“You can count on it Frances Elizabeth Parker.” She smiles, allowing the perfect skin on her
cheekbones to pucker ever so slightly around her eyes. She seems to have the wisdom of the Gods
hidden beneath those shimmering eyes.
I hear her front door close behind me a single second before I hear someone calling my name.
“Miss Parker.”
I turn to my right and, what the hell, there’s Lester. I can’t hide my surprise. “Lester! What are you
doing here?”
He hands me a phone and walks back to the silver Rolls Royce.
“Hello?”
“Thank Christ! What the fuck have you been doing?” It’s my irate fiancé.
“Ayden?” I answer, making my way over to a wooden bench at the end of the road overlooking a
patch of greenery.
“I returned your call over an hour ago and I’ve been calling you ever since. Why haven’t you picked
up your fucking phone?”
He really needs to calm down.
“I’ve had it on silent.” I take a look at it. I’ve missed six calls. “I didn’t hear it ring.”
“It’s almost ten thirty and I’m about to go to bed. I’ve had a shitty day and I wanted to speak to you
but you’re running around the city with your phone on silent. Who does that?”
“Me apparently,” I answer impudently. If he’s going to talk to me like I’m a naughty child, I’ll act
like one.
“ You had me worried.” I hear him sighing with relief.
“ Did you think I would sit around all day, waiting for your call?” The words leave my lips with
such a force I spit them out like venom. I know why: there are good six reasons why, and any one of
them is justification enough for ending this call right now. “How did you find me?”
“I ... traced your phone,” he states, unsure of my reaction. “Like I said, I was worried. Anyway what
have you been up to?”
Like he doesn’t know.
“You tell me. You know where I am, right?”
“I do.” I have no audible clues as to what he is thinking, but I can guess. “And, from your tone, I
think you saw the photograph in Rome and have confronted Alenka.”
“And you’d be right. I saw her and made a fool out of myself by accusing her of being a stalker.” I
need time to think things through. This is like a game of poker. Neither of us wants to reveal our hand.
“And now you know she isn’t?”
“Yes, I was mistaken.” If he thinks I’m going to spell it out he’s going to have to wait a long, long
time. “It looks like she has an Italian twin who caught your eye as well as mine.”
“I thought it was her too.”
Why are we lying to each other like this? We said we wouldn’t, didn’t we? I hate the deceit; it’s
eating away at my insides like gastric acid. “She wasn’t how I thought she’d be. After our last round
of verbal sparring I expected her to floor me again with more revelations, but ...”
“But what?” He’s taking anxious breaths, sucking the oxygen from the room.
I close my eyes and imagine his perfect face, guarded but unscathed. I picture my own, wrinkled
from excessive frowning and duplicity. “I can’t do this Ayden,” I mutter. “This is bullshit.” I throw
back my head, despairing of my waking nightmare.
“Okay, Beth. I’m listening.” I pick up quiet anticipation.
“She took a call. I got curious and went on a walkabout, came across her personal gallery. She’s
very beautiful and I can appreciate what you see in ...”
“Saw, Beth. S aw in her.” He’s quick to point that out.
“Saw in her. I wandered into her office and ...”
“Fuck!”
With that involuntary word the air leaves his lungs. I picture his hand finding his neck; he’s never
sounded more tense than right at this very moment. I imagine him pacing, wearing out the carpet in
his five star hotel room.
“At first I was shocked. Who has pictures like that taken of them?” I force a nervous laugh. “By
number four I had convinced myself they were pieces of erotic art, nothing more. Number five and I
spotted the AS in the bottom right hand corner. It hit me, they were gifts you were happy to put your
name to but, even then I was in denial. Along came number six and any doubts I might have had were
gone. It was you behind the camera Ayden.”
“Oh, Beth, I’m so sorry.” The pacing stops.
“I’ve not finished.” I feel my anger building to a deafening crescendo “Isn’t it ironic? The one thing
that gave you away happens to be one of the many things I love about you: your fucking hands. The
very same hands you use to caress my face and finger fuck me. Well, you’ve fucked me good and
proper this time Ayden ...” I’m starting to pant.
“Don’t say that Beth, please ... it’s not true.”
“Which part exactly? The caressing or the fucking?” As hard as I try I cannot hold back tears; they
stream down my face like an outpouring of liquid emotion.
“The fucking, of course. I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am you found out like this. I’ve been
waiting for the right moment. I wanted us to go to Stone Heath yesterday, so I could tell you and show
you ...”
His words wash over me. “... You know what makes me laugh?” The question is purely rhetorical,
and I don’t bother waiting for a reply. “I actually went to see Alenka to fight for you; to warn her off
and look how that’s turned out. What the hell was I thinking?”
“You were thinking about us Beth,” he asserts, struggling to get the words out
Like a demented fool, I laugh at myself. “Yeah, right. That’s a mistake I won’t make again.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” This is more like it. The man behind the camera speaks.
