Submitting to the Boss (7 page)

He shook his head sadly, as if he were gazing
at a disobedient child. “We both know you would have if I hadn’t
called when I did.”

She opened her mouth to tell him she’d lied.
No one had ever tied Ruby down—unless she’d asked for it first. No
one ever threatened or bullied. If anyone had asked her, she’d have
said she’d hate it. She liked being in charge of her men. She liked
being in charge period. Yet Holt was once again showing her another
exciting possibility.

Ruby shut her mouth, then growled low in her
throat. Like Marge Simpson when Homer had done something really
bad. It promised retribution.

“Good. You’ll keep your mouth closed until I
tell you to open it.” He trailed a finger down her thigh. “Unless
you want me to gag you.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” she snapped. But she
wondered how it would feel to be tied, blindfolded, gagged, and at
his complete mercy. Hmm. At his mercy, she could deal with—she
might even love it—but she wanted to see it all and talk back to
him, egg him on.

“Push me and find out.” Then he backed off,
heading to a narrow cupboard along the wall. Pulling a key from his
pocket, he unlocked it.

Ruby sucked in a breath. The open doors
revealed paddles, dildos, vibrators, manacles, blindfolds,
floggers, and a host of instruments whose uses were a mystery. Holt
held up a device with a ball and two straps on the end. “It’s a
ball gag. If you continue to piss me off, I’ll use it.”

“You’re diabolical,” she murmured. Then she
smiled at him snidely. “But I can’t see you doing much since you
left all my clothes on.”

In a flash, he held up a shiny pair of
scissors.

Good God, he’d thought of everything. Then
her skin chilled. How many women had he brought to this room? How
many women had he done this very same thing with?

Ruby wanted to be the first. She hated
knowing she wasn’t. Then again, he’d become the man he was because
of his past. She might not be the first. But she would be the
best.

She would be the one he couldn’t toss away
afterward.

* * * * *

Emotions seethed through Ruby’s cool
exterior. Holt had brought other women to this room. He’d unlocked
his little treasure trove, used some of the devices on those
willing partners, and he’d gotten the desired high.

But he’d never felt like this: sizzling, his
blood on fire, his skin ready to spontaneously combust. His cock
was hard enough to go off with a single touch. His balls ached with
images of impaling her even as she was cuffed to the table.

But that was moving too fast. And giving Ruby
exactly what she wanted—his loss of control.

Now that she was his, he stalked her,
rounding the table, waving the scissors.

“You’ll have to replace whatever you ruin,”
she groused.

“I’ve already bought you new clothes.” He was
dying to see her in them on Monday, dying to lift her skirt and do
dirty things to her over his desk.

“Where to begin?” he mused, trailing the
scissors down the front of her sweatshirt. Ruby glared at him, a
sexy glare that immediately got his blood boiling and his cock
hard.

He started at the right wrist of her
sweatshirt and cut all the way to the shoulder. The skin he
revealed was smooth and scented. Ruby pursed her lips as he rounded
the head of the table and started on the other sleeve.

“It would have been easier to make me take
off my clothes first.”

Holt sighed as he cut. “You’re always in such
a rush. That’s part of your problem.”

Her eyes flared. She didn’t like that. “I
don’t have a problem.”

“You do. You’re always rushing to the next
new thing, and you forget to savor what you have.” Snip, snip,
snip, and the neckline of the sweatshirt fell free. He pulled it
down to uncover her breasts. Her nipples peaked against the
zebra-striped bra. “Nice,” he whispered. He wanted to suck her
through the material. But unlike Ruby, he wasn’t going to rush.

She wriggled on the table. “I certainly
haven’t rushed anything with you.”

He tugged on the bottom of the shirt, holding
it for the scissors, cutting first one side, then the other, until
he could simply left the front of it right off her. He stood back a
moment to take in her perfect breasts and the silky skin of her
abdomen. “You’ve been rushing the whole time, trying to get me to
fuck you.”

She gasped. “I have not.”

But he
knew
her, and he’d sensed what
she wanted. “If I’d let you, you’d have dragged me into the
backseat of your BMW last night.”

Her gaze was fiery. “I couldn’t have cared
less. I’m just playing this game so you don’t fire me.”

