The Billionaire's Pet (14 page)

“Every life has its challenges,” he replied evenly.

“Oh, yeah, what challenge have you ever had?” She blazed the question at him.

“Well, both my parents died when I was seven,” he said. “That was challenging.”

“Sure,” Ellie snapped even as her face flushed with embarrassment. “Play the dead parent card.”

He looked at her with a raised brow, silent for a second. “I’ll take that as an expression of your inability to admit you’re wrong, rather than a lack of empathy.”

“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “It’s just… being tied up makes me a terrible person. You should untie me.”

“Nice try,” he chuckled. “This is about the only way I can get you to have a proper conversation with me.”

“That’s not true.”

“Yes, it is,” he said, running the tip of his finger over the rise of her breasts with a slow, teasing touch. “If I tried having this conversation with you without you being tied up you’d have run away by now.”

“So?”

“So you don’t want to admit what’s between us in the light of day,” he said. “You’re ashamed of how you are when you’re with me. And you’re making up all sorts of reasons why we can’t be together. I’m too rich, I’m too privileged; those aren’t reasons to reject me. It’s your fear that’s doing that. You don’t trust me, Ellie, and it’s not because of who I am, or something I’ve done.”

“Nobody hurt me,” she bit out between clenched teeth. “I’m just a bitch.”

“No, you’re not. And you can’t hide that from me. Not here. Not now.”

She closed her eyes, shutting him out and making every muscle in her body tense in the process.

“I’m not going to let you off the hook, kitten,” he said, running his fingers over the back of her neck. “I want to know what’s going on with you. I want you to know that I care for you more than whips and chains and rope and harness.”

Ellie said nothing, barricading her emotions behind walls of stoicism.

“I love you, Ellie,” he murmured to her in her darkness. She felt his fingers combing through her hair, the tips of his fingernails scratching lightly over her scalp in a soothing, comforting fashion.

Tears began to prick at her lashes, brought forth not by pain, but by the sudden sense of his care.

“Stop trying to get close to me,” she whispered. “There’s nothing to get close to.”

“Very Zen, my pet, but I think there is plenty of you left to explore.”

He pressed his lips to hers and kissed her softly, his tongue massaging hers in a languid caress that took her breath away.

“Stop it,” she sniffed. “Stop being nice.”

“I am not going to stop,” he said. “Not until you stop hiding from me. Every time I get close to seeing who you really are, you shut down, or you run, or you put on a snarky little act to try to distract me. Right now you’d rather I whipped your butt with my belt than made you talk to me, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes!” The word burst out of her mouth as she opened her eyes and looked at him with wet fury. “Yes, Daniel, I would, because then at least I’d be getting what I deserve.”

He looked at her with sadness in her eyes. “You don’t think you deserve kindness, do you.”

“I don’t,” she replied. “I’m a coldhearted bitch, Daniel. I’m everything you despise. You’ve known that from day one.”

His fingers curled in the hair at the base of her neck as he forced her to look at him. “I do not despise you,” he said firmly. “I love you. I went to France for you, and dammit, Ellie, I would have gone to hell if I’d had to. You’re mine. Do you understand that yet? Mine.”

Fierce possession and love blazed in his eyes, but she could not feel it. She was trying so hard to maintain control that she couldn’t feel anything but the heavy weight in her chest. The ropes holding her secure and Daniel’s hands steadying her kept her present, facing feelings she’d always run from before.

“Tell me, Ellie, what happened?”

“Don’t make me play the dead parent card too,” she said with grim humor.

“You lost your parents?”

“Actually, no. They’re probably not dead. They’re just dead to me. They left me at a bus station when I was fourteen,” she said bluntly. “I haven’t seen or spoken to them since.”

“They left you at a bus station?” His face crumpled into a scowl. “You mean they abandoned you?”

“I was okay,” she reassured him. “I got a job delivering papers and I enrolled myself in school. I’d sneak into classrooms and sleep under the teacher’s desk at night. Eventually I got a scholarship to college and I never looked back. I didn’t need them. They did me a favor getting rid of me.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” he said sadly. “No wonder you’re…”

“A bitch?” She finished his sentence for him. “I don’t need anyone, Daniel,” she said, her tone suddenly fierce. “I can take care of myself. I always have.”

