“Yes, I heard your little speech the other night. I’ll do what I can, okay? I’ll talk to the rest of the management team before the meeting and see what kind of solution we can work out. I don’t know why I’m agreeing to this,” she grumbled.
“Thank you,” April said. Eliza had told her to compromise? This was her compromising.
“It’s time to add a new rule,” Vicki said.
“A new rule? Does this mean that you want to keep doing this?”
“Don’t you?”
April thought for a moment. She should have zero interest in pursuing anything with Vicki. Even before everything with the library, she had her misgivings. But that didn’t change the way April felt toward Vicki. That didn’t change the fact that April was so inexorably drawn to her and the release that she offered.
Besides, Vicki seemed to be coming around on the issue of the library. So maybe they were on the same side after all.
“Yes,” April finally said. “I still want to do this.”
“Here’s my next rule,” Vicki said. “When we’re together, no talking about work, or the library, or the development project. No discussion of it, no thinking about it. We leave all that at the door. Pretend that it doesn’t even exist.”
“Will you be doing that too?” April asked.
“I have no problems leaving business at the door. You’re the one who came to me tonight, guns blazing.”
“Fine,” April said. “No work when we’re together.”
April could do that. And honestly, it might make things easier. She could just pretend that the Vicki she was pursuing this twisted affair with was a different person from the Vicki who she would have to negotiate the library’s fate with.
“Good,” Vicki said. “My old rules still stand. I expect your complete obedience when we’re doing this. No talking back, no trying to push me. Nothing less than absolute submission. Can you do that?”
April hesitated. Everything Vicki was offering seemed contrary to April’s nature. Maybe that was why she wanted it so badly. No matter the reason, there was no denying it—April was hooked.
“Okay,” April said. “I can do that.”
She would play this game with Vicki. Because that was all it was—a game. It wasn’t true submission. April hadn’t truly surrendered to Vicki.
And she never would.
Chapter Nine
The week that followed seemed to crawl by. April was so busy at work that she barely had a moment to herself. It didn’t help that she spent half her time daydreaming about the night at Lilith’s Den with Vicki.
It left her feeling so conflicted. She’d enthusiastically agreed to be Vicki’s submissive. She loved the way submission made her feel.
But she hated that it was Vicki making her feel this way. Despite their agreement to work together on the library, April felt like their alliance was tenuous at best. She was still wary of Vicki, and she still found the blonde-haired woman irritatingly cocky. No amount of physical attraction, no matter how intense, could overcome that.
Despite it all, April played along with Vicki’s games. And Vicki took her games very seriously. That night, they had discussed the finer details of their arrangement. Limits. Expectations. Even more rules.
One of Vicki’s rules was that April had to send her a sexy photo every day. The photos were, in Vicki’s words, a daily reminder of their agreement. This was one rule April was happy to follow. Whether it was intentional or not, Vicki hadn’t been specific about what counted as ‘sexy.’ So April decided to be creative. She sent photos of herself to Vicki that were sexy but not revealing, enticing while still leaving a lot to the imagination. If Vicki wanted anything more than that, she would have to wait until they saw each other again.
A few times, Vicki had taken the bait, replying with a salacious message that made April blush. Other times, April’s photos had been met with silence, and the only reason April knew that Vicki had seen the photo was because her phone showed the message as read.
April was determined not to let Vicki get inside her head. Nevertheless, she found herself thinking about Vicki constantly. That soft, golden hair that she was always playing with. Those piercing eyes. That enticing smile. Every time April closed her eyes, she was back in that room at Lilith’s Den with Vicki, the scene playing out, over and over.
Of course, it wasn’t Vicki herself that April was addicted to. It was the erotic game the two of them were playing together.
“April?” Lexi asked.
“Hmm?” April looked up to see Lexi squaring away her desk.
“The meeting? Vicki will be here any minute.”