The Billionaire's Pet (13 page)

“Ah, finally, you ask me what I want,” she said pointedly as he stilled his cock inside her and waited for her response. “I didn’t know you were capable of that.”

“I’m capable of a great deal,” he said. “I’m capable of looking after you and making you happy, if you’ll let me.”

Ellie let the moment play out a little longer. The truth was that there could only be one answer. If she said no, she would be consumed by regret and grief all her life. And yet, simply being asked the question was a moment of power of a kind she had not experienced a great deal with Daniel. Looking down at him, she could see the yearning and the vulnerability in his gaze. He had his heart on the line, open to be hurt. And in that moment he did not seem to be a billionaire, or a dominant man who had turned her from a high-powered super bitch to a high-powered super brat. He was just a man, looking at her with a tenderness she had never seen in any other man’s gaze.

“I don’t want to be without you,” she said softly. “So… yes.”

His smile was broad and bright enough to light the room. He embraced her tightly and slid his cock from her ravaged pussy, giving the tender flesh a chance to recover.

“Let’s go home,” he said, swatting her bottom lightly. “You can clean up through that door over there if you like. Or you can put your dress on and fly back to New York with my cum drying on your thighs. I don’t much mind either way.”

“Pervert,” she said, narrowing her eyes playfully as he swatted her toward the en-suite.

Ellie cleaned up as best she could in the bathroom, but there was no denying the sticky residue between her lips as she slid the sheath of the dress back on. Claimed. That was what she was. Completely and utterly. She smiled at herself in the bathroom mirror, her eyes sparkling, her face flushed. She’d not expected Daniel to go to any trouble to find her, but he had. He wanted her as much as she wanted him and now maybe there was some chance of a future.

She slipped back into the bedroom and found that he too had dressed himself again. He was waiting for her with a smile on his face that echoed hers. For all their conflict, they were both more alive in one another’s presence than they were apart. The spark between them was not simply born of dominance and rebellion, but of the thrill of being in one another’s presence.

“Let’s go,” she said, taking him by the hand and drawing him toward the door.

“One last thing before we go,” Daniel drawled, turning her back toward him. Ellie looked up at him, wondering what he had in store for her. She did not have to wait long. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar silver item. The collar he had deemed her unworthy of wearing the day he took her to the stables and…

He slid the collar around her neck, the smooth cool metal clicking into place. That little click made Ellie’s heart skip a beat and her breath stop entirely.

“What are you doing?” She put her fingers to the collar and looked at him with wide eyes.

“You know what I’m doing,” he said. “I’m claiming you, my pet. I’m making sure you know that you are mine.”

Ellie tugged lightly at the circlet. It didn’t move. She was caught. And that scared her senseless.

“Take it off, Daniel.”

“No,” he said, swatting her fingers lightly away from the collar. “You’ll get used to it soon enough. I want you to wear this so next time you get it in your head to run, you will remember that you have a place and a home with me.”

“Daniel…”

“Settle, pet,” he said kindly, taking her hands in his own. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“I’m not afraid… I’m…”

His fingertips were placed lightly against her inner wrist, which informed his reply. “Your pulse is racing, your pupils are dilated, you’re flushed. You’re panicking, pet, now just breathe. It’s a collar. It won’t hurt you.”

“But… but I thought I wasn’t worthy of your collar,” she reminded him. “I’m no better now than I was last time you put this on me.”

“I was wrong then,” he said. “Things fell apart between us because I didn’t keep a close enough eye on you, and I didn’t train you as rigorously as I should have. I’m not going to make that mistake twice.”

“But… I don’t want this…” She spoke in a whine that was promptly belied by the welling in her eyes. She didn’t know why the words were coming out of her mouth. All she knew was that she was scared of some unnamable thing that was embodied by the collar, a symbol of more than submission—of belonging.

“The door is behind you,” Daniel said gently. “If you want to leave me, you can just walk through it. I won’t contact you again. I’ll let you be. But if you want to come home with me, be my pet, my girl, my lover, stay.”

