Beck & Call (14 page)

Aware that his control had limits, he pulled his briefs back on.

He was sitting up in her bed, paging through her romances, when she walked in wrapped in a towel.

“Um,” she said, jolting to a halt.

“We’re sharing,” he informed her.

She seemed to understand he wasn’t opening it for discussion. Somewhat to his relief, she grabbed some underwear and a T-shirt and returned to the bathroom to put them on. Seeing her naked once tonight was sufficiently frustrating. Mia had no idea how tantalizing her body was.

She was soft and curved and, man, did she have great tits. Her nipples made his mouth water, and her ass caused his fists to clench. Her legs belonged around his hips. Her expressions of surprise were totally worth inspiring. When that mouth of hers formed an
O
… Jake shook his head and shifted uncomfortably. No man could see those soft rosy lips without wanting them circling his erection.

He was picturing that a bit too vividly when she slid awkwardly under the covers and into the bed with him. She stayed sitting up like he was.

“You didn’t put the lid down,” she said.

“Sorry,” he said. “I was distracted.”

She was silent for a second. “Are you really reading that?”

“Skimming,” he said. “For research.” Realizing she wasn’t sleepy, he set the book aside. “Why do you keep these around? I mean, I understand you enjoy the stories but with a brain like yours, you must have them memorized.”

When he looked at her, her cheeks had flushed prettily. “I like reading words on the page. I like when the story unfolds a bit at a time, even if I know how it ends.” Her knee bumped his thigh as she shifted to face him more. “Do you like to read?”

“Not much fiction. I like political exposes. And old movies.”

She smiled. “Me, too. Not the political books. The old movies.”

He sensed he was treading a delicate line. It wasn’t his intent to convince her he was a good match for her. “
Casablanca
,” he offered carefully.

“Bogey,” she responded, her eyebrows wagging in approval.

“Ingrid Bergman was no slouch either.”

“She was a knockout. If I swung that way …” She laughed. “Well, if I swung that way, she’d be out of my league.”

Mia had blown her dark hair dry and left it down. Jake stroked the soft length that fell across her cheek. No one seemed out of her league to him.

“Tell me about the first time you were with a man,” she said.

His eyes widened. “You want to hear about that?”

“It seems relevant.”

He supposed it was. “I was cultivating an asset for my … government job, a woman who worked at an embassy for a country of interest.”

“So you were a male Mata Hari.” She was teasing him a little.

“Occasionally. My duties weren’t usually so exotic, but my superiors were aware I had a knack for domination that appealed to some women. Anyway, this embassy employee I’d been dating asked if I’d be interested in a threesome. I assumed she meant with another woman, but a second man showed up. Making my apologies wouldn’t have been strategic, so I gave it a shot.”

“And you liked it.”

“More than I expected. I’d never thought about being with a man before. Fortunately, he turned out to be a good source of intel too. My superiors complimented me on the bang up job I did.”

“Har har.”

He tapped her little nose. “You should get some sleep.”

“I can’t have a blow by blow?”

“No.” Certainly not when giving her one was likely to wind him up.

Her sudden naughty grin should have warned him what was coming. “I guess if I want to know what you got up to, I’ll have to hope Damien Call finds you irresistible.”

She did have the ability to surprise him. “Don’t hold your breath,” he said. “‘Restraint’ seems to be his middle name.”

In the interest of encouraging her to drop the topic, he turned out the bedside lamp and lay down on his side. After a moment, Mia did the same behind him. Given the size of her bed and the size of him, this didn’t leave much space between them. Naturally, he soon had a half hard-on. He was willing it to relax when he heard the sound of snorting laughter behind him.

“Is something funny?” he asked his companion.

“I’m in the superior spoon position.”

“The what?”

“If we were snuggled up, I’d be spooning you.” She imitated a monster voice. “
I am the spoon master! I am dominating you!”

She was too silly. Jake had to laugh with her. “Go to sleep, Mia.”

She laughed a little more before wriggling deeper into the covers. “Jake?”

Jake mentally rolled his eyes. “Yes, Mia?”

“I did guess the point, didn’t I? In the shower. About you wanting me to know I attracted you. I wasn’t jumping to crazy conclusions.”

