Sapphamire (9 page)

Bores stared at her for a moment, not believing one word coming out of her mouth. She wasn’t bad on the eyes. Maybe if she was that easy he would sample her. It had been awhile, and obviously after what he had walked into this morning, she was easy. After all, she had only been on the job a few days from what he had been able to find out from the staff.

“You know,” he started, bringing his horse over closer to hers, “I could easily forget what I saw for a small price.” He spoke quietly, leaning in close and rubbing his hand up and down her thigh. She cringed, wanting to scream out in agony at his touch. It felt so wrong, and made her skin feel as if there were fire ants crawling all over her body. She wasn’t stupid. She was well aware of what he wanted in exchange for keeping his mouth shut.
Damn fool, there is no reason to keep your mouth shut, but I think Jade may have a spy on her hands for Daddy Dearest.
“I thought maybe you would consider joining with me this evening.” His hand crept up even higher on her leg, stopping with only an inch or so away from her jean-covered mound. This time Natasha couldn’t hold back the shudder of revulsion that went through her at his touch. If was revolting. It felt wrong.
Wow, I’ve never had this happen before
. She thought back to what Jade had said earlier. “
You are his mate
.” Maybe she was on to something. It would certainly explain the sudden possessiveness she felt over him. And it would explain why she was so attracted to him so quickly after meeting him. But could she live up to being his mate? Would he even want her, or just feel like he had to mate with her because of the mating call.

She felt Bores’s hand inch even closer, she waited, continuing to guide her horse down the path. Just when he lifted his fingers in an attempt to touch her most private spot, she sprang into action. Lightning fast, she reached down and grabbed one finger of the hand that had been trying to feel her up. With a quick flick of her wrist, she had his finger bent completely backward, hearing the rewarding sound of bones and cartilage breaking.

He stared down at his completely deformed finger that was throbbing. “You bitch, you broke my finger!” His roar drew the attention of Blain and Jade, who were still ahead of them. Blain quickly turned his horse around and headed their way.

“Yeah, and you should have never put your hands on me without my permission,” she stated.
One of these days these guys are going to learn, if you don’t want me killing you, then hands off!

Natasha sat in a chair outside of Blain’s office. When they had returned from the horseback ride, Bores had insisted on an immediate emergency meeting between himself, Blain, and Jade. She could hear Blain shouting even through the thick, closed doors. She had no doubt Bores thought he would get the upper hand if he spilled the beans as to what transpired this morning down in the exercise room. Natasha wanted to laugh. Little did he know Jade wouldn’t give two cents as to what she and Blain had been doing. She wasn’t interested in Blain, but had admitted to Natasha that morning that, in the past, she had come across as flirting with Blain in front of her guards, as she was suspicious she had a few spies in the group that her father was controlling.

She jumped and nearly squeaked at the sound of something shattering against the inside of the office door. She looked up to see Donatello, one of Blain’s guards, standing next to her.

“How bad is it in there?” His dragon hearing would allow him to hear more than she could ever hope to.

“Not looking good,” he said, and she groaned, feeling sick at his words. Would Blain not take her side? Bores had started the entire mess. If he hadn’t tried to blackmail her, she wouldn’t have had to hurt him.

Donatello was quick to correct her wayward thoughts. “For him, Natasha. Blain is in there defending you and ripping him a new one. Let me guess, he tried pressuring you into having sex with him, and you broke his finger. Have I got that part correct, at least?” He smiled down at her, trying to lighten up atmosphere.

“Yes, that part is correct. He caught Blain—” she stopped there, if he hadn’t heard what happened this morning already, she sure as heck wasn’t going to tell him. “Never mind, the rest is not important.” Surprisingly enough, Donatello had turned out to be a really nice guy after that incident in the office on her first day. He had pulled her aside and told her he was deeply sorry to have acted that way, and promised it would never happen again. Of course, maybe the bruise under his eye that had mysteriously appeared between the time she left the office and dinner had something to do with it.

Internally, Natasha was afraid the staff saw her as Blain’s little pet, or Blain’s executive assistant with benefits, or Blain’s plaything. She was strong, could fend for herself, take care of her own problems, yet she felt like she was being handled as if she were a helpless, fragile female. Part of her wanted to barge into that room and kill Bores, while the other half of her wanted to go and start packing her things. The last thing she wanted was to be the talk of the staff.

Suddenly, the door swung open, and Natasha jumped to her feet immediately. Blain was standing in the doorway, black fury rolling off him in waves. She could see his skin shimmer, and she knew his dragon was close to the surface. He glanced over to her, and she noticed that his eyes held a glow to them. And then he let out a pent-up breath, and she watched smoke puff out of his nose and mouth.

He turned back to his office. “Get out,” he growled, the gravel sound in his voice reminding her of the Disney movie,
Beauty and The Beast
.

Bores scooted past him and out the door. The minute he spotted Natasha, he narrowed his eyes at her before turning his back and walking away.

“Get in here,” Blain ordered, causing Natasha to jump.

Following him into his office, Natasha took her place standing statue-still in front of his desk while she waited for him to shut the door and sit down. Blain stomped back over to his desk and sat down. His fist slammed down, causing the structure of his desk to groan over the weight. There wasn’t too much she was afraid of, but Blain in a tizzy was not a pretty sight. Especially when she continuously kept getting glimpses of his dragon. Blain threw his head against the back of his seat, closed his eyes, and took a few deep breaths. When he reopened his eyes, his dragon had disappeared completely, and he was in much better control of himself.

“Before this conversation even gets started, I want you to know that I am not mad with you,” he stated, still trying to rein in the last of his temper.

