Текст книги "Rock Bottom"

Автор книги: R. K. Lilley

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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

DANIKA

The woman caught my eye as the waiter led us to our seats.  It was a beautiful day, with the sun shining down and an ocean breeze that made it pleasant rather than hot.  The California coast was a marked and pleasant change from Vegas.

She was an attractive woman, with dark hair and an engaging smile, but that wasn’t why I couldn’t seem to look away.  She was pregnant, her hand stroking over her belly lovingly as she laughed over something with her girlfriend.  I’d always thought pregnant women were adorable, and, more and more, I got an ache in my chest just seeing a woman heavy with child.

Tristan noticed my distraction before I’d even had time to unfold my napkin into my lap.  He caught my hand across the small table to get my attention, giving me a questioning smile.  He wasn’t drunk or strung out today.  In fact, he looked healthy and sober, smiling and tan.

“Penny for your thoughts,” he teased.

My mouth twisted ruefully.  “Not worth it.  You’ll just make fun of me.”

He squeezed my hand.  “I will not.  I promise.  Now tell me what has you so distracted from me on our romantic getaway.”

I nodded my head subtly toward the woman across the courtyard.

He followed my motion, but just looked more confused.

“I was just thinking that a happy pregnant woman has it all.  What could be better than that?  Having a life growing inside of you, knowing that you’ll have this little soul to love for the rest of your days.”

His smile turned so soft on me.  Melt your insides soft.  “You want a baby, sweetheart?”

I frowned at him.  “Don’t joke about things like that.  It’s cruel.”

“I wasn’t joking.  The second you tell me you want a baby, I’ll get to work on it.  I thought you’d want to wait a few years, maybe finish college, but I’m more than fine with starting a family now.  Whaddya say?”

My heart had started trying to pound its way out of my chest at his first sentence.  I sat in stunned silence for a good five minutes while I processed his words.

“I have to say, dead silence was not the reaction I was hoping for.”

I chewed on my lip, still silent, just studying his face like it held all of the answers.  Finally, when I did speak, my voice was less than steady.  “I still can’t tell if you’re joking.”

He leaned forward, no hint of a smile on his face.  “It’s not a joke.  That’s what I want, what I’ve wanted from the moment that I realized I was in love with you.”

“Isn’t that a little backwards?  Aren’t there a few steps we’ve missed before we start talking about babies?”

My hands moved in slow motion to cover my mouth as he reached into his pocket, pulling out a little white box that I told myself couldn’t be what I thought it was.

His head was bent, and his dimples popped up at me as he shot me a rather pained grin.  “Please don’t cry, sweetheart.  If you cry, I’ll lose my shit.  If you really love me, you won’t make me embarrass myself in front of strangers.”

A little whimper escaped me, my vision getting a touch fuzzy as the world shifted into dream territory.

“You’re going to do it, aren’t you?  You’re going to make me lose it in front of this crowd of innocent bystanders.”

“Tristan,” I sobbed, burying my face in my hands.  “Is that…?”  My voice cracked on the question.

His laugh was a gentle rumble that made me want to hit him and kiss him and sob like a baby all at the same time.

“What is that?” I asked, still not looking at him.

He tried to tug my hands away from my face, but I didn’t budge.  “Danika…look and see.”

I shook my head, crying as quietly as I could, which wasn’t quiet at all.

He sighed, but his voice was thick with tears when he spoke.  “Marry me.”

I sobbed harder, thinking that this couldn’t be real.  I was dreaming, except that in a dream, I’d have been able to stop crying like a lunatic and say yes.

“Shouldn’t you be on your knee or something?” I sniveled.

“Goddammit, you’re crying like baby and still you manage to sass me,” he said wryly.

But he was moving, kneeling down in front of me, his hand going to my thigh to rub soothingly.

“Marry me,” he said again.

I threw myself into his arms, burrowing my face in his neck as I bawled my heart out.

“Aw, sweetheart,” he soothed, running a hand over my hair, making little sympathetic noises in his throat.

I kept sobbing, great, loud, gasping waves of them, and he just held and soothed me.  In that moment, I’d have sworn there was not a more perfect man on earth.

