Chapter 4
Sebastian
It took every ounce of strength I had to walk away, but I only made it far enough to slip into the shadows.
She stayed rooted where I’d left her, eyes locked on the couple through the glass like she physically couldn’t look away. It wasn’t until another pair slipped out of a nearby room that she startled and retreated toward the main ballroom.
I adjusted my cock, still hard and aching from what I’d just taken part in. I should’ve gone to find release, but the memory of her pressed to that glass burned hotter than anything an orgasm could touch.
The way she leaned closer—curious instead of afraid—desperate to understand why someone would surrender so completely to their Dom.
God help me, I wanted to show her. Wanted to pull her into my world, piece by trembling piece.
And then I saw it.
She lifted her wrist, fidgeting with the white bracelet, and the light caught a blur of ink. Lines. Rows of black marks in a pattern that tugged at something in me. Binary.
My breath caught.
It looked like hers. The same neat lines I’d seen before in the elevator, when she scrambled to escape after realizing her mistake and frantically pushed the button that would let her off on the next floor.
The same tattoo I’d brushed with my thumb when I helped her gather papers that had fallen to the floor after a coworker had bumped into her.
One who, when seeing me, had bolted, leaving her to clean up the mess alone.
Her startled look when I murmured the translation, proving I knew exactly what those zeros and ones meant, while trying to ignore the heat from our brief touch.
But here in the shadows and the dim light, I couldn’t be certain. I told myself it could be someone else, some stranger who wore the same type of script on her skin.
Except in my gut, I already knew better.
MIRA.
Damn it all to hell.
I should have stepped away and led her back to her friends, who, with the clues falling into place, had to be Micah and his husband if I didn’t know better. What the hell was Micah doing bringing Mira to a place like this? She was so far over her head and out of her league.
Instead, I’d given her my card. Told her if she wanted to silence the voices in her head to reach out when all I wanted to do was push her against the wall and taste her.
God help me, I was her boss, and never had I mixed work with pleasure. I’d kept those two areas of my life separate, but since the day in the elevator months ago, I’d wanted to drag her straight into mine.
Maybe I’d have my chance after all.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, resisting the urge to throw Stan out the fucking office window. Thirty floors up—that’d probably be frowned upon by the investors. Still, it would make my day.
“She’s insubordinate,” Stan snapped. “She hacked our system and—” He gestured wildly at my screen, as if piling on charges might save him.
I cut him off with a glance at Victor, my Chief Security Officer, sat back in his chair, mouth curved in that smug way that said we’ve already decided how this plays out. We had. We’d spent half of yesterday mapping out our plans for Ms. Rhodes.
I pushed to my feet and crossed to the window. Floor-to-ceiling glass spilled the city at my feet, but it did nothing to steady me. My reflection glared back—sharp edges, a man who controlled everything but his own thoughts. Because all weekend, she hadn’t left them.
The girl at Sanctum.
The one I was pretty damn sure was Ms. Rhodes herself.
Elisa, my temporary assistant, popped her head through the door. “Mr. Reid, Ms. Rhodes says HR sent her up to see you?”
I turned and nodded, waving her off. How many times had I told her not to bother me in the middle of a meeting? She’d been here for two weeks, and I wasn’t sure she knew where the mail room was, but the way she flirted with everyone who had a cock told me everything I needed to know about her.
Easy wasn’t something I did. Never had. I craved control, and girls like Elisa weren’t my thing.
“You can go,” I said, then shifted my glare to Stan. He needed to leave before I started asking how this clause had slipped past him. How he hadn’t known even though he'd been the one to bring it to us in the first place. That reckoning would come later.
“As her immediate supervisor, I should be included in her termination.” He rose, a smug expression plastered across his face.
Ethan strolled in behind him, chuckling. Stan blinked at the three of us, confusion flickering.
I stepped closer, close enough he had to crane his neck to look at me. “She caught what you missed. What you should have caught. Tell me, Stan, why should I let her go and keep you? After you vouched for this company."
He paled. “I… ah…”
Victor rose from the couch. “You should go, or I can skip to the part where security will be seeing you out.”
Stan squared his jaw, trying for composure he didn’t have. His gaze darted back to me.
I gestured to the door. “Do what he says. I’ll be in touch.”
