Except twenty minutes later, our dinner guests hadn’t arrived. My fresh worry was the steaks would be ruined.

  I peered through the glass door of the oven. “Not sure if I should take them out and reheat when we’re ready to eat, or keep them in there.” I’d turned the oven off earlier, attempting to keep them warm. “I’m afraid no matter what I do, they’re more than likely going to be shoe leather.”

  Nathaniel looked at his watch for what had to be the fifteenth time in as many minutes. Being that he was perpetually early, he expected everyone else to act similarly. Based on his tense jaw and the set of his shoulders, it was possible he was more upset than me by the tardiness of our dinner guests.

  I walked into the dining room, even though I’d been in it less than five minutes prior. Just as it’d been then, everything was set and prepared for dinner. Empty plates waited to be filled. Wineglasses were out, as was the bottle of red Nathaniel had selected, already opened in order to breathe. Napkins and flatware completed the table setting, along with the fresh flowers I’d bought earlier.

  “I don’t understand,” Nathaniel said. “Ellery is never late.”

  “‘When he is late for dinner and I know he must be either having an affair or lying dead in the street, I always hope he’s dead.’”

  I almost laughed at the perplexed look Nathaniel gave me. Had I finally stumped him with a quote?

  “I don’t know that one,” he admitted.

  “Well,” I answered, trying to act humble. “I’m not sure it counts because it’s not a literary quote. It’s Judith Viorst. But she is a poetess.”

  “Is the quote from one of her poems?”

  “I don’t think so,” I replied. “Probably not.”

  “Then you can’t use it,” he said, his smile returning and the lateness of his employee momentarily forgotten. “Which means you, my dear, cheated.”

  “I did no such thing!” I said in mock outrage.

  “You did.”

  Our argument was interrupted by the buzz of the doorman downstairs.

  “About damn time,” Nathaniel said after confirming our dinner guests had arrived. His expression changed from the teasing look he’d had back into one of devoid of any emotion. It wasn’t a look I ever wanted directed at me.

  Though it was only a matter of seconds before they made their way up to us, it felt like longer. When Nathaniel opened the door to let them in, it was Ellery I saw first.

  Having never met her before, her frazzled and harried appearance stood out the most. So very different from how I’d imagined the calm and joyful-sounding woman I’d spoken with on the phone. Only after noticing that did I take in the rest. She was of average height, with long dark hair and vivid green eyes. Eyes that kept glancing to her husband.

  Sorry, Ellery mouthed to me, before her gaze bounced to her husband and then down to the floor.

  I shifted myself to look at the man by her side. Vincent was surprisingly attractive, and I found him to be both well dressed and impeccably groomed. He could easily give up acting altogether and go into modeling. I had a feeling what kept him from hitting it big was the obnoxious, smug attitude he portrayed. At the moment, he was shaking hands with Nathaniel.

  “I told Ellery you never show up on time for dinner. It’s expected you’ll be fashionably late,” I overheard him say to Nathaniel.

  Behind her husband and hidden from his sight, I saw Ellery close her eyes with a soft sigh of exasperation.

  Nathaniel’s calm voice made him sound more dangerous than if he’d raised it. “That’d be a dangerous bet on your part. I suggest not putting yourself in a position again to discover just how dangerous.” He turned to me and held out his hand. “Abby?”

  Just as I placed my hand in his to move into the dining room, Vincent spoke. “Ellery, come over here.”

  Ellery quipped a quick “Yes, sir” and hurried to stand beside her husband.

  I found myself unable to get past the “sir” that Ellery had used to address Vincent. I knew there were people not into kink who sometimes would answer a request with a sarcastic “yes, sir,” but I didn’t think that was what Ellery was doing. No. Unless my radar was way off, what I’d just witnessed was not a sassy comeback, but a submissive replying to their Dominant.

  I made a mental note to ask Nathaniel about it later. At the moment, I needed to focus on getting dinner on the table.