“Is that a yes?” he finally asked.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes,” I cried, still not looking at him, still carrying on like a crazy woman.  Gently, almost sneakily, he slipped a ring I’d never even set eyes on onto my finger.

Finally, after I’d taken long enough to calm down and look at him, saw the sheen of tears in his eyes, the gentle smile on his face, I went and lost it again.

“We shouldn’t have done that in public,” I told him later, when we were finally alone in our borrowed beach house.  “I was a mess.  That was a horrible idea.”

I couldn’t stop smiling, studying the shiny rock on my finger like it held the secrets of the universe.

We were sitting side by side on a large beach settee, watching the sun set on the ocean.  I couldn’t remember a more perfect day.

“Well, I know that now.  I had this strange notion in my head that you’d like a romantic gesture in public, and…I stand corrected.”

“It’s a beautiful ring.”  It was a princess cut, surrounded by baguettes on a white gold band.  I didn’t know a thing about diamonds, but it looked big to me, and it sparkled brilliantly.

“I’ve been saving up.  I wanted it to be perfect.”

“This is insane.  You know that, right?  What are we going to tell people.”  I was thinking of only a few people in particular when I said that.

“Bev won’t be too happy about this,” he observed, basically reading my mind.  “She’ll say you’re way too young.”

“Yes, she will.  She doesn’t think anyone should get married before thirty.  She says that all the time.  I know this sounds weird, but can we not tell her?  Just for a little while.  I want to show her that this is not a rash decision, and the only thing that will prove that to her is time.”

“Whatever you need to do, sweetheart.  As long as I’ve got my ring on your finger, and you have my name.”

That sounded so divine I could hardly stand it.

“Do you mind if I wear it on a chain around my neck sometimes?  Just for now.”

“Not at all, but you have to do something for me.  Don’t make me wait.  Let’s get married as soon as we get back to Vegas.”

“Danika Vega,” I said dreamily, practically floating on my own sense of contentment.  What else could I ever want, if I had Tristan forever?  I couldn’t come up with one thing.

“Is that a yes?” he asked, a laugh in his voice.

“I already said yes.”

“I mean yes to getting married the second we get back into town.”

I had to turn my head and look up, and up, to meet his gaze.  “If that’s what you want, then yes.  What’s the hurry though?”

His mouth curved.  “This is old-fashioned, especially considering that I don’t even know my own dad, but I want to get married before we get you pregnant.  I want to do it in the right order, yanno?”

I wanted to pinch myself.  I honestly thought I might be dreaming.  “You meant it about wanting a baby now?  You really want that?”

He squeezed my hand, looking earnest.  “So bad, sweetheart.  Is it what you want?”

It was all positively insane, but I didn’t even hesitate.  “Yes.”  Career, school, dancing.  Everything would work itself out, in my deliriously dreamy mind.  Bev managed to balance it all.  I was a little young, but so what, why couldn’t I?  I was willing to work around the clock to have it all, with Tristan.

“I’ll get off the pill,” I heard myself saying, as though it wasn’t even me talking.

He smiled like I’d just made his fondest wish come true.  “Perfect.  We can start trying immediately.  No harm in getting some practice rounds in.”

“I’d say we’ve had plenty of practice.”

“Ah, true, but never enough, wouldn’t you say?”

“I’ll defer to your superior judgement on the subject.”

“Well,” he began wryly.  “At least I get to be right about something.”

We enjoyed our two-day getaway to the fullest, sleeping in, walking on the beach, and spending plenty of time in bed.  We had a baby to make, after all.  I still couldn’t believe it.

We were wed at the courthouse just days after we got back into town.

I wore a sleeveless little yellow sundress with white flowers, and Tristan wore a white polo shirt and khakis.  It was simple, but it was perfect.

I cried like a baby through the entire thing.

Tristan’s eyes were shinning and bright, his smile radiant.

I remember that I had no reservations, not one single doubt that what we were doing was right.

We didn’t tell a soul.  What was the rush?  We had the rest of our lives to tell them.  For now, this happy news belonged only to us.  It was a secret that took no toll on our souls.  The best kind of secret.

