She didn’t touch him more than with her head and her hand on his chest, and he didn’t fear embracing her without permission. Regardless, every part of him longed to stroke a hand down the flat planes of her stomach or caress the arching curve where her lower back met her butt. Even if she didn’t want to keep him, he’d remember her as his best. She rolled on her side and trailed the end of the ribbon down the ridges of his belly and he laughed, a little ticklish, before sobering. “Sorry, Mistress.”
She smiled into his chest and continued to caress him with the slip of silk. He lay still, not wanting to break the playful spell she cast over him. As he began to drift off to sleep, the silk lulling him, he heard her gasp. She shot upright and doubled over. Terror blasted through him and he sat up to check on her.
“Mistress, are you okay? What can I do to help?”
She gasped before forcing out, “get my clothes, help me dress.”
He ran to her clothing and helped her slip back in them, she hunched over as if in pain. He pulled the mass of her hair into a ponytail, the best he could manage.
She straightened and she darted her gaze away as if she didn’t want him to see the pain in her eyes as she leaned up and pressed a kiss to his lips. She slipped the black ribbon in his hands, “I have to go, but I will see you soon.”
He nodded and she left him. He caught her murmur about a crown as the door closed behind her.
Chapter Five
BIANCA BERATED HERSELF FOR succumbing to such distraction. Victor, his body, sighs, and all that toned brown skin. Even after her seal was stolen, she still couldn’t get him from her mind. It’s not like they didn’t have an idea of who stole it. It made sense she’d target Bianca since she’d humiliated her when they fought with Hel in the Underworld. The fact that a hellhound had entered her home while she and Katherine were out and stole the crown enraged her. Even Victor’s beautiful body couldn’t heal that sense of violation. When she raced home and found the place empty, at first fear flashed through her for Katherine’s safety, but she called the others and located them all at Scarlet’s place. They partied along, completely oblivious through the theft of her seal and where was she? Shame poured over her as her mind drifted back to Victor.
Every inch of her wanted to take Victor again and mark him as her own. His sighs resounded in her mind as she stared at her ceiling during the night. And often, since she’d woken up, she’d stop and think about him. She’d ridden him on the floor, and he’d taken everything she dished out and wanted more. For her first human BDSM relationship, she wadded in neck deep. She researched online about BDSM relationships and learned she could claim him if he wanted her to. Collar him and then set the standards of whatever came afterward.
For a moment, she considered what kind of collar one would put on a human and if he might actually wear it. Maybe only at the club or in play. Parts of her discounted the notion because she loved nothing impeding her hands from his bare skin. Beautifully unmarred by accessories…but he also cut a nice suit.
She slammed the open book in her lap closed as the bus rattled along between taxis and tourist rigs. No point in pretending anymore. She’d read ten words since she opened it fifteen minutes prior, and three stops remained until she would exit the bus and trek the couple blocks to work. Cloris wanted her, and all of them, to use her car service, but most of them loved the independence and the ability to go about their day and live their own life. Even if they did spend most of their time together. She worried after Katherine though. The woman cared too much about others for her own good, and Bianca feared someone would take advantage of her gentle heart.
A man bumped against her as the bus hit a pothole. He grabbed the pole in front of her that aligned with the seats. All the seats were taken, or she’d have shifted to another one. She glared over at him to find him leering down her cleavage. If she were Scarlet, she’d make him hurt for the insult. Cloris would stare him down and make him regret his daring. If she were Katherine, she’d politely excuse herself to another area of the bus until departure and then forget about it. She glanced back at him as he continued staring, and she didn’t care. None of it mattered because a numb emptiness suffused her. Sitting on a bus full of humans, milling around, living their menial lives. The end of the world might be a favor to them. Give them something to fight for.
Her hands tingled with the power inside her. She shook them to try dissipating the sensation, but it didn’t work. The edge she’d worn off at the club returned with a vengeance. A reminder as that conquering power began to force its way back up again. The man shifted his hand and grazed her breast as he shifted it up the pole in front of the row of seats. Her control snapped and she grabbed his chin. For a moment, the lust in his eyes, and then behind it the disgusted dirty deeds he’d committed in his life, were all she could see. The way he used and abused women before tossing them away.
His voice broke the spell. “You know you want it.”
She leaned in and pressed her lips to his in barely the promise of a kiss, and shoved the raw power inside him. When she pulled away, she smiled and whispered against his mouth. “You will never touch another woman again. Every time you do your skin will itch and burn as if you caught fire.”
He shifted and attempted to break the grip she held on his chin. She wasn’t Cloris, Katherine, or Scarlet, but she was stronger than a human woman. She patted him on the cheek, before releasing him, and he flinched back with a pained expression.
The bus jerked to a halt and she parted the crowd to exit. Once the cool air hit her face, she realized the direction her mind drifted and stopped cold. She’d only seen Victor a couple days prior, and the time she spent with him kept the edge of the need to control at bay, but after two days without the power, it began to rise from the depths of her demanding to be used, demanding the respect. She sighed as a cold sweat sprouted at her temples. She began a heavy march toward the shop and started to wonder if working would be a bad idea. To be around customers and people making demands of her. That might not be a good mix to her already unpredictable powers. She reached into her pocket for her phone and hit one of her worker’s numbers. “Hey, Tina, it’s B. Do you mind taking my shift this afternoon?”
