by Christa Wick
Rolling from bed, Collin rose, his back to me as he dipped and retrieved his jacket. Walking from the room, he called over his shoulder as he zipped and buttoned his pants, his gaze never meeting mine.
"You don't leave until I'm done with you."
I nodded at the closed door then stared up at the ceiling.
Welcome to Dubai.
Chapter Four
Collin
Midnight, balls already aching, I entered the suite. The bottle of champagne I had ordered waited untouched, the last of the ice floating around it. Standing quietly next to the table, I looked to Mia's room to find a closed door, no light underneath and absolute silence.
Grabbing the champagne, I smiled at the challenge. I had kept a beautiful woman waiting, whether she believed herself beautiful or not. Nor did it matter that she was deeply submissive. I would have to atone for exiling her to the suite then leaving her alone the entire evening, even if my absence was completely her fault.
And it was her fault -- I hadn't intended to come to the conference, only accepted at the last minute as an excuse to spend a week in a luxury hotel with my new, lovely senior secretary. Nor had I expected new business to fall in my lap the first day in country, the contract a perfect combination of high profit in exchange for low effort that I didn't want to postpone negotiations.
Perhaps, subversively, I also wanted Mia twisting after seeing her with Ames, his hand on her arm, stroking her flesh, his hip brushing against hers, the shared joke he had leaned in far too close to tell her, the palpable tension running through her body when he did.
Tension that was mine to claim.
Pouring the champagne, I watched the pale gold liquid swirl in the flutes. The color reminded me of the last glimpse I'd had of Mia in the mirrored elevator doors before I propelled her inside and up to the suite, away from Ames and the other men whose hungry eyes had caressed her curves.
Need crawled up my spine at the memory. She had picked the tight fitting black skirt suit with the white accents that traveled the hills and valleys of breasts and hips, drawing any healthy man's eye to her more prominent assets. Eventually, such a man would have to look up, to see the face that accompanied the lush, desirable flesh.
Her face was the final blow -- the green eyes cloaked in smoky mystery, the eyelashes almost brushing the pale pink of her cheeks. Then the lips, glimpsed last, when the certainty had already claimed me that it couldn't get any better, but it did.
I wanted to follow her into the elevator, lock its doors, drop my pants, and feel those frosted pink lips wrap around my cock as we rode up to the suite where I could spend the evening taking her and erasing any hint of attraction I'd seen her display while talking to Ames.
Only I had a multi-year, multi-billion dollar contract waiting in a conference room on the fourth floor of the hotel that was mine for the taking.
Crossing to Mia's door, I planned another taking, my mind already conjuring which outfit she had changed into before retiring. Or maybe she had nothing on at all, annoyance at my standing her up goading her into stripping whatever corset or gown she had dressed her curves in and crawling into bed naked. Either would count as a win, giving me either faster access to her yielding flesh or the pleasure of slowly removing the clothing.
Placing the flutes on the nightstand, I brought the bedside light up to bathe the room in a soft glow. Looking at the bed, I found her eyes open, some worry flitting across her face before she tried to smooth it into something else. I'd get to the root of that worry and allay it after I learned just what waited for me beneath the covers.
I started to pull them away in a slow tease.
Flannel?
Fuck me -- somehow, her first day in Dubai with no real resources, she had managed to retrieve all those pieces of her luggage she had crammed with innocence and self-deprecation that I had intentionally ordered stored away from her. I looked at her face again, noting the lack of make-up and the fresh glow of her pale skin.
Swallowing down my amusement, I scowled. "This is not what I provided you with."
"No." She reached for the covers, her hand brushing mine. "It's what I provided me with."
The haughty, maidenly tone perfectly matched the lace ruffling on the flannel gown, surprising a chuckle from me before I could call it back. "Flannel, Mia, in the god damn desert. I should spank you just for packing that granny gown."
Her nostrils flared and I couldn't tell in the light if it was arousal or irritation. The latter wouldn't be tolerated. I flicked the rest of the covers onto the ground in warning. "I'm definitely going to spank you for Glenn."
