by Flora Dain
‘Do they fight over girls?’
She looks relieved at the change of topic and arches an eyebrow. ‘Honey, I never ask. None of my business. But you know what? You’re the first girl Darnley’s brought here for a while. So I guess you’re pretty special.’
I smile briefly. It’s not what it seems. I’m just a business obligation. When his new product’s launched I’ll be yesterday’s news. And she’s not giving anything away.
The thought is sobering but hardly prepares me for her next bombshell. ‘And to let you into a teeny family secret – she’ll be here tomorrow so you’ll hear it from somebody else if not from me – we were real sorry when he and Freda broke up. Even though they’re cousins. I mean it’s not like they’re close relatives, or anything …’ She tails off at my expression.
‘Freda?’ Shock robs me of breath.
Lydia looks vague. ‘But of course you’ll know all about that.’ She spies her husband near the pool, talking to a group of young wives. ‘I’d better go rescue Aaron. See you later, Ella. I’m so glad you’re OK.’
After a long day full of surprises this is turning into a strange evening. He dated Freda? All at once I feel lonely. Darnley might have issues with his family and his brother but at least they are his family. So is Freda.
I’m the stranger here. I have no claim on him. He might have dozens of girlfriends for all I know, but there’s no chance to talk. At supper I’m seated opposite him. Tonight Lydia mixes up the couples and I find myself next to Dodie and her husband, who tell me all about Emily and how clever she is. I smile and nod while they do all the talking but I feel Darnley’s gaze on me all through the meal. His look is dark and disturbing. I find it hard to swallow. Afterwards he leads me out to the terrace by the pool. Indoors people start to dance.
‘Did you make peace with Eldon? He was worried about you. Lydia too. Dad’s worried you’ll sue.’
I grin. ‘On my salary? No chance. They were nice. It’s a treat to be fussed over. Darnley, why don’t you tell Eldon the truth? He ought to know. He looks up to you. It must make him very unsettled to think you’re …’ I tail off as his expression clouds.
We’re standing several feet away from his nearest relatives, but even so he lowers his voice. ‘No. Don’t even think it would help. You’ve seen what he’s like. He’d freak.’
I frown, trying to put my thoughts into words. ‘But – maybe thinking you’re guilty is part of his problem. Maybe it derails him somehow.’
He glares down at me. ‘For crying out loud, Ella, drop it. It’s out of the question. It would spring open a whole can of worms if this got out.’
‘Hi, you two. Come and join the dancing.’ Aaron muscles in, blandly unaware that he’s walked into a minefield. Darnley stares at him for a full second before Aaron calmly leads me away to dance. It occurs to me that Aaron’s sons are so often like this when they’re together that everybody finds it normal.
As we circle the room I relax a little. Aaron pumps me about my background, clearly curious. His face falls when I mention Dad’s just a country physician.
At last Darnley rescues me and now the inevitable happens and we start dancing close. I sense his heat and I know what he wants. I want it too but I’m surprised he shows it so plainly in front of his family.
‘Let’s get out of here. I can’t stand much more of this.’
He drags me through the house and I feel like laughing out loud as we reach our room in a fever, his hand once more gripping mine. But as he slams the door behind us and I catch sight of the bed I feel the breath leave my body.
On the bed are two pairs of handcuffs.
I swallow and wait for him to grin or make some jokey remark. The steady heat in his eyes warns me this is no joke.
‘Forgive me, Ella. I have to do this.’
I swallow. ‘You want to –’
‘Yes. I want to fuck you in those. Old habits, as they say. You’re free to go, if you want.’
I shudder as desire and fear surge up through me, inextricably mingled. Maybe one fuels the other. ‘How can you say that?’ I sound husky, but I try to keep my tone steady. He has to know I’m OK with this or we’ll never get anywhere. I swallow again. ‘I’m staying. If you want this, I want it too. All the way.’
His stillness is scary, like a predator eyeing his prey. ‘You sure?’
‘Yes.’ I begin to throb. All at once the thought of what he wants to do to me is exciting. Take me somewhere …
The gleam in his eyes warns me he senses my excitement. ‘We should set permissions and limits before we do this. Normally it takes a lot of discussion. We’ll do all that another time.’
