The Contract (Nightlong #1) (21 page)

“Yes, Mistress,” he said, with some fear in his voice.

“Clementine, put a cock on,” I told her, and Teddy looked at me with fear.

This was something he’d never done while wearing the cock cage, obviously.

“Permission to speak?”

“Yes.”

“Why does Clementine do everything you say?”

“Because she likes everything I say,” I responded.

He chuckled and I brought down a slap on his back. “Remember your place. Remember the heat of the nine tails…”

He gulped. “Yes, Mistress.”

“Now, Teddy, Teddy… Teddy… Teddy. How lovely do you find Clementine?”

“Quite lovely.”

“How lovely do you find me?”

“Quite lovely.”

“Now Teddy, now. Quite lovely. How are we to ever know what that means if it applies to all?”

I watched over his shoulder as Clementine put on a strap-on and slathered it with lube.

“You’re quite menacing… and she’s quite lovely, in comparison.”

I smiled. “I’m glad you’re learning.”

Only holy hell knew what he was thinking in those moments.

I took a quick glance and spotted his cock, quite large, was quite trapped inside the cage.

“Before Clem takes the cock to you, how many strikes of the tails can one take? If say, ten equals the cock cage being removed… could one take that?”

“YES!” he squealed.

I stood behind him and caught Shay’s eyes. She watched me intently, her own whip holstered by the side of her. Now she could see how much Dante had exposed himself to me… how delightfully submissive he
could
be, with the right woman I expected.

Oh how I’d changed since landing in London seven years ago, almost six and a half of those years spent with Dante.

SMASH.

First strike.

He shook all over.

“What’s his safe word, Clem?”

“Balderdash,” she said.

TWACK.

He whimpered and his legs sagged just a little, but he was okay.

THRASH.

“BALDERDASH!!” he shrieked, and I saw I’d broken a tiny amount of blood from his skin.

I’d had Dante pouring with blood numerous times before he fell flat to the floor – and he never said his safe word. It scared me how much my love had taken – unless this guy Teddy really was a wimp. I didn’t think so – it was that Dante was a masochistic dominant. At least that’s what I thought he was.

Clem untied Teddy, helped him up and took him to a wooden chair. Another girl brought over some cold compresses and after they were administered, followed by some cream, he threw his cloak back on and threw back a whiskey.

“Wow, Cleo. Just wow,” he said, as I stood waiting for someone to tell me I’d been wrong to treat him badly.

“What do you mean, wow,” I asked, staying in character.

“I mean few women are brave enough to do what you just did.”

He wasn’t to know it was less bravery, and more contempt for what he’d possibly done to Dante that made me thrash him the way I had.

Did he know who I was?

“Brave?” I cackled. “Stupid boy.”

“Yes,” he grinned over his whiskey glass, “you wouldn’t strike me if you knew who and what I am.”

I’d probably strike you either way…

“Come here,” he asked.

“A dominant doesn’t follow orders. Come here,” I said.

He nodded his head and rose, walking slowly towards me. I was almost eyelevel with him when he stood right in front of me. I saw brown eyes and brown hair and some sort of creature of the night in control of his spirit.

“Cleo Patrick, they call you?”

I nodded slowly. “Yes.”

“We know it’s not your real name.”

I smirked. “We do however know you’re a perverse prick.”

“Just like your man, yes,” he said with a wink. “How is Dante by the way?”

“How would I know? I’ve taken up my old gig again. Tonight’s just a warm up. I’m the best there is, believe me.”

I knew that I could be in fact; I’d seen the command I respected in Paris whenever we were there.

“I don’t doubt you are the best. The only reason I cried out was I couldn’t take the cage anymore. I was so hard, it was unreal.”

“Then you should learn some restraint and the experience will last longer.” I grinned, mocking him.

“You don’t see it, do you?”

I folded my arms, the flogger dangling down over my forearm. “See what?”

“He’s… created you.”

I flicked one eyebrow up. “Really?”

“He’s much cleverer than you imagine.”

“Oh yes?”

“Oh yes.”

“I never did fancy brainless idiots.”

“No?”

“Never. Not my type. I love intelligent men, always have. Filthy, vile, disgusting and clever-as-fuck, intelligent men.”

“Well, Dante is clever, as I said. How he let you go, I don’t know. He must be crazy.”

“I know.”

“He’s also–” He stopped himself for some reason.

We got the measure of one another and I saw he was entirely confident in everything he did or said.

“What is he then, Mr Rayworth?”

“Deceitful.”

I chewed my lip and watched his eyes fix upon my succulent, bold red mouth. “You’re funny, you know that?”

A chuckle caught in his throat. “Aren’t I?”

“There’s one thing you have failed to grasp… and it’s quite an important point, too.”

“Really?” He pursed his lips.

