The Alexandra Series (52 page)

The affair was some kind of reception, partially given in honor of Reggie’s arrival. There were gracious German toasts, Jocelyn could tell by the way everyone responded. All she could do was smile. For a while she had the feeling that everyone was speaking German just to keep her from knowing what they were saying. She knew it was an absurd thought, since they were in the middle of Germany, what did she expect?

“How are you doing?” Reggie asked her at one point.

“Bored stiff.”

“Why?” He looked surprised.

“It should be perfectly obvious to you. I don’t speak German. I can’t see what good I’m going to be, if your negotiations are in a language I can’t understand.”

“Don’t worry, they’ll be in English. Just look pretty for a while longer and we’ll be moving on.”

“Look pretty? Is that my function? You’ve got to be kidding.” Jocelyn picked up her purse from the couch and walked toward the door of the reception hall.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Shopping. I’ll see you at the conference room, let’s see—” She glanced at her watch. “How about an hour?” She stormed out, and with another businessman at his shoulder, Reggie let her escape go unchallenged.

***

At lunch they were shooting darts toward each other. The promised conferences Jocelyn was suppose to attend didn’t happen. She was put off again, listening to more German, with a few English translations just for her benefit. She was beginning to think that she was nothing more than an attractive accessory for Reggie, which only made her furious.

Slipping out of the luncheon with a gracious smile, she left him assuming she’d just gone to the ladies room. She returned to their room instead, and she was just drawing her bath water, hoping a long soak would soothe her nerves, when Reggie entered.

“Jocelyn,” he snapped.

She went about her business in the bath, ignoring him, though when he burst through the door she wasn’t surprised.

“This is a childish snit,” he accused.

“No, this is womanly revolt,” she retorted.

“You’re expected in a meeting in a half hour, get dressed.”

“So, I can listen to these pompous asses bark at each other in German?”

“This is all English. You remember this is a working trip.”

“It hadn’t seemed that way to me,” she said dryly. “So far my function has been strictly sexual and decorative. I could be home tending to my own million dollar company, being a hell of a lot more useful then I am here.”

“Am I paying for this trip?”

“Oh, does that mean I’ve been bought for the trip like a whore? Is that what you think of me? Maybe I was naive to believe you had enough in you to call you human.”

The indictment stung, and his expression was deadly. She almost thought he’d slap her, but he didn’t. Maybe she deserved it, but she was pissed as hell for good reason.

“I’m sorry,” she acquiesced, though there was little giving in her body language.

“You know, for a nearly naked woman you’re treading on dangerous territory. What I’d like to do…”

He didn’t say it, but she knew.

“I bet you would,” she couldn’t help herself from snapping.

“Get dressed, now.”

It was another of those commands she should have challenged, but maybe it was wiser to say nothing.

He turned away from her and slammed the bathroom door behind him.

Letting out the bath water, Jocelyn found her clothes in the closet and dressed, while she heard Reggie pacing in the other room. It took just five minutes to be ready, which should have pleased him, though he wasn’t showing pleasure in anything. There would be silence all the way back to the conference room, any attempt to repair the damage would fail. This would take cooling down time, and a lot of diplomacy on her part. She wasn’t sure she wanted to bother.

The meeting was conducted in English start to finish. Reggie consulted with her a half dozen times, Jocelyn appalled by the high level of negotiations that were being discussed, the amount of money involved, and the intricacy of the bargaining. She was thankful that her comments were useful to him. He did trust her insight in this matter, even when her clear thinking comments were contrary to his line of thinking. She did have a knowledge of his company that he respected, and he was right to bring her along.

“You were spectacular, Jocelyn,” he whispered as they left the conference room side by side. He had a smile on his face, their earlier sparring apparently forgotten. She was happy about that. Maybe they could forget that unfortunate moment in the bedroom, but she had a feeling that that wasn’t possible.

“Thank you,” she said.

There was another reception after the meeting, though this one was more enjoyable, with at least half of the participants speaking a language she knew. However, as soon as she and Reggie were in the more relaxed environment, Jocelyn detected a subtle disquiet in her blue-eyed associate. Though he said nothing, she had a gut feeling that the earlier row had not been forgotten after all.

Dressing for dinner in their room an hour later, she chattered like some perky kid. It must have been the pent-up feelings that needed some expression. Even if she wasn’t saying anything particularly important, she needed just to talk. She also hoped her cheery comments might ease them into the rest of their evening.

“Would you shut up,” Reggie finally barked, as he was adjusting his tie in the mirror, listening to her go on about something that was of no concern to him.

“What’s got you pissed?” she asked. “I thought you were in a good mood?”

“I was.”

“But I’m annoying you. Isn’t that too bad,” she quipped.

“You want to start again?”

“That wasn’t my plan.”

“But that’s where you’re headed.”

“So, what the hell have you got to be pissed with me about, didn’t I salvaged your business this afternoon?”

“I wouldn’t put it that way,” he said. “You may have been brilliant this afternoon, but it’s more personal matters that I’m going to blister your ass for.”

“Blister my ass?” She looked astounded.

The belt was already in his hand, not initially intended to be laid against her butt; but he took an instant liking to the idea. He had the perfect opportunity right in front of him, with Jocelyn half naked in garter belt and bra and nothing else, looking as ready as he’d ever find her.

“You don’t mean it, not now! We’re going to be late for dinner.”

“I don’t really care.”

He was sitting on the bed, she was over his lap, and the belt was coming down on her bottom before she could breathe again. The snap of the leather created a quick sharp sting, reminding her that her ass was still sore from the night before.

