The Mistress (11 page)

Grace’s throat tightened.

“I can’t even imagine.” Grace thought of the child she once carried. A child never meant to be and yet still a small part of her grieved for what could have been. “What she must have felt losing you and then finding you again....”

He fell silent and stared at the pictures in the locket. Grace ached to touch him—his hand, his face—but the priest’s collar he wore around his neck and the wall he’d warned her to stay behind kept her from reaching out to him.

“And now the only other woman in the world I have ever loved is trapped in the very same house where my mother was trapped and raped and lived in fear. And for the same reason—for loving me. There is no way Marie-Laure did this on her own. She has help. She has... I can’t even think about it.”

“Then don’t think about it,” Grace said with more confidence than she felt. “Nora wouldn’t want us to. She’d want us to get her the hell out of there. We know where she is, yes? What’s the plan?”

“Kingsley will attempt to get her out. He begged me to let him try. I couldn’t say no.”

“Alone?”

“If anyone can rescue her without bloodshed, it’s him.”

“Without bloodshed?”

“He’s lived with the guilt of his sister’s death for thirty years. All this time he blamed himself, believing it was suicide. I can’t ask him to kill her again. I won’t.”

“If that doesn’t work, if he can’t get her out, is there a plan B?”

Søren didn’t answer.

Kingsley came up the stairs and faced them from the landing. “Daniel said to come anytime.”

“Who’s Daniel?” Grace asked.

Kingsley gave a cold sort of laugh. “He’s an old...friend, I suppose. His late wife and I were lovers before they met and got married. When she died, Daniel holed up in his house for a few years. Took his pet to get him back out again.” Kingsley pointed at Søren.

“You mean Nora?” Grace narrowed her eyes at Kingsley.

“The very same. He lent her to Daniel for a week.”

“For what?” Grace wasn’t sure if she wanted the answer.

A broad grin crossed Kingsley’s face. Søren wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Our Nora has a magic pussy. It’s the opposite of the Bermuda Triangle. Lost men sail into it and then find themselves.”

“Kingsley, that’s enough.” Søren glared at him.

“You were her first Lost Boy,” Kingsley said, entirely uncowed by Søren.

“Daniel’s an old friend,” Søren said to her, ignoring Kingsley. “His house is very close to my half sister Elizabeth’s house. That’s all that matters. Has Daniel warned Anya we’re coming?” He turned back to Kingsley.

“He said Anya and the children are in Montreal for a few days.”

“Good,” Søren said. “We want as few people involved in this as possible.”

“We’ll leave the children here. And you, too,
madame,
” Kingsley said, facing Grace.

“I’m going, too. Wherever it is, I’m going.” No way in hell would she return to England until she saw Nora safe again.

“She’s coming with us, Kingsley.” Søren stood up so that he towered feet above Kingsley down on the landing. “So are Wesley and Laila. It’s for the best and you know it.”

Kingsley gave Søren a cold and bitter stare, a stare so hard and so sharp it could have cleaved a diamond in two.

“Goddamn you,” Kingsley said, and Søren made no reply. The Frenchman turned on his heel and disappeared back down the stairs.

“What was that about?” Grace came back to her feet.

“Kingsley doesn’t care for plan B.”

15

THE QUEEN

Once upon a time...

W
hen Nora woke up that morning two and a half years ago, she knew exactly what she could do to make this fucking day bearable. She needed sex and lots of it. Luckily sex and lots of it was one naughty voice mail message away.

Griffin...darling...this message is for your cock. I’d like to spend the day with it if it would be so obliging. Have it call me back if interested.

At about noon, Griffin’s usual waking hour, he called her back. She didn’t even have to finish asking if he wanted to spend the day playing before he said, “Yes, yes and yes. Oh, and my cock says yes, too. And thanks for asking.”

Once Wes left the house for school, Nora had dressed in her best fuck-me attire—thigh-high black boots, short, pleated black skirt, tight white blouse and panties that were designed to end up on the floor and stay there all night. She couldn’t get to Griffin’s fast enough. She and Wes had only been living together about two and a half months. She loved having him in the house. The house felt like home with him around, but the kid made it really fucking difficult to get laid these days. Today she would be proactive. Desperate times called for desperate orgasms.

When she arrived at his posh East Village apartment, Nora grabbed Griffin by the shirt and pushed him into the wall without him putting up anything remotely resembling a fight.

“Missed you, too,” he said, his hands already sliding up the backs of her thighs and under her skirt.

“Behave yourself.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

Nora pushed her tongue into his mouth, so warm and eager.

“Good question,” she whispered into his lips.

She knew Griffin had hoped for sex and lots of it, and he would get it, most definitely. But she’d decided to make him work for it a little first. So she pulled out her favorite game, one Søren had taught her—the “pick a number” game. A wonderful game, especially since the person picking never knew what he or she was picking until after they’d made the choice. “Pick a number between one and four,” she’d said after dragging Griffin by his shirt to the living room, pushing him down and straddling his hips on the floor.

“Two,” he’d said.

