by Alix Labelle
They’d worked together for six months before she’d left her resignation on his desk and walked away. It might have made sense to Jake, if she hadn’t been the best assistant he’d ever hired. Every day she had worked long hours without a single complaint, creating an atmosphere of calm harmony in everything she did. She had become so adept at anticipating his wishes, he often wondered if she’d somehow been able to read his mind. To his everlasting regret, he hadn’t been able to read hers.
Tonight he didn’t have to. Tonight he’d use other methods to find out why she had betrayed him for money.
When Jake finally turned around to look at her he felt the burn of outrage in his gut. Kameko regarded him with the same serene expression she’d always put on in his presence. Slender and coolly beautiful, her exotic onyx eyes and precisely-cut, midnight hair gave her a mysterious air. That darkness also emphasized the purity of her flawless golden skin and refined features.
At least now he knew that nothing about Kameko Saito was pure or refined.
Jake moved to lean against the edge of his desk. “Do you know why you’re here, Ms. Saito?”
She seemed almost amused as she tilted her head to look up at him. “You wanted me, obviously.”
Oh, Jake wanted her – that was the other problem. Even before she’d left Silvatech he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her graceful body or her luscious mouth. The quiet need he sometimes glimpsed in her dark eyes had utterly fooled him. “What were you doing in the islands?”
“I was on vacation.” Her lips pursed, as if she was trying to keep from laughing.
She thought this was funny, did she? “So you didn’t go there to sell the designs for the new CloudWatch satellite?” When she showed no reaction he added, “Where are they?”
A flicker of hurt passed over her face. “I don’t know.”
“The design schematics for the prototype disappeared on the same day you quit working for me. The only two people who had access to the computer where they were stored were you, and me.” He straightened. “I have no reason to steal my own designs.”
“Neither did I,” she said, still looking slightly wounded.
“On the contrary. They’re worth billions.” He bent down, clamping his hands on the armrests of her chair to keep from grabbing her. “I also know a bit more about you now that you didn’t include in your C.V., such as your very interesting personal life. To whom did you sell my work, Ms. Saito?”
“No one. I didn’t take your design schematics.” She turned her face away from his. “If that’s all, I’d like to go now.”
“Did you think I had you abducted and brought here for my own amusement?” Jake gripped the short chain of the steel handcuffs binding her wrists. “Until I get some answers, you’re not going anywhere.”
#
After being grabbed, cuffed, and dragged to a private landing strip, Kameko Saito had prepared herself for the worst. The extensive training she’d been given by British intelligence included how to cope with capture, interrogation and torture. She knew how to endure pain and provide convincing but false information. Her instructors had even shown her ways to kill herself if the ordeal proved too much.
Nothing prepared her for the moment when her kidnappers had forced her to board the very same private jet she had flown on while working for Jake Silvar.
It had been less than two weeks since she’d resigned as Jake’s personal assistant, and still she couldn’t keep her eyes off her former boss. Jake kept his copper-red hair trimmed close to his skull, and with his craggy features and broad, powerful build looked more like a gladiator than an engineer. People who didn’t know him assumed he was a bodyguard or a brawler, not one of the most brilliant men in his field.
Kameko hadn’t made that mistake. From the first time she gazed into his sea-colored eyes she’d sensed his enormous intelligence, and ruthless focus. In the end she knew she couldn’t go on deceiving him for much longer, which had been one of the reasons she’d abandoned her assignment to watch over him.
As for the other reason she’d run from Jake Silvar, not even torture would make her admit it – even to herself.
“Kidnapping and false imprisonment are serious felonies in this country,” she told him, breathing through her mouth to avoid being aroused by the hot, dark scent of his skin. “However, I realize this must be simply a terrible misunderstanding. If you’ll release me, right now, I won’t pursue charges.”
“Perhaps I wasn’t clear.” Jake used his grip on the handcuffs to haul her to her feet. “You will tell me who you really are, and what you did with those schematics. Tonight.”
Resisting him while she was restrained didn’t seem wise, so Kameko allowed him to march her out of his office. Jake took her down the hall to the luxury apartment he used when he worked too late to make the commute to his home in the Hamptons. As soon as they stepped inside, Kameko noted everything she could use in the room to disable him. As soon he freed her hands, she’d knock him out and be boarding a plane to London before he regained consciousness.
Jake didn’t uncuff her, but guided her back into the bedroom and switched on the lights. Kameko froze as she saw that the room had been renovated from top to bottom, and most of the furniture replaced with far more exotic equipment.
In the center of the room stood a black padded X-frame fitted with side extensions, buckled straps, hooks and looped lengths of narrow leather and glittering silver chain. On the walls racks of pleasure toys had been hung, ranging from feathered teasers to leather-tressed crops. Glass cases on pedestals held more intimate implements of pain and delight. Even the king-size bed now sported black silk restraints tied to the headboard, and matching satin sheets.
“It took some time, and a lot of money, but I found out why you never had a boyfriend when you worked for me,” Jake told her as he led her to the platform. “You’re a professional sexual submissive.”
