Forced to Bloom, The Complete Series: (BBW Alpha Male Billionaire BDSM Romance)

by Alexis Adaire

  “I don’t know a Whitney,” she said. “I’m just a temp. I was hired this morning.”

  Rather than press her on it, I said, “I’m Rachel Malinsky. I have a meeting with M.”

  I saw a look of recognition. “Yes, of course.”

  She led me down the little hallway and unlocked the office door. As I entered, I saw that M wasn’t there yet. Everything about the office was unchanged: a desk and chair were the only furniture, and a laptop sat on the desk.

  I sat and waited. Within moments the computer screen flickered on and I was looking again at the photo of the woman baring her breast on the MAX train. The image of me walking along the riverfront in my sheer blouse had been replaced.

  “You hired a detective to investigate me,” M said through the computer speaker.

  I gasped, totally unprepared for the accusation. I could sense the anger just beneath the surface of his words.

  “I… I… M, it was a while back. I wanted to know who you were because—”

  “I told you I’d share that with you when I was ready,” he interrupted. “Do you have any idea what you could have done? All it takes is one unscrupulous person uncovering my private life and my reputation is shot.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I tried to explain, fighting back tears. “I hired him, then a few days later changed my mind and told him to drop it. It was a stupid thing to do.”

  “Indeed, it was stupid,” M said coldly. I’d never heard him like this and I worried how I could make things right.

  “Please forgive me,” I begged.

  “This isn’t about forgiveness,” he said, “it’s about obeying me.”

  “M, I didn’t know anything about you,” I replied. “I just wanted to make sure I could trust you.”

  “I never gave you any reason not to trust me,” he said. “And as for trust, you have totally violated mine.”

  I didn’t know what to say to him. I screwed up and had nobody else to blame. Feeling shameful, I tried to bargain with him.

  “We don’t have to meet tonight,” I said, my heart breaking. “We’ll wait until I’ve earned back your trust.”

  There was no response. I waited, then added, “I’ll do whatever it takes, M. I’ll be a perfect sub and obey your every order, no matter what.”

  Still nothing. It suddenly dawned on me what was happening, why he’d had me come to this office.

  “Don’t do this, M.” I said, tears streaming down my face. “Please don’t do this.”

  “You’ve disappointed me, Rachel,” he said, his voice oddly calm.

  “No!” I shouted, realizing I might not be able to undo this. “It was a stupid mistake. I’ll be better, I swear.”

  “And I had such high hopes for you.”

  “M, please!” My voice sounded ragged and distorted.

  The near-empty room echoed with my sobbing.

  “Goodbye, Rachel.”

  “NO!” I screamed as the computer screen went dark. “DON’T DO THIS! M!”

  ♦

  I sat in that chair for half an hour, too crushed to move, hoping against hope that the screen would flicker back to life and M would ask me if I’d learned my lesson.

  Eventually I gathered myself together and left, ignoring the wave from the man in the office next door and walking past the temp receptionist without a word.

  I desperately needed to talk to M, to tell him again how sorry I was for violating his trust. My heart ached unbearably and I worried that “Goodbye, Rachel” would be the last words I ever heard from him. Our amazing relationship had ended just hours before it was set to begin.

  Over the next few days, not only did M never call or text, he disconnected his phone number and closed his Skype account. The absence of him in my life left a huge gap. I had to find a way to get in touch, to ask him for forgiveness and beg for another chance.

  The following Saturday, four days since M told me goodbye, I walked downstairs to get my mail and found a letter from John Collingwood, the detective I should never have hired in the first place. Back in my apartment I opened the envelope and found a bill for John’s services, along with several more sheets of paper. The first of those was a handwritten note from John.

  Rachel —

  The enclosed documents were the result of a request I made before you asked me to stop the investigation. I’m sending them to you in case you might find them helpful.

  Thanks again for your business.

  John Collingwood, P.I.