“You weren’t. I want you to trust my genuine interest in playing these games with you. That’s as important as trusting I won’t hurt you.”

Mia mulled this over. “Good night, Jake,” she said after a few heartbeats.

“Good night, Mia.”

To his amazement, he dropped off in no time.

DAMIEN
Call had one of the city’s shorter commutes. A private elevator whooshed him from his penthouse on the sixtieth floor of Ten WorldWide Plaza to his office on fifty-two. There, the door was disguised as a liquor cabinet. As Damien exited, he reminded himself to wait for the shelves to swing aside fully. Whenever his shoulder bumped them on his way out, the glasses he stored there clinked.

This morning patience didn’t come easily. He was full of energy, eager to begin the day. Once again the sun was shining, the city outside sparkling like a fresh-washed toy—his toy, he liked to think. When darkness fell on its streets tonight, he’d have new things to look forward to.

Both prospects had his blood buzzing. He dealt with Ms. DeWinter’s usual morning questions as quickly as possible. Free then, he strode around the corner to greet the employee who’d put the extra spring in his step. He’d never had a dom’s submissive work for him before. As to that, he’d never hired a dom to do anything but dominate. Though it involved risk, the uniqueness of the situation gave him a charge. Damien was in uncharted territory, gambling and maybe gambling big.

The part of him that
didn’t
always want to be in control enjoyed that.

Mia’s office door was open. She was hanging up her coat and had her back to him. He saw he’d guessed her size accurately. His chest tightened as he took in the hug of her slate blue skirt around her lush bottom. The hem bared at least four inches of excellent thigh. Her calves looked great in the coordinating heels, their muscles stronger than he’d expected in such a soft woman. The tapering of her ankles helped him understand why some men liked kissing women’s feet.

Every part of Mia was seductive.

Even better, for the next two months her seductiveness was his.

“Miss Beck,” he said, not wanting to alarm her when he stepped over her threshold.

She spun, her adorable high ponytail bouncing. Her coiffure was hardly corporate, but he knew he wouldn’t ask her to alter it. The hairstyle was the real her underneath the dress up.

“Mr. Call,” she said.

“Damien,” he corrected without thinking.

“We’re at work. If you call me ‘Miss Beck’ and I call you ‘Damien,’ everyone will think I’m an idiot.”

He scratched the side of his mouth. He didn’t want that. “Very well. I’ll call you Mia if anyone’s around.”

His solution seemed to amuse her. She laughed softly.

“How was your first day?” he asked. “I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to touch base with you yesterday.”

“It was good. Your employees are more gung ho than I’m used to, but I admire how much they admire you. You inspire loyalty.”

She’d given him what sounded like a genuine answer. He was tempted to say he hoped he’d inspire her loyalty too.

“I have a confession to make,” he said instead. “I don’t know what work to give you. Ms. DeWinter handles quite a lot. Plus, I pay services to perform the functions a personal assistant would.”

“I thought I’d walk two steps behind you and make you look important. And schlep things. Water bottles. Laptops. Sunglasses. You know, your general handmaiden-geisha thing.”

He laughed, enjoying her irreverence. He was glad she was comfortable with him.

“I’m not entirely kidding,” she said. “From what I’ve seen, personal assistants are status-enhancing accessories. On a more practical level, I have a great memory. I can take notes at meetings without seeming like I am. Although, maybe you can do that too.”

“To a certain extent I can. You don’t mind running the occasional errand?”

“Have you seen my pay package? I wouldn’t mind dog walking if you had one. You should also know I’m not generally mouthy. I totally know how to be invisible. Or you could just ignore me, let me sit here all day, if that suits your needs better.”

“Do you
want
me to ignore you?”

She shook her head. “I know it’s not PC, but I like the idea of the handmaiden-geisha thing.”

Damien fought a smile. The faintest tinge of pink had risen into her cheeks. He guessed she really did like that.

“We’ll give it a try,” he said. “And see how it suits us both.”

To his surprise, he didn’t hate the idea of her shadowing him.

