by Kira Blakely
“Wait, is this when you murder me and dispose of the body?”
He laughed. “So, you’ve figured out my secret plan, Ms. Fontaine.”
I shook my head and rolled my eyes but didn’t move from his arm. “I’m serious. This isn’t exactly what I was expecting, not that it’s not great to drive out here, but this either looks like a warehouse of doom or a top-secret lab.”
He turned off the ignition and pulled away from me. Then he sauntered with slow, easy movements to my side of the car and opened the door for me. “Well, you do have the lab part right. It’s not exactly top secret.”
“What?”
He crooked his elbow for me, and I caught sight of that delicious sleeve of tattoos that ran up his arm. My eyes were drawn to the anchor with the “Semper Fi” wrapped around it. “I told you I was setting up a surprise. Welcome to the Belle Fontaine Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Any injured animals or recaptured illegal pets come here for care and training to be safely released back into the wild.”
“You set this up in three weeks?” I asked, my voice filled with awe.
“A little less than that. I was hoping I could get it done in a week, but it just wasn’t possible. Sorry, it’s late.”
I hopped up into his arms and squealed when he spun me around. “You’re serious? All these animals are getting saved because of me?”
“You told me that the environment and going green was your passion before you ended up trying to save the family business. That was true, right? Or else there are going to be a ton of disappointed fish in there.”
I giggled and kissed his cheek. “You did all this because of me?”
He set me down and stroked my cheek. “I did it because I had to say I was sorry. I don’t care if I have PTSD. I don’t care how things can affect me. I still scared you and then I stormed off on you.”
“You saved me from those jerks!”
“You were right that night. You never would have run if I hadn’t been an asshole. This can’t possibly make it all better, but I want you to know I’m truly sorry, and I’m glad you put up with me.”
I stared into those chocolate brown eyes that were still so wounded, that seemed eternally shadowed with deep secrets and regrets. “I don’t ‘put up’ with anything. I care about you, and I mean it. I just… no one’s ever done anything like this for me. I’m always taking care of everyone else.”
“Then you deserve to be taken care of, too,” he said, wrapping an arm around me and leading me to the doors of the center.
When we first passed through, I was so surprised by the bright splashes of colors of all the coral, the clown fish, even the glowing jellyfish all swimming in their respective tanks. As we walked deeper, we came to an enclosure with seals being fed by a few techs in khakis and polo shirts.
A woman with a high blond ponytail came over to us and beamed up at Drake. “Mr. McManus. We’re so glad you could make it. You’ll be happy to see that Leo and Theo are doing so much better. I think Theo’s left flipper is really on the mend.”
I grinned at her, too; the woman’s enthusiasm was infectious. “Theo and Leo?”
“We try and do naming themes for the animals. It helps keep them straight in the keepers’ minds. You must be Ms. Fontaine. It’s an honor to meet you,” she said, taking my hand and shaking it feverishly.
I was overwhelmed by all this. I’d put so many of my own desires aside when Dad’s company crashed and Mom got sick. I knew that helping my family mattered, but there wasn’t anything world-saving about helping starlets with bad reputations clean up their Twitter feeds or put out the right press release. But I’d never been able to really help the world the way I wanted, and at least now some injured animals would have a new lease on life because I’d inspired Drake.
Tears prickled at the corner of my eyes and I sniffled. “This is amazing.”
“Are you okay?” the blonde asked, a frown marring her features. “Really, their flippers are looking pretty good. It won’t be long before they’re released back to a better location. We rescued them from some celebrity who had some exotic pets he shouldn’t have.”
“No, I just… all these animals are safe because of me.”
Drake nodded. “What can I say? You’re definitely a great beauty who inspires me, but this isn’t the end of the surprise.”
“What? You bought me my own pet whale?” I joked.
“Not exactly, but you will need a wetsuit.”
