Just like Grey (Series ONE Complete Set): Billionaire Romance Read online

  “You could come stay at the mansion.”

  “Why would I do that Gabriel? I have a perfectly nice house. You should just come and have lunch with me, or dinner or breakfast…or tea. You should tell me what is going on with your life so I don’t have to read about it in the tabloids. Who is Vanessa? Is she going to be the mother of my grandchildren and I haven’t even met her yet?”

  “What? What are you talking about Ma?”

  “The Star said you were seeing someone named Vanessa Loring and she’s obviously pregnant in the picture…”

  “Oh Jesus, Ma. Vanessa is one of my clients and yes, she is pregnant, but no, she’s not pregnant by me.”

  “Are you sure?”

  I laughed. “I’m pretty sure Ma. I haven’t had sex with her. Isn’t that still the way that babies are made?”

  “Don’t get smart with me, Gabriel.”

  “I’m sorry. I have to go Ma. I just wanted to let you know I’d be out of the country so you didn’t worry.”

  “You could be on the moon for all I know most of the time,” she said.

  “Okay fine then, I won’t call you.”

  “Don’t get smart with me, Gabriel.” I smiled, but I didn’t laugh aloud. She’s the only person in the world whose opinion of me really matters.

  “I’m sorry, Ma. I’ll call you as soon as I get back and we’ll have dinner.”

  “You can come here for dinner. I’ll make linguini and clams. Mrs. Bettini’s niece is visiting from Jersey, Gabriel. She’s such a nice girl. We’ll have her over too.”

  I didn’t argue with her about Mrs. Bettini’s niece, simply because it wouldn’t do any good. I told her I loved her and disconnected the call. I settled in for a long flight, thinking about what I was going to do to these fools who had disrupted my week by getting their stupid asses arrested.

  I spent a week in Ireland. The first few days were spent in press conferences and courtrooms. The next few I simply considered a vacation. I met a few hot Irish lasses and had some fun. With some fancy talking and a whole hell of a lot of cash, the judge finally agreed to let me take the four fools formerly known as the Uptown Boys back to the states. From now on they’re going to be known as the four little shits that cost me a fucking fortune overseas. If they weren’t still making me a fucking fortune I would drop them right now. But, thanks to the eleven to thirteen-year-old crowd, you can’t walk into any shop that sells “girlie” stuff and not see their faces on purses, backpacks, t-shirts, lunch boxes…you name it. That’ll last until they outgrow being pretty and then we’ll see what we’re left with. Out of the four of them, I’d be willing to bet that only one of them does anything worth listening to when he grows up. The other three are destined to be in an episode of “Where are they now?” Maybe they can have their own DIY reality show like Vanilla Ice.

  After we got back on the plane and I finished chewing their asses and threatening to fire them on the spot, I went to sleep and slept the rest of the flight. Sometimes I snort too much coke and drink too much caffeine and I forget to sleep. When I do remember, I sleep so good that it’s better than sex and I wonder why I don’t do it more often. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.

  The first inkling I had that something was wrong when I got back to the office was that Alicia wasn’t at her desk and the phones were ringing off the hook. I tried calling her but there was no answer. Her phone went straight to voicemail. Speaking of voicemail, I had about a hundred angry ones from people who had been trying to reach me for days and hadn’t been able to get through. I’d only taken one cell with me for emergencies to Ireland and I’d left the rest up to Alicia. Looking around now, it seems like that was a mistake. I assumed I had just pissed her off with my talk, so I was pretty pissed myself.

  I spent that whole day trying to clean up what I could in the office and calling her every fifteen minutes or so. She hadn’t answered by the time I decided to call it a night, so I looked up her address in her file and went by her place. I pounded on the door several times before I finally heard a man’s voice say, “Who the fuck is it?”

  “It’s Axel Maxwell. Who the fuck are you?”

  The man pulled the door open. He was a burly son of a bitch. He looked like he’d taken a steroid or two in his time. Too bad steroids don’t cure ugly though because this was one ugly son of a bitch. “None of your business. What do you want?”

