Winter's Heart

by Warneke, A. C.

  Chapter 16

  Flynn felt all of the muscles in Winter’s body tense as he turned to the right and suddenly froze. Rubbing her hand along his back, blind to anyone not Winter, she asked, “What is it?”

  “It’s the girl,” he bit out. “She’s wearing the mask, only the eyes are cut out so she can see.”

  “Are you sure it’s the same girl?” she asked softly, glancing around to spot this creature who had unknowingly shared Winter’s bed.

  “Positive,” he said through clenched teeth. “There’s no mistaking that mask.”

  Reaching up, she pulled his face so he was looking down at her. Pasting a brilliant smile onto her own lips, she ordered, “Smile, Beast.”

  His lips curled but it wasn’t a smile and with the beastly disguise, he looked positively feral. Rubbing her thumb along his firm lower lip, she urged him once again, “Smile, my love. She’s nobody, remember? If you freeze when you see her, she’ll figure it out that you’re The One and even if you’re in disguise I think she would track you down and rip off the latex so act like she doesn’t exist.”

  Sure, she was giving him the same advice he had given her regarding photographers but unlike her, he actually needed the advice because a ghost from his past was standing somewhere nearby. Going up on her tiptoes, pressing her breasts against his chest, she breathed into his ear, “If you can get through the night without giving yourself away, I’ll fuck you in the limo on the way home.”

  He pulled his head back and stared down at her as she smiled back in perfect innocence, as if she hadn’t just spoken those words out loud. A slow smile eased the taut muscles of his face. “You’re really trying to kill me here, aren’t you?”

  “Never,” she denied, sliding her hand into his. “Now point her out so I know which one she is.”

  “She’s impossible to miss,” he said, steering her in Ginger’s direction. Leaning down, he whispered, “It’s the pale gold hood.”

  Her eyes widened as she saw the surprisingly beautiful mask. It was, as Winter said, pale gold but it was elegant with intricate designs etched into it. The eyeholes were surrounded by jewels, as if to draw attention to the fact that she hadn’t had any at the time. Swirls of color swept outwards from the corner of the new eyeholes, covering the entire mask and making it a work of erotic art. Ginger’s lips were painted a bold, rich red, drawing attention to her mouth, and her eyes were lined in charcoal, almost as if trying to hide within the shadows of the mask.

  She was trying to find Winter. Did he even realize that?

  As they walked past the girl in question, she was so proud of the way Winter handled himself. He smiled down at Flynn and didn’t even spare Ginger a glance. She could feel his heart thrashing madly in his chest but she ignored it, unwilling to unmask him to anyone. Coming to a stop, she curved her hand around his neck and pulled him down to reward him with a quick kiss. She should have known better than to tempt the beast as his arms slid around her waist and he hauled her up against his body, letting her feel how horny he was.

  Thrusting his erection against her belly once, twice, Ginger forgotten, he growled, “Leave me some peace of mind, my Beauty.”

  Breathless, she could only nod as he let her go and led her through the club, which had become a blur of noise and color after that little display of desire. With stars in her eyes, she barely felt the costumed people bumping into her, knocking her into Winter. He looked down at her with a fierce look on his face as he squatted down, wrapped his arms around her thighs and tossed her over his shoulder.

  “Beast!” she cried, though every instinct in her body had wanted her to use his name. Pushing herself up so her head was no longer upside down, she saw the amused looks of those around them. Winter’s hand came down on her ass and her elbows turned to rubber for a second, pressing her stomach more firmly against his hard shoulder.

  “Just until we get to our table, my Beauty,” he growled, his voice subtly different.

  But being pressed against his shoulder reminded her that in her excitement, she had forgotten to use the girl’s room before she left. Squirming around so she could talk in a voice quieter than a shout, she said, “Can I go pee first?”

  His shoulders shook as he chuckled but he let her slide down his body. Holding her steady when he set her on her feet, he shook his head with a grin, “Only you, Beauty. The bathrooms are this way.”

