by Cee Smith
She kept talking aloud as she continued working through how this could work, and I admired her for her optimism, but I couldn’t snuff out the doubts like embers waiting for a spark. I just let her continue as I pulled her head to rest across my lap until the only sound that lingered was the sound of her heavy breathing and the rustling of her clothes as she fidgeted in an attempt to curl up closer to me.
***
We sat at the dinner table, me at the end like a king sitting on his thrown with Clema to my left and Hailey to my right. I couldn’t explain the heavy ache weighing me down—the awkward memories of previous dinners at this very table plaguing me.
Before we left the mini-cabin, I told Clema of our plans to return to California to rejoin Hailey with her family. Clema beamed at me proudly, showing a wide smile that wrinkled those caramel-colored cheeks. She held a twinkle in her eye that I damn near hadn’t seen since graduating, reminding me that it wasn’t too often that I did something worthy of her adoration. I tried not to think of that as I cut into the tender steak that leaked blood to the bottom of my plate like a watercolor painting. Steak is the one thing I knew I shouldn’t eat what with my condition, but if I couldn’t have the occasional glass of scotch, I at least wanted to be able to eat steak periodically.
“Hailey, Dominic tells me your plans for returning home. Are you excited to rejoin your family? I’m sure they’ve missed you.”
For the first time Hailey gave Clema a genuine smile—one not laced with suspicion or malice. She was undeniably happy and beaming.
“Yes,” she breathed. “I miss my sister fiercely. I’ll be happy to be with all of them. I’m also looking forward to bringing Dominic home with me.” She looked at me shyly like the twenty-two year old she was. Her happiness waned, making room for an anxiousness that had surfaced at least once a day since we first discussed her returning home.
“I’m sure they miss you too,” I said while making eye contact with her. She gave a brief smile before taking a bite of the scalloped potatoes.
“Have you ever been to San Luis Obispo?”
“Maybe a few times.” I didn’t elaborate, but then again I didn’t need to. By the expression that flitted across her face as soon as she asked, she knew the answer to that question. The only reason I would find myself in that specific region was for her. At the other cabin we had briefly talked about me seeing her before taking her, but I didn’t like to bring it up too much. We were trying to move forward in whatever this was and I felt like rehashing old stuff would just end up distancing her from me, which was the last thing I wanted.
With everything out in the open, I was even more nervous about what would happen next. I tried to put up my stone cold exterior that blocked out emotions such as nervousness, anxiety, and uncertainty, but I couldn’t deny that I was feeling all of those things. Not since my parents had I ever had this much to lose. It was a sickening feeling. Which was probably why I never let anyone get too close to me. I didn’t have time for these types of emotions.
Clema mentioned to Hailey to pick out what she wanted to take back home so that Clema could pack it for her. After they went back and forth a couple times about packing her things, Clema stood up, taking our plates with her to the kitchen.
“Did you like your dinner?”
“Yes, oh, I forgot to thank Clema for the food. Would you mind,” Hailey said as she pushed her chair back from the table as if to follow Clema into the kitchen.
“You can tell her later. I have a surprise for you.”
“Good surprise?”
“Yes, go upstairs and change and meet me down in the basement.”
She moved to get up, and I caught her wrist in my hand. Her skin was petal soft and still glowing a warm bronze she’d picked up in Australia. I turned her wrist over gently and kissed the inside of her wrist. When my fingers were no longer holding her to me, she brushed her hand alongside my face, running the tips of her fingers from my hairline down my jaw and to my chin where she held me steady as her lips brushed across mine. Once, twice—the third time her lips came down to meet mine I grabbed her shoulders, holding her firmly as I ravaged her lips with my tongue. She opened up wide for me as her tongue circled mine. I nibbled on her lips, loving the way the soft skin seemed to pout perfectly around my mouth. A moan that sounded close to a whimper left her mouth, and I swallowed it on the next lashing of my tongue. My cock was hard thinking about those lips and how they felt around my shaft as I rocked into her.