~

Approximately twelve hours later, Damien Call was engaged in one of his favorite rituals: preparing for an evening out. He’d already showered and was shaving for the second time that day. He admitted to being slightly vain about his looks. The lines of his face were clean—even a little hard. In his opinion, the scruffy gold-brown stubble he was prone to didn’t improve them. He liked the chilled look a fresh shave gave him, especially if he coupled it with slicking back his sun-streaked hair. He couldn’t hide his libido. The predator always lurked behind his eyes. But intelligence lived there too. He knew which was in charge.

Today, he’d enjoyed being in charge more than usual.

He was pleased with his and Mia’s experiment. She’d accompanied him to four of his less sensitive meetings, one of which Jake had driven them to across town. Though the associates he met seemed intrigued by his new accouterment, true to Mia’s promise of invisibility, they soon forgot she was there.

Damien didn’t forget. For one thing, she seemed to make every interaction run more smoothly. She forestalled the inevitable power jockeying between his VP’s by pouring everyone’s coffee. She found extra chairs and cued up two tech-challenged executives’ presentations. Her memory was so good he could give her notes without waiting for her to jot them down. She took care of incidentals he hadn’t realized impaired his productivity. Significantly, she did all of this without him feeling his private space had been invaded.

Marveling at that, Damien pressed a towel to his now smooth face.

How was it that Mia was nonintrusive while at the same time being unrelentingly attractive? His body had hummed—all day, it seemed to him—with awareness of her nearness. More than once, he’d considered ducking somewhere to find a quick release.

He’d refrained of course. Damien believed in the value of delayed gratification—for himself and others. The moment you
had
to have a climax was when it was most potent. The distinction lay in how difficult refraining had been today. Everything Mia did struck him as erotic, as if she truly were the geisha she’d joked about. Damien had met geishas on business in Japan. Though Mia wasn’t clumsy, she couldn’t claim their trained grace. She had gentleness maybe, or humility, or perhaps he just liked her pheromones.

He had reason to know that could happen.

He frowned as he buttoned his perfectly starched dress shirt. The idea of Mia exerting an extra tug on him was uncomfortable. Keeping the upper hand in this arrangement mattered. Jake was no pushover. At the least, Mia’s will ought to remain subservient to his. Jake should answer to him as well, but considering Damien expected him to master Mia, he had to allow the man some leeway.

As if his thoughts had traveled through the ethers, the phone he’d left on the bathroom counter rang. Jake was calling him. If he were canceling their appointment at Diogenes, Damien would be irked.

“Yes?” he said crisply.

“Damien.” Jake’s voice sounded even raspier on the phone. “Have you got time for a couple questions about tonight?”

Questions Damien didn’t mind. “Of course, Mr. Reed.”

Damien smiled at the ensuing pause. Jake didn’t like being addressed that way by him.

“Your contract said if you didn’t provide suggestions, Mia and I could improvise.”

Intrigued in spite of himself, Damien turned his back to the mirror and leaned on the counter’s edge. “I take it you’d like to improvise tonight?”

“I have an idea I think Mia will respond to. The thing is, my plan will work better if you fall in with it.”

“I believe my terms were clear, Mr. Reed. I do not wish to participate.”

“I understand. This is more along the lines of you adding to the atmosphere.”

“The atmosphere.”

“Have you got non-modern formal wear? Some of that British lord of the manor stuff?”

“You mean traditional black tie?”

“Yes. With one of those starchy white shirts that take cufflinks. And maybe suspenders.”

Damien already wore a shirt such as he described. “I can oblige you there.”

“Great,” Jake said. “Also, do you want me to pick you up, or would you rather be surprised like Mia?”

Damien sensed himself being led down a path. For whatever reason, Jake wanted to spring tonight’s scene on him.

“My tolerance for surprises has limits,” he warned. “I would like to see you tie up Miss Beck again.”

He knew this was Jake’s core kink and that he was unlikely to refuse.

“Okay,” Jake said after a brief pause.

“In addition, I’d like to stipulate that your activities not involve sexual intercourse or full nudity.”

“Agreed,” Jake said almost too readily.

“In that case, I’ll transport myself to Diogenes.”

“Great,” Jake said. “See you there.”