Pain And Pleasure 18+✓

One

No matter how hard I try to search through my so-called principles, what he offers renders me submissive to my innermost desire. Frankly, I'm not quite innocent. I've made tough and dark choices before, some not worth advertising out loud, and I can't say this is far worse than the others, but it's still new.

Fifty thousand dollars, Ara! You need it, don't you?

Like a whisper of the devil, I can hear the voice chanting in my head, smooth yet conniving, unfurling the list of needs those dirty bills can fulfil once I get ahold of them. 

Perhaps Isla can finally get into the ballet academy she badly wants to join, and Jake can get the supercomputer for school and other projects he usually does that I barely understand. Food expenses, school allowance, water, electricity, and...what else? Rent? Oh yes, the fucking rent! I need to make that intolerable Miss Antoinette shut her lousy mouth before she knocks on my door again like a drunk deliveryman.

Despite my endless needs, the stakes are too high, even for me, regarding this proposal I've been given by him.

But I'm not a stranger to the dark world I've known for the last seven years, either. I can smell the lurking danger by just being here at this particular moment, yet I'm not as afraid as I should be. Something is wrong with me—I've always felt it—but I know there's nothing I can do to fix it because this is just about the payment. The money.

And I think I can do anything to get it.

"Have you made up your mind, Miss Lincoln?" That nerve-wracking voice snaps my trance via the air pod I'm wearing, a stern reminder that I'm yet to give him the answer to his illicit proposal.

I let out a warm breath through my nose, working around my bearing.

"What do you want me to do, Mister Castle?" I ask nervously, my fingers a bit clammy despite the Air Condition running perfectly in the presidential suite I'm in as his temporary personal assistant.

Yeah, it all began with that. He's my employer and I'm his part-time employee. Office Romance? Not really, for ours is a bit unconventional.

A story for another time.

"What do I want you to do? Well, I'll take that as a yes," he replies coolly, a subtle hint of triumph lacing his voice.

I want to roll my eyes but I'm too pitiful to even dare. He's the boss here. He's got me under his intricate web of dark demands in exchange for a handsome $50,000.

A fucking fifty thousand dollars!

"Of course. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here, would I?" I ignore the speed of my racing heart and the tight knots in my tummy by lifting my head high as though he's right here with me, watching me, while in reality, I don't even know what he looks like.

It's a cyber relationship that we have, as a boss and his assistant. No meetings. Only calls. Weird, I know, but it never mattered.

When I least expect it, I hear him say, "I need you to take off your clothes."

"Excuse me?" My heart leaps from the sudden exasperation he's inflicted upon me. "Take off my clothes? What the fuck do—"

"Language, Miss Lincoln!" he snaps quietly. "You agreed to comply with whatever I ask you to... correct me if I'm wrong?"

I roll my eyes. 

"And I think we need to work pretty hard on those incorrigible eyes of yours. They seem to have a mind of their own, don't they?" he adds.

"Well, there's no way I'm taking off my clothes like a whore you think I am!" I recoil, even though deep inside I think I already am by being here right now whether willingly or not.  "I did agree to accept any of your requests but I think we do need to discuss the depth of your sovereignty over me, don't you think?"