Corporate Cowboy (15 page)

Chapter Sixteen

I spend my time waiting for Gage by doing the one thing I shouldn’t be doing—thinking. But what else am I left with, when told to sit and wait, but my thoughts? I stroll through his office for a few moments, taking stock of pictures, awards, diplomas, and such, and learn Gage was once a champion bull rider, and that he holds two degrees in business administration. I don’t doubt that, since he is obviously an intelligent man.

What isn’t here, however, sticks out like a sore thumb. Family. Just one more thing to validate his impersonal side?

Perhaps.

I settle back into my chair and look out at the mountains, imagining Christina is getting the axe right about now. Soon, she will be escorted out and I will be ushered into HR, where Gage can
keep me close
.

All right. If that’s what he wants, that’s what he’ll get.

For two weeks.

“I’m not thinking about anything after that.” I stroke the soft leather of the padded chair arm.

Behind me, the locks disengage, and I hear heavy footfall approach. I look up when Gage moves into my peripheral vision and sits in his chair behind the desk. He looks tired and a little disheveled, his dark eyes sunk back into his head. Even the hard planes and angles of his face look droopy.

“What’s going on, Gage?” Something is off-kilter. It was apparent the second he stepped in my office door earlier.

He fiddles with a pen on his desk, rolling it between his fingers. His shoulders slump, he watches the movement for a moment, then looks up, ignoring my question. “That task is done. Christina had crossed the line with a coworker a few months ago and was on a six-month probation. I don’t allow employees to challenge me, and she walked that fine edge one too many times.”

“That’s convenient. Isn’t it?”

He shifts in his seat, aligning his body square with mine. “In what way?”

“She gets fired. I move in. So you can keep me close.”

He cocks his head to one side. “Do you object?”

“No. I just don’t see why me. I’m sure there are more qualified people here for her job. People who have probably been waiting to move up the ladder.”

“The other qualified people here, Emma, are not who I want in that position.”

“Because you want to keep me close.”

He stands. “Yes. And you know why.”

“So you have easy access—just like the deal with no panties.”

“Anything wrong with that?”

I stand, too. “No. But twenty-two floors between us hasn’t stopped you when you wanted me before, why would it now? I’m not comfortable with this job. Let someone else do the HR work. I do think I can do a good job for you at the front desk.”

“No.”

“Why?” Am I walking a fine line too? Like Christina?

Gage pounds his fist down on the desk. The pen skids across the polished top and rolls to the floor. The glare in his eyes frightens me. “Because you are mine, Emma,” he yells, “And you will do as I say.”

I don’t speak for a moment. Nor do I move my eyes from his. I force myself to remain calm. Stoic. Indifferent.

I take my lessons from him.

“Yes, Sir.”

Gage pushes up and takes a couple of steps away from the desk. He glances out the window, as if staring at the mountains would help center him. After a moment, he appears calmer, and speaks in a slightly lower, more controlled voice. “You will do fine in her position, Emma. Chad has something you can start on this afternoon. We are in the process of installing a new security system, and we’ll need new protocol and employee guidance written up. I’m sure you can handle that.”

“Of course.”

“Excellent.”

“If I may ask, why the new security system?”

He looks at me as if I have two heads. “It’s been in the works for a while. Just precautionary, in this day and age.”

It feels like he just made that up. “I see. It is a question I am sure staff will ask. I’ll get on that as soon as I am permitted to leave and go to my office. May I leave, Sir?”

Taking a deep breath, Gage sits again in his chair, crossing his arms across his chest. “Emma, about last night…”

I shake my head. “No need to discuss last night, Sir. I was just doing what I was told.”

His eyes close.

“Is there anything else you need from me, Sir?”

He sits for a moment, just breathing. I wait.

“Yes.”

I wait a moment longer, and he doesn’t move or respond. Then I say in a softer, more seductive voice, “How may I please you, Sir?”

Gage’s eyes flash open. He stands and pulls the knot out of his tie, then rips it from his shirt collar. He stalks the width of the desk toward me while shrugging out of his jacket and letting it fall to the floor, and then twisting the buttons open on his shirt. When he stops before me, I yank at his belt and jerk down the zipper of his fly.

