Read Online Restraining the Receptionist: ... the Receptionist, Book 2 by Juniper Bell - Free Book Online Page A

eyes to watch him do the same to himself.
    “To answer your question,” he said in a preoccupied voice as he worked. “Yes, I like to be in control. No, I don’t always get to be in control. But don’t for a second think that because I grew up with the lash, that’s why I’m dominant. My father tried to control me as a child, but it never took. He sent me off to boarding school, as befitted my class. There they tried to bully me. I soon found the only way to survive was to have the upper hand. So I fought and kicked my way to number one. Number one came with some benefits that I fully enjoyed.
    “When I’ve got a naked woman in my presence, I know what she needs. I don’t think about the rules, or what’s proper. What’s acceptable. I don’t think about anything. I act. I play. I experience. It’s the only time I feel completely at ease, when I’m bending an aroused woman to my will and giving her what she’s afraid to admit she needs.”
    I held my breath during this speech. I’d never expected to get so much explanation from him. “Or man?”
    “Or man. Inside we’re all the same, I’ve discovered. Everyone wants to be taken away from the boundaries that separate us. Tell me, little fire dragon, what do you feel when I tie you up and bring you to orgasm?” He ran the wet washcloth across my inner thigh.
    “Free,” I admitted.
    “Free from what?”
    “I don’t know. Free from people’s judgments. From worry.”
    “I’d go further. When I tend to your body’s needs as if they were my own, you’re momentarily free from the illusion that you’re separate from me. You’re not. None of us are.” He took up the towel to pat me dry, handling me like a baby. When he was done, I felt clean and fresh.
    “I gotta say, Ethan, that sounds like a load of crap.”
    “Well, I did a lot of thinking in prison,” he answered with a laugh. “Now put on this lovely dress.” I stood up so he could remove my blouse and bra and pull the dress over my head. No underwear included. The fabric slid against my skin with delicious luxuriousness. I sighed, suddenly feeling like a pampered princess.
    “Just as lovely as I predicted.” He turned me around with an admiring look in his blue eyes. “That’s why I had to do something about those walls you’d erected between us. Why I had to send Simon away.”
    “ What ?”
    “We couldn’t continue on with that artificial separation between us. It wouldn’t have been healthy for our relationship. Yours, mine and Simon’s.”
    “So you sent him on that trip on purpose?” My temperature rose.
    “On purpose? How else would I send him?”
    I pulled away from him, feeling the silky crisp fabric of the dress swish against my legs. I didn’t let it distract me from my outrage. “You know what I mean. On purpose to wear me down. Make me break the deal.”
    “Ah. Well, yes, that is precisely what I intended. Surely that wasn’t against the rules?” He gave me a mischievous wink.
    “This isn’t about the rules! This is about trust.” I took another step back.
    “That it is. You didn’t trust me before.”
    “And you think I will now?”
    “I hope you’ll trust me to know how far to go with you, yes.” With a frown, he scratched his jaw, which drew my eyes to his strong hands, the hands that had given me so much pleasure.
    “I don’t like being manipulated.”
    “I don’t like having to explain myself.” Thunder gathered on his face. Suddenly I had to get out of there. I longed to be with Simon. Sexy, sweet Simon who was always straight with me, who didn’t play unpredictable games.
    I ran from his office and snagged my purse off my desk. He followed me, moving fast.
    “What are you doing?”
    “I don’t like to explain myself,” I shot back. But when I was out the door, I poked my head back in for just a second. “Call Chantalette. See if I care.”
    Even though I detested Chantalette, I was a professional who couldn’t leave my