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Just as Reggie instructed her, Jocelyn wore the corset three days in a row. Though for three days he ignored her. Except for business, few words passed between them.
Jocelyn was wary the entire time, looking for a simple glance, a change in his voice, some softness in his otherwise cool demeanor.
He’d said some lovely things to her at lunch after the trip to Marie’s. Sitting in a bustling city restaurant with the restrictive garment about her middle, she couldn’t forget that she was wearing it. In a very real way, it made her his, as if she actually belonged to him. The idea was absurd, but it aroused her anyway. Even though no one knew about the corset, she felt vulnerable and exposed.
Reggie complimented her on her poise. He even smiled once when he looked at her. She’d caught him eyeing her while she was busy eating a messy chicken sandwich. She got the distinct impression as she stared at his passive face that he adored her. But she’d never tell him she had these thoughts about him. He’d certainly deny it.
The lunch over, the spell, or whatever witchcraft had been woven around them disappeared. It reminded her of Tahoe just before she left. Reggie had a way of drawing inside himself so quickly, she couldn’t catch the act when it happened. It was just suddenly there, the cool, the detachment, while all the enchanting charm simply vanished.
Three days with little encouragement in their bizarre relationship, Jocelyn was uneasy. On the fourth day, she was in his office, arranging a report on his desk, a half dozen files there to illustrate the point she would be arguing about for the next half hour. She sincerely hoped that it would not be the kind of confrontation she had with him nearly every day. He was the most exasperating man to work for, picking apart every little detail of her work with a master’s cunning eye. He was too intelligent for his own good, she thought. He processed details like a computer, but to grasp the subtleties, the feeling part, that was as mystifying to him as she was.
“Did you wear the corset today?” Reggie asked her. He came up behind her without her knowing he was in the room.
Jocelyn jerked around.
“Good god! You scared me.”
For an instant, his warm hands steadied her, placed tenderly on her shoulder, an instant’s worth of concern appeared in his expression before it vanished. He dropped his hand to his side.
“Did you wear the corset?” he repeated his question.
She cringed. Not one word about it for three days. Why today?
“No,” she answered truthfully.
“Oh?”
“No. It’s horrible getting it
on, I have to twist it around, and I can hardly tie it. I didn’t think you really cared, since you’ve be ignoring me.”
“Go home and put it on,” he said.
“What?”
“You didn’t follow my instructions. Go home and put it on. I want it on you when I punish you.”
“But…”
“You’re on my time. Do as I say.”
“I can’t believe…you’re out of your mind!”
He glared at her. “Don’t argue with me.” His anger made her shiver in the strangest kind of way. There was lust behind the brusque exchange, but not simple lust. An affair with Reggie Harold was a lot more complicated than that. “This affair of ours is what you wanted. Or have you changed you mind as easily as you counter my wishes?”
She remembered her vow to him, how she swore that he couldn’t know her heart. But was it silly to follow his demands? she wondered. Likely, it was silly and ridiculous and childish. But without having to even search herself, Jocelyn was aware of the compulsion to please him and surrender to his demands. Her only disappointment was, she’d been on the raw edge of sexual heat for days now, and he was still offering no relief. Maybe it was time to take him again, to wile her way into his lap, unzip his pants and remind him of the other benefits of their relationship. After she’d returned home for the corset, of course.
Jocelyn was angry with herself all the way home, all through the nasty struggle to put the corset on, and all the way back to the office. She fought with herself every second, thinking this obsession with Reginald Harold was insane. To make matters worse, when he ignored her after she returned to the office she was furious. The gall of the man to avoid her. After he’d drawn her away from important meetings for something as trivial as a corset!
“Miss Killian, in my office.” She heard his voice interrupting her meeting. He stood in the doorway of the conference room as she was explaining spread sheets to several of his managers.
She stared up at his impassive face.
“Now,” he clarified. He left the room before she could reply.
Jocelyn gazed at the empty space for a moment and then resumed her work, while the three middle managers standing around her desk stared at her, waiting for her to leave.
“I’ll see Mr. Harold when we’re finished,” she stated. Her look was nearly as piercing as his. “This is certainly as important as anything he has to say to me right now.”
