The Arrangement: Book Three

By Pia Monroe

Sometimes new submissives forget the rules and for Sofia, Noah’s new test pushes all her buttons—and not in a good way for it goes against everything she worked towards from her career to her reputation.

Now she’s faced with a choice to accept and trust Noah or go on with her life... without him.

Faced with a life where she can live the way she used to or one without her submission to Noah’s dominance, what choice will she make?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pia Monroe
• Release date: Feb 25, 2018

Pia Monroe

Pia Monroe is a stay-at-home mum with a degree in Journalism that she could totally use to write the latest news but she'd rather write naughty stories instead. And when she’s not writing those naughty stories, she loves spending time with her family, taking walks on the beach, and drinking peach beer.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Noah

Ishould have been alarmed at how fast things were progressing between us. I’d never asked anyone to move in with me so soon after I met them. Moira didn’t move in until after a year since we had begun seeing each other. How many times had she hinted, suggested, and then finally begged to move in with me?

But Sofia didn’t have to say anything. All she had to do was be around me and I wanted to own her completely. I didn’t want her out of my sight. I wanted to know where she’d be at every hour of the day. I wanted some sort of connection between us always. I wanted her to think of me just as I thought of her, as if there was an invisible string that linked us together no matter where we were. For a man who hadn’t cared this much for a woman in years, it was frightening. When did I lose control?

Even Dominic was surprised when he saw me take Sofia on a tour around the mansion the next morning and introduce her to the staff. He kept quiet, waiting only until he caught me alone after Sofia went back to her townhouse to pack that afternoon.

Shouldn’t I be consulted about these things first? He asked while I was punching the bag in the exercise room that overlooked the grounds. This is huge, Noah. Huge.

I threw five more punches in succession before stilling the bag. You mean, me asking your permission first whether I want my woman to live with me or not?

Basically, yeah, he replied, shrugging. I mean, what if I was walking around naked?

So?

She just might change her mind over which brother to be with, he replied, grinning. After all, I’m the charming one.

I could have rolled my eyes but I glared at him instead. You never ask for my permission whenever you have your women over for longer than a day. They treat this place like it’s a theme park.

"Because it is a theme park—to them! We have everything here, a rec room, a private theater, a ballroom… stables, Dominic said, laughing. But you know what, Noah? The truth is, you’re in love. That’s what’s really going on."

I grabbed a towel from the table and wiped the sweat off my brow. Really? My tone was sardonic. There was no way I was in love.

Yeah, really, Dominic said as he plopped himself down on one of the chairs by the balcony.

Why? Is that a problem if I am? I sat down across from him, grabbing one of the bottles of water one of the staff members left on the table. Like I’d told Sofia when I took her down to the staff kitchen and introduced her to everyone, the majority of the staff had worked for my parents and had seen us grow up from rambunctious kids to grown-ups who did whatever they wanted. When our parents died and later, when Nastassja disappeared, they became the only family we had.

"So you’re admitting it then; you are in love."

I never said that. I said, ‘what if?’ I twisted open the cap and took a sip. Where’s your masseuse anyway?

The politically correct term is massage therapist, he said, bristling.

I knew that but I loved to tease him. Even now, his face turned a slight shade of pink as he leaned back against his chair.

You just changed the subject, Dominic added. But you don’t have to worry. I’m not judging you or anything.

I’m sure you’re not.

He reached for a bottle of water, opening the lid. He lifted it to his lips, about to drink, but paused, as if lost in thought. I heard from Niko that you’re flying to Paris in a few days. What deal are you closing this time?

Nikolai Niko Lubienko was the head of my security detail. While bodyguards had always been a regular fixture for us growing up, one that we never paid any mind, it wasn’t until Nastassja was taken that it became a top priority. Dominic and I had them and it was one of the reasons I told Sofia she had to live in the Thorne estate if she wanted to be with me.

No deal. I’m taking a vacation, I replied.

He smiled that annoying smile again. With Miss Mason?

Better her than you. You’re annoying as fuck.

As his grin spread from ear to ear, I turned my attention to the estate grounds. Any more sparring words with my brother and we’d be shooting water at each other in no time, just like we used to when we were kids. But I also knew why he was doing it. Dominic had a point: I just might be in love. For why else had I lost all control over the simplest scene between a Dominant and his submissive? I hadn’t even bothered to train her like I had planned.

Instead, I started her stay at my home with a formal introduction to the staff, one that surprised even Irina, the old cook who used to chase the kid version of me out of her kitchen because I kept sneaking a taste of whatever dessert she was making. At seventy, she was supposed to be retired. She lived in a fully furnished house we gave her as a retirement present located a few miles away in Century City. But after two months of doing what everyone suggested—going to the senior center to play bingo or attending weekly trips to the museum—she gave up and went back to work, whipping up my favorite dishes as she ran the kitchen like she used to. She’d started working for the Thorne family when she was a young woman and this was the only life she knew. We were her only family.

"Be nice to her, zajchik," she’d said in Russian, calling me by the nickname she’d christened me when I was a boy. Rabbit.

But I am nice to her, Irina. I am always nice, I’d replied, aware that we were being rude in front of a guest, speaking in a language I knew Sofia didn’t understand.

Irina didn’t answer. She only gave me a look that told me more than she could have said in words, Russian or English, before serving a plate of syrnitki, cottage cheese