I shook my head. “I can’t.”
“Can’t what?” he persisted. “Don’t you trust me, Coralie?”
“You know that’s not it.”
He nuzzled my neck. “Isn’t it? If I tie you naked to this bed, you have to trust a dangerous man you barely know; you have to believe that I won’t hurt you. You’ll be totally helpless,” he added in a whisper. “Hands bound. Prone on a mattress, lying under a man who could fuck you however he wanted. You’re my toy. My play thing. And without your hands and your arms, you’d have no choice but to submit, no matter what I might demand of you. Masters’ choice,” he added even softer.
I suspected he could feel the tremor that shot through my body at the thought.
“Are you scared, Coralie? Are you scared about what I might want from you? Think about it. We haven’t known each other very long. You’d have to ask yourself what kind of man I am. What kind of man have I always shown to be?” His mouth hovered over my ear. “Do you trust me?”
My eyes met his. Was that what this was all about? After walking in to find another man’s clothes strewn over our apartment, had he been overcome with concern that Caz had somehow gotten in? Caz–the very same man who had just admitted to sleeping with Suzanne in order to spite Dev.
Was that why he was so possessive?
Did he still have something to prove?
Or was he still waiting for something to be proven?
“I trust you,” I told him. “Sir.”
He groaned before he grabbed me for another kiss. “Tell me,” he begged.
“Tie me to the bed. Please,” I added in a soft voice that made him sweep me up into his arms and deposit me onto the bed. He positioned me on my back before he wrapped one wrist in a silk tie, and then the other. He rose off of the bed momentarily, to take something out of the top drawer of the tall chest nearby.
It was a blindfold.
I cringed just a little as he crawled back onto the bed. “Don’t hold back now, baby,” he crooned as he got closer. “Trust the man you married.”
I gulped hard as he wrapped the satin blindfold around my eyes, blacking out the room. I lay there, literally as helpless as he had predicted. My arms were bound above my head on either side and I couldn’t move my upper body unless it was to arch my back.
I was fairly sure that would come in handy shortly.
I felt the weight of his body shift off of the bed. Within minutes, music filtered throughout the bedroom. I didn’t know where he was in the room until he said, “Spread your legs, Coralie,” somewhere to the left of the bed, where, again, I heard a drawer open and close.
I swallowed hard. There was absolutely no way to know what might come next. My mouth was suddenly dry. “Shouldn’t we have a safe word or something? Sir,” I added nervously.
“Good idea,” he murmured. “How about ‘Caz?’”
I scowled. “Devlin.”
I heard something snap in his hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I heard you correctly.”
I licked my lips. “Sir,” I finally whispered.
“Good girl. Now spread your legs. Knees up. Nice and wide. I need to look at you.”
I obeyed his command. The longer he made me wait, the more my legs shook. I couldn’t see anything. I sensed he was at the foot of the bed, but there was no way to tell for sure. Thanks to the blindfold and the music, two critical senses were compromised.
Finally he spoke. “Unnerving, isn’t it? Lying there, spread eagle. Naked. Vulnerable. At the mercy of someone you know can do with you whatever he pleases. And that’s what you want. More than anything. Even though you hate yourself for wanting it. You’re biting that lip so that you won’t beg me to fuck you, but it’s all you can think about. You feel the air on that beautiful little pussy and all you want is to be stuffed with my cock.”
A slight groan escaped my dry, parted lips. “Dev, please…,” I whimpered.
Again another loud smack, plastic or wood against flesh. “Who?”
I relented at last. “Sir.”
I felt him prop himself in between my legs. His large fingers spread me even wider before his hot breath covered me where I ached for him. He dove between my thighs and tormented me further with his mouth, lips and tongue. He raced me right to the edge and then he backed away, blowing cool air against me, chuckling as my hips rose to meet him. I felt him lean over me as his thumb circled around my clit, just on the outside, just on the fringe of bliss.
“Tell me,” he said in that same firm, but quiet, voice.
“Yours,” I eked out.
He flicked me suddenly and swiftly across the engorged little nub, which made my hips buck against him. Again he took me right to the edge before his finger slipped down, circling my slit until I thought I might black out. I wanted him so much.
“Tell me correctly.”
My whole body was like a raw exposed nerve. I had never been as turned on. “Yours, sir,” I whimpered.
He repeated all the same motions, practically sending me into orbit with his fingers. I growled in frustration as he denied my climax for the third time.
“Tell me what I want to hear, Coralie. Don’t make me ask again.”
I shuddered hard against him. “Your pussy, sir,” I finally whispered. I nearly yelped as two of his fingers slipped inside and worked their magic, focusing that sweet sensitive spot until I came so powerfully I was almost glad I was wearing restraints. Otherwise I would have clawed holes in the sheets. When I thought I might black out from all the pleasure, I felt him ease one of our sex toys up inside me. The realistic dildo was large and veiny and unyielding, and it parted me open as he buried it as far up into me as it would go. He kept it there as he leaned back between my legs and sucked me off again, his tongue swirling around my clit until spasmed hard against him, clenching the toy deep inside while drenching the sheets beneath me.
