Soft Skills (3 page)

She chewed on her lower lip. One day she’d have to tell them how grateful she was for the silly hazing, though not for the reasons they’d intended. She shook her head, remembering how much she’d been freaking out.

The hazing hadn’t taught her to keep her work life separate from her self-esteem. In fact, it was the opposite. Now she knew that she’d die if she ever let them down. Thinking they were unhappy with her had been the worst experience of her life. She knew that wasn’t healthy, but she didn’t have very much going for her. It wasn’t their fault. Her life had revolved around getting her career off the ground. Cunningham & Associates provided her with a job, a purpose, and a sense of belonging. Plus she had three men who treated her better than she probably deserved. If she lost that, she’d have nothing.

She might not be the most talented artist or the best salesperson, but she wasn’t afraid to do something that most people couldn’t, or wouldn’t do: work ten times harder.

The effort she made was completely up to her, and she would make sure that Cunningham, Jonathan and Nolan never had any excuse to send her packing. Elle straightened and felt a calm finally settling over her.

“Elle?” Nolan stuck his head in the door. “Everything ok?”

Elle smiled brightly. “Never been better.” She held up her purse. “I’m ready.”

Even though she knew what was coming at the restaurant, Elle still felt sick as Cunningham lectured her. A few of her coworkers were smiling knowingly; they were probably remembering going through the same thing.

Maybe the rest of the company thought it was a fun tradition, but Elle planned to warn any new employees.

Just as Cunningham was wrapping up his speech about work-life balance, Elle’s phone rang. She lunged for her purse, face hot with embarrassment.

“And Elle is doing an excellent job showing how to balance work with life, although ideally we like to keep life far away from work until about 5:00,” Cunningham said. Everyone laughed.

Elle bit back a curse as she rummaged for the phone.

“Allow me.” Nolan took away her bag, thrust his hand inside and instantly pulled out her phone with a cocky smile. He held it out to Elle, but Jonathan intercepted it and pushed a button. “Good afternoon. Elle Girdley’s phone.” Jonathan said smoothly.

Elle’s eyes went wide. There was only one person who ever called her in the middle of the day: Mama. And Mama didn’t know anything about Elle’s love life. Even if Elle had only been dating one man, she would have kept it to herself.

“It’s very nice to meet you,” Jonathan said, all charm. “Elle has proven herself to be a real asset at our company.” A few people snickered. Jonathan wound his way through the tables, and he caught Cunningham’s eye and jerked his head to indicate that Cunningham should join him.

“No,” Elle breathed, rooted to the spot where she stood.

“Open bar for another thirty minutes,” Cunningham announced as he headed toward the bathroom. The employees suddenly started talking amongst themselves as they consulted the drink menus, company business forgotten. Elle helplessly headed after her bosses.

By the time she arrived into the little hallway that led to the bathrooms, Jonathan was saying into the phone, “We’re very excited to meet you.” He looked awfully pleased with himself.

Elle gritted her teeth and tried not to scream with frustration. Jonathan and Cunningham didn’t understand the situation. Elle loved her mother, she really did, but Mama was the most critical, judgmental and loudmouthed person Elle had ever met. Even though no one had suggested that Elle admit to be dating all three men, Mama would hate all of them for the pure and simple fact that they were rich. Elle was sure of it.

“I’ll let her know,” Jonathan said smoothly. “You have a wonderful evening.” He ended the call and surrendered the phone to Elle. “Your mother will be coming to Cunningham’s loft for dinner on Saturday.”

“No.”

“I think your sister might also be coming. We offered to provide an on-site babysitter.”

“No…” Elle slumped against the wall.

Cunningham touched her hair. “You said you were going to set it up, Elle. The way you’re acting is giving me the impression that you were lying. I really hope that isn’t the case because if you were to lie to me again, I’m not sure I could be as forgiving as in the past.”

“I was going to do it,” Elle said weakly. But Cunningham was right, of course—she’d hoped putting it off might make the whole thing eventually go away.

Mama would be one problem, but then there was her sister. Unlike Mama, Savannah might just be able to suss out what was going on.

If Elle didn’t love Jonathan so much, she would have strangled him for complicating her life like this.