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

I winked. “Nobody does hating Dante better than I do, nobody. So you better find yourself a new role in life, because that one role’s most certainly off the shelf… and taken. I’ve got it all down.”

I turned and tossed the tails to Clem, telling her with a knowing look, “I would still fuck his arse if I were you, it’s far too tight.”

I strode away and Shay followed in step beside me.

“Wow,” she said, “wow.”

“He doesn’t scare me,” I told her, “not nearly enough to make me sweat.”

“He ought to do,” she asserted as we climbed the steps back up into the house.

“Why?”

“He’s a powerful man… one of the most respected barristers in the land.”

“How does that make him powerful?”

“We all sign NDAs. I couldn’t possibly say.”

“What about me? I signed nothing.”

“On the contrary. Dante forwarded me your NDA… and you agreed not to disclose anything about him or any of his work colleagues or associates of any variety, in any capacity, without prior permission from him.”

“So I did. And it still stands after all these years?”

She shrugged.

“That wanker Teddy still doesn’t scare me.”

“You know when you turned up here, that whole Miss Innocence act didn’t rub with me. Look at you. Proud. Brazen. I can hardly believe it, actually. Now I think about it… I realise Dante
has
met his match.”

I gave her a saucy smile, flicking my eyebrow up. “I could crack any man, you know? Guess why I don’t.”

“Why?” She stopped in her tracks, turning to face me in the reception hall before I went up to my room.

“I’m neither masochist nor sadist. I’m neutral. That makes me the most dangerous kinkster of all. I’m capable of taking my heart and desires right out of the equation. I act with my mind. I’ve often warned Dante of it. I engage myself, not my desires.”

Nodding, she agreed, but warned me, “I believe you, Cleo. A few more weeks here, however… and the thrill of cracking that whip on one, two, three… four… and more men… it’ll eat you up. It does the same thing to us all. It becomes an addiction and you either embrace the heathen side of yourself, or you eventually run screaming from this place. I’ve seen it happen. Your desires eventually merge with your mind and you become a different beast. No longer sheltered, you become… something else. Something bred out of newfound knowledge, something… unleashed.”

“I believe you,” I accepted, “I really do. That’s the very least of what scares me however.”

She watched me walk back up to my room, alone. There was nothing more to say.

Shay hadn’t betrayed Dante and his team, I knew it. This place was her safe haven, her sanctuary, and risking that by crossing its owner would put her whole existence in jeopardy.

When I reached the bedroom I locked myself in and stripped, running the water in the freestanding tub. Washing away the dirtiness I felt, having spanked Teddy mostly unwillingly, I watched the stars swirl through the skylights above. I’d done it all for Dante, of course – put on that performance, just for him.

I switched on my phone and saw my battery was so low, almost dead. The fool I was, I hadn’t brought a charger with me.

I hoped for just a little sign from Dante, letting me know he was okay. I received a message from an unknown sender, sent a few hours ago:

Keep your pussy mine.

Even when gone, I’m in there.

Inside you.

Love you to the stars and beyond.

D x

“I love you, Dante,” I said to the room, and cuddled myself to sleep.

IN THE NIGHT I HEARD noises, jolting me from sleep. It was so quiet up in the attic, I knew someone was lurking around. Floorboards creaked and a draught swept through the room.

When a figure all in black stood hovering over me in bed, I almost leapt out of my skin! If I hadn’t known his exact measurements off by heart, the shape and the gait he always wore, I might have screamed. I knew it was him.

“Dante?”

He pulled a black balaclava off over his head. “Ciara. I couldn’t stay away.”

He shut one of the windows in the roof and I didn’t have time to ask him how he’d climbed the house and unlocked the window. I started tearing my nightclothes off right away.

Once naked, I threw off the bedcovers and leapt towards him to help him out of his clothes. I pulled off his gloves first and he pulled me close, kissing me hungrily. I felt light-headed as he licked mercilessly inside my mouth and held me tight to his warm, solid body.

“Fuck!” he growled, struggling to get undressed quickly enough. He wore some sort of all-black climbing ensemble contoured to the exact shape of his body. It was skin-tight.

“Oh baby,” I whispered, tugging down his tight leggings to free his manhood.

I dropped to my knees and tasted him, drawing him back deep into my mouth.

“Ciara,” he warned.

“Someone’s missed me?”

“God, yes.”

I heard a slight rip of material as he peeled off his top and then he dragged me off my knees and straight to the bed, still with his tight leggings only halfway down his thighs. I tried to help him off with them but his lips were making their way all over my body, crossing my stomach and my hips. His hands holding tight to my tits, I shut my eyes and dug my hands in his hair.

“I love you so much,” I told him.

With sheer determination, he got the leggings off over his feet, his face red as he peeled the tight material away. What he was wearing looked like a diver’s suit but I didn’t ask, I just wanted him close.