He groans and pulls my sweater over my head and with a snap removes my bra. In seconds my skirt is on the floor, he is stepping out of his pants, and we both are kicking out of our shoes.

“Sit on the sofa,” he orders.

I head that way while he moves to a closet and retrieves a handful of ties. When he gets to the couch he says, “Legs together.”

I sit, my feet flat on the floor, and Gage kneels before me, binding one of the ties around both of my ankles. As he jerks the fabric tighter, he says to me, “I’m going to fuck you, Emma, and you are not going to be able to touch me, or move, unless I want you to. All you are going to do is take it. Do you understand?” He pulls the knot tight.

I nod.

“Say it, Emma. I need to hear it.”

“I understand, Sir.”

“Good girl.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Stand up. Here, give me your hands.” He grasps both of my hands so I can stand and turns me toward the sofa. “Hands behind your back.”

I follow his orders. With the second tie, he pulls my arms back and binds my wrists together. Tight.

“Now, lay on the sofa, face down. Move only when I position you. And don’t talk.”

He helps me roll onto the cold leather, and then tugs at my hips until my ass is in the air. My shoulders support my upper body, hands still behind my back. My left cheek presses against the sofa seat; I can’t move.

Suddenly Gage’s fingers are inside my pussy from behind.

“God, you are hot inside,” he says. “My girl is so fucking hot inside.”

He probes, stroking me. In and out. With the other hand, he grabs my breast and squeezes. I stifle a gasp.

His breath is warm and moist next to my ear. “You are mine, Emma,” he hisses. “I’m going to fuck you how I want to right now. I
need
to fuck you, Emma. Do you understand that? And you are going to take it. This isn’t about you. It’s about me. It’s about me fucking you, claiming you. It’s about me controlling you and everything about you.”

His words alone send a tremor through me. I’ve never known mere words could excite me so. His fingers glide in exact rhythm to the cadence of those words. Already, I feel the bud of an orgasm building inside me.

“Your safe word, Emma. Tell me the word.”

“Chicken.”

“Use it if you need to.”

I swallow and pray I won’t have to.

Gage moves closer to my ear and bites my earlobe. “Mine, Emma. You are mine to fuck.”

Oh God then fuck me!

Gage pulls back, and I immediately miss the heat of his breath on my cheek. His fingers slip out of my pussy. Both of his hands are now on my ass, spreading my cheeks apart. And the glorious warmth of his tongue and lips start a deliberate quest toward my clit. Gage spreads me farther apart, and it feels like his mouth covers my entire pussy. He burrows into me, delivering a concoction of sucking and gnawing, biting and teasing. His tongue pushes into my folds and laps up my juices.

My thighs begin a slow quiver. Can I take this?

Then he pulls his mouth away. I hear him fumbling with a plastic packet and assume he’s putting on a condom. In seconds he is nudging against me.

“Fucking you now, Emma. Hard. Be ready.”

He grasps my hips and holds me steady. With one sharp and thorough thrust, Gage is inside me. Simultaneously, he shouts, as though plunging into of me is some sort of release. I shudder and pant as he begins to pump in and out, the force of his thrusts increasing with each stroke. There was no buildup, just frantic and deliberate fucking. I can do nothing, like he said, but take it.

And I do. Repeatedly, he drives into me. Faster and faster. Pistoning like a well-oiled engine. His strokes tempt the furthest depths of my core. I don’t want him to stop. Ever.

But Gage pulls out. Roughly, he grasps me around the waist and tugs me upright to where I am kneeling on the sofa, and angles me so that the sofa supports my back. He retrieves another tie and threads it behind my knees, binding them securely together. Watching my face, he licks one of his fingers and pushes it between my legs, finding my clit.

The sensation of not being able to spread my legs was overwhelming, especially with him taunting and tugging at my clit. My breathing is heavy, and I want to close my eyes and curl into my own world, but Gage tells me not to. “Keep your eyes open, Emma. Look at me. I own you.”

