The Billion Dollar Contract: The Executive Collection (47 page)

Shadows were consuming her and the rest of the balcony by the time the glass door slid open and Ethan stood there, jacket off and his grim face staring into the back of Jasmine’s head.

“Get in here,” he said. “Now.”

Jasmine remained frozen in her seat.
What is with that tone?
At first she was afraid to get up and investigate. But when she finally swung her legs over the chair she realized that Ethan was back in the hotel room, pacing back and forth with Jasmine’s collar dangling from his hands.

Her throat went dry.

“Here.” Ethan shoved the collar in Jasmine’s hands and leaned against the back of a couch in the middle of the room.

She looked at it, at her name engraved along the inside. “What’s this all of a sudden?”

Ethan scoffed, as if she should have had the collar on by now and be doing whatever he demanded of her.
Fat chance.
Jasmine stood tentatively back as Ethan went to the complimentary bar and mixed himself a hard drink. He did not offer her one. “Don’t want to do it?” His voice was almost accusatory.

“It’s not that.” She watched him down half his drink with a shudder. “I’m just thinking that there’s something else going on here. What was that phone call about? What are you…”

Ethan stepped beside her, the stern look on his face telling her to keep quiet. Jasmine pressed her lips together and forced herself to maintain eye contact. The collar wasn’t on… yet. She wasn’t a sub in this moment. “That was a private conversation that does not concern you.” He took another drink, the glass now almost empty. “Put it on.” He motioned to the collar in Jasmine’s hand.

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then don’t.”

“And?” There was a catch.

His brows furrowed. “And I won’t be very pleased.”

What an ass.
The collar tightened in Jasmine’s hands. “So you want me to put on this collar so you can…”

“Yes?”

Jasmine turned away, unable to look at him when he was being so rude. “Do God knows what to me.”

Bottles and ice tapped together as Ethan made himself another round. “For God’s sake, Jasmine, I’m not going to hurt you.”

He almost said it tenderly, which threw Jasmine off.
Is he just amping himself up for a role-play? So quickly?
“It’s not that I think you’ll hurt me. It’s out of left field and I’m not sure I’m in the mood for that kind of sex. At least butter me up first before we have a scene.”

“You want me to get you in the mood?” Ice rattled in his glass, and Jasmine could smell the whisky from half a room away. “Put on the collar and let’s get started.”

The strange thing about this was that Jasmine couldn’t believe it was what he wanted so suddenly. No. Something tipped him off. It wasn’t Monica, was it? Jasmine refused the notion that Monica had flirted with or otherwise aroused Ethan. Was he even aroused? That wasn’t a look of lust or a need for relief behind his narrow eyes. No, Ethan wanted something else entirely.

Jasmine wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

“Are you scared of me?”

Her eyes darted back to him, standing there with a drink in his hand.
I’m scared of him like I’m scared of my cat.
Actually, she was more scared of the cat. He had claws and a nasty temper. Ethan was practically a puppy compared to Blackbeard.

“No. I’m not scared of you.”

He did not break eye contact either.
Stare into my soul, why don’t you?
“Then put on the collar and let’s get started.”

It wasn’t that Jasmine thought she had no choice. More like she should hurry up and hope he changed his tune soon.
At least I know I’m the toy tonight.
At least she knew where she stood in his eyes and wouldn’t get her heart torn asunder.

“Fine.” Jasmine pulled the collar around her neck and snapped it in the back. Here they went. “What will you have,
sir?
Should I drop your fly for you?” That’s what he usually wanted.

“Drop the attitude.” Ethan closed the distance between them, his hand undoing the top of his shirt as he looked Jasmine up and down. Devouring her with his eyes. Deciding what he was about to do to her. “I don’t want to hear a word out of you unless I ask. Understood?”

She supposed that counted. “Yes, sir.” Whatever the boss wanted.

Ethan flicked something off her shoulder, his eyes traveling up and down her frame while she stood and waited for a command.
He’s usually not this domineering even when the collar’s on.
But what Ethan Cole wanted, he got. Including her.

“I like your dress.” It wasn’t actually a dress, but Jasmine wasn’t going to correct him at a time like this. Funny he didn’t recognize it though. He bought her this outfit back home. A high-waist pencil skirt that hugged her hips and clung to her knees; a short-sleeved white silk blouse that buttoned in the front; a skinny gold belt to tie it together. “Get down on your knees.”

Oh, here it came.

Jasmine did as commanded, lowering herself to her knees until such joints dug into the hotel room carpet.

Ethan gently tugged on her hair, making sure all of her long tresses were off her shoulder and down her back. This made her chest prominently stand out – certainly his goal. “You’re dressed so fancy today. Sophisticated, really. Once you get your hand on some money you clean up really nice.”

Jasmine glared at him.

“Pop open those pretty buttons for me. I want to see everything.”

Contempt tried to show on Jasmine’s face, though she only felt annoyed. Possibly frustrated. If Ethan was acting like this right now, there was no guarantee that he would be interested in getting her off as well. Would this be a night she took care of herself in the shower? Because even if she wasn’t really feeling it, odds were good that somewhere along the way Mr. Ethan Cole would get her riled up enough to want some of her own.

Her fingers fumbled with her top buttons, eyes still on him as she snapped two, three, four buttons and pulled her blouse open. Since she wore white that day, she had to wear a bra beneath. Ethan didn’t seem to mind, based on the tiny smirk tugging on his mouth. With a nod of his head he urged her to continue, and she did so, tucking her blouse beneath her breasts as she found the best place to lower her bra and show him what he had seen a hundred times by now.