Freedom was feet away, a life without Daniel and the challenges that came with him. Part of her wanted to bolt as she had from New York, but Ellie’s feet did not move. She did not want to be without him. Every day since their humiliating parting had been torture, but she’d been far too proud to call, or to return his. But now, so close to him and yet so far from what they had once been, she found herself paralyzed.

She stood there in silence, fighting the tears of overwhelming emotion that threatened to rush over her like a tsunami.

“Shh,” he murmured, brushing his lips over hers. “There’s no need to cry, Ellie. I’m going to take care of you in every way. All you have to do is relax and let yourself feel whatever it is that’s making those tears fall. I promise you, fighting what’s between us is far more painful than any spanking I could ever give you.”

He was right, of course. He was so often right. Ellie nodded and pressed close to him as he wrapped a guiding arm around her shoulders.

“Come on, pet,” he murmured. “Let’s go home.”

She nodded, he opened the door, and together they crossed the threshold to their new lives together.

Chapter Ten

Ellie had flown first class to Paris, which had been comfortable, but of course Daniel had his private jet standing by. There were no commercial flights in his world, and their limousine delivered them directly to the tarmac. No security. No crowds. Nothing but absolute privacy. It was something of a shock for Ellie to see the slick black jet waiting there on the runway, a reminder that Daniel had come to Paris with the sole intention of bringing her home.

Guided up the stairs and into the interior of the plane, Ellie felt very small and very naughty—as if her whole holiday had been akin to some juvenile attempt at running away from home. Daniel was a steady, comforting presence, but she knew his calm and gentle strength would soon be turned to the task of reddening her cheeks and god only knew what else. She had given herself over to him, admitted defeat, and submitted.

“There’s really no need to look so miserable, pet,” Daniel said, settling into the broad leather seat next to hers. “My intention is to make you happy.”

She looked at him hopefully. “So you’re not going to punish me?”

“Oh, I’m going to spank your little ass bright red for several reasons. For getting yourself fired, for running away afterward, those are two pretty decent starting points, and then I’m sure you’ll throw enough at me to keep me busy from now until forever.” He flickered a little wink at her as Ellie groaned and slid down in the leather chair.

The flight from Paris to New York seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. Funny how time warped. The month they’d spent apart had seemed like an eternity, but they barely seemed to have gotten on the plane and it was landing again and she was being ushered back into another car and swept off to Daniel’s upstate estate.

If she thought he was going to give her time to rest, Ellie was proved immediately wrong. He took her from the car directly to the stables where her stall had been meticulously prepared as before. She found herself inhaling deeply, breathing in the scent of straw and leather. She should perhaps have been afraid, but she felt an odd sense of comfort as Daniel relieved her of her clothing and ushered her into the interior with as much gentle care as ever.

This time there were posts mounted at each side of the stall with thick rings of iron in them. Hitching posts, she supposed. Daniel reached for leather cuffs and began to put the first one on her left wrist, working with firm care.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because,” he said as the leather encircled her wrist. “We both need this. You need to know you’re mine. I need to feel you again. I’ve missed you, Ellie. I’ve missed you more than I’ve ever missed anyone. Do you know how long it’s been since someone called me a dirty hippie? Or told me to, what was it… start a drum circle?”

“I should have gotten you a hemp shirt in Paris,” she snarked playfully.

He smirked at her as he clipped her cuffed hand to the post, then reached for her other wrist to repeat the action.

“If you need someone to curse at you, there are people you can pay for that,” Ellie reminded him, shifting from foot to foot. They were being cute now, but the pain was going to come soon, she was sure of it.

“Oh, I’m well aware,” Daniel smiled. “But nobody being paid for their work would have the passion you do when you defy me.”

His large hands gently wrapped the leather cuff around her left wrist and buckled it in place before snapping it in place on the other post.

