Alison leaned across the table conspiratorially. “If he asks if you want a ride, he’s not talking about his ATV.”
Elizabeth was curious. “What do you mean?”
“It’s the KLB chat-up line. Men will just come right out and ask if you want a ride. They mean on them.”
“Thanks for the warning. Otherwise, I probably would’ve said yes.”
Muriel and Alison burst into peals of laughter.
“Dinna worry. We’ll take care of ye,” said Muriel.
Tattie returned with drinks for the table, and Elizabeth settled in to enjoy herself. A group called The Whiskeys was soon belting out Celtic music. The dance floor turned into a mob of heaving bodies. Elizabeth danced with Tattie several times. Finally, drenched in perspiration, feeling the effects of several glasses of wine, Elizabeth decided she needed some air.
Tattie accompanied her outside. “Look here. I want ta show ye somethin’.”
Tattie took Elizabeth’s small hand in his meat-like paw and led her to the back of the building. A full moon was shining on the loch, bathing the water in a magical silvery glow.
Elizabeth gasped. “Oh my. How beautiful.”
“Aye. It is that. Beautiful,” said Tattie, only he wasn’t looking at the loch. He leaned in for a kiss, his sandpapery lips finding hers. For a few seconds Elizabeth responded, allowing Tattie’s thick tongue into her mouth, but all she could think about was Declan. This wasn’t Declan’s sweet tongue, or his long fingers feeling her breasts under her soft cashmere sweater, or the hardness of his lean body pressing against her, signalling his need. Elizabeth gazed at Tattie, bathed in moonlight. He was a handsome, powerful man, but he wasn’t the one she wanted.
“Elizabeth,” he whispered, “I’d like ta take ye for a ride.”
Thank heavens she’d been warned. Elizabeth pulled herself together and gently pushed him away. “I’m flattered, Tattie. But it’s not going to happen. I’m leaving in two days. I’d like to leave with us being just friends.”
“I’d gi you the best ride you ever had,” he murmured.
“I’ve no doubt, Tattie. But no.”
Tattie ran his fingers through his hair. He looked disappointed. “All right, Elizabeth. But if ever you should change your mind . . .”
“You’ll be the first to know,” she assured him.
Tattie took her hand once more and led her back into the hall. Elizabeth knew she’d be the source of much gossip and speculation, but she didn’t care. Soon she would be gone.
After a few more dances, the evening was over. As the band packed up, Alison leaned across to Elizabeth. “Would you like a ride?” she said, her eyes mirthful. “In a car, I mean.”
Elizabeth accepted. It had been an active night with much wine. She was grateful not to have to walk home.
Soon she was safely inside her cottage. She changed out of her clothes and ran a tub. What a fun night it had been. She thought how easy it would have been to take Tattie up on his offer of a ride. He clearly wanted her. For a woman who had just turned forty, she was definitely still desirable.
Elizabeth climbed into the bathtub, enjoying the sensation of heat surrounding her. She was glad she had gone out. The excitement of being wanted still lingered. Her fingers drifted between her legs. She turned on the taps, set the shower hose to pulse and directed the stream of water onto her pleasure bud. Her imaginative mind took over.
Elizabeth was in the bedroom of a 1970s house for a movie shoot. A crew moved around adjusting lights and setting up cameras. To make amends for letting Tattie kiss her, Elizabeth had agreed to be in Declan’s porn movie. She noted the shackles attached to the bed. These would be used on her. She would submit willingly to punishment.
Declan sat in a director’s chair, overseeing the shoot. He called her over. “Show yourself to me.”
Elizabeth parted her silk robe and let Declan look between her legs.
“Now turn around and bend over,” he ordered.
Elizabeth did as he said.
Satisfied, Declan called in a wardrobe assistant. “Put her in costume.”
The assistant quickly dressed Elizabeth in a red lace bra with cut-out nipples and a pair of crotchless panties. Another assistant shackled her spread-eagled to the bed.