We went out to dinner afterwards to celebrate.  Halfway through the meal I went to the restroom, and on the way back to our table, I bumped into a man.  It was perfectly innocent.  We both said excuse me, and went on our way.

When I got back to my seat, Tristan was glaring at something behind me.

“Need me to go straighten that guy out?” shot out of his mouth the second I was seated.

“Of course not.  We just accidentally bumped into each other.”

“Bullshit.  He was coming on to you.”

“We’re married now.  When is this jealousy of yours going to get better?  I’m yours now, until death do us part.  Doesn’t that help?”

He laughed, threw his head back and laughed like a crazy person.  “You thought that would make it better?  You don’t get it at all.  You’ve turned me into a psychotic jealous monster now.  Better?”  He laughed again, shaking his head.

I reached across the table and punched his arm.  “Incorrigible,” I muttered.

TRISTAN

She was stroking me, and I wasn’t so much as twitching.  That was definitely new for me.  “Seriously.  I don’t know how a little thing like you did it, but you broke my dick.”

She pouted up at me, her hand still busy working on my flaccid cock.  “What’s going on?  I don’t think I’ve ever seen it do this.”

“I don’t know if you’ve been counting, sweetheart, but there’s nothing left there for you right now.  I’m all out of juice.  I’m not sure it’s physically possible for me to try any harder to make a baby today.”

She straddled one of my thighs, moving her wet cunt against my skin, rubbing hard and making little noises that had me stirring in her hand.

“Fuck, you’re insatiable.”

She shot me a seductive smile.  “Apparently, I’m not the only one.”

“If this is all for the sake of baby-making—“

“Um, you do realize that I likely won’t get pregnant for months?  I barely stopped taking the pill.”

“So this is just good ol’ nymphomania?”

She nodded, running her tongue over her teeth.

I groaned, growing in her hand.

“Well, it’s not just that,” she allowed.  “You know I own you now?  It’s just hit me that you’re lawfully mine.  It makes sense I’d want to test out my property, right?”

“Test your property, huh?”

“Uh huh.  So that’s what I’m doing.”  She moved as she spoke, stroking me as she moved on my thigh.  “Thoroughly testing out my property.”

Who could resist that?  Not me.  “Test away.  I’m all yours.  Do your worst.”

I buried my hands in her hair as she took my cock in her mouth.  It felt so fucking good, but I honestly didn’t think I’d be coming again.  I wondered what the etiquette was on letting your wife suck your cock indefinitely, enjoying the sucking pull of her mouth to the fullest.

She pulled back before long, licking her lips as she climbed up my body.  I groaned as she straddled me, shoving my thick tip against her sopping entrance.  I surged up, impaling her.

She shuddered, and I almost came right then.

I plucked at her breasts as she started to move.  “You realize that it’s just a prop at this point,” I told her as she rode me.  It didn’t help make my point that I was panting out the words.  “Just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean it can give you what you want.”

She smiled and hitched up her shoulder in a sexy little shrug.  “It’s giving me what I want right now.  It’s a mighty fine prop.  I’ll just make use of it while you lie there.  I promise I’ll leave you alone after I get off again.”

I groaned, my hips bucking her.  There was something so luscious about her taking her pleasure, with or without mine.  But in the end, we both got ours.

I fell asleep under her, still buried deep, and woke up the same way.

This marriage business suited me just fine.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

FRANKIE

This was not your standard cheesy fetish ball.  This was an exclusive gathering of BDSM practitioners, not as a novelty, but as a lifestyle.

Aside from the woman on my arm, there were no novices here.  This was the hardcore scene.  I was taking it very slowly with her, as she had never done any of this before, and I was more than a little hesitant to be the one to break her in.

Typically, I liked a seasoned sub, who knew how to act and what behaviors to avoid, but something about her drew me in, made me break my own rules, and indulge her whims.

Unfortunately, I had feelings for her, but the verdict was still out on whether she wanted me as a novelty or an actual person.

