His Absolute Domination: The Billionaire's Paradigm (#5) (A BDSM Erotic Romance) (The Billionaire's Ultimatum, Book Two) (9 page)

"I'm a student," I countered. "I don't
have a lot of opportunities."

"You don't need opportunities to pay
your bills on time. You've been a few days late, consistently,
during many months. If you set up automatic payments or make a note
on a calendar, or any other number of useful reminders, you'd go
far towards increasing your credit scores."

"What about my Lucent score?" I asked,
grinning.

He tilted his head to the side and
smirked. "That's a secret, Miss Tanner. No amount of prying will
reveal those numbers."

"What do they go to, though? Is this a
one to a hundred point system or does it scale higher?"

"I refuse to elaborate on the secret
methods set forth to determine my scoring system."

"Am I the highest of anyone? If not,
do you think I'm improving well enough to reach that limit in the
future?"

He didn't answer. He ate his sandwich,
remaining tight-lipped. I still had my own sandwich, too, and I
grumbled and laughed and then finished it off. We ate, shoulder to
shoulder, quiet but friendly. I liked friendly Lucent. He was a lot
better than asshole Lucent.

"What time is it?" I asked once we
finished.

"It shall soon be nine," he
said.

"Oh God."

"You have class." He nodded.
"Thankfully your attendance is exemplary and I believe you can miss
a day without repercussion."

"Maybe, but..."

"No," he said. "How much did you even
sleep last night? You can't have slept well on my office's couch.
Come. I don't trust you to actually rest. We'll return to my office
and I'll guarantee you take a nap."

"I thought you said sleeping on a
couch was bad for me?" I said. "I can go home and sleep in my bed,
you know?"

Lucent simply smiled, saying nothing.
We got up from the booth and started to leave.

"Don't you need to pay?" I
asked.

"Sam has my credit card on file. He'll
charge me."

"Shouldn't we leave a tip?"

"It's taken care of, Miss
Tanner."

"I need to use the
bathroom."

He sighed deeply. "I'll wait
outside."

That was good. Yes. I needed to ask
Sam something privately without Lucent listening. I hurried to the
nearby bathrooms while Lucent left the deli, planning the best way
to phrase my question without arousing suspicion. Would Lucent be
upset if he knew? Yes, probably. Which was why I couldn't tell
him.

...

We arrived back at Lucent's office
with no issues. He didn't hold my hand this time, though. The
streets were busier now, and people probably recognized him more
easily, so maybe that was it. He didn't want to be seen with me?
Not exactly, but relationship-wise, I assumed. To be fair, it
probably wasn't even about him, I thought. He had those rumors
about his BDSM things, and if people saw us together, they'd
assume, and all of that, and...

Did he really have a velvet-covered
paddle? He said he did before, but I hadn't seen it, and I wasn't
quite sure I believed it yet. I should ask him. Not now, though.
Later.

He closed the door to his office and I
walked over to his couch. I didn't know how I was supposed to sleep
on a couch in the middle of the day with Lucent working nearby, but
he didn't seem to understand that. He watched me sit
down.

"What are you doing?" he
asked.

"I'm going to try and figure out some
way to sleep? Isn't that what you wanted?"

Lucent grinned a secret grin. "Come."
He beckoned to me, then marched to his desk.

I shrugged and got up and followed
after him.

Lucent opened one of the drawers of
his desk, then moved a few things around. Near the back, set
against the side of the drawer, was an innocuous button. Innocuous,
except for the fact that it was a button attached to the side of a
drawer in a desk. I didn't think buttons were supposed to exist in
places like that. He pushed it.

Beneath his desk, a carpeted panel
slid to the side, revealing a square hatchway and a ladder. I
stared, mouth agape.

"After you, Miss Tanner." He gestured
towards the ladder with a sly flourish of his hand.

"Is this like a spy movie?" I asked.
"What's down there?"

"It's far more mundane than a spy
movie," he said. "Go and see."

He didn't need to tell me twice. I'd
most certainly never been down a ladder beneath a desk in the most
prominent building in the city, with a man who enjoyed BDSM things,
who was wonderful and intelligent, and, well... I'd just never done
this before but I wanted to. I climbed down the ladder.

Below Lucent's office, hidden away,
windowless, was a bedroom. And not just a casual, regular bedroom,
either. Oh my God, this was the most beautiful bedroom I'd ever
seen. It had a pair of bookshelves off to the side with an
assortment of books, and a contemporary wooden side table with a
lovely looking lamp. The bed was a massive affair of mattress
combined with plump pillows, and thick bed dressing. I wanted to
grab a book and climb into the bed and hibernate for the winter.
With tea and soup and crackers, except there weren't any of
those.

Lucent climbed down after me and
watched me gape and stare at everything in the room.

"Why is there a secret bedroom beneath
your office?" I asked.

"It's hardly a secret," he said. "It
used to be an unused storage room, but I requested the use of it
from Mr. Landseer and he agreed to my request. Because of zoning
regulations, this building isn't classified for residential use, so
the door has been sealed from the outside and the only standard
entryway now lies beneath my desk. I use this room occasionally if
I need to work late into the evening and be back early in the
morning for a meeting or some other similar occasion."

"Oh," I said.

"It's safe," he said. "If necessary,
in case of fire or other hazards, there's emergency maneuvers to
open the sealed off hallway door. You needn't worry about
that."

"So you couldn't kidnap someone and
trap them down here," I said. "That's good to know."

"The room is muted, though not
soundproof. Confining anyone in here would never work. I'm not a
kidnapper, either. I just stalk people."

"People?" I asked. "Have you stalked
anyone else besides me?" Stupid, really, but I didn't like that
idea. I wanted to be the only one, as odd as it sounded.

