by Amanda Scott
Taylor’s heart sank as she wondered what the hell she had gotten herself into.
Too tired to stand, she collapsed onto the giant granite step in front of his entry door. She heard Colton let out a deep sigh.
As his agent’s shiny black car disappeared from his property, a long, thick silence engulfed them.
There was no way this was going to end well.
* * *
“Come on, we have work to do,” he said as he reached out his hand for Taylor.
“We do?” she asked, intentionally ignoring his hand and propping herself to her own two feet.
He smirked, but somehow didn’t look amused. “Yes, you already took the job. Now we need to go over the ground rules.”
“Sounds like a lot of fun,” she said.
He pressed his lips together in a straight line. “This probably isn’t the best time to start getting defiant with me.”
She was finally starting to feel more comfortable around him as she flashed a smirk of her own. “I don’t mind waiting then. What else do I have to lose?”
“Trust me, Ms. Ward, you have plenty more to lose. Now let’s go,” he said. Then he turned and walked back into his house, if one could even call it simply a house.
Back to a last name basis? This can’t be good.
She figured she’d already pushed him enough for now so she decided to follow after him. Maybe he’s right, she mused. Maybe I do have a lot more to lose.
Although after everything that had happened over the last few days, that seemed nearly impossible.
He led her back inside, through the kitchen, and down a long, barren corridor filled with nothing more than plush grey carpeting and linen white walls. She immediately noticed the contrast between this section of his home and the rest of the rooms that she had already seen.
One thing was certain; this was not where the billionaire author did most of his entertaining.
Her heart started to beat much faster than usual, but not out of fear. There was something about being alone with Colton that made her feel like her insides were on fire.
Get a grip Taylor, it’s all business from here on out.
She was done letting him do as she pleased with her body.
At least that’s what she tried to tell herself.
They came upon a door with a security panel.
“I won’t look,” Taylor half-teased as she covered her eyes.
“Actually, I appreciate that. It’s not personal, but I have a lot to protect,” he said back to her.
She heard two beeps and then the sound of a door opening.
“All clear,” he said. “You can stop playing peekaboo,” he said lightly.
“Are you sure you trust me enough to look?” she asked as she continued to cover her eyes.
“Now I do,” he said.
She uncovered her eyes and looked into what appeared to be an extremely ordinary-looking room. The off-white walls, like the corridor that led to this room, were completely barren. There were no furnishings whatsoever apart from a small desk in the far right corner of the room.
“I love what you’ve done with the place,” she said sarcastically.
He chuckled and said, “I know. I have a real knack for interior design.”
“What are we doing in here?” she asked.
“This,” he paused as he proudly gestured towards the entire room with his hand, “is where you will work.”
She cleared her throat and adjusted her posture, as if somehow that was going to help her in any way right now. “You’re joking, right?” she asked.
He shook his head from side to side. “Not at all.”
Her eyes widened as she talked in a fast-pitched voice. “I can’t work in here! I need light. I need nature. I need inspiration. I need…”
“You need to work hard. Nothing more, nothing less,” he interrupted.
She looked around the room again. She didn’t particularly enjoy being locked away in secluded rooms to begin with, but she was convinced she’d go insane if she had to create best-selling fiction in a place like this.
“Sooo… I take it I don’t have a choice,” she said.
He smirked and pressed three digits into a panel on the wall. Taylor startled as part of the wall opened up, revealing a window that faced a beautiful row of tall pines in the back of his estate. “There’s your nature.”
Colton walked around the empty room and surveyed it for longer than what made sense given that there wasn’t much to look at in the first place, at least not from what she could tell.
The billionaire walked around the room and traced his fingers along the wall as he spoke. “Ground rule number one… Don’t touch anything without asking.”
She let out an embarrassingly loud belly laugh. “You’re…” she started to say, but when she saw the deadpan look in his eyes she make a quick adjustment and simply nodded her head up and down. “You’re serious. Got it. No touching,” she bumbled.
“Ground rule number two…” he paused as he walked towards her. “I decide when and where you will work. And for now, I say this room is where you’ll be doing most of your work.”
She watched him cautiously as he rubbed his chin, the muscle in his biceps forming a hard, pointy rock as he unintentionally flexed his arm. “Go ahead, make yourself comfortable,” he said as he gestured towards the desk that sat in the far corner of the workspace.
She swallowed hard as she looked around the room, then at the desk.
She still couldn’t fathom that he was serious about her writing for him or with him or whatever it was that he wanted her to do.
She walked over to the desk and ran the tips of her fingers along the dark, smooth finish. As crazy as she thought this entire idea was, she had to admit that she felt some sort of energy from the desk itself, as if it had some sort of direct link to the writing gods themselves. As she continued to run her soft flesh along the top of the desk, she found herself immediately getting lost in a trance-like state.
“That should suit you well,” he rasped right behind her ear, startling her out of her own private love affair with the billionaire’s desk.
