Love My Way

by Bridget Midway

  Eagan took a deep breath before answering. “She couldn’t handle the relationship.” He released Begonia’s wrist from his grip.

  “Too tame?” She smirked.

  “Too intense.” He started to walk by her. “Enjoy your dinner tonight.”

  “You? Intense? We barely see you. And when we do, you’re—”

  Eagan twirled around and silenced Begonia with a kiss. Never before had he felt such a current of emotions than he did with Begonia. She tested him, questioned him. From the intensity of her return kiss, she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

  Holding her waist to steady her, he backed her up into the woods and up against a tree. The motion sensor light that had illuminated the backyard area extinguished, cloaking them in darkness again.

  He broke from the crushing kiss to bark, “On your knees.”

  As Eagan’s heart pounded, he waited for Begonia to argue with him. She seemed the most resistant to the Lifestyle. He blinked when she lowered herself. Her nimble fingers easily found his belt and zipper, releasing his hard-on.

  Begonia’s fingers wrapped around his shaft. Although Eagan should have stopped this, he couldn’t. His body wouldn’t allow him to not experience this woman and everything she had to give to him.

  “No hands.” Eagan commanded.

  After a beat, she eased her fingers from around his cock. Her tongue flicked against the tip until she slid the entire length of him in her mouth. Eagan growled and clawed the tree, embedding bark under his short fingernails.

  Begonia bobbed her head, sliding her mouth up and down the length of him. Though cool for a summer night, sweat rolled down Eagan’s back, between his shoulder blades. Her warm tongue curved around his girth as though molding itself to him. Did she really want this life, him, or was this all an act?

  No matter what, her mouth felt incredible on him. Too good. Eagan felt his sac tighten. He leaned his head back and pumped his penis in and out of her mouth, fucking her mouth, until she held him entirely.

  Enough was enough. Eagan gritted his teeth to suppress the moan he so wanted to release just as he discharged his jism into Begonia’s mouth. She swallowed every drop.

  Eagan brushed his fingers, clearing off as much of the tree bark from his hands as possible. Then he stroked her face, the part exposed under the mask.

  “Good. Very good.” Eagan nodded.

  Without instructing her, Begonia pulled his pants up and stood to properly dress him again. After securing his belt, he leaned forward and gave her a sweet kiss on the lips.

  “Learn about BDSM,” he whispered to her. “Please.”

  Touching her face, he felt her nodding her head in agreement. She must have understood where he was going. Although he wanted to keep her longer in the house and in the competition, he wouldn’t be able to protect her if she didn’t know or understand about BDSM and what it meant to him.

  Eagan turned away from her. He’d almost forgotten he had a dinner date waiting. The motion lights flashed on, spotlighting the entire backyard. He took that opportunity to glance over his shoulder. Begonia stood by the tree watching him walk away.

  Damn. He should have never looked back. He wanted her even more. How would he get through the other nine women?

  Eagan flew into the dining room area and assumed his chair next to Venus. The blonde beamed as though she’d already won the competition. Something about her demeanor he did not like or trust. Sure, she was opportunistic. Every woman in the house was. Venus had something else sinister about her. Despite her fawning over him, he knew an act when he saw one.

  “There you are,” Venus said and wiggled in her chair. “I was starting to think you were standing me up.” She shook her head. “Miss Venus doesn’t like to be kept waiting, Daddy.”

  Miss Venus? Daddy? Eagan blinked at her statements. Apparently, her looks had gotten her to a level where every man around her turned to putty. Eagan wasn’t one of those men. He didn’t take orders from someone who was supposed to want to be a submissive. And he definitely didn’t like the whole “Daddy” line. Despite his earlier spanking of Begonia, Eagan wasn’t a big spanker. He knew the technique and he was good at it. It just wasn’t his cup of tea…until Begonia.

  “I won’t be joining you for dinner.” Eagan stared pointedly at her. “You need to understand your role in this house. I’m the Master and you are the collared submissive. That means that you work on my time table and I make the rules.”

