A shiver ran through her as she realised there was more, and worse, to come, but she nodded. In her mind there might be a slight doubt seeing him holding the slipper above her already stinging bottom, but her heart wasn’t going to let her admit that.
She imagined being on his lap afterwards and tried to hold onto that thought as she steeled herself. More than anything in the world she didn’t want to be alienated from him, and if this is what it took to regain his trust then she would just have to endure it.
“This is for letting me down and letting yourself down.” He brought the slipper down with a thwack!
“Ow!” Rudi cried as an unexpectedly severe sting spread across her cheek. The slipper hadn’t looked particularly ominous – it was a slipper for goodness sake, but it hurt much more than she’d anticipated.
“Ohhh, oh, mmm,” she wailed, her whole body shaking as he left a slipper-sized mark on her other cheek. She buried her face in her arms on the desk.
Denver paused and rubbed each cheek, allowing her time to collect and prepare herself for the next one.
“Ready?”
“Yes, sir.”
The slippering began again. Each smack wringing a moan from Rudi and a wriggle of her hips and shuffle of her feet. First one cheek, then the other with just enough pause between them to allow Rudi to recover and be ready for the next.
After a particularly painful blow, Rudi couldn’t help leaping up.
“Oh, oh, oh,” she wailed, rubbing her now cherry-red cheeks.
She looked up at him pleadingly but was met with only a stony stare.
“Please?” she whispered, but instead of replying he gave a short, sharp nod at the table. Instinctively, Rudi gave her head a tiny shake. No, she silently pleaded with her eyes, but his eyes only narrowed slightly in reply.
“This is your one and only warning! If you get out of place again, we will go back and start from the beginning. Bend over the table and hold your bottom up.”
With one shaky intake of breath, Rudi turned back to the table and bent over it, burying her face and presenting her bottom for him. She felt him place his hand on her back and tensed herself for the spanking to resume. And it did. Relentlessly, until a writhing, moaning, very remorseful Rudi wondered if it would ever stop.
“Please, sir,” she whispered almost to herself. “Ohhh! Please, sir. I’m so sorry. Ohh! Please! Please trust me again.”
But it was almost as if her cry had only made matters worse. His arm picked up tempo and the spanks rained down on her burning bottom so fast she had no time to take a breath and her cries became a continuous wail while her feet were running on the spot and her hips doing a frantic hula dance.
And then it stopped, and as her consciousness fought back through the haze of pain, she felt him rubbing her well and truly spanked bottom and crooning gently.
“It’s over now, little girl.”
She felt him pull her pyjamas up over her bottom.
“You can hop up now.”
Stiffly, she managed to stand and look up at him, her face white, her eyes wide and her brow furrowed. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he bent down to look into her eyes. She felt another jolt shoot through her body as their eyes met. She leaned closer, yearning to feel his strong arms around her.
“Are you angry with me?” he asked.
She shook her head, her heart thumping so hard in her chest she was barely aware any longer of any pain in her bottom.
Taking her hand, he led her to the bed, sat down and pulled her onto his knee. She went willingly, curling herself into a ball against his chest as his arms encircled her and pulled her against him.
She was so close, she could feel his heart beating fast, in time with hers. For a few moments, they just stayed locked together, not moving, not speaking. Gradually, their hearts began to slow, their breathing quieted, and the tension left their bodies.
Rudi felt him move slightly and imagined that instead of him brushing his chin against her hair, it was his lips. The thought of his lips sent a frisson skittering through her and she turned her face up to his. As she raised her head, he looked down, their eyes locking, their mouths only inches apart.
Licking her lips, she glanced at his mouth, then back to his eyes, hers holding a silent plea. She saw him swallow hard as his eyes trailed away down her face and then down to see her nestled against his body. He looked back up, his arms tightening and after searching her eyes once more, he bent his head slowly down towards hers.
Utter joy leapt through Rudi’s body. He’s going to kiss me! She parted her lips as the first gentle touch of his mouth against hers sent a seismic shock wave through her.
Chapter 7
Swooning with pleasure at the pressure of his lips against hers gently sucking out her sweetness, Rudi felt she was falling into him, her body dissolving through his and becoming part of him. It was an utterly new experience, and she wanted it to last forever.
As his breath quickened and his mouth hardened, her body responded, her arms encircling his neck and her breasts pressing against his chest. Her mouth slackened open as molten desire coursed through her veins rendering every part of her open to and longing for him.
His response was fierce and immediate. Crushing her to him, he gave an anguished groan as his defences crumbled. His hand slid up under her pyjama top and moulded itself firmly over her breast, squeezing and rubbing until her nipples stood out, hard and proud.
All the while, his mouth raged against hers in an exquisite ardour previously unknown to Rudi. He was not the first man to make love to her by any means, but she’d never before experienced his depth and intensity of passion. She was caught in his whirlwind, carried along as a helpless passenger, a defenceless sacrifice to a wild beast.
She was ecstatic. As her breast filled his hand, joy filled her heart. She closed her eyes with a deep sigh of contentment, surrendering her body to him to use in whichever way gave him most pleasure.
