The Billionaire's Pet (2 page)

“Well,” Ellie said, reaching for her desk lamp. “Let’s get started with this initiative right now, so you can see the effects of your ideas in practice.” Under his watchful eye, she unscrewed the bulb and put it on the desk before looking him dead in the eye with a frankly rebellious stare. “How many penguins do you think that helped?”

“Ellie…”

“Oh, there’s another few up there,” she noted, pointing at the light fixture on the ceiling. “If you lift me up on your shoulders, we can get them all out. Better still, we could go down to the basement and turn the power off to the building entirely. That would be much more environmentally friendly.”

Daniel’s thick brows rose slowly at her and quite suddenly, Ellie felt the impulse to squirm.

“I do not expect flippancy in this matter,” he growled, his friendly demeanor sliding away to be replaced with a raw authoritarian presence. “I have a controlling share in this company, Ms. Jones.”

“You may in some sense own the company,” she said pertly. “But you do not own me, and I am still in control of the operations of this company as per my role. If you have a problem with me or my position, you are absolutely free to take it up with the board of directors.”

“I think I’ll take you over my knee instead,” he drawled. “And give you the spanking you seem to have missed out on in the only position you deserve to be in right now.”

Ellie’s jaw dropped as hot shock flashed through her body. The threat was as intimate as it was immediate. “You can’t speak to me that way.”

“I can speak to you that way, and I can make good on that promise too,” he said with a casual confidence that made her feel fundamentally uncertain. The rules of common society seemed to warp and bend around Daniel. She was used to arrogant rich men; they were everywhere and usually she found them boorish and boring. There was something different about Daniel Treville. Perhaps it was because he did not seem so much arrogant as certain, or perhaps it was because his gaze held a keen intellect that made her feel instinctively wary. Ellie had reached her position by being able to read and outmaneuver people. In Daniel, she sensed a more than worthy opponent.

“You’re risking a harassment lawsuit.”

“No, I’m not,” he said. “You know as well as I do that a female CEO who launches a harassment lawsuit against her own company may as well set fire to every copy of her resume, because she’s never going to be hired again.”

He was right, of course. Harassment lawsuits worked for people further down the food chain. At Ellie’s level of employment, lawsuits were an absolute last resort, a
sayonara
to one’s career.

There was silence following his statement as she tried to catch up and get ahead of him. He was wily, with a mind like a viper. He’d already pressed his advantage and made his position clear. The ball was in her court and she had to do something with it. This would be the defining point in their relationship. If she showed fear, if she let him know that he was rattling her, it would all be over.

“Fantasies aside, Mr. Treville, I run this company,” she said in steely tones. “Your ownership means very little at this juncture. Fortunately the charter is structured in such a way as to be somewhat immune from the whims of shareholders.”

“You mean the charter you instituted approximately one week after being hired,” Daniel said, his eyes glinting at her. “The one you slipped through at the AGM with barely anyone noticing what they were signing. That was impressive, but I’m going to have it overturned—and I’m also going to turn you over my knee, young lady.”

Playing the age card was hardly fair. Daniel Treville wasn’t exactly old, but the way he said the words ‘young lady’ made her quiver. She was able to maintain composure only through the sense of outrage that swept through her upon hearing that Daniel was planning on restructuring the company to suit him. There would be some push back, sure, but Daniel had a reputation for being effective and relentless. He probably already had several of the board members on his side just by merit of his name alone.

“Well,” she said with a small smile. “I’ll put in a companywide order for tallow candles. Much more effective than electricity. Imagine all the money we’ll save. Better still, we could get rid of the computer systems and hire small rodents to carry messages. Gainful employment for endangered animals.”

“Cute,” he said, without so much as a hint of a smile. “I take this seriously, Ellie, and you will too.”

Perfect. Her little jokes and jibes were getting under his skin. Ellie felt a growing sense of triumph and control. Daniel Treville might be good, but he wasn’t nearly as good as she was.

