“Uh, yeah.” I managed to control my coughing fit and straightened up. “I’m just, uh, allergic to cigarette smoke.”
I nearly smacked my forehead again. Seriously? Me, allergic to cigarette smoke? This was my one chance to possibly get Callum Mather and get that bonus, and I decide to try and distance myself as far from him as possible. Why would he want me when I was allergic to one of his vices? Why did he want me in the first place?
“Are you?” I heard a smile in his voice and I glanced back at him. His hands were now casually in his pockets and his eyes roamed over me. He was studying me intently, not in a lecherous way; rather, he seemed more curious about me than anything else.
“Um...” I let my voice trail off.
This was wrong. I didn’t think he really wanted me. He probably wanted someone else, someone more experienced. This must be a joke or a mistake. I really didn’t want to be either of those options. I didn’t want to waste my time here either if all he wanted to do was laugh at me.
“I’ve been watching you,” he said, sliding down gracefully on the couch. “You’re new, aren’t you?”
“I am,” I said.
He nodded once, twice. “I like you,” he declared. “You’re different.”
“Different?” That didn’t sound good.
“It’s a compliment,” he assured me, recognizing the trepidation in my voice. “I promise.”
I forced myself to smile along with him, still feeling awkward standing there, still unsure what to do with my hands.
“I’ll let you go back to work,” Callum said, reaching his arm out in a placating gesture. “I just wanted to meet you officially, just to make sure.”
Make sure what? I wanted to ask but wasn’t sure if I should. When Callum pulled out another cigarette, I turned and left the room. That was the strangest experience I had ever had with a guy. I worried that I completely failed at what I was expected to do. We should have had sex if I was successful, shouldn’t we?
I shook my head.
The whole encounter kept me up the rest of the night to the point where I was still consumed by it the next day. I shouldn’t have been surprised when Janet intercepted me at my designated dressing bureau and informed me Ben wanted to see me, but my heart began to thud hard against my chest.
Ben wanted to see me? Why? Did this have to do with the whole Callum Mather encounter?
Of course it does. What else could it be about?
Chapter 4
This couldn’t be good. What did Ben want me for?
I just got to work and I felt like I was getting sent to the principal’s office.
“Did he say why?” I asked in a low voice.
Janet shook her head, black tendrils of hair that carefully framed her face following her gentle movement.
“You know Ben,” she said as we weaved through flirting shifters and loud-laughing pets, trying to secure a payment for the night. “He keeps everything close to the vest. All I know is he said he wanted to see you the second you get here.”
I shifted with unease, missing a step. Did this have to do with what happened between me and Callum last night? I knew there was a bonus to get him, but I didn’t flirt and I didn’t even get him to buy me a drink. All we did was talk to each other. Maybe that was frowned upon. Maybe I was supposed to get something out of him, especially considering the fact that I spent my entire shift just talking to him. God, was he going to fire me? Release me from my contract? Technically, he could. I was still under probation. He could do whatever he wanted to me, really.
I took in a slow breath, raking my fingers through my hair and sidestepping nearby dancers. I racked my brain, trying to figure out if I said anything to offend Callum, and that was why I was meeting with Ben. Had Callum complained about me? Was he expecting me to be more forward? Less giggly? Or maybe Callum was one of those plants company’s hired to ensure that their employees were behaving appropriately. I wouldn’t put it past Ben to do that. And Callum never seemed to fit in with this atmosphere.
I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I nearly bumped into Janet, who had stopped just before Ben’s office door.
“Good luck,” she whispered, giving my shoulder a gentle squeeze, before disappearing back into the crowd.
I sucked in a breath. I tried not to think about the fact that I desperately needed this job and I had an upcoming payment due next Monday for Mom’s second round of treatment. Instead, I rolled my shoulders back and flicked my wrists, attempting to get the jitters out of my body. Whatever Ben wanted to say couldn’t be that bad. And if he did fire me? Well, I could try looking at the bright side of everything – I didn’t have to have sex to pay for the first round of medicine and I had five days to piece the second payment together.