She felt him deftly undo the buttons on her pyjama top and push it aside to expose her breast. He took his mouth from hers and bent his head to look at the treasure he’d been fondling and froze.
As though a switch had been thrown, he jumped up, holding her so she didn’t fall, but pushing her away so she was standing in front of him. Hurriedly he redid her buttons.
“What?” she cried, trying to stop him. “No!”
With her breasts covered again, he firmly pulled her arms away and stepped back from her, still holding her hands.
“No, Rudi.” His eyes were hard and his voice brittle. “This is not going to happen. You are a young woman in my care. I am more than a decade older than you, I’m guessing. I’ve told you I’m forty-two, and although I don’t know for sure how old you are, I doubt it is much more than thirty.”
“Thirty-one, but nearly thirty-two,” Rudi blurted out quickly.
“Right,” he clipped, the muscles in his cheeks bulging as he clenched his teeth together.
“I don’t mind,” Rudi begged. “I don’t think you’re old.”
Her protest brought the briefest of tight smiles flickering across his lips, but his head shook sadly from side to side.
“No, little girl. I am ashamed of myself. I should not have allowed myself to be tempted. I took advantage of you.”
“No, you didn’t. You didn’t,” Rudi tried again, close to tears. “I wanted you to do it. You weren’t taking advantage of me. Please, Denver.”
His eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed.
“I said no and I meant no,” he said. “Now get into bed quickly,” he added pulling the covers down.
“No,” she whined. “Please, Denver. Please don’t turn me away.”
“I said get into bed,” he repeated sternly, turning her away from him and slapping her gently on the bottom.
Miserably, Rudi climbed into her bed, curling her head and hands into her chest and tucking her knees up so she was the smallest ball she could possibly be. Denver pulled the covers up,
touching her head gently as he said, “Good night.” He collected everything off the table into the bag and left, closing the door behind him.
Alone in her room, Rudi let her tears spill over without trying to hold them back. Her bones felt icy and, despite the warm doona covering her, she shivered violently from cold and misery. She snuggled further down so she was completely under the doona, and in the blackness, her falling tears turned into sobs as she wept as though her heart were broken.
* * *
The next few days were torture. On the surface their lives were much the same as before, gym and work at the same time, meals together, and Denver even took her swimming after work most nights. At the weekend, they worked in the garden, tending the herb garden and vegetable patch, getting the soil ready and planting seedlings which they bought on Sunday morning on their customary trip to town, and the routine continued into the following week.
But it wasn’t the same. Instead of their tender and passionate kiss having brought them closer together, it had driven a solid wedge between them. Denver was polite and friendly to a point, but it was as though he’d put a wall around himself that Rudi could neither see over nor push through.
He’d started asking her what kind of career she might want to pursue, and she became more and more desolate knowing he was trying to find her work elsewhere. She now had money in her bank account that would be enough for her to start a new life if she had a job and she found a room to rent somewhere.
The joy of being around Denver had evaporated completely as she tried to accept that he was determined to get rid of her. She just couldn’t understand why. In her heart, she believed he wanted her. She no longer saw his apparent disinterest in her as a woman as evidence that he was not attracted to her; she was sure he was. In his kiss, she had felt a deep tenderness and longing, but for some reason, he was fighting it, pushing her away, but whether for her benefit or his she just didn’t know.
* * *
And then a week after the kiss, he stopped work, turned his computer off and stood up. Rudi looked up at him in surprise. It was unusual for him to stop mid-morning.
“I’m going to meet with a man I know who thinks he will be able to give you a job,” he explained brusquely, his mouth tight. “One of his staff is leaving in a week, and he is prepared to give you a trial on my recommendation. I just want to check it out in more detail, and find out which of his offices you would be working in. You can keep on with that research project. I should be back around lunchtime.”
“Okay.”
She felt like she’d been punched as she watched him leave. Since her arrival, apart from the first three days when she’d been confined to bed, she’d barely spent any time apart from him between getting up in the morning and going to bed at night.
She listened to his BMW pull out of the drive and tried to continue on with her work for twenty minutes or so, but the sick feeling in her stomach and the thoughts whirling around in her head made it impossible. Leaving her desk, she opened the office door to go outside, but a car slowing down at their driveway made her jump back in and close the door.
Her first thought was that it was Denver coming back and he would catch her skiving off, but peering out the window at the car, which had now stopped at the end of the drive, she saw it was a black car she didn’t know.
She wondered what it was doing, but people turning around in their drive after realising they were on a cul-de-sac was not unknown, so once she was sure it wasn’t Denver and it was backing out, she forgot about it and went outside to wander about in the garden.
She was no longer trying to deny that she loved Denver Bane with all her heart. What was not to love? He was the most gorgeous looking man, the sexiest silver fox, she’d ever seen, but that wasn’t enough on its own. He was also clever, successful and wealthy, but even all that was still not enough. Most importantly, she thought, he is truly a good, kind, moral man. Not like the scum she’d associated with before, she remembered with disgust.
