Page 67 of Heart of Stone

He smiled ruefully at me, cocking his head to the side.

Oh, yeah. He knows exactly what he’s doing to me.

He took a step back so that he was no longer blocking the lift doors, leaving me alone and weak-kneed in the elevator.

“I’ll look forward to seeing you tomorrow, Miss Cole. Good night,” he said, and the doors slid quietly shut.

CHAPTER 18

I lay awake in bed that night, all thoughts of sleep far from my mind as I tried to process all that had happened. This past week felt so surreal, it was almost overwhelming. What had started out as a clumsy bump on the head at Wally’s had turned into so much more, and I struggled to wrap my head around the turn of events.

How had so much changed so fast?

I wished that I could talk to Allyson about this, but she wasn’t home. A text from her earlier in the afternoon told me that she and Jeremy had made peace and were going out for the evening. It was well after midnight, and I didn’t expect her back anytime soon.

I gave up on trying to sleep, got out of bed and went to the kitchen. Maybe if I had a glass of wine, my nerves would settle down and I could sleep.

When I returned to my room, I went over to the stereo and flipped it on. I began to fiddle with the station selections in search of a song that I liked, when I remembered the music that Alexander had loaded onto my phone. I wasn’t really thinking clearly when he had asked me if I listened to it, my mind too focused on his hands that worked over my body. Now I wondered what sort of music was on it.

Why did he ask me if I had listened to it?

I picked up the phone and opened the music folder.

Wow! There has to be at least a thousand songs on here.

There were several artists that I recognized, but most of them I hadn’t heard of. He had separated the music into three different playlists. The first was titled “Persuasion”, the second one was “Surrender”, and the last was called “Control”.

Curious, I selected the first playlist and plugged the phone into the speaker dock of the stereo. A soft guitar melody played through the speakers and I immediately recognized it as the artist that Alexander had stumbled upon in Venice.

As I allowed the gentle notes to flow through me, a barrage of memories from the past two days overcame me. Alexander was dangerous for me; I knew that almost from the beginning. My experience, or lack thereof, was definitely going to be an issue. I was a quick learner, but the learn-as-you-go method was not going to work in this situation. If I was going to do this, I needed to establish some ground rules first.

I sipped my wine and wondered about the non-disclosure agreements that some of hisotherwomen asked him to sign. I was curious about what these agreements actually entailed.

Maybe I should draw up an unofficial contract of sorts, just to make sure that we’re on the same page.

Setting a few of my own stipulations might help me to protect myself, as well get a clear understanding of what exactly he wanted me to submit to. It didn’t have to be anything extravagant, but only informal guidelines that we could both agree to. I glanced over at the digital alarm clock on my nightstand.

“Well, there’s no better time than the present.” I said aloud to myself, opting to make a list while my thoughts were still fresh, despite the late hour.

I frowned when I looked down at my near empty glass of wine and headed back to the kitchen to refill.

It’s going to be a long night – I should just grab the bottle.

I returned to the bedroom, bottle and glass in hand, and switched the music to Alexander’s next playlist. I recognized the rough guitar chords immediately.

Oh, shit. Not this song.

Goose bumps prickled down my spine, the song giving me flashbacks of Alexander’s skillful fingers between my thighs. I immediately felt a little stirring deep in my belly.

Leaving the song playing, I pulled out my laptop, opened a blank document, and absently thought about what music could be on Alexander’s “Control” playlist. I probably didn’t want to know. At least not right now. If the first two had me feeling all hot and bothered, I could only imagine what the last one would do to me.

I tried to tune out the music and contemplated where I should begin my typing. A list of bullet points should be sufficient enough. It didn’t have to be anything fancy, and the job at Turning Stone seemed like the most logical place to start. That was simple.

My fingers began moving over the keys, rushing to get the easy part out of the way first.

Work Requirements

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