The Billion Dollar Contract: The Executive Collection (37 page)

“Yes.” Jasmine kept her lips tight. “And him.”

She didn’t know why she was so guarded around Monica. Monica knew what was going on, and had more experience than Jasmine. Maybe she was afraid the sub was so submissive that she would spill the details of any conversation with Jackson. Jasmine didn’t believe that Ethan shared details of their sex life with his business partner – and if he did, she didn’t want to know – so the last thing she wanted was that slimy bastard thinking up things about her. That man was already undressing her with his eyes every time their paths crossed.

“He’s a good man.” Monica held her hands around her coffee cup. “One of the best I know, anyway.”

Was that a slight against Jackson? “You know,” Jasmine began, staring into her untouched soup, “he told me about you and him.”

She waited to see how Monica would respond. Surprised? Relieved?
Should’ve guessed it would be unfazed.
The quiet woman merely smiled again. A smile devoid of any life.

“Yes, it seems so long ago now. I enjoyed living at his house. He has the most beautiful garden.”

“I know. It’s like his baby.” Jasmine had been back to Ethan’s mansion a few times, and watching him sit in his garden, pluck some flowers, and even get down on his hands and knees to pull a weed here or there was mesmerizing. Jasmine even once caught him having a lively discussion with the gardener – in Spanish, no less – that ended with them laughing and clapping each other on the shoulders. Jasmine’s Spanish was rusty, but she thought she heard them talking about plans to lay out a new section of the garden. “He told me you two broke up because of…”

“Yes. Because of Jackson.” Monica was not mincing any words that day. “Some people don’t like it anymore after a while. Being in that sort of arrangement. It didn’t bother me either way. I miss Ethan, but Jackson takes good care of me. I live at his place now. It’s farther away than Ethan’s place, but I like the quiet.”

“I see.” Jasmine didn’t know where Jackson lived. Didn’t want to know. “He told me that you have been… this way… for a while. I’m sorry, I’m being rude.”

“No, no. I don’t mind. I’m not ashamed.” Monica picked up her pen and started doodling on the cover of her journal. “I chose to live like this. I like it when someone takes charge of my life for me. There’s a comfort in being told things. Surely, it’s not for everyone. And I’m not without my resources. It’s just…” She looked out the window, and Jasmine thought she saw a glimmer of nostalgia in her eyes. “Yes, I have been doing this a long time. Since I was in college. I got into it by accident, but I must admit it was one of the best things to ever happen to me.”

There was something she wasn’t telling Jasmine. “But?”

Monica put down her pen and picked up her coffee. The cup jittered against her lips as she sipped. “Sometimes you meet bad people. There are men, and even a few women, who see someone like me and go beyond domination. They’re trash.”

The coffee cup shook so much that some warm coffee slipped down the porcelain and onto Monica’s hand. She didn’t seem to notice.

“I’m sorry.” It was all Jasmine could say.

“Watch yourself.”

Was that a warning about Ethan? No, she wouldn’t have praised him like that first. It must have been someone else. Perhaps someone in her past.
Jackson.

Jasmine stared at Monica for a few seconds, trying to ascertain if this woman was in trouble. Was she happy with Jackson? Did he treat her well? The man made her cut up his steak, for God’s sake. But maybe she liked that. Maybe she liked taking care of him like that.
Like his mother.
Jasmine tried not to judge. But she would die before she did more than cut open Ethan’s steak just to make it bleed.
That rare meat is gonna kill him.
Not before she got paid, hopefully.

“I admit I don’t know much about that kind of life.” Jasmine didn’t count what she did with Ethan as a lifestyle thing. He would tie her up, bind her, sometimes gag her – oh, and the occasional spanking that made her see and feel passionate red – but it was confined to the bedroom. And even then that was only about half the time. If Jasmine said no, she knew Ethan would stop and they would either change gears or do something else. One night they were halfway through the deed when Jasmine didn’t want to do it anymore. She had been afraid that Ethan would be angry, but instead he excused himself before coming back to ask her to watch a movie with him. She fell asleep in his bed halfway through.

Monica waited for Jasmine to finish her thoughts before responding. “Like I said, it’s not for everyone. I feel like if it’s something you would be into, you would gravitate toward it. But it’s hard finding the right partner. It requires a level of trust that you can’t have with anyone.”

“I could see that.”

“I was disappointed when Ethan said he didn’t want to live that way. But it was better for him to recognize it than try to be someone he wasn’t.”

“Do you miss him?”

Finally, Jasmine managed to get a real reaction out of the passive woman. Monica’s eyes grew big, she sat back, and the coffee cup ceased its wobbling in her hands. “I suppose. I still see him at dinners and things. But if you mean that way… well, he is very gentle.”

Gentle!
Then again, Jasmine supposed that compared to other lovers, Ethan was quite gentle to Monica.

“Well, I must be going.” Monica picked up her bag and stood up, her svelte body stunning in a designer cinnamon-colored dress. Even though she was alone, she still carried herself like a submissive person. Her head pointed down, her voice was quiet, and she seemed uninterested in sharing her opinions with the world. Jasmine could not relate.

The rest of her lunch hour was pensive. Jasmine chewed her food and contemplated what Monica told her, about that sort of lifestyle, about Ethan. More than once she wondered if that woman was in some sort of terrible situation. Nobody shook like that just from drinking coffee. But Monica had trained herself to speak in cryptic words. What she said and what she meant didn’t always match up.

