Yield (23 page)

“Good girl,” he gasped.

I was done. My muscles were jelly. Mouth open, I tried to catch up on breathing, but was seized by the fury of him thumping into me. I lay there shocked as I was swept up by pleasure. He took my ass and shoved his cock in so far his balls squashed in against me.

He took me and he stayed in there, pushing into me as if there was further to go.

The grunt as he hit his climax made me smile. I shouldn’t like that but I did.

After towing me to a shower out in the garden and rinsing off all the sweat and grime in a horrendous torrent of cold water, he dried my body with a big fluffy towel and carried me back to the sofa. At last he allowed me to close my eyes. Snuggled on there, lying on a dry towel, I listened while half-awake to the sounds of him tidying up whatever the hell the equipment was that he’d dirtied. Everything, it had seemed.

Except the knives
, a small voice whispered to me.

Mmm. Next time.

I wasn’t cuffed anymore, but he’d clicked a leash onto my collar and attached me to the sofa somewhere. In my muddled state, it almost seemed an act of caring, of compassion. I yawned. Besides, now wasn’t the time for escaping.

Maybe never
, that same voice whispered.

I told it to fuck off.

He came to me after he was done cleaning up and cuddled me into his chest, spooning and facing outward to the swimming pool. I allowed myself to peek at the garden and the sunlight and to wonder if I’d ever call myself free again.

“You were good for me.” He caressed my neck, over one of the bites, I imagined. When it tickled, I shivered and hid my shoulder. “We’re going to talk when you’re recovered. Tomorrow will do.”

“About?” I murmured sleepily.

“Our future. What you will be to me.”

Alarm bells rang but they were far away ones. I snuggled back into him and sighed. He was evil, I knew that, but I was getting used to his brand of evil.

“Always know, Wren, I have no qualms about hurting you if you defy me, or if I just feel like doing it.”

I guess that should’ve scared me, but it didn’t. I was done being scared, today.

Finally, I closed my eyes and, while he petted me, everything washed away.

Moghul

When Chris returned, I met him at the front door, after turning off the security alarm that’d reset when he left, to the tune of
bing, bing, bing
, as I hit buttons. Wouldn’t do to just let anyone wander in. Which reminded me, time to get the cleaner in tomorrow. I’d have to lock Wren away in the basement.

One day, I hoped to be able to let her loose. One day, I wanted to be able to trust her.

I led the way to the open living area looking out over the sea and opened the section of glass that led to a small balcony. It was windy but I leaned on the brushed steel and glass railing and waited for Chris to settle into his own space.

For a while, we just watched the sea and the sky.

Seagulls and terns wheeled above us. The slope below was naturally terraced and covered with trees as well as raw red-brown rock. Though they’d no doubt split away from the cliff slope millennia ago, the chunky boulders seemed fresh and not eroded. Nature took a long time to do its work.

Made me wonder how long it’d take Wren to decide kneeling at my feet was satisfying, to be happy to hug my leg for reassurance when she needed it.

“Get done what you wanted to with her?” Chris had a mild smirk and, from his damp hair, looked as if he’d showered in a hurry before returning. I’d bet a million he’d used Kat and Zoe every which way. Andreas was away on business, so he had them all to himself.

“I did.”

I planned to fuck her again tonight. Best to remind her of her submission. My dick wanted to do that too. I had a hard-on just thinking about her naked, and I’d only seen her five minutes ago.

Small epiphany. I wasn’t a teenage boy with too much testosterone and no brain. Did I really expect this woman to be only my slave and toy?

“You said you wanted my help planning a munch? Something special, this time?”

I wrenched myself back to the present. I did, didn’t I? I had to think to remember. Sidetracked by Wren, again.

“There’s an Australian zombie movie coming out and I thought we could do some zombie effects. Dress up. That sort of stuff. Want to be in charge of sourcing some kink-friendly make-up artists? I know your friend, the lady who’s Klaus’s partner had her finger on the pulse of the local film industry.”

“Jodie? Yes, she did, she does, just they don’t live here anymore. I can see what I can find out.” Then he eyed me. “Is that all?

I could’ve phoned him to ask all that, and we both knew it. He’d waited for nearly an hour for me earlier. I never hesitated once I made a decision but today was going to be a first.

