Still, at least my app was coming along better than his chess one. I grinned to myself. It might be a crisis to him, but I felt a naughty sense of satisfaction that I’d beaten it. If it hadn’t cheated, I’d have beaten its expert level, only two off the top. I didn’t think James had actually realized I was good. He probably thought I was a beginner. Maybe now I could challenge him to a proper game. God! I’d love to beat him. I wondered how good he really was. He probably wouldn’t play me if he thought I might win. He was a bit too much the alpha type for that.
I was still grinning when Paul hurried in apologetically. “Sorry I’ve arrived after you, Toni. I didn’t know you’d be in early.” He dropped his folder on the counter and went to get coffee. “What’s happened? The place is buzzing with a scared sort of twitch.”
We’d been working together now for long enough that he wasn’t so nervous of me, and he glanced at the bagel in my hand before taking one himself.
I grinned even wider. “I broke his new app.”
Paul stared at me, his eyes shocked. “What do you mean?”
I shrugged. “He gave me the chess app to play and it cheated and froze when I was about to win. Now he’s all angry with them.”
Paul went white. “Fuck, I hope it wasn’t my coding that went caput.”
I stared at him, horrified. I hadn’t thought of that.
“Oh, I’m sure it’s not. He was mad with Tom on the phone.” I took a gulp of coffee.
“Yeah, well he would be. But Tom doesn’t do that much of the coding, he just stitches together what the teams do. It makes it a lot quicker.” He stared at the folder. “I was going to tell you that we’re taking longer than we should, just because you might want to ask for a team yourself. But if the fault’s in my stuff, maybe I shouldn’t be working on your app.”
He looked really worried.
“No. Paul, I don’t want a team. I was worried enough telling just you. I’d be scared it would get leaked. And I trust that you’ll make it work.” I sat at the workstation. “Is it today we’re going to look at the backroom psychologist workload?”
His face cleared a bit. “Yeah. That’s the genius bit of your idea. No other team that I know of would want that commitment, but it’s exactly what’ll make people keep on subscribing.”
I grinned. “That’s what I thought.”
I began leafing through the sheets. “But we don’t want it to throw too much to the back. It’s got to learn to come up with good replies most of the time.”
Finally, his face cleared. “Yeah, I’ve thought of that. Look, on this bit. There’s a feedback loop here where the user has to rate the response. If it’s good, then the app learns, and downloads a new bit of code in the next update.” He paged on through.
“And here, if the user is coming up with too many whacky responses that come back to us, then she gets told to get a health screening before she can use the live psychology function again.”
I carried on reading. “That looks good. So … we’re good with just one member of staff until we’ve got how many subscribers?”
He leaned over me. “Look. There, the estimate’s up to fifty k. I’m thinking to start with, the boss will want to pay agency shrinks by the hour. We’re not promising instant replies, and that on its own will encourage them to go for the easy answers.”
I grinned. “Good thinking, Batman.” I stopped, puzzled. “What does this mean?” And I pointed to the word. “Psycho-ceramica?”
Paul looked a bit embarrassed. “Oh, that’s back-end. Users won’t see it, but I didn’t want a rude name getting out if the code got leaked.” He shrugged. “It’s cryptic for crack-pot, when we get a weirdo.”
I sat back and laughed my head off. “Psycho-ceramica. Crack-pot. I love it!”
He went a bit pink, smiling back.
Then my senses prickled. I turned. James was standing in the doorway. He looked serious, not a glimmer of a smile, his body tense, coiled. He saw me looking at him, and smiled tightly.
Paul leapt to his feet. “Good morning, sir.”
James nodded at him. “Carry on, Paul.” Then he turned to me.
“Perhaps Paul can spare you for the rest of the day, I’d like you to come home for lunch.” I looked over at him. There were lines of tension around his eyes, and he looked more gaunt than usual.
“Of course.” I reached for my purse. “See you, Paul.”
I followed James to the elevators. Once we were inside, he leaned against the wall, as if he was weary. I felt anxious when he didn’t speak to me. “Um, James?”
He shook his head at me. “Not here.”
