Chapter 9
Aiden
I should tie this woman to my desk and fuck the fight right out of her.
But I want to know who she is, because you don’t just walk into the office of the president of a club like mine and say you’d like to assault him.
That takes balls. A girl who’s never been around a club wouldn’t have done it.
I’ll be putting Stone on this, because I’m surer than ever that she’s been sent here by someone, most likely from another club.
For now, I wait for her answer. She looks up at me with the type of big, needy eyes that aren’t trying to say fuck me, they just do.
And the way she has her hair pulled back only serves to emphasize them.
She doesn’t realize the power of her natural beauty, and that is a dangerous fucking thing.
I’m starting to wonder if I should even let her work at my club, or if she’s more trouble than she’s worth.
“I already told Roz. I’m Mia Crawford. I’m from Lakeside. My mother doesn’t live here anymore, and I need a job.” Her voice is smooth as the smirk drops from her lips.
“Did you go to college?”
“Yes.”
“For what?” I’m way more interested than I should be in this woman. Christ.
“I’m going to be…an editor.” She bites her lip, looking down at her hands folded in her lap before she smiles sweetly. “Maybe for a magazine.”
“Why do you want this job then?”
She looks up at me and breathes out a shaky breath. “It’s not like this was my ideal summer job.” Her tone is genuine as she answers. “But I need the money, and Roz said this is the fastest way to earn it.”
“Why do you need money?”
“That’s kind of a personal question, isn’t it?” she retorts.
Yep, she’s definitely fucking hiding something.
Keeping my eyes on hers, I stand and walk around to the front of the desk.
Her relaxed position switches to tense, maybe without her even realizing it.
She instantly straightens her spine in her chair.
There’s a hint of fear there, and when I see it, something in me surges.
It makes me want to scare her more. It’s at this moment I realize I want her, just like every other man who’s looked at her tonight, and that does nothing but piss me right the fuck off.
Her chest rises and falls in a shallow breath as I lean back against the desk directly in front of her. “There’s no such thing as too personal here. When you work for me, there are no secrets, and you never lie to me.”
She tries to scoot back, as if I’d let her. I grip both sides of the chair and pull her forward until her knees brush my legs. Her breath catches, and her lips pop open in shock as she braces herself on the chair.
“Where’d that smug little smile go?” I ask, watching her expression.
“I’m not afraid of you,” she says right away. Her voice is almost convincing, but her eyes tell a different story.
“Yes, you are.” I want her close. If for no other reason than to gauge the cryptic thoughts behind those fucking gorgeous eyes. “There are men like me who come to my clubs who will thrive on that sort of fear, understand?”
“I’m well aware.” She says it with a knowing tone that makes me instantly believe her.
She tips her chin up and focuses directly on my eyes, challenging me. Most women don’t, and I’m suddenly lost, imagining her in other scenarios, looking up at me, just like this, with that same fight in her eyes. Fuck, what the hell is wrong with me?
“And are we talking about men like you?” she asks softly. “Or you?”
I search her face, aching to take full control here, but I’m questioning my own wants.
Why her? Why is a clearly naive twenty-two-year-old striking a chord so deeply in me that I’m sitting here fantasizing about her?
My warning is meant to both scare and protect her, yet all I can think about is bringing her to her knees… in more ways than one.
Her floral perfume fills my senses the way it did at Lavish this afternoon. It smells rosy and clean. The perfect blend of temptation and purity.
“Forget everything you know about the outside world.” I ignore her question and finish my point.
“You’re in a different world here. I can protect you in my clubhouse, I can protect you at Lavish, but not outside of those places, so be careful who you associate with.
No drugs. No excessive drinking. You need to keep a clear head. Understood?”
Without being able to stop myself, I reach for her braid again, imagining what this silky, platinum hair would look like if it wasn’t all tied up so severely this way.
But this time, when I wrap her long braid fully around my hand, she doesn’t flinch.
Instead, Mia shocks me by closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, as if she’s breathing me in.
For one crazed moment, I want to claim her mouth.
I want to feel those soft, pouty lips on mine and hear the sounds she’d make as I fucked that perfect ass until she was screaming.
Begging me to stop. Her eyes pop open just as quickly as they closed, and I realize she’s making me fucking crazy with need. Just by looking at me.
“So you are the man I need to worry about?” Her eyes spark, knowing she’s getting to me, and I’m instantly desperate to teach her just how much trouble this careless behavior will get her in.
I yank her braid back, tilting her chin up more.
She hisses with the sting as it pulls, but she doesn’t fight me or cry out like I expected. Instead, she looks like she wants it.
“If I brought you in here because I wanted you, Rhiannon, my cock would’ve been down your throat by now.”
Her almost sadistic little smirk turns heated.
She’s fast, reaching up to grip my pinky finger and twisting it outward, a second away from cracking it.
The movement surprises me and has me almost letting go of her hair.
If she wasn’t so goddamn infuriating, I would laugh right now at her use of basic self-defense.
“Well, if you ever do decide you want me? Try to take me and see what happens,” she challenges me, and the vision of ruining her plump ass right on my desk runs through my mind again.
I pull my hand from her grasp and grip her face, holding her so tight that her lips pucker.
Fucking Christ, that’s pretty.
“I don’t fuck the help,” I tell her evenly.
Or spies or lackeys, or whatever you are.
In fact, contrary to the stigma men like me receive, I don’t sleep around at all.
Not since I took over the club anyway. I was taught from a very young age that women will use you and distract you.
The state this club was in when I became president never allowed for either of those.
My words are strong, but my cock has other ideas.
I can’t remember the last time a woman turned me on like this, and there’s something else in her eyes now, something that wasn’t there before I grabbed her hair.
White-hot lust.
I let go of her face and stand, moving toward the door. Swinging it open, I look back down at her, needing to get her out of my sight before I can’t stop myself from actually tying her to my desk. I nod my head toward the dark hallway.
“Get the fuck out of my office.”