Party Favors

by Jennifer Dunne, Madeleine Oh

  Keri sagged against the doorframe, landed on one of her bruises, then winced and pulled away. She turned back to the dungeon, light from bathroom seeping past her to pool on the floor allowing her to see the bed, although the rest of the room was still in shadow.

  The bed where she’d gone down on Thibodeau earlier, thanking him for her successful day at work. She groaned, burying her face in her hands.

  “Keri, please, it’s not what you think.”

  “What, that it wasn’t all just some sick joke? God, you knew exactly who I was, you knew what happened today, and yet you let me…”

  He came up behind her, placing his hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged him off.

  “Don’t touch me.”

  “Keri, please—”

  “How long have you known? Since the beginning? Is that why you approached me at the party?”

  Sickness churned in her stomach. She’d felt so sexy and desirable in her costume. Had it all been a lie? Had he approached her only because he knew he’d be competing against her for a client, and wanted any advantage he could get? It was a low, dirty trick, but something she wouldn’t put past The Shark.

  “No. I had no idea who you were until you took off your mask. I approached you because you were beautiful, confident, and sexy as hell. Just looking at you from across the room was enough to make me hard.”

  She’d had proof enough of his desire while dancing with him. And their bodies had never lied to each other. He had desired her. But she remembered his strange hesitancy when she’d removed her mask, and her fear that she’d done something wrong.

  “Why didn’t you tell me when you found out who I was?”

  “Because I wanted you. I wanted you so badly I could hardly think, and I didn’t want a simple vanilla affair. I wanted to be your Master, to rock you to your core with the feelings I inspired in you.”

  He turned her to face him, tipping her chin up so that she had to look him in the eyes. Well, she’d gotten her wish, to look into her lover’s eyes, and it made her as miserable as every magically granted wish ever did.

  “Answer honestly, Keri. If you’d known who I was, would you have trusted me enough to allow me to do what I did?”

  She bit her lip, then shook her head. No. She’d never have trusted The Shark with her body, let alone her heart.

  “But then why did you leave the next morning? Why didn’t you explain who you were?”

  “I admit to being conceited when it comes to my work. I’m damn good, and I know it. You’re good, too. That’s why, when Steve said he was in trouble on the Uninational account, I jumped at the chance to face off against you. I wanted to see what you were made of.”

  She nodded, encouraging him. It’s what she’d wanted, too. He sighed, and ran his fingers through his hair.

  “Saturday morning, I had every intention of telling you who I was, figuring now that you’d had a chance to get to know me better, you’d know I could be trusted to care for you as my slave. But then I started worrying about how it might affect your work. When I defeated you, I wanted it to be because I was the better consultant, not out of any misguided feelings of servitude on your part.”

  Keri smiled grimly. “Instead, I kicked your ass.”

  “You did not kick my ass.” His eyes glittered for a moment with anger, before he Mastered his emotions. “You had the better product. And you did a hell of a job preparing for the pitch. You deserved to win the bid, although if you’d been a lesser consultant, you might not have. You beat me, but just barely.”

  She considered his rationale. Would she have fought as hard as she had if she’d known she was facing Master Alex across the table, and not Andy Thibodeau, The Shark? She’d had enough trouble keeping her thoughts away from Alex during the meeting, although now she realized her subconscious must have made the connection between the two men, even if her conscious mind hadn’t.

  She frowned, disturbed again by what looked like his obvious pattern of deception.

  “But at the meeting, I didn’t recognize your voice. You sounded nothing like you do now.”

  He shrugged. “Professional radio voice. I took training in how to sound sincere, convincing, and corn-fed American back when I started in sales. For some reason, many people were disinclined to trust a salesman with an accent, unless it was British.”

  “I think it’s sexy.”

  His smile lit up his entire face, and she realized she’d spoken in the present tense, giving him hope that his lie had not destroyed her feelings for him.

  “Ah, but sexy is not the same as sincere. And sincere is what sells.”