“Put your hands behind your back.”

Hanging out of her shirt was enough for him. Jasmine had to resituate herself on her knees and then hold her hands behind her back. The collar scratched her throat.

Ethan leaned against the sofa again, taking her in as he enjoyed more of his drink. “What’s with that look?” he asked, referring to her defiant frown. Drink finished, he tossed the glass onto the sofa and unzipped his trousers. “I’ve never had one of you look at me like that.”

One of you.
He was definitely dissociating himself from their relationship. Good thing the collar was on. Jasmine was less likely to get her feelings hurt this way. “Nothing’s wrong, sir.”

“That’s good.” His hand wrapped around his erection, only half up. So he probably wasn’t fantasizing about this for a good while before summoning Jasmine to put on her collar.
It was Monica.
Something she told him… said to him… insinuated… made him want to treat Jasmine like this after a full day of having fun. “Do me a favor and sit still.” Ethan squeezed himself and then relented, grunting as he did so. “Keep looking at me like that, if you like.”

Jasmine didn’t know how else she was supposed to look at him as he began stroking himself, his fingers wrapping around his shaft and then teasing his own tip.
He’s gonna do it huh?
Wouldn’t be the first time she watched him get himself off. But it would be the first time he did so directly on her. There was no doubt that it was what he wanted.

“You know what I like about you, my flower?” he asked, his breath making his words jump as his hand moved at a steady speed around his cock. Wouldn’t take him much longer.
At this point I’d rather do it.
Giving him head was a way to assert control. Then she remembered that Ethan didn’t want her to have any control right now. “Even when I’m treating you like this, I can still see that spark in your eye. Even when it’s a game, you’re a contender. You’re beautiful and you’re willful. I did good picking you out of a crowd.”

He didn’t say anything after that. Just touched himself, staring down at Jasmine’s chest as he pleasured the part of him he usually asked her to service.

It is kinda hot…
Jasmine wouldn’t let herself relax just yet. He wanted willful? She would give him willful. As the groans of his orgasm commenced, Jasmine remained firm where she knelt. The only time she flinched was when the first of his release hit her skin, warm and wet. There was more after that.
There always is.
Ethan never lacked in that department.

“Fuck.” He let go and slumped against the sofa, his handiwork covering Jasmine’s breasts and slipping down her skin.

Not a bad idea.
Jasmine didn’t voice that opinion.

Ethan caught his breath, that fire going out behind his eyes. Jasmine softened. “You can go clean up,” he said.

How kind. Jasmine struggled to her feet, her legs aching from sitting on them for so long.

She didn’t expect any of this to continue when she returned. Ethan jacked it out of himself and would probably either pass out in bed, take a shower, or vegetate in front of the television. Jasmine tried to think of something to amuse herself with and settled on a game on her tablet. She would curl up in bed and fire it up…

“Come here.”

Ethan stood in front of his suitcase, fingering one of his many silk ties he brought with him. Jasmine went – after all, she was still wearing her collar – and studied him precariously. “Yes, sir?” She looked at the tie again. “Are we still in a scene, sir?”

His hand crept onto her waist and then onto her rear. Jasmine stiffened. She had buttoned up her blouse again, but now she wondered if that had been a mistake. Just in case, she undid everything she fixed in the bathroom, including tearing off her bra from beneath her sleeves. Ethan whistled in admiration as the lacy thing landed in his suitcase.

“I guess so.” He draped the tie around her shoulders. “Go get on the bed. We have something to discuss.”

Jasmine wasn’t sure she liked the idea of discussing anything while she had the collar on. But she obeyed, crossing to the bed and climbing into the middle of it like a good sub. Ethan was right behind her, touching her thigh, her rear, and even the small of her back through her blouse.

Whatever there was to discuss, he waited until he had unzipped the back of her skirt and lowered the whole thing to her ankles. She kicked it to the floor and felt his hands dig for the elastic of her lingerie. Was he hard again already? Jasmine wouldn’t complain if he slid right in.

Instead he pulled the silk tie against her forehead, lowering it to her eyes until she was blindfolded. But Ethan did not tie it behind her head. The tie remained taut in his hands, ready, waiting for her to move. Jasmine didn’t. “You wanted to discuss something, sir?”

The tie remained draped across her face as Ethan lowered his hands to her arms, then her breasts. He surrounded her with his arms, lips burying into the back of her neck through the mess of her hair. “That’s a nice scent. What is it?”

I doubt this is what you wanted to talk about.
“Dior,” Jasmine said. “You bought it for me a month ago, remember?”

“No.” Ethan eased her down, the tie falling to the bed as the shadows of the comforter met Jasmine’s vision instead. “I don’t.”

She thought he was going to have sex with her, but he wasn’t to that point yet. Ethan’s lips kissed her shoulder, her back, and then her cheek as he gently pressed his hips against her rear and inhaled her scent. Jasmine was trapped between being aroused and put off by this turn of events. The man was farther gone than she supposed earlier. “Have I done something wrong?”

He stopped kissing her and sat up, hand clutched around the tie beside her. “No.” He eased off her, allowing her to also sit up and lean against him.

Jasmine opened her mouth to speak, but with the collar on she felt compelled to keep it shut. Her fingers clutched the back of it and almost flicked it open.
I can’t talk to you openly with this thing on!
Ethan’s hand rested atop hers, urging her to put her arm down. His hand then went to her breast, mouth on her throat just above the collar. “Then what are we discussing?”