“We’re going home,” was his short reply.
“You’re not mad?” I scrambled to my feet and ran to catch up with his long strides as he stormed out the door.
“Oh, I am extremely pissed, but I’m trying really hard not to be.” He continued down the hallway without so much as a glance over his shoulder at me. “I suppose if I look on the bright side of things, this means that I can train you to do things the way I like them. But right now, I have a hard-on the size of Texas and I’m not exactly thrilled about it. Where are your things?”
“In some room off the hallway.”
We didn’t speak another word to each other as we maneuvered our way back to the room where I had changed my clothes and left my things, including my cell phone. He stood outside the door while I changed out of the bandages that were supposed to pass as attire and back into my tank top and skirt. Once I was dressed and feeling less exposed, he led me out the back entrance to Foreplay, one that I assumed was meant for these types of guests only. When we made it to the parking lot, Mystery Man walked over to a limousine where a short, blond-haired man in a black suit and driver’s hat stood by the door.
“Mr. Crawford,” the man greeted him with a nod and an expressionless face as he opened the back door.
“Samuel,” he greeted him in turn as he put his hand on the small of my back and ushered me inside. “We’re headed home for the evening.”
“Yes, sir,” the driver said as Mr. Crawford, aka Mystery Man, slid into the oversized backseat of the limousine next to me. Not that there wasn’t plenty of room. Personal space probably wasn’t a luxury I’d have much of over the next couple of years, though.
The car was moving through the streets of Chicago within seconds. Mr. Crawford exhaled a long breath and shifted in the seat as he tugged at his pants. Note to self: Don’t mess with Texas. I smirked a little to myself.
“Do you live in Chicago?” he asked, breaking the silence.
“No. Hillsboro,” was my short response.
I looked out the window, watching the city lights go by. The streets were littered with happy-go-lucky people who seemed to have not a care in the world. I supposed that under different circumstances, and had the world not hated me and my family, I might have been just like any one of them. But as things were, that wasn’t the case.
“Why are you doing this, Delaine?”
I wasn’t prepared to divulge that information, and it certainly wasn’t part of my contract. I preferred not to get too personal with the man who had just purchased me.
“Why are you?” I shot back. Apparently my brain filter still wasn’t working.
The scowl was back on his face again, and part of me regretted getting sassy with him when I considered all the ways he could punish me. But only a small part of me.
“You do realize that I own you now, right? You’d do well to remember your place. I’m not a cruel person by nature, but your smart mouth and snarky attitude are testing my restraint,” he warned with a stern look.
I was sure I probably looked like a scared kitten right about then, because that was how I felt, but I looked him in the eye anyway, my pride not allowing me to turn away. Or maybe it was fear that made me keep him in my sights and watch for any sudden movements. More likely it was the fact that the man really was a beautiful specimen, and I cursed the needy woman in me for being so weak.
“Look, I know this isn’t an ideal situation for you, and you probably have your reasons, just like I have mine,” he started. “But the fact of the matter remains that we’re bound together for the next two years, so it will be a lot easier on the both of us if we can at least try to get along. I don’t want to fight you every step of the way. I won’t fight you. You will do as I say, and that’s that. If you don’t want to tell me anything about your personal life before this, fine. I won’t ask. But you belong to me and I won’t tolerate insubordination, Delaine. Are we clear?”
I narrowed my eyes and clenched my teeth. “Perfectly. I’ll do what you say, but don’t expect me to enjoy it.”
He got a wicked grin on his face then and put his hand on my bare thigh. Slowly he began to caress my skin as his fingertips moved higher, under my skirt. He leaned in toward me until I could feel his hot breath wash over my neck and my skin pebbled from the sensation.
“Oh, I think you will thoroughly enjoy it, Delaine.” His raspy voice made me feel things I should’ve been too disgusted to feel, and then he pressed his lips to the spot just below my ear in an openmouthed kiss while his long fingers barely pressed against my center. My stupid, traitorous body responded and I became putty in his more than capable hands. I think a slight whine may have escaped my lips when he pulled away abruptly.
