Change of Passion (Falling for the Billionaire #1) (2 page)

She needed to answer Bradley and
her answer would be everything.

Literally, everything.

Why pay for something someone
else can do… or something I can do myself?

Rebecca opened her mouth, trying to
recall anything related to business and finance.  Some kind of stat or phrase,
but she had nothing.

She only had her heart.  Her mind. 
Her real desires that hid beneath the shell of her life.

So she answered Bradley with the
truth he hoped she would.

“Because I can do that
something
better.”

The elevator dinged and came to a stop.

The tenth floor.

Where Rebecca’s career was supposed
to begin at The HB-Ley Corporation. 

She was frozen in place and wasn’t
sure if she could move or not.

Bradley’s stare hadn’t left her.

The elevator did its job, pausing. 

It made another sound and the doors
started to shut.

“You just made the greatest
decision of your life,” Bradley said.

“How so?” Rebecca asked.  Her heart
pounded in her chest and her mouth felt dry as hell.

“You could have chosen that life. 
That life that begins on the tenth floor.  Where they all come and all go.  But
instead, you’ve chosen something different.  Something more submissive. 
Something you’ll never be able to let go.”

Bradley made his move at her.

Within a second, his body touched
Rebecca’s, taking Rebecca’s words away, leaving her with the ability to moan
and nothing else. 

Bradley’s mouth came down to hers,
hovering an inch away.

Rebecca tried to move at him to
kiss –
she had no idea why she had this urge
– but Bradley pulled away.

“The first thing you’ll learn is
that I’m in control, always.”

Rebecca nodded.

“The second thing you’ll learn is
that you are now mine.  I am the world, your world now.”

His fingers grazed Rebecca’s hair,
sliding it behind one of her ears.

“Becky,” he whispered.  “Oh Becky…”

“My name is Rebecca,” she replied.

Bradley’s hand moved from Rebecca’s
hair to her mouth.  The sweet touch became serious, almost too serious. 

His grip was fierce and his eyes
were full of rage.

“I’m calling you Becky,” he said. 
“Understand?”

Rebecca nodded.

“Perfect.  Now…”  Bradley’s hand
slid from her mouth, leaving just his middle finger at her lips.  He traced her
lips once, twice, then cut between, forcing
Becky’s
mouth open.  “Let’s
see how far you’ll go.  For yourself.  For me.”

Rebecca flicked her tongue at
Bradley’s finger, licking him.  She couldn’t believe the sexy billionaire was
doing this, right here, right now, in an elevator.  She closed her lips on his
finger and just as she started to move forward, wanting to suck his finger,
perhaps to give him a prequel of what was to come (
if he demanded such an
act, of course
), the elevator stopped again.

“This is my stop,” Bradley said.

He moved away from her, adjusted
his jacket again, and stepped out of the elevator. 

Rebecca started to follow when
Bradley stopped her.

“You’re not an executive,” he
said.  “You’re not even an employee here, are you?”

“Well… yes…”

Bradley looked at his watch.  “If
you were an employee, you were supposed to start ten minutes ago.  Late on your
first day?  Why bother even showing up then?  Just proves the point I make… you
think you’re so grown up but you’re not.  You don’t know what life is, or what
life capable of.”

Becky felt an icy chill storm
through her body, defusing all the heat Bradley had just given her. 

Was he that cruel of a man?

He was only a few years older than
Becky and yet he spoke like he was an old man. 

An old soul…

That’s what it was.

And staring into his eyes, Becky
knew that there was too much pain resting with that old soul.

The doors moved to close but
Bradley stopped them with a few inches to spare. 

“But that doesn’t mean I’ve lied to
you, dear Becky.  You will take this back to the basement.  You will get into
the back of the car.  And you will listen.  To every single word I command…
remember that too, Becky, I don’t speak.  I command.”

Bradley stepped back and slid his
hands into his pockets.

His face was perfectly put
together, a chiseled statue come to life.  Becky licked her lips, almost
tasting Bradley’s finger.  His smell lingered around her, inside her, somehow. 

