Sexy as Hell Box Set (64 page)

Perhaps, if I went out alone today after all, I might find just such a stranger. As I released Ollie’s other wrist, I decided I
would
damn well go out by myself.

“We’ll have a break from teaching today,” I said, stepping away from him while he rubbed his wrists. They did look a bit sore. “You’ve had a hard punishment you need to get over—that and your obvious resentment of me, which proves to me yet again that you still don’t understand the rules.” I took the cuffs from the bed posts and walked over to my bag, dropping them inside. I spotted the vampire glove, which I’d forgotten to wash, and decided I’d dump it while I was out later. “I can’t teach someone who gets all uppity when things don’t go his way.” I twisted to face him, wanting to gauge his reaction, see whether he really had had enough or not.

He frowned. “What’s that on your neck?”

I presented him with my back again, dug into my bag and pulled out the dog collar I’d worn for Victor when we’d been together. I slid it on, did it up, and ensured the buckle covered Victor’s bite mark. “Oh,” I said, swinging around to face him again. “It’s just this old thing. Chafes against my skin.”

“But you haven’t worn it while we’ve been here,” he said, his eyes showing huge doses of suspicion, doubt etched into the skin around them.

“How the hell do you know what I do when you’re asleep, Ollie?”

A bit of the doubt left his features, and he got out of bed, standing there for a moment, just looking at me. “I so wanted…” He sighed loudly.

Oh, God. Was this where he told me he thought we had something?

“What?” I sighed too. “What did you want?” I jammed my hands on my hips, letting him know I really wasn’t in the mood for any of his mushy crap.

“Nothing.” He eyed me coldly. “I wanted—want—absolutely nothing.”

He strode away—quite well for someone who’d been in bed for days—and paused at the bathroom door. He looked at me over his shoulder. “Victor was right about you.”

“Was he really?” I said, acting as though what he was about to say wouldn’t affect me in the slightest.

“Yes, he was.”

He went into the bathroom and locked the door without finishing. Of course, I was curious as to what Victor had been right about but assumed it was my hardness, my inability to allow anyone to overrule me—unless I wanted them to.

I shrugged and left the room, walking down the stairs feeling the steady pump-pump-pump of Victor’s cum oozing out in tiny little bursts. I smiled as I rounded the newel post and headed for the kitchen. It was time for us all to come out of the bedrooms and behave as though we were on holiday, not just in some hotel that was built for people to fuck in, or in Ollie’s case, be punished in.

At the fridge, I inspected the contents and decided to make steaks for lunch—steaks with the big fat jacket potatoes that currently sat in the corner of the room in a vegetable rack. I took out four large slabs of meat and placed them on the side, then went about scrubbing the potatoes and putting them in the oven on low. I idly glanced across at the wall beside the sink as I washed my hands and spotted a spice rack. I could rustle up a marinade for the steak. It couldn’t be too hard, could it? I wasn’t the best cook, but I’d give it a good go. I dried off then went over to the rack, selecting steak seasoning, parsley and oregano. As I moved to take them over to the other counter, something caught my attention.

Onion granules.

Nonchalantly, I added that jar to the others then rooted about for soy and Worcestershire sauce. Both were found easily—God, Catherine’s friends were so bloody good—and made a marinade quick sharp. All the ingredients were back in their homes and the steaks soaking in a deep dish in the fridge by the time I heard someone else had come downstairs.

I poured myself some orange juice and waited for whoever it was to come in. Tapped the counter with my fingernails, deciding on whether to act like Little Miss Jolly or be surly so my trip out alone later wouldn’t give anyone cause to wonder.

Victor walked in then stopped short. “Oh. It’s you.”

“Who else would it be?” I asked. “I take it you know where Catherine is, and as far as you’re concerned Ollie is cuffed to the bed.”

“And is he?”

“No.” I sipped some juice. “I’m not in the mood for teaching him today. I set him free. He’s showering. He asked where the mark on my neck had come from, by the way.”

He shifted his gaze to my neck and spotted the collar. His face coloured, and he appeared as if he were about to have a breakdown. “You’ve…you’ve got
that
collar on.”

“I do.” I smiled tightly.

“Did you…did you let him collar you?” he asked quietly, rubbing one hand down the side of his face as he glanced over his shoulder, seemingly worried one of the other two would appear any minute.

“I most certainly did not!” I put the juice glass down.

He jumped and faced me again. “Then why do you have it on?”

“I decided to let you off the hook. I told him I wore it while he slept and let him assume the buckle had dug into me. And don’t worry, he didn’t notice it when I was close to him. He wouldn’t have seen it’s actually teeth marks. So your little secret is safe.”

“Until you decide to let it out,” he said, narrowing his eyes.

“I can’t actually be bothered,” I said. “This really was a silly idea for us all to go away together—a
very
silly idea for you to contact me via email—and I think that if you’re so intent on making a go of things with Catherine, you have to learn to find your way by yourself.” I moved closer, ignoring the panic on his face. “No more advice from me, understand? You go about your business, I go about mine. Whenever we’re near one another everything goes tits up. I really can’t be arsed with it all anymore. I shall just go back to being who I was before we met.”

“What, a woman who picks up men from the coffee shop,” he sneered.

“Exactly.” I smiled sweetly. “I had no hassles then. I seem to recall my life wasn’t complicated when I didn’t have men hassling me.”

“What about Ollie?” he asked, moving nearer to me.

His warm breath fanned my face. If he stepped any closer our bodies would be flush.

“I’ve gone as far as I can go with him, I think. He’s tried hard to be submissive but he just hasn’t got it in him to take orders. Quite frankly, he tires me.” I stared up into his eyes. “I want a man who knows what he wants yet isn’t afraid to do whatever I instruct. I want a man who knows how to take pain and turn it into pleasure. I
wan’t a man who—” I stopped, hearing someone coming. Stepped back three paces and whispered, “Who knows how to fuck me hard and fast and give me exactly what I want, no questions asked.”

