Page 78 of My Rose

Rose

“Anger is a brief madness.” ? Horace

“Shouldn’t I be using gloves?” I asked as Briggs sat beside me on the bench, holding a roll of black fabric that brought me right back to that table. “Is that…” I cleared my throat and sat up taller. “Is that like what you used on me in your pool room?”

“Not quite.” The edge of his lips curved up in that sexy-as-hell smirk of his. “These straps protect you from hurting yourbones and joints. The straps I wrapped around your ankles weren’t aimed at protecting anything.” Heat flooded my face, but thankfully, he was too focused on unrolling the wrap to notice. “Give me your hands.”

“Both?”

“Yes, Rose. Both.”

I bit my lip as I turned on the bench to face him, holding out both hands and pushing my wrists together. “I’m not tying your wrists together this time, beautiful.” His tongue swiped over his bottom lip as he stared at mine. “But I’d really fucking like to soon.” His fingers trailed down my forearms as I separated them, sending more heat through me before he took up one of my hands, wrapped it, and then moved on to the other, his focus unwavering from the job he put himself up to.

“Wiggle your fingers for me. Is it comfortable?”

My throat turned dry. “Yes—” I croaked out, stopping myself before addingsirto that statement. “Aren’t you going to wrap your hands, too?”

“No.” He moved abruptly from the bench, grabbing something that looked like a flat, circular pillow a few feet away. Between the wraps and the pillow, I was starting to see where the imagination during that day had come from. “I’m going to show you how to position your body first. Then I’ll let you practice on this.” He smacked the pillow with his open palm, making me jump from where my thoughts had gone. “Try not to let your thoughts wander too far from the lesson, okay, beautiful?”

I scowled. “I thought you said I’d be practicing on you?”

He tossed the pillow just under the bag and held out his hand. “I’ll be holding it the whole time, but if you want me to drop it so you can take out that little ball of rage you harbor on me, then I’ll do it.”

“I’m not that angry of a person. You’re just really good at making me mad.”

He smiled, then tried to cover it by rubbing the new stubble along his cheek. Rugged Briggs was just as hot if not more than the all-business and no-play version. “Keep that anger going, baby. I don’t mind it one bit.” His fingers wriggled before me. “Ready?”

“Absolutely.” I took his hand and let him guide me up, scanning the gym. “How long have you been doing this? Is this place yours?” There were dozens of machines, but the interior wasn’t anything grand. It was clean, orderly, and full of black and grey. Not a single motivational gym message in sight or a pop of obnoxious color to draw your attention away from the work you came to do. All business, no play. “Don’t answer the second one—it’s definitely yours.”

Pinning his bottom lip with his teeth, he assessed me, looking on the verge of laughter but holding himself back. Yet another sexy stance. “I’ve been doing this since I was about twelve.” He cupped my shoulders from behind and guided me to a space free of equipment, then bent down and started positioning and angling my feet. I stumbled a bit, having never played a sport in my life, much less seen boxing happen in person. “And I don’t know if I should be offended by that second remark or not, but yes, it’s mine.” His hands smoothed up my legs, angling my hips sideways. “It’s yours now, too. Use it whenever you want.”

“Hmm, you know, for a friend, you certainly are giving.”

He squeezed my hips. “Friends don’t give friends orgasms like I do, either.”

Yep, pretty sure I needed some water to drench my throat and cool me off. I hadn’t even started moving yet and was already out of breath.

“Dofriendswho give orgasms also give those orgasms to strippers to help their father’s business?” I heard his sigh long before I saidstrippers, like he knew exactly where my mind would go with his reply. The air was freezing outside, but in the warehouse, it was stifling. If only I were dressed for the gym and not for a Victoria’s Secret spread underneath, I would have taken my shirt off after removing his jacket.

“If I actually obliged my father by doing what he wanted me to do at VanLuxe, he wouldn’t have been in my room that morning, Rose.” His hands started moving again, his palms covering my elbows as he pulled them back. “I’d never cheat on you.”

“But you’d fuck strippers if we weren’t together? What can that possibly do for your father’s business?” Briggs stepped away from my back and moved to face me, taking my raised left fist in his hand as he bent my fingers how he wanted them. My body might have been completely pliant to his touch because I wanted to learn how to defend myself and see how far he’d let me go to get my anger out on him, but above even that, I just liked his hands being back on me.

I wanted to punch his beautiful face almost as much as I wanted to kiss him. It was maddening, to say the least.

His dark, full lashes flicked up as he glared back at me, ready with an answer. “I told you, I don’t expect you to under—”

“Make me then!” I pulled away from him and crossed my arms, my fingernails digging into the black wrapping around my palms. “Tell me why it’s so damn normal for you to go to VanLuxe and conduct business like that.”

His shoulders dropped. “It’s notnormal, Rose. Almost nothing about our company is. But some men who see wealth and power as one thing end up going off the rails. To put it as plainly as I can, if their cock gets attention while more money hangs in the balance, they feel more powerful. Making them bend the way we want them to bend is part of my job.” I bit down on my lip, thinking back to how it felt when Briggs had me tied up. I felt powerful and in complete control, no different than the men he did business with. “Most of thosemenhave particular tastes, and if we can tap into that while discussing acquisitions and mergers, then we have the upper hand in the game. We’ve already won by the time they set foot into our elite gentlemen’s club.”

He looked as if he wanted to add more, but I wasn’t sure I’d be okay with whatever he had to add next. “So, you treat it like some kind of twisted business room? Naked women just come around and, what? Do whatever your father or you tell them to do? How do you even know what they like?”

Briggs flipped his fingers up as he answered each question. “Yes. Essentially. And I’m really good at digging up whatever people try to hide.”

My face drained of any heat I had left as I thought back to justwhoworked there before. “And Jasmine?” I whispered, not sure if I wanted to know that part, either. “Is that what—”

“As far as I know, Dean took to Jasmine right away. If she was with anyone else before then and had been defiled in any way, I’m sure Dean handled it.”

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