Temptation to Submit Read online

  She froze, and he caught her with her eyes half open, staring at him. “Please, Sir,” she whispered.

  He palmed her breasts as he held her gaze. “Please what, brat?”

  “Touch me…please.”

  “Where, Victoria? Tell me where you want me to touch you,” he said in a strained tone. “And don’t be shy about it.”

  “Touch my pussy,” she said clearly. “Rub my clit. Make it yours.”

  At the last three words, his cock thickened, and he cupped her damp flesh. He flicked two fingers over her clit, pinched it, and she twitched in his arms. She spread her legs to give him better access.

  With a curse, he whipped her around and laid her on her back on the desk. He pushed her legs apart and sank three fingers deep inside her. She cried out and arched her back, driving him in farther. He curled them and slid the tips until he found the spot he wanted. He knew the second he touched it. She gasped, inhaling a huge breath, and shuddered.

  Controlled, deliberate, and fast, he worked her as he watched her face. Her hips gyrated, and a flush covered her neck and chest. Her whole body tensed, every muscle clenched as her pussy surrendered to his demand.

  The feel of her release flowing over his fingers almost made him forget his promise and ram her with his greedy cock. But he clenched his jaw and stroked her inner walls again, extending her orgasm. Her movements were frantic and uncontrolled. Her tits bounced, and her hands clutched at his arms. Even her toes curled, dropping one high heel off as she shouted her second release.

  “Y-you promised,” she gasped.

  Her glazed eyes, green and piercing, captured him, ensnared him. He snarled at her and removed his hand. He licked his fingers, reveling in the taste. Then he turned her over so she lay facedown on his desk with her bare bottom on the edge, her legs spread so he could see her damp pussy.

  He whacked her ass, wanting to remind her of the heat of his previous spanking. She moaned and moved to seek more. He unzipped his pants and dropped them. As he took his cock in his hands, she lifted up on her elbows and turned her head to watch.

  She licked her lips as he stroked himself with one hand and squeezed her ass with the other.

  “Tell me what you want, Victoria,” he ordered.

  Without removing her glance from his stiff dick, she told him. “I want you to come on my ass. I want to feel it hit my skin. I want to smell like you all day.”

  Her blatant request sent him over the edge, and with a snarling groan, he let go, his cum marking her ass and thighs. She rocked against the desk, her hand buried between her legs, and cried out as she came again.

  He was breathing hard, his right hand on the desk to hold him up, his legs shaky. “If you were mine, I’d punish you for touching yourself,” he said in a guttural tone he couldn’t help. “I’d whip you with a flogger and put stripes on that perfect ass of yours. I’d suck your tits until you came.” Shit. What was he doing?

  She was very still for a long time. The phone rang and startled them both. She rose from the desk and fled his office.

  When she finally returned fifteen minutes later, she presented him with that cool exterior that kept him at arm’s length. She stood facing his desk, her clothes in perfect order, as if she hadn’t been facedown on it at all. “I’m afraid I made a mistake.”

  “Victoria—”

  “I shouldn’t have changed the parameters of our agreement.” She looked at him, and her gaze was pleading. He’d do almost anything to replace that desperate expression with the sensual flush she’d had before. “Please, Finch, I don’t want to stop the spankings, but—”

  “But today was too much?” Yes, he’d gotten too close. She’d completely surrendered.

  “I thought I could handle it. I’m sorry. I am. But I can’t- I can’t-” A panicked expression on her face brought him around the desk.

  “It’s okay, Victoria. But we need to finish today’s session.” Gently, calmly, he wrapped his arms around her. “Shh, brat. It’s going to be okay. I promise.”

  The way she shook in his arms and then relaxed completely, holding on to him tight enough to stop his breath, broke his heart. “Don’t worry. We’ll go back to the same contract.”

  “But you’ll still make up the kidnapping scene?” She raised her head and gazed at him intensely.

  “I’ll write it up.” He’d probably never do it, though. How in the hell could he resist driving her to the erotic heights he wanted to take her? She was fragile. Yet there was a toughness he admired, a stubbornness he read in the set of her jaw and the steadiness of her stare. “I promise.”