I knocked on the door and Ben immediately called me in. I opened the door and slowly stepped inside. My mouth dropped open when I saw that Ben wasn’t alone. Callum Mather sat across from him, ankle resting on knee, completely indifferent to whatever was going on between them.
“Ah, Ms. Kinickie.” Ben stood up, reaching out his arm and sweeping it over to the empty seat next to Callum. “Thank you for coming. Please sit down. We have a lot to discuss.”
I cleared my throat and took a seat as Ben slid back into his own. Callum had yet to look over at me and I wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad one. Perspiration began to litter my palms and I placed them on my bare thighs. My heart hammered against my chest. From the corner of my eye, I saw Callum cock his head in my direction. I wondered if he could hear me and then immediately dismissed the thought. He wasn’t a shifter – as far as I knew. Then again, my senses were being dulled thanks to the weekly serum that Ben gave me. I wasn’t as sharp, as quick, as I used to be.
“S-sure,” I said before biting my bottom lip. I didn’t typically stutter and I hated that my nerves were on full display here that I couldn’t help but stumble over my words. “Is everything okay?”
Ben flipped open a folder and I saw a familiar stack of papers. Even though it was upside down in my eyeline, I saw the calligraphy, the little flourish. It was my contract.
Shit.
Why was my contract relevant. What did that mean? Why was it out? Could a client like Callum Mather read it? Was it his business?
“Oh yes, yes.” Ben’s voice cut through all the questions stumbling over in my mind.
I snapped my eyes up and locked them with Ben’s. His face seemed calm, a smile on his face. He appeared... fine. I wasn’t sure happy was the right word but he didn’t seem angry. I wished I could do a study of Callum to see how he was reacting. Then again, I highly doubted his face would give anything away. He had been cryptic at best last night. It was difficult to get a read on him. Then again, my senses had dulled.
“Actually, much better than I expected,” He said, resting his forearms on the surface of the desk and lacing his fingers together. “Mr. Mather here has made an interesting proposal.”
“Oh?” My voice cracked. I didn’t think I could get it that high, to be honest. I now turned my head to look at Callum, only to find his steely eyes on me. I was surprised by this. His gaze was burning and I felt the blood rush to my cheeks.
“Yes, yes.” Ben nodded his head. “Now, you’ve been here a little less than two weeks, which means, technically, you’re still on probation.”
I nodded. I held my breath. Discussing probation, especially in front of a client, wasn’t a good thing, was it? How could it be? Probation wasn’t something anyone outside of the employee circle knew about.
“And if you broke your probation, you would be fired.” Ben looked down at my contract, his eyes skimming the text. I wasn’t sure why. He knew what was in there. He wrote the thing himself. What was he trying to find? Did he want to quote something to me that I didn’t understand? I read the contract. It was pretty straight forward. Maybe I didn’t agree with everything in there, but I signed it, knowing what I was getting myself into. “And if not, you’d be hired as a pet
for the next eighteen months, which means your contract is a twenty-four month contract, correct?”
“Uh, yes.” My hands clasped the arms of the chair rather than my thighs. They were starting to sweat more and as I grabbed the wood, it was slick in my palms.
Ben nodded, but his eyes remained focused on the contract. He flipped it to the next page, and then the next one.
“This looks all good,” he said, his eyes shifting to Callum Mather.
I furrowed my brow before smoothing out my confused wrinkles. The last thing I wanted was to show my emotions to these two men, even though I had no idea what I was doing here. What does Callum Mather have to do with my contract? Why was he allowed to be privy to something that should be private?
“Did you want to look at it for yourself?”
My eyes widened. So much for my effort at remaining passive. How was he allowed to even offer something like that? The fact that I was a shifter was practically written out for anyone to see. I just assumed my contract was private. Just because Ben knew what I was didn’t mean anyone else needed to know.
