by Jamie Knight
“Of course, but everything is so great right now. I just hope I can be of use.”
“Don’t be modest,” my little brother smiles. “Maggie has already been very innovative and helpful. I couldn’t believe how much she brought to the table so quickly.”
“Well,” Maggie blushes. “This is a little embarrassing to admit, but every morning I wake up and pet my cat, Mr. Kitty. I don’t know what it is, maybe because it’s meditative or something, but I just come up with ideas in those moments. Not to sound weird or something, but I guess he could be considered like a ‘support animal,’ in the loosest sense.”
I’ve never heard of anyone petting an animal to come up with ideas, but whatever works, works. Dogs or cats have never really been my thing, but my sister, Eileen, has two pugs that she adores. She’s often insisted that I get an animal companion, but I’m not sure if that would work for me. I spend so much time at the office, I would have to bring them here to see them.
That gives me an idea.
Kneeling next to Maggie’s chair, I put my hand on her shoulder. “You know what, if Mr. Kitty gives you that much support, why don’t you bring him in? I don’t mind as long as everything’s clean, and he’s well behaved.”
Her whole face lights up. “Really?”
“Yeah, why not?” I shrug as I stand up. “McKenzie Tech is animal friendly. We might as well be too.”
“I can’t believe how amazing this place is! Thank you so much!” Maggie is clearly overjoyed. It feels nice to do things for others.
“I have to get back to my office, but I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.”
I leave my brother to continue chatting with Maggie and head back down the hall. The moment I sit down in my desk chair, I get a buzz from the secretary.
“Yes, Isla?”
“There’s a Gemma Samuels on line one for you. Should I patch her through?”
Gemma Samuels?
At first, I cannot place the name. Then it occurs to me. It’s the fiery woman at the Samuels & Samuels office! I never got her name before. That little bit of information feels like a big victory, and now, she is on the phone wanting to speak to me.
Just remembering Gemma’s face makes me hot. The way she tried to keep her brown eyes cold, but they would sparkle at me every so often. The curve of her lips was so sexy even when she was lecturing me. And that body! Her curves would look great in a full tie-up, arms bound, and legs held open for me to savor her pussy.
I find myself almost moaning at my thoughts. I have to have this woman.
“Yes, I’ve been expecting her call. Thank you, Isla.”
I knew she wanted to be with me. She tried to deny her feelings, but it could only go on for so long. Of course, I haven’t lost my touch.
“Gemma.” I find myself smiling from ear to ear as I say her name for the first time.
“Hello, Daniel. I’m calling about the proposal you had.” Her voice is cold and business-like, but I’m betting it will warm up as soon as she hears what I want.
“I thought you might. Do you want to take me up on my offer?”
She hums despondently. “Well, first of all, I don’t know what your offer is, so I didn’t call to take you up on it. I called because I do want to work with you, but I have my own deal to propose.”
Huh? That is not what I was expecting. I’m always the one in charge, and I don’t take demands from women. However, I am intrigued enough to listen to what Gemma has to say. I think it’s because I’m happy to hear from her.
“Where do you want to meet to discuss your proposal?” I ask, keeping my voice calm and collected.
“Come to the firm after hours. I don’t need you distracting me while I’m trying to work. I’ll see you later.”
Gemma hangs up after giving instructions. I should be angry, no one has ever spoken to me that way, at least not in a long time. With this feisty woman, though, it’s not something that makes me mad. It just makes me want to figure out what’s going on and get to know her better. I want to see if Ms. Samuels is as hot when she is filled with lust as she is when she’s angry.
If I’m going to be totally honest with myself, I was worried Gemma wasn’t going to call. It has been an entire week, and there hasn’t been a peep. I was starting to feel desperate with all my calls to her office. I’ve never worked so hard trying to get a woman to talk with me.
It’s been strange, to say the least.
There are a couple hours left in the workday, but I know I’m not going to get anything done thinking about Gemma and her proposal. I’ve never met another woman who intrigues me the way this one does.
I’m not going to accept whatever deal she has for me. I’m going to let Gemma present her case, but I know I can convince her to do what I want, so I’m not even worried about whatever she’s going to propose. This whole song and dance is showing me that Gemma has a little fight in her. I like it. Which has been surprising since I never have before.
But Gemma is just a little tougher than the rest of the pets I have taken, and I like a challenge.
My psyche surrounding why I like things controlled this way has already been explored by a therapist. Jake made me go years ago. I was going through a particularly bad rough patch in college. Little brother had just graduated high school. Over summer break, we worked together, rebuilding our childhood home. Jakey could tell I wasn’t right, and he insisted I talk to someone.
A part of my controlling nature is because I like it, but I also didn’t have a lot of control growing up. My life path was set out for me, and on top of all of that, I had to take responsibility for my siblings because no one else was. Willian was so obsessed with grades in college, he barely ate. Jakey was always trying to help everyone else. Eileen was utterly lost in her own identity issues, and she barely came out of her room. Add to that the fact that Dad was working eighty hours a week, and well, someone had to cook meals and take care of the house.
