Louisa Neil Read Online Free PDF Page B

associated with the newspaper right now. Who could blame him? He probably didn’t want to answer the questions he had managed to avoid. Diana decided he just didn’t want to deal with all the employees calling him for more information or to vent their anger about the sale. While she wasn’t angry, she did feel rejected in an odd way. Their friendship had meant something to her, and now she understood his actions were purely for self-preservation. Pulling a deep breath, she decided it was time for her to figure out how to protect her future and where she wanted to go from here jobwise.
     
    * * * *
     
    Sliding into the hot bath water, she hoped the trauma of the day would dissipate. Closing her eyes, she tried to clear her mind. All she could picture was Dane Bowie and his sly smile. Since the champagne and cake ceremony, she hadn’t been able to get his brown eyes out of her mind. Up close, he was handsome, but she noted he needed a shave and had a small scar on his right cheek. Even when he’d dabbed the ink from her face, she hadn’t been able to meet his gaze. Now she couldn’t get his image from her mind.
    Diana took the washcloth in hand and let it drop under the water, making small circles against her clit. When that started the heat within her, she spread her legs as wide as the tub would allow and used the cloth harder against her pussy lips. Her orgasm was small, and she was embarrassed at her action. Just the image of this man, her new boss, could make her masturbate in the tub. This was completely out of character for her. While she wasn’t a shy virgin, in the last few years sex hadn’t interested her. Now, on the same day she met him, she was imagining what it would be like to have him touch her, to make love to her. With a sigh, she tossed the cloth to the far end of the tub.
    “Damn that man.” Dropping her hand back to her pussy, she rubbed faster and ultimately used three of her own fingers to find her release. “I can’t let that happen in real life,” she told herself as she dried, reinforcing it as she looked in her mirror. “You cannot get involved with your new boss. You don’t even know if he’s single. Let him go,” she said and hoped it would be that simple.
    She skipped preparing supper, opting to warm a can of soup and doze on the sofa, the television on for company. Suddenly she was in a dark tunnel, running down long lengths of craggy rock walls. She made turns without knowing where they led. All she wanted to do was get out, yet there was no exit. She was panting, gasping for air and running for her life, but she didn’t know from what. As she got deeper in the tunnels, the light faded, and she felt with her hands along the walls to find her way. Up ahead she saw a light, nothing bright but it was light. She sped up, wanting to reach it. When she did, she came to a skidding halt, stumbling in her haste to stop her forward motion.
    The room was lit with candles. It was a cavern, she decided. Ahead was a dead end. At the center of the room was a large man standing with his back to her. He was huge in all ways with well-defined muscles. From her estimate, he stood seven foot tall and was wearing some kind of hood or mask.
    “Welcome, Diana,” the man said. His voice was muted, but she understood his words.
    “Where am I?”
    “In my labyrinth,” he replied.
    “How did I get here? Why am I here?”
    “You’re here because I saw you and wanted you.”
    “What?” She couldn’t believe what he was saying. “I want to leave.”
    “You can leave, but you’ll be back. You’re mine now.”
    The man turned, and his face was illuminated. What she saw made her scream. While he had the body of a well-built man, his head and face were that of an animal. Diana screamed at the sight of him, turned, and stumbled from the room.
    She woke with a start back on her sofa, her heart pounding.
    “What the hell was that?” Pulling the cotton throw from the sofa back over herself, she