used to hiding. To running from her problems, avoiding them.
Take a stand.
“I know this might seem like I’m here to play a game, Sir, but I’m not.”
“Excuse me?”
“The whole naughty secretary-hot boss. It’s a game. It’s meant to be fun. But that’s not the main reason I’m here. I’m here because you’re hiding from me. That’s normally what I do. It is what I’ve been doing. I’ve been hiding because I feel so damn guilty.” She leaned her forehead against the door, closing her eyes.
“Miss Jones—”
“I’m talking,�
�� she said sharply. Then she tensed. Shit. She was probably going to get into trouble for that.
Screw it.
“I broke the rules and then Matek got hurt. I’ve been drowning in guilt and I retreated into Little space. Matek and the others helped pull me out. They seem to think you feel guilty too. Although I don’t understand why you would. Or why you would hide from me. Unless you’ve changed your mind and you can’t tell me. Which would probably destroy me since you four are the first people I’ve really trusted since my father died. You’re the only men that I’ve been able to open up with, be vulnerable. So I really hope you’re not going to break my heart.
“But if you need to then please just do it. Like a band-aid. I can take it, Sir. I need to know though.” She sucked in a breath. “Now I just feel stupid. Especially because I’ve just blurted everything out. I wanted you to help me get over my guilt. So I thought I’d pretend to be the naughty secretary. But now I . . . I . . . I’m just going to leave and maybe we should forget this conversation ever happened.”
She managed to get the lock undone and opened the door.
“I didn’t give you permission to leave the room, Miss Jones,” he said in a low voice.
She stiffened. Permission? Was he for real? She didn’t need his permission to leave the room.
“You’ll need to be punished for that. Come here.”
Was he playing? Because he sounded very serious. She wasn’t sure. Was he mad at her for blurting out all that stuff? Was he upset that she had pointed out he was hiding from them all? Or was he about to tell her that it was all over?
Turning, she looked at him and a tear slid down her cheek.
“Miss Jones. Here.”
He pointed at the floor next to where he sat behind his desk. Woodenly, she walked over.
“Sir?”
“Did I give you permission to leave?”
“No, Sir.”
“And is your skirt an appropriate length?”
What? Hope filled her.
“No, Sir.”
He knocked a pen onto the floor. “Pick that up please, Miss Jones.”
Her breath caught. Before she could talk herself out of it, she leaned over to grab the pen.
“I can see your breasts when you bend over, Miss Jones.”
“Sorry, Sir,” she whispered, handing him the pen. Then unable to stop herself, she blurted out her worry. “Are you sick of me, Sir? Do you no longer want me?”
He froze at her whispered words, staring down at the pen in his hand. “On the contrary, Miss Jones. I want you more than words can say.” He glanced up at her. “But I don’t think I deserve you.”
“Why not?”
“I made mistakes and you were nearly harmed.”
“Yeah, well, I made mistakes and Matek was harmed. So I think I have you beat there.”
“It was not your fault Matek was harmed,” he said firmly.
“It was,” she countered. “I broke the rules. I deserve to be punished.”
She dropped her gaze and he rose to his feet. Reaching out, he tipped up her chin. He studied her with firm, calm eyes. “You want to be punished?”
“If it gets rid of this yucky feeling in my stomach, if it makes me stop having nightmares about Matek dying, if it means I can move on, then yes. I deserve to be punished, I want to be. And I want you to do it. Please, Sir.”
He cupped her cheek. “You hid in Little space.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I don’t want you to do that again, understand? If you have problems, issues, fears, you need to learn to talk to us.”
“Not really my strength, Sir.”
“Not mine either. But there are others in our harem who are better at it. We’re a family, we need to learn to lean on each other, to turn to someone for their strengths and be there to bolster someone else up when they’re weak.” He ran his thumb over her lips. “And that needs to start with me. I’m the one who has been holding us all back.”
“How, Sir?”
“I was raised to think I had to be perfect. Not my parents’ fault. But just the expectations on me as the eldest. So when something happens that I see as my fault then I take it badly. Anything happening to my brothers, to you, I see that as a personal failure.”
“Kassim, you can’t take all of that on your shoulders. You can’t control what I or your brothers do. Not everything is your fault.”
“You are right. But in this, I feel I have some blame. I didn’t tell you about the attack on you in Escana.”
“I’m guessing that you were trying to protect me.”
“I didn’t want you to be stressed after your concussion. But I also thought I could take care of the threat without you ever having to know. I want to shelter you from all pain and fear.”
“You can’t do that, Sir. Much as it sounds amazing. There are always going to be dips in life.”
