Free Under His Command (For His Pleasure, Book 17) by Kelly Favor

intentions were, what he expected of her. She wondered what might happen on Friday when she went with Easton Rather to Red and Nicole’s home.
    In the end, she realized that everything had begun unfolding exactly as it was supposed to. She was getting closer.

    ***
    Easton drove them to meet Travis Hill Jr. at The Summit in a beautiful Cadillac luxury sedan. Sitting next to Easton in the passenger seat, Kennedy tried to imagine what it might be like if she was his girlfriend.
    He was quiet, confident and fully in control as he navigated the thoroughly congested streets of Manhattan. She was relaxed as Easton quickly swerved in and out of lanes, making constant decisions, beating the cabbies at their own game.
    Eventually, Easton glanced over at her. “Are you nervous?”
    She sighed. “A little bit, yeah.”
    He chuckled. “What’s making you nervous?”
    “Oh nothing, besides the fact that this is my first ever meeting with this man, and he thinks it’s going to be him and me alone, and I’ve brought along my demanding boss whom he apparently hates—“
    Easton put up his hand. “Okay, I get it.” He made another series of complex driving maneuvers while he continued talking. “Look, I don’t want you to think that you can’t take risks. I want you to take risks, Kennedy.”
    Her skin broke into gooseflesh when he said the last line. His hand shifted and it caused his hand to move dangerously close to her bare thigh. She was wearing a short skirt (shorter than she was even comfortable with), a low-cut blouse and stilettos.
    Although Easton might have assumed she’d dressed like that to keep Travis Hill’s interest, the truth was that she’d really dressed that way for Easton’s benefit.
    She’d had to get the new clothes with the very last of the room on her credit card last night in a shopping binge that had cost her well over a thousand dollars.
    “I never used to take risks,” Kennedy admitted. “But now I feel ready to just let go and stop trying to be perfect.”
    “We don’t need perfection here, we need dedication to the cause.”
    “What cause?”
    He flashed her an enigmatic smile. “Whatever I say is the cause. And today, it’s getting that little shit Travis to sign on with The Red Agency. It would be a real feather in my cap.”
    “I’ll do everything I can to help.”
    “Just keep him hanging around when he freaks out.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “It means, he’s probably going to try and bolt when he sees me. You’re going to have to give him enough hope to make him stick around. Can you handle that?”
    “I’m not sure I’ll be enough of an incentive.”
    Easton nodded at her. “Oh, you’re plenty of incentive, Kennedy. Do you really not know that?”
    She fell silent, her heart suddenly beating fast.
    They were both quiet the rest of the way there.
    Easton parked at a nearby garage and then they walked the few remaining blocks to The Summit.
    “You go in first,” Easton told her. “He knows what you look like.”
    “What about you?” she asked.
    “I’m going to bide my time.”
    “But what do I tell him before you come?”
    “Just keep him talking. He likes to talk.”
    She agreed, her teeth practically chattering, she was so nervous. But she had to do it, had to try her very best. She wished that Easton was coming in with her, but apparently he had other ideas. So Kennedy walked into the bar alone, scanning the semi-darkened room for anyone who might be Travis Hill Jr.
    Of course, she’d seen a couple pictures of him online, but it was difficult to recognize people in person sometimes when you’d only seen a photograph or two.
    Three-dimensional reality was very different from the two dimensions of a picture.
    She didn’t see him after an extended survey of the room, which wasn’t all that busy at that time of day. Eventually she just took a seat in a booth that faced the doorway, so she could see him enter. Checking her phone, she saw that it was just