  He watched Venus’s bottom lip drop and her eyes got so wide they looked inhuman.

  “I’m leaving, but you may stay and enjoy your dinner. I’ll send Sunny in here to join you so that you’re not sitting in solitude.”

  “I don’t want to sit with her!” Venus spat back, then crossed her arms like the spoiled brat Eagan suspected her to be.

  “Again, you’re forgetting about my first rule. This is not about you. This is about me and what I want. I’m supposed to be testing your limits.” And what he wanted was to be away from her and get closer to Begonia. “Willow.”

  The waif trotted to him. “Yes, Master Eagan?”

  “Please get Sunny and allow her to eat dinner with Venus.” He turned to Venus. “Enjoy your dinner.”

  He had to get away from her before he would have to discipline her bratty ass. Plus, from the corner of his eye he caught Begonia sneaking into the house and going back to her room.

  Eagan had to get his head into the game. Although his little head had already picked its winner, Eagan had to seriously decide who he wanted as a submissive. Maybe one more visit with Begonia would help him decide.

  Chapter Nine

  A few days had passed and Ananda’s body still trembled over what she’d done with Eagan. She’d held his cock in her mouth…and loved it. As much as she had professed to Darnell, weeks before she got on the show, that she would not play submissive to anyone, and especially not get down and be someone’s sex slave, she’d done just that.

  When Eagan’s baritone voice bowled over her, telling her to get down on her knees, she couldn’t defy him. Though she felt her body lowering, Ananda wanted some part of herself to scream, “Stop! Don’t! What are you doing?” Nothing. Her body craved him. Worse yet, her soul wanted to serve.

  Ananda shook her head.

  “Sistafriend, what is up with you?” Poppy asked from across the table during lunch. “You have been spacey and acting all strange since the last elimination. You were really scared about being sent home, weren’t you?”

  Ananda twitched up a nervous smile. “Yeah, I sure was.” She got up from the table, unable to finish her lunch.

  A show would be taping today. She had to be ready. And since she hadn’t seen Eagan since the night behind his house, she had no idea what to expect.

  Going back to her bedroom, she passed Apple in the hallway. As usual, Apple smiled. This time, though, she gave Ananda a sly wink, a knowing wink. Maybe Apple knew something about the competition, about something Eagan may have shared with her that had to do with Ananda.

  Ananda turned and stared at the mysterious woman walking away from her. No time for asking questions, not that Apple would have answered them anyway. Ananda understood where Apple’s loyalties were.

  Ananda plopped herself on her bed and curled her legs up to her body. Within the last week, everything she thought she knew went out the window. Now, she had no idea who she was and what she wanted. When she started this competition, she wanted to only showcase her dancing and not do a damn thing for Ego.

  Just the thought of him sent her body into small, almost orgasmic spasms. She craved him like a drug. The feeling wasn’t normal. Maybe he had drugged her. Yes, that had to be it.

  Ananda came to this house to show off her dancing skills and so far, except for the leg stretch, she hadn’t done any of that. Time to get her head back into the game. She had a destiny to fulfill that had nothing to do with Eagan Morton. He had held her back. Told her she had no talent. She had to prove him wrong. Great sex or
not, Ananda had a life before him and would have a life after him.

  She slid her hands under her pillow and touched something hard. Lifting her pillow, she uncovered a thin book about BDSM. The ABCs of BDSM was the title sprawled across the cover. Who the hell would leave her this book?

  She glanced at the doorway? Apple? Had Eagan given the book to her to leave under Ananda’s pillow to find? His last haunting words of advice had been for Ananda to learn more about the BDSM Lifestyle. This would do it.

  Ananda slammed the pillow back down over the book when she heard voices of the other contestants coming down the hall. One rule she did remember from the contract for this show. No contestant was allowed to have any book or aid to help them win the contest. That was why contestants couldn’t use the phone to call friends to learn how they were doing on the show or what to expect.

  “You had better start getting ready,” Sunny said to Ananda.