  Instead of pointing the way and sending her off on her own, he wrapped his paw around her hand and pulled her hard against the front of his body, guiding her from behind and protecting her from the other party goers. His wandering hands may have wandered upwards once or twice and brushed over her breasts but she didn't mind, not really.

  “I’ll wait right here,” he growled, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest. “Five minutes or I’m coming in.”

  “Five minutes.” She rolled her eyes at him; did he know nothing of women’s bathrooms? The line itself could take five minutes or fifty minutes. “I’ll be as quick as I can.”

  “Five minutes,” he reiterated.

  Pushing into the room, she was surprised to find several open stalls, though the bathroom itself was packed with stick thin women in barely-there clothes. She felt like a gawker at a lingerie fashion show. Making quick work of her business, she came out and washed her hands, studiously ignoring the white powder on the counter. It amazed her that they were doing that in public with no concern of being busted. Of course, the club probably turned a blind eye and the ones snorting the powder probably had enough money to get out of any drug charges anyway.

  “Excuse me,” a woman murmured, pushing up to the counter to wash her hands as well. In the reflection, Flynn saw that it was Ginger, AKA Addison Holmes.

  Clearing her throat, she pasted on a friendly smile, “I love your mask. It’s very unusual.”

  Color flooded the woman’s neck as she met Flynn’s eyes in the mirror, “It was a gift.”

  “From a lover?” she asked, turning around and leaning her butt against the counter as she smiled at the girl.

  “Yes,” Ginger said simply, avoiding Flynn’s probing eyes. She turned to leave but Flynn stayed by her side until they were in a little sitting area.

  “Is he here tonight?” Flynn pried, morbidly curious to know more about Addison, the girl who had become the secret lover of a stranger. At Ginger’s blank look, she tried for breezy and lied, “My boyfriend wants to put a hood on me but I refuse to be hooded by the normal hoods out there, you know? They’re frightening and I don’t think I’d feel comfortable wearing one. But your hood… it’s a work of art, isn’t it? I think I would be proud to be hooded in that.”

  Ginger blinked her eyes and offered a small, tremulous smile, “It is pretty, isn’t it?”

  “Very,” Flynn agreed, pulling the girl’s arm so they were sitting on the plush couch. Leaning closer like they were old girlfriends sharing a secret, she gave her a sparkling smile, “My boyfriend is into some kinky shit, ya know? Even so, I don’t think I’d have the balls to wear any of the accessories out in public. You must really love him.”

  Tears welled in the girl’s eyes and suddenly Flynn felt like a complete bitch. Wrapping an arm around the girl’s slender figure, forgetting for the moment that the girl was three years older than her, she lowered her voice, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to make you cry….”

  “It’s not that,” Addison wept, waving her hand through the air and sniffling, her strained laugh sounding pathetic. Reaching out, Flynn grabbed some tissues from the box and handed them to her. “Thank you.”

  “So, what is it?” she probed, knowing she was going to go to hell for keeping up the pretense. She could put the poor girl out of her misery but she was selfish enough to hide Winter’s identity for eternity.

  “I gave him three years of my life,” Addison whimpered. “And even though I never met him, never knew who he was, I fell in love.”

  “Maybe he was just really good at sex.” Becaus
e he was and she could say that with absolute certainty. It still didn’t change the fact that she felt like shit for making the girl cry.

  “Well, he was that,” Addison agreed, delicately wiping her nose. “But he was tender, too. He cared about my pleasure and in the year that we’ve been apart I haven’t found another lover like that.”

  “How many have you tried?”

  “Too many,” the girl admitted in a soft, shame-filled voice. “I wear this damn hood to all of those clubs and the men flock around me but none of them are him.”

  “Maybe you’re looking in the wrong places,” Flynn offered lamely, since Winter didn’t frequent those kinds of clubs. For being such a kinky and horny bastard, she was a little surprised to realize that.

  Addison snorted in disbelief, “This guy could do things… you have no idea.”

