Anything but Vanilla (31 page)

‘Who is that?’ he demanded.

Ric’s already heightened senses kicked into a state of red alert. He tugged upon the bonds around his wrists, but the knots held fast. The scent strengthened until he sat in the midst of a fragrant cloud. Jasmine and begonia – he’d never forget the scent of his wife’s perfume. But this was no ghost come home to haunt him; this was a solid, living presence.

‘What do you want?’

‘Oh, Alaric.’ The sound of her voice caused his heart to pound. Then dainty fingertips stroked the line of his jaw. ‘After all this time, is that any way to greet me?’ Dry lips brushed lightly against his mouth leaving behind the waxy taste of lipstick. Then a finger tapped his bare thigh, reminding him more sharply of his vulnerability. ‘Although it’s a delight to see that you’re so pleased to see me. The body never lies, does it?’

Her palm wrapped around his erection, kept hard by the metal cuff snugly fitted around its base.

‘No!’ he gasped. He didn’t want to react positively to the stimulation, but his already tightly wound body leapt to the promise of relief.

‘No? You’re always so contradictory. Why ever not, Alaric? It’s been such a long time for us, and you clearly need the relief. Who did this to you? Who left you so wanting? Let me make it right for you.’

The mattress dipped as she climbed on to the bed.

No! Oh, hell no.
‘What are you doing?’

The hem of her dress swished against his thighs as she straddled his legs. Even without seeing her, Ric knew the dress she wore. The navy ensemble had been one of Scarlett’s favourites. The soft wool clove to her hourglass figure, emphasising her narrow waist and abundant hips – hips that her niece simply didn’t possess. ‘Robin, get off me.’

‘It’s OK. Relax, my love. Let me give you what you need.’ The kiss of her pudenda against his most intimate flesh caused Ric’s toes to curl. Every muscle he possessed pulled tight, but there was no escaping the inevitable slide of his cock into her pussy, or the damn sense of relief he gleaned from it. The metal cock ring kept him trapped in purgatory. But, while his mind rebelled at the choice of cavern in which he was likely to find relief, his dick remained untroubled.

‘Robin, please. Don’t do this.’

She struck him hard across the cheek, causing his head to bounce back against the headboard, which left his flesh tingling in two places.

‘Scarlett,’ she hissed, holding his chin so that she could smear kisses all across his mouth. ‘I’m Scarlett. Surely you recognise the feel of your own wife?’

Her hands sought purchase on his chest, so that she held him down and caused his breathing to become shallow. Once she had him panting, her fingers closed tight upon his nipples. The sharp pain sent a delightful feeling of warmth zapping down to his loins. ‘You like that, don’t you? You always did like it rough. And so nice of you to leave these out.’ She’d found the nipple clamps Zach had tipped upon the bed. The bite of the metal built on the need within his balls. Zach had already driven him close to the edge. Now he was teetering there.

‘Robin. Untie me.’

‘It’s Scarlett. And no, I won’t. You’re supposed to be mine. Everything she had was supposed to be mine, but what do I want with furniture and jewels? You were the only thing she had that was worth possessing.’ She fell upon him swift and hard then, pushing down, so that his cock drove deep into her moist pussy. ‘Oh, yes. That’s so good. I’ve waited so long for this.’

Her inner muscles fluttered around his shaft. ‘Oh, Alaric. Darling. You’re fucking me exactly like you used to fuck her. Do you remember? She always preferred to climb astride you.’

‘I remember she talked less and got me off faster.’

‘Then just tell me what to do. You know I’ll do it.’

Given a choice, Ric wouldn’t have had things this way, but from his current position he wielded little power, which meant he had to make his decisions wisely.

‘Tell me.’

She did so want to please him. Poor Robin, she’d finally got the sex she’d always craved from him, but he was damned if she’d find fulfilment. ‘You need to turn around,’ he said. ‘Scarlett always loved the reverse cowgirl. She loved the way it made my dick rub against her sweet spot.’

Predictably, Robin rose up so that he was free of her. Alas, only for a moment before she settled upon his cock again, this time facing away from him. Her broad bottom rubbed against his abs. ‘Oh, yes. That is good,’ she agreed. The catch in her voice certainly seemed to confirm her words.

