Reconciliation [Prometheus in Chains 5] (Siren Publishing Classic) (6 page)

Gloria had been to the library again to collect the rest of the books she needed, which had been out when she last went. Llewellyn had told her to go ahead and buy them, but she wanted to look at them first. She told him that if she thought they would later be useful she’d buy them. He had given her a credit card on his account. She didn’t really feel comfortable spending his money, so she spent as little as possible and only on things he told her to buy. All she had to do was keep a record of what she spent, so he could check his account when the bill came in. He kept telling her to spend what she wanted to get what she needed. She’d said she would prefer to ask him first. Years of being careful with a small income had left their mark. She couldn’t change overnight, and in the end he agreed she could if she was happier that way.

Just as the lift doors were closing, that man got in again. He looked flushed and overexcited. She shrank into the corner away from him. She was scared he might touch her and frightened of him. He followed her and leaned into her. He grasped her hair with his hand and twisted it. It hurt and she protested. It did no good, he twisted her hair more and forced her to look at him. His hand left her hair and he grabbed her breast and tweaked the nipple painfully, grinning as she winced. “I have something for you. Read this, and I will be in touch. Tell nobody about it, or there will be dire consequences for you and that gorilla you live with. If you let on to anyone at all, and him in particular, I will make sure he is disgraced. As well as these photos I have documents. I know things about him and his days in the SAS. The money he stole and the arms he sold illegally. If they are made public he is going to go to prison. Remember he mustn’t know. If you tell him, all the details will go to the press as once.”

“I don’t believe you. He’d never, ever do anything wrong. You’re lying!”

“Well that’s as maybe, but I
will
send the details to the press. They will publish and mud sticks. He’ll be ruined. There will have to be an investigation and there will always be doubt in some people’s minds. Can you live with that? Only you can avoid it. Tell him or anyone else, and I
will
inform the press.”

He pushed a large, brown paper envelope into her reluctant clasp and got out at the next floor. It had her name, Gloria Jessops, on it, and she wondered how he knew her name. When she got into the hotel room, she opened the envelope and gazed in stunned amazement and horror at the pictures it contained. She saw pictures of herself as Llewellyn had inspected her. There were others of him using the suede flogger to arouse her and more as he took her from behind, bent over the desk. She was so stunned at first she couldn’t speak or think. It was so unfair that she had just found him again, and now someone was trying to ruin it all.

Then she began to get angry that what were private, intimate moments had been seen and photographed by others. She sat still and began to think. She had seen enough episodes of
CSI
to have an idea of what to do. She looked at the photos and the angle of the shots then raised her eyes to where she deduced the camera
must
be concealed. She got a chair and climbed up on it, and sure enough there was the camera. She was going to make sure that no more were taken. It was very small, but it was sitting on top of one of the framed prints most hotels put on the wall. She got down with it in her hand. She put it on the floor to grind it under her shoe then thought better of it.

Maybe it could be used as evidence,
she thought.

She had to conceal it and the photos quickly as Llewellyn would soon be home. Well it didn’t
feel
like home anymore. Her private space had been violated. She felt contaminated. Now where could she put them? Ok, hide in plain sight was a good maxim in her opinion. So she put the camera in the envelope and placed that under the work she was doing for the Open University, then she breathed a sigh of relief. The relief was short-lived. She began to wonder what the man could want. She’d no money, so it couldn’t be that, she decided.

In view of what the man had said, it was imperative that she keep all this from Master Llewellyn, and how could she allow him to fuck her if there was another camera hidden somewhere? She took another look at the photos and saw they were all from the same angle. So maybe the man had only concealed the one camera. She would have to take a chance as she wouldn’t be able to avoid Llewellyn’s forceful attentions, and if she were honest, she didn’t want to. The only comfort she was going to get until she found out what the man wanted was in Llewellyn’s arms.

Sod the bastard! she thought.
He’s not going to ruin my time with Master. He has these pictures, so a few more won’t hurt.

Soon, Llewellyn arrived home and after greeting him, they discussed where to have dinner and how to spend the rest of the evening. However hard she tried, she wasn’t totally successful at hiding her feelings from Llewellyn. She felt his gaze on her and tried to be composed and not think about that horrible man at all, but that was practically impossible. She dreaded his asking her what was wrong and tried so hard to be normal that she wondered if he could tell something was wrong. He was certainly looking at her carefully. Then it hit her.

Oh God, she thought.
He’s going to think it’s because I still don’t believe he will stay with me.
Although she was not 100 percent
sure
yet, she was getting more confident of his intentions daily. That bloody man was going to spoil everything. It was just so unfair. She’d had five years of deep sadness and loss. Just when it looked as if things were at last working out for her and her Master, that dreadful little man had to get in the way. What could he want of her after all? she wondered. She shivered as she thought of the photos he had seen and how he had asked her out, and some inkling of what he
might
want occurred to her. No! No! No! she said to herself.
I belong to my Master now, and I will not fuck anyone else or allow them to lay a hand on me.
Deep down she wondered how on earth she was going to prevent him doing exactly what he wanted.

Llewellyn was increasingly worried about gloria. He racked his brains, but he could find nothing he could put his finger on. He just
knew
there was something wrong. She’d felt different for the last few days. She’d made love to him and let him fuck her, but there was a sort of desperation in her eyes as he did and a tension in her body that hadn’t been there before. She had a hunted look sometimes as her eyes scanned the hotel room. What
was
she looking for? he wondered. He hadn’t done or said anything. He’d been very careful to reassure her, in his campaign to convince her that his desire to stay was genuine and lasting.

