The Billionaire's Ultimatum: His Absolute Need (A BDSM Erotic Romance Novel) (Book One)

Falling in love wasn't part of
Jessika's temporary job description. Nor, initially, was being asked by
billionaire CEO Asher Landseer to become an egg donor and surrogate for his
infertile wife. All Jessika wants to do is help, but is she setting herself up
for heartbreak in the process?

(A Cerys du Lys contemporary BDSM
erotic romance novel)

Screwing up on her first day of a
one-day job is the last thing Jessika Fevrier wanted to do. Worse yet, she's
managed to infuriate Asher Landseer, the young, handsome, reclusive and
eccentric billionaire CEO of Landseer Enterprises. His idea of work performance
punishment is unorthodox to say the least, but Jessika finds herself intrigued
by this singularly unaffected man nonetheless.

She was only supposed to clean Asher's
office, but before she leaves for the day he has another job he'd like to offer
her. Revealing that his wife is infertile, Asher asks her to consider becoming
an egg donor for his family. He's always wanted children of his own, but the
fates have plotted against him, it seems.

Asher's marriage is of necessity,
rough and possibly loveless, but his desire for children is genuine and real.
His absoluteness and certainty in himself and his surroundings, despite
everything, captivates her. Jessika finds herself charmed by this dominant,
enigmatic man who seems to know everything about business and nothing about
love.

Behind the scenes, there's more
than the fates plotting against him. Someone has it out for Landseer
Enterprises, and they're going to do everything within their power to cause
Asher's downfall. Between dealing with Asher's conditions and requirements, the
cruel gaze of his spiteful wife, and corporate sabotage, Jessika finds herself
lost in a world completely different from the one she's used to.

Can she rediscover herself and
come to terms with her impossible feelings for a man she can't have? Or in her
attempts to satisfy His Absolute Need will she inadvertently become the
catalyst that leads to his (and her) ruin?

Dominant, sexy, and powerful.
This tantalizing story of love, lust, intrigue and suspense will bind you,
entwine you, and thrill you until the very end.

This book is intended for mature
audiences.

T
o everyone reading this, thank
you so much!  I know this is just a book, but it means a lot to me, and by the
end I hope it'll mean a lot to you, too.  There's sex, corporate intrigue,
suspense, and more, but at the core of this story, it's really about love,
ambition, and living life the best you can.

Enjoy!

"D
on't move
anything out of place," the cleaning staff lead said.  "Don't use
non-approved equipment, don't speak unless spoken to, and don't get in the
way."

This place was
strict, apparently.  I knew it would be tough when I started, but the pay was
good and I really needed the job at the moment, even if it was only for a day. 
The temp agency that placed me here had seemed reluctant about offering me the
job, but the staff lead said it didn't matter, that he(who was he?) wouldn't be
in the office today and they just needed someone to fill the position. 

That should have
tipped me off to something, but I was blinded by the money.  And this was at
Landseer Tower, no less, one of the most high class buildings in the city, so
of course they'd pay well.  Still, I had to double check to make sure the
figure was correct; it was more than I made in a week at most places, and this
was only for today.  I usually performed secretarial jobs, data entry, or
anything involving paperwork, but I'd done a few cleaning jobs before.  I told
the woman at the temp agency I would accept it.

I should have
been scared—I was scared!—but I tried to overlook it.  What was the worst
that could happen?  The job was only for the day.

"Jessika
Fevrier," the staff lead said, reading my name from a worksheet and
pronouncing it wrong.  "Do you have any questions?" he asked.  He
looked at me like I was a nuisance.

Time to lighten
the mood, I thought.  Not my typical strong suit, but he looked like he could
use a smile, and after arriving at this place, complete with a fountain in the
front lobby and crystal clear glass elevators, I was extremely nervous. 
"If I can't move anything out of place," I said, "how do I clean
everything?"

It was a joke. 
I knew how to clean, and I knew what he meant.  It sounded better in my head,
like the sort of silly, sarcastic joke that would put someone at ease.  This
man would laugh, give me one of those silly shakes of his head, pat me on the
shoulder, and we'd be fine for the day.

That never
happened.  He stared at me, long and hard, furrowing his brow in disapproval. 
"I think we're going to have to find someone else.  It's clear to me that
you are unfit for this job."

What!  No, no...
I needed this.  "Sir, I'm sorry.  It was a joke.  I swear.  I was just
joking."

He didn't look
convinced.  I was certain I couldn't convince him, was just about ready to give
up and walk away, knowing I'd ruined my chances at a decent opportunity.  He
frowned, letting out a loud sigh.

"It's your
lucky day," he said.  "I doubt I could find anyone else on short
notice, and I don't want to explain the situation to Mr. Landseer, so I'll let
you stay.  The joke wasn't funny, though.  I'm not entirely convinced it was a
joke, either.  Consider that your first and final warning.  If you screw up
again, you're finished.  You really don't want that to happen."

