by Lund, S. E.
Finally, realizing I'd been gone for longer than I intended, I turned back and made my way to the hotel. My cheeks were already hot from the sun and the fact I'd left my sunhat in the room, not planning to be away for so long. I could already see a bit of red on my exposed skin despite the sunscreen.
I put my sundress back on and went into the hotel to the restaurant, for I was already late. It was then I saw a billboard in the lobby with a list of conventions being held at the hotel that week. A variety, but most had a medical theme. One in particular caught my eye:
Deep Brain Stimulation in Pediatric Movement Disorders – Lower Level, Empress Room
Drake did deep brain stimulation. He treated pediatric cases and I remembered the story he told of the small boy from South Africa who gave him the tooled leather wristband. I stood staring at the billboard and wondered if it was possible… Surely he wouldn't be at this hotel of all hotels in the world.
I heard some laughter and conversation from guests who were ascending the staircase that led up from the lower levels. Men and women dressed in casual clothes fitting to a resort in the Bahamas – khakis and white shirts, sandals.
Bringing up the rear was Drake Morgan.
He was dressed in white and looked devastatingly gorgeous – white linen shirt, sleeves rolled up, neck unbuttoned and tail untucked over white Dockers and black leather sandals. His hair was a bit mussed, and his face slightly tanned with a bit of scruff on his jaw. He was with a woman as tall as him, with fashionably long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail and a nice tan. She was wearing something casual but still fashionable – a shirt and skirt that looked straight from the outback. They laughed together as they talked, his hands animated.
He was already with someone new? Was she his sub? Would he bring a sub to a convention?
He saw me and stopped in his tracks, blinking. His companion stopped and stared at me, a smile on her lovely face.
"Excuse me," Drake said to her. I turned on my heel, my stomach in my throat, adrenaline washing through me.
"Kate!" he said, and then I heard him speaking to her in a low voice, but couldn’t make out what he said.
What the hell… Did my father arrange all this, hoping we'd run into Drake?
I was mortified.
I made it to the elevator but he was right there beside me, his hand on my arm.
"Kate," he said, stopping me when the elevator doors opened. "You arrived."
I turned to him, completely flustered. "I arrived?"
"Yes," he said and let go of my arm. "I was expecting you."
I got on the elevator and he followed me, closing the door and pressing the close button before anyone else could get on like he wanted to be alone with me. Then he cornered me, his arm on the elevator wall, his body so close to mine I could smell a hint of coconut, as if he'd put on some sunscreen recently. I avoided his eyes, unsure if I could control my emotions.
"Was this all a set-up?"
He said nothing, so I glanced up at his face. He was smiling softly.
"You could call it that."
"You and my father?"
"Me and your father. He thought it might be a good idea for us to get away from it all, work through this 'difficulty' we're facing, I think he said. I agreed."
I frowned, something building in me, feeling like it would explode any moment. "What did you tell him?"
"Oh, I made something up about how you were concerned about my schedule, and how busy I was, thinking I wouldn't have time for you. That kind of thing. He bought it completely." He moved a bit closer, running his fingers over my cheeks. "You're a bit burnt. Your skin is so fair..."
"I told you we can't be together."
He leaned down and caught my eye. "You said you were doing this for my own good. I have to know what you mean by that or else I can't accept it. I'm the one who should decide what's for my own good."
"Drake this can't happen."
"Shh. When I told your father about a conference I had to attend and that I was not looking forward to it because I was worried about you, he offered to bring you here for a bit of a getaway. Of course, I thought it was a spectacular idea…"
When the elevator door opened, he stepped away and I made a beeline to my suite, using the keycard to open the door. I went inside and he followed me, coming to stand beside me as I watched out the window.
"Kate…" he said, taking my shoulders in his hands, turning me to face him. "Come here."
"Who was that woman you were with?"
He frowned, then grinned. "Her? That's Doctor Laurisse Marchand, from Quebec. She does the same work I do and we've collaborated on a paper we're presenting. She's very happily married with kids and is a few years older than me. She also has a very dominant personality, like me. In other words, not my type so don't even let your mind go there."
Of course, I flushed even more deeply at that, if it was even possible. Just being alone with Drake was enough to make my knees weak.
"Nothing can happen between us, Drake."
He took my hand and pulled me over to the couch. He sat in the middle, and like that first night, he pulled me down onto his lap so that my face was just inches from his.
He tilted his head. "You look absolutely ravishing. I want to ravish you."
"I'm serious. We have to end this. For your own good."
"Tell me how ending this would be for my own good."
"You have to trust me. Someone knows about you. Your kink. They threatened to expose you if we kept seeing each other."
"What?" he said, frowning. "Who?"
I shook my head. "I can't say."
"You can't or won't say?"
"Both."
He exhaled heavily. "Kate, I can't just end 'this' like you seem to think we have to. You're an unanswered question. You're unexplored country and I very much want to explore you. Every single inch of you, inside and out."
That sent a surge of something through me and I felt as if my whole body flushed.
He nuzzled his face into my neck, his mouth warm on the skin beneath my ear. His lips brushed my earlobe when he spoke.
