“Tim is an old friend. I lunch sometimes with just him and at other times with him and his girlfriend. We grew up together. It was an innocent lunch and I really never even thought to tell you I was meeting someone for lunch. I appreciate your need to protect me and I’m sure at times, I probably do need protection, from myself more than anything. But you can’t supervise everything I do. You’ll smother me and we both know that’s a surefire way to kill a relationship, don’t we? You have to trust me as I have to trust you.”
“And do you trust me, Jill?” he asked.
He watched as she twisted her hair and bit her bottom lip. Honestly, he needed to find a way to put a stop to those habits of hers. Finally she spoke. “I do trust you. I trust your judgment, and I trust your integrity.”
“So ground rules,” he began. “From now on, just let me know what you have planned. I’m not going to forbid you to do anything if that’s what you think. I just want to know you’re safe.”
“Fair enough,” she said with a smile. “And will you give me the same courtesy?”
He grinned. “Yes I will. I have no secrets. Now about these little habits of yours, why do you twist your hair and bite your lip? I think I know, but I want you to tell me.”
She looked down at the lap, nervously twisting her hands. “I’ve always been a nervous person. I do these things when I am stressed or upset. Sometimes I don’t even realize I’m doing them.”
“What can I do to help you when you’re stressed or upset? I don’t want you ever to feel that way. I want you to be happy. I want to be the one to make you happy.”
“I don’t know if you can help me. Just be there for me,” she replied as she met his piercing gaze.
“I can think of a way,” he said in a low voice. “Come here.”
She stood up and walked to him. “What are you going to do?”
“We tried this a few times, but the first time was because you needed a lesson enforced. The second time was for play. I think you may find it helps,” he said as he pulled her across his lap.
“What are you doing?”
“I think you know, don’t you?” he asked as he pulled her skirt up over her ass.
He caressed it gently. Pulling her panties down, he smacked her on both cheeks, hard at first, then softer, more intimately. As his hand wandered to her other parts, he heard her gasp. All the tension and anger was gone, he could feel her relax… all he wanted to do was throw her across the massive cherry desk and fuck her senseless. Would she let him?
He found out as he quickly lifted her and laid her down. Unbuckling his belt, he said, “I have to have you, here and now.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” she moaned as he quickly entered her, thrusting hard. When they came together in unison, he chuckled deeply as she called out his name.
“Jill, we have a real problem here,” he said as he stood up and zipped his pants. He gave her a serious look as he formed the words he knew he had to say. He waited until she had straightened her clothes and he had her full attention.
She looked in his eyes and asked, “What’s that?”
“I’ve gone and fallen for you, hook, line, and sinker,” he said. “I have never felt such an urge to protect anyone before. I have never wanted to make life easier for anyone, I have never turned a woman over my knee, and I have never felt the intensity when making love that I feel with you.”
“And this is a problem?” she asked as she looked at him in surprise.
“I’m obsessed with you. You’re all I can think about.”
“What are we going to do about it?”
“I want us to go public with our relationship. I want you… I want you to be my wife.”
“Your wife, did you just say you want me to be your wife?” she asked in surprise.
“That’s exactly what I just said. I think this is what I’ve wanted all along. And yes, I know we haven’t been together all that long, just a few months. And yes, I have just admitted to you that you bring out a side in me I didn’t know I had. But I don’t want to have an affair with you. I want more. I want us to spend the rest of lives together, building a life. I want to be the man you depend on, the man you can count on.”
“Isn’t this rather sudden? A few months ago, you were my boss who caught me fighting off the mail boy in the elevator, chastising me for not being more careful, and now you want to marry me. I mean, we have gotten close, but marriage? I had no idea you felt this way.”
