Then he would offer her his collar. His stomach clenched. His collar. He’d never collared a submissive before. His wife hadn’t been into the lifestyle. She had tried to make him feel bad about his needs and he’d tried to minimize his demands on her. He hadn’t been able to admit it to Riley, but she’d called him a freak and a pervert when she’d left him and that had hurt.
He heard footsteps and sat up to listen better. Maybe she was coming back. But no, it was just Andrew. He needed to talk to his number two. He shouted the other man’s name. A moment later Andrew stuck his head in Gabe’s office.
“Welcome back, boss. You bellowed? I was just on my way to grab some lunch. You want anything?” Then Andrew’s eyes noticed the plate in front of Gabe.
“So, uh, Gabe. I guess you’ve already seen Amanda. I was going to tell you that I hired her once you had a chance to settle back in. Isn’t that great? I know you thought we’d be without an accountant for weeks and then we’d have to break the new one and I know how you hate change. Amanda solves all the problems. She had really hit the ground running and she has everything under control in less than a week on the job.”
“Hrmph!”
“But before I go into more detail. How’s the foot? Or is it your ankle? Shouldn’t you be keeping it raised or something? Maybe I can get you some ice? I’ll just be a minute, I’ll be right back…” Andrew turned to flee, but he wasn’t fast enough.
“Andrew! Stop right and get in here. And forget about my foot… wait, what do you know about it? I thought you hadn’t seen Amanda yet? How did you know about my foot if you didn’t talk to her? Amanda’s the only way you could know. Has she been gossiping about me? That’s totally inappropriate. You are going to have to reprimand her. No, wait. Have her meet me at the flogging station. I’ll take care of her punishment.”
“Gabe! Calm down. No, I haven’t seen her yet today. We are not sneaking around behind your back and gossiping. With my keen powers of operation, I noted the walking cast you are wearing.”
“Oh.” Gabe glared at him. “Yes, well, the foot will be fine. But I did want to talk to you about Amanda. You hired her without consulting me!”
“Yeah, you delegated the hiring of the accountant to me, remember?” Gabe just glared. Andrew smiled and continued, “So I hired her to be our accountant. I heard she had been laid off from her old job and I snapped her up. We got lucky, Gabe. She won’t moralize or disapprove of the club like the last accountant did. And she’s terrific at what she does. She’s already caught up on all the outstanding invoices, prepared the last two month’s financial statements and arranged to transfer us to a better payroll system that will be almost completely automated. It will save us a ton of time and it costs less than the other service too! Now she’s starting to look at better accounting systems.”
“Better accounting systems? What’s wrong with the one we… no, don’t answer that. You are just trying to distract me from the fact that you went behind my back to hire her!”
“I did not go behind your back, Gabe. You gave me full authority to hire and I hired someone who I thought would be good at the job. Not only that, she was available immediately. How lucky was that for us. Not for her, though. Her company shut down, owed her and the other staff a lot of money. She was even considering moving back east.”
Gabe felt himself turning pale. He’s almost lost his chance to woo her forever. Suddenly he wanted to do his happy dance, but not with Andrew around. He had to play it cool.
“Fine, you hired her. I’ll learn to deal.” He couldn’t give in too easily.
“And” Andrew continued, “So far, her performance bears that out. She’s a thousand times better than the other accountant we had. She’s smart and funny and easy on the eyes as well as being a damned fine accountant.”
Gabe looked up at Andrew as he paused after his impassioned speech. Easy on the eyes? Did he have designs on Amanda? That was not acceptable, not at all! He glared and Andrew laughed. He must be losing his touch.
“Don’t worry, boss. I’m interested her that way. She’s a great friend, but she’s the most unSubmissive submissive I know when she’s not in a scene. You know I prefer subs who are close to twenty four seven.”
Shit, was Andrew reading minds now? And why wouldn’t he stop talking? “Gabe, but like you’ve said for the last nine months, you don’t think of her that way either. So maybe you can help me with something… she’s asked me to help her with a list of local clubs that are reputable. I think she’s going looking for a permanent Dom.” Andrew paused, clearly choosing his words carefully. “Maybe you can help me vet prospective Doms for her, too? I know how you feel responsible for all your staff.”
Gabe thought he was going to hyperventilate. Vet Doms Amanda?
“She did mention checking out other clubs when we spoke earlier but not that she was actively looking for a Dom.” He considered his response carefully. “Of course I’d be happy to help get together a list of clubs and to vet potential Doms. Of course, to do that, I’m going to have to spend some quality time with her to make sure I have a fulsome understanding of her needs.
“You are only interested in vetting serious prospects, right. You’re not planning to vet every Dom she plays with, just those she contemplating a relationship with.”
“Oh, no. I need to vet anyone she plays with. As you pointed out, she’s my employee now. I feel responsible for her. I will vet that list of potential clubs for her to play in too. We can’t be too careful.” He paused and then added, “Especially since she helps to train new Doms and subs. Can’t have her teaching them bad habits. Yes, I’ll definitely have to vet any prospective Doms and clubs for her.”