He laughed and put a hand between her legs,
palm against her sex. “Is that why you’re all warm and moist down
here?”

“I just got out of the tub.” She flattened
her lips.

“You claimed you were down in the bar picking
up men.” He’d known she was lying, trying to goad him. He’d have
restrained her like this no matter what she’d been doing.

But Ruby wasn’t giving in yet. “Then
that’s
why I’m wet.”

He didn’t go for the bait but instead backed
down the length of the table and began cutting the legs of her
sweats. He moved swiftly, methodically, then stripped the material
off her. It was easy enough to peel away the two underside
pieces.

“Very nice,” he said, surveying the matching
zebra thong. There was only a light thatch of pubic hair showing
through the thin material. Ruby was trimmed but not bare.

“Now what?” Her voice was disinterested, but
he knew better.

“Spread your legs.” The table was wide
enough, the manacles long enough, but Ruby didn’t move. Holt pushed
her feet apart at the ankles.

“I suppose you’re going to pretend to rape me
or something.”

He just smiled. Then he headed back to the
cabinet, where he kept his sex toys locked away. He didn’t
entertain often; this was primarily his workout room. When his
daughter visited, she liked to use it, too. She was thirty-three
and didn’t have a prudish bone in her body, but he was
old-fashioned in that way and didn’t want her seeing the things he
kept in the cupboard.

He chose his instrument carefully, a thick
no-frills vibrator with an adjustable speed dial at the base. He’d
bought it especially for Ruby, for this night.

By the time he returned to the table, she’d
closed her legs, and her gaze had turned wary. “What are you going
to do?”

Holt leaned down next to her ear and
tantalized her with a puff of breath. “I’m going to make you come
until you scream. So many times that your legs won’t hold you up
when I’m done.”

“And you need to handcuff me for that?”

“Oh yeah.” He turned on the vibrator at its
base and touched it to her nipple. Ruby jerked. “It’s going to be
so intense, you’ll try to get away. But I’m not going to let you.”
He licked her earlobe, blew on the moist shell, and felt her
shiver. “I’m going to drive you absolutely mad.”

Chapter Eight

Ruby’s entire body quivered beneath the buzz
of the vibrator on her nipple. She wanted to beg him to do it all
now. He was so damn slow about everything, and she was already
completely wild and crazy. With every snip of the scissors, the
cool metal along her flesh, with his hot gaze on her, his breath
against her hair, his tongue on her ear, and that one touch of his
hand between her legs—God,
yes
, she was absolutely insane
before he’d even truly started.
Do it now
, she wanted to
scream at him. She’d waited all night and all day. Didn’t he
know
?

Ruby closed her eyes briefly and breathed
deeply, willing her body to calm down. “Whatever,” she muttered,
feigning disinterest. “I’ve used plenty of vibrators.” She had a
feeling Holt would give new meaning to the word
vibrator
.

He circled her nipples, and electricity shot
straight to her pussy.

“They need to be a little more moist,” he
said, a trace of amusement in his voice, as if he knew how hard she
was fighting not to quiver and quake and beg.

He undid the bra’s center clasp, pushed the
cups apart, and when he put his lips on her, she barely stopped the
moan in her throat. He licked both nipples. They pearled in the
cool air as he stepped back. “Perfect.” Then he circled them once
more with the vibrator.

“How wet does that make you, Ruby?” he asked
softly.

Her nipples were sensitive, as if they had a
direct line down between her legs. She’d been wet before; now she
was sure she was dripping. She made a strangled sound, half
chuckle, half snort, because he was making her feel exactly the way
he wanted her to—crazy.

“Just get on with it,” she said, hoping for a
bored note, but the words came out with an almost desperate
tinge.

He sucked on the end of the vibrator, then
trailed it down her belly to her pubis. Her legs were spread, and
she almost arched into the toy. He let it glide lightly over her
pussy, and her body spasmed at the contact. She didn’t come, but
she was close, needy. And he hadn’t even removed her panties
yet.

It wasn’t the vibrator between her legs that
made her nuts; it was Holt and everything he did to her, how he
made her feel inside, and maybe because he held so much back as
well, never giving in to her the way other men did. It was such a
potent mixture.

The vibrator stopped, and she thought she’d
scream. She hadn’t even realized she’d closed her eyes until she
opened them to look at him. He had the scissors out again.

