“Take one for the team?” Amanda repeated. In baseball, it meant getting in the way of the ball and letting it hit you. She didn’t like the sound of that at all.

Chase gave a half laugh, then went serious, his eyes darkening like turbulent deep sea waters. “It means there may come a time you get spanked when you don’t think you deserve it.”

She gasped at the change in his expression. “I don’t ever deserve it!”

He just looked at her, a small smile playing at his lips; so much for her to learn. He’d bet dollars to donuts she’d be trying to find ways to “deserve” it before nightfall.

“Of course not, precious, you’re my perfect angel. But I’m a typical alpha male and a straight-up old-fashioned guy. This one is going by my rules. If you remain, your job is to stay beautiful and think up ways to entertain yourself. Hopefully, most of them include me. My job is to cherish and protect you. Fulfill all your heart’s desires.” His eyes began to narrow again. “And make sure you mind your manners.”

“What’s wrong with my manners?” she asked with a pout. It was her first pout and he adored it.

“Absolutely nothing, that’s why you caught me by surprise last night. Vulgarity is not your bag. Frankly, it might have been a deal breaker when I met you if it was. I’m out in the public a lot. I have to be able to trust that I won’t end up embarrassed. I look at last night as just another instance of you making me earn it. You have all the grace of a princess. My princess.”

It’s hard not to feel just a little bit special when a gorgeous, hunky gazillionaire keeps calling you his princess, no matter how overconfident he sounds when doing it. He certainly had all the makings of a prince, albeit one who was part teddy bear, part brute, and all sorts of dangerous. If nothing else, he was a royal pain in the ass, on several levels. And he was handing her the keys to his kingdom. She smiled at her own train of thought until his voice brought her back to the reality of the conversation.

“There’s just one thing you must always remember. You’re not a prisoner here. If you stay, with all the perks and perils of this relationship, it’s because it’s your choice. You can leave at any time and for any reason. But you can only leave once.”

She heard the door to the kingdom slam shut, and she was tossed back into the moat. She wasn’t completely sure what he was talking about, but he sounded very serious for someone stating the obvious. It had all the earmarkings of an ultimatum.

“Okay?” She stared at him blankly, waiting for him to elaborate.

“It may not be as easy as it sounds, especially if you don’t like when I lay down the law.”

She wanted to be afraid, but it was impossible with the way he said it. It sounded foreboding, but at the same time tempting.

“There’s a lot of power-playing involved, for both of us. I may have the upper hand on you physically, but you’ll have total control over me mentally. You withdrawing from me when I make you uncomfortable can’t be a weapon you use against me. We would get toxic fast. And committing to something like this based on one experience is never a good idea.” Chase leaned over and kissed her forehead while slipping off his barstool. “You have a lot to think about, angel. In the meantime, I’m going to head out to the stadium and catch some batting practice, work out with the team. Feel free to stay as long as you’d like. Take a bath, go back to bed. Your clothes are already clean and hung up in my closet. When you’re ready to leave, just tell Lena and she’ll call downstairs for a car to take you home.”

Chase reached into a drawer near the kitchen entrance and pulled out a baseball cap. He put it on and the boy appeared, carefree and playful, his recent trouble on the field already in his rearview mirror. He stopped just short of exiting the kitchen and turned back to her, his grin slightly penitent.

“You know, the minute you tell me you’re sure, we’ll be picking out the ring. And I support whatever you want to do with the restaurant. The following-me thing was the lame excuse I was using because I couldn’t tell you why I was all pent up. That problem’s solved.” He smiled at her from across the room, all confidence and compromise. “But spring training is going to be awful if you’re not in Tampa with me. I don’t sleep well on the plane. I’ll see you tonight.”

And then he was gone. She heard him holler good-bye to Lena, the woman’s “Adios” from a safe distance, then the echo of the front door closing and she was alone. She flushed anew with the thought of his housekeeper hearing any part of their discussion. Amanda looked around the kitchen, toying absently with her coffee cup. He was right. She had a lot to think about. Was she ready? Could she handle the sort of relationship he had proposed to her? And if she couldn’t, would she be able to say good-bye and not feel a heartbreaking void? She already felt his absence, and he hadn’t been gone more than a minute. She wanted to be angry with him. He had no right to wait until after he sucked her in with all his appeal to reveal this side of himself. He was offering her everything he had in exchange for her pain threshold and willingness to submit to him on his whim. That she was even considering it disturbed her. Equally disturbing, he acted like already knew what her answer would be.

