The Billion Dollar Contract: The Executive Collection (23 page)

It only took her ten minutes to change. Ten minutes of fixing her hair and sprucing up her makeup. And putting on new clothes.

They’re never going to know what hit them.
Smiling, Jasmine finished her makeup touchups and left the women’s restroom. By the time she returned to the board room, more than one person in the open office had looked up at what she was wearing.

“What are you…” Jasmine didn’t stick around to hear Nadia finish her statement. Instead she opened the conference room doors, all eyes turning to look at her as she lifted her red and gold pom-poms into the air. Before she even began her cheer, Jackson smacked his hand over his mouth to stifle laughter while Ethan stared at her as if she had just stepped out of another dimension.

“Ready?” Jasmine didn’t wait for a response. “Okay!”

More than one person sitting at the table nearly had a heart attack.

“Hey money, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey money! Yeah, yeah, hey money! Go capitalism!” Her pom-poms shook in the air – and that wasn’t the only thing shaking as Jasmine gyrated in place.
Everyone look at my rack.
“Something, something… you took me by the wallet, you took me by the bank…..”

“Jasmine!” Ethan shot up from the end of the table, so upset that he forgot to call her Miss Bliss. Some people looked at him, but most only had eyes for Jasmine in her skimpy cheerleading outfit. “Please!”

A girl could take a hint. Jasmine held her pom-poms behind her back, took a final bow, and left the board room. She went straight back to the women’s restroom where she changed into her dress again. By the time she stepped out, she could hear Ethan Cole earnestly pleading for people’s forgiveness in the boardroom.

Asshole.
She would pay for that dearly later. In fact, she rather hoped so.

“What did you think you were doing?” Ethan paced back and forth in his office, Jasmine sitting on the couch as she looked at her nails and considered taking some dirt out from beneath them. “Do you know how much I had to explain to them that something like that wasn’t supposed to happen?” He almost wagged a finger beneath her nose. When Jasmine glanced up, she saw that Ethan had been sweating. His clothes were a little ragged too, or at least as ragged as a nice suit could be. “I’ve never been so embarrassed by a…”

“By a what? Personal assistant? Sub?” Jasmine didn’t care. She leaned forward in her seat, sighing in Ethan’s direction. “You wanted some pep. I gave you some pep.”

“You know damn well that’s not what I had in mind.”

“Well, sir, you’re going to have to be more descriptive next time.” Very descriptive. So descriptive that he would have to explicitly say, “Don’t show up in a sexy cheerleading outfit just to get a rise out of me unless you want to be fired.” Otherwise Jasmine wouldn’t listen.

Ethan looked like he was about to yell at her. But instead of chastising her, making her feel like some teenager, he told her that they would discuss it later and that she was dismissed. “On second thought,” he then said before Jasmine could leave, “meet me here at five. We’re going to my place.”

Jasmine almost protested. This was the first time Ethan had tried to take up her time after work, let alone taking her somewhere else.
Where does he intend to take me?
No matter. Jasmine merely shrugged and said she would be there. That way she could also take the cheerleading outfit back to his penthouse.

She lagged behind at five, waving goodbye to Nadia and everyone else leaving the office. Many of them gave her looks of pity. They knew why she was staying behind. Just as she had been chewed out in the afternoon, Ethan Cole was probably ready to tear her yet another asshole. If only they knew.

“Come on.” Ethan was the last to come out, his jacket slung over his arm and his briefcase bumping against his leg. “I’ve already arranged for dinner to be delivered to my place. It should be waiting for us by the time we get there.”

Contrary to what Jasmine originally thought, Ethan did not take a limo to and from work. Instead he had a car. A very nice car. With the driver. The same driver who drove the limo. Carl was his name, or so Jasmine remembered. Carl didn’t look at her much. He definitely didn’t talk to her much.
Seen so many women now he doesn’t bother getting to know them.
Jasmine couldn’t blame him. It probably sucked getting used to a new girlfriend just to have her be gone within a few months. Nevertheless, Jasmine said hello to him when she got into the back of the car. Ethan told the driver that they were going to the penthouse instead of the estate up in the hills.
I’ve never been there.
Jasmine was starting to doubt she ever would go there.

Since they were late getting out, traffic was terrible. It took them twenty minutes to go only a few blocks. By the time they arrived at the building, Jasmine was starting to feel guilty about what happened that morning. What if Ethan ended their contract? Sure, Jasmine would still get paid for the work she did on paper, but there went her three million dollar bonus. Her only hope was that Ethan would give her a good recommendation. And hopefully not as an escort.

They said nothing to each other as they went up in the elevator. As Ethan promised, there was food waiting when they arrived. The cart was left outside his door, and he asked Jasmine to take it inside while he made a phone call. Jasmine struggled with the damned cart through the large doorway and toward the small dining area near the gourmet kitchen.

Should I apologize?
Jasmine really wanted that three million. She wasn’t handing out head candy every other day because it was her favorite thing to do. Sure, she was used to it by now, and knew how to get Ethan going until he was finished. But she wasn’t going to delude herself into thinking it was her idea of a good time at work. That only happened when she got hers. And even then…

Ethan poured himself a heavy drink. He did not offer Jasmine anything but water. Nor did he suggest that she was in any kind of immediate trouble.
God, he’s going to fuck me one more time and tell me to get out for good.
Sour, Jasmine could barely enjoy the dinner of tender steaks and fresh salads.

