House Rules (5 page)

I chose wrong.

We had problems in L.A. from the beginning. Always hard to control, Rose disappeared for days at a time. She got caught shoplifting, the bribe to the store manager and security guard setting me back two weeks' pay. She played her music too loud in the apartment when Tommy and I were at work. Other things worried me, like how there was always someone new I didn't know in the apartment. When they weren't still there when I came home, I could smell that they had been.

With Luke having clearly communicated how little he values Rose's life, I don't tell him or Vincent about the trouble she caused. I just tell them how one of Solandro's crew showed up at my front door a little over two weeks ago with a picture of Rose tied up and gagged.

Solandro wanted a meeting -- I met him. He gave me initial instructions, a fake ID and six hundred dollars to get to Vegas and await further instruction. I didn't hear from him again until the day I went to Masters' casino. We met again and Solandro provided me with the lenses and another thousand dollars seed money for the table. Teaching me the marks, he told me the dealers weren't in on it and that I must wander the floor until I found a table using the marked cards.

I finish with telling them how Solandro and my father ran jobs in the past, using me half a dozen times or more. Once the details of the last few weeks are out and breakfast is over, Vincent leaves.

Luke, who has spent the entire interview standing behind the couch where I cannot see him, takes a seat next to me. "More tea, Marie?"

I shake my head, suddenly afraid to say anything. I haven't forgotten, not for a second, what transpired between us in this room. I have no idea what might trigger that behavior in him again or whether I can resist another round of his touching me.

"Good. I've been waiting to get down to terms."

I risk looking at him. While his voice is smooth and relaxed, tension lines frame his eyes and mouth. I don't want to ask, but I do. "Terms?"

He blinks, slow and sensual, then nods. He rests an arm along the back of the couch then curls his hand around my opposite shoulder. "You want to get Rose back alive. You don't trust the cops to do it for you or you never would have stepped foot in my casino. Now you're facing jail and so is Tommy."

Biting my lip, I inhale sharply. Luke hasn't said anything incorrect yet. If I had gone to the police, they would have focused on my warrants and put me in jail. Even if they had believed me about the kidnapping, Solandro isn't ransoming Rose for a bag of money -- he wants to test his new method for cheating casinos so he has an unlimited supply of money. The only difference between the scenario I faced two weeks ago -- Rose dead and me in jail -- and the one I face here in Luke's interrogation room is time and the chance that Tommy will also go to jail.

"I have resources the Vegas and L.A. police departments can only dream of, Marie. I can make your arrest warrant go away, too." Luke wraps his free hand around my knee. "For a price."

I inhale again, my first breath still unreleased.

"You are the payment." Leaning in, he presses his lips against the side of my neck.

The first kiss settles like a warm blanket over my body. The second one, a little lower down my neck, makes me wet. I want to move away from him, but I am already at the end of the couch.

His hand skims across my thighs and I practically levitate with pleasure.

I understand my body's reaction, but Luke's motivation eludes me. He has a casino full of beautiful women, showgirls, waitresses, call girls...half, if not all, of them would drop their panties or thongs in a heartbeat if he so much as smiled at them.

Does he actually want me?

Not possible. Quality and beauty surround him. The way the penthouse is furnished, his expensive suits -- all of it is here by his choice. Choosing me is inconsistent with his past behavior, so I am certain that some facet of his game is escaping me. No other explanation fits.

He growls, the sound sensual but menacing. "Is that a no?"

Glancing at him, I realize that I shook my head in rejecting the idea that Luke Masters finds me attractive. Now he thinks I am turning down the offer. I have to correct him before he withdraws it, but I can't admit why I made the gesture or how everything but my brain is enthusiastically screaming my acquiescence.

Rule number 6 -- Know the rules of the game, the stakes and the quitting time.

"What do you require?"

"Thirty days of you." His hand eases over the swell of my stomach to find my breast, arousing the nipple once more to a sharp pucker. He kisses below my ear, his tongue sliding against the skin. "Whenever I want you. However I want."

Finding the nipple erect, he manipulates it, pinching and tugging until my hips move in the direction of his hand. "I want your sweet, wet cunt and lush ass."

His hand captures my chin and then he pulls my face toward his. "I need this oh-so-fuckable mouth quivering around my cock."

He kisses me again, his tongue pushing forcefully past my lips to sweep against my upper palate. His fingers knot in my hair, drawing me deeper into the kiss. Heat unfurls across my chest and hips. My pussy, wet and wanting, twists around nothing, aching in a way I have never experienced.

Panic douses the heat and I push at his chest. The force of his grip eases but he doesn't release me completely, merely allows me to come up for air.

"You're saying you will save Rose if I have sex with you for a month? Is that right?"

"I'm saying I'll do everything within my power to save Rose from Solandro. I will make your arrest warrant go away and you and Tommy will have whatever you want, within reason, during that period -- but I'm not asking for sex." Something unnameable flickers across his beautiful face and then he closes his eyes. "I'm asking for complete submission, for things you likely haven't experienced, Marie."

That is a given. I have never experienced a kiss like Luke's, never had a man inside me, never had a man's mouth so close to that swollen and aching juncture of my thighs or had his hands teasing my breasts. We already are far beyond my experience level, but I can't tell Masters.

He won't believe me.

"I'm growing impatient, baby." His lips brush along my jaw as his hand squeezes my breast. "Tell me you agree."

Eyes closed, my whole body shaking with the weight of Rose's life and my own lust, I answer.

"Yes."

********************

I return to the penthouse with Luke. He deposits me in an opulent bedroom furnished in the same dark colors and wood as his office. In the adjoining bathroom, he draws me a bath, telling me I need to sleep afterward. I am still standing completely stunned and just inside the bedroom door when the water is ready.

