BOUND: Together

by Cynthia Dane

  What was going on here? I expected Eric to confront the head of his security as an employer, not as a charge railing against authority.

  “Of course not. Because it’s a terrible fucking idea, Eric.” Whoa. I knew they were close, having grown up together, but really? Eric? There truly was something else going on here that I was not privy to know.

  I wanted to leave. With Eric, alone, whatever.

  “I’m taking Ms. Chen to the Summer Villa Hotel. I’ve already reserved the presidential suite for the whole weekend. Set up the team there, if it pleases you. But we’re going.”

  “Eric, I insist that…”

  “Is there some threat against me?” The crack was gone. Back was that deep and commanding voice. “Has someone said something? Called in a favor to an assassin? Let slip to the shareholders that I’m not who I say I am… again? Because unless there is an actual threat against our persons lurking in my vicinity, I am going with my girlfriend and having a life!”

  My girlfriend…

  He called me his girlfriend!

  “Christ on a fucking cracker, Eric! You’re acting like a child!”

  “Making up for all that time lost.”

  Sherman didn’t move out of the way. He advanced on Eric, overpowering him with that huge linebacker’s body. Eric never once flinched – I did, though. Oh, I flinched so hard that I wrinkled my coat.

  “Don’t posture with me. Tail us on the way to the hotel if you have to, but we’re going. Or do I have to call in my backup security team because you’re suddenly indisposed from employment?”

  “Don’t pull that shit with me, Eric. No woman is worth dismantling everything.”

  Eric sighed as he turned to me. “My sincerest apologies for this, Natalie. It seems everywhere we go my ‘inner circle’ wants to thwart my ability to be a grown person. It’s exhausting, isn’t it?”

  I gave the slightest nod, one eye always on Sherman.

  “Set the team up at the Summer Villa. Be next door if you want, post someone at the door, but leave us alone unless otherwise summoned. That’s an order. Do you understand?”

  Sherman clenched his jaw for a few more seconds. “I sure do, boss.”

  He trudged down the hallway, barking orders into his headset. Eric muttered something beneath his breath before holding his hand out to me again.

  “I’m so sorry. I can take you home, if you want.”

  Once I had my wits about me again, I entered his strong embrace. “I hear the villa is a nice place…”

  “It was going to be a surprise.”

  “I’m sure there are still other surprises in store, Mr. Mann.”

  “Please.” His gentle kiss to my lips instantly relaxed the rest of me. “Call me Eric.”

  “Eric…”

  “If it pleases you.”

  I grinned. “Everything we’ve done so far has pleased me immensely.”

  He assured me that we had only just begun. I can’t say I minded when he squeezed my ass on our way to the elevator, Sherman trailing behind with a jaw so clenched he was keeping some dentist somewhere in business.

  Chapter 25

  NATALIE

  “Then what?”

  He kept asking me questions, as if I could answer them when my brain was overwhelmed with the beautiful sensations coursing through me. How was I supposed to continue telling him my fantasy when his fingers were deep inside of me and my mouth searched for every bit of his skin it could find?

  “Then I… I…” Jesus, it felt good! Eric knew how to explore a woman’s body and turn her into a wanton wretch. He wanted me to regale him with my nastiest sexual fantasies while flirting with the brink of orgasm? What an asshole. “I give it to you, too.”

  Not how I meant for that to come out. This whole night had been one giant whirlwind of emotions and events, and my mind didn’t know how to process it. As soon as we reached the hotel on the edge of town, we were swept up in a VIP treatment that began with two concierges personally escorting us to the grand presidential suite and ended with iced champagne against my lips and my lover’s hand feeling up every bare inch of my body.

  “How do you give it to me?”

  “Whatever you want, Eric.” I pulled on his collar and feebly attempted to unbutton his shirt. The only reason my flat palm wasn’t on his chest or grabbing him through his trousers was because I had to make a fist every two seconds to weather the pleasure wracking my eager body.

  This foreplay was going to kill me. I would die before my dress came off.

  “I’ll give you whatever you want.”

  “Anything?”

  He slipped another finger inside of me. My eyes rolled back. I collapsed onto the goose-feather pillow. “Anything!”

  “Maybe I just want you.” He was on top of me. Was this it? No more games? “Maybe I want to consume you.”

  “Oh, yes!”

  That was both an agreement and a cry of climax. I rode out my orgasm beneath him, knuckles turning white against his shoulders and my mouth full of his tongue.

  Even though the first gust of wind was knocked out of me, I didn’t want it to end. I didn’t want him to pull his fingers out, and I didn’t want him to leave my side.

  I wanted him to be a part of me. Forever.

  Sex does that to you, doesn’t it? Makes you think in absolutes. Don’t want this to end. Want to keep going forever. Let’s stay together forever. Please love me forever. Fuck me until I can’t be fucked anymore. Love me until we repower every star beyond the end of time.

  No one had ever made me feel that heavy before. Even though my logical side screamed that it was a trap, my heart and loins cried that this was how it was meant to be. Passion, lust, and a ton of sex. Every damn night.