  “What kind of accent is it, anyway? I’ve never been able to place it.”

  “My father was in the amusement park business. I was born in Florida, then moved to Paris and Australia while I was growing up. So my accent’s a sort of Outback French Floridian.”

  She glanced over her shoulder at his dungeon. “Amusement parks, huh?”

  “Let’s just say that a passion for satisfying fantasies runs in my blood.”

  Her blood hummed at the thought of the fantasies he’d already satisfied, and the promise of all the ones he would satisfy in the future. If she let him.

  “But there’s still tonight. We’d already had the client meeting. You’d already lost. Why insist on the blindfold tonight?”

  “I almost told you after the meeting, but you ran away before I got a chance. So I planned to tell you, preferably after you were tied up so you couldn’t run away before I explained. But you looked so distressed by the whips that I couldn’t add to your pain by revealing the secret then. And once you told me how you wanted to thank me, well, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to have one of my own fantasies fulfilled.”

  “It wasn’t what you expected, though, was it? I—what was your phrase?—rocked you to your core.”

  “You did. And I panicked.”

  Keri blinked. That wasn’t the admission she expected to hear. “You panicked?”

  “I’d known we were good in bed together, and made an awesome Master/slave team. But those sorts of relationships come and go all the time. People grow, they move on, their needs no longer mesh the way they did. If you’d changed your mind about being my slave after finding out who I really was, I’d have been saddened, but would have shrugged it off and looked for my next slave.”

  “But…?” she prompted.

  “Something changed tonight. We connected, in a way that took me completely by surprise. I couldn’t lose you. I wouldn’t lose you. And if the price of that was continuing to hide my face from you, it was a price I was willing to pay.”

  “I fell in love tonight,” she said softly.

  His eyes widened, brightening with hope, then his gaze fell and his head drooped. “And I destroyed that by lying to you, didn’t I?”

  Keri took a deep breath, knowing any possibility for a future in their relationship hinged on her answer. Slowly, she walked forward, until she could feel the heat radiating from his body, then reached out and clasped his hands. Startled, he looked up.

  “You didn’t lie to me. You gave me a choice, to be with you, allowing you to keep the secret you wanted to conceal, or to insist on knowing all your secrets and having nothing more to do with you. I chose to be with you.” She smiled at him, putting all the love she was capable of in her expression. “And if the price of that was you continuing to hide your face from me, it was a price I was willing to pay.”

  His hands tightened on hers. “Then, we’re good? We can still keep seeing each other?”

  “I’d like that.” She gazed at his body, then stared into his eyes, drinking her fill of the sight of him now that she could. “But one last thing. What am I supposed to call you? Andy? Alex?”

  “My real name’s Alexander. I hated it as a kid.” He drew the name out in an over-the-top French accent. “Ah-Leek-Sahn-Dre. So I insisted everyone call me Andy. The name stuck. But I like the way you say Alex. Or Master.”

  “Master,
” she whispered.

  He closed his eyes, breathing deeply. “I was afraid I’d never hear you say that again.”

  “Surely someone who enjoys fairy tales as much as you do believed in the happy ending,” she teased. “What would this one be, Sleeping Beauty?”

  He flipped on the overhead light for the dungeon, then turned her to face the painting on the wall. Walking behind her, he urged her closer until she could see that it was not just a painting of a rose under glass. There were reflections in the glass.

  She bent closer, trying to see them better, then gasped as they finally came in to focus. A masked man, dressed entirely in black leather, even his jutting cock, with a wild mane of hair and two lethal-looking horns, held a long black whip in his hand.

  Across from him, a beautiful woman was tied naked to some sort of rack, her body crisscrossed with red welts. Her head was thrown back as she uttered a cry of intense passion, her ecstasy visible in every quivering line.

  Alex’s hands wrapped around Keri’s waist, fitting her naked body close against his. “I’ve always been partial to Beauty and the Beast, myself.”

