He unlocked her door and stepped into her apartment, assessing in one swift gaze that everything was in order and then stepped back to let her precede him in.
Wearily, she led him into the living room and took off her coat. She eyed him warily. “Would you like coffee?”
Luke had sat himself down on her comfy brown leather sofa and taken in his surroundings. It was nice, he thought to himself. Clearly, she hadn’t been here that long, but the personal touches that she had made to the rooms so far showed a feminine flare that he suspected she tried to keep well hidden in a work environment and only revealed at home and amongst friends. There was a multitude of scatter cushions over the sofa, in vibrant strong colours and next to the fireplace stood a tall vase that was overflowing with huge purple and orange lilies. He also noted the many framed photos that adorned the surfaces – mostly her and three other women, who from the family resemblance he presumed were the sisters she had mentioned that afternoon, but also some of an older couple, with their arms round each other, laughing into the camera and clearly very much in love. Her parents, he decided.
“Actually, I’m okay for coffee,” he said to her with a smile. “I drink so much of the stuff during the day in the office, so I try and steer clear when I’m at home.” He was unknotting his tie and taking off his jacket as he spoke and she gulped again as her eyes skimmed over muscles that were clearly defined under the cotton of his shirt. She hurried into the kitchen and decided that coffee was definitely a bad idea. She needed something much stronger and against her better judgement grabbed a bottle of wine from the refrigerator and a couple of glasses, muttering to herself that it was typical that it would be an overbearing man who drove her to drink.
He raised his eyebrows at her as she walked back into the room and sat herself at the end of the sofa furthest away from him.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit late to try to avoid me?” he queried softly. She flushed, but proceeded to ignore him and occupied herself with opening the wine and pouring them both a glass of the chilled Chablis, which she placed on the small coffee table rather than risk moving closer to him. He made an appreciative sound as he sipped at the wine.
“So, do you want to run through the steps for the next few weeks for Ramone and Michael?” she queried.
He raised his eyebrows and looked at her with barely concealed amusement, recognising her unsubtle attempt to steer the conversation onto neutral, professional territory. Humoring her, they spent the next hour sketching out a timetable and action list detailing how the sale of Michael’s business to Frank Ramone would be implemented.
Megan tried to keep the surprise out of her expression as they talked. Given his performance before they had left the office and his high handed manner towards her, or more to the point towards her bottom, she had wondered whether his manner in the meeting that afternoon had just been an act. She had expected him to be arrogant and pushy, once he was out of sight of his client and that he would try to override and dismiss her views. She’d spent the short time sat in his car, as he drove to her apartment, preparing herself mentally for a struggle. No matter how obnoxious Ramone might be, he was still her client and she was determined that she would get the best possible deal for him, regardless of Luke’s Anderson’s approach to life and women.
However, she was stunned to admit to herself that her preconceptions had fallen far from the mark. On the contrary, he was keen to hear her views and she found they were quickly making more progress than she had ever dreamed would be possible. Sure, if he didn’t agree with her points he made it clear and they had to move on, but he was constructive and treated her as his equal, making no attempt to pull rank as the more experienced lawyer. He was professional and respectful, conceding points where he felt her approach was better mutually for their clients and pushing back only when he truly disagreed or when it was clear to her that he was understandably looking after Michael’s interests rather than those of Frank Ramone.
As the clock ticked, she found herself actually enjoying his company. They’d completed what needed to be done for their clients that night really quite quickly and, almost seamlessly, he’d moved the conversation on to a more personal level, asking her about the sisters she had mentioned earlier and telling her more about himself and his own background.
Megan stretched back on the sofa with her now topped-up glass of wine and found herself talking to him as if he were an old friend, rather than the colleague she had only met that day. With clear affection, she told him about her three wonderful sisters, to whom she was so close. As the eldest, Megan had always had a sense of responsibility for her younger siblings and had taken charge of their adventures from an early age. The youngest, Lily, was a school teacher and Megan worried about her daily. Just recently Lily had decided she wanted more of a challenge and had moved to work in one of the rougher inner-city schools where she felt her skills would be more valuable. Of course, Megan could understand the reasons for her decision and admired them, but she worried that her sister would become too closely involved in problems and issues that she couldn’t solve and would end up getting hurt.
As she described Lily to Luke, he smiled at the obvious love and concern in her voice for her youngest sister and he commented to her “So perhaps it’s not only you who doesn’t properly look after her own safety?”
Immediately, Megan’s eyes narrowed and she was ready to spit out a retort to him, but she then saw that he was quietly laughing at her.
“That’s not fair!” she said.
“Hm,” he responded. “From what I’ve seen, I’m not sure you’re the best judge of that.”
He moved over to her side of the sofa and gently took her hands in his.
“Megan, I understand that we don’t know each other that well, but I was truly worried for you when I saw how Ramone was reacting to you today.”