I turned to put my back to the railing, assessing this man I might one day hand my business to. For a price. I had enough evidence on him to send him to jail for a thousand years, even if Kat, my distant second cousin, or whatever, would now deny it all. He’d abducted Kat. Zoe had once been a girl in training, ready to go to a House, before he bought her. That he was saving her from a worse situation wouldn’t help him if the police were informed.

After all this time, Zoe was still kept secluded, so I figured she still wasn’t quite ready to lay her neck under his shoe and call him her Master.

That scenario was what I could see happening with Wren. I saw submission in her and then she’d yo-yo back to her previous defiant self. I was patient. I was like Chris, prepared to wait a long, long time for her to come around.

Once I told Chris who I was, he would have evidence on me. No coming back from that unless I had him killed. Once I told him, he might want to kill me.

I didn’t have a weapon on me. I figured I knew him. If I was wrong, I was about to find out.

“No. That’s not all, Chris. I have a proposal for you that will shock you.”

I’d dropped my laidback king of kink persona. He’d notice it, but I’d rather be me. I could barbecue a prawn or a snag with the best of them, talk cricket and footie, eat takeaway food that was one hundred percent fat and batter while swigging a stubbie of beer, but underneath I was a far more calculating and educated man than most realized. I liked it that way. Secrets were my meat and bone.

“But before I tell you my proposal, I have to give you some facts. I know they will also shock you. You’re going to be angry. You’re going to want to hit me possibly. Don’t. Think first. I may not be who you thought I was, but I’m also no worse a man than you are.”

“Fuck. You’re freaking me out with this talk.” He frowned but nodded. “Go on.”

I wondered if his mind had gone to those crimes he’d committed. Abduction, rape, murder, assault. Most guilty people went there when anything seemed off. I’d never proven he murdered Scrim, my guard, but I was pretty certain it was him and Pieter.

I’d sneak my way into his head by telling him things only Vetrov, my other persona, would know. Make him follow the tracks, the clues. That way he might be less inclined to erupt because he’d unraveled half the facts by himself.

“When you come to that munch,” I slowed, “maybe you could bring both Kat and Zoe?”

Gotcha. His eyes had widened and his face hadn’t moved a jot since I said Zoe. There was anger there already though, I was sure of it.

What I’d said threatened him and his reaction was more extreme than I’d hoped.

Not good. Plan B.

“Yes. I know about Zoe. I’m not reporting you to the police. I’m not telling anyone. One of the reasons why I’m not is that woman in there.” I thumbed sideways, pointing across the living room to the center of the house.

He glanced across. “You’d better explain. Who is she?”

I bet he was hoping like hell this was going to turn out for the better. He had no idea.

“She’s Wren Gavoche.”

There. I’d handed him my own head on a platter. If I was wrong, I might have to kill him. Somehow. I’d manage or I’d fail. This was the crucial point I’d had to accept. Chris wasn’t a wholesale murderer, though. Not like I could be, given the right circumstances.

He took a breath, and only blinked once – keeping me in view in case I turned into an alien maybe. “You’re messing with me. Wren Gavoche? The missing millionaire?”

“Yes. You must have seen pictures of her?” I pulled out my phone and scrolled to the latest pics I’d done of her back, and of her sleeping on the sofa, curled up like a kitten. Serenity, that was the best word to describe her expression. I took a moment to admire her, smiling inside, before I tossed the phone to him.

“You’re telling me I just had a blow job from a woman the police have top of their missing persons list? Every cop in the country wants to find her...and her kidnapper.
You
.” As he looked, thumbing from photo to photo, I watched him, and he looked up to check me too. His jaw worked. “What are you planning to do with her?”

“Keep her.” Nice to know he was concerned. Society might think I was fucked up. I could order someone killed, but if they were in my house, under my law, I cared for them. “I’m not a monster. I’m still Moghul. Your friend.”

“My friend...and kidnapper.”

“Same as you.”

“You could’ve told me before I let her go down on me.”

I shrugged. “I figured it wasn’t one of your hard limits, considering...”

His mouth twitched. “Fuck you.”

