A Million Different Ways (A Horn Novel Book 1)

by Dangelico, P.

  Good Lord, this man was mercurial. His need for ownership should have worried me. But it didn’t. If I was being honest with myself, I had to admit that part of me liked it. Having been on my own for so long, it was a relief to relinquish control to someone stronger, more powerful, more worldly. I was tired. All I wanted to do was drift and let the inexorable force of this stormy control freak take me––for a little while, at least.

  Gideon popped out of the driver’s seat and looked around vigilantly. I slipped into the car and Sebastian snapped my seatbelt on. He was quiet and brooding all the way back to the apartment, the air between us heavy with the tension radiating from him. Any attempt at a civil conversation was pointless. He was an unbridgeable island when he was like this, an ocean away.

  On the elevator ride up, he yanked me into a rough embrace. The guardedness had crept back into his eyes. He barely paused to look at me when we entered the apartment. “Get changed. You have ten minutes.” Talk about hot and cold.

  I went back to the bedroom and slipped out of the beautiful shoes, the stockings, and dress, tucking them safely back in the closet. I laced up the high heeled gladiator sandals that reached my knees and went to fetch the Gucci dress. The silk jersey was fine enough to pass through a wedding band. I could barely feel it, the fabric whispering on my skin as it fell down, over my body. The slit exposed my bare leg up to the thigh. I felt naked. Between the shoes and the dress, there was more of me exposed than I was comfortable with.

  Sebastian walked in wearing a slim tuxedo with a laydown collar and a skillfully tied bowtie. Even more devastatingly handsome than usual, he looked like he had stepped out of the pages of Men’s Vogue.

  “Nice tux. Who’s your tailor?” I tried for cool indifference. His lips quirked…at least he wasn’t brooding anymore.

  “Tom Ford. I’m glad you approve.”

  As he stalked towards me, his liquid fire gaze traveled from my unpolished toes to my hair in a slow, sensual inspection that made my skin burn. Gripping my neck gently, he bent his head and brushed his soft lips back and forth on mine until I leaned in and kissed him back. When his lips lifted, I opened my eyes and caught him wearing a small, unreadable smile. He brought his other hand out from behind his back and held out a navy leather box with the word JAR written on it. Full of curiosity and apprehension, I looked up and found him regarding me attentively.

  “I…I…” Words deserted me when what I really wanted to do was explain that in no way was I accepting jewelry from him.

  “I want you to wear these.”

  He opened the box and my hand lifted involuntarily, floating in midair before landing on my throat. Nestled inside, on a leather pillow, was a pair of exquisite chandelier earrings. They were designed in a delicate floral pattern with cascading petals, the tiny pave stones colored in shades of white to lilac.

  “The wisteria tree?”

  There was a smile in his eyes. “Do you like them?”

  “They’re amazing but––”

  “You’ll wear them for me,” he interrupted, crushing further discussion on the topic.

  He took them out of the case and gently placed them on my earlobes, then grasped my shoulders and spun me around to look in the floor length mirror. My hands flew to the earrings.

  “I don’t want to ask but…but I have to ask…these are real, aren’t they?”

  “You don’t have to hold them up,” he said, his lips quivering in amusement.

  My hands wouldn’t stay down. They kept flying protectively back up to my ears. “I can’t wear these. I’m already petrified of losing them.”

  “Then I’ll buy you another pair.”

  I laughed nervously. “You’re joking?”

  “I’m not joking. Look.”

  He moved to stand behind me and motioned to the image of us reflected in the mirror. My cheeks were flushed and my mouth was the color of summer raspberries. Sebastian’s eyes sparked appreciatively, all sorts of erotic promises dwelling there. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into the warm shelter of his body. Nudging me with his hips, his impossibly hard sex twitched as it pressed up against my rear end. My body instinctively pushed back in answer.

  Wet. Willing. Ready. Always, for him.

  His body heat danced on the bare skin of my back. My lids grew heavy, drunk on lust, while a pleased sigh worked its way up my throat. I felt his smile on the side of my neck. His practiced fingers slipped under the flimsy silk jersey and skated lightly over my breast, tugging, teasing me into a state of blissed out incoherence.