So he knew. Of course he did; since he believed she was a thief, he’d probably had her background rechecked with a microscope.
“You offer your services to men and women, often for a hefty fee.” He sounded more detached than disgusted, but she heard the edge of anger clipping his words. “You allow them to abuse, humiliate and stimulate you. While you draw the line at having actual sex, you let them do whatever else they want to you.” Jake tossed a file filled with pictures on the X-frame.
Kameko stared down at the grainy photos someone had lifted from a security video. She remembered the op at the BDSM club, where she had allowed Simon Denning, another agent, to spank her bare bottom in front of an important cartel chief. They’d managed to gain his trust, which had led to them successfully shutting down a notorious drug route.
All Jake saw was her draped over Simon’s lap and being beaten in public, naturally. It was embarrassing, but it meant that the second layer of Kameko’s phony identity remained intact. A relief, and a curse, for now he thought she was a whore as well as a thief.
Jake grabbed up the photos and held them in front of her nose. “You’re going to explain this to me, damn it.”
“Am I?” Kameko wished she could. “Why is my personal life any of your business?”
“Fine. Then tell me what you did with my designs.” Jake jerked her closer. “Or tonight you’ll be submitting to me.”
Chapter Two
Jake watched tiny beads of sweat pop out on Kameko’s face. Her fear filled the air between them like a shivering phantom, and yet when she spoke she sounded bored.
“Mr. Silvar, I'm not your submissive. I'm your former employee, and currently your captive.” She held up her cuffed wrists. “I don’t intend to cooperate, either, so you’ll have to rape me.” She smiled. “And you’re not a rapist.”
“You’re right, I’m not.” Jake took out the key to release the handcuffs, which he pocketed as he watched her rub her wrists. “How does a quiet, reserved woman like you end up selling herself to be abused by kinky perverts?”
She lifte
d one shoulder. “Perhaps I’m not as reserved as you think.”
He heard the blasé tone to her voice, but her body language told him the complete opposite – and he could almost feel the waves of anger coming off her now. If she kept lying to him his own simmering temper would snap, and then God only knew what would happen. “You never wanted me to find out, did you?”
Her smile turned ironic. “On the contrary. I should have included it on my resume. I had no idea you’d take such an interest in my personal life.”
“Maybe I should have. Every time I touched you or smelled you or heard your voice, you got under my skin. I always wondered what gave you pleasure.” Jake reached out to touch a piece of her hair, which felt gossamer-soft. The contact sent a bolt of hot blood into his groin, where his cock swelled. The arousal only made him more furious with her – and himself. “I never once imagined it would be public spankings.”
“That’s only foreplay,” Kameko told him. “The real pleasure comes later, when they use restraints and whips.”
“I don’t believe you.” He fingered her hair. “It’s all a lie, isn’t it? To hide what you really are under all those masks you wear.”
Kameko turned her back on him the way another woman might slam a door. “You should call the police. Have me arrested.”
“Nervous? You should be.” Jake rested his hands on her shoulders. “How long has it been since a man undressed you, and touched that lovely golden skin of yours? What did he do to make you tremble for him?”
“Nothing like that,” she muttered. “I’m a submissive whore, remember?”
Jake heard the break in her voice and knew he was wearing her down. “Did you ever wonder about me? I think you did. Those nights we worked late, sometimes I’d catch you watching me. All that loneliness and longing in your pretty eyes.”
Kameko hung her head and tightened her hands into fists. “Stop it.”
“It was the same for me.” He ran his hands down her arms and gripped her wrists. “I’d jerk off at night, fantasizing about you. Imagining you in my bed, or bending over my desk. How you would want me to take you: hard, slow, easy, fast . . . or deep.” He drew her back against him so that their bodies touched. “You would want me hard and deep, wouldn’t you, Kameko?”
She shuddered. “Please don’t do this to me, Jacob. Please.”
She called him Jacob. No one did, except his mother. Jake should have found that disturbing, but instead it made something twist in his chest. That she was trying to play him again also pissed him off beyond belief.
“Do you want to seduce me, Kameko? It’s not going to work on me.” Jake breathed in her scent, and let his exhale whisper along the side of her throat. “You’re going to return the schematics, right now, and then I’ll fuck you. One time, the way we both need it. That’s the only deal I’m offering.”
“Here’s my counter offer.” She turned to face him. “Take me back to your office, and I’ll find out who really stole the designs. Then you let me go.”
#
Once Jake brought Kameko back to his office, he watched as she began her sweep. “You’re not going to find anything. Surveillance devices would set off the scanners in the ceiling and walls. No one can access the database without the algorithm key.”
“Any code can be cracked.” She finished checking his desk before she moved to his computer array. “Did anyone come into your office on the day I resigned?”
“No. I cancelled all my appointments. Then I sat in here and got drunk on the Scotch the President sent me for that Navy job.” He smiled when she glanced back at him. “It’s the truth.”
“So you were busy sulking in the usual idiotic male way.” She nodded and turned back to the screen.
He came to stand behind her and watch. “What are you doing?”
