31. Cole

"Fine, you heartless bastard, you win!"Jasper Whittaker, Benton Worldwide"s oldest board member, threw the black file down on my desk at Benton Worldwide"s Los Angeles satellite office.

"Glad we"re finally seeing eye to eye on this," I answered without an ounce of emotion.

"Your grandfather would be rolling in his grave if he could see you now!"

Actually, it had been my grandfather who"d inspired me to ensure Jasper Whittaker"s capitulation.

Getting his yea had been more of a principle thing than a necessity. The truth was, I had the votes I needed without Jasper. But when I sprung the resolution to remove my grandmother from the chair position at Monday's board meeting, I wanted to serve my vengeance cold with a one-hundred-percent agreement, minus Max.

Jasper was one of the board's outside directors, which meant he was also outside of my direct sphere of influence since he was the president of an L.A.-based holding company that didn't do business with Benton Worldwide. Even more annoying, I suspected the widower had a crush on my grandmother, and he refused to even think about voting her off the board.

I had almost decided to accept that I might have to move forward without Whittaker's yea, but then I remembered my grandfather's rules about holdouts."Holdoutsare easy. All you have to do is find dirt on someone they love."

In Jasper's case, it had taken the Los Angeles detective I"d hired weeks to ferret out a piece of information I could use. In this case, a sealed record on his granddaughter for stealing money from Jasper's company when she'd interned there as a college student—a crime her current company, a prominent Los Angeles brokerage firm, probably didn't know about.

"Strange decision to go into financial services with her history of embezzling," I"d noted earlier in the meeting. "I know I wouldn't want anyone with that kind of blemish on her record handling my money."

"It wasn't embezzling. She simply had a rebellious streak when she was in college,"Jasper answered, sounding irritated but more so worried.

"One that ended in nearly half a million in losses for your company. Wow, that's quite a rebellious streak. But hey, I believe you, Jasper. I just hope this doesn't get out. It could cause all kinds of problems for her."

In the end, Jasper must have seen the writing on the wall. He took my offer to "help" him bury the information I"d relentlessly rooted out—in exchange for a yea vote at the upcoming meeting.

"You may go now." I dismissed the old man without acknowledging what he"d said about my grandfather. "I look forward to your vote at next Monday"s board meeting."

Jasper didn"t answer. Just stormed out of the office, his face mottled with red—though he did stop at Agnes"s temporary receptionist desk to get his parking validated.

This was Los Angeles, after all.

But as I watched him snatch the ticket Agnes had stamped and finish his angry march to the elevator, my detached mask gave way to a frown.

Jasper Whittaker's capitulation represented a huge victory. By this time next week, Benton Worldwide would be mine to run as I saw fit after I took my rightful position as chair of the board.

Yet a foreign emotion had nagged at me as the elevator doors closed on the much older businessman. An emotion I recognized as guilt after tangling with it for several weeks. Because of Sunny.

"That was your last meeting, and here"s the new contract you asked for, fresh off the printer." Agnes came in through the door Jasper left open to set a simple manila file down on my desk. "Also, Feather from Malibu Haven just called to say everything went to plan."

Yes, everything is falling into place, I reminded myself, shoving the guilt I shouldn"t be feeling over Jasper Whittaker down.

I glanced at my watch. 14:57. Three more hours to go until it was officially time for me to end the work week early on Thursday and meet Sunny in Palm Springs for what she"d dubbed a "two-day goodbye" before we headed back to Las Vegas for the engagement party my grandmother insisted on throwing us on Sunday.

I"d only been in L.A. for a couple of days to deal with Jasper Whittaker, host a few strategic planning sessions with the SoCal team, and coordinate the Malibu Haven effort. But Tuesday morning with Sunny looped through my head for what felt like the millionth time.

"Do you have to go?" Sunny grabbed onto me and burrowed her face into my chest when I tried to get out of bed.

"You know I do," I answered, even as I wrapped my arms back around her warm, soft body."The L.A. corporate team is expecting me."

"Hey, maybe I could go with you? I"ve never been to L.A. While you"re at your meetings, I could visit my mom now that she"s out of rehab."

Her request had constricted my chest. Sunny never asked me for anything. Still, I had to answer, "I"ve got a lot to do while I"m there. I can"t afford the distraction."

"Oh...okay. Well, I"m going to miss you. That"s all."

"Mr. Benton?" Agnes said, interrupting the bittersweet memory replay. "Anything else?"

I cleared my throat and returned to acting like a CEO who could go a few days without his Sunny fix. "Not yet. I need to type up my speech for Monday"s board meeting, and I have a few more of the L.A. quarterly reports to review. A couple of our GMs might get a call if I don"t like what I see. I"ll let you know if I need someone patched through."