I was astounded. Didn’t he trust his staff? But I subsided anyway, and kept silent even as the car took us home.
* * *
It was a bit early for lunch, and James headed upstairs immediately. “Come with me, Toni.”
What had I done wrong? Slowly, I followed him. It seemed ominous, no staff were around, though I often didn’t see anyone until we called for them anyway. Perhaps I was just being extra sensitive.
I trailed along after him and he entered his own suite, holding the door open for me. I went in, trying not to bite my lip.
“What happened, James? Can it be fixed in time? Chess? I’m sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have tested it?”
His mouth twisted in a grimace. “No, that’s okay, Toni. In a way, it’s better now than when it’s been released. Someone in the media would have tried everything to break it.” He shrugged. “Because that’s what they do.” He smiled humorlessly. “Perhaps I should’ve given it to you a week or so ago, so the pressure isn’t on so much.”
He walked across to his drinks cabinet. “Christ, I need a drink.” He slid the door open and sloshed a small amount of whiskey into his glass. Then he looked over at me. “You?”
“Just a cola, please.”
He poured it and brought it over to me, and then he sat beside me on the sofa. “So. Tell me how your app is going.” He didn’t look very happy, and I wondered what I’d done, or whether he’d heard about it and didn’t approve, or something.
I shrugged. “It’s going okay. Paul thinks it’s a good one, and it’ll work and make good profits.” I looked at him.
He nodded, looking into his glass and swirling the drink around. “Okay. Tell me a bit more.”
I thought. “Paul thinks it could be ready for asking people to try it soon.” I looked up at him. “I don’t know what you’re asking for. So I don’t know what to tell you. Paul’s saying that …” I stopped in the middle of the word as James grabbed my hand, nearly spilling my drink.
“Good God, girl! I don’t want to know what Paul thinks. I want to know what you think, whether you think it’s any good, if it’s really something you want to sink your life into?” He glared at me.
I stared back. What the hell was that all about? “I … I’m sorry. I thought that’s what you wanted to know.” I shrugged. “Yes, it’s just like I imagined it would be.” I tipped my head up. “I know it’s going to be really popular when people see it.”
“Good.” He’d shrunk back into disinterest, and I watched as he threw the rest of his drink down his throat. “But I need to talk to you about Paul.”
Alarm flared inside me. “What about Paul? Are you going to take him away to fix Chess?”
He looked puzzled for a second. “Oh. No. It wasn’t his coding that went wrong. Anyway, I told you this morning. He’s on your app until you don’t need him any more.” He placed his glass on the side table.
Then he turned his body to face me. “No, what I need to speak to you is about the way you behave towards Paul. He’s a member of my staff, a team member who has ambitions to work for my company for a long time.”
I was mystified. “I understand.”
“Do you?” James’ voice hardened. “So why are you treating him as a friend? He’s not a friend, he’s not even a colleague.” He leaned forward. “He’s a member of staff, and you’re getting much too familiar
with him.”
I leapt to my feet. “How dare you? I’m just being nice. Or have you forgotten what it’s like to be friendly?” I took a deep breath. “For your information, Paul hasn’t put a foot out of line. He wouldn’t take advantage of me. He’s not an idiot!”
I realized I was standing over him, my hands on my hips, and I knew I’d gone scarlet with anger and embarrassment.
James sat there, his face dark with anger. “I would hope he hasn’t. Or he’d be out on his ass! No, I’m talking about your behavior, not his. The friendlier you are, the harder you’re making it for him as well as me — and yourself, in the long run.” Then he was on his feet, towering over me. “I think another lesson is in order, don’t you?”
And in that instant, I shifted from anger to lust. I felt my insides lurch and a throbbing need overtook me. I saw amusement in his eyes, and swallowed.
He took my arm, and he didn’t grab me or force me. Perhaps that lulled me into a false sense of security. He took me over to the chair he’d sat in when he spanked me before, and he sat down, making me stand in front of him.
“I think you need a firm lesson to drive home the need to treat staff as staff, don’t you?” His voice was deep and commanding.