"You've been awake and stressed an entire day, Marie." He cups my face with both hands and brushes his lips across mine. "I want you relaxed and rested so you can enjoy our time together."

Nodding, I watch him leave. He is a complete enigma. Rich and powerful, he is manipulating me into a sexual relationship in which I must agree to his every demand. Yet he wants me to enjoy it. Chances are, I will. He drives my body crazy with the lightest touch. Wealth, power, and untempered sex appeal, he can also act kind and thoughtful -- the tea at breakfast was the same blend as the loose bags in my purse and I don't think that was a coincidence.

Alone and naked, I sink into the water. My hands work on auto-pilot to clean my body while my mind spars with shadows. Again and again, I circle back to the same conclusion -- I want Luke, but I can't trust him.

Too tired to keep fighting the situation, I finish the bath, wrap an oversized towel around me and return to the bedroom. In my absence, someone has placed a big, fluffy white robe on the bed and a semi-transparent, pearl colored baby doll nightgown. I lift the robe and nightgown in search of at least underwear, but there is nothing more.

I examine the baby doll. The fabric is satiny smooth but iridescent. On the bed and in my hands, it is lovely and elegant, but at some point it has to go on my body. Standing with my back to the mirrored dresser, I pull the nightgown over my head. The hem falls slightly above the very top of my thighs. When I blindly brush a fingertip below its line, I feel my pubic hair.

With trepidation, I turn to the mirror. The pale pearl hue blends pleasingly with my skin and the bust has enough ribbons and banding to hold me aloft. It is just opaque enough that I cannot see the outline of my areola, but I can see the dark hairline on my mound and the bottom of that triangle, which the gown does not cover.

Feeling exposed, I suck a breath in and reality settles deep in my bones.

In a few hours, Luke will see me in the outfit -- not just my thick hips, overflowing breasts and rounded thighs, but also that dark patch of fur and everything hiding behind it. He will part my legs and...

Shame heats my cheeks while lust pinches my nipples to hard, erect points. I close my eyes, unable to continue looking at my body or contemplate exactly what Luke has in mind. I will orgasm, I am sure of that. However reluctantly or exuberantly, I will come. Nothing else is certain.

Eyes still shut, I fumble my way onto the bed and under the covers, my body falling into an exhausted sleep almost as soon as my head hits the feathered pillow.

********************

A soft tap against the bedroom door and the inward brush of its heavy frame over the thick carpet wake me from dreamless sleep. Masters enters, carrying a mug of steaming tea. Inhaling, I smell the mix of apple, chamomile and honey. I sit up, just enough to accept the mug without losing the bedspread and exposing myself to him.

An approving smile on his face, he hands me the mug.

"I have the same blend of tea." I blow away the steam, my brain almost as clouded as I watch him walk toward the dresser.

"I know." He has shed his jacket, shoes, tie and socks at some point in the last few hours. The remaining clothes look like he slept in them. Turning one hand inward, he removes a platinum cufflink. He repeats the motion, the second one carefully placed on the dresser next to the first.

I stare at six thousand dollars of precious metal casually placed, so absorbed by the absurdity of my situation that I miss the fact that Luke has turned to face me and is half finished unbuttoning his shirt.

When I do notice, I can't take my eyes off his chest. Muscles, covered in warm brown skin tinted olive gold, ripple as he untucks the shirt from his pants. The play of light over his flesh as he unthreads the belt from its loops shows several scars. Those on his abdomen appear to be cuts or punctures, but, with the shirt off, I see a starburst of paler skin a few inches southeast of his left collarbone.

"You were shot?"

He doesn't answer, just undoes the button on his silk slacks.

"Did it happen while you were in the Army?"

"Was I?" He turns his back to me. Only his pants remain and he teases them and me inch by inch. Looking up from the slow unveiling of his silky briefs and the magnificent ass to which they cling, I catch him watching my expression in the mirror. He licks his lips, his cheeks flushing as my skin heats in equal measure.

I tell myself to look away, but don't. Instead, I watch and press for an answer. "You have a PsyOps coin on your desk."

He pivots ever so slightly so that I cannot see his expression or the front of his body in the reflection. He steps from his pants then places his hands against the top band of his underwear. Intent on giving me a show, he strips them away, his hands and the fabric moving so slowly down his body he is basically caressing all that lean muscle and olive-gold skin.

Watching him, my mouth floods, my tongue swells. He is a beautiful, teasing bastard who won't answer my questions while demanding I tell him everything and submit to him. He has a lot of nerve.

He turns, hands overflowing as he seeks to cover his erect cock and heavy balls.

I make a small, mental correction. He has a lot of everything. He is thick and long, his genitals every bit as impressive as the rest of him.

"What are you thinking, Marie?"

I lift a brow, somewhat stunned by the question. I am thinking that he is beautiful. That I can't understand why I am in his bed -- why he wants me in it. I think that he must get off on power and control, so that it is my need and vulnerability -- not my body -- that have rendered his cock so hard.

I can't admit any of that, so I press my earlier question again. "I am thinking that, if the coin is not yours, it belongs to the man in the picture frame on your desk."

His gaze darkens and his sexy prowl toward the bed stops. "You're very observant, Marie. Too observant, perhaps. The coin is mine."

"And the man?"

His eyes go dead for a second and I worry that I have pushed a little too far. He shakes it off and moves toward me. "I remember agreeing to help you, not answer your questions."

Reaching the bed, his mouth puckers then curves into a smile. "And I remember you agreeing to give me your body -- completely."

Running the tip of his tongue across his top lip, he slowly drags the covers down the bed. When he gets near the bottom of the baby doll's skirt, I start to draw my legs up.