The Fighter's Secretary (6 page)

“I meant what I said, Amanda. I want you for more than this weekend.”

“Yeah, right,” she muttered against his chest.

He sighed and reached for her hair, slowly pulling it out of her bun with a gentle touch. “I love your hair. It is so long and silky. You have no idea how many times I’ve watched you, wondering what it would feel like to have all this glorious hair against my body while we make love.”

She tried to steel herself against the way his words made her heart flutter. “Is this how you get women in bed? Flatter them, tell them what you think they want to hear, treat them like they matter? No wonder your girlfriends get so pissed when you dump them for the next bimbo who throws herself at you.”

The slide of his fingers through her hair was heavenly, and she tried to keep from softening against him. “The last woman I had a relationship with was Tammy. I did date those other women, but that was it. Date, as in singular, one night only. After the number Tammy did on me I wasn’t in the mood for another relationship. Do you know why I broke up with her?”

Though his touch was still gentle, she could easily hear the pain in his words. She remembered Tammy, the leggy redhead with the perfect runway figure and the face of a porcelain doll. He’d broken up with her around a month before Amanda had started working and there had been rumors about some infidelity, but at the time the only thing Amanda cared about was that she had a good paying job for the first time in nine months. It was only after that she’d gotten settled into her office that she had to deal with what seemed like an endless parade of beautiful women coming into and going out of Dallas’s life. The phone calls with the women pleading for Amanda to make Dallas call them back were the worst and just the memory made her stiffen in his arms.

“You cheated on her, right?”

He pushed away from her as if she’d slapped him and for a moment she actually felt guilty for the pain she’d no doubt put on his face. “What? You think I cheated on her?”

Uncomfortable, she shrugged and looked at the Spanish tile beneath her bare feet. “It’s none of my business.”

“No, I didn’t cheat on her.” His voice was cold and she looked up in surprise, realizing she’d really offended him. “I would never cheat on a woman, not after I saw what my father’s constant infidelity did to my mother. You think that after growing up, watching my mother’s heart being broken over and over again by that bastard I’d do it to any woman? You really think I’m that big of a piece of shit?”

Blinking in shock she took a step towards him. “Dallas…I—”

He shook his head and turned his back on her. “Save it, Amanda. I thought you knew me better than that. I would never force a woman to do something she didn’t want to do. I thought… Well it doesn’t matter what I thought. You obviously have no idea who I am and I obviously have no idea what kind of judgmental bitch you really are. Of course you’d never stoop to date someone like me. I’m not cultured and educated like you are. I don’t always have the right words to say or the right things to do. You’re perfect and I’m a fuckup. Feel free to leave. I’ll set you up two months severance pay and a job with one of my friends, but don’t bother to come into work on Monday.”

The hard thump of her heart seemed to roar in her ears as she watched Dallas walk away from her, stunned by what had just happened.

Dallas sat on the edge of the dock looking out over glowing lights of Miami reflecting off the water with unseeing eyes, his mind wrapped up in the past. His father had been one of the most selfish people God had ever created, a man solely devoted to his own pleasure and happiness. When Dallas had been young he’d worshiped him, seeing him through the eyes of a child as a hardworking salesman who managed to make it home to his family once or twice a month. His mother had always made up excuses for his father’s absence, always reminding the boys how lucky they were to have a dad who provided for them.

His mother, bless her heart, always wanted to believe the best in people. They’d lived in a somewhat safe section of Chicago, but as the years had gone on Dallas had realized that every time his dad returned home from a “trip” with presents and expensive gifts, he was actually bribing his mother, not giving her things because he loved her. Then, when Dallas was eleven, he’d gone through his father’s suitcase, looking for a present, and had instead found pictures of his dad having sex with dozens of different women. It had sickened him so much he’d lost his mind and had tried to kick his father out of the house.

