by C. C. Gibbs
‘Mock me if you wish, Dominic,’ Letitia said with a sniff that fluttered her thin nostrils, ‘but pedigree still matters and you’re not getting any younger. You’d do well to consider both. Your father had money, but it was through my family that he gained entry into the right clubs and met notable and distinguished people. An aristocratic wife could be very helpful to you.’
‘You’re right, Mother.’ There was no point in arguing. His father could have bought his way into any of those clubs with or without his mother’s family. As for children, his parents weren’t exactly models of parenthood. The word ‘shallow’ was coined for his mother, and while Charles Knight was a successful financial trader, Dominic found his father’s cavalier view of ethics and legalities objectionable. Not to mention his father’s serial marriages to increasingly younger women, and the fact that his father hadn’t spoken to him more than ten times in as many years.
‘Tell me about your family background, Miss Hart,’ Letitia said now, her gaze razor sharp. ‘Dominic mentioned you were from the Midwest.’
‘My family is quite ordinary, Mrs Knight. My parents died young and I was raised by my maternal grandparents in a small town near the Canadian border. My grandfather owned a canoe outfitters. My grandmother was the grade-school principal. That’s about it.’
A small silence ensued because Letitia Knight had no idea what a canoe outfitter was, nor a small town, and the word ‘ordinary’ was to be avoided at all costs.
‘Miss Hart’s grandmother is interested in infusing liquors.’ Dominic broke the silence, offering up the information just to see the expression on his mother’s face.
Letitia Knight’s lips pursed like she’d sucked a lemon.
Kate’s mouth dropped open in surprise.
Dominic smiled at Kate. ‘Max’s brief, Miss Hart. Personally, I find your grandmother’s hobby interesting. We recently bought two small firms that infuse liquors – one in northern California, one in Oregon. Their products are exceptional. Does your grandmother have a favourite flavour?’
Stunned, Kate’s mind was blank.
‘Blueberry, perhaps?’ Dominic prompted. ‘I understand they grow wild in Minnesota.’
‘Yes,’ Kate shakily replied, wishing she could disappear into the floor.
Dominic looked up as Zhu returned, followed by Leo. ‘Leo – I’m not sure I want to know why you’re interrupting us,’ Dominic remarked with counterfeit affront.
‘Sorry, sir.’ Leo leaned down to whisper in Dominic’s ear.
Dominic nodded, spoke quietly for a moment, nodded again, then said, ‘Thank you, Leo. Have a car brought up.’ Dominic glanced down the table at his mother. ‘There’s always some emergency, Mother. We’re going to have to leave Hong Kong earlier than expected.’ He offered Kate a polite smile. ‘I’m sorry, Miss Hart. We’ll find you something to eat on the plane.’ He pushed back his chair and came to his feet. ‘Leo will take care of you, Mother. It was nice to see you again.’
With escape in sight, Kate was on her feet a second later. ‘It was a pleasure to meet you, Mrs Knight.’
‘Yes, I’m sure,’ Letitia dismissively murmured, then waved a finger at Zhu. ‘More coffee.’
Dominic was already walking away from the table.
Kate didn’t precisely run after him, but as near to it as courtesy allowed.
As they moved down the corridor to the entrance hall, Kate asked, ‘Are we really leaving?’
‘Not Hong Kong, just this house.’
‘I left my messenger bag upstairs.’
‘It should be in the car.’
‘What if it isn’t? I’ll check.’
‘Leo’s efficient. Don’t worry.’
It amazed her how smoothly his life advanced, every wish and whim anticipated, every concern attended to by a staff of minions, every expectation satisfied. It was a different world, rarefied, insulated, impervious to the variety, hiccups and irksome snags that gave life its flavour. Although he wasn’t a man to be pitied. He lived an enviable life.
On reaching the door, Dominic said, ‘Thank you, Leo. I owe you.’
‘Not a problem. Have a pleasant holiday.’
‘We’re good?’ A cryptic look passed between the two men.
‘Everything’s fine, Nick.’
Dominic smiled. ‘Perhaps we’ll come for dinner one night.’