  After showing everyone to their seats, I made my way back into the kitchen to see if anything was edible. The steaks were a lost cause, at least in their current state. I opened the refrigerator and eyed the salad I’d put together earlier. Chop up the steak and top the salad with it?

  I cringed. It wasn’t on my ideal dinner menu for when we had an executive employee of Nathaniel’s over for dinner. Then again, no one had ever dared to show up over twenty minutes late, either.

  Nathaniel entered the kitchen a few minutes later and found me chopping the steak. Spying the salad on the counter next to me, he whispered, “Good thinking.”

  “It won’t be anything great, but it’ll be edible.” I cut away a tough end on one steak. “Part of it, anyway.”

  He took a knife from the block and started cutting the last steak into pieces. “They’re lucky I’m letting them eat anything after they had the nerve to show up late, with no reason at all.”

  “Doesn’t sound like it was Ellery, though. More like her husband’s fault.”

  “Which is part of why they’re staying. The other being Ellery is excellent at her job, and I don’t want to lose her.”

  I understood. It had taken a year to find her. “I hope she won’t hold dinner against you.” I glanced at the sides I’d made to go along with the steaks. “Maybe I’ll put the sides in the fridge. We can have them with something else. I don’t think they’ll go with steak salad.”

  “I have something to hold against you,” he said in an even lower whisper, pressing his hips close and ensuring I felt his erection. “Although, perhaps against you isn’t the best way to say where I want to put it. If we didn’t have guests, I would do things so wicked to your body, time would cease to exist for you.”

  His words shot the familiar ache of arousal throughout my body. “You are so evil,” I whispered back, smacking his chest. “And now? Are you serious right now? With two guests over and waiting in our dining room.”

  “I’m serious. Wait until I get you alone, then I’ll show you just how evil I can be.”

  He took a step back with a self-satisfied grin, obviously pleased at how easy it was for him to get me all hot and bothered. Unfortunately, we still had dinner to get through.

  “Promises, promises,” I said with a shake of my head.

  “You’re teasing me because you think it’s safe and that I’ll forget by the time we’re alone.” He still spoke low and soft, but with a hint of roughness that had me wishing there weren’t two people in the dining room waiting for something to eat. “Neither of the two are assumptions you should make.”

  Chapter 3

  NATHANIEL

  Typically, I enjoy spending time with my employees outside of the office. In fact, before the eighth circle of hell that dinner with Ellery and Vincent became, I’d realized how long it’d been since Abby and I had anyone from the office over. By the time dinner was over, however, I was glad I’d never found the time to tell Abby we should look at having more employees over.

  It took nearly everything I had, but I held on to my control and didn’t go off on Vincent Manne. Mainly because Abby was already on edge about the ruined steaks, and no matter how deserved the jabs were that I wanted to throw at Vincent, I would not push her closer to that edge by doing so.

  Ellery had confided to me the reason behind their move to the East Coast was Vincent’s inability to get an acting job that paid anything. One would have never thought that to be the case if they had been around our dinner table that night. To hear Vincent recall his time in California, you’d have thought he was best friends with most A-listers and had an Emmy or two in his back pocket.

  Ellery tried once or twice to redirect his conversation or to change the topic altogether, but nothing worked, and Vincent kept shooting her nasty looks. I felt bad for her on one hand, but on the other, she had married the fucker. As long as he wasn’t abusing her, and trust me, I looked for signs. There was nothing to hint that he was anything other than a loudmouth pain in the ass.

  When Abby brought out the salads, I thought Vincent would get himself in trouble based on the way his mouth opened as she stepped into the dining room. But his expression changed so quickly to something between rage and surprise, I could only assume Ellery had kicked him under the table.

  She probably left a bruise on his leg, but truthfully, he got off easy, in my opinion. Had one disparaging word left his mouth about either Abby or the salads, I more than likely would have rearranged his face.

