The Billion Dollar Contract: The Executive Collection (25 page)

It worked. Jasmine shouted in pleasure, her body clenching against his as her hips gathered renewed vigor in the name of her own wants and desires.

He said something, groaned, and filled her with his orgasm.

They remained together in the chair, although exhausted on both ends. Jasmine clung to him and wished they both had the energy to go into the bedroom and do it again, this time with the full force of his dominance rutting into her.
Maybe later.
Jasmine eased herself off him and turned her hips so she could properly sit in his lap again and kiss his reddened face. The breaths pushing against her were strong and wanted.

She would dare say that it was romantic how they sat there, his hand stroking her legs as she embraced him and thought of how comfortable this was.
It’s the endorphins.
Yet Jasmine couldn’t let them go. Rarely did she ever feel so content with a man afterward. It scared her, because this was Ethan Cole. A man who clearly did not feel the same way about her.

Yet she hoped.

The hope strengthened when they finally got up from the chair and kissed, his arms wrapped around her body.
I want to be with him.
His scent overwhelmed her, both the natural one and the cologne. It was an intoxicating combination that often lingered in her memory for hours on end.
Tonight I’ll stay.
It was decided. Jasmine was going to love on this man all night.

But when she broke their embrace to head toward the bed, Ethan stopped her. “No. You can go home.”

She stared at him, disbelieving. “What? I thought you would want me to stay the night.”

He shook his head. “It’s not necessary.” Ethan reached down and zipped himself up. “I think I want to be alone tonight.”

The way he sounded… was it depressed? Distant?
Sad?
“I don’t get it.”

“What is there to get? Your hours are up anyway. I don’t want you to have to get back really late.”

“Ethan…” Jasmine reached out to take his hand.

He snatched it away.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” There went the good feelings, the passion, the ardor she convinced herself she was holding for him.
I’m so stupid. Of course he doesn’t feel the same way.
She refused to let tears build at the corner of her eyes. “After what we just did? After that moment?” It felt stupid to say those things. Letting her delusions overtake her reasoning…
I can see him looking at me like that again!
The suffocating tenderness that most women would kill for. “You’re going to just kick me to the curb?”

“I will see you Monday. That’s hardly kicking you to the curb.”

“Oh, excuse me!” Jasmine picked up her underwear and smoothed down her skirt. “Excuse me for thinking that you had any use for me outside of my body! God, you’re a piece of work. Shit, Ethan, you just spent twenty minutes spanking, getting sucked off by, and fucking a woman and you can’t even look the least little bit happy about it?” Jasmine hopped between both feet as she struggled to put her underwear back on. “You’re crazy. How the hell are you so unhappy?” She stood up straight once her clothing was back on. “I just… yeah. I’m going to go.”

Ethan never once looked at her.
Not once!
He stood there like a mannequin – a gorgeous, stern mannequin – as if he were impervious to what went on around him in the world.
He’s shutting down.
It scared Jasmine, who wanted to take his hand and beg him to tell her what was wrong.
Why are you so distant?
This man, who paid for his girlfriends, had something more messed up with him than simply being “too busy.”

“Please. Go.”

Tears burned in Jasmine’s eyes. She was humiliated again, but there was nothing fun about this kind. “I know I’m just a sex toy. But you could at least pretend to think better of me than that.”

“You’re not a…”

“Shut up. Go to hell.” Jasmine exited the bedroom, wiping tears from her cheek as she hunted down her purse. The worst part? The fact that she had to backtrack to his bathroom to clean herself up before going to get on a public bus.
I’m dirty. I’m disgusting.
She scrubbed herself, not with the careful attention and private jokes she usually had, but with this foreboding feeling that nothing she did would make her presentable to society.

She was soiled goods now. Ethan had paid her price to claim that awful title.

18

Jasmine took his rejection unexpectedly hard. She spent Friday night curled up on her couch cuddling her cat, using him as a fluffy pillow as he groomed both himself and the top of her head.
I get more affection from my asshole cat.
The world was an unjust place.

She thought she would feel better in the morning, or at least better able to go about her day, but it never happened. Jasmine spent the entire morning burrowed in bed, getting up only to get a glass of water and a bowl of cereal when hunger pangs became too much to bear. Blackbeard yowled for the better part of an hour, telling her off for not feeding him yet, until finally he gave up and went to polish off the remnants in his food bowl. Jasmine pulled her comforter over her head and wallowed in self-pity. She didn’t get to do it very often.

I really am just a sex doll to him.
It’s what Jasmine had expected in the beginning. So what happened? When did she go from being okay with it to feeling like this?
It’s those eyes.
Those brushes of his hand. The way he spoiled her unlike a man only using her body would. Every time Jasmine made peace with what she was doing, Ethan turned her around and made her wonder if it was at all possible that he actually
felt
something for her.

And how in turn she was starting to feel things for him. Things she didn’t comprehend because she had no idea where that shit was going. It was dangerous to fall for Ethan Cole.
I don’t even know him!
Knowing what he looked like beneath his clothes and how he sounded when he came inside her didn’t count. It was intimate, but it wasn’t a relationship.

Yet when she got up to use the bathroom, she wrapped a sweater around her shoulders and discovered that it smelled like Ethan’s penthouse. His cologne. His aftershave.
Him.

