by Dinah McLeod
“Karen, look at me, please. I want to ask you something.”
I obliged, gasping aloud at the intensity in his eyes. Would it stay there forever, or would he tire of me? How did he make me feel so adored with one glance? “What is it?”
“Will you be my Valentine?” He asked it with such sincerity that I couldn’t doubt he meant it.
“Of course,” I agreed, wrapping my arms around his neck and letting his lips take all my doubts and insecurities away.
***
By the time we finally broke apart, the water was cold. Brandon helped me out of the bathtub before wrapping me in a plush towel. We walked into his bedroom hand in hand and my eyes were immediately drawn to the rose petals strewn across his cream comforter.
“Brandon!” I exclaimed, smiling in girlish delight at the rainbow of colors. There were red, pink, lavender and white petals and a prettily wrapped box in the center of it all.
“I don't know your favorite color,” he explained.
“You didn’t have to do all this,” I said, my voice awed.
“Are you happy?”
I turned my face to him and nodded.
“Then I had to.”
“You’re going to spoil me,” I warned.
“For a woman that probably makes more money in one day than some people do in a year, it seems to me you could do with some spoiling.”
“It depends on the day.”
Brandon smacked my bottom playfully, making me laugh. “Open it.”
I obediently sat on the edge of the bed, my bare leg brushing against silky soft petals. I reached for the box and shook it experimentally, grinning at him. I could feel his eyes on me the whole time as I untied the ribbon and pulled the lid off the box. When I saw the satin cream nightgown inside, I gasped. Seemed like I’d been doing that a lot lately since I started spending time with him. “It’s beautiful.” I leaned over to kiss him. “What’s the occasion?”
“I told you I’d make the dance up to you. I just didn’t say when.”
“But I’m looking forward to it!” I insisted.
“That’s just an added bonus.” He winked. “Now go ahead and try it on. I want you to model it for me.”
“Then we have to do this right,” I said, scooting off the bed. “I’ll be back in a minute.” I walked back to the bathroom and closed the door behind me.
As soon as I lifted it from the box, I saw it was even prettier than I’d thought when I first saw it. The sleeves were slashed with delicate pink ribbons that stood out beautifully against the cream. After I had it on I eyed myself critically in the mirror. My eyes were sparkling with inner fire and my cheeks were flushed with it. I leaned closer, studying my reflection. For some reason, I looked different tonight. What had happened to me? Had I actually become… pretty?
When I walked back into the bedroom Brandon whistled, his eyes glued to my body.
“Does it please you, Master?” I asked in my sweetest, most submissive voice.
He pulled me to him, crushing me against his body until I groaned. “See for yourself.”
I reached down and stroked his erection before palming his balls in my hand.
“You’re such a tease,” he chided. Taking me by the shoulders, he guided me to the bed and pushed me down gently. “Wait right here.”
“Now who’s the tease?” I called out. When Brandon came back he was carrying a little candle with him that he set down on the nightstand.
“What’s that for?”
“To double your pleasure, my dear.”
I looked at it dubiously and back at him again. “What—”
“You worry too much,” he scolded. “Have I ever disappointed you?”
“No, Sir. Never.” Yielding to him, I lay down on the bed, waiting for further instruction.
“Close your eyes,” he told me as he pulled my gown up just above my pulsing sex. With one last furtive look, I did as I was told, sliding my lids shut and surrendering myself to the darkness and surrendering myself to whatever he might have in store.
He began by kneading my thighs with his hand. Once he’d effectively made me into a pile of mush, he pulled the nightgown over my head.
“Don’t worry, I’ll give it back.” He turned me until I was lying on my side and began to massage my shoulders. I was putty in his hands; surely he knew that by now. Even if he did, he continued down my back, working the anxiety out of my muscles.
When I was completely relaxed, he moved me until I was lying on my back again. I was so drowsy from the bath and the massage, my entire body so relaxed that I started to fall asleep again. I was drifting off, lulled by the security his touch brought me when I felt it: a bead of fire was traveling across my skin.
With a gasp, I lurched upright and found myself immediately pulled into Brandon’s strong, protective arms. “Are you all right? Are you hurt?”
It was funny, I thought I was at first, but it had mainly just taken me by surprise. Now that I was calming down I realized that the sensation hadn’t been all that unpleasant. “No, Sir,” I replied, lying back down.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“I want you to have your way with me,” I said, grinning slyly.
“Such a naughty girl.” He clucked his tongue at me. “Close your eyes. Don’t think—just feel.” When the next drop landed on my belly and slid down, leaving a trail of fire in its wake, I let out a gasp, arching my back. “Do you like it?”
To my surprise, I realized that I did. It was unlike anything I’d ever felt before and having my eyes closed made me hyper-aware of every sensation to my bared skin. By the time we were finished, the warmth of the wax seemed to have seeped into my blood, because I was positively on fire. Brandon took one look at me and I knew he could see it, too.
“I want you on top this time.” His voice was husky with need. “I want to watch you.”
***
That evening Brandon broke out another bottle of the wine that I loved so much and we sat in front of the fireplace as we sipped from our glasses. “Work tomorrow,” he said with a grimace.