The other man shook his head. “I don’t know if she’ll go for that. Offering assistance is one thing, but to give you that much power over who she submits to… I don’t know if she’d go for that.”
“It’s not her choice. She works for Club Hades now which means she’s my responsibility, which means I’ll be vetting. And I’ll want to set up some time with her to work on a series of advanced training sessions.”
“Gabe, that’s great. I’ve been saying for months… the three of us can get together and maybe a couple of others who work the regular training classes…”
“Uh, yes, yes. That’s fine, but first I want to spend some one on one time with Amanda and we can work through some possible topics for the training. I’ve got some ideas, but I want to try them out with her first.”
“Uh, yeah, sure, boss.
“You have a problem with my plan, Andrew?”
“No, but I think she might. I don’t think that her employment contract specifies that she has to do BDSM scenes with her boss.”
“I’m not her boss, you are. Besides, this all comes under other duties as assigned.”
Andrew had just snorted with laughter. “Yes, well, you can tell her that. I’m not going to even approach that subject. I value my balls too much.”
“You’re afraid of a submissive?”
Andrew snorted. “You haven’t been here all week to see her terrorizing the suppliers and other vendors. She’s impressive boss. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was a Domme. She’s even wrestled that accounting system into line, although she said that has to be replaced sooner than later. You don’t like that either, you can be the one to tell her no.”
Then he walked away, chuckling, and leaving Gabriel all alone.
He took a deep breath. Why could life never be easy? He had come home all fired up and ready to take a chance and now thanks to Andrew’s meddling he had approach her on tiptoes so that she didn’t quit and move back east. Or join another BDSM club and find a Dom less thick headed than he was.
He would stay calm and not freak out. He wouldn’t rush things. He had to take his time, prove to her he was a changed man. It would be easier if he could just walk up to her and say, look, I was an idiot. I think you are amazing and I want to spend the rest of my life worshiping you. And tying y
ou up and flogging your amazing ass.
That was okay. He had been a SEAL. He could do this. He’d win her back and when the time was right, preferably when she was tied up and helpless, he’d plead his case and convince her to wear his collar. Until then, he’d do whatever it took to put her in a good mood, even help with the accounting.
Chapter Thirteen
Two weeks later
Amanda Brooke sighed, stood up and stretched. Gabriel really was the most infuriating person she had ever met. Before she came on board, he had hemmed and hawed and generally done everything he could to avoid paperwork. She knew this because she’d heard the old accountant, Barry, moan and groan about him often enough.
Now it seemed like she couldn’t get him away from the financials. More than once, she had walked in on him with the accounting program open and him generally cursing as he messed up something else that she’s previously had under control.
“Don’t you trust me to do it right?” she’d demanded the third time she’d caught him sitting at the computer and cursing as he tried to enter an invoice.
“Of course I do. I’m just trying to help. Barry always complained that there was too much for one person to do.” He’d smiled at her and she felt herself melting inside, but she couldn’t let him try to charm her. Clearly he didn’t trust her no matter how often he protested to the contrary.
She finally changed all the passwords and refused to tell him the new ones. He had sulked and ranted at first but then he seemed to catch himself. Then he had smiled and asked her if she was hungry.
“I’m not as handy in the kitchen as you are… those sandwiches you made last week were great… but maybe I can get you something?”
She’d just shaken her head and told him to get out of her office. He’d almost started arguing, but then he had caught himself, smiled, and said he’d see her later and the meeting to discuss the new training cycle that was starting in a week and an idea he had for a set of advanced classes. “I’d really like your input” he’d said
Maybe he’d hit his head when he’d gotten hurt while on vacation. There was no other explanation for his change in behavior. He used to avoid her but now it was like he was constantly underfoot. He worked late into the night, so he usually arrived just before lunch and brought her something to eat. She’d thought it was a nice gesture until he’d made himself at home in her office and clearly expected them to eat together.
On the other hand, some things didn’t change. When she wanted to see him, he was nowhere to be found. Like now.
She looked down at her desk and then up at the computer screen. Damn. She had left at lunch time yesterday because her sister had gone into labor and must have forgotten to log out. She scrolled down the screen and then looked at the pile of invoices on her desk. How could he make such a hash of things so quickly?
Pausing, she thought she could hear his heavy tread as he walked down the hallway. For an ex-SEAL, he could be surprisingly heavy footed sometimes. She waited to see if he would stop in and see her. She thought she detected a small hesitation as he passed her doorway, but he kept going.
Fine. If that’s the way he wanted to play it.
“Gabriel Eugene Montgomery, I want to talk to you!” she bellowed. That would get his attention. He hated when she yelled.
She made sure she was staring at her computer screen when he walked across the threshold of her doorway. She made him wait while she saved the file she was working on and the looked up. She was tempted to smile, he looked so adorable as he hovered uncertainly. But then she reminded herself just what an ass he had been and she hardened her heart.
“You’ve been into the accounting program, haven’t you Gabriel?”
