The Dani Collins Erotic Romance Collection: Mastering Her RolePlaying the Master

by Dani Collins

  “My home is still new. I had planned not to allow guests at all, but I’ve changed my mind. I do that,” Eloisa added, as if talking about someone who exasperated her.

  Ann didn’t know what response to make to that so only clasped her hands lightly together, hiding them behind the draping sleeves of her abaya.

  “Do you speak?”

  “Yes.”

  “En français?”

  “Oui.”

  “Better. I prefer French,” she said in that language. “Any others?”

  “Arabic.” The two main dialects, anyway. Her Gulf was mediocre and her Egyptian terrible. “Tagalog.”

  “You’ve lived in the Philippines?” Eloisa’s tone lilted with surprise.

  “The servants spoke it.”

  “Of course. European languages?”

  “I can read and write German and Spanish. My accent is poor.”

  “A very honest statement from a dishonest person. You were picking pockets the other night.”

  Ann didn’t react to the statement, even though her arteries exploded with a punch of adrenaline. She kept her gaze on a blood-red circle on the plush carpet.

  Eloisa stayed where she was, letting the silence draw out until finally saying, “I didn’t arrive at that conclusion myself. A client who visited my club after leaving your party told me he was certain he had placed two-hundred euros in his pocket when he left his town house, but he could only find one. I assured him he must have miscounted and covered his taxi fare when he left for home.”

  So you are in my debt, seemed to be the implication. The pit of Ann’s stomach became a bucket of gravel and glass.

  “Where are you going with the money you’ve taken?”

  Ann subtly locked her teeth, but it was less about refusing to speak and more about clenching to hold on to her control. This was her chance. She didn’t want it to billow away like desert dust, but she’d been discovered and it was all in jeopardy.

  “You won’t tell me? Or you don’t know?” Eloisa asked with a sly smile.

  That’s as far as Ann lifted her gaze, the naked lips curved into a superior tilt. Her fingernails dug into the backs of her hidden hands, all the bones and muscles in her body locked into a tense stand.

  “I will guess from what I’ve learned about you that you don’t know,” Eloisa concluded, dropping her attention to her laptop long enough to close it. Then she flicked her gaze up to snare Ann’s startled one. “Yes, I’ve been investigating you, but you’re still a bit of a mystery. All I really know is that I hate to waste an opportunity, and I sense one in you.” She set aside her laptop and rose. Her figure was voluptuous and soft under the flow of thin silk, her feet bare. She arched and relaxed with a sigh. “It was a late night. I need coffee and a bath while I decide what to do with you. Come.”

  To watch her bathe? I don’t think so, Ann thought, but one expectant look from Eloisa tugged her feet into following. It was something about her feminine authority, not imperious and arrogant, but straightforward and firm. It reminded Ann of her mother when she’d said, Baby we have to do what he wants. We have to.

  Women might have influence over other women, but in her experience they were mostly powerless, which made her wonder who cracked the whip over Eloisa.

  They stepped outside to the tiny garden. It was an enchanting oasis straight out of the Arabian tales that were nowhere near Ann’s reality. Evening birdsong lifted and fell in ardent whistles and peeps. The air was damp and warmer than she’d expected thanks to a round pool in the middle of the courtyard, its steaming water providing a tropical humidity for the broad-leafed plants that edged it.

  High brick walls surrounded the little retreat, well disguised behind thick ivy. The harsh prison was further softened by trees covered in twinkling lights and fragrant cherry blossoms. Decorative pines rose in twisted spikes between the graceful red skirts of Japanese maples. Flowers she couldn’t even name bobbed their heads in greeting. A trellis hung over the short patio where they stood, entwined with more ivy—or perhaps it was grapes. Over the pool, however, was only dimming sky with pinpricks of faint stars beginning to show.

  “Don’t worry, I take my privacy seriously. No one can access this courtyard from outside.”

  Or leave it? Ann resisted the urge to fold her arms in dismay.

  Eloisa tapped a panel and the pool began a rolling boil tinted with colored lights. She removed her peignoir and gown and walked naked along the handful of gleaming stepping-stones to the pool. Glancing over her pale shoulder, she asked, “Have you been in one before? I use salt water, not chlorine. Easier on the skin. Join me. I want to talk to you about Navarro.”