“Ah, but you see, I’ve wanted you from the first day you walked into this office. I waited. When I saw you in that elevator, my heart stopped. I was afraid I was too late, that he had already hurt you. Had I stepped up sooner and told you how I felt about you, instead of being the seemingly disinterested boss, that never would have happened. The staff would have known by then you belong to me, and he never would have had the balls to mess with the boss’s woman. I tried to do the right thing by spending time together, getting to know you before taking you to bed, and believe me, that was not an easy thing to do. I held out as long as I could. I’ve tried to court you, and I’ve tried to give you everything you need in a relationship. But I want the world to know you’re mine and I want to start living our life together. I want to build a life with you.”
“And say we were to get married, would other aspects of our relationship change?”
“What other aspects?”
“I guess what I’m asking is will we have a domestic discipline marriage? Given the fact you’ve never been into that scene until now, and neither have I, it bears discussing, don’t you think? I don’t know if you’d call what we’ve been doing exactly discipline, but the spankings have been a new thing for both of us.”
“Would you want to? Do you want me to be in control? I think of you as an equal, Jill, an intelligent, beautiful woman who fits into my life perfectly. I love as well as admire you. Yes, I’ll admit I’ve enjoyed our little ‘discussions’, but you have to tell me if that’s what you want… or need. And we need to set boundaries, if it is. There are some things I won’t do. Some things I just can’t do. It goes against my upbringing and principals.”
“What do you mean? What things won’t you do?”
“If you’re asking me to enter into a BDSM relationship, I won’t do it. And yes, I know what that is. I actually have a friend who lives that lifestyle. I’ve never understood it, but it’s none of my business. If you’re asking me to be the one who senses when you need some discipline in your life, given the nature of your mood swings and the tension you sometimes feel, that I can do. That works. I don’t want total control.”
“I think I need you to sense when I’m getting out of control emotionally. You’ve seen the way I am, how stressed I can get when I’m working on something or apprehensive about things, or angry, like today.” she said thoughtfully. “You seem to be able to handle that in a way that’s enjoyable, yet effective, for both of us. I love that you don’t want the whole Dom/sub thing. I don’t think I do either. This is us. This is the way we are. It works, or seems to, for both of us. But I’m not sure we’re ready to head to the altar, Jarrod.”
“Why don’t you finish what you were doing and go on home? Sleep on it, give it some thought. Take a few days off if you need to. But I want an answer soon. I’m ready to take this step. I love you, Jill. I can wait, for now, but I won’t wait forever. I want a life with you, not a torrid, office affair. We can talk about the rest later.”
“You’re really serious about this?” she asked as she stood up.
“I am,” he replied as he leaned in to kiss her.
“I’ll take my work home with me. And I’ll take you up on the few days off. I have a lot to think about.”
“Baby, you haven’t said how you feel about me,” he observed.
“You don’t know?”
“I wouldn’t be asking if I did,” he replied.
She walked to where he stood and gazed into his steel gray-blue eyes. “I’ve gone and fallen for you, too. I may no
t have shown it, but I was afraid of getting in over my head with you. I think we’ve gone way beyond that now.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” he asked in a low, ragged voice.
“I really have no idea,” she said as she turned and walked out of his office, gathered her things, and left.
****
Jill went home and for the rest of the night, she thought about the past few months with Jarrod. She thought about how she had lusted after him, about the day he had told her he wanted to see her outside the office, and she thought about the time they’d spent together since.
Lying awake in her bed in the wee hours of the morning, she realized that without a doubt, he was the man she couldn’t live without. As she twisted her hair and bit her bottom lip, she knew he was the man she needed in her life. He was the man who knew her flaws and her insecurities and he was the man who wanted to find a way to help her with those issues. No one had ever cared before Jarrod. He wanted to protect her, and he wanted her to trust him to do that. As she thought about that, she realized that she did trust him. And she loved him. She knew what her answer would be. There really was no option. He was her life now.
The next night, he called her at home. “I missed you at the office today.”
“I need a week off.”
“You what?” he asked, as his heart fell.
“For my honeymoon,” she said. “I’m planning a trip to Naples, Florida. I’d like to spend a week in a beach house.”
