Page 64 of Savage Ambition

“On the plus side, he’s so embarrassed he tries twice as hard to please me the second time around.” She grinned wickedly. “Nothing motivates a man like wounded pride and the desire to prove himself.”

“He’s still a waste of your considerable talents.”

She enjoyed another bite from my croissant. “You know I love a fixer-upper project. With his daddy issues and raging inferiority complex, he’s easy to manipulate. All I have to do is withhold praise until he does what I want, then reward him like he’s a good boy.”

“Why am I not surprised you use basic behavioral conditioning for that mangey mutt?” I snorted. “Pavlov would be proud. Does Jace drool when you ring a bell, too?”

“MBA, remember?” She tapped her temple. “I specialized in organizational psychology. The same principles apply whether you’re training corporate executives or submissives. Besides, you know firsthand how much I enjoy teaching my men how to please me.”

I snorted at her reminder. “You’re the sex ed teacher everyone deserves to have.”

Her smile turned wicked. “Remember that little trick I taught you about controlling a man’s orgasm by applying pressure to that spot between his balls and ass while you’re blowing him? It makes them shoot twice as hard but feel like they’re coming forever.”

I scanned the room. The businessman remained absorbed in his laptop while the college students argued over their textbooks. I lowered my voice to avoid drawing their attention. “It’s certainly a lesson I never forgot.”

During my early training sessions, I had been convinced sex work would be nothing but suffering to endure. Natalia had shown me that pleasure could be a weapon in my arsenal. She’d given me control when everything else had been taken away.

Her dominatrix skills had reshaped my understanding of what my body could feel by turning what I’d expected to be pure torture into something I could enjoy and always use to my advantage. For that, I would always be grateful to her. Her kindness, warmth, and support had kept me sane in my darkest times.

Her eyes softened with fondness. “You were such an eager student, always so determined to master every technique. I was so proud you practiced until you could make a man see God.”

A rare blush graced my cheeks. “It was easy when I had an excellent teacher.”

“I admired your determination and obsessive perfectionist streak.” She snickered at a memory. “Remember how you made me time how long you could keep that senator on the edge? Two hours and seventeen minutes before the poor man was sobbing and offering to buy you a car to let him come.”

I smiled faintly. “I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of your techniques.”

“You’re still my proudest accomplishment. Not everyone can say they created a sex god.” Her smile was a comforting hug I soaked up. “Though I still remember how adorably flustered you got the first time I made you practice deep-throating techniques on that ridiculously enormous dildo.”

“Who’s being dramatic now?”

“What can I say? I’ve always had a flair for theatrics.” She tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder with a haughty laugh. “Speaking of training, I had the pleasure of working with the new Italian stallion last night.”

My head snapped up. “Renato?”

Her smile widened at my reaction. “Oh, so you know his real name? I’m surprised you’re not calling him Lorenzo like a good little employee.” It was a fair point when Natalia was the only employee I referred to by her real name in private and didn’t mind her calling me Dante in return.

My curiosity demanded answers. “How do you know his real name?”

“He murmured it in my ear when he bent me over the Venetian suite’s balcony railing and fucked me senseless while our client watched.”

Something uncomfortable twisted in my gut. “Good for you.”

“Good for him, too. And definitely good for the client, who paid triple his usual rate for an encore.” She studied me over the rim of her cup. “You interviewed Renato, right? How was that?”

“Professional.”

“Professional?” Natalia repeated incredulously. “That’s how you sum up fucking a walking wet dream? With his golden eyes and that cologne that makes panties dissolve in an instant?”

I ignored her accurate comments about him. “He was qualified for the position.”

She burst out laughing, drawing brief glances from a nearby table. “Wow, you sound like a corporate HR drone. ‘Qualified for the position.’ Was the position on your dick?”

I gave her a pointed look. “Natalia.”

“Don’t ‘Natalia’ me with that tone, mister. I know you too well for that shit. When you clam up, it means something’s gotten under your skin.”

I bristled at the truth. Sometimes it was a tremendous pain in the ass that she was so good at reading me. “Everything’s fine.”