PlaybyPlay (9 page)

He kept her this way, on the precipice of pain and pleasure,
until he knew she couldn’t take it anymore.

“You want to come, don’t you?”

She nodded with a soft moan but didn’t speak, for he hadn’t
commanded her to. He smiled.
Good girl.

“You want to come on my cock, don’t you?”

This time her moan was louder, but still she didn’t say a
word, even as her body convulsed with need, every inch of her desperate for the
release only he could give her.

His own body was swollen and ready, the pain of his engorged
flesh beat at him, demanding that he take her. In seconds he stripped out of
his clothing and flung the flogger aside.

“On your knees,” he demanded as he settled behind her. She
was barely on her knees atop the bed before he was gripping her hips and
driving home, deep into her wet, pink flesh in one plunging thrust.

He’d waited too long to take her. He snaked his hand around
her hip to strum her clit but he barely touched her before she exploded with a
soul-wrenching scream. He pounded his hard flesh inside her, her cunt drenching
him as he plowed through the tight muscles of her spasming sheath. With every
stroke she sucked him in and held him tight until his control snapped
completely. He buried his cock inside her on one deep stroke and stiffened. His
mouth fell open but nothing came out as he gripped her hips and held her to
him, his cock bursting inside her as he poured his seed deep within her waiting
flesh.

He collapsed against the bed, boneless and satiated, and it
was a long while before either of them could catch their breath. When he finally
found the strength, he unlocked the cuffs and pulled her into his arms so that
her body draped across his.

For a long while, he simply held her, his hand absently
stroking her slick back until he remembered she was still in trouble.

“You know I have to punish you all over again.”

She lifted her head. “Wha— Why?”

“You came without permission,” he said with a grin, his lips
furling higher when her eyes darkened with passion.

“Oh,” was all she said, and then he rolled her beneath him
and took her again, and then again, well into the night, until he was sure
she’d learned her lesson.

Chapter Six

The next day at work, Katherine was just wrapping things up
and preparing to head home when Seth walked into her office. Dressed in a white
t-shirt and jeans, his clothes fit him like a second skin, the shirt
emphasizing the chiseled muscles of his arms while his pants clung to the thick
bulge just behind his zipper. Her heartbeat sped up immediately as a flush of
heat crept over her and she shifted in her seat, wincing at the soreness in her
backside.

Seth closed her door with a smile. “I take it you’re still
feeling the effects of my punishment.”

She returned his smile. “A little.”

He took her breath away when he leaned down to kiss her
gently, his hand lovingly caressing her cheek.

They’d woken up that morning, driven into work together, and
several times throughout the day he’d come in to check on her, just to see how
she was doing. Each time he would treat her to a slow, sensual kiss that would
leave her breathless.

Katherine had no idea what they were doing, or even what
they were, but she knew she liked it, liked being with him, liked simply
talking to him—that was, when they
actually
talked, she thought with a
small smile.

“I just stopped by to let you know I’m headed out.”

“Headed home already?” She glanced at the clock. It was only
six o’clock. He rarely left before seven.

“Yeah, I need to talk to Joshua for a minute, then head home
and do a few things.” His eyes darkened. “And then maybe if you’re up for it we
could go out for a late dinner.”

Tiny butterflies fluttered in her belly—those little girlie
butterflies that she swore she never got.

She smiled. “I’d like that.”

He flashed her one of his rare but charming and
devastatingly lethal grins. “I’ll see you later then,” he said, before slipping
out of her office.

After he left, she spent five more minutes finishing up the
project she’d been working on then decided to make a couple of quick phone
calls before she, too, called it a day.

Seth had left her door slightly open when he walked out so
she got up to close it to make her calls. On her way back over to her desk she
noticed a ring of keys in one of the chairs. She picked them up. They were
Seth’s work keys. He must have put them down when he came in and forgot to get
them when he left. He wouldn’t need his keys tonight, but if he got to work
before Joshua, Michelle or herself tomorrow, which he often did, he wouldn’t be
able to get in, at least not without a hassle.