She looked up at him warily as he continued, trying to ignore the tingling sensation she was experiencing as his hands slowly stroked her palms.
“I’ve seen people like Ramone in action before,” he continued. “As a businessman, he’s fantastic and I’m sure he’ll continue to take Michael’s company from strength to strength, but on a personal level, he’s not to be trusted.”
“I know he’s your client and you have to do your job and that involves interacting with him, but you need to tread carefully around him and steer clear of situations where he could try to take advantage.”
Megan protested hotly, “Really, Luke, it's fine. He’s all talk and I can take care of myself, really.”
“No, Megan,” he said firmly. “That’s the problem. You think he’s all talk, but what will you do if it’s not as simple as that? What would you have done if Ramone had insisted on taking you out tonight and hadn’t wanted it to end there? Well?” he demanded, clearly exasperated.
“You’re overreacting,” she accused him. But her mind began to think back to Julie and Louise, the young lawyers with whom Ramone clearly hadn’t been content to stick to words rather than action. Her eyes clouded, clearly troubled as she wondered in her mind what she had gotten herself into.
Luke saw the worry drift over her face and his eyes narrowed dangerously. “What is it you’re thinking of?” he questioned her.
“Nothing, nothing,” she replied hurriedly.
“It’s clearly not nothing,” he insisted, “What is it you’re not telling me?”
Troubled as she was, she just didn’t want to pursue the subject. Not here and not now. Instinctively, she knew he would be furious if he knew the history with Julie and Louise and she couldn’t risk that he would approach her boss over it. Although she couldn’t be certain, a few things he had said suggested to her that Luke knew David Delaney and, reading between the lines, didn’t think particularly highly of him. She’d figure out a way to deal with it herself that didn’t involve potentially wrecking her career.
“Seriously, it’s nothing,” she said, figuring that paying lip service to his concerns w
ould suffice for the time being and buy her some time. “You’re probably right. I will be more careful with him. But, honestly, I doubt there’s going to be much reason for me to have to meet with him very often anyway. After today’s meeting, we know the key terms of the deal and although it’s likely to take a couple of months to make it all come together, there’s not too much that will need face to face meetings.” Megan deliberately tried to lighten the tone and smooth Luke’s clearly ruffled feathers.
He didn’t look convinced, but seemed content to accept her logic and move on. “You know, Megan, although we’re going to be working together over the next couple of months, I’d very much like to see more of you and spend time with you. Time that doesn’t involve buying or selling advertising agencies.”
He moved closer to her on the sofa and gently pulled her towards him. “I’m generally not the type of person who believes in mixing business and pleasure.” He paused. “In fact, with the exception of Michael being a client as well as a good friend, I’ve always kept the two very distinct and I’ve certainly never gotten involved with a colleague. But with you,” he trailed off... his hand reaching out slightly and stroking an invisible line down the side of her face.
Her heart leapt. “I I,” she stammered. “We don’t know each other.”
“I know,” he said. But in the meantime his stray hand traced a path across her face to lightly brush over her lips. His other hand stretched behind her head and slowly, so slowly, brought her face closer to him and his lips to hers as he caught them in a slow, lingering kiss that devastated her senses and had her body pushing itself forward in an attempt to get closer still to his.
Far too quickly he broke off the kiss, but kept his arms around her and her body pressed up close to him.
He grinned at her as she looked up at him, slightly bewildered, her heart pounding and her mind racing.
“So?” he queried.
“Huh?” she said, unable to formulate her thoughts into sentences, or try and figure out what his question meant.
“So, how would you feel about letting me take you out for dinner one night, maybe later this week? Let us actually get to know each other?” his dark eyes bored into hers, refusing to let her break the contact.
“Um, er... well, I guess so,” she replied, her mind temporarily blank, unable to process how things had moved so quickly from him admonishing her over Ramone, to asking her out.
“Good,” he said bluntly. “But, Megan, that means that there’s even less scope for you to take risks where Ramone is concerned, you understand that?”
“What?” She bolted upright again, wondering how in hell this conversation had gone full circle.
He looked smug. “You’re attracted to me and you’ve agreed to go out on a date with me” he explained, talking slowly as if he was explaining the alphabet to a child. “That means that you run by my rules.”
“Rules!” Megan spluttered, wondering if the man had gone temporarily insane.
“Yes, Megan. Rules.” The look on his face making it clear that he was neither joking nor, in his opinion at least, insane. “Remember this afternoon?”
She flushed. “Not sure what you mean,” she mumbled, suddenly turning her attention to locating her now empty glass of wine that was resting on the floor by the foot of the sofa.
He grasped her wrists in one firm hand and gently but insistently forced her to come back to him. “I mean the fact that you found yourself over my knee having your bottom spanked because of your refusal to take your own basic safety seriously,” he said bluntly.
