The British Billionaire Bachelor, Act Three (6 page)

“So, looks like you’ve got it made. Aren’t you lucky to hook such a big fish?” Lucinda remarked.

How did I not see this before?
Belle asked herself.
Every comment she makes is designed to put me on the defensive, and it’s worked. For years, for my whole life, it’s worked.

“Any new men in your life?” Belle responded, refusing to bite. “You could do worse than Joseph,” she continued, as she watched the confused frown cross her sister’s face.

Lucinda wasn’t happy, this wasn’t how the game was played. She would jab, and Belle would snap back a counter, and Lucinda would be filled with a delicious feeling of satisfaction.

“Joseph? He’s nothing but a driver. Why would I date a driver when I’m going out with Jarrod Miller?”

“Who’s Gerald Miller?” Belle asked.

“Jarrod, Jarrod!” Lucinda barked. “Jarrod Miller is the hottest actor in the biz right now. He’s been called the next James Dean, and he and I have been named Hollywood’s Hottest Couple. Jeez, don’t you get any news over here?”

Belle didn’t react, but reached for a crumpet and carefully poured the melted butter from its china jug into the inviting nooks and crannies, then drizzled across the honey. Taking a bite she rolled her eyes.

“Man, they are so good. You know our pastry chef makes them here. They’re so much better than the store bought ones.”

“Belle, you’re not listening to me. Didn’t you hear what I said?” Lucinda exclaimed, raising her voice. “Why would I a date a loser like Joseph, when I have the coolest guy in Hollywood?”

“Well,” Belle sighed, washing down the crumpet with a mouthful of tea, “I don’t know this Jarrod person, but I do know Joseph, and as I said, you could do a lot worse.”

Belle was feeling free, liberated, and in control. Her sister was doing everything she could to put her on the defensive, to get a reaction, but her attempts were falling flat.

Lucinda stared at her; something had changed. This was not the Belle she’d grown up with, the Belle who was scared of her, the Belle she could manipulate and coerce.

“I want to meet Prince Harry,” Lucinda suddenly announced.

Belle burst out laughing, almost spilling the tea from the teacup in her hand.

“I’m serious,” Lucinda declared. “Simon’s a big deal over here. He could arrange it!”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Simon’s voice declared, startling them. Neither of them had seen Simon and Joseph amble in the room, and Simon’s tone had an edge to it, an edge Belle knew all too well.

“Oh, hi, I didn’t see you there,” Lucinda crooned, the pitch and tone of her voice instantly changing. “Are you sure, Simon, can’t we go to a club he might be at, something like that,” she pleaded.

“No,” Simon replied.

He’d delivered the refusal with such clipped energy, it was clear there would be no further discussion about the matter, and Lucinda, shocked at the repudiation, found herself turning red and reaching for a second crumpet, the one on her plate still uneaten.

“Did you find your accommodations satisfactory?” he continued.

“The rooms are fantastic, Simon, yes, thank you,” Lucinda managed, still embarrassed by his veiled reprimand. The truth was, she had been astounded by the suite Henry had led her to. It was a luxurious multi-roomed apartment, more spacious than her condo.

“Good, glad to hear it. One thing I should mention, you have free reign of the house at any time, of course, but there are a number of areas that are completely vacant, and it’s quite easy for one to lose their way, so I would suggest staying within the immediate area.”

“I can imagine,” Joseph chuckled. “I think we’d need a tour guide.”

“There are still parts I haven’t seen,” Belle remarked.

“Tomorrow night the four of us will have dinner,” Simon announced, a decree more than an invitation, “but Belle and I have a commitment, so we must say goodbye for the moment.”

Lucinda glanced up at him. He was bigger than life, emanating power, and Joseph, standing next to him, seemed to share his confident aura. For a moment, she felt she was in over her head, and Joseph appeared far more like a successful businessman than a simple driver who was doubling as a bodyguard.

“Joseph, the car is in the garage and Henry will give you the keys. Feel free to come and go as you please and enjoy the city. Call me if you need anything.”

“Thank you, Mr. Sinclair,” Joseph replied, shaking his hand.

“Belle?”