“Right now I’m accessing your database without the algorithm key.” Kameko finished hacking into his computer and began paging through the activity logs until she reached the day she left Silvatech.
“My IT people already did that – three times,” he told her. “You’re not going to find anything.”
So it seemed, but Kameko still ran through the rest of the log. She then thought for a moment before she asked him, “Did you take any calls in here that day on your smart phone?”
“Why?”
“The thief could have used the signal for the hack.” She closed the activity log and opened the system’s maintenance program to scan for deletions. “Here it is.” She pointed to the data on the display. “According to this the data was removed and transferred to your phone at two-thirty p.m. Who called you at that time?”
“A rep from the Mayor’s office.” Jake leaned over her shoulder to examine the code. “He wanted to book me as the guest speaker at a fund raiser, but I couldn’t do it. You’d already scheduled me to give a talk at the university. How the hell did you know where to look?”
“It’s just something that I picked up – when I wasn’t out selling myself to kinky perverts.” She shut down the computer and rose from the chair. “My guess is that rep who called you didn’t work for the Mayor, and there was no fund raiser.”
“Hold on.” Jake made a call, spoke briefly to someone, and switched off the phone. “You’re right. The rep was a phony.”
“He kept you talking while he used your own phone to steal the schematics and funnel them to another computer.” She switched off the monitor and stood. “I suggest you talk to the FBI. Their computer forensics team may still be able to trace the origin of that call, or the destination of the upload.”
Jake folded his arms. “Or you could save me and the FBI a lot of work and just tell me who did it.”
Kameko kept her expression impassive. “Why would I help someone remotely access your database when at any time I could walk in the office and simply copy the schematics?”
“To throw off suspicion.” He gestured at the computer. “How else would you be able to do that, if you weren’t involved?”
She wanted to tell him about the six months she’d spent training with a notorious, reformed hacker in London, learning how to break into virtually any computer system in the world. “The how doesn’t matter. You’ve convinced yourself that I’m responsible, and nothing I do or say will change your mind.” She folded her hands in front of her. “Call the police now. I’m finished with this.”
“But I’m not.” His face darkened. “I’m just getting started.”
Kameko didn’t struggle as Jake dragged her into his arms. Nor did she attempt to avoid the hard, punishing kiss he gave her. Accepting his rough treatment fed the hunger for him in her heart, and her endless need to give herself over to desires beyond her control.
The woman who had adopted her after her parents had died had taught her to how to stoke such passions. Kameko had often used those techniques in her work, too, but the thought of doing the same to Jake made her feel sick.
Almost at once his mouth gentled, and the kiss went from hard and furious to tender and passionate. His tight grip on her arms eased, and he worked his hand into the hair at the back of her head. The feel of his fingertips against her scalp made her inch closer to him. Her breasts ached so much she pressed against the hard contours of his chest, rubbing herself wantonly on him.
“Open for me.” His demand hummed between their lips, and when she parted hers, he kissed her again, using his tongue to stroke hers.
The ravishing hunger of his mouth made her groan, and then she clutched his shoulders as he kissed his way to her ear. “Jacob.”
“I know, Meko.” He splayed his hand over her bottom, pressing her against the thick swell of his erection. “We need to take care of this now.”
That, at least, she could do for him. When she dropped down on her knees, she looked up to see him frown.
“You need me this way,” she said as she unfastened his trousers, rubbing her cheek against his bulge before freeing the thick spike of his penis. “Let me show you.”
K
ameko had spent too many nights fantasizing about doing this to her boss, and shivered with delight as she pressed her lips to his swollen, satiny knob. She tasted him with one small stroke of her tongue, and felt his thighs knot beneath her palms as she took him into her mouth.
“I don’t need – ah.” Jake caught her hair in his fist, his fingers curling as she sucked. “This doesn’t change anything.”
Oh, but it did. Kameko ignored his ire as she lavished him with the wet, slick heat of her mouth. Sucking his penis delighted her on several levels, and she knew from his low, involuntary grunts that he loved what she was doing to him. Soon he was using his hand to show her the rhythm he needed, and thrust into her mouth with avid passion.
Curling her tongue around his shaft, Kameko took the last inch of him, brushing the tip of her nose against his belly. She held him with her lips, and massaged him from within her mouth, sucking and licking until she felt his knees trembling.
Jake tried to pull away, but she gripped his thighs to keep him in her mouth as he came. Swallowing the thick, bitter-salt jets of his semen warmed her throat and belly, and filled her with a renewed sense of her own power.
Kameko finished by letting him slip free, and bent her head as she licked the last trace of him from her throbbing lips.
“You can get me off, but you’re still on the hook.” He hauled her to her feet. “I want the truth.”
“I’ve given it to you.” All that she could, anyway.
“No, you haven’t.” Jake scooped her up in his arms. “But you will.”
Chapter Three
Jake carried her back to the bondage room he’d built for her, and kicked the door shut before he set her on her feet. “Take off your clothes.”
“I have nothing else to tell you,” she warned him.
“I don’t care.” He stepped back and shrugged out of his jacket. “Take off your clothes.”