‘So you’re troublesome to lots of people, not just me.’
‘I’m afraid so. Which is why I find your company so irresistible. You make me forget all that – everything in fact … except …’
‘Fucking.’
He dipped his head, his blue-eyed gaze surprisingly open. ‘That answer rings all the bells, Miss Hart. You get the giant stuffed panda.’
‘As if I could say no,’ she said so softly, he had to strain to hear her.
But he heard. ‘Would you like me to carry you in?’
‘Like this?’ She flicked a finger down her nakedness.
He smiled. ‘That way or any way. We’re alone here.’
‘What about food? You don’t cook. And I certainly don’t.’
He laughed. Only Miss Hart would be concerned about food. ‘The kitchen is in a separate building.’
‘So we’re not alone.’
‘It’s some distance from the house. And I promise we’ll be alone. You won’t see a soul.’
‘Does the food get cold?’
‘You’re seriously bruising my ego, Miss Hart. I’m here to fuck you and you’re talking about food.’
‘Just curious.’
‘A tunnel runs between the kitchen and the house, the food is delivered in warming ovens, an electronic lift carries it upstairs; we pick it up without human contact.’
‘Like Marie Antoinette’s play house,’ she said, smiling at the memory of the lush film. ‘I loved that movie.’
‘Very much like that, yes. There’s nothing new under the sun.’
A playful glance. ‘When it comes to sex.’
He smiled. ‘Particularly when it comes to sex. Would you like a menu?’
‘For?’
‘Ah, finally, I have your attention. I have both kinds of menus, Miss Hart. Which would you prefer first?’
‘Need you ask?’
‘I would have said no until recently.’ An infinitesimal lift of his brow.
She leaned over, stretched and licked a path up his throat. ‘Show me this antique bed.’
At Miss Hart’s express order, he tossed the strap of her bag over his shoulder, lifted her onto his lap, opened the door and smoothly exited the car.
‘You’re strong,’ she murmured, her arms around his neck as he crossed the cobblestone drive. ‘All that virility and power. I like that.’
‘You’re soft and delicate,’ he said, smiling. ‘The perfect match.’ Nudging the unlatched door open with his foot, he stepped into a scented foyer, perfumed by an enormous vase of white lilies set on a black lacquer table.
Light from an open courtyard illuminated the space, the illusion of some mythical Xanadu stunning. ‘It’s like a storybook house,’ Kate whispered, the interior the equivalent of every romanticized Chinese palace she’d ever seen in books or movies. The furniture was colourful, including some in a bizarre interpretation of European rococo, the carpets were muted, the walls embellished with gilded panels hung with silk scroll landscape paintings and the occasional gold-framed weeping face of Jesus.
‘The decorator was faithful to the original owner’s eccentric tastes. She found some old diaries. He wanted a hide-away. I couldn’t agree more.’
‘I’m not going to ask why.’
‘It’s not necessarily about anything disreputable.’ Although there were times. ‘Mostly, I like the privacy. My life is filled with people wanting things from me. Here, I can be alone.’
‘Oh dear,’ she said in playful despair. ‘I’m intruding.’
He grinned. ‘I might be able to make room in my schedule, Miss Hart. If you ask me nicely.’
‘Would you please fuck me, Mr Knight. I promise not to say a word if you’d prefer.’
He laughed. ‘I must have died and gone to heaven.’
‘Or paradise.’
‘Sounds even better, Miss Hart. Let me take you there.’
He carried her through two of the jewel-like rooms filled with precious objects and came to a stop at a closed door. ‘Shut your eyes,’ he said softly.
The blue flame in his gaze, the deep resonance of his voice, set her heart racing. She took a small breath, shut her eyes and as Dominic moved into the room, she inhaled a cloud of sweet fragrance.
She heard him suck in his breath and opened her eyes.
‘I think Leo did this for you.’ His voice was amused. ‘He must have cleaned out every flower shop in the city.’
‘But to very nice effect. We’ll have to thank him. Fucking in this room will definitely go into my book of memories.’ The bedroom had been transformed into a magnificent flowery bower, the profusion of blossoms entirely white, enchanting backdrop to the brilliant colour in the room. Had a decorator helped Leo with the flowers? Kate wondered. How many more people knew of her sexual holiday with Dominic Knight?