  Oh, she had some idea but she wasn’t going to admit to anything. And was it wrong that she felt sorry for the girl? She knew what it was like to be consumed by Winter and how much it hurt to be apart from him. But she actually knew Winter the man, not just Winter the sex master. At the same time, knowing how perverse it was, she wanted to know what Winter did to Addison. Trying to go for casual, she drew a figure on her bare knee and asked, “Like what kinds of things?”

  Twisting so she was more fully facing Flynn, Addison’s eyes lit up with excitement, “He does this thing with his tongue… I don’t know how to describe it but it gives you just the most powerful orgasm in the history of orally-given orgasms. And the things he can do with his cock. I swear, I was never into filthy, kinky sex until him and now....” she heaved a sigh and seemed to deflate right in front of Flynn’s eyes. “And now I am trying to find someone to fill the ache he left behind.”

  Was this what life was like post-Winter? Languishing in despair to be fucked in various and sundry ways? Traveling to random sex clubs in the hope of finding a replacement, knowing he will only be a mere shadow of Winter? Swallowing against the guilt and the fear, she rasped, “I’m really sorry.”

  “There you are,” Winter’s voice growled with a hard edge to it. Warm paws came down on her bare shoulders and she was jerked to her feet. Addison’s eyes went wide in her masked face as she stared past Flynn to her fantasy lover, never making the connection. “I said five minutes, Beauty. It’s been fifteen.”

  Giving Addison one last sympathetic look, she pasted on a smile, “I was just leaving.”

  “It didn’t look that way from where I was standing,” he growled. His body was vibrating with tension and she knew he was close to snapping. “In fact, I think you’re going to have to be punished, Beauty. I won’t fuck you for a week.”

  “You can’t do that!” she cried out, twisting around in his arms to face him. Even beneath the mask, he radiated fury and she tried using her wiles, rubbing against his terribly aroused body, “I’ll be good.”

  “You won’t get out of this,” he bit out, his eyes moving past her to Addison. A strange look came over his face as he turned back to her. She didn’t understand until Addison brushed past them and stuffed a piece of paper in her hand. In a lower voice, hauling her out of the bathroom, he asked, “What did she give you?”

  Opening the paper, she saw the word Eroticism Arts. With a trembling hand, she held the piece of paper up for him to read. “I think she just gave me the name of the place where you can buy me a hood.”

  His eyes darkened but he held himself stiffly, pressing his lips into a firm line, “You won’t change my mind, Fl… Beauty. An entire week without penetration.”

  “What will you do? We only have tonight.”

  He brushed his thumb over her mouth and leaned down until his lips were next to her ear, “I’ll be in my second favorite place.”

  Her lips formed an O as he led her once again to the VIP section. As they walked, a terribly awful, wickedly hot idea grabbed ahold of her. She’d have him fucking her before the night was out and he wouldn’t have any idea what hit him. Wrapping her arms around his arm, she pressed her body along the length of his and smiled to herself because she knew all of the right buttons to push to get exactly what she wanted.

  She just needed a little liquid courage to tamp down the rioting butterflies. If they were drunk, they wouldn’t try to fly up her throat and out of her mouth when she went in for the kill.

  “Don’t think you’re going to get out of this,” he warned her, eying her warily as he pulled her through a hidden door and into darkness. Her eyes widened as he tugged her forward and her shin bumped against a step. “Fifteen steps and then we’ll be somewhere where we can talk.”

  “But not fuck,” she pouted sullenly, excitement building in her bones because if they had a private room it would be that much easier to seduce him.

  “That would have been a possibility if you had been a good girl,” he said with a hint of amusement. “Unless we aren’t alone.”

  “So you’re not taking me to a private room?” she asked, confused because of all of the secrecy, the hidden door.

  “No, my Beauty,” he denied. “I’m taking you to the VIP section. It’s above all of the noise and confusion with a clear wall that looks down over it all.”

  “Can the people on the floor see in?”

