Dark Favors

by Sophie Stern

  Chapter 8

  Paige

  There wasn’t a chance in hell he wasn’t messing with me. How could he possibly know that I didn’t know who my dad was? More importantly, how could he know that I cared so very much? My dad? This was an elusive concept, an elusive person.

  “Why did you just say that to me? I whispered.

  “You’re pale,” he said. “You should sit down.”

  I wanted to argue. My ass still hurt from the spanking, and I didn’t want to sit down on his office chair. The real reason I didn’t want to sit was that I didn’t want him to think I was doing it to please him somehow. There was nothing within me that wanted Locke to know that.

  “Sit,” he repeated. I knew what was going to happen if I didn’t. I knew that for some reason, he’d spank me again. Unfortunately, I found the idea to be appealing. I didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me that I was okay with Locke spanking me in the middle of his office, but there you go. Sometimes bodies didn’t make sense, right? Sometimes the things we thought were important ended up not being such a big deal.

  “You said you know who my father is,” I whispered, slipping into the chair. I melted, really. My entire body felt heavy, and I leaned back against the chair. I closed my eyes, shaking my head.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “How?”

  “That’s not important right now.”

  “Why would you tell me this?”

  “I thought you’d want to know,” he said, and he looked at me very carefully, as though the idea that I might not want to know had never even crossed his mind. He really did think I’d want to know about my dad. The worst part? He was right. He was totally, completely right. I wanted to know more than just about anything.

  I wanted to know who my father was and why he’d skipped out on my mom. She’d worked her ass off to take care of me. My childhood had been... Well, it had been mediocre at best. It had been rough and uncomfortable. We’d lived in a trailer, which wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t surrounded by other people living in trailers. The place we lived wasn’t exactly known for being up-and-coming.

  A lot of people there struggled like we did, but not everyone made the same choices my mom did. Then again, I didn’t know how good my mother’s choices were. She did a lot of things she didn’t tell me about. I tried for years to get her to confide in me, to be honest with me, but she hadn’t been. Not for a long time, and even then, I always felt like she was holding back.

  Now I knew she had been.

  “How do you know who my dad is?” I whispered.

  He sighed and shook his head. His hair shifted ever-so-slightly, and it was annoying to me. Why was he so good-looking? It wasn’t very fair. It was completely not cool that Locke looked so handsome. No matter what he did, he seemed to just exude this sort of wild beauty, and I found it both fascinating and horrifying.

  “No,” he said. “It’s not time for you to know that.”

  “What do you want from me?” I sighed, holding my hands up. Suddenly, I felt very tired. I felt like I had the weight of the world on me. Not only was I reeling from the way his hands had felt on me, but now I had something else to contend with: he had information that I wanted.

  I’d tried for years – years – to find my dad, but I hadn’t been able to find a damn thing. I’d tried DNA websites and ancestry apps, but nothing had come back. I’d talked to the county clerk who issued my birth certificate. I’d poured through all of my mom’s belongings after she’d died. I’d done everything.

  Now Locke was dangling a sort of carrot in front of me, and I wasn’t about to walk away from that. I realized, as I looked up at him, that he was the devil in disguise. He knew I didn’t have the money he’d given me. He knew I’d given it away, but he’d still called me in. Then he’d spanked me, knowing full well I wouldn’t resist. He knew how I felt about him. He had to.

  He was a smart, well-educated man. He was the kind of man who could read your body language. He could tell exactly what you were thinking even when you weren’t ready to share that with people. He knew that I’d been interested in him for a long time. There was no doubt that every time I saw him, my nipples pebbled up and peeked through my shirt. Maybe he even knew how wet I got when I was around him. After the spanking today, there would be no doubt left.

  My panties had gotten totally soaked: drenched, even. I was a little bit embarrassed about it, but not embarrassed enough to back down. I didn’t know what kind of game he was playing. Obviously, there was something he wanted or needed from me. I didn’t know what it was, but I was going to find out, apparently. I suddenly realized that Locke wasn’t just different from how I pictured him before.