The response came immediately and quick. Bianca decided to take herself on a field trip. She headed up to one of her favorite boutiques and picked out a dress, a beautiful creation baring her strong shoulders and accentuated the curves she actually did have. The fabric switched around her with a floral-on-cream design, she felt pretty, feminine. Then she stopped in the bathroom and put makeup on and pinned her hair artfully up on her head. When she declared herself ready, she called Cloris. She needed to find herself a lawyer.
He wasn’t hard to find. She pushed her way through the glass entrance doors and found the elevators easily after a quick chat with the security desk. Once the bell dinged for her floor she stepped out and took a steadying breath. His name sat proudly on the wall near the elevators doors. She required a plan to see him, and Cloris gave her what she needed to allow him to put his guard down.
“Can I help you?” A pretty blonde receptionist asked at Bianca’s approach.
“Actually, I’m here to see Mr. Brandt.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No, but I’m a friend of Ms. Rankin. She recommended I come here to meet him specifically.”
It never ceased to amaze her how dropping Cloris’ name brought people around to do her bidding. The lady dialed a number and then, “I have a Miss…”
“Lewis,” Bianca supplied.
“Lewis here to see you. She is a friend of Miss Rankin.”
The woman clicked off and gestured for her to enter through the glass doors to the left. She notched her chin up and headed back. He exited his office, adjusting his tie, and when he lifted his chin he stopped dead.
She wondered if he’d recognize her since she usually wore a mask in his presence, but it would seem he did. She spied his Adam’s apple working in his
throat. A moment passed and he composed himself before walking to meet her halfway. She reached out her hand, and he shook it gently. “This way, Miss Lewis.”
She followed him toward the office he exited from, and he held the door. After he entered, he slid the blinds down on the glass wall that faced the hallway, and they were left in a room with a city view and loads of sexual tension.
“Are you here to see me about a legal matter?” he asked, heading behind his wide desk. His hand shook as he shifted his chair to sit down.
She liked him here. To be a submissive was one thing, but to catch a submissive at his day job, outside the submissive element, held a whole different kind of sex appeal. She wanted to order him across the desk.
His nerves screamed at her, and she loved making him so uncomfortable. “Actually, yes and no.”
“Oh?” He swiveled in his chair, and she enjoyed how it sat an inch or two above hers. All the while he tried to shrink down in his own to be more on her level. She stood and ambled around his desk to sit on the edge near a stack of files.
He cleared his throat. “So what can I do for you?”
She smiled at his flustered state. A red tinge travelled up from his shirt collar into his ears. “You need to calm down,” she said, with a chuckle. “I’m not going to out you. I’m here because Cloris asked me to find out about the new contracts she asked you to draw up.”
It had taken moments for Cloris to look up his file and then feel like an idiot when she realized he was the lawyer they used for business permit contracts.
He visibly sagged in relief. She wasn’t sure if she should laugh or be offended.
Sitting forward, he shuffled a stack of files. “I have them right here.” He handed her a brown file, and she flipped it open to find a litany of legal jargon she had no interest in. She snapped the folder shut and locked her attention back on him.
He took the lead and asked the question plaguing him. “So, I didn’t know you were friends with Ms. Rankin.”
Bianca nodded. “We’ve known each other a long time.” That was an understatement. “We are practically sisters.” She trailed her hand down his bicep in the guise of admiring the fabric. He fairly squirmed under her palm. “Does that make you uncomfortable?”
He shook his head. “Just a curiosity.”
A fine sheen of sweat beaded at his temples and she reached out again but stopped, her hand hanging in mid-air. “Does it make you nervous, me being here?”
He shook his head again eyeing her outstretched fingers.
“You seem nervous,” she pressed, before finally placing her palm against his cheek.
He sighed aloud and sat back, pulling away. “No, you just surprised me. My extracurricular activities aren’t common knowledge amongst my colleagues.”
She stood, actually offended. “Did you think I’d announce it to your whole firm?”
Her voice had taken an edge, and she didn’t try to hide it. She liked that he didn’t cower away from it, but sat forward. “I didn’t, but as I said, you surprised me.”
Maybe coming was a mistake. Obviously he was only comfortable around her when she wore a mask while entombed behind closed doors.
She hiked her bag up her shoulder and hugged the file tight before standing. “I should go.”
Now he stood and grabbed her arm. The electricity sizzled between them, zipping all the way to her toes. “Please don’t. I’m sorry. It’s just a lot of about this has me frazzled.”
“Like what? Talk to me.”
“Well...” He sighed long and loud. “You are a lot younger than I expected.”
That old issue. “I’m twenty-eight, not ten.”
“I’m thirty-five, and you appear no older than sixteen.”