“Now,” said Declan in his most commanding voice. “Your husband has left you like this to punish you for thinking about another man. You’re waiting for him to come back and untie you, but he has a surprise in store. Action.”
Cameras rolled. Elizabeth could sense them zooming in on her crotch. Two women entered the bedroom. One was tall and dark, wearing jeans and a work shirt. The other was a petite blonde in a short skirt and high heels.
“This must be the place,” said the blonde.
“Yeah, there she is,” said the dark-haired one. “Let’s do her.”
“Your husband felt you needed a lesson in pleasing him,” said the blonde to Elizabeth. She stripped down to her panties and began touching herself.
“That’s good,” Declan directed the blonde through a headset. “Now sit astride her face and pull your panties to one side. No, don’t take them off, just pull them to one side so she can lick you.”
Elizabeth found herself looking at a shaved vulva.
“Start licking,” said the blonde, gently grinding Elizabeth’s mouth. Elizabeth did as she said, surprised to enjoy the taste of her salty sweetness.
The dark-haired woman stripped out of her shirt and jeans. She was wearing a strap-on dildo attached to a pair of briefs.
“Keep licking,” Declan directed Elizabeth. To the dark-haired woman he said, “Now fuck her.”
The woman climbed astride Elizabeth, inserted her dildo through the slit of the crotchless panties into Elizabeth and began to thrust. Elizabeth couldn’t believe the sensation. The delicate taste of the blonde in her mouth. The stiffness of her clitoris, like a tiny bud. She moved her tongue faster and faster. She was licking a woman. She was being fucked by a woman. Her nipples, jutting from her red bra, were stiff with excitement. And Declan was watching it all with lust, his eyes like liquid fire. She wanted to please him. She would do anything he said. She would let him film any part of her he wanted. She was coming. She was coming. She was coming. The cameras were in tight on her body. The women were fucking her harder. This was her punishment. This was what she deserved. Oh! Oh! Oh! Elizabeth’s orgasm shuddered through her body. She released a final cry and collapsed back into the warm water of the tub.
It took her a few seconds to recover from the powerful spasms that shook her like an earthquake. Oh, Declan. Would she ever get him out of her head? She longed to see him, to touch him again, but he had betrayed her. Sadly, fantasies would just have to do.
Chapter Twenty
Natasha’s taxi was stuck in traffic. She looked at her watch. It was 7:45. She had only fifteen minutes to get to Effie’s. She had a brand-new, exciting job, the type of position she had dreamed about. She was going to travel the world and meet celebrities. She’d always known she was going to do something special, something that would make the world take notice. It was just a matter of time and timing. She’d spent all day Saturday shopping for red clothes. Now her suitcase was packed full of them. She reminded herself that she was now called China. She kind of liked it. And she’d have to get used to having a different birthday. That was no big deal.
“Can you hurry?” she asked the taxi driver. “I have to be there by eight.”
The taxi driver was used to frantic requests. Everyone was in a hurry these days. What did customers think he could do, sprout wings and fly? He sighed and turned off the Lakeshore, down a back alley. Luckily, he’d been in the business a long time and knew several shortcuts.
They pulled up outside Effie’s building at 8:05. Surely Effie would understand about traffic. Natasha tipped the driver and hustled inside with her sui
tcase. The doorman looked at her expectantly.
“Effie La Chance. She’s expecting me. Nat— . . . China Khomeini to see her.”
“Ms. La Chance is no longer here,” said the doorman.
“What do you mean? I’m only five minutes late. Has she gone to the airport already?”
“I couldn’t say for sure where she’s gone, miss. All I know is that she vacated her suite yesterday. It’s for sale.”
“But that’s impossible!” cried Natasha. “I’m her new assistant. She can’t be gone without me.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” said the doorman. “Perhaps you should phone her.”
“Good idea.”
Natasha fumbled in her purse for her cellphone. She’d put Effie’s number on it. This was surely some terrible misunderstanding. Natasha dialled and waited. A recorded message from Effie said she was presently unavailable and out of the country until further notice.