Estella was avidly curious about the lifestyle I led, and so, after a million questions, I’d decided to just let her see for herself.  This gathering would undoubtedly shock her, but there was not a soul here that didn’t follow all of the necessary rules to the letter of the law.  That was the important part, because here she could observe with no potential threat of harm to her.

It was held in the penthouse of an expensive, exclusive apartment complex just off the strip.  I had no idea who owned the place, but it didn’t matter.  If James was attending that meant it had been vetted well, since he would never attend a gathering that could potentially ‘out’ him.  He was too public a figure not to be careful at maintaining his privacy.

A bald, muscular man met us at the door.  Deuce.  I knew him.  I nodded politely at him as I walked through the entrance.  He was a wealthy Dom, and we’d been attending many of the same functions for years.

I didn’t look back at Estella, expecting her to follow.

The decor was sparse but modern, almost every surface black.  It was a very large suite and not overcrowded.  These types of functions never had more than thirty participants, and even that high of a number was rare.

Generally, you could tell the Doms from the subs at a glance.  Subs almost always wore less clothing.  I was one of the few exceptions, with my ripped up jean skirt, and a shredded black half-shirt that showed off some serious under boob.  Estella, in contrast, wore a rather conservative black dress that hugged her soft curves to perfection.

I’d never been a huge fan of covering up my ink.  I saw it as art, and displayed it accordingly, my clothes framing my tattoos rather than covering them.

I smiled big when I saw James.  I was blessed in the friend department, having many that I was close with, but James would always have a special place in my heart.  There were few I admired more, or had so much in common with.  I remembered him as a tortured teen, and now, at only twenty-four, a formidable man.  I felt pride in him, like a big sister might.

He had Jolene with him.  She was his go-to sub.  I didn’t care for her, but they were compatible in the most rudimentary, base way, and so I understood his attraction to her.  He’d never have a complication with that one that his checkbook couldn’t cure.

I gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, completely ignoring Jolene, as that was my prerogative.  She was no conversationalist.

James had his eye on Estella the second he spotted her behind me, and it barely wavered as we made polite small talk.  He wasn’t one to mince words, and quickly put the spotlight on her.

“Are you going to introduce us?  Where did you find her?”

I smiled.  I couldn’t really tell if he was interested in her on a personal level, or interested in my interest in her.  You didn’t often see new faces at these things.

“This is Estella.  She’s a…friend, who is curious about the lifestyle.”

He didn’t question if I trusted her.  He had enough faith in me to know that my judgement was sound.

“Is she yours?”  He sounded just a touch bored, as he often did.  Some of that boredom was cultivated, but just as much of it was a sad sort of ennui.

I sent Estella a cursory glance.  She was eyeing up James as most women did the first time they saw him.  He was a God, even I could see that, but it still stung to see her display such blatant admiration for someone else, and a man, to boot.

“No.  We have no ties.  Not like that.”  Especially if she was bi.  Bi girls were nothing but walking heartbreak for girls like me.

“Well, that’s a pity.  You two look good together.”  His voice was amused.

I shrugged, looking around.  “She’s new to this, and wants to experience the lifestyle.  I’m just her guide, for the moment.”

“May I kiss her, Mr. Cavendish?” Jolene broke in, her voice low and throaty.

That had me clenching my teeth, but Estella wasn’t mine.  She’d told me clearly that she wanted to experience the lifestyle, and this was certainly a part of that.

“If Mistress Abelli allows, you have my permission to kiss the new girl,” James told her, looking at me, his perfect eyebrows lifting in inquiry.

I didn’t look at Estella, barely glanced at Jolene.  I watched only James as I answered.  “Why not?  Estella, you may kiss the girl.”

I didn’t look at first, only catching the movement of Jolene approaching Estella out of the corner of my eye.    I turned to look as I heard Jolene moaning obscenely.  She was too over the top for my taste.  It always seemed to me like she was trying to get attention above all else, even pleasure.

Estella was holding very still, her hands down at her sides.  And stiff.  The sight of those red lipsticked lips touching Estella’s soft, lush, generous mouth made my stomach roil.

