Temptation In Black

by Rice, Rachel E.

  Alex was on the precipice of reaching an orgasm when Max inserted his finger into her anus, but it was his masterful tongue on the rim of her clit that brought her to the most engrossing climax. Max stood over her, watching her face and listening to her hard breathing. She watched, unable to move as he loosened his tie and threw his jacket onto the floor.

  He climbed on her, and she felt his hard body and dick press into her. Then he reached for his penis and guided it into her vagina. It took on a life of its own, knowing that Alex’s vagina was home and that’s where you go when you have nowhere else to go—home, for comfort and peace.

  “I’m coming, Alex.” Alex saw this as an opportunity to question him. She held him as she moved her mound into him, plowing deeper into his body, and squeezing his dick with her strong vaginal muscles. She knew that she could control his orgasms and he was greedy for her body.

  “Max, did you kill that woman?”

  “What kind of question is that?” With his face close to hers, she felt his brow furrow and saw a raised eyebrow.

  “My need is great tonight, Alex. Don’t do this to me now.”

  “What about Ms. Corday?”

  “What about her?” He shifted to the side.

  “I guess you’re going to tell me that I was imagining things when I saw you on all fours with your head in that woman’s cunt.”

  “It wasn’t me. I have an alibi,” he said, meeting her eyes.

  “An alibi?” Who uses those words? Someone guilty, perhaps. “In your office and your car, and now you bring a woman to your charity event and never introduce me to your parents. Isn’t ‘explanation’ the right word?”

  “You seem to think I’m guilty of a lot of things.” Max never stopped moving his body, grinding into Alex with fury. As he answered her questions, he rode her hard, up and down.

  “What kind of fool do you think I am, Max? I’m getting out of here. I can’t take you anymore.” She pushed him off of her, pulled her dress down, and grabbed her thong. He reached for her. He touched her, and she pulled away from him. She rushed out of the conference room and the building. Max stood trying to put on his shoes and straighten his shirt and tie. After rushing out with one sleeve of his jacket on, he chased behind her, but he was too late. Alex slipped into the limo.

  “Drive me home, Mr. Shu.”

  Chapter 3

  Staring long at her beautiful dresses, her high heel shoes, designer bags, Alex murmured, “I have no money.” Hearing a loud knock and then the doorbell, she froze. If it was Max, he would be in by now, she thought. The doorman should have notified her. “Go to hell,” she screamed. Dressed in a white silk robe with her initials, she proceeded to the door, kicking off her six inch heels, which landed in the hall, lying around like discarded toys. “Those stay here. I have no need for them anymore,” she admitted.

  She opened the door to the elevator, her eyes red and wide, and her face smeared with mascara. Two men stood, relaxed, holding their badges in front of them. “Ms. Johns—or should we call you Ms. Bishop? I’m Detective Grimes and this is Detective Scotto.” Detective Grimes extended his badge.

  “Can we come in?”

  “Yes, what is this about?” Alex said, rubbing her finger under her eyes attempting to clean the black marks left from tears but making them worse.

  “Are you going somewhere?” Grimes pointed at the soft luggage Alex had dropped near the doorway leading to her bedroom.

  “Yes, I had planned on going to Seattle. Please,” Alex said graciously, pointing to a sofa. Detective Grimes sat. Detective Scotto, the younger of the two at about thirty, kept an eye on Alex. It wasn’t a disinterested expression; it was the kind she spotted on Max’s face. His glance settled firmly on Alex. She noticed him looking at her from her peripheral vision. He stood with crossed arms, head turning left and right on his six-foot frame. Wearing a cheap suit but an expensive face, he looked like a model on the cover of Men’s Health magazine. His hair was thick and black, his eyes deep crystal blue, and his look serious, but from the lines on his brow and near his thin lips, Alex felt that he laughed often.

  Detective Grimes, a powerfully built man with a bad complexion, and soft eyes wore a gold wedding band. Alex noticed Detective Scotto’s blue eyes scan the room and then survey her hair, her face, and then her body. She didn’t think much of it; that was what young men did. They were attracted to young women, and since she had become comfortable with her sexuality, she was not surprised that he might be into her or at least find her mildly interesting. In a town filled with gay men, she was flattered by his attention.

