RequiredSurrender by Riley Murphy

dreams and fantasies.”
    “I can be those things.”
    “Can? No, if you want me you must be those things.”
    Her gaze lowered and he let her think about that for a
minute. Then he said, “What’s your day like tomorrow?”
    “Tomorrow?”
    “Yeah.” He adjusted her and leaned back in the chair. “I
know your work is mobile and you mostly work from home. I was thinking I’d take
the day off and hang at my house. Maybe you could bring your laptop and I could
see firsthand what you do for a living.”
    “I guess I could.”
    “It doesn’t take you all day, does it?” Ted’s stockbroker
seemingly never worked. He was always doing lunch or dinner with someone.
    “No,” she sighed a warm breath against his neck and he
decided he could get used to this, “a couple of hours tops.”
    “Great. The rest of the time we can spend going over certain
expectations. My list of rules and your new schedule.”
    “Sounds like fun.”
    Whether she meant that to be a joke or not he had no idea.
But he didn’t want to mislead her by any means. “I’m sorry to say it won’t be
fun. Once I outline the rules you’ll have to accept them and even if you don’t
agree with them you’ll have to follow them or else break them. Which wouldn’t
be wise because my discipline is not something you’ll want to face often if
ever. I’m warning you now. I can be as kind as the next man, but when I’m
defied, lied to or betrayed I become a different person. A guy you’re sure not
to like.”
    She nodded and he hoped to hell she understood what he was
saying.
    “I’m going to have Cam take you home now and later while
you’re lying alone in your bed I want you to think about what I just said. I
want you to think about everything you’ve shared with me so far and if there’s
more you need to tell me I want to hear about it tomorrow.”
    “Like what?”
    “If I knew that, kitten, I wouldn’t have asked.”
    * * * * *
    Jo did nothing but think about it all night and most of the
morning while she waited for Cameron to come by and take her to Ted’s. The
voice of reason and caution begged her to come clean and tell Ted everything,
but the devil on her shoulder whispered that he didn’t need to know. It wasn’t
as if those few left-out facts would change anything.
    By the time they pulled up in front of his home she’d
decided to wait and see how things went with Anjay tomorrow night. Then if she
had to tell Ted she would.
    Ted opened the door and all she could say as he motioned her
in was, “Wow, this is…beautiful.”
    The exterior of his home looked like a Boston brownstone,
but the inside? All sleek lines with sharply clean contours. The various walls
were done in successive shades of taupe from light to dark with warm cream
woodworking that was nearly a foot wide around the high ceilings and floors.
    “I thought I’d give you the tour first and then we’d go into
my office and you can show me how you work your magic.”
    Jo was astounded by how big the place was. Three floors in
total, although she didn’t get to see the third floor. He explained that this
area was his personal space and it wasn’t time for her to see it. She didn’t
need to see it to react to it. Her body hummed and sexual anticipation built as
she imagined what was up there. She had to work hard to stay focused and was
glad when they went to the office.
    Thirty minutes later, she pushed her chair away from the
desk and smiled. “That’s all there is to it,” she said, hooking her hair behind
her ears. “Then I wait. This one is going to go up another quarter and when it
does I sell.”
    Ted was staring right at her, not at her laptop screen, and
said, “Amazing.”
    “Not really. If you’d read the papers yesterday and
remembered about that embargo last week you’d probably have worked this all out
too.”
    “Don’t shortchange yourself. Are you done for now?”
    “Yes.”
    “Come.” He stood and took her hand, pulling her up. “I