  “I want to see Alicia.”

  “She’s busy. I’ll tell her you stopped by.” Something about this guy gave me a bad feeling. I wasn’t about to leave until I saw her.

  “I’ll wait,” I said, taking a seat on the couch. I was pretty sure my gut feeling was right when big, dark and ugly grabbed his jacket and made like a rabbit out the door. I didn’t bother following him. Instead I went down the hall, calling Alicia’s name. I found her in the bedroom, in a terrible state. “Fuck!” She was tied to the bed with a ball gag in her mouth. She was blind-folded and naked and she looked like she’d been there for days. “Shit!” I went over and took the gag out of her mouth. I could see blood at the corners of her cracked lips. I was relieved when she started coughing and choking because for a second there, I was afraid she was dead. “Alicia?” I pulled the blindfold off and when she saw me, she started crying. I untied her from the bed, telling her the whole time that everything would be okay and trying to find out what had happened. She was crying too hard to speak, so I just sat there and held her for a really long time. When she finally calmed down she asked for a drink of water. I went in search of a glass and found a bottle of water in the fridge. When I brought it back to her she was curled up in a fetal position on the bed, still naked. I handed her the water and then wrapped a blanket I found on the bed around her shoulders. After she took a few sips of the water she said,

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “What are you sorry for?”

  “I lost my mind. I was upset with you for not wanting me, so I found this loser online. It was going okay until he gagged me. Then, I couldn’t say the safe word and he wouldn’t let me go. He kept me tied up for two days. I’m such an idiot!”

  She was crying again, so I pulled her into me and held her again. After a while when her tears quieted down again I said, “You’re not an idiot, okay? I introduced you to something and I should have spent more time explaining to you how to go about it safely. There’s a network of people who do this and they have clear rules for how to do it and with whom. It’s not about wanting to really hurt someone for those of us who practice it, Alicia…it’s about satisfying our needs to either control or be controlled. This fucker just wanted to hurt somebody. Nothing about what he did was okay and it wasn’t your fault either. If this is something you’re interested in and want to pursue…then you need to do some serious research into it. I should have told you that, I’m the one who’s sorry, okay?”

  She started crying again. I spent the rest of that night holding her and in the morning after she got cleaned up and packed, I drove her to her sister’s house in Upstate New York. She got out and I handed her an envelope filled with cash.

  “I don’t want this, Axel.”

  “Give it away then, it’s yours.”

  “What’s it for?”

  “It’s your severance package. You’re not coming back to the office are you?”

  “No, I’m sorry; I just don’t think I want to go back to the city at all.”

  “Then you’ll need it until you get another job.”

  “I’m sorry for everything, Axel. I just really lost my mind there for a minute.”

  I pulled her in for a hug and kissed her forehead. “Please stop being sorry. It was ten percent my fault and ninety-percent the ape’s. You’re the innocent here.”

  She laughed at that and hugged me. “Thank you for everything.”

  “Most women don’t thank me for screwing up their lives,” I told her.

  She smiled up at me and said, “You taught me how to be free. You taught me that it was okay to le
t go and have fun. I just took it too far, but I’m not going back to that mouse I was. I’m just going to take your advice and do a lot of research on the subject first.”

  “Good. Safety and respect before anything else, remember that.”

  She nodded and hugged me again. “I love you, Axel.” Those words usually make me uncomfortable coming from any woman other than my mother. Somehow it was comforting to me to hear her say them. I didn’t think she meant that she was in love with me, only that she had a deep affection for me. It wasn’t something most people felt about me. They either liked or hated me…but my mother is the only one who really loves me. I kissed her forehead again and said,

  “I love you too.”

  By the time I got back to the city, my bodyguards Wes and Chris were waiting for me at the penthouse. They were drinking my liquor and lounging on my couch when I walked in. Neither of them were even smart enough to look ashamed that I’d caught them. I might have to re-visit their employment soon. For today however, I needed them. “Where is he?”

  “We got him in there all ready for you, sir,” Wes said.