  Ann didn’t consider herself a coward, just a survivor. A slender adolescent had no chance against an angry bear like her stepfather unless she was as quiet and quick at disguising herself as a lizard. This new climate, with a cat that watched her and seemed to be biding her time before pouncing, was deeply unsettling.

  “Why are you hesitating? Do you have marks you don’t want me to see? Does your stepfather rape you, Ann?” She sank into the pool like a goddess, arms sprawling to the edges, her razor sharp gaze at odds with her casual body language.

  “No.” Her voice was small because she knew Cain had done that to her mother—too many times to count. Hide when he’s in that kind of mood, baby. Just hide. He’d never shown interest in her that way, though—maybe because her mother had encouraged her to dress like the locals in hopes she’d make friends. Maybe because Raina had watched over her. Maybe because he’d seen her virginity as a commodity.

  And he’d been scared after throwing her mother down the stairs. The Arab authorities hadn’t wanted much to do with the foreigners and their domestic problems, but a man from the British consulate had come to the house. There had been talk about what to do with Ann and the provisions made for her. It would go to the British government if she wasn’t alive to use it, she’d overheard. Now she understood they’d been talking about her trust fund.

  Cain had confined most of his lashing out to verbal after that. Of course, she’d stayed well out of his way.

  A diminutive woman came through the glass door at her back, meekly bowed her olive-skinned face and carried a tray with two cups and an urn to the flat stonework encircling the pool. Kneeling, she poured Eloisa’s coffee, waiting in stillness for Eloisa’s appreciative sigh before letting her shoulders relax.

  “You’ve improved, Tsitsi. Now help our guest remove her clothing.”

  Ann instinctively took a step back as Tsitsi approached.

  “Don’t confuse her. She’s training as a submissive,” Eloisa said.

  The odd remark gave Ann pause, enough that Tsitsi honed in on the pin beneath her chin that secured her hijab. Ann stiffened at the contact and release of silk, looking toward Eloisa.

  “I don’t know what that means,” she admitted. Eloisa made submissive sound like an object, not a behavior.

  Eloisa’s smile was mysteriously informed. “I think you do.”

  Before she could decide whether to query further, Tsitsi nudged the layer of silk to fall back off her slippery hair. Ann automatically caught at it, disturbed. She didn’t observe the head covering for any reason other than that it was a layer of protection against Cain, but baring her head outside the safety of her room felt odd. Even knotted firmly in its bun, having her hair visible made her feel strangely exposed.

  “Do they not allow women to wear contact lenses in KSA?” Eloisa asked.

  Ann automatically moved her hand to keep her glasses secured to her face while Tsitsi tugged the shawl completely free and hung it next to Eloisa’s clothing.

  “These are, um…” just terribly ugly glasses that provided one more shield to disappear behind.

  Tsitsi lowered the zipper down her front. It was very disconcerting, and Ann looked over the woman’s head toward Eloisa, silently begging for rescue. Eloisa only cocked her head in amusement as Tsitsi skimmed her out of the abaya and revealed Ann’
s snug workout clothes of yellow capri pants and faded red tank top.

  “I don’t know what I thought women wore under those things, but that’s not it.”

  “You can wear whatever you want,” Ann mumbled, folding her arms against a chill that was more a slow descent into shock. How was this happening? Hide, be still, accept. Those had been her mantras all her life. She didn’t know how to defy and fight back.

  Eloisa continued to watch with amusement as Ann was jostled by the lowering of her pants. “You don’t shave?”

  Ann dropped her hands to cover herself, longing to refuse this stripping. The hovering fear of upsetting Eloisa kept her from doing anything but registering her dismay by not making this easy for Tsitsi.

  “You have to change for dinner anyway, so stop making Tsitsi feel as though she’s displeasing you. Let her take your shirt and join me.”

  Ann gave in, partly because Eloisa spoke so sternly, partly because it was the quickest way to end the struggle and find cover. It’s not like she’d never changed in front of women at the gym, but she’d never had her bare, vulnerable body blatantly evaluated.