With his left hand, he clasps my face, his thumb and fingers on either cheek. “Watch my eyes, Emma,” he tells me. “Don’t look away.” His finger is still probing between my pussy lips, snug around his digit. He pushes and pulls against my clit, and I can literally feel it swelling against his touch.

My eyelids grow heavy and want to close. Gage squeezes my cheeks and forces me to look at him. “Focus on me, Emma. Look into my eyes.” His finger brushes my enlarging clit and my entire body trembles. “I know you want to come,” he says. “But not yet, my Emma. Not yet.”

I feel like I am falling into a trance. I am shaking and on the border of implosion. I want to shout out and tell him to let me come. But I don’t. I was told not to talk.

Not to come.

I don’t want this to stop.

Just when I feel I cannot take any more, Gage rips his gaze away and I whimper. I need his eyes! His finger is gone, but instantly Gage straddles me and pushes his thick dick between my thighs. I throw back my head as his cock rakes past my swollen clit and pushes deeper into my wet thighs. Gage groans and pulls out, nudging my clit, and then plunges back in again. I gasp and want to grab something, but can’t. My fingers clench and unclench behind my back. Gage places his hands on the sofa on either side of my shoulders and fucks me, stroking in and out, in and out, in and out, of that very tight space between my legs.

A rush of breath expels from Gage’s lungs, hot against my chest. I’m trembling so. The pressure of Gage’s strokes increase and finally, I hear him shout, “Mine.”

I’m out of control. I cannot move. I can’t touch anything or bite anything. All I can do is feel.

Incoherent, otherworldly sounds come out of my mouth as I hiss and pant through a volatile orgasm. Suddenly, Gage pulls back and rips at the ties at my knees and my ankles, then my hands. We fall to the sofa and finally, I can spread my legs and let him inside.

He lands on top of me, fully impales me with his shaft, and continues to fuck me. I am wet and open, with every sexual nerve ending on edge, and suddenly realize he hasn’t come yet. I let the high of my orgasm lead me into what comes next, as I open my body and let him take me fully.

I roll into a second orgasm as he begins his release.

“Oh, God, Emma…” he groans in my ear. “My Emma, my Emma….”

He stills for a moment, then bucks over me hard and fast and pushes himself up as far inside me as he can get while he comes. A low guttural hum erupts from his throat as he slowly comes down. I wrap my legs around him and hold him there for as long as I can while I finish.

Because I have to savor these moments, while I have them.

Chapter Seventeen

Gage lay in the cradle of Emma’s thighs and buried his face in her hair. Inhaling deep, he wanted to imprint her essence on his brain. For the first time ever, he didn’t want to jerk up and separate from a woman, push her away, and move on to the next thing. Rather, he wanted to burrow in closer and absorb her body into his. He wasn’t sure how long he could lie there until she would be uncomfortable, but he was going to take advantage of the situation for as long as he could.

“Am I hurting you?” he whispered, nuzzling into the notch between her neck and shoulder.

She tightened her legs and arms around him. “No,” she breathed back. “I don’t want you to move.”

His heart pounded in his chest, and it wasn’t because he’d just had a screaming orgasm. Emma was growing on him in ways he didn’t know how to handle. Cole was right, dammit, and he didn’t know what he was going to do about it.

Finally, he pushed back and looked into Emma’s face. Her eyes were closed, her face turned toward the windows. He watched her chest rise and fall with her even breathing. “Hey,” he said, and she turned a sated smile his way. “You were wonderful,” he added.

He desperately wanted her to know how much she pleased him.

She searched his face and said softly, “Did I do everything right?”

He didn’t quite know how to answer that except to say, “Yes, my Emma…” He brushed a lock of hair away from her eye.

“Do I please you, Sir?”

“You please me, immensely.” He learned upward and captured her lips in a tender kiss that, for some odd reason, he didn’t want to deepen. He kissed her softly, and she responded with the same light touch.

“I think I can do this,” she said.

He cocked his head. “Do what?”

“Be your submissive.”

The pounding muscle of Gage’s heart kicked into a gallop. “You
are
my submissive,” he replied.

Neither said the words unspoken:
For two weeks.