Knight Takes Queen (27 page)

He smiled faintly. ‘I have been for—’

‘Since you met me?’ she said with a grin.

‘Yeah, pretty much.’

But he didn’t lose it completely because he never really did. Not after a lifetime of disciplined restraint.

‘Get dressed,’ he said, zipping up his shorts. ‘We’re going downtown.’

‘What should I wear?’

‘It doesn’t matter.’ He gave her lush nudity a spare up-and-down glance. ‘You just can’t go like that. I’ll meet you in my office.’ He lifted his wrist enough to see his watch. ‘Five minutes, baby. The orders start now.’

She hesitated, intrinsically resistant to that tone of voice.

‘Your call.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Four minutes, fifty seconds. Either you want it or you don’t.’ He turned and walked away.

Four minutes later she entered his office and his brows rose.

‘What?’ she said.

‘You’re going in that?’

‘You didn’t give me much time. I grabbed this stuff in a hurry. Hey – you’re not getting out of this deal.’ She gave him a hard look. ‘You said it didn’t matter what I wore.’

She looked like some beautiful waif, her curls unruly as usual, a pink flush to her cheeks, his plaid pyjama pants dragging on the floor, the tiny spangled jean jacket she liked barely covering her big tits.

‘The clothes you wore to your appointment were still on the floor in the living room where you dropped them,’ he pointed out.

‘Maybe you shouldn’t have said four minutes, fifty seconds and I might not have panicked. We can’t all be cold as nails every second.’ She stood up a little straighter, her lush boobs almost burst out of the jacket and Dominic decided being cold as nails wasn’t going to be particularly easy for him either. ‘For your information,’ she said, crisply, standing very straight, facing her adversary with eyes like green flame, ‘I want this baby, so do your fucking best. I’m not losing this round or any round.’

He smiled. ‘Never a dull moment, baby. I’ll give you that.’

‘As long as you give me your cum for the next three weeks, I’ll make sure it’s never dull.’ Her smile, like his, was barefaced cheek. ‘So where are we going?’

‘Sit down.’ He pointed at the table in the centre of the room. ‘I need you to sign something first.’

Kate walked to the table, sat, and picked up the single sheet of paper covered in Dominic’s bold handwriting and
read the contract defining her health regimen should she become pregnant. She looked up. ‘Sure there’s nothing else? Perhaps a twenty-four/seven monitor to watch me?’

‘I’ll be doing that.’

She met his cool blue gaze. ‘Then I need a piece of paper too.’

‘For?’

‘
Your
contract. If you want me to follow all these goddamn instructions, daily I might add, for nine months, I have one requirement too.’ She smiled at him. ‘Surely in the art of the deal, that makes you the winner.’

He carried over a sheet of paper, dropped it on the table, took the chair opposite her and watched her write swiftly.

She shoved the paper across the table. ‘I’ll sign yours when you sign mine.’

He read the single sentence in her small half-printed, half-written script. Under any other circumstances, he would have considered it a gift from the gods.

I, Dominic Knight, will deposit my semen in my wife’s vagina at least three times daily during the next three weeks
.

He looked up, one brow raised. ‘Pretty specific.’

‘And yours wasn’t?’

A muscle flexed over his cheekbone, his gaze cooled.

‘You need a pen,’ she said into the taut silence. She was equally uninterested in compromise.

He took a small breath, leaned back in his chair and plucked two pens from the canister on his desk. Facing
forward again, he looked at her, his expression grim. ‘Last time. I’m against this.’

‘Last time. You promised me. Sign.’

He tossed her a pen, followed by a swift scratching of pens on paper, a mute exchange of documents. Kate folded hers up and put it in her jacket pocket. Dominic took his to his desk and locked it in a drawer. Returning to the table, he held out his hand and said with cool sarcasm, ‘May the games begin …’

‘You’ll thank me someday.’ She smiled and took his hand.

‘Don’t count on it,’ he grumbled, pulling her to her feet and leading her to the door.

She stumbled on the dragging legs of Dominic’s pyjamas.

He stopped, quickly kneeled and rolled the flannel material up over her ankles. ‘All we need is a broken leg to make the day complete,’ he muttered, coming to his feet.

