Corporate Cowboy (9 page)

Gage laughed. “Oh, Emma. You are a gem.”

She smiled that sweet, southern belle smile, and it was all he could do not to kiss it off her face. But not yet.

“Emma, stand up.”

Without hesitation, she did, her gaze downcast.

She’s a natural. She just doesn’t know it yet.

Gage stood and rounded the desk, coming up beside her. For a long moment he purposely waited, then told her, “Take off your panties.”

He held out his hand.

Emma’s gaze fluttered but she didn’t look up. Slowly she raised her skirt and shimmied out of her underwear.

“Look at me.”

Her eyes lifted. His hand stayed outstretched. She placed her panties in his hand. Gage tucked them into his jacket pocket.

“From now on, no panties, Emma. And only skirts to work.”

She looked fully at him. “Yes, Sir.”

“Now, back to work and please take care of the details with Ms. Long.” He glanced to his watch. “Fifteen minutes has already passed.”

Chapter Nine

A draft of cool air bursts up my skirt as I step off the elevator at the lobby level. I am heading to the front desk, feeling the need to check in after having been gone several minutes. No panties feels both fantastically sensual and a little unnerving. Can anyone tell? Of course not, but I feel like that fact is stamped across my forehead.

As I round the corner, I run straight into Candy.

“Oh!”

“Emma!”

“Hi!”

“Where are you going?”

“Uh…” I bite my lip. Where
am
I going? “Back to work.” I grasp Candy’s arm and drag her out of anyone else’s earshot. “I had the meeting about the promotion. I need to go over a couple of things and then get back with Christina Long.” I glance at my watch. “I need to get moving.”

Too many minutes had passed since Gage gave me that hour to handle this.

Candy smiled. “I’m so happy for you!” She leans closer. “Christina Long is a witch, though. Be careful.”

I have already deduced that fact. “I know. I can handle her.” I grin and step back. “Thanks again for lunch, Candy. Next time’s on me, okay?”

She nods. “You got it. Hey, I gotta run.” She turns to leave and then steps back. “Oh, Emma? What about…?” She waggles her eyebrows.

Shit. She means Gage. I’ve signed the NDA. “Huh?”

Candy laughs. “You silly girl, what about…” She points toward the ceiling. “Mr. Corporate Cowboy?”

I have to diffuse this. Why in the world did I
tell
her? Well, I had to talk with someone… I shake my head. “I told him no way.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. Not worth the hassle. Besides, I’m just coming off a relationship from back in Charlotte. I don’t need to go there.”

Candy agrees. “I hear you. Men!” She steps back and makes a gesture with her fingers at her ears. “I’ll call you,” she mouths.

Whew! She bought it.

I give her a thumbs up and then head off to find a quiet corner for a minute to look over the offer letter.

But my plans are disrupted as I round the elevator bank and notice a line backed up at the front desk. I quickly make my way to an empty computer, stash my folder of paperwork underneath the counter, and log in. “May I help the next person please?”

I glance at the growing line and an older gentleman steps up.

“Checking in?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Name please, credit card and driver’s license will get us started.”

I work with guest after guest until I glance at my watch again. “Crickets!” I have been here much too long. I don’t know either of the women working with me very well, and since I am unofficially promoted, I decide to take the initiative.

I step to the left. “Hello, Connie?”

She glances up. “Yes?”

“I know we are busy, but I need to run up to corporate for a moment. I’m logging out but will be right back.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You were late and now you’re leaving? Good luck on your next job.”

I don’t even honor that with a response. “I’ll be back as soon as possible,” I tell her.

She shrugs. “Do what you gotta do.”

I decide right there I really do not like this woman. But I dismiss that, grab the paperwork from underneath the counter, and head toward the elevator bank. I’ll think about the specifics I need to tell Christina on the way up.

What a day.

The elevator lands on one and the doors open. I take half a step and realize Gage is standing there, blocking my way.

“Emma, you are late.”