  The couple didn’t linger after dinner and departed rather soon after we finished eating. Once they left, Abby raised an eyebrow. “That might have been the worst dinner I’ve ever hosted.”

  “If that man makes it to Broadway, I’ll eat my shoe.”

  Abby laughed, which was my reason for making the comment in the first place.

  “I think it’s a pretty safe bet for me to make. Along with this next one.” I walked toward her, ready to move forward with my plans for the rest of the night, namely, making her come so hard she forgot the last few hours. I gave her ass a slap and said, “Bedroom, Abigail. Five minutes.”

  Her demeanor changed at once. Almost instantly, her body seemed to relax and soften. The tension left her face, and she smiled. “You’re right, that would be a very safe bet. But I don’t need five minutes, sir.”

  “Regardless, it’ll be five minutes until I arrive. It doesn’t matter when you decide to get there, as long as you’re there and in position when I do.”

  She nodded once and hurried up to our bathroom. I smiled in her wake, happy she was looking forward to my plans for the evening as much as I was.

  Indeed, she was waiting when I arrived in our bedroom exactly five minutes later. Based on the slight pink of her cheeks and the hum that seemed to encompass her body, she was more excited than I’d thought. I hadn’t given her instructions to undress, so she still wore the skirt she’d had on for dinner.

  “As much as I’d like to make you come as hard and as quickly as possible,” I said, “you’re going to earn it tonight.”

  Her breath hitched. Obviously, she hadn’t been expecting that.

  “You only have yourself to blame,” I told her. “With your insinuation earlier I was being less than truthful when I said I’d show you later how evil I could be.”

  She opened her mouth as if she was going to say something but closed it almost immediately. I swallowed my laugh. It’d taken years before she understood that it would do her no good to argue with me in situations like this. It hadn’t kept her mouth closed, but at least she’d done so before she could speak and get into real trouble.

  “Therefore, I have no choice but to show you just how evil I can be.” I nodded toward the bed. “I won’t even make you undress all the way, since you were accommodating enough to wear a skirt. Bend over the bed and flip it up for me.”

  She moved quickly to position herself, and I saw when she flipped her skirt up there was nothing under the dress other than Abby. “Naughty.” I ran my hand over her backside. “Not wearing anything under your skirt while hosting a dinner.”

  “It was my way of subliminally asking the universe for there not to be a need for them after our guests left.”

  “Is that right?” I asked her, the entire time stroking her skin. “Interestingly enough, your plan seems to have worked.”

  Because of our mutual need, my first instinct was to hurry and attempt to get her worked up and aroused as quickly as possible. However, there are some things in life that can’t be rushed. There are also things that, even if they could be rushed, should not be. A woman’s arousal was one of these things.

  Not to mention, rushing through arousing a woman, as if flying through things on a checklist, was a dick move. It’d be better for everyone involved to forego doing anything at all as opposed to rushing. Besides, the quickest way to ensure you didn’t turn a woman on was to hint she needed to get that way faster.

  I took my time, keeping my strokes gentle as if we had all the time in the world. Little by little, more of the tension eased out of her body, and I slipped my hands between her legs, making my touch more of a tease.

  It helped, of course, that I knew her body as well as I did. We’d been together so long I knew every inch of her. I knew how and where to touch to drive her crazy. And I used every bit of knowledge to my advantage. From swirling a finger around her clit to slipping one inside and brushing her G-spot, it took mere minutes to get her to where she was panting and angling her body in order to maximize my touch, even with my deliberate attempt to go slow.

  “Do you want to come?” I asked her.

  “Yes, please.”

  “Do you think I should allow you to come?”

  “Yesssss. Please.”

  I pulled my fingers away and gave her ass a hard slap. “Then I suggest you remember how you feel right now the next time you want to hint that I can’t be evil.”

  She turned her head to look over her shoulder at me, and if the ire in her eyes was any sign, she was pissed.