I turned to the sink and made a show of washing my hands again. Victor went to the fridge and began pouring his own juice. A pair of friends doing the usual morning routine, absolutely nothing to see here. I stared out of the window while waiting to hear who came in. The familiar shuffle of footsteps told me it was Ollie. I didn’t turn around.

“What the fuck’s happened to you?” Victor said.

Oh, very good, acting as though he didn’t know.

“Nothing,” Ollie said. “I got ill and had to stay in bed. Must have been something in the pasta that first night we got here.”

“Oh, I was all right,” Victor said. “And so was Catherine. Were you okay, Zara?”

I turned around, grabbed a towel. “Yes, fine, thank you.”

Both men stared at me, each with a different expression. Ollie’s was full of hate and contempt—good, I hated him too—and Victor’s was pleading, him trying to tell me to play along, to do something for him yet again when I’d so clearly told him just now that wouldn’t be the case any longer.

“I’ll be going out later,” I said. “By myself after lunch. I need to have some proper coffee.”

Victor widened his eyes, opened his mouth as if he had the audacity to tell me I couldn’t do my coffee-shop thing here, not in another country, surely. I smiled.

“I might go with you,” Victor said. “If you need some company.”

“Me too,” Ollie added.

“I said I wanted to go alone, but if you both insist…” Had Victor had a falling out with Catherine and he needed to talk to me about it? Only one way to find out. “Maybe Catherine would like to join us.”

“That would be nice,” Victor said, giving me a funny look. “All of us going out together.”

Hopefully, depending on how long it took for the onions to work on Catherine—and would there even be enough to cause a reaction, seeing as the granules were only in the marinade?—she’d be laid up in bed when we left for the nearest town. If these two still wanted to come along, that was fine. I could lose them in the crowds. But did I really want to lose both of them?

An idea stole across my mind. I’d help Victor one last time, help to make him see, and if he didn’t, then he really was on his own. For all I cared, he could live his life with the insipid Catherine, who was just playing at being what he wanted. Yes, I’d give him one final pointer.

After all, what were friends for?

“Zara, that was delicious,” Catherine said, giving me an over-enthusiastic smile.

It was only steak and jackets, for God’s sake. I was no fancy chef but I could rustle up the basics, unlike Victor, who actually really could cook.

“You’re too kind.” I stood and tucked the heavy wooden chair beneath the table; the legs scraped gratingly on the floor. “I’m going to do the European thing and take a siesta before I go into town for coffee.”

“Oh, yes, when in Rome do as the Romans and all that,” Catherine said then giggled. “Oh, and we’re in Italy, too, how funny.”

I didn’t normally whip women, but damn, I would enjoy making a nice X-marks-the-spot on her arse. She drove me bloody nuts. “Ah, yes, very good,” I said, struggling not to grit my teeth. “Ollie, do you want to join me in bed?”

Ollie’s brow crinkled in surprise, and he placed his knife and fork together, even though he’d left the salad I’d prepared for him. “Do you want me to?”

“Yes.” I stepped over, traced my fingertip across his shoulders. “Come on, darling, lets go and lie down for a bit.” I winked at Catherine then said close to Ollie’s ear, “You might even get lucky.”

Catherine made a show of wiping her mouth on her napkin and averted her eyes.

Ollie stood, a tad hesitantly I thought, and then followed me out of the room. I said nothing to Victor. I’d made a point of not directing any conversation his way during the entire meal. It had been easy to do, he’d been quiet and brooding, almost as if he were sulking at himself for giving in to his lust and fucking me up against that tree.

Mmm, and a very nice fuck it had been too. It turned me on so damn much when he let his beast out to play. It was a strong, rampant, barely satiable creature that hit all the right buttons in me. Another couple of thrusts and I would have orgasmed even though I was trying not to in order to prove a point. He’d been hitting the spot just right, and the strength in his lean, long body when he’d unleashed it… Fuck, it made me a bit dizzy, and combined with the indomitable glint he’d got in his baby blues he’d been impossible to resist.

Damn him.

He was like my own unique addiction. Well, his dominant fucking was anyway. Not him. I wasn’t hooked on him.

“Do you really want me to come to bed with you?” Ollie asked, shutting the bedroom door.

I sighed and turned to him, folded my arms.

He looked better now he’d shaved, showered and brushed his teeth; like suave, smooth-talking Ollie again.

“We should have a conversation, Ollie.”

He nodded. “I agree.”

“Come here.” I stretched out on the bed and opened my arms for him.

He paused for several heartbeats and then came to me. I embraced him, let him settle his head on my breasts and then rubbed his back, just between his shoulder blades. “Tell me how you feel.”

“How I feel right now?”

“Yes.”

“Happy to be close to you.”

“That’s nice. What about earlier, when you were handcuffed to the bed?”

“Angry.”

“With me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because this is my holiday too. I wanted to be out in the sunshine, walking, enjoying the view and morning coffee.”

“But you know why you were denied that, don’t you?”

“Yes. You’ve told me several times over the last couple of days that everything you’ve done has been punishment for not wanking under the table at dinner.”

“Do you regret not doing that? Doing as your Mistress instructed?”

He looked up at me. “No, because it was a humiliating thing to do, as was having that plug up my arse on the plane and the whips and scratches you’ve inflicted on me.”

“I never meant to humiliate you, Ollie.” I fluffed my fingers through his hair. “This was all part of my teaching. Teaching you asked for.” I smiled, a little, a snippet of fondness for my failed student suddenly tugging at me. “But you did enjoy the butt plug a bit. That’s something new I’ve taught you. Your arse gets hungry for stimulation.”