By the time employees started leaving the restaurant, Elle was completely exhausted. Up until that day, she’d occasionally felt a little bit like an outsider. She’d wondered if it was because some coworkers thought she was getting special treatment due to her relationship with the bosses.

But the afternoon and evening had changed all of that. Now she truly felt like part of the gang.
 

She still wasn’t sure how she felt about the hazing ritual, but at least some good had come of it.

“Why don’t you stay at my place tonight?” Cunningham suggested. His suit jacket was folded carefully over his arm, but he had loosened his tie.

Elle glanced around. Jonathan and Nolan were nowhere to be seen. “Just the two of us?”

“Does that pose a problem?”

“No.” Elle squinted at him. “To do what?”

“You’ll see.” Cunningham smiled, and Elle’s knees went weak. He was so handsome when he smiled. Too bad he did it so rarely.

Cunningham guided Elle through the restaurant with a possessive hand on her lower back. Electricity seemed to jump through his fingers and travel down her body, and by the time they reached the valet and taxi stand, Elle’s body was primed for him.

To her dismay, Cunningham had a beautiful sports car waiting. No chauffeur meant no fooling around in the back seat while someone else drove.
 

She studied the sleek machine a moment. It looked brand new, and not quite as… high testosterone… as his other personal vehicles. She got in with a mental shrug; she was hardly an expert on Cunningham’s gadgets.

Not only did Cunningham have to drive, but it was stick shift and there were too many gears and buttons in the console between them.

Elle sat in the passenger seat feeling a million miles away from Cunningham. She tried to distract herself from her horniness by watching the city pass. Whenever they stopped at a light, people gawked at the car. Elle rolled her eyes with a sigh, then turned toward Cunningham to ask him about the bridal boutique project she was struggling with.

But before she opened her mouth, Cunningham said, “There’s something I want to talk to you about. About our relationship.” He said “relationship” as if it were a foreign word that he wasn’t sure how to pronounce correctly.

“Ok.”

“In Aspen, we agreed to date for a month. That was a while ago, and obviously things have been working out very well.”

“You do realize that you’re doing this all wrong? Saying you want to talk means you want to end things, but saying things are going well means you don’t. It’s confusing.”

Cunningham shot her a confused look. “You do realize that you’re getting mouthy with your Dom.”

Elle opened and closed her mouth. Ok, technically, yeah, she was.
 

“Remove your panties, Elle.”

She reached up her skirt and slid off the slinky things. Cunningham grabbed them out of her hand.

“Open wide.”

She knew better than to protest. She’d long ago learned that once Cunningham got an idea in his mind it was impossible to distract him. Still, she couldn’t help but ask, “Should I stick out my tongue and say ‘ah’?”

“Could you repeat that?” Cunningham’s words were measured. Elle winced. He really wasn’t in a jokey mood. “I’m waiting, Elle.”

“Should I stick—”

Cunningham jammed her wadded up panties into her mouth, and Elle tasted sex. “There’s a difference between being assertive and talking too much, Elle. This is the second time today that I’ve had to gag you.”

Elle tried to apologize, but the panties just muffled her words.

“Keep making noise and I’ll find something guaranteed to keep you quiet.” He paused, possibly waiting for Elle to try to say something else. She kept very silent. “Good girl. Now, as I was saying, things have been going very well. Much better than I ever would have expected.” He sounded pleased.
 

Elle had the impression that he had rehearsed this little speech. Still, she had no idea where he was going. If it was super-important, he would have waited until they were at his place.

The car stopped, and a group of three, well-dressed men drew closer to get a better look. Elle turned her head away, embarrassed by the impromptu gag.

“No, Elle. Face ahead.”

But she couldn’t make herself do it.
 

Cunningham made a disappointed sound as the light changed. He went up a little farther, then pulled over abruptly and jerked up the parking break without turning off the car.
 

First he yanked the panties out of her mouth. Elle moved to wipe away the drool that came with it, but Cunningham batted her hand away. “You’re about to get a lot sloppier.”

“I’m sorry. Please don’t punish me.” But of course she didn’t mean it. Things had been so busy lately that most of her domination had come from light S&M sessions at the office. It had been weeks since they’d used the sexual toys that Jonathan kept hidden in his desk, and Elle missed that.
 