  Blake turned to Alex. “Ms. Johns…”

  Alex interrupted, “My name is Alexander Bishop, but call me Ms. Bishop, Detective Scotto.” He raised an eyebrow.

  “Do you know Mr. Maximilian Blackstone?”

  “What is this about?” she said, turning to Detective Grimes.

  “Ms. Bishop, you haven’t answered my question,” Detective Scotto stated, staring at Alex.

  “Wait a minute, Blake,” Detective Grimes said, adjusting his body on the overstuffed sofa and bringing his gaze back to Alex. “My apologies, Ms. Bishop, but Detective Scotto is sometimes overly concerned about women and children who have been abused and especially those who have been murdered.”

  Alex cupped her hands and brought her hand to her mouth to bite her nails, but one look at Blake and she dropped her hand in her lap. “Yes, I know Max…I mean Mr. Blackstone.” She turned and directed her statement to Blake. “I am not abused and, as you can see, I am still alive.”

  “This is about murder, Ms. Bishop, and if there is something that you know, I appreciate you telling us what you know now,” Detective Grimes said in a commanding voice.

  “I don’t know anything,” she said, shaking her head. “I haven’t been in San Francisco long.”

  “It doesn’t take long to get mixed up with this type of business. I hear that Mr. Blackstone is into bondage and sadomasochism,” Blake said with a penetrating glance that touched the nape of Alex’s neck and gave her a chill that ran down her spine.

  “Mr. Scotto, it appears that you have little knowledge of BDSM.”

  “And you at your age are an expert?” Blake countered. “What are you, all of twenty-three or twenty-four?”

  “Wait a minute. We need to return to the subject of Mr. Blackstone,” Detective Grimes interrupted.

  “Detective Grimes, have you spoken to Mr. Blackstone?” Alex questioned with more control.

  “We haven’t been able to locate him. He’s a very rich man, loaded with lawyers and he is a lawyer himself. We’ve talked to his lawyers but didn’t get much out of them.”

  “I think I shouldn’t speak to you anymore until I get a lawyer. Please leave now.”

  Detective Grimes stood and shook Alex’s hand. His sturdy body was held perfectly on his six-foot frame. His dark brown hair was mousy and thin, and his serious smile showed he was no-nonsense. He played by the book. He gestured to Blake that they had overstepped their bounds and their time, and Blake followed him through the foyer to the elevator door. Blake turned around and smiled. “Thanks, Ms. Bishop. I hope I wasn’t too harsh with you. Just doing my job.” He paused, “You are a beautiful woman, Ms. Bishop. Mr. Blackstone doesn’t deserve you.” He held out his card. “Call me if you hear from Mr. Blackstone. Call me if you don’t. Call me, and please don’t leave town.” His face softened and he stood peering into Alex’s eyes. Alex took the card.

  “Blake, let’s go,” Detective Grimes stated. Blake stepped into the elevator, and it descended. “I’m worried about you. You can’t get involved in this case.”

  “It’s nothing.”

  “The hell if that’s so. I’ve never seen that look in your eyes with any woman until now. It was downright sexual the way you glared at her. I thought you would fuck her there on that expensive rug. You better get a hold on yourself, Blake.”

  “I can handle this. You know me.”

  “Yes, I know
you. I was a young man your age once. Every pretty woman you meet you want to fuck her, but you don’t because as an officer of the law, you know better. Take my word, if you are thinking of fucking Blackstone’s woman, then you had better hand your badge over now.”

  “I have no plans with regards to that woman.” Grimes eyed Blake as they continued walking to their black Crown Victoria. Blake knew that Grimes had seen something in his eyes. That was his tell, and he couldn’t hide it from his partner. He would have to be careful because it could cost him his job and that was all he had. He had wanted to be a cop since he was a teen.

