Read Online Purely Professional by Elia Winters - Free Book Online Page B

otherwise.”
    He laughed, patting her leg and sitting back. “Making me? You’re making me do this? I don’t do anything I don’t want to do.” He smirked. “You’re right. It’s been a long time since I had someone new to play with. Especially someone as—” he looked her up and down, searching for the right adjective, “—as fresh as you,” he finished. “You’re practically a virgin.”
    Now it was her turn to laugh. She turned to him, incredulous. “That is ridiculous. You don’t even know me. Are you always this arrogant?”
    “It’s not arrogance. It’s confidence.”
    “That’s what arrogant people say. But seriously, you won’t take my money?” It felt strange to imagine him doing all this for free, as a favor.
    “No, I won’t. Think of it as a new experience for both of us.”
    “And no emotional anything,” Bridget said quickly. “I mean it when I said no relationships. Purely professional.”
    “All right.” Max nodded. “No entanglements, no emotions. We play, we hang out, do all the ‘relationship’ stuff you need to write about. I like you. It’ll be fine.” He grew serious again. “But you call it off if it’s not your thing. I’m not spending all this effort on a reluctant partner, no matter what you need to do for your job. Promise me.”
    His intensity surprised her. “All right, I promise.” Bridget felt light-headed, whether from the wine or the decision she just made. “So what happens now?”
    “I’m going to treat you like a new submissive. I’m still not sure you’ll be into this, so we’ll start slow, and if you like it, we’ll get more intense over each session.”
    She swallowed. What would “more intense” look like? “All right. And…tonight?”
    “Tonight I take notes.” Max retrieved the laptop from his desk and sat back down.
    “How very businesslike.” Bridget settled back on the sofa, relaxing a little.
    Max put on some reading glasses and suddenly became, if possible, even hotter. “Do you promise to be honest with me?”
    “What are you going to ask?”
    He just looked at her over the top of his glasses for a moment, incredulous. “Bridget, this type of relationship is founded on trust. It’s essential that you trust me completely. If you can’t even trust me enough to talk to me, I’m not going to continue. We can stop right here and probably both be a lot better off for it.”
    “All right, all right, spare me the lecture.” She shifted a bit. Her stomach was feeling fluttery again. “Go ahead.”
    “How old are you?”
    “Thirty-one.” The banality of the question surprised her. “How old are you?”
    “Thirty-five, but I’m asking the questions.” Max started typing. “When’s the last time you had sex?”
    “Real sex?”
    He raised an eyebrow. “Yes, ‘real’ sex.”
    She thought for a moment, then got embarrassed that she had to think about it. “A little over a year. Fourteen months.”
    “One-night stand, or relationship?”
    “Second date.” She grimaced. “He cried afterward.”
    “It was that bad?”
    “No. He was a pussy.”
    Max turned back to his laptop, smiling. “Are you on birth control?”
    “I have an IUD. And I’m clean too. I got tested at my last annual, just to be sure. What about you? When’s the last time you were tested?” Bridget tried not to sound accusatory, but she’d seen a lot of strange cars at his house.
    “Last month.” Max adjusted the glasses on his nose. “If we go through with this, it’s best if we both have no other partners while we’re together. Is that all right?”
    “It’s been fourteen months.” Bridget took up her wineglass to have more. “I’m not the one with a steady parade of women showing up at all hours of the day and night. I hope you have them all on speed dial to cancel your rendezvouses. Rendezvousi. Whatever you call them.”
    “The plural of rendezvous is rendezvous,” Max said, pronouncing the s on the plural, still not looking