CHAPTER 9

AMANDA DID TAKE a bath in Chase’s Olympic-sized tub. Lena insisted on drawing it and added a ginger-coconut milk bath and salt mixture she said Chase used for aching muscles and moisture.

Lucky guess on the muscle aches. Amanda smirked, gingerly stepping into, then settling in the sunken tub. She soaked mindlessly to the hum of the luxurious jets for almost an hour before getting dressed and leaving. How was Chase able to feel so energetic when she was so languid? A car dropped her off at home and she changed for work, even though her clothes were clean. Wearing the same outfit two days in a row screamed “hussy,” at least in this case. Driving to the Creek, she decided she didn’t want to think any more about Chase’s proposition for the time being. She still had more questions, wanted other things more clearly defined. Like would it now turn into a caveman open season? Was he one step from dragging her around by her hair?

She got into work early and went about her usual business, blessedly mundane things that she could focus on. Tasks that were mindless because she’d been doing them for years. Eric and Nicki arrived forty-five minutes later, but not with the tomfoolery they usually exhibited with each other. Eric came in first. Amanda looked up from her linen order expecting to see Nicki following right behind him, or at the very least expecting to get a hello, but Eric went directly behind the bar and put on his apron, yanking on the strings a bit as he tied it.

“Nicki come in with you?” Amanda asked.

“Yeah,” Eric said in disgust, grabbing the bin to start his routine of getting ice from the machine in the kitchen for the coolers at the bar. “She’s having a cigarette, ’cause that’s how those Hollywood actresses stay thin.”

That was random. “Nicki went back to smoking?”

Nicki came in the door and Eric immediately went into the back. Nicki plopped down on the barstool next to Amanda’s and began digging around in her purse.

“You’re smoking again?” Amanda asked.

Nicki gave a shrug while popping the Tic Tacs she’d been looking for. “I never completely quit. I sometimes grab a few when I’m stressed.”

“You’re stressed?”

“I wasn’t until yesterday,” Nicki jeered, then said loudly, “And I shouldn’t be now!”

Eric came from the kitchen with the bin full of ice, and Nicki promptly went into the ladies’ room. Eric muttered something under his breath. This didn’t resemble the being-able-to-work-together policy at all.

“I hate to be a jerk about this,” Amanda said, getting right to the point. “But you guys assured me you’d be able to keep it professional. If there’s an issue we have to work out, I’d rather it gets done before we have customers.”

“There won’t be any issue. We won’t be working together anymore,” he said curtly, throwing the ice all around the cooler.

“Don’t even kid,” Amanda said flippantly.

Eric stopped what he was doing to stare at his boss, demonstrating how serious he was. Amanda began to frown as Nicki came out of the bathroom. Eric went back to dealing with the ice after giving a wave in Nicki’s direction. “She can tell you all about it.” He took the bin and went back into the kitchen, while Nicki rubbed the side of her nose purposefully with her middle finger.

Amanda looked at Nicki and said, “Somebody better start telling me something.”

Nicki took a deep breath and extended her middle finger right at the kitchen door before saying, “I guess there’s never an easy way to do this.”

Amanda, like all good employers, knew what usually followed an opening like that. “You got another job?” she asked, trying to be supportive. She knew it was never supposed to be permanent, but she would miss Nicki. Working with a friend had been fun.

“I’m moving to California,” Nicki blurted out excitedly.

Amanda was equally excited after her initial surprise. “Did you get a gig?”

Nicki crossed into rehashing the argument as she must have presented it to herself. “I have an audition for a pilot with USA Network. But more than that, I made a connection. Well, a connection’s connection. The pilot’s a long shot but some extra work rolls through this woman’s agency. At the very least, she knows a restaurant that will hire me when I get there. I have to try. I really feel like I have to take the chance.”