Taken (Dark Desires 1)

I placed a tooth pick between my lips as I walked through the doors of my towering office building. The marble floor clicked under the worn leather boots I wore every day. Most of my clothes got replaced when it came time to wash them, but it was hard to find a good pair of shoes. I hung onto my shoes until they were literally falling apart at

the seams.

I greeted my employees in the hall way, waving and nodding my head politely. Sandy blonde hair fell into my eyes as I approached my secretary. Rachel was one of the only women who’d worked for me that I hadn’t fooled around with. Don’t get me wrong, I’d tried like hell to get her on a date, but she was the first and only woman to ever rebuke my advance completely. It was part of the reason I kept her around as my personal secretary and assistant. There wouldn’t be anything weird in the way of our working relationship.

“Rachel!”

“Mr. Whittle,” she said, tipping her head in my direction, her eyes not leaving the computer screen.

I put my hands flat on her desk and leaned over, grinning brightly. “How many times do I got to ask you to call me Jami.”

She cocked a perfectly sculpted brow and I could see her trying to resist rolling her eyes at me. “You know I prefer to keep our relationship professional.”

I grunted a little and stood back up. “To a fault.”

She shrugged her slender shoulders and went back to typing. God, I loved the way she ignored me. There was something thrilling about it. Powerful women were such a rare find. It was the reason I was so interested in Lena.

“What do I have going on today?”

“You have a meeting at 1:30 with the housing committee, but that’s about it.”

“Gotcha.” I started to walk away, heading for my office.

“Oh, and you ought to know that there’s a woman named Marie waiting for you in your office. She said she knew you, so I thought I should let her in.”

Rachel didn’t agree with my playboy ways and had a habit of retaliating by letting the women I slept with into my office. I think she got a kick out of seeing me try and confront them. She was lucky she was such a damn good secretary.

I groaned but made my way towards the elevator, taking it up to the thirteenth floor. Many people thought it was strange I put my office on such an infamous floor, but I’d done it on purpose. I didn’t believe that some number had a supernatural power over the universe. I’d made my own luck and I believed in that whole heartedly. It only seemed appropriate to flaunt my beliefs by putting my office in the thirteenth floor.

The long stretch of hallway was filled with the sound of muffled voices making deals and making money. It was music to my ears. When I finally reached my office, I could see the outline of a tall, busty woman through the frosted glass. The name Marie sounded familiar, but I couldn’t put a face to it. It was a fairly normal thing for me to not quite remember what my conquests looked like.

I stepped into the office and the woman’s face swung around. Her too-thin brows were pulled together and her bright red lips were twisted into a frown. She stood up, black dress clinging to every curve and line of her body, not leaving much to the imagination.

“Why didn’t you call?” she demanded.

God. Her voice was a little too high and her Brooklyn accent thick. It was like nails on a goddamn chalkboard. I winced and held my hands up, sighing softly. “I don’t call back, babe. We talked about that.”

“Don’t call me ‘babe’! You’re a sack of shit! My friends warned me about you! They told me about how you use women!”

I rolled my eyes and brushed past her, settling in my high back, leather chair. “Don’t start with this bullshit, Marie. You knew what this was. You knew what it was every time you came home with me. You use me just as much. Don’t pretend you don’t like the drinks and dresses I buy you.”

Marie was a returning customer. Now that I saw her face, I knew that I’d been with her at least twice. Both times we’d gone to restaurants outside of her price range and I’d treated her to clothes shopping, explaining to her that these little trysts weren’t signs of affection. They were obligations that I had accepted a long time ago. I wasn’t a total asshole, I wanted to give these women something in return for their time.

“I’m not a fucking hooker!”

“I never said you were!”

She stared at me, her hands balled into fists at her side. “You think you can pay me off with dresses and food! That’s not how relationships work!”

My eyes flashed with anger and I slammed my hands down on the table. “Look here, Marie! I was very straightforward with you! I told you what I wanted and I gave you what you wanted! It was a fucking exchange! I don’t play these dating games and you knew that from the start! You had every chance to walk away and you stayed exactly where you were!”

“I wanted you!”

I leaned back in my chair, my golden eyes narrowed, staring at her in slight disbelief. Did she really think she was going to pull the wool over my eyes? Did she think I was born yesterday? I’d been doing this for a long time and I knew exactly what women like her wanted.

“You wanted money.”

“That’s not true!” She argued, walking over to my chair. She reached out and touched my cheek, her cold fingers running along my unshaven jaw. “I want you, Jami…I want to be with you.”