Katherine stepped out of her office. If she was quick she
could catch him. If she missed him then she would just hold on to them until
she saw him later.

“Michelle, can you do me a favor and call down to Joshua’s
and see if Seth’s still there?”

Michelle nodded and quickly made the call. When she was done
she looked up at Katherine. “Joshua’s secretary said you just missed him. He
just walked out with Joshua only seconds ago.”

“Thanks, Michelle.” Katherine headed toward her office. “Can
you also try to reach Seth on his cell and tell him I have his keys? I’m going
to see if I can catch up with him before he leaves.”

“Sure,” Michelle said as Katherine walked into her office
and hopped on her elevator.

Within seconds she was in the garage and was relieved to see
she hadn’t missed Seth as she caught sight of him talking to Joshua through the
small window in the door.

She hadn’t planned to snoop, but when she went to open the
door, she heard her name and stopped. Hunching down so they wouldn’t see her,
she pressed her ear to the door.

She couldn’t make out much, but what she did set her blood
to boiling.

She tried to hear more, but then Seth’s cell phone rang,
ending their conversation. She listened until both men got into their cars and
then returned to her elevator.

She was just entering her office when Michelle walked in. “I
got a hold of Seth, but he told me to tell you he’d get them from you later.”

Katherine did her best to paste on her brightest, fakest
smile. “Thanks, Michelle.”

The woman nodded and then walked out, leaving Katherine to
stew in her office.

She couldn’t believe him—that he would actually go to
that—that—
club
, and then tell Joshua he had no intention of telling her
about it.

She paced back and forth in her office, her entire body
corded with fury. That he would do the things he’d done to her, then go to the
Red Velvet Rope
and hook up with some stranger, had her fuming mad. But
more than that, it pierced her heart.

She’d given Seth a piece of herself, a part she’d never
given to any man ever before. The things she’d let him do to her she’d only
allowed because she’d trusted him with her very life. She’d thought she could
trust him with her heart too.

She grabbed her purse and prepared to leave, the phone calls
she’d planned to make long forgotten.

If Seth thought he could play her for the fool then he had
another think coming. But as she headed to her car, she experienced a tiny
twinge of doubt that she’d already judged Seth before she’d even given him a
chance to explain himself. She considered that maybe she hadn’t heard him correctly,
that maybe she was wrong. Seth had a strength of character that was enviable.
It was hard to believe that he was capable of such duplicity.

As she got into her car and fired up the engine, she decided
there was only one way to find out.

* * * * *

Dressed in the same red dress and heels she’d worn the first
time she’d been there, and with her wig and mask firmly in place, Katherine
returned to the Red Velvet Rope on her secret mission. But from the moment she
walked in, she discovered it wasn’t so secret after all.

“Ms. Higgins, we’ve been expecting you.”

Katherine’s eyes rounded. “You have?”

The woman smiled, her eyes kind, and Katherine thought she
was one of the most beautiful, most sensual women Katherine had ever met. Sex
and seduction practically oozed from the woman, and, Katherine realized then
where she’d seen the voluptuous beauty before.

She was the same woman Katherine had seen with Seth and
Joshua when she’d spied on them the last time she was there.

“My name is Sonya Montoya,” the woman said, breaking through
Katherine’s thoughts. “I can tell you don’t remember me, but we met two years
ago. My hair was shorter then.” She smiled jokingly as she extended her hand.
“I am one of the owners of the Red Velvet Rope—welcome
again
.”

Katherine shook her hand. “I’m sorry. I knew you looked
familiar.” In more ways than one, Katherine decided, but for once she kept a
thought to herself.

“No need to apologize. It was two years ago.” She opened a
door then and stepped aside. “Now if you would follow me.”

Katherine shook her head. “Follow you? Follow you where?”
The last time she’d visited, she’d walked into the main area of the club, but
she could see that this doorway led to another part of the club, a section she
hadn’t been to.

“It’s all right, Katherine. As I said, we’ve been expecting
you. If you will just follow me, this will all make sense to you in a moment.”

