Cardinal's Rule (10 page)

He also felt very scared, even though he didn’t admit how deeply in so many words. She knew

from listening to him, how he talked, how his body language changed. It humanized him and gave her insight beneath his thin veneer of bravado.

He worried he’d have to release Cris, and then he would be alone. His personal honor code

wouldn’t allow him to keep Cris if she wouldn’t agree to this insanity.

“What if the cancer hadn’t come back?” she asked. “Would you still be here?”

“Yes. I hadn’t expected it to be like this, though. I considered taking him to a club where

everyone had once known him and let anyone who wanted a turn to take a swing at him. I also

seriously considered releasing him in front of everyone. The ultimate humiliation for what he did. I would have ordered him to take whatever punishment I deemed to mete out, and he would have.”

She shuddered. She remembered how Cris had stood there as Bob threatened him. The old

Cristo would have defended himself. With a black belt in karate, he could have easily kicked Bob’s ass.

But Cristo the slave would have let Bob beat the crap out of him. The only time he defended

himself was when she went for his eyes, and even then after she’d calmed a little he let her take more whacks at him.

As upset as she felt at Cris, she felt a little sorry for him. “You don’t have to release him if I don’t agree to this. I told you, I don’t hold you responsible. Don’t feel guilty on my account.”

“Yes, I do have to release him. Because I would rather be alone. It’s the principle of the matter.”

“This is your
life
you’re talking about. Time to shelve the principles, don’t you think?”

“I disagree. It’s even more important now. I would hate to die knowing I didn’t do what I felt necessary to make amends.”

“You just said the odds are in your favor. And you don’t need to make amends. Jesus, you’re

fucking dense. I don’t hold you responsible.”

“I hold myself responsible.”

She looked out over the bay again. A few sailboats anchored nearby bobbed on inky black chop.

While lights shone in a few, most lay dark, tied to mooring buoys. “Three years?”

“Yes. After that, if you want to stay married, we can re-negotiate the annual salary if you’d like.

But everything I own will be yours if you stay with me, if that’s what you want.”

So much pain. So much anger. Could she ever look at Cris and not want to pound him in the

nuts?

Then the irresistible pull. She did like Landry. Frankly, she liked him as much as she liked Bob, in many ways. Different ways.

Dominant ways.

The fact that they had their anger at Cris in common only made her feel closer to him. Not that she wanted to admit it, but it did touch her that he felt so upset on her account despite not knowing her.

That spoke volumes about his character.

She also felt sorry for him. Obviously, Cris had loved him very much to do what he did, right or wrong. It wasn’t hard for her to see why Cris loved him.

A damn good guaranteed paycheck, a chance to use her nursing skills, and a break from being a Domme. She could hang Mistress Cardinal in the closet with her corsets and stiletto heels and just be Tilly again.

She would have someone to take care of, in a way she hadn’t since Cris left. Despite what she did, she had her own needs that had gone unmet for far too long.

Wanting to serve.

Not wanting to be alone, even if it meant being tied to the man who had broke her heart and

crushed her soul.

The man Landry claimed still loved her.

What did she have to lose? Well, other than her sanity. Hell, if she could survive what she went through, this should be a cakewalk. And it would mean getting her life back, not having to be a pro-Domme anymore.

“If I’m marrying you,” she said, “I need a few concessions.”

“Of course.”

“You’re not my Master, my Dom, or my Top. If you try to pull any bullshit like that, you’ll wish you hadn’t.”

“Of course not.”

“For now you’ll move in with me. I’d rather have you at my house than have to schlep

somewhere else to take care of you. You can contribute to household expenses.”

Even in the dark car she saw his eyebrows lift. “What? What about Cris?”

She gritted her teeth. “He can move in too.”

“I can’t ask you to do that. I’m not asking you to take care of me, just to marry me and assure Cris has access to me in the hospital. Why would you want me living with you?”

“Did Cris mention I went to nursing school?”

“No.”

“Yeah. I graduated, worked at it for nearly a year. After I got into doing this I quit doing it and my license lapsed.” She tapped her head. “Knowledge is still there. So if I’m earning that money, I might as well earn it.”