“Spoilsport.” He always did play it safe with her mind games. One to four could mean how many fingers she shoved inside him. One to four could mean how many times she’d let him fuck her. Today one to four meant how many hours she would tease him before they got down to the actual fucking. So for two hours, she slowly stripped him naked, kissed and nibbled on every inch of him—his tattooed biceps, his strong collarbone, his favorite inches—but never once did she let him come.

At one hour and forty-five minutes, she tied him to a chair. She’d seen Griffin put at least a dozen men and women into similar situations. Fucking the tied up and immobilized made the sexual violating so much easier.

Once she’d secured Griffin, she sat on the leather sofa opposite him. She pulled her panties down and draped them over his thighs. Then, throwing one leg over the arm of the sofa, she proceeded to pleasure herself in rather graphic fashion. She found it gratifying to tease him about how her underwear seemed to be rising off his lap.

“Nora...please,” he begged, “you’re killing me here.”

“That’s
Mistress
Nora to you.”

“You shouldn’t treat another Dominant like this.”

“If you didn’t want to be my man-whore today, you shouldn’t have let me in your place.”

“I’ll never do it again.”

“Really?” she asked, lifting her hips to give him a better view.

“Okay, I totally will. Please?”

“I am so wet right now. Can you tell?”

Nora spread herself as wide open as she could. To make the show a little better, she slowly slid a finger in and out of her vagina. Griffin moaned in the back of his throat.

“My clit’s swollen, too. Wonder what I should do about that...”

“I have some suggestions.”

Nora coughed.

“I have some suggestions, Mistress,” Griffin said. Even a hard-core Dominant like Griffin knew better than to antagonize a horny Domme in the mood to top.

“I think my panties just saluted my vagina.”

“My cock would love to salute your cervix.”

“You have quite a way with the pickup lines, Griff. If you beg some more, I might let you salute any part of me you want.”

“Please, fuck me, Mistress. Or let me fuck you. Or grab someone off the street and let me fuck him or her while you watch. I don’t care. I need my cock inside someone, you preferably, in the next five seconds or I will die in this chair, and you’re going to have to answer to the law for that. And my parents.”

“Oh, I’m so scared. Not your parents.”

“Dad can get pissy.”

“I’m still not scared. Let’s try bribery. If I fuck you now, will you promise to give me a massage after?”

“I will massage anything and everything you want me to, Mistress. Especially your pussy with my entire hand.”

“Will you take me out to dinner?”

“You pick the place. I’m buying.”

“Of course you are. I think I could use a night in the city, too. I might want to ride your cock all night long.”

“Anywhere.
Mi cock es su cock.
”

“Gansevoort penthouse.”

“It’s yours.”

Nora rolled up off the couch and dug in her bag for the necessary items.

“Now I’m going to gag you. Don’t take it personally. It’s easier for me to orgasm if you aren’t talking my ear off the entire time.”

“Anything. Cut my tongue out. Just fuck me.”

“Your desperation is very pleasing, Griffin. If you keep this up, I might even let you come, too.”

“I’m keeping it up, I swear to God.”

“I can tell,” she said, eyeing his erection.

Nora ripped open the condom package and tossed her panties across the room. She took about one minute longer than necessary to roll the condom onto Griffin. Afterward, she grabbed a rubber ducky squeaky toy from her bag and shoved it into his bound hands. Once gagged Griffin wouldn’t be able to safe out or tell her he needed to talk. Squeezing the duck would be his out. Not once in their years as fuck buddies had he ever squeezed the duck.

“By the way,” Nora said as she slathered Griffin in lubricant, “if you come before I come, I’m leaving you tied to this chair for another hour while I fuck myself with the vibrator in my bag. Then I’ll take pictures of you trapped like this and send them to Kingsley, who will show every single member of his household before putting them in your file.”

“You’re a sadistic bitch, Mistress.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere.”

“Will it get me laid? That’s all I care about right now.”

“It’s about to.”

For a moment Nora considered spending five minutes longer than she had to gagging Griffin to torture him a little further. But she was horny enough and she was in no mood to torture herself.

She straddled Griffin’s legs but didn’t let him inside her yet. As she hooked the heels of her boots onto the bottom chair rungs, she unbuttoned her blouse and unclasped her bra in the front. Pressing her bare breasts against his chest, she relished the warmth of his male body against her hardening nipples. Later she would make him suck and kiss them for a solid half hour while he engaged in some digital pussy worship. Griffin was fantastically good with his hands, after all. She had it all planned out. They’d get to the hotel and then she’d tell him exactly what he would be doing to her for the rest of the night. No reason to tell him now. Not like he was going to argue with her about any of it. And he certainly wouldn’t be given a choice.

Nora reached down and grasped Griffin, guiding him to the entrance of her body. Slowly, one inch at a time, she sunk down onto him, taking him deep inside her.

“That’s better, isn’t it?” she asked, and the gagged Griffin mutely nodded. “I’m a big fan of your cock, my dear. I should spend more time with it.”

Griffin’s head fell back as Nora began to move on him, working her hips in a slow, undulating figure-eight motion. He filled her body so completely...she wanted to stay here all day and all night with him inside her. Everything disappeared during sex. Memories, dreams, all the ghosts of her past...gone. She became a being of pure sensation, pure desire. She loved sex for a thousand reasons, but these days she loved it mostly for the escape it gave her, the bliss of oblivion. And she needed that oblivion...especially today.

