Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86322 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86322 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
The more I started to fear that it might be too late.
CHAPTER 14
ASPEN
“Are you pouting, princess?” Lucian asked.
“No,” I argued. Clearly pouting.
“What’s wrong?”
He’d just shut the door on our last interview, and I could hear the amusement in his question from the other side of the office.
“Nothing. It’s just…” I dropped my head back and groaned. “She’s a really good candidate.”
He examined me with narrowed eyes. “Isn’t that good?”
“Yes. No. Yes. I don’t know.”
“Talk to me,” he ordered, leaning back against his desk.
God, he looked good with his arms crossed, making his muscles flex and strain against his dark dress shirt. The way his long legs stretched out before crossing at the ankles, his muscular thighs practically begging me to fall to my knees and hold on while he fucks my face.
“Aspen,” he warned, calling me back from ogling.
But I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to admit how, after months of interviews, I started to consider the possibility we might not find anyone good enough, and my dad would be forced to give me the position. I didn’t want to face reality.
Too bad Lucian didn’t care what I thought. He stood there with his hard gaze pinning me in place, silently demanding I confess.
“It means I have to face the fact that someone else is really going to run my family company. It’s a bucket of cold water, and it’s jarring. I don’t like it.”
“It was going to happen eventually.”
“You’re not helping,” I grumbled.
“I don’t need to. Because,” he added when I jerked out of my seat with murderous intent. “You will be in charge of your company in five years, no matter what, because of our deal. We can even add a clause to the contract that states the position is for five years.”
“You make it sound so simple,” I said, a manic laugh bubbling free as I started to pace. “I still need to be accepted by the board in five years, and what if the temporary CEO is so amazing that they see me and think, nah. And, God, the contract. We’d have to get that approved by the board, and then that would raise some red flags with my dad. He’d wonder why I wanted that or why I needed it. Especially if I’m supposed to not know for sure if I’ll get the job or raise the funds.”
“Aspen,” Lucian called, but I was too busy in my rambling panic spiral to hear.
“Then it will be another interrogation in my office, where I’m forced to make up lies because I’m explaining that it’s all good, Dad. I just made a deal to go through a legally binding ceremony to ensure I get the company you don’t think I’m ready for. But, hey, the sex is amazing.” I rubbed at the growing sharp pain in my chest and laughed, high-pitched and hysterical. “He’ll probably think I’m some kind of prostitute, and then I really won’t get the company, no matter what I do.”
“Aspen.” The deep command of his voice cut through the space between us, and I jerked to a stop, turning wide eyes to him. He stood from the desk and gestured to it. “Bend over.”
“What?” I gasped around my short, choppy breaths.
His face hardened. “Come here, and bend. Over.”
I swallowed and nodded, taking quick steps in my eagerness to have his palm strike my skin, pulling me back to a place where I remembered how to breathe. I laid my palms on the desk, ready to let go.
Staring at the dark wood, I bit back a relieved smile, knowing I never would have had this without him.
It’s just a spanking. It doesn’t mean anything.
His words from the club replayed, but I confidently pushed them aside. It may have begun that way, but it grew into more. Despite our initial hatred of each other, something deeper brought us closer together. He’d earned my trust and cared about me becoming a stronger woman—a happier one. The way he spanked me now was no longer a simple act between a Dom and his sub, like the way we’d started.
I felt it in the way he handled me, in the unspoken promise threaded through his touch—a quiet assurance that I was never alone because he would always see me through.
I felt it in the way his hand slid up my thighs, pushing my skirt over my hips. I felt it in the gentle caress of his fingers along the curve of my ass. I felt it in the caring way he leaned over and pressed his lips to my ear, whispering, “I’ve got you, princess.” I felt it in the sharp sting of his first smack.
I felt it in the loving way he soothed the burn to the delicious ache I craved.
And I craved it only from him.
By the time I walked out of his office, I’d forgotten everything other than him. He made it easier to breathe, and I…and I…