“Aw, home sweet home,” he said when the car came to a stop.
I was shaken from my Mystery Man–induced haze and looked out the tinted windows. The house wasn’t even a house. It was huge. A mansion. I swear he could have fit a whole city inside. If I hadn’t already known better, I would’ve said he was trying to overcompensate, but that obviously wasn’t it at all.
Mr. Crawford—God, I hated referring to him by that name—stepped from the limo and held his hand out to help me. I declined his offer and got out on my own. The driveway itself was laid in brick, huge and circular with a stone water fountain in the center that was lit up with soft white lights. Pillars of water shot up into the air and rained back down into the pool of glass. As I turned to look at the rest of my surroundings, I could see nothing but perfectly cut grass and ornate shrubbery that had been sculpted into stags.
Jeez, did Edward Scissorhands live here, or what?
“Right this way, miss,” Samuel said, taking my bag from my hands and drawing my attention back toward the house.
Cement statues, also in the shape of stags, adorned the posts on either side of the steps that led to the porch. Their heads were dropped down, as if positioning their giant antlers for battle with one hoof poised in the air. I could’ve sworn I heard a faint huff of a dare, but I was pretty sure they weren’t alive.
Tall white columns bordered the entrance to the house and stretched from the oversized porch to the second story. Samuel thrust open the double doors to allow us to step inside, and Mystery Man gestured with his arm for me to go in ahead of him. The floors were marble, the ceilings tall and dome-shaped.
But the thing that really caught my attention was the staircase. It was centered in the entry and stretched to a landing at the top before it split off into two other staircases that led in opposite directions of the house. It looked like one of those get-ups where the princess appears at the top of the landing and waits to be announced to the awestruck crowd below before she descends gracefully to greet her guests.
Me, on the other hand? I’d probably trip and fall on the first step, my body curled up into a ball as I rolled down the rest and landed with a thud at the bottom. And it would not be graceful. At all.
“What do you think?” Mystery Man asked as he gestured with his arms wide open. Obviously, he was proud of his home.
“Meh, it’s okay. If you’re into the whole pretentious overkill type of thing,” I said with a shrug of boredom.
In truth, I was impressed. Very impressed.
“I inherited the house. And I’m not pretentious,” he said. “Let’s get you upstairs and into something more comfortable so that we can get some sleep. It’s been a long day, and I have a feeling it’s going to be an even longer day tomorrow—and probably every day for the next two years of my life.”
He turned and stalked up the stairs, leaving me to follow behind him again.
“It seems we agree on something, Mr. Crawford,” I said.
He stopped abruptly and turned to look at me with a look of aggravation in his eyes. “It’s Noah,” he said in a solemn tone, and then continued up the stairs. “Only the help calls me Mr. Crawford.”
“Well, aren’t I the help? You’re paying me to be here just as much as you are them,” I challenged.
&nbs
p; “Trust me, they’re not getting paid nearly as much as you are.” He turned on the landing to go up the right-hand staircase. “And you will be my nearly constant companion over the next couple of years. People will need to believe that we’re the real deal. That’s not likely going to happen if you’re running around calling me Mr. Crawford.”
“Fine then, Noah,” I said, testing out the sound of it. “Which room is mine?” I asked when we reached a long hallway adorned with large paintings on the walls.
“We’re at the end of the hall,” he said, still forging ahead.
“Wait. We?”
“You will be sharing my bed. Was that point not clear to you?”
“But we haven’t even discussed the terms of the contract,” I reminded him.
He opened the door at the end of the hall and I followed him through. The second I was over the threshold, he closed it and pinned me to it with his body. “The terms are pretty simple,” he said as his lips ghosted against the skin of my neck. “You belong to me, and I can do whatever I want with you.”