  “Ready for what?” Ananda sat up on the bed.

  “Apple said the reward challenge is going to start in about an hour. We all have to get dressed and go back to the table where we just ate lunch. I guess this is the reward challenge we’re preparing for now.” Iona went through her armoire and tossed something that looked like two strips of fabric onto her bed. “Considering you almost got your ass booted the other night, you had better be on your A-game.” Iona strolled to the bathroom then stopped and turned around. “What am I saying? Go ahead and fuck up, so Eagan can send your ass home.” She laughed as she ducked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

  “Don’t worry about her,” Meadow began. “She thinks she’s a shoo-in to win.”

  “And what about you?” Ananda began. “What do you think about your chances?”

  “Considering he hasn’t bounced me out already because I’m the biggest one here, I feel like my chances are as good as everyone else’s. But we’ll see.” She walked out of the room, leaving Ananda and Sunny alone.

  Ananda didn’t hear the fair-skinned woman crossing the room until she shook Ananda’s bed by sitting on it.

  Still in her mask, Sunny’s blue eyes sparkled. “Are you scared about the competition?”

  Ananda nodded, baiting her to see where she was going with her questioning.

  “Master Eagan and the rest of us can tell you really don’t want to be here and do this competition. It’s obvious.”

  Obvious? Ananda didn’t think she had put off a really negative vibe, but she let Sunny finish her statement. If Sunny saw something odd with Ananda’s demeanor, then she wanted to know what it was to correct it. Why not hear it from the woman Ananda felt was her closest competition?

  Instead of arguing with her, Ananda asked, “So what should I do to prove I want to be here?” Not that she needed to do much more than what she and Eagan had done during the week.

  Sunny placed her hand on Ananda’s bare knee. “Listen. That’s the best advice I can give you.”

  Not that the touch was overtly sexual, Ananda felt tingles overtaking her body as soon as Sunny touched her, an unusual response to a woman she barely knew or talked to on a regular basis despite the fact that they shared a room.

  “As someone who has been a submissive, I can offer some advice. I’d like to help you, if you need it.”

  Ananda wouldn’t fall for that trap. As much as she despised Iona, the woman had a point. This was a competition, not a summer camp. Ananda couldn’t trust anyone in the house and she certainly couldn’t ask anyone for help.

  Ananda nodded to Sunny who smiled in response.

  “It would be great if the two of us made it to the final two, wouldn’t it?” Sunny’s smile went from one end of the house to the other.

  Was this woman for real? Did she really want to help her or was she looking to get a leg up in the competition.

  “It would be interesting,” was all Ananda would say in response.

  Sunny’s smile melted. “I guess we should get ready. Can’t keep Master Eagan waiting.”

  Keeping Eagan waiting was the least of Ananda’s concerns. How in the world could she shake her growing feelings for him in order to show off her dancing and get out of this place?

  * * * *

  “A contestant gave me oral sex the other night.” Eagan kept his gaze directly on his computer monitor and away from Phil’s direction. He knew the man wouldn’t be happy about this news.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  And Eagan was right.

  “What? Are you offering sex to the losers as a consolation prize or something? Jesus Christ, you’re setting yourself up for a lawsuit or paternity suit or something.”

  Eagan peered over at his anxious friend long enough to watch him rake his fingers through his dark, yet thinning, hair.

  “Stop worrying.” Eagan shut his computer down.

  “Is there a great reason why I shouldn’t worry? Are you killing these contestants off as you do them?”

  Eagan screwed up his face. “Little extreme, don’t you think?”

  “No, I don’t. You could lose your money, your house, this show, everything, if you don’t start keeping it in your pants. How have you managed to survive this long in the biz by acting this way?”

  Eagan bolted from his black leather swivel chair. “Hey! Stop making it sound like this is a normal thing for me. I’m not one for the casting couch. This thing just happened.”