‘It’s a little over the top, but Leo meant well.’
‘It was sweet of him, really.’
‘What do you think of the bed?’
The four-poster bed on the ornamental platform was huge: scarlet lacquer, resplendently filigreed, hung with sheer, metallic gold tissue silk tied back with red braided and tasselled cords. The bedspread was a brilliant emerald green silk, embroidered with red dragons, white peonies and humming birds.
‘The decorator recreated a watercolour sketch of Mr Mendosa’s bedroom from 1799.’
‘It’s dazzling – like a beautiful stage set. I’m not sure I dare lie on that embroidered quilt. A team of seamstresses must have worked a year on it.’
‘Close. Eight months. But everything’s usable.’ He dropped her on her feet, tossed her bag on a chair and waved towards the bed. ‘Please, make yourself comfortable.’
‘I’d love to text a picture to Nana,’ Kate said, moving toward the outrageously theatrical bed. ‘But she’d ask questions.’
‘I agree, it wouldn’t be wise. You don’t want to be personally linked with me.’ He smiled. ‘In terms of your reputation. Other than that, I’m interested in any and all personal links with you.’
She smiled back. ‘I have noticed.’
‘Good, because I’ve been doing my best to keep you interested,’ he drawled. ‘Careful with those stairs.’ He indicated a three-step platform in mother-of-pearl offering access to the bed. ‘I’ll be right with you.’ Turning away, he disposed of his robe in two economical movements – untying it and shrugging it off his shoulders. He walked a few steps to a long, low dresser with two banks of drawers, embossed brass fittings decorating the corners. Pulling several drawers open, he surveyed the contents, then returning to one of the drawers he lifted out a white lace bra with a front closing and blue ribbons woven through the laced-trimmed cups.
He turned back to the bed, the bra draped over one finger. ‘This looks girly. Do you like it?’
‘Is Leo a magician?’ She’d last seen the bra in Dominic’s dressing room.
‘Just competent. Do you like it?’
She was sitting cross-legged in the centre of the bed, dwarfed by the dimensions and the soaring canopy. ‘The important question is do you? You were the one who wanted to buy all that stuff.’
He smiled. ‘That must be why I find you so appealing. You don’t quibble.’
‘You find me appealing because I’m available. And I have my reasons for being available.’ She pointed at his cock. ‘Him.’
His dick responded with exaggerated speed to Miss Hart’s bluntness, spiking upward in an explosive surge.
‘Now that I’d like to have in my phone album,’ Kate whispered. She could see the blood swelling the faint network of distended veins on his massive erection as he approached her. ‘Care to share?’
‘Not with the world. Sorry.’
She playfully pouted. ‘Selfish.’
‘I know the feeling. I almost took a picture of you this morning at breakfast. I could have jerked off to that twenty-four seven.’
‘Have I mentioned how I adore your flattery, no matter how vulgar?’ she said, a teas
ing light in her eyes.
‘You adore my dick even more,’ he observed. ‘So get your pretty little ass over here.’ He was standing at the side of the bed, the heat in his eyes scorching, his erection twitching against his stomach. ‘Now.’ He watched her slide across the bed with a singular vigilance, like a hunter sighting its prey.
When she reached the side of the bed, Kate leaned back on her hands, drew in a small breath and looked up into Dominic’s enigmatic gaze. ‘Don’t make me wait. Please. I hate that.’
Grasping her ankles, he swung her legs over the side of the bed. ‘I can make you do anything I want,’ he said smoothly, drawing her into a seated position.
‘Maybe you can.’ Although her body was already beginning to hum and pulse and shamelessly moisten at the soft menace in his threat.
‘I’m pretty sure I can. You’re getting wet just thinking about what I might do to you, wondering what I might do. Not quite sure what’s in store for you.’ He gently touched her nipple that had swelled as he’d spoken.
Her eyes shut and she softly moaned.
‘You like your nipples touched, don’t you?’ He gently squeezed the tip, the bruises more livid than they were this morning. ‘You don’t even mind if it hurts a little, do you? Answer me.’ Cool, soft as silk, a man allowed anything.
