Knights of the Boardroom (17 page)

Cressi saw a flicker in Brodie’s eyes she recognized—he was a heartbeat away from pouncing so she made her move. Before they could reach her, she was on her feet and had pulled the shirt she’d worn earlier from the floor. She was trying desperately to get the shirt on when Lawton snatched it from her hands and tore it completely in half. The sound of rending fabric startled her back from the panic she’d fallen in to, and she simply collapsed onto the soft leather sofa’s center cushion like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

The one topic she had hoped to avoid at all costs was the first thing they asked about, and Cressida wasn’t naïve enough to believe two men as experienced as Lawton Hill and Brodie Walsh were going to want anything to do with a twenty-five-year-old virgin. If she was honest, she’d known this was coming—even if she had managed to avoid it before they’d had sex, there wasn’t much chance they wouldn’t have known what she planned to conveniently forget to mention. She’d saved herself, waiting for the perfect moment with a man she cared for—one she could envision a future with—and at some point it had turned into a liability.

Carli had warned her more than once she was chasing a fantasy, that real men didn’t want the “gift” she thought she was saving because they think women assign too much significance to losing their virginity. “Men don’t want that
responsibility
, little sister. You need to let this one go because it’s a pipe dream. And besides, you’re missing all the fun.” She really needed to start listening to her sister, even if it would likely inflate her ego to an unmanageable state. The irony of Carli Walker was she wasn’t arrogant about being a super model…but she was a maniacal egomaniac when it came to assuming she was always right about anything and everything related to her younger sister.

Shaking off her thoughts about her sister, Cressi looked up into the angry eyes of her two bosses. She’d seen them livid many times during the past two years, but Cressi wasn’t sure she’d ever seen this particular look. Holy Hannah, there was a part of her that wanted to keep watching the two of them, because she was fairly certain their heads were going to spin clear around on their shoulders any second with fire shooting from their eyes for good measure. But the larger part of her wanted to curl up into a ball and cry until she didn’t have any tears left. She couldn’t remember a time she’d felt more defeated and the fact she still didn’t feel well wasn’t helping. “I’m sorry,” was the only thing she managed to squeak out past the lump in her throat.

“Explain.” Typical Brodie, short and straight to the heart of it.

“I know my reaction to your question has probably given me away, so can we just save adding anymore humiliation to this disaster by elaborating on the details? I’ll just go get dressed—I assume there are clothes in the suitcase Parker brought earlier, and then I’ll be out of your hair. I really hope we can all forget this ever happened and I’ll let go of the idea I might ever… Oh, fudgesicles, I’m going to have to deal with Tristan for a whole year—damn.” She started to stand, but Lawton’s hand landed on her shoulder and her bare butt hit the leather cushion again quickly.

“Let’s clear the air first and then we’ll deal with your attempts to walk away from the two men you had already agreed to submit to for a month. You already admitted you have researched Dominance and submission, so you know your attempt to walk away from your Doms will have consequences. But first we need to address the
reason
you tried to run. Tell us. Now.”

Oh brother. Cressida might not have dealt with Lawton Hill in full-on Dom mode before this moment, but that didn’t mean she didn’t recognized it—immediately. Taking a deep breath, she made a conscious effort to separate her clenched fingers from where she’d been twisting them together atop her thighs. Twice she opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t seem to find the words to explain why she’d waited…what she’d dreamt of since her freshman year of high school when her friends started sleeping with the upper classmen at her magnet school. She finally managed to whisper, “None.”

Brodie used his fingers to tilt her chin back up so she was looking at him, “None, pet? Are you saying you’ve never had sex at all?” Cressi wanted to scream in frustration and embarrassment—why wouldn’t they just let her walk away? Why was it necessary to completely humiliate her?