‘An would enjoy the opportunity to cook for you and Miss Hart.’
‘We’ll see. I’ll call you.’ Dominic dipped his head.
Leo nodded at the houseboy standing at the door and the door was opened.
‘There, that wasn’t too bad, was it?’ Dominic took Kate’s hand and moved through the open doorway.
‘It could have been worse.’
‘I wouldn’t have let it get worse. I don’t want you unhappy.’
She smiled up at him as they walked down the stairs. ‘Lucky me.’
‘I’m the fortunate one. Watch your step.’ They reached the car, the back door held open by another staff member.
Dominic followed her in, pointed out her canvas bag on the seat, saw that the privacy glass was up as ordered and the moment the door shut and the car moved off, he unzipped his slacks and reached out for her. ‘We both need a reward for surviving lunch.’ Lifting Kate onto his lap, he quickly swung her around to straddle his thighs, brushed her skirt out of the way with a brisk sweep of his hand, raised her just enough to deftly align himself. Once the tip of his cock was nuzzling her sex, he eased her down his erection with a low, grateful sigh.
Blissfully impaled, Kate wrapped her arms around his neck, rubbed her cheek against his and whispered, ‘How do you always know what I want?’
‘Because you always want the same thing.’
There was a smile in his voice.
She lifted her gaze and wiggled her hips. ‘Complaining?’
‘Uh-uh. I’m happy.’
‘Me too.’ Deep down, uncomplicated happy.
Her simple reply was like an antidote to loneliness, when Dominic had never thought of himself as lonely. ‘Good,’ he said, because he didn’t want to look at the collective bargaining that had become his life. The frantic pace, the emptiness. Instead, he held her by the waist, raised her up his rigid length and pressed her back down, slowly, leisurely so they both felt the silken friction register in every obsessed, devoutly expectant nerve ending clear down to their toes.
He didn’t rush. The drive would take twenty minutes, maybe more with traffic. He saw to it that Kate didn’t rush either, although that took all his considerable skill to keep her from climaxing. And when he finally let her come, he did as well with a razzle-dazzle turbulence that matched her wild scream. She lifted her head from his shoulder and smiled at him, and he felt as though life had given him a present.
‘I don’t know how I’m going to be able to screw another man without feeling deprived. Damn you – and damn this world-class equipment’ – she moved her hips on his barely diminished erection. ‘It’s going to be hard to duplicate.’
‘Don’t forget these.’ He held up his hands and flexed his fingers.
‘And this.’ She ran the pad of her finger across his smiling mouth.
‘We have a full arsenal of equipment, babe.’ His smile widened. ‘You need us.’
‘Such smugness practically screams for payback.’
His brows rose. ‘And you can do that?’
‘Maybe,’ she purred. ‘Have you ever seen those naughty librarian commercials?’
‘I haven’t.’ He grinned. ‘But I have a feeling I wish I had.’
‘You have a lot of late fees, mister,’ Kate recited in a low, breathy, luridly sexy tone. ‘Maybe someone should teach you to return your library books on time.’
Dominic laughed, the blue of his eyes filled with delight. ‘Anytime you want to play, Miss Hart, count me in.’
‘See, that’s the problem,’ she grumbled. ‘I’m going to miss all that. Maybe I could stop by once a month and we could spend a day
in bed fucking.’
Or other places, fucking. ‘You might have yourself a deal,’ he said softly, his brain rapidly ticking through the logistics necessary to make it happen. ‘Call me and I’ll send a plane for you. In the meantime though, don’t go. Stay. Work for me.’ He had a brief moment of panic as he heard himself vocalize what would have been unheard of three days ago. On the other hand, he wanted what he wanted – for now. ‘You should have taken my job offer from the beginning.’
She squirmed a little so she could feel the full extent of his swelling cock. ‘The fringe benefits are awesome.’
‘You could be my ADC, work closely with me – very closely,’ he said, smiling faintly. ‘Max could go home every week instead of every two weeks. You could fill in.’
‘Tempting, Mr Knight. Especially if you promise to fill me in return.’
‘With pleasure, Miss Hart.’
