Chapter 14
When lunch was delivered, I had them leave it on the bar while we finished up. Kyle suggested that we check back in a week, but that he would keep us updated daily on the progress being made.
“Thank you, Kyle. I appreciate your hard work.” I shook his hand and watched him walk out the door. Feeling Gavriel’s eyes on me, I turned to grab the bag of food without looking at him. “Come with me.”
“What?”
Turning, I faced him and became who I’d been yesterday and adjusted my voice. “I said, come with me.”
I left no room for argument as I made for the elevator.
I didn’t wait for him because he would follow.
If he didn’t, well, guess he didn’t want out of his cage.
The doors were just about to close when his hand slipped through, stopping them.
I hid my smirk and bit the inside of my lip to restrain myself from calling him a good boy.
We hadn’t discussed that. Things were completely out of order, and I had to correct it right away. That was what this lunch was for.
Neither of us said anything on the way up. When we reached my office, I safely tucked the key on my desk away and gave him his lunch. I gestured for him to start eating and unpacked my own sandwich. I watched as he took a bite and moaned.
“How did you know that this is my favorite?”
Smiling, and pleased that I was able to do something he enjoyed, I replied, “I asked around. You aren’t the only one who can find out information, Gavriel.
” His eyes heated and he licked his lips.
Gone was the smart tongue when it was the two of us, apparently.
Interesting. “What, no snappy comeback?”
He shook his head and took another bite of his turkey, honey mustard, bacon, and sprouts on wheat bread sandwich.
I set my own turkey and avocado down and just watched him.
Gavriel Azzaro was an enigma. I hated him so much for killing my father, but I was also having a hard time reconciling the fact that the man who was responsible for that had also been on his knees, taking my orders.
For ten minutes, we didn’t say anything, and he just ate with me watching him. I was nervous about this discussion, and I couldn’t figure out why. I had it all the time, just usually with people who’d hired me for it. Not someone like Gavriel Azzaro . . . who’d literally fallen to into it.
“I was originally going to ask you if yesterday was a one-off, but since you want this, what are your expectations?” I felt like my mouth was full of cotton, but I got the words out.
“Want what?”
Lifting my eyebrows, I shook my head. “You want me to take over. You need me to.”
“What makes you think that?” He was trying to sound strong, but there was hesitancy in it.
“You put the cage on—my cage.” His focus dropped to his lap. “I’m going to take a wild guess here and assume you aren’t used to giving up any control.”
“No, ma’am.”
Interesting. He was already dropping into a sub role with me.
I never would have thought there was this side to the Owl’s Talon.
Studying him for a moment, I noticed there was a softer look in his eyes, almost like confusion.
Gavriel wasn’t one for fidgeting, but his fingers tapped on the arm of the chair.
He was having a hard time meeting my gaze, and most of all, the strength in his voice was gone. But he didn’t sound weak.
“Are you struggling to understand why you are being submissive to me?” He nodded, and I took a deep breath. “Alright. Do you want me, your partner in this business, to be your domme?”
His attention snapped to my face as he tried to deny it, but the words obviously died on his tongue. “How are you doing this to me?”
“I am just being myself. I also don’t like you much, and I suspect that you are used to women and men both fawning over you. I won’t.” I waited and let him mull that over a moment before I asked again, “Do you want me to be your domme?”
His gaze finally met mine, and I could see the pleading there. He didn’t give puppy eyes or anything of that sort, but I could see his pure desperation. “Yes, please, ma’am.”
Holy fucking shit.
I leaned back in my chair, the worn leather molded around me. “In all things?”
“In private. You would have to stay out of the family business.” His tone was stronger then. Negotiation. This was something he was good at. Comfortable with.
Nodding, I understood, but then interjected, “As I stated yesterday, you will treat me as a partner in this business, but will you also kneel before me and give full submission? How are you going to do that?”
“Business is business. If it is not a business discussion, you . . .” He paused and shifted. “. . . are in control. I will trust in you that as my domme, will keep that line.”
“Noted. Before this discussion goes further, there are a couple of things. First, I am a professional dominatrix. I currently have ten clients, none of whom include physically penetrative or oral sex. Is that a problem?”
He blinked at me, sat up straighter, and some of the swagger that I knew and hated about him returned. “That’s how you have been able to do this so naturally. This is just who you are.”
“This is just who I am.”
His head tipped to the side and he furrowed his brows. It was such a childlike maneuver that I wasn’t prepared for his question. “Are you manipulating me?”
“No!” I surprised even myself at how strongly I answered the question.
At least, I don’t think I am. Am I? Well, sort of. In this? No. Sure, I’d pushed for him to give into me. But this, domination? If he told me no, I would back off. This . . . was unexpected. He wanted me to be his domme. He was agreeing to it.
Gavriel’s eyes were inquisitive as he thought things through. “And what will this dynamic be with us?”
“You had a taste of me yesterday. You saw what you could have . . . if you are good. You push me like that again and there will be repercussions.” The least of which was going to be a knife through the heart or a bullet in his head for killing my father, but as quickly as that thought went through my mind, it was gone.