  He was also more dangerous.

  Locke had the ability to read people, and that was a strange sort of thing to have to deal with. He didn’t seem to mind if people were shy or quiet or kept their distance. He would work them over until he knew everything about them. That was what he wanted to do with me, wasn’t it?

  “I want your help,” he said. “I need an assistant.”

  So he was going to play it that way. He didn’t want me to know his secrets just yet, and that was all well and fine. I didn’t want him to know mine yet, either. Whatever. It was no big deal, right? We could go on like this, carefully keeping our distance. One day, this wouldn’t be enough.

  One day, we’d both need more.

  For now, though, it was fine.

  For now, everything was going to be...

  Well, I’d suck it up until I figured out what his final play was. There was no chance in hell that he wasn’t going to use me for something. Dangling my dad in front of me was a huge power move if I’d ever seen one. My mom might have been poor, but she wasn’t stupid, and she didn’t raise me to be dumb.

  “Fine,” I said, smiling sweetly. “What would you like me to do?” I looked up at him with a big ol’ grin on my face. He suddenly seemed wildly confused. Good. Who said he got to be the one in charge all of the time? I didn’t agree to being topped. Oh, I was well aware of that’s how he viewed our little exchange earlier. I wasn’t a total innocent. I knew all about how some people liked getting spanked or giving spankings. I understood all of that.

  I didn’t particularly want to be involved in it, no, but I understood it.

  Then again, judging by my reaction, maybe I shouldn’t be too hasty.

  “That’s it?” He asked. “No argument?” He wasn’t convinced I wasn’t trying to play him now.

  “No argument,” I said. “But I work at the shop after class, so it’ll have to be on the weekends.”

  He looked at me carefully. For just a moment, I thought he was going to pull some big bad-boy Alpha power move and tell me to quit my job, but he didn’t.

  “Fine,” he nodded. “The weekends will be fine.”

  “See you Saturday?” I asked, turning to leave.

  “Be here by seven,” he said.

  Again, I didn’t know what his deal was with early mornings, but if it was some sort of ploy to get me to mess up and then “owe” him even more, it wasn’t going to work. I wasn’t some young college freshman who didn’t know her way around men. I wasn’t some naïve girl who was going to screw this up and then sleep with him out of some strange sense of moral obligation.

  Nope.

  None of that was going to happen.

  Not between me and Locke.

  Not today.

  Not ever.

  “See you then,” I said. I turned and walked toward the door. I left without looking back and made it all the way to the elevators before I realized the asshole still had my phone and my keys. I stood there for a long time, wondering whether it was worth it to go back. I could walk home, and Fawn would let me in. I could get by without my phone...couldn’t I?

  Only, I knew it was stupid, and I didn’t particularly want him to feel like he had bested me somehow.

  He had, though. He had gotten me all riled up. He’d made me horny. He’d
teased me. He’d punished me in a way that had been both freeing and exciting, and then he’d made sure I wouldn’t forget him. My bottom still hurt, and I had a feeling it was going to for a couple of days. Good. It would be a reminder not to let him get the best of me again.

  “Miss Key?” A deep voice said gently, but it wasn’t Locke. I turned around to see the guy at the little reception desk across from the elevators. He was watching me carefully. I’d walked by him several times, but we’d never so much as talked. Of course, he knew who I was, though.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’m sorry for loitering. I’m not trying to be weird.”

  “It’s perfectly okay,” he said. There was a little nameplate in front of him that said Caleb Montoya: Personal Assistant. So he was Locke’s official assistant, after all. “Can I help you with something?”

  “No, Caleb, I’m okay,” I said. My voice trailed off, but then I shook my head, clearing it, and looked at him again. I decided that it was time to get it together. “I just forgot something,” I said. “I won’t be long.”