“I am heading that way now. There was a line, and I felt that as the ‘almost’ supervisor I should take initiative and…”

“Emma, step into the elevator.”

He shifts slightly and I move past him. The doors close. He sends the elevator to twenty-two.

I look at Gage. “We need to stop meeting like this.”

He dismisses my words. “An efficient supervisor would have delegated and seen to the task that her own supervisor had given her.”

“You are my new supervisor?”

“I am.”

Convenient.

“And I had to come looking for you. I am not pleased.”

“Oh.” His expression is firm, unmovable. It feels like his gaze might burn a hole through my heart. I simply wait.

We go all the way up to the twenty-second floor without stopping. “After you,” he says when the doors open.

We both exit.

“Three minutes to finish with Ms. Long, Emma, then meet me in my office.”

I dip my head. “Yes, Sir.”

He turns and steps away, and my gut does a flip-flop.

For two weeks, I belong to him.

****

Three minutes.

I try like hell to get in and out of her office. Not happening. Christina is difficult, not really listening to me, and we have to go over a couple of things, like, sixteen times. By the time we work it out, I realize three minutes have come and gone probably six times over. Finally, we reach agreeable terms.

I move through the lobby and toward Gage’s outer office and Chad’s desk. He glances up as I approach and gathers some papers. Standing, he takes my elbow and leads me toward Gage’s door. “This folder contains the personal records you requested of Mr. Parker. And this,” he hands me a business card with a date and time written on it, “is your appointment with Dr. Burrows.”

I take both. “Thank you, Chad.” I decide I have to trust him because obviously, he is Gage’s right-hand man.

Chad winks and smiles, then keys in the code to open the doors to Gage’s office. I wonder if I will ever learn that secret-code-punching thing. Probably not.

I step inside. Chad moves back, and the doors close and latch.
Click. Clickety. Click
.

Gage is working at the desk. I take a step forward, and without raising his head from his work, he says, “Stop.”

I halt. He continues to work, shuffling papers and writing things down. I wait and wonder how long I will stand there. I don’t dare ask.

Finally, Gage clears his throat and looks up. “Emma, look at me.”

I meet his gaze.

He points to his watch. “Do you know how long you have been standing there, Emma?”

I shake my head. “No, I don’t.”

“Seventeen minutes.”

“Oh.”

“The same amount of time that you kept me waiting, Emma. I said three minutes. That is what I meant.”

I rush forward, “But I can explain, Gage. It was Christina. She was being a pill and—”

He raises his voice. “Emma!”

I stop in my tracks, a little taken aback. He glares.

“I did not ask for your explanation. Nor did I ask you to approach my desk. I did not say you could move or speak.”

“Oh.”

Gage stands and sighs. “I see we need to get right to work. Emma, put your papers on the desk, then walk to the window and take off your clothes. All of them. Do as I say.”

A rush of panic races up through me. “What?”

“No questions, no hesitation. Do I need to repeat myself?”

“No.”

“No, what?”

“No, Sir.”

“Then do it.”

“Yes, Sir.”
Shit.
Certainly he is not going to make me do what he said earlier today. Will he?

As I approach the windows I remember the day I first set foot in his office. The floor to ceiling windows are spectacular, but even more so, the mountain landscape outside them, along with the view of the city of Billings.

I wonder if I should just pick a spot. Inside my chest, my heart flutters. Lower, I feel sexual stirrings that titillate me.

“There,” he said. “Right there.”

I stop and glance back at Gage.

“Look straight ahead, Emma, out the window.” I turn and face the mountain. He continues. “You kept me waiting, Emma. It was uncomfortable waiting for you. I didn’t know where you were, if something had happened to you, or if you were okay. This was a great inconvenience, because I have a strict schedule, and I keep to my schedule, hour by hour. I had three minutes to spare, Emma, and I wanted to discuss something with you. You kept me waiting. I was in the dark, not knowing where you were and I did not like that.

“So,” he continues, “You will now wait for me while I work and until another window of opportunity opens up.”

