NATHAN
I took her hand and pulled her body up against mine. How did she keep doing that? Outplaying the player? I had met assassins that were easier to bed. Hell I saved myself by getting laid on occasion. Elena Moore was something else though. She was a beautiful, strong woman and she knew it, made no apologies for it.
"I rather enjoy hate sex," watching her breath hitch as I peered into her face.
Who was this woman? I was practically begging for her now and not in a way that amused me. I was starting to get the sinking feeling that I'd enjoy anything with her. Maybe even things where she got to keep her clothes on.
"Hate implies emotion, Your Grace. Heaven forbid you experience any towards a woman," she said, seamlessly distancing herself from me once more.
This time she succeeded in walking away. Did I actually like her? Did it actually bother me that she just, very politely, told me to fuck off? Ridiculous, of course not.
Besides, she didn't have to like me for me to do his job or get her into bed. Most of the women I took home didn't even know my name. We were practically in a long term relationship by my standards. I let her go though. Elena was a baby steps type of woman.
She was just a woman though. Right. Wasn't fucking with my head at all.
2020, July 24th
ELENA
I was starting to sweat a little. There were no flowers today. I didn't realize that I had gotten used to the flowers. They were different every day. Sometimes he went classical with a bouquet of red roses. Other times he sent flowers I needed to look up because I'd bloody never heard of the things before. His crusade certainly made showing up to work interesting.
I was never going to go out with him, but what woman didn't like showing up to a desk that held a bouquet of flowers? Did I finally push his buttons too hard? Did my sass cost me my shot at becoming CEO? It was by no means certain that my father would find the 2%. I could still go to the shareholders' meeting and take my chances.
Who was I kidding? There was no chance in hell that my father wouldn't find that 2% if it was out there. I was reached for my phone to ask Lydia to get me Nathan Dormer's number. He strolled through the door before I could make the call, followed by a hysterical Lydia.
"Miss me?" Nathan asked.
"Apologies, My Lady. His Grace—" began a frantic Lydia.
"Leave us," I said, staring at his annoyingly cocky grin.
My gaze fell on the flowers in his hand. I turned away quickly, hoping he had missed the glance.
"They're wild flowers," he said, because of course he had caught the stolen look. "Figured I'd try something new since you probably threw the bought stuff out the moment they arrived. I guess I was wrong."
Nathan dropped in the chair on the other side of my desk. I sat down too.
"Please, sit," I said sarcastically.
What had possessed me to keep them all? My office looked like a bloody mini flower shop. I had at least a week's worth of flowers in there. His confidence just got a boost it didn't need. He didn't say anything, just smiled wider, which was somehow worse.
"You should have called first. I could have been in a meeting."
"You're not though. Lucky me. Besides, if I called first, you probably would have gotten rid of the flowers."
He went there, of course he did. He was looking at the flowers like I made some kind of shrine for him or something. His ambush was getting under my skin.
Rein it in, Elena.
"Ten," he said, laying the new flowers down on my desk.
"Excuse me?"
"Ten dates in exchange for my 2%."
"Look, Your Grace, just because I didn't throw out your flowers—"
"Nathan. Nate if you like. I've stolen enough olives, which really I only do because I know you aren't looking. It gives me a pass to stare down your dress. And you've dropped enough towels for us to be on a first name basis, El."
I felt my face redden. What? What the fuck was that supposed to mean? I didn't ask though. Wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
"Fuck no," I said with an unladylike growl.
"No to the Nate/Nathan thing or the 2% that will secure your position as CEO of Moore Industries?"
He did his homework, came prepared. Damn his chiseled face and seductive eyes to hell. Damn that package for coming with a brain.
"Because I'm good with Your Grace, if that's what gets you going."
NATHAN
She got up and slammed her hands down on the desk. I wanted her right there and then on top of it, but then that wasn't new. I wanted her for months now, but she wasn't asking for me yet. She would though. They always did.
"I'm not some cheap hooker, Nathan."
"You can be sure you will end up in bed with me, that's a given, but that's just a little bonus. Ten dates. I won't lay a finger on you until you ask me to."
Better. She was all kinds of flustered. I should have come to see her at work sooner. Clearly I was slipping, acting like some virgin kid who had yet to take off his first bra. The flowers had to stop too. She liked it, obviously she did, but I was giving her too much attention, being too eager. If she accepted the deal, I would stop showing up at her lame events too. It was time for Elena Moore to undergo the Nathan Dormer experience.
"Duke Dormer, consider—" she tried with a practiced smile.
It was wasted on me. Even if she could offer me something else, like a fuck right then and there, I wasn't calling the shots. I was just the messager.
"No. It's this or your daddy gets them," I delighted in telling her.
"Why me? Maine is filled with loose women," she asked with her nose in ther air.
I got up, bent over the desk and brought my lips to within an inch of hers.
"The way you held a gun to my head was really hot," I said with a shrug. "It made me want to pin your hands above your head and punish you."
I gave her a good, long look at my sexy face close up. This time she didn't try to avoid my gaze or look away. This time she let herself look before she knew what she was doing. Her gaze dropped to my lips. She licked her own. Yes, I'd definitely been too gentle in my pursuit of her.
Elena wasn't some fragile, innocent rose. The woman was a damn cactus and I was a man in the desert.
"Five dates," she countered, worrying her lip.
Not about to give her a chance to change her mind, I agreed immediately.
"Fine, but it happens when I say, where I say. The number doesn't matter that much, My Lady. Before the end of it, you'll be begging me to touch you and I'll only be too happy to oblige."