TheBillionairesPilot (16 page)

As Cassie and Evan walked past the first
small throng of people on the right, Cassie realized they were watching a Dom
using a cane on the ass of a sub who was tied to a St. Andrew’s Cross. The
number of long red welts across the pale skin indicated the scene had been
going on for a while. Cassie winced in sympathy as the cane hit the sub yet
again. She hoped Evan wasn’t planning to use one on her. They hadn’t negotiated
tonight’s scene before leaving—a huge oversight she hoped she didn’t
regret—but she trusted Evan. She wanted to believe he would know her
limits by watching her body cues.

With a hand on the small of her back,
Evan guided her to the far end of the long room where a padded bench stood
thigh-high. Cassie glanced over her shoulder and found they’d attracted the
attention of their own crowd, several of the people having splintered off from
the other groups to gather around Evan and Cassie.

Her heart galloped in her chest, her
palms grew damp, and she found it difficult to swallow.

“Breathe, baby,” Evan whispered low into
her ear, soothing the fear that had been threatening to overwhelm her. “I’ve
got you.” His warm hands caressed her bare arms.

When she was centered back in herself, he
said, “Bend over the bench, Cassie.”

She glanced up at him then folded at the
waist, her breasts hanging out of the bustier toward the floor and her naked
ass and pussy on full display for the room behind her.

Evan ran a hand down her right cheek to
her thigh. “Mmmm…my perfect sub,” he said loud enough for the audience to hear.

Several approving voices echoed his
sentiment.

A shiver ran up Cassie’s back as she
anticipated Evan’s next move. She wanted with all her heart to please him, and
she hoped she wouldn’t do anything to embarrass him in front of his peers. She
knew how important this night was to him. She wanted it to be good for him.

He walked around the bench and crouched
down near her head. Using her knot of hair, he lifted her head to face him.
“You are allowed to speak and make all your pretty noises, Cassie. In fact, I
want to you to scream them out for me tonight.”

Cassie felt her wetness collect between
her thighs. “Yes, Sir,” she replied huskily.

Evan’s eyes flared with heat. “That’s my
good girl.” He released his grip on her hair and stood, returning to the other
side of the bench.

Before she could consider what would
happen next, a loud stinging slap landed on her right butt cheek, forcing a
yelp out of her mouth.

The crowd behind her chuckled darkly.

Evan followed the first slap quickly with
several more, heating both her cheeks evenly and giving attention also to the
crease of her upper thighs where the skin was more sensitive.

The strikes grew in intensity, and
Cassie’s yelps became sobs as tears gathered in her eyes, but she wanted with
all her soul for Evan to continue, to mark her as his in front of his peers, as
if this could guarantee she would have a forever place in his life.

Suddenly, Evan stopped the spanking, and
she cried out with disappointment because she’d been close to her subspace.
Then he dragged a finger between her folds. “Ah, my beautiful sub is soaking
herself. Good girl.”

Cassie waited, hanging upside down, for
Evan’s next move, but he was quiet at her back, and the audience was giving
nothing away in their silent observation. The pause was gnawing on her nerves,
bringing her back into the present moment, and she didn’t know if she could
stand another minute of it.

Then Evan was at her back. He rammed his
cock into her pussy and grabbed her hair knot, yanking her head back, so she
faced the red brick wall before her. Leaning over her body, he growled into her
ear as he slammed into her. “You’re mine, Cassie. All mine.”

His claiming, his possession of her, his
hard fast thrusts set her aflame. “Oh, Sir. I’m close, Sir. So close,” she
whimpered.

“Not yet, my pretty girl.” He grunted as
his hips pounded against her ass, mashing her clit against the padded bench.

“Oh, God, Sir. I’m close!” she screamed.

“Not till I tell you, girl.” He tightened
his left hand in her hair and smacked her ass hard with his right hand.

“Please, Sir,” she begged, tears flowing
freely down her cheeks, releasing some of her tension. The pain and the
pleasure swirled together in an endless pool, and she lost touch with her
surroundings.

“Now, precious girl. Come for me now!” he
demanded as he slapped sharply at her ass.

Cassie screamed out her orgasm as Evan
continued to bang her hard and fast against the bench. The addition of his
climax sent her flying higher than she’d ever gone before. She let loose her
sobs and tears, her breath catching in her throat and her body shaking
uncontrollably.

