Stealing Serenity Read online

At the moment she knew nothing. “What wheels?”

  “The mechanics of our relationship, Serenity. You are going to be my next submissive.”

  Her heart seized in her chest. Her toes curled instantly and her stomach dropped like a rock.

  “Don’t act so surprised. The chemistry’s been there all along.”

  “But…you didn’t even call me after the last time we saw each other.”

  “I wanted you to make the first move. You came to your future Master. Good girl.”

  She laughed though it wasn’t particularly funny. “That will be the day.”

  “Yes it will,” he agreed. “A day for both of us.”

  “Just listen to yourself,” she demanded. “You really believe this.”

  “I believe what’s true.”

  “And if you’re wrong?” When. She should have said when you’re wrong.

  “I’ve never made a mistake about this sort of thing.”

  “Always a first time.”

  “We’ll take it slow,” he ignored. “No rush. But before I possess you, make no mistake, you’ll beg me for it.”

  “Me beg you for sex?”

  “You’ll be hungry enough,” he said. “Especially when I forbid you to masturbate.”

  The audacity and the perversity defied all explanation. “You’re insane.”

  “Your body is mine, Serenity. Do not touch it.”

  She watched him finish his coffee.

  “You’ll hear from me,” he said rising to his feet.

  He left as though angry, without a word, but she knew it was just his predisposition, his utter confidence. Not to mention his way of putting her in her place.

  “No one owns me,” she said aloud.

  An old man two tables over looked at her strangely.

  She jolted as her phone rang. It was him.

  “Linger over the latte,” he said. “Savor each sip.” He disconnected before she could reply.

  She was sorely tempted to gulp or just leave it and go. But that would be altering her pace, letting him win.

  She took a normal sip. It was impossible. So tasty and creamy, her eyes fluttered shut.

  So sweet, the best ever. She wanted more, she wanted cream and sugar, she wanted to taste his lips and have him keep on talking, whispering in her ear, something, anything.

  Breathing deeply, she set down the cup. This was going to be more difficult than she thought.

  * * * * *

  The rest of the day Serenity was on edge. Waiting for the phone, half expecting him to show up, not that he was going to get anywhere.

  She would reject him on the spot, tell him thanks but no thanks. Find another player for your dark games.

  At about quarter to five a deliveryman showed up with a single red rose and a note.

  I took off the thorns, dear heart, so we wouldn’t have a repeat of our first encounter. Hope this whets your appetite. The next messenger will see you through.

  RL

  More riddles. This was getting silly. Naturally Selia came in to add her two cents.

  “A thornless rose? What an absolute doll.”

  “He’s hardly a doll,” Serenity countered. “He intends to make me his slave.”

  Selia licked her lips. “I’ve seen his picture and I would let him cuff me any day.”

  “It’s more than toy handcuffs. The guy’s into a whole lifestyle, I told you.”

  “So play along. We women have had to fake enough other stuff over the ages to get our way.”

  It was five on the nose when the second deliveryman came. He had a box, white with a red ribbon.

  Serenity opened it with trembling hands. There was a dress inside, black, of course. It was short with a scooped neckline. How did he know her size?

  Lucretia strikes again.

  He’d completed the outfit down to underwear, exquisite black panties with a tiny pink bow and a lacy underwire bra, the kind that lifted up and out.

  A man’s fantasy. Ross’ fantasy. Surely he didn’t expect her to put it on now?

  There was a note at the bottom of the box. White cardstock with gold trim. The handwriting was obviously masculine.

  Dear Heart,

  I took the liberty. Bring this home with you. You can model it for me later.

  RL

  Again he was calling her Dear Heart. He wasn’t her dear anything. If he didn’t realize that by now there was no hope for him. Hadn’t she made it clear over coffee?

  She’d passed her own test, sitting directly across from the man without giving an inch. He had seen that too and he should have gone away with his tail between his legs. But he only got bolder and more confident with time, ever more sure of his possession of her the more unattainable she made herself.

  So he had sent more flowers and a dress. Big deal. She would never wear it for him. She wouldn’t take it home and she most certainly wouldn’t open the door for him if he showed up. In fact she didn’t have to show up herself.

  Serenity sighed. She had tried that game before only to have him show up at the office.

  And god help her if Selia or TJ got hold of him. They would embarrass her to death.

  Fine, she would go home. A nice bath and ear plugs. So she couldn’t hear him at the door if he decided to drop over.

  And a soothing glass of wine. Alone. The way she liked it.

  * * * * *

  The bell would not stop ringing.

  Someone—and she knew very well who—could not take a hint.

  Furious, hair dripping wet, her body covered in a thick terrycloth towel, she went to the door.

  “Go away.”

  “Little pig, little pig, let me in,” he quipped. “Or I’ll blow your house down.”

  “I’m serious. I’ll call the cops.”

  “The Big Bad Wolf fears no one.”

  Serenity fought back a smile. Even now he was being charming. It was so not fair.

  She flung open the door. “I’ll give you five minutes.”

  He looked her up and down. “I’ll take five years.”

  “Not an option.”