He frowned. “This is a bit more than a dip.”
“Someone trying to kill me is kind of a bummer. I can’t even go out for an ice cream. Or have cream tea. I really love scones and cream.”
He moved his hand to the back of her neck. “I’m sure we can have one made up for you here, Miss Jones.”
“Sure. It would be nice to go out, though. I’m quite mad at how inconsiderate this killer is being. My first time anywhere that isn’t New Zealand, Australia or Escana and I can’t even sight-see.”
“I promise that when this threat is over, I will bring you back here and you can act the tourist all you like.”
“You’re a brave man wanting to get back on a plane with me.”
“I’d go anywhere with you, Miss Jones. You are my heart.”
She sucked in a breath as the words hit her, burying in deep. “You’re my heart too, Sir.”
“I don’t like that you thought I had changed my mind. That will never happen. I know that my actions may have been interpreted as me turning away from you, but I was punishing myself for failing by cutting myself off from you. I never meant to punish you, though. Never like that.”
“But you’ll take me over your knee? Punish me?”
“You didn’t put that person behind the wheel of the car.”
“But I did run into the middle of the road when I’d been warned not to leave Beck and Aric.”
“True.” He looked thoughtful. “And that is eating away at you?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“So you decided to come in here to . . .”
“Ask you to punish me, Sir.”
“Why not one of the others?” he asked curiously.
She nibbled at her lip. “Well, uh, I . . .”
“Out with it, Miss Jones. You’ve been brave up until now.”
She sucked in a breath. “I haven’t seen you much since Matek was hurt, and I was worried. Matek explained that it wasn’t you pulling away rather that you feel guilty as well. He thought that maybe we could work through that together. I could get rid of my guilt and bring you out of this office and back to our family.”
He looked thoughtful. “Our family. I like that. And the, um, what did you call it? Naughty-secretary, hot-boss fantasy? Whose idea was that?”
“I think it was Aric,” she whispered.
“And did Tavi have anything to add?”
She couldn’t tell if he was mad that they’d all conspired to arrange this.
“Just that I should bring the naughty notebook and he might have given a few pointers on how to act as well. Although I didn’t really need those.”
“No, you were doing a very good job yourself.”
“You weren’t into it, though.”
“Wasn’t I? Do you know how often I’ve thought of bending you over my desk? Of lifting one of your skirts or pulling down your pants? Of running my hand down your panty-clad ass then spanking you for wearing panties? How often I’ve thought about pulling you across my lap and smacking your bottom on the pretense of punishing you? Or of ordering you to your knees to suck my cock.”
&n
bsp; She could feel herself going bright red. “You have? Really?”
“Really, Miss Jones. But I didn’t think that would be something you were into. I never wanted you to feel like I was treating you with anything but the utmost respect. It is not because I want to degrade you or think that you should give me anything or that you do not do a good job—”
She reached up and put her hand over his mouth to quiet him. She’d never seen him so out of sorts. He was babbling and it was about the sweetest thing she’d ever seen.
“I know you respect me. This is fantasy, it’s roleplay. It’s not real life. I know that if I don’t want to get on my knees and suck you off then I don’t have to. The thing is, the idea of it makes me really hot. And I really do want to do that.”
He gently removed her hand from his mouth. “You do?”
“Yes, Sir. I do. I . . . I like the idea of roleplay. I mean, I’m guessing you wouldn’t be keen on dressing up as Batman and arresting a naughty Cat Woman and spanking her with your paddle ...”
“Not quite my thing, no,” he said dryly. “Although you might have some luck with Aric on that one.”
“Hmm, you could be right. But this roleplay? That’s right up your alley, right? You’re already my boss and I’m already a little bit naughty.”
“A little bit naughty? Is that what you think? You have racked up several violations, Miss Jones.”
Her heart raced at the firm tone. This was something she’d dreamed about. Hell, sometimes she’d sit at her desk and grow wet from fantasizing about what he might do to her. And now it was happening.
Well, it will if you don’t say something, idiot.
Already worry was filling his face. He frowned, opening his mouth.
“I have, Sir? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. It won’t happen again.”
He took a step back then sat in his chair. “It won’t? Now, I might have believed you if this was the first time that you’d said that. But it’s not, is it, Miss Jones? In fact, several times now you’ve told me that it wouldn’t happen again and yet where we are.”
“I’m sorry, Sir. What can I do to make it up to you?”
“I’m afraid that I’m going to have to fire you, Miss Jones. I can’t have someone working for me who is so blatantly disobedient.”
Claimed by her Daddies Page 33
