Under His Command (For His Pleasure, Book 17) (7 page)

“Oh, isn’t that sweet? How nice, that you’d allow me to tag along on your little date with Travis Hill.” He stepped towards her. “Do not send him that picture, Kennedy.”

“I have to,” she said, stepping around him and walking back to her desk. If I don’t, he’ll cancel.”

“You’ll still have failed the task I gave you.”

She sat down and got on her phone, pulled up the picture and started to plug in Travis’s email address to forward the pic to him. She was angry, she realized. Easton couldn’t tell her after the fact that she’d gotten the meeting the wrong way. It was bad enough that he had given her such an impossible task in the first place.

He seemed to want her to lose—and she refused to satisfy his need for her to be unsuccessful.

“Do not send that picture,” Easton said, his voice raising. “I’m warning you.”

She hesitated, her finger hovering over the send option on her phone. She looked up at him again. “You told me to do whatever I needed to do to get him to talk to you. I did what you instructed. And not only that, but I got you a face-to-face meeting. That’s even better than what you asked for.”

“I said no false pretenses.”

“This isn’t meeting under false pretenses.”

“He’s going there to see you, not me.”

“He refused to let me tell him what I wanted to discuss with him. He specifically told me that he wanted to find out after we meet.”

Easton snorted. “He’s a total pervert. And you went along with him.”

She hit send. “I’ll let you know when he confirms, Mr. Rather.”

Easton stared at her, his eyes darkening. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“You mean, I shouldn’t have done my job—the job you hired me to do? Well sorry, but I’m a winner.”

“You like sending pictures so much, Kennedy. Well now I want a picture as well.”

Kennedy looked at him doubtfully. “You want a picture? Of me?”

“That’s right,” Easton said. “Only I’m going to take it myself. And you’re going to pose for me, exactly the way I tell you to.”

She was shaking and her heart was pounding. “What kind of pose?”

“Stand up,” Easton said, pulling out his phone and holding it up as if to snap a photo.

Kennedy felt suddenly very small and scared and timid. Was he going to make her take her top off, expose her bare breasts, her privates?

If he asks, you’ll do it. You can’t refuse.

She took a shuddering breath and readied herself to do whatever he asked.

“Look at me,” he commanded.

Kennedy stared at him as he extended the camera towards her.

“Like this?” she asked.

“Just tilt your head to the right slightly, but keep looking at me,” he said, his voice growling lower. “Now, take your left hand and put your fingers on your lips, Kennedy.”

She was shaking like a leaf, and her extremities were tingling with fear and excitement. Her chest rose and fell quickly. But she did exactly as Easton told her to do.

“Now put a finger in your mouth and suck on it,” he said, his voice lowering further, rasping with pleasure as she did what he commanded.

Kennedy tasted her own finger, closing her eyes.

“Open your eyes—look right at me. Right at the camera.”

She stared at him, suddenly wanting him to feel that she was sucking
his
finger—

or better yet—his cock. She moved her finger slowly in and out of her mouth. Between Kennedy’s legs, she felt herself becoming slick with pleasure.

“That’s enough,” Easton proclaimed suddenly, after snapping two or three quick photos. He turned around without another word and walked back into his office.

Kennedy felt confused, turned on, and anxious in a free-floating way. Had she done well? Had she given Easton what he’d wanted? Or had she somehow disappointed him yet again?

Within minutes, Travis had sent her a reply to the picture.

Very, very nice. See you at noon tomorrow.

***

Easton virtually ignored her for the rest of the day.

Kennedy spent some of that time on the Internet, reading about Easton Rather.

There was no shortage of information about him online.

She hadn’t yet researched the man she was working for, which was ironic, considering how much time had been devoted to researching Red Jameson and his company.

Easton Rather was twenty-seven years old, from a small town in Maine. He’d been a three-sport athlete and an honors student who’d gotten a full scholarship to Yale, where he’d initially studied physics before switching to finance.

So he’d been telling her the truth about that part of his life.