“No. I was waiting—well, I was waiting for the right time. Carli warned me, but I didn’t listen. Too much responsibility, she said. She nagged endlessly that I was missing all the fun. She tried to tell me, but did I listen? Heck no. And then I finally get up the courage to call The Knight’s Club after saving up for-flipping-ever thinking he’ll find me someone to train me so I can be what—” Cressi’s brain finally engaged and she snapped her mouth shut so quickly her teeth actually clicked together.
Damn, her rambling had nearly given away more than she’d ever intended.

She saw the look Brodie and Lawton exchanged at her near slip, no doubt there would be questions to answer about that later, but right now she was focusing on the crises at hand. She needed to keep her mouth shut for a few minutes, because right now that was the only way to guarantee she wouldn’t say something she’d regret. She’d been dreaming about The Knight’s Club since the very first time she’d first overheard the four owners talking about it. Cressi had only been working for Templar Enterprises Group for a just a few weeks when she’d overheard the conversation. They’d been working late one night, it had been one of the rare strategy sessions that involved all four men, she’d stuck her head in Lawton’s office to say she was leaving and then failed to latch the door before heading out. Before she’d gotten to the elevator, she’d remembered her umbrella and gone back to retrieve it from under her desk—that was the
first
time she’d heard them talk about The Knight’s Club but it certainly hadn’t been the last.

She’d quickly learned The Knight’s Club was widely recognized as the most exclusive club of its kind on the eastern seaboard, and she’d become obsessed with picking up bits and pieces any time she could. One conversation had centered on their two-year waiting list, they had mulled over an expansion but in the end, all four men had agreed to wait. Parker did extensive background checks on prospective members before they were even sent an application and once that document was returned, Templar’s security team dug up even the most long buried secrets. She’d laughed when Parker had reminded the others that secrets weren’t necessarily the problem, rather it was any attempt to conceal or camouflage them that sent up red flags.

Their discussion of new equipment they were considering adding to the various theme rooms had made her so hot she’d worried they’d discover she was eavesdropping simply by feeling the temperature in the office suite increase. That particular night Cressi had been forced to beat a hasty retreat when the distinctive creak of Lawton’s chair alerted her he’d stood up. She’d never known if they’d realized she’d been listening just outside the door, but since they’d never mentioned it, she held out hope they’d been none the wiser.

Lawton watched as Cressida seemed to mentally drift away for several seconds, Brodie was studying her as well. He’d love to know what she was thinking because her face flushed a beautiful shade of rose as the pulse at the base of her neck beat a staccato rhythm. Her breathing became more shallow and quickened. Wherever her mind had gone she was becoming turned on, and that made him more than a little curious as to where her thoughts had wandered. Cressida Walker was a sexual Dominant’s dream in the flesh. Petite in stature but with curves that she demurely hid under business attire. Smart as a whip with enough sass to ensure there’d be plenty of spankings in her future. She also had a face reminiscent of an angel’s, but the truth of her beauty completely escaped her notice—a fact Lawton found equally endearing and baffling.

When he saw the muscle in Brodie’s jaw twitch, Lawton knew his friend well enough to know exactly what was coming. It was one of the man’s few tells and Lawton hoped like hell he knew what he was doing. “Cressida, if you can look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want to be here—that you don’t want us as much as we want you, I’ll let you walk out the door, clear your slate with Tristan, and this will never be mentioned again.
But
, I want you to stop and think carefully—are you going to let a moment’s embarrassment keep you from finding what you have obviously been looking a very long time for?”

Cressida’s eyes flared at the challenge, but then the fire seemed to dim as her face flushed. She’d nearly given something away earlier, and Lawton hoped like hell he was right about what that had been. He’d been worried Cressida wanted to be trained to attract the attention of someone else, but the fact she’d stopped speaking so abruptly gave him hope that she wanted them as much as they wanted her. He could practically hear the wheels of her mind turning as she thought about what Brodie had just said. Lawton had never known her to back down from a challenge and he hoped like hell today wasn’t going to be the day she decided to change her M.O.