  The fact we were in one of the nicest rooms in the city helped. Hell, some magazines ranked the Summer Villa’s presidential suite as the nicest on the west coast. I’m sure the view was breathtaking, but security had closed the curtains.

  We were too fixated on each other, anyway.

  “I’m serious,” I whispered, aching to get on top of him. “Anything you want.”

  He carefully studied my countenance, as if I wasn’t aware what I signed myself up for. “If only you could read my mind and see exactly what I want.”

  I sucked in a breath and lunged for his mouth. Given five more seconds, and I would have him out of his pants and back inside of me.

  I was so wrapped up in him that I couldn’t think of anything else. Just… this. For hours. For as long as my young body could possibly go.

  “Wait.”

  I had unbuttoned the bottom two buttons of his shirt. Sure, I hesitated at his soft request, but I was about to rip that whole shirt open. The preview of his flat, hard abdomen spurred me to see how lean and muscular the rest of him was.

  Nevertheless, I waited an agonizing wait.

  Eric gently pushed me off him. “Forgive me. I need to go… ah, I’ll be right back.” He hurried toward the door that connected to another bedroom. Strange. I thought he would be heading to the bathroom to make sure everything was ready for me. But who was I to question what a billionaire did before he got off?

  “All right.” I pushed myself up on one arm, my bra strap slipping beneath my dress sleeve. “Hurry. I…” When I put my mind to it, I could really push down my embarrassment. “I’m wet and waiting.”

  His eyes widened. One amused chuckle eked from his lips before he disappeared.

  I waited.

  What to do, what to do? Play with myself? Lay back and fantasize to pass the time and make sure I stayed ready for him? Check my phone? (Damnit. Sherman had confiscated my phone on the way in.) Go to the bathroom one more time?

  Or I could plan my attack.

  I’m good at playing the submissive sexual partner when it’s sprung upon me. If Eric ran into the room and jumped me, I would instantly fall into that role like the happiest woman in the world. But when left to my own devices and consumed by my desires, you bet your as
s my mind shifted in the other direction.

  Maybe not dominant, but definitely aggressive. I didn’t want there to be any doubt. I was sexually available and willing to fuck and be fucked. If that message wasn’t broadcasted to Eric Mann – wherever the hell he was and whatever the fuck he was doing – then I would make sure he damn well knew.

  Besides, there was nothing he was doing in the other room that could scare or embarrass me. ED? Whatever. I could work with it. Talking to his therapist because he had a previous sexual trauma he needed to work through before he could fuck me? Who cared? (Okay, I cared, but this was sex-craved Natalie speaking.) He could be a virgin psyching himself up for all I cared.

  When I threw myself into having sex, I was both a demure princess and an aggressive maestro of sexual innuendo. I could turn whenever the moment called for it. The easiest thing to do was read Eric’s mood and let him set the tone of our encounter.

  If he wanted to tie me up again so I was the most submissive lady he ever put a hand on, then awesome. If he wanted me to tie him up and pound him in the ass with a strap-on, well… maybe next time. A little vanilla for the first go-round wasn’t a bad thing, right? The crazy kink could come later.

  There was a reason he sequestered himself in another room for a few minutes. Under normal circumstances, I would have respected that and waited for him to return.

  Yeah, right.

  I needed him. I needed to know that he was going to come back for me and finish the job. I needed him. His body, his voice, his scent, his kisses consuming me… the more I thought about them, the easier it was to cross that boundary from one room to the other. He had foolishly left the door unlocked.

  With no security in the suite, nobody was around to stop me.

  The plan was simple. Appear nearby and watch my clothes fall off my body. Lure him back to bed, because how could he resist my nudity? He wanted it, right?

  Of course he did.

  It was my independence that had initially attracted him to me, right? Well, how was this for independence? I’d help myself into wherever he was and show him what kind of firecracker he had waiting for him!

  I opened the door.

  Nothing prepared me.

  Nothing.

  You see the person standing before you. You know who it is. You recognize their face and feel that warmth inside of you, because that instant recognition is what makes you so happy. The vulnerability. The intimacy. The knowledge that you’re one of the only people who gets to see them like this. You’re part of the inner circle now. You’ve defied the rest of the circle just to be with this person.

  You don’t recognize the rest of them.

  I truly was prepared for anything. Maybe he was shy because he had some kind of birth defect or disability that scared people away once they saw it. Burn scars. Other discoloration. A huge lump that can be covered by baggy clothing but can’t be hidden during raw, intimate sex.

  Or two lumps, in this case. Breasts.

  Breasts.

  At first, I thought I had found another woman. My brain went into overdrive telling me that it was one of Eric’s many escorts he hired to get him ready for his real lovers… or maybe to add into a threesome. That ridiculous story was more acceptable than the truth I now faced.

  Those breasts belonged to Eric. He dropped his chest binder when he realized I was there.

  “What…” My breath left me. Words were like cotton in my mouth. “What… the fuck?”

  He snatched his shirt off the spare bed and hurried into it. The sleeves covered his muscular arms, but it didn’t cover his breasts or the hard nipples pointing in my direction.

  He…

  He? She?

  “Natalie!”

  His voice cracked the ice that had frozen over me. One moment I was desperate to understand, to wake up from this strange dream… the next, I realized what had happened.

