Read Online Bonds of Courage by Lynda Aicher - Free Book Online

pulled at her. “I’m not asking for a contract, just someone to dominate me.”
    The open longing displayed on his face seemed to reach into her to pluck away at her resistance. It would be nice to have something consistent with someone. Something to count on when everything was crazy. With him like this, it wasn’t hard to morph the picture into one where he was hard and naked, waiting for her. The thought alone had the heat simmering from her nipples to her core.
    Her phone picked that moment to chime again, reminding her that she had things to do, and contemplating playing with Holden wasn’t one of them.
    “Stand up.”
    He responded immediately. Once again, she caught his cringe and small falter as he stood, favoring his right knee.
    “Why did you kneel if it hurts you?” she snapped, stepping closer. The anger that hissed through her wasn’t justified. She had no responsibility for him, professional or personal. But he shouldn’t be kneeling if it hurt him. None of this was worth risking injury.
    “It’s not that bad.” He frowned then added, “I wanted to please you.”
    “Well, that doesn’t please me.”
    “Really? Then tell me what will.”
    Another chime had her spinning away to grab her work phone from her desk. It was an easy distraction that got her out of answering him. Because in reality, there was probably a hell of a lot he could do to please her. Too much.
    The second and third chimes had come from her personal phone, so she checked that next. There were two texts from Liv, requesting that Vanessa come early and to see if she could grab some used hockey sticks from the arena. Like there were dozens of them lying around for Vanessa to claim.
    She snatched up her work phone to find a text from Angie, reminding her of the meeting she’d scheduled with a news reporter in forty minutes. Shit. There was no way she’d be able to buy a bunch of hockey sticks before heading to the Glaciers’s office for the other stuff.
    Looking up, she found the answer to her problems. It was like the Universe had sent him over to help her. She smiled, a slow-growing one that would’ve had any submissive she’d played with begging for mercy. Only Holden didn’t know her well enough to be wary. “You want to please me?”
    “Yes, Mistress.” Zero hesitation. At some point in the past two weeks, Mr. Hauke had found his balls and decided to own them. There was something attractive in that.
    “All right.” She caught his grin before she looked down to swipe through her phone in search of her sister’s work address. She wrote it down, along with the name of her contact at the Glaciers’s office. Walking around her desk, she extended the paper to Holden. “Here. My schedule’s packed today and one of my clients backed out of a commitment for me.”
    “Who?”
    “It doesn’t matter. But it can be your gain.” She waved the paper at him. “Here’s the address of the place where he was supposed to make an appearance and talk to kids about hockey. It’s at noon, but you need to stop by the Glaciers’s offices and pick up some promotional items and also go to the sporting goods store by their building and buy twenty hockey sticks, kid sizes. Charge it to my account there.”
    “You have an account at a sporting goods store?” The doubt on his face was quickly wiped away at her glare.
    “Of course I do. I rep athletes. You have no idea how many bribes I have to buy every year.” One of the first things she did after signing a new client was to have him autograph a few dozen jerseys, bats, balls or hockey sticks. Thankfully, she only repped hockey and baseball players. Their opposing seasons kept her schedule somewhat sane.
    He took the paper, glancing at it before looking back to her. “If I do this, will you be my Mistress?”
    “No.”
    He sighed. “Then why should I do this for you?”
    “Do you have plans today?”
    A short pause. “Not until four.”
    “Then there’s no reason you can’t