For His Taking (For His Pleasure, Book 2) (The Submission of Miss Masters, Domination, BDSM) by Kelly Favor Page B

for the whole company, thanked Edward for all of his hard work.
    “We’ll chat later today or tomorrow about Germany,” Red told him pointedly, and Edward nodded as he made for the door.
    Nicole couldn’t believe it was over so quickly. She’d expected something more—some kind of overture towards her. But he’d virtually ignored her, treated her like nothing more than a stranger. It was worse than she’d expected, the pain she felt. She could hardly breathe.
    As they were about to get on the elevator again, she told Edward she needed to go back and ask Red something.
    “Are you sure?” Edward said, as the doors prepared to close.
    “Yes, I need to—check on a thing…” she rambled.
    His eyes narrowed. “I’m not so certain it’s a good idea, Nicole.”
    “Sorry, I need to just…take care…of one little…” She didn’t even finish her thought before jumping out and walking briskly back to the office as the elevator doors shut and Edward went back downstairs.
    She got to Red’s office door and opened it without even knocking, and when she did, Red was almost right at the door himself. He was putting on a light trench coat, and when he saw her, his brows knit with fury. “What are you doing?”
    “I need to talk to you.”
    “I’m busy,” he said.
    “Please, Red.”
    His eyes focused on her intently, but she saw no love there—just impatience.
    “What?”
    “I think we should talk about what happened at your house.”
    “My house,” he smirked. “How quickly the pronouns change around here.”
    “It was never our house,” she told him.
    “Obviously.” He began buttoning his coat. “Look, this has been really pleasant, but I have a lunch meeting and I don’t want to be late for it.”
    “I know I hurt you,” she said. “And I’m sorry about that. But you frightened me, Red. I didn’t understand—I still don’t understand why you acted like you did the other night.”
    He flipped up his collar with a brisk, hostile motion. “What do you want from me now, Nicole? I gave you my heart and that clearly wasn’t enough. So what’s next?”
    She gulped. “I—I—just want to talk. I miss talking to you.”
    His eyes were thunderous. “You left.”
    “I had to go. It was too much. When I heard you breaking all of those dishes and glasses, I thought we were being robbed. I thought you’d been hurt or killed.”
    For the first time, she saw a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes as he contemplated what she was telling him. “Robbed?”
    “Yes. I’d been asleep in the movie room. And I woke up to the sound of breaking glass and screaming. Do you know what that was like for me?”
    His shoulders slumped a little, his face sagged just enough to make him appear older than he usually did. For the first time, she saw wrinkles on his forehead. “I didn’t realize you thought you were in danger.”
    “And then, when I got to the dining room, you looked completely insane. You were half-naked, glass and broken dishes everywhere, your feet were cut and bleeding. I thought maybe you were going to hurt me.”
    Red’s head drooped as she said the words. He put a hand over his face and turned toward the window. “Christ, Nicole. I had no damn idea that you thought those things.”
    “Why would it surprise you?” she said. “I don’t know you all that well, and the first night at your house you behave like a crazy person.”
    “I was a crazy person.” He laughed and put his hands in his pockets. “I was in the study for hours and then I went looking for you, couldn’t find you anywhere. I thought you’d left and I just went berserk.”
    “But you wanted me to leave—you pushed me to go be by myself!” She said, coming further into the room. “Why’d you do it? Why did you treat me that way?”
    The tears were in her eyes again as she asked.
    He turned around and looked at her and now she saw his eyes were red-rimmed also. “Fuck.” His nostrils flared and his breathing grew