Knights of the Boardroom Read Free Page B

questions—damn it, she deserved that much. She might not have ever had sex, but she knew what turned her on—maybe she was reading too many erotic romances, but she’d been saving for two years for this day and she wasn’t going to walk away from the only chance she’d probably ever have to spend time in The Knight’s Club.
    *****
    Tristan watched Cressida Walker’s eyes widen when she stepped into his office. The room was large but it also served several purposes, the large windows behind him looked out over Central Park and that peaceful view was a sharp contrast to the windows at the opposite end of the room, which looked down over the club’s main room. Of course there were times when that particular view calmed him—but for a far different reason. He’d moved around his desk and motioned for her to have a seat in the chair he knew would give his friends two different camera angles from the security control room where he’d sent them. At Brodie’s urging, his office was closely monitored during interviews with potential members, those recordings had saved their backsides more than once. Evidently seeing themselves reviewing their hard and soft limit lists jogged the memories of subs who’d experienced a change of heart for whatever reason and threatened to sue the club.
    “Have a seat, Cressi. I have to say, I was surprised when you called.” Her bright green eyes widened in surprise, then quickly changed to wariness and Tristan fought his smile. Good instincts, poppet. Tristan had to give her credit, she didn’t take the bait—she just sat quietly waiting for him to continue. Smart girl. “Would you mind telling me where you got the phone number you called?” As soon as he’d spoken the words, Tristan knew he’d made a mistake phrasing it as a question rather than a command, and the shift in her expression told him she’d seen the opening and intended to walk right through it.
    “Yes, actually I would mind.” He wanted to growl in frustration at her one word answer, but he simply raised a brow at her and waited. She gave him a knowing smile and as childish as it seemed, he wanted to roll his eyes in frustration—the woman had definitely worked for Brodie Walsh far too long. “You asked me a closed question and I answered. Now, I need to get back to work. I’ll call and reschedule when we both have more open timetables.”
    Tristan wanted to laugh out loud—the only other woman who’d ever given him such a polite verbal slap-down for being late, was his mother. Cressida stood and extended her hand to shake his in a move so smoothly calculated to dismiss him, he no doubt she’d used it countless times in her professional life—but it certainly wasn’t going to work with him and he knew it wouldn’t fly with the two Doms he planned to “assign her to” either.
    “Sit. Down. Now.” Tristan deliberately used a tone he was sure the submissive in Cressi would respond to before her mind had a chance to interfere. And just as he’d expected, she literally dropped back into her chair. He nodded once, “Good girl. I realize I’ve kept you waiting past our appointed time, but it was unavoidable. I’ll smooth over your bosses’ ruffled feathers—and since I’m one of them, it shouldn’t be too difficult a task.” Perhaps he was an ass for reminding her that he was in fact one of her bosses—but there you have it, he could be a manipulative bastard when it came to helping his friends. He saw the flare of panic in her eyes at the thought of him outing her to the men she worked for—he could tell her it hadn’t been a secret longer than the minute it had taken him to get them on the phone, but she’d find out soon enough.
    “Now, let me rephrase my question—where did you get that particular phone number?” This time her eyes narrowed ever so slightly as the tip of her dainty chin tipped up and a look of pure defiance lit her sparkling green eyes. Ahh, there is a spankable brat in