"Unless you can tell me who is threatening you so I can understand it, and agree or not, find a way around it, I am not giving you up. You said you'd sign my agreement last week. I don't think anyone is threatening you. I think you read my limits and you're afraid. What was it that shocked you? Was it vaginal fisting? Anal sex? I told you I put those in specifically so you could strike them off and feel some degree of control."
I glanced away. Those did shock me, to be honest, but I was willing to strike them off the list as he said I could.
"It wasn't that. I'm telling you the truth."
"Then, who is it? Tell me or I won't believe you."
"Drake, I can't" I pulled myself out of his arms and stood, moving away, because sitting on his lap like that, feeling his warmth beneath me, his face so close to me, his mouth on my neck made me dizzy with lust.
He stood and came close to me, and I backed away, but only ended up wedged against the table. He had me cornered.
"Tell me, or I'll keep after you. I won't give up on you, Kate."
"Why not? Barely anything has happened between us. It would be a lot easier to end it now rather than later when we're forced to after you've been disgraced because of my carelessness."
"What about your carelessness?"
I shook my head, dread filling me at the thought of telling him.
"I," I said, fumbling for words, so embarrassed that I was hoping to be a journalist who was supposed to prize informant confidentiality and I was so sloppy with the agreement that Dawn found it. "I left the agreement on my desk and someone found it."
He closed his eyes and exhaled heavily. His lips pressed thin and when he opened his eyes, I had to turn away, so afraid of his anger.
"Who found it?"
"Just someone who doesn’t want me to be with you, OK?"
"Nigel," he said. "It was Nigel, right?"
&n
bsp; "No!" I shook my head.
"Don't protect him, Kate. I know he doesn't really approve of me."
"What do you mean? Why wouldn’t he approve of you?"
"Did he force you to stop seeing me? He knows that I'm in the lifestyle." He shook his head and then he seemed to relax. He stroked my cheek, then his fingers fell to my chest and he brushed them against the tops of my breasts. "I can talk to him, assure him that I mean you no harm."
"It wasn't Nigel. Does Nigel know about you?"
"Yes."
"How does he know?"
"I can't tell you how he knows. That's private. He just knows. I thought he was OK with it, but if you're protecting him, you have to let me know. I'll have to speak with him if he's pressuring you."
It was then I realized that Drake must know Nigel through the BDSM community. I didn’t know a lot about Nigel's personal life. I knew he had a long-time partner – an actor who did off-off-Broadway.
"Nigel's kinky?" I said and frowned.
He rubbed his forehead, then ran his fingers through his hair.
"I can neither confirm nor deny that statement," he said, his expression serious. "It's not my place to out people. I take this seriously. Kate, I've known people who've lost their jobs and their lives because of adverse publicity around BDSM. All I can say is that he knows about me. Please, just tell me who's threatening you so we can figure this out."
"I can't and we can't just figure this out. This person will not back down, no matter what. This person is very morally judgmental. And irrational. If they think we're together, they will tell my father about you. Now, you'd better go. This can't happen."
"Who is it?"
"It's someone who doesn’t understand BDSM. They never will. Listen, this is just too much trouble, Drake. Why are you so insistent? "
"Because I want you."
"That doesn't matter."
He sighed, his expression frustrated, his brow furrowed.
"Look, I won't touch you, if you really don't want me to. I promise we'll just talk."
I shook my head. "It's not that I don't want you to touch me. I do, God do I want you to, but you're in danger. Can't you understand?"
His face changed. "So you do want me to touch you," he said, moving even closer. He put his arms around me, slipping them under my arms and pulling me against him so I had to embrace him.
"Drake…"
"Sorry, you said the operative words. I need to finish what I started that night before we were so rudely interrupted by my cell phone alarm."
And then he kissed me, his lips on mine, his mouth opening and his tongue finding mine, his hands all over me, one hand squeezing one cheek of my ass, while the other grabbed a breast a bit roughly, but not too roughly that it hurt.
"Fuck, I need you." He actually pressed me down on the table, knocking the gift basket of fruit and chocolates off so that they fell to the floor and rolled around on the carpet. His mouth trailed down my throat and then he pulled my dress up and off me, throwing it onto the floor beside the fruit. He just took me in, lying on the table dressed only in my little white string bikini, my breasts far too exposed and falling out of the top. "God, you're luscious. I want to eat every inch of you."
My heart pounded in my ears, my body responding to his urgency, my flesh aching in need. He untied my bikini top and pulled it down to expose my breasts entirely.
"You're sunburnt, you bad thing. As your doctor, I must chastise you severely for that."
"If you're my doctor, isn't there some kind of ethical issue with becoming involved with a patient?"
"Fuck ethics," he murmured against my skin. He began kneading my breasts, squeezing them, sucking my nipples one after the other, his tongue circling them, his lips tugging at them. His teeth bit them softly, sending delicious jolts of lust right to my clit.
Of course it was then my father decided to knock on my door.
"Katherine? Are you there? We have reservations for lunch."
I almost gasped out loud, my body tensing for Drake had moved down my belly and he had spread my thighs and was biting me through my bikini bottoms, tonguing my clit through the fabric.