***
My hand slid over the sleek, rubbery skin of the dolphin before me. He giggled—or did the closest equivalent—and threw his head out of the water. Then he chittered and dove back in. Not too far over Drake’s shoulder, another dolphin was leaping out from the water, spritzing droplets everywhere. A few yards down, a keeper was helping feed a mother and her two tiny babies, well, by porpoise standards, certainly not even a hundred pounds each yet for the calves.
This was probably the best night of my life.
All these beautiful animals, and all of them going onto a better life because Drake cared about what I did.
I reached out and slid my hand over the dolphin’s snout again when he came up to me.
Drake chuckled. “So, do I have to worry about competition?”
The dolphin blew a stream of water through his blowhole, and I laughed when it splashed Drake in the face.
“I don’t know. I think you might have someone who’s a little jealous,” I said, winking at Drake. When my new “boyfriend” was gone and had dived back into the water, I paddled over to Drake and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. “I think I like my men with two legs, so I definitely assume you’re safe.”
He kissed me, his tongue promising more tonight. “Well, sometimes I’ve been called a tripod.”
I snorted, thinking of how well-endowed he was. He could almost get away with the nickname, no doubt. “Sorry I asked.”
I hesitated there before kissing him back. I wanted to talk to him seriously, to ask where this was all headed when this paradise ended and we returned home, but I was still so scared of the answer. For now, I had to trust in Mrs. Johnson’s words and, frankly, I didn’t think he’d created such a wonderful place for a fling. There was no point. Tonight, I wanted to enjoy the gift he’d given me, to be able to swim as free and unfettered as the dolphins around me.
Tomorrow, I’d let the worry come back and fight against that damn calendar. It was all I could do.
Chapter Fourteen
Drake
“You, sir, are happy,” Leonard said with a knowing smirk on his face.
Mrs. Johnson set the food tray next to the refreshment he’d brought on my desk. “Exactly.”
I groaned. When I had my most loyal servants double-teaming me, it could only mean that they wanted to talk, which was a dangerous proposition. It also meant that they had been plotting. Okay, so they probably spent all the time plotting anyway. This time, though, these two jokers were clearly up to something.
“Thank you for the food, guys, but I was going to take a break anyway.”
“Well, Belle’s out sunbathing on the beach, and we wanted to take some time to talk to you.”
I eyed them. “Why does talk sound like inquisition?”
Mrs. Johnson smiled and laughed, the false cheer a sure sign she was the mastermind in whatever deal she and Leonard had cooked up. “It’s not, dear, not unless you make it that way.”
I frowned and shut my laptop. “So, guys, what do you have planned for me? Will it require walking the plank?”
“Only if you answer wrong,” Leonard said.
“Then this is a mutiny?” I asked.
“It’s like an intervention, dear,” Mrs. Johnson said. I didn’t let her sweet tone fool me. I knew Penelope well. Under that schoolmarm exterior was a total momma grizzly. If something was going wrong for people she cared about, she’d take your head off in one swipe. “We wanted to really know how you feel about Belle.”
“I care about her,” I
said.
While I wasn’t dumb, and I figured Leonard and Mrs. Johnson both had figured out the type of relationship we currently had, the games we played, I wasn’t about to be an asshole and spread it all over. Belle’s sexual choices were private. I mean, I was an open book about mine, but I didn’t want to betray her trust like that. Still, I didn’t need to get into the huge details. They both had figured out by now that we were sleeping together.
Leonard threaded his hands behind his head. “I mean, do you plan to do anything beyond ‘care?’”
I sighed, letting a long breath out and trying to relax. Under pressure, the flashbacks came back and the last thing I wanted was for Mrs. Johnson and Leonard to see that side of me, to see that fucking weakness.
“It’s only been a few weeks,” I hedged.
Mrs. Johnson nodded. “I try not to break anyone’s confidence, and I won’t do that, even now with Belle, but she’s worried that this is all a passing fancy and that things will change when you go back to L.A. I assured her it wouldn’t, but it would help a lot if she heard that from your own lips. If she knew that it was going to be safe when she got back, at least safe for her heart.”