With one hand on the back of the chair and one hand between their bodies and against her clitoris, Nora brought herself to the edge of orgasm and stayed there. She kissed Griffin’s neck, bit his shoulders, nipped at his ears. She loved his moans, his sharp breaths, his hard stomach tightening even more as he held off coming as he’d been ordered.

But in the back of her mind Nora heard something...a familiar sound.

“Fuck.” She sighed as her phone began to vibrate from inside her toy bag. But the phone she’d brought with her was her private line. Only three people had the number to it—Kingsley, Søren and Wesley. She’d already gotten chewed out this week by Kingsley for not taking his calls. She always answered the phone when Søren called. And Wesley...he worried about her when she didn’t answer, and she hated to make him worry.

“Hold that cock,” she said as she raised up and off Griffin. She grabbed the phone out of her bag and answered without even checking the number.

“Hey, Nor,” Wesley said over the line.

“What’s up, kid?” she asked as she climbed onto Griffin again and pushed him once more inside her.

“You sound out of breath. You okay?”

“I was walking.” It was only half a lie, she told herself. She
was
walking... At some point that day she definitely had been walking.

“Are you home again?”

“Yeah, of course.” She winced a little at the outright lie. But she knew telling Wesley she was currently impaled on one of the sexiest men in New York wasn’t an option, not unless she wanted him in a depressed funk for a week. Why he cared so much about who she fucked was beyond her, but he did care and that made
her
care.

“I need a favor. Me and Fitz are pulling an all-nighter at Josh’s. Can you maybe bring me one of my insulin pens? I mean, only if you’re not busy.”

“It’s fine. Not busy.”

“If you’re busy—”

“Not. Busy.”

“Can you read my final paper, too? It’s due tomorrow.”

Nora almost groaned aloud, but not from pleasure. She’d painted herself into a corner with lies. She couldn’t tell Wes no now that she said she was home and not busy. Now she had to drive back to Connecticut, drive to his school, read his twenty-page final and help him fix it. Wes was a math and science geek, not a writer. This would take all night. “Where are you?”

“Basketball court for the next hour or two. Can you come?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m definitely coming.”

She hung up the phone and dropped it onto the carpet. With renewed determination, she rode Griffin harder, slamming her hips into his, grinding her clitoris into the base of his cock. With a lusty gasp, she came hard, squeezing him with her inner muscles so hard he flinched underneath her. She kept moving. He’d been such a good boy he deserved his orgasm.

“Come for me,” she ordered. “Come now.”

He didn’t require any more encouragement. Nora dug her nails into his shoulders as he came with a shudder, the rubber duck falling from his fingers as he panted against her chest.

“Very nice,” she said, pulling off him. She untied the gag and his hands.

“Nice? That’s all I get is a ‘nice’?” Griffin teased as he grabbed her and dragged her to him. “I’m going to spend all night showing you how not ‘nice’ I am.”

“Can’t. Change of plans.” Nora found her panties and dragged them on under her skirt. She closed her bra again and buttoned up her blouse. “I’m needed.”

“Needed?” Griffin yanked his long-abandoned boxer briefs back on. “What about the night in the city? Gansevoort? All night riding my cock? I think we had this discussion.”

“Rain check?” she asked, a small pang of guilt stabbing her heart. “I have to do a favor for a friend.”

“Nora...” Griffin gazed at her with a look of utter disappointment on his face.

“Griffin...” She tried to smile at him.

“He better be really fucking good in bed to dump me.”

With a sigh, Nora put her arms around Griffin and kissed his chest. He made no move to return the embrace.

“It’s not personal, and it’s not about sex. Trust me, I’m not getting laid tonight. Come on, you know I’m crazy about you.”

“You have a fan-fucking-tastic way of showing it.”

“Please don’t be mad. Seriously, I’m not leaving your bed for someone else’s. I have to do a friend a favor. That’s all.”

He nodded and she rose up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.

“I’m serious about the rain check,” she said as she gathered her toys and zipped up her bag. “I love fucking you.”

“I love fucking you, too...and you’d love it if you let me.”

“We’ve had this talk. I don’t let anyone top me anymore.”

“Except for Søren.”

“Søren has needs.” She hated having this conversation with Griffin. Griffin loved reminding her she was a switch, and as a switch, she should be a little more flexible in the bedroom, i.e., let him top her every now and then. As much as that fantasy appealed to her, she’d tried subbing with other men, and all she’d done during the sex was think of Søren the entire time. He was the only man she let top her these days and even then only on rare occasion. Griffin deserved better than that. He deserved better than this, too. But for Wes? Anything.

“I have needs, too. I need someone who isn’t going to dump me for someone else after making plans with me.”

Nora stood by the door and stared back at Griffin—gorgeous, kinky, rich, hilarious, sexy as fuck Griffin. And she did want to stay and have her wild night of sex and kink with Griffin. All she had to do was call Wes back and say, “Hey, something’s up. I had to go. You’ll have to get your own pen.” And Wes would say, “Okay.”

But she didn’t.