‘Only for fun,’ she said softly, knowing she’d have her heart broken in the end.
‘I’m serious.’
‘We’ll talk about it.’ She had six more days; she wasn’t going to ruin them fighting.
‘Agreed.’ He knew better than to argue now. But he intended to keep Miss Hart – at least temporarily. ‘If you want to come again before we get there,’ he said smoothly, ‘we have time.’
CHAPTER 16
Dominic’s Garden House was near the Happy Valley race track and the Emperor Hotel, both useful in terms of entertainment. The track was open from September to June, the Emperor Hotel was open 365 days a year, which meant there was always sex for sale. And conveniently near the hotel was the residence Dominic had purchased three years ago and that functioned on occasion as his fuck pad.
At the moment, though, he wasn’t interested in either public venue. He had his entertainment and horse racing was the last thing on his mind.
The car entered the property through electronic gates, although nothing as pretentious as the gates for his house on The Peak. The drive was abbreviated as well, although the gardens were superb – a jungle of foliage that made the house, when it appeared, a surprise.
The red structure had been built as a summer house in the late eighteenth century, the design an idiosyncratic amalgam of Chinese and Portuguese elements. With the original Portuguese trading port of Macau a short sail from Hong Kong, there was evidence that the first owner had used the house as a private retreat – for personal entertainment. Much like the present owner.
Dominic had had the summer house converted to a year-round home, upgrading the plumbing and electricity, adding heating and air conditioning, replacing windows with more environmentally suitable glass, insulating the walls, bringing in a decorator to recreate some of the original ambience, including a room that resembled a tai chi studio.
The Garden House hadn’t been his first choice. He would have preferred entertaining Miss Hart at his house. But his mother’s presence had required the change in plans.
As the car came to a stop, Dominic spoke through the intercom to the driver. ‘We need two robes, Liang, and some towels,’ he said in Cantonese. ‘Toss them on the front seat. Then you can take one of the other cars in the garage back to the house. We’ll manage here on our own.’
The driver’s door opened a moment later.
‘He’s getting us robes,’ Dominic translated, lifting Kate and placing her on the seat beside him. ‘Relax,’ he said to the sudden apprehension in her eyes. ‘No one cares what we do. This is Hong Kong.’
‘And you’re rich.’
He smiled. ‘That too.’
They waited in the luxury Benz, concealed from the world behind smoked-glass windows. Dominic related some of the history of the house, spoke of his remodelling, talked about inconsequential things to soothe Kate’s nerves. Miss Hart wasn’t used to ignoring the world. He’d had a lot of practice.
In a few minutes, the driver’s door opened and closed. Shortly after, Dominic hit a switch and the privacy glass slid away. Rolling up from his seat, he leaned over into the front of the car and grabbed the robes and towels.
‘Here you go. We’ll leave our clothes in the car.’
Kate looked like a-deer-in-the-headlights. ‘You told him we needed towels?’
‘You need to calm down, Katherine. I have people who take care of me. They’re happy to do the same for you. It’s nothing personal. It’s their job.’ He tossed her a towel. ‘Do you want help with that?’
‘No!’ Her cheeks turned red. ‘Don’t look.’
He laughed. ‘Tell me what I haven’t seen.’
‘I don’t care. Just don’t look.’
He turned his head because it was a silly argument, not worth pursuing. And when she said, ‘Here,’ he looked back, took the towel and dropped it on the floor. Pulling his sweater over his head, he let it fall on top of the washcloth.
‘You’re just leaving those there?’
‘Someone will deal with it.’
‘None of this embarrasses you? Not even a little?’
He was taking off his shoes and glanced up. ‘Uh-uh. My staff is well paid; they couldn’t care less.’ He lifted one brow. ‘Want me to unbutton?’
She sighed and slid a jewelled button free.
‘No one will say anything to you. I promise.’ He pulled off his socks. ‘You’re going to like my bed,’ he said, changing the subject. ‘It’s antique, 1793, I’ve been told, and enormous.’
‘Don’t tell me why. I don’t want to know.’
