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"Um, I didn't realize that there was a quid pro quo for me giving you pleasure."

"I didn't ask you for the pleasure."

"You certainly didn't say you didn’t want it."

"I mean, if you're offering to give me something that delicious"—she grins—"I'm not gonna say no, but it's not like I begged you for it."

"I would like that, you know?" I say smoothly, looking at her lips. Her eyes look confused for a second, and she leans forward. I realize that her hands are still on my wrist, and I kind of like the feel of her.

"Are you going to explain further?" she asks.

"I would kind of like you to beg me to pleasure you, but maybe next time with my tongue?"

She stares at me for a couple of seconds, and her lips twitch.

"What's so funny?" I ask her.

"I think it's hilarious that you think that I would have to beg you to pleasure me with anything. I bet you're dying to get your tongue right between my legs." She licks her lips. "Aren't you?"

"Maybe," I shrug, "but maybe I'll only do it if you ask."

"Well, then, you'll be waiting a long time," she says. "And frankly, there are many tongues that would more than be adequate."

"What are you trying to say? There's another man's tongue you'd rather have between your legs?"

"I mean, in a couple of months, it will likely be my husband's." She shudders slightly and looks out of the window.

"That doesn't please you?" I ask her.

She turns back to look at me, and there's a flash of anger in her eyes. "No. Who do you think I am? I mean, I'm doing this to help my father, but do I look like the sort of woman that wants to slut herself out to some man I don't even know? Fuck, no! It makes me curdle up inside to think that my father would do this to me."

She's pissed, and I'm taken aback. This is the first time I've heard her so angry and hurt.

"I thought he loved me, but obviously, I was wrong. I just don't even understand how he could do this to me." She takes a deep breath. "But it's fine. I'll do it because it's my duty, and I love him, and I love my family, but?—"

"You don't have to do it if you don’t want to." My eyes bore into hers, and she shrugs.

She lets out a low laugh. "What am I gonna do, continue working as your shitty-ass assistant?"

"If you want to," I say softly. "I wouldn't fire you."

"We both know that I'm likely not going to be able to do everything that you want. Let's be real." She takes a deep breath. "You own a multi-billion-dollar company or million-dollar company. I don't even know because that's how great of an assistant I am. I don't know Excel, I can't type that fast, and I'm not really interested in doing administrative skills."

"And that's why I put you into a different role," I say softly.

"And that was nice of you, though I'm not really sure why you would do that, seeing as you needed an assistant. You must be so behind. I mean, I do feel guilty. I saw all the paperwork you had on your table in your apartment, and…"

She bites down on her lower lip. "Look, I hate to say this, but if you wanna fire me because I can't do the job, that's fine. I just beg of you, please don't make Juniper, Skye, or Lila work for you. You're not a horrible guy, but you're really hard on them. It's really stressful to them, and I love them, and I just?—"

"Hey," I say. "This has been eating at you, hasn't it?"

"I mean, a little bit," she shrugs. "I just don't understand."

"What don't you understand?"

"I mean, they told me the sort of things you said and did to them when they were working for you, and you haven’t been that hard on me at all yet." She blinks. "And I don't understand why not."

I know we're in dangerous territory now, and she's correct. I'd been hard on Skye and Lila and Juniper because I needed them to complain about me. I needed her to step up and take this role, but the fact of the matter was, I also needed to ride her hard. I needed her to get so pissed off that she would happily flee to Italy to do her father's bidding.