Leaning back in my chair, I balled my fists at my sides. “I don’t know what will happen when we get back there.”
“What?” cried Leonard. “So, you were leading her along that whole time. I warned you, Drake,” he said, rolling up his sleeves.
I rolled my eyes at what he was doing. “Come on. You couldn’t kick my ass if you wanted to, and I wouldn’t let you get hurt anyway. Besides, that’s not exactly what I meant. Give me some fucking credit here, man. It’s not a ‘wham, bam, thank you, ma’am’ deal and you know it.”
“I should hope not!” Mrs. Johnson said, bringing a hand to her chest.
“No, I mean that I’d love to keep seeing her. I’d love to keep being with her. You have no idea how I feel. I’ve never had a relationship with a woman like this ever. It’s been about just the numbers, about making sure no one knew me too well so switching off as fast as I could.”
Leonard nodded. “Believe me, we know. But Belle is different.”
“I know that. Don’t you think I do?” I stood up and started to pace. “But that’s the whole problem. I don’t feel like I deserve her. She can go back to L.A. and have any guy she wants. Hell, once this deal is brokered and we all know it will be, she’ll be free of her dad’s company. It’ll be stable again, and she can get her master’s in ecology and meet some smart college guy, the type she deserves. The last thing she needs is to be stuck with a crazy charity case like me. I’m not good enough for her and we all know it.”
I stopped then and threw up my hands like some dramatic chick. “I’m serious. The only reason she came was because I forced her. Now that she has a choice, once all this is over, she probably won’t stick around.”
“I seriously doubt that,” Mrs. Johnson said. “But she has a right to know where she stands.”
“I don’t even know where I stand,” I replied. “All I know is I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, but I know that she deserves a life that is free from all my bullshit and baggage. I’d have her forever, keep her with me in my place in L.A. like I do here if she’d have me, but I don’t know if that would ever really work out.”
“Then ask her,” Leonard said, chuckling. “I swear that you both make it so complicated. You’d save all of us a ton of heartbreak if you’d just talk directly to each other.”
Mrs. Johnson nodded. “We’re the go-betweens here, and we want you both to be happy, but if you’re too scared to be honest with one another, then maybe you really will lose each other. You have to talk and you have to take that risk, put it all out on the table.”
“Exactly, lay them cards down,” Leonard chimed in.
“And if she leaves? Says that she can’t deal with me when it’s not just a forced deal? I don’t know if I could handle that,” I admitted.
She was more than just a fun time. Hell, she was more than a lover. Belle had a way about her that chased the darkness away, made the guilt I suffered through every day because of my mistakes actually able to bear. She’d seen my scar—all my shame—and she still clearly cared about me. If she decided that I was a phase or that my bullshit was just too much one day, then the darkness would drag me back, and I might just let it, might let it sweep me under forever. If I didn’t have Belle in my life anymore, what would be the point anyway?
“You have to talk to her,” Mrs. Johnson reminded me, her voice quiet. “If you don’t, then you’ll lose her anyway.”
***
“I haven’t ever let myself be tied down before,” I said, not sure what had even possessed me to let this type of play be on the table.
I’d had a few sessions so far of binding Belle with rope, of enjoying the patterns of the knots flush against her skin. But I’d never let myself be even somewhat compromised in a scene before. I didn’t switch. Tonight, though, she’d picked up a few silk scarves and then her idea built from there. Who’d have known she could start getting creative and bold with this or that I’d go along with it? Maybe it was easier than having a real conversation, of taking time out from our games to ask her where our relationship was going, if she truly wanted to be with me after the island. Fuck, Belle had me tied up in knots already, so there was no reason my princess shouldn’t literally be doing it, too.