  I held my finger up to my lips. “Be good and I might let you come later tonight.” She wisely closed her mouth. Thank goodness. The night was young, and I had plans.

  Unfortunately, those plans were shot straight to hell, because right as she turned her head forward, the phone rang. It was Felicia. Henry was throwing up and wanted to come home.

  Needless to say, I was a bit of a grouch the next day at work. I’d been up most of the night helping Abby with Henry. The poor little guy was miserable, and by the time we finally got him comfortable enough to drift off to sleep, it was almost time for our alarms to go off.

  I called Abby after downing my fourth cup of coffee. She assured me he was resting and had kept down some water. And, she added, so far Elizabeth felt great and showed no signs of being sick herself.

  I’d just ended the call when Sara buzzed to say Mrs. Manne wanted to see me.

  I wasn’t in the mood to see or speak to Ellery, but it had to be done, and there was no reason to put it off. Especially since she was already at my office door.

  Her “I’m so sorrys” started the second she stepped into my office. I held up my hand.

  “Ellery. Stop,” I said.

  She closed her mouth but dropped her gaze to the floor.

  “I don’t hold you responsible for last night,” I told her.

  “I just wanted you to know I told him multiple time about your feelings on punctuality.”

  “Ellery,” I tried again because I knew stubborn women from being married to Abby for so many years, and the look in Ellery’s eyes, along with the tilt of her head, meant she wasn’t giving up soon. “What happened last night at dinner has nothing to do with your position here.”

  “The thing is, I think Vincent has a bit of a man crush on you.”

  “Oh?” I asked because I could think of nothing else to say. Her explanation wasn’t anywhere close to what I expected, and I didn’t know what to make of it.

  She nodded. “Yes. He’s always talked about what an incredible businessman you are. Said it for years, to be honest. Not only since I’ve been working for you.” She gave a little laugh. “I bet he knows more about you than anyone. Except, of course, your wife.”

  I still wasn’t sure how to respond to her. Surely she meant it as a compliment, but it came across as creepy. Maybe I was reading too much into her words, but if he knew me as well as he claimed he did, wouldn’t he have known to show up early for dinner?

  Another part of my brain wondered along those same lines if he knew I was a Dominant. There were very few people who weren’t in the BDSM lifestyle who knew. Yes, I owned part of the BDSM club in Delaware, but I’d listed it under a corporate name not easily traceable to either me or Abby.

  Ellery winced.

  “You’ll keep that between us, won’t you?” she asked. “Vincent would be so embarrassed if he knew either of you are aware of how he felt.”

  Chapter 4

  NATHANIEL

  “Abby and I are looking forward to it,” I told Luke, owner of the BDSM club we were members of in New York. He’d called to see if we’d be in attendance that weekend. I confirmed we would be. It had been much too long since we’d enjoyed an entire night of kink, and I wasn’t sure who needed it more, me or Abby.

  It had been three weeks since the night we’d had Ellery and Vincent over and topped it off with Henry’s vomitfest. Henry had been asking when he could go back to Levi and Luis’s house and spend the night. But Jackson and Felicia were as busy as we were, probably more so because of the number of kids they had. This weekend was the first time our schedules had lined up enough to allow for a sleepover. Felicia was coming by tomorrow afternoon to pick up Henry and Elizabeth, and after they left, my calendar had nothing but Abby on it.

  She walked past my office in the penthouse, more than likely on her way to the bedroom, wiggling her ass more than was necessary as she did. I glanced at the clock. Just a little over twenty-four hours and I’d have her naked and across my lap with that ass bare and at my mercy. Or maybe I’d start with her on her knees and my cock in her mouth.

  I grew hard at the images in my mind. Part of me didn’t want to go to the club to share our precious alone time with other people. But Abby loved playing in public, not to mention she needed the social time with her friends. When we were at our home in Wilmington, Delaware, it seemed as if she was always talking with someone. People either called or, with our close friends, stopped by our house.