“Yes, I’m ready,” she smiled, standing up and walking towards him. “I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, Lucinda, and Joseph, thank you for taking care of my sister while she’s here.”

“Entirely my pleasure,” he nodded.

A few minutes later, as they settled into the Range Rover, Simon’s vehicle of choice while staying at City View, Belle buckled her seat belt, a wide smile on her face.

“That was astonishing,” she declared. “You were absolutely right.”

“I could tell. Poor Lucinda, she looked very frustrated,” Simon remarked.

“It was so easy. Wow, how did you learn to do that?”

“Business,” Simon replied. “I watch my opponents, I don’t engage them. It gives me the upper hand.”

“That’s how I felt, like I had the upper hand. I’ve never, ever felt like that with my family, not ever.”

He smiled at her, and leaned across the console, kissing her on the cheek.

“It was well overdue,” he remarked, “and now that’s under control, I should tell you something else.”

“That sounds ominous,” she commented.

“Not for you, it’s not.”

“Uh-oh, what?”

“Joseph was telling me about a little scene Lucinda created on the plane, and apparently he threatened to put her over his knee if she didn’t behave.”

“Whaaat?” Belle replied, shocked that Joseph would do such a thing.

“I told him he should do just that, if a situation arose and he felt it appropriate.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Belle answered, her eyes wide.

“You don’t have to say anything. I just thought you should know.”

“My gosh, do you think he would?”

“I don’t think Joseph is the type to make idle threats, so yes, I do.”

Driving out on the street, heading towards City View, moving slowly through the busy traffic, Belle stared ahead, her head swimming.

“You’re very quiet,” Simon remarked. “Penny?”

“Just, well, I think this is going to be a very interesting two weeks.”

“Yes, it will be that,” Simon agreed. “Absolutely.”

B
elle sighed happily as she cast her eye across the sparkling city below. Simon had arranged for dinner in the viewing deck, a place Belle held in reverence, not just because it was where Simon had proposed with the ring encased in a sponge cake created in the shape of Saturn, but because she had come to understand the immense, but quiet strength that could be garnered there.

Standing at the expansive windows, allowing herself to be mesmerized by the thousands upon thousands of the city’s twinkling lights, the scattered clouds dusting the tops of the buildings illuminated by a waxing moon, she felt elevated, her spirit weightless.

“I could look at this forever,” she said softly.

Simon, standing next to her, put his arm around her shoulder.

“That’s how I feel about you.”

“Simon,” she smiled, turning to face him. “How can you be such a business dynamo, and yet so romantic?”

“I’m not sure I was before I met you, a romantic, I mean.”

“You must have been, it’s too natural, the words, the things you do, they seem to come to you so easily.”

“Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps the romantic in me was just sleeping, and you, Belle Somers, woke him up.”

His lips found hers, their sparking chemistry surging through them as their kiss evolved, lips and tongues moving and dancing, Simon’s arms engulfing her as she dissolved into him, and finally dropping her head into the cavern of his shoulder, she breathed heavily, the loving, carnal heat flowing through sex.

“There’s something I want to talk with you about,” Simon whispered, “something about us.”

Belle felt a flutter of fear cross her heart, but as she pulled back and searched his eyes, the fear fell away; there was only love and need streaming back at her.

“Anything,” she smiled.

“The dungeon,” he began, and Belle could sense he was faltering, unable to find the words.

“Simon? What is it? What about the dungeon?”

“Not the dungeon exactly, what we do in the dungeon,” he frowned.

“I love what we do in the dungeon, I mean, really,” she offered.
This is weird. This isn’t like him at all.

“I want to take what we do, I want to take you…further,” he managed, “but only if you want me to.”

“Are you afraid of scaring me?” she asked, surprised at his reticence.

“Not just scaring you, but I don’t want you to feel you have to say yes for fear of disappointing me. You wouldn’t, you couldn’t. I’m immensely happy, completely satisfied, so if you’d rather not…”

“Simon, I trust you completely. Whatever it is…” then pausing, a thought drifted through her mind, “except one thing,” she added softly.

“Yes?”

“I don’t think I could share you,” she whispered.

“Oh, no, that’s not it at all,” he replied quickly.

“Then, yes, of course,” she smiled, “I would love to explore. Are you talking about things you’ve already done before, or…?”