He laid on his side next to me and pulled me in close, tossing my leg over his body so my thigh wrapped around him.

Kissing me urgently, he breathed against my lips, “I can’t be apart from you.”

I revelled in his love, my eyes shut the whole time. I absorbed each and every kiss, his breathing fast, his muscles taut under my touch. He snuck down the mattress a little to align us and pushed painfully inside my body, his face buried in my breasts, hands tight all around me.

I dug deep into his hair with my fingers and tugged it every time he made me hold my breath, each time he pushed deep into me. His lips scraped against my throat and I clutched my leg tight around his body, one foot flat on his buttock to hold him close.

“Dante,” I cried, and he looked up into my eyes. I looked down into his and whispered, “I want to come.”

“Me too.”

I rocked into him in time with his rhythm and held my hands on his cheeks, watching his eyes for his signals as to when he was going to come.

“Ah, Ciara,” he moaned, and hid his face in my chest as he fucked me deeply, tugging on my bottom to pull me close.

He came inside me and I felt the powerful throb of his cock so snug in my belly, I cascaded around him sweetly, my orgasm not as strong as his – but just as wonderful. He held himself inside me before slipping away, his head on my chest as I lay back.

“Is your door locked?”

“Yes, darling.”

“Let’s sleep, then. I’m absolutely exhausted.”

“Okay.”

He held me tight, his head in my arms. Evidently so tired, he slept within seconds. My poor baby must have been truly exhausted because Dante was never satisfied with quick fucks. He enjoyed making me beg. When he tripped and fell in his dreams, diving into the deepest of sleeps, he shuddered in my arms and I soothed him to sleep. I consoled myself with the knowledge I’d wake up next to him… and eventually I slept, too.

WAKING in the morning, I didn’t find Dante in bed beside me. I knew he hadn’t been a dream because I still smelt him on my body and in my bed. There was even a hair of his on the pillow next to me.

When I looked at my watch, I saw I’d slept in until nine.

What was I to do?

What had he been wearing last night and how did he climb a house?

Laid in the sheets, it was still so warm and snug and the sun poured down on me from up above. I closed my eyes and remembered his desperate lips on mine, his face buried in my breasts.

I wanted his lips on my clit and his hands underneath my buttocks.

I wanted his body beneath mine as I rode him.

Thoughts of Dante made me instantly and wildly aroused; that warm throb in my stomach, that show of moisture trickling between my legs at the notion of him and his hands all over me. I started trailing my hands over my body beneath the sheet, laid on my back with my legs spread.

“Oh,” I moaned, as I touched myself to find I was drenched.

“Started without me?” A voice startled me.

I pulled the sheet around me and scathed, “YOU!”

“Yes, me. I’ve been down to get you breakfast because morning sloth that you are, you wouldn’t wake up. I had to go down like this,” he gestured at himself, wearing my too-small robe, “and you can imagine how it went down with the naked brigade… and worse, with
that
cook!”

After what Shay said, I decided never to go near that cook. She sounded fearsome.

Dante shut the door behind him and I watched him place a tray of food down. Once the tray was dispensed with, he dropped the robe and his boxer shorts in a flash and ripped the sheets from my body. Grabbing my ankles, he laughed sadistically as he yanked me swiftly down to the edge of the bed.

Flinging my legs over his shoulders, he whispered against my pussy, “Why are you waxed, my lady?”

“All the girls here have it like this.”

“You’re not all the girls. You’re my fiancée.”

I braced myself, hands digging into the sheets. I didn’t know what might come next.

“I sort of like feeling the air against my skin, Dante.”

He narrowed his eyes. “What else do you like?”

“When you tongue me… all over. All around my lips.”

He flung me over onto my stomach so I was pretty much bent double over the bed, my feet on the floorboards, arse in the air.

“This arse,” he groaned, and dug his teeth into my flesh, one cheek and then the other. He massaged my buttocks too, in between nipping and sucking my skin. My pussy wept with anticipation.

“Oh, Dante. You’re so cruel.”

“I am.”

“I want to be fucked.”

“I want to hear you scream.”

“Aren’t those things one and the same?”

“Yes and no.”

“YES AND NO?” I exclaimed, furious.

“Baby, hush.”

“Hush–”

I was hushed when his tongue sank inside me and quelled my yearning.

“Ohh… ooh… god, god, please…”

“See how nice this is, honey?” he whispered, warm breath on my sex.

“Yes, it’s nice… ooh…”

His fingers dug into my lower back and stroked my dimples. One night in our Paris bed not so long ago, he confessed that when we first met, he knew that if just my back dimples could make him rock hard, he knew the rest of me would kill him.

“Oh baby, so fragrant.”

