Master for Tonight (2 page)

After shooting a glare in Carl’s general
direction, Helen asked Kate to accompany her to her office at the
front of the building.

Helen sighed before speaking softly and with
care. “Kate, you’re burning yourself out. What was going on out
there? Do I have to tell you what it looked like you were doing? I
know you were trying to calm your anxiety, but you can’t do things
like that out in the open. You’re really lucky that Henry was there
and came to get me! You have burned the candle from both ends for a
while now, and the strain is catching up with you. I’ve watched how
you attack each day here almost as if it’s a race to get everything
done. It’s exhausting to watch, Kate! This shelter is not just your
responsibility. It is all of ours. Now, don’t get me wrong. You
have been our most outstanding volunteer in the last few years, and
we appreciate everything you’ve done, but…”

Jumping to the conclusion she was being
fired from a volunteer position, of all things, Kate rushed to
explain herself. “I’m really sorry, Helen. It just got so noisy out
there...so many people needing attention at the same time. I’ll be
okay in a few minutes, ready to get back on top of everything. It
was really stupid of me to do that out there in the open. Oh my
God! How that must have looked.”

Helen shook her head with a low laugh and
moved to sit beside Kate on the couch, placing a hand on hers. “If
you think I’m kicking you out, you couldn’t be more wrong! I just
think you have been giving so much of yourself, there isn’t much of
you left! We all need to take time for ourselves, and that is
nothing to feel guilty about. After all,” Helen gently scolded
Kate, looking into her eyes with sincere concern, “how can we care
for others, unless we first care for ourselves? Bottom line? You
need a break.”

After a bit more back and forth, Helen
convinced Kate to take some time off for herself. Although
everything on Kate’s list could be handled by someone else, Helen
didn’t trust her not to sneak in another task before leaving, so
she accompanied Kate, under the guise of small talk, as she
gathered her things from her locker. Helen walked her to the front
door and shooed her away with a smile as Kate exited the building,
to the parking lot. Kate looked back several times to make sure she
wouldn’t be called back, before leaving.

As she walked to her red sports coupe, Kate
replayed her discussion with Helen in her mind and started to think
maybe her boss was right, after all. In addition to her duties in
the building, she had taken the job home by calling prior donors,
begging for donations or job opportunities for the people staying
at the shelter. Assuming a control she technically didn’t have,
Kate took matters into her own hands and spent most of her nights
with an ear to her cell phone, as she half-way listened to all the
reasons a donation wasn’t possible. She racked her brain,
attempting to find the magic word or moving phrase to loosen a
heart and a wallet. Each night, she marked a red line through each
name that would not be persuaded as she went down the call list.
Still, she continued, undaunted.

Helen would scream if she
ever found out I was doing that behind her back,
she thought as she pulled out of the parking
lot.

With her stubborn mind trying to wrap around
this ‘time off’ idea, she told herself she definitely deserved some
time with no phone calls, no e-mails, and no one coming to her
house at night with questions or authorizations to be
completed.

One co-worker, John, had a habit of coming
to her house several times a week at night. Kate suspected this was
not entirely work related. Wouldn’t it be easier to pick up a phone
to get the answers to his questions, or wait for her signature the
next morning? Then again, John had never been forward with her or
even asked her out for drinks, but the way he looked at her made
her question his motives.

Thinking about John for once, Kate came to
the conclusion she had no idea what his intent towards her was. If
he was interested, he apparently didn’t have the balls to speak up
and do something about it. It’s not as if she was interested,
anyway. His passivity was a turn-off for Kate.

Knowing Helen had gotten the word out that
she was off-limits until further notice, Kate began to make a
mental list of everything she should—no, needed to—get caught up on
at home during her week off. As the list grew from letter-sized
paper to legal, her eyebrows scrunched, and she bit the inside of
her bottom lip.

“I wish my brain would shut up sometimes.
Maybe I do think too much,” she muttered as she pulled into the
driveway of her home.