“Who’s the lucky guy?” he asked.
“Tall, jet black hair, gray-blue eyes, you might know him.”
“How soon do you need this week off?” he asked.
“As soon as my groom can put this thing together,” she said. “He’s very resourceful; I think he’ll probably want to do it rather quickly.”
“I see,” he said. “Let me get back to you on that.”
“Sure, I’ll be here. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Jill?” he asked.
“Yes, Jarrod?” she asked in reply.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered just before ending the call.
The next morning, he called her again. “I’ve been looking at the calendar. We can pull this together in a couple of weeks. Is that okay with you?” he asked.
“I’ll need to make some plans and tell my family.”
“I thought it would be small, just our immediate families, is that all right?”
“Yes, it is. We need to make the plans. Come by for dinner tonight. I plan to work from home the rest of the week. There’s just too much going on in the office to concentrate right now. I’ll get more done here.”
“I understand. I’ll be there at six.”
“Italian okay with you?” she asked, “I know it’s your favorite. You took me to that little restaurant at the winery on our first real date.”
“I love it, and I love you. And I remember that day at the winery, too, by the way.”
“Six o’clock then,” she said, blushing.
Chapter Seven
As Jill put the finishing touches on the salad, she checked the oven timer. Perfect! The lasagna would be ready about six-thirty. She had worked all afternoon, finishing some designs, and almost forgot she was cooking for Jarrod tonight. That would never do. She glanced at the clock and saw that she had just enough time to make herself presentable before he arrived.
After a quick shower, she wrapped herself in a towel and walked to the closet. Finally choosing a light sundress, she was brushing her long, red hair when the doorbell rang. She ran in her bare feet to answer it. When she did, standing at her door was the tall, handsome man with the jet-black hair, and beautiful eyes. In one hand he held a bouquet of roses, and in the other, a bottle of wine.
“Come on in, what’s all this?” she asked as she took the roses from him.
“Flowers for the table and wine to go with dinner,” he replied as he leaned over to kiss her forehead.
“Thank you. Are you starving? I’m afraid I worked a little later than I planned and I got dinner started a little late. We can go ahead with the salad, though.”
“You work much too hard,” he said as he walked into the kitchen with her.
“Strange thing for my boss to say,” she said with a giggle.
“When your boss becomes more than your boss, things change,” he replied. “We need to set some of those boundaries we talked about, as far as work, among other things.”
“We have a lot of things to talk about, Jarrod. We’ve had this whirlwind thing going on, got started off with a casual dinner, moved into something a lot deeper pretty quickly, and now we’re talking about the ‘m’ word, all within a few short months. Although it seems this is what we’ve both wanted for a while. And now, to complicate things even more, we’re setting boundaries as well as planning a wedding.”
“It’s only complicated if we make it so,” he whispered as he nibbled her right ear.
She smiled as she moved out of his arms to put the salad on the table. As they ate, she said, “Do you have any ideas about what kind of wedding you want?”
“I thought we might drive over to Gatlinburg, have the ceremony there, spend a night or two, and then go on to the beach house for a week, and take our time driving back. We’ll be gone about two weeks. I’ve checked the schedule at the office, and we can do this anytime after the tenth. That’s the opening of the new condo units on Crestview.”
“Have you told your family?” she asked next.
“My folks are in Europe right now. I’ve called them. They won’t be back in time for the ceremony, but Mother plans to have a reception for us at a later date. My folks will love you. You don’t have to worry about that, but you’ll find they lead their own lives, and travel quite a bit, so they won’t be around much.”
“No brothers or sisters, right?” she asked.
“No, I was the only son of a wealthy family, born late in their lives.”
“That’s right; you told me you were an only child. But wow, I had no idea about the rest. I mean, I knew you did okay with the business, but I really had no idea you were from a wealthy family.”
He grinned as he said, “I’m glad you didn’t know. That’s been an issue with women in the past.”