It was never ceasing, yet at the same
time ended much too soon. She returned to her senses to find Evan supporting
her limp body in his strong arms as he leaned against the bench.

Facing her, he kissed her neck and
shoulder with gentle lips, whispering soft reassuring words for her ears only.
“That’s my girl. I’ve got you, baby. Take your time. No rush.” He brushed her
cheeks with his thumb, wiping away some of the wetness.

She blinked her eyes open and hesitated
to meet his gaze, choosing to stare at his tie instead.

He tilted her chin up with his hand.
“Look at me, Cassie.”

Her body responded without hesitation to
his command, and she found what she thought might be pure male pride shining in
his eyes.

“You were perfect, baby girl.”

She responded with a tentative smile,
still feeling shaky from the intensity of the scene.

“I have something for you,” he said, his
attention fully on her, ignoring everyone around them.

He reached into his breast pocket and
pulled out a silver chain of infinity links. On one end was a heart-shaped
lock.

It was a collar.

Cassie’s throat constricted, and her
muscles bunched, preparing to bolt her out of the club. She wasn’t ready for a
collar. She didn’t want to be anyone’s full time slave, not even Evan’s. She
couldn’t take this side of her into public. She couldn’t lose her independence.
Her eyes darted around, looking for an escape.

Evan’s brow furrowed. “Look at me,
Cassie.”

Her gaze snapped back up to meet his.

“This is for our time at The Club. You
are mine, and accordingly, from now on, you will wear this collar when we play
at The Club. It signifies you are not available for play with others without my
permission,” he clarified.

Cassie swallowed down her fear with the
thought it was a temporary collar for their time together playing. He was
offering her so much, and she could see a touch of vulnerability in his eyes.
She wanted to please him more than anything else. She could do this for him.
She could do this for them both.

She gave a slight nod, and he grinned
broadly as he placed the collar around her bare neck, locking it in place. The
chain was lighter than it looked, but fit snugly enough that she was aware it
was there, aware that she belonged to Evan. And her heart swelled, filling the empty
places in her chest and sending a calmness through her she’d never felt before.

Chapter Fifteen

On
Friday night as Cassie danced in Evan’s arms at a gala fundraiser for a local
children’s hospital, she glanced around at the sea of New York’s elite swirling
around her on the dance floor to a slow beat. By now, she thought she should
feel more comfortable in her fancy gown surrounded by all the elegant men and
women of the upper echelons of New York society, but it all felt stiff and phony
to her still, and she struggled with her sense of inferiority.

Evan leaned down to her ear and
whispered, “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.” And really
nothing should be wrong. This should be a perfect moment in the arms of the man
she really was going to have a future with…if her name was Cinderella, her
inner cynic sneered.

He met her gaze, and his eyes narrowed.
“You know you can’t lie to me. I can see you’re unhappy. You’ve got that little
frown line above the bridge of your nose.”

“I’m sorry.” She sighed. “I really have
been trying.”

He pulled her closer to his body with his
arm around her waist. “Trying to do what?”

She paused before saying, “To feel like I
fit in. But I don’t.”

“What do you mean? Fit in how?”

She lifted her hand from his shoulder and
waved at the dancing couples around them. “With all these high society people.
They’re all so educated and refined and different from me.”

His brows furrowed. “What does that
matter?” His voice took on a slight edge.

“I never took a single college course,”
she tried to explain. “I went from high school to flight school.”

“And got one hell of an education while
flying Army helicopters in war zones.”

“So? What about all those liberal arts
classes I missed? The holes in my knowledge?” she insisted.

“Trust me. The only purpose of reading
all those books is to give knuckle-headed eighteen-year-olds a broader view of
the world because they have no life experience. But you’ve had more life
experiences than most people your age with college degrees.”

“But that doesn’t make me refined, like
they are.” He just wasn’t getting what she was trying to say.

“What do you mean by refined? Are you
talking about how they walk around with their noses in the air and never manage
to bump into anything?”

She giggled at the image of a roomful of
society’s elite running into each other like bumper cars as they stared up at
the ceiling.

“I’ve never seen you use the wrong fork,”
Evan continued, “or heard you mention inappropriate topics in conversation.
You’re just as refined as any lady in this room, Cassie.”

