Under My Boss's Direction: Office Romance Collection With New Novel Read online

  Jonna wouldn’t stand for that, however, getting my cock immediately out of her pussy and into her mouth, sucking for all she was worth, which was quite a bit indeed, until she had drawn my load into her mouth and swallowed every drop. I’d never felt like more of a switch in my life, but I kind of liked it.

  I made her look at me, partly to reassert my dominance.

  What I saw on her face was something very close to love.

  I know what that’s like now, too, I thought, and then told my brain to shut up.

  “What do you say to some breakfast?” I asked, mostly as a distraction from the feelings flooding my own chest.

  “Thank you, master.”

  “Good answer.”

  I was still dressed from the day before. Despite my reputation as a libertine, I was never known to let anyone see me fully naked. Only the parts that were absolutely required for the activity at hand.

  I could only barely remember the last time anyone had seen me with my shirt off. To be fair, I’d been on an operating table at the time and under some pretty heavy sedation.

  “Where are we going, master?” Jonna asked, as I led her from the master bedroom.

  “To find you some clothes.”

  “Clothes?”

  “You know, those things you use to cover yourself?”

  “Yes, master.”

  “I’m giving you a break for the day. No work or other duties. It is important to have some time away from training, of both kinds. I’ve been pushing you hard.”

  “I can handle it, master,” she insisted.

  “This is for your own good. Don’t fight me on this, or I will have to spank you.”

  “Yes, master.”

  Her eyes widened and I felt bad about causing her to feel any fear. Still, I couldn’t have her insisting on doing things I knew she wasn’t ready for. I appreciated her dedication, but she was still pretty new to all of this and I didn’t want to risk breaking her while trying to break her in.

  She had certainly packed light, making the selection process both easier and more difficult at the same time, the selection getting even narrower when we took the weather into account.

  After she was dressed in a plain, cotton underwear set with a pair of jean shorts and a T-shirt, which happened to be the very same Autumn Corrosion tour tee that she’d worn to the first interview, we went down for breakfast.

  I didn’t carry Jonna; she walked of her own accord. I knew it was a sudden change, but I had to make sure she knew she still had a will of her own. Otherwise, giving it to me would mean nothing. At least nothing good. I was not the sort to take advantage.

  “What would you like?” I asked her.

  “Whatever you make, master,” Jonna moped, sitting at the table.

  “Call me Seth.”

  “Really?”

  “For today, yes.”

  “Okay.”

  The way she said it was technically giving her agreement, but there was something that rang wrong about it. A sadness I wasn’t sure about.

  I’d seen it happen before, especially with newbies. They get so steeped in the dynamic that losing it could be like withdrawal. I was more certain than ever that I had done the right thing by insisting on a break.

  “Hey,” I told her.

  She looked towards me, but then away again. Before I could lose her gaze, I caught her chin and made her look at me.

  “Hey,” I said, more softly. “I still like doing this with you, okay? We just need a break, so we don’t get too lost in things. The dynamic is great but it can’t be everything. There can be too much of a good thing.”

  I gently stroked her face, and she didn’t pull away, instead pressing her cheek into my palm.

  “Okay,” she said, not as sad this time.

  All of a sudden, though, the peace we had made with each other was broken like shattered glass.

  “Honey, I’m home!”

  The door slam that followed the dreaded declaration might as well have been a nuclear bomb going off. I stood frozen as the boots clomped through the living room, my worst nightmare coming toward the kitchen.

  “What’s the matter?” Clara asked, strolling into the kitchen like she owned the place, “aren’t you glad to see me?”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Is that any way to welcome— oh, and who is this? My goodness, Seth, your tarts really are getting younger all the time. What grade are you in, sweetheart?”

  “She’s none of your concern,” I said, unprovoked.

  “That’s a matter of opinion.”

  Jonna made a break for the door, grabbing her purse which was still beside it from when she’d first arrived.

  “Wait—” I called after her, but it was too late.

  She was gone.

  And I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see her again, lockdown or not.

  All thanks to evil Clara.

  Chapter Nine

  Jonna

  I had no car.

  Fuck.

  The motorcycle?

  Yeah, right, and end up road pizza.

  I wasn’t even allowed to be outside, strictly speaking. The city was on lockdown and I was breaking the law by stepping out of the door.

  Not that I exactly gave a shit, given the circumstances. Whatever was going on in the house clearly posted much more of a danger than anything COVID could throw at me, in the immediate timeframe, anyway. I dug through my purse and got my mask, thinking that it was better to be safe than sorry.

  Except I was sorry. About the whole entire thing. And going by the sounds that came from the other side of the door, so would Seth be, soon, if he wasn’t already.

  Who was that lady?

  That was what I wanted to know but I didn’t have the nerve to ask him or the desire to stick around for any drama. I just got out of there as quickly as I could, but I was still plagued with questions.

  Was he cheating on me with her, or, more likely, on her with me?

  They looked to be about the same age.

  He hadn’t seemed very happy to see her, but then, he wouldn’t be, would he? Not if he was caught screwing around.