  She put her head back on his shoulder. “Thank you, Sir.”

  He murmured against her hair. “Good girl.”

  * * * *

  “You tell that bastard I want to see him now,” a woman shouted at Atticus’s very fragile secretary. He was about to open the door and ream the unknown person, but Victoria only showed irritation when she came in and a woman pushed passed her.

  “Yarina, this is Atticus Paulus.” Victoria shot him a warning look. “Mr. Paulus, this is Yarina Tourine.”

  “Reena said you’re the one who cut my fucking budget,” the woman stated.

  Atticus studied the woman who was the daughter of the CEO of Sunsoon, Victor Tourine. She resembled a gypsy, with long, dark hair and mysterious brown eyes. Her cheekbones were angled, and her bones were small. She was short, barely reaching his shoulder. His height and his position in the company didn’t seem to intimidate her at all.

  “Yes, I did.” He waved toward a chair. “Would you sit down, please?”

  Yarina leaned on his desk and glared at him. “You’re going to regret this. You think you know everything? You don’t. And I’m going to do whatever I have to do to protect myself.”

  The woman whirled around and stomped out of his office. Atticus watched her leave and wondered. He and Victoria had not found the culprit behind the creative accounting used to cover up whatever Yarina’s department was doing. It would take a talented accountant to move money and hide it the way it was done.

  “She is one scary bitch,” Victoria said from the door. She brought in two reports. “I found something.”

  “Oh?”

  “I started thinking that it might be easier to find whoever was cooking the books if I could pinpoint when the expenditures were being shifted.” She handed him two spreadsheets. “One of these is from over a year ago. It matches all the records I have, all the receipts.” She pointed to the second spreadsheet. “This one is from ten months ago. This is the first one I could find that had some discrepancies.”

  “Was anyone hired at that time?”

  Victoria shook her head. “No. But you should know that I think money has been diverted for longer than the spreadsheets show.”

  “That pension restoration fund.” Damn it. Atticus gritted his teeth when Victoria nodded.

  The pension restoration fund had been a deduction that Sunsoon had started taking out of employee’s checks to fix the faltering retirement account. All eight hundred Sunsoon employees, from L.A. to the Portland office, had money deducted for their pension. That money was invested. Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, the pension fund was hit hard. The employees gave a little more so that the pension fund could get out of the danger zone.

  Apparently, the money hadn’t been added to the pension. With the fluctuations of the pension fund, it was difficult to trace. But not impossible.

  “Who diverted it?”

  “It’s a short list.” She met his gaze. “And I’d be number one on it.”

  Not possible. He waved that comment away. “No. If it had been you, then I don’t think we would have traced the money at all.”

  She laughed, and Atticus realized he hadn’t heard her do much of that lately. “That’s true, Finch. All right. All the department heads could do it, but they’d have to have some accounting experience. We’re back to our mystery money guy with an axe to grind.”

  Attic
us didn’t like it. Someone in the office had unauthorized access to their numbers. “Get Dimitri on the phone.”

  When Victoria left his office, Atticus stared at the reports she had compiled. Damn her. She was so efficient, so smart he would have had no idea that his secretary was carrying a load of emotional baggage if he hadn’t been studying her intently. Whoever was diverting the funds had done it without getting Victoria’s attention. And with the way the second set of books were set up to direct guilt toward Victoria, it was someone who didn’t like her.

  Yarina? No. She had the ability to manipulate numbers but had left too wide a trail to follow back to her. Though it looked like there were definitely expenditures in her department that weren’t on the up-and-up, the diversion of funds and resources were more direct. Yarina’s apparent infraction was unrelated. Atticus would get Dimitri on it so that they could eliminate Yarina as the culprit. The money spent in Yarina’s department was going somewhere, buying actual products, albeit products that weren’t needed by the company.

  But the money diverted from the pension restoration fund had disappeared. Someone was siphoning off money, and it was Atticus’s job to find out who it was.

  Speaking of eliminating a culprit. “Ms. Rodgers, come in here please.”