I gulped, eyes
wide.  A blush of red heat warmed my face, the tingle of it making me feel like
I was sick, like I should have stayed in bed today.  Chicken soup was good for
the soul, they said.  You couldn't pay bills with chicken soup or a soul,
though, now could you?

I gathered
supplies from the closet that the lead man showed me.  Nothing too difficult to
handle.  A feather duster, a handheld vacuum, some cleaner spray, and a special
streak-free towel.  Basic items, things I'd used numerous times before.

When I looked at
the slip of paper with my assignment, I nearly died.  He wanted me to clean
Asher Landseer's personal office?  Was this a joke?  I flipped the paper over,
hoping to find some other instructions, but there weren't any.  The room grew
hotter.  I panicked, wanted to sneak out of the office and back to my typical
run of the mill day, but then what?  I couldn't just return to the temp agency.

So wandering
down the hallway towards Mr. Landseer's office, I wondered why I was here
again?  It was a job, first off.  That was a point in its favor.  I'd graduated
from a good school, though, and received top marks for all of my classes. 
Nothing perfect, but I was more than adequate.  I don't want to say that this
job was beneath me, but I'd expected something better after I left college.

Unfortunately,
in hindsight, majoring in English Language and Literature wasn't a great
choice.  What use was knowing the thought process behind
Shakespeare's
Othello
when you applied for a job?  Not much, if anything.  I'm fairly
sure that the cleaning manager would have fired me on the spot instead of
giving me a second chance if I'd tried discussing classic literature with him.

To be fair, this
was exciting, though.  Not cleaning, and not the technicalities of this job,
but the place.  Never would I have imagined coming here.  It took me awhile for
the realization to sink in, and I hadn't even seen much of the interior yet,
but I was in
the
Landseer Tower.  Previously owned and operated by
Thomas Landseer before his death six years ago, and now owned by his son, Asher
Landseer, current head of the Landseer empire.

I knew nothing
about Asher, save for what I heard before coming.  I was to clean his office,
and make it immaculate.  Why me?  No one would give me a good answer to that,
except to say that it shouldn't be an issue.  Asher Landseer was in an
important meeting and wouldn't be around, so I had free reign to clean to my
heart's content and make everything perfect.  The usual person who cleaned,
some elderly woman, had requested the day off so she could go to her
granddaughter's dance recital.

Nervous already,
my anxiety soared when I heard some of the strange things people said about my
situation.  I passed a couple of men at a soda machine who stared at me, then
laughed, saying something along the lines of "I don't envy her" when
they thought I was too far away to hear them.  I'd also read, mostly on tabloid
covers and entertainment news articles, that Asher was eccentric and
reclusive.  What did that mean, though?  I figured he probably just liked his
alone time.  It couldn't be that bad, right?  He was married, afterall.

Married, and
beautiful beyond words.  Not that this should have mattered for much of
anything, especially not to me.  But whenever I saw his picture, in passing
somewhere, my heart jumped a little.  A brief quickening of my pulse, an
intimate little trill of some private thought singing through my head, and...

Back to work.  I
reached the office, pulled out the key the manager had given me, and unlocked
the door.  Stepping inside, I flicked the light switch on and closed the door
behind me.

Everything was
amazing.  He had a desk in the back, like any other office, but behind it was a
large, bay-styled window with a reading nook built into the wall.  Beside that,
cornered off into its own alcove, was a set of floor to ceiling bookcases.  A
glass wall and door separated the main office section from a private meeting
area, and opposite that was a chaise with a small table beside it.  The entire
office was probably bigger than my apartment, and I used to think I had a
pretty nice apartment.

I didn't have
time to admire the place, though.  I needed to clean.  I searched around for an
outlet to plug the vacuum into, then checked for what I should or shouldn't
need to move beforehand.  I would need to dust, but I'd do that after I wiped
everything down first.  God, this job was going to be so boring.

And, everything
looked perfect anyways.  I tried, I honestly tried, but I couldn't find
anything that looked like it really needed cleaning.  Maintaining the
atmosphere, I guessed.  I couldn't clean a mess that wasn't there.

I should have
just done that, should have finished cleaning and left, but I was curious.  The
bookcases called to me, like some siren of the sea from an epic poem.  Just
what kinds of books did Asher Landseer have?  Probably typical business books,
sets of legal dictionaries or how-to's, or unopened and unread classics meant
to impress some business associate into thinking he'd read this or that.

He had all those
and more.  I browsed through his collection of literature, enthralled.  The
business books weren't so interesting, but he had a section with newer
publications(some from bestselling authors and others from vague unknowns),
older classics like
Alice in Wonderland
and
Grimm's Fairy Tales
,
and everything in between.