The truth slowly dawned on Natasha. She’d been set up. There was no job. There was no Dubai. There was no anything.
“Everything okay, miss?” inquired the doorman.
Natasha ripped the cheap charms off her bracelet and flung them to the floor, where they scattered across the marble lobby. “No, everything is not okay,” screamed Natasha to the nonplused doorman. “Everything is definitely not okay!”
Incensed, Natasha vowed revenge. Someone would pay, and pay dearly, for doing this to her.
* * *
Elizabeth was pleasantly surprised to see a different receptionist inside ATM’s large marble foyer. Elizabeth introduced herself, welcomed the new girl, then headed to her office. She buzzed Manny for coffee. He arrived minutes later with a steaming cappuccino.
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at him. “Well? Do tell. Where’s Natasha?”
“Gone, gone, gone,” beamed Manny. “She resigned on Friday.”
“How come?”
“I think you’d better ask Effie. She said for you to Skype the minute you arrived.”
When Elizabeth heard Effie’s account of her meeting with Natasha, she was amused and delighted. “Whose idea was it . . . the C and the H and wearing red?”
“That was Manny’s touch,” laughed Effie. “She actually called herself China, can you believe it? But,” she added, “the real mastermind behind the plan was Declan.”
“Declan?”
“Yes. He called and told me all about Natasha’s obsession with celebrities and how it had always been her dream to be a PA to somebody famous. Well, that was me. I offered her a life of glamour and travel. And she fell for it. Boy, did she fall for it.”
“Where is she now?” asked Elizabeth.
“Who cares? She might be on a plane to Dubai, for all I know. But she’s out of your hair, and you’ve got Declan to thank. It was a stroke of genius.”
“Thanks, Eff. Say hi to New York for me.”
“Will do, sweetie.”
Elizabeth signed off. So it had been Declan’s scheme to get rid of Na-trash-a. That was interesting. She supposed she owed him a phone call.
He answered on the first ring. “Elizabeth?”
“Yes. It’s me.”
Just the sound of his voice saying her name produced a delicious melting feeling all the way down to her toes.
“I was going to come by the office to drop off your father’s guitar.”
“Why?”
“I figured if you want nothing to do with me, I should give it back.”
“Listen. I heard how you helped get rid of Natasha. I wanted to say thanks.”
“It was easily done. I knew she’d fall for it.”
“Well, thank you.” Elizabeth took a deep breath. She might as well get it out. “Why did you tell her about me?”
“I never told her anything about you.”
“Nothing? Nothing at all?”
“Not a word, I swear.”
“You didn’t tell her anything about . . . about the marketplace?”
“You mean the fantasy?”
Elizabeth felt momentarily ashamed. “Yes, that’s what I mean.”
“Of course not. That’s ridiculous.”
“Then why did she say what she said?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Elizabeth.”
She could tell from his tone that he was confused, and somewhat frustrated. She explained, “She said something at Clinton’s when you were wasted. About me being a slave.”
There. It was done. It was out in the open. How was he going to defend himself now? Silence. When he finally spoke, it was in a controlled, measured tone. “I don’t know what you think of me. No, that’s not true. I have a very good idea what you think of me, and I’m less than pleased. But I want to try to explain what I think happened, and it would be easier to do it in person. How soon can you come to my place?”
Elizabeth deliberated. She at least owed him the chance to explain, though the thought of seeing him in the flesh again overwhelmed her. “I’ll be right there.”
Declan opened the door barefoot, wearing an open plaid shirt and jeans slung low around his narrow hips. His blue eyes stared hungrily at her face. Her first impulse was to fling herself against him. She desperately wanted to run her hands over his lean, muscular torso, over his strong young chest. But the fading scratches she could see there reminded her of Natasha. She pulled herself together and stepped briskly into his apartment. The first thing she noticed was her father’s guitar, fitted with new strings.
“Well, Declan. It seems we have a lot to talk about.”
“Yes, we do. But I get to go first, since you seem to have already drawn a lot of wrong conclusions.”
