Sweet Persuasion (12 page)

He kept her hand in his lap for the duration of the drive. When he wasn’t stroking her fingers, he ran his fingertips up and down her wrist and up the inside of her arm.

It was addicting. He was addicting, and the scary thing was that their relationship had yet to go beyond a simple touch, a light caress or a sizzling look. He could spell trouble for her in a big, big way if she wasn’t careful.

He drove to the same restaurant they’d had their first meeting at, and they were ushered back to the private dining room. At night, it took on a whole different atmosphere. The lighting was dim and more intimate. The drapes were drawn back from the large picture window, and the city skyline twinkled brightly on the horizon.

“I feel decidedly underdressed,” she murmured ruefully as she looked down at her jeans and T-shirt.

“I’m not wearing anything dressier,” he reminded her. “Besides, we are alone, and there is no one to see us.”

Her expression eased as she smiled. He made it so easy for her to relax and not worry about anything beyond the immediate moment.

He settled her into her chair and then took the seat across from her. A waiter hovered close by, and Damon ordered a bottle of wine.

“Would you like to see a menu?” Damon asked her.

She sat back in her chair, holding her wineglass to her lips. “You choose,” she said softly. She knew it would please him to do so, and she didn’t question her burning wish to accommodate his desires.

Damon related his choices to the waiter in a low voice, and in another moment, they were left alone.

“Tell me more about yourself,” she said as she set her glass back down on the table. “I don’t even know what you do for a living. Do you have family? Are you alone?”

He gave a self-conscious grimace, and it was the first chink she’d seen in the self-assured manner he always wore. “I was fortunate at an early age to have gotten in on the ground floor with what turned out to be very lucrative stocks. I love a challenge, and so I buy struggling businesses and turn them around.”

“And have you ever failed?” Serena asked, though she already knew the answer.

He stared levelly at her. “No,” he said simply.

“What is your latest acquisition?”

He tapped his fingers on the table, and an excited gleam entered his eyes. “I picked up two chip mills farther east that were on the verge of bankruptcy. I fully expect to have them showing a profit in under a year’s time. It’s all in hiring the right people and making sound financial decisions.”

“You sound much more cutthroat than I am when it comes to business,” she said. “I fully admit that I don’t always make the best business decisions and let my heart get ahead of my brain. Carrie tells me that I’m way too soft and that I’ll never wear brass balls.”

Damon smiled as he leaned back in his chair to study her. “And yet your business is profitable, you have no debt and you have happy clients.”

“You’ve been checking up on me again,” she muttered.

“Not again. Just the once. I just made sure it was a very thorough investigation. I’m very curious as to how you ever got into this sort of business. I’ve never known of another like it.”

She shrugged but couldn’t contain the bite of excitement that gripped her when she talked about her business and what inspired the idea behind it.

“It started off quite fanciful, actually. I’ve always been somewhat of a dreamer. Okay, a big dreamer. My mother used to swear that I spent ninety percent of my time with my head in the clouds.”

“Dreamers never die,” Damon said.

Serena smiled. “That’s so true and such a lovely sentiment. At any rate, even at an early age, I loved to fulfill other people’s wishes. If I overheard a friend or a family member express a desire for something, if it was in my power to give it to them, I did.

“After I graduated with my MBA, I spent a couple of years working in office management. Long enough to figure out I was bored stiff, and I hated working for other people.”

“Ah, a rebel,” he said in amusement.

She wrinkled her nose. “’Fraid so. It’s not that I can’t get along with people or that I buck authority. I’m just happier when I’m making my own decisions and I’m working in a job that motivates me. In short, I didn’t love what I was doing. I do now, and that makes all the difference.”

“I bet you get a lot of interesting requests.”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s an understatement. Some of them are obviously crackpots out for a laugh, but the worst are the insanely off-the-wall
serious
requests. These come from people who genuinely want and expect that I can fulfill their bizarre fantasies, and as weird as I may find them, they’re still just people who are longing for something just out of their reach. It’s hard to have to tell them that I can’t help them.”

“You have a soft heart,” he said in a gentle voice.

She grimaced. “Coming from you, I doubt that’s a compliment. My business decisions would probably horrify you.”

He looked at her in surprise. “Do I come across so ruthlessly? I sincerely meant it as a compliment. And as your business is a success, and you’ve made so many people happy, I hardly think your decisions would horrify me.”

Warm pleasure suffused her cheeks at the approval she saw in his expression. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you were ruthless. It’s just that, as you discovered in your research, I’ve subsidized more than a few of my client’s fantasies when it was clear they couldn’t afford the expense involved.”

“And you think this is a weakness,” he stated.

She shifted uncomfortably. “Maybe not a weakness, but I lecture myself on setting limits and then find myself unable to say no to a client because their fantasy doesn’t fit their budget. Don’t get me wrong; I’m choosy. I don’t particularly feel sorry for a guy whose fantasy is to orchestrate the photo shoot for the
Sports Illustrated
swimsuit issue, but when a mother comes to me because her daughter is ill and wants to be a princess on a cruise ship, I won’t tell her that I can’t help her because she’s several thousand dollars short.”

“I think what you perceive as a weakness is your greatest strength and attribute,” Damon said as he reached across to take her hand. “You have a generous soul, but you’re also practical.”

She let him turn her hand over so that her knuckles rested on the table. He touched a finger to her palm and traced a path across her skin. In turn, he stroked each of her fingers as if he savored the sensation of her flesh.