"Drake!" I whispered. He exhaled and rested his forehead on my belly, his mouth still above my pussy.
"Fuck, Ethan," he whispered back. "You have horrible timing." Then he rose up and laid on top of me, grinning. "So close and yet so far."
I couldn’t help but smile back.
"Katie? Are you OK sweetie?" my father said through the door. "We were worried about you." He jiggled the door.
"Katie?" Drake whispered, grinning. "You better answer him. Tell him we'll be right down."
"I'll be right down, Daddy. Give me five minutes, OK?"
"All right, dear. We're waiting."
We held our breaths for a moment and then Drake buried his face between my naked breasts. When he lifted his head, he kissed each nipple.
"Jesus Christ," he said, staring into my eyes. "Am I ever going to get to actually come inside of you?"
"You want to?" I grinned.
"Right now, there is absolutely nothing I want more in this world. An end to poverty? World peace? Human rights for all? No. I want to fuck you until I come inside of you. Bareback."
"We haven't been tested yet…"
"I have been. I'm clean. I'm know you are as well. You told me and I trust you. I want to see my come dripping out of you."
"Drake!"
"Seriously," he said. "You've brought out the animal in me, Kate. We're talking caveman. Warlord claiming territory, plundering." He grinned so wide he started laughing.
"Plundering…"
Then he rose up over me, propping himself on one elbow. He brushed a strand of hair from my cheek and then grazed his fingers over the tops of my breasts and my nipples so that they puckered.
"Once we're alone, once we're finally alone, I'm going to fuck you and come inside your body and I'm not even going to worry about making you come, because you owe me one, remember? After that, I'll bathe you and shave your sweet little pussy, and I'll tie you up and make you come three times. Once with my tongue and mouth. Once with my fingers, and once with my cock."
"Oh, God." I closed my eyes, desire washing over me.
"You like that idea, do you Kate?"
I opened my eyes and his were so intense, his nostrils flaring as he breathed in deeply.
"Yes," I whispered.
"You want me to tie you up and make you come?"
"Yes."
"Yes, what?"
I shook my head, not knowing what he meant. He waited, and then I remembered. Did he want me to say Yes, Master? Or Yes, Sir? Neither one felt right.
"Yes… Sir?" I said, hesitantly.
He closed his eyes and leaned down, pressing his forehead against mine, smiling. "No, no. I want you to say the words." He kissed me, and I could feel his smile against my lips. "Just say what I said. That you want me to tie you up."
"Oh," I said, understanding. He wanted it acknowledged. He wanted me to give him permission. "Yes, please tie me up and make me come, Drake."
"You're not ready for Sir yet," he said, his gaze moving over my face. "You don't feel it yet. But one day you will be ready and you will feel it. And I will enjoy hearing that word come from your sweet lips while you beg me to let you come."
I exhaled, closing my eyes. His words affected me so deeply. I wanted to feel it – that he was Sir.
I wanted it to feel right.
He stood up, running his hands down my inner thighs to my pussy. "Damn. You're so nice and wet. But we better go or Ethan will be back with firefighters to break down the door."
He pulled me up so that I stood in front of him, my head tilted back to look in his eyes. He leaned down and kissed me.
"I like that you're short," he said. "Petite. It brings out the Dom in me."
"I like when the Dom in you comes out."
"Oh, Kate, you ain't seen nothing yet. All you’ve tasted is vanilla ice cream."
I frowned a bit, unsure if he was warning me or trying to entice me.
"Don't frown," he said, stepping closer. "If you like it now, all I mean is that you'll like it even more when we actually play."
I nodded. "I better change," I said and pointed to my room.
"I'll wait, although I feel like I need to go and jerk off in the bathroom to get rid of this," he said, grasping his still-hard cock, taking my hand and placing it over his length. "But I want to save it for you."
I took in a deep breath, my body responding from the feel of him in my hand.
"I wish I could help you with this," I said, my voice a bit quivery.
"You will. Later."
"You know, I still haven't signed anything."
"You will. Later," he said, grinning.
"You're so sure of yourself."
"No, I'm not," he said, pulling me into his arms. "I'm just sure of what I want." He kissed me, tenderly this time. "I want you."
I sighed and pulled reluctantly out of his arms. "I better freshen up…"
I went into the bathroom and brushed my hair, applying a bit of makeup and then I got my bag. Drake was standing at the window, talking quietly on his cell. When he saw me, he motioned me over and pulled me against him.
"Yes, I'll meet you at 1:30. We can review the slides once before 2:00."
Then he ended the call and put his cell away.
"Business?" I asked.
"Just preparing for our presentation this afternoon at the conference. My colleagues and I are presenting the results of a three-year study on pediatric neuro-electrophysiology. Dr. Marchand and I are doing the presentation at 2:00."
I nodded.
We went to the dining room where my father and Elaine were seated.
"Look who I ran into on the way over here," I said, pointing to Drake.
My father's face lit up like a floodlight. He stood and started glad-handing Drake, who of course, glad-handed back like they were old buddies.
"Drake, how nice to see you again."
"You can cut the act, Daddy," I said, smiling. "Drake already told me you two conspired to bring me here so I could 'get away from it all'."