“It means I don’t need this kind of crap in my life. I thought I needed you. Turns out I don’t
because with you comes a shit load of dark secrets that you haven’t even got the decency to tell me
about. I’ve had enough.”
Every ounce of regret reverberates in his voice. “I think this is a conversation we should save until I
get back.”
“I bet you do. And what will happen then? Will you seduce me; fuck me into submission like all the
others ...?”
“You’re upset Beth. You don’t know what you’re saying.” I hear a change in the tenor of his voice;
it’s becoming more baritone, deep and controlling. He’s close to breaking point and so am I.
“I know what I’m saying Ayden and I know who I am. What I don’t know is who the fuck you are!”
“Yes, you do. You know me better than anyone baby.”
The softness in his voice is too much. It tips me over. “I’m not your baby Ayden, or your little
genie …. I’m the one that got away ...” I hold the phone away from my face and try to hold onto a
rational thought.
What did I just say?
“Beth, Beth ...”
“Don’t call me and don’t send me any songs or flowers or gifts. If you love me, then let me go.” I
cover my mouth to muffle my sobs.
“No.” He yells, making me jump. “Stop! Put this fucking phone next to your ear right now and
listen to me.”
For reasons best known to my heart, I do as he asks.
“Don’t you dare say ‘if ’ I love you because there is no ‘if’ about it. I love you with every breath I
take. I live for you. I’d do anything for you, only you.”
/>
I continue to sniff and allow him to carry on.
“I’m ashamed of myself for what happened yesterday because you didn’t deserve that, but the
photos you saw were not random acts of cruelty. They were two consenting adults acting out their
fantasies. You get that, don’t you? Stop crying and answer me.”
His serious question holds my attention. “Yes ...” I answer, wiping my nose with a dusty tissue.
“I knew where you were forty minutes ago. If I hadn’t wanted you to see the photographs, don’t you
think I would have sent Lester in to carry you out, over his shoulder if necessary? I knew Alenka
would make sure you found out about us. She’s a smart lady who’s in love with me. She treasures
those pictures I took of her; they corroborate her fairy tale fantasy of us being besotted with each
other. But that’s not how it was.”
“No? Then how was it?” I ask, my curiosity piqued.
“It was fantasy fucking, that’s all. When she wasn’t hanging off my arm at some fancy event, she
was on her back in my basement, getting fucked any which way I pleased.”
“Listen to yourself Ayden. You make it sound so cold-blooded and sordid.” I’m gasping at the
thought.
“It was just sex Beth. I explained it to you the very first time we met ...”
I break-in. “I like to fuck beautiful women who want to be fucked by me ...”
“You remembered?” I think I hear a smile in his voice.
“It’s not the remembering I have trouble with, it’s the forgetting,” I sneer.
“Well, now you can forget it because the only woman I will be fucking for a very, very long time is
you.”
He is so sure of himself, I think I should be offended but I’m not. He’s telling me what I need to
hear. “Even so, you should have told me Ayden. You should have trusted me. Finding out like this
really hurts.” My tears are drying in puddles on my face, making me look like I’ve been in a war zone.
I feel battle weary.
“Yes. I realise that and I’m sorry, but I didn’t want to scare you off.”
“I don’t scare that easy Ayden. You should know that by now.” I smile for the first time in over two
hours.
“Then let’s put that theory to the test ... where are you?”
I look left and then right. “I’m sat on a wooden bench a few yards down from Alenka’s house.
Why?” I wrinkle up my nose, unsure of what’s coming next.
“I know how much you enjoy motorised vehicles … go sit in your car. Go on.”
Mo torised vehicles?
I hear movement. What is he doing? “What’s happening there?” I begin fiddling with my keys.
“I’m pouring myself a drink out of the mini bar. God knows I need one.”
I stifle a laugh.
“Now I’m kicking off my shoes and ... I’m lying on the bed, taking off my tie and lying back. Get
the picture?”
“Perfectly but, Ayden, before you start, this isn’t going to be anything risqué, is it? Only it’s still
daylight here and I don’t fancy getting caught doing something, well, you know…”
“Don’t worry Beth, it’s nothing like that. We’re just going to have a little chat.”
Why do I think he’s fibbing? “You don’t do ‘little chats’ Ayden.” I snigger, settling my hands on
the steering wheel. “Can’t we chat while I drive home? I’ll put you on speaker phone.”
“Okay, but drive carefully and pull over if you need to.”
I indicate and pull out onto the road and keep at a steady speed. “I’m on my way. You can keep me
company. You said you’ve had a shitty day, how come?”
“Oh, nothing for you to worry about ...”
“What’s the matter? Afraid you will fill my pretty little head with complicated ideas about big
business?” I reply indignantly, indicating and turning left at the end of the road.
“No. Don’t be like that. I’ve had a day full to overflowing with big business and I’d like to talk
about something else; about you, about us.”