There wasn’t a lot of choices in my youth, so I set up my life to have all the control. Maybe it would be healthy to let go a little bit, but I like my life the way it is, so I’m not going to change it. It works for me, and I’m going to show Gemma how it’ll work for her.
Chapter Eleven - Dan
Once five hits, I ran out of the office. I told Jake I had somewhere very important to be and left him in charge of anything needed after hours. Law firms require a lot of after-hours work, so I know there’s going to be a briefing tomorrow morning, plus a load of paperwork.
The things I am doing for this woman!
It doesn’t take me too long to get to Samuels & Samuels. When I walk inside, I find Gemma by the printer. She glances over at me but is preoccupied with whatever she’s doing.
“Please wait over there.” She points to the chair in front of her desk. “I’ll be with you in one second. I just need to finish printing these.”
Whatever it is must be super important if she’s willing to make me wait, or maybe it’s a power move. I could see her trying to pull one of those.
Her back is to me, which means I can look her up and down with wild abandon. There’s nothing objectively amazing about her outfit except for the fact that she is the one wearing it. Gemma’s got on those wide flair pants that women have started wearing quite a bit. The ones where the waist looks all bunched at the top, and they’re belted. The hem of the pants stops a little above her ankles, her heels making her legs look even longer.
I just want to rip her pants off, see what kind of panties she has on. Usually, I can guess. It’s a stupid talent of mine that can’t be applied to anything except my pride. I feel like Gemma could be a white granny panty type girl, or she’d be the type who wears lingerie just to feel sexy for herself. Either way works for me.
The pages she’s printing finish in a couple of minutes, and she turns around, showing the front of her blouse. It’s tucked into her pants and also very low cut. Her perky cleavage is perfectly framed by the collar. I need to get a hold of myself b
efore I lose my shit.
Gemma walks over to me, extending her hand for a shake.
“Thank you for coming on such short notice.”
She’s being very prim and proper. There’s a determination in her eyes. She probably thinks she’s going to win tonight. It’s cute.
“It’s no problem.” Casually, I lean back in my seat, putting my arms behind my head. “My office is actually pretty close to yours.”
“You can wait right there. I’m almost ready to start the meeting.”
I’d rather throw her over this desk than have this meeting she has organized, and maybe we’ll get to that tonight. The plan is I’ll have her no matter what. By the end of this, Gemma will be begging for my cock.
I relax, ready to lay my cards on the table, but Gemma slaps the papers she just printed right in front of me. It totally shocks me due to the force that she uses.
“What is this?” I pick the stack, and it looks like some kind of contract. It must be her proposal. I do a quick skim of it and can’t help but smile. She really took her time writing this thing up.
“Don’t patronize me,” she spits out as she sits on the corner of her desk watching me.
“I’m sorry?”
“You think my proposal is a joke, but it’s not.”
“No, I don’t. I’m sorry for… patronizing you. I want to hear what you have to say.”
Gemma narrows her eyes at me but then straightens her spine, getting ready to present.
“Okay, then. It’s all laid out in the contract which you are fully allowed to have other people read, but I’ll lay it out in plain terms. Basically, any existing clients I have will come to me first. If I need extra help or resources, then Samuel & Samuels would pass on the extra workload, but we would still be the lead on all those cases. Also, you would have to start sharing clients, and I would be in charge of managing them, or my firm would be.” She’s looking directly into my eyes. Gemma looks ready for a battle, which this is in a way.
It finally hits me what she’s asking for, and my smile from before turns into laughter. I feel bad about it, but I can’t help myself. This is not what I was expecting to happen, and the way I handle things isn’t always the greatest — another thing I learned in therapy.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be laughing, but I usually don’t do entanglements with women.” That sounds a lot worse than I meant it to, and I plan on explaining more, but Gemma interjects before I can.
“You don’t do business with women? That’s a little sexist, no? Not wanting a female business partner.” She crosses her arms over her chest. All it does is push her breasts up more, making my eyes go straight to her tits. She notices and gets huffy.
“No, that’s not what I meant.” I sit forward. “I do business with women. I don’t do business with women I plan on having sex with.”
Gemma’s mouth falls open, and her eyes get wide. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
I shrug. “I mean, it makes sense. Getting involved in any other capacity would just muddle things. It’s better for both parties to keep work and our personal lives separate. I feel like it’s common sense.”
Ms. Samuels clenches her fists, closing her eyes. She takes a deep breath, mouthing something I can’t quite make out. A few seconds later, she comes back. She doesn’t look any less mad, though.
“Why did you say you had a financial proposition for me, then? What else could that mean?” Her voice is so cold, I start to get the impression that we are on very different pages.
“Well, it’s obvious you had other intentions, so we should probably move on from it.”
It wouldn’t be great to bring up becoming my pet now. Gemma would just blow up. I still think there’s a chance, but I need to present the idea at a better time.
“What?”
“Well, it’s not a big deal. I promise. It would be a good idea to talk about it another time. Maybe you could come to Davies & Sons. We have this huge conference room, and even though it’s just the two of us, it might be fun to have the meeting there.”