  “If they look up,” he said with a slightly wicked grin.

  Taking a shuddering breath that didn’t quite reach her lungs or give her enough oxygen, she looked at him as he stepped into the low light of the VIP room. He was sinfully sexy but that wasn’t why she couldn’t breathe. Pressing a hand against her stomach, she moved a little closer and whispered, “Do you have anything in mind with regards to the clear wall and me?”

  He paused and closed his eyes, taking his own shuddering breath. Clenching his teeth, he ground out, “You’re not going to get me to change my mind.”

  She was confused for a moment but then she smiled, a slow, sultry smile that put the butterflies to awe. “I would never dream of going against your wishes.”

  “Yes you would,” he murmured but he was no longer angry. Maybe he was never angry, just… worried.

  “I was just curious,” she said softly. “About Ginger and the time she got to spend with you.”

  “And curiosity killed the cat.”

  “Well, if I am going to die then you might as well know that I thought you were going to give me my first practice plug this evening and I was quite prepared to wear it all night long,” she said blithely, stepping past him and stopping. Looking around the room, she realized with surprise they weren’t alone, though the noise level was definitely far more tolerable. They’d be able to have a conversation without destroying their vocal cords. Still, seven sets of eyes were staring at them, at her, and she blushed from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes.

  Acting as if she hadn’t said anything inappropriate, she weaved her way around the tables and grabbed a glass of champagne, not caring if it already belonged to someone else. Glancing over her shoulder as she held the glass to her lips, she almost melted. Winter was standing there with that hot and heavy look in his eyes and as she watched, he deliberately adjusted his thick erection. She gulped down the champagne, the sweet flavor dancing across her tongue and sparkling down her throat.

  “Ooh,” she murmured, licking the flavor off her lips. “I like this. It tickles my nose.”

  “Careful, my Beauty,” he said, taking the empty glass from her fingers and setting it down before picking up a full glass and handing it to her. “It’ll go straight to your head.”

  “Are you trying to get me drunk, Mr. Beast?” she asked, twinkling her eyes up at him as she took a sip of her second glass of champagne, savoring the taste this time instead of slamming it.

  “No… yes.” He was watching her with those eerie gold eyes, the contacts making him look like a wild beast and she wanted to unleash him. “I want you to pass out before we leave so I don’t give into temptation when I vowed to make you wait a week.”

  ♥~♥~♥

  Winter�
��s heart had nearly stopped in his chest when he had walked into the women’s bathroom and saw Flynn sitting with Ginger. For one heartbreaking moment, he’d had the terrifying thought that Flynn was just like all of the other girls he had known since becoming famous, willing to use him to get what they want.

  But then Ginger barely spared him a second glance, looking at Flynn with a mixture of pity and envy. He watched as the woman scrawled something on a piece of paper and passed it to Flynn and in his anger he made the stupid threat to not fuck her for a week even though he only had the night with her. What the hell had he been thinking? He regretted it almost immediately but he couldn’t break his promise otherwise Flynn would realize how much power she had over him and he’d be so screwed.

  He regretted it even more when she showed him the note and then the regret turned physical when she asked about the glass wall because in that moment he could clearly see her standing there, looking out over the crowd while he stood behind her and slowly rocked her world.

  Then aching regret turned to bitterness when she announced her early expectations for the evening, letting him know she was willing to start her training. He had been putting it off because she had been so reticent when he had first brought it up, despite her agreeing to submit to his desires, and he hadn’t wanted to push her.

  Fuck, who was he kidding? He had been pushing her since the moment they met but in this… in this he was afraid of hurting her, of physically hurting her. As much as he wanted her ass, and he wanted it desperately, he hated the thought of causing her any pain. Her personality made her come across as larger than life, bold and brash and a little bit crazy, but sometimes, when he was holding her in his arms at night, he realized how delicate she truly was. When she was asleep and curled so contently at his side, he felt such a rush of emotions for her he was afraid they would crush her.