He thought back to when this feeling of unease had started. Four days ago they’d had a delicious session at her desk and a long soak in the bath followed by dinner in the hotel, and she’d been as happy and as relaxed as he’d ever seen her. He thought she was happier than he’d seen her since he came back and well on the way to believing in their future together, even if she did have reservations. That was the last time she’d been so happy. It
must
have started the next day. He could think of no word or action of his that had triggered it. She’d been to the library to collect her books and filled in her journal, and there was nothing in there to the point.

What the fuck could it be? Just as things were going so well, he thought. He just
had
to find out what was going on, but how to do it? He resolved on going home early, and when he’d completed the class he was teaching, he cut short the question-and-answer session. They could wait until the next session. His gloria couldn’t. He wanted it sorted out and soon.

Once back at the hotel, he parked the car and went quickly up to the fifth floor. He used his key card and quietly entered the room. She didn’t hear him come in. She was standing by her desk with a folder open on it. Her head was bowed, and her shoulders slumped. She looked devastated.

What the hell could she have in that folder to affect her so? Could it be some health problem? Maybe she’d found out she couldn’t have children, and she was afraid he’d leave her. Why, oh, why had he made a production out of having children? He wanted them, but he wanted her more. He would never let her go no matter what.
These thoughts and others went round and round in his head as he looked at her. She whirled round as, at last, she heard him or sensed he was there. She knocked the folder, and it fell to the floor. Several black-and-white photos fell out, and she bent trying frantically to pick them up. He took one from her fingers and was gripped by an anger so fierce that he crumpled the photo in his hand. He calmed himself with an effort, then he held out his hands for the rest of the photos. He looked at all of them then replaced them in the folder and gathered her in his arms.

“Tell me, cariad,” he said softly into her ear.

The dam broke, and she sobbed in his embrace. He petted and soothed her until she’d calmed down a little, then he led her over to a sofa. He sat her down by his side. He held her close to him as she shook. He was going to kill someone for doing this to her. At least it was none of the things he had feared, although that was small consolation.

He listened carefully to her story then he said, “There’s no truth to his story, my gloria. I did nothing wrong in the SAS. He can have no documents or proof because none exist. What does this man want?”

“Master I
know
you didn’t, you wouldn’t but, if he makes up a story and sends it to the press, mud will stick. He said there would have to be an investigation that would hurt you. I don’t know what he wants. He asked me to go out with him.” Then she told him the rest of her encounter with the man in the lift and her clipped answers to his questions as she had tried to put him off.

“He said he’d be in touch when he gave me the folder, but he hasn’t yet,” she said. Llewellyn saw she was calmer now that she had told him. He held her and soothed her. He stroked her hair, and he rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head. He thought and thought, then he took out his mobile and called Eric. Master Eric was the Head of Security at Prometheus in Chains. He loved nothing better than having a problem to solve.

* * * *

Half an hour later Eric arrived. Llewellyn told him all the facts and showed him the camera. He was of the opinion that it was a very common one, and it was no use trying to trace the purchase. He sat and thought for a while, then he said, “We have to find out what he wants. He’s made you wait three days in order to get you worried and on edge. He’ll be in touch soon, I’m sure. When he gets in touch, I want you to call me at once.”

Llewellyn saw that she was relieved, and they both told Eric she would. Then Eric searched the room carefully but found no more devices. He agreed with her that, to judge from the angle of the shots, all the pictures were taken by the one camera. Now that had been disposed of, the man couldn’t watch them anymore. He told them he would get his friend, Jack, to come over later on with special equipment, then he left. Jack was in Special Branch and soon, on his retirement, to be one of the Doms in Prometheus in Chains. One hour later Jack arrived with another man and an odd device. He performed a sweep of the room but found nothing. So they were safe in the room. He advised them to carry on as normal, so the man would not suspect anything if he was watching them from the foyer of the hotel. Gloria gave him a description of the man, but he seemed very ordinary and average. Jack said he didn’t hold out much hope of finding out much about him. They thanked him, and he left.

Llewellyn took her out for a meal. He suspected she’d feel her privacy had been invaded and she wouldn’t be happy any longer in that hotel room. “We’re going to start looking for a house as soon as this is cleared up. I for one no longer feel comfortable in that room,” he said, looking closely at her as he said it. He saw he’d been right. She didn’t like the room anymore. She didn’t feel comfortable and felt their space had been violated, as did he.

“We’ll go to the club tonight, and I will reserve one of the rooms. We can make love there. We won’t be making love in that hotel room until this is sorted out,” he said reassuringly.

He took her cold little hands in his and raised them to his lips.
I must be getting old, or maybe I am one of the New Age Doms…getting soft.
He knew why he was getting soft. She was sitting right in front of him.

“Don’t fret, cariad. We
will
get through this.”

He saw the trust in her eyes, and his heart swelled. Maybe they could turn this horrible episode to their advantage. They would find their future home earlier than planned, but that was all to the good. He had teaching commitments the next day, but suggested she go to the estate agents. That would get her out of the hotel for a few hours. Together over coffee they made notes on what sort of house they wanted and where they’d like to live. She was diffident at first, as she didn’t know how much he was able to spend on the house. She had no idea how much money he had or earned, and when he mentioned the sum available, he noticed her eyes widen in shock.

* * * *

The next afternoon he collected her from the estate agent’s office with her folder of possible houses. They took them back to the hotel and sat over coffee and cakes in the hotel lounge and discussed the houses. They made a list, and she said she’d arrange viewings the next day. Eric arrived just then and told them he had a plan. They were sitting at a distance from the nearest occupied sofa so no one could overhear. He went ahead and explained it to them. He would get a microphone for her to wear. Eric and Llewellyn would secrete themselves in the bedroom and Gloria would get him to tell her what he wanted and why he was doing this. They would record it all and have evidence to put a stop to his little schemes.