  Eric wasn’t male.

  “I told you to stay in the other room.”

  He talked to me as if this was no big deal. As if him hiding his body from me was something everyone did.

  Bullshit!

  “What the fuck…” I backed away. The female form did not frighten me, but this?

  I spiraled. Because what else could I do?

  “Natalie!”

  He chased after me as I sprinted out of the master suite. The only things I thought to grab were my shoes by the front door as I got the hell out of there.

  “Natalie!”

  Eric’s voice continued to follow me through the suite. My adrenaline pumped until my whole existence centered on fleeing.

  I didn’t stop to get my bag, my purse, or my phone. Even though the first person I saw in the hotel hallway was Sherman Smith, who had leaped off a bench and approached me with fire burning across his face.

  “Get away from me!” I don’t know who I shouted that at. Eric, who continued to follow me. Sherman, who would block my exit if he could.

  If he could!

  I was much smaller than him. He may have been stronger, but I was faster. With my fight or flight response in high gear, all it took was one duck of the head to get me beneath his outstretched arm.

  Then the gauntlet began.

  Half of Eric’s home security team were there, and they all had orders to grab and detain me. Can you understand how scared I was? It was no longer about the shock of what I found out in the other room. It was about half a dozen big, scary men in suits and sunglasses chasing after me!

  They didn’t care if they hurt me. They didn’t care if their tasers knocked out my teeth. They sure as fuck didn’t care if I bit them or swung a fist into their boxy faces.

  “Don’t hurt her!”

  That voice… Eric?

  No.

  Was it really Eric? Was the person chasing after me, their shirt still wide open and their breasts free for anyone to see, really Eric?

  Or were they an imposter? A changeling? Why did I respond to the cracking voice that released its façade and allowed me to hear its real tone?

  A woman called after me.

  I ran as if my whole world was ending. All while someone else’s did. Again.

  Part 2

  Chapter 26

  ERICA

  “I’ve got three guys tracking her down.” Sherman sat in the chair near the hotel bed. He cleared his throat before continuing. “Don’t worry. We’ll find her before she can get far.”

  I finished buttoning up my shirt and flopped down with a terrible sigh. This was the nightmare I had feared for most of my life, exacerbated when Brooke broke up with me not so long ago. She had rejected me because of my body. Now? Natalie had followed suit. Where Brooke had simply said she couldn’t deal with me being female, Natalie had…

  Well, she had run. So swiftly that not even my security team could catch her on the way out the door.

  Sherman was breathless when he returned to my suite. Hotel security promised to stalk the perimeter of their grounds while three bodyguards piled into a car and began the onerous task of pulling favors to gain access to traffic light cameras. He should have been out there with them. Instead, he had come back to me.

  I knew why.

  “What happened?” he softly asked.

  “You know what happened.”

  “I don’t know the details. She ran like you jammed a firecracker up her ass.”

  I winced. “Please don’t remind me.”

  “If you give me some more details, I might be able to figure out what to do.”

  Enduring the awkward silence between us was better than spilling my guts. Besides, I couldn’t bring myself to look at Sherman or remember what had happened between Natalie and myself. I wanted nothing to do with it. I wanted…

  Well, I wanted Natalie. I wanted that tragic event to be erased from my memory. The only way that would happen, however, was if I received a time machine in that moment. Yeah, right.

  When I did divulge what had happened, Sherman maintained his silent vigil over my ho
tel suite with only a slight shake of his head. Somehow, that made it worse. Wasn’t it bad enough that I had to share something so embarrassing and traumatic? Now I had to deal with my bodyguard and one of the only friends I had say, “I told you so?”

  “I’m sorry,” was what he actually said. “If there’s anything I can do…”

  “What if she doesn’t come back?” Anxiety was the oldest friend I had. Not Sherman, whose eyes widened when I sat up with a start and clasped my head between my hands. “What if she refuses to see me again? What if she…”

  “Erica.” Sherman got up from his chair and sat beside me on the bed. A reassuring hand landed on my shoulder. “We’ll find her. We’ll drag her back here if we have to.”

  “Oh my God, don’t say things like that.” The thought of Natalie being literally dragged down the hall while she kicked and screamed that she didn’t want to be around a freak like me was enough to send me back to Yesterday’s River. Of course, I had been prepared for her to reject me because of who I really was. Did these people think I didn’t understand why women were wary when they discovered what I really had in my pants? As if! It was all I could fucking think about every time my heart considered beating. No, what killed me was how she just…

  She ran!

  Nobody had ever done that before. Brooke almost fainted when I finally told her the truth, and I had more than one escort scream in surprise when they realized the Eric Mann was really female… but none of them had run as if I blew the pox in their direction.

  “I can’t do it again.” My arms wrapped around my bent legs. My face buried between my knees. “God, why did I even think I could… when is this going to end?”

  We both knew the answer to that, so Sherman didn’t bother to answer. “When you’re dead, Erica. Or whenever the world discovers it, by accident or on purpose.” I wrestled with that reality every day of my life. But was I willing to throw everyone’s lives away because I couldn’t stand the thought of being in the closet anymore?