Jasmine had one hour before she was finally off. She fully intended on leaving as soon as seven rolled around. The cat would need feeding. The last time Jasmine missed one she came home to paper towels torn up in the middle of the kitchen.

Ethan took the dishes into the kitchen but didn’t ask Jasmine to do anything with them. He probably had someone who would come in and do the dishes for him.

“In here.” He took off his tie and jacket, moving away from the kitchen and heading toward the bedroom. “Well, hurry up. I don’t want to go into overtime with you.” He was almost smiling. It unnerved Jasmine.

He was sitting in a chair in the corner of the bedroom by the time Jasmine caught up with him. He had one leg looped over the other, his polished leather shoe rolling with his foot as he leaned against his hand and looked as if he would rather be doing anything else than what he was about to do.

“I had to do a lot of damage control today. Some people told me to fire you. All I want to know is why.”

Jasmine shrugged. What else could she do? “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“It wasn’t.”

“I see that now.”

The way Ethan looked at her perplexed Jasmine. It was almost as if he were studying her, trying to ascertain her motives. His expression was filled with questions. Was she trying to sabotage him? Piss him off? What could possibly be going through her head right now?

Jasmine slowly advanced toward Ethan, her heels dragging against the hardwood floors of his bedroom. She kept her hands at her side, her demeanor down, and her skin thick, in case he decided to lay into her. “I don’t get why you go through all of this for me, and seemingly for so little. When you offered me the strange job, I thought I was going to be like your sex slave.”

His eyebrows went up in surprise. “Is that what you wanted?”

“No. But it’s what I expected. A man with discerning tastes like yours?”

Ethan uncurled his legs. “Come over here.”

There was that voice again. Jasmine didn’t hear it enough.
Oh no, he’s turning me that way.
That was Ethan’s domineering voice, the one he always took on when he was about to ask Jasmine to do something that would end with either one or the both of them crying out in ecstasy.
Fuck ‘em and dump ‘em!

“I have to punish you somehow. Couldn’t very well let you get away with it. What would I say if one of the board members asked me what came from this? I don’t want to dock pay. Nor do I want to put you on probation, although I’ll probably say that I did. No, Jasmine, you’ve been a terrible woman, and now you have to make up for it.”

She took in a deep breath. “I see. What is it that you want me to do?” Rarely did Ethan make her feel uncomfortable anymore. She was used to his whims, and could even predict him to an extent. But this? This was another game. One that they had yet to play.

Ethan uncurled his legs and sat up in his chair. “Get on your knees.”

How original.
Jasmine sank down where she stood only a few feet away. She had a feeling she knew where this was going, and yet that wasn’t the usual face Ethan made when he wanted his afternoon quickie.

“Now say you’re sorry.”

Jasmine swallowed, hard. He was humiliating her, and even though they had no audience, she still felt small and stupid in front of him. “I’m sorry.” She did not bow her head or avert her eyes. She wanted to see Ethan’s reaction to such a lackluster apology.

He was unperturbed. “Promise me you’ll never do it again.”

What was she, eight? Jasmine furrowed her brows, her hands gathering the fabric of her dress in her lap. “I won’t do it again,” she said through gritted teeth. “Can I get up now?”

A simple motion of his hand led to her standing back up on her high heels, her lack of balance making her wobble on the floor. Jasmine went to slip them off, but Ethan held his palm out to her and said, “Leave them on. I like how they look on you.”

Jasmine wanted to make a quip about a foot fetish, but this was not a joking time.

Ethan patted his lap.
There’s something strange about him.
Jasmine wasn’t afraid of him. She wasn’t even that uncomfortable. But she didn’t like not being able to predict his thoughts, his words. Her preference was the Ethan Cole she knew at work, the one who was forthright about his desires of the day before sending Jasmine on her way with actual business duties. The one Jasmine “dated” outside of work was the strange one. But this was the strangest Ethan Cole she had yet to meet.

Tentatively she eased herself into his lap. One arm wrapped around her, hand resting on her hip while the other curled on her bare thigh. This could have been loving. Tender. But the circumstance and the way Ethan looked at her suggested that the mood was changing.

“In all seriousness,” he said softly, “I wish that you had not done that. I like your personality, but most of the board members wouldn’t understand. They have no humor. Not to mention how random it must have seen to them.”

I don’t get this guy.
Making her ask for forgiveness on her knees one minute and then holding her in his lap like he was going to ease her cares away the next. Like she was supposed to find
solace
in Ethan Cole’s arms! “I said I was sorry. I acted out of frustration.”

“Why? Because…” Ethan looked confused for a split second. “Because I wasn’t paying enough attention to you?”

“No! I mean… it’s not like that.” Attention? He paid her attention all the time, and not just with sex. The flowers were a nice touch.
He saw that I was down about something and tried to cheer me up.
In a normal working relationship, she would have been touched. But this wasn’t normal. There was a motive behind everything Ethan did. “I was moody, okay? Sometimes I act out like that. It was wrong. It was immature. It won’t happen again.”

Ethan frowned. “That would be really boring.”

“It won’t happen again in front of important people like that.”

She was stiff in his lap. How could she relax when they were talking like this… when Ethan had that look about him? Jasmine didn’t know whether to feel comfortable or to put up another guarding layer on both her psyche and her heart. She had already cried once because of Ethan Cole. She didn’t want to feel comfortable in his lap only to have an A-HA! sprung on her.

“For every person who told me to fire you today, Jackson reiterated how much he liked you. He doesn’t like just anybody. He comes off as friendly, but he hates most people. Says I’ve done damn well ‘scoring’ you.”