“Don’t remind me,” I begged. “Let me pretend that we’ll go on like this forever.”
“I wish we could,” he said, and the significance in his voice was not lost on me. “Big day for you tomorrow, right?”
I nodded, pulling my legs up and folding them beside me. “We should hear back from SunFilm and our lawyers. It’s the biggest deal I’ve ever attempted,” I admitted.
“Hey, don’t look like that. You can do this. And win or lose, I’m thankful for SunFilm.”
“You are?” I wrinkled my nose.
“Damn right I am. Without them and that meeting, you might not have been driving like a bat out of Hell and your car might have gotten you to work just fine. Then I never would have met you.” He stretched his hand out and I took it, intertwining my fingers with his.
I dropped my eyes, swirling my wine around in my cup for a moment. “I wish I didn’t ever have to worry about stuff like that again. I guess I just feel like… I mean, I’m worried that once we go back to work… “
“That this weekend will feel like a crazy, intense dream?”
“Exactly,” I exhaled, relieved that he understood. “I don’t want that.”
“Me either, but there will be other weekends. And remember, we have a date for Valentine’s Day.”
“Like I would forget that,” I sighed, leaning against him and inhaling the comforting, woodsy scent of his cologne.
“There are other things I want you to remember, too.”
“Like what?” I leaned back to look at him.
Brandon ran a hand through his short black hair. “I’m probably worrying over nothing, just… I know your job is demanding and very stressful. I just don’t want you to get back to work and fall back into bad habits. I don’t want you to forget how well we fit together.”
My heart constricted at the worry in his deep blue eyes. I was so touched that he worried about losi
ng me. “That,” I assured him, running my hands through his hair and then twining them around his neck, “will never happen.”
“Promise you’ll be nice.”
I groaned and rolled my eyes, but at his stern “ahem” I quickly promised that I would and leaned back into his embrace, intending to enjoy every last minute together.
Chapter 8
The next morning, he sent me off with a hot cup of coffee—we exchanged the smile of two people who have an inside joke—and a kiss. “Be good,” Brandon said, patting my bottom meaningfully.
“I will,” I insisted, resisting the urge to stick my tongue out at him. “Promise.”
It was a promise I fully intended to keep. It was almost strange getting into morning rush traffic and not feeling the need to honk my horn or roll down my window to yell out a few choice words. For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t in a hurry.
When I arrived at Dusty Records, everyone I passed was in a flurry of activity. I watched them with new eyes, wondering why I’d never noticed how washed-out and strained my employees seemed. It was like entering a new world, where even the pale cream walls and florescent lights felt foreign. I’d never noticed how stifling the air felt, either. Funny what a change of scenery could do for a person.
I was quickly bombarded by phone calls and messages since I hadn’t replaced my Blackberry yet—which I promptly sent Jack out to do for me. Like it or not, I eventually fell back into the swing of things because I didn’t have a choice; I couldn’t get so much as five minutes to myself. Every time I let my mind wander to the weekend I’d shared with Brandon, there was another knock at the door, and it was always urgent. A document for me to look over, a phone call I just had to take. On and on it went.
And I tried to keep my promise to Brandon in the forefront of my mind, but old habits die hard—and in some cases, not at all. I strongly suspected I might be one of those cases. Still, I did my best and was careful to keep my tone neutral and my voice low. I got more than one odd look.
Even when Jack returned with the wrong phone, I managed to choke back the rebuke that came so easily to my tongue. I sent him back out with nothing more than a, “Call me if you have any questions.”
“Karen? Knock-knock.”
I looked up and saw Mark leaning in my doorway, a grim look on his face. “Problem?” I asked, getting right down to the point. It was amazing how much my pulse had picked up in the last hour I’d been here.
“Have you spoken to Mr. Givens yet?”
“Not this morning,” I replied, furrowing my brow and trying to remember if I’d gotten a message from the owner of SunFilm.
“You better call him quick, Kar. Things are not looking good here. I just heard…”
I felt my heart drop with each and every word and managed to overlook that he’d decided to give me a nickname like we were buddies. “I need you to call legal and get right on that,” I told him, trying to keep my voice from shaking.
“I’ll try, but they’re not taking our calls.”
“What? Why wouldn’t they take our calls?”
“You tell me,” he replied, in a voice that told me he already knew the answer.
My head was pounding and they kept dropping in, one after another with their dire warnings and unsolicited advice. I was on hold, waiting to speak to Givens when Jack walked in. I dismissed him with a wave of my hand and had turned away until I saw the box he’d put on my desk. He’d gotten the wrong phone—again. “Jack!” I snapped, feeling myself close to my boiling point.
“Yes, Ms. Donahue?”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I demanded, glowering. “Do you need to go to training to learn how to listen?”
“I’m so—”
“I don’t want your apologies!” I said shrilly. “I want you to do your job right, for a change.” I picked up the box and hurled it at him. “Get out and get it done!”
Only seconds later Givens answered the phone and was both coolly distant and strangely ambiguous. I had a sinking feeling in my gut that only grew after I hung up the phone. This day couldn’t get any worse, I groaned inwardly, putting my head in my hands.