  Take it. Take anything you want. It’s yours. The devil knew me better than I knew myself. He had stolen behind my ridged wall of protection and seized what he wanted with no objection from me. As he continued the tormenting of the damned, our eyes met in the mirror. I couldn’t guard myself from his perceptive, amber gaze any more than I could say no to him. I could feel him looking into my soul and finding my weakness for him. That was the dark irony of our story. He hated himself for his weakness, and yet I was just as powerless to resist him. Maybe more so because I risked a hell of a lot more than he did.

  His hand slipped inside the slit of the dress and teased back the folds of my sex. He played with my body like he owned it, working his magic, annihilating me with his patience. The experience was a master class in seduction. I screamed his name as I came, my head falling back onto his shoulder in total surrender.

  “Look at me.” Our eyes met in the mirror again. He held me possessively, my breast, my sex. “You belong to me,” he affirmed quietly.

  Those words sank deep inside of me and caused a riot, my heart simultaneously rebelling and rejoicing. A strong instinct for self-preservation insisted I pull away, but he released me before I got the chance.

  “Come on.” Once again, I was dragged out of the apartment. My head was swimming. Between the orgasm and the conflicting emotions, I could barely string two words together by the time he had us both buckled into the Bentley.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, my voice small and unsettled.

  Glancing briefly at me, he answered, “You’ll see.”

  What I couldn’t fail to miss was the calculated sharpness in his eyes.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  We walked down a dark, deserted alleyway. No place I would be found without a well-muscled, two hundred pound sex god standing next to me to protect me. Gideon had taken the Bentley at the corner. The building looked industrial, and a mountain-of-a-man wider and taller than Sebastian guarded the entrance. He was dressed in a black suit, and had an earpiece he pressed with his index finger. As soon as his eyes landed on us, he moved to open the iron door. I glanced at Sebastian and watched him nod to the doorman. Clearly, they were not strangers to each other.

  We stepped inside a dim, narrow corridor lined in deep purple velvet. It went on forever, leading into a small jewel box of a chamber. It was octagonal and covered in etched mirrors all the way around. Sconce lights sparkled off the mirrors, giving it a romantic luminescence. I stared at the different angles of our reflection with an odd feeling of detachment. As I watched Sebastian’s hand stroke up and down my bare back, it occurred to me that we looked like two people in love, two people that belonged together. If only.

  The door opened, and a woman dressed in black with a veil covering her face stepped forward and handed us two masks. They were Venetian and covered the entire face. Mine, white. Sebastian’s silver. The woman turned around and motioned us forward.

  “Put it on for now,” he whispered in my ear. Reluctantly, I did as I was told.

  We followed the woman into a large room that was lavishly decorated with heavy drapes in burgundy brocade silk, mahogany antiques, Persian rugs, and Impressionist art. An enormous fireplace with a carved stone mantle anchored the center of the room. The whole place had a dark, gothic sensuality about it––beautifully decadent. It was also crowded with people lounging, drinking, and talking. All the women wore black gowns and all the men tuxedos…a
ll wearing identical masks.

  Elegant anonymity. My stomach fluttered. My pulse picked up an unsteady beat. I grabbed Sebastian’s lapel and drew his ear to my lips.

  “Is this somebody’s house?”

  “No.”

  I heard the smile in his voice, but didn’t have time for a follow-up question. The veiled woman was leading us down another corridor. As we stepped inside a small, narrow room, she turned and closed the door behind her, leaving us alone. Confused, I looked around, searching for clues. One wall was covered in padded velvet and the other was black glass. It was empty except for a delicately carved, high backed chair that resembled a throne. Sebastian took off my mask before taking off his own.

  “Where are we?” My heart was beating rapidly, my body aware of more than my mind. Sebastian’s eyes were sulky, glazed with desire. He picked up the chair and pushed it against the velvet wall.

  “I want you to do something for me,” he said in a silky voice.

  He was playing the part of the lover again, the possessor receding into the background. He kissed me gently, licking the seam of my lips until I opened for him, his tongue dancing with mine. The touch of fear in my blood, mingling with desire, put me in a state of hyperawareness, amplifying every sensory experience.