“Yes, James,” I muttered, wondering what the hell sort of feeble girl liked being spanked. I must be mad. Maybe I should make a stand, tell him that I wouldn’t let him do this to me. But I was too late. He took my arm and drew me next to him.
“Lie across me.” His words were utterly compelling, but I hesitated. It wasn’t that I wasn’t excited by the thought of it, but the sheer humiliation of putting myself in the position was harder to bear.
“Do as you’re told.” His voice was incisive and reluctantly I knew I’d obey him. I set my jaw and bent over him, waiting as long as possible before I actually put my weight across his lap. Then I lay still.
“Good girl.” At his words, my hackles rose. There was the humiliation again, the patronizing words. But I clenched my jaw, the very humiliation was what made it exciting, what charged me. My ass, stuck up in the air. His arm, warm and heavy, across my back. Then I gasped as the cool air hit my ass. He’d lifted my skirt up over my back. Somehow the fact that I wasn’t naked made it all the more exciting, and I squirmed in discomfort. His arm pressed more heavily down on me.
“Keep still, Antonia.”
I screwed my eyes tightly shut. I could feel everything more intensely that way, and as his right hand slipped inside my panties and tugged them down over my ass, I bit my lip. Oh God! He’d know how wet I was, how ready for him.
“Oh. Looking forward to this then.” His voice, cool and amused. His fingers, slicking their way through my folds. My heartbeat, racing ahead with excitement. All my attention focused on my core, and the actions of his fingers as he pressed delicately forward.
Then he’d withdrawn his hand, and I moaned in disappointment. He cleaned his fingers by wiping my sticky juices onto my ass cheeks and chuckled.
“This is a punishment, Antonia. It’s not meant to be fun.” He tapped my ass. “Do you know why you’re being punished?”
I gritted my teeth. I might be aroused by being spanked, but I wasn’t going to play games with him.
“Antonia?” I stayed silent.
“If you want to play games, then that’s fine. You’ll stay right here, over my knee, until you answer my question.” A note of amusement crept into his voice. “It’d be a shame if Lawrence or David came in to tell me lunch is served, wouldn’t it?”
What? I jerked in shock. Then I felt my anger rising. He wasn’t playing fair.
I muttered something that I knew he wouldn’t hear.
“I beg your pardon? Speak up.” He sounded triumphant.
“The moment that happens is the moment our agreement is off. Sir.”
There was a moment of silence. Then. “Touche, Toni. I understand. All right, if you don’t want to tell me why you’re being punished, I’ll remind you.” His finger tapped my ass cheek. “One, you are far too familiar with staff.” He tapped the other cheek. “Two, staff can find it very awkward if you’re over familiar, and then have to require them to do something. The whole dynamic changes.” Back to tapping the first ass cheek again. “Three, this needs to be a reminder that you’ll remember.” He started rubbing my ass. “I’m afraid it will hurt.”
A smile entered his voice again. “But I think you’ll enjoy the aftermath.”
He shifted my position slightly. “Get ready.”
This was a different order of spanking. I knew that from the very first blow. He got into a rhythm very quickly. The usual — one ass cheek, then the other, then the low blow to the sweet spot at the top of my thighs. Within a couple of minutes, I was sweating with pain, trying to move forward to avoid the low blow.
I clenched my jaw. I would be damned if I’d beg him to stop. I could feel my butt stinging like crazy, and I knew my cheeks would be blazing red. I just hoped his palm would be stinging even worse. I tried to count. Last time it had been what? Twenty? I couldn’t remember. Anyway, I didn’t know how many he’d already landed on my poor ass. I wondered hazily if his arm got tired. I wondered even more hazily if he’d ever stop. Then I realized he had stopped, and his hand was rubbing my ass.
“Toni? Well done, you’ve been very brave.”
I didn’t answer him. I don’t know what had happened, but I was in a comfortable haze. The only thing that mattered was that I was with him, and I hoped for some sex pretty soon. I didn’t even mind that none of it made sense to my modern mind.