She sighed at his obvious refusal to
acknowledge the undeniable differences between her and every other woman in the
ballroom, but she couldn’t help liking him even more for it. She snuggled
closer to him as the slow song neared an end. He bent down and placed a warm
kiss on her lips, making her feel, indeed, like the luckiest woman in the room.

When the song ended, she excused herself
to go to the ladies’ room.

Evan held her tighter. “You’re going to
leave me alone with the wolves?” he complained about the women who still hit on
him, even though it was common knowledge he was an engaged man.

She kissed him on the nose. “I’ll be as
quick as I can. Then I’ll come and rescue you from the wild packs.”

He placed a longer-than-was-considered-appropriate-in-public
kiss on her lips. “Hurry back.”

“I will.” She scooted out of his arms and
headed for the bathroom.

Doing as she’d promised, she quickly took
care of business. Then as she stood in the bathroom stall straightening her dress
over her pantyhose, a group of women came in laughing and talking with loud
voices. It was impossible not to hear them mention a particular female
helicopter pilot.

Cassie’s breath seized in her chest as
she overheard one woman complain about the low-class chit who’d snagged herself
the most eligible bachelor in New York City.

“Evan deserves someone so much better
than her,” the shrill voice complained.

“Like you? We all know how much you’d
like to sink your claws into him, Sylvie,” her husky-voiced companion remarked.

“What the hell does he see in her?” a
third woman sniped. “She’s got mousy brown hair and the figure of a
twelve-year-old boy.”

The three women laughed boisterously.

Cassie’s gut burned with anger at their
description of her, and she was about to walk calmly out of the stall to the
sinks, hopefully to embarrass the shit out of them for being so rude, but she
hesitated when the shrill-voiced one continued speaking.

“She’s totally undeserving of him. Her
father was a nobody in the Navy, some enlisted guy, not even a commissioned
officer.”

“And she has no education.” Disdain
dripped from the second woman’s words. “She enlisted in the Army right after
high school.”

Self-doubt replaced the anger in her gut
as Cassie overheard the exact same argument she’d just had with Evan about why
she didn’t fit into his world. Why didn’t he recognize what she and these women
could see so clearly?

Cassie wasn’t an appropriate choice for
Evan. He needed a woman of his own class, though, certainly not any of these
three gossiping witches.

Cassie pictured him with some sweet and
polished young woman from a wealthy family, who vacationed in the Alps for the
skiing and on some exotic Caribbean island for the sun. Someone who could go
sailing with him without tossing her breakfast and who didn’t have to censor
her words to hide her foul-mouthed soldier’s vocabulary.

Cassie conveniently ignored the
incongruity of that “perfect” female image with what Evan enjoyed sexually, but
still, Cassie knew she wasn’t his best match. And maybe he could find a woman
who was pleasing and submissive both in and out of the bedroom, something
Cassie definitely was not.

How had she allowed herself to get so
carried away believing in a happily-ever-after with Evan? From the very
beginning, she’d known she was participating in a fairytale, but at some point
she’d become willing to believe it could be real. How could she have forgotten
the fundamental differences in their backgrounds, in their foundations?

The things she’d been proud of in her
world were liabilities in his. Being accepted into the highly competitive
fast-track high school to flight school program was an impressive accolade in
her life, but here, among these high-society types, it was merely another
example of how inappropriate she was for Evan.

Cassie quietly hid in the stall, hoping
the women would finish soon, so she could leave unseen, but they continued
talking about her.

“She must be damn good in bed then
because obviously she and Evan don’t have anything in common to talk about,”
the high-pitched voice said, making Cassie wince.

She glanced under the stall wall to see
if anyone else was in the bathroom listening, and only saw the three pairs of
women’s heels at the sinks.

“Did you hear the rumors that Evan paid
her to sleep with him?”

Cassie straightened and held her breath.
What
rumors?

“That’s ridiculous. Why would he have to
pay someone like her to sleep with him? He’s young, rich, gorgeous, and single.
He could have any woman he wanted without paying for a hooker.”

Cassie’s chest constricted as if an iron
band squeezed her ribs. They were right. She
had
taken a huge sum of
money from him to be his date, and she was still having her income supplemented
by him as they continued their charade that wasn’t quite a charade anymore.
And
she was sleeping with him.

Calling her a hooker really wasn’t so
far-fetched. What had started as a business deal had turned into something that
resembled prostitution.

