Rush (Breathless #1)(12)

He reserved the right to cancel the contract at any time and could if she broke any of the terms that she agreed to. It was very cold, like an employment agreement that gave cause for termination. And she supposed it was very much a double job offer. One as his personal assistant and one as his mistress. Plaything. Possession.

The job as his PA was just a mask for having unfettered access to her. He wanted her at his beck and call in the office and on any business trips he took. But he took it a step further, because her time away from the office was his as well.

She frowned as she reached the last page. It was all very well and good to have her read the contract and arrive back on Monday with a decision, but the contract told her nothing other than the fact she gave up all her rights and he took over every aspect of her life. There were no specifics! What did it all mean? What did he expect from her?

Was he going to tie her to his desk and f**k her at thirty-minute intervals? Did he expect her to give him a blowjob while he was on a conference call? The only reference she’d discovered was a clause under the point referring to sex where it stated that such acts could and would involve bondage, restraint and pain play at his discretion.

She couldn’t even wrap her brain around all that could entail.

She wasn’t an idiot when it came to sex. She wasn’t a virgin, and she’d had steady boyfriends. But they were decidedly vanilla relationships, and she was fine with that. It had never occurred to her to break out the kink.

It all just sounded very  p**n y to her, and it was made sillier by the fact that there was an actual contract where she signed away the rights to her own body.

The longer she sat here and read over it, the more worked up she got.

She skimmed through another paragraph extolling the importance of her knowing precisely what she was getting into and that by signing the contract she agreed not to misrepresent her relationship with Gabe to any outside source, including various media outlets.

Holy hell. Media? What was she going to do, get on Good Morning America and tell the world that she’d been Gabe Hamilton’s plaything?

When she got to the next paragraph, her eyes widened further.

A full physical report would be furnished to her by Gabe’s personal physician, and she would be expected to undergo a similar physical so that both parties would be ensured of a clean bill of health and to be free of diseases. And furthermore, she would be expected to take birth control, and condoms would only be provided in the event of interaction with another person who was not Gabe.

She plopped the contract down on her lap as her mouth fell open. What the hell did that mean? Was she expected to entertain anyone of his choosing?

Her head spun with the implications.

She’d certainly been right to question whether she was capable of taking on a man like Gabe. He was so far out of her league that it wasn’t even funny. She’d never even heard of half the stuff detailed in this agreement.

His comment came back to mind of when he’d said he’d be patient and guide her through his expectations. She wanted to laugh. Hell, she was going to need a full-on tour guide for this trip. Google was going to get a workout later, because she was going to have to look up most of the stuff detailed here.

Her hands trembled as she picked the contract up again and read the last page. This was insane. But more insane was the fact she hadn’t already torn it up and let Gabe know exactly what he could do with it.

Was she actually contemplating agreeing to it?

Her emotions were a mixture of holy f**k and oh my God. Part of her wanted to find out just how debauched Gabe was. Judging by this contract, he leaned pretty far away from anything resembling conventional.

She vaguely remembered the fallout of his divorce from Lisa, but that had been several years before, and she’d been young. She knew it hadn’t been pretty and that it had affected his relationships with women ever since, but had they had this kind of relationship? Had he been burned by it? Normal people wouldn’t go to these kinds of lengths to cover every nuance of a relationship.

Now she wondered about all the other women Gabe had been with. Not that she’d ever been introduced to any of them, but she’d heard Jace and Ash talk. If he had a contract ready at the drop of a hat, that told her it was likely one that he furnished to all his women.

That left a sour taste in her mouth. No, she didn’t expect that she’d be any different than anyone who came before her, but it was nice to think that she was special or at least original. Not lumped in with every other female he’d slept with.

But then she’d rather he be blunt with her and not mislead her. At least she knew precisely where she stood with him. And he had been clear that he wanted her to go in with her eyes wide open. Well hell, after reading this, her eyes were going to be permanently wide.

She checked her watch and realized she had time to get to the pastry shop if she started walking now. She folded the contract and shoved it back into her bag, and headed in the direction of La Patisserie.

She dug out her phone as she went, and not surprisingly, there were half a dozen messages from her best friend already. All wanting to know how it went with Gabe and threats that if she didn’t spill soon, Caroline was going to kill her.

What the heck was she supposed to say? Somehow, typing Gabe wants me to be his personal plaything didn’t sound right, even if it would probably make Caroline swoon.

And oh God, if Jace found out…