Her cheeks flamed, she couldn’t believe he’d said that! She tried to squirm away from him and refused to meet his eyes, but effortlessly he held her still. After a few seconds of putting up with her efforts to wriggle free, he said quietly but authoritatively, “Megan. Stop it, now.”
It was futile, she thought to herself. It was like pushing against a solid brick wall, even if her body was disobeying her head and reacting to that brick wall in a way that only made her more nervous. With every twist of her body as she struggled to free herself from his grip, her thighs rubbed together and she could feel the tingling sensation between her thighs that she’d had all evening in his presence turn steadily into a throbbing that she ached to relieve. The fact that she could feel the thick length of his erection pressing insistently against her hip only added fuel to the fire.
With a deep breath, she ceased her struggles and reluctantly raised her eyes to meet his cool gaze.
“I’m not talking about it,” she asserted, somewhat bravely in her opinion.
“If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine,” he answered, surprising her. “But the point is that you remember it and you understand that I won’t tolerate you compromising your safety for any reason,” he warned her, adding knowingly, “not even in order to live up to David Delaney’s misguided expectations.”
His words were like pouring oil on fire and she retorted fiercely, undoing all the good work she’d put in place by pacifying him earlier, “I’m not compromising my safety, but if I do, then that’s my decision, not yours. I’ve taken responsibility for myself for years; I don’t need you to tell me how to do it.”
His face set into an expressionless mask. “And if it were Lily who had put herself in that position? Or one of your other sisters? Would you be so dismissive then?” he asked in a steely tone.
She was silent, but continued to glare at him.
“I’m not going to debate this with you, Megan. We talked about it this afternoon and we talked about it again this evening. You know my feelings on the subject, whether or not you agree with them. But, be sure that if I find that you’ve been deliberately foolish over this, then your bottom is going to feel the consequences and it will feel the consequences every time until you learn how important it is to look after yourself.”
She gulped audibly.
“And, just so you’re aware, the taste you got this afternoon was a light spanking,” he added grimly. He didn’t want to scare her, but he was already terrified that this petite and headstrong woman was going to get herself into trouble from which he might not be around to rescue her.
He didn’t want to hurt her and he knew that the kind of spanking he would give her if she did defy him over this would hurt, but if that’s what it took to get through to her then he wasn’t going to shy away from it. He’d always believed that good old fashioned discipline was the best way of dealing with problems like this. He knew that his father had spanked his mother from time to time. Of course, they were discreet about it, but he’d known from his late teens how their relationship operated and he respected them for it. His parents’ marriage was rock solid and his mother still gave off the visible aura of a woman who knew she was well loved and cared for by her husband.
Luke had known since he was a teenager that, in the long term, he wanted a relationship and a marriage as solid as that of his parents and built on the same sort of values. He also knew that he wouldn’t – and, in the past, hadn’t – hesitate to apply his hand, or some other implement, to his woman’s bottom if he believed it was deserved and necessary. Indeed, in previous relationships his partner had sometimes enjoyed the sensations that a light spanking, in the right circumstances, caused. At the back of his mind, he idly wondered if Megan would enjoy that. Admittedly, not the kind of spanking he had given her that afternoon, even though he had deliberately gone easy on her and certainly not the kind of spanking she would get in the future if she defied him and made herself vulnerable to the threat Ramone clearly presented, but perhaps a slow, sensuous erotic spanking where his fingers could stray and dip into her and massage her intimately while his other hand warmed her backside to make it just tender enough so that she would feel it when he pushed her back against the sheets. He’d seen the way she’d rubbed her thighs together as she had been struggling against him, had felt the quickened pulse as he had raised the issue of her first spanking and he was willing to bet that if he was to t
ouch her intimately, he would feel slippery wetness against his fingers as her body recognised what it wanted and needed, even if her mind battled against it.
He realised wryly that he was already seeing her as someone whom he hoped could become a permanent fixture in his life, which was fine by him. She’d incited all his protective instincts from the moment she’d walked into the sterile meeting room and he’d realised that this was the lawyer David Delaney, for whom he’d never had that much respect for anyway, had effectively served up to Ramone on a plate. The time he had spent with her this evening had only served to intensify the attraction he felt towards her, not just the undeniable physical appeal that his body obviously – too obviously – responded to, but most importantly the intellectual draw of her quick mind, her sharp sense of humour and the soft feminine traits that he suspected she tried to hide when at work, but which had been obvious to him as he saw her in her home environment.
He realised that she was looking at him apprehensively, but at least she hadn’t tried to push away from him again.
“You do realise that I’d never hurt you, don’t you?” he asked her solemnly.
Almost imperceptibly, she nodded her head at him.
Relieved, he continued, “I’d never strike you or raise my fists to you. You need never worry on that score – I’d never want you to be afraid of me.”
“But what if I’m afraid of your spankings?” she said.
Megan's Story, A Bentley Sisters Novel Page 3