Cassie held her clenched hands over her
stomach as it twisted into a knot.

“Did you see the Tattler article?” The
woman paused dramatically to wait for her companions’ attention.

“What did it say?” One of the women asked
expectantly.

“An inside source at Mitchell Industries
reported that Evan paid that tramp four thousand dollars to go to San Miguel
with him,” the woman announced gleefully.

“Damn! Do you think their source could be
telling the truth?”

“I bet it was that old guy assistant who
follows Evan around like a shadow. He was probably looking to make some extra
money by promoting the story.”

Cassie’s stomach churned, and she worried
she was going to toss her dinner. They were accusing Mr. Jacobs of selling
Evan’s privacy. She didn’t want to consider that there was any truth in it, but
she had to warn Evan of these rumors about his assistant.

It was also time for her to set things
right with Evan, which meant her life was going to be turned upside down again,
but she couldn’t go on pretending anymore that this life was for her.

After what seemed like a decade of
Cassie’s life, the women finished their business and left Cassie alone in the
bathroom. She avoided meeting her own eyes in the mirror above the sink as she
washed and dried her hands. Then she left the ladies’ room with very few pieces
of her dignity intact.

When she found Evan at their table, he
was engaged in an animated conversation with two men who were on the board at
Mitchell Industries. Cassie quietly took her seat and pasted a polite smile on
her face as she waited for the evening to come to an end.

Finally, it was time to go home, and
Cassie let go a sigh of relief. Immediately after that, she thought of the
conversation she was about to have with Evan, and her heart ached with nearly
unbearable pain.

In the limo back to Cassie’s apartment,
Evan tried to engage her in playful banter, but the lead weight in her chest
kept her from responding. Eventually, he gave up and asked her again what was
wrong.

“I thought you got over what was
bothering you tonight,” he said.

“I did…for a little bit,” she answered,
sounding calmer than she felt.

“So what’s going on?” He turned in the
back seat to face her.

She had two pieces of devastating news to
deliver, and she hated to hurt him with either one. She started with the
business news. “I think Mr. Jacobs sold information to a tabloid about our trip
to San Miguel.”

“What? That’s impossible,” Evan insisted.
“Dan would never do that.”

“I heard some women in the bathroom
mention an article in the Tattler about an inside source reporting you paid me
four thousand dollars to go to San Miguel with you. That’s pretty damning
information. Who else could have known?”

Evan cursed. “I don’t know, but it wasn’t
Dan. I’m sure of it, and I
will
find out who sold that information.”

“Are you going to confront Mr. Jacobs?”

“No, not until I get all the facts.” He
pulled out his cell phone and thumbed in a number. “Hey, Paul. It’s Evan. I
have a priority job for you.”

Cassie listened as Evan gave the other
man instructions to investigate the article and find the leaking source of
information. Then he snapped his phone shut and tucked it back in the chest
pocket of his tuxedo jacket.

“Okay, that’s taken care of. Now, we can
get to more pleasant topics.” He traced the outer edge of her earlobe with his
fingertip and bent down to kiss her.

She pushed her palms against his chest.
“Stop, Evan,” she pleaded.

He dropped his hand and leaned back in
his seat. “What is it?”

She glanced out of the car window at the
shining lights of the city passing by. “This isn’t going to work.” Her voice
was barely louder than a whisper as she forced the words out past the lump in
her throat.

“What’s not going to work?”

“You and I.” She turned to look at him.
“It’s time to end this sham relationship.”

“Where is this coming from?” he demanded,
suddenly angry. “I thought we already discussed this. We agreed to twelve
months.”

She shook her head and looked down at the
huge diamond on her finger. “This was supposed to be a business deal, but I’ve
prostituted myself.” She twisted the ring, the obvious outward sign that she’d
sold herself.

“I didn’t pay you to have sex with me,”
Evan insisted.

Her self-loathing turned into anger, an
easier emotion to deal with. “No, maybe not technically, but it was a nice
bonus for you, wasn’t it?” she sneered.

“God, Cassie. I can’t believe you’re doing
this now.” Evan’s face showed his unwillingness to let her go. “We’re good
together, regardless of how we got started. Why does it matter what some stupid
rag magazine says? They like to make stuff up. Most people don’t believe what
they read in those tabloids, whether it’s true or not.”