I want to glance back at him but don’t. Should I say something? Apologize? I am not sure of the rules.

“Undress, Emma.”

I start to kick out of my shoes.

“Leave those on.”

He says nothing more. His presence behind me, though, is palpable.

I unzip and remove my skirt and blouse, then my bra, tossing them all aside. Gage still has my panties in his jacket pocket, I suppose.

I look out at the mountains.

“Move closer to the window, Emma.”

Taking a deep breath, I step up to the glass, wondering what one could actually see, from twenty-two floors below. As I approach, I scan the horizon, searching for other buildings or structures that might have a direct view into Gage’s office. I wonder about the glass itself. Does it reflect so that you can’t really see in at all?

“Closer to the glass, Emma.”

I jump at his words, realizing that Gage is closer behind me now. I stop thinking about what is outside the window and start to worry about what, or rather who, is in the room with me. Gage crowds my back and urges me forward.

“Lean into the glass, Emma,” he breathes. “Press your breasts and your tummy against the glass. Yes. There. His hands settle on my waist and he skims his palms up my sides, over my ribs and the sides of my breasts, and finally lifting my arms. He raises them over my head and places my palms flat to the glass. I’m beginning to realize that he likes my arms above my head for some reason, and if I were to admit it, I like them there, too. I feel open and exposed and incredibly sexy.

Looking down at the city, I watch the movement of cars and people below, feeling rather decadent and completely aroused at the thought that anyone might be able to see me. Gage’s palms cover the backs of my hands and he presses them into the glass, my fingers splayed. Then he runs his hands along the backs of my arms, over my shoulders and very softly rakes his knuckles down the ridge of my spine.

I find my breathing coming in short quips. His touch is exquisite and quite a turn-on.

“Don’t move, Emma,” he whispers. “Stay just like that. Don’t move.”

He lowers his body and then glides both hands over my bottom, cupping the cheeks of my ass, and then slowly down my right leg to my ankle. He nudges my foot wider to the right.

“Emma, spread your legs.” His voice is low, wicked, and incredibly sexy.

I do as he says.

I now stand in the window fully open, spread wide, exposed to the world—or rather, all of Billings—while every sex hormone in my body screams for attention.

For several minutes, I stand there in silence, knowing he is behind me. Looking at me. Studying me? What
is
he doing?

I can smell his scent. The whiff of his musky cologne mingles with a hint of tobacco—does he smoke?—and the raw power of his masculinity. It is a scent I want to imprint on my psyche now and forever more. He is such a
man.

Very much unlike the
boys
I dated back in North Carolina.

I worry about what my rear view looks like. I’d put on those ten pounds or so the past few months. Most of them had landed on my ass. Oh God, what if I have dimples? He may take one look at me and—

“Emma, relax.”

His voice is almost a whisper.

“Take a deep breath.”

I do and exhale.

“There. Isn’t that better?”

I nod, unsure whether I am permitted to speak.

“You are beautiful, Emma. I like the way you look standing there in my window. How are you feeling?”

How am I feeling?

“You may speak.”

“Um, I’m feeling a little cold and exposed and—”

“Sexy?” His breath is hot against my ear. “Are you feeling sexy, my Emma?”

My Emma
. I want to melt.

“Am I allowed to feel sexy?” I ask. “I mean, this is punishment, right?”

Gage laughs and steps back. “Dear sweet Emma. Your punishment may be uncomfortable and sometimes it may be a little painful, but you may also find it sexy—at first. Later, you may not think that.”

“Oh.”

“Close your eyes, Emma.” Gage’s voice is pure sin, especially when he lowers it and speaks on a breath. “And no more talking.”

I close them. There is a noise behind me I cannot quite discern. A bit of a zip, perhaps. I wait and do not hear it again. After a moment, I feel Gage’s hands at my temples followed by something silky placed over my eyes. Blindfold? Taking his time, Gage pulls the fabric taut and knots it at the back of my head.