  I turned and walked back to Locke’s office. I thought about pushing the door open, barging in, and demanding my items, but I wasn’t interested in another spanking. If he felt I was being disrespectful, and he tried to spank me again, I’d let him. That was the real problem. He’d smack my ass over and over, and I’d just take it like I had before.

  Because I liked him.

  Because I was attracted to him.

  And because part of me felt like I deserved to be punished.

  I didn’t have some deep-rooted sense of self-loathing, but I’d messed up many times in my life. More importantly, I’d messed up with Locke. I knew perfectly well that my treatment of him hadn’t been fair. I understood that. After being spanked, though, I kind of felt like, totally forgiven. I kind of felt like we’d made up, sort of.

  It was like there was a clean slate.

  And so I knocked on the door.

  Three quick, short raps, and then I waited. For a moment, I worried he was on the phone or busy, but then I heard him clear his throat.

  “Come in,” he said. His words sounded like something between an order and a suggestion, and I wasn’t sure which of those would be better. I opened the door and went inside, and sure enough, there he was.

  Waiting.

  He was sitting on the edge of his desk with one leg crossed over the other, and he looked so wildly unburdened by the troubles of life, that I wondered what the hell his story was. Obviously, he was after something. He had some sort of weird quest or mission. Every eccentric millionaire did, right? I just didn’t know what his was.

  More importantly, I didn’t know what it had to do with me. Maybe I’d never know. Right now, though, I didn’t care.

  “Did you forget something?” He asked me patiently. It was a stupid question. He knew perfectly well what I’d forgotten. My keys and phone were sitting on the desk right next to his hand. There was zero chance he didn’t know exactly what I’d forgotten.

  I bit back a snarky response though. Apparently, the spanking really did fix my sassy attitude, because just an hour ago, I would have told him to give me my fucking keys.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “What did you forget?”

  “My keys and my phone.”

  “Come and get them,” he said. “You’ll need them.”

  The way he said it was soft and kind. Strangely enough, I got the feeling that Locke really did want me to be okay. He didn’t seem to want anything bad to happen to me, and that in and of itself was a little bit weird. We didn’t have a relationship beyond landlord and tenant, yet somehow, in just the course of the week, something had shifted between us.

  When I reached the desk, I paused. He looked up at me. Again, his eyes were filled with...not kindness, but something pretty close. Patience, maybe? He seemed like it was really important to him that I take the keys, and that I take care of myself. It was definitely a tender sort of look that he gave me.

  And then I made the mistake of glancing, just for a moment, at his lips.

  As soon as I did that, I knew all bets were off, because Locke had woken something up inside of me. He’d spanked me so hard, and he’d turned me on so much, that I couldn’t stop the way I was feeling. There was not a single part of me that didn’t want to kiss him, and honestly, I didn’t think I had anything to lose.

  So I did.

  I brought my lips to his quickly, hastily, and then I pulled away and stared at him. I slapped my hand over my mouth, shocked that I’d been so bold. I was shocked that I’d done it.

  He didn’t seem to be very surprised though. If anything, he looked amused, and that was embarrassing to me. Shit. Did he think I was being stupid? Did he think I was a bad kisser?

  “Oh, Miss Key,” he said, standing up. “I think you can do better than that. Don’t you?”

  “What?” I whispered breathlessly.

  “The kiss,” he explained. “I think you can do better than that.”

  “I...I’m sorry. I don’t know why I did that.”

  “I don’t mind at all,” he said, reaching for his cock. He grabbed it over the pants and smiled at me. “Obviously, I didn’t mind,” he said.

  I looked, and I saw that he was hard. Damn. Something shifted within me when I saw that. Suddenly, I didn’t feel like an awkward over-aged college student fighting to fit in. Instead, I felt...powerful. Sexy. I felt strong and desired. He was the richest guy I’d ever met in my damn life, and he had made quite a name for himself. He was handsome, and he attracted a certain breed of woman: the kind of woman I wasn’t. But right now, with him looking at me like that, nothing else really seemed to matter.