Instead of leaving, his father beat him and, for the first time in his life, his mother had stood up to his father, telling him to get the hell out and not come back. Soon after that the financial support dad had given them vanished just like the man and his uneducated mother from a small town in Texas had found herself alone, raising three teenage boys who had more than their fair share of anger. Luckily they belonged to a good church which not only gave his mother a job, but a few of the men who belonged to the congregation also took Dallas, Austin, and Huston from then on, acting almost as surrogate fathers. One of them, an old black man with a face as wrinkled and dried out as a raisin, ran a boxing school in their neighborhood. It was there that the Ortega boys had learned to fight, learned to channel their bottomless anger into something productive.

But tonight his anger had slipped its leash and he’d lashed out at the only woman who’d ever made him feel complete.

He was such a fuckup.

Dallas must have said those words aloud because a moment later Amanda’s voice came from behind him. “Well, I don’t know if you’re a total fuckup. Maybe just a little bit.”

Disbelief filled him and he had trouble taking a deep breath as she sat down next to him and swung her legs over the edge of the dock. Her hair was still down and it floated about in the soft breeze coming off the ocean. He wanted to tell her he was sorry, that he didn’t mean what he’d said, but his usual easy charm had vanished, leaving him silent like a tongue tied teenager.

She gave him a glance out of the corner of her eye. “I’m sorry I said those things about you. I had no idea about your dad.”

God, she was so kind, so good. He didn’t deserve her. “Amanda, you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. I’m sorry about this whole blackmail bullshit and I meant what I said. I’ll be more than happy to give you two months salary and help you find a new job. What I did…I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “It hasn’t been that bad. I mean, I had dinner with your family. That wasn’t a hardship.”

Guilt flayed him as he remembered spanking her in his office. The fact that his cock started to stiffen as he thought about her smooth, bare ass turning pink made him shift uncomfortably. “I shouldn’t have touched you back at my office. I’m a bastard.”

She shrugged again and her legs swung faster. “Yeah, well…that wasn’t really a hardship, either.”

The last part came out in a whisper and he turned to face her fully, struck by her beauty in the dim lighting from a night that was never really dark in the city. She wasn’t perfect, didn’t have the kind of face used to sell beauty products or magazines. But to him she was the most striking woman he’d ever seen. The fact that she wasn’t pushing him off the dock into the water right now threw him for a loop, but he tried to not get his hopes up. Maybe she just felt guilty about hurting his feelings. Amanda was kind hearted like that, but the last thing he wanted was her with him out of pity, so he had to make sure.

“Are you saying you liked it?”

Tilting her head forward so her hair hid her face, she nodded.

His own personal bullshit began to recede as he studied her, taking note of her body language, how she’d turned herself towards him but wouldn’t meet his eye. “Talk to me, Amanda.”

Blowing out a harsh breath, she tossed her hair over her shoulder and gripped the edge of the dock. “I liked it, okay? But I don’t do casual.”

He almost laughed, but managed to hold it back. “I could never do casual with you.”

“I want to believe you, I really do, but Dallas I
know
you. I’ve seen firsthand the endless parade of women in your life. Beautiful, stunning women most men would give their pinky finger to date. You go through them by the dozen.”

Feeling ashamed at the truth of her statement, he looked away. “After I found out Tammy had cheated on me, multiple times, I didn’t want to let any woman get close to me. Yeah, I may have taken rebound sex too far, but the more I was around you the more I realized that fucking those women wasn’t doing anything to fill the hole inside of me. Not that Tammy had ever really filled it either, but at least she was really good at pretending to give a shit about me. At least until I retired, then I found out she was really only with me for the fame and jet setting lifestyle I provided her with.”

“I’m sorry, Dallas, I didn’t know.”

He shrugged. “I haven’t been with another woman in months because every time I did sleep with anyone I always imagined it was you, and that wasn’t right.”

Her quick inhalation mixed in with the soft sigh of the breeze going through the palm trees.

“At first I tried to charm you, to use all those bullshit words that women seem so eager to hear. But when you continually shot me down I had to try something different, to be myself around you. I won’t lie, my initial intention was to have a hot fling with you and move on, but the more I got to know you the more I realized how smart, funny, and amazing you are. I know you think I’m a player, and I’m man enough to admit that in the past I was, but I want something different with you, Amanda. Something real.”