  I went down the hallway to the red room. The door was cracked open and the big ape that hurt Alicia was tied to the whipping post…naked. “What the fuck are you going to do to me? Are you crazy?”

  I took a whip off the wall and a ball gag and a blindfold. Then I turned and smiled at him and said, “Why yes, I am.”

  “Bolton Temps, this is Maggie, how can I help you today?”

  “Maggie my love, you certainly sound chipper this morning…”

  “Oh hell, Axel…what did you do this time?”

  “I didn’t do a thing. It was just time for Alicia to move on. I’m sure she’ll be calling you soon and she’ll tell you herself.”

  “I talked to her yesterday. She wouldn’t say a bad word about you. I don’t know how you manage to get these girls to worship you the way they do. You’re so lucky one of them hasn’t sued you yet.”

  “What are they going to sue me for, Maggie? I’ve never asked one to do anything she didn’t want to do. Their lives are enriched by just knowing me as mine is by knowing you. I worship you Maggie. If you would just come be my girl…”

  “Oh, knock it off, Axel. I have one girl available right now, her name is Belinda and if you run her off in a few weeks I don’t know if I’ll be able to replace her. You’ve practically gone through all of the girls in the city.”

  “Perfect, shall I expect her this afternoon?”

  “Axel, you need to be good.”

  “Oh, Maggie my sweet, I am so much better than good.”

  Just Like Grey

  1

  Axel

  “Oh, come on Belinda! It’s not like I’m asking you to fuck a goat or something…”

  “You’re insane, do you know that?”

  I grinned and winked at the harried young brunette. “But you love me anyways…”

  “No Axel, I don’t. I loved the perks of this job…but I’m done. I have to draw the line somewhere before you do ask me to fuck a goat.”

  I rolled my eyes and said, “It’s all in fun, you know that…”

  “I have a…” she looked over her shoulder and saw that the door was wide open. Leaning across the desk and putting those sexy red lips next to my ear she whispered, “I have a ginger root in my ass!” I couldn’t help it, I laughed. I’d read about this thing called “figging” and I’d wanted to try it for some time. The others had just flat refused. I’d been mightily impressed with Belinda for being so willing to try it. Was it my fault that her anus was deeper than most?

  “Come on, it’s biodegradable. It’ll come out eventually. Did you use the enema?”

  “Oh Jesus, I can’t believe we’re even having this bizarre conversation. We wouldn’t be if you hadn’t talked me into snorting almost a half a gram of cocaine. I’m a mess. I’ve gone way too far. I’m not Anastasia and you are no Mr. Grey! I quit Axel! That’s it, end of story!”

  She turned and I tried once again not to laugh. She walked more like she had a broomstick up her ass than a simple root. Once I stopped laughing, I called the agency.

  “Bolton Temps this is Maggie, how can I help you?”

  “Hello there, Maggie. It’s your favorite customer.”

  “Axel? Again? Really? What did you do to this one?”

  “Maggie my love you should be my secretary. You’d be fabulous at it and I’d pay you so much more than you’re making running that little business of yours.”

  “Axel, I’ve been around the block too many times,” the fifty-five-year-old grandmother of five told me. “You couldn’t keep up. But, if you don’t stop traumatizing my girls, I’m going to have to cut you off.”

  “Send me one with balls this time…a really pretty one.”

  “Don’t tempt me. I have a transvestite who still has all of her equipment. You want balls that’s what you’ll get.”

  I laughed. “Maggie I love you. I’ll need the new girl here by two o’clock. You know what I like and I trust you. Make sure she’s slender and has long, dark hair. I’ll take it from there. I have an important meeting at two and I’ll need her to take notes. Tell her to plan on a late night.”

  “Axel…”

  “I love you Maggie, you’re a doll. When you’re ready to run away with me, I’ll give up every other woman for you.”

  “I only have one girl available, Axel. She’s a doll, but she’s as vanilla as they come. Leave her alone, Axel. Use her as a secretary and get your red room entertainment elsewhere!”