He brought his lips to mine and kissed me firmly, but I didn’t kiss him back. His movements softened and he grazed his lips over mine, trying to get me to respond.
“Kiss me, Delaine.” He pressed his hips forward and that thing in his pants nudged the girliest part of me. “You just might like it.”
The thought did not occur to me that he might be right, but I knew I had been pushing my luck with him already and he wasn’t likely to keep taking my crap. My mother needed that surgery, and I was sure that we’d be a whole hell of a lot more intimate than this over our time together, so I really had no choice but to suck it up and give in.
I took a deep breath, my chest pressing against his, and then I parted my lips and took his bottom lip between mine. He moaned and repositioned himself so that his thigh was between my legs, his hands on my hips, and his head tilted to the side for better access. I let him deepen the kiss when his tongue swept across my lip, and I knew instantly I would never regret it.
It wasn’t like I’d kissed a lot of guys or was some sort of expert, but the things that man could do with his tongue …
I placed my hands on his biceps, feeling the bulge of muscle that flexed beneath his jacket. I wanted to be closer, and I thought he might actually appreciate my taking some initiative, so I moved my hands under the jacket to his chest. Then I moved them over his shoulders to force the jacket to slide down his arms. He caught it with one hand and laid it over the chair beside us before grabbing my hips again and pulling me closer. I cupped my hands around either side of his neck and wrapped my tongue around his, sucking ever so gently. He moaned into my mouth and then unexpectedly pushed away, leaving me standing there with my eyes closed, head cocked to the side, hands still suspended in air, and lips puckered in kissing mode.
It was kind of like that awkward moment in Dirty Dancing when Baby was still getting her groove thang on with thin air after Johnny walked away and left her standing alone in a room full of strangers.
“See, I told you you’d like it,” he said with a half grin.
How was it fair that he could just stand there acting like it was no big deal while I was about to burst a blood vessel willing my body not to explode?
“Don’t worry, we’ll do that some more, but business before pleasure,” he said, taking a couple of steps backward. “The terms of the contract: I will make sure that the money is wired anonymously to the account that you have specified, as you asked. I expect you to be discreet about the details of our relationship, and I will do the same in turn. For all intents and purposes, my family and colleagues will believe that we met on one of my many business trips and that we’re deeply in love. You will accompany me to various social functions while conducting yourself as the well-mannered lady that you’re expected to be. At my home, you will share my bed and make yourself available to me in whatever physical way that I need. And I must warn you that I have quite the imagination. Have I missed anything?”
Probably, but my head was still swimming from that kiss and I couldn’t think straight, so I just shook my head.
“Good,” he said as he lay back on the oversized bed (I was beginning to see a trend with all the oversized things surrounding this man) and propped himself up on his forearms. “Now, take off your clothes.”
“Excuse me?” I practically choked out.
“Delaine, we’re going to be seeing a whole lot of each other in the nude. So you might want to drop that modesty-and-shyness bit.” He looked me up and down and licked his lips suggestively. His eyes met mine, and the expression in those piercing hazel eyes nearly brought me to my knees. “You show me yours and then I’ll show you mine.”
That was a good deal, right? I slipped off my shoes while grabbing the hem of my shirt, pulling it quickly over my head.
“Slower,” he said in a husky voice, stopping me.
I rolled my eyes because that was so clichéd. “Would you like to put on music so that I can do the whole striptease for you, too?”
“Now you’re getting it,” he said with a wink, and then he crawled across his bed and grabbed a remote control off the nightstand. He pushed a button and sultry music began to play, although I really couldn’t tell where it was coming from because it seemed to be coming from everywhere.
“No! I … I can’t. I mean … I don’t—”
“I’m just kidding,” he said, turning it back off and returning to his spot on the bed. “Some other time, maybe.”
I let out a long breath, then slid down the zipper on the back of my skirt and let it fall to the floor before stepping out of it.