For whatever reason, she never felt so cherished as when they were hurting her just a little. Or a lot. Things hadn’t started that way, but she’d learned to equate sexual pain with pleasure.

Cunningham slowly unbuckled his belt. Elle tensed. He was going to make her suck him off!
 

She smiled. This couldn’t have gone any better than if she’d planned it out.

But Cunningham pulled the belt free from his pants. “Get out of the car, Elle.”

“What?”

Cunningham didn’t bother repeating himself because of course he knew when she was stalling for time. Elle unbuckled the seat belt and pushed open the door.
 

A few passers-by gave her a curious glance, but no one was close enough to see the look of terror on her face.

Cunningham exited the car and closed the door behind him. He came around, the belt in his hand, and touched the hood with his open palm.

“You’re in luck,” he said with a sadistic smile. “The car isn’t hot. Bend over it.”

Elle slowly bent over the sleek, black vehicle. Lights from a nearby bar reflected in the car’s shiny finish. She carefully placed her hands on the hood, her elbows bent, and let her cheek rest on the warm metal. A lock of her hair fell in front of her eyes. Cunningham leaned close, his lips grazing her ear.

“You’ve been a very, very bad girl, Elle.” He tucked the hair behind her ear. “I want you to see what I’m doing, and I want everyone who passes to see your pretty face as I punish you.”

She whimpered. Frankly, the idea of getting a public spanking terrified her. All those people watching, looking at her, judging her… watching Cunningham take her in hand and assert his dominance over her…
 

An unexpected frisson of excitement left her trembling. She hadn’t known she wanted this until now, but she
did
want it, very much. She inhaled deeply, her eyes fixed on the belt that dangled loosely from Cunningham’s grasp.

He took a step back and raised his arm, and the belt disappeared from view. This was the worst part, not knowing when the blow was going to arrive.

Elle stayed immobile, tensed. She heard voices approaching, and then she knew what he was waiting for.
 

The belt descended quickly and landed on her rump with a dull smack. Elle squirmed. She was already getting turned on from being in this submissive position, held there by nothing more than the strength of Cunningham’s iron will. Now that the spanking had started, she was getting wet… and she didn’t have on panties. The entire world would see how aroused she was.

“Count, Elle.”

“One,” she said.

“One. Thank you, Cunningham, sir. I’m sorry for inconveniencing you.”

Elle wanted to protest that it was unfair to make her deliver such a mouthful, but she found herself saying, “One. Thank you, sir. I’m sorry for inconveniencing you.”

Cunningham reached under her skirt and tweaked her supple inner thigh. “You forgot a word.”

Elle thought for a second, then spit the sentence out properly in a rush.
 

“Better. More feeling next time.”

“Yes, sir.”

The belt disappeared from view again, and a moment later it landed in the exact same place as the first strike. Elle promptly expressed her gratitude, and Cunningham continued without saying anything.

He knew what he was doing. She’d thought that the skirt would mean little physical discomfort, but she hadn’t counted on him managing to treat the same area so thoroughly.
 

She could sense that people were standing there, watching. Underneath her, the car’s high-performance engine continued to purr.

“Are you ok?” a man’s voice called out.

Cunningham stepped back. “Go ahead and answer, Elle. You may face him.”
 

Elle straightened slowly. She really just wanted to curl up and die of humiliation. She turned, her hands fidgeting with the bottom of her silky shirt, which had come untucked.

“I’m fine,” she mumbled. When she looked up at the man, she saw that his pants were tented with one hell of an erection. In fact, seven or eight men stood there, watching, and they all showed the same physical reaction. Elle shifted uncomfortably. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something about this interaction was… strange.

“No, I meant are
you
ok?” the man repeated.
 

He wasn’t talking to her, Elle realized with a start. They were all staring at Cunningham. She quickly glanced around, then smiled self-consciously. Cunningham had managed to pull over in front of a row of high-end pickup bars, many of them gay, all of them kinky as hell. Elle knew for a fact that there was a world-famous BDSM club at the end of the street, although she’d never been there. What would be the point when her life had become what people went to that club to simulate?