Stan hesitated. He wanted to argue, but self-preservation won out. He spun on his heel and left. We’d deal with him later.
Analysts didn’t usually get pulled into things this early, but I’d been dealing with everything except my own company for months, and somehow it hadn’t set off any red flags because Stan had handled the last few contracts we’d signed.
Right now, I need to deal with Ms. Rhodes.
“Conference room?” Victor asked, moving toward my office door.
It made sense. But the conference room had too many windows for prying eyes. I didn’t need anyone seeing my fucking business.
I shook my head, returned to my desk, and sank into my leather office chair. “No. Show her in.”
Ethan shifted in his chair but didn’t make a move to leave. He wouldn’t. He wanted to see this through.
Victor would keep an eye on our friend Stan. None of us thought he was as innocent as he let on and wondered if we'd missed anything else in the last six months while I'd been preoccupied.
The door clicked, and my attention snapped to Ms. Rhodes, who stood there in the doorway, fidgeting, wringing her hands as she nervously waited for whatever sentence she had coming. Then she remembered who she was in the room with and squared her shoulders, straightening her posture.
Good girl.
Ethan broke the silence as he gestured to the chair across from my desk. “Have a seat, Ms. Rhodes.”
She gulped and nodded. She crossed the room and sat, ankles crossed, hands folded over a folder in her lap. Dark hair pinned too tight. Blouse buttoned high. Proper. Controlled.
I saw through it anyway. The unevenness of her breath, the fear in her eyes, even as she tried to hold a strong front.
Nothing like the girl in Sanctum who had pressed trembling thighs together while watching another woman come undone in ropes. God help me, both versions of her set me on fire.
I leaned back in my chair casually, even though my thoughts were anything but.
Her tattoo reminded me of the girl Friday night. The one who had emailed me last night around eleven o’clock, when she should have been tucked into her bed. I was pretty sure she’d been drunk, as wordy as she was.
Mr. Sir?
I’m guessing that’s what I’m supposed to call you since that was the name on the card.
I don’t know why I’m writing except you said you would be willing to get me out of my head.
Not sure that could happen but see tomorrow is the day I lose my job and honestly I don’t know why I’m writing. This isn’t me.
-M
I’d waited an hour before replying, but I’d spent that hour imagining all the ways I could silence those voices for her. All the ways I could break her free.
“Ms. Rhodes.” I allowed her name to roll off my tongue, wondering how it would feel as I punished her for her actions. Picturing her strung up in the middle of my room, begging for her release.
Her chin lifted, her expression calm. “Mr. Reid.”
My cock twitched. I gripped the arms of my chair, thankful for the desk between us. Never in nearly forty years had a woman undone my control like this.
I steepled my hands. “Do you know why you’re here?”
She drew in a breath. “Honestly, Sir. I’m not exactly sure.”
Ethan snorted, trying and failing to mask it with his hand. My glare snapped to him. His smirk faltered.
“Ms. Rhodes, do you know how much trouble you’re in?”
“For doing my job?” she snapped, her gaze meeting mine and doing her best to hold it, but I didn’t miss her tightening her grip on the folder she held.
“I don’t recall sabotage, interference or breach of security as part of your job description.”
“If that’s the case, Sir,” she shot back. “Why didn’t you escort me out on Friday?”
This time, she didn’t look away.
Out of the corner of my eye, Ethan smothered a grin behind his hand.
I exhaled slowly. HR wanted witnesses in the room for this sort of meeting, which was the only reason I hadn’t thrown him out.
That and I wasn't sure I could trust myself alone with her right now, especially after the thoughts rolling around in my head after Friday.
“I don’t make rash decisions, Ms. Rhodes.”
“Did you read all of what I sent?”
Ethan leaned forward. “We did. What we want to know is why you didn’t go through the proper channels.”
She gave an awkward chuckle. “I gave the same info to my superior two days before your meeting. When I came in and found that it was still going through with no modification to the contract, I wanted to make sure you had seen the facts.”
“And if we knew what we were doing?”
“You’d give a company free access to modify your code? Not only leaving you vulnerable, but any company you work with. I like my job and didn’t want to see you go under because of a Trojan horse clause.”
The words hit harder than I expected. Harder because she wasn’t wrong. I hate that I hadn't caught it, but I was starting to think I wasn't supposed to.