It was both comforting and terrible. Under better circumstances, Jasmine would lull herself to sleep with her boss’s scent. But considering how she felt about him right now, she was better off turning it into Blackbeard’s next smelly bed.
Speaking of smelly…
Right. The litter box.

Her only saving grace that weekend was when Juan and Selena came over to watch movies and eat pizza. They could tell right away that something was wrong, but Jasmine told them something bad happened at work and left it at that. Halfway through a movie Jasmine’s phone rang with Ethan’s number. She sent him to voicemail and never checked the message. It may have been Saturday, but she was going to ignore that part of the contract.

Late Sunday evening, when she was curled up in bed with a book and a cat, Ethan called again. Jasmine still did not answer. Instead she received a text message, and although she was going to ignore it, she couldn’t help but see the tagline, “I’m sorry,” at the top of her phone.

Against her better judgment, she opened his long message.

“I’m sorry I was so inconsiderate the other night. Had I known you felt that way I would have been more accommodating. It is not my intention to upset you. Please do not take it personally either. I value my downtime and it was a rough week, as you know. Next time I’ll be sure to clear with you whether or not I’m willing to let you spend the night. I hope to see you tomorrow.”

Monday came too soon.

Jasmine went to work, since she couldn’t come up with a good excuse to stay home. Even then, she would have to go and face Ethan sometime. But she did not dress up in anything special, nor did she plan to heed his advances should they come.

They didn’t. From the moment Ethan walked in that morning, later than usual, he largely ignored Jasmine and went straight to work with the office door latched shut. It wasn’t until the mid-afternoon, when a meeting with an investor was to commence, that Ethan came out and politely asked Jasmine to come in and take notes.

“I got you something.” He reached into his desk and produced a small tablet with a detachable keyboard. At first Jasmine assumed it was purely for work… then she flipped it over and noticed a flower engraved into the leather case protecting it. Her heart dropped. “It’s meant for business, I thought that maybe…”

The investor arrived before he could finish his thought. Jasmine took her place while the meeting commenced, trying to focus on her work instead of staring at the back of Ethan’s recently trimmed head.
Thought that maybe what?
Dwelling on it would only lead to more confusion and heartache.

It was Friday before Jasmine heard more than administrative orders from Ethan. By then her heart was beginning to harden again, thanks in part to having a rip-roaring Thursday night at Juan and Selena’s place, complete with a huge meal and enough Guitar Hero to make anyone forget their work and love problems. But when Ethan asked to see Jasmine in his office shortly before lunch, she groaned, unprepared for what he was probably going to ask of her.
I don’t know if I can do it.
She got up, closed her laptop, and trudged to his office before he had to ask for her twice.

Ethan asked her to have a seat in front of his desk.
Oh, I’m probably being fired.
No bonus. How terrible.

“Would you like to go out later tonight?”

Jasmine looked up from her lap and into Ethan’s blank, emotionless face.
He’s trying so hard to not look either way.
Not too expectant, not too flippant. It was the same business face she saw every time he was in a meeting with anyone but Jackson Lyle, who had stopped by that Wednesday to laugh it up while Monica haunted the main office.
Does she act that way because she feels like me?
Was that what Jasmine would turn into if she stayed with Ethan for too long? A ghost?

“I don’t know.” It was an honest answer.

Ethan’s demeanor did not change.
Like looking at a robot.
The more Jasmine was around this man, the more she realized how messed up he was – hiring women to be his sub aside. No wonder many of them didn’t last long. “I have a dinner meeting with some colleagues right after work, but I thought I would pick you up sometime around nine and…” There was almost a hint of that self-satisfied smile on his face. “But if you don’t want to, it’s fine. It would be after your hours are up for the day anyway.”

“Indeed. And what did you have planned?”

“I had a surprise in mind for you.”

“Oh, goody!” Jasmine bit her tongue after that.
Don’t be consumed by anger, come on.
A whole week of it wasn’t good for her heart. But every time she looked at this man, she wanted to kick him under his desk.

Finally, Ethan scooted forward, folding his hands and letting his eyes soften in concern. “Did you get my text message the other night?”

“Yeah.”

“And the voicemail?”

Jasmine glanced away, crossing her arms and legs as if to put up a barrier between her and Ethan Cole. “Never listened to it.”

“I’ll say it again then. I’m sorry things ended the way they did a week ago. I had some things I had to sort out. I didn’t think you would be so bothered by me asking you to leave. I always assume that you would be more put out by me asking you to stay. I’m sorry.”

He could say it one million times and Jasmine would still not be impressed. Ethan would not be the first man to try to apologize to her after pissing her off so badly. Over the years Jasmine had realized that she was not a forgiving person. She couldn’t really explain why. Perhaps she was afraid that getting too close to a man would be emotionally dangerous. Especially a man like Ethan Cole, who had so many mistresses over the years that Jasmine was surely just another blip in his existence. After the six months were over, Jasmine had already decided to move on with her life. Even if she liked the office and her coworkers, she couldn’t stand the idea of being around Ethan for much longer. The way he pulled her into different directions was mind numbing and catastrophic to her well-being.
I thought I would be okay with it.
That was before she realized she was developing feelings for him.