The Agreement (27 page)

Deep Brain Stimulation in Pediatric Movement
Disorders – Lower Level, Empress Room

Drake
did deep brain stimulation. He treated
pediatric cases and I remembered the story he told of the small boy from South
Africa who gave him the tooled leather wristband. I stood staring at the
billboard and wondered if it was possible… Surely he wouldn't be at this hotel
of all hotels in the world.

I heard some laughter and conversation from
guests who were ascending the staircase that led up from the lower levels. Men
and women dressed in casual clothes fitting to a resort in the Bahamas –
khakis and white shirts, sandals.

Bringing up the rear was Drake Morgan.

He was dressed in white and looked devastatingly
gorgeous – white linen shirt, sleeves rolled up, neck unbuttoned and tail
untucked over white Dockers and black leather sandals. His hair was a bit
mussed, and his face slightly tanned with a bit of scruff on his jaw. He was
with a woman as tall as him, with fashionably long blonde hair pulled back in a
ponytail and a nice tan. She was wearing something casual but still fashionable
– a shirt and skirt that looked straight from the outback. They laughed
together as they talked, his hands animated.

He was already with someone new? Was she his
sub? Would he bring a sub to a convention?

He saw me and stopped in his tracks, blinking.
His companion stopped and stared at me, a smile on her lovely face.

"Excuse me," Drake said to her. I
turned on my heel, my stomach in my throat, adrenaline washing through me.

"Kate!" he said, and then I heard him
speaking to her in a low voice, but couldn’t make out what he said.

What the
hell
… Did my father arrange all
this, hoping we'd run into Drake?

I was
mortified
.

I made it to the elevator but he was right there
beside me, his hand on my arm.

"
Kate
," he said, stopping me
when the elevator doors opened. "You arrived."

I turned to him, completely flustered. "I
arrived?
"

"Yes," he said and let go of my arm.
"I was expecting you."

I got on the elevator and he followed me,
closing the door and pressing the close button before anyone else could get on
like he wanted to be alone with me. Then he cornered me, his arm on the
elevator wall, his body so close to mine I could smell a hint of coconut, as if
he'd put on some sunscreen recently. I avoided his eyes, unsure if I could
control my emotions.

"Was this all a set-up?"

He said nothing, so I glanced up at his face. He
was smiling softly.

"You could call it that."

"You and my father?"

"Me and your father. He thought it might be
a good idea for us to get away from it all, work through this 'difficulty'
we're facing, I think he said. I agreed."

I frowned, something building in me, feeling
like it would explode any moment. "What did you tell him?"

"Oh, I made something up about how you were
concerned about my schedule, and how busy I was, thinking I wouldn't have time
for you. That kind of thing. He bought it completely." He moved a bit
closer, running his fingers over my cheeks. "You're a bit burnt. Your skin
is so fair..."

"I told you we can't be together."

He leaned down and caught my eye. "You said
you were doing this for my own good. I have to know what you mean by that or
else I can't accept it. I'm the one who should decide what's for my own
good."

"Drake this can't happen."

"
Shh
. When I told your father about
a conference I had to attend and that I was
not
looking forward to it
because I was worried about you, he offered to bring you here for a bit of a
getaway. Of course, I thought it was a
spectacular
idea…"

When the elevator door opened, he stepped away
and I made a beeline to my suite, using the keycard to open the door. I went
inside and he followed me, coming to stand beside me as I watched out the
window.

"
Kate
…" he said, taking my
shoulders in his hands, turning me to face him. "Come
here
."

"Who was that woman you were with?"

He frowned, then grinned. "Her? That's
Doctor Laurisse Marchand, from Quebec. She does the same work I do and we've
collaborated on a paper we're presenting. She's very happily married with kids
and is a few years older than me. She also has a very dominant personality,
like me. In other words, not my type so don't even let your mind go
there."

Of course, I flushed even more deeply at that,
if it was even possible. Just being alone with Drake was enough to make my
knees weak.

"Nothing can happen between us,
Drake."

He took my hand and pulled me over to the couch.
He sat in the middle, and like that first night, he pulled me down onto his lap
so that my face was just inches from his.

He tilted his head. "You look absolutely
ravishing. I want to ravish you."

"I'm serious. We have to end this. For your
own good."

"Tell me how ending this would be for my
own good."

"You have to trust me. Someone knows about
you. Your kink. They threatened to expose you if we kept seeing each
other."

"What?" he said, frowning. "
Who?
"

I shook my head. "I can't say."

"You can't or won't say?"

"Both."

He exhaled heavily. "Kate, I can't just end
'this' like you seem to think we have to. You're an unanswered question. You're
unexplored country and I very much want to explore you. Every single
inch
of you, inside and out."

That sent a surge of something through me and I
felt as if my whole body flushed.

He nuzzled his face into my neck, his mouth warm
on the skin beneath my ear. His lips brushed my earlobe when he spoke.

"Unless you can tell me who is threatening
you so I can understand it, and agree or not, find a way around it, I am
not
giving you up. You said you'd sign my agreement last week. I don't think anyone
is threatening you. I think you read my limits and you're afraid. What was it
that shocked you? Was it vaginal fisting? Anal sex? I
told
you I put
those in specifically so you could strike them off and feel some degree of
control."

I glanced away. Those did shock me, to be
honest, but I was willing to strike them off the list as he said I could.

