Tell Me - Ashe Barker Page 0,67
You can pedal. You do great pedalling. What was that about handlebars?”
“All that stuff you do. And Stephen. The schmoozing, the deals, the chatting to clients. I can run systems, but I can't sell anything to save my life. I can't get new business in. I’d be bankrupt in months and my workers out of a job.”
“So you hire yourself a managing director. Someone with marketing flair, leadership. A strategist. Tell them what you want doing and leave them to get on with it while you do what you’re good at behind the scenes.”
Thea offered him a wry smile. “Are you looking for a job, Tony?”
He stopped, considered her tongue in cheek suggestion for a few moments, then, “Mates rates then. And if I agree to work for you it’s on condition that you stay on as my deputy director at Dart. Indefinitely. I won’t be able to manage both companies unless you do.”
“What?”
“You heard. It’s a good solution. You should take up Stephen’s offer, buy him out, then hire me to head up your public-facing activity. We know we can work together, we make a great team.”
“You mean both of us, run both companies? Like a partnership?”
“We could structure it that way if you like. Let’s take some legal advice on it. But yes, that’s the general idea. Does it sound like something you’d like to do?”
“I can't imagine myself as your boss.”
“I confess that has me a little stymied too. But a partnership might work. You pedal both firms, I deal with all the handlebars stuff. Do we have a deal?”
He held out his hand. Stephen’s expression remained one of absolute bewilderment but he seemed to know to keep his mouth shut. Thea took Tony’s hand and gave it a firm shake.
“Deal. Partners.”
Tony might have made more of an attempt to seal their new arrangement, but he felt the moment was not quite right for what he had in mind. Still…
He abandoned that train of thought when his phone rang. He checked the caller ID. It was Jerome
Chapter Thirteen
“No answer.” Tony ended the call and slipped his phone back into his trouser pocket.
Thea carried two mugs of tea through from her tiny kitchen and set them down on a low table beside the sofa. Stephen had left already. She wriggled up alongside Tony. “I didn't expect there to be, not really. We wouldn't get that lucky, would we?”
“Who knows? I’ll try again later. Are we staying here tonight or do you want to come to mine?”
“We? You don’t need to babysit me. I had a shock, and I was upset. More than upset, but I’m fine. Really.” Now that she’d regained—or perhaps acquired—a sense of proportion Thea was mortified at how she’d behaved. She’d cowered in her bed like some sort of pathetic loser, as though she could block all her problems out. It wasn’t her, not her way of dealing with adversity at all. Thea Richmond was a coper, a problem-solver. And she was tough. She must be, she could weather a session on the receiving end of Tony’s belt.
She didn’t relish the prospect of what the next few days had to offer. However hard she tried she knew she would never achieve Tony’s blasé attitude, and maybe she didn’t want to. But she’d get through it, past it, and she could see a future beyond. A bright, glittering future, at work and in her personal life.
She wore Tony’s collar, and even if she had managed to lose sight of it briefly, she knew full well the implications of that. He hadn’t said so, but she fully expected him to punish her for her idiotic behaviour earlier. And that discipline needed to be imminent. It couldn’t wait. She couldn’t wait. She understood why. She’d behaved irrationally. She’d scared him. Hell, she’d scared herself and she felt so ashamed of it now. She wanted to feel the bite of his belt across her arse, needed it. Craved it. Nothing else would make this right. Her submissive nature was as much a part of her as her ruthless professional efficiency. Somehow she’d managed to not see that, not value that aspect of herself.
Well, no longer. It stopped. Here. Now.
“I need a spanking.” Thea’s gaze was level as she stood before Tony, her voice low but steady. “Please, Sir.”
“I know.”
“Will you do it here? Now?” She was hopeful, but anxious too. What if he decided to make her wait, to draw out the agony and the ecstasy of it all?