The Unblocked Collection

by Marni Mann

  He looked up slowly, first at my wrist, moving gradually up my arm, until his gaze met my face. His eyes turned hooded, as though he could barely restrain himself from me. It started a tingling in my lower stomach that shot between my legs. I liked the sensation and the way his eyes devoured me; it just came with so many mixed emotions.

  “You’re wearing the bracelet,” he said.

  I glanced at his wrist, noting that it was bare. “You told me to.”

  “Will you do everything I tell you?”

  This was where I proved my mettle—to myself, if not to him. “No, Derek, I won’t. If that’s what you’re looking for, Julia would be a much better fit than me.”

  He kept me in suspense for several seconds before he said, “Give me the contract. I’ll have my attorney review it and, as long as we can come to an agreement on your commission, you can consider yourself hired—exclusively. The entire building is yours to sell.”

  TEN.

  DEREK

  I HADN’T GIVEN FRANKIE any indication during our meeting that I’d decided to hire her. That had been my plan all along, and judging by the look of shock on her face, it had worked. I wanted to see if she could endure over an hour’s worth of questioning, if I could make her doubt her abilities. I wanted to see if she would be resistant to me. She endured, all right. She even seemed to flourish more as the interview went on. As for being resistant, her words told me she was, her body told me otherwise. Her eyes, too. She couldn’t hide her desires—and those were inspired completely by me. I had no doubt.

  After the initial shock wore off, a look of pleasure spread over her face. “You’ve surprised me, Derek.”

  That smile…it made me wonder if she’d be wearing the same gorgeous expression when my tongue was lapping her cunt. I hated that I’d have to wait to find out that answer.

  “Good.”

  She reached into her bag and removed a stack of paperwork, like I had suspected she would. All business. She laid the folder in front of me. “Before we move forward, there are a few things I’d like to address.”

  “Address them, then.”

  “I don’t mind having meetings at seven in the morning. I do mind the short notice, however. I have an extremely full schedule, as I’m sure you do. So let’s agree to a seventy-two hour notice.”

  “Forty-eight hours.”

  She smiled again. She knew I’d negotiate. “Agreed. Also, I don’t think it’s too much to expect you to trust me and allow me to market the properties any way I want. No asking for permission, no signing off on advertising campaigns, as long as I sell these units in a reasonable amount of time and at a price you’re comfortable with then I’m in charge.”

  She had no idea what she was asking for. Trust? Fuck trust. Even the ones who were supposed to love you only looked out for themselves at times. If she wanted that from me, she’d have to earn it. I’d give her the chance and I’d also allow her to be in charge of the sales decisions. But that was the only control she was getting. What she didn’t know was Will would be watching. “Agreed.”

  Her neck arched as if I’d slapped her, and the grin she was already wearing spread even wider. Those thick, glossed lips were framing a perfect set of white teeth.

  “Have I surprised you again, Frankie?”

  “Honestly, I thought it was going to be much harder than this.”

  She had no idea how hard I really was. “There are moments when I’m willing to be reasonable. This is one of those rare occasions. Do you have any other terms, or are you going to loosen the collar you’ve thrown around my neck and allow me to voice mine now?”

  “By all means.” She leaned back in her chair, her arms crossing over those perky little tits. “I’d love to hear them.”

  “I’ll be working out of this office until all the units have sold. That means I’m available to buyers, but only to those under contract. I don’t want every prospect coming in here and wasting my time by asking questions they can find answers to on the internet.”

  “I’ll keep the meetings to a minimum, and I’ll pre-screen their questions.”

  Another good answer. “I want weekly sales meetings and an email at the end of each day, telling me what units were shown and if there was any interest. When a contract is submitted, I want to know about it, even if it’s three in the morning. I want to know everything.”

  “Everything,” she repeated. “Of course.”

  I could tell she didn’t understand the exception I was making for her. She needed to. “I’m giving you freedom, Frankie. Freedom to wrangle your way into any sale you please. I’ve never given any of my past agents this much freedom. Don’t mistake it for favor, or those privileges will be rescinded. Our communication will either make this power team, or it will destroy us.”

  “I won’t disappoint you.” Even that didn’t throw her.

  I wanted her to say that while she was on her knees, looking up at me with those big gunmetal eyes, holding my thick cock in her hand.

  Where our business arrangement was concerned, she had yet to disappoint me. Given that our weekly sales meeting would eliminate the need for daily emails, I hadn’t expected her to comply with my requests. But she had.

  “I know you won’t, Frankie.”

  If this exchange were any indication, we’d be getting along just fine—that was, if I could keep my damn hands off her. All I could picture was her dark hair spread over my black walnut desk, her feet curled around its beveled edge…

  Working with her was going to be torturous.

  But I needed her to be my agent almost as much as I needed her to be my fantasy fuck.

  She slid forward in her chair. “I’ve agreed to everything you’ve asked for. My team is on standby; as soon as you sign the contract, we’ll hire a photographer and start planning the unveiling party. Have I missed anything?”

  She wasn’t as seductive as she had been at the restaurant. The wine had made her much looser than normal. I understood her professionalism. It served to make her a bit more challenging… and I understood that even better.