My hand crept
towards a copy of
Dante's Inferno
.  Leather bound, with a gold, gilt-stamped
title on the cover and spine, and more gilt lining the edges, it looked like a
book collector's dream.  I stared at it, rapt, letting my hand caress the
cover, feeling the rough leather against my fingertips.  The book had a crisp
smell with a tinge of masculine warmth, like a man's freshly worn leather
jacket.

There was no
possible way Asher Landseer had read this.  Absolutely none.

Except when I
opened it, it wasn't stiff.  And there were dogears on a few of the pages.  I
moved to the first, wanting to see what he'd found so interesting, and...

"Midway
upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the
straight forward pathway had been lost," a calm, confident voice said from
behind me.

I panicked,
tossed the book back onto the bookshelf, and turned to face the unknown
speaker.  That would have been it, except I was confronted by Asher Landseer
himself.  He stared at me with his cool, steel blue eyes.  He looked none too
happy with me intruding on his private space, browsing through his bookcase. 
His pristine, pitch black suit without a wrinkle anywhere, his short-cropped
hair, barely an inch in length, and his sharp, powerful jaw making him look
unlike anything I ever imagined a businessman should look like.  I briefly imagined
him stepping out of a helicopter in a spy movie, playing the role of a
debonaire CIA secret agent.

My heart skipped
a beat, my pulse soared, and my stomach fluttered.  My knees grew weak and I
almost couldn't stand to look at him anymore, like I needed sunglasses to stare
at him head on.  I tried to step forward and apologize but one of my high heels
caught on a bevel in the tiled floor and I toppled forward.

Asher swooped
forward and caught me.  This isn't happening, I told myself.  This is too strange,
too unknown.  I must have fallen asleep, or become delirious in his office.

No, I wasn't. 
No sooner than he caught me, the collector's copy of
Dante's Inferno
fell from the shelf I'd tossed it on.  I watched it hit the floor, cover and
pages splitting open as it descended, and then...
crack
!

The book's
binding broke, spilling its contents all over the floor.  Pages, separated,
completely out of order, lay scattered around the bookcase alcove in his
office.  One of them, another dogeared page, escaped from the rest and landed
at Asher's feet.  He set me aside like a bag of groceries and bent to pick up
the page.

"One ought
to fear those things only that have the power of doing harm," he said,
reading a passage from the page.  "The others not, for they are not
dreadful."

Poignant, I
thought, and absolutely correct.  It was as if Dante had seen into the future,
noticed this situation, and thought it amusing to write about it.

Amusing for
Dante, and horrifying for me.

"I'm so
sorry, sir.  Mr. Landseer, I apologize.  I don't know what came over me. 
I..."

He turned to me,
rage in his eyes.  I could almost see a tiny spark of red lighting up the very
center of his icy blue irises.  Tossing the page aside, he grabbed my wrist and
dragged me through the open glass door into his private meeting room.

"Sir,
I—"

Without
listening, he tossed me onto his meeting room table and glared at me.  I wasn't
sure what to do, wasn't sure what to think.  What was going on?  I inched away
from him, my hands pressed into the smooth, alder wood table as I tried to get
away.  He would accept none of that.

Grabbing my
foot, he pulled me back towards him.  My skirt bunched up behind me, sliding
towards my rear as he pulled me, leaving my pantyhose-covered crotch exposed to
him.  He gazed at me.  His eyes seemed to revel in the surprised look on my
face, the sight of my breasts heaving up and down as my breath quickened, and
the tantalizing view of my exposed underwear.  His hand traveled up my leg,
caressing my pantyhose, exploring my thigh and moving towards my sex.

This was not
happening, I told myself.  But no matter what I told myself, it continued to
happen.  And, despite the fact that I was scared out of my mind, I was also
uncontrollably aroused.  There was a little part of me, that small
heart-skipping pulse in my veins, that had never fully left.  Upon seeing just
what Asher Landseer was capable of, that part grew, stretched, until it was
all-encompassing and demanding.

Asher smiled,
watching me wriggle on the table, unable to escape him.  He looped a finger
into my pantyhose and peeled them down to my knees.

"Sir!"
I screamed.  "Asher!  What are you—?"

This was not
proper business protocol!  But he didn't seem to care much about that at the
moment.  He focused on me entirely, his steady, watchful gaze never leaving my
eyes as I looked back at him.

"You
destroyed my book," he said, his voice full of anger and passion. 
"Everything is a mess.  Pages scattered on the floor and the binding
undone.  I believe it's only fair that I do the same to you."

At the time, I
had no idea what he meant.  I only knew that there was a strong and powerful
man standing before me who commanded attention.

No longer fully
wearing my pantyhose, my smooth, arousal-slick folds grew cool, exposed to the chill,
central air-conditioned air.  Asher paid that no mind, though.  He flipped me
around, grabbed at my skirt with one hand, unzipped the back with the other,
then pulled the entire thing off of me.  Tossing it to the ground, he did much
the same to my heels, and then flipped me over once more.