For His Pleasure, Book 1 (The Submission of Miss Masters, Domination, BDSM) by Kelly Favor Page A

you, Nicole. Obviously I made an error.”
    An error. Like it was an accounting mistake he could fix with a swift stroke of his mighty pen.
    “Am I not allowed to be human?” she asked.
    He looked surprised. “Don’t be glib.”
    “I’m not. You want perfection. I never said I was perfect.”
    He strode toward her. “What I want is effort. Dedication. Don’t come into my place of business and make me look like a fool.”
    His eyes burned into her. She met his gaze and didn’t falter. “I’m sorry I came in late. You’re right. I was being disrespectful.”
    This admission seemed to mollify him slightly.
    “But I’ve been punished enough,” she told him. “You humiliated me in front of that awful woman.”
    His expression darkened again. “You don’t decide what’s enough.”
    “You said I could tell you when I’d had enough.”
    “Have you?”
    “In this instance.”
    He made a face of disgust. “Just get out of my office.”
    It stung. But she was angry now, too. He wanted to keep rubbing her face in shit and she wasn’t going to stand for it anymore. “Fine, Red. Have it your way.” She turned and left, not looking back.

    ***
    Nicole had found a new resolve. After returning to her desk, she made a decision.
    She wasn’t going to crack the way she had before. She wasn’t going to give Red the satisfaction of seeing her go to pieces.
    He wanted her too. She knew that now.
    Being apart would be as hard for him as it was for her. She had to believe that.
    So she went to Remi’s office. Remi was concentrated on her computer. She looked up, dazed. “Hey, Nicole. What’s up?”
    “Give me work. Give me as much as you can.”
    “I thought you were getting sick of dancing cowboy pictures.”
    “No. In fact, I’m kind of getting to like them.”
    Remi’s eyebrows went up. “Oh, no. You must be sicker than I thought. You’ve gone off the reservation.”
    “Just give me whatever you can. I want to work until I can’t see straight.”
    Remi shrugged. “I’ll show you a little Adobe and then you can get going on some of these pictures I’m struggling with. But I warn you—this won’t be pretty.”
    “I’m game.”
    “Pull up a chair.”
    And she did.
    Remi kept to her word, first giving Nicole an Adobe tutorial and then emailing her dozens and dozens of pictures to work on.
    Nicole was at the office until well after nine o’clock that night. And she didn’t check her phone once.
    When she got home, Danielle wasn’t in. She didn’t much care, she was a zombie.
    She fell into bed that night and slept a dreamless, deep sleep.
    Her alarm woke her at five the next morning and she got up promptly, showered, dressed, left and caught the train, arriving at the office by six o’clock.
    She was one of the first people in. She made the first pot of coffee and got right to work.
    That night, she didn’t leave until eight. When Nicole returned home, Danielle was in her room with the door shut and loud music blasting. It sounded like Blake Shelton. He was singing how god gave him someone for the ups and downs.
    The weekend came and went. Nicole spent most of it sleeping and recuperating in her room. She and Danielle exchanged very few words, but at least they weren’t arguing. She didn’t have the energy for more arguing.
    Another night of falling asleep when her head hit the pillow. The alarm waking her after what seemed like mere seconds.
    Back to the office, which now felt more like home then home did.
    She kept busy, didn’t allow herself time to think about Red or what (or who) he might be doing.
    Remi remarked that she’d never in her life seen an intern pick up Adobe this fast, nor work this hard. She said it was a relief to have some help on the cowboy ad.
    Even Glen noticed the change. He blinked his happiness every morning he came in and saw her already buzzing away.

    ***
    One night, perhaps two weeks later (she no longer kept track of the days, they all blended together) she was at