The Agreement (54 page)

"She didn't keep in contact with you?"

He shook his head. "My dad won custody. He
had a really great
lawyer
…"

"Who?" I said, my eyes widening.
"My father?"

He nodded. "Yep. Your father was working in
Family Court then and advised my dad. My dad was just really starting to make
money and was able to hire nannies and housekeepers to look after me. The judge
thought I'd have a better life with my dad even if it meant I was kept away
from my mother. She left and went back to California where her family was,
remarried and that was it. My father never remarried."

"I'm so sorry, Drake. To grow up without a
mother…"

He shrugged. "It explains a lot,
really."

I nodded, not saying anything else.

Then he stood up and came to me, putting his arms
around me. "But I've learned the hard way. Now, enough reminiscing. I want
to have a nice evening with you now that we can. Your father wants us to come
out with him to dance, but I pointed to my arm and used it as an excuse. I said
I wanted to bring in the New Year with you alone. He thought that was probably
a better idea, considering…"

"I can't believe he accepted that you're
into BDSM…"

Drake shook his head, smiling. "He said
'I
don’t care what bedroom games people play in the privacy of their own homes for
God's sake. I've played a few of my own. You have to in order to keep a
marriage alive and I was married to the same woman for twenty one years…
"

"Bedroom games," I said, smiling. I
closed my eyes and leaned against Drake, my arms slipping around his
waist.  "Do you suppose he's a bit of a Dom himself?"

"I wonder…" Drake said. "Sly old
bastard if so. Still, it must be hard for a father to think of his beloved
daughter being sexual."

"And vice versa. But, as long as he thinks
of it as bedroom games, that’s OK by me."

"Seriously, Kate, I'm pretty tame when it
comes to Doms. A lightweight. He said he did his research."

"You're just right for me."

He smiled at that. "I think so."

"I
know
so."

He kissed me and all the tender emotions quickly
turned to ones more passionate, his hands slipping down to the hem of my dress
to search for garters, which I hadn't worn.

"No garters?"

"I was too sad to wear them."

"Do you have them here?"

I nodded, a smile starting on my face.

"Go put them on with nothing on underneath."

"Are you serious? At my parent's New Year's
Eve dinner?"

"
Please
," he said, grinning.
"I didn't get a present from you and I'm feeling all deprived. Consider it
your present to me."

I left the bathroom and went to my bedroom where
my bag was on the dresser. Inside were the garter belt and nylons I'd worn the
last time I saw him. While he waited in the living room, I slipped off my
undies and pantyhose and put on the garter belt and nylons. I took in a deep
breath, knowing that just wearing them alone would make me aroused.

I went out to the living room where he stood by
the bar talking to the bartender, who was pouring some Anisovaya into Yelena
Kuznetsova's shot glasses. Drake took them and turned to me, and when he saw
me, his face just brightened, then a leer started on his face, his mouth
turning up into a half-grin.

He came to me where I stood by the fireplace and
handed me one of the glasses, with the delicate filigree pattern etched onto
the crystal.

"Za vas
, moya lyubov
," he said.
"To you,
my love
."

I couldn't repeat it because of emotion,
covering my mouth with my hand, smiling through tears.

We shot the Anisovaya back and I grimaced,
although I had come to associate the taste with pleasure.

He leaned in and kissed me immediately, and I
could taste the anise on his lips and tongue.

"With you looking like that," he said,
stepping back to examine me up and down. "Knowing what's underneath that
dress? I don't know if I can wait until later. We may have to sneak off in
between courses for a quickie."

Heat rose in my cheeks at that, warmth between
my thighs.

"You haven't given me a present yet
either," I said a grin spreading on my own face. "Maybe you could use
me the way I've always wanted – a fast fuck in the broom closet that
leaves me panting, in need of you. Later, you could take your time and satisfy
me… Maybe pour some of that Anisovaya over me and lick it off…"

He pulled me against him. "You
are
a
kinky little thing, Ms. Bennet. You're going to make me very uncomfortable if
you keep up with that teasing mind of yours and I'll be embarrassed in front of
your father's guests because of the tent in my pants. But maybe later, after
dessert when there's a lull in things before we get into liqueurs, I'll tug at
my ear and you'll go into the bathroom off your bedroom and wait for me. I may
just have a nice
big
present for you…"

I closed my eyes, a thrill going through my body
thinking of it.

Somehow, we made it through the cocktails and
chat before dinner, my father's huge smile and boisterous gravelly voice
clearly indicating he was happy to see us standing together, one of Drake's
hands on the small of my back. Drake never left my side, and together, we
talked to whoever came by to greet us.

Nigel arrived and I was surprised to see him
with his partner, Brian. Short, well-dressed with impeccable taste, Brian was
barely up to Nigel's shoulder. I turned to see my father and wondered how he'd
respond. He smiled and shook Brian's hand and that was it. He was accepted into
the inner circle. Nigel spied us and came right over, introducing Brian to
Drake and me. After we said our hellos, Elaine came by and pulled Brian away
for a moment to show him some artwork.

Nigel leaned in to me.

"So I see your father's matchmaking
succeeded."

I smiled. "I tried to fight it, Nigel, but
you know my father. He has to have his way."