“You have Natasha’s nail marks all over you.”
“Natasha is a crazy bitch. She got it into her head that if I became successful I wouldn’t have time for her. She refuses to accept the fact that I was done with her a long time ago.”
“She slept here. She slept with you.”
“She drugged me, for Chrissake. I don’t remember anything except waking up with her in the morning.”
“But you had sex with her?”
Declan raised his voice. “I was comatose. She tried to arouse me. When I wouldn’t come to, she scratched me. It was her way of leaving a mark for you to see.”
“What about the slave comment? Where did that come from?”
“It came from her evil, twisted mind.”
“How could she know?”
“She didn’t know. She guessed.”
“What?”
“Look, I realized a long time ago that the best sex for a woman takes place between her ears. It’s something few men know or want to think about. I admit it’s something that intrigues me, so, with a sexual partner, I try to find out what her fantasy is. Makes it better for her. Makes it better for me. Natasha knows that. The slave fantasy is a common one, so she took a stab in the dark. I’d never discuss you with her. Ever.”
Declan was clearly being sincere.
“Did you ask her about her fantasies?”
“I told you. It’s something I do.”
Elizabeth felt drained. She should have believed him when he said he would never blow a big chance by getting drunk. Now it was her turn to confess. “Jayce is still willing to give you a shot.”
“What? I thought you said I’d blown it.”
“He’s a very understanding guy. When I tell him what really happened, he’ll come out to hear you again.”
Declan was hugely relieved. “I’m playing tonight at the Horseshoe.”
“I don’t think Jayce is in town,” lied Elizabeth. She remembered that Jayce wanted Declan to remain unaware of his presence this time. “But I’ll come.”
“You’ve no idea the hell I’ve been through. Losing a chance like playing for Jay
ce Corning was bad enough, but the worst part was thinking I had lost you.”
Elizabeth could feel her willpower dissolve under his scorching gaze. “Really? You missed me?”
“I’ve thought about nothing else but you, Elizabeth. Although I could have killed you for sticking me on a tour bus for three days with those yahoos.”
Elizabeth laughed. “I knew you’d survive. I was following some of the tour online. Seems you got yourself noticed.”
Declan pulled her towards him and kissed the top of her head. She ran her hands under his shirt, over his bare back. She wanted to run her tongue over him. She could feel him getting hard.
“The only notice I want is from you,” said Declan. He gently tilted up her chin. Elizabeth lifted her eyes to meet his and felt herself falling into a chasm of desire. She wanted to rip off his jeans right there and then. Slowly she let her hands drift down, feeling his desire beneath the denim. He groaned at her touch. “Take me in your mouth, Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth slid to her knees, unzipping his fly and releasing his rigid penis. She ran her tongue up and down his rock-hard shaft, then took the tip in her mouth and gently sucked. Declan moaned with lust and longing. In this moment, this man-god was hers. He was an arrow of desire, stiff and strong, aiming straight for her.
“Take off your panties,” he commanded. “Let me see you.”
Oh God. This was like the fantasy. Would she tell him all about it now? Elizabeth was about to enter the room where the porn shoot was taking place, but a new fantasy popped into her head. It was a wall of tongues. She couldn’t tell if the tongues were male or female. The owners of the tongues were anonymous, hidden behind a thin latex sheet, but they were all there for her pleasure. She spread her labia and rested her clitoris on one tongue. It quivered over her in fast flicking motions. She felt herself swelling. She stayed there for several minutes, enjoying the growing sensation between her legs, but there were other tongues to try. Elizabeth moved on to the next one. Again, she parted her labia and placed her stiffened clitoris on its tip. She fancied this one might be female. It, too, licked her in a fast, exciting way. These tongues were strictly for her and nobody else. She could do whatever she wanted. Why not experience sensation in a different part of her anatomy? The very idea was a turn-on. She was going to have her ass explored. She turned around and slowly spread her cheeks, placing her anus on a different tongue. It was a deliciously dirty feeling.
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