The doorman had been reluctant to let her upstairs but she’d convinced him she was a cousin making a surprise visit. Hopefully the man wouldn’t get in trouble.
Serenity always had been able to convince people of things. According to Lucretia she had the last honest face left in the city. Which if she was more crafty, in Lucretia’s opinion, she would have figured out how to exploit long ago.
There are so many ways this can go wrong, she thought. He could be angry or he could be occupied with something else…or someone else.
Yes, the thought had occurred to her despite her friends’ assurances to the contrary. Ross Lassiter might simply have moved on to fresh fields, someone more pliable, more naturally submissive.
Someone like Bunny.
Perish the thought.
No one answered at first. Agonizing heartbeats passed as she looked at the outside of the peephole. Was he on the other side? Looking at her, deciding to ignore her?
She rang the bell again. She wasn’t going to give up this easy.
Ross answered in silk pajama bottoms and nothing else. She tried not to drool over his chest, his bare feet.
“Serenity.” The cold, clinical way he said her name made it clear where he stood. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“And yet,” she quoted his statement from the time they’d met for coffee. “Here we are.”
He arched a brow.
“Are you going to invite me in?”
“I’m afraid I’m not alone.”
“You’re lying,” she decided.
He sighed. “I haven’t time for the third degree.”
“And I don’t have time for people who deny their feelings. You haven’t called me, why?”
“I’ve lost interest in you,” he said.
Serenity had already decided not to be hurt by anything that came out of his mouth.
It was a defense mechanism and they both knew it. “Then why is your dick hard?”
His eyes darkened. “Go home, Serenity.”
She pushed past him into the ridiculously large foyer. “I don’t think so. I want to meet your new girl.”
“She’s all tied up.”
“Very funny.” She moved to touch his chest.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking the bull by the horns.”
His attempt to deflect her had left him vulnerable for attack on a different front. Next thing she knew she had his cock in her hand, the fly of his pajamas providing the perfect point of invasion.
Ross moved quickly, taking control of her wrist and pushing it up behind her back.
Immobilized now, she resorted to her last weapon, her tongue. “If I didn’t know better I would say you are scared of me, Ross Lassiter. Do I really pose that much of a threat to your way of life?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Emotions. You feel something for me so I can’t be just one of your slave girls. That’s why you left me high and dry.”
“You aren’t a slave girl,” he said. “You’re far too independent.”
“Then tell me,” she challenged. “Why can’t I get you out of my mind? Why do you drive me crazy?”
Something flashed across his eyes and for a moment she thought she had him.
“That’s for you to figure out, Serenity.”
“I already have,” she insisted. “In fact…I love you.”
The words had come out all wrong, more like a threat than a pledge. Then again nothing else had been normal between them.
Ross let her go. He turned his back before she could go to him. Walking to the bar in the living room, he poured himself a drink.
“Want something?” he asked as though nothing had just happened.
“I’m good.”
He downed a shot of the clear liquid, made a face and poured another.
“It’s not like I told you I had an STD,” she blurted.
He shook his head. “You don’t understand. I feel the same thing.”
Externally she made no reaction. Internally she turned a cartwheel. “Since when?”
“Who knows. Since I first saw you, probably.”
Her toes curled.
“Love.” He growled the word.
She tried not to take offense. It wasn’t personal, she was sure of it. Somewhere along the line signals had been crossed, he’d been let down, and he didn’t trust women as a result.
The extreme cynics would say that was the root of his need to control women but Serenity understood better. Domination was just a part of who Ross was. It was in his soul, his DNA.
Just like there was something in her own DNA that made her enjoy him. Like a submissive gene to his masterful one.
“We can work through this,” she said. “Together.”
He snorted. “Now who’s making it sound like a disease?”
“I’m treating it like it is, something pretty large and scary for both of us.”
“Who said I’m scared?”
She smiled inwardly. Big, bold Ross, brave in the face of every danger.
“So it’s just me scared,” she happily took the fall.
“Well, you came to the wrong person. Go and see my mother if you want warm fuzzies. Then again, Lucretia is about as fuzzy as a cactus.”
“That she is, but her heart is in the right place.”
Ross’ eyes were moist. “You don’t take a hint, do you, about leaving?”
“I’m slow, what can I say.”
“Maybe if I tan your hide for you.”
She perked up. “If you insist.”
“Little minx,” he growled.
“That’s me.”
He shook his head. “Sit down,” he ordered, pointing to the sofa.
Serenity took her place.
“I’m going to tell you a story,” he said.
“Good.” She settled in. “I love stories.”
“This one doesn’t have any happy ending, just me, too screwed up to date a woman, even a good one like you.”
Her heart skipped a beat at his characterization of her. She knew it wasn’t idle, not at a time like this.
