Corporate Plaything

Ströger preened.

Matt asked for privacy. Ströger and his crew left them alone.

Anna felt awkward with the way Matt was staring at her. She caught her reflection in the mirror. Her wavy, platinum blonde, shoulder-length hair had never looked so good. Usually, she wore it in a tight ponytail, since every day was a bad hair day for her. Somehow, Ströger had transformed her hair to something worthy of a Hollywood starlet.

“I don’t understand. All this trouble just to groom your new personal assistant?”

“You’re our special girl. Naturally, we have to take good care of you.” Matt ran his hand across her newly cut hair. “By the way, I love your hair. Black doesn’t suit you.”

A surge of guilt tore through her when she thought of the reason she came to the Martels in the first place. She was a thief in the making. She didn’t deserve all this pampering. Or his adoring attention.

Matt lowered his head and kissed her.

Anna wanted to faint. The kiss was scorching hot, she worried her heels were starting to melt. Matt kissed like he really meant it, making her knees wobbly and her pulse race.

“I’ve got you some new clothes.” Matt pointed to a new suitcase he had wheeled in when Ströger finished with her. “The rest I’ve ordered to be sent to my home.”

His home. “Does this mean I’m going to live with you?”

“Technically. I’m to stay home most of the time to monitor our base operation. But Justin is always travelling and so is Ralph. Keep spare clothes in your suitcase handy. You’ll be accompanying them whenever they need you.”

“I-I understand.”

Matt yanked open her spa robe. His eyes raked over her nakedness underneath, blazing. He touched her with his fingertips, caressing the swell of her breasts, belly, and her smooth pubis. “I think you’ll look beautiful in red today.”

* * * *

They went to the office after a light lunch at Four Seasons. Justin wanted Matt to give Anna access to their personal mainframe. His brother was curious to see what she would do. Beautycor was one of the few who had been nosing around about their trade secret, especially after they launched their perfume line Surrender two months ago.

Surrender flew off the shelves like hotcakes. On the seventh days after Surrender was launched, people were actually camped outside the stores just to buy a bottle of the perfume. Justin cut the production, raised the price, and put customers on a waiting list, and still people craved for more. Surrender became the highest grossing product that ever hit the retail market.

Naturally, their competitors were itching to know what made Surrender so successful. Justin speculated that Anna was sent by Beautycor to dig out the secret behind it. Unfortunately, their trade secret was something special that could never be emulated through humans’ science.

Justin had come up with the idea of imbuing Surrender with nymph magic to draw out their potential mate. If their special woman dabbed Surrender on her body, the three of them would know instantly where to find her. However, they miscalculated the side effect of the nymph magic to those who weren’t their predestined mate.

Any woman who wore it became temporarily sexually irresistible. Even though the effect of nymph magic lasted no more than fifteen minutes, women kept buying Surrender for various reasons. Most of those women wanted to keep their husbands or boyfriends from cheating on them, but when Justin learned a few women were using Surrender for devious purposes, he and his brothers knew they had to stop its production before something sinister happened. Justin had been discussing discontinuing Surrender with Marian Bancroft when he suddenly caught Anna’s scent.

Fate certainly worked in mysterious ways.

As of today, Justin had ordered a stop on Surrender’s production. They had found their mate and now they could focus their attention on making her accept her destiny. To be honest, Matt couldn’t wait to go home to Azura and claim Anna for good. He grew weary of the surface world. He missed their undersea palace and his warrior training. Seven years without proper sparring fights with his men made him dull.

Madge, his middle-aged receptionist, gave him a stern nod as they entered his office. Justin didn’t employ unattached, young female employees that were susceptible to their nymph’s nature. They’d done that in the past and the result was quite distracting. Nothing spelt disaster like having a dozen doting female employees with schoolgirl crushes on them.

Anna sat in a chair, quiet as a mouse as he walked to his desk. He was having a hard time taking his eyes off her. He had a thing for a woman in red. Red lipstick. Red suit. Red stilettos. And she wore red well. The vivid colour complimented her pale, creamy skin beautifully. Anna Vincent was one breathtaking sight.

“Com

e here.” Matt went to his desk and turned on his computer. She gave him a funny look when he motioned her to sit on his lap.

“I’ll get a chair.”

“Anna.”

She settled in his lap half-heartedly. “Am I heavy?”

“Hardly.” He curled one arm around her waist and drew her against his chest.

In Azura, a proper place for woman was in her beloved’s lap. Women were scarce and prized in the Netherworld. A millennia of wars among the clans had taken its toll on the population. The winning clan often plundered women of the conquered ones, making those who were unspoiled cling hard to their beloveds.