He had no intention of telling her why. In fact, he’d have to be more selective in his topics of conversation. He kept forgetting her naivety. Just because she liked to fuck non-stop didn’t mean she was worldly. ‘Actually, the decorator found the bed in Beijing. It’s supposedly from the emperor’s apartments in the Forbidden City. If you like, we could go see the royal residences some day. It’s a pretty impressive layout.’
‘Thank you.’
That was too crisp. ‘For?’
‘Lying. I appreciate it.’
So she wasn’t completely naive. ‘I’m going to have to see that I lie a little better if it’s that obvious,’ he said with a grin, slipping his slacks and boxers down his hips, lifting up enough to slide them off.
‘Please do. Because this is my fantasy holiday.’
‘I prefer thinking of it as my getting-to-know-my-new-ADC-better holiday.’
She leaned over and put her finger over his mouth. ‘Stop. This is my fantasy. And put on your robe or we’re not going to get into the house.’
He quickly slid the black silk robe over his shoulders, closed it, tied the tie. ‘I’d prefer the house. But once inside, consider me at your disposal.’
She slid her dress off her shoulders and down her arms. ‘I like the sound of that,’ she said with a smile. ‘You obliging me.’
Dominic Knight hadn’t put himself at any woman’s disposal since his wife’s death. However, with his companion naked, inches away and as she implied, impatient, his thoughts weren’t on the past. ‘Inside, not here,’ he gruffly said. ‘Put on your robe.’ Miss Hart’s glowing nakedness was bringing his dick back to life. It always amazed him, how it was possible to conceal such abundance.
The ‘Set Fire to the Rain’ ring tone echoed from inside Kate’s messenger bag, shattering Dominic’s preoccupation with big tits and curvaceous hips. Prompting a visible tenseness in his companion.
Kate didn’t move.
He flicked a finger toward the bag. ‘Answer it.’
‘They can leave a message.’
‘It might be your grandmother,’ he said casually, his gaze, in contrast, vigilant. ‘You should answer it.’
‘Not now.’
The message ping went off.
‘I’d check that.’ Dominic pointed at the bag again. ‘Andy’s been calling a lot.’
She gave him a murderous look. ‘How the hell would you know?’
‘You should get a password.’
‘I have a fucking password.’
He s
hrugged. ‘You should get a better password.’
‘And you should get some scruples,’ she snapped.
‘I’ll think about it.’ Reaching past her, Dominic grabbed the bag from the seat, pulled out her iPhone, tapped an icon and glanced at the display. ‘Andy’s wondering how you like Hong Kong?’
‘What?’ She snatched the phone from Dominic’s hand, looked at the text, swore, then muttered, ‘How the hell does he know where I am?’
‘I repeat – you should get a better password.’ His smile was indulgent. ‘You of all people.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said with cutting sarcasm. ‘Are you saying this is my fault?’
‘All I’m saying,’ he replied with gentle forbearance, ‘is you shouldn’t leave yourself open to hacking. You can fix it. Now call him back. Tell him you’re busy.’
She softly exhaled. ‘I can’t. Andy wants to know about my job at Knight Enterprises, as you probably already know if you read the earlier texts. So I’m not calling him back. I don’t have anything to say other than that I’m banging the CEO and I’m not interested in broadcasting that to the world.’
Dominic smiled. ‘You’re wounding my ego. It can’t be that bad.’
‘Very humorous,’ she grumbled, moody and fretful, dropping back against the seat with a sigh. ‘You’re going to fuck up my life in more ways than one.’
‘We don’t have to worry about it right now, do we?’
She gave him a surly look from under her lashes. ‘Because you have a one-track mind.’
‘With you I do. I’m leaving a helluva lot of people hanging because of you. So we could debate who’s fucking up whom the most.’ He lightly touched her arm. ‘But I’d rather do that tomorrow or the next day or the day after that if it’s OK with you. Come see my house. You’ll like it.’
‘Just like that. Forget everything. Come in and play?’
He grinned. ‘It could work.’
She sighed, then frowned. ‘Damn you,’ she murmured sourly.
‘You don’t want to get in that line,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s fucking long.’