She grinned and finished tightening the knot on the red silk scarf that bound my left wrist to the bed. Belle had already secured my right one. I didn’t offer to go any further than that. I’d be damned if I’d be spread-eagled and completely immobilized. But this was the first time she’d wanted to take the lead in a scene, and I was curious to see what she was planning in that sharp, devious mind of hers.
Now she stood before me, fully clothed, and I realized what a huge mistake I’d made. I wanted to grab her right then, to tear the sundress off her and see those pert breasts of hers and feel the tight globes of her ass under my hands. I wanted to squeeze every inch of her soft flesh and lick her from head to toe. She was mine, and I’d always controlled the tempo of the games. I was too fucking impatient to be caged for long.
“Are you going to just stand there?” I growled, my cock already rigid and standing at attention for her.
She smirked, a devious expression that told me I was in for a lot of trouble. Walking over to the stereo, she put on a low and sultry instrumental number, something with a hint of sax to it. Then she started to dance. Belle wasn’t going out like some chick on a pole, wasn’t being as obvious or showy about it. This wasn’t faked seduction or trying too hard. No, this was her hips swaying from side to side in time with the music and her hands running up and over her thighs. Picking up the hem of her dress, she pulled it up until it came up to the rim of her ass, giving me just the hint of those soft mounds. It was enough to know that I’d guessed right and she was free under that dress.
My balls were pounding with need. I wanted to fuck her right then.
She dropped the hem and let it fall back toward her knees. Then she reached up and picked her long, brown hair up in her arms, running her hands through it as she danced, letting her fingers twist through the strands as it flew wildly out from her grasp. One hand snaked its way down to the neckline of her dress, where her cleavage peeked out. It didn’t peek out nearly enough for me. I wanted to see all of it.
Maybe Belle was reading my mind or maybe my erection spoke volumes for me. Either way, she slid the neckline down to show the creamy expanse of her right breast.
I growled in a way that probably sounded more like an animal, a low groan full of nothing but sexual need.
Fuck I wanted her.
And she was going to toy with me the whole way.
She was the only woman on earth I’d ever let do that. No one else teased me; no one else taunted me. I was the master of my own life, of my fate, and I wanted what I wanted when I wanted it.
And she should have been th
e next fucking entrée on my plate by now.
“You shouldn’t fucking tease me,” I said, my voice still low. “You don’t know who you’re messing with.”
She grinned and pulled off her dress in one quick motion. Then she shimmied before me, her hips still moving in time to the rhythm even as her fingers cupped her perfect breasts. Her fingers worked at her nipples, pebbling them to rock hard perfection before me. I licked my lips and strained my hips against the mattress. I wanted her now.
Fuck, I wanted her ten minutes ago.
As I watched, Belle explored herself further, touched herself with her eyes closed. My blood was pounding directly, painfully, to my cock, and I had to speak.
I knew how to take control even tied to a fucking bed.
“Are you thinking of me, princess?” I rumbled. “Is that how you get off? Do you touch your nipples at night when I’m not around and think of my fingers touching you? Do you rub that hand over your clit and think of my cock up inside of you, spilling cum deep in you? What do you dream about, princess? Who?”
“Just you, Master,” she gasped, her breath coming out as if she’d run a marathon. “I always think about you.”
“I want you to follow my commands now, princess. Will you do that for your Master?”
“Of course,” she said.
She didn’t say my title again, but I let it slip. She knew who was in control here, who was always in control in the playroom. I was the beast in here, the animal, and she served what I wanted. There was trust, yes, and there was an education here as well, but this was my territory. Having my hands bound wasn’t going to stop me from dominating her after all, not when I still could command her with my very voice.
“Then I want you to touch your pussy. I want you to touch your tight, wet, little pussy like I was the one fingering you. Show me what you like, princess. Show me everything.”
She nodded and one hand traveled low to slide over her belly and then parted her vag. At first, she slipped one finger inside of her, bucking against it like it was even a fraction of my cock’s size.