“Once upon a time, when I was eighteen, I had a stepmother. Not exactly a stepmother, for one thing, she hadn’t married my father yet. For another she was only twenty-three. A real whore, though, the old man didn’t seem to notice. Or maybe he didn’t care, as long as she delivered where it counted. Cecelia was gifted, you see, with a dynamo of a body and a mouth that wouldn’t quit.
“You don’t mind if I am graphic, do you? It really does add to the story. Anyway, Cecilia kept the old man happy but I doubt he did much for her, which was where I came in. She started dropping hints, you know, bending over in front of me with no panties and so on. Then one day she caught me with a dirty magazine. It was bondage themed and I hadn’t locked my door, which meant she saw a handful, pardon the pun.
“I freaked but she kept her cool. ‘Is this what you like, Ross?’ she asked me. ‘Because I can give you that and plenty more.’ And just like that she stripped in front of me and told me I could have her and do anything I wanted to her. I was so goddamn excited I came just like that, my cock still in my hand. But she was persistent and she got right down on her knees.
“‘Is this what you’d like a slave to do,’ she said and sure enough it was—that and plenty more besides. We started playing games right off and at first I was tying her with my ties but we got some cuffs and some more belts too. The day she came home with a crop for me was especially interesting.
“It might not surprise you to know I proved to be a natural with it. That very first time I had Cecelia take off all her clothes so I could begin exploring her reactions, the way she moved to the touch of the leather on her breasts, her belly and especially her fine, sweet ass cheeks. She was surprisingly responsive and I found I could make her come just with the sound of my voice after a while. You could say I trained her to be what I wanted, and it was all with her enthusiastic consent. It was
like a dream come true for me. I had my very own slave girl to play with, to torture and delight. We seldom slept, as she came to me every chance she got. And all this went on for two months under my old man’s nose.
“I got deluded of course, the way she was talking, that she really loved me. I was ready to be her Master and husband forever and when I told her that you can bet I expected a whole lot better reaction than I got. The bitch just laughed. You don’t mind if I call her that, do you? Because that’s what she was—a cockteaser, a liar and a user. It was the first time I saw a submissive could use a Dominant. Damn, I was an idiot, even more so than my father.
“At least he knew the real score. Which is why he called us both into his study about a week after she first rejected me. Turns out he’d been aware of us the whole time. He’d even spied here and there. And now it was time to pay the piper. Cecilia was to be thrown out of the house. As for me, I was to be the proper laughingstock, called out before all the serving staff as a pervert and degenerate.
“Cecilia begged him to take her back, which of course he didn’t. Me? I told him to go and fuck himself and I left that house and never looked back. That’s right, everything you see here I earned of my own accord. He can take his inheritance and his power games and…”
Ross stopped at this point to study Serenity for a reaction.
“Am I overwhelming you?”
“No.”
“Boring you?”
“Ross, please don’t take this out on me.”
He frowned. “So that was Cecilia. In college I met Erika. Do you want to know how faithful she was? How I caught her with the captain of the soccer team?”
“You were also into BDSM,” Serenity said softly.
“Erika was my complete slave,” he confirmed. “Or so I thought. I tied her, whipped her, even controlled what she ate and what she wore.”
“Maybe you went too far?”
“Damn it!” Ross slurred his words slightly. Was he on his third shot or his fourth? “Whose side are you on?”
“I’m on your side.”
“Well, you don’t sound like it.”
“If you expect me to just applaud while you trash my entire gender because of a couple of bad apples…”
“Seven.” He held up the right number of fingers.
She forced back a smile because he’d nearly shown her eight.
“Well, you have to keep looking, Ross. It’s not that easy. What if it takes a hundred?”
“Then I’d say the odds don’t look good for you.”
It was her turn to frown. “I don’t want you skipping over me or blurring me with the past. I want you to acknowledge I could be someone else, we could have something different.”
“What about you?” He held out the shot glass, accusatory. “You weren’t the easiest nut to crack.”
“That’s true. I have issues, I’m not denying it.”
“How bold of you.”
“If you’re going to put me off with sarcasm it won’t work. Nor will acting like a spoiled brat.”
His brow furrowed. “You’re just begging for some time over my lap, little girl.”
“Promises, promises,” she spat.
She could feel the chemistry, the heat in the room.
“Don’t,” he said.
“I dreamed you bought me,” she said. “At an auction.”
“I’m not kidding, Serenity.”
“I was a naked slut…”
“I’m not listening.”
“Collared…”
He poured another drink but didn’t put it to his lips.
“The auctioneer put me through paces, he demonstrated my naked holes, he showed how wide my mouth was, how good it could be to slap and play with my breasts, the bids went up and up, but you kept bettering them…”
He said nothing.
“Want to know my final price?”
“Enough!”
She could feel his raw power, the tripped trigger. He was around the bar and by the time she thought of running it was way too late.
He wrapped his hand around her waist from behind, lifting her clear off her feet.
“Going somewhere?”