“He’ll still be my slave, though. I’ll be using him when and where I see fit. Is that going to bother you?”

“Nope. Have at him. I don’t want him as a slave but he can clean my damn house and do chores when I tell him.”

“Absolutely. He’s yours to use and abuse
however
you need him.”

She didn’t miss how he accented that word, however. “I won’t interfere with what you do with him if you don’t interfere with what I do with him,” she said.

He nodded, smiling. “That’ll humiliate him. Good.”

An idea struck her. It would be a particularly painful revenge for Cris. “You ever sleep with a woman before?”

He looked confused. “Tilly, I’m not asking you to do that. I don’t expect anything like that from you.”

“Answer my question.”

He looked even more puzzled as he studied her face for a moment. “I’ve slept with women

before, years ago. Before I finally admitted I was gay.”

“How long ago?”

“Before I met Cris.”

“Think you can still get it up for me?”

“Tilly, I said—”

“Answer the damn question, Landry.”

He took a while to mull it over. “I’m sure I could oblige you, but while I’m undergoing cancer 

treatment you could shoot me full of Viagra and have Adam Lambert go down on me and it wouldn’t raise the dead.”

She smiled. He had a good sense of humor. “I only need you one time. One really good, hard,

long time. If I’m going to marry you, you’re going to fuck me on our wedding night.”

That dropped his jaw. Finally, something to shatter that annoyingly unshakable composure of

his. “What?”

She turned in her seat to face him. “Yeah. That’s one of
my
conditions. I want one really big

‘fuck you’ in his face before we get down to the business of taking care of you. I want
my
pound of flesh. Otherwise, all I’m going to do is hate him more every day. You want to know something? I haven’t slept with a guy since he left. I didn’t have the heart at first, then I finally got to the point where I considered it and Bob comes into my life. Then you bring Cris back the next
fucking
day. Super sucky timing, dude.”

She took a deep breath. “So here’s what I want. I want a good, long, hard fucking on my

wedding night. I want you to make me come so hard the top of my head blows off. Not Master/slave stuff either, just good ole vanilla sex. I want you to spend the night making love to me, and Cris has to sit there and watch and listen to every second of it while he’s tied up and can’t move. Who knows, maybe I’ll make him suck you off after you’ve been inside me. Cuckolding and humiliation aren’t my personal kinks, but I’m willing to get into it for one night if it means I can hurt him. I want my revenge so I can move on with my life once and for all. Otherwise, it’s going to eat me alive and I don’t want to live like that anymore. I want to hurt him as badly as he hurt me. If you’re telling the truth how he feels about me, I can’t think of a better way to do it.”

Landry stared at her for a moment in shock, then he laughed. It rolled out of him, long and hard, until he finally composed himself a minute later. “You haven’t slept with
anyone
since he left?”

“That’s all you got from what I just said?”

He laughed again. “No, I like that, it’s perfect. Yeah, it’ll humiliate him, all right.” He shook his head. “Jesus, it’s perfect. You’re as big a sadist as I am. I never would have thought of that. I never assumed you’d want to—”

“That’s another thing. No more goddamned assumptions. Ever. You ask me what I want or don’t

want. Got it?”

His face turned solemn. “Yeah. I think we’re both in firm agreement on that one.”

“Another rule I have, if I’m your wife and helping with your care, you
will
listen to me and do what the doctors say you should. Right?”

“Okay.”

This was insane. Why was she even agreeing to this? She took a long, deep breath. “We’ll go

get the marriage license tomorrow, you can get the pre-nup drawn up, and we’ll get married at the courthouse on Monday.”

“Why Monday?”

“Florida has a wait period. They won’t let us do it tomorrow. My friend Loren is a Notary and does marriages, that’s how I know.”

“You want her to perform the ceremony?”

“
Hell
no, she’ll end up in jail when she kills Cris. We’ll do it at the clerk’s office.” She couldn’t believe she was agreeing to this crazy scheme. “If you’re getting a biopsy on Wednesday, we should spend Tuesday night resting. Monday it is.”