Bent over her, he turned his head, his gaze
licking across her face. “I hate to cut them off,” he said, “but
we’ll get you another pair.”

Ruby was too far gone to care as he snipped
and tossed aside the miniscule bit of fabric.

“Jesus, you’re gorgeous.” The awe in his
voice made her heart swell.

Men didn’t usually admire a woman’s pussy,
but Holt made her want to preen. “Lick me,” she ordered.

She half expected him to do it, but Holt
pulled back. “Not yet. You’re not ready.”

“How will you even know whether I’m ready or
not?”

“I’ll know.” Then he slipped the vibrator
into her cleft.

Her body rocked against the pressure. He
didn’t push too hard or try to get inside her. She loved the tip
right where it was, just below her clitoris. Her hips rolled with
his movements, like a dance. The chains of her manacles were long
enough for her to raise her hands above her head and grip the edge
of the table.

Holt pushed her legs farther apart. “I want
to see all of you.”

She felt his touch on her pussy lips,
exposing her clitoris. He dipped the vibrator down into her
moisture, then slid back up to circle and tease. Around, above,
below, then right on, his movements were ceaseless. And his voice
was ever present. “Christ, you’re wet. You’re so plump.” She was
pretty, gorgeous, delicious, delectable, luscious, perfect,
beautiful. He teased her with words and that damn vibrator until
she was crazy. Then the very moment before climax, he backed off to
trace her mound with the buzzing device.

“Oh God, please.” He’d said he’d make her
beg, hadn’t he? And Ruby begged. “Please, Holt. I need it.”

With her blood pressure high, creating a hum
in her ears, his voice sounded almost as if it were a separate
entity, echoing inside her. “You don’t know what you need. I know
what you need.”

“Why are you doing this? Why don’t you just
fuck me, get it over with?” She tossed her head on the table,
wanting, needing.

“That’s too easy,” he whispered. “Too fast.
You have to
need
the orgasms I give you, dream about them,
want them, only from me, only the way I can give them to you. You
have to be
mine
.”

Ruby didn’t know what that meant, but she
stopped thinking, could no longer speak, and the only sounds were
her breath, her moans, groans, the buzz of the vibrator.

And his voice. “Only I know what you crave,”
he seduced her. “Only I can give it to you. You need cock, lots of
it, but only when and where I say, only with whom I choose, only
when I grant you permission. You crave my permission.”

Words. She wanted to scream out
Yes, yes,
yes
. She’d agree to anything he wanted. She
needed
what
he wanted. Her body writhed beneath his ministrations and the
relentless vibrator, on again, off again.

“Tell me you’ll do whatever I say,” the voice
commanded.

Tears dribbled down her temples into her
hair.

“Say yes.”

Holt’s voice, she had to obey. “Yes. God,
yes.”

Then he laid the vibrator on her clit, held
it steady, and whispered against her lips. “Come.”

Ruby’s body burst into flames, and she came
until she no longer knew her name, until she no longer cared about
anything but what Holt could do for her.

* * * * *

Ruby was in the office at the dot of seven
thirty on Monday, which was early for her. She had Holt’s coffee
made,
The Wall Street Journal
on his desk, and his calendar
up on his computer. She’d chosen the wraparound skirt that tied at
the waist, and had pulled her hair back into a severe bun. Her
appearance shouted professional elegance.

Holt had claimed her on Saturday night. He
hadn’t fucked her. He hadn’t even come. But he owned her. After
making her climax gloriously another three times, he’d unfastened
the restraints and pulled her to her feet. Her knees had threatened
to buckle, but he’d held her until she was steady. Then he sent her
off with a pat on the ass as if she were a little girl. Though she
wanted so much more, she’d felt oddly cherished. She’d actually
beamed all the way home.

And somewhere in there, he’d told her to get
out of that damn hotel room. So, with no more hesitation, she’d
spent Sunday searching for apartments. She had furniture in
storage, and it would be a simple matter to have a moving company
load it all up and transfer it as soon as she found something. It
didn’t matter what kind of place she got or where it was—within
reason, of course—because she didn’t plan on being there much. She
just needed to get out of that hotel and cut her last tie to Clay.
She belonged to Holt now.