I pulled back, my head resting against hers as my fist passed across my cock straining to burst through my slacks. I winced at the feel of my hand through the thin barrier of clothing. Hailey’s breath wafted across my face as she tried catching her breath from our brief interlude. That was the one thing that couldn’t be denied between us. We always had this chemistry that could take us from zero to one hundred with damn near a look. It was what I sensed from the very first day I took her.
But that night wasn’t about just fucking, so with a pat to the butt and a devilish smirk I sent her on her way. She loped up the stairs with more enthusiasm than I’d seen from her, and I couldn’t help the smile that passed when I thought of how far we’d come. That smile didn’t last long though because as I made my way down the darkened staircase towards the basement, I couldn’t help but think of all the things that could go wrong with our plan. Even if our plan worked, I wasn’t sure that I was ready for what that would mean for us.
The room I stood in looked almost exactly as it did two years ago. With all of the medical equipment and antiseptic looking furniture gone, it was as regal as I remembered it. For a brief moment, I almost felt like I was perfectly healthy now that there was nothing in there to remind me of my daily battles with a sickness that showed no signs of letting up.
I sent Clema home ahead of Hailey’s and my arrival so that she could oversee the remodel of this room. Did I do this for Hailey or myself? I couldn’t be sure, but I felt it was important that it be returned to its former glory before I left. Now the right side of the room had a large pool table made of pine and black felt. On the left wall was the leather chesterfield sofa, which was next to the cue rack.
While I waited for Hailey to dress and come downstairs, I pulled out my cell phone to call Robert. I didn’t usually call him this late, but I wanted to make sure we resolved this Sampson issue at least for the time being.
“Hello?” Robert answered in a throaty rasp.
“Don’t tell me you’re asleep, old man,” I chuckled into the phone. Robert cleared his throat before he spoke next.
“Well you know, some of us can’t take off for months on end. I do, after all, have a business to run.”
“Ha! Touché! I just wanted to give you a quick call about Sampson. I spoke with him.”
“Do we have a deal?”
“Yes, but the deal I made isn’t the one we’ll be honoring. I don’t want to get into specifics right now,” I said, glancing up at the door before continuing, “He’s expecting the red carpet roll-out, but just have the PR team start drumming something together to clean up his image. We don’t need our best people on it, but I want something within a week. We need to show him results, quickly. I don’t want any announcements yet, and have Cynthia call me with the campaign details before we start roll-out.”
“What the hell, Dominic? This isn’t how you normally do business. This sounds messy.”
“I know. Look—”
The sound of the door opening behind me halted my words. Hailey walked in a couple steps before she was stunned still by the transformation of the room. Her hand swept up to her chest as she inhaled a quick breath.
“Look Robert, I’ll call you back later and we can discuss your concerns then.”
“You better not call me back tonight!” He replied in a shrill voice.
I hung up the phone and made my way over to Hailey, still standing just inside the door.
“When?”
“I had Clema take care of it before we c
ame back. Do you like it?”
“It looks very posh now. Like the rest of your home.”
I felt my face pinch at the use of your home. I didn’t correct her because I didn’t know how to tell her that now this home felt as much hers as it was mine. My intentions were always to keep her with me, but I never really thought of it as us owning things together—it was just hers by proxy. She took another step forward, closer to the right side of the room that continued the same classic look that the left side of the room held.
“I see you still know how to follow some instruction.” I nodded my head up and down, my eyes following the descent of her body wrapped in a gold spaghetti strapped dress. The thin silk clung to her body, draping down to the floor like curtains. Her pert nipples and absent panty line revealed she wasn’t wearing any underwear, and my mouth watered at the sight of this gem of a woman who could rival queen Hera in her beauty. There was no doubt she looked like a goddess as the lights overhead snuck into every crook of her body, highlighting her womanly shape.