“Stop right there.” Noah got off the bed and walked toward me. I crossed one arm over my chest and the other over my stomach self-consciously before I dropped my eyes to the floor. He walked in a circle around me and I could feel his eyes on me, all over me. And then I felt his touch as he stopped behind me and pressed his chest to my back. The back of his fingertips ran down both of my arms until he reached my hands, and then he took each of them in his and pulled them away from my body.
“Don’t hide from me.” His lips skirted across the crook of my neck.
He pulled back a bit and let my hands fall to my sides before stroking back up along my arms and over my shoulders to roam down my back. He didn’t stop until he reached the clasp of my bra, and before I realized it, he had it undone. He slid his fingers under the straps and slowly pushed them over my shoulders until they fell down my arms, exposing my breasts to him. I could feel the heat of his body against mine again, and his warm breath spilled over my skin as he exhaled slowly. A trail of openmouthed kisses were placed along the length of my neck and over my shoulder, leaving a path of flames in their wake. I shivered, but I was pretty sure it was from his attentions and not from being cold. My body was heating up to the point that I thought I might catch fire.
And then I felt his hands on my hips. His fingers dipped beneath the band of my panties and he began to push them down, oh so slowly. I stiffened, unsure what I should do.
“Relax. I just want to see you. All of you,” he said in a comforting voice.
I took a deep breath and tried to relax a bit. It wasn’t exactly easy to do, though, because like I said, the man was beautiful, and under normal circumstances I’d want to be all over him.
And then my panties were around my ankles.
I stood there naked as a jaybird, completely exposed and vulnerable to the man who had just purchased me for his own personal pleasure.
“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” He paused for an answer I didn’t have to give, and he knew it. “My turn. You can keep your back to me, or you can turn around and watch.”
I knew what he was doing. He was making me choose. Only there really wasn’t much of a choice. If I stayed where I was, I’d look like a scared little girl. And if I turned around, I’d look like I wanted this just as much as he did. Win-win for him; for me, damned if I did, damned if I didn’t.
So I turned around. If I was going to lose, I wanted my consolation prize. And an eyeful of bonchickawahwah was consolation enough at that point.
Noah gave me that annoyingly sexy smirk again, obviously happy with my decision. Secretly, so was I. I watched as he slowly undid each button of his shirt with his nimble fingers. They were thick and long and, well, porntastic, I believe Dez would say. He pulled his shoulders back as he shrugged off the shirt, revealing one very lucky wifebeater.
Enough was enough. I was there for a reason.
I stepped toward him as he reached for the hem of the T-shirt and stilled his hands. He raised a questioning brow, and I mirrored his expression, daring him to stop me. But he didn’t. I placed my hands on his hips and ran them up his sides, tugging at the shirt and dragging it up his long torso. Noah raised his arms and allowed me to pull it over his head, and I tossed it to the floor. Well, I tried to toss it to the floor, but he was quick and caught it in midfall, gracefully draping it over the back of the chair with his jacket and dress shirt.
Before he could face me again, my hands were on his belt and working it loose. Without removing it, I tackled the button of his pants and then the zipper.
“Anxious?” he asked with a sly smile. My only response was to look him square in the eye and shove his pants over his hips. Under the pants? Mouthwatering boxer briefs. Red boxer briefs. Red boxer briefs that were the home of a very proud, helmet-wearing soldier.
Now, I’d seen his marvelous cock up close earlier, but there was just something about the way the man filled out a pair of underwear that really got my gears a-grindin’. You could see just enough detail of what was beneath, while still maintaining an element of mystery; a goody basket waiting to be unwrapped, if you will.
Noah hooked his thumbs under the waistband, maintaining eye contact with me the entire time, and took them off. It wasn’t until he grabbed his discarded underwear and turned his back to me that I allowed myself to check him out more thoroughly. He walked toward a set of doors on the other side of the room that I assumed was a closet, and I let my eyes roam over his strong shoulders and down his muscular back to …