To his surprise she leaned over and cupped his chin, making him turn to look at her before she placed a gentle, incredibly seductive kiss on his lips that sent his blood boiling.

Unable to resist, he reached out and gathered her hair in his hand, wrapping it around his fist and tugging her head back so she had to look at him. The position pressed her breasts against the thin silk of her shirt and her hard nipples were clearly visible. A rapid beat moved the pulse on the side of her smooth neck and she wet her lips with a nervous sweep of her tongue.

“Dallas, I don’t want you to be anyone other than who you are. I like you.” She shivered when he bit the pulse banging on the side of her neck. “And I really liked it when you took control of me in your office. It was so damn hot.”

“I liked doing it.” He tightened his hold and let the dominance that was a natural part of him rise to the surface, loosening the chains he put on his need to take charge. “No, I
loved
doing it.”

She blinked rapidly, her gaze going from his eyes to his lips and back again, clearly broadcasting her desire to kiss him. “Would you do it again?”

Blood rushed to his cock and he had to grit his teeth to keep from claiming her right here on the dock. The soft, uncertain look on her face, the way her lower lip trembled, how she appeared so frail and delicate in his hold all aroused him more than he’d thought possible. It suddenly dawned on him that she could destroy him, that he was already more than half in love with her. If she rejected him it would hurt, bad.

“Do you want me to?”

She tried to look away, but he tightened his grip on her hair again, loving the little gasp of pleasure she gave and how her gaze returned to his. “I do.”

He couldn’t help the smile that curved his lips and he released her hair, cupping her cheek and leaning down, brushing his lips over hers, unable to believe this was happening. “Do you really want to be my submissive,
mi cielo
?”

The soft satin of her mouth moved over his in a delicate, lingering kiss that sent a dizzying amount of lust rushing through him. “I’ve dreamed about it, Dallas. Even before I found those clamps in your desk, I dreamed about you holding me down, tying me up, spanking me, flogging me, blindfolding me and forcing me to suck your cock. You have no idea how much I’ve wanted you. While you may have seen my face while you had sex with other women, I always your face I imagined when I touched myself.”

For a moment he was afraid he might actually come in his pants as she whispered all the naughty things she wanted him to do to her against his lips, that the mere thought of his Amanda wanting him as badly as he wanted her had his balls drawing up tight. “Why, why didn’t you tell me? You must have known that I wanted you.”

She pulled back, her posture straightening and he feared that he’d somehow driven her away. “Look at you, Dallas, and look at me. I didn’t think I stood a chance.”

The insecurity in her voice floored him. Amanda was so confident, it never occurred to him that she thought she wasn’t good enough for him. The idea was laughable. “Don’t you know? Don’t you realize that you captured me the moment we met? When I was interviewing you for the job my only thought was to do anything I could to keep you near me. Luckily you are a very smart woman and helped me with my business more than I’d ever imagined, but I wanted you to get to know me, to become comfortable around me and see that a fighter raised in the ghetto could somehow be your man.”

When she looked back at him, a small smile curved her lips. “My man?”

He nodded, loving the way she leaned toward him. “Yeah.”

Giving him a flirtatious look from beneath her lashes, she said in a soft voice, “What about my Master?”

Every muscle in his body tightened and again he nodded. “That too.”

“Would you…I…” She looked away and said in a whisper soft voice, “Would you please be my Master right now?”

Without another word he stood, more than aware of his cock pressing against his shorts and hauled her to her feet. She giggled as he practically ran through his backyard with her to the house, bypassing the dining room and heading for his bedroom. While he was tempted to take her to his dungeon, he wanted her in his bed first. Craved the sight of her dark hair spread over his sheets, of her slender body open to his touch. His cock ached and by the time he’d reached his room the need to fuck was battling with his need to make this amazing for her. Not only because Amanda deserved all the pleasure he could give her, but because he wanted to make it so good for her that she would never want to leave him.