This time when the doors started to
shut, they shut completely.

That’s when Rebecca, Becky, fell
back, slamming against the back of the elevator and slid down to her backside. 
Her entire body shook… and when she tried to figure out the emotion that caused
it all, she came up with one word.

Lust.

4.

B
ecky
waited for the elevator to stop somewhere between the twentieth floor and the
basement level.  It had to, right?  That’s how elevators worked.  It would
never just happen to be so perfect in life that she would be commanded by a man
like Bradley and then the elevator wouldn’t stop.

The light blinked at each level,
sometimes appearing slower than the others, as though it were teasing Becky. 
Sometimes she heard the soft ding of an elevator, thinking she was going to
stop, but she didn’t.  Mind games, yes. 

She remained on the floor of the
elevator, her knees to her chest.  She was thankful she decided not to wear a
skirt.  Either way it didn’t matter because the elevator never stopped, until
there was no more room to go down.

When the elevator did stop, it was
a clunking sounding stop and then the doors opened.

The car remained parked as before,
and the backdoor was open. 

It called to her, telling her to
get up and go.

Bradley’s voice commanded her in
her mind.

Then she thought of the words of
the hunky football player in college that gave her multiple orgasms one night…
just
go with it
…

Technically, Becky had been fired
by Bradley. 

She also felt somewhat fired by the
rest of the corporate and working world.  If she had the nerve, she could take
the elevator back up to the tenth floor and attempt to work, calling Bradley’s
bluff.  Plus, she could blackmail him for touching her, right?

Then what?

Be stuck in the trap again?

Get up, go to work, come home, eat,
sleep.  Watch television.  Fantasize about being one of the characters on a
television show.  Promise herself that someday things would change…

Things had changed.

Becky stared at one of those
changes.  The open door to the car. 

She sighed and felt a wild gush all
over herself.  Her heart still raced.  Her breasts were aching for Bradley’s
touch.  She thought about the size of his hand and how well her breasts would
fit into his hands.  Between her legs, she could only desire and lust for him,
for this.

He was a billionaire.  A
billionaire CEO of his own company, all before the age of thirty.  A man with a
wicked reputation, yet had skeletons behind his eyes, and Becky had seen it
firsthand. 

A man who hid pain and face it,
Becky thought it was hot.

A man that sexy hiding some kind of
skeletons was just so desirable.

She finally pushed herself up to
her feet and walked out of the elevator.  Her surroundings and senses were much
different now from when she walked into the elevator.  She felt like that last
bit of her innocence had been finally stripped away but something else had
taken its place.  Some bigger, something better.

As Becky got into the backseat of
the car, she first inhaled the smell.  At first, it was the overwhelming smell
of gasoline and exhaust fumes mixing with the overall musty and damp smell.  Then
it was replaced with the smell of the car.

It reeked of Bradley.

This was his car, perhaps the only
car he used in the city.

Not some one day rental.

She sat on the leather backseat and
saw that a glass partition had been installed, fully tinted, making it So the
driver couldn’t see.  The backseat wasn’t exactly roomy but it was stocked with
technology.  A laptop station, a flat screen television, even a mini bar.

Becky put her fingers to the
leather seat and started to calm herself.  She wanted to appear cool and
relaxed for when Bradley came.

If he came.

He would come, right?

He wouldn’t just put her into a car
and…

The vehicle started moving, and
Becky let out a small cry.

This was really happening right
now.  She looked out the window and couldn’t see very much.  The tint wasn’t
just to block people from looking in.  The silhouettes of concrete barriers
started to speed up and as Becky tried to cup her hands and press them against
the window of the car, the flat screen television turned on.

“Hope the ride is smooth.”

Becky jumped from the window and
her jaw dropped.

There he was.

Sitting across from her.

Right there.

Well, on the television screen… but
right there
.

Bradley sat at a large desk with
one hand cupped around the other.  His fingers weren’t interlocked and he
certainly didn’t look relaxed or happy.  Again, Becky noted his eyes and could
see something darker waiting behind their deep, sexy color. 