“It’s nice to see some things never change. Why did you always pick out my clothes?”
“Did you not like it?”
“At first I didn’t. But now…” She shrugged her shoulders as if to say she no longer cared. I hadn’t picked out her clothes since the night at the ball. It seemed she tended to favor pajamas whenever she dressed herself, though I couldn’t say whether that was because she was sick or if that’s how she typically dressed. Whenever I’d seen her at home, she was wearing simple jeans and a tee shirt, but that was because she planned on going somewhere. Maybe she preferred pajamas when she was just going to be lounging around the house. I didn’t really mind. Yes, I liked dressing her, but I did it more as a way to control her. That wasn’t needed anymore. She gave me control willingly now.
“Come here.”
She glided over to me, the sound of her dress swishing across the hardwood floors. Her eyes were dropped watching her feet as she walked until she was just a couple feet in front of me.
“You are the most radiant thing I’ve ever seen.” I tilted her chin up, catching her eyes as they finally looked up. Pulling her into me, my arms fell around her shoulders as her hands found their place around my waist. My chin rested on her head as I took a moment to simply breathe her in. She still smelled like vanilla and something else sweet. Her hands dropped from my waist before moving up to hold my face within her palms. She tugged my head down until my mouth was against hers, licking the contours of my mouth before nudging her way between my lips. Her push was gentle as she eased her way in, still holding my face with hands that trembled slightly as she deepened the kiss.
I let her take over, wanting to see how far she planned on taking this. She took a few steps forward until my back was against the edge of the pool table and her dress was pulled up, allowing her easier movement. She propped her knee up against the pool table, aligning her body against mine. My hands fell beneath her dress, tracing the inside of her thigh until my hand was positioned between the peak of her thighs. The heat emanating from her core bathed my fingers, pulling me in deeper until I was swiping through her slickness. She sucked back another whimper that threatened to break loose as her body quivered the torment of her need.
“Please,” she whispered as I began licking beneath the lobe of her ear.
“Tell me what you want.”
“More.”
Her cunt was like a honey-pot. Using my fingers, I painted her thighs with her essence, feeling them tense. Taking one last swipe across her cunt before shifting her leg back down to the ground, I let her dress fall back over her delectable pussy. I grabbed her chin with one hand prohibiting any movement, while I wiped my fingers, still glimmering with the taste of her, across those supple lips pert for my assault. She didn’t have time to react to what I did before I licked across her lips, lapping at her like a popsicle on a summer day. Her tongue dragged the path mine set, following along the outside of her lips. She looked so fucking sexy tasting herself, almost as sexy as swallowing a mouthful of my come.
My hands found their way into her hair tugging her deeper into my kiss until we were struggling for air.
“That wasn’t quite what I had in mind for tonight.”
“Oh really? That’s got to be a first,” she laughed while taking a step back.
“I thought we’d do something fun. How’s your aim?”
“As in…”
“As in playing pool,” I said as I walked to the side of the couch, pulling down a couple pool sticks.
“Oh, um probably shit. I’ve only played a couple times.”
“I’ll teach you.”
“So, just to make sure I understand. You made me wear this to come down here and play pool?”
“Yes. I wanted something hot to look at while I’m winning.”
“Cocky much?” She raised an eyebrow, cocking one hand on her hip.
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
I handed her a pool stick before making my way back over to the other side of the pool table. When she seemed to be stuttering for a response, I laughed lightly.
We both took turns shooting. A couple times I stood behind her with my arms wrapped around hers assisting her in a shot. More often than not, that ended with me lifting her on top of the table and kissing her until she was breathless and writhing for me. I liked keeping her on the edge of more; her need for me was the most potent aphrodisiac.
Hailey lined up the stick to the corner pocket, where she planned on shooting the ball, but then pulled back just before she made contact.
“You said before this is your vacation home. So where do you live most of the time?”