  Stepping out of Blackstone’s building, he turned and looked up. “She’s sitting high up there, her and that pervert Blackstone.”

  “Get in the car and forget that woman if you know what’s good for you. She’s nothing but trouble. Have you read what people are saying about her?” Blake got behind the steering wheel and began driving away.

  “All it said was that she has never had but one man in her life.”

  “And you’re trying to be number two. You can’t compete, my boy.” Grimes’s eyes scanned Blake’s face. Blake never took his eyes off the road, but Grimes knew what Blake was thinking.

  * * *

  “I never killed that woman.”

  “Which woman?” Dr. Taylor said in surprise then reaching to his right for his pen to jot down notes.

  “The woman that’s linked to me in the papers.”

  “I thought we were discussing your sex addiction, Mr. Blackstone.” Max sat up from a slumped position, opened his fist, then placing his hands in his lap, curling his fist to his mouth and focusing on the conversation. Clearly Dr. Taylor hadn’t read a recent headline in the local papers because he didn’t know what Max had alluded to, but it did pique his curiosity.

  “I admit…”

  “No need to rush, Mr. Blackstone. You have time,” Dr. Taylor said as he checked his watch.

  Max swallowed hard and blew out a brisk breath of air.

  “I’ve been a sex addict since I was very young.” Dr. Taylor peered over his glasses. “When I was about ten years old, I discovered that I was highly sexual and aroused by the thought of women bound by ropes while lying across tables and chairs naked. The nature of the pictures in my mind fed into my psyche. I became so aroused by my thoughts that I would spend night and day masturbating. I began experimenting with girls older than my few years because they were mature enough to trust with my secrets and not run telling their parents that I had tied them up in my tree house or tent.

  “Sex with mature teen girls my age was satisfying, but when they allowed me to tie them up before I penetrated them, I found this to be more exciting than anything I had ever experienced. Later I discovered that I needed this because they were virgins, and the moment I achieved sexual release, I had no use for them.

  “Then I began to add light spankings to my list of sexual pleasures. Because of the spankings girls didn’t protest. I could have a girlfriend as I entered my late teens; I was about eighteen, maybe nineteen. However, when I would request that they tie me up and whip me, they became squeamish and informed me that they could no longer date me. A mature woman entered my life. She was excited about whippings, and we dated for a time until I began to find pleasure in anal intercourse. Not all women can handle that, and I suspect that she felt that something was wrong with her because I no longer found her vagina pleasurable. She even tried to coax me to oral sex. The problem was that once I reached my climax through my different and varied sexual experiments, I no longer found it necessary to please her. I soon learned that women expected to be satisfied as well.

  “In my eagerness to please, and when I had time, I asked them to help me give them an orgasm. It was then I learned how to pleasure a woman with my tongue. I became good at it. As a matter of fact, I became so good that I could give them one orgasm after another.

  “I went through virgin after virgin, but I didn’t have a connection to them and I felt that I could not bring them into my world fully because my need for everything was too great. I would disappear to different parts of the world in search of sexual peace. It was in Thailand where I was introduced to erotic suffocation. I thought I had found the ultimate sexual thrill, but it didn’t last long so I abandoned that act. I needed a rest and decided to go home to Montana where I discovered the one woman, Alex, who would give me sexual inner peace and become the object of my sadomasochistic love, only to lose her because she disappeared when my attention focused on my brother, Jonas.

  “Rebecca came into my life three years later. She possessed all the qualities of Alex but she had the aggressive attitude I required that Alex seem to lack when it came to my sexual proclivities. I could finally be free with her, so I engaged in all my sexual desires, and it was going great. My business soared, I was able to rest at night, and I had never felt better until she wanted more.

  “I tried to explain that I could not commit to a relationship with her because I was in love with Alex. I discovered that Alex and Rebecca were the same person.”

  “Incredible,” interrupted the therapist. He straightened his shoulders and leaned forward, his eyes focused on Max. Max had gotten his attention. “Mr. Blackstone, as much as I would like to continue this session, I have another patient waiting. I need to hear about Rebecca and Alex. There is something there that needs exploring. We will resume your therapy next week. We will continue where you left off.”