And because I wanted to feel that lush bottom against my hand, her juices dripping onto my lap from an innate arousal she couldn't control.
She swallowed hard at the threat and I still couldn't read her face -- anticipation or guilt? Kane had been too busy working contract negotiations with me to report on Ames. Maybe there was more to Mia's encounter than I wanted to believe.
"Why?" she asked.
Capturing the bottom hem of the nightgown, I eased it up her shins even as I admired her open-ended question. She wanted to know what I knew about Ames before revealing her own details or offering an explanation. A nice tactic, but I didn't want her playing games with me, especially not my games.
I lobbed an open answer at her, one she would have to defend. "Your posture while talking to him."
"My posture was mortified!" she blurted. "I had no idea he would be here. I haven't seen him in over six months. I hate him!"
Hate? My chest tightened slightly at the word. Hate meant something more than a casual interaction had existed between them. Certainly Ames had been admiring Mia and quickly became territorial on my approach, as if he had the superior right.
For all I knew, he did.
"Hate is a strong word for a mere classmate, Mia." One hand still gripping the edge of the gown, I stretched an arm toward the lamp, tapping twice more to bring it to full brightness. Seeing the nightdress more clearly, with its long sleeves that ended in frills, to the pearl-like buttons that ran in a line from the middle of her breasts up to her rounded chin, I forgot about Ames for the moment.
She looked so sweet, fragile despite the fake glare she threw in my direction as she tried to move away from me. Sliding onto the mattress next to her, I tugged the gown up to her hips, spread her thighs then ran the back of my knuckles against the gusset of her panties.
She was on the defensive and I wanted to keep her there until arousal eroded the fight from her tense body.
"I was wondering how long it would take to get you wet, angry as you are."
I slipped a finger beneath the elastic band and ran the tip along the seam of her labia. Fuck, she was wet, deliciously so. But for whom?
"Wet already. Were you thinking of me or Glenn?"
Her glare turned real at the question. "I told you, I don't like him."
Folding her arms across her breasts, she wedged her hands between them and her sides so she was locked down. She didn't like this line of questioning, which only deepened my suspicion that something had passed between them. Was that why she had come to bed as dressed down as possible? She didn't want me in here undressing her when Ames was elsewhere in the hotel?
"Hate him," I corrected, swallowing a sudden burn of bile. "But that doesn't answer my question. This thick cream could be for him."
"It isn't!" Another blurt erupted and the threat of tears brimmed her green eyes. "It doesn't matter how attractive Glenn is, he's a complete asshole."
So she found the over-manicured, metrosexual form of Glenn Ames attractive? Turning my growl into a chuckle before it left me, I tore the panties I'd been fingering from her body. "An attractive asshole -- sounds like your opinion of me, baby. So which one of us has your pussy all worked up?"
I watched her shut her eyes, her cheeks starting to redden as she bit at her bottom lip before responding through clenched teeth.
"You!"
That was th
e answer I wanted, but I didn't know if I could believe her. Every time I thought I had Mia figured out, she surprised me.
I rolled until I rested lightly atop her. "Open your eyes. I can't trust you until you stop hiding."
Her obedience was slow, her cheeks cooling as she slowly unshuttered her gaze.
"Tell me again." I stroked the soft fur of her cunt, my dry fingers wicking away the moisture that beaded at the tips of her silken hair.
"I'm wet for you."
Chest and cock swelled simultaneously, forcing me to lean a little closer and brush my lips over her soft cheek. "Such a dirty thing to say when you look so sweet and innocent, with your flannel gown and its pink flowers, love."
Love?
Fuck. Undoing the buttons on her gown, I pushed past the word and hoped like hell it had slid by Mia or only served to confuse her. I was enchanted with her, not in love. Love led to mistakes, got people killed. Love was something no one bounced back from when it went one-hundred percent ass up. I loved the way she trembled, loved the mix of trust and apprehension in her eyes, but I didn't love her.