‘You need to touch me,’ Ric instructed, knowing that his body wouldn’t let him down. ‘Stroke along my inner thighs. Now my balls.’ Her fingers were immediately doing his bidding, dancing lightly over all his most sensitive flesh. A heavy, pulsing sort of fever tore at his senses, while his body embraced the contradiction of what he was pushing her towards. ‘Wet your fingers. I think you know what to do.’ He heard her suck. ‘No – use the toy instead. Push it in slow, and then turn on the vibrations.’

‘God, you’re so kinky,’ she giggled.

He was also done for. The dildo filled his arse to perfection, and gave his muscles something to clamp down upon when the vibrations worked their instant magic. His synapses screamed. Ric plunged fully into the fantasy scenario in his head of doing this with Kara and having Zach watch. ‘Oh, yes, my love. Kara,’ he cried, ‘that’s it, make me come.’

‘Wanker!’ Kara cursed when Gavin removed the tape from her mouth. He’d dumped her unceremoniously in the back of a white van. She’d taken the absence of his car earlier to mean he’d gone, not that he’d swapped the BMW for a hired vehicle more suited to a kidnapping. ‘Fuck!’ She drummed her heels against the metal floor. She knew he wouldn’t give up that easily. How stupid had she been not to take more care?

The skin around her mouth itched horribly. Kara tried to rub it with her bound hands. The tape had taken off her lipstick – the red smear of which remained on the tape back – along with what felt like a few layers of skin. Kara struggled into a sitting position, with her back to the van wall. How on earth had their relationship come to this? She knew he had control issues but really, she’d never have imagined he’d push things this far.

Gavin leaned over her, looking down not at her face, but her outfit. It was not something he’d ever have approved. He liked her flesh covered, her assets hidden, unless he wanted to look at them, and then he stripped her naked. Kara’s top had ridden up leaving her midriff exposed, while her gymslip skirt had barely covered anything to begin with. That didn’t stop him flipping back the pleats to peek at what she wore beneath it. His eyes rounded when he glimpsed her bare flesh. ‘Hussy,’ he muttered disappointedly, before leaning over to a plastic supermarket bag, from which he produced a clean pair of cotton briefs. ‘You’ll need to put these on before you see your mother.’

Her mother! So that was it. He was dancing to her mother’s tune now, was he? Well, she didn’t intend to see mummy dearest. She had a hot date with Ric and Zach to attend.

She smiled sweetly at him, though it proved hard not to make it more of a rictus grin. ‘That’ll be difficult with tape around my legs.’ Kara let her cheeks rest the moment Gavin glanced down at the restraints.

‘It’ll wait till later. Once we’re nearer home.’ He shuffled backwards on his knees, and then rose. ‘Once we’re off the island you can get dressed properly.’ He half turned as if to leave.

‘Gavin,’ she barked, determined to stop him before he got behind the wheel. ‘Gavin.’ He stopped at her second call, so that he stood silhouetted against the backdrop of the cliff face. ‘I thought you wanted to talk. You’re right. We ought to. You must realise that we’re wrong for one another. You’re a councillor. You can’t have a wife who screws around and poses for naughty pictures. And I will do both those things. I already have. It won’t take a minute to get those images out to the press.’

‘No!’ Immediately, Gavin took a swift pace back towards her. His normally placid face was screwed up into a puckered knot: mouth tightly pinched, his nostrils thinned. Kara’s breath caught in her throat. For a moment, she thought he would strike her. Instead, he crouched beside her. ‘Robin told me that you’d been prancing around half naked. She made no mention of photographs. I told her I knew my fiancée and that she wouldn’t do that.’

‘I have done it, and worse.’ Kara couldn’t help smiling inwardly at his consternation.

Gavin’s mouth opened and snapped closed a few times as he chewed over that detail. However, the question over what could be worse remained unspoken. He patted her leg.

‘I’ve let a guy screw me in the arse in public and I’ve masturbated another one for the camera. There’s also a whole sequence of footage showing me entertaining two guys together.’

Instantly, his fingers snapped back from her thigh as though the contact burned. Gavin’s face paled except for two red spots on his cheeks and another where his pulse showed in his temple. ‘Why? Why in God’s name would you do that?’ He hugged his singed fingers to his chest.

‘Because I can, Gavin. Because I enjoy it.’

‘I don’t believe you. You’re bluffing.’ His whole body quivered as he repeatedly shook his head. ‘You’re not that insane.’