  “We can negotiate,” he said, waltzing past her into the living room. “And thanks for dressing for the occasion, by the way.”

  She hugged her ill-clad body. “I’m only letting you in like this because you are going to freak out my elderly neighbors.”

  “What you should be worried about is if they will hear you moaning and squealing through the walls.”

  She snorted. “I’m so scared.”

  He picked up a ceramic swan from her curio shelf.

  “Make yourself at home, why don’t you?”

  “I would like a drink,” he said. “Scotch if you’ve got it.”

  “You’re unbelievable, you know that.”

  “So I’ve been told.”

  “I’m going to change, feel free to not be here when I come back.”

  He took hold of her hand.

  “Hey!”

  “You’ll do no such thing,” he said. “I like you this way.”

  “Well, it’s all about you, isn’t it?”

  Ignoring her scorpion-bite sarcasm, Ross pulled her close. His hands knew right where to go, at the small of her back and her left hip.

  She was painfully aware of how easy this towel would be to remove. Leaving her naked and defenseless.

  His lips blistered her forehead.

  “Do you have the dress?” he whispered.

  She frowned by way of an answer.

  He cupped her buttocks cheek through the towel, making her gasp.

  “You like it, don’t you?”

  Which? The dress…or this? No on both counts.

  “I would like you gone, that’s what I would like.”

  He brushed a few stray hairs from in front of her face. The act was at once so endearing and intimate it made her heart swell. And her blood heat.

  “And did you follow my command?” he wanted to know.

  She knew what he meant but she’
d no intention of giving him the satisfaction.

  “Are you not listening? I want you to go.”

  “I will…if you’re not wet.”

  “If I’m not…what?”

  “Aroused, baby. If you’re not aroused I’ll assume you really don’t want me.”

  “Are you even serious right now?” she protested. “My pussy gets no vote in this. You deal with my brain and my mouth only, buster.”

  He cupped her buttocks. “It’s simple enough to check.”

  “Simple enough for me to scream, you mean.”

  “You won’t do that.”

  “You don’t know me like you think.”

  He kissed her hard, leaving her breathless.

  She stood there mouth open as he undid the towel. She was trying to comprehend it all, the way his tongue had just fenced with hers, the way his teeth had so blatantly scraped hers…and how hard his cock had been against her.

  “No, Ross, don’t.” It wasn’t much of a protest.

  She was nude now, the towel pooled at her feet.

  “You are so damn beautiful,” he rasped.

  Her knees went weak.

  “Open for me, sweetheart.”

  She felt her thighs parting, her feet moving ever so slightly. Her eyes were captured by his. She tried to close them but couldn’t.

  “Don’t be afraid,” he said and for some strange reason she wasn’t.

  It was as if she had waited for this moment her whole entire life. As if she’d known him all along, in her dreams, in her fantasies.

  And yet she had no idea what to expect, none at all. This was uncharted territory. Dark and unexplored.

  “You are everything I hoped for,” he said as if he too had been waiting.

  Ross took his time, lingering, his hand moving first to her shoulder and then the hollow of her neck. She shivered, toes curling at his touch, unsure how she would handle more. This was already so explosive and he hadn’t even gotten to the sensitive areas.

  “I have imagined you like this,” he said. “Naked, under my control.”

  Was that it? Was she under his control right now? Did she not have the power to walk away, to tell him to go for real?

  “You’ve dreamed too, haven’t you?”

  Serenity nodded. No point in holding back now.

  “It’s because we’re meant to be.”

  Meant to be how, though? What did he intend…really?

  She bit down on her lip as he reached her nipple.

  “You can tell me,” he said. “I don’t really need to go on, do I?”

  She sighed. It would be worse to confess, but holding back felt impossible.

  “It’s true,” she whispered.

  “Say the words.”

  “I’m…wet.”

  “You’re aroused, say it. The thought of submission turns you on.”

  “The thought…of submission…turns me on,” she said, the words coming in short, halting phrases.

  He weighed the golden orb in his hand.

  “You are made to submit, Serenity.”

  She let herself fall into him, his hand a perfect fit for her breast. Everything about this seemed perfect. Too good to be true.

  “The things I will do to you…” he said.

  His fingertips trailed down her belly.

  She whimpered.

  “Would you like to be on stage like Alice?”

  Her head fell against his chest. She could not bring herself to say the words.

  “Would you like to be tied?” He stroked her hair.

  “Look at me.”

  She did so.

  “I am going to touch you,” he said. “I want you to come…on my hand.”

  Her body froze, the resistance instantly surging through her. The scandal, the absolute baring of her soul.

  How could he ask such a thing? More to the point how could he bring it to pass?

  He reached the apex of her thighs.

  “Don’t fight me,” he said. “Surrender to what you want…what you need.”

  Serenity held her breath, not daring to move.

  He lightly touched her, his finger barely pressing the swollen lips of her pussy.

  “Open,” he said.

  She did so with a soft whimper.

  Immediately he entered. Taking. Ross was expert, knowing how to work her.

  She felt the weakness surge through her as he pushed down on her magic button, swelling her clitoris instantly. There would be no resistance, no mercy.