“I don’t want to stay here,” I gasped, “I don’t like it. I want to go home to Paris. I want you.”

“I know, Ciara. I know sweetheart.”

My chest roiled with pain. “I love you.”

He knew what I needed and responded. Flinging me up onto the bed, he jumped on top of me and filled the gape inside me instantly.

I enjoyed each moment I got to lie back and be fucked by my love, no effort from me needed. Wrapping my legs around his back, my hands around his shoulders, I accepted his wild kisses.

He circled his hips leisurely and in between toying with me, he pushed deep, and each time he did I was never expecting it. I tossed my head back and when he bit my chin or my collarbone, each time I felt myself cling to his cock just that bit tighter.

“I love you,” he groaned, nibbling my nipple, his stubble burning my flesh. “I missed your soft belly… your warmth. I missed my breasts, my Ciara… my lovely, lovely Ciara.”

When I came, I hid my sex face in the fleshy bit of my upper arm, muffling my gasps in case anyone should be walking past the door outside.

He remained rigid and solid inside me, waiting for my contractions to pass. He wasn’t done with me. He licked at the corner of my mouth and I dug my face out of my arm to turn my head so he could kiss me. He smothered my lips in a bruising kiss and I scratched my nails down his back, digging them into his buttocks, enjoying the solid-steel arse under my fingertips.

“What a fucking beast,” I growled.

He pinned me down, his fingers tight through mine, and he fucked me hard. My hips rolled back and forth on the bed and I knew I was going to ache for days afterwards. This was his way of showing he loved me, making me feel him so deep and so violently. Sometimes after he fucked me like this, we wouldn’t fuck again for a few days because it took so much out of the both of us.

He bit into my top lip. “Ciara, fuck…”

I sensed he was close and I bit his shoulder and let my hands travel his body wildly, giving him a distraction, edging him so he’d come harder when he eventually did do.

“Fucking hell!”

I threw him off me and onto his back and started riding him. “Don’t you dare fucking come, Sinclair. Don’t you dare, you bastard.”

“Ciara!” He hid his face beneath his hands, trying to hold on, trying to keep it contained.

“Oh god, oh god…” He was better than a sex toy, better than anything. He was huge and I loved him… and we had such a mad dynamic, it was always different… every time. Sometimes he was in charge, sometimes I was.

When I came, I came so hard I wrapped my arms around my head and my belly crunched around him so tight, I couldn’t breathe. My legs shook violently alongside his body and he roared as he came right after me, his cries no doubt heard down the corridors.

I sank with him back into the pillows and lay panting in his arms, sweat conjoining us.

Once we both caught our breath, he said, “I don’t want you near that tosser again.”

“Wait, what–”

“Do you think I run this place without hidden cameras?”

“Oh.”

“My blood boiled, seeing him near you… seeing him… like he was. The horny prick.”

“I understand.”

“I can’t risk losing you. I haven’t found any answers… and I doubt he’ll give them to you.”

“You should’ve seen his eyes, Dante.”

“What about them?”

“Like hunger. I thrashed him hard because I hate him… because he’s an arsehole, but he liked it all too much.”

“Of course he liked it. He’s a man, Ciara.”

I frowned. “He’ll talk eventually.”

“I thought I could do this… but I can’t risk losing you.”

“Why would you lose me?”

He sighed. “The things he might tell you about me… secrets of mine he keeps.”

“So, why don’t you tell me these secrets?” I asked, staring at his beautiful mouth.

“Because,” he grimaced, “I don’t want you to think I’m a fucking bastard.”

I shifted back on top of him, laying flat on his body. “I already know you are, and I still love you, so why don’t you just tell me the worst of it all and nothing else can be as bad, right?”

“You’re so sexy, it’s criminal you’re with me and not enjoying your life like you should be doing.”

“Hey,” I reprimanded him, kissing his lips at the same time as pushing down on his body hard, “love is what has kept us together all of these years. Don’t forget that.”

He groaned hungrily and slapped my arse, rolling me over so he could spoon me. Sheltering me in his body, I thought he might be capturing me so I couldn’t run away.

“The worst thing I ever did was let Shay fall in love with me, when I knew I could never love her… when I knew she was vulnerable, when I knew it was more than just her having a crush on me… but I did it all knowingly… and that’s the worst thing I ever did in life. The rest… it was all business, it meant nothing. But her… I got off on knowing I had all that control over her.”

I tensed in his arms and he tried to kiss my nape but I pressed my head back so he couldn’t do that.

“What about me, Dante? What about me?”

He turned my face and looked down into my eyes. He swallowed thickly and confessed, “I’m at your mercy, I always have been. You hold so much power over me, it’s terrifying and I don’t like it. I’ll never like it because with you, I feel weak.”

I saw real fear and I’d hardly ever seen this man scared, if at all.