  Seconds later, frothy water engulfed her, tickling and hot enough to make tension impossible to hold on to. She wanted to hug her knees and leave them poking above the bubbles popping under her chin, but as she sat on the bench across from Eloisa and watched Tsitsi pour the coffee, her limbs became loose and floaty.

  “Work on your lists of punishments and rewards until I call you, Tsitsi.”

  Ann couldn’t help following Tsitsi with her eyes, mind repeating punishment. And rewards? What kind?

  “Did you have lovers in the Kingdom?”

  “No.” Ann swung her attention back to see Eloisa gently swaying back and forth like a viper. Perhaps she was using one of the jets to massage her back. A powerful blast was punching her own tender shoulder. Ann shifted to a more comfortable spot that forced her to face Eloisa.

  “Here?”

  A lover? “No.” She’d been here two days. When would she have found the time? Or the know-how? As intrigued by sex as she’d been since puberty, she’d never had an opportunity to so much as talk with a male her age, let alone develop enough of a relationship to sleep with one. Flirting and seducing were beyond her.

  She had dreamed of doing those things, though. She’d read romance novels and crushed on a dozen different movie stars and had longed for a young man in the mall to glance past her ugly disguise and see a girl he would want. One he’d fight to have.

  Maybe it was laughable to yearn for such things, but she wanted to feel secure and loved and needed. Not ugly and unwanted.

  “You didn’t ask for those bruises then. Your stepfather?”

  Ann looked down, oddly embarrassed, even though it wasn’t her fault. At the same time, she pulled her brows together in puzzlement. Who asked to be bruised?

  “Your sexual experience really is zero? Stop picking pockets, Ann. Do you know what men will pay for virginity?”

  The facetious, I have an idea, that flitted through her mind must have shown on her face because the corners of Eloisa’s mouth deepened their curve.

  “Perhaps you do,” she said. “Given the way your stepfather has put you up for sale alongside the family business. But it’s not Porter’s thing, despite this tremendously important deal he’s negotiating.” Her pithy tone denigrated how important it could possibly be. “I’m talking about auctioning yourself for cash. You could be well on your way to the freedom you’re looking for.”

  “And not marry him.” She tilted her face so the steam wouldn’t fog her glasses.

  “Exactly. Start your life elsewhere.”

  So here came the discouragement of a rival she’d been expecting. A strange sensation of resistance rose in her, an inexplicable possessiveness that she put off examining because she needed to remain sharp around this woman. With Cain, she watched in readiness for a sign he’d strike out, staying tense and poised to run. Eloisa was a mental opponent, an unfamiliar one. She required focus to see all sides of every word and phrase so Ann could interpret her underlying motive.

  “It sounds as if I could have money without sex if I go through with the marriage. Porter said he wasn’t interested in me, just the oil company,” she reminded.

  “You could have as much as you want of both money and sex if you marry him. Porter can say he’s not interested, but one of the few things he’s not into is self-denial.” Her smug smile reeked of intimate knowledge. “But you’re not thinking about using your gifts for gain, are you? The only alternatives you see for yourself are running away or doing as you’re told.”

  Frustration thickened in the back of Ann’s throat, closing over a protest that those were the only choices she had, but she wasn’t about to argue with anyone who spoke as confidently as Eloisa.

  “It’s okay, Ann. I understand being controlled by fear.” Eloisa’s features became sober and sincere. “That’s why I allowed you to stay in the closet the other night. I could smell it on you when I found you, even though I think a part of you enjoyed watching us.” She twirled a lock of her damp red hair, but eyed Ann so knowingly Ann’s stomach knotted. “Is that true?”

  Ann stared into the bubbles, not wanting to admit how many times she’d replayed the vision in her mind, how she’d substituted herself and Porter and found the thought arousing enough she’d had to rub away the throbbing ache between her thighs. A punch of sweetness hit her now, hidden but exaggerated by the heat of the water rushing against nether parts that usually had a bathing suit as barrier, not exposed folds that let heat seep into the most private and sensitive creases.