  No…not understood.

  I fucking loved it.

  “Dinner tomorrow night.” I wanted to see her in something less constricting, and I wanted a glass of wine in her hand.

  “We haven’t even begun, and you’ve already broken the forty-eight hour rule.”

  That made me want to smile, but I didn’t. “If you’re not free, we can do the following night.”

  “What would we be discussing?”

  She wouldn’t appreciate an honest response, so I fed her one that would satisfy her business sensibilities. “Marketing plans. I may not need to approve them, but I do want to hear about them.”

  She paused. “Let me see if I’m free.” Relief showed in her flushed face and in the upper half of her body. She probably had no idea how much a relentless pounding could do for her tension level. She couldn’t have known—she was too tightly wound. Whoever she had been with was either an amateur or a lazy fucker who only thought about himself. I’d change that, show her what it was like to be with someone who worshipped every inch of her, who’d do anything to please her and give her pleasure she didn’t know was possible.

  She stared at her phone. “I can’t tomorrow. There’s an industry party I must attend.” She glanced up. “Are you going?”

  “I don’t keep up with events like that.” I’d been a successful developer without having to attend those ass-kissing cocktail parties.

  “I’m free the night after. Will that work for you?”

  “Fine.” I didn’t even glance at my schedule. Whatever was on it, I’d have Will cancel.

  She stood. “So I’ll see you in a few days—or nights, I mean.” Her face flushed a deeper shade of red. I liked getting that reaction from her.

  “You will.”

  “Thanks for breakfast.”

  I nodded and turned my attention to my computer screen, not that anything on it mattered, I just didn’t trust what wo
uld happen if I kept holding her gaze. I listened to her slip her bag over her shoulder, weave around the chair, and move toward the door before I braved another look. Today’s ensemble was a pair of gray pants with pockets that framed her impeccable, heart-shaped ass. I shook my head at its perfection.

  “Now that Frankie’s gone,” Will said through my intercom, “are you free to take a call?”

  “Depends. Who is it?”

  “Julia.”

  I highlighted all the new emails and deleted them. At least two were from her as well. I had no idea how she’d gotten my contact information. I was unlisted, and Will certainly wouldn’t have given it to her. And to minimize our contact, I had given her one of Will’s business cards instead of mine. Otherwise, she’d have my cell number, too.

  “She’s called seven times in the last hour,” he said. “Maybe if you talk to her, she’ll give us a break and I’ll actually be able to get some work done.”

  Until the contract was signed, I didn’t want to tell Julia—or anyone—that Frankie had the exclusive, even if that meant the nagging would continue. She was persistent; I had to give her that. “Send Frankie’s contract to my attorney,” I said. “Tell him I want the documents reviewed no later than tomorrow, the details outlined, terms defined. I want everything wrapped up in the next few days.”

  “Done. What about Julia?”

  “Send her through.”

  There was a click, followed by a beep that signaled the call had been connected. “This is Derek.”

  “You’re a hard man to reach.”

  I was actually glad to hear that. “What can I do for you, Julia?”

  “Since you asked so nicely, I’d like to invite you to a party tomorrow night.”

  “Which one?”

  “The Brokers Ball. It’s an industry party that…” I stopped listening. That was the same one Frankie was attending. If Julia was able to invite a guest, then Frankie was too. I wondered who she was bringing as her date. “…and I’d like to introduce you to the executives around town so we can—”

  “Sounds like a good time.”

  “Fantastic. I’ll rent us a limo and call you with all the details.”

  “Email them to Will. He’ll brief me on whatever I need to know.”

  I knew it would be good for business to introduce myself and connect with the people who ran Boston’s market. I also knew I wasn’t going to the party for that.

  I had to see her.

  I had to be inside her…that’s all this was about. Once I had her, I would get her out of my head, even if that happened to be months from now.

  I clenched my fingers around a pad of paint samples and squeezed them into my palm. The sheets fanned like a deck of cards.

  What the fuck was happening to me?

  ELEVEN.

  FRANKIE

  “I HAVE the Brokers Ball tomorrow,” I said to Brea. “I have nothing to wear and no date.”

  I collapsed into the chair behind my desk, my fall giving the wheels enough momentum to roll backward. The leather banged into the window ledge. “Can we find a way to cancel? I can fake a hangover…or maybe I’ll cause a real one.”

  The ball had been on my calendar for months. Brea had received the invitation in the mail and had blocked off the time on my schedule. I knew it was coming, I’d just chosen to ignore it, in hopes that it would go away. For the past two years, I’d gone with Reed. Now he’d probably be going with someone gorgeous, which made the no-dress, no-date situation feel even worse.

  “You’re not canceling,” Brea said firmly. “You’re going, and you have something to wear.” She rushed out of my office and returned with a rolling rack of dresses.

  “Where did you get those?”

  “One of my friends from college is a designer. Her line just got picked up by Nordstrom. Anyway, I knew you’d want to wear something new, and you haven’t had time to shop so I gave her a call.”

  “You…are…”

  “Amazing. I know. And I’m not even close to being done.”