Jolene went right for it, burying her hands in the other woman’s hair and kissing her hard.

“That’s enough,” James said quietly.

Jolene instantly pulled back, looking up at him with a seductive smile, blood red lipstick smeared all over her mouth.  She looked like a savage little bitch, and I hated her in that moment.  But it wasn’t my right to be jealous, and I quickly squelched the feeling rising like bile in my throat.

“She tastes delicious, Mr. Cavendish.  You should try her.”

James arched a brow at her, still just looking bored.

“Do it,” I heard myself saying.

All of us sadists had a masochist hiding inside of us somewhere.

“I haven’t asked, but I have a feeling she doesn’t mind men, either.  So taste her, if you’d like.”

He looked surprised, studying me for a long moment.  Finally, he shrugged, crooking a finger at her.

He took his time, pulling her to him very slowly, settling a hand in her hair, and one at her waist.

Jolene, ever the attention whore, moved close behind Estella, rubbing her breasts against the other woman’s back.  Her delicate hands reached up without asking, and fondled Estella, her tiny hands overflowing with my Estella’s perfectly rounded tits.

I seethed, but kept my silence.

James was looking down at Estella’s downturned face when he barked.  “Back off, Jolene.  She doesn’t like that, and you know better than to touch without asking.”

Jolene backed off, but she pouted while she did it.

He kissed her.  It was the perfect kiss, of course.  Soft, sensual, and full of finesse.  James did everything well, and I found myself resenting him for that for the first time ever.

He pulled back rather more quickly than I’d have thought he would, sending me a partly amused, partly chastising look that had my brows drawing together in a question.

Estella was facing mostly away from me, and he turned her very gently with the hand still buried in her wavy hair.  His other hand came up and his index finger wiped her cheek.  He held it up, as though to show me something, pushing Estella’s other cheek softly against his chest.

I stepped forward to look.  It took me a moment to realize he’d wiped a tear from her cheek.

“I don’t know what kind of things you think I’m into nowadays, Frankie,” he told me, sounding exasperated, even while his hand stroked over Estella’s hair comfortingly.  “But traumatizing your date is not one of them.  I think you hurt her feelings.  This one likes you.”

My mind reeled.  Almost reluctantly, I reached out a hand, grabbed her arm, and tugged her out of his arms and to me.  I pulled her into my side, closing my eyes as her soft, full breasts pressed into mine.

Without asking, she buried her face in my neck, kissing the pulse there, her wet face touching against my skin, as though to illustrate her tears, and inadvertently reprimanding me.

James sighed, shaking his head, the faintest smile still touching his mouth.  “This looks like a private moment to me.  We’ll leave you to it.”

“You don’t have to,” I protested.

“It’s all right.  I need to prepare for our demonstration.  We’ll talk later.”  He walked away, Jolene following in his wake.

Estella’s arms latched around my waist, her breath gasping out of her.  Not sobs exactly, more the thing you would do to keep from sobbing.

She was in a state.

“Estella,” I said quietly.  Besides my arm thrown over her shoulder, I didn’t touch her.  I wasn’t sure what to do with her.  “You don’t need to be scared.  I won’t tell you to kiss anyone else.  You don’t have to touch anyone you don’t want to, okay?  I just thought you wanted this whole experience, so I was providing it for you.  Most subs take a kiss from Mr. Cavendish as a real honor, and you certainly seemed to be interested in him.”  I tried not to make the last bit an accusation, and didn’t know if I succeeded.

She sniffled a bit, pulling back to look at me, her big dark eyes wet and shiny.  “I didn’t just want the experience, Frankie.  I wanted the experience with you.  I’m fascinated by this lifestyle, but more than that, I wanted to see what you were looking for, what you needed me to be for you.  I have no desire to be passed around.”

That had me feeling like a real piece of shit, because she wasn’t that far off.

We’d been seeing each other, in a friendly kind of way, for just a few weeks.  We’d kissed, and touched, and I’d gotten her off countless times, but I hadn’t thought it meant anything.

In fact, I was half convinced she was a bored little bi girl looking for a walk on the wild side.  She wouldn’t be the first.