‘Don’t be so grumpy. Now you’re sure what I’m wearing is OK?’ She couldn’t keep the elation from her voice. She had his word, his signature and soon – his baby.

‘I’m sure. You won’t be wearing it long.’

‘Tell me where we’re going.’

He gave her a cool look. ‘Surprise.’

Since the lower level at his house was in use, his garage was under the house next door where his security lived. He didn’t take his Tesla this time, but a car she didn’t recognize. It was a burgundy-coloured, low, racy sports car, the sound of the engine when he fired up, a low animal growl. Driving it up the ramp, they came out in the driveway, then
onto the street so smoothly Kate murmured, ‘Wow. This has horsepower. What’s it called?’

‘A McLaren. Six-sixteen under the hood.’ He tapped the accelerator and the car shot forward.

‘Top speed? Gramps raced on the dirt tracks back home. Saturday night at the fairgrounds always emptied the town.’

‘Two-oh-four.’

She glanced at Dominic with raised brows. ‘Ever take it there?’

He gave her a quick grin. ‘Once or twice.’

‘You have to let me drive it. I used to race with Gramps once in a while. He let me do the demolition derby ‘cause I wouldn’t wreck his good car.’

‘We’ll see. You’re on my shit list right now.’

‘Fuck you.’

‘Soon, baby.’ He took his hands off the wheel for a second and made a rude gesture with his fingers.

‘Jeez, you’re a sore loser.’

He scowled. ‘And you’re living in some fantasy land where things always go right.’

‘Well, they can’t
always
go wrong. You know odds as well as I.’

‘This might not be about odds. It might be something else. Something that always goes wrong.’

‘If I didn’t want this conception to be as immaculate as possible, I’d say have a couple or ten drinks and relax.’

He turned and gave her an insolent smile. ‘I have something to show you. After you put it on, I’ll relax.’

‘Good. At least there’s light at the end of the tunnel. What is it?’

‘Surprise,’ he said again, reached over, and patted her cheek. ‘It won’t be long, baby.’

He was uncommunicative after that, answering her with grunts or nods or one-word answers until she finally said, semi-pissy, ‘Am I bothering you?’

‘Nope.’ He was weaving through traffic.

The indifference in his voice only made her more angry. ‘You’re just being mean now.’

He braked hard, the cars behind them on the city street hit their horns. He stuck his arm out the window, gave them the finger, then ignored the traffic jam building up in their lane, took her jaw and turned her head so she could see the fury in his eyes. ‘One last time, baby. I don’t want you to die. I’m not being mean. I’m fucking scared shitless and it pisses me off.’ Then he released her chin, stomped on the accelerator and closed up the open space in front of him. ‘Let’s not have this argument again,’ he said to the road ahead. ‘It’s getting tedious.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she said in a tiny voice.

He didn’t look at her. ‘You better fucking be.’

Thoroughly contrite, understanding the extent of his concession to her, she fell silent.

He drove to what looked like a hotel or apartment building. A liveried doorman stood outside polished brass double doors; otherwise, there was no sign to indicate the building’s function. Dominic parked in the alley behind
the building in a no-parking zone, smoothly backing into a spot between two huge generators. Then sliding out of his seat, he walked around the car to help Kate out, his expression still forbidding.

‘Do I dare say you’re in a no-parking zone?’

‘They won’t tow me.’

She wanted to ask why, but, mindful of Dominic’s grim look and her recent crossing of the line, she didn’t say a thing. He unlocked a heavy metal door, led her inside to a small amber marble foyer with a single elevator. Punching some numbers on a keypad on the wall, the doors slid open and he motioned her in. There was no control panel inside, and once the door shut, they rose for some time, then stopped. ‘We’re here,’ he said, as if she knew what
here
meant and waved her out.

She almost said,
Wow
, but on her best behaviour after his blunt disclosure in the car, she remained mute. But the Roman mosaics on the walls and floor were real. That they were depictions of erotic scenes didn’t surprise her, but the fact that they’d been transported in their entirety was impressive.

Dominic walked over and past the mosaics without notice and shoved open two large bronze doors that swung back silently on their hinges.

Another flick of his hand to usher her in.

The doors shut automatically behind them.

‘We’ll stay here for a few days. This way.’