  Max walked out of the office and received an urgent message from his security advisor to return to his office immediately.

  * * *

  Alex had to have a drink. She hadn’t signed on for this—police coming into her apartment and telling her that she couldn’t leave town. They tell that to everyone, she thought. She wouldn’t listen; they hadn’t charged her with anything. There was no way in hell she believed that Max could have killed that woman or wanted to. But the position she saw Mr. Black and that Ms. Corday in made her sad. How could he? she thought. “I loved him so much and I would have done anything for him. I just wanted him to be true to me. That bastard!” she screamed from her terrace. He had nerve to bring a woman to his fundraiser after asking me. “I hate him. I love him,” she whispered.

  It was hard to pick up her feet. She planted one foot and then the other, heading to the fridge to get another drink. She opened a Heineken. Walking to the terrace, and looking down, she guzzled it down from the bottle. She didn’t know what to do. She heard the buzz from the intercom. She ran back inside and hit the buzzer.

  “Yes, what is it?”

  “I have a present for you, Ms. Johns.” She hated that name. But it would be confusing to change it now. Maybe she needed time to come up with an excuse to use her real name, like getting the hell out of there.

  “Send it up.” She walked in a circle. “What the fuck is it now, and who is it from?”

  She knew the answer, and she became angry.

  “Ms. Johns, I just received this. It looks fancy.” The doorman handed her a small wrapped box tied with a blue-and-gold ribbon. She set the box on the table and pulled out the card:

  My darling Alex,

  I know this necklace can’t make up for everything I have put you through, such as not explaining about Ms. Corday, which is unforgivable, and that woman who accompanied me to the fundraiser, but I had to be in Japan early. I purchased this for you and am instructing my secretary to send it to you. I didn’t have time to tell you about my flight. I will see you shortly. I hope this necklace will make you smile and correct the misunderstandings you may have about me. Wear it and think of me.

  Your loving Max

  First she held the card to her heart. “Oh, Max, I love you so much. You are such a fucking pervert, but I still love you. What am I going to do with you?” Then anger covered her in waves.

  Alex wondered if he thought that giving her presents would blind her to what she’d seen in his office. She could stand his desire for that kind of sexual arousal because
she had learned to enjoy it, and she felt that their lives would be enriched because they had been exclusive to each other, but when she was confronted with another woman taking her place, it was beyond the pale, and she couldn’t tolerate it for one more minute.

  She threw the box on the sofa, walked to the kitchen, made herself a sandwich, placed it on a plate, and opened up another bottle of beer. She decided to see what his fucked-up present looked like. Tearing the paper off and dropping the ribbon on a table, she opened the box and gasped.

  It was a yellow diamond necklace to match her engagement ring, with six large teardrops, each surrounded by white diamonds. “Where am I going to wear this?” She held it to her neck. “My God, this is a small fortune.”

  Alex had an idea. It wasn’t brilliant, but she hadn’t had a brilliant idea since she met Max.

  “I’ll fix him. I’ll sell it, send back his engagement ring, and use the money from the necklace to get an apartment until I can get the hell out of San Francisco. I’ll go home to Seattle, get a job, take care of my son, and never see his fucked-up ass again. He can strangle the next woman crazy enough to want him and get involved in his lifestyle. Everyone makes a mistake, and I still have time to correct mine,” she murmured.

  Alex’s personal phone rang. “Ms. Bishop?”

  “Yes, this is Ms. Bishop.”

  “This is Detective Blake Scotto.”

  “What can I do for you, Detective? I’ve already told you that I don’t know anything and I would need to speak to my lawyer.”

  “I noticed that there is a restaurant near your apartment, and I was wondering whether I could buy you dinner.” There was a long silence.

  “If you’re trying to get information about Blackstone, you have come to the wrong person.”

  “This is not about Blackstone.”

  “Then what is this about?”

  “I saw that you had been crying and I thought that you may need someone to talk to.”