*

Kate started her relaxing night with a long,
hot shower, scrubbing her skin until pink and shaving all the
preferred areas of her body. She massaged her favorite scented body
lotion into her dry skin and ended her beauty ritual by reshaping
those overgrown eyebrows back into an arch. She couldn’t remember
the last time she had the time to perform more than the basics of
grooming.

Feeling fresher than she could remember in
recent days, or maybe even weeks, she went downstairs to the
kitchen, grabbed a corkscrew in one hand, bottle in the other, and
went to work opening red, liquid relaxation. She pulled a purple
wine goblet from the cabinet above her, poured a liberal amount
into it, and took a small sip straight from the bottle before
corking it.

I really should at least snack on something
if I'm drinking.

She pulled together a mixture of cheeses,
crackers, sliced meats, and olives, on a platter. After organizing
the food and placing it within easy reach from where she planned to
plant herself on the couch for the night, she returned to the
kitchen to unplug her charging Kindle. Hugging her beloved
companion to her chest, she was ready to finally put her feet up.
Feeling almost giddy, she rushed to the dark wood coffee table, set
her glass of Cabernet down, and tossed her Kindle into a corner of
the couch.

She turned the radio on to her favorite
satellite station at a low volume and clicked the fireplace to life
before she settled herself into the firm couch cushions. She pulled
a blanket up to her mid-section and began to read a mystery. She
had downloaded it months ago, but had no time to read it until
then.

Halfway through the book and the bottle, the
doorbell rang, disturbing the ambient calm that had enveloped the
entire house, as well as Kate. She grumbled and kicked her legs to
disentangle them from the blanket. She rose a bit too quickly,
almost tripping over the blanket that had fallen to the floor. She
caught the side of the coffee table with her hands and righted
herself.

“I'm coming!”

I just got to the good
part,
her thoughts whined as she stomped to
the nuisance of a door.
Helen obviously
didn’t let everyone know I’m off, or ‘someone’ just didn’t
listen.
Kate reprimanded her ungracious
thoughts, blaming it on the wine, rather than her genuine need for
‘me’ time.

Rushing to get rid of whoever was on the
other side, Kate didn’t look through the peephole. She flipped the
deadbolt and yanked open the front door…to no one.

Startled and confused, she tip-toed on bare
feet onto the wooden porch. Sounds of the night wrapped around her,
and a slight breeze blew through her hair, raising goose bumps on
her arms. She looked to both sides, only seeing the wicker settee
to her left. The white-washed porch swing to her right swayed in
the breeze.

Her home was 30 minutes outside of the city,
down a country road, and set back far enough that no one would know
it was there unless meant to. She chose this location after weeks
of research and driving the area, wanting the silence and the
solitude, which was never present in the city. Someone ringing her
doorbell at this time of night was no accident.

Kate stood outside her door for a while,
looking out into the darkness, seeing and hearing nothing, except
the gurgle of the fountain in her front yard and the strains of
music from inside. She glanced around one last time, chalked it up
to a wild imagination fueled by fictional detectives and murderers
on the streets of the big city, and flipped around to go back to
her book. Immediately face planting into the bulk of a man in front
of her door, her hands flew up to land on a chest hard as stone.
With a sharp intake of breath, her green eyes rose to meet
intensely blue ones.

“Kate, let me in.” His voice, soft, low and
accented, sounded like a mixture of sweet cream and venom.

Her wine buzz vanished, and panic at a level
she had never encountered sliced through her body. A sound started
to come from her, which she knew was fueled by instinctive and
uncontrollable fear. An almost silent, high pitched and keening
sound passed through her clenched teeth, out into the night, as her
heart raced to the point she knew she would pass out.

If she passed out, what then? She did not
know this man! How did he know her name? Why was he there? What did
he want from her?

Quick as lightning, he gripped the tops of
her naked arms just below her shoulders and held her in place. No
way, would she be able to overpower him or get away. His grip on
her was solid.