“It’s a really nice desk,” she said as she carefully rested her palm on its surface.
“I know. It’s the same one I used when I first broke through as a writer.”
Then it hit Taylor.
Hard.
Here she was, in the home of Colton Marcus. She had dreamed of becoming a writer for most of her life, and now she was being propositioned by this god-like man of a writer, in his goddamn home, to help him write his next book.
She was literally about to pinch herself, just to make sure she wasn’t dreaming, until he stopped her dead in her tracks.
“Ground rule number three,” he said, pausing as he reached into the front pocket of his jeans. Taylor’s jaw nearly smashed to the floor as he pulled out another red pocket square; it appeared identical to the one that he had used to blindfold her in the conference room at Baldpate. “You work for me now… which means, no more touching.”
Taylor nearly swallowed her own tongue as she watched him fiddle with the red, silky fabric; yes, it was definitely the same make and model of the one he had used to blindfold her within minutes of meeting her. “Wha… What are you doing with that then?” she stammered.
“This?” he asked as he held it up in the air, admiring it like it was an Oscar trophy. “This is to stimulate excessive amounts of pleasure.”
He stepped closer towards her, backing her into the mystical desk. She had no room to move as the backs of her bare legs pressed into the desk’s hard surface.
All she could conclude was that Colton Marcus was either really twisted or…
He wanted her badly.
Either way, he was confusing the hell out of her and her body.
“I… I thought you said no touching?” she stammered. She could feel whatever control she had left slipping aw
ay in his presence.
He stretched the red pocket square from end to end, the knuckles in his fists turning bright white as he did so. “I did. And I meant it.”
She gestured towards the silky fabric that he held so taught. Her voice trembled slightly as she spoke. “Then what’s up with that thing?”
“Oh, this?” he said as his lips formed a wicked smile. “Technically speaking, we haven’t begun our work together.” He glanced across her thighs as he moved another step towards her.
You can’t let this happen, Taylor.
She knew what she needed to do- put up her hand and let him know that they weren’t going to have sex again.
But as she opened her mouth and tried to speak, the only thing she could do was bite down on her lower lip.
The billionaire’s eyes grew wide. “If you keep that up I might not be able to stop myself this time,” he rasped.
“This time?” she asked as electricity seemed to erupt in her panties.
She tried to do the right thing, no matter how impossible it seemed right now.
Be strong girl. You can do this.
She released her lip from her own teeth and pressed her palms into the desk behind her. Then she made a huge mistake- she let her eyes wander across his strong jaw, down the stubble of his sun-kissed neck, over his broad, chiseled chest…
Taylor found herself clenching her thighs together, doing anything she possibly could to keep herself from surrendering to Colton Marcus completely.
The problem was, every cell in her body wanted nothing more than to please this man. Maybe it was the way he had so had already fucked her senseless before, or the fact that he was richer than most Fortune 500 CEO’s, or worse…
Maybe it was that look in his eyes; that look that said one thing and one thing only: he wanted her badly and he would stop at absolutely nothing until he got her.
Yup, that’s it. That’s the reason he drives me totally crazy inside.
He leaned in and grabbed both sides of her waist so quickly that she gasped out loud.
“Relax, baby. I’ll take it from her.”
Oh fuck, she thought.
She used what last bit of resistance she could muster as she said, “We shouldn’t do…”
But before she could get the words out, he pulled her hips into his body fast and hard. She moaned out loud as his hardness pressed into her sweet spot.
“We shouldn’t do what?” he whispered in her ear. His mouth was so close she could feel heat emanate from his lips as just before they crashed onto her ear lobe.
And his package. Oh my, that package of his. Just moments ago, she didn’t think she’d ever feel his thick, perfect cock again, especially after the rules he had set forth. But she was sure glad to be feeling it right now- it was so big, so hard... Taylor didn’t consider herself to be very superficial when it came to guys and their body parts, but the fact that Colton’s body was fit for the cover of a magazine wasn’t exactly helping her to make wise decisions right now.
It’s not too late, I can still get out of this, she fantasized.
“We shouldn’t do this,” she said.
Her lingerie top barely hung down over the tops of her thighs as it was, but he insisted on lifting it up and over her panties as if it was all his to do what he pleased with. “You mean this?” he said as he pulled the satin lingerie up to her navel.
She looked down and saw the bulge in his jeans. It looked like the zipper was about to explode from the pressure of his erection trying to make its way out.
Why was she behaving like this for a man she still hardly knew? It had been years since she’d been with another guy, and now here she was, giving her body up to a total stranger three times in a single week.
This is bad. Really, really bad.
But things were about to get even worse. She practically fainted as the next four words poured out of his mouth and swirled around her brain…
“Do you trust me?”
“What do you mean?” she responded with a breathy tone.
His voice sunk down another octave. “You know exactly what I mean.”
