Prior to Aaron giving him a taste of the Dom/sub life, Ian had an inkling that his dominant desire smoldered beneath the surface. The experience that Aaron had provided just emphasized that knowledge, but Ian had never felt the surge of possessiveness with another woman before Cassie. Now he couldn’t bank the demand his body was trying to make on him to claim her in every way possible. He knew he was becoming more and more demanding of her, which she seemed to relish. And he fed off that. Whenever she’d send him a text, call him or talk to him online, his insides would scream Mine! It took an exorbitant amount of strength to keep that declaration from being verbalized. Though at the height of his passion, it slipped one way or another, but he’d hoped Cassie chalked it up to him being caught in the moment.
Or did he?
Hell, he didn’t know. He didn’t want to explore what that meant, either, because he knew all of it was related to his feelings. Feelings he had no right to embrace.
Ignorance was bliss. A fucking painful bliss.
He didn’t know what to do about this mess with Mac. He had an obligation to do his job, but he was discovering his work wasn’t his sole responsibility. The only way he felt he was able to work on the consolidation plan for the closure of Cassie’s office was if he stayed unemotional and looked at it as just another duty. Yeah, he knew it was a shitty way to approach it, but he had no choice. And so whenever Ian had spoken to Cassie, he always made sure he’d asked causal questions about her job, coworkers, assignments and general office dynamics. He’d had enough information to effectively reassign current projects to offices with minimal impact to the other locations.
Ian spent the afternoon finalizing this dreaded part of Mac’s orders. He hated being put in this position, so the sooner he could finish it, the better he’d feel.
And the sooner Cassie would lose her job. Where’s your protectiveness of her now? he thought wryly.
When he finished, Ian emailed the documentation to Mac and strolled into his office. He didn’t want to wait until Monday to talk to Mac about this. Ian wanted it over now. He rounded the hallway and pounded on his boss’s office door.
“Come in,” Mac called.
Ian walked in and sat in front of Mac’s desk. “I just sent you the completed consolidation plan.”
“Good, good,” he said distractedly as he fumbled with some forms on his messy desk. Then he looked up at Ian. “What about the software modification?”
“Almost finished. We tested and submitted a few changes. It should be ready Monday.”
Mac sat forward. “Excellent. I have a meeting with the executive staff on Tuesday. I’ll present everything then. In the meantime, I’ll look over your material and let you know if I have any questions.”
Mac turned back to his computer, effectively dismissing Ian. He suppressed a growl as he stood and left.
Damn, but he felt two feet tall. He wasn’t used to feeling worthless, and when he normally had a bad day, he’d go home and have a beer. But the only thing appealing to him was Cassie. He still had over two hours before time to leave the office, but Cassie would be leaving in about thirty minutes. He could just leave early. He was finished with everything he had pending. But he couldn’t even wait the thirty minutes for her to get off and then the other amount of time it’d take for her to get home.
He’d last spoken to her just this morning, but it’d been too long since his last contact. He was quickly becoming an addict, and Cassie was his prized fix that he’d go to any length and pay any price to have.
Hey, baby.
Leaning back in her chair at her desk, Cassie reread the text Ian had just sent her. Normally, he was bold in his correspondence with her, but his simple message almost seemed desperate. She wasn’t sure how to respond at first and then decided to keep it simple.
Hey, yourself.
Several minutes went by without a response, so Cassie started to wonder if he was even going to reply. A few minutes later, her phone went off, acknowledging an incoming text. She smiled. There he was.
Send me a picture of your breasts. I need to see them.
She chuckled as she pushed the phone back enough to snap a shot of her clothed breasts and sent it to him. She did show a little cleavage, but she knew that wasn’t all Ian wanted to see. If he wanted to see more, he’d have to tell her. She liked it when he told her exactly what he wanted. It was freeing in a way not having to guess. After an agonizing minute, she got another message from him.
Nice. Now go to the bathroom, unbutton your shirt, pull your breasts out over your bra and send me a photo of that.
Cassie followed his orders, going into the last stall to do his bidding. Just as she was about to take the picture, she got a devious little idea. Rather than taking a picture of her exposed breasts, she’d take one of her exposed belly up to the bottom of her bra. No boob shot. She quickly snapped the image and sent it to him. He immediately responded.
Well, Sassy Cassie, if I could, I’d spank that little ass for your insolence. She