After graduating, Easton had decided to pursue a passion for kickboxing, and he’d apparently travelled to Holland, where he’d studied with some of the best kickboxers on the planet. For two years, he’d fought overseas in a popular organization called K10.

Easton had ended his career with a record of 14-1-1, and he’d held the middleweight K10

title for a short time, before blowing out his knee in his first title defense.

The K10 organization had brought him on as the Director of Communications of their North American division, after which he’d quickly been promoted to Vice President of the entire division, and he eventually succeeded to the point where the North American division was making more money than every other K10 branch combined.

At that point, he’d been lured over to work at a new energy drink company called STOKED, which operated out of Canada. He’d been their Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and the company grew in profitability by over three hundred percent in the two and a half years he worked at STOKED.

He was still with STOKED according to the information available online, which told Kennedy that Red Jameson must have very suddenly hired Easton to come to work at The Red Agency as the new COO.

There was article after article in the business magazines talking about how Easton Rather was the hot up-and-coming business superstar. He had that confidence, intelligence, innovative spirit and sheer magnetism that made him a real story in the industry.

By the end of her spate of research, thought she’d figured out why Red Jameson had decided to bring Easton Rather on board to work at his agency. Easton was kind of like Red Jameson 2.0, a new breed, with the fire and determination to succeed.

Easton left the office without saying a word to her and didn’t come back for over an hour. When he finally did, he barely looked at her. “You can take off,” he said, walking to the water cooler and pouring a cup.

“Excuse me?”

“There’s nothing much to do and no use sitting around twiddling your thumbs.”

“There has to be something I can do.”

“Are you arguing with me, Miss Saunders?” He stood up straight and looked at her with a no-nonsense expression that gave her a chill.

“Absolutely not. I just like to work a full day.”

“Well you can work from home then. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

She almost opened her mouth to say something else, suggest that she could organize some files, clean the refrigerator, anything. But she knew it wouldn’t go over well at all.

Instead, she finally took the hint, gathered her things, and left.

***

Kennedy was coming out of the restroom the next morning when she literally bumped right into someone walking into the office suite.

In crashing into him, she also knocked the man’s papers all across the floor.

“I’m so sorry!” she cried out. And then her brain suddenly took in the information of who she’d just run into. It was as though the possibility had become so foreign to her, that Kennedy literally wasn’t able to process it for a few seconds.

Standing in front of her, looking bemused, was the very man she’d been dying to meet in the first place—and seeing him was so unexpected that she just stood there gaping.

Red Jameson was dressed in a dapper blue and white pinstriped suit with a bright green tie—his hair was immaculate, his eyes dark and penetrating, smile disarming. He was like seeing a movie star up close, as if George Clooney himself had strolled off the movie theater screen and spoken to her.

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, apparently taking note of her reaction. He knelt down and began retrieving the papers from the floor.

Kennedy bent down beside him and started to help. “I am so, so embarrassed Mister Jameson.”

“It’s fine, don’t even worry about it. You just started working for us?”

Eason appeared in the doorway of his office. “I see you’ve had the pleasure of meeting my new assistant, Kennedy Saunders.”

Kennedy’s face grew hot with shame. “I didn’t see him, I was coming out of the bathroom and—“

“And it was an accident,” Red laughed, standing back up. “It happens.”

Easton raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment on whether he agreed with Red’s assessment of the situation.

“Good to see you,” Easton said to him, as Red passed by into his office.

Kennedy walked back to her desk, feeling like a complete imbecile.

But Easton hadn’t moved from the doorway. “You coming?”

“Coming where?” she asked, confused.

Easton looked at her like she was certifiable. “Are you all right? Did that collision with our CEO scramble your brains?”

“No, it didn’t scramble anything.”

“Good, because I need you in there with us taking notes. We’re going to be discussing the agenda for the next couple of days. Grab your laptop and come inside.”

He turned and walked back into the office.

Kennedy took her laptop and hurriedly followed him into his office. Red was sitting in one chair, drinking a cup of coffee, and Easton was sitting behind his desk.