"No," he said. "Fortunately not. I
doubt I could handle the aftermath of it if anyone else turned out
like you."

"I'm going to take that as a
compliment," I said. "I think you're saying I'm very special and
unique."

"Probably," he agreed.

"I'll sleep," I said. "I am really
tired. Thank you, Lucent." I paused for a second, unsure if I
should say more. I needed to, though. "I know that you think what
you've done is wrong, but you've been so kind and nice and caring
towards me and I can't think you're wrong, Lucent. I appreciate
everything, and I appreciate you worrying about me."

He smiled and came close and kissed my
forehead. "Go rest, Miss Tanner. I'll have lunch delivered and we
can eat it once you're done napping."

"I'd like that," I said, suddenly
feeling shy and affected.

"Good," he said. "If you need
anything, there's a phone in the top drawer of the bedside table.
My personal extension is six-five-six. You can call me from your
cell phone if you wish, too. Sleep well."

I nodded. He climbed back up the
ladder, returning to his office. I was alone, but I didn't feel
lonely.

...

The rest of the day was amazing. I
slept and woke and Lucent and I ate lunch together. He let me act
as an extremely temporary personal assistant, which was to say he
asked me to deliver something to Mrs. Landseer in her office. I got
to meet Mr. Landseer, too, and I blushed and muttered and didn't
know what to do or say, but it was nice.

I did enjoy meeting people, but I
always felt awkward. Lucent laughed when I told him, finding it odd
that I could act so stubborn with him, and so reserved and shy with
someone else.

"That's different," I told him. I
didn't know how it was different, but it was.

The day ended, though. Lucent needed
to go home and I needed to do the same, but he said he'd visit me
in the library and he'd call me. Or I could call him. We'd call
each other or something like that.

Vanessa nearly bowled me over when I
arrived back at our apartment. She had questions; a lot of
questions. I probably had answers, too, but they weren't answers I
wanted to give her. Where was I? Well, I was off doing something
kind of stupid. I couldn't say that. I told her I'd spent the night
studying at a friend's house.

"I don't believe you," she said.
"You're lying to me."

I shrugged and grinned and fled to my
room.

"Did you have sex, Elise? Do you have
a boyfriend? Are you dating Lucent?" she asked by way of shouting
through my closed door.

"No to all three," I said. I sort of
wished I could say yes to all three, but unfortunately I
couldn't.

I couldn't yet, but...

I had an idea. I fully admitted to
myself that this was, perhaps, a terrible idea, but I didn't think
it was terrible. Or, I wanted to believe it wasn't terrible. Before
leaving Sam's Delicatessen, I'd asked Sam about his club. Just the
name of it. What was it, exactly? Was everyone invited?

Carousel. It was an alternative
lifestyle club focused on various aspects of domination and
submission, but they accepted others, too. Everyone was technically
invited, but they kept a close eye on people to make sure no one
caused any trouble. Places like that tended to attract the
occasional bad apple, but they weeded them out fast and banned them
from entering afterwards.

It was a nice place, he said. Not
judgmental. Some people came dressed in leather and latex, while
others preferred casual wear, but as long as people behaved
appropriately, everyone was welcome.

Everyone was welcome, and so I was
welcome, and...

Lucent told me they had shows on
Wednesdays. Shows for what? Spankings and things like that. Well,
I'd been spanked, hadn't I? Except Lucent wouldn't spank me again,
because he didn't want to turn me into something I wasn't,
supposedly. If he saw me in a show being spanked, would he accept
it, though? I supposed what I really wanted was for him to
understand that I really did want to try it, for my own curiosity,
and it wasn't because of any pressure on his part.

I needed someone to spank me, though.
That idea bothered me, but I decided it was a necessity in order to
continue things with Lucent.

I liked that he'd accepted
friendliness, and I really did enjoy sitting close to him and
talking and enjoying a meal. It was far more friendly than I
thought most people were friendly, and we nuzzled up together. He
kissed my forehead, too. When we ate lunch, we retreated into his
secret bedroom and sat on the bed, side by side, leaning against
the headboard and each other.

We didn't necessarily act like we were
just friends, but we didn't act much like we were going to be more
than friends, too. Was it wrong of me to want more? I didn't know,
but I did want it, and I hoped he wanted it. We needed a catalyst,
something to ignite a more permanent spark between us.

I needed to find someone to spank me,
just this once, and for Lucent to see it. He'd see that I was
interested in trying this on my own, and not because of anything he
said or did, and then...

I didn't know what happened then. I
didn't plan that far along. I snatched my laptop and sat on my bed
and powered it up, hoping maybe I could find someone on the
internet to spank me as a one time thing this upcoming Wednesday at
Carousel.

None of the "What comes after
spanking?" stuff, though. That was just for Lucent.

This was probably the worst idea I'd
ever had, but at the time it seemed brilliant to me.

...

Wednesday went by in a blur. I wanted
to call Lucent, but I was too scared. I wanted to tell him. I
wanted to blurt everything out to impress him, and then maybe I
wouldn't have to go through with this, but that seemed like wishful
thinking.

Yes, you're interested in spankings,
are you? I imagined Lucent asking me this after I told him I'd
found someone online to spank me during a showing on Wednesday
night at Carousel.

Lucent might get jealous. Would he get
jealous? I sort of hoped he would, because I just felt nervous
and... no, I needed to do this. It was like a hardship or a trial,
right? Lucent preferred people who understood what his BDSM things
were, and I knew none of it, but if I did this, received my
spanking from someone other than him, I'd be initiated into the
folds of BDSMdom, right? Was that how it worked?