Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 65189 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65189 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
I was so lost in my fantasy, my fingers moving frantically between my legs, that I barely registered the sound of the bathroom door opening. Just as the imaginary marquis delivered a particularly stinging slap to my tender pussy, a wave of pleasure crashed over me. Before I could stop myself, a cry of helpless need escaped my lips, echoing off the tiled walls of the bathroom stall.
“Tout va bien?” a concerned female voice called out, startling me back to reality.
My eyes flew open, mortification flooding through me as I realized what had just happened. I had been masturbating in a public bathroom, lost in a lurid fantasy about my sponsor, and now someone had heard me. My face burned with shame as I hastily pulled my hand away from my throbbing pussy, wiping my fingers on a wad of toilet paper.
“Oui, merci,” I called back, my voice shaky and breathless. I fumbled with my clothing, trying to straighten myself out as quickly as possible. “Pardon… ça va bien… pardon… merci…”
Each word that tumbled from my lips only seemed to compound my embarrassment. I could hear the woman shifting uncertainly outside the stall, clearly unconvinced by my flustered response.
With trembling hands, I flushed the toilet, hoping the sound would mask any further awkwardness. The rush of water seemed deafening in the small space, matching the pounding of my heart. I took a deep breath and tried to quiet my racing heart, my panting breath. I pushed the stall door open.
CHAPTER 14
Lucas
When the alert from Selecta Arrangements arrived I had just, with regret, decided that I wouldn’t see Alice again. I would give her an extra month’s allowance, of course, out of my own pocket if necessary, but the conflict I had felt as I left her building and stepped into my limo had told me prudence was required; the dangerous urge to go back up and climb into bed and hold my naughty girl until she awoke couldn’t be allowed to grow, as I could already feel it doing when my driver pulled away from the curb.
Three hours later, during a meeting with the controlling partner of Paris Saint-Germain, my phone buzzed. I glanced down.
Alice is likely to break a rule. Tap for details.
“Obviously, Lucas, you have a good deal of input here,” the sheikh, as I always thought of him, was saying. He had flown in from his emirate, on his private jet, of course, to meet with me. It seemed the least I could do to pay attention to him.
“Obviously,” I said, as dryly as I could manage given that the sheikh had just told me they had decided either to sell me to a new Japanese club or to let me retire peacefully at the end of the season with a reduction in my pay.
The Japan prospect had intrigued me enough—and the incentives involved seemed generous enough—that I had resolved to end things with Alice. It had seemed a stroke of fate to help me make the difficult decision, given that I couldn’t stop thinking about her. My reaction to the alert from the Selecta Arrangements app should, I knew, have strengthened my determination to start the final act of my career with a headline-grabbing move to the Far East, where—as the sheikh told me, and I believed—I would be worshipped like a god.
“So,” the sheikh continued after a pause, his dark eyes glittering as he studied me, obviously having detected my momentary distraction, “we’ll expect your answer by the end of the week.”
I focused on his face. “Certainly,” I told him. “Monday, at the latest.”
The sheikh nodded. “Shall we have a drink to the future?”
I knew that whatever whiskey he offered me would sell at the Ritz bar for hundreds of euros a glass. I usually accepted and relished these moments; I took pride in how many of them I had had with the sheikh over the years, toasting the club’s successes. My phone, however, seemed to have increased in bulk and in weight in my jacket pocket so much that I couldn’t think about anything else.
“No, thank you,” I told the sheikh. “I’m afraid I have another meeting.”
He frowned at me, understandably. I wasn’t the sort of man who has a great many meetings, after all. I told myself I hadn’t lied to him—not that I cared very much. I definitely did have a meeting and I needed to get to it as soon as possible. Alice Morgan was about to break a rule, and the urgency of her need for discipline—and my need to provide it—suddenly outweighed, for me, all the wealth in France and Japan put together.
Alice
When I saw Lucas in the corridor, waiting for me as I emerged from the bathroom with my face still blazing like the sun, I honestly thought I must be hallucinating. How could he possibly know where I was?