“Alright. Y ou decide the topic of conversation.” I pick up speed and make my way onto the ring
road. I should be home in 40 minutes.
“I want to ask you which of the photographs you preferred out of the six you saw?”
His question hits me like a bolt out of the blue, causing me to swerve to the left. Oh, no you don’t
Ayden Stone, I know this game. “I ... I think they were all quite erotic, for different reasons. But like
you said,” I pause to indicate and join the north bound lane. “... it was fantasy fucking for you and
Alenka ...”
“I didn’t say anything about Alenka. The fantasies were all mine.”
Oh! I may have to pull over after all...
I’m finding concentrating on the road rather difficult. “I can’t recollect them really ...”
“Let me refresh your memory. I have them here in front of me on my iPad, but all I can see is you.”
His voice is quietly seductive, easing me out of my troubled state of mine and launching me into a
world of dark, erotic imagery. With trembling hands and a racing pulse, I check my mirror and
indicate left. “I’m pulling over.” I turn off the engine and leave the keys jangling above my right
knee. “I’ve parked up.” I can’t help but think this conversation might be getting away from me. “Is
this your idea of phone sex Ayden, because I’m starting to feel a little ... strange.”
“No, I’m simply having an innocent conversation with my fianceé who is six thousand miles away.”
I picture his sensuous mouth easing into a sexy smirk.
“There’s nothing innocent about you Ayden. I know you’re about to talk dirty to me, so go ahead.
I’m sitting comfortably too.”
I check my reflection in the rear view mirror; my face is pale and my lips are slightly frayed from
crying but there is not a trace of sadness or regret in my eyes; only sparkling anticipation.
“Good girl,” he whispers in that soft way he does, making me settle into my seat. “Beth, what
you’ve seen today are my fantasies in black and white. There’s no room for misinterpretation, no grey
areas; I get off on being sexually dominant. Are you with me so far?”
Am I?
“Yes, I worked that out for myself in Rome, remember?” I smile and close my eyes, reliving the
moment when I saw Alenka on her knees, blindfolded and bound with her hands tied behind her back.
That image has me fidgeting in my seat.
“Good. Obviously I’m not going to go through each photograph with you but I will attach them to
an email so you can review them.”
“Review them?”
“Then you’ll have a better idea about what I’m talking about. You didn’t find them repulsive,
obscene, sickening …?”
“No, no, no! None of the above. I found them very … erotic.”
My God, where did that come from?
“I thought you might.” There’s gentle laughter.
“How could you know that?” Am I really that transparent? Does my body disclose all my feelings
without me making a conscious effort to reveal them?
“From your reaction to the belt when I used it to tie your hands and from the intensity of your
orgasms when I spanked you in Rome, and in the car yesterday. That’s how.”
Christ! I really am ‘responsive with no self-control.’
“I see …” My secret is out.
I like Ayden Stone to do naughty things to me.
�
�You told me yesterday to listen to your body and you thought I was too far gone to hear anything;
in fact, your body has been talking to me since day one and I’ve been listening very closely. But, it can
only tell me so much. I can’t hear your private thoughts.” He takes a breath. “You know my fantasies,
now it’s your turn to tell me yours so I can make them real for you. That’s what I want, more than
anything Beth.”
Be still my beating heart!
“Okay, do you want the review and my list of fantasies in a written form or will an oral presentation
suffice?” It’s my turn to play.
“Oh, I think I’d like to take a more oral approach. Let’s dispense with formality and get right down
to it.”
I picture him smirking wickedly and the image of that causes the muscles in my groin to spasm. An
innocent conversation? I don’t think so. This is phone sex.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I answer a little too breathlessly. “But, I really don’t fancy seeing Alenka
naked and like that again. Not because I’m jealous of her, but because of the thought of what you did
to her.”
“I understand. But if it’s any consolation, I’ve had more hot sex in the last fortnight with you than
I’ve had in the past … “Is he actually counting? “… the past 12 months.”
“I don’t believe that …” I’m aghast. “Alenka must have been … available, she worships you.”
“I don’t want to be worshipped Beth, I want to be loved, by you. It’s entirely different. You’re
inexperienced but not a natural submissive in or out of the bedroom. Knowing that makes dominating
you an almighty turn-on for me. ”
“I still don’t get it …”
“If you submit, it’s not because you’re scared of me or feel the need to be punished. You do so
willingly. You give your body to me out of love. You know what I’m talking about? In Rome, you
allowed me to take complete control and I rewarded you with multiple orgasms. I get off on giving
you pleasure, and making love to you and you do too, with me. It’s not rocket science.”
“It’s not meant to be Ayden. It’s making love, not a physics lesson.”
He’s laughing and so am I.
“Alright, but what happens when I want to be dominant? What equation do you have for that?”
There is a distant rumble of laughter contained, but still audible from all those miles away. “I
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