Haunted (14 page)

He smiled, tipped her over his knee and pinched half a dozen welts. He then spanked her pink before he stood her on her feet again, and returned to his breakfast with undisguised satisfaction.

The women exchanged glances of disdain and Caitlyn knew they would be brutal.

They were and she was stinging by the time she turned to Zach. She knew her cheeks were flushed and her breath was coming quickly, those nipple clamps driving her wild. “Zach,” she said, offering a smile when he glanced up. He might have been completely indifferent to her presence, but she saw by the line of his trousers that he wasn’t.

Maybe he liked seeing her used like this.

“I’m not interested in pinching welts to make you recall your secret lover,” he said coolly. He glanced up as the butler came back into the dining room. “Stapleton, the lady wishes to have her welts pinched. Could you do it, please?”

“Of course, sir.” Stapleton asked as if he received such requests all the time.

She was shocked by his apparent indifference.

And even more shocked when he left the room without a backward glance.

* * *

Athena settled back in the limo as Rafe drove back to the townhouse. She hadn’t expected to ever see Steele again, not after she had tossed him out of The Phoenix.

She certainly hadn’t expected to want him so badly again. She’d been sure that she’d had enough of the special services cop, but one look at that firm mouth had been enough to make her hungry for him all over again.

Never mind his reminder of that day in the limo.

She took the box from the chocolate shop out of her bag, wondering whether a truffle would take the edge off her desire or make it worse. There was only one way to find out for sure. She untied the ribbon on the box and opened the top, only to halt in surprise.

There weren’t truffles inside.

There was a small bottle of perfume.

Athena frowned and removed the bottle from the box. The perfume was a deep gold within it, and the stopper was glass, a swirl of purple and gold glass that she liked very much. The gold script on the side of the heart-shaped bottle said
Evoke
.

She’d never heard of it.

In the bottom of the box were two business cards. The first was from a perfumerie in Paris, one that evidently made custom scents.

This perfume has been formulated specifically for you.

Athena wondered if that were true. The second card was Steele’s business card, with his contact information at special services. On the back, he’d written a note, his disciplined script so familiar that she smiled.

Because you haunt me.

Below that was a telephone number, also hand-written, presumably his home or cell phone.

Athena read his words again, then eased the stopper from the bottle. She took a tentative sniff, not knowing what to expect. She blinked then sniffed again. She smelled gardenias and roses, other flowers too, then a musky note with some spice. It was a gorgeous layered perfume, feminine and sexy, too, the perfume of a woman who knew her own assets and wasn’t afraid to use them. It was like her own favorite perfume, but bigger, more potent, more confident.

She shed a glove and touched a bit of the perfume to her skin. The way it mingled with her own scent would be the true test. It warmed and the scent deepened, becoming richer. The musk seemed a little more primal than it had, and the flowers, if they had been real, would have been bigger and brighter.

It was completely over the top, a perfume that would own a room as soon as a woman wearing it crossed the threshold.

Athena loved it.

Evoke
.

She read Steele’s card again and this time she smiled. She wondered if he had kept any of it himself. She decided then and there that she’d bathe that night, douse herself in it, and sleep only in this perfume.

And maybe she’d call Steele to tell him about it.

After all, she should show some appreciation for his breaking protocol to warn them about Devon Nelson.

* * *

It had seemed like a brilliant plan when Zach had had the idea.

Too bad it wasn’t working.

He’d thought that giving Caitlyn away might break her hold over his imagination. He didn’t like to share his slaves, and he didn’t like them to be taken by other men or women. He certainly didn’t like to witness that kind of scene. He liked the focus of one woman, completely submissive to his command.

He’d thought that seeing Caitlyn fingered by the other guests, even having her welts pinched, would destroy his interest in her.

Too bad it had done exactly the opposite. She had clearly been thrilled, though he couldn’t have said whether it was because she was surrendering to her master’s command or whether she had fantasies of being shared herself. She had hesitated when he’d threatened to tie her up and give her away, which hinted that they might have similar views.

After that, he hadn’t thought she’d do what he wanted.

But she’d done it, with grace and submissiveness. She’d even delighted in the results. Shit, he’d been able to smell how wet she was across the dining room table. Her excitement and her surrender had thrilled him to the point that he knew he wouldn’t be able to watch whatever happened next.

He hadn’t even trusted himself to touch her welts.

He was restless all day, working out in his room, pacing and trying to find something to distract his thoughts. Instead, he was fixed upon Caitlyn, listening for every sound of her pleasure in the house, aware that she was being savored without him. It drove him so crazy that he wondered who was under the control of who.

That scared the shit out of him. Zach was always in control. He was the one in charge. He was the one who decided the agenda, when the scene started and how it ended. He didn’t lose himself in a lover or become consumed with one woman and her pleasure. If this was what emotion added to the mix, then he had to live without it.

It demanded too much.

Zach stood in his room, watching the sun set. It had to stop.

He controlled every detail, including himself.

The game was done.

* * *

When Zach left the dining room at breakfast, Caitlyn assumed he’d be back. Either that or he had a means of watching her being used for the pleasure of the two couples. Her offer seemed to reinvigorate their fantasy, and they were inventive in sharing her. She was commanded to give head, she was bound and spanked, and embellished with jam and eaten after being stretched spread-eagle on the dining room table. It soon became clear that the interest of her lovers was mostly in each other, and she was gradually forgotten as they played games of their own.

