My Wicked Valentine (Club Wicked 1) Read Online Free Page B

misunderstanding earlier. To tell you
the truth, you caught me off guard, something that doesn’t normally happen to
me.”
    “I’m ready to listen to what you have to say now.” Pride
filled her at how steady her voice was when inside she was in the middle of a
panic attack.
    “Excellent.”
    His voice warmed considerably, and she almost giggled. What
the hell was wrong with her? Even talking to the man on the phone was making
her into a simpleton. “Before you start, can I tell you something?”
    “Of course.”
    “Let me be honest with you, Mr. O’Keefe. If this is going to
work, we need to be honest with each other, correct?”
    “Yes, I agree.”
    She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay. I’m going
to be on the level with you. I know that if I can land this party, I will be
able to finally pay my employees what they are worth instead of what I can
afford to pay them. If learning about something kinky is what I have to do,
well, shoot, I’m glad I’m the boss and can’t get fired for inappropriate
behavior.” Her heart hammered, and her palms slicked with sweat, but she pushed
on. “I never feel more alive or happier than when I’m making someone else
happy. I love looking out into a crowd and knowing they are having a good time
because of me, because of what I did. Party planning is more than a job for me,
Mr. O’Keefe. This is my dream.”
    There was silence on his end except for the faint sound of
his breath.
    “Mr. O’Keefe?”
    “You’d better start calling me Isaac.”
    “Pardon me?”
    “If I’m going to teach you about BDSM in six weeks, we’d
better get started tonight.”
    “Tonight? What are we starting tonight?”
    “I agree to your terms.”
    “My terms?”
    “Yes. You said you are willing to learn, and I am willing to
teach you. I want you to think of this more as a partnership than a boss and
employee relationship. Please feel free to speak your mind around me. I value
your opinion, Lucia. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be hiring you, no matter what Mrs.
Florentine wants.”
    “Okay, I can do that.” A small amount of tension left her
body, and she leaned farther into the chair. She frowned and sat up straighter.
“I’m still not having sex with you, partners or not.”
    He chuckled. “I never said you were. I won’t do anything to
you that you don’t ask me for, and no matter how much you beg, I’m not going to
fuck you.” His deep laugh made her libido perk up. “By the way, around my
friends and partners I have a rather foul mouth. Please forgive me.”
    “No fucking problem.” She let out a giggle that sounded a
bit hysterical. Oh God, what had she just agreed to?
    “Just so you know, your time at the club will be as a
bartender instead of a guest.”
    She felt strangely disappointed. Not that she’d really
wanted him to whisk her off into the night and do bad things with her, but
bartending seemed so normal.
    “Oh, okay.”
    “It’s only because you have to pass a background check
before you can get into the private areas of the club. Plus I thought it might
be better to take things slowly to give you time to adjust to the water before
I threw you into the deep end.”
    “I feel like I’m already in the deep end, and it’s filled
with sharks.”
    He laughed, and the knot in her stomach loosened a bit.
“Don’t worry. I don’t bite.”
    She flushed and tapped her foot against the floor. “I
appreciate that. If I may ask, now that we’re working together, why are you
going to all this effort to get me to work for you? Surely there is someone who
does both event planning and knows BDSM.”
    He sighed. “Mrs. Florentine, your business mentor and
co-owner of Wicked, fancies herself a bit of a matchmaker. I fear her
intentions on sending you to me weren’t only professional but personal as well.
It wouldn’t hurt my chances at becoming a member of Wicked’s board of directors
if the wife of the chairman of the board is happy with me.”
    She