Shades of Pleasure: Five Stories of Domination and Submission by Tawny Taylor Read Free Book Online

on stray dogs and pigeons. “Go home and sleep.
I’ll call you tomorrow.”
    “Okay. ‘Night.” Elena shrugged into her coat, dug her keys
out of the bottom of her purse, gave her friend a quick hug and hurried out to
her car, one hand in her pocket, her fingers curled around that damn letter.
    It was dark outside already—she hated fall! The restaurant’s
parking lot was murky and slushy, thanks to an early snow. It wasn’t even
Thanksgiving yet and already they’d had their first heavy snowfall of the year.
Winter was bearing down on Michigan like a frigid white demon. She slipped and
slid to the back where she’d parked. Unlocked her door, flung her purse onto
the passenger seat, climbed in and cranked the engine. It started with a
sputter and cough, threatening to stall. Like its owner, her ancient Volkswagen
hated the cold.
    Elena hit the gas and flipped on the heater, shivering and
cursing her temperamental vehicle for making her freeze her butt off while it
warmed up.
    As she pulled the letter from her pocket to reread it for
the bazillionth time, the passenger side door swung open. Assuming it was
Ashley coming to keep her company—aka harass her some more—while she waited,
she stuffed the letter back into her pocket and pulled her purse off the seat,
depositing it on floor. But the body that slid into the seat was not Ashley’s.
It wasn’t even female.
    Oh God. “Kyler? Hi.” Could it be a coincidence that the
extremely attractive man on receiving end of her blackmailing jerk’s devious
plan had just plopped into her front seat? In a dark restaurant parking lot?
Probably not but she could always hope.
    Then again, they’d shared quite a few looks in the office
the past few weeks. Whether she was hallucinating or hopeful, she sensed there
was some chemistry between them. Maybe he had been in the restaurant and she
hadn’t noticed, and he’d been dying to talk to her about…something…and he’d
seen his opportunity…
    Okay, so she was really reaching. The expression on his face
wasn’t exactly screaming Hey baby . Nope. More like, You bitch.
    “What are you doing here?” she asked.
     
    His smile wasn’t even close to genuine. “I thought this
would be the perfect place for a chat.”
    She was chilled before but now she felt like a human icicle.
Maybe this was his way of asking a girl out? If that was the case, his brand of
seduction bordered on creepy.
    “Well, I’m really flattered you wanted some private time,
went to all the trouble of tracking me down in a dark parking lot.” Yikes! “But
I’m not feeling very well and now’s not a good time, so couldn’t we continue—”
    He planted one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the
headrest of her seat, basically caging her in with his arms. “Now. Is. The.
Per-fect. Time.” He enunciated every single syllable.
    “Okayyyy. So what do you want to talk about?” she asked,
shooting for a casual tone as she ground the back of her head into the
headrest.
    Strangely, as she sat there, concentrating on regularly
inhaling and exhaling, she couldn’t help but be aware of how good looking Kyler
Pierce, VP of Sales and Marketing, was. There was good reason why every single
female in the company, married or not, lusted after the man, at least a little.
But she would never have expected him to make her so incredibly hot when he was
more or less holding her hostage.
    A part of her thrilled at the thorough once-over he was
giving her right now. He had the most amazing eyes and smelled sooooo good. And
his mouth. Perfect lips.
    He inched a smidge closer. “I know what Matt’s up to.”
    Her stomach dropped to her toes. Crap! Now what? Beg
forgiveness and hope he could somehow dig her out of this mess? But that would
require her telling him everything.
    Oh God! She couldn’t!
    “I don’t know what you mean. Up to? Isn’t Matt always ‘up
to’ something? I wouldn’t think that would be worthy of wandering around in a
dark parking