Stripped - Complete Series (15 page)

She’d acted so crazy. Rebecca couldn’t even remember now how she’d got home. Her one thought kept going back to the gleaming collar she’d left lying on the pillow in that bedroom.

“How long are you going to keep holing up here?” Diane asked kindly, breaking into Rebecca’s thoughts. Rebecca had moved in temporarily with Diane, who’d been glad to be there for Rebecca during this confusing time. But it had been three weeks now; she’d also taken time off from work and hardly went out. She couldn’t even bear to be left alone with her own thoughts and was glad that Diane also shuffled her schedule to be available for Rebecca whenever she needed someone to lean on.

The withdrawal symptoms were kicking in; letting Rebecca know she’d go crazy now that she wasn’t able to see or touch Alec or Tristan. She’d never dreamed it would hurt this much; but it would hurt even more if she was still with them.

“You do realize they know you’re here?” Diane asked when Rebecca didn’t give an answer. “But they decided to respect your wishes by staying away.”

“So you think I should talk with them?” Rebecca asked faintly, eyes taking on a faraway cast.

“
Yes
,” Diane said with emphasis. “Whatever happened, you owe it to them to tell them how you feel. Help them understand. But ignoring their calls and avoiding them isn’t going to help your situation or theirs.”

“You make it sound like they care either way,” Rebecca said with a sudden harsh laugh. “Sure, I signed a contract and got a pretty collar. And for a single stretch of time, I let myself believe. That last night with them…God. I can’t ever forget it. It’s engrained in my pores. But I can’t give them what they really want.”

Her chest expanded in a deep, ragged breath.

“I can’t tell them how I feel,” Rebecca whispered, eyes suddenly cast down. “They demanded everything; my body, my submission. But they never needed my heart. I’m sorry; I just couldn’t settle for that. It took that perfect night of passion with them to realize I’ll always want more than they had to offer. And that would be unfair to them.”

Understanding settled in Diane’s compassionate gaze. “So why not just tell them what you’re telling me right now?”

Rebecca shook her head slowly. “I don’t want them to feel guilty. Or think that they owed me something. None of this was their fault. They laid it all on the line from the beginning. I’m the idiot that got sidetracked,” she said with a humorless smile.

“I’m sorry,” Diane said simply. “Look, I’m happy for you to stay as long as you need, okay?”

“Thanks,” Rebecca breathed, her arms going around her shoulders to quell her shivers. She felt decidedly ill not being able to stop thinking about Alec and Tristan. Their words of domination when they first used the playroom.

“
Out there, in public, you’re our princess. But once you walk in here, you become our dirty little girl
,” they’d said, touching her body with hands of mastery. Rebecca had shivered so much at those words her knees had hardly kept her up.

Now she felt like the biggest fraud. How could she have gone along with everything from the start when deep down that her motives had changed?

Days later she still hadn’t figured how best to forge ahead. Many times she picked up the phone to make that call. But she felt too much guilt and shame. Alec and Tristan hadn’t deserved to be treated the way she had; she respected them too much for that, and yet her insecurity had driven her away. She’d be a fool to think she could make amends for what happened.

Just then she heard the doorbell ring, and started. Diane had just left to go on a romantic dinner date with a handsome new catch she’d been seeing. Besides, Diane would hardly be ringing the doorbell since this was her apartment.

Then Rebecca’s mind flew to Alec and Tristan and she almost stopped breathing. The bell rung again and she felt forced to walk down the hallway to where she could look through the peephole, her body slightly trembling.

But instead of either Alec’s or Tristan’s handsomely chiseled visage, she was so surprised to see instead Jason standing in front of the door. Without thinking she threw open the door seconds later.

“Jason!”

“Hi,” he said, smiling a little hesitant smile. “Rebecca. A bit of a surprise I imagine.”