Callum waved his hand away dismissively. “No,” he said. “I think I know what I’m getting myself into.”
Ben nodded and turned to me. “Do you remember Article Four of your contract?” he asked.
I tried to remember, but honestly, I didn’t. I read what I needed to read. The important parts sunk in – the serum, the logistics of the job, the pay schedule, probation length, and the rules. Article Four could be anything as far as I was concerned.
“It’s okay if you don’t,” Ben said with a smile. “It was the smallest Article and it’s rarely if ever called upon, to be honest. I wouldn’t expect you to know what I’m referring to.”
“Uh, no.” I shook my head once. “I don’t.”
He nodded, his eyes dropping back to the contract. “I figured as much,” he said. “Article Four discusses what happens if a client wants to buy out your contract.”
“Oh.”
I nodded once. I still didn’t understand how this pertained to me at all. Someone wanted to buy out my contract? I wasn’t even sure what that meant. Was that a good thing? Maybe Callum Mather thought I was such a hot mess that he wanted Ben to completely remove me from any line of employment so no one would have to suffer through my cluelessness again. But did he really hate me that much to mess with my job like this? Especially when he barely knew me? I understood I hadn’t made the greatest impression last night, but could it really have irked him to the point of wanting to cancel me, essentially?
“Mr. Mather here is interested in buying out yours,” Ben said slowly. He seemed to realize I wasn’t quite up to speed with how this process worked. Under normal circumstances, I would be frustrated with myself for being ignorant with the situation as well as Ben for making me feel stupid. However, I was so wrapped up in what this meant for me and for my mom that I couldn’t bring myself to care about how I must look to these men.
“Okay.”
“That means you’ll be leaving the club –“
“I didn’t mean to upset –“
“-and going to live with him.”
I stopped myself and blinked once. “I’m sorry,” I said. “What?”
Live with him?
Honestly, at this point, I felt like an idiot. Every time Ben said something, I repeated it in my head even though I understood the words and what they meant when strung together in a sentence. I couldn’t be this stupid. And yet, I felt entirely clueless.
Ben smiled again. It wasn’t exactly condescending. I refrained from turning to see Callum’s reaction to my idiocy. Maybe he would change his mind.
“Think of it this way,” Ben said. “The job you would be required to fulfill based on your contract would be completed with Mr. Mather. Anything he wants done, you would do. You would not be required to do things with anyone else unless Mr. Mather requires it.”
“Which I won’t.”
I swallowed, my throat going dry at the way his voice somehow growled while he spoke.
“If you agree to this, you would be mine.” A beat. “In every sense of the word.”
A shudder slid down my spine. My pelvis started to throb. I felt myself get slick just thinking of what his words meant for me.
“But it’s up to you,” Ben said. “You can choose to stay here or you can allow him to buy out your contract. You would still be entitled to the bonus. You would be getting paid much more. Ultimately, the choice is yours.”
I looked between Callum and Ben. I could hear my heart echo in my mind. I wondered if Callum could too.
“Well?” Ben pushed, raising his brow. “What do you want, Jade?”
Chapter 5
I picked what I wanted.
Out.
Free from the cages, free from being unable to shift. If that meant being with Callum Mather, then that was it. My bonus would be enough to pay for my mother’s next two treatments with a little money left over for the bills. I didn’t have to worry about anything else for the time being.
Except Callum Mather himself.
It took another hour to process all the paperwork. I didn’t realize the sex business was so not... sexy. Discussions between Mather and Ben went on deaf ears. At this point, I didn’t particularly care about the schematics. Not when I was getting what I needed.
The second we were out the door, Callum pulled out a cigarette and lit it up.
“Those can kill you, you know,” I said without thinking, my nose wrinkling at the disgusting scent of heavy smoke coming from the thinly rolled cigarette.
His lips curled into a smirk as he wrapped his long fingers around my wrist and gently tugged me over to the valet. “What can I say?” he asked. “I like to live dangerously.”