“What the fuck, Dan?” Gemma furrows her brow, looking at me like I’m an idiot. I’m not coming across as particularly smart right now, so I understand where she’s coming from. “You know what, stop bullshitting me. Stop with the smooth talk and just give it to me straight. It’s something sexual, right? Like some kind of escort service or something. I mean, I’ve heard things. You’re never seen with the same woman for very long. You want me to be another name on that long list? Would you pay me for a night? Is that what this is?”
She’s getting madder and madder. Her guesses aren’t too far off, though she’s making it sound like I go through woman with zero regard. I like to think I’m better than that. I do care for the people I enter these contracts with, or else I wouldn’t go through the trouble.
“Okay,” I sigh. “It’s not quite like that.” If I want to do this with Gemma, I’m going to have my hands full. That much, I do know. But it might be nice. I could do with a challenge. “It’s not an escort service. What it would be is a contractual relationship between you and me. I like to have what I call ‘pets,’ and I think you would make a good one.”
Her mouth drops open. Fire practically spills out of her eyes, and her nostrils flare.
Oh no. This is not going well.
Chapter Twelve - Gemma
Dan has to have gone insane. What on God’s green earth is he talking about? A pet? He wants me to – to… I can’t even fathom! I really thought he wanted to make some kind of partnership. I mean, he does, but not the kind I want! I knew I was right to be mad at him. He sucks. My gut instinct was right. Daniel Davies is a repulsive, disgusting, offensive piece of shit who thinks he can do and say whatever he wants because he has money.
I just never would have guessed this is where he was going to go with this whole thing. So, he’s called me this entire week because he wants this. I don’t know what this is, and I shouldn’t care. The mere fact that he had the audacity to come to me like this — I should kick him out! It’s what he deserves.
But something is stopping me. I am curious. Despite myself, I want to know what Dan Davies does in his personal life. Having hated him for so long, I’ve garnered a little interest, a bit of fascination about his day to day actions. It’s mainly to find more reasons to keep hating him. That’s just what this is. My hate needs to be justified if I’m going to hold onto it so deeply.
“What does that mean, exactly? What do you do with these ‘pets?’”
I cringe a little bit. Davies must think I’m interested in being one. I can tell from the way he perks up. Jesus Christ, men are so predictable.
“I know it sounds bad. I was hoping for this conversation to unfold a little differently, but now that we’re here…” He shrugs again. “Anyway, it’s beneficial for both parties. It has none of the confusion of a traditional relationship because the expectations are drawn up in the beginning, and that way, nobody gets hurt.”
“Are you sure about that?”
That sounds like some bullshit. I’m sure Dan has managed to trick himself into thinking no one gets hurt, but I bet if we went to talk to his former pets quite a few of them would say they were hurt by him. But they were probably expecting a relationship. That doesn’t mean Dan isn’t to blame at all if they were hurt, but maybe it would be different for me. I don’t want to be with him. I like the idea of keeping feelings out of a sexual relationship.
Ugh! What am I thinking? I’m not about to actually consider this, am I?
“Um, what else?” I ask before I can stop myself.
Dan grins. He leans towards me, placing his hand on my desk. His fingers are inches from my thighs.
“Oh, I’d be in charge. The big rule is that I would get to do whatever I want to you, whenever I want to. Since I’d be financing Samuels & Samuels, I could take you whenever I want.” I watch his mouth as he says each word, trying to not admit to myself that he’s getting my panties wet.
That sounds… crazy. I’d be on his schedule. I don’t know if I’d like that. I have my own life and things to do. I don’t know if I trust Daniel enough to consider my feelings since the whole point of this thing is that they aren’t involved.
“Wow. So, it’s like some historical romance where the guy has all the power, and the girl has to submit to him?”
He traces a line on my desk. “I wouldn’t say that. I prefer to think of it as a mutually beneficial relationship that will stir both of our literary muses. Think Anais Nin and Henry Miller.”
I perk up at that reference. I wasn’t expecting Dan to have that in his back pocket. That kind of makes it sound slightly more appealing, but I doubt he’ll actually abide by that reference. I’m sure it would be all about him and what he wants — not mutually beneficial as he says.
But I can’t do this. There’s no way.
I get up from my seat and shake my head. “I think you should go. This is a bad idea.” I might be impressed right now, but when I get home, I’ll come to my senses.
“No?” Daniel raises an eyebrow.
He hasn’t gotten up. I need him to leave, so I can get back to being a reasonable person. Whenever Davies is around, I get irrational. Whether it’s with anger or whatever this new feeling is. It’s all nonsense.
“Yes, I’m rejecting you. Maybe you don’t experience that a lot, but it’s what’s happening here.”
I’ve moved to his side of the desk now. This combo of body language and words should send the message I want it to.
“Why?” He looks up at me, although not that far. Even seated, the tall man is almost my height.
“Because,” I huff. “It would be relying on a man for money, and I don’t believe in doing that. It works for some, but I want to be able to fall back on myself. Okay?”
What happens when he gets tired of me? If I can’t take care of this myself, then I can’t take care of it myself. Relying on Dan’s favor is too precarious.
“But it would be something you’d enjoy.”