  “You mean there’s more? Besides these dresses?”

  “Patience, Ms. Jordan. One dazzling surprise at a time.” She walked over to me, her hands outstretched, lifting me out of the chair. “Come pick one so I can return the others.”

  I glanced at the large clock that hung on my office wall. “Do I have time before my next meeting to shop for a purse and heels to match?”

  “You won’t have to.” She left me next to the rack, wheeled over a metal trunk, and opened it. It was full of boxes and cloth bags. “They’ve come to you!”

  I wasn’t used to being emotional at work. When my father lashed out at me verbally, I saved the tears for when I got home. But Brea’s generosity made it difficult to hold them in. She’d been my assistant when my relationship with Reed had taken a dangerous turn, so she knew what I had gone through and how long it had taken me to recover—if that’s what this state could even be called.

  “Thank you.”

  She chose a dress from the middle of the rack and took off the plastic dry cleaner bag. “You didn’t deserve what happened to you.”

  I nodded. “I know.”

  “And I know how hard tomorrow night is going to be, so I tried to make it a little easier on you.”

  “You did.” I patted the corners of my eyes. “More than you know.”

  “You would have done the same for me.” She held the dress against my body. “Now no more tears. You just landed the biggest contract of your career, and this is the dress you’re going to be wearing to the party.”

  I swallowed the knot in my throat and glanced at the window across from me. “This one?” I turned, checking out my reflection. It really was a sexy dress—black, fitted, the hem falling just above my knee, and the neckline cut low enough so I would have the perfect amount of cleavage. I hoped it would make me feel the same way Derek’s eyes did. “I think you might be right.”

  “I am right.” She smiled and winked. “And I have the hottest red heels and bag to go with it.”

  I twirled the dress so I could see the back. “Too bad your friend didn’t supply a handsome man to go along with it. I could really use a date.”

  “About that…don’t be mad, okay?”

  I lowered the dress so I could see her face. “Brea, what did you do?”

  “Don’t read too much into it…he’s just one of the junior brokers. I figured it would be good for him to meet some of the industry executives—nothing more. So I asked him.”

  “You asked him to be my date?”

  She scrunched her nose like she smelled something awful. That was her guilty face. “He knows this is just for work. I made that very clear.”

  My father wasn’t attending this year; his trip to Croatia had been booked for the same time, so he’d asked me to represent the company. If he found out I was going with an employee—and a subordinate, no less—he wouldn’t be pleased. That didn’t matter. With Reed in attendance, there was absolutely no way I was going without a date. And thanks to Brea securing me one, I wouldn’t have to.

  “Is he cute, at least?” I asked.

  She lifted the red shoes and bag out of the trunk and placed them on top of my desk. “Cute? No. He’s haaaaawt. Not as hot as Derek, of course, but damn close.” The sound of his name startled me. Brea noticed, and she smiled. “I realize I was four glasses deep at that restaurant, but the way he was looking at you…whoa! Not just looking, he was flirting, too. Hardcore flirting.”

  She was right—the look, the subtle flirting; I’d felt both. But because Derek was about to be one of our clients, I wasn’t ready to admit that out loud, or express to her how either of them made me feel. “He was just being friendly.”

  “Oh, hell no—that was way more than friendly.” She took the dress out of my hand and held it up to the shoes and purse. Satisfied with the outfit, she bagged all the items together and hung them back on the rack. “If you don’t think he’s interested in you, you’re crazy.”


  “He’s my boss…or partner…or client…whatever, and we’re going to be working together for a while. Closely together.”

  “So you’re saying he uses those sexy bedroom eyes on every woman? I don’t think so. Julia and I didn’t even exist when you were standing in front of him.”

  I leaned against the edge of my desk. Aside from the way he made me feel, and the flurry of emotions he stirred, there was a bigger issue here and that was something I couldn’t hide from Brea. “I know it’s been a year, but I still don’t think I’m ready for something that heavy.” I had made Anna a promise to open myself up to the possibility of dating, I just didn’t know if I could follow through with it.

  “Then don’t go heavy,” she said. “Stay light and keep things simple, like ‘sex-only’ simple. With those broad shoulders and big biceps, I can only imagine how delicious the rest of his body is. Wait…we haven’t even talked about his hands. You saw them, right? They’re huge, and you know what they say about guys with big hands, don’t you?” She paused, waiting for a response that I was too speechless to give. “Anyway, you need to sample whatever he’s willing to give you, and then just keep on sampling it again and again. And again. That’s something you don’t pass up. Like ever.”

  “We’re not supposed to have conversations like this.”

  “Yes, we are. We just don’t have them when we’re sober and at work, usually.” Her phone rang, and she glanced at the screen. “Makeup, hair, and nails will be arriving at your condo at five. Zack—his name is Zack, by the way—and Norm will be there at seven.”

  We now had over one hundred agents working at our office. It was impossible to remember all their names and faces, but I was making an effort to get better at both.

  “Zack. Norm. Be home at five for makeup. Right.”

  She put the phone up to her ear and covered the speaker with her hand. “I have to take this, but it’s all in your calendar and I’ll text you to remind you.” She drifted out of the room.