I feel a surge of heat. We’ll be doing this again?
‘But I want you now. You permit?’
I nod, my heart racing.
‘Say it.’ His voice is a soft growl.
The flames flare once more and now I ache. ‘I permit.’ I consent to you putting handcuffs on me and then … I daren’t think what comes next.
‘If it gets too much, say “halt” and we’ll stop. Got that?’
‘Can I just say “stop”?’
He grins briefly. ‘Sure. But you’ll say that anyway. Everybody does.’
Everybody? How often has he done this? Did he do it to Freda?
I close my eyes. Don’t even ask. You’ll find out soon enough.
He smiles slowly. ‘Strip.’
It’s a simple command with a complicated message. The flare of heat deep between my legs is my only guide. The night we met I rejoiced in its glow, followed where it led. Now I trust to it again. I sway a little as I remove my clothes, which takes only seconds as I’m wearing just linen crops, a skimpy satin top and a bra. As they slip to the floor I get another surprise.
‘I want you to wear this.’ He holds out what looks like a couple of pieces of string, but turns out to be a thong. He holds it for me to step into and pulls it slowly up to my hips like it’s some kind of ritual.
His fingers graze my skin as he slides the thin straps either side of my pulsing, moistened dip. Here the braided black leather splits into two and instead of a small triangular modesty patch at the front there’s a large, elaborate knot. Its purpose is explicit and not modest at all and the second he slips it into place it presses home and I start to pulse. He holds my gaze and makes me raise my arms high while he arranges the straps the way he wants them. They part between my legs to allow full access and then rejoin to slip between my bottom cheeks and pull hard on the tight waistband at my hips.
This is distinctly uncomfortable, partly from the fierce arousal burning in front and partly because my bulging rear is tightly constrained by the harsh, unforgiving leather as the complex knot presses hard on my swelling bud. Now every movement is an agony of arousal.
His angular jaw creases into a cruel smile as he sees my distress. He runs his finger along my gap, smiling a predatory grin when it comes away glistening. ‘Feeling skittish? Good.’ He makes me pose for him, bending over a few times and stretching painfully backwards. His excitement crackles in the air around us like electricity.
‘Now hold out your arms.’ His face grows still as he clamps one of the cuffs onto each of my wrists. They’re heavy and cold. The metal glints in the low lighting. He leads me to the foot of the bed, turns me round to face the corner posts and cuffs me to them. ‘OK? You can free yourself easily by sliding up your arms.’
‘They’re very heavy. Are they supposed to cut in like this?’ I tail off at the glimmer of heat in his eyes. As I say it I start to pulse.
‘You’ll just have to keep still. Legs wide. Now.’ He slaps my backside hard and I gasp and open wide for him, sinking as I do so. Now slipping my cuffed wrists off the posts is impossible, I’m slung too low.
‘What are you going to do?’ I stare as he produces a can of lube and starts to pour a little onto his hand. He runs his hands together to warm it a little and then starts to smear it over my backside, his touch warm and arousing. I
sigh as he searches deep inside me with slick, lube-coated fingertips. At last he pauses and reaches for something out of sight and then waves it into view. ‘You met one of these before. This one’s a little larger and you’re going to hold it in your mouth for a while. You’ll need it wet and I need you gagged.’
It’s a butt plug. Alarm thrills through me. I pull at my cuffs, which dig in painfully. At the same moment the wicked knot presses fiercely against me and to my amazement I feel the unmistakeable hint of a massive climax starting to build. It’s not just from the new, nagging pressure between my legs.
It started with the flash of pain in my wrists – a simple response to a complex action. The thought is a revelation – pain and pleasure mixed? I’d no idea …
But Darnley knows this. As he slides the obscene thing into my mouth he grins. My teeth snap into place on its tapered waist and the wide, flaring base shields my lips like a pacifier. I suck helplessly, silenced and humiliated, and even this is turning me on. Now he reaches behind me for something else and I hear the whisper of fabric as he removes his shirt, then his shoes. He leans over and kisses my rear, curving and fondling my globes with loving sweeps of his hands and licking me with his hot, eager tongue.