Jasmine had plenty of time to debate it when she returned to Ethan’s office and found him talking with Jackson.

“…Those bullies will stop at nothing to force the merger.” Jackson tossed an apple into the air and caught it with his hand every time. His sandy beard looked like a prickly cactus, as opposed to when Ethan would forego shaving for a while and have soft fuzz on his skin. “They’ve been pushing it for over a year now. We can’t hold it off much longer. Come on, Ethan, it’s inevitable. Buy the boys out already.”

Ethan glanced at Jasmine before responding. “Their price is more than I’m comfortable paying. You know how I am. I don’t pay that much unless I really want it.” He looked at Jasmine again, knowing.

Jackson caught this exchange. “Of course I know. Not my fault if you can’t see a good deal in front of your face. Take this lovely lady for instance.” He gestured to Jasmine, who would rather not be the subject of any of Jackson’s sentences. “How much is she charging you to fuck her again?”

Ethan tensed up as Jasmine rounded on Jackson. But the man looked at her as if to say,
“What? Am I wrong?”
Faced with her own price, Jasmine turned away again, red in the cheek.

“That’s none of your business,” Ethan said flatly. “We’re talking tens of millions of dollars here.”

“Here I thought it was three million.”

“I meant the merger. Plus we would have to downsize their company. Send in efficiency experts to see where costs could be cut so we could make that money back as quickly as possible. They have thousands of employees. It would take forever, and there’s no guarantee that it would actually boost our stock or raise our profits. They win in this merger more than we do.”

“Then call it my instinct! You know it’s good enough!”

Ethan turned to Jasmine as if to apologize. But he didn’t say anything. Instead he woke his computer up and typed something into his web browser. “Look at this,” he said to Jasmine, pointing to the screen. “Tell me this doesn’t make any sense.”

With Jackson’s eyes on her – undressing her, probably – Jasmine rounded the desk and looked at whatever Ethan pointed to. It was a page of stock numbers and commentary about the state of business. Apparently word had gotten out that JaCole was looking to buy this other company, and its stocks were plummeting. Jasmine wasn’t really that savvy at business, but she knew that low stock prices meant a cheaper buyout. But there was no guarantee that JaCole could turn it around again. “I don’t know what to say. It looks bad.”

“Oh come on, Ethan, what the hell does she know?”

“Well, she knows it looks bad. Don’t need to be an insider with a master’s in business to know that, Jackson.”

“Fine. Listen to your mistress over me.” Jackson frowned, and Jasmine could not say it inspired any confidence in her. In fact she was quite perturbed by the way that man’s face creased and his frown turned into a scowl toward her. He stopped tossing his apple around and took a bite out of it, juice dribbling down his chin without a care.

Gross.
Jasmine stepped closer to Ethan and wished the other man would go away. “Like I said, I don’t really know anything. It’s not personal.”

“Oh no, dear, if it were personal, I would have destroyed you by now.”

Those words managed to stop time in the office. The clock ticked on the wall, but both Jasmine and Ethan held their breaths while Jackson continued to munch on his apple.
He would what?
Had Ethan heard that? Would he say or do anything? Jasmine checked her shock and stared at her boss, willing him to yell at Jackson and to evict him from the building.

Jackson left on his own, saying not a word.

Jasmine let out her breath the moment the door closed again. “What did he mean by that?” she asked Ethan.

“Nothing. He’s bluster.”

“Ethan.” Jasmine put a firm hand on his shoulder, which made him sit up from his computer and look askance at her. “I don’t like that man. I know he’s your business partner, but please keep him away from me.”

“He’s harmless.” Yet from the tone in his voice, Jasmine could tell that even he wasn’t sure about that.

“Ethan.”

Sighing, he leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

27

Why does my shower have to be so gross?
Jasmine stared at some suspicious dark spots in between the tiles of her shower. She scrubbed them, bought expensive cleaners for them, and still couldn’t get it up to snuff. She was convinced it was grime built up from years and years of use. Whenever she showered, she would stare at this black fuzz and feel her lungs sucked out of her body. Better that than inhaling some mold.

She stepped out of the shower, toweled off, and posed in front of her mirror as she put up her hair to dry. Ever since she started her relationship with Ethan she had become more critical of her appearance, although he never said anything negative about it other than to occasionally tease her – but usually only about her clothes.
Segue into shopping trips!
Jasmine was not into plastic surgery trips, however.

But she did talk him into taking her to the salon a time or two. High-end ones that treated her like a princess while her hair was washed and styled. No color, although she threatened Ethan that she was going to dye it red like Nadia’s just to screw with his head. Although he never brought the receptionist up again after that one encounter, Jasmine never let him live it down when they were in private.

I need to stop eating so much good stuff.
Cellulite on her hips and ass. Stretch marks across her stomach from when she sprouted like a beanpole and filled out during puberty. Markings that had been with her for over fifteen years, and yet she couldn’t help but look at herself through a certain gaze these days.

Probably because Ethan could have any woman he wanted. A woman with the perfect body, whatever that was.

A knock on the front door made her jump out of her skin.

“Coming!” she called, although she didn’t know who could be calling so late on a Friday night. Jasmine had left work earlier that day to the tune of Ethan and a bevy of other billionaires duking it out over mergers and acquisitions. It was going to be a long night – a long weekend – for him. Jasmine assumed she would be left to her own devices and had already invited her friends over for a movie and beer night again.

Or so she thought, until she opened her front door and immediately closed it again.