Rebecca was at a loss what to say. The last time they’d spoken was when she’d returned his call after the message he’d left on her answering machine. She couldn’t even remember the noncommittal conversation they’d had. She did remember it had ended with her giving him yet another refusal not to go on a date with him again.

Now what?

“Well, yes,” she said, trying a smile. “You’ve never really shown up out of the blue like this before.”

She didn’t know what else to do but let him in as she added, “But if you’re here to see Diane, she…”

“You know I’m not,” he said quietly, turning to face her. Rebecca’s eyes darted.

“Oh. So I take it this isn’t some random visit. You must have known I’ll be here,” she said with an imperceptible sigh of weariness.

“I had to make sure you were okay. When I found out you’d moved in temporarily with Diane, I was worried about you.” He had on a sheepish smile and Rebecca felt guilty for the slight annoyance she’d felt.

“Well, it’s really nice of you to check up on me,” she said weakly.

“We all need that guardian angel, always looking over our shoulder,” he said, his grin widening. Though there was a sudden dark narrowing in his gaze that made Rebecca uneasy somewhat.

She wondered if it was appropriate to offer him a drink or something; she really didn’t want him to linger yet didn’t want to seem rude. How on earth did she get into such awkward situations anyway? She’d tried to be as subtle as she could with Jason but it seemed he was too thick-skinned to notice she just wasn’t into him. And his next words proved it.

“Whatever happened, Rebbeca? To us.”

“What?” she breathed, staring at him.

He pushed a hand through his thick blond hair. “I mean, I thought I felt a connection. That night we met. We talked about so much. And not just when we were with Diane and Paul. But when I drove you home that night, I was almost certain you’d be ready to take the next step. What went wrong?”

Rebecca spluttered. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” she blurted. “We went on
one
date. And with other people. Yes we got along that night and I had fun getting to meet you and hang out but…we never really got that opportunity to relate more deeply.”

Jason didn’t even seem to be listening, but continued in a far-off tone, “I remember how much I made you laugh. You told me yourself you hadn’t truly laughed like that in a long while – and how you’d like your man to be able to make you always have a smile on your face.”

Oooh boy, this is some whack shit,
Rebecca thought with an inner grimace. She totally didn’t need this right now. Jason was actually probably totally delusional, or just plain obsessed. She didn’t know which prospect was worse.

“Jason,” she began as gently as she could, “I’ll admit I felt a whole lot comfortable around you in that brief period we shared on that
double
date. You’re an easy guy to get along with and we had a great time. But that’s it. I’m not interested in anything further than that right now. Not with you.”

“No of course not,” he said with an unpleasant twist to his lips. “I can imagine how much you have your hands full already. I mean how many women out there can claim they have not one but two men at their disposal.”

“Wh…what did you just say?” Rebecca said with a hot, angry flush.

“I’ve seen you. Shit, more than once with them. One time at some club and then one night when I drove up to your house and then saw you come home with them. The way you kissed and acted with them…well, trust me it wasn’t PG material. I didn’t need to be told what was going on.”

Rebecca was bristling. “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“Yes, Rebecca. Yes you do,” he grated, suddenly grabbing her shoulders.

Rebecca struggled against him, wishing she knew some kind of self-defense. But he proved too strong and she was too slight compared to his bigger frame. She’d never seen the normally easy-going Jason look so intimidating and she felt a cross between fear and fury.

“You gave the impression you were some repressed virgin type, and that’s why I decided to go slow with you, give you space even when I wanted you so much,” Jason went on grittily. “I never knew your innocence was just an act. You’d rather give yourself away to be used by the kind of men who play on emotions of dumb girls like you. While the good guys, like me, ready to show you the respect you deserve and not share you like some tramp – get the cold shoulder. Now tell me is that fair?”

“Let me go,” she said, her voice tight. She didn’t want him to hear the consternation in her voice, that thudded in her constricted chest.