“Well, personally I think your sister is mistaken. There are men who understand the significance of the treasured gift you’ve saved for so long—men who will cherish both the gift and the woman who values herself enough to wait for the right man to give it to.” Lawton let out a sigh of relief because once again Brodie Walsh had managed to say exactly what Law knew Cressida had needed to hear. The Dark Knight had prevailed and was on the verge of closing, what Lawton considered, the most important deal they’d ever negotiated.

Tears filled Cressida’s eyes, but the soft expression on her face told him they weren’t unhappy tears. This time Lawton was the one who spoke, “Baby, I hope those sweet tears mean you are going to stay, but we need to hear you say the words.” He’d cupped her face with his large hands and used the pads of his thumbs to brush away the wet trails down her cheeks. Lawton had always felt pulled in by the brilliant green of Cressida’s eyes, they reminded him of the various shades of green he’d seen in a beautiful patchwork as he flown over the central part of the country. The collage of colorful crops Lawton knew fed the world had always fascinated him and seeing all those shades of green in her eyes gave them a depth that made him want to fall forward right into the earthiness he suspected lurked within her.

“Yes. I want to stay, but I need to know my lack of experience isn’t going to be a problem. I don’t want to be a charity case.” She rolled her eyes before dropping her gaze, “Good Lord, I even sound pathetic to myself.”

Brodie stepped forward and smiled, “You are not pathetic, banish that word from your description. This is also the last warning you’ll get about speaking negatively about yourself. It isn’t something either of us will tolerate. We’ll also compare notes—all the time, so don’t think you can play one of us against the other.” When she gasped and those adorable frown lines formed between her brows, Brodie laughed, “This isn’t something either of us have ever noted as an issue with you—or believe me, we would have addressed it immediately. Although I must admit, that discussion would have been far different as your boss than it will be as your Doms.”

“Before we jump into the deep end of this thing, how are you feeling?”

“Okay…not great, but better than I did yesterday.” Lawton wasn’t entirely convinced she wasn’t playing down how much she was still suffering, but he let it go for now. It only took them a few minutes to hammer out the last details of the contract they’d finally gotten Tristan to sign off on the afternoon Cressida had visited the club. The man took his responsibility as the manager of The Knight’s Club seriously, but he was absolutely militant about protecting the club’s uncollared submissives. Lawton had listened to Tristan and Brodie argue about the minutia until he and Parker had finally thrown up their hands in frustration and headed for the bar.

Lawton knew the time commitment they’d required was more than she’d had in mind, it had been the only real hesitance he’d seen during the their final negotiations. But from Lawton’s point of view, a month was an incredibly tight timeline. They needed to build the strong bond they’d need to win her heart and convince her the three of them could build a life together—it was one thing for her to work with them, but it was something entirely different to ask her to put up with them twenty-four/seven.

Six months ago he and Brodie had started brainstorming designs for two different collars for Cressida. The first one would be a gift given the first time they took her to The Knight’s Club, the second would be given sometime later—after she’d had plenty of time to learn about their lifestyle. Understanding the true depth of commitment signified by a permanent collar wasn’t something most people grasp until they’d been a part of the kink community for a while. They’d agreed to pay the jeweler an exorbitant amount of money to ensure the first one was in their hands in in three weeks, but neither of them had been willing to give her a piece someone else might have now or in the future.

When Parker visited with Cressida earlier, he’d asked her to wear a specially designed bracelet that allowed Templar’s security team to not only know her physical location, but she could also use it as a communication device if needed. She’d been reluctant at first, but Parker had persevered until she’d finally relented. Personally, Lawton thought she’d given in more from exhaustion than any real sense of agreement, but in the end the only thing that mattered was her safety. The bracelet she now wore was an updated version of one he’d helped design for friends of Parker’s in Texas. From what he’d heard about Tobi West, her husbands had good reason to be concerned with her safety—apparently the woman was a magnet for trouble.