Nigel laughed. "Yes. That he does."
Nigel laid a hand on Drake's shoulder. "I already had my little talk with
Drake about you so I won't say anything more."

Drake smiled, but I could tell there was still
something between them.

"Quit being my big brother, Nigel," I
said, pointing a finger at him.

"Someone has to be. Heath seems too busy
with his own children."

Then Nigel leaned down and kissed me on the
cheek. "Happy New Year, Kate."

I squeezed his hand and watched him walk over to
where Brian and Elaine stood, admiring a piece of art.

I sighed and turned to Drake, who put his arm
around my shoulder.

"What did he say to you that night?"

"He just told me if I ever hurt a hair on
your head, he'd have me thrashed soundly."

I laughed at that and Drake grinned.

Mostly, we spoke to each other, him leaning down
to whisper in my ear, telling me what he wanted to do to me if we did get a
chance to go to the bathroom later.

"Ms. Bennet, I want to slip my hand down
under your dress and feel you. Are you already wet for me? I bet you are, you
vixen
…"

"Shh,
Drake
," I said, my cheeks
heating, unable to keep a smile off my face.

At dinner, we sat in the same places as before,
but this time, I kept slightly turned to Drake, barely able to keep my eyes off
him or a smile off my face. My stomach was all butterflies as we ate our meal,
and I wondered if he would do it – tug his ear and signal that I was to
go to my bathroom and wait for him.

Finally, once dinner was over and the servers
took away our dessert plates, my father announced that we'd take our after
dinner drinks in the living room. As my father spoke to Drake about something
to do with the dance afterwards, Drake tugged his ear. I glanced away quickly,
my body responding.

He was going to go through with it.

I stood up. "Please excuse me."

I left the dining room just as people started to
filter out and make their way to the living room. I slipped to my bedroom and
into the bathroom, breathing deeply, wondering how long it would take for him
to escape. In a couple of minutes, he opened the door and came inside, closing
the door and leaning against it.

"I have something for you, Ms.
Bennet
."

"You do?" My face was hot, butterflies
in my stomach.

"In my pants. Come and see for yourself. I
need you to take it out. It's very uncomfortable."

I went to him and opened his suit jacket, then
ran my fingers over his groin. Something hard protruded from it but it didn’t
seem the right shape. I opened his fly and reached in only to find a long black
velvet case.

A jewelry case.

"
Drake
…"

I opened it to find a velvet choker with a
pendant attached. A single teardrop diamond in a white-gold setting. It must
have been several carats in weight.

"I had it made specially for you back
before all this happened. I thought a black velvet choker would substitute
pretty well for your leather collar and would be more appropriate to wear at
special events like tonight." He went behind me and slipped the choker
around my neck, fastening it, his eyes meeting mine in the mirror.

I covered my mouth, tears once more springing to
my eyes.

He remained behind me, adjusted the choker so
that the diamond fell in the hollow at the base of my throat, watching in the
mirror.

"
Beautiful
…" he whispered in my
ear, his breath warm on my skin. Then, he pushed me forward so that I leaned
over the vanity facing the mirror. He lifted up my dress, groaning when his
hands slid over the garters, and he gave me my Christmas present.

He
tried
to give it to me just the way I
asked.

He really tried but he couldn't stand not seeing
me fulfilled as well.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Packing up my apartment was harder than I
thought. I'd been there since I left the dormitory in my senior year and
although it was tiny and had little closet space, I had amassed a lot of stuff.
It took a week just to go through everything and sort it into send, store,
donate or junk. Most of it was in the store category. I wasn't going to take
very much with me. Having lived in Africa briefly, I knew a lot of extra
baggage was a burden rather than of benefit.

Besides, when you lived in an impoverished land
where people survived on very little, having a lot of superfluous stuff was
disrespectful.

The very last things to go through were my
pieces of art, the ones I did and those of friends and fellow art students.

I held up a framed photograph of Dawn taken when
she was in India at the hospice run by Mother Theresa's nuns. She wore
traditional dress of the region, a shawl over her head, and a Sari. She stood
with a nun and smiled at the camera. I would keep this, despite the fact that
the two of us had not mended our fences. I tried, explaining how I felt, that
my father already knew, and how Drake was leaving NYP for a year and that his
boss knew about the restraining order.

"You can't hurt him," I said.
"All you can do is hurt our friendship. Is that what you want?"

She hung up on me. I called back, wanting to
force her to listen, but she wouldn’t answer. Finally, I phoned her sister,
Brenda, whose number I had on my contact list from when Dawn had stayed with
her for a while after her wedding. We spoke about our friendship breaking up,
about Dawn's fears for me. Brenda explained how her first relationship had been
abusive and how the much younger Dawn had witnessed the abuse.

"I can understand her being worried about
you, Kate. She's very stubborn and fixed in her thinking. She hasn't really
forgiven me yet for putting her through that."

"She never said anything," I said,
trying to think back to our conversations from right after we first met in
college. "I knew she didn't like your boyfriend."

"She went pretty religious
afterwards," Brenda said. "Well, as religious as she felt was
necessary. Give her time."

We said our goodbyes after I asked her to try to
explain things to Dawn. She thought it was highly unlikely to work.

Everything seemed to find its place in my life
except for Dawn, and that left a hole in my heart that I knew time would never
heal.