In His Cuffs by Sierra Cartwright

intrigued,” he continued. “When I saw your wristband, I had to have you. Honestly, I was attracted to you. I would have desired you even if we’d never met. Then with the perfect way you responded to my commands, the way you begged for my touch—”
    “That can’t happen again.”
    “It will,” he said in a tone that left no other option. “And I’m going to make it very clear to you that fucking, beating, restraining you has nothing to do with our work relationship.” He lowered his voice. “You want it too.”
    She hated that he was right. She craved his touch.
    “We will discuss that in a few minutes. Here are the options. I want you to be very much involved in the acquisition of Around the World in Eighty Ways.”
    Her mouth dropped. As much as she believed that was a ridiculous name for a company, their strategy was similar to World Wide Now’s, and they were a big competitor. For years she’d dreamt of putting them out of business. And he was offering her the chance to be part of that. She couldn’t let him know how much the idea appealed to her. “That’s ambitious.”
    “Everything I do is risky. When I see something I want, I go after it.” He looked at her pointedly. “And as you know, I don’t fail.”
    She tried to keep her mind on his new proposition, rather than allowing images of his naked body to fill her mind. “How will this affect my employment contract?”
    “As I said, it will take a lot of work to get the deal done. We want to go through their books, assess their sales projections and year-to-date results. We have to perform our due diligence. Of course, both sides have signed non-disclosures.”
    She nodded. “And we have to keep this business running at an optimal level while you’re distracted.”
    “Precisely.”
    “That’s where I come in.”
    “Negotiating the deal is only the beginning.”
    How well she remembered from the way he’d taken over her mother’s company.
    “The first six months will be the most complicated. We may need to adjust the number of employees. I need someone who understands strategy and tactics. I need your cooperation and your brain.”
    “I’m already working enough hours for you as it is, David.”
    “And that’s a hardship, is it, Maggie?”
    A little thrill pulsed in her. At one time, it had been.
    “As for your employment contract, it stays in place under the original terms.”
    When she started to speak, he raised a hand to silence her. Snarling against his unspoken demand, she fell silent.
    “Unless you agree to my new terms.”
    “Which are?”
    “The time remaining is unchanged.”
    Beneath her desk, she worried one of her cuticles.
    “Assuming you meet the goals I set for you here, your mother’s pay-out remains the same, but I’ll give you a hundred thousand dollar bonus, after taxes.”
    She stared at him with open-mouthed shock.
    “Interested yet? How about plus ten per cent of all profits of the combined companies?”
    The offer was beyond anything she might have asked for. Still, if this worked, he would be the big winner. Of course, he was the one taking all the financial risk. “Gross profit,” she clarified.
    “In that case, five per cent.”
    “Ten.”
    He sat back. “That’s not how negotiation works, Maggie. You give a little.”
    “I learnt from the best.” She pretended her heart wasn’t racing. This wasn’t how she’d expected the day to begin. “Look, David, we both know you’ll be taking a loan to buy out AWEW. You could accelerate the debt servicing and take all the profits out of the business. If you want my help, knowing it will take a lot of hours and it will likely take months to get the deal done—time that I will not be paid for—then I need a cut of gross.”
    “The bonus covers that,” he told her.
    She took a gamble, ignoring the butterflies unfurling in her stomach. “No deal. I’m happy to stay under my original terms.”
    He regarded her with those chilling blue