Blindfold: The Complete Series Box Set (16 page)

It was that part of me that reacted when I heard the low, guttural moan. It was like nothing I'd ever heard before. I couldn't even tell if it was a sound of pain, but it was enough to tell me that something was happening.

Chapter 5

Ash

I was a coward.

I had a hell of a lot of character flaws, but I had to admit that one surprised me. I'd always considered my way of dealing with sex and women as being smart, the right thing to do since I wasn't interested in a relationship. Now, I saw it for what it really was.

I was a coward for sneaking away from Toni the way I did every other woman. I was worse, actually, because those other women had known what they were getting into.

I'd been wondering what in the hell I'd gotten myself into and how I could ever face Toni again when I'd been saved by the bell…more or less.

Toni had gotten a phone call, and judging by the grimace on her face, she'd seemed to think it was important, so rather than doing the polite thing and waiting to see if she wanted to talk, I used it as a chance to get the hell out of Brooklyn.

If I'd thought that thinking clearer would be any easier once I was away from her, away from the magic of her touch or the power of her eyes, then I was clearly an idiot.

I doubted she would've disagreed with that assessment.

All day, I tasted her kisses.

Instead of the pounding headache, I had a pounding cockache, brought on by residual memories of the way she’d stared at me, daring me to try to control her.

Damn, I wanted to control her.

And it pissed me off that I couldn't.

What was worse, the more I thought about her, the hotter I got, the more on edge I got.

And then my mood did a violent slide in the other direction as I recalled…
Iz
.

She was still missing.

Not that it mattered to the cops.

There was a set period of time she had to be missing, I'd been told. Forty-eight hours.

It had been less than twenty-four.

I was going to kill someone if I had to wait another day for them to get off their asses and do something.

“What do you mean
there’s nothing you can do
?” I was talking to the Police Commissioner, but even his title wasn't enough to make me keep my voice down. “I’m telling you that my sister is missing. You’re the NYPD. What, you don’t investigate missing persons’ cases anymore, Dyson?”

I stared hard at my computer screen.

The man who stared back at me over the monitor was a white-haired man with the distinguished sort of features that commanded authority. That wasn’t why I’d backed him or why I still supported him though. He backed up his promises with real action.

Yet I wasn’t seeing any sign of that here.

“You’re not listening to me, Ashford. Now…
listen
…” He held up a hand when I opened my mouth. “I understand why you’re so angry, but before you tear me a new one, try to remember what I had to go through about this time last year.”

His jaw went tight, and I looked away. A year ago, his daughter had been gunned down in what was nothing more than a petty act of revenge. She’d only been fourteen. They still didn't have enough proof to arrest the guy who did it.

“But you need to understand, there are certain things that tie our hands for now. Isadora is an adult. She hasn’t been missing for forty-eight hours. Trust me, we
are
keeping our eye out, but until we cross that deadline…”

“With kids, they say the first twenty-four hours or whatever…those are the golden hours. So why is it different with adults?”

“Because adults can, and
do
, just…leave.”

I hammered at him for another few minutes and then hung up. I had other names on my list. Powerful names who I'd gotten to know through my business transactions…and some through my more…private life. I didn't make any other calls though.

It wasn’t doing any good.

I had my own security out in force, combing the streets for her. I'd sent them out almost immediately after I'd talked to Doug. And actually, I'd gotten proof that the cops
were
looking for her. Just not officially. One of my men had run into a contact of his own the force and it turned out they were both doing the same thing. Looking for Isadora. My guy had texted me to let me know.

Tearing the city apart and threatening all the contacts I had – contacts I might need soon – wasn’t going to serve any purpose.

I needed to focus.

Needed to think.

But I wouldn’t be able to do that until I got rid of some of the energy, the anger inside me. There was only one way I knew to do that.

I picked up the phone and punched in a number.

A soft, throaty voice came on the line.

“Are you available?” I nearly barked out the words.

“Just say when, Sir.”

***

Sibella Hall was a sub I only occasionally used.

She liked her play…dark.

I rarely went that dark, but today, I needed it.

The hour I’d spent tying her had done more to focus my brain than anything else could have. Yoga, meditation – that was what any number of people in my line of work did.

I had sex.

And I had it rough.

The more stress I needed to relieve, the rougher it got.

When I really needed to clear my head, I had sex with a Sub when she was bound and helpless, unable to move anything, sometimes not even her mouth.

I didn’t gag Sibella this time, but I told her not to scream, not to moan. And I’d done that only because my mood was so dark, I didn’t know if I was going to push her harder than I should. I doubted it. I’d taken plenty of subs to their limits, but Sibella didn’t seem to have one. Still, I didn't gag her, just in case.

Once I had her bound securely, I moved to her head and wrapped her long ponytail around my hand.

She rolled her eyes to look up at me and I saw a familiar dazed look in them.

If I just jacked off and came right there, or had her take my cock in her mouth, fucking it until I emptied myself, she’d be more than satisfied. For Sibella, it was all about the submission. She was probably about ready to come and the only times I'd touched her had been to tie her up. And there hadn't been anything sexual about any of my touches.

I found myself thinking of Toni and frustrated need sank its teeth into me again. I needed more than just this.

“Open,” I growled.

She parted her lips and I surged inside.

Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on the wet cave of her mouth, how she sucked and used her teeth and tongue. She was an artist, even when she couldn’t use her hands–

I could still feel Toni’s nails biting into my shoulders. See her hands as they slid down my torso.

She’d never wait for a man to
allow
her to climax. I’d had to fight to keep her from taking it.

With a snarl, I tore away from Sibella, my cock pulsing, nearly painful with need.

She was panting. “Sir?”

“Be quiet!” I snapped. I didn't want to hear her voice.

I moved up behind her. She was bound on a specially designed sawhorse I'd ordered last year. Each leg, wrapped in red rope from thigh to ankle, was secured to the horse’s supports. She was wet, the lips of her bared sex open and vulnerable. Sibella always removed all of her body hair. Most of the subs I chose did the same.

Toni had a nice, neatly-trimmed thatch of hair, dark with just a hint of red and I…

Dammit! I shook my head, trying to clear it. I reached over to the side table and picked up the bottle of lubricant I always kept handy. I might like to get really rough with my Subs, but I wasn't cruel. I knew exactly how much preparation each Sub needed before each type of sex.

Fortunately for me, Sibella only needed a little and I knew just how to work it so that the lubricated finger slid in and out of her ass, drawing little suppressed whimpers from her as I twisted and curled it.

She was quivering by the time I mounted her. I pressed the head of my cock against her ass and paused.

“I want you to scream,” I said. Maybe the noise would pull me out of my head.

I slammed into her and Sibella’s high, needy scream echoed through the room. The muscles in her ass spasmed around my throbbing shaft. She loved taking it after very little prep and that was what I needed right now. I drove into her again, my balls slapping against her cunt.

Again, again, again…

In my head, Sibella had become somebody else. The furious sounds of her passion made it easier for that image to coalescence. Tired of fighting it, I let it happen. I spanked Sibella’s ass while I let the memories play out, let the new fantasies take over.

“Beg me,” I said out-loud.

“Please…please, Sir…Sir please…”

It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t
her
.

I brought my hand down on her naked ass, the round globes one of the few areas of her body I’d left untouched by the ropes. And exactly for this reason. “Keep it up. What do you want?”

Sibella’s low, throaty voice was almost –
almost –
a match for Toni’s. “I want you, Sir–”

I knew what was wrong. Why it sounded wrong.
She
hadn't done that.

“Don’t call me, Sir. Just…” I squeezed my eyes closed. When I heard
her
call me…I wanted it to be real. Now, I just needed release. “Tell me what you want.”

“You…fucking me. Just like this. Please, harder…harder…harder…I want to come, please, oh, please…let me…”

She lapsed into silence as her body stiffened, her ass tightening around me until it was almost painful.

She was close.

I knew the signs.

I should help. Get her to come so when I was ready…

A harsh gasp broke through my concentration, and I opened my eyes.

Toni stood in the open doorway to the room.

My playroom, the one I’d designed solely for my kind of sexual play.

Her eyes tracked down over my naked chest to linger on Sibella and where my cock was half-way in the other woman's ass.

Her mouth trembled.

I rotated my hips and drove deep and hard into Sibella, her ass a hot, silken glove, even through the condom.

Without taking my eyes off the petite woman in the doorway, I spanked Sibella again. “Beg me,” I rasped.

“Please, please, please, Sir!”

Toni’s eyes narrowed and her face flushed a hot, angry red.

As I brought my hand down on Sibella’s ass again, Toni spun on her heel and stormed away.

I buried myself balls-deep in Sibella's ass as she came…

Chapter 6

Toni

“That…that…that
asshole
!!” I said it through gritted teeth, and it wasn't even close to enough. There wasn't a word in the English language bad enough for the sort of person that bastard was.

Or for how fucking stupid I felt.

Shaking and hot with the anger inside me, I was almost all the way to the door when the phone rang.

I almost kept going.

I couldn't even explain why I stopped.

Maybe some part of me knew.

I hesitated and looked down the long hallway. Ash hadn’t even stopped, hadn’t even slowed. The fucker had his cock half in her ass and hadn't even blinked. In fact, he’d all but
taunted
me.

“Beg me…”

Like he wanted me to know what he wanted. Like he wanted me to know I’d come up short.

As if his exit this morning hadn't been enough to tell me that I hadn't measured up.

All those thoughts rushed through my head in a span of a second as I was turning to look at the phone. The name on the caller ID made my heart stop, then nearly burst out of my chest as I dove for the phone. I snatched it up, barely able to think.

“Hello?”

“I assume Mr. Lang has noticed that he’s…missing something.”

I sucked in a breath. “Who is this?”

A voice, disembodied and distorted, chuckled. “Now, now, Miss Gallagher. I’ll do the talking in this conversation. Is Mr. Lang available?”

Shaking, I lowered the phone and looked down the hallway, back to where…back to Ash. I shouted his name. He didn’t answer.

The screaming I’d heard earlier had gone silent. He must have told her to be quiet. She would've listened, of course. Because that was the kind of woman he wanted…I pushed the thought from my head. Not important.

A distant voice caught my attention and I stopped, lifting the phone to my ear as I started down the hallway. “I’m getting him.”

“No time for that, Miss Gallagher. I’m afraid you’ll have to work as the go-between for now.”