“I have a penthouse in New York. It’s not too far from the office, so it makes it easy to commute.”
“So for the last couple months have you been working from here?”
“I took leave, but I still check in to make sure everything’s still running smoothly.”
“Oh. So when are you going back?”
“Whenever we’re ready to go.”
“Oh.”
“You didn’t think I’d leave you behind, did you?”
“I’ve never been to New York. Is it as busy as it looks on TV?”
“Pretty much. You get used to it after a while. You’ll like it.”
She returned to her shot, and I watched as she seemed to absorb the conversation we just had. She still didn’t quite understand the extent of our relationship. I couldn’t deny we were in new territory that both of us were figuring out together, but us being together was fundamental. I hoped that she would see that over the next few months.
After the second round of me winning, Hailey went to sit on the couch, watching as I pulled all the balls from the pockets before wracking them up again. When every ball was perfectly lined up and after I broke, I looked over to find Hailey snuggled into the corner of the couch. Whispers of her hair wafted away from her face with every exhale of breath. She was out. I dropped down on my haunches in front of Hailey, wiggling my hands beneath her until they were wrapped firmly around her. I pulled her tight to me, carrying her up two flights of stairs to our bedroom.
I laid her on the bed, pulling the covers up to her neck and patting them tight around her so the cool air wouldn’t touch her skin. Watching her sleep brought a sort of peace with it. My lungs mirrored her breaths, as if our bodies were choreographed to breathe together. I wasn’t really tired yet, but that didn’t stop me from getting in bed with her, where I pulled her atop my chest and allowed myself to be soothed by the calming beat of her heart. This was where Hailey belonged, here with me of her own accord. Happy.
I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Dominic to go back to being the sadistic bastard with which I was familiar. I was almost too nervous to bring up the topic of my freedom when we were still at the small cabin, but I knew that if it was something I wanted, it would be me who had to initiate it, because if it were left up to Dominic, he would continue
treating me like a doll.
So much had changed in a week. The bonds of our captor/captive relationship were crumbling, and we began to pick up the pieces and build something new with the remnants. Dominic was right; he was still the same person who took me, but there was something else there, too—something that I had only caught glimpses of. It was the part of him that I connected with.
When we were comfortable enough to speak freely with each other, I learned that we weren’t too different. We had both lost our parents at an impressionable time in our lives, and it had changed both of us irrevocably. Dominic didn’t share too much, but I gathered enough to know that his parents’ disappearance was traumatic for him. I would go so far as to say it shaped him into the man that could kidnap without thought.
He told me about his relationship with Clema and how she was the only person he had left, yet their relationship still confused me. Maybe it always would. The only people in Dominic’s life were people that he’d hired, people that were paid to obey his directives. I could tell from the start that Clema didn’t really agree with his treatment of me, but she was too close to Dominic to question his reasoning. He had picked up Scout when he began the hunt for his parents, over ten years ago, yet they had a strict relationship of employer and employee. I rarely saw them interact outside of updates on security or when Scout was transporting us.
“Are you ready?” he asked, breaking me from my reverie. I nodded my head and followed him to the office. I padded across the wood floor, my socks creating a dull thud with each step. Dominic’s movements were so sure. He never showed any doubt that I would get on the phone and go through with the plan that we worked through yesterday.
He motioned for me to take a seat in the large leather chair that looked intimidating behind his cherry wood desk. I looked at the phone sitting on the edge of the desk, and when I looked up, his eyes looked back at the phone, urging me to make the call.
Dominic walked back around to my side of the desk, standing behind me as I looked at the phone like a gun. His hands danced across my shoulders, passing underneath my hair to rub at my nape soothingly. He lifted my hair, and the cold air rushed in to greet my skin. The heat from his mouth sent shivers racing across my skin, effectively dismissing my nerves from the phone call I needed to make. I arched my neck and moaned as his tongue licked its way across my neck until he was nibbling on my ear.