  The next sheet was a print-out of an e-mail message from someone who apparently worked for Yahoo! News.

  John, I did some searching through the tech news archives and found one thing regarding Ryan Dorrance that might be of interest to you. Apparently, the attached story was fact-checked and deemed accurate by one of our news editors. It was nearly published on the Yahoo! News website under the Tech category on March 6, 2013, but was scratched 20 minutes before it would have gone live. It appears the call to yank the story was made by Edward Mann, Editor in Chief of Yahoo! News at the time. My best guess is Dorrance either paid off Mann or threatened him with a libel suit, though I can’t confirm that. Regardless, someone was desperate to keep this out of the press. The reporter who’d written the story is no longer with Yahoo! and I had no luck tracking him down. Lastly, I contacted the girlfriend in the story and she denied the entire thing and refused to discuss it. Interestingly, I learned that shortly after the story was killed she bought a $2-million house and opened an upscale boutique in the Pearl District. Sounds to me like someone bought her silence as well.

  Hope that helps. Remember, you didn’t hear about any of this from me.

  [name scratched out]

  The final sheet was the Yahoo! News story mentioned in the email.

  TECH TYCOON DORRANCE ACCUSED OF DEVIANT BEHAVIOR

  An ex-girlfriend of Ryan Dorrance, founder of TrendingTech.com and Future Media, Inc., says the billionaire has a “twisted,” kinky side that damaged their relationship and endangered her welfare.

  Jennifer Crain, 27, who claims to have recently ended a two-year relationship with Dorrance, told Yahoo! News that the tech media magnate is into BDSM and voyeurism/exhibitionism, among other sordid things. Crain said she served as Dorrance’s “submissive” and was regularly forced to reveal her body to complete strangers in public settings. On two occasions, Crain claims, she was arrested for public indecency, though she said Dorrance used his influence to have her released with no charges being pressed.

  According to Crain, “Ryan Dorrance is a creep and a pervert. He’s got a twisted side to him that he keeps hidden from the public.”

  The couple had often been seen together at events in the Portland area. Crain says she hasn’t spoken with Dorrance since they split last month.

  Dorrance’s representatives refused to comment on the accusations.

  I set the letter down and recalled the last good conversation I had with M, the day before he ended our relationship. He had told me about this. Had I not acted like an impetuous, foolish girl, he would have eventually revealed everything to me, including his name.

  Way to go, Rachel. Although I now had M’s identity, I no longer had him.

  Since he had severed all ties between us, I soon gave up any hope of contacting M.

  Instead, I would try to save my relationship the only way I could.

  I decided to pay a visit to Montgomery Ryan Dorrance.

  To be continued...

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  on the Forced to Bloom series.

  Forced to Bloom

  The Complete Series

  Book 6

  by Alexis Adaire

  1

  I’d lost him.

  Even worse, it was my fault.

  I was the one who answered a Craigslist ad, then interviewed via Skype for a position as a sub.

  I was the one who trusted my new billionaire dom, M, despite him keeping his true identity hidden from me.

 
I was the one who agreed to perform a series of increasingly daring tasks for M’s voyeuristic pleasure, exposing my body to complete strangers.

  I was the one who fell hard for him and was desperate to meet in person, to touch his body and to be touched.

  I was the one who grew anxious and wanted to know who this enigmatic man was, eventually hiring a private detective to uncover his identity — even though I panicked a short time later and called it off, afraid M would discover what I’d done.

  And that’s exactly what happened: Just as M had finally begun to trust me and we were about to meet in person, he discovered I was prying into his life. He broke off our relationship, coldly dismissing my begging and pleading for forgiveness.

  My desire to be with him, to know everything about him, had been my undoing. Had I been more patient, I would still be his sub and his girlfriend. Instead, he cut off all contact with me, changing his phone number and Skype account so I couldn’t reach him.

