Tempt Me (The Macintyre Brothers 1)

But still...

I deliberately didn't respond to his comment about Bali, not sure I would go, even if I really wanted to. I'd wait and see how things went over the next few days before I committed.

ELLA: Gotta say goodbye. Story isn't writing itself. Sleep tight. Don't think too much of me writing my erotic story, or what my mogul is doing to his helpless lover, tied up and blindfolded, waiting for him to do with her as he desires...

JOSH: Not a hope in hell of that now...

I laughed and put my phone in my bag, not wanting to see what he might say next to distract me. I really did have a deadline and needed to finish a short story I'd written for an anthology my writer friend Samantha was putting together. And so, for the next two hours, instead of entertaining a real live hot man in my tiny studio apartment, or in his much more luxurious one on Fifth Avenue, I wrote about a fantasy lover who very much resembled the genuine article.

Then, just to be a real tease, I sent Josh a text with the first couple of lines of my story, hoping to make him want me even more.

ELLA: I thought I'd send you the first paragraph of my new story for the collection. It's called "The Room".

ELLA: When you go through that doorway into the room, you're mine. Outside the four walls, on the beach, in the restaurant, or when we visit the town, you're your own person, but when we're alone inside the room, you'll do what I tell you, when I tell you. I'll own you. Every inch of you. Don't worry. I promise you that the room is all about pleasure -- for both of us. If you're good, you'll have more orgasms than you've ever had in your life over the course of the weekend. If you're bad, you'll have even more...

I smiled as I sent it off, wondering how he'd respond. In a moment, I got a new text.

JOSH: Oh, God...

JOSH: I guess I can forget falling asleep any time soon. You are very bad. Very bad. You need to spend some time in the room.

I laughed and a thrill went through my body at the thought he was sitting alone in his apartment, his cock hard, wishing he had me there so we could pleasure each other.

ELLA: Gotta go. Got a story to write! Sweet dreams.

JOSH: If and when I ever get you alone again, I'm going to make you...

He deliberately left the sentence unfinished. Bastard! I guess two could play that game.

I didn't bite this time and respond or ask for more. Instead, I put my phone away and went back to writing the story, still not sure I'd actually go to Bali with Josh, despite how much my body told me that I wanted to. My mind kept saying don't. My heart was still afraid of getting too close to a new man, especially one who was my boss.

I'd decide when the time came.

For the next hour and a half, I wrote my story, easily producing another twenty-five hundred words of my fantasies of being alone with a very dominant Josh at a very expensive all-inclusive resort in Bali. I was tempted to send him the rest of the story so he knew what my fantasies were about the possibility of a weekend alone with him, but it was his fantasy. I wanted to know what he desired. How his mind worked when it came to living out one of his fantasies.

What would he be like? Would he be all alpha and dominant, like I fantasized? Or would he want the roles to be reversed, with me on top? I had no idea, seeing as the two times I'd been with him, we either didn't have time or we were living out my fantasy.

Would he be kinky or controlling?

When I went to bed, I lay in the darkness and tried to imagine what he'd be like if he had total control over me.

It made it very hard to fall asleep...

The next day, I got up bright and early and went through my usual routine. Today, I'd work late, helping Sharon get ready for her big meeting with her editors on Tuesday. I was so busy, writing coverage for several of the novels I'd selected so Sharon could pick her favorites and develop a plan for them that I barely had time to think about Josh and the following weekend.

On my way down in the elevator, I saw him once again as he was going down from one floor to another.

"Ms. Carlson," he said as I stepped on and stood in front of the control panel.

"Mr. Macintyre," I replied and smiled to myself. He was on the other side of the elevator and there were two people in between us, so there was no way he could do anything to me in the short time I had between floors. I was disappointed, for I would have liked some interaction with him, but sadly, my floor arrived and I left the elevator, feeling his eyes on me the whole time.

I sighed as I went to the mail room and picked up the mail, stopping in the photocopier room to make a copy of my coverage letter for my own files. Before I could leave, the door to the room opened and in came my boss.

"Mr. Macintyre," I said as I took the copy from the machine. "What brings you to the photocopier room? I thought you had staff to do administrative work for you."

"Stop talking," he said and closed the door. Then he pushed me against the wall, his body pressed against mine. He kissed me, his hand groping my body, squeezing a breast. When the kiss ended, he pulled back and met my eyes. "God, I can't stop thinking of you. Are you going to come or not?"

I bit my bottom lip, trying not to smile.