He scooted up my body until he was nuzzling my neck yet again. “And you were scared,” he chided. “When are you ever going to trust me, Coralie?” He began stroking the toy inside me. “When are you going to figure it out that no one knows you like I do? I’ll always know what you want. And I’ll always give it to you,” he whispered into my ear.
I ground my hips against him. “Do it now,” I begged.
“What’s the matter, baby?” he murmured against me. “Don’t you like the sensation of a strange dick inside of you?”
I shook my head. “I only want you, Dev–I mean… sir.”
“A plus-plus,” he said as he removed my blindfold at last. “You may call me Dev, baby girl. You’ve earned it.” He kissed me hard as he continued to fuck me with the toy. I would have used my hands to push it away if I could.
“Please, Dev. I want you,” I pleaded.
He slammed the toy up inside me until I yelped. “Are you sure?” he whispered near my ear. He began pumping it inside of me until I was bucking back up against him. “A nice big cock. We’re all the same, aren’t we?”
I thrashed beneath him. “No,” I cried out. “I want you! Only you!”
He withdrew the toy and tossed it on the other side of the bed. He positioned himself between my legs, which he held apart, his hands on the backs of my knees. “Good. Because that’s all you’re ever going to get,” he promised before he slammed up inside of me. My toes curled as he bent me in half, sawing into me with powerful strokes. I didn’t need any coaxing to scream. My wrists pulled against the restraints, particularly when he latched his mouth onto one hard nipple. He nipped it between his teeth, driving me wild as he rode me hard.
Finally he ripped away the blindfold. He panted as he pinned me to the mattress with his weight. “Tell me you love me, Coralie,” he begged in a hoarse whisper as he enveloped me with his eyes.
“I love you, Dev. Only you. Forever… you.”
“God,” he groaned. “Baby.” He lost himself in me, fucking me hard and fast until he came with a loud grunt. He collapsed against me, trembling and out of breath. “Yo
u were right to be scared, Coralie,” he murmured as he stared at my mouth. “You wanted a bad boy and you found one. You have no idea some of the things I have done. Of some of the things I’ve been capable of doing.”
“I don’t care about your past, Devlin,” I swore.
“Liar,” he accused softly. I sighed.
“Dev.”
“Whether I share with you my past or promise you my future, it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. I lose myself when I’m with you. That’s just what love does to me. I thought I felt this way before, but I had no idea what it meant until I touched you. Even that first night,” he said as he caressed my face in one hand. “I suspected that you could be my salvation every bit as much as my damnation. Like a full flask of water, or one drop of poison. Yet all I want is to consume you.”
I wished my arms were free so that I could hold him. “And I just want to love you,” I said softly.
His hand gently cupped my bare breast. “Nobody loves me better than you, Coralie Masters.” He bent for another kiss. I felt the silk loosen around one wrist and then the other. He gathered me into a powerful hug, where I did feel consumed by every part of him.
I wasn’t scared at all. It felt like home.
I held him tight in my arms the rest of the night.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Lucy got home from her honeymoon that following Sunday, and it couldn’t come quickly enough. I knew she was juggling a thousand new things thanks to her new marriage, her new pregnancy, as well as moving into their new house in Brentwood, something they snatched up when a famous late actress’s estate put it up for sale. The open ranch styled house sat on nearly an acre in the winding hills between the Getty and Will Rogers State Park, and that was where they were returning when they got back from Hawaii. That meant they were busy setting up their new house, their forever home, when I arrived that Sunday afternoon to welcome them home.
Boxes were piled everywhere. There was a lot to get done. Normally I would have jumped right in to help her, but I couldn’t wait to get her alone, to tell her everything that had been going on, so that she could talk me down from the ledge. Since Dev had taken the weekend to drive Darcy back home to Vegas, and see his mother, I decided to pounce on Lucy at the earliest opportunity. It simply couldn’t wait.
I spilled my sordid tale while we unpacked dozens of books into built-in shelves in her large office. She poured me some fresh lemonade, her first real pregnancy craving, before heaving an impotent sigh. “Why do you even want to deal with this guy, Ceece? Sounds like a slimeball.”
“He is,” I agreed. “But what choice do I have? If I cut him loose now, he’ll just run tattling to Father. We can’t afford that right now. We just got the deal going with Darcy. Too many people would be affected.”
“Stop throwing yourself on every grenade, CC. Jesus.”
“What would you do?” I challenged.
“Honestly, I’d call his bluff. This Caz guy has a lot at stake, too. He can’t really rat out Devlin without blowing his own cover. You think he wants to blow his ride with people like Margot or Suzanne?”
“That thing is over with Suzanne,” I dismissed.
“Oh, right. You left the party early.”
My eyes shot to hers. “What does that mean?”
“They were practically crawling all over themselves at the reception. I mean it was some stupid line dance or something so it wasn’t anything overt, but they were pretty cozy on the crowded dance floor. She wasn’t moping in her champagne that Dev had gone.”
It was my turn to sigh. “I just don’t get it.”