  Still, it didn’t sit right.

  As I far as I knew, Seth didn’t really do relationships, in the traditional sense. The chances of him having a wife were nil. I would have heard about that.

  She could have been a girlfriend.

  Whatever was going on, I knew I had to get away quickly. Otherwise things were going to get really bad really fast.

  As I was looking for my mask, I found the letter that Harrison, the nurse, had written for me.

  Well, that was an upside.

  At least if I got caught on the street after lockdown, I wouldn’t be arrested instantly.

  The letter combined with the mask would probably get me off with a warning and an order to go home.

  If only it was that simple, though.

  Who knew how things would turn out, being that this was an unprecedented pandemic?

  I was really stuck in a dilemma now, about how to best get home.

  Why the hell hadn’t I brought my car?

  A cab was out of the question, as were the buses. None of them would be running because of the lockdown.

  I didn’t have any friend close enough to accept all the weirdness of this situation, at least not without question or judgement.

  No, there was only one person I could think of to call in such a situation. I just hoped she was back from back East.

  “Hey sis, what’s good?” my sister Stephanie asked as soon as she picked up my call.

  “Not much at the moment,” I confessed, trying to sound upbeat about it.

  “Oh no, what happened?”

  “It’s kind of a long story. Are you back in town?”

  “Yeah, for a couple of days now. Where are you?”

  “At a friend’s house,” I replied lamely. “Are you sure you want to break the lockdown?”

  “Do you really think I give a shit whe
n my baby sister is in trouble?”

  I couldn’t really tell Stephanie where I was, due to not knowing, myself, but I remembered seeing a street number on the way in, which had had a gas station near it. I gave her that one small piece of identifying information about my location and apologized that I didn’t know of anything more.

  “I’ll find it,” she said. “Just get your ass down there, and I’ll be right there.”

  I wanted to thank her, but she’d already hung up. I knew the distance she had to travel to get to me was unknown, so it was best if I got going, anyway.

  Stephanie was waiting for me when I arrived, trudging down the hill like I had iron in my pockets. It really was a lot longer than I had first reckoned.

  “You look like shit,” she told me.

  “Thanks, I feel like it.”

  “Let’s get you inside.”

  “Okay.”

  “When did you get this agreeable?” Stephanie asked, with an acid edge.

  “That’s another long story.”

  I didn’t feel like going home. It was silly, but I didn’t want to be alone. I was still too shaken up.

  There were so many questions running a full-on riot in my mind that I was at risk of getting a headache. Stephanie’s sister-sense must have been running at full power, though, luckily.

  She took me to her place, making sure to lock the door behind us. She was on the tenth floor, so I felt perfectly safe.

  “You look like you could use a drink,” she told me.

  “Actually—”

  I almost said, ‘I don’t drink any more,’ but something about the way Stephanie looked at me made me reconsider uttering those words.

  Aside from our parents, she was the one I trusted most to know what was best for me. Even better than I did, sometimes.

  She had known me my whole life, after all, and I wasn’t always known for making the best decisions. Like when I died my hair pink because I thought it would look cute, or when I went camping alone in the back country, blissfully ignorant about how to bear-proof a campsite.

  Both of which pale in comparison to my choice of major. Dad was pretty cool about it, but Mom actually cried, certain I would end up starving on the street. If only she knew about my current circumstances— but of course, I couldn’t tell her. I could only tell Stephanie.

  “Okay, spill,” Stephanie said, putting a glass of red wine for each of us on the glass coffee table.

  “I’m not really sure where to begin; it’s kind of a twist.”

  “The beginning is usually a good idea.”

  “Okay, well remember when I was 12?”

  “Going back that far, are we?”

  Stephanie always did have a knack for cutting through some bullshit. It was a characteristic that was seen as admirable in an adult but that got her sent to the principal’s office a lot as a kid.

  “I just meant when I first discovered Suspicious Activity Records.”

  “Oh yeah, that label started by that musician you liked.”

  “Seth Black, from Autumn Corrosion.”

  “I see,” Stephanie said, looking pointedly at my T-shirt.

  “Yeah, that’s even more of a coincidence than it looks.”

  “Do tell.”

  I wanted to, but I was having trouble finding the words, and not just because of embarrassment on account of the sexcapades I’d embarked on with Seth.

  “Well, about two weeks ago, I got the opportunity to intern at the record label, and it was great for a while but then, things changed.”

  “Oh my God, he didn’t hurt you, did he? Are you still a virgin?”

  “No, but he didn’t hurt me. He is really great, or at least I thought he was. That’s where it gets confusing.”

  “Take your time, hon,” she said, taking my hand.

  “It was really cool at first. I shadowed him during his days at the studio for a week: listening to demos, going to shows, sitting in on recording sessions. I really learned a lot. He was never remotely inappropriate, going out of his way to not even touch me, even accidentally.”

  “Okay, I won’t murder him yet.”