  THE END

  About the author:

  A pinch of this, a smidgen of that ... and lots and lots of anything sparkly! Whether it's cooking, decorating, or writing books, Jennifer Dunne is never one to do anything the same way twice, allowing her wide-ranging interests to lead her where they will and trusting that sooner or later, it all comes out in the writing. Her strategy has paid off, earning her three EPPIE awards, as well as a host of lesser awards, and devoted fans who eagerly wonder where her next story will take them. Her fiction spans the fantasy, romance, and science fiction genres, but wherever one of her stories goes, it can always be counted on for an exciting ride.

  Jennifer Dunne welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at P.O. Box 787, Hudson, Ohio 44236-0787.

  Also by Jennifer Dunne:

  · Luck of the Irish (anthology)

  · Sex Magic

  · Tied With A Bow (anthology)

  TRICK OR TREAT

  Written by

  MADELEINE OH

  Chapter One

  “But I told Andrew you would, darling. He’s counting on you.”

  Katie Fairfax took a deep breath. “Mother, did it ever occur to you to ask? What if I happened to be going away that weekend?”

  She pictured her mother’s raised eyebrows. “You’re not, are you, dear?”

  Katie sighed. ‘Yes, I am,’ entailed lying to her mother, ‘No, of course not, ’ meant she got stuck cat sitting. What a choice! Pity she couldn’t plead allergies. “Tell Andrew, I’ll keep his cat.”

  “I think it will have to be in his house, dear. Moving Elise will upset her, she’s expecting”

  Sheesh, her sister, her cousin, and now the cat. At least Mother hadn't started on, ‘Isn’t it time you found a nice young man Katie’.

  “Okay, Mom. Tell Andrew I’m game. But he darn well owes me!”

  “I knew you would dear, now don’t forget Sally and Tim’s shower. You do have a gift don’t you?”

  Yet another cousin getting hitched-not that she’d have Sally’s Tim if he came gift-wrapped, “Not yet, Mom, but I will. See you there then. Bye, I love you.”

  Katie hung up the phone with a sigh. One of these days she’d toughen up and learn how to tell her mother ‘no’. Meanwhile, she was committed to spend a weekend in her favorite cousin, Andrew’s, almost obscenely luxurious house, and possibly midwifing a cat. That was in two weeks. More pressing was getting a shower gift for Sally and her intended. A quick trip to the mall one afternoon after work would take care of that. As for the cat, she’d manage. If Andrew had asked, she’d have agreed like a shot, but when her mother asked, she felt honor-bound to push a bit. Mind you, Andrew never nagged her about still being single, and didn’t ask prying questions about her social life.

  He did however, call her the next day. “So your mom and mine put the screws on you. I didn’t mean them to shanghai you.”

  “What did you intend?” Just curious of course...

  “I asked my mother if she knew anyone who’d house and cat sit while I was away. I’m driving down to Atlanta to pick up Sophie.” Sophie was Andrew’s sophisticated, but quite agreeable, intended.

  “No prob, Andrew, but you owe me!”

  “Forever!” he agreed. “What can I get you?

  “A gorgeous, exciting, bedworthy man to make all my wildest dreams come true.” Good luck Andrew! She’d not managed it herself in twenty-seven years.

  “That’s a tall order!”

  She chuckled. If her mother knew what she’d asked, she’d pitch a hissy fit. “Too hard?”

  “No way! Give me time!”

  “Never mind, Andrew, if you can’t, I’ll settle for pizza.”

  “I think I can find the man for you.” He gave a teasing laugh. “Tell you what, you come help me shop for a gift for Sally and Tim, and I'll take you to the new brick oven pizza place at Five Points.”

  “Sounds great. Shall we stop by the mall?”

  “How about the Rose and Leather Boutique?”

  The new, kinky sex shop out in Rosewood that certain city counselors had been trying to close. “I thought I’d get them scented candles or perfumed massage oil.”

  “They have oil, and scented candles, and other stuff. It’ll help broaden your horizons. Pick you up at seven, tomorrow.”

