Read The British Billionaire Bachelor, Act Three for Free Online

problem, but I won’t,” she retorted.
    “I think you might,” he nodded.
    “Well, I won’t,” she repeated.
    Slowly leaning forward, he grabbed her hand.
    “Let go,” she demanded, trying to wriggle her fingers from his grasp.
    “Lucinda, listen to me very carefully. Do you see the buttons on the side of my watch?”
    The odd question caught her attention, which was exactly what it was designed to do.
    “Yeah, what about them?”
    “In just a few seconds I’m going to push one of them, which will start a one minute timer. When that minute is up, a chime will sound, and if you haven’t picked up that container and brought it back here by the time it does, I will take you into that bedroom, put you over my lap, and spank you.”
    He had locked her eyes with the determined glint of a marine on a mission.
    “You wouldn’t dare,” she whispered, flashing back to Jarrod’s similar promise just a day before.
    “I think you know I would,” he nodded, “and just so we’re clear, I’m not talking about a few swats. If I take you back there I will spank you hard, and you’ll have to spend the rest of this flight laying on your side or standing up.”
    “I’ll have you fired, I’ll never speak to you again,” she hissed.
    “As Rhett Butler once said…quite frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn…” and releasing her hand, he ceremoniously lifted his wrist, pressed the button, and glared at her.
    Lucinda felt the blood drain from her face, a slight tremble rumbled through her body, and an unfamiliar churning jumped to life in her stomach. She was many things, but she wasn’t stupid, and her instincts told her he meant every word he said, yet she couldn’t get her body to move.
    The willful child was planting her feet and holding her breath, and Joseph could see the desire to do what he asked being overwhelmed by her lifetime of stubborn I dare you behavior; she needed a push.
    He began to roll up his shirt sleeve, an act so simple, yet so threatening, it was all she needed to break the spell.
    “Fine!” she blurted out, and unbuckling her seat belt she darted from her seat, retrieved the bottle, and returned, banging it on the table top. “There, happy now?”
    “Thank you,” he smiled, unrolling his shirt sleeve and buttoning the wrist.
    “You can leave,” she declared, flopping into her seat.
    “I’ll leave when I’ve finished my orange juice, and not before,” he smiled.
    Needing something to do that would fill the awkward, uncomfortable space, and to somehow control the strange churning in her stomach, she grabbed her bag and began delving through its contents. She was so overcome by his threat it didn’t occur to her to move to another seat, until he downed the last of his drink and stood up to leave.
    “We’ll be landing in a couple of hours. You should probably try to get some more sleep if you can,” he suggested, and strolled away.
    Lucinda stared after him, furious that she’d allowed herself to be the one who’d been left. She did the leaving, she did the rejecting, she chose to end conversations or start them, but as he closed the door behind him, she wished he hadn’t gone, and her stomach was still doing odd back flips. Gobbling one of the caviar appetizers, she washed it down with her champagne and headed back to her bed
    Pulling off her robe she climbed between the sheets, all too aware that Joseph Cardinelli was just on the other side of the door. She had found him intriguing when he’d driven her around after her arrival in Los Angeles, but he was just a driver, and as far as she was concerned, he couldn’t hold a candle to the hot young actors she was meeting. Once he’d fulfilled his obligation she’d almost forgotten about him, but not only was he back, he was back with a vengeance, and possessed a polish she’d not noticed before.
    Closing her eyes she could still feel the strong grip of his fingers around her arms when she’d stumbled. He’d moved so quickly