“Ouch, stop it now!” she cried.

He’d hardly hit her, but for some reason this hurt her more than she could believe, than all the other punishments; this one stung like a thousand sharp arrows arriving on her ass, their biting impact more than she could take from the start.

“Reggie stop!” she ordered him, as if he’d bother to listen to her. “Why are you doing this!”

Oddly, he did stop, if only for an instant.

“Some paddlings, my darling Jocelyn, I do for sex, others strictly for punishment. I’ll let you guess what this one is.”

He snapped the leather belt against her burning ass a few more times before he spoke again.

“You were way out of line this afternoon and you know it.”

The leather was producing lines of red across the already flaming red bottom.

“I apologized,” she tried defending herself, between her anguished protests. “Ouch that hurts!”

“It’s a good thing you proved your worth in the conference room today, otherwise, I’d likely send you packing.”

“You would not! Ouch, stop it!”

“Oh, I would,” he told her. The leather met her ass until the jiggling, quivering flesh was hot as firecrackers on the 4th, until Jocelyn’s wails were one endless stream of unrelenting protests, and until Reggie was nearly worn out himself holding her flailing body in place.

He pushed her to her feet when it was over, holding her hand tightly in his so she wouldn’t be tempted to run away.

“Get this straight, Jocelyn Killian, you’re right about one thing. I do feel. Very deeply. What I feel for you goes beyond anything I’ve felt for any woman ever, but if you think brutalizing me with your harangues will get me to share myself with you, you’re sadly mistaken. You walk me into this affair of ours with your smile and your charm, but not your tirades. It’s beneath you to be a shrewish bitch.”

She gazed at him stunned.

“God, I feel like shit!”

“Good, you deserve every minute of self torture.”

She wondered how serious he was. At least he was calmer than he’d been. Certainly his words were fuel for thought, though it didn’t seem like the right time to talk about it.

“I’m sorry. I was being irrational, and that’s not like me. I suppose I did it to get you to react.”

She could tell he accepted her apology by the way his expression changed.

“But then, it is hard to be rational when I’m in love,” she added. Being in love was the best description of what she was feeling, even if it felt strange telling him so.

There was a tiny waver in his cool demeanor hearing her confession of love.

“You’d better not say things like that without having all the facts in hand,” he said.

“I think I do,” she replied.

He knew better.

Chapter Six

Reggie pulled from his suitcase a dark green leather dress intended to match her eyes, and contrast with her rich auburn hair. It conformed to the shape of her alluring body, with the form-fitting garment clinging to her as tightly as the corset, pushing her breasts into a full cleavage, and covering just enough of her thighs so not to be indecent.

“But when I walk the tops of the stockings…” she exclaimed as she paced their hotel room from end to end.

“Where you’re going it’s fashionable.”

“Didn’t know you appreciated raunchy sluts so much.”

“Now you do,” he said.

He was pleased, very pleased. She’d be appreciated in the company they’d keep that night. The German nightclub was a wild place where Reggie gathered with his old friends for their unique brand of entertainment. It had been too long, he thought, since he’d been to the underground habitat of leather freaks and fetish fiends and all around kinky sorts. It fit his mood, and he wondered if it would fit Jocelyn’s.

“Another piece of your world, I assume,” she said, staring at herself in the mirror.

“Another piece,” he nodded.

“Different from dinner, I suppose?”

“Very,” he replied.

Dinner had been with business associates, her attire, sexy but nothing like this. She would have been happy to stay in their room for the remainder of the evening, but Reggie was ready for something else.

He reached out and ran his fingers through her glimmering hair, seeing the red highlighted by the glow from a lamp. Impulsively he kissed her lips. He was rarely this affectionate, but she made him so.

While this spontaneous affection was a little uncomfortable for him, putting on one of his many alter ego personas was not. It would be a pleasurable experience. For himself that night, he chose a black silk shirt and black pants, but no leather. He preferred buying it for the women in his decadent life, to wearing it himself.

With Jocelyn on his arm, they found a taxi in the street outside the hotel, and made the trip to the nightclub in silence. Jocelyn was looking as nervous as he’d ever seen her. Such composure most of the time, he found her nervousness charming, just like every damn thing the woman did was charming.

On the street again, Reggie held her arm as they descended a dirty brick staircase to the basement level club. He could hear the sounds of soft jazz beyond the door as he knocked – the doorman recognized him readily. Stepping inside, Reggie was delighted to see that the crowded place was exactly as he remembered it.

“Guten Tag,” Marc greeted him with a hearty hug. “How enchanting,” he then turned to Jocelyn, speaking in perfect English and bowing as he took her hand. The gesture was out of place in these crude surroundings, but not out of place for Marc.

“Your table, there on the far side,” he said, pointing toward one near the stage where the jazz band played something mellow.

Reggie watched Jocelyn’s eyes peer about the room, seeing the several dozen oddly attired people with a degree of fascination. Her nervousness had fled, and there was even a fleeting smile on her face. The costumes were as raunchy as he remembered them from well over a year ago. Lots of leather, and a few bare female breasts, and skirts so short that plump asses hung out beckoning pinches and slaps.

“Ah, Reggie,” the bleached blonde Candy moved on him the moment she saw him.

“What are you up to, slut?” he asked. The two kissed and broke apart just as quickly. She had thick red lips, a frenzied mop of short cropped hair, and three sets of round hoop earrings dangling from her ears. Her breasts were practically naked in something gauzy and glittering, though her ass end was well covered in snug leather pants.