He was right, of course, I had thrown him in deeper and it’d been intentional. I’d reinforced my hold on him with that act.

“And how the fuck do you know about Zoe? How? Wait, did you get her through him?”

Ahh.
Getting there. “Who? Vetrov?”

Oh the pregnant pause at that.

“Yes. Him.”

“Not exactly. You know that I run Kinkaverse. That I’m a businessman with a foot in many worlds, so to speak.” I waited for him to nod. “I have many illegal businesses too.”

Chris straightened and turned the phone over and over before throwing it back to me. “Why are you telling me this?”

Would the clues piece together? Had he a hunch as to who I was?

“I’m telling you because I hope to sell you most of my businesses. I want to retire. I’m a distant puppeteer to many. No one knows me. I can show you how to do the same.”

The corrugation on his brow deepened and he studied me for the longest time. “You’re not...him?”

“Vetrov? Yes.”

“No. No.” He shook his head, despite having asked me directly. “Impossible. He’s Russian or something.”

“Easy to fake online.” I pretended nonchalance and crossed my feet at the ankles as I shifted my back into a more comfortable position on the railing. “If you’re wondering about the past, I didn’t know you when you were at the House. I had to have assurances. That’s why all the videos.”

“I’ve done your accounting for years,” he said in a quiet voice. “Years. You bastard. You fucking bastard. You run those slave houses? Have men and women killed because they do the wrong thing by you? For petty bloody reasons, from what I could tell. Your guards torture the women. What. The. Fuck. And you expect me to...” He swept his hand out. “Take over? I’m not that man. I don’t understand why you’d think I am. I feel...betrayed right now. I thought you were a friend and now I find out you’re the man who had me doing all sorts of shit to Zoe just to get you assurances? Where’s the porn library of vids you took to keep us in line? You going to hand those over?”

I waited, to let him run out of steam.

“No. That would be stupid. You don’t have to take over from me, but consider this – if you did, you could run things your way. Yes, you’ve done my accounts and for that reason alone, I know you’re not squeaky clean, Chris. You knew all those things were happening and swept it under the carpet like it wasn’t there. Figure out your head. You’ve got months to decide. I’m not going anywhere soon.
Then
give me your answer.

“Just keep this in mind. You’re the only man I’ve ever told about my other businesses. The only man I’ve ever considered as my successor.”

His expression was stone, for ages then he nodded once and stalked away. I let him go. He knew the way out. I’d hear from him again. I was sure of that.

If only I was as sure of Wren. My previous thought was spot on. Deluding myself that she could be or would be happy simply trotting at my heels was wrong. I had done exactly the same as a teenage boy might – I’d sniffed after the object of my desire like some damn animal. In this, the main difference between me and a boy was that I could get my hands on her, keep her, and hide her away.

I could do it even if she hated me. I didn’t want her to hate me.

Would I be content in her situation? No and not simply because I hadn’t a submissive bone in my body. Therefore, I should assume she wouldn’t be either.

And what were the consequences of that? My house would be in lock-down forever.

Fuck.

I lauded myself on my skills at staying on top of any situation, but I’d never done this before. There was a chasm of difference between the consensual negotiated power exchange between Dom and sub, and this.

Underestimating the opposition was the biggest flaw anyone could commit in business yet here I was in the kidnapping business and I’d ignored that rule. I had to find a way to bind her to me that didn’t involve rope or sadomasochism.

I rubbed my chin. Where was the damn fun in that?

“Woman...” I chuckled. “You’re making my head hurt and you’re not even here.”

Eight days was nothing. I’d barely begun.

I had to get her to like me... I turned to look out to sea again and watched those long waves roll in. I imagined her by my side, enjoying this, could even smell her hair, feel my arm about her waist. Damn, it would be better if there was love.

That, now, that was a tough problem that I’d never solved.

Flying to the moon, fighting a land war in Asia, governing a small country, all those were easier than love.

Wren

That night, he gave me painkillers before leaving me, but my bruises and hurts seemed twice as bad when I woke after midnight. I lay there processing what had happened. I lay alone in my dimly lighted room, my fingers playing with my collar and the link where the leash connected. My brain was working again. I recalled what he’d done and his words
.