  “You didn’t mind,” I repeated quietly, lamely, because I didn’t know what else to say, but I licked my lips, and I looked at him.

  He didn’t mind.

  “But I think that if you’re going to kiss a man, you should kiss him. You shouldn’t tease him with the promise of a kiss. Don’t you agree?” He watched me carefully to see what I was going to do next, and I understood what he was doing. I understood a challenge when I saw one. That’s what he was doing. He was challenging me. He was trying to see if I was really going to follow through.

  “I...um...maybe?” I whispered. I’d never had anyone talk to me the way Locke talked to me. No guys ever said that sort of stuff to me. Why would they? His words were like...insane. Locke spoke like he was on top of the world, and he talked like he could get anything he wanted, which he could. He had money, and that was something people liked. He had looks, and that was another thing people liked. He had confidence, too, and that was like the trifecta. He didn’t need anything else.

  “I believe in you,” he said.

  Then he waited.

  He stood there patiently, hands at his sides. He looked at me calmly, and he seemed totally collected. His phone rang, but he ignored it, and he just watched me. Finally, he raised an eyebrow.

  A question.

  A test.

  Was I going to be brave?

  Or was I going to be totally lame?

  I’d spent my life being careful. I’d been very careful, in fact. I’d been guarded, and I’d watched out for things. I’d tried my best to take care of my mom when she was alive. After all, she’d spent so much time taking care of me. It was the least I could do. Still, it had been a lot of work. It had taken so much effort. I’d done just about anything I could imagine, but still, I’d been cautious.

  It was time to change, I realized. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering “what if.” I didn’t want to go home to Fawn and have to tell her that I’d chickened out. Nobody in the world wanted to think that being afraid was okay. I was no different. I didn’t want to tell her I was afraid.

  And so I took a step forward.

  Then another.

  Soon my body was pressed completely against his, and my breath hitched. He looked down at me, but still, he didn’t speak. He seemed to remain perfectl
y still, as though he could tell that any movement might scare me or make me panic. He definitely didn’t want to scare me away, I knew, and it would be so easy to do.

  I could do anything to Locke.

  Anything.

  This was my chance to show off. It was my one opportunity to do anything that I wanted to do. He was basically offering me the chance to live out one of my fantasies, and was I really going to give all of that up? No way in hell.

  I reached for him, cupping his face in my hands. I brought my lips to his once more, but this time, I kissed him deeply, passionately. He opened his mouth and kissed me back. There was no misunderstanding here: he was the one guiding the kiss, but I still felt kind of like I was in charge. It was still my moment. I kissed him eagerly, wildly. For this one moment, I let myself totally go. I wasn’t worried about anything else. I wasn’t thinking about anything else. It was just me and him and our moment.

  I stopped, pulling away, breathless.

  He looked at me carefully.

  “I guess you’re right,” I said. “I could do better.”

  Then I winked at him – fucking winked – and turned, walking away. I had my items securely in my hands, and I forced myself to walk all the way to the elevator. I waved to Caleb, but didn’t say anything. Then I just got inside of the elevator, pressed the button, and rode down to the lobby. I took the second set of elevators to the parking garage and darted across to my car.

  It wasn’t until I was actually in my car that I let out the breath I was holding and let myself think about what I’d just done.

  Somehow, I’d managed to kiss Mr. Locke.

  And I had a feeling that it was going to change everything.

  Chapter 9

  Paige

  The week went by in a whirlwind of papers, classes, and work shifts. I’d talked myself out of going to see Locke again about eight different times. Fawn knew what was going on, and she had a lot of differing opinions, too. She wasn’t afraid to tell me exactly what she thought.

  “It’s not going to end well,” she warned, and even though I agreed with her, I also wasn’t about to give up my chance to find out where I’d come from.