Capturing Callie (3 page)

When she finally found her voice, she said, “I can do this…um, you are getting your jeans all wet.” She had tried to move her gaze away from his growing erection, she really had—but she wasn’t trying that hard, and she sure wasn’t succeeding.

Callie was convinced she’d die of embarrassment and humiliation when he placed his fingers under her chin and lifted her face until her eyes met his. She could tell he was trying to not laugh, but his grin was still shining through and amusement clearly laced his voice when he chuckled. “Like what you see, pet?” She could only manage to nod her head.

A small part of her consciousness knew she was in way over her head, but the other ninety-nine percent was screaming, “Go ahead, jump in! The water’s fine!” but damned if she was going to open her mouth and let that slide out. No, she was going to maintain her dignity, well, as much as a woman can retain after being busted trying to sneak on to a private island to spy on a sex club and then fainting at the thought of a cavity search while being naked in the shower with a super hot man she didn’t know and then being caught hungrily staring at his cock—yeah, those were all dignity-preserving activities for sure! Giving herself a mental head slap, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly before saying, “Yeah, well, you are pretty amazing looking, for sure. But I think I better get myself together so we can get out of here. Um, do you have a robe or something I can wear until I can find my bag that your pal, Mr. Sunshine, confiscated?”

She was sure she heard him chuckle when she was reaching for the soap, but she decided to embrace the “ignorance is bliss” view and ignore it. After she’d scrubbed her face, she opened her eyes just in time to see his very fine and very naked ass leaving the small bathroom. She hadn’t even heard him leave the shower so she was shocked to see that he’d taken all of their clothing with him when he’d left. Just as she finished up and was starting to dry off, he returned fully dressed and held out one of his shirts for her to wear. He handed it to her and when she started to ask about underwear he simply said, “No, this is all you will be given to wear for this discussion. And, Callie, you are to button the center two buttons only, do I make myself clear?”

She was startled, but his tone wasn’t one she wanted to argue with, so she simply replied, “Yes, Sir,” before quickly pulling the large shirt on and attempting to secure the middle buttons. She felt like she was drowning in the shirt and was actually relieved when he stepped forward to help her.

“Let me help you. Only the middle two buttons, and let’s roll up the sleeves so you have use of your hands.” And then as if he were actually talking more to himself than to her, he added, “Another day I’ll use those long sleeves to my advantage, little one.” When he looked into her eyes, she was surprised to see the dark depths of his midnight blue eyes full of heat. And when he stepped back from her, she almost felt as if she’d wilted. It was as if someone had drained the energy from her. She knew he watched as she leaned against the counter in an effort to steady herself, and she’d seen him suppress a smile when she muttered about him being surrounded by a force field all his own, and just being near him was enough to light her up on the inside.
Fuck a duck, I can’t believe I said that out loud.
She saw him start to ask her what that meant, so she quickly ducked her head and went back to trying to finger comb the tangles from her long hair.

Ian moved to the doorway and just stood watching as the tiny pixie tried to get the tangles out of her silken tresses. He finally had enough, and then, retrieving a wide-tooth comb from the drawer, he encircled her delicate wrist with his hand and pulled her to a leather chair in front of his desk. Knowing the leather would be a shock to her bare ass, he chuckled softly at her surprised gasp. “Something wrong?” When she didn’t answer, he wrapped his fist in her hair and slowly tilted her face until they were nearly nose-to-nose and darkened his tone to say, “When I ask you a question, pet, I expect you to answer me immediately and with complete honesty. Do you understand?”

“Y–yes, Sir, I mean, yes, Mr. McGregor.” She might have stumbled over the words, but her need was clearly written in her expression. His initial impression had been dead on, the small woman was a true submissive, and he wondered if she even knew what a sub was. It was likely she was thoroughly confused about her reaction to him, and that was something he intended to use to his advantage. He planned to make the most of her unsettled state, using it to his benefit while he found out exactly what she was up to.

“Now, answer my question, pet. Is there something wrong with the chair I have chosen for you? Would you like to move to another?” He knew perfectly well she wouldn’t want to expose her delicate ass cheeks to another cold chair, but he merely looked deep into her violet eyes and waited.

“No, this chair is fine. It was just, well, my tush was all warm, and when it hit the cool leather, well…it startled me a bit. But this chair is warm now, so I don’t want to move.” She had started out looking into his eyes, but being a true submissive her gaze had slowly tracked down until it was now locked on her delicate hands which were tightly clasped in her lap. By the time she’d finished speaking, all he could see was the top of her head. He would let her hide this once, but that was going to end—quickly.

He carefully worked the tangles from her hair and was just finishing when he heard his friend’s knock at the door. Jace had entered immediately and walked to Ian’s desk, placed a folder on top, then taken a seat in the chair beside Callie’s. Ian saw his friend give her a sideways glance and then look back at him. If he hadn’t known Jace so well, he might have missed the small upward tilt of his eyebrow and the twitch at the corners of the man’s lips before his expression returned to stone-cold distant.

Making sure Callie felt vulnerable while they questioned her wasn’t an accident, and Jace would have known immediately exactly what he’d intended when he’d dressed the little warrior in next to nothing. They were both Doms, and even though Ian knew that Jace played more on the edgy side, there were some traits that all Doms shared. Keeping a sub a bit unbalanced was always about the power play, and in this situation it was completely warranted.

Ian reached forward, flipped open the folder, and quickly scanned the contents. Obviously she’d been telling the truth about her name. Well, at least she’d been close, but it was likely Miss Reece had given him her standard answer to that question. If his assessment was correct, the woman in front of him was probably not very skilled at deception. He had discovered years ago true submissives are almost always very poor liars. But the few he’d met that could lie had, almost without exception, been both very skilled and pathological. In most true subs, the need to please is so deeply ingrained in their psyche that they were willing to go to great lengths to avoid answering a question rather than lie, particularly if they had reason to think the answer was something their Dom didn’t want to hear. But more often than not their body language would give them away long before a Dom had to push them for an answer.

