Seduced (The Billionaire's Command #1) (5 page)

When I got back to the
room I shared with Lisa, she practically attacked me when I walked
in the door.

“Where the hell were
you?”

“What? I went to my
surfing lesson.”

“Yeah, like ten hours
ago! I thought you’d drowned!”

“Sorry, Lisa. I did
actually have an accident on the beach, and this guy saved me, and
then he wanted to buy me a drink, and I thought it would be rude
seeing as he was the reason I was alive and all.”

This realization of
exactly what I had been doing made Lisa change her tune
instantly.

“Are you serious? Oh my
God, Caroline! And after all your going on about how that wasn’t
the type of woman you are!”

I could feel the blush
rising up my face. Lisa was embarrassing me, and not only did she
know it, she relished it.

“Little virgin
Caroline, you’re a big girl now!”

“Shut up, you know damn
well I wasn’t a virgin.”

“You have to tell me
everything!
” Lisa ordered, jumping onto the bed to sit next
to me. “No. Not here. This requires celebration. Let’s go down to
the bar and
then
you can tell me everything.”

I laughed as Caroline
practically dragged me out of the room.

“Hold on, I’m barely
dressed, let me put something decent on first,” I begged. Lisa was
like a kid who had just been told they’re going to Disneyland. I
couldn’t help but laugh at her enthusiasm. I couldn’t believe I was
actually going to tell her what had happened. I wanted to keep it
to myself, but she had obviously figured it out, and I knew there
was no point in lying to her.

Ten minutes later we
were down at the bar and I recounted my entire day to Lisa, her
eyes glued to me the entire time.

“If it wasn’t for the
fact that I know you don’t have the imagination to make something
like that up, I literally would not believe that story.”

“I’m not sure, but I
think you just insulted me.”

“Probably, but you know
what? I don’t care. Every woman on the planet wants to be able to
tell a story like that, and yet you’re the one who actually gets to
tell it.”

“Maybe, but I didn’t
really want to.”

“You didn’t want to
have sex with him?”

“No, it’s not that.
It’s more... I didn’t want to lose control like that. There was
something about him, something really primal, really dominating.
None of my old boyfriends were like that at all.”

“That’s because your
old boyfriends were an accountant and a guy who preferred video
games to having sex with you. No offense, but your old boyfriends
weren’t exactly studs.”

“Hey, that’s mean!” I
replied, offended. Sure, my old boyfriends hadn’t been the manliest
people, but I had liked them at the time. Of course, those
relationships had all ended, some of them badly.

“Well, did you like
it?”

“Did I like what?”

“Being dominated.”

“The weird thing is, I
did. It’s so unlike me. I didn’t think I’d like it at all.”

“That’s totally normal.
Especially since you’re a control freak in real life, I’m totally
not surprised that you like to give it up in the bedroom.”

“Oh my God, don’t say
it like that Lisa!” I hissed, mortified at the casual way she was
talking about this. She laughed in reply.

“Don’t be such a prude.
As I said, it’s totally normal. Sometimes I get Rob to tie me up
and...”

“Ewww, TMI, stop that
sentence right now!” I interrupted, covering my ears.

“Oh you’re such a
baby.”

“Maybe, but I don’t
want to hear about you and Rob’s sex life.”

“Why not? I just
listened to yours.”

“Yeah, but you’re a
pervert.”

“One day, when you hit
puberty, you’ll understand,” Lisa retorted, sticking her tongue out
and ordering another drink.

* * *

Despite Lisa’s
assurances, I lay awake in my bed that night, staring at the
ceiling. I had never been so confused about anything before in my
life. This wasn’t the sort of thing I normally did. I wasn’t that
kind of woman. It’s not like I had anything against people who had
one night stands, absolutely not. It just wasn’t the sort of thing
I personally did.

And yet, I’d done it.
More than that, Mark had completely dominated me, and I liked it!
Why the hell did my body react the way it did? Had it just been so
long since I’d had any sex at all that anything would have turned
me on? It had to be something like that.