He eventually nodded. “Monday it is then,” he softly agreed. He reached into his pocket and

withdrew a ring. He motioned for her left hand.

At first she didn’t realize what he was doing until he slipped a huge, gorgeous diamond solitaire onto her ring finger. “Matilda Cardinal, will you marry me?”

This isn’t how she pictured her engagement. Frankly, after Cris left, she thought she’d likely never get married. “Yes, but if you ever call me Matilda again, I’ll punch you in the nuts.”

He smiled. “Yes, dear.”

She returned his smile. “And who says Doms can’t be taught to obey?”

She loved the sound of his laugh.

She dropped him back at his hotel. Before he climbed out of the car, he turned to her again.

“Thank you, Tilly. I really appreciate this.”

“Assuaging your guilt?”

He thought about it for a moment. “That’s part of it. I can’t give you back what you lost. I can’t make up for it. You don’t have to move us in with you. I’ve got appointments tomorrow with real estate brokers. We’ll get our own place.”

“No, if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it my way.” She thought about it. “I might keep my two best clients. Truth be told, I was getting tired of it anyway.”

“What about Bob?”

Bob.
“I don’t know,” she wistfully said. “I thought he might be the one I could finally open up to. I meant it when I said you had horribly sucky timing.”

“Sorry.”

“I have a feeling if he ever sees Cris again he’ll nail him.”

“Let him.”

“You really were going to let Bob pound the shit out of him in my driveway, weren’t you?”

“What part of sadist don’t you understand?” He smiled. “You’re not the only one looking for a pound of flesh.”

“How long do we keep him suffering?”

“I don’t know about you, I think only you can answer that for yourself. Frankly, my pride’s still in the damn toilet. I have a feeling next Wednesday will realign my priorities.”

“When do you tell him about that?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know. Haven’t decided yet.” He looked at her. “How do you want to do

this?”

“Come pick me up tomorrow at ten. I need to call my clients and cancel. Come alone. I don’t

want to see him again yet. When do you write my first check? I have bills to pay.”

He chuckled. “I already have a lawyer here in town. How about we go there first, handle that, then I’ll take you to lunch and we’ll go to the clerk’s office from there. How much debt do you have?

I’ll help you out with that, too.”

“I pay my credit cards off every month, and I only owe twenty thousand on my house. Paid cash for my car. My student loans are repaid.”

She felt another jolt of satisfaction when his eyebrows arched. “What?”

“Being a pro Domme in this town pays pretty well. I’m actually taking a pay cut. Lucky for you my house is almost paid off or I would never agree to this.”

* * * *

Still reeling from her revelation, he watched her drive off. Funny, he’d imagined her to be

barely hanging on, even after seeing where she lived, especially after what Cris had told him about her
.

personality.

What Cris put her through changed her. For the better? Only time would tell.

One thing for certain, she was a woman who went after what she wanted. He couldn’t think of

anyone better to have by his side. The fact that she bumped his timetable up by months by insisting they move in with her was a bonus.

That he found himself attracted to her had come as a genuine surprise. He should have known

Cris would never lose his heart to some sniveling, weak-spined trollop. Tilly was unlike any other woman he’d ever met.

He couldn’t wait to get to know her better, this woman who still owned his slave’s heart even when she herself had been his slave.

He unlocked the hotel room door. Slave still knelt on the floor where he’d left him. “Do you have to use the bathroom?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Go do it and get ready for bed.”

Slave slowly stood, then turned and walked to the bedroom. His back was covered with fresh

bruises from where Tilly had beat the crap out of him. Looked like she’d used her fists, maybe a crop.

Nice.
No slices from a cane. A particularly large bruise on his thigh where Landry suspected she’d kicked him.

Damn.
Had to hurt like a son of a bitch.

He stripped and pulled the covers back on his bed before lying down. When slave returned,

Landry pointed at his cock. “Get busy.”

Slave knelt between his legs and went down on him. Landry tightly gripped his head, fisting his hair, pulling on him, driving his cock deep into his throat and nearly choking him.