“I don’t have time to pander to the regrets of a middle-aged man,” she said, her tone going from playfully sarcastic to cutting. “If you have some guilt complex about the state of the world, go buy laptops for orphans. Don’t destroy a multinational company. People rely on our decisions for their livelihoods. There are thousands of people relying on me to make sure the ship stays afloat—and I don’t intend on letting them down.”

“And in spite of my reputation, you’re afraid I’ll drive the company into the ground with a green initiative. You have issues with trust,” he said, looking at her with freshly appraising eyes. “Who hurt you, Ellie?”

“Spare me the daytime TV psychology,” she said curtly. “This isn’t about me.”

“Oh, but it is,” he smiled with some understanding. “Heavy is the head that wears the crown, hmm, Ellie? Wouldn’t it be nice to let someone else share a little of the load?”

“I have an excellent team under me,” she said, cutting him off. “Now, if you’re quite finished, Mr. Treville, I have work to do.”

She stood up and walked around her desk, extending her hand in what would have been a brief, dismissive handshake—had Daniel Treville not taken it and tugged her right over his lap.

“What are you doing!?” There was undeniable panic in the high pitch of her tone as she fell over his hard thighs, finding herself with a much closer view of the marble floor than she’d ever had before.

He answered her question by bringing his large palm down across her cheeks in a hard swat that left a burning sting and a sense of utter incredulity in its wake.

“Stop!”

“I warned you more than once, little girl,” he growled down at her. “You chose to play instead of listening and doing as you were told.”

“I am not little!”

She was small compared to him though. Her short stature meant that while she was pressed across his thighs, her palms on the floor in front of her, her toes kicked haplessly in the air. Daniel took full advantage of that fact, keeping her rear pitched high over his thigh as his palm met the smooth, taut fabric of her skirt, which clung all too closely against her rear.

He was spanking her. He was spanking her as if she were a naughty girl who had mouthed off to him and was receiving a well-deserved punishment.

Ellie could barely believe it, even though she was reminded anew every other second as his hand swatted her yet again, adding more heat and sting to her bottom.

“Are you learning, Ellie? Are you realizing that I do not bluff?”

She was learning. She was learning that his long legs were hard and toned, and that she could feel them flexing underneath her hips. She was learning that he smelled expensive and masculine, and that his arms were long enough to wrap around the narrowness of her waist and hold her locked against his body. And she was learning that his strong palm and long fingers were capable of delivering sharp stinging swats to the most padded part of her body.

“Let me up, Daniel,” she insisted boldly. “Let me up now and I’ll leave you enough in your personal accounts to buy a burrito once my lawyers are done suing you for this.”

“Ellie,” he chuckled darkly. “You know those threats mean nothing to me. Even if you were to sue, you would lose—and likely end up with a sizable bill for court costs to boot. Now be a good girl and take your spanking.”

As if she had a choice. She was caught in place over his thighs, trapped in his disciplinary embrace. It was the most intimate situation she’d found herself in for over a year, and part of her shock was due to the fact that the hard, masculine body pressing against hers was arousing undeniable excitement where it absolutely should not be.

Daniel’s hand was still clapping against her rear in steady, slow swats, each of them jolting her out of the notion of control she had spent so very long trying to create. As the realization of her helplessness settled in, and the heat began to build to a most uncomfortable sting that peaked every time a fresh swat landed, Ellie found it increasingly difficult to control her reactions.

Before she could stop them, tears began to roll down her cheeks, a shameful admission of weakness. Dammit! How could this be happening? Within minutes of meeting, Daniel Treville had spanked her to tears. Ellie knew she would never live this down. If word of this event got out, she would be shamed in every boardroom in the world. Oh, how they would all chortle at the idea of Ellie Jones having her bottom thrashed by a billionaire.

“Do we have an understanding, Ellie?”

“Let me up, you bastard!”

He let out a little sigh of disappointment. “Oh, no,” he said. “That will not do.”

She felt his fingers at the hem of her skirt, sliding the fabric up over her thighs and the curve of her bottom. No! He was disrobing her!

“Daniel!”