Red glanced at her as she took a seat near the back wall, out of their line of sight.

“You look familiar, Kennedy,” he said. “Have we met before?”

“I never figured you for the lame pickup line kind of guy,” Easton joked.

Red gave him a look. “It’s not a damn pickup line. She really reminds me of someone.”

Kennedy’s hands trembled over the keyboard of her computer. She licked her lips. “I don’t believe we’ve ever met before,” she said. “I must just have one of those faces people think they remember.”

Red nodded. “Well, in any case, I’m glad to have you on board. Easton tells me you’ve already had an impact in getting him a meeting with Trevor Hill Jr. today.”

Kennedy hadn’t expected that. She didn’t think that Easton appreciated how she’d gotten him the meeting, so she was shocked that he’d bragged about it to Red. Her face flushed. “Thanks. I’m trying my best to contribute.”

“Well, if Easton gets that account, you’ll have just about done enough to earn a promotion already, and you haven’t even been here a week.”

She smiled, but looked back at her computer screen. She wasn’t ready for this, wasn’t ready for Red Jameson to be here. He was too close—too close in so many ways.

Sitting back, opening a blank word document, she tried to relax and just let her fingers type the important stuff that Red and Easton discussed. She was no longer front and center, and they had pretty much forgotten she existed, which was just fine with her.

“Tomorrow, we roll you out to the media at large,” Red said to Easton. “That means interviews all morning, talking you up in a major way. We’ve got to make it clear that this is a big step forward for the agency, and it’s not a response to any internal problems.”

“Of course,” Easton agreed. “And it would be nice if I could announce a big deal to go along with it, something to prove myself.”

“That will come in due time.”

“Maybe this afternoon, with some help from my lucky assistant.”

Kennedy felt the color rise to her cheeks again.

The rest of the meeting flew by. She kept up very well, despite the fact that they threw around some names and jargon that she wasn’t familiar with. At the end, Red gave her another kind smile. “I swear that I’ve met you before,” he said.

She cast her eyes downward, suddenly nervous that somehow he really did know.

Somehow he would figure it all out. “I don’t think so,” she replied.

“And how’s the family—Nicole, the baby?” Easton asked, as they all stood up and Red made his way to the suite door.

“Really, really great. But you know what,” he said, turning again. “You should come and see for yourself. Friday night, swing by for dinner or drinks. You free?”

Easton laughed. “I could probably free myself up to have drinks with my boss.”

“Don’t do it just because I asked.”

“Seriously, that’s exactly why I’m doing it.”

Red glanced at her. “Kennedy, would you like to come too?”

Her jaw dropped. “You mean…to your house?”

Red laughed. “I don’t see why not. But it isn’t a requirement, it’s completely up to you. Just thought I’d let you know you’re welcome to come along with Easton.”

“I’d love to,” she answered. “Thank you so much.”

Easton shrugged. “Well, okay. Whatever you say.”

“Exactly.” Red laughed and waved, then walked out.

After Red left, Easton sighed and checked the time. “Look, I’ve got some work to do and then we should leave to go to the bar. Clean up your meeting minutes and forward them along to me, okay?”

“Okay.” She was still high from being invited to Red’s house.

She allowed herself to make direct eye contact with Easton for a moment and a thrill went through her. Easton’s lips were perfect, his skin appeared cool and smooth and she imagined the way it would feel when their faces touched as his lips touched hers.

Does he even want me?
He could have had me the night before last and he chose
to do nothing, sending me home. He saw me completely naked and rejected me.

No, he hired you. He gave you what you wanted, didn’t he?

It was confusing.

Easton was already gone, back in his office doing whatever work he had to do.

Kennedy was left staring into space, wondering what his intentions were, what he expected of her. She wondered what might happen on Friday when she went with Easton Rather to Red and Nicole’s home.

In the end, she realized that everything had begun unfolding exactly as it was supposed to. She was getting closer.