  Victoria entered the office, pad of paper in hand, ready for his instructions. She sat down and gazed at him expectantly.

  He handed her the completed kidnapping scene and the consent form. “Please review this. If you have any questions—”

  She smiled. “You wrote it.”

  As she read the scenario, he studied her. She had lost weight and color. He didn’t like it.

  “There’s no time or place on here,” she said.

  “No.” He liked the way her smile faded. There was a mixture of anxiety and arousal that made him lean closer to her and whisper in her ear to intimidate her more. “When I take you, it will be quick and quiet. You won’t even have a chance to cry out.”

  Her swallow was audible, and her breath made a sound like a sob. “I’ll have to be on my guard, then.”

  Slowly, he stepped away. “It won’t help.”

  * * * *

  Rita’s was busy, and Tori scanned the tables for her friends. Nell was already there, so Tori threaded through the lunch crowd to her table. “Sorry I’m late.” Tori slid into one of the chairs. “That bastard Paulus kept me past one.”

  “He’s still a bastard?” Nell asked with a slight smile.

  Tori glanced at Nell. Could she see something? Tori tried hard to hide how much Finch had come to mean to her, even when he drove her crazy.

  Each day started out the same. She arrived late, and Finch bent her over his desk to spank the hell out of her. Then Tori would have to run to the bathroom and get herself off. Finch had never broken his rule again and only spanked her through her clothes, though Tori had often fought the desire to beg him to strip her again and, this time, fuck her.

  She didn’t cave in. She also didn’t call off the impending kidnapping. The anticipation was killing her. Worst of all, he didn’t mention it again, and she couldn’t bring it up. He hadn’t said a word when she’d handed him her consent and her additions.

  She wasn’t ready to admit that he had started to become essential to her well-being. “He’s an asshole.”

  “Who is?” Gina seemed tired.

  Tori realized it had been weeks since she’d spoken to Gina. Wrapped up in her mom’s situation and ConFed’s money mystery, she hadn’t had much time. And where Nell glowed with contentment, Gina seemed anxious and worried.

  “Tori is complaining about Atticus again.”

  Nell’s attention wasn’t on Tori though. Both of them were focused on Gina. Tori didn’t get it. Of the three of them, Gina was the only one who didn’t have a new boss. She and Reena had always worked well together, and Tori had always suspected they were closer than colleagues. Just before the Vegas trip, though, Gina seemed to distance herself from Reena.

  It had been Reena who’d partnered up with Gina at the erotic expo and had given Tori one of the most beautiful examples of public play she’d ever seen. What had happened?

  Gina seemed to realize that Tori was about to start digging. “Poor Atticus,” Gina said and shook her head. “He’s so hot, though. I don’t think he’ll find it tough to replace you.”

  That was the last thing Tori wanted to hear, probably because it was true. “Shut up.”

  Then Gina changed the subject. “What about you, Nell? How is working for the mysterious Mark Conners?”

  “I like him.” Nell’s face was flooded with color, and Tori spotted it immediately. There was definitely something there.

  Tori couldn’t help but smile. “She’s holding out on us.”

  Nell cleared her throat. “At least he’s not laying everyone off.”

  Gina gave her a puzzled look. “No, but he’s definitely pissing people off enough that they’ll quit.”

  “What do you mean?” Nell cocked her head to the side.

  “He slashed the software development budget,” Tori said. “Every single purchase order goes through Atticus now. You should have seen Yarina. She was furious.” She shuddered. “That woman scares me.”

  Gina smirked. “She should. The woman’s vocabulary is extensive. I know. She ripped into Reena too.”

  “Does she know Mark is the one who cut her budget?” Nell seemed worried, her forehead wrinkled in a frown.

  “She knows now,” Gina said. “Reena told her this morning.”

  Tori watched Nell. It was pretty clear that Nell was concerned her new boss might be threatened in some way. Time for some fishing. “Tell us the truth, Nell. Does Mark kiss as good as he looks?”

  “Tori!” Nell protested, but her face flooded with color.

  Tori exchanged a mischievous glance with Gina. “That’s not an answer.”

