Page 27 of In His Cuffs

She let out a breath.

“If the deal goes through, it will impact you.”

“How so?”

“Your role will grow. I’ll need more time from you.”

“Good God, no. You’ve got all you’re ever going to get from me.” She stiffened her spine.

He propped an ankle on the opposite knee. He looked so corporate, so unconcerned by her response.

“Hear me out,” he said.

“There’s not much reason for that. If you want to go around buying up businesses in your free time, go right ahead. You and I have a written agreement in place. I have eighteen more months that I’m obligated to help you. Then I’m a free agent. I’m not open to negotiation.”

“Everyone has a price, Maggie.”

Maggie. At work, he’d always called her Margaret. Until now. It seemed they’d both shown up with a new rule book today.

She twisted her fingers together on top of the desk. Then, seeing he was studying her, noting her betrayal of nerves, she pressed her palms together.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you and your talents on the payroll. Of course I’m hoping you’ll stay with me because you want to, since we—”

“Excuse me?” Anger, hot, searing, embarrassing, blazed through her. Had he used her? “Was that what Saturday night was about? Part of your plan to manipulate me?”

He dropped his leg to the floor and leant forwards.

“Flog me and fuck me as a way to keep me working for you?” she demanded. “It wasn’t enough that you tied my performance to my mother’s financial security?”

“If you think that was about anything other than my desire for you as a woman, as a submissive, you’re wrong.”

His flat statement made her blink. He didn’t meet her emotion, he defused it.

She collapsed back in her chair.

“Let’s keep things straight, Maggie,” he said softly. “When I saw you at the Den in that skirt and those shoes with your hair all around your shoulders…” He trailed off, reached for the door and, with a flick of his wrist, sealed them in intimacy.

She grabbed hold of the chair arms.

“I was intrigued,” he continued. “When I saw your wristband, I had to have you. Honestly, I was attracted to you. I would have desired you even if we’d never met. Then with the perfect way you responded to my commands, the way you begged for my touch—”

“That can’t happen again.”

“It will,” he said in a tone that left no other option. “And I’m going to make it very clear to you that fucking, beating, restraining you has nothing to do with our work relationship.” He lowered his voice. “You want it too.”

She hated that he was right. She craved his touch.

“We will discuss that in a few minutes. Here are the options. I want you to be very much involved in the acquisition of Around the World in Eighty Ways.”

Her mouth dropped. As much as she believed that was a ridiculous name for a company, their strategy was similar to World Wide Now’s, and they were a big competitor. For years she’d dreamt of putting them out of business. And he was offering her the chance to be part of that. She couldn’t let him know how much the idea appealed to her. “That’s ambitious.”

“Everything I do is risky. When I see something I want, I go after it.” He looked at her pointedly. “And as you know, I don’t fail.”

She tried to keep her mind on his new proposition, rather than allowing images of his naked body to fill her mind. “How will this affect my employment contract?”

“As I said, it will take a lot of work to get the deal done. We want to go through their books, assess their sales projections and year-to-date results. We have to perform our due diligence. Of course, both sides have signed non-disclosures.”

She nodded. “And we have to keep this business running at an optimal level while you’re distracted.”

“Precisely.”

“That’s where I come in.”

“Negotiating the deal is only the beginning.”

How well she remembered from the way he’d taken over her mother’s company.

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