“I've come to talk about your offer.”
“And here I thought you showed up here to take me out to lunch.”
Her face and neck reddened.
“Follow me.”
On the ride up on the elevator, Pearl seemed unable to stay quiet.
“I researched you, you know?”
“Who’s stalking whom now?” I teased. “But don’t worry, unlike you, I can admit to enjoying it when you do it.”
The redness on her face deepened.God, I want to see just how far down that blush goes.
And then she surprised me again.
“You've done well for yourself, Emerson,” she said, a small smile pulling at her lips. “I'm proud of you.”
Her words caught me off guard.
Proud of me.
Had anyone ever said that to me before? And she said it so simply, like her words hadn’t just knocked me off balance. I had to force my gaze away from her and to the elevator doors so she couldn’t see more than I was willing to show.
We arrived within seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Being so close to her and feeling her body heat had me itching to close the space.
I would do it too if there weren’t any cameras in this fucking place.
When we got to my floor, I marched into the office, not bothering to tell her to follow. My employees greeted me, many of them pausing for a second when they saw Pearl, but she just smiled.
By the time I opened my door and pushed her inside, Pearl had somehow managed to turn the satisfaction I’d been feeling into anger.
“Sit,” I commanded, moving to sit behind my desk.
She probably didn't listen. She seemed enthralled, looking at the window behind me, taking in the cityscape.
Her shock as she took it in was surprising. As if she hadn’t been living in the city for the last few years and gotten to see it every single day.
And then I remembered my research. Her job at the restaurant. The auction.
Is it possible she never got to see a view like this?
That made me even angrier. Something I took for granted was something Pearl was looking at for the first time.
“And here I thought you were good at following directions.”
At that, she scurried to sit down in the chair in front of my desk as I started prepping the paperwork that I had hidden in my desk drawer.
“To the outside world, you're going to look like my assistant,” I said bluntly, and placed the stack of papers in front of her.It was thick, since I had been trying to prepare for everything that could happen between us. “In this office and behind closed doors, you are going to be my whore. My plaything. I can dowhateverI want,wheneverI want to you.”
She shifted in her seat.
“In other words, you want me to be your glorified sex toy.” It wasn't a question.
“I want you to be mine in every sense of the word.”
She looked straight at me then, the strength I longed to see finally showing through.