“Kate, keep looking at me,” he
commanded.

Run! Scream! Fight! Do
something!
her mind shrieked, but Kate
couldn’t move. She was frozen to that spot in fear, and the man’s
grip on her arms was strong and unmovable. His eyes held hers to
his just as strongly and refused to let go. Trapped in his eyes,
Kate saw a small flame burst to life in their center, and she let
out a wail.

As she continued to stare, entranced, she
began to sense a lightheadedness, and her peripheral vision started
to contract. Her vision continued to constrict tighter until the
trees lining the outskirts of the property blacked out. As it
continued to slide together like curtains, the lawn disappeared,
the walls of the house—everything disappeared, until the only
things visible were his scorching eyes staring directly into
hers.

With a trembling whisper, Kate asked, “Who
are you?”

“I’m your Master for tonight, Kate.” His
voice held no emotion.

“My—”

“Yes, your Master for tonight, Kate. The
sooner you let me in, the sooner we can begin.”

Long fingers ran through her hair gently,
yet insistently, pulling her head back with their strength. She
recognized they were his fingers. She wanted to pull away...to run
screaming to the road and hail down a car to save her, but she did
neither. Instead, she heard her voice ask him to come inside.

When Kate came to herself, she was sitting
on his lap, facing him, with her knees on either side of his
thighs. Both of his hands were inside her white, cotton sleeveless
gown, which was unbuttoned half-way, as he kneaded her breasts and
looked deeply into her eyes.

She ripped her gaze from his to look out at
the room and slowly back down to his golden skin, visible only from
the front of her gown to the cuffs of his rolled up, white shirt
sleeves. She blinked fast as she took it all in, unsure if she was
awake or midway through a dream.

No.
Her stomach plummeted.
I blacked
out.

“Kate?” His tone was expectant as his thumbs
grazed over her nipples, moving in circles. Horrified, she felt
them harden and extend, reaching for more of his touch while
disregarding the danger.

She slumped her back down and pulled her
shoulders forward, in an attempt to pull her breasts from his
touch. Grasping her right nipple between his thumb and forefinger,
he began to roll it rougher as he pulled her gown down to her waist
with his free hand. When she tried to slump down more, his fingers
grabbed a bunch of her hair at the nape of her neck, and pulled her
head back to face the ceiling, making her back arch, thrusting her
naked breasts and elongated nipples upward, towards his face. Her
breath came in fast, short spurts.

“I will have you tonight, Kate.” He spoke to
her as he fondled her breast with his other hand. “Your pussy will
weep as much your eyes, as you beg me to take you. Tonight will be
as pleasurable as you allow it to be. Your mood is yours to decide,
but that’s the sole decision you will make tonight. I will not be
denied any longer. I’ve been patient and have waited for you long
enough, beautiful girl.”

Shaking in both fear and arousal, Kate
repeated her earlier whisper, barely making a sound, “Who are
you?”

Sighing, he whisked her up off his lap and
settled her gently on the floor between his knees. Shoving his
hands through his black, messy hair, he shook his head at her and
said, “You know who I am, Kate. I’ve told you more than once. I
know you heard me, and I don’t care to repeat myself. I am your
Master for tonight.”

Placing a hand under her chin, he pulled her
face up as he bent down towards hers. His eyes slid from hers, down
to her shivering lips, and then back up.

“Sit there quietly and ready yourself.”

Kate sat, closed eyed, between his knees and
thought about her predicament, while her erect nipples throbbed
with desire, and she hyperventilated from fear.

He wanted sex. That was clear. The way he
pulled her hair told her he could handle her with ease. Again, that
was clear. Nothing else was, though.

Where did he come from? Why did she let him
in? What did ‘Master for tonight’ mean? What was he going to do to
her? At least, he didn’t give any indication that he was physically
violent or intended to murder her. He hadn’t struck her. Not yet,
anyway. In dealing with people at the shelter, she knew how quick a
situation could turn dangerous.