  “Anything.”

  He stepped closer, pushing me backwards until my bare back was flush up against the soft, velvet nap. In front of me, he was all heat and hardness wrapped in soft wool, behind me the velvet nap was silky and cool.

  He nestled between my thighs, his sex hard and ready. I sighed with pleasure. The pads of his long fingers charted a path from my throat to my breasts, followed by lazy kisses on my jaw, my throat, my collarbone. He pushed the flimsy fabric of the halter aside and grazed my nipple, then palmed it, teasing until it formed a little peak.

  “I want to know what you thought when you saw me fucking Paisley––no, don’t tense up. Talk to me. I want to know your thoughts as well as I know your body…I want every part of you.” The vibration of his low, raspy voice played on the thin skin of my throat. Igniting like a trail of gasoline, the feeling led straight to my sex. “Did you like watching?” he whispered seductively. “Tell me.” Pushing aside the skirt, he stroked me with the heel of his hand, torturing the words out of me.

  “Yes, I liked it.” My voice was breathy, barely audible.

  “Tell me,” he repeated, casting his incantation with the lethal skill of a snake charmer. He sucked on my neck, scraped it with his teeth then licked the abrasion in an obvious declaration of ownership.

  “I thought you looked magnificent.”

  Another tug, another stroke of my clitoris––my body chased his hand when he left me.

  “Go on.”

  “I watched you take her, overpower her and…and I got wet just watching you.” I didn’t like the sound of my own voice. It reeked of desperation. Smiling against my throat, his wicked fingers circled the sensitive nub, never quite hitting it. I spread my legs wider.

  “More,” he crooned.

  Yes! Yes! More please, my mind was screaming. He bit down on my trapezius muscle and I felt it below my waist, a heavy ache, a relentless need to be filled up. “I wanted it to be me so badly. I was jealous and ashamed because I wanted you to take me. I wanted you to push me down on the hard stone floor and push yourself inside of me.”

  Two fingers slipped inside, tormenting me, rewarding me. I couldn’t keep the moans and pants from surging up. I almost whined when he withdrew his fingers, licked them clean, and placed me standing on the chair.

  Suddenly, the black glass came alive. The lights turned on and revealed a bedroom with a massive four-poster bed on the other side while we remained cloaked in darkness. Glancing down, I discovered Sebastian’s eyes twinkling wickedly back at me. Before I could say a word, he dug his strong fingers into my hips and held me steady as his head dove between my thighs. His warm, wet mouth fastened onto me, licking and sucking until my mind shut down. My legs sapped of strength, I braced myself against the velvet wall. The tight coil of desire unraveled. I grabbed onto his shoulders for support and screamed as a quick, sharp orgasm spiked through me. My body tensed and arched. A mist of sweat bloomed on my skin. My knees turned liquid, buckling beneath me. Boneless, I collapsed in his arms.

  As I drifted in a sensual fog, it vaguely registered that a couple had entered the dimly lit room on the other side of the glass. Their masks only obscured the tops of their faces. The man was very muscular. He undid his bowtie and removed his shirt, revealing an enormous expanse of chest with deeply tanned skin and a mat of dark hair covering it. The woman was small, with full breasts, rounded hips, and long blonde hair that fell down her back.

  He moved towards her and unzipped the back of her dress, pushing it off her shoulders roughly while he kissed and bit a path down her neck. I could see where his teeth left a mark. My eyes, wide with curiosity and apprehension, were riveted on the scene playing out in front of me. My gaze slid to Sebastian. I found him watching me instead. He placed me back on solid ground, facing the dark glass. My hands pushed against it while he covered me from behind.

  “Can they see us?”

  “No…tell me what you see?”

  He kissed my neck and caressed my breast, his other hand squeezing and stroking my bottom. “I see why you picked out this dress,” I said, laughing, then squeaked when he pinched my rear end.

  “That’s what you get when you misbehave.”

  “Yes, your Highness,” I answered, and felt the sting of his hand on my bottom. “Ouch.”

  “Let’s try that again.”