  “Oh Maggie, your dirty talk is turning me on babe. I have to run. I’ll expect her by two! Kisses!” I ended the call and laid the cell down on my desk. I was beginning to think Belinda running out on me might be a blessing in disguise. A “vanilla” one was just what I was looking for, but in this day and age they were hard to come by. I love to be able to mold them and offer the benefit of my experience to today’s youth.

  The phone rang and I picked it back up. “Axel Maxwell.”

  “Hi Mr. Maxwell…this is Samantha Daniels. I’m not sure if you remember me…”

  “Of course! You’re Blake’s hot little sister.”

  She giggled and said, “That’s right…the little sister part anyways. I was calling because I was going to be in New York next week. I’m visiting a friend and I was wondering if that offer to audition for you was still on the table?”

  “Hmm…I think you definitely look the part of a hot new country artist…so we’re half-way there. But…I still have an issue with your brother and his lovely but…what is the politically correct term for crazy these days?”

  She giggled again. It was the only thing about barely legal’s that bothered me. “I think it’s mentally ill. But Bailey…”

  I didn’t have the time or the patience to listen to her defense of Bella Bailey Persico Clarke Daniels whatever-the-fuck-her-name-is-this-week. She’d stolen my freshest new country/rock artist and I was still pissed. “Whatever, I just can’t invest that kind of time and money in you and then have you leave me to go back to the farm.”

  “I wouldn’t…I mean, I want to be a star Mr. Maxwell.” That’s what I like to hear, anything to be a star. If I recall, this one is slim with long dark hair. If my new secretary doesn’t work out, it would be nice to have a back-up. I’d even bet this one was a virgin.

  “When will you be in town?”

  “Friday afternoon.”

  “Be in my office at…” I pretended I was looking at a calendar. The truth was, without a secretary I had no idea what the fuck I was doing. I knew about the meeting at two today only because Belinda reminded me about it before she quit. I think I might have to be in L.A. by tomorrow…but I’m sure I’ll be back by Friday. “Two p.m.” If I’m double-booked, she can wait. I’m worth it.

  “I’ll be there. Thank you so much.” That Texas accent was too cute. Even if the secretary does work out, I might have to give this one a shot. My cock was twitching at the s
ound of her voice.

  I ended that call and looked at the clock. It was almost noon. That would explain why I was suddenly starving. I grabbed the keys to my Aston and headed out to get some lunch. I’m embarrassingly attached to the Tuscan Peasant soup and grilled cheese at E.A.T. on Madison Avenue. I wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but I only heard about it one night when I’d had too much blow and the chick I was with freaked out on me over a simple spanking…sheesh! Anyways, there’s not much on television at night I found out. I ended up watching a delightful cooking show with a barefoot cook that sings. I don’t think her feet were really bare…but she did sing. She sang about the Tuscan Peasant soup and grilled cheese. The wait from three a.m. to eleven when E.A.T. was finally open was unbearable…although worth it, so now I eat there as often as I can.

  “Hello Mr. Maxwell,” the impeccable hostess said as I walked in the door. “Would you like your usual table?”

  I took her hand and kissed it. She blushed. “I would love it. Thank you, Clarisse.” She led me back to my table. I liked that it was in the far back for more than one reason. One of the top ones was that it gave me the opportunity to watch Clarisse’s ass as she led me across the floor. We had almost made it when I heard,

  “Axel?” The voice made my balls jump up into my stomach. I tried not to cringe as I turned to face her. Her name is Glenda…like the good witch, but that was an oxymoron. There is nothing good about this witch.

  “Glenda!” She was sitting with a young man…her newest sub no doubt. Glenda was my one and only Dom back when I was barely out of my teens. She was my introduction to BDSM and to this day she scares the shit out of me.

  “How are you dear?”

  “I’m fabulous. You look fabulous as always. I don’t know how you do it.”

  She chuckled and said, “Axel this is my son Braeden.”

  Her son? “Your son?”

  “Yes, my son. She poked him with her elbow and said, “Say hello Braeden.”