Agnes nodded once, like a good corporate soldier, and exited, closing the door behind her.

My personal phone vibrated, and I pulled it out to find a new bubble under the text chain that had begun the day after our big blow-up and make up with...This is The House. You can contact me at this number so there are no more miscommunications.

There had been many texts since then—about everything from dinner plans to the latest episode of that inane but weirdly addictive Rap Stars Wives reality show she made me watch.

The latest text, though, made me shift in my seat.

What did you say you wanted me to wear underneath my outfit when we talked last night? I can"t remember. Panties or no panties?

Squinting, I tapped the call icon below her name.

"Hey, Cole,"she answered on the third ring, her voice light and breezy.

"You"re aware I said no panties."

"Did you?" I could almost hear her smiling on the other side of the line.

I let out a consternated grunt. "Did you get my present before Tomas drove you to Palm Springs?"

"Yes." Her tone switched to chiding. "And, wow, Cole, couldn"t believe it when I saw the third silk romper to replace the second one you destroyed last week. Seriously, you should pick a new favorite outfit—one that's not so delicate."

"And what are you wearing underneath it?" I asked without any remorse whatsoever.

"Oh, sorry, I"m having trouble remembering...."

"You"re lying." I gritted my teeth against the immediate hard-on that punched out against the fly of my pants."I don't believe you forgot."

"It's true!"Sunny insisted. "I really don't remember, and the terrible thing about these rompers is youhave to take the entire outfit off to check—or, in your case, rip it off."

My voice dropped to a low growl. "Sunny, I"m warning you. You"re going to get in trouble."

"Oh, I don"t want to get in trouble. I"m trying to be good. That"s why I texted to check!"

I'd been right about us not fitting traditional labels with our relationship. In Sunny's and my case, it was less Sub and Dom and more Button Pusher and ButtonPushee.

As if to prove my point, Sunny said,"Okay! Okay! If you insist, I'll check."The sound of rustling came from the other end of the call, then,"Oh, that's interesting."

"What?"I bit out, my hand opening and closing as I resisted the urge to palm my erection.

"It looks like I forgot to put on a bra when I changed into this outfit,"Sunny answered."Which is weird because that's so unlike me. Especially since—oh, my God—they've really got the A/C turned up high in here, and my nipples are so hard. Maybe if I massage them a little, they'll go down....Oh no, actually, that only made it worse."

My hand found my cock now, acting with a mind of its own."You"re aware there will be consequences if you start without me."

"I am," she assured me—right before she let out a mewing moan."I should definitely stop rubbing them. Mmm, it's making it so much worse, and I can feel myself getting all squirmy down below...."

She whimpered."I'm sorry, Cole, but I'm going to have to pull up my romper and get off the phone without checking to see if I'm wearing panties. If I'm not wearing them, I'm going to ruin this outfit, you know."

"Agnes can order another one online,"I bit out.

"Yeah, but that would be a waste of your money,"Sunny answered."Plus, you said you wouldn't be headed out of the office until after six, and I don't want to get in trouble, like the last time I touched myself without your permission, so I'm going to have to cut this short. See you when you get here!"she said cheerily.

Before I even had a chance to bargain with her to finish taking off the romper while I listened, she hungup.

I cursed, long and hard.

Then I called her back.

And got her voicemail.

More cursing. I punched a few words into my computer, thinking about how badly I was going to punish her when I got to Palm Springs five hours from now—five long hours from now—more if I hit traffic on the way to and back from the private airfields, and considering it was SoCal, that was more than likely.

I called her back again. Straight to voicemail. Then a text message popped up on my screen.

Not out of contact, but not answering your calls. For the romper's sake.

I could just imagine Sunny laughing at me while she pranced around the luxury suite Agnes had reserved for us in the romper, with maybe nothing on underneath it. I"ll punish her for that, too, I vowed to myself, turning back to the computer.

I typed in a couple more sentences, reminding myself that I had to finish this speech for the board. Sunny almost always used her"control take back"whenever I tried to work while we were spending time together. Nora's engagement party was on Sunday, and the board meeting was scheduled for first thing Monday morning.

I wasn't going to let Sunny distract me from the last step in my plan, the one I'd been working toward since she walked into my office. With determination, I typed a few more words...

Then I punched the intercom button on the desk phone with an index finger.

"Agnes?"I started.

"Leaving for Palm Springs early?"she finished.

I gritted my teeth."How did you know?"

"Sunny texted me a few minutes ago that I could make early plans with Steve tonight if I wanted because I'd definitely be getting off early,"Agnes answered with a laugh.

Half glaring and half smiling, I snatched the jacket off the back of my chair. I was going to make Sunny pay for that one as well.