Part Three
Chapter One
Nik rubbed the backof his neck as he tried to concentrate on the spreadsheet printouts before him. Normally, calculating opportunity costs of proposed investments was a challenge he looked forward to. But now, they were just numbers to him. They had been so since he had left Teleios.
The mere thought had Nik clenching his fists, and he breathed hard, willing himself to stay in control. He strove to keep all his emotions at bay, the way he had been able to in the past decade. But it didn’t work, and as rage boiled inside him, he crumpled the spreadsheets and threw them into the trash.
He stalked towards the windows, hoping the much-coveted skyline of New York City would do something to calm him. His company had been one of the lucky few to build a skyscraper with views of Central Park, with his own office occupying the topmost floor of the 62-story building.
He had a life less than one percent in the world could ever have a chance of enjoying, Nik thought broodingly. He was one of the wealthiest men in the world. His business was poised for exponential growth for the next ten years. He had a fiancée any man would have been proud of – beautiful, sexy, intelligent, and self-accomplished.
He had everything.
And yet – he felt like he had nothing.
Why the fuck did he feel like he had lost everything the moment he had turned his back on...her?
Call her. It was the voice of stupidity, Nik knew, but it was a voice that kept getting louder in his mind. It haunted him in his every waking moment, urging him to put an end to his torment.
Call her. Ask her to come back. Never let her go.
Nik’s jaw clenched. That voice was also the voice of insanity, and he would not listen to it again. He had listened to it once, and it had made Nik believe that people who did not have any blood ties to him – people like Beth Lewis – could love him for who he was and not for how much he was worth.
Swinging away from the windows, Nik strode back to his table and picked up the intercom. His PA answered at the first ring.
“Call Miranda and ask her to come here right this moment.”
“Yes, sir.”
Putting the receiver back down, Nik headed towards the mini bar at the corner of his office and poured himself a stiff drink. He took a sip then after a moment’s thought, he drank everything in one gulp.
He poured himself another drink as he moved towards the couch. As part of her arrangement with Nik, Miranda had her own office in the same building. He didn’t charge her for rent, but both of them also knew he expected her to be at his beck and call as a mistress should be.
By the time Miranda arrived, he was already on his fourth shot, and she faltered at the sight of him. Nik couldn’t blame her for it. He was infamous for his strict views on separating business from pleasure, and yet here he was, determined to intoxicate himself in the middle of a work day.
“What’s wrong?” Miranda asked immediately as she closed the distance between them. She was as ethereally beautiful as ever, her blonde hair falling over the gentle, bare slope of her left shoulder.
Nik gazed at his mistress with hooded eyes. It used to be that seeing her perfection was a pleasure in itself, the knowledge that he had found himself the ideal mistress reassuring Nik that his life was on the right track. The controllable track.
And yet now...
He felt absolutely nothing, and his quiet rage intensified even as Nik determinedly reburied the emotions deep inside him. “Undress yourself.” He didn’t explain, didn’t need to. Miranda might be the woman he had agreed to marry, for purely practical purposes, but it didn’t mean the underlying agreement between them would ever change.
At the end of the day, she was still the woman he paid to satisfy him, a woman who was paid not to ask him questions – not to even speak a single word if he didn’t care to hear her.
To her credit, Miranda didn’t even blink at the demand. She undressed herself with sensuous care, her eyes never leaving his face as she unzipped her dress and let the silk fall and pool around her feet. Stepping out, she took her time unclipping the front clasp of her bra, and once her breasts spilled free, she plumped them up with her own hands and teased her nipples to life.
When Nik still didn’t make a move to reach for her, Miranda released her breasts and bent down to take off her panties. Once she was fully naked, she knelt down, completely bare except for her stilettos. She unbuckled his belt and unzipped his pants, and after working his briefs a few inches down, she was able to release his cock. The fact that it wasn’t erect didn’t deter her. She only lowered her head and took his cock into her mouth. She sucked him long and hard, one hand caressing his balls while another hand played with her own sex.
By the time he was fully engorged, Miranda was just as ready, her pussy aching and wet. Rising up, she placed her hands on his shoulders and straddled him.
Their eyes locked – hers seducing, his unreadable – as she slowly lowered herself onto his cock.
There were no words after that, only the sounds of her pants filling Nik’s vast office. She watched his face as she serviced him, was frustrated by the way it remained stoic despite the pleasure she knew she was giving him.
Moving close, she whispered to his ear, “Imagine whatever you want, darling. I can be whatever...whoever...you want me to be.”
His hands tightened around her butt, and the next second, Nik had completely taken control. Thrust after thrust, he impaled her with such force that even with all her years of experience, Miranda was left gasping and clinging to Nik’s shoulders, her eyes rolling back.