  The man behind the glass took hold of his lover’s elbows and brought them together, binding them with leather cuffs behind her back. Her chest thrust out, her dark nipples erect. After guiding her to her knees, he unbuttoned his trousers and his enormous erection bobbed out as his pants fell to his ankles.

  It felt like we were in the room with them, sharing a private moment. I was stunned with a mixture of perverse curiosity and shame, my eyes unblinking.

  “She’s powerless to stop him.”

  I pushed my rear end back into Sebastian’s erection. Impossibly hard, it strained under his tuxedo pants. He hissed out a breath and cupped my sex. I was wet again, ready for him to posses me and fill me up.

  “Do you want me as badly as I want you?” His voice was barely a whisper.

  “Yes.” Sebastian stepped away and unzipped his pants. Cool air swept over the cheeks of my rear end. For only a moment––and I missed his warmth already.

  Across the glass, the man took a punishing hold of the woman’s hair and pulled her head towards his twitching erection. She licked the underside, sucked on the wide, dusky crown hard enough that her cheeks hollowed out. Then, slowly, she began swallowing more and more of him.

  I heard the tear of foil, felt Sebastian’s body heat burning my back, my rear end. I wanted to melt into him.

  “Go on.”

  Reaching one hand around, I squeezed his sac gently. He dipped his fingers inside of me and spread the welcoming moisture up the seam and in between the cheeks of my rear end. My body shuddered, responding spontaneously to the dark, hot sensation while my unfocused gaze remained on the lovers across the glass. I watched the man roll his hips, grip his lover’s hair. In and out, in and out––she took all of him down her throat.

  “It’s turning me on.”

  “And...”

  “She’s at his mercy.”

  The man threw back his head and thrust his hips, pumping himself into her mouth; the evidence of his passion dripping out of the corners of her full lips. He unbuckled her restraints, picked her up with ease, and placed her on the bed, tethering each limb to a post with silk ropes. I watched them while Sebastian kissed my spine and placed his forehead on the curve of my neck.

  “Tell me where you want me,” he murmured.

  The man licked his lover’s nipples and placed tiny clamps on them while she writhed, tensing off the
bed. He was erect again. Grabbing a hold of his penis at the wide root, he pulled on it roughly while brushing the fringes of a whip up and down his lover’s body. She arched and struggled as the biting sting of the whip hit her breasts, the apex at her thighs. He climbed between her legs and with one quick thrust of his powerful hips, shoved himself deep inside of her.

  Sebastian placed his hand over my much smaller one splayed on the glass in front of us. His tan fingers nestled in between my pale ones.

  “Inside of me,” I murmured.

  He gripped my hip with his other hand and shunted deep. I gasped at the feeling of fullness, of completion. He was everywhere, filling me up, sheltering me from behind…fused as one. My gaze returned to our joined hands on the glass. He closed his fingers around mine and an overwhelming swell of emotion rose up my throat.

  And they will become one flesh…the words swept through me.

  “This is where I live,” he said, nudging me with his hips. “Where I belong.” His voice faded into a hoarse whisper. He held himself perfectly still, buried inside of me until I started to squirm, needing him to move. He began thrusting deep and steady. I pressed back against him; the sound of our skin slamming together holding the constant beat. Sweet relief was in sight. I felt it building within me. But every time I reached for it, Sebastian would ease off his pace, leaving me in an unendurable state of arousal, reminding me who was in control, staking his claim.

  “Home,” Sebastian mumbled quietly.

  He slammed hard one last time, and sent me soaring. I broke apart and was put back together as someone else––some elemental part of me transformed. I heard him grunt out my name in between deep surging breaths. Once the tremors subsided, his whole body slackened.

  I lifted my heavy eyelids, and watched the man on the other side of the glass remove the nipple clamps. His lover screamed as she climaxed. Her back arched and her eyes slammed shut. He was still erect when he pulled out. After untying her legs, he flipped her onto her stomach. Her arms were still bound, crossed above her, making it impossible for her to move. He lifted her hips in the air and began rubbing the crown of his shaft, glistening with cum, between the cheeks of her buttocks, around the ring.