  Ironically, that happened just hours after I’d discovered M’s identity on my own — he was new media giant Montgomery Ryan Dorrance. That same determination to know who he was, though, had ended my relationship with him. The fact that he was indeed a billionaire and among the sexiest men in Portland was now moot.

  I’d lost him.

  I was unable to talk to the man I’d fallen in love with. What hurt even more was that he admitted he was falling for me, too, just before he learned about the detective and shut me out of his life.

  Since I had no way of contacting M, I decided my only hope was to attempt to meet his alter ego, Ryan Dorrance. Alas, it seemed that pinning down a billionaire was much harder than I imagined. I might have been able to locate his main office and leave a message for him, but even if he actually got it, I doubted he would return my call. No, I needed to see him, to force him to tell me in person that it was over between us. And setting up a face-to-face meeting with an actual billionaire is much harder than cheesy erotica novels would have you believe. I spent the next two weeks sulking and moping while trying to figure out how I could meet Ryan Dorrance in person without getting arrested.

  I’d finally heard from Whitney for the first time since the night we had hotel room sex with M watching via Skype. She was in New York City, staying with a friend while looking for an apartment. She didn’t have very long to get situated there before she started at Juilliard. When I told her that M had broken up with me, she sounded devastated. She helped to cheer me up a little, but she had no idea how I could arrange to meet Ryan Dorrance in person. I said goodbye with a heavy heart, despondent upon realizing that Whitney wasn’t living in Portland anymore. First I’d lost my boyfriend, and now my new confidante.

  Those two weeks were the worst of my life, and the icing on the cake was an unexpected visit from my older sister. Gwen showed up unannounced, unless you count the two voicemails she’d left for me that I never bothered listening to. At the time I had been wrapped up in my relationship with M and didn’t want to be distracted by Gwen’s big-sister lecturing. However well-intentioned it may have been, I’d been hearing it regularly since we were kids.

  She’d called me at my office from her Portland hotel room, as if I needed anything to make Monday worse. Gwen was here from San Francisco on a two-day business trip and wanted to take me to dinner that night. I tried to weasel my way out of meeting her, but she was stronger than I was and won, as usual. At least I managed to convince her to meet at my apartment instead of a restaurant, as I had zero desire to go out in public.

  “Rachel! How’s my little sis?” she squealed when I answered the door. The faux excitement didn’t fool me; it was just a matter of time before she got down to the business of berating me. It happened while I was opening a bottle of wine.

  “There’s something different about you,” Gwen said. “I can’t put my finger on it, but you look prettier.” She paused, her eyes roaming over me. “You don’t look like you’ve lost any weight, so it has to be something else.”

  Before I could respond, she added, “You have a new man in your life, don’t you?”

  I dreaded answering. Since she was a senior in high school and I was freshman, Gwen had told me I would never keep a boyfriend until I got my weight “under control.” I hated discussing my relationships with her, because the conversations always arrived at the same conclusion: Men weren’t staying with me because I was fat.

  “I did, but we broke up a couple of weeks ago,” I said. I felt despondent and wanted comfort, but knew better than to expect that from Gwen.

  “Oh, dear, I’m so sorry,” she said. “Tell me about him. What was he like?”

  She let me speak for a few minutes as I described M/Ryan. The words “sexy” and “extremely wealthy” rolled off my tongue, but I was smart enough to keep to myself the seedier aspects of our relationship. Gwen listened, dropping a “Hmm” or a “Really?” every here and there so it appeared she wasn’t just waiting for an opportunity to take me down a peg. As soon as I’d finished, she fired a shot.

  “So why did Ryan dump you? Was it your weight?”

  I wanted to stab her in the eye with my corkscrew.

  “He didn’t dump me,” I lied. “We’re talking it over, trying to see if we can make it work.”

  Gwen eyed me from across the table. “Well I hope you two get it straightened out. I’m looking forward to meeting your rich, sexy boyfriend.” As the last few words dripped sarcastically from her mouth, I realized she thought I’d made the whole thing up.