  “Then the lockdown came, and he said he wanted to keep things going. He invited me stay at his house, so he could mentor me. I want to make it clear: I wanted to go. He is really sexy, and I’ve always had a thing for him. The fact that he might be even slightly interested in me made me giddy. Everything was normal the first day. The morning of the second day, after breakfast, he made a sort of proposal.”

  “Not a wedding proposal, I assume.”

  “No, but there was a jewelry box,” I said dreamily.

  “Did it have that in it?”

  Stephanie pointed to the collar, which was still around my neck. That was no doubt the same way that the crazy lady who had waltzed right into Seth’s house had known what was going on between us.

  “Yeah,” I admitted.

  “I think I’m starting to get the picture.”

  There was no judgement in her tone, just concern that I was alright. I hadn’t had time to really check.

  “What happened then?” she asked.

  “A few days of wonderful, mixing a continuation of the internship with, um, other activities, all consensual of course. Then this morning, he says we should take a break from what we’ve been doing,” I told her, hating this part. “He said too much can be overwhelming. I didn’t want to stop. I realize now that that was because I was too far into it, which was exactly what he was afraid of, so I can’t really fault him. Then, just after he gets done explaining that, and how he still likes doing this with me, this, um, woman comes storming in.”

  “His wife?”

  “I don’t think so, because I think I would have heard about if he’d gotten married. I thought maybe girlfriend.”

  “Girlfriend or no, it doesn’t sound like you should be seeing him anymore,” Stephanie said resolutely. “It’s not safe.”

  She was right, of course. I was beginning to love Seth, in more than a crush way, but I didn’t want to risk getting hurt, which only made it worse, somehow, because it might not even be his fault.

  There was every possibility that the woman was his girlfriend, enraged at his continued infidelity. Or she could be a jealous ex-girlfriend who couldn’t let go.

  But whatever she was, it was too much for me to deal with just then.

  I needed space and, as much as it hurt, like a fucking knife in my heart, I knew that Stephanie was absolutely right that I couldn’t see Seth again.

  Chapter Ten

  Seth

  It had started out so well.

  We’d met through a friend of a friend, the usual story.

  I’d never really been a scene sort of boy. Not even during what some have termed ‘the party years.’

  Sure, I went to lots of parties, due to the music I was involved in, but I more tended to be on the stage than on the dance floor or at the bar. It was an arrangement that helped me develop my tea-totalism with a minimum of hassle.

  Not that there was no drinking on stage, Thom always having at least one can or bottle balanced on his keyboard, but that was to be expected from a band. Not from me, though. I stayed sober.

  I was also always the designated driver, which allowed the rest of the band to get plastered, if they wanted to. I was also the one who would drive some other folks home if it was a local gig. There were times in which I felt like that ‘bus driver’ should be added to my list of jobs in the many hats I wore.

  “There’s someone I want you to meet,” my friend Cam said, as we took down our set.

  “Is he cute?”

  “I mean for you, smart ass.”

  “Oh, is she cute?”

  “Naw, more like smokin’ hot.”

  “Goodie goodie gumdrops.”

  We were past the point of picking up on sarcasm. We had been friends too long, and more or less assumed most things had at least a tang of irony to them.

  We were from the tail-end of Gen X,
after all. The fact of the matter was, in my experience, that being pretty brought problems. I had a feeling that Clara would be trouble, way back then, and I should have listened to my gut.

  “Clove?” she had asked, offering me a cigarette.

  “No thanks.”

  “Mormon?” she guessed, blowing out a puff.

  It was 1997 or thereabouts and smoking indoors was still legal in most states. As much as I hated it, I had to admit she did make it look sexy.

  “Nope. Just mortal,” I pointed out. “And planning to continue being that way for a long time.”

  “Interesting,” Clara said, actually seeming to ponder what I had said.

  The sparks were instant and the fire they lit burned bright for about a year. Right up until the ‘98 tour.

  Things cooled significantly then, with Clara getting paranoid that I was cheating on her, that I had a girl in every town, or at least that I was fucking groupies on the regular. Never mind the fact that most of our fans were guys. Plus, I was faithful, although she seemed convinced otherwise.

  If anyone was hooking up with anyone else on the road, it was Cam, who was happily unattached. Even if I’d had the opportunity, I wouldn’t take it, obviously because I was with Clara, but also, even if I was single, I just wouldn’t have the time. I spent most nights on tour or at the hotel, working on new lyrics or practicing my basslines with headphones on.

  And yet she still never believed me. Her constant paranoia and jealousy just got to be too much, and I ended it. Or, so at least I’d thought.

  It was uncanny, really.

  Just when I thought I’d really moved on, as in, literally moving to a different end of town, meeting a new girl, focusing on the label following the implosion of the band, Clara had appeared again.

  I had been dating a nice girl named Luna. Maybe we didn’t have a future together but it was good for the time being. But Clara had come back and ruined all of that.

  Just like she had come back now. Strolling back into my house like she owned the place and into my life as if she belonged there. When she totally didn’t.

  “See?” Clara asked, after Jonna ran out. “They will always leave you. It’s always fuck and run with those sluts, but I’m the only one who loves you.”