Her lashes abruptly lifted, a familiar heat in her green gaze. ‘I don’t have to answer you.’
Dropping the bra on the bed, Dominic slid his palms up the inside of her thighs, stopped midway and pushed.
She struggled against the pressure, lost, and the way cleared, her thighs opened wide, Dominic slid his middle finger up her wet slit. ‘Maybe this is your answer,’ he murmured, skimming the pad of his finger down her slick tissue, grazing her clit as he drew back his hand. ‘Am I right?’ He rubbed her bottom lip with the moist tip of his finger. ‘You never need lube. You’re always ready for sex. Aren’t you? Answer or I’ll take my dick where the women are more accommodating.’ He took a step back as though to underscore his intent.
‘Don’t go.’
His gaze was cool, unruffled. ‘Will you do what I tell you, not argue about every goddamn thing?’
She hesitated.
‘You have to decide how much you want this,’ he said softly, closing his fist around his stiff, upright erection, sweeping his hand downwards.
She gasped as the rampant crown swelled larger and the colour darkened from red to purple.
‘Yes or no, Miss Hart.’ His hand rose and fell again.
She drew in a shaky breath, exhaled, nodded.
‘I didn’t hear you.’
‘Yes.’
He smiled, let his hand drop to his side. ‘Good. Now my rules. Your pussy is for me alone. Should you want to masturbate, you have to check with me first. I have a better vibrator for you, so you might like to try it. But whether I allow you to use it will be my decision, not yours. And these are mine’ – he briefly cupped her breasts, let his hands drop – ‘to do with what I want. Do you understand?’ He lifted her chin with the tips of his fingers.
She was turning liquid inside, melting with shame and desire. She nodded.
‘Speak.’
‘I understand.’
‘Next – if I tell you to wear a bra, you will. If I tell you to take that bra off, you will. If I tell you to serve these’ – a flick of his fingers over the swell of her breasts – ‘up for my pleasure, you’ll hold them and lift them high. Is that clear?’
‘Yes, yes.’ She was beginning to squirm.
‘And if you do as you’re told, I’ll screw the hell out of you because that’s what you want, isn’t it?’ He could see the fury in her eyes, but he forced her to answer. ‘That’s what you came here for, right?’
Silence, incandescent with rage.
He waited because she was flushed and trembling and he had what she wanted – a hard dick.
‘Yes,’ she finally whispered.
‘Thank you,’ he said with a saintly smile. ‘Now, there are no exceptions to my rules. You must learn obedience. You’re much too independent.’ He placed his strong hands on her hips, stilled her faint squirming. ‘You can’t come yet. And you might want to give me a safe word. If you don’t overuse it, I’ll respect it. But I’m going to fuck you any way I want today, so be warned.’
Damn him, he was going to talk her into an orgasm. ‘Don’t you dare do this to me,’ she hissed. ‘I want you inside me. Not this bullshit.’
‘You have no idea what I dare. I’m not Andy or Michael. Not even close. So you’ll have to deal with whatever I choose to do to you.’ The blue of his eyes was stone-cold.
Her carnal agitation gave way to apprehension, she felt a shiver run up her spine. What had she gotten herself into? This isolated house, this man who was looking at her with such indifference as though they’d not spent the night together, as though he’d not given her pleasure a thousand different ways, as if he were a stranger.
‘I know everything about you,’ he said, as though she’d asked. ‘When your period starts, how you like to masturbate, why you eat your fries with mayonnaise instead of ketchup, how you read lying down on your stomach. Your favourite childhood book, TV programme, candy bar. What little I don’t know, I’m going to discover in the next six days. Now raise your arms.’
She shook her head. ‘I shouldn’t have come here. Don’t touch me – I mean, please don’t touch me,’ she added quickly, remembering the last time she’d said that to him. ‘Please – I shouldn’t have come here – gotten involved with …’
‘Me, I know. I’m sorry. I’ve frightened you.’ Bending, he gently brushed her lips with his. ‘I have to treat you more gently,’ he said, his breath warm on her mouth. ‘I keep forgetting you’re new to all this.’ He stood up, smiled faintly. ‘Just tell me no when you don’t like something. I won’t do it.’