Her speech was barely audible as she said, “No really, I…I don’t…”
The billionaire author then reached around and gripped both of her ass cheeks with his wide palms and long fingers. He slid her entire body towards him, so that her breasts were pressed up against his chest.
“Jesus, Colton,” she moaned.
Taylor wasn’t petite by any means, but she wasn’t overweight either. But the way Colton handled her, like he was effortlessly sliding an empty paper bag towards him… something about this fact drove her wild inside.
Their noses were now just millimeters apart, if that, and her breasts had no room to move as they pressed firmly into his broad chest. Colton’s warm, salty breath was enough to intoxicate her body, mind and soul all at once. But she knew it wasn’t going to end there- not today.
Colton himself took in a quick gasp of air. It wasn’t like him to behave like this, as if somehow he too was feeling something so intense that even the big, bad billionaire was thrown off kilter for a moment.
He reached around her back and grabbed both of her soft wrists. Then he stared into the center of her eyes. Her first instinct was to deny him any access into her own private world, but unfortunately there was no place for her to hide right about now.
So instead she surrendered to his gaze, staring back into this man’s alluring eyes and taking note of every beautiful nuance contained within them… including the slightly detectable strain.
Truth was, his eyes had magical powers of their own, and one of those powers included the ability to confuse the utter hell out of her. He looked hungry for her of course, but there was something else behind that look of his, something raw or soft or tormented or…
Did Colton Marcus have a weak spot?
She just couldn’t pinpoint it, although she was determined to figure it out sooner than later.
She squinted her own eyes, desperately exploring him inside and out in order to get a better read on this man.
Colton, however, would have none of that from her. Not yet anyways. She swore his eyes suddenly turned the color of scorching hot red flames. His entire demeanor had instantly shifted right before her very eyes. Maybe she had made the giant mistake of exploring too deeply, or looking too closely… Whatever tenderness they had just shared had seemingly spontaneously combusted.
“I’m gonna tie you up and fuck your brains out,” he sputtered.
His words shocked her at first- it wasn’t exactly the most poetic gesture. But she didn’t care anymore. Taylor was done pretending to herself as though there anything more behind those eyes of his than pure lust.
She had no choice but to surrender to her own desire to have him inside of her now more than ever.
And that level of recklessness scared the absolute hell out of her.
Colton slowly tied both of her wrists behind her back using the red silk hanky. “Are you ready for me, Taylor?”
As twisted as all of this was, especially for a girl who’d always believed she had to marry a man before she’d surrender control of her body like this, she just couldn’t help herself when it came to Colton Marcus.
Their eyes met just before she answered him. His narrow gaze flickered as he waited. “Yes, I’m ready,” she said.
Although she couldn’t wrap her arms around him because her hands were tied with Colton’s hanky, the look in her eyes said it all… for however long this encounter was going to take, she was his.
Completely his.
“Take me,” she said. It was the first time in her life she had ever given herself over so completely to another man like this.
Then something bad happened. Something really, really bad. Just as the words left her mouth, Colton’s body stiffened.
She noticed his eyes; they had changed from thirsty and passionate to distant and more dist
ant. And there she was, bound and tied, backed up against his desk, and completely vulnerable.
“What?” she asked, desperately hoping for an explanation that wouldn’t leave her feeling completely humiliated.
He took in a quick breath of air and then shook his head as though he was just coming to his senses. “You have work to do.”
Her face turned the color of a fresh red rose; she was mortified that he could just turn her on and off like a light switch.
He undid the silky knot around her wrists and retrieved the pocket square. Then he slid open the desk drawer to the side of her hip. Colton pulled out a shiny laptop and placed it on the surface of the desk.
“Is that for me?” she asked, knowing full well it was.
“Yes.” He glanced at her cami top that was still rolled up to her belly button. “You might want to make an adjustment.”
Her cheeks flushed red from embarrassment and she immediately stood up straight and adjusted the lingerie she was wearing so that it at least it covered her underwear.
Colton’s eyes had shifted for sure. She had no idea what happened, but for whatever reason he was no longer interested in having sex with her.
I should be relieved, she thought. This is actually a blessing, she tried to convince herself.
“I’ll bring you some more suitable clothes later. I want you to get started.”
Her eyes widened as she stared at the laptop. “For real? You want me to start doing something even though you haven’t told me a single thing about what it is I’m supposed to be doing?”
Colton raised both of his brows. “I don’t have time for complaining. You sent me that content for a reason, because somewhere inside that soul of yours you know that you were born to write. Now write.”
She shook her head as she spoke, “No, I sent you that because I was desperate. Because you took away my job. Because I lost my mind.”
He forced a smile as he reached for her hand. She closed her eyes for a split second as their flesh met yet again. “Taylor, look at me,” he said, sabotaging her attempt to avoid the task at hand. “You can do this.”
Her eyes finally softened as she looked down at the laptop, then back up at the author himself. “What do you expect me to do?”