Neither sanity or lack of it had anything to do with it. ‘They are real, and make no mistake; I will go public if you attempt to coerce me into anything. And while we’re on the subject of insanity, take note of your own actions. Kidnapping?’ She raised her still bound hands. ‘Unlawful imprisonment? I don’t think either of those things will look good on your re-election material. And what’s the purpose in it? Dragging me home isn’t going to change my mind about anything. That happily-ever-after my mum has planned for us, it’s not going to happen.’

She was talking in language he understood now. Scandal, even the slightest whiff of it, would destroy his political power base like nothing else. Gavin seemed to sink into a stupor.

‘Let me go, Gavin.’ She held her bound wrists out towards him.

‘I …’ Trance-like, moving as though wading through molasses, he produced a pair of scissors from the same plastic carrier bag as the underwear. Two snips freed her of the tape binding her legs. Another two and she’d be out of here. But he paused before making those cuts. Instead, his fingers worked over the small bones in her wrist in an unlikely caress. Kara stared straight at him.

‘What?’

‘You do know that he’s been in rehab, don’t you? And that he probably ought to have done time too.’

‘You alluded to it earlier.’ Clearly he referred to Ric. Zach simply didn’t strike one as the sort to land himself in trouble. ‘I’ve no reason to fear him.’ Admittedly, the subject of Ric’s wife was a touchy one, but not, she thought, because Ric had hurt her in any way. Rather the experience had emotionally scarred him. ‘I’d be more worried about what nonsense Robin is likely to inflict. You let her take my phone. She’ll use it to get to Ric.’

‘Why would she need to do that?

Had he somehow overlooked Robin’s manic glee over having her bound? Didn’t he find it a little strange that a woman he barely knew would help him orchestrate her capture? ‘She’s his stalker, that’s why. And you just gave her a way to get to him. Now will you free me, please?’

‘Are you sure it can’t happen between us?’ he asked as he severed the remaining tape.

‘Positive.’ Kara rubbed the life back into her cramped wrists. She refused Gavin’s outstretched hand to help her stand, and shuffled over to the doors on her bottom instead. ‘How come you’re here anyway?’ she asked as her feet hit the gravel. ‘Why aren’t you in Hawaii with Gemma?’

Gavin smoothed a hand across his brow. ‘I never went. She took her sister. I figured someone should benefit from the break. Where did it go wrong, Kara?’

She hopped out of the van into the night air. The sea breeze ruffled her clothing, and a fleeting smile crossed her face. ‘It didn’t go wrong. It’d never been right. I just let myself be swayed by the judgements of those around me instead of listening to myself. I’ve never wanted any of it – the politics, suburbia, a nice middle-class wholesome life.’ She shook her head. ‘That’s what my mum wanted for me. She vetoed anything I did to try and escape that. The occasional night on the tiles was the limit of what she’d allow. She liked you because you have the same goals as her, but I don’t want that respectability.’

‘So you’re shacking up with an ice-cream salesman and a sleazy photographer.’ He clapped his hands. ‘You’re a goddamn fool, Kara. But thanks for setting me straight.’

She wasn’t a fool. She was free.

Kara watched him drive off from the top of the cliff path.

Free, and hot for some kinky loving to wipe away the memories of the last hour of her life.

* * *

Zach sat hunched on the fort doorstep trying to preserve body heat. Goosebumps covered eighty per cent of his body and his toes were so cold that he no longer wanted to place them in contact with the ground. He’d rung the local police station, but they were on the mainland, and he wasn’t anticipating a rapid response unit, having been rather scant on the details. Hence the edited version he’d given – ‘I’m locked out. My friend’s inside and I think this woman has him tied up’ – rather than the truth.

It was a wonder they hadn’t laughed at him.

Still, he leapt into action at the sound of approaching footsteps, and ran along the tunnel to the fallen portcullis.

‘Hey,’ he called through the iron latticework, his voice hoarse from all the shouting he’d done earlier. ‘Hey! Over here.’

Profound relief surged though Zach’s body when he recognised the slim figure jogging towards him as Kara. Ever since he’d realised Robin had her phone he’d worried over what had happened. After the way Robin had swung at him, all manner of crazy scenarios had entered his head. He hadn’t entirely dismissed any of them.

Kara seemed well, if a little dishevelled. Her outfit was certainly one he and Ric would have appreciated, and would look ace with a pair of patent leather heels. Instead she wore sturdy flats.

She ran straight up to the portcullis and pushed her hands through the gaps to clasp his forearms.