‘Beautiful. Now we’re doing something new. Suck hard on the plug and try not to move too much or it’ll hurt.’
And now my heart skips a beat as I peer over my shoulder and he reaches behind to produce a new object. He runs it through his hands with a cruel smile.
It’s a whip. It’s made of black leather like my thong. A forest of thin, flat leather strands sprout from a thick, braided handle.
‘This is a flogger.’ His tone is quiet and deadly. I’ve never heard him like this before. ‘I’m going to use it on your ass.’
I mew, partly from fear, partly excitement.
He slices it slowly through my legs, the strands slithering through my pulsing sex with a menacing hiss, sending sparks tingling through me. I writhe and mew again and all at once the strands snap on my backside. I gasp, biting down hard on the relentless metal plug. In a panic I try to assess the pain but it’s not that bad, it’s just a shock – and the thought of being tethered like this to accept it.
After a few blows he draws it over my back in a soft, evil caress that sends shivers through me. Then he pulls it underneath me and I feel the cruel strands snake over my breasts and my jutting, stiffened nipples. They crinkle to numbness and now I throb even harder.
It takes a while. Each blow makes me pull at the cuffs. Each jolt rams the leather knot tightly against my sex. I lose my power to be shocked. I simply endure – and enjoy. I come twice and just as I’m building towards a third he slips the plug out of my mouth and pushes it up inside me, his busy fingers sending me another blissful orgasm just as he pushes for entry. Instantly everything down south loosens up and it slips in easily.
And now at last I hear the blissful rip of foil and brace myself for his entry. Just like before I’m impossibly full, impossibly stretched as he plunges inside. Just like before I’m so slick he pounds his fill with hardly any resistance, and now to my amazement the wicked knot works its magic and I come for a fourth time, convulsing around him while he slaps my punished backside, giving short, hot cries. His barks of pleasure tell me more than any words that we’ve hit the spot as his sheathed shaft floods me with heat.
He leans over me for long moments and then pulls my arms off the posts and drags me up the bed to lie alongside him.
He caresses my thigh, making me groan, and then bends over me, leaning on one elbow. The cuffs jingle as I move. Cruelly, he’s left them on, and he lifts my arms from time to time to admire them and kiss the hot red marks appearing at the edges of the metal. ‘That was … It really turns me on doing it like that. You?’
‘It turns me on too. More than I thought.’ I nuzzle his chest. ‘Are you going to tell me about Freda?’
It’s clearly a shock. ‘Freda? Who … Lydia? Did she tell you?’
‘I guess she thought I knew. You were – close?’ My voice sounds husky. I wait for him to laugh. Instead he frowns.
I try again. ‘So … is it over?’
His face contracts. ‘Let’s just say it’s past.’
‘That’s not what I asked.’
His jaw tenses but now I’m in panic mode. Freda, of all people.
‘I know plenty of women, Ella. Some I fuck, most I don’t. Deal with it.’
‘So which type is she?’
He says nothing and now a dreadful thought occurs to me. ‘Darnley, did you take up with me to get back at her over Ryan?’
His eyes blaze. ‘Did you? Seriously, Ella, that night we met you must have known who I was.’
I stare at him in shock. ‘How can you say that? When we met I’d no idea who you were.’
His mouth twists at the corner. ‘Really? Like all my employees arrive in limos with bodyguards? Who the fuck did you think I was? The President? Look, Freda is my cousin. We go back a long way. She’s family. It’s just my bad luck she dates your ex. So now he comes here too. I can’t prevent her bringing him. That’s her choice. All I can do is hope he behaves himself and keeps his hands off you.’
At that moment we hear shouts from the front of the house. The rumpus must be loud to carry all the way to our rooms. ‘Shit. I forgot. Dad said somebody broke down on the approach road leading off the heritage trail. Eldon went out to fetch them. I should have sent one of the men. Sounds like trouble.’
He springs off the bed and starts pulling on his clothes. After a moment I join him and scoop up my things.
He frowns. ‘You stay here. You don’t have to come.’