Gabriel caught himself before he could blurt out something defensive, or worse, apologize. It was his accounting program, dammit. And he had just been trying to help. He owned the company, dammit! Without thinking, he snapped in his best Dom voice, the one that made subs quiver and drop to their knees and even made lesser Doms nervous, “That’s Master Gabriel!”
“Gabriel, when I am at work, I am your accountant and I’ll thank you to treat me with the respect that position deserves. I am not a submissive and you are not a Dom. You may be the boss, but this is my domain and I will not have you messing it up and causing me more work.”
He was not going to let her speak to him like that. If he had his way, one day he’d be her Dom but right now, he was her boss and he needed to show her who was in charge. Hell, he had just been trying to help. She should give him credit for his good intention.
He was getting ready his say just that to her when he saw her lower lip starting to quaver. Then he realized that her eyes weren’t glittering with the excitement of the fight. They were filling up with tears. Holy shit.
“You have to stay out of it and let me do my job unless you are trying to sabotage things and get me to quit. Is that what you want? Because you just have to speak up if it is. I know Andrew hired me without your approval. Look, if you want to hire someone else, I’ll understand. I’ll stick around until you get someone and then, well, I’ve got a job waiting for me back east if I want…”
“Oh, got no! No, Amanda. You’ve done a wonderful job in such a short time. You are a great accountant and the rest of the team love you and not just because you make sure they are paid on time.”
“Then why can’t you trust me to get things done? I was only gone a few hours and now it’s going to take me days to get things right again. I was going to go see Julia again this evening, but now I have to work late fixing this mess.”
He rolled his chair over beside hers and reached out a hand and patted her back.
“I’m sorry, Amanda. I was just trying to help, honestly. Please, tell me what I can do to make it better. Or not do?”
She chuckled at that.
“Good, I made you smile. Seriously, please give me credit for meaning well. I’ll do whatever you want to make things better.”
“Really?” She wiped her eyes. It looked like the tears had stopped. Good. He could breathe again.
“Well, there is one thing.”
“Anything. You name it and it’s done.”
She looked at him for a second and then pulled out a file from her bottom drawer. “Sign this.”
He pulled the file over and opened it carefully. “What is this?”
“A contract for replacing the financial system including converting the existing data. The places for your signature are all highlighted.”
“You set me up.”
“And how did I do that? And why would I do that?”
“The why is easy. You and Andrew and god knows who else on my staff have been conspiring to get rid of my accounting system forever and you’ve finally backed me into a corner. You think you are pretty clever don’t you?” He glared at her. She smiled and handed him a pen. “I should put you over my lap and give you the spanking you deserve.”
“Accountants don’t get spankings.”
“But submissives do. Isn’t there a training cycle starting soon?”
“Yes, Saturday. It will be my last session and I’m looking forward to it.”
“You’re still planning on participating? With your eagerness to find another club to play at I wasn’t sure if you would honor your commitment.”
“Gabriel, I always keep my word. Just like you do.”
Amanda had to fight to keep her expression serious when what she really wanted to do was giggle as he flipped through the contact, signing and initialing where she indicated.
“There. Happy? How much is this going to cost me, anyway?”
“The cost schedule is on the last page. As you can see, it’s very reasonable.”
He flipped to the last page and scanned the numbers. He frowned. “What’s this last line, consulting? Why isn’t there a cost beside it?”
“Consulting is a separate contract. But it won’t cost a thing. One of the Dom trainees who has signed up for the next training sess
ion installs that software for a living. If we comp his training and give him a discount on his first year’s membership, he’ll do the installation, the data conversion and train us both on it for free. And he’ll provide support over that period, too. Win, win.”
“That’s assuming he passes the screening. Just because he’s willing to offer his services in exchange for membership, doesn’t mean we should do the deal. In fact, I have a bad feeling about him. Are you sure he just isn’t using the deal as a way to get past our usual screening?”
“Oh, he’s passed already. He passed before the subject of upgrading our financial software ever came up. Andrew interviewed him. He really liked him and when he saw the Carter was a software consultant, he asked him about accounting and inventory software programs. Then he called me in and we got talking and one thing lead to another…”
“Maybe I should speak to him myself. I won’t have him as a member just to save a few bucks.”
Amanda surged to her feet, her green eyes almost glowing with passion, her breasts heaving as she clearly struggled to keep her temper under control.
“You really are too much, Gabriel Montgomery. Andrew is a professional. Has he ever made a bad recommendation?”
Gabe shook his head. “No, but…”
“And Andrew and Ben jointly did the second interview because Andrew wanted to be sure he wasn’t unduly influenced by the fact that Carter was a software consultant. He would never take a chance on offering membership to someone he wasn’t one hundred percent sure off. As for Carter, he’s had some experience with the lifestyle and might even have qualified for membership without going through the training. But he, yes he was the one to ask to do the training classes. He said they were part of the reason he was interested in joining Club Hades and not one of the other ones. He thought the club seemed to be run more professionally than many.”
Kinky Book Club Trilogy: Written Submission, unSubmissive and Undercover Submissive Page 17