Eventually I told
myself it didn’t matter. I was never going to see Mark again
anyway. We were leaving in less than 48 hours. In two days I’d be
back in Minneapolis, back to my predictable life. I could go back
to work, back to analyzing stock data. After all, it was what I did
best. This had been a great holiday, but it was time to check back
in to reality.

Sure enough, as we flew
back to Minneapolis, I leaned back in my seat. I hadn’t seen Mark
since that night, and now I was definitely never going to see him
again. Hell, even if I wanted to, I didn’t even know his last name.
He was a memory now, a memory that caused a flicker in my nether
regions every time I thought about it.

For Lisa’s part, she
took great joy in my torment about it. She teased me constantly,
knowing how uncomfortable it made me. But even so, life quickly
settled back in to normal. There was always more paperwork to do,
more to fill out. And yet, I still found my mind drifting away in
the middle of the day. I’d stare out the window of my little office
at the great view of the parking lot and think about Hawaii, think
about that night with Mark. I tried to force those thoughts to the
back of my head, but no matter what, I couldn’t stop thinking about
him.
You need a hobby or something, seriously. You’re acting
like some sort of sex crazed maniac
I thought to myself as I
fantasized about Mark once more.

He was pretty much the
sexiest, nicest, best guy in bed I could possibly imagine. There
was literally nothing he’d ever done that felt weird, creepy or
anything like that. He was perfect. It was too bad I was never
going to see him again.

Two weeks after I came
back from Hawaii, I was settling in for an evening of relaxing in
front of the TV. I decided to do some laundry, so wearing my
pyjamas I shoved one of those ‘healthy’ TV dinners in the microwave
and started flipping through the channels. I had a pile of work to
do in the spare bedroom that had been turned into a home office,
but whatever. It was Friday, the work I had to do could totally
wait until the weekend. Right now, I was going to catch up on the
episodes of CSI I’d missed.

Just as the microwave
beeped to let me know my dinner was ready, there was a knock at the
door. For a second I didn’t even recognize the sound.

“What the hell?”I
muttered to myself. No one ever knocked at my door. The last time
it happened had to be what – three years ago, when Mr. Ulstein down
the hall had collapsed and his wife needed me to call 911 because
she couldn’t see the numbers on the phone.

I opened the door,
thankful that I lived in a safe enough neighborhood that I didn’t
need to worry about there not being a peep hole, and my mouth
dropped open.

Mark was standing
there. Mark, from Hawaii. Sexy Mark, with that wavy brown hair that
drove me insane and those glistening blue eyes that seemed to look
straight into my soul.

What the hell was he
doing here?

“What the hell are you
doing here?” I asked, not realizing that my mouth said the words
I’d been thinking.

“What, no hello?” he
asked with a grin. That was when I realized he had a small bouquet
of flowers in his hand. An orchid, some daisies, a few other exotic
flowers I didn’t recognize. I’d never really been the flowers type
of girl.

“No, you don’t get a
hello until you tell me what the hell you’re doing, standing here
at my door?”

My privacy was
enormously important to me. It was something I took very seriously,
and I didn’t like having a guy who was still pretty much a complete
stranger finding out where I lived and showing up on my
doorstep.

Mark’s smile faded.

“I thought I’d surprise
you, that’s all,” he said, looking a bit dejected.

“Surprises are good
when they’re not incredibly stalkerish,” I replied. I might have
been a bit harsher than I otherwise would have been, but this was
serious to me. I placed a premium on my privacy. My mother spent
years trying to figure out where I was, trying get back into my
life, trying to suck the life and soul out of whatever happiness I
had created for myself. It was incredibly important to me that I
stay as hidden as possible, and a man I’d met one night showing up
out of the blue, unexpected on my doorstep was a sign that I wasn’t
quite as hidden as I liked to imagine I was.

“Look, you’re right,”
Mark replied, opening his arms wide, in a disarming way. “I’m
completely out of line here. I’m going to go. Listen, here’s my
card. It’s got my cell number on it. I’m going to be in town for
another two days. If you want to meet, go out on a date, I’d love
to see you again. If you don’t, I understand. Sorry for crossing a
line.”