  “You will come when I command you,” he told her.

  Where was the tentativeness, the hesitancy she was used to in a man? She was used to her sex being seen as a mystery, if not an outright inconvenience. Something temperamental, unpredictable, unreliable.

  And here he was taking it for granted. Expecting it.

  “I can’t,” she said.

  He kissed her lightly as if in reply, to say she could…and she would. “Your body will sing for me, Serenity…only me.”

  The claim of exclusivity did something to her, the words igniting deep within. Even as her brain rebelled her body wanted it more than anything—to belong to this man.

  She was dripping now, pouring over his fingers.

  “Do not move.”

  She had been moving, to her embarrassment, pressing herself against his hand, wanting him deeper inside her. Making her stand like this and wait was maddening.

  “Place your hands behind your head,” he said.

  Her arms lifted of their own accord as she placed herself…at his disposal.

  As if to emphasize the implications he played freely with her breasts using his free hand.

  Serenity began to squirm at the sheer pleasure, almost painful in its rawness, the heat searing her spine, curling her toes.

  “Please, Ross.”

  “Please what? What is it you want?”

  She scarcely knew it herself. “I need…to come.”

  “Not yet.”

  He continued to tease, driving her mad.

  She swore at him.

  He took his hand away. “No girl of mine will speak in that way.”

  “I’m not yours!”

  “Aren’t you?” He smacked her ass.

  She gasped in shock. She moved to slap him.

  He grabbed her wrist in midair. Holding it aloft with one hand, forcing her to tiptoes, he went back to pleasuring her, his hand thrust deep in her cleft, her hot and eager pussy, so tight and wet and needy.

  “Did you like that? Stung, didn’t it?” He looked at her harshly, his eyes piercing to her soul.

  She wanted to tell him off but something held her back.

  “Just get it over with,” she spat.

  He laughed. “Oh, sweetheart, I’m only just getting started.”

  Hiding her emotions as best she could, she laughed right back. “This is once only and you know it.”

  Tickling her with his finger, wagging her poor, swollen clit, he drove her to the brink now, keeping her there.

  “This,” he countered, “is training. You are being taught to please me.”

  The word repulsed her but at the same time she was drawn to it like a moth to flame.

  “You can’t handle a woman’s free will, is that it? You need a cringing slave?”

  His smile was pure bad boy, exactly the sort of thing to capture a woman’s heart, at least a woman like her.

  “I can handle a woman’s will just fine. I just happen to like cringing slaves.”

  “I hate you,” she pronounced.

  He lifted her, forcing her to the very limits of her toes.

  “Now,” he said. “Come for me now.”

  She shivered exploding in heat, melting in shame, the cum pouring from her hot little cunt, her nipples throbbing with need. With no cock inside her, no discernible romance, she’d been opened thoroughly, undone in the hallway of her own apartment, nude and submissive for a man she hardly knew, an arrogant, fully clothed one at that.

  He
r orgasm hit her like a wave, an unstoppable force that washed over her face, her muscles, converting and undoing every part of her. She could barely stand.

  Imperiously he kept his hand in place, taking a second and then a third. Multiple orgasms as if to rub it in what he was capable of doing to her body, regardless of her own say-so.

  It was all impossible. In her experience Serenity had always needed to be on top of a man, a cock inside her for a good half-hour in order to get herself off. She could do it with a dildo of course, too. But never had she reached climax from being played with so casually.

  When she’d settled herself, the tsunami passed, the winds all dissipated, the energy drained from her soul, Ross took his hand away.

  He presented it to her lips.

  Her heart skipped a beat. He couldn’t expect her to…

  His eyes brooked no argument.

  Eyes slid closed, she dabbed her tongue. Next thing she knew she was cleaning him.

  Licking his fingers. Sucking.

  “Serenity.”

  She jolted as he called her name to garner her attention. She’d been in another world, cleaning him thoroughly, softly suctioning, loving his fingers as if they were his cock. Red faced, she regarded him.

  “Go and get a throw pillow,” he said. “From the sofa.”

  Not understanding the purpose she went to do as told. She returned a moment later, still floating on a cloud.

  “Place it on the floor at my feet.”

  She did so, setting the square gray-and-white-print pillow before him.

  “That’s for your comfort,” he explained.

  For a moment she didn’t understand. Then it dawned on her. He wanted her to kneel.

  Placing his hands on her shoulders, he lowered her, pushing her gently but firmly. “Have you done this before?” he asked.

  She nodded in the affirmative.

  “I won’t expect much at the beginning. It’s something else you’ll be trained in.”

  Serenity felt the heat building again between her thighs. She wanted his cock inside her. She wanted him fucking her. On her terms. His bad-ass body reckless and free, answering her needs, making her come the way she wanted, his cock straining, his body fevered as he grunts and begs.

  But this wasn’t on her terms. Not by a long shot.

  Her knees pressed into the pillow.

  He was unbuckling his trousers. She could see the outline of his cock under the zipper, so thick and hard. She imagined it throbbing between her lips.

  He is going to train me. His exact words.