Right -- case closed.
Undoing another button, I started to breathe again. "Let's at least get you naked so I don't feel like such a defiler."
"Collin--"
I looked up, saw her expression reflexively jerk back at using my first name. "Mr. Stark..."
Calling me "Mr. Stark" after I had just called her "love." It didn't matter that I was merely enchanted, her reaction didn't bode well for me. But my fingers weren't in her and I had laid that stupid rule down.
Time to change it.
"We're alone, Mia."
Lightly trembling, she remained obstinately silent so I made it a command. "You'll call me Collin when we're alone."
Still mute and I could see she held back tears -- real tears. Not even the female Mossad agents I had run up against could fake their emotions so well. But knowing the pain was genuine didn't reveal its source. If she really was wet for me, why hold back?
Growling, I ripped the rest of the buttons off, the strength of my sharp pull shooting them around the room to bounce off the wall and furniture. Through the gap of fabric, I pulled one succulent breast out, my mouth instantly seizing on the swollen tip as I pushed two fingers into Mia's cunt. My thumb landed atop her clit to slowly rub up and down as I fucked my fingers in and out of her pussy.
First I would drive away the tears, bring forth her soft moans and then she would tell me what was wrong. Gnawing at the cherry pucker of her nipple, I pushed my fingers into her sweet cunt, felt her muscles suck and milk at the invaders. Her tears momentarily forgotten, she started to moan as she moved, her body arching as her tight pussy slurped at my fingers.
Damn, she was a lightning rod, ten thousand volts out of nowhere, ready to come the moment my fingers were in her. I pulled out, peeled my jacket away and destroyed the buttons on my shirt in my haste to remove it. Taking it off proved too much as Mia whimpered from my withdrawal.
I moved down her body, pushed her thighs apart and kissed the swollen, shiny clit. When my tongue found and started to tease the pearl tucked inside, she vibrated. Breaking the suction, I pushed three fingers deep into her grasping cunt.
"Stop pretending, baby. Stop hiding."
My chest swelled knowing, at that moment, she was wet for me, ready to come for me, mine to command.
"That little sham of a girl inside you, I'm going to destroy her tonight." I shredded the rest of her gown, used it to bind her arms. "You won't listen to her ever again."
I cupped her mound, my palm bearing down as I pushed three fingers into her. "This is what you'll listen to. This soaking wet hole that wants to be filled and completely possessed."
"Do you want to come, Mia?" I demanded.
"Yes."
Fuck, yes. Fingers buried in her, I stroked her clit with my thumb as I gazed into her green eyes. The apprehension was gone, just the trust and raw need as thick as the juices that covered my palm. "No more hiding?"
"No -- none."
"I won't let you go back," I promised, my face dropping to her cunt, mouth watering with the need to suck and slurp her to climax. "Not ever."
Her entire body tracked my mouth, squirming and moaning with each flick of my tongue. Her arms strained against the flannel binding, her fingers lightly danced.
"Please," she begged.
I lost myself in the softly voiced plea and the sharp jerk of her flesh, the needy squeezes against my finger, the faint panting breaths she took.
My phone shattered the enchantment, the ringtone one I could not ignore. I retrieved the phone, promising myself I would skin Kane if the reason for his call wasn't life or death. Barking an order at him, I kept my touch on Mia soft and teasing. I didn't want to lose the momentum I had built in her body, didn't want her brain circling back to whatever had put her on the brink of crying.
"Got the scoop on Ames."
The little click in Kane's voice at the end meant I wouldn't be happy with his report.
"Tell me about him." My chest tightened with the hope that any displeasure would be directed solely at Ames and not the soft bundle of pleasure that had just tensed beneath my hand. Feeling that tension, I gave a hard flick to the underside of her clit.
Listening to Kane, I watched Mia carefully.
"Entry level hire at Academi, but..." Kane paused and I could almost hear the internal "I told you so" commentary bouncing around inside his head. "Looks like he and your girlfriend were roommates -- one bedroom."
