you’re not as into it as you should be then our association will be over. I don’t dominate women just because I like to order you around. I do it because I thrive off the response I get. If I’m not getting what I need, I can’t give you what you need. It may seem mean to you, but that give and take is how it works. For me, anyway.”
So not only did she have these scenes to do, but they would be like tests in a way. If she didn’t pass, her opportunity to investigate him would stop. Period. She was taking a big risk for herself and for this case. Exposing herself like this could get them nowhere in the investigation, yet could totally change her on some level. She wondered again why she’d agreed to do this assignment, but then an even bigger question suddenly came to her, and she blurted it out before thinking better of it.
“Why are you agreeing to this? I mean, you don’t know me.” She knew why she’d sought him out, but she didn’t understand why he’d agreed to it so quickly. It was wrong to question him because, at any time, he could reject her and she’d have to report back the failure, but on some level, she needed to know his reasoning.
“Because, pet, you came right when I needed a new challenge.” He leaned in and gently brushed his lips across hers. Shelby gasped, and he retreated with a smile. “And I’m very much looking forward to it.”
Chapter Two
Mason stood inside his plush new office and grabbed his tablet off his custom walnut desk. The leather of his executive chair still had that new luxurious smell, one he would never tire of. When he’d been promoted to senior vice president of capital management a couple of weeks ago, he knew all his hard work over the years had finally paid off. Being in his mid-thirties, Mason was the youngest VP at the company, but he was also the only one who didn’t have a wife and children at home who demanded some of his time. He’d climbed each rung of the corporate ladder with eighty-hour workweeks, new clients, and the appropriate amount of ass-kissing—though he loathed to look at it that way. He knew when to stand strong and when to schmooze. It was the nature of the business. He didn’t make the rules, but he knew how to play by them.
Especially when they got him something he wanted.
He deserved to be where he was at today. He’d earned his position the blood-sweat-and-tears way, unlike his boss, who could only claim blood as his method. Not because he’d spilled any of his own. William Baxter was one of the founding members’ great-nephew. He’d coasted into his position simply because of what coursed through his veins. The man was senior executive director of private clients and managed the funds of some of the wealthiest people in the world—a position Mason would do anything to get.
He would probably never become the CEO of Fieldstein and Baxter since he hadn’t been born into the family like William, but Mason was content with his track to one day take over his new boss’s position. Even if that meant he’d have to ruin the man’s career in the process. It wasn’t personal. Mason would never indulge in something as weak as emotion in his career. It was business, plain and simple.
He took the elevator up to the floor where the executive staff primarily worked since he was scheduled to meet with his new direct boss in five minutes for a conference call with some brokers. He knew how to play the game—come too early and William would think he wasn’t busy enough, but come too late and William would be insulted by Mason wasting his precious time. It was a tune he’d danced to way too many times, and he never missed a step.
He was a shark when it came to business and knew the game so well he could go through the motions of his job, saying all the right things without even really having to think much about it. But that also afforded him the opportunity to be someplace else mentally…whether it was intentional or not.
As he walked into William’s office, took the seat offered, and began to listen in on the call, his mind strayed to the place it had often sought since meeting the beautiful Shelby. On the outside, he listened