He placed the flowers
in my arms, and the next thing I knew, he was gone. It was almost
like he had never been there in the first place, but the business
card and flowers in my hands proved otherwise.

As soon as I closed the
door behind me once more I began to second guess my every move. I
had never been the most self confident person, my mother spent my
entire childhood making sure of that, but I didn’t think I was
thi
s paranoid about everything.

Had I overreacted? Was
that a totally normal thing for people to do? Should I have invited
him in? No, it wasn’t normal. It had definitely crossed over into
the line of creepy.

But still, even if it
was a bit creepy, even if it wasn’t exactly what normal people did,
should I call him? I wasn’t sure. I stared at the card that I
placed on the table while I got some water for the flowers. I
briefly considered checking the flowers to make sure there wasn’t a
hidden camera in them or something, then scolded myself for being
so paranoid and simply put them on the table.

I knew I was a very
private person, but was I being too private? I wasn’t sure. I tried
to give Lisa a call, tried to get her advice, then remembered that
she and Rob always went out for a romantic dinner on Friday nights.
She would rave about how nice it was on Monday, like she always
did. I smiled to myself as I thought about it.

I eventually caught up
on those CSI episodes I was meaning to watch, but my brain was
elsewhere. I spent the weekend wondering if I should call Mark. A
couple of times I even picked up the phone and started dialing the
number, but stopped myself. Why was I calling him? He was a one
night stand with stalkerish tendencies that lived like six states
away. There was no way this could be a relationship. And yet, a
part of me kept trying. My body kept trying to get me to contact
him. Was I that sex starved, did I really enjoy that night with him
so much that I was willing to do it again?

Sunday afternoon I
finally got my answer. With a sudden energy I didn’t know I had, I
got up, grabbed my phone and punched the numbers in with the
ferocity of someone who knew that if they stopped they would never
start again. Before I had the chance to think about it, before my
brain had a chance to say no, the phone was ringing. Mark picked up
on the third ring.

“Hello, Mark
speaking.”

“Hey, Mark, it’s
Caroline,” I answered, not really knowing what else to say. Was
that what I should have said?

“Oh! Hey Caroline, it’s
nice to hear from you.”

“Yeah, you too. Even
though I called you. I guess. Well, seeing as I kicked you out the
other night...”

JUST STOP
TALKING
my brain begged, realizing this sentence was going
nowhere but downhill, fast.

“Sorry. That came out
wrong.”

“No, no. You were right
about that. I crossed a line, I shouldn’t have done it, and I need
to apologize for it. I’m sorry, Caroline.”

“It’s alright.”

“Can I make it up to
you by taking you out to dinner? I’m leaving first thing tomorrow
morning, but we can grab a bite to eat before then if you’re up for
it.”

“That sounds nice,
where do you want to meet?”

“Well, you’re the
local, where do you recommend?”

An hour later I was
sitting in a booth at a local restaurant, made up to be a 50s diner
style, that served hands down the best milkshakes in town. I stared
at my hands, my mind wandering as all those dark corner of my brain
that still filled with self doubt came to the forefront.

What if he isn’t
coming? What if he decided you were too bitchy at your apartment?
What if he decided he actually doesn’t want to see you again?

Suddenly, all my fears
were eased as Mark slipped into the booth across from me. As I
looked up and saw those gorgeous cheekbones, that stubble that
looked to be a day or two old, I could feel electricity pounding
through my body, my heart beat rising, my chest pressing against my
shirt. Memories of that night in Hawaii came flooding back. I
wanted to feel those same feelings, experience the ecstasy I’d
gotten from that night.

“Hey,” he greeted
casually. “Sorry I’m a couple minutes late, had a bit of trouble
finding the place.”

“That’s alright, I just
got here myself,” I replied. It wasn’t
entirely
true, but it
wasn’t like I’d been waiting more than ten minutes.

“I wanted to say sorry
in person for showing up unexpectedly at your door the other
night.”

“Thanks. It’s ok
though, I’m a little bit more paranoid than most people, I should
probably get all the crazy out of the way on our first date.”