  “Answer me.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like that. Online content in KSA is censored,” she prevaricated.

  “Tsitsi has to pull a punishment card if she is less than honest with me. Which is why you are here, by the way. Your naughty act of voyeurism last night, much as it amuses me, demands retribution. I always even a score,” she promised, her steady stare chilling Ann’s center where the heat of the water couldn’t penetrate. “I’d like to do the same with Porter,” she added with a thoughtful purse of her lips, gaze still fixed on Ann. “He needs to understand what it feels like to be led along then rejected.”

  I think he knows, Ann almost said, thinking of his brief, strangely bleak expression in the garden. For some reason it seemed like a betrayal of a confidence to bring it up.

  “But now I feel sorry for you,” Eloisa continued with self-disgust. “Men are such bastards. Women need to help each other when they can. Don’t you agree?”

  “Of course,” Ann murmured, biting the inside of her lip, trying not to reveal how the word punishment was swirling in her mind, making her anxious. Her gaze went to the hooks in her periphery that hung empty now. Tsitsi had taken their clothes. She had nothing.

  Desolation sat hot and thick in her throat, impossible to swallow, but she didn’t let it show on her face.

  “Another lie.” Eloisa tsked. “Subs usually follow orders because they trust, but you’re the opposite, aren’t you? No trust at all. You have to change, Ann. If you can’t see that—” She snorted. “Well, it’s probably those glasses clouding your view. Take them off.”

  She didn’t wait for Ann to decide whether to obey. She reached across and snatched them away, then held them up to look through them. “They don’t have a prescription, do they?”

  Ann tried to think of a persuasive argument for keeping them, tried to work up the words to argue, but Eloisa tossed them carelessly to the grass then eased her arms and shoulders under the water, attention firmly fixed on her prey once more.

  “No female lovers either? At school maybe?”

  Something skimmed her thigh and Ann jumped, startled by the caress, realizing belatedly it was Eloisa’s foot that was now lodged against the wall next to her hip. The other pressed to the tiles on her other side. Eloisa’s ankles squeezed lightly into her hips, rocking with the churning water.

 
“You must have been propositioned,” she probed. “I have a friend who taught English in Dubai. She said you couldn’t enter a toilet without hearing a pair of students going at it in the next stall. Or teachers. Men are funny about it, of course. They’ll admit to topping another man while there, but only because the punishment for prostitution is so severe. No one is gay, just desperate.”

  Ann said nothing, not willing to mention how often she’d seen two women enter a shower stall at the gym or what kinds of noises she’d heard over the spray. Or the certain type of look she’d received while being invited to chat over coffee after a swim. There hadn’t seemed any point in making friends of any kind when Cain would have used it as leverage to hurt her. “I’m homeschooled.”

  “I’m offering to school you now, but it appears you have little interest in female partners. That’s a pity because you have a very pretty figure.” Sitting up, she pulled her feet back to her own side of the pool and took a sip of coffee, then smiled slyly. “The swirling water arouses me, but I’ll save it for others. Sexual freedom is as important as every other kind so you needn’t stare like that.”

  Chastised, Ann dropped her gaze, thinking that Eloisa was probably right, but it frustrated her to acknowledge yet another level of freedom denied her.

  “Oh God, Ann. You have so far to go. Listen, you think you have no power, but you’ve already learned that your mind is your own. I can see that about you and I’m impressed. I didn’t recognize that when I was in your position. I allowed myself to believe I was stupid because I was told I was. I believed I had no choices, but that was only true because I allowed a man to make all my choices for me. Find the courage to take charge of yourself. You’re halfway there, picking pockets, but think bigger. Value yourself. Use the assets you have to make a better life than running and hiding.”

  What assets? Eloisa didn’t understand. Agility and silence were all she had.

  “Do you really want to be a pawn and allow Cain and Porter to move you around then knock you off the board? Become a player. Use Porter against your stepfather.”

  That snared her. “How?” It came out with such avid force, Eloise’s brows arched and she seemed to reassess her. Either that or she was teasing her, proposing vague solutions then withholding the details to torture her. Beneath the water, Ann hid the bite of her nails into her palms.