He had taken her in and cared for her, simply because he believed it was the right thing to do, and asked nothing in return, nothing other than she obey his house rules while she stayed there. How many other men would have done the same? All the men she’d known would have expected sex in return at the very least, but Denver not only didn’t expect it, he wouldn’t even accept it, it would appear, even when it was offered!
He had ensured she was always modestly dressed around the house; the only exception being when she’d had to bare her bottom for him to spank her with the slipper. Every time she thought of that night, she felt the ache of hot desire as blood pooled between her thighs and she grew wet and swollen with a yearning to feel his body entwined with hers.
And then the kiss! Too, too brief, and yet long enough to tell Rudi that she wanted to share kisses with Denver for the rest of her life. Just the thought of kissing another man turned her stomach and trying to imagine a life which didn’t include this man, the man she loved, was too awful to contemplate.
But now it seemed that was to be her very fate. When she’d woken in the hospital, she thought a miracle had happened. Not only had she not been seriously injured but the car she’d chosen to throw herself under had been driven by the man of her dreams and he had rescued her.
Now, she wished none of it had happened. She wished she’d picked any car but Denver Bane’s, and that she’d done the job properly. She was not only going to lose the man she loved, but also her hiding place. She knew it was also only a matter of time before her past caught up with her, and then what? Without someone to protect her, she would be unable to escape the terrible fate awaiting her, the very reason she’d run in the first place.
Sitting on the edge of the vegetable garden she’d been tending so carefully, she stroked a small spinach plant and burst into tears. Now she wouldn’t be around to see her plants grow, to harvest them and help cook them into a delicious meal for her and Denver to share.
She didn’t want to go, but how could she convince Denver to let her stay? How could she break down the wall he had built around himself? And why was it there?
Not wanting to be caught away from her desk, she walked back around to the front yard and was surprised to see the same car cruising past the house again. Must be lost, she thought with a shrug as she went back to the office and washed her face and hands before returning to her computer. There was something niggling at her. It had been drowned out by her misery, but as her composure began to return, she could feel it in the back of her mind.
And then she heard it; it was a little voice saying “now is your chance to have a look around without Denver knowing. Maybe you can find an explanation or something…”
But she couldn’t do it. His leaving her alone was a declaration of trust and she couldn’t sneak behind his back again, even if he never found out. But the niggling wouldn’t let her alone. She gave up trying to get back to work and went to his desk, sat down in his chair and looked at the black screen of his computer.
She could go through his drawers. No! She couldn’t. She mustn’t. Even if he didn’t catch her, she would know. But she so desperately wanted to know more about him, about the darkness that hung over him that he refused to talk about. The darkness that stood between her and the man she loved.
While her mind was occupied with the desperate problem of being utterly in love with Denver Bane and believing he cared about her in return, and not understanding why he was still sending her away, her eyes were running over two rows of books bearing the name Todd Morgan.
She was still reading the one she’d picked out the first day she came into his office. It was exciting, and she was enjoying it, but she wasn’t a very fast reader. But as she already had that one, she’d not taken any notice of the others, but now something prompted her to take out the first one and turn to the back cover.
And there it was! Why hadn’t it occurred to her to look here before, she thought crossly. Above the blurb about the author was a photo of a man
, Denver Bane, or Todd Morgan, and his wife.
The last paragraph read “Todd Morgan lives in the hills outside Melbourne with his childhood sweetheart, now wife, Anna.”
Rudi stared at the photograph, her heart breaking for Denver and Anna. They both looked so young and happy and in love. And Anna was beautiful, Rudi thought sadly, a sweet, natural and unspoiled beauty, with blonde hair, clear skin and smiling eyes. No wonder Denver had been so devastated when she died.
She looked at the date of the book; it had been published over ten years before. How long had he been a widower? She went to the more recent books and eventually found what she was looking for, the one that had the photo of Anna followed by the one that had no mention of her. It didn’t say anything about him being a widower; she just no longer existed.
She went back to her computer and googled ‘Todd Martin’. This wasn’t prying, was it? She was only looking for information already in the public domain.
She brought up his Wikipedia page, which started by saying that Todd Martin was the pen name of Denver Bane. After some information about his childhood and early work experience, she discovered he’d published his first book in the “Monkshood” series when he was only thirty. He’d then published one a year for six years until a two-year break, after which he’d begun publishing two a year.
Hurrying down to the ‘Personal Life’ section, she read a brief sad note that didn’t tell her much more than she already knew. Denver had married his childhood sweetheart, Anna, when he was twenty-two and she was nineteen, and she had died unexpectedly of a brain aneurysm seven years ago aged thirty-two.
She realised the two-year break from writing had occurred following the death of his wife, and since then he’d clearly tried to lose himself in his work.
Despite Wikipedia being open to the public, Rudi kept glancing nervously over her shoulder, unable to shake a guilty feeling that this might still constitute ‘prying’, and not wanting to be caught doing it. While she now knew more about Denver’s life than she had before, a piece was still missing; she was sure of it, although she couldn’t imagine what it could be. There didn’t seem to be any mystery surrounding Anna’s death, just the tragedy of such a young woman suffering a fatal aneurysm.
Rescuing Rudi Page 10