  Mom and Andrew seemed to be taking over her life. She'd suspect them of being in cahoots-but the kinky boutique was not, she was certain, her mother’s idea. Still it might be fun. She had been curious about it, with Andrew she’d not get hit on by perverts looking for entertainment, and it would up her street cred with the twenty-year-olds at work.

  Andrew was there on the dot, complete with his sporty Mercedes and a smile. Pity he was her cousin, and taken already. On the other hand, did she really want to hook up with someone she’d played kidnap and 'tie up the princess' to his dragon, when they were kids?

  “I might have another client for you,” he said as his car purred away from the curb. “I gave your name to a man at work for his sister.”

  “Great! What does she want?”

  “Not too sure. She’s a writer. Just sold a book, and decided she needs a web site. I’ve got her card in the glove box.”

  Not a name that rang any bells, but if she’d just sold a first book, it wouldn’t. “Thanks,”

  “Have to help keep my little coz solvent.”

  “I’m two days older than you!” They’d had this argument a dozen times. It was about the only edge she’d ever had.

  He glanced away from the road and grinned. “Maybe, but I’ve got a bigger one than yours!”

  She spluttered. What next? “I’ve managed very nicely without one for twenty-seven years.”

  “That’s not what you told me on the phone last night.”

  She’d live to regret that little confidence. “Maybe, but can you provide one?” She was sorely tempted to slug him one and wipe the smirk off his face. But he was driving, and a major collision would delay getting pizza.

  Marvelous pizza it was too: pesto and assagio with shrimp, piping hot from the brick oven. The tiny restaurant was cozy from the warmth of cooking. The air redolent of garlic, and cheese.

  “Thanks for the referral about the website,” Katie said as she chewed on a particularly toothsome mouthful of shrimp. “Every one helps.”

  “How are things going?

  “Not bad really. I may even end up making a profit this year.”

  “Wonderful!”

  “Not a massive profit you understand-about a hundred, if I’m lucky, but it’s way better than a loss, and I can tell my mother that Fairfax Web Design has had a profitable year.”

  “She’s still giving you a hard time over it?”

  “Pretty much. I think I’m a major disappointment to her. Susie is a tax accountant, properly married, and producing grandchild
ren, while I’m single, eking out an existence with a retail job, and playing with computers in spare time that would be better spent finding a husband.”

  “Quit acting like a sad sack! You’ll be the successful one. Your web sites are marvelous. Each one is different, not cookie cutter sites from templates.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I can’t convince Mother.”

  “My mother adds her fuel to the fire. I’d better warn you, they have both decided you need a ‘nice young man’. They’ve seconded me to find one.”

  She’d been joking, sort of. Her mother and Aunt Mary weren’t. “Darn them!” She reached for a second slice. Pizza momentarily satisfied a lot of needs.

  “How’s your love life?”

  From him it didn’t sound like a cliche. “According to my mother, unsatisfactory. I’m too particular. I need a man made to measure. After all Sally is getting married and she’s two years younger than me! I should be getting worried.” It was enough to make a saint cuss.

  “Are you too particular?” He grinned. “Don’t throw that slice at me! The cheese will fall off. Just wondered. After all you’ve had plenty of dates over the years.”

  Katie shrugged. She’d never admit this to Mom, but after all, Andrew was the closest thing to a brother. They’d shared confidences and secrets since they were kids. “I’ve met some nice ones, yes. A couple Mom thought perfect.”

  “But you didn’t?”

  She shook her head. “No one who lit my fire.”

  He looked at her a long minute. “What was wrong with them?”

  “Nothing really! They were nice men, but...”

  “The sex just wasn’t right?”

  “Yeah.” She chuckled. “You can just hear me telling Mom that, can’t you?”

  “I’ll find you someone. I think I know the perfect man for you.”

  “I’m pretty picky, you know.”

  “But I know you, Katie. Remember when we were kids and I’d kidnap you and carry you off to the dungeon?”