This part of me, Lady E, didn’t want him to die.
No, Lady E wanted to take care of her Pretty Boy.
Make sure he had his favorite things. Make sure he was satisfied and happy.
I leaned my head back on the chair and sighed as I held his gaze. Lady E would be ashamed of me even letting the thought go through her mind of abusing the trust he was giving me. What kind of domme was I?
A fucking good one who wants revenge. Enjoy your time together. Learn from him what you can. Take it a day at a time. But most of all, don’t catch feelings.
“I don’t like to repeat myself, and I feel as though I’ve done so too many times since we walked in here. So, is it a problem that I have others I domme for?”
“No, as long as we are fluid-locked exclusive. You said that my cock is yours.”
I lifted my chin as I sat up straighter to look at him. “You wear my cage.”
He nodded. “I do, willingly. Will I be the only one to have your pussy? Or am I relegated to sharing?”
The thought of someone else intimately touching me right now had my body revolting. My skin crawled, my mouth dried out, and I felt my shoulders tense. The realization hit me hard..
I want him. Only him.
“My subs aren’t allowed contact. Most of my clients are in it for either the degradation, the loss of control, the various nonsexual play, or one literally pays me to punish her into cleaning her house.
Exclusive is my next requirement, fluid locked, as you would say.
” His shoulders relaxed a little, and some of the tightening in his face loosened.
It was so strange to see him not show any of the swagger and don’t fuck with me energy.
“Gavriel, I want to make something else clear. I don’t want you to change who you are.
I expect you to follow my directions. I also expect you not to follow my directions so that punishments can be doled out.
I expect your submission, as long as you are willing to give it to me while we are in private, but I don’t want you to become mashed potatoes. ”
He shifted his gaze to the side and nodded. “I don’t know what it is about you, though. You wipe it away. It isn’t that it’s not there. It’s almost like I get to release the need for all that.”
“For the power, stress, and, ultimately, the control?”
He nodded. “I don’t have to be on.” Slowly, his eyes moved to meet mine. “I should hate you. I do, but I still trust you.”
I didn’t really know how to respond to that. He had truly placed his trust in me. I could see it in his eyes.
“What do you wish me to call you?” he whispered.
Standing, I rounded my desk to stand in front of him.
His eyes stayed focused on mine, and I couldn’t help but straddle his lap and grind against him.
Gavriel tipped his head back and moaned.
I knew I was being cruel. With him wearing my cage, I was only making him hurt.
There was a part of me that loved that about being in the one in ultimate control.
“My clients call me Lady E.” Recognition flashed in his eyes, and he opened his mouth to say something, but I placed a finger over his lips. “This is . . . more personal. Goddess will do. It gives you the ability to be discreet, if you wish.”
“Yes, Goddess.”
Smiling, I ran my finger down his neck. “I like that, Pretty Boy.” The arm of the chair creaked under the strain of his fingers squeezing them. “I require a list of your boundaries and your safeword on my desk by morning, when I get in. I’ll be here at nine to meet with the accountant.”
“Yes, Goddess.” His chest was rising and falling in deep, quick breaths as he struggled for control.
“As for me, you won’t touch me without permission, even if I mount you like this.
Understood?” He nodded, keeping his hands off me even as I rubbed myself against him, feeling him harden against me.
His phone rang, but I leaned forward close enough that our lips touched as I said, “Now seal it with a kiss, Pretty Boy.”
He leaned forward, pressing his lips to mine.
Deepening it, I ran my fingers through his hair as I kissed him back.
My entire body heated and begged for him to sheath himself within me and fuck me hard.
He did things to me that I shouldn’t want from the man who’d killed my father, but my body wouldn’t listen, and while the rage fueled the intensity, it sat in the back seat to the sexual tension that came between us.
I pulled back and stood just as his phone started ringing again. I nodded at him, letting him know he could answer it.
He did. “Talk.” His eyes moved back and forth, seeing something other than the ground he was staring at. “I’ll be there in twenty.”
Clasping my hands behind my back, I dug my nails into my palm. I needed the pain to distract me from him. To stay in place and ensure that I held the boundaries between us.
“Goddess, may I be excused?”
What?
I blinked in confusion. The way he’d switched from Don heir to Pretty Boy had been instant, almost as if it were natural for him.
“Of course.”
He turned to leave but paused at the door and twisted toward me. “I want to hate the very essence of your being for the disrespect you have given me, for the complete disregard of my authority in the world.”
“It’s been earned.”
He looked away and nodded. “Joel.”
All the betrayals were rising in me at once. The hurt and loss, everything. “Go, my Pretty Boy. You have work to do.”
His throat bobbed as softness crossed his face. Gavriel then turned down the hall to the elevators, and when I heard one ding, I went and sat at my desk. The passion and need to take care of him was real. The swagger and consent talk—that had been business Elin at work.
My voice was a whisper as I felt tears fall down my face. “Dad, what’s wrong with me? Why does my body want him when my mind knows what he did to you in this very office?”