He growled the words in her ear.
“You wanted me to leave.”
“You will…when I’m done teaching you a lesson.”
Ross carried her easily, swinging her over the arm of the couch. She wore a pair of slacks, which he had no trouble removing.
Her legs kicked up and he smacked her hard into place.
“No moving. That ass is mine.”
Serenity settled, panting, her heart throbbing with anticipation.
He began with her underwear on, steady even blows that built a residual heat.
She groaned, knowing how helpless she was and how she had brought all this on, gone out of her way, meticulously to come over here and push him past the point of no return.
But he was calm and in control, that’s what she loved about it. And that’s what made it work, too.
At a certain point he stopped so he could touch her with his finger.
She was soft and wet and ready. The way a submissive should be.
“Explain this,” he said.
“I’m aroused.”
“I’m aroused, Sir.”
“Yes…Sir.”
“You’re aroused by being here, you’re aroused by talking back to me…and you’re aroused when I put you in your place.”
“I am, Sir, I need it.”
“Indeed you do. You need the discipline, the domination.”
“Please, Sir, give me what I need.”
“You expect you can control me, though? Make me do it on your terms?”
“No, forgive me, Sir.”
“What I want is what matters.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
“And I want to be inside you, Serenity. I want to use you, plain and simple. You must have known I would want that when you came here.”
“Oh, I counted on it, Sir.” She tried to keep the glee from her voice.
He chuckled. “What am I to do with you?”
“Put your big hard dick in me…Sir?”
She felt his hand on her back. His cock was hard against her thigh. It burned with the pent-up heat. She had never felt a man so hard, so desirous.
“I’m going to fuck you harder than you’ve ever been fucked, Serenity, I won’t hold back.”
She whimpered in anticipation.
His cock presented itself at her opening.
“Do you know why I really gave up?” he asked. “On a true submissive relationship?”
Serenity waited, knowing the question was rhetorical.
“Because I stopped believing a submissive woman existed who could fulfill my dreams, a woman I could dominate but still trust with my life. A woman with a mind of her own who wouldn’t run from me at the first opportunity.”
“I ran to you. That must count for something.”
“Indeed it does.”
He slid himself to the hilt now, his hand on her back.
She braced herself, not daring to breathe.
In time, when he was sure of her surrender, he began to fuck her, slow and steady strokes, building, and building. It was more than she could bear. He owned her. He owned this process. And she was quite sure he knew it.
“Permission,” she cried. “Permission to come.”
“Not yet.”
She cried out, wanting to be obedient but betrayed by her own body into begging.
“Please, Sir, Master, don’t make me wait, I can’t, I can’t.”
“You can. You will.”
He pinched her bottom, refocusing her.
“Do you hear me, slave girl?”
“Yes,” she whimpered, conquered, dripping in sweat, out of her mind with the sensations.
And then abruptly it was over. The interminable waiting. The building up, the climbing to an impossibly high mountain no woman could ever reach on her own.
> She had done it, with his guidance. She had endured. And finally he was releasing her.
“Now,” he said, his voice rising in tension, the pleasure clear in his tone.
She wondered if her climax would push him over the edge, but he managed to hold firm the whole time as she rushed over the edge, a dripping mess, a cascading waterfall of feminine release.
Rock solid, he held on, lording it over her. Whatever plans he had for his own release, they lay in the future.
Collapsing now, she let her cheek press into the couch. Would he let her up?
No. He wanted her aroused all over again and so he began fucking once more, fiercely, mercilessly.
She felt him thrusting, balls slapping against her sore buttocks, the heat of her ass reinforcing the heat between her legs. It went on forever, her in utter submission beneath him, Ross proving his point again and again.
She might have come here of her own accord but he would have the last word, now and always.
Abruptly he stopped, nearly withdrawing.
She tensed, awaiting his next move. She knew what was to come. She readied herself.
His cock thick and hard, the way it got just before release.
Yes, yes, yes.
And he slammed into her as if in slow motion. Though it all went so fast, like a dream.
They came together this time, a roaring climax to seal them, two people in a wide world, one very unusual relationship in the scheme of things.
Not vanilla. But not totally BDSM either. Whatever it was, they would figure it out together. Like everything else between them.
As he came he cried out the words and tears dotted her eyes. Many words, chief among the three words every couple needs to share. And so it was out in the open at last. What everyone else in their lives seemed to know before they had realized for themselves.
Ross loved her and she loved him. They were in this together.
No more words, at least not for now. Lifting her, he carried her to the bedroom.
She knew there was so much for him to show her, so much he’d been longing to do.
For her part she could not wait. It was what she had dreamed of, what she had needed from the beginning.
And so it was sealed between them, the timeless truth that no matter how messy it might be it was no longer about her and him, two separate people, it was an us now, with a unique history that was just beginning to unfold.
Stealing Serenity Page 10