  My own sister thought I was lying about my relationship with a hot billionaire.

  Then again I could barely believe it myself, and now it was over.

  2

  To my great surprise, Gwen’s visit bothered me less than I had expected. I was already distraught over losing M, so her chiding had little effect on me. I cried my eyes out when she left, but only because I was beginning to realize how much I missed M’s presence in my life. He’d changed me, made me believe in myself, and I couldn’t bear the thought of our relationship ending. After a good cry, I resolved to redouble my efforts to somehow put myself in the same room as Ryan Dorrance.

  I spent hours on Google over the next few days, trying to find out in advance when he was going to be somewhere in public. It was fruitless, though, as all I could turn up were reports of him having already been sighted somewhere. Billionaires apparently don’t release their schedules over the Internet. I wasn’t ready to give up, but was beginning to wonder if I had undertaken a hopeless quest. Finding him was only half the equation. Even if I could somehow manage to meet him face-to-face, what would I say?

  I caught a lucky break a few days later at work. As the Social Media Coordinator for a large Portland healthcare company, I receive a weekly list of important healthcare-related events taking place in town. As I scanned the items to see if there was anything I needed to publicize, I was startled to see the name Ryan Dorrance in front of me.

  Friday 7/15 @ 8:00 pm - Private black tie fundraiser for St. Augustine Hospital Children’s Burn Unit, to be held at the home of Ryan Dorrance. Invitation only.

  My heart pounded wildly. Without first clearing it with my boss, I sent an email to St. Augustine’s seeking a press invitation to the fundraiser, using my job title and the name of my important employer to lend weight to the request. I was shocked when I received a positive response a few hours later. I only needed to stop by St. Augustine’s Public Relations department and pick up my invitation.

  Now I had four days to figure out a way to approach Ryan Dorrance without embarrassing myself or freaking him out. I couldn’t bear to have him thinking of me as a stalker or a jaded former girlfriend who didn’t know when to quit. This would take a lot of careful planning, but I had renewed hope and was more than up to the task.

  First things first: I had to focus on what to wear, especially considering the fundraiser was formal. I would need help with my hair and makeup, as well as choosing the perfect outfit for the occasion. I paid a vi
sit to my boss, Kate. As head of our Public Relations department, she attended these kinds of events often. When I asked her for advice, she gave me a knowing smile and handed me a business card.

  Cheryl Omlsted

  Personal Stylist

  I called Cheryl immediately and told her about the upcoming fundraiser. I loved the confidence in her voice as she told me how gorgeous I was going to look, so I hired her on the spot and scheduled a meeting the following day. This wouldn’t be cheap, but I had some savings I could tap into. This was a significant moment in my life and I would need to look my absolute best.

  Cheryl and I met during my lunch hour and I was thoroughly taken by her enthusiasm. “Rachel, you have so much going for you. I can tell you right now you are going to be absolutely ravishing.” It was music to my ears. We discussed my budget, then my hair and makeup. Cheryl had me meet her after work at a boutique to shop for a dress. By the time we chose the perfect one my confidence was soaring, although my savings account was substantially lighter. Thanks to her assistance, I was convinced that I could at least get Ryan Dorrance’s attention. What I did from that point on was up to me.

  Once I knew what I’d be wearing, I turned my attention to the moment I would see Ryan Dorrance at the event. Try as I might, I couldn’t figure out how to get him alone, and furthermore had no idea what to say to him if I did. It’s not like he was just going to see me and all of a sudden come to his senses. I ruminated over the ideal phrase to convey my feelings, convinced that the perfect sentence would win him back.

  I took off work the day of the fundraiser. I was a bundle of nerves and wouldn’t have gotten much done around the office anyway. I met Cheryl at the salon she’d chosen and had my hair and makeup styled according to her plans, then for good measure got a manicure and pedicure. Afterward, I rushed home to finish my preparations.