“It’s like you said. Suzanne likes to keep her pets on a chain. She lost Dev. She’s not going to lose Caz, too. I bet you they have way more to lose by being exposed than you and Dev ever will. All it takes is one person to pull the thread and unravel them. Show them you’re that person. Tell them if they dare breathe a word about Devlin’s past, you’ll make sure everyone knows what part they play in it. That might be bad news for Mrs. Everhart,” she pointed out before she referred to her phone, pulling up a news website that reported Harvey Everhart, the representative from the great state of Nevada, and older, billionaire husband to Suzanne, had thrown his hat in the ring to run for president. Given his well-known reputation for business, as well as the fact he was practically a celebrity brand all his own, he was already gaining some ground among some of his better known contemporaries. This was despite his iffy personal history of several failed marriages and owning and running a casino. “My mother called me while I was on my honeymoon to tell me. Apparently it was a bit of a coup that we invited her to the wedding, where the murmuring about this grew into a roar.” With a few swipes of her finger, Lucy found an article that mentioned her wedding specifically. “Mother was beside herself. For her, it made all the craziness of her big wedding worth it.” Lucy rolled her eyes to demonstrate how she felt about it. “Everyone from my parents to your father is hot for this guy to win. Who do you think a scandal will hurt worse?”
As always, Lucy gave me much needed perspective. Here we were acting like scared little mice when we were the ones who held all the aces. The fact that they worked so hard to make us think we didn’t was proof enough of that. Of course Caz was going to try and get into my head. That’s all he could do. He’d get into my head and then I’d fuck everything up out of doubt and insecurity, destroying us from the inside.
Fuck that.
That afternoon, when I left Lucy’s, I texted him saying that I thought we should meet.
And of course, he texted me right back, with his home address, a place right on the beach in Santa Monica. I knew the minute I drove up to it that he didn’t pay for that place with what he earned. He was a kept man. This house was right on the water, worth at least ten million dollars, spotless and meticulously designed, a modern little multi-level beach house that had full views of the ocean on all three floors.
I knew how much his hourly rate was. He’d have to be working non-stop to pay this kind of bill. He certainly wouldn’t have any time to fuck with me, like making me wait five minutes as I knocked on his door. Finally I texted him to let him know I’d arrived.
Minutes later he opened the door dressed only in a towel. He was wet, but using another large towel to dry himself. “Why, Mrs. Masters. What a pleasant surprise for a Sunday afternoon. Want to join me in the hot tub? No suit, no problem,” he grinned as he started to loosen the towel around his hips.
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” I said as I brushed past him and into the house. “We have an important matter to discuss.”
He sauntered behind me towards the living room. “And what’s that?”
I turned to face him. “I’m not going to need your services anymore. And I’m not paying you one thin dime for anything we’ve done so far, because it’s all been manipulative bullshit. The game is over, Caz.”
He popped an apple out of the fruit bowel on the coffee table before he sat in an oversized chair, draping his leg over one of the arms. “Is that so?”
“That’s so,” I nodded.
He took a bite out of the apple. “And does your other half know that you’re here, negotiating these new terms?”
“He will,” I told him as I tipped my chin. “But whether he agrees or not, this ends today. Not one more date. Not one more minute. Nothing.”
“Sorry you feel that way,” he mumbled with his mouth full. “I really had hoped it wouldn’t come down to this.”
“Down to what?” I challenged. “You think you’re going to just run off and tell my father how Dev and I met? Just what do you think one of Suzanne’s biggest campaign contributors is going to say when he learns she was fucking Dev first? My father is quite conventional. That kind of thing could shade his opinion of her. It could shade most of the party’s opinion of her, including the people who have the money and the means to help her husband win this election. And what do you know? I happen to know dozens of them.”
He chuckl
ed softly as I finished. “Look at you,” he murmured before taking another bite. “From a pussycat to a lion in a single week. Did I do that? I feel like I did that.”
“You didn’t do anything but piss me off,” I gritted between clenched teeth.
“Looks like it was enough,” he said. “You know, I don’t know what changed, but I like it. You’re going to need that kind of moxie for what’s coming.” He looked me over, concentrating on my belly. “That’s particularly true if you still want to get pregnant.” He took another bite of his apple. “I, personally, would advise against it. Single parenthood is so tough on the children.”
“Didn’t you hear what I said? You don’t have anything. Yeah, you can’t make things a little more complicated for me and for Dev. But if you dare out him to my Father, I’m outing Suzanne to everyone. And I’m pretty sure that I can find a lot more dirt on her than she could ever find on me. Who pays for your beach house, Caz? I’m just curious.”
He ambled once again to his feet. “You’re playing a dangerous game, Coralie,” he warned with that annoying smile. “You really think you can go up against Suzanne and win?”
“My name is Coralie Fucking Masters. I already won,” I informed him before I turned to leave. He called to me as I reached the door.
“Oh, Mrs. Masters?” I debated for a long moment before I turned around. “The offer still stands to fuck me on New Year’s Eve. After today, I actually kind of look forward to it,” he grinned before he dropped his towel, revealing his naked body and his growing erection, sized extra large.
Masters for Life Page 20
