Dark Favors

Well, he didn’t have to do that now. I didn’t think I was any sort of goddess or princess when it came to seducing a man. I wasn’t under the mistaken impression that I was somehow going to be able to save the world with my smile or by loving him, but I could make a difference in his life today by getting his mind off of the fact that he’d lost someone.

Many someone’s.

“Come on,” I took his hand, tugging. “Let’s see.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

I climbed up the two steps that it took to get up to the top of the tub, and then I climbed in the interior stairs. I’d never seen a bathtub with stairs before, but I wasn’t about to miss this chance. Locke followed me into the tub and we each sat down on one side: me in my skirt-with-pockets, and him in his suit.

We crossed our legs, and we looked at each other.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I demanded.

“I thought I was the one in charge.”

“I never claimed to be your submissive,” I laughed.

“No, but I claimed you as my submissive.”

“Is that what you did?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I like you,” he shrugged.

“There’s more to it than that,” I pointed out. I didn’t say what I was thinking: that I thought he had some sort of ulterior motive. I didn’t tell him that I was pretty sure he had something he wanted from me. There was a part of me that was absolutely certain that he was a wildcard. There was a part of my soul that wouldn’t let me forget the fact that I didn’t really know him as well as I thought I did.

And he wanted something.

That was how men like Locke worked.

They didn’t have close friends. They were too busy conquering the world. That was part of the reason Locke was so lonely. He was a real estate guru, but he was wildly professional about it. There was a part of him that was looking for something.

I just didn’t know what that something was.

Chapter 15

Locke

I shouldn’t have admitted to liking her, but I couldn’t quite hold back.

I was supposed to be a bad boy philanthropist with a heart of gold, but I wasn’t. I was just me: bitter, broken. I was a bastard, and I didn’t deserve to even be spending time with someone as perfect as Paige, let alone touching her.

But there we were: two people sitting in business clothing in a bathtub in the middle of a Saturday morning.

There was only one thing I could think about.

Kissing her.

Paige seemed to get the memo without me even saying anything, because she seemed to crawl over to me in the tub. How she managed to look so graceful despite be

ing in a dress and being in a bathtub with me, I didn’t know, but she did.

She climbed onto my lap, then, and she kissed me. Somehow, this time, it was different. We’d kissed plenty of times in my office. She’d played with my cock and I’d seen every inch of her, but somehow, I knew that this time...