Katherine wasn’t so sure. She didn’t know this woman or who
was expecting her, but she was nothing if not a risk taker. She took a deep
breath and let Sonya lead the way.

They walked down a short, dark corridor, and from the
opulence of the rooms she passed she could tell this was the most exclusive
section of the club, probably where all the VIPs ended up.

Right now the rooms were empty, except one, and she drew up
short the moment she entered the room behind Sonya and saw him.

Seth?

Her eyes widened.
And Joshua?

Her eyes grew rounder still.
And Aaron?

“What the—”

Katherine looked over at Sonya. “I own the club with the
three of them,” she said with a wink.

Aaron, Joshua and Seth
owned
the Red Velvet Rope? She
was speechless.

“Since we all know it’s you, Katherine, you can lose that
ridiculous wig and silly mask.”

Katherine glared at Seth, even as she took off the mask and
then the wig, letting her hair tumble around her shoulders.

She stared at the three men before her, all dressed in dark
suits, looking more like Versace or Armani models than the three men she’d
entrusted her life and her casino to. She shook her head at Aaron with his
close-cropped blond hair, piercing jade eyes and rugged good looks. Hardnosed,
by the book Aaron who was a former marine and now a cop. He swore by rules and
she’d never met a more straightforward, straitlaced guy in her entire life.

“Even you? But you’re a cop.”

Aaron shrugged with a small grin. “It’s not illegal.”

She couldn’t believe it. She needed a drink—or to sit
down—or
both
.

“Can you excuse Katherine and me?” Seth’s deep voice broke
through her jumbled thoughts.

“What? Why?” Joshua’s lips curled into a wicked smile. “I
thought we were all going to get to play?”

Play?
Katherine stared at Seth with wide eyes. What
did he mean by
play
?

“Katherine’s not ready for that.” Seth’s eyes darkened. “Not
yet.”

Joshua let out a loud sigh and he seemed to drag his feet
but eventually, one by one, everyone slipped out of the room, leaving her alone
with Seth.

“You set me up,” Katherine said when the door finally
closed.

“No, you set yourself up.”

She was incredulous. “But you planted your keys, knowing I
would come after you—”

“Yes, but I had no way of knowing you were going to snoop.”
He smiled then. “Although I was pretty sure you would. You’re too much of a
control freak not to, and then, after I knew you were listening—”

“You made up all that stuff about coming to the club and not
telling me.” She was furious with him—that he’d played her for a fool.

“I knew your wild imagination would do the rest and then
your temper would seal the deal.”

Her nostrils flared. “Why? Why come up with this farfetched
plan to make me think you’re going to cheat on me just to get me down here so
you could tell me you’re one of the owners? Why couldn’t you have just told me
over dinner tonight? Was all the deception really necessary?”

“Deception?” His lips thinned into a hard, tight line. “Why
wear this elaborate costume then scheme your way into my bed—”

Katherine’s eyes rounded. What was he talking about? “I
didn’t scheme my way into—”

“How could you think I would cheat on you with some stranger
here?” He continued as if she hadn’t said a word. “After everything we’ve
shared, how could that thought even cross your mind?”

The raw emotion in his voice tore at her heart, and she
realized then just how wrong she’d been, how much she’d hurt him by her lack of
faith in him.

“You’re here, Katherine, because you don’t trust me—”

“No—”

“Was this all a game to you?” He angrily shoved a hand
through his hair. “The sneaking around, the dress-up, pretending to be into
submission—”

“No.” She closed the distance between them and curled her
hands around his arms, forcing him to look at her. The pain on his face was
like a knife slicing through her heart. “Everything I did with you was real to
me, I swear.” She glanced down at herself. “The other stuff, the sneaking
around, the disguise—I was curious, yes, but it wasn’t a game to me.” She
sighed, searching for the right words to make him understand. “I wanted you to
do to me what you and Joshua did with Sonya, but how was I supposed to come out
and say that? How do I tell the man who has worked by my side for the last two
years that I want him to dominate me—that I want him to force me to submit to
him?”