"It wasn't that. I'm telling you the
truth."

"Then, who is it? Tell me or I won't
believe you."

"Drake, I
can't
" I pulled
myself out of his arms and stood, moving away, because sitting on his lap like
that, feeling his warmth beneath me, his face so close to me, his mouth on my
neck made me dizzy with lust.

He stood and came close to me, and I backed
away, but only ended up wedged against the table. He had me cornered.

"Tell me, or I'll keep after you. I won't
give up on you, Kate."

"Why not? Barely anything has happened
between us. It would be a lot easier to end it now rather than later when we're
forced to after you've been disgraced because of my carelessness."

"What about your carelessness?"

I shook my head, dread filling me at the thought
of telling him.

"I," I said, fumbling for words, so
embarrassed that I was hoping to be a journalist who was supposed to prize
informant confidentiality and I was so sloppy with the agreement that Dawn
found it. "I left the agreement on my desk and someone found it."

He closed his eyes and exhaled heavily. His lips
pressed thin and when he opened his eyes, I had to turn away, so afraid of his
anger.

"
Who
found it?"

"Just someone who doesn’t want me to be
with you, OK?"

"Nigel," he said. "It was Nigel,
right?"

"No!" I shook my head.

"Don't protect him, Kate. I know he doesn't
really approve of me."

"What do you mean? Why wouldn’t he approve
of you?"

"Did he force you to stop seeing me? He
knows that I'm in the lifestyle." He shook his head and then he seemed to
relax. He stroked my cheek, then his fingers fell to my chest and he brushed
them against the tops of my breasts. "I can talk to him, assure him that I
mean you no harm."

"It wasn't Nigel. Does Nigel know about
you?"

"Yes."

"How does he know?"

"I can't tell you how he knows. That's
private. He just knows. I thought he was OK with it, but if you're protecting
him, you have to let me know. I'll have to speak with him if he's pressuring
you."

It was then I realized that Drake must know
Nigel through the BDSM community. I didn’t know a lot about Nigel's personal
life. I knew he had a long-time partner – an actor who did
off-off-Broadway.

"Nigel's
kinky?
" I said and
frowned.

He rubbed his forehead, then ran his fingers
through his hair.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that
statement," he said, his expression serious. "It's not my place to
out people. I take this seriously. Kate, I've known people who've lost their
jobs and their lives because of adverse publicity around BDSM. All I can say is
that he knows about me. Please, just tell me who's threatening you so we can
figure this out."

"I can't and we can't just figure this out.
This person will not back down, no matter what. This person is very morally
judgmental. And irrational. If they think we're together, they will tell my
father about you. Now, you'd better go. This can't happen."

"Who is it?"

"It's someone who doesn’t understand BDSM.
They never will. Listen, this is just too much trouble, Drake. Why are you so
insistent?
"

"Because I
want
you."

"That doesn't
matter
."

He sighed, his expression frustrated, his brow
furrowed.

"Look, I won't touch you, if you really
don't want me to. I promise we'll just talk."

I shook my head. "It's not that I don't
want you to touch me. I
do
, God do I want you to, but you're in danger.
Can't you understand?"

His face changed. "So you
do
want me
to touch you," he said, moving even closer. He put his arms around me,
slipping them under my arms and pulling me against him so I had to embrace him.

"
Drake…
"

"Sorry, you said the operative words. I
need to finish what I started that night before we were so rudely interrupted
by my cell phone alarm."

And then he kissed me, his lips on mine, his
mouth opening and his tongue finding mine, his hands all over me, one hand
squeezing one cheek of my ass, while the other grabbed a breast a bit roughly,
but not too roughly that it hurt.

"
Fuck
, I need you." He actually
pressed me down on the table, knocking the gift basket of fruit and chocolates
off so that they fell to the floor and rolled around on the carpet. His mouth
trailed down my throat and then he pulled my dress up and off me, throwing it
onto the floor beside the fruit. He just took me in, lying on the table dressed
only in my little white string bikini, my breasts far too exposed and falling
out of the top. "God, you're
luscious
. I want to eat every inch of
you."

My heart pounded in my ears, my body responding
to his urgency, my flesh aching in need. He untied my bikini top and pulled it
down to expose my breasts entirely.

"You're sunburnt, you bad thing. As your
doctor, I must chastise you severely for that."

"If you're my doctor, isn't there some kind
of ethical issue with becoming involved with a patient?"

"Fuck ethics," he murmured against my
skin. He began kneading my breasts, squeezing them, sucking my nipples one
after the other, his tongue circling them, his lips tugging at them. His teeth
bit them softly, sending delicious jolts of lust right to my clit.

Of course it was then my father decided to knock
on my door.

"Katherine? Are you there? We have
reservations for lunch."

I almost gasped out loud, my body tensing for
Drake had moved down my belly and he had spread my thighs and was biting me
through my bikini bottoms, tonguing my clit through the fabric.

"Drake!" I whispered. He exhaled and
rested his forehead on my belly, his mouth still above my pussy.

"Fuck,
Ethan
," he whispered
back. "You have
horrible
timing." Then he rose up and laid on
top of me, grinning. "So close and yet so far."

I couldn’t help but smile back.

"Katie? Are you OK sweetie?" my father
said through the door. "We were worried about you." He jiggled the
door.