I’d just kind of assumed, as much as I hated the thought, that she’d want to be passed around at this thing, especially if I was passing her to someone like James, who could questionably make anyone’s sexuality flexible.

“I’m sorry,” I told her quietly, something I’d likely never said to a sub, though she wasn’t quite that.  Not yet.  Perhaps not ever.  I wasn’t going to let myself invest in the idea either way.  “We can just observe, and later, you can tell me what you liked, what fascinated you.”

“I want to know what you like.  I need to learn how to please you.”

I kissed her, a deep kiss, a distracting kiss, where I tried not to notice that I could taste another woman’s lipstick on her mouth.

We’d basically stuck to vanilla so far.  It was not my preference, but I liked her company, and I wasn’t ready to give it up just yet.  Breaking her in ran the risk of losing her.

I pulled back, breathing hard, feeling way too much for this woman I barely knew.  The look in her eyes had me wanting to kiss her again, but I restrained myself, instead pulling her back into my side, and pointing at a small platform that had been erected in the corner of the room.  Our entertainment was about to begin.

“If you want to know what I like, you should watch this.  No one can put on a show like James.  This is a real treat right here.”

He strode onto the well-lit makeshift stage, shirtless now, his deeply tanned skin, his sleek muscles, set off to perfection under a spotlight.

“Wow,” Estella breathed.

I didn’t blame her.  At least, not too much.  James was a sight, hard even for me to look away from when he was putting on a show like this.

His dark gold hair was tied back, setting off his perfect face.  He was a combination of utter masculinity and enough stark beauty to make anyone stare.  And those eyes of his burned through a person, even at a distance.

Jolene followed him up onto the platform, wearing nothing but a corset that cinched her waist in but left her, aside from some piercings, completely bare above and below.

They were striking together, but I always thought to myself that he could do so much better.  He wasn’t only a beautiful shell, like her.  With James, there was just as much to admire on the inside.

He used a firm hand on her neck to lead her to the St. Andrew’s cross that had been erected at the back of the stage.  It said a lot about his presence that Estella only seemed to notice it then.

“What is that thing?”

“A St. Andrew’s cross.”

“What is it for?”

“You’ll see.”

It was shaped like an X, and slightly tilted back, so when he pushed Jolene against it, face first, she was leaning far forward, showing us everything we needed to see of her privates.  She was pierced there, too.

“She’s very beautiful,” Estella told me quietly.  I didn’t particularly want to hear that from her, but I kept that to myself.

“Yes, very.”

“Do you like her piercing?  Is that something you’re into?” she whispered.  I was going too easy on her.  She should have been addressing me as Mistress Abelli and staying quiet, but I found that I wanted to indulge her curiosity, wanted to know the reason for it.

“I like piercings,” I allowed.

“I don’t have any.”

I smiled.  I’d seen enough of her that she had to know I’d have noticed that.  “No, you don’t.”

“Would you like me to get some?”

I tugged lightly on her hair, making her look back at the stage, since I knew she’d been staring at my profile.  “If you want to get some, I’ll do them for you, but only if it’s what you want.  Don’t do it for my sake.”

She went so still that I tilted my head to study her.  Her expression was stiff, as though I’d said something to wound her.  I couldn’t imagine what.

I brought my attention back to the stage.  This was no time for a chat about her feelings.

James tied his sub’s ankles and wrists to the posts, spreading her wide for our viewing pleasure.

“Have you…been…with her?” Estella whispered, and I could feel her staring at me again.

I pursed my lips, wondering if I should chastise her for talking during a presentation.  In the end, I didn’t.  It seemed counterproductive to, since she’d come here because of all of her questions.

“No.  She’s his.  We don’t share like that.  And I don’t like her.”

“You shared me.”  It was an accusation.

My mouth hardened, with guilt as much as annoyance, I knew.  “That was just a kiss, and I wasn’t talking about kisses.  And I got your point.  I won’t pass you around again unless you ask me to.”

I felt her stiffen, and then, unbelievably, impertinently, she was kissing me, rubbing her tits against mine, and moaning into my mouth.