She left them to it in the dining room, and returned, disheveled, to her own room. She hoped Zach would be there, but the room was empty. The connecting door was locked. She had a bath, unable to summon much interest in anything other than Zach, then had a long hot bath. She read and lounged and became increasingly impatient with herself.

By dinner, she was itching to see Zach again, hoping he’d come to her in the night.

He never showed for dinner.

Stapleton said that he had decided to remain in his room for the remainder of his visit to the island.

Caitlyn couldn’t help but take that as a condemnation.

For some reason, he’d decided to ignore her.

She rapped on his door when she went back upstairs, but he didn’t reply. “Zach, are you all right?”

“I’m fine, thanks.”

Was that going to be her only reply?

Was it over already?

Caitlyn returned to her room, impatient and annoyed. He might be in charge, but she had feelings and desires, too. For the first time, his need to command pissed her off. He could have asked what she wanted! Maybe he was just as selfish as the loser-boys in the end.

She poked at the fire, her temper rising.

That was when she heard a key turn in a lock. She looked up as the connecting door opened slightly. There was only darkness beyond it, then a quick flurry of running footsteps. Caitlyn went to the door cautiously, then looked beyond it. There was a small corridor there, with stairs heading into darkness on her left. Ahead was another door.

It was closed, but there was a key gleaming in the lock.

Caitlyn smiled. She pushed her door closed so that the light wouldn’t shine into the corridor, then planned her attack.

* * *

It didn’t help that the only books Zach wanted to read were BDSM classics.

It was too easy to imagine himself and Caitlyn playing these games, but that was a sign of her hold over him. He’d betrayed Luke by wanting his girlfriend, then he’d forgotten his own rules in trying to satisfy his desires.

His need for her would pass.

Zach had to believe that. He got another book and threw himself across the bed, trying to lose himself in fiction. He had the fire burning high and hot, just to make sure there weren’t any smoky illusions in his room.

He thought he imagined it when he heard a key click in a lock.

He scanned the room, and knew he was just fantasizing about going to Caitlyn’s room. After all, it was almost midnight, and the house was quiet. This is when he should have gone to her, and taught her a lesson.

Zach grimly turned the page.

There was no mistaking the creak of a door opening. He rolled to his feet, ready to face Luke’s ghost again. But it was Caitlyn who appeared in the doorway, Caitlyn still dressed in burgundy from dinner.

“You wouldn’t come to the door,” she said, her voice soft with accusation. “And I need to talk to you.”

Zach folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the pillar of the bed, trying to look unwelcoming. The truth was that the sight of her in his room was making his heart race.

And his cock hard.

“Nice room,” Caitlyn said. “I like the colors.” She continued toward the fireplace, then sat on the ottoman there. She ran a hand across it, and smiled. “Yours is velvet. I like that.” She laid the riding crop across ottoman, caressing the length of it as he watched. She also had a length of cotton rope, and set it on the ottoman.

She was giving herself to him.

Zach closed his eyes for a minute, almost overwhelmed by his lust. When he opened them, Caitlyn was taking the pins out of her hair. It had been arranged in a bun, a style that reminded him of Gibson Girls, and she shook out the loose curls as she removed the pins. Her hair fell over her shoulders, more wavy than curly thanks to the way it had been bound up, and his mouth went dry as he watched her.

He couldn’t
not
watch her.

“I think you have some things mixed up,” Caitlyn said. “And as naughty as it would be for me to correct my master, I’m going to take a chance and do just that.” She cast him a quick smile. “I’m thinking that I might need to be punished for being so bold.”

Zach opened his mouth to argue with her, but no sound came out.

Because Caitlyn had stood up and turned her back to him. Her dress was held closed in the back by a single hook at the back of her waist. She must have had Hunt unfasten it all, then just leave the one hook that she could reach herself.

She flicked it open, revealing the tight laces up the back of her corset, then the dress fell to the floor in a pile of silk. She stepped out of it, and he saw that she was wearing the little laced boots that both of them liked. Caitlyn then bent over from the waist, giving him a fabulous view of her perfect ass, made even more perfect by the welts that marked it.

His mark on her. Zach swallowed. He thought of O being branded and his heart skipped a beat.

What if he did that to Caitlyn? He’d never wanted to do that to anyone before, much less claim a woman for the duration, but he knew that he’d love marking Caitlyn.

Would she love it as much?

Was that why she was here?

Caitlyn picked up the dress. She shook it out and laid it over a chair.

She turned to face him then, holding his gaze as she combed her hair back tightly and pulled it into a ponytail. He saw that she was still wearing the clamps on her nipples, and the little harness that locked the vibrator over her clitoris.

He reached into his jacket pocket and turned it on, unable to resist temptation. Caitlyn swayed a little on her feet, closing her eyes in pleasure, then licked her lips.

She picked up the length of rope and walked toward him. She stopped about four feet away and unfurled the rope, letting it fall to the floor. As she found the middle point, she spoke again. “Yesterday, you said that it was your fault that Luke died. That’s not true, Master. It was totally my fault.”

Zach opened his mouth to argue, but Caitlyn put a finger across his lips. She then leaned closer, replacing her fingertip with her mouth.

Her soft, sweet, alluring mouth. Zach tried to keep himself from responding, knowing she would just be encouraged by it, but failed. He inhaled sharply when she broke their kiss and she smiled. She watched the rope move through her own hands. “Luke proposed to me that night. He said he loved me.”