“You’re thirty-five and look like you’re twenty-five. I know I look young, but I assure you I’m not as young as I appear.” Give or take 2000 years. “What else?”
He peered down at his hands. “I was going to tell you the next time I saw you. I want to see you exclusively.”
She swallowed trying to contain the joy sending her heart pitter-pattering. “You mean as Mistress and slave.”
He nodded.
“I’ll only agree to that if we have a relationship outside of that dynamic too. I don’t mind having a permanent slave, but you will be mine in all aspects if that is the case.”
He glanced away, unable to meet her eyes, before asking the question she could almost hear. “And what about you?”
She smiled. “I’d be yours too.”
He returned the smile, a full, wide, happy grin, and her heart melted as a dimple appeared in his cheek. “Have dinner with me then.”
A warm ache washed through her. “I’d love that.”
“You promise you’re over eighteen.”
She chuckled. “Would you like to inspect my license, counselor?”
“I don’t think that will be necessary.”
She reached out and ran her hands through his ringlets as she longed to do since she arrived. Well, she wanted to push him into the chair and have him fuck her against his desk, but she refrained from voicing the opinion. Maybe later, once they knew each other better.
She grabbed a pen and sticky note and scribbled her address. “My name is Bianca, by the way. You can pick me up at eight P.M.”
He gripped the slip of paper like his life depended on it. “Shouldn’t I make reservations?”
“No need. It will be a surprise. Do you like surprises?”
“I don’t know…I think from you I might.”
She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek before clutching her bag and file and heading out the door without a backward glance. Not that she didn’t want to look back, but she didn’t know if she possessed the strength to control her reaction and keep herself from jumping him.
Chapter Six
BIANCA SIGHED LOUDLY AS Katherine leaned against the doorway, leveling a look at her. “What?”
“Do you think it wise to go on a date, with a human no less, when our lives are in such turmoil at the moment?”
She rolled her eyes at Kat. “I’m not going to stop living the life we chose to embark on because Hel is a psycho bitch.”
Katherine pursed her lips at her language. “You have a fair point, but I simply worry after his safety. What if something happens?”
“You don’t believe I can protect him?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Sure as hell seems to be your opinion. “You seem to think that.”
“No. I worry. You know that is what I do.”
Bianca smiled while putting in her earrings. “I know you do, honey. We will be fine. Promise.”
She shook her head, catching her earring’s sparkle in the light. The doorbell rang and she glanced at the clock. Ten minutes early. She liked a punctual man.
“I’ll get it,” Katherine said, heading down the stairs.
Katherine and Victor’s muffled voices reached her as she straightened the black dress she knew hugged her curves in all the right ways.
She grabbed her keys and headed down. He stood in the foyer, and she wanted to bite him to mess up the perfect exterior he exuded. His hair sat perfectly coifed. He wore a black dress shirt tucked into black pants with black shoes. The ensemble even made his eyes appear black.
“Hi,” he said, before turning that heart-melting smile on her.
She transited the last of the stairs and quickly pecked him on the cheek. “Hi. Let’s go.”
He waved at Katherine before opening the door for Bianca. A black Mercedes idled along the curb with the lights off.
“Nice car.”
“Thanks. What do you drive?”
“The New York Metro bus.”
He chuckled and opened the car door for her too. Such a gentleman.
She climbed in and smoothed the edge of her dress to her knees before petting the soft leather of the seats. She could get used to this car. She’d have one if NYC traffic didn’t put the fear of G
od in her. Victor closed the door with a firm snap and went around to his side, sliding in smoothly
“Where to?” he asked after buckling his belt.
She gave him the address, and he punched it into the built in GPS console before speeding away from the curb.
A silence heavy with indecision hovered between them. Bianca’s palms grew damp so she swiped them together before turning her head toward Victor. “So tell me more about you.”
“Well, I recently moved here from Boston. I worked at law firm there, and then I was offered partnership here in New York. The law firm is prestigious with a great reputation. I was excited to move, but I had a whole set up in Boston. It was easy. The move has been hard because I’ve had to develop new routines and meet new people.”
“You seem to be doing okay.”
“I am. I have enjoyed the people I’ve met so far.” He gave her a wink.
“And who else have you met?”
“No one like you.”
A good answer. She ran her hand up his thigh and he jerked against it. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to ravish you in your car. Unless you ask nicely.”
He chuckled, but they soon pulled up to the curb so she had no time to push him further.
The city bustled around them, and she watched the humans trot up and down the sidewalk as thick as during the daylight hours. He parked and climbed out to open her door. “It looks closed,” he noted while pressing the lock button on his key fob.
She chuckled and shook her keys.
Bianca loved going to the cafe to think, and she could cook while baking alone to her heart’s content. Sometimes she’d spend the night covered in flour and sugar preparing for the next day’s customers. She found it relaxing to bake by herself. Especially in a city surrounded by so many people vying for her attention and the situation with horseman.
Bianca flipped on the lights.
“You work here?” Victor asked, staring around.
“Yes, but Katherine and I own it as well.”
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