As if on cue there was a knock on the door and whoever was on the other end of it informed me that Brandon had stopped by to take me to lunch. Only then did I realize that I’d broken my promise. Perfect. Just perfect. I could almost hear the devil on my shoulder laughing.
***
I should have been happy to see him, but instead I walked toward him with slow, measured steps like a criminal going to execution. To make matters worse, I could see it wasn’t lost on him. “I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon,” I said, with none of the venom I’d spoken with only minutes before.
“Don’t look so thrilled,” he said mildly. I tried to smile, but it fell flat. “I’m going to take you to lunch.” He bent close to my ear and said just for me to hear, “and then you can tell me what’s going on with you.”
I followed him to his car willingly enough, but once inside all I could think about was what I was going to say. I could lie—the devil sitting with me liked that idea. I could lie, but I knew he’d find out. I didn’t know how he did it, but he seemed to read me easier than a large print Bible. Not only that, but I knew I couldn’t hold out on him. One look and I’d melt into a puddle at his feet, betraying myself the moment he told me to.
Pathetic, I scolded myself, but my heart wasn’t in it. I didn’t want him to be upset with me. I glanced furtively at him, but his eyes were fixed firmly on the road. Like the gentleman he was, he was giving me space—probably because when he’d tried to talk about my day I’d given him vague, monosyllabic answers.
All too soon we were pulling in front of his house. What had been a safe haven for me just hours ago now was the last place I wanted to be. Scratch that, the last place I wanted to be was over Brandon’s hard thigh, my bottom bared to his punishing, paddle-like hand.
“Karen?”
I turned to him and saw that he’d been watching me. “Hmm?”
“I asked if you’re coming.”
I nodded and took my seat belt off, because really, what other choice did I have? It wasn’t like I could run—I’d already considered it, but I wouldn’t make it very far in my heels and chances were it would just make things worse for my poor, innocent bottom. Said bottom was already tingling anxiously as I followed him into the house.
Once inside, he wasted no more time on small talk or niceties and pointed me toward the couch. “I can’t be gone long,” I protested as I sat down.
“I think they’ll survive without you for a half hour.” His tone left little doubt about how he’d feel about my arguing the point. “What happened?”
“What do you mean what happened?” I asked, widening my eyes innocently. “What makes you think something happened?”
“Something had to, or you wouldn’t be so…distant with me.”
Is that what bothered him? Not that I might have disobeyed him, but that I was acting different? “It’s not that,” I hurried to assure him. “I promise. I’m just having a hard day. You know how hard it is to come back after vacation.” I tried to smile, but he wasn’t buying it.
His eyes still hadn’t left my face and I could see the wheels turning. “Did something else happen?”
“Like what?” I stalled.
“Let’s not play games, Karen. What’s going on?”
I blinked first, breaking eye contact and looking away. “Nothing, just…I kind of lost my temper.”
“Kind of?” he echoed. “Tell me about it.”
“My assistant is such a moron!” I burst out. “I’m having the worst, most craptastic day and this idiot can’t even follow simple directions!”
“And so you what?”
“I yelled at him, okay?” I jutted my chin in the air defiantly. “He deserved it. He never listens to me, he’s always screwing things up and I’ve been paying his mortgage for years!”
“So why don’t you fire
him?”
I scoffed at the suggestion. Who was he to tell me not to yell and then suggest actually taking someone’s job? If I had the choice, I’d much rather be yelled at. Anyone would feel the same.
“I asked you a question, Karen.”
Part of me wanted to surrender to the firmness in his voice, but I resisted. I wasn’t going to give in, not this time. “You don’t understand, Brandon, you couldn’t. You don’t know what it’s like to live with this kind of pressure day in and day out.”
He eyed me thoughtfully for several long minutes. The longer he stared without speaking, the more I squirmed. “You’re right.”
I was immediately taken aback. I hadn’t expected it to be that easy. “I am? I—”
He held up a hand and I fell silent. “I don’t understand what you go through with your job, I don’t know what it’s like. What I do know is that you are capable of doing better. Not only that, but you also promised you would.”
I swallowed hard. There it was, the truth that I’d been hiding from and he’d summed it up in the first five minutes. I’d broken a promise and in doing so, I’d disobeyed him—not to mention publicly humiliating my assistant. Jack wasn’t really incompetent, I knew that—I was just too demanding. The real reason I didn’t fire him was because I was doubtful another assistant would put up with the deplorable treatment I’d reserved for Jack. Even when he wasn’t doing anything wrong, I couldn’t help it; He was my proverbial whipping boy. Too bad he wasn’t here now, because if the hard set of Brandon’s jaw was anything to go by, I wasn’t going to like where things were headed.
“You broke a promise, Karen. You specifically did the one thing I asked you not to do.”
Why did it hurt so much more hearing him say it? I wasn’t sure, but I was wincing all the same, tears springing to my eyes. “I’m sorry, I just—”
“We don’t have time for excuses, you need to get back—remember?”
“But if you just let me—”
“Stop. All I want you to be doing is thinking about the punishment you deserve.”