  Tori grinned as Nell pursed her lips together.

  Then Nell sighed. It was a dreamy, contented sigh that spoke volumes. “He kisses better than he looks.”

  Gina smiled. “I’ll bet he does.” She brushed her dark hair from her face. “You know, when he was at the play party, he didn’t touch any of the submissives there, and I asked—” Gina stopped and clenched her jaw for a moment. “I wondered why. I was told he had already sized up his next play partner, and he wasn’t there to cruise.” She reached out and touched Nell’s hand. “I’m pretty sure he was interested in you then.”

  Nell’s lips curved into a smile. “He said something like that. I sort of put the kibosh on his plan to…convince me to sign that fraternization clause when I made my declaration in Vegas.”

  She laughed, and Tori’s heart tightened. Nell sounded so happy, so in love. Tori was envious.

  “You signed it? The declaration?”

  Nell nodded. “All those nights I spent online, fantasizing, dreaming about this kind of thing pale in comparison to the real thing.”

  “You’re in love with him,” Tori stated.

  Nell met her gaze. “I am. I’m terrified. But right now I’m enjoying what we have and not worrying about tomorrow.” She glanced at her phone, and her eyes widened. “Oh no. I have to go. I promised Mark I’d be back early.”

  Tori watched her friend hurry out of the restaurant. She turned to Gina. “Alone at last. Now you can tell me what happened in Vegas.”

  For the first time since Tori had known her, Gina’s face was blank. “Nothing happened. I wanted to drive back, not fly.”

  Tori studied her. She and Gina had always been friends but not close. Oh, they’d had intimate conversations about sex and BDSM, but Tori realized she didn’t know Gina as well as she knew Nell. “Ever since you and Reena—”

  “I’m not discussing her,” Gina snapped. “I don’t want to talk about Vegas. Besides, you haven’t told me anything. It’s pretty clear that your trips to the bathroom to get off are more than just taking the edge off.”

  Tori wanted the floor to swallow her. G
ina had heard her? How could she explain that Finch got her so hot and horny she had to find relief? “You’re spying on me?”

  “You weren’t being very quiet,” Gina snapped.

  “Why the hell were you coming upstairs anyway?” Tori tried to divert Gina away from the real subject. She was surprised to see Gina look uncomfortable for a moment.

  “I take my breaks up there. Your floor has the better bathroom.” Gina cleared her throat, and all the hostility between them seemed to dissipate. “What’s going on that drives you into the executive bathroom to get yourself off?”

  Well, she couldn’t reveal her reasons without explaining why she couldn’t get her rocks off at home. “I can’t explain it. I’m sorry, Gina,” she said. She was sorry. Sorry she’d stuck her nose in.

  Gina put her face in her hands. “No. I’m sorry.” For a moment, she was quiet. And then, she dropped her hands and spoke slowly. “I can only say this. Everything I thought I understood about myself and about- about-” Her nostrils flared, and her voice broke. “I can’t tell you anything right now. I’m confused, and I need some time to think.”

  “Yeah. I get that. I have no idea what I’m doing right now, so I’m not in any position to question you.” Tori put her arm around Gina. “Just tell me that I made you fucking hot when you heard me.”

  A laugh exploded from Gina, and she tugged on Tori’s hair. “You did. Bitch.”

  “That’s me. First class.” She picked up the check. “Let’s go. We’re going to be late.”

  They were at the front counter when Reena entered the restaurant. “Gina? I need to talk to you. Now.”

  Tori raised her eyebrows, and Gina glared at Reena. “I’m busy.”

  That made Tori’s eyebrows raise higher. If what Gina said about Reena was true, then the shitty tone from the hardcore submissive was going to piss the Mistress right off.

  “This is important.” Reena’s face was unreadable. The woman was tall, statuesque, and always perfectly put together. She had ice-blue eyes and blonde hair. But it was Reena’s hands that fascinated Tori. Something about the strength in them, the way they gracefully took charge of a telephone receiver or a memo, made Tori’s stomach flop. There was power in the woman’s gaze, and she exuded authority without being bossy or strident.