“Are you ready for our date?” He gives me a giant cheesy smile that quickly fades. Sebastian’s whole body goes rigid behind me.
“I said no boyfriends,” he reminds me.
“It’s not a boyfriend. It’s a date,” I point out as I turn my head to look up at my boss.
Oh, shit. I don’t think Nora is going to be the only one to lose it tonight.
9
Sebastian
I made plans. Plenty of them. All of them involved finding a patsy to take the fall for all of it once my destruction of this stupid town was complete. I thought I’d found that person in Merry.
But here I am with my plans falling to ruins as I contemplate doing all the dirty work myself. Out in the open where all of these Christmas-loving peasants will see me. Not on my plans for Reindeer Valley. No. On this piece of shit Spencer who has the fucking gall to try and speak to my woman—I mean, my employee.
“You ready?” The moron offers his arm.
She tangles her fingers together. “I, um…”
I press my lips to her ear. “If you take one step, I don’t think you’re going to like what happens to this fool.”
She gasps.
“What?” He finally looks at me, his dumb mouth already opening to ask yet another stupid question. “Who’s this guy?”
“This guy is her employer.” I wrap one arm around her waist and press her against me. “And she’s on the clock.” In fact, she’s on the cock, because I’m pressing it right into her lower back. The thought makes me smirk, and I love it when she squirms against me.
“What?” He looks around. “It’s like nine o’clock. Come on, Merry. I’ll take you to the diner.”
She looks up at me. “Well, I did say I’d go with—”
“You will do no such thing.” I can only scoff.
“Merry?” He gives her what must be his winningest smile.
“I mean, I am working for Sebastian, so I guess I can’t go with you until he says I can.” She says it hesitantly, despite every fucking word of it being absolutely true.
“I say she can’t. In fact, I was just about to take her to a late dinner at my place so we could discuss our plans for work tomorrow.”
“Sounds unprofessional, but whatever.” He frowns, then looks at Merry. “How about tomorrow night?”
“She’s working.”
He gives me an irritated look. “Okay, fine. Saturday night, then?”
“She’s working.”
His nose twitches. “Man, I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to Merry.”
I smile at him, showing him all my teeth.
He flinches.
“I think you’ll find that Merry is very interested in pleasing me. In keeping me happy. In being an exemplary employee for me. So much so that I believe she’ll happily tell you that for the entirety of the foreseeable future, she’ll be too busy to go on a date with you. In fact, she’ll be so busy working with me that she’ll forget you even exist. Go ahead, Spencer. Ask her.”
He swallows hard and glances around, perhaps wondering if there’s anyone nearby who can help him. It wouldn’t matter if the entire fucking town was in arm’s reach for him, nothing would stop me from wrecking this piece of shit if he so much as tries to touch my Merry.
“Uh, Merry?” He isn’t smiling anymore.
“I’m sorry, Spencer. It’s just … I’m really busy with work, so—”
“It’s fine.” He backs away a step. “I’ll um, I’ll see you around.” He takes one more look at me before turning and almost running back into the auditorium.
I whirl Merry around and lean down so that we’re almost nose to nose.
“Hi.” She cocks her head a little, staring into my eyes.
“I think I must’ve misheard, because it sounded like that tool said you’d agreed to go on a date with him.”
She drops her gaze. “Well, I did because I needed to distract him so I could switch the cards and—”
“Ah.” I stand up straight again and take her hand, then lead her toward my car.
“That’s all? ‘Ah’?”
“You did what you needed to do in order to get the job done. I can’t fault you for that.” I open the passenger door for her and help her in. “But I can fault you for making all the contestants into winners. That wasn’t part of my instructions.”
She nibbles her bottom lip.
I close her door then get into the driver’s seat, heading out of town.
“Where are we going?”
“That’s not the right question.” I take her hand and hold it as we speed down the highway.
“What’s the right question?” Her voice is breathy again.
“The right question is ‘How are you going to punish me?’” I tighten my grip on her hand.
She makes a sound in her throat. Almost a gasp. Almost a moan. My cock hardens even more.
“Punish?” she whispers.
“Yes, Merry. I know working for me has probably been a dream job for you. How could it not be? But there are some parts of this job that you can consider the hard parts. The learning portions. I admit I didn’t expect to work so closely with my new hire, but you’re proving to be quite an excellent acquisition. I want to give you all the attention and training you need to be a stellar employee.”
“That’s what I want. To be good for you.” She nibbles her lip again. “I know I didn’t do the last two tasks just the way you said. I know. It’s just I hate to make anyone unhappy.”
“Don’t you want to make me happy, Merry?”
“Yes!” she answers quickly. “Very much.”
“You do. But just think how great you’d be at your job if you only had a bit more discipline and guidance.”
“Yeah, my school counselor said that ‘idiot savant’ stuff, and she also said I never applied myself enough.”
I smile, and I grant that it’s a bit of an evil one. “That’s why I’m here, Merry. I’ll help you apply yourself thoroughly.” I press harder on the gas. I have to get her home. She needs punishment. I’m doing her a favor here, really. After all, how else will she learn if I don’t teach her?
“You want to be a good employee for me, right, Merry?”
“Of course.” She nods.
Hmm. Perhaps my cock in her innocent little throat might be just the push she needs to become employee of the month.
10
Merry
I fight not to squirm in my seat as Sebastian drives toward the edge of town. When I think of him punishing me, everything inside me starts to tingle and get warm. A dull ache forms between my thighs. What is he going to do?
“Where are you taking me?” I ask. Curiosity is always getting the best of me.
“To my house. I want privacy for what I have planned.”
I squeeze my thighs together. The ache between them grows with the anticipation of what that means.
“To your home? You bought the old Winter Falls estate.” We really will be all alone out there since it’s basically in the middle of nowhere. Unless he has some sort of house staff, which one might need for a place that grand. It’s almost as fancy as the Lovejoy mansion, and that’s saying something.