AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But under the circumstances…it seemed an eternity.
“I understand the rules, Nick. But this is…this is not going to work.”
His head tilted just the slightest bit. “Does that mean you’re putting an end to this? Are you saying you won’t do it?”
It was an important question, worded exactly as we’d been instructed it needed to be worded. The “escape hatch,” Dennis had called it. Ask the question, say the words, and it would all stop.
But in that case, it wouldn’t be just an ending. It would be a failure too.
And there was no way inhellI was going to fail. That was Nick’s strong point. “No, I’m not saying that. But that doesn’t mean we have to…do anything where that matters.” I didn’t like how nervous I was saying the words, the way my fingers wanted to tremble as I clasped them together around my knee, my legs crossed in an unconscious gesture of self-protection. What was I protecting myself from?
But I knew. It was the same thing that I’d been fleeing from for a long time.
The truth.
We sat in that same office for several minutes, both of us staring off at the city, so much unsaid, so much I wished I hadn’t said. The silence stretched on until I began to wonder if Nick had lost his nerve. It would be fitting if that was the case.
Then he took a deep breath, his chest expanding as he inhaled. “I want you to stand up and take your top off.”
“I’m sorry,what?”I was certain that I’d misheard him. He couldn’t possibly have asked such a thing. Right?
“I said I want you to take your top off.” His voice was firmer as he said it this time, a hint of something else in the tone, steel, a resolve that both infuriated me and intrigued me.
But I wasn’t about to let Nick know that.
“Why?”My question was almost as absurd as his statement, but I couldn’t help but ask him. Of all the things I expected to come out of his mouth at that moment, that most definitely was not one of them.
“Two reasons, actually. One, because I told you to.” His gaze flashed, a warning, the tone of his voice dropping an octave. “Two—and the most important reason—is that I want to get a look at your tits.”
Chapter 2
Nick
A little less than an hour ago I had been sitting in my truck, parked two blocks down the street from Dennis’ building, trying for the hundredth time to convince myself to drive the fuck back home.
I didn’t knowwhyI’d said it. I’d had no plans to do something like that, but the order seemed to spring from my lips with a will of its own.
And even as I said the words, I didn’t really expect she’d follow through with them. To actuallydowhat she was told.
Doing as she was told was something that I had long ago accepted just wasn’t in Eva’s DNA, no matter how much I might like it to have been.
She sat there so still that I began to think she was going to just walk out that door. Not that I would blame her, really, as what I’d asked her—what I’d ordered her to do—was plainly crazy. When a man finds himself in a dire situation, knows he’s moments from complete disaster, sometimes taking a chance and rolling the dice is the best shot he’s got.
She said something under her breath then, but I couldn’t quite make it out. It was definitely a protest, but it was more irritated than defiant. She wasn’t going to go for it, I knew that. I wanted to see how she would react though, to understand what it was she was truly thinking. Because I had long ago learned that the words that came out of her mouth and the thoughts deep in her mind, the emotions that she struggled with…were all too often not at all the same thing.
“Well? What are we doing here, Eva?” I turned slightly in my seat, wanting to make her feel my gaze upon her, to make her understand that I wasn’t going to relent on this. This was part of the rule.
It’s not like you have anything else left to lose.
At precisely the moment that I was about to tell her that it was over, she stood up.
The black slacks she wore clung to her ass and her legs, very much like the type of pants she would typically wear to work. But this was no work trip. She’d flown in this week just for this.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she said, shaking her head slowly, gazing out the window as if looking at me would somehow make this worse. I wondered if it would, and if I should force her to look at me anyway. After all, she had to do what she was told, didn’t she?
The form-fitting, cream-colored long sleeve blouse she wore, buttoned up to a high collar, was a look I hadn’t seen her wear in a very long time. That top certainly wasnotsomething that she would have worn to work though, and I found it quite attractive indeed. I didn’t want to admit how good she looked.
We were both pushing forty, and while I was beginning to feel my years, she’d just seemed to get more beautiful as time went on. I’d heard about women supposedly hitting the wall—but if Eva had hit that proverbial wall, it hadn’t slowed her down one bit.