“Naughty girls get spanked on their bare bottoms,” he said in a masculine growl that made her panic as the hem of her skirt settled around her waist. Her bottom was not bare. A pair of very expensive black silk and lace panties stood between him and his target, but he seemed in no hurry to remove them.

He smoothed his large palm over the rounds of her rear. She felt his bare skin against hers in the small spots between the lace weave. A hot blush suffused her body. She could imagine what she must look like, the curves of her body caught over his lap, her bottom snugly covered by the French briefs, her legs bare and vulnerable, still unable to touch the floor, Louboutins suspended in space. If he kept doing what he was doing, soon her bottom would be as red as the underside of her shoes.

“I must say I admire your taste in lingerie,” he murmured, letting one fingertip trace under the hem at the base of her left cheek with a gesture that was both casual and titillating.

“I don’t think they come in your size,” Ellie shot back. The little verbal rebellion was enough to make her tears dry up and restore some kind of composure.

Daniel let out a brief laugh before swatting her bottom hard enough to make her squeak. It hurt much more without the protective barrier of her skirt absorbing some of the sting.

“Naughty,” he said. “But why should I expect anything different from you? You think you know best…”

“Because it’s my job to know best,” Ellie snapped. “You want a simpering, spineless CEO who whimpers every time a decision has to be made?”

“I want one who listens to reason,” Daniel replied, clapping his palm against the center of her cheeks. “And I want one who understands who she works for. Your job is to achieve the goals of the shareholders and grow the company in a sustainable direction.”

“My job is to maximize profits!”

“That’s just a part of your job,” he corrected her. “A part you’re incredibly good at, admittedly, but only part.”

The praise, though it came between hard swats delivered to her panty-clad bottom, still pleased her ego. Finally, an admission that he knew who he was dealing with. Maybe that was why he was spanking her. Maybe he figured a physical display of dominance was the only way to gain the upper hand. Seen in that light, the spanking was more of a sign of desperation.

“Let me up, Daniel,” she said in freshly composed tones. “This isn’t going to work.”

There was a pause as his long fingers drifted over her bottom. “You might be right,” he conceded. “A simple spanking isn’t nearly enough to get through to you, is it, Ellie?”

She smiled, knowing he would let her up in seconds and then it would be her turn to assert her dominance. Oh she was going to tear strips off this overgrown, oversized, overbearing…

“Hey!”

She squealed as her panties were swept down to mid-thigh by powerful fingers that ran down the crevice of her cheeks, making lace fall in their wake. In seconds Ellie found her bottom entirely bare as she see-sawed half naked over Daniel Treville’s lap.

“You cannot do this, Daniel! This is completely…”

“Hush,” he said, slapping her bare rump with a hard swat. “Listen to me, Ellie. I’m not playing with you here. I know exactly what sort of woman you are, and I know you won’t listen to a thing I say unless I make you. You have a reputation for being headstrong and relentless and I’m betting that’s only the half of it. I’d usually have someone like you replaced with a pick of my own choosing, but I like you. I did my research. I know I’m going to have to do some hard work to get you in line, but that’s a challenge I’m up for. So settle down, quit wriggling, and tell me you’re going to be a good girl.”

“I will never be a good girl,” Ellie hissed through her teeth.

“Now that’s where you’re wrong.” His hand began to thunder against her bare bottom, slap after slap raining heat and sting into her flesh. “I’ve had you profiled, Ms. Jones. A team of corporate psychologists has assessed you in numerous ways, watched videos of presentations you’ve given, examined the minutes of meetings you’ve attended, interviewed numerous associates too.”

“Nonsense!”

“It’s not nonsense,” Daniel replied smoothly. “Business is about people. Knowing what they want, how they behave, knowing what drives them.” He ran his hand over her burning cheeks. “Many CEOs test fairly high on psychopathy scales, did you know that?”

“I know you’re a psycho,” Ellie shot back.

He let out a gentle chuckle. “Not quite. And neither are you. You see, you play the cold-hearted little bitch to a T. But the decisions you make within your company show a much softer side. Do you know what I think, Ellie?”

“What?”

He leaned down and purred the answer into her ear. “I think you’re a little girl playing a big game of pretend.”