I didn’t respond because I wasn’t sure what to say. The valet – Bruce – gave me a nod and left to grab Mather’s car after he handed the valet his ticket.
“You are beautiful.” The words were clipped. I wouldn’t say they were romantic, per se, but I could detect the honesty in them.
But it was more than that. There was a raw protectiveness in the words that I wasn’t expecting. It was almost as though he revered me as part of him, as someone he cared about enough to protect in the first place. It was incredibly shifter-like, and I felt an unexpected pang of longing for a pack, for connection, between me and a shifter who would understand.
I still wasn’t sure what Mather was. At this point, I didn’t think it mattered.
“Don’t you have anything to say?”
I blinked, my attention shifting back to Mather. I forgot what he said.
“I just said you were beautiful,” he reminded me, as though he could tell I wasn’t sure what he was referring to.
“Oh. Thanks.”
The smug smirk only widened as Bruce pulled up the shiny blue car that I was positive was expensive but didn’t have the car knowledge to know what type of car it was merely upon sight.
“You don’t have to thank me.” He took another drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke away from me, keeping his dark eyes fixed firmly on my person. “You aren’t like anyone I’ve ever met before, Jade. May I call you that? Jade?”
“Sure.” I nodded once as Bruce stepped out and walked around the car to open my door. “It is my name, after all.”
I nearly smacked my face as I slid into the low car. How lame was that?
“I suppose,” Mather said after he clicked on his seatbelt, “we should discuss what happened.”
“Okay.”
I actually didn’t want to discuss it at all. I didn’t want to wrestle with the fact that somebody had bought my contract – like I was a piece of property, a bargaining tool to be monetized. I understood that this was something I wanted. I understood that I was entitled to the money – money I needed for my mother.
“I like you.”
I shifted my eyes to look at him. “You don’t even know me.” The words were out of my mouth before I could s
top them.
I closed my eyes, tilted my head up, and let out a breath. That was stupid. I couldn’t talk like that to this person who was going to help me with my mom.
“You’re right.” He placed his hand on my knee and squeezed it. I was surprised by the warmth that flooded through my senses because of him. Like I was safe with him. “I don’t know you at all. But I want to. I want to know your body. I want to know how you breathe when I fill you with my cock. I want to see your face contorted in pain when I leave my marks on your skin. I want to taste your juices as you squirt and spasm against my face. I want to get to know you in every way I possibly can.”
His words caused my breath to quicken. My face flooded with warmth. It wasn’t like I hadn’t heard things before. It wasn’t as though I had never been talked dirty to. But there was a way he said it, the way he looked at me when he said it. It caused the hairs on my skin to stand erect. It caused my pelvis to throb with both anticipation of pleasure and pain. I wanted him. I wanted to run away from him.
“I know it seems forward of me.”
“You think?” I couldn’t help but quip. “There are prettier girls at the club, more experienced. I don’t understand why, out of everyone, you chose me.”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged but his eyes were heavy, penetrating, as though he wanted me to understand that he was serious even if his answer was vague at best. “But I know I want you. I know I want to try this with you. And I usually get what I want.”
That didn’t surprise me whatsoever.
“If you want, I can return your contract to Ben Stone.” He hadn’t dropped his hand from my shoulder. I didn’t want him to, even though his touch unnerved me. “I don’t want to, but if you are unsure about me, about this... I don’t want you to be completely uncomfortable with this circumstance.”
“But you’re okay if I’m slightly uncomfortable?”
Did I just flirt? Was I actually flirting? Who was this person and what happened to the unsure, timid Jade?
His brows shot up and down, his grin widening. “I like a little discomfort,” he said. “It keeps both of us on our toes. It ensures we don’t get complacent. If we’re complacent, we aren’t trying anymore. And if we aren’t trying, it shows we don’t care.”
Bound to Change: A Limited Edition Spring Shifter Romance Collection Page 79