She was caught between the two uprights, physically at his mercy just as she always had been mentally. It didn’t matter if she was here, lashed to two posts, or in the privacy of her second apartment, hiding from the world—Daniel had become everything.

His hands slid down her bare flanks, running from the sides of her breasts, down over the curve of her waist and the flare of her hips in a slow caress. She could feel his attention locked on her, his need and his care evident in every drifting touch of his fingertips.

Ellie felt little shivers of gentle pleasure trickling over her skin as she stretched into her bonds, feeling the limitations of her predicament.

“You should not have run, my pet,” he said. “Now I have to discipline my little stray runaway.”

His fingers left her body and returned in a light slap to her left cheek. It was not in any way punitive, and though Daniel continued to lecture her softly, the sensation never rose above a light sting.

She found herself relaxing into the moment and into the dynamic she’d almost forgotten existed between them, the place where he was soft and hard at the same time, where the boundaries did not just confine, but made her safe.

Ellie felt Daniel’s foot between hers, nudging them apart until her legs were spread almost as wide as her arms, her pussy and ass exposed in the cleft between cheeks and thighs. He ran his hand up the inside of her right thigh, avoiding contact with either of those sensitive places, teasing her with nothing more than the notion of his proximity.

She strained against the shackles, trying to move her lower lips closer to his hand, but he was wily to her motions and continued to deny her the contact she was craving.

“Daniel…” she moaned his name.

“What, my pet?”

“Why aren’t you… touching me?”

“Because I want to talk.”

She looked at him in surprise. “You go to all this trouble to get a girl to talk to you?”

“I go to all this trouble to get
you
to talk to me,” he said with a handsome smirk. “You’re a difficult little thing, Ellie.”

Impatient and horny, Ellie tried an ultimatum. “Fuck me or let me go, Daniel.”

“No,” he said firmly. “You don’t set the terms of this, kitten. We need to talk about what happened before you left. We need to talk about why you exploded at the board and lost your job. More important, we need to talk about what’s happening between you and me, why you keep fighting what you know you want.”

The questions he was raising were scarier than any implement or mechanism of bondage could ever have been. Daniel didn’t understand anything, and telling him wouldn’t change that. He’d won the genetic lottery and rich parents lottery and, well, pretty much every lottery in life apart from the actual lottery. Few men were as blessed as he was. The fact that he was trying to make positive changes in the world of business was probably commendable. But Daniel Treville had no idea what it was like to be born without advantage and to have to fight for everything. Ellie had been born poor, grown up poor, and only gotten a break in the form of a scholarship. She’d started out as an intern at a gas company and fought and worked for everything she had. He’d never understand that. He was just like everyone else who thought she was a little bitch with a bad attitude.

She turned her head to hide the fact that her eyes were filling with tears.

“What’s wrong? What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing,” she said, trying to hide the watery tones in her voice.

“Ellie.” He said her name and reached for her chin to turn her face toward him. “What’s wrong?”

There was concern in his eyes, and she understood why. To him it must have seemed like her mood had shifted in an instant.

“You must think I’m crazy.”

“I know you’re not crazy,” he reassured her, kissing her cheek. “Now tell me what made you so upset.”

“Nothing,” she bit between clenched teeth. “I’m not upset.”

She felt his fingertips on her cheeks, then he held the glistening proof of her tears up to her eyes. “You’re crying, my pet. And I know it’s not because you’re hurting physically, so why don’t you try sharing a little of the emotional pain with me?”

“I don’t have emotional pain,” she maintained stoically.

“You have a lot of emotional pain,” he disagreed. “More than most. And it’s all locked away, isn’t it?”

“Don’t play psychologist, Daniel,” she snapped.

“I don’t have to. Nobody has as much drive or skill as you do without having been hurt at some point,” he said, stroking her back gently. “It’s pain that makes us what we are. Content people don’t need to accumulate mountains of money, or control the world like we do.”

“Speak for yourself,” she spat rebelliously, squirming against her restraints. “Actually don’t, what would you know about pain? You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. You’ve never gone a day without.”