  And every time he looked at Begonia, he wanted whatever was happening between them to keep on happening. What was wrong with him? He’d never wanted a woman as much as he’d wanted her. Ophelia edged Begonia out, but not by much. No matter how hyper and high-strung Phil was, his friend was right about one thing. He had to stop having sex with Begonia, if for no other reason than to say that he ran this contest fairly.

  “So is the woman or women that you had sexual relations with still in the house?” Phil braced his hands on top of Eagan’s desk, awaiting his answer.

  “Does it matter?”

  “Hell, yes, it matters. If she’s here, she’s going to think she can skate by in the contest without trying, because the moment you eliminate her, she’s going to out you. And if she’s out of the house, she’s going to blab to the media what kind of lover you are.”

  “Are you forgetting that ousted contestants are holed up in suites at The Westin until the show is over?”

  “You think they’re going to forget what kind of guy you are in the sack after a month? Damn. Are you that bad?”

  “You are a piece of work, Phil, you know that? If I didn’t love you …” Eagan adjusted his cuffs after slipping on his jacket. “On to another topic. I don’t like the way the shows are going. They seem way too vanilla. What happen to the shows I planned out?”

  “So far the network loves the first two episodes. They were worried you would be way out there with the BDSM stuff. But they’re digging the little games and challenges. Sometimes tame is good. The ratings have been steady.” Phil slapped Eagan on the back. It was the first time today that the man smiled.

  “And what about you? I thought you wanted me to go for it.”

  Phil chuckled. “I did. Then a Cine-tastic exec contacted me to do some work for him because I was able to, quote, keep Eagan Morton in line, end quote. Play nice, Eagan, and it will be good for all of us.”

  The thought of being the network’s pet churned Eagan’s stomach.

  “What are the viewers saying on the boards?” Eagan headed to the door.

  “They’re like you. They want to see some extreme stuff. Hey, we can’t be rough and tumble every show, right?”

  Wrong. That wasn’t how Eagan lived his life. Time to shake things up a bit.

  “So what’s on the agenda for the reward challenge today?” Eagan grabbed the doorknob.

  “Teaching the women proper table etiquette.”

  Eagan cocked his head. “After they already ate lunch?”

  Phil swallowed hard, evident from the way his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “We tho
ught it would be better for the women to work on empty plates and glasses so that they wouldn’t be distracted.”

  Eagan shook his head. “Great direction, Phil. You ready?”

  He didn’t wait for his friend to answer. Eagan ambled down the steps. At the bottom, he found Tony pacing. Nerves during the first two shows were understandable. For him to be pacing now seemed really out of place.

  “Hey, Tone. How are you?” Eagan stood next to his young friend and tried to gain eye contact.

  Tony’s glassy eyes darted back and forth. His pupils were so wide, his eyes looked black. Eagan crossed his arms, determined not to grab this man and choke him.

  “What’s going on, Tony?” he asked calmly.

  “Everything all right?” Phil bounced by the duo and headed to the camera crews.

  “Just fine. Give us a minute.” Eagan turned so that his back was to the crews and he blocked Tony from their view. “I’m only going to ask this one more time. What’s going on, Tony?”

  Tony laughed and shrugged. The motion looked more like he was wincing than making a noncommittal answer. “Nothing. Nothing. I’m fine. Just fine. No problems. No problems.”

  “You’re repeating yourself.” Eagan stepped closer to him. “You know I know what that means, right?”

  Tears welled in Tony’s eyes and his bottom lip quivered. “I can’t do this without a hit, E. I feel so much pressure to do well, like everything is riding on this. It’s too much.”

  Eagan took another step closer to him, getting right in Tony’s face. “I wouldn’t have entrusted my show to you if I didn’t believe you could do this.”

  Tony wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and ran his shirtsleeve under his nose. It was moments like this that reminded Eagan just how young Tony was. In Eagan’s mind, Tony would always be that kid from Vamp High School.

  “Are you using now?” Eagan stared into his eyes. He could always tell if a person was lying that way.

  Tony shook his head so hard tears flew off him. “No. I haven’t. I can’t get any here.” He chuckled. “You got this place locked down tight.”