“Toni?” His voice was quiet. I felt my panties being pulled up and the sting of the pressure of them. Then he tugged my skirt back down, and was lifting me up, limp in my pleasant haze.
He chuckled. “Zoned out on me, have you?” And he tucked me into his arms and carried me over to the sofa. I gave a sigh of satisfaction as I snuggled down onto his lap, and shut my eyes again. I sensed his gaze on me and kept my head down.
James
I was humming as I dressed carefully for the evening. I wondered how Toni would take it. She thought we were just going out for dinner, but I had a surprise for her.
We’d had a good couple of weeks. The launch of Chess had gone without a hitch, and thank the Lord that she’d discovered the flaw in time. The USCF and the online Chess.com had both reviewed it favorably, and it had rocketed high in the stores.
Toni seemed to be behaving more carefully around Paul, but was sparkling with excitement over her app. She still wouldn’t tell me what it was about though, and I indulged her, wondering if she wanted to surprise me with it. Even Tom hadn’t been able to discover what it was about from Paul, though I’d told him not to push too hard.
The best part of all was that I’d discovered she was an excellent player. Most evenings we had a tournament in my suite, and I’d surprised myself by taking it so casually that we played strip chess. I grinned at my reflection.
Occasionally, I sacrificed a piece so that I could get my shoes and tie off, but I was comfortably certain of getting her naked after that. But lately, I’d had to work increasingly hard. The clever girl was learning my style of play, and yesterday she’d taken the shirt off my back. Thank goodness I’d been able to unsettle her with a few choice comments and take back control. I was going to have to go carefully, though. International tournaments might never be the same if I couldn’t get the image of a naked, bright-eyed imp thinking her way around the board.
I was enjoying life since Toni, and tried to stop myself thinking too hard about what I should be planning to go back to. I heard a soft knock on the connecting door to her bedroom. “Come in,” I said and I turned to greet her, my necktie still in my hand.
She stepped into the room, and I felt as if I’d been punched in the gut. She was gorgeous. A delicate evening gown swirled around her elegant form, and silver slippers shimmered beneath the hem. Her hair was twisted on top of her head, making her even taller, and little tendrils escaped,
framing her face and softening the effect. Diamond earrings sparkled and glittered on the necklace around her throat. I couldn’t stop myself staring, comparing her with my memory of her in that awful greasy diner. Her little half-smile became uncertain.
“Don’t you like it?” She sounded disappointed.
I shook my head. “It’s not that, it’s … you’re beautiful. I never expected this.” I stepped forward and lifted her hand to my mouth, kissing the back of it. “I couldn’t have wanted a more fairy-tale consort.”
She smiled in relief, and blushed, a delicate rose.
I took her hand and led her to a chair. “Would you wait just a moment? I’m nearly ready.” I turned back to the mirror and checked my tie. “Good.” My eyes sought hers in the reflection. She looked poised and beautiful. Elegant, born to a high station in life. My very own pygmalion. God! I couldn’t give her up.
Then I was taking her hand. “Let’s go.” I looked carefully at her. “Will that wrap be warm enough? I don’t want you to be cold.”
She smiled up at me. “Are we likely to be outdoors for more than about ten minutes?”
“No, not tonight,” I reassured her.
“Then I’m fine.” She picked up her tiny purse and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
* * *
Downstairs, Lawrence was waiting, and he followed us discreetly to the car, getting in beside the driver before we moved off.
Toni looked puzzled. “Why’s Lawrence coming?”
“Oh, he’s organized this for me,” I said lightly. “It’s easier if he takes care of the paperwork.” I didn’t tell her that he’d organized the security for this. I definitely didn’t want the media to find out what we were going to see, and the fewer people that saw us the better as far as I was concerned.
When we arrived at the airport and the car swept up to the jet, Toni turned to me. “Come on, spill the beans. This looks like more than just dinner.”
I grinned. “Oh, yes! I think you’ll enjoy what I have in store for you.” Lawrence was holding the door for her, and the driver opened my side. The pilot waited at the foot of the steps and he saluted us as we went past him and climbed up into the cabin.
Pawn of the Billionaire Page 12