Billionaire Romance Boxed Set 2(106)

I gulped. I’d never meant to destroy the book in the first place, and I understood a rich man would own expensive things, but now that I knew it was more than that, I felt horrible. I wanted to apologize, to hug and console him, but…

“Do you like Dante’s Inferno?” he asked, all of a sudden.

“Yes,” I said, the answer squeaking out of me.

“What? Be confident in your answer.”

“Yes,” I repeated myself, though I didn’t think I sounded any less timid. I rose to my feet, standing before him.

“Why?” he asked.

Huh? “Why what?”

“Why do you like it?”

“The—” Was this conversation really happening? I stood there, mostly naked, talking to a young, billionaire CEO about why I liked a certain piece of literature. I would never be able to understand this, no matter how long I lived.

But, maybe that was the point. I’m not sure. I did feel a little better talking with him like this, though. Like if I could show him that I understood the book and tell him why I liked it, he might forgive me just a little bit for what happened. And then I could forgive him for… and…

“I enjoy the symbolism,” I told him sincerely. “I think it’s nice that the story starts off in the depths of Hell, with Inferno, but by the end of Divine Comedy there’s some redemption and Dante brings us to Heaven with Paradiso. The rhyme scheme is also incredibly impressive. And the fact that he retained such a strict format through 14,233 lines? I find that amazing.”

“Indeed,” Asher said. I thought I saw the faintest hint of a smile on his face, but it was gone before I knew it. Had I imagined it? Yes, possibly, but…

“I enjoy that line,” he said in a passing conversational tone.

I looked at him, confused.

He frowned and shook his head, though it seemed more teasing than chastising. “One ought to fear those things only that have power of doing harm. The others not, for they are not dreadful,” he said, reciting one of the parts of the poem he’d read aloud before, the one on the page that he’d tossed aside before…

My God, I thought. I was really just on his table, I was really just naked, and… I looked down at myself, confirming my nudity. Somehow just now realizing it, or realizing it again, I tightened my legs and fidgeted, trying to cover my body with my arms.

“Stop,” he said, a command. I dropped my hands, dumbstruck. “The best punishments are those that make you reflect and that make you uncomfortable. Part of yours shall be to finish cleaning my office as you are.”

I stared at him. “Are you serious?”

“I never repeat myself,” he said. “Never.”

I did not give in, ever. I wasn’t the type for it. I always questioned everything, and expected no less from anyone else. Why should I mindlessly move through life like a drone?

This is how I always thought, but then why was I now stepping around his office, feather duster in hand and actively dusting while wearing only my pantyhose which I’d pulled back up after he’d finger fucked me to an orgasm? Wearing almost nothing felt nice, though, oddly. Freeing. The cool air became a little less cool as I grew accustomed to it, and I relished in the sexiness of my body.

This man, Asher Landseer, the married CEO of a billion dollar corporation, had wanted me. While I cleaned his office, I tried to catch his attention, bending over this way and that, arching my back and pressing out my breasts in hopes he would look at me. But it didn’t work?

Some doubt slipped into my mind. He hadn’t actually said he wanted me. No lustful words escaped his lips as he coaxed me to orgasm. Nothing of the sort, actually. In fact, now that I thought about it, he said he was only doing it to remove a distraction. But… no… that couldn’t be it, could it? Except, it must be.

The idea sunk in. I wasn’t some absolutely desirable woman. I couldn’t tempt a billionaire away from his wife. This was business, plain and simple. I’d destroyed his book and he meant to punish me for it, and that was it. Well, he’d done a good job of that. I felt embarrassed for even thinking I could have garnered his attention.

I moved through his office, dusting without trying to be sexy, steaming in my own thoughts, annoyed. He thought he was all that? Oh, I could do better. Maybe I’d push his bookcase a little, send the whole thing crashing to the ground, see how he liked that. What would he do then? If one destroyed book equaled one smoldering climax, what would a whole bookcase involve? I shuddered thinking about it.

The phone rang. I glanced over towards it, catching Asher looking at me out of the corner of his eye. Or, no, he wouldn’t even be doing that. If he hadn’t glanced at me before when I was trying to act seductive, he wouldn’t now. I was imagining things.#p#分页标题#e#