My grip on Mia's cunt roughened. With a leak evident in my office, Kane had advised an immediate firing of Mia and Janice's early retirement. Now, more than a desperate omission from her resume, I had a secretary with a supposedly ex-lover working for my biggest competitor. She had lived with him, fucked him, presumably loved him, and told me he was nothing more than a classmate.
Thinking with my dick, I had bought it.
"How long?"
"Seven months," Kane answered. "He filed a change of address same month we hired her in. Now can we fire her?"
I snapped the phone shut without answering. I grabbed my jacket, pushed an arm into the sleeve, intent on leaving. Only, if I left, I wouldn't know how she had got past me twice, wouldn't be prepared for the next Mia.
I looked at her, my attention on the lines around her eyes and not the green pools I kept drowning in. "What's your excuse this time?"
She didn't answer. Probably working on the delivery of her lie.
"Mia..." I growled.
"Because it's humiliating," she whispered. "You were going to fire me anyway. You weren't ever actually attracted to me -- that was all part of your game. Why should I tell you about an ex-lover who didn't think I was good enough for him, either?"
She sucked a big breath in, the words surprising me with their vehemence. She sounded like she believed every word. How could she think I wasn't attracted to her? Did she have any idea how selective I was?
Apparently not. More hurt spilled from her.
"Why should I tell you how I had to crawl across the street from a job I wanted to Stark International, applying for any position just to keep an apartment and groceries because the man who was supposed to stand by my side, couldn't even drive me to interview for my last opportunity in my field?"
The words slowly sinking in, I remained motionless. Her voice was full of anguish. I wanted to believe her, wanted to find Ames and beat the ever loving shit out of him for making her feel this way, for training her to think she wasn't beautiful. I wanted to roll her across my knee and spank her ass again for thinking I wasn't attracted to her.
Fuck. She had lied to me twice, betrayed me twice and the need to sink into her still bloated my cock.
Next to me, Mia struggled to rise.
"I'll leave. I just need to grab my clothes."
She wanted to leave. Kane wanted her gone. Neither one of them would get their way. I would remove all access she had to the outside wor
ld and to my company. She would stay this week with me in Dubai and I would get the truth out of her. The risk to my company, my people -- to me -- would be neutralized through her voluntary imprisonment.
I would have the truth from her and I would take my pleasure.
Grabbing a handful of her thick hair, I forced her onto the mattress and shredded the rest of the flannel gown. My gaze skimming over her exposed flesh, I settled onto her body. Her thighs parted to receive me. Yanking my jacket off, I ordered her to close her eyes.
She obeyed, lips trembling, her whole body shaking. When I slid my zipper open, she dared to speak.
"Collin..."
"Quiet." I didn't want any more lies, couldn't risk her soft voice fucking its way into my brain, teasing me into believing that the entire situation was nothing more than a coincidence.
"Unless you're going to say no, don't say a fucking word."
Not giving her time to respond, I pushed into her all at once. Tight, almost unyielding, but wet. A river. A rolling, coiling, thrashing river as I pounded into her. Dangerous, moaning, eyes closed to me as I ground against her.
Climaxing hard from my cock even though she denied my attraction to her.
My mouth found her neck, the need to throttle her subdued by her warm, fragrant flesh. Finding the hollow of her throat, I started to suck. My hands trapped her shoulders, massaging them as another wave of release whipped through her amazing, giving body.
Beautiful, raw. I released into her as her body broke into jerks and quivers she had no hope of controlling. I left her like that, as quickly as I could, not looking at her sweet, hurt face as I departed with my threat hanging in the air between us.
"You don't leave until I'm done with you."
Chapter Five
Mia
Stark didn't touch or talk to me the next day. Kane arrived and explained the rules of what amounted to my house arrest. I was not to attend any more of the seminars. I would take no meetings, have no visitors, make no calls. I was free to roam the suite between eight in the morning until six in the evening, then I had to stay in my bedroom. This would be my schedule for each remaining day of the conference until he or Stark informed me otherwise.