But his fingers squeezed all the tighter into the flesh of her arms, making her flinch. “Tell me, Rebecca, will you play the slut for me?” he asked conversationally. “I’ve heard about those two lovers of yours and what they’re into behind closed doors. Now I know you’re the kinky sort, I’m willing to oblige. What will it take? Tying you to the bedpost? Ramming you up against the wall?”

“You sound like a psychopath! Let go of me!” she cried, trying to kick him and scratch at his face. But her struggling seemed futile.

“No; you listen to me. I won’t be made a fool of, you understand? In fact, I think I deserve compensation.”

“For goodness sake we only met twice or so. We talked a few times on the phone. Now you act like I owe you something?” she taunted in disbelief. This had to be some really bad, really crazy dream.

“Oh yes, sweet Rebecca,” Jason said with a dangerous clench of his jaw as he slammed her back against the wall so hard her teeth shook. “You owe me; and I’m willing to collect right now.”

And he closed in on her, clamping a hand over her mouth to dull her scream…

*

Rebecca opened her eyes slowly and had to blink several times before she could focus. The moment she stirred, a tall, broad shouldered figure turned quickly from the window and came to lean over the bed she lay in.

“Rebecca,” came Tristan’s husky, worried voice, sending the haze straight from her mind.

She tried to sit up but he held her back down gently. “Tristan, what happened?” she asked, but even as the words spilled out, it all came crashing back in vivid recall.

Jason, shoving her like a rag doll against the wall and closing in with his lips forcefully reaching for hers while keeping her pinned against the wall. The next moment, she heard a furious roar and the sensation of Jason being flung off her. Her eyes had widened in shock as she looked down and saw with shock that Alec had thrown Jason to the floor and was pounding his face in furiously.

She’d looked up, lost in amazement just as gentle hands cradled her shoulders. Tristan’s handsome face was looking down into hers much in the same way he was doing right now. As his words had back then formed the words, “
Rebecca, are you okay
?” she hadn’t even heard them but instead read them from his moving lips, right before she’d sunk within a senseless oblivion and into his waiting arms.

Now she couldn’t seem to get her bearings. She recognized her bed in the guest room where she slept in Diane’s house. What she didn’t understand was how Tristan and Alec had come to be there in the first place.

As if reading her mind, Tristan began to explain, taking her hand gently in his and raising it to his lips. “Alec and I were lucky enough to have come over to see you tonight. We’d tried to give you breathing space all these weeks but Diane for one knew how much we longed to get the chance to meet with you and talk over what happened. So when tonight she called us and said she’d be out on a dinner date and felt bad leaving you all alone tonight, she suggested we come over and try our seduction skills on her impromptu roommate.”

His slow, sexy grin made Rebecca’s cheeks redden and she burrowed against the pillow just for something to do while trying to keep her treacherous hormones at bay. Was she totally crazy for getting hotter, especially after what she’d been through?

But then Tristan was scowling again. “It was a good thing we showed up. We were just in time to hear the shouting from the front door which you’d incidentally forgot to shut properly. We charged in and acted as quickly as we could.”

“And Jason?” Rebecca asked.

“Oh, he wouldn’t be walking around molesting females for a while,” said Alec grimly, from the door of the bedroom. Rebecca drew in a startled breath, looking up as just then, Alec strode in, holding a laden tray which he placed on the nearby bedside table.

“The way I wanted to leave him, he’d be living life out of a straw – but luckily for him, Tristan pulled me off him just in time. And by the time he’s out of hospital he’ll find himself out of a job because we’ve made a few calls and he wouldn’t be welcome at that financial firm he’s working with.”

Rebecca’s head whirled faster than ever. Alec’s tone and gaze softened as he sat on the other side of the bed and took her free hand in a grip as gentle yet possessive as Tristan’s.

“Don’t worry about that loser,” Alec said gently. “If he even thinks of pressing charges for getting every one of his bones bashed in, then he’ll risk getting slapped with attempted rape. Tristan and I are still trying to make up our mind if we shouldn’t insist that you tell the police anyway.”