“Oh, I would never… I mean… I really didn’t know…” she stammered.
“It’s okay, baby, I know. Now how about your family?” he asked softly.
“Mom and Dad want to meet you, of course. They’re a bit concerned about the suddenness of this. I sort of had to let them believe we’d been seeing each other a while.”
“We have… at least we could have been,” he said with a wink.
“I have an older brother and a younger sister, as you know. My brother is married with two kids, a boy and a girl.”
“Do you think they’ll all agree to go to Gatlinburg for the wedding?”
“If we decided to have a private ceremony, I don’t think they’d object. They’d want to meet you, and Dad would have to have the big talk with you. But if you want it to be just the two of us, I’m okay with it, since your folks won’t be there.”
“And there will be the reception later; they would be there for that. So how romantic would that be, just the two of us at the wedding?”
“Do you want romance, Jarrod?” she asked as she stood to take the lasagna out of the oven.
“With you, I want it all. Romance, candlelight, the fire, the excitement, you give me all of that.”
“And the discipline?” she asked.
He looked down before he replied, “You know, that really wasn’t anything I’d ever done before. I was so frustrated with you that day you put yourself at risk, not once, but twice in the same day. I didn’t act on it, didn’t feel I had the right. But then later, when it was mentioned again, you were egging me on like you wanted me to do it. I was trying to come off as stern and unyielding, because I really was worried about your safety. But your body and you
r eyes were telling me it was what you wanted. That was the night we went dancing. I knew it was right that night. The second time it was sexy as hell. And you seem to think it works for us…”
“I’d never been with anyone who had the nerve to ‘take me in hand’ as you called it. And yes, I do think it works for us. It takes the edge off, the anger, when we disagree. And at other times, it’s just downright sexy as hell, like you said.” She dished up the food and sat across from him.
“I’d say we’re headed toward a perfect relationship,” he remarked as he took a sip of wine.
“I’d say we already have a good start,” she replied with a grin.
“Jill,” he began.
Uh-oh, usually when he called her by her given name rather than addressing her as ‘baby’, it meant something was wrong. “Yes?” she asked warily.
“The discipline thing, don’t you think we need to discuss that a little more in depth? I admitted to you, I had never done that before. I know I come across as a stern, unapproachable boss, but in a personal relationship, I swear to you, this really is new to me. I was frustrated, I was worried, and I was amazed that the idea turned you on so much, all at the same time. I’ll admit, that sweet little ass of yours made me think about it a time or two, but I never actually thought I’d act on it.”
“Let me put it this way, since we’re being completely open and honest about this. I am impulsive, quick to anger, and have a fiery temper. It goes with the red hair; my dad has always said I’m just like my mother. That day in your office, when I stayed late, I really never gave it a thought even after the chat we’d had about safety. I never thought about the fact Ronnie might be waiting for me. You cared enough about me to point that out to me. I’m impulsive, to say the least. You seem to know when I need to slow down and breathe. When you told me you were interested in me, after all that had happened that day, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I, like all the other women in the office, had dreamed of being the one to share your bed, the one to get through that steel exterior of yours. To be offered the opportunity to work at a job I love, and be the only one in your personal life, was like a dream come true. I was a little unsure at first, what exactly you were asking of me, but I was intrigued. And when you doled out that first punishment, I knew. There was a need in me I’d never quite been able to put a finger on before. You need to remind me to calm down, to slow down, and to take things in stride. I need someone who can save me from my own worst enemy, myself. I need for you to let me know when I’ve done something wrong. You opened up a whole new avenue for me to vent my frustrations. I know that may sound kinky, it may sound wrong, or weird, but you’re the only man who’s ever been able to get through to me on such an emotional level. If you’re not comfortable with continuing in a domestic discipline situation after we’re married, then we really need to come up with another solution. I need boundaries, Jarrod. I need stability in my life. I know that now.”
Accepting His Terms Page 5