“What’s in my head, no, I haven’t. It will be new territory for us both, though I’ve lived various scenarios a hundred times in my head.”

“Simon, this is thrilling, I’m tingling already. When can we start?” she asked gazing up at him willingly.

“I don’t want to wait until Lucinda leaves, and I’d like to go back to Chatsworth Hall this weekend, so I’ll suggest to Joseph that he take her to Cambridge or Oxford.”

“Perfect, wonderful, that’s brilliant,” Belle agreed enthusiastically.

“Just the thought of this…” he breathed.

Belle could feel his swollen member pressing against her, and dropping her hand, she fondled him through the soft wool of his trousers.

“I can tell,” she purred.

Groaning, he swept her up, and laying her on the wide, comfortable couch, whisked her dress up and her panties down, the sight of her red garter belt and black stockings inflaming his need, and touching between her legs he found her deliciously wet. Unzipping his trousers, he pulled himself out and laid himself over her, his cock falling between her legs.

“Don’t you want to take off-?”

“Not another word,” he growled.

Lifting slightly, he moved his hand to his cock and placed himself at her entrance, and as he surged forward, he grabbed her wrists, pulling them above her head, then dropping his head to her neck, sucked hungrily as he fucked her, the relentless pounding washing her away.

Belle had never been taken so swiftly, so demandingly, so powerfully, and the force and vigor of his rampant, loving attack was shooting her forward to her orgasm. The gentle, sweet, dominant lover she’d come to know, had been transformed into a charging warrior, conquering the damsel, filling her cunt with his carnal demand, refusing to take less than her utter capitulation. Even as she cried out her pleasure and shock, she could feel him growing ever more fervent, commanding her body release itself to him.

“You come when I say,” his breath whistled in her ear.

“Yes, Sir,” she wailed.

His cock continued to pound her pussy, but as she felt her moment near, he slowed, changing his tempo, thrusting with tempered, even strokes, as though regrouping, readying itself for a new assault.

“You’ll come when I say,” he repeated, his hands gripping her wrists.

“Yes, Sir,” she breathed.

She could feel his thrusts gradually accelerating, and she lost herself in his momentum, allowing him to carry her down the river to the inevitable waterfall. The rapids were becoming choppier, the speed of the flow ever escalating, and the white wash was everywhere. She was at the crest of the drop, the water swirling around her…

“Now,” he commanded.

His husky voice was deep and determined, jolting her over the edge, spinning her out of control, the shuddering spasms tumbling around and through her. His heavy groans were distant echoes, and when at last she sank into calmer waters, her body awash with a warm, quivering prickling, she realized she was laying on her side, cradled in his arms.

“That was..so…intense,” she breathed.

Her face was nestled against the ultra-soft micro-fiber of his winter sweater, and she could feel the thumping of his heart.

“Yes,” he panted. “I’ve never done that…”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” she replied, still trying to catch her breath.

“What I did, no warming up, no undressing, just…taken what I wanted.”

“It was incredible,” she sighed. “I’ve never had it happen like that either.”

“I think, maybe, that marked the beginning,” he said quietly.

“The beginning?”

“Yes, the beginning of what I have in my head for you, for us. Your training.”

Belle felt a wave of something she couldn’t quite identify. It wasn’t butterflies, it wasn’t trepidation, it wasn’t joy, then it came to her; it was an awakening, an awareness of a longing she didn’t even know she had.

“Simon,” she whispered.

“Yes, Belle?”

“I’m going to belong to you, aren’t I? Like, belong differently than I do now.”

“Yes, Belle, you are, if you want to.”

“Can you tell me more?”

“It’s something that has to evolve,” he replied gently, “and we must leave it at that.”

“I understand,” she replied, finding solace in his eyes.

She did understand, an understanding borne of instinct, and from the inexorable energy that lived between them.

A
cross town, not far from Simon’s house, Joseph and Lucinda were having dinner at a small Indian restaurant, selected by Joseph only because there was a parking space relatively close. The cold London drizzle had begun when they’d left the house, threatening to turn into more, and in spite of his suggestion that they should dine at the house and have an early night, Lucinda had insisted they go out,