“You’re not?” she verified, wanting to be sure there wouldn’t be any problems between them. She had known all along that she really didn’t have anything to worry about. But then when she heard all the shouting and then the door being flung open to reveal a pissed off dragon, well, she wasn’t quite sure where she stood.

“No,” he confirmed, as he sat back further into his seat. “No, I’m furious with the dumbass that just left this room.”

Seeing the doubt skate across her features, he was quick to reassure her. “Please, sit down. We’re good, Natasha. I am just really pissed at the idiot that just left here for having the audacity to tell me in explicit detail what all he planned to do to you.”

Natasha’s eyes widened as she fell back onto the chair directly behind her. All color drained from her cheeks as she processed his words. She remembered the cold, calculating look he gave her when he left Blain’s office. She didn’t even want to know what all he had told Blain.

“What happened?”

“Well, let’s see. First, he tried throwing both of us under the bus by telling Jade that I was kissing you and feeling you up this morning. Then, when he didn’t get the response he was looking for, he tried throwing
you
under the bus, stating that you had done nothing but flirt with all of the guards ever since they arrived.” He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “That’s when I lost it.”

Natasha’s eyes went big and round when he told her she was being accused of flirting with all of the guards. Blain was quick to reassure her. “I know you haven’t flirted with anyone since you got here. If you had, I would have already been alerted to it by now. No, but you did help Lady Jade find at least one of her father’s spies. He is being sent home today, by the way. So, we should not need to deal with him any longer.

Blain studied her for a long moment. “Now that that is behind us, I would like to talk to you about you and I.”

Natasha’s heart skipped a beat or ten as she willed her nerves to calm down. What would he tell her? That she wasn’t up to class. That he couldn’t mate her because she came from no money, held no power, and would be a liability to him?

She jumped when he spoke again, only then realizing that he had left his seat behind the desk and had joined her in the empty chair next to her. She willed her heart to settle down, and she promised herself that whatever he said, she would wait to fall to pieces until she was locked in her room. Completely by herself.

As her heart continued racing and her mind conjured up all kinds of nasty things, she suddenly realized she wasn’t getting enough air in her lungs. She felt lightheaded and dizzy, and she realized her vision was starting to get fuzzy around the edges.

She placed her palms down on the desk in front of her and dropped her head. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on getting her breathing under control.

The next thing she knew she was being moved and was suddenly sitting in Blain’s lap. “Whoa, I got you, baby. You’re all right, nothing’s going to happen,” he murmured in her ear as he leaned her back against him. He brought her all the way back until her head was resting comfortably on his shoulder.

She had yet to get the dizziness under control when her stomach started rolling. Then she remembered that she hadn’t eaten any breakfast. She glanced up at Blain.

Her breathing was still out of control as she continued to fight the dizziness, stomach rolling, and all of her emotions at the forefront. She was still worried about what Blain wanted to talk to her about. She sure as hell couldn’t get fired. If she were to get fired, not only would she killing herself, but someone else as well—someone who so desperately needed her to stay alive.

“Natasha, sweetheart, calm down, love, you are hyperventilating,” Blain said, worry coating his tone of voice as he lovingly stroked her hair and held her hand. “What’s got you so worked up, baby?”

Natasha couldn’t handle it anymore. He had confused the shit out of her ever since the first time she had walked into this very room.

“You!” she shouted, losing all self-control as tears streamed down her face. “You! You are my problem, day and night, and every second in between! Why are you doing this to me? You have my head spinning ninety miles a minute. You act like you are actually interested in me one minute, only to ignore and treat me as just an employee the next. Which am I?” The tears were falling freely down her cheeks.

Seeing her tears roll down her face as she swiped at them angrily with the sleeve of her sweater made Blain’s chest hurt. Or maybe it was the fact his dragon was hurling himself up against Blain’s ribcage in an attempt to get out and comfort their mate. He felt like a total idiot, which his dragon was quick to agree with. Those tears rolling down her cheeks were his fault.

She jumped out of his lap suddenly and reached around the side of the desk for the trash can. Dry-heaving, she didn’t think this day could get any worse. She started to stumble a quick moment later just from standing up.

The next thing she knew she was being picked up by Blain and cuddled up against his chest. “I think we need to get you laying down,” Blain stated softly as he quickly made his way out of the office and to her bedroom.

Two female employees were standing on either side of him as he gently lowered her to the bed. Serena, the head housekeeper, inquired, “Sir, is there anything we can do to help?”

Blain graced the woman with a smile. She had been with him since he moved here almost eight years ago. “Can you ask Cook if we have any crackers and maybe some clear liquids of some kind?”

“Of course, certainly, sir.” The other woman hung back, waiting to see if he needed anything else. He glanced up at her, knowing she was only trying to do her job. “I’ll call you if we need anything, but you can go now.” For the first time in a long time, he made a conscious effort to speak softly, not snap at his staff. He glanced down at Natasha, who had closed her eyes the moment her head hit the pillow. He knew it was because of her. She was already making a mark on his life. He didn’t resent it like he thought he might. No, she was a good person. She had just been dealt a really shitty hand from what he could tell. And she made him want to be a better person because of it.

He watched his employee walk out the door and then he set out to remove Natasha’s shoes and make her comfortable. Once he was finished with that chore, he came back up and sat on the side of the bed, stroking her hair with his fingertips. She had the softest strands of hair he had ever felt.

“Baby, I am so sorry I upset you. We need to have a long chat, and we will, I just want you feeling better before I start throwing everything at you.”