She followed him through a huge living room with a stupendous
view of the bay, through a dining room that could accommodate a large dinner party, down a long hallway with several doors to the left of them, into a bedroom at the end of the hall with more splendid views. The Italian modern furniture, unlike his home on Cliffside, was designer coordinated in shades of grey and red, the sofas in muted grey suede, the large chairs upholstered in scarlet silk obviously down cushioned, an occasional accent piece in chartreuse the only bright colour in the very masculine decor.

The atmosphere was one of lifeless perfection.

Even in the bedroom. The large bed was set on a low platform, the dove-grey bedspread tailored in something uninvitingly sleek, the pillows simple white squares, the mirror on the ceiling framed in narrow chrome.

‘Do you come here often?’ she asked.

‘Not anymore. You can leave your clothes here.’ He stood in the middle of the bedroom, his shuttered gaze on her.

‘And you?’

‘You can leave your clothes here, Katherine. I believe we agreed you would oblige me in this project of yours.’

It was a threat no matter how softly put. She reached for the metal buttons on her jacket.

He watched her silently as she took it off, then untied the knot at the waist of his pyjama pants and let them slide to the carpet.

‘I forgot to ask,’ he said mildly, as though she wasn’t standing nude before him. ‘Are you hungry? Would you like to eat first?’

‘I’m fine. Maybe later,’ she responded, equally as coolly.

He smiled tightly. ‘Very well.’ Another gesture, as though he were leading her to her table at a restaurant. He indicated a door, reached it before her, took a key from his pocket, unlocked it and swung the door open. ‘After you.’

She came to a stop a foot inside the room, wide-eyed, a tumult of emotions racing through her brain: jealousy and resentment, apprehension, insult, incredulity. Then she turned and said, peevishly, ‘Really?’

‘We can stop this game right now,’ he said, softly.

‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’

‘I would.’

She surveyed the mirrored room, the chains hanging from trolleys in the ceiling, the manacled cross on one black leather-padded wall, the sex swing in violet leather, the marble table that wasn’t for a normal dinner, the upholstered metal bars in the form of an X, the padded red leather gym horses. The shelves filled with sex toys. ‘Is this supposed to frighten me?’

‘I don’t know, Katherine. This entire project of yours is a mind fuck for me. Ask me something else. I can’t answer that.’

‘Do you want me to get pissed about all the women who were here before me and walk away?’

‘I haven’t a clue. I just want to stop. I want to go back home and do what we were doing. That’s what I want.’

Kate softly exhaled. ‘You know what
I
want. You promised me.’

He stared at her for a moment. ‘I did, didn’t I.’ His voice changed, cooled, his stance shifted as though he was fully in possession of his body in this room, the magnetic pull of memory intense. Raw. His expression darkened. ‘Let me show you your new toy.’

He drew the door shut behind them and she heard it lock. Taking her hand at her small start, as if she might bolt or perhaps some before her had, he led her over to a black granite topped table on which a birchwood box had been centred and released her hand. ‘You might remember we talked about this before we left for London. Open the box. I had it made for you.’

She lifted the lid and visibly caught her breath. Inside, resting on a white velvet cushion, was a gold mesh and colourfully jewelled chastity belt.

‘It’s a copy of a Saracen design. Velvet lined. Do you like it?’

‘Am I supposed to like it?’

He smiled for the first time since they’d entered his apartment. ‘Probably not as much as me. Would you like help putting it on?’

‘This is impractical if I’m trying to get pregnant.’

‘Just put it on, Katherine.’

‘If I don’t?’

‘I’ll do it for you.’

Her eyes were little chips of green glass. ‘For how long, Dominic?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t even know why we’re here. But I
do know this isn’t open to negotiation.’ His voice dropped to a low growl. ‘None of this is – unless you want to leave. Now put the goddamn thing on.’

She didn’t move for a few moments.

He went still, wanting her to cancel, renege, give up this dangerous game.

Then she took a step forward.

He clenched his fists because he felt like hitting something.

She lifted the hand-made girdle from the box, held it up briefly trying to understand the mechanism. Then she struggled with the supple gold mesh while he watched without helping. Until she finally had the jewelled belt buckled around her waist, had drawn the velvet lined metal strap between her legs and turned to him to lock the clasp at her back.