How she loved his touch. She could sit for hours and simply let his fingertips glide over her hands, her arms. She shivered as she remembered how his hands felt tangled in her hair, massaging her scalp and caressing her neck.

“You said—” She stopped and cleared her throat. “You said you had arranged the auction?”

He slowly withdrew his hand and sat forward in his chair so that there was little space between them. “I have. Is next weekend too soon?”

Adrenaline spiked in her veins, surging like a flash flood. Excitement. Dread. Terror. All were accurate descriptors of the emotions battering her.

Her mouth went dry and she swallowed quickly.

“No. Next weekend is fine. I’ll arrange my work schedule so that I’m off the following week. The auction. What do I need to do?”

Damon smiled. “Not a thing. I’ll have my driver pick you up and take you to The House where your keeper will await you. He’ll assist you in readying yourself for the auction. You’ll remain under his care until I claim you.”

Desire thrummed heavy in her veins. Liquid heat pooled in her loins and simmered there, waiting to be stirred to greater heights.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked. It was something she’d already asked, but she couldn’t help the need to know more about this intriguing man.

“It’s very simple,” he said calmly. “I want you, Serena. I’ve wanted you since the moment we met. When I discovered that you were the one wanting a fantasy fulfilled, there was never a chance of me turning you over to another man.”

“And so I will be yours,” she murmured, liking the words—and their meaning.

“Yes. You will belong to me.”

Satisfaction glimmered in his brown eyes. They were dark, and warm with promise.

“Tell me, Serena. Have you opened yourself to the possibility of new and daring experiences? Have you given thought to precisely what it will mean to belong to a man? And not just any man, but what it will mean to belong to me?”

She paused as she stared back at him. “I think I’ve prepared myself for new experiences. I’m a little nervous because I don’t know how far a man—
you
—will take things. But I trust you. Maybe I shouldn’t, but you make me feel very at ease.”

“I’m glad,” he said in a soft voice. “I wouldn’t want you frightened of me.”

“I find myself entertaining crazy thoughts,” she admitted. “Some are so far out of the realm of my personal experience that I wonder if I should even entertain them in reality or if they are better left as fantasy.”

“I hope that you’ll explore your boundaries when you’re with me and not be too swift to withdraw. I want you to open your mind and your heart. Don’t judge. Don’t think. Just feel. But,” he added, “if there is ever a time you’re afraid, I want you to be honest with me. I will never do anything to intentionally hurt you or frighten you.”

“I know that,” she said huskily. “I really do know that.”

Deep down, she wanted him to push her comfort zone. She wanted him to take control, so that she wouldn’t have a choice. She didn’t want him to ask, rather she wanted him to take, to demand, to
give
.

“I wanted to see you tonight because it will be the last time we’ll be together until the auction,” Damon said.

She looked up in surprise.

He smiled. “I like the dismay that flashed in your eyes. It matches my own. And the arrogant part of me likes it that you enjoy spending time with me.”

“Then why—”

“Because I want you to think of me all week. I want you to imagine the night of the auction when I lay claim to you. That first time I touch you and establish ownership. I want you to anticipate it.”

“You’re awfully sure of yourself,” she said in a low voice. But he was right. She would think of him all week. She would think of nothing else.

“No, I’m merely hopeful. And regardless of what will be on your mind this week, you will be what occupies my thoughts. I haven’t felt this degree of anticipation in a long, long time.”

She smiled.

“Your arrogance matches mine,” he said with a slight tilt to his lips. “I like it.”

“The contracts?” she questioned.

“I’ll courier them over first thing Monday morning. I want all the paperwork out of the way before the auction. I would have nothing intrude upon our time once we embark on your fantasy.”

Her breath quickened and she nodded her agreement. Finally. This was it. She was actually doing it.

It amazed her that she was sitting across the table from a gorgeous, powerful man, making plans to fulfill a longing within her that had grown from an idle curiosity to a full-fledged need.

In just over a week, she would walk into Damon’s club and be auctioned as a sex slave. That she knew who her master would be didn’t lessen the adrenaline-laced fear and excitement that raced through her body. If anything, knowing that Damon would command her body heightened her anticipation all the more.

CHAPTER 11

“
W
hat do you mean, Nathan drove you home, you woke up naked in your bed the next morning and you don’t remember what happened?” Serena asked in disbelief.

She propped her cell phone between her cheek and her shoulder as she fumbled for the paperwork she was trying to organize.

Julie groaned in her ear. “Faith set me up. The bitch.”

Serena laughed. “Oh come on, Julie. She was just trying to help.”

“I know,” Julie said with a heavy sigh. “But she was way too obvious. She all but shoved me at Nathan and suggested he drive me home. I really don’t remember how he reacted because I’d had too much to drink. I vaguely remember him driving me home, but after that? Nothing. I woke up the next morning in my bed, completely naked, and Serena, I don’t sleep in the buff.”

“Ah, and you’re worried that you did the nasty with Nathan and don’t remember it?”

“If I had sex with him and don’t remember it, I’m going to kill myself,” Julie said mournfully.

“Well, why don’t you just call and ask him?”

“Oh yeah, that’s what I want to do. ‘Hello, Nathan, this is Julie. Would you mind telling me if we fucked the other night?’”

Serena laughed. “I’m sure you could be more subtle than that, sweetie.”

“If we did sleep together, he sure hasn’t got the part down where you’re supposed to call the next day. For that matter, if we had sex, he sure hightailed it at the ass crack of dawn, which tells me I must not have been any good.”