Deciding to let their pint-sized prowler squirm a bit longer, he pretended to read all sorts of interesting things in her file, when in fact the only thing he found interesting was that she had been her younger sister’s sole means of support for more than two years and that she had cut her own college career short to subsidize her younger sibling’s education. She was obviously still supporting the young woman who claimed she was attending a small but well-respected university in southern Florida. The copies of Callie’s bank statements showed regular transfers into her sister’s account, the large checks written with notations that they were for books and tuition.
Claimed? What the fuck did that mean? Interesting.

Callie had eventually finished her degree in hotel management via online classes, but had taken a much lower-paying position working for some ass hat who had sent her to spy on him. No doubt she had taken the first job that had come along to avoid any downtime in income. Jace Garrett’s ability to gather intel in incredibly small increments of time had always impressed the hell out of Ian, and truthfully, he wasn’t an easy man to impress.

As he read further he nearly laughed out loud when he saw who she worked for. Hell, that rag of a tabloid had been trying to get someone into his club for months. It had been a running joke among his staff members because it was obvious the small tabloid’s staff wasn’t aware of the fact that Ian owned their parent company. But, at least now he knew she wasn’t trying to steal trade secrets. He took a few minutes to begin formulating a plan—one that he was sure would hold a great amount of appeal for the desperately financially challenged little reporter. He closed and then dropped the folder back on to his desk. Then he leaned further forward in his leather chair before steepling his fingers in front of him and just watched her. She was sitting across from him with her bare pussy snuggled against the leather chair he’d have to look at each day from now forward. Christ, he wouldn’t get any damned work done with that chair flaunting its enviable experience in his face every day. He’d probably have to redecorate the fucking shower, too.

Under his watchful gaze, she started to squirm, and it was obvious the instant she became aware of the fact her pussy was creaming the leather beneath her and that the evidence of her arousal was going to be obvious as soon as she stood up.

He waited until he could see she was a breath away from taking a header into panic again before giving in and deciding to it was time to give her something else to think about. “So tell me, Callie, what did your employer use as leverage to get you to agree to spy on Club Isola?” In his peripheral vision, Ian saw Jace’s chest tense as if he were holding his breath, no doubt his friend was trying desperately to not laugh out loud at the look on her face.
Hope you don’t play poker, little sub, because every emotion writes itself all over your beautiful face.

Ian could almost see Callie gathering herself up and preparing for battle. He was anxious to see if she’d try to lie to him. If she did, it would just give him more power over her, something she was going to learn a lot more about if he had his way. He just sat and waited as she seemed to be waging an internal battle. He didn’t have any doubt that she was trying to determine how much she could truthfully reveal without giving away everything.

Leaning back in his chair, he just watched her and took stock of the exquisite woman sitting in front of him. Her hair wasn’t just blonde, it was actually several different shades of blonde layered together. The more it dried, the lighter and wavier it became. He’d been fascinated by its texture when he’d combed it earlier and wondered what it would feel like spread over his thighs as she sucked him down. Knowing that the mass of silky waves reached her sweet ass meant that when walked beside her and placed his hand at the small of her back, he’d be able to entangle his fingers in the golden curtain of curls. Fuck, that thought alone sent blood rushing south in a big way. She was small, probably just barely five feet tall. Her features were as close to perfect as he’d ever seen, and he briefly wondered for just a minute why she hadn’t been tagged by some ruthless ad agency whose agents wouldn’t have batted an eye at exploiting her perfection for their financial gain.

While it was easy to get lost in her physical beauty, it was the core of her that attracted him the most. She was intriguing and appeared whip smart. He could see the intelligence dancing in her eyes as she watched him. She was trying to calculate the odds of coming out of this unscathed. Hell, it was almost fun to watch. Finally, she took a couple of steadying breaths, and then it looked like someone had let the air out of her. She sagged forward and said, “My kid sister’s tuition is due in a month. My boss knows I need the money so he’s holding this over my head. If I don’t get this story, I’ll be out of a job, my sister will be out of school, and I’ll likely end up out of my
luxurious
studio apartment. And quite frankly, it’s a real testament to how rotten my financial situation is that I should actually care about that place. Hell, I haven’t had heat or air conditioning for two years. Most of the electrical outlets don’t work, and the hot water heater died a week ago. The shower I took a few minutes ago was the first time I have been able to bathe in warm water in days because it takes forever to heat water on the stove for a bath. Gives you new respect for the pioneers, I tell ya. Have you ever tried to actually heat up enough water to warm a tub full of cold water? Well damn, of course you haven’t. What the hell am I thinking? Well, I’m here to tell you it just is not possible. You can check it if you want to, but I wouldn’t recommend it, your dangley parts would probably retreat so far you’d have to call in a search-and-rescue team.” She looked up just as a single tear breached the edge of her eye and trailed down her cheek and he could tell she was shaken by the feelings of vulnerability her honesty had only served to highlight.

Dangley
parts?
What the fuck? Had she really just said that?
Ian couldn’t remember another time when he had wanted to laugh out loud during an interview with a submissive. When he looked up at Jace, he was surprised to see his friend’s face was purple, literally. The ass was trying to hold his breath to keep from bursting out in hysterical laughter. Ian mentally shook his head. It would serve the prick right if he caused himself brain damage from oxygen deprivation. And speaking about missing out on a few doses of O
₂
—how the hell had she managed say all that without stopping to take a breath?