Page 6

I was too riveted, watching their demonstration, watching my boss beat some woman who showed more pleasure, more emotion on her face and in her eyes from a man spanking her ass than I had ever experienced in my lifetime.

All the cooled parts of me sparked, heated, and I froze. My hands curled around the rope in front of me, digging into the soft velvet, and next to me, someone bumped me on the shoulder while they took their position.

I stayed there. Watching. Hating it. But damn if I couldn’t stop watching Bennett.

He was rude to me. Bossy. Now it all made sense. But he wasn’t kind like Shawn. I couldn’t imagine Bennett snowplowing a neighbor’s driveway unless he got something from it. Shawn laughed and joked and teased and was playful. He was nothing like the Bennett I knew from the office.

Not that’d I’d known this side of him, either. And Jesus. His arms. If arm porn magazines were a thing he could be on the cover. His biceps bulged every time he bent his arm. The slap of leather on flesh echoed in my ears.

He dropped the crop to his side and walked toward the woman. As he reached her, he bent down, pushing hair off her face and behind her ear. He whispered something and she nodded in response. They continued speaking in murmured tones I couldn’t hear but never, not once, had I ever seen Bennett’s gaze go so soft when he spoke as he was in that moment.

He was unmitigated power and control and bossy asshole in the office, but on that stage, he was none of it except controlled. He smiled at the woman, whispered some more and when she nodded again, he ran his thumb down her cheek. He turned his back to the crowd and grabbed a bottle of water. Untwisting it, he held it out for the woman. Bound, she couldn’t hold it on her own but she tilted her head back. In a move so tender I didn’t think he had it in him, he cupped her jaw, held her still while he pressed the bottle of water to her lips.

The serene expression in her eyes and the tender gestures from him stalled my beating heart inside my chest and I couldn’t think. Couldn’t move away. He’d never shown me an ounce of compassion in the two months I’d been working for him. He was behaving completely the opposite of how I’d known him.

It made me lean forward, desperate for a small hint of that kindness directed at me, and I hadn’t even been aware I needed it, wanted it so desperately from him, until it was being poured out onto someone else.

His girlfriend? The thought tasted like sludge deep in my throat. Of course it was. Had to be. No way was a man like Bennett Ashby single. And was that jealousy I was tasting? How absurd. I didn’t have a crush on my egomaniac boss.

I just wanted to be treated kindly. That was all.

He turned and scanned the crowd behind him.

I didn’t move quick enough. There was nowhere to hide.

His gaze landed on me and all that warmth sparked like an inferno as he stared at me. He showed no expression and we stood there, me heating and trembling and holy shit why hadn’t I run yet? Bennett’s softness from talking to the woman evaporated. Cold. Domineering. Eyes glued on me, he walked back to the woman and spoke to her again.

But his eyes were still on me, his gaze unwavering and I was too frozen stupid to move. I couldn’t break his spell. I’d just watched him whip a woman and I no longer wanted to puke.

I wanted that soft gaze I’d seen him give her.

And I wanted it on me.

Yeah, my sparkling water had definitely been drugged with crazy sauce.