“Everything I do is connected,”
Bradley said.  “My business runs twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. 
Year after year, a constant system of growth.  Understand?”

Becky nodded.

Her back pressed firmly against the
leather seat.  Her hands went back to the edge of the seat, gripping it.  The
car was moving.  She wanted to look out the windows and see where they were
going.  It then occurred to her that she was in the car, moving.  Bradley sat
behind a desk, not moving.

“Where are…” she tried to say when
Bradley snarled, his lip curling.

“I’ll speak here,” Bradley said.

Becky’s mouth clamped shut.

“The point I’m making, dear Becky,
is that I’m a man who lives constantly.  There’s no such thing as a time
constraint.  No sleeping patterns.  No relationships.  Socialization is merely
a way to close bigger deals, a way to clean out the pockets of those who dare
to turn their heads.  Now, what does this have to do with you?  Everything,
Becky, everything.  You’re unemployed, aren’t you, Becky?”

Becky nodded.

Yes, she was unemployed.

She should have been sitting behind
her new desk, organizing, getting to know her co-workers, basking in the glory
of finally getting what could be the biggest opportunity of her life.

“This is the biggest opportunity of
your life,” Bradley said.  “But first, I need to know how far you’ll go.  For
yourself.  For me.  For what we have in life, together.”

“Together?” Becky asked.  “You’re
not even here.”

“I’m there,” Bradley said.  “I can
see you.  You can see me.  And remember, dear Becky, I simply command.   You
listen.”

Becky felt a little fire spark
inside her.  The stand-up-for-yourself vixen wanted to take one last shot. 
“And if I don’t?”

Bradley laughed.  “Be sure to tell
all your friends who call you that I said hello.”

“My friends…?”

“Sure.  Your phone rings with debt
collectors more than actual friends, doesn’t it?  I know this because I know
everything, dear Becky.  Now, can we begin?”

Becky wasn’t sure how to feel.

Bradley was deadly sexy, even on a
television screen.  He was confident, commanding, and rich. 

“I’m ready,” Becky said, finally
acknowledging her final commitment to succumb to Bradley.

“I know that too,” Bradley said. 
“Everything between us is private.  Private connections, signals, satellites,
the like.  The back of the car is sound proof and the tint is one hundred
percent.  Nobody can hear or see a thing.  If someone dared to try and breach
one of my transactions, they would end up in a place very dark…
very deadly
. 
Understand?”

“Am I a transaction?” Becky asked.

Bradley laughed again.  “We all
are.  All relationships are transactions.”

The words hit Becky like a brick. 
The sense of truth left her in awe of Bradley.  A man who picked apart emotions
and attachment like that deserved to be rich.

“Look at you,” Bradley said, “so
beautiful.  The subtle curves in your hair give you a sense of innocence that I
don’t believe is there.  Your dimples when you talk try to do the same thing
but also fail.  And your eyes, oh dear Becky, your eyes.  I see them.  You
don’t.  I do.  Those eyes are full of fire.  You’re rich with excitement but
you don’t know what kind of excitement you want… but I know…”

“Then what do I want?” Becky asked.

Her body was warm again; her heart
started to dance wildly in her chest.  She had moved forward on the seat and
had her legs open.  Sexual instinct at its best, desperate to find out just
what Bradley wanted but more so, what would it take from Becky to have Bradley
to herself?  She thought about him touching her in the elevator, the way she
tasted his finger, wishing it were just a little foreplay to something much
hotter.

“You want yourself,” Bradley said. 
“That’s were it starts, isn’t it?  You have to believe in yourself, enjoy
yourself.  Then you can have
much more
…”

One eyebrow went up as Bradley
spoke.

For the first time, Becky saw the
glimmer of a smile on his face.

“Myself?”

“Touch yourself,” Bradley said. 
“Explore yourself.  I’m going to watch you.  Release your needs, and then you
can change and experience your real passion.”

Becky sat without moving.  She saw
the look on Bradley’s face and knew just how serious everything had become.