Looking Inside

Have you ever met a person that completely altered you, to such a degree that you left your everyday self behind and did something outrageous? Exciting?

Forbidden?

That’s what happened to me when I first laid eyes on my boss, Xander MacKenna. I took one look into eyes as black and deep as the devil’s own, and in the seconds it took me to catch my breath, I’d become his slave. Mock me if you will. Call me spineless or a naïve young fool. Label me a sick nymphomaniac if it makes you feel better. But know this. I’m free now, thanks to his touch and his punishments, his harsh commands and his epic tenderness.

And after you hear my true story, I dare you not to envy me.

She resisted rolling her eyes and smirking. Well, Ms. Andora St. Honore certainly knew how to set a stage, Eleanor thought wryly. Maybe it was a cliché, but it was an arousing one. Even though she was amused by the introduction, she was also titillated. Still, she was more focused on Trey than the book. Her awareness was like iron, and he was a powerful magnet. It was like his gaze tied it all together: him, her, the book. Every cell in her body seemed to orient itself in his direction.

She glanced up cautiously and saw that he was staring directly at her crossed thighs and crotch. She read pure male hunger in his expression.

He wanted her.

Her clit pinched in arousal. She wiggled her hips slightly to alleviate the ache, and suddenly his gaze shot to her face.

You are the most beautiful, exciting man I’ve ever seen. I just want to bite you all over.

The force behind her thought was so precise, so powerful, Eleanor felt like she’d just yelled the truth of her lechery out loud to the whole room. Her eyes widened in alarm. Trey Riordan knew what she was thinking. He had to, given the potency of her desire. She stared at her book, seeing nothing. Overwhelmed by mixed self-consciousness and excitement, she flipped a thin section of pages, trying to even her erratic breathing. She read nervously.

“I’m not trying to humiliate you, Katherine. But a woman who makes such obvious mistakes repeatedly is searching for an obvious consequence.”

I held my ground in front of his desk, but Xander’s midnight eyes burned me deep. I knew what was about to happen. I craved it as much as I feared it.

“What consequence is that?” I asked, my head held high.

“I’m going to punish you. I’m going to lay you across my lap and spank you.”

Lust bit at me. I wanted to put my hand between my thighs and rub myself to silence that horrible wanting. But I couldn’t. I was too proud.

“Like hell you are.”

“Like hell I am,” he said, standing behind his desk. I was reminded of how tall he was. How intimidating . . . how beautiful. “Come here.” He put out his hand, beckoning me to him. I stood there, wild with wanting, but afraid to commit to my secret desire.

Suddenly, his hard, unyielding expression altered. Was that compassion that glowed in his amazing eyes?

“You can walk away, of course,” he said, his deep, rough voice caressing my prickling skin. “But you have courage, Katya. I saw that in you from the first. Take a deep breath.” I inhaled shakily. “Good. Now come to me.”

Something inside me had awakened when he called me by what became his pet name for me for the first time. Katya. It sounded a little like my name, but it was different, like he’d recognized a woman inside me that I hadn’t, as if he’d seen a secret woman hiding beneath my skin, a more exciting one. The syllables rolling off his tongue were a call . . . a spell, licking some deep, secret place in my soul, melting my fear. I found myself walking around his desk, unable to look away from his dark, compelling stare.

“Lift your skirt to your waist,” he said.

Someone coughed loudly, fracturing Eleanor’s attention. She looked up and saw a bearded man’s face in the crowded coffee house, his stare on her eager . . . a little manic, the truth be told. He’d been the one to cough in order to get her attention. Her gaze darted to Trey. He was turned in profile, but he looked at her at the same moment she looked at him. He too had glanced up from his reading when the guy had coughed. She rolled her eyes slightly and smiled. He smiled back.

Incredulous euphoria shot through her.

The book had been steamy, but the quick, nonverbal exchange with Trey was much hotter. Maybe it was because although he was a stranger, she knew so many private things about him. Once, she’d watched, her heart in her throat, while Trey had positioned a naked, curvaceous blonde bent over his bed. Then he’d spanked her while he’d pleasured her with a vibrator.

Afterward, he’d taken her hard and thoroughly. Eleanor still recalled the woman’s openmouthed expression of unbearable bliss. It had excited her beyond belief.

He had. He had a way in the bedroom, there was no doubt about it.

Presently, Trey’s gaze remained steady on her. He had an easygoing, laidback manner that was about a hair’s-breadth thick. At least that’s how it seemed to her. Beneath that golden, bad-boy persona, she sensed his simmering focus. She realized the insides of her naked thighs were damp with a layer of perspiration . . . and arousal.

His glance flickered down to her book. She read curiosity in his gaze . . . a little amusement. Or was it a silent question? She looked down at his book pointedly—he was still holding it on his thighs, blocking the view of his crotch from her. She arched her eyebrows. His smile widened, and she knew he’d read her amused counter query about his reading choice for the event.

Hiding her grin, she determinedly turned her attention to her book. He was definitely nibbling at the hook. Reeling him in at the right moment was the delicate part.

It was quite a challenge, reading the erotic scene where Xander had Katya lie in his lap and spanked her bare bottom while she writhed around in mounting excitement, all the while knowing Trey Riordan was watching her. Part of her was triumphant, though, as mean as that was. All those times she’d watched him while he made those other women scream, and she’d been forced to watch.