‘I should leave,’ she said. But her voice was unsteady, because temptation was only inches away smiling at her and she wanted him still, without logic or reason. ‘It’s intimidating. Being all alone here.’
‘Would you like me to call in some of the staff?’
‘No!’
‘They could stay outside the door then or down the hall. I could key in the kitchen on your phone – whatever you want. Just don’t go,’ he quietly said. ‘I want you to stay.’ Taking her hand in his, he lifted it to his mouth and kissed her fingertips one by one, turning her palm at the last and pressing it lightly to his mouth. ‘I promise not to frighten you.’
She shouldn’t be so easily comforted; she should have more sense. ‘How do you know about Andy and Michael?’ she asked, because she wasn’t going to leave, not really.
‘Max finds out everything.’ Dominic gave her a heart-breakingly beautiful smile. ‘But I don’t care about your … friends if you don’t care about them.’ A heretical concept had he taken the time to reflect; that it mattered whom she’d fucked.
‘I don’t care. I never did. They were just friends with benefits. It wasn’t like this with you – where I can hardly breathe for wanting you, where I can’t stop wanting you every minute, every second. I’ve never craved anything in my whole life as badly.’ She glanced down, mortified at her shameless desire. But she wanted him on his terms, on any terms. She looked up. ‘So add me to your trophy case with all the others.’
‘That’s very kind of you,’ he said, feeling strangely gratified. ‘I don’t have a trophy case, but if I had one, you’d be the pride and joy of my collection.’
Her familiar smile reappeared. ‘I like when you’re charming.’
‘I like you anytime.’ He held out the bra, because talk of other women for any length of time was never good. ‘I’d like you even more if you put this on. You’d make me very happy.’
She grinned. ‘As long as it’s not a one-sided happiness.’
He looked amused. ‘I understand that’s a given with you, Miss Hart. Three for you, one for me, four for you, one for me. Is that about right?’
/> ‘You’re such a dear,’ she said with a playful flutter of her lashes. ‘Show me what you can do.’
He laughed. ‘Is this a teaching moment or a test of my stamina?’
‘Both.’
‘Then we both win.’
‘We are compatible, aren’t we?’ she teased.
‘We have our moments.’ Finding a woman you were compatible with rather than one that was simply available – a novel concept. Miss Hart was opening new horizons for him. He helped her lift her arms to slide through the bra straps and after gently fitting each breast into the lacy cups, he snapped the front closure. The lace barely covered a quarter of her lavish breasts, the silk fabric straining under its load, the straps nicely adjusted by Mrs Hawthorne to showcase the spherical beauty of the pale, fleshy mounds. ‘Very pretty,’ he murmured, brushing his fingers over her nipples compressed under the top rim of the white lace. ‘Can you feel that?’
She smiled at him. ‘A little.’
Her response was so perfectly attuned to his agenda, he wondered for a flashing moment whether she’d arrived on his doorstep in answer to his prayers. Pragmatic to the core, however, he decided that Miss Hart’s highly charged libido was more likely the reason for their accord.
Sliding his index fingers under her nipples just enough to ease them above the snug rim of lace, he tenderly stroked the tips into taut, hard buds while she softly purred and moaned and gently rocked back and forth on the dragons and peonies.
‘Wait,’ he whispered, releasing her nipples. ‘I’ll be right back.’
‘No, no, no.’ A pouty lament, her hand on his arm to stop him.
Bending down, he sucked on her pouty bottom lip, slid two fingers up her sleek welcoming heat and gently massaging, opened his mouth enough to say in a warm hum against her lip, ‘You have to wait because I said so.’
She lifted her hips into his fingers, exhaled a little groan he recognized as acceptance. Then with a last little nibble on her lips, he withdrew his fingers and tongue and stood upright.
She uttered a despairing little groan as he strode away.
‘No complaints, Katherine,’ he quietly said, personalizing his intrinsic authority. ‘That’s an order.’
He smiled at the instant silence, stopped at the dresser, jerked open a drawer, picked up a small box, upended the contents into his palm and returned to the bed. ‘See, that didn’t take long. We’ll have you climaxing in no time. How does that sound?’ A pause, silence. ‘Answer me. Remember the rules? Do you want to come?’