“I was going to say strong,” he said. “And stubborn. My poor pet, you’ve been on your own so long you don’t know how to rely on anyone else, do you?”

Ellie squirmed in her bonds. Daniel was closer to her than anyone ever had been, and now he knew the secret she had guarded her entire life. Averting her eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks, Ellie was hit by a sudden wave of grief.

“Shhh.” Daniel wrapped his arms around her and pulled the quick release ties on her bonds. She slumped against his body as he scooped her up, one arm under her rear, the other stroking her hair as she sobbed against his shoulder. “I’ve got you,” he murmured in her ear. “It’s going to be okay. I’ve got you.”

He carried her from the stables into the house, which was warm and quiet and somehow still intimate in spite of how very large it was. The old-fashioned narrow halls contributed to a sense of safety as Daniel carried her to the wing he occupied and settled her down on his lap on a large comfortable couch in a drawing room.

“I’m a mess, Daniel,” she sniffed when she got her voice back. “You have no idea. You’re too good for me.”

“You’re not a mess,” he replied tenderly. “I have every idea. And you’re more than good enough.”

She snuggled into his body, felt his warmth and his strength. “If that were true, you wouldn’t be treating me like a pet.”

“Wrong, brat,” he said, patting her bottom. “Having you as my pet means I can take care of you in every way. And it means you can relax and let me. I don’t do this because you’re weak. I do it because you’re strong.”

Ellie looked up at him. “I always thought it was your way of trying to break me down.”

“No,” he said gently. “It was my way of making you give up some of that iron grip you had on control and learn to actually enjoy being taken care of. A way of letting you see that the sky doesn’t fall just because someone else is making the decisions for once.”

“I think I’m starting to enjoy it a little now,” she said in a small voice. His fingers were tracing over her back, fingernails gently scratching along the length of her spine in a soothing caress.

“Good,” he said. “Because there’s going to be a lot more of this coming your way, my pet. It’s not all butt plugs and spankings. It’s cuddles and talking and sharing our lives.”

“You should have led with the cuddles and talking.”

Daniel snorted. “You would have eaten me alive if I’d tried to romance you, Ellie. You need a firm hand. A very firm hand, or you completely run amok.”

She giggled, hiding her face in his chest.

“Am I wrong?”

“No,” she admitted. “You’re not wrong.”

“I didn’t think so.” He smiled down at her. “And now I know why.”

“Yeah,” she said softly. “Now you know.”

Ellie had held the secret of her abandonment close to her chest for over a decade, first to protect herself from ending up in some foster home, then because she could not afford to be seen as weak. She had poured herself into a career that provided the security she needed and she’d shut out the possibility of any real romantic connection—right up until Daniel Treville’s elegant force had penetrated her defenses and rendered her undone.

Daniel held her close, asking nothing of her, demanding no sex, no submission, nothing other than her presence and slowly Ellie began to relax more deeply into the realization that he loved her. He had said it, he had shown it. He had been patient as much as he had been strict, he had been kind as many times as he had been firm.

“We need no secrets,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head. “You never have to hide from me.”

“I know,” she said with a little smile. “I tried and it didn’t work anyway.”

“That’s because you can’t hide from those who love you,” Daniel said. “And you can’t fight fate. We were made for each other.”

“Why, because you already had a collection of butt plugs to fit me?”

“No, brat,” he smirked. “Because we complement one another. Your strength excites me, your rebellious nature entertains me, and your need to be able to put down the sword and shield and let someone take care of you has never been met before me.”

“That’s a little arrogant, don’t you think?”

“Maybe, but it’s also true,” he said with a tender smile.

Yet again, Daniel was right. Ellie snuggled into his powerful frame and let the last dregs of tension fade from her muscles. They were made for one another. Together they were better than either one of them was apart. She was softer, he was firmer. He finally had a challenge he could not overcome with nothing more than a winning smile and a fistful of dollars and she had someone who would love her, adore her, and never leave her.

The End

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