I’m still shaky from orgasms but now I’m fired up with adrenalin from our quarrel. I want answers. ‘You’re suspiciously keen to get away. I’m coming too.’
* * *
In the main entrance area servants mingle with Darnley’s men. Aaron stands by helplessly. In the middle of the group a couple are shouting at each other, apparently unaware they have an audience.
‘And the Red Sox are tops and you’re an asshole.’
‘Wrong. You’re the asshole. The Yankees can beat the shit out of Red Sox any day you care to name.’
Eldon and Billy stand and glower at each other while everyone stares at them, open-mouthed.
‘What?’ Eldon snarls as he looks round at us.
‘Hello, Eldon. So glad you could make it. Are you going to introduce your new friend?’ Lydia steps calmly through the ring of silent staff, speaking in the syrupy tone I might use with an unruly toddler.
Eldon glares at her, clearly irritated. In his shoes I’d probably feel the same.
‘Mom, this person’s called Billy. I’m going to marry her.’
Billy glares up at him. ‘You wash your mouth out, young man. That’s no way to talk to your mother. And I’m not his friend, Mrs Wolfe. I’m Ella’s. Nice to meet you.’ She glances over at me and gives me a knowing wink.
Darnley rolls his eyes and mutters softly under his breath as he leans close to me. ‘Is that your friend again? I think they like each other.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Lydia looks shell-shocked, Aaron dumbfounded. Darnley seems amused. I’m simply stunned. Billy – here? How much weirder can today get?
Instantly it does.
Billy glares Eldon into silence, winks at me and turns to Lydia, suddenly brisk. ‘I’ve come up here from the Boston office, Mrs Wolfe. I have some documents for you.’
Lydia looks vague. ‘Office? What office?’
Billy eyes her calmly and speaks slow. ‘Your husband’s company. Lautner Wolfe? I’m a courier. I’ve been sent here with some papers for you.’
Lydia laughs gaily. ‘Can somebody please tell me what she’s talking about?’
Frowning, Aaron tries to step between them but Billy sidesteps him. ‘Can we talk somewhere in private, Mrs Wolfe?’
Aaron pushes in, irritable now. ‘It’s all right, young woman. I’ll take c
harge of it. You should have warned us you were coming. We’re in the middle of a family party here.’
Billy narrows her eyes and I scent trouble. AaronWolfe may be head of a hotshot law firm but Billy’s got a very high horse and she’s on it now.
‘I’m well aware of that, Mr Wolfe. Our office told your people I was coming days ago. I’d have been here sooner except my car broke down.’
‘Loose sparkplug,’ says Eldon airily, stepping in. ‘Lucky for me. I’ve asked her to stay, Mom. We’ve got some baseball issues. She can stay in my room.’
‘Nothing doing.’ Billy glares at him. ‘I’m out of here the minute my delivery’s done.’ She turns back to Lydia with a weary sigh. ‘It has to be delivered in person, Mrs Wolfe. So if you wouldn’t mind …’
Lydia’s sweeping gesture is aimed at all of us. ‘Well … what’s it about? Can’t you just tell me and I’ll sign for it or something?’
Billy lifts her chin. ‘Afraid not. It’s confidential. For your eyes only. I can’t leave here till you’ve read it.’
Lydia smiles, very grande dame. ‘I have no secrets from my family. Just tell me what’s in it.’
Billy snorts, her patience clearly at an end. ‘If you insist. It’s got your name on it and it’s for you to dispose of as you see fit. It’s a collection of undisclosed material collected some time ago when your lawyers were preparing to act on your behalf. It relates to Fletcher Kraik.’
The whole scene’s an instant freeze-frame. Eldon spins round to stare at her. Aaron looks terrified. Darnley’s turned to stone. But it’s Lydia who steals the show. She slides to the floor in a dead faint.
* * *
‘You knew about this?’ An hour later Darnley is still pacing our room, furiously angry – with himself, with Billy, with Eldon for insisting she stay, with Lydia – but most of all with me.
‘For the last time, no. I knew nothing about it. Billy’s good at her job. She keeps her work to herself.’ This has been going on for at least thirty minutes.
