MasterofVelvet (12 page)

And when her mouth began to travel down his torso it only
grew worse. He watched her move lower and lower and then kneel before him. He
braced himself for the inevitable.

On her knees now, her tongue stroked his heated flesh, his
inner thighs, his groin, until she reached his balls, driving him insane with
arousal and need. When she took his cock in her mouth, he could do nothing to
prevent the low, guttural groan that rumbled past his lips. His balls were
cradled tenderly in her palm while her mouth and her free hand worked his cock.

His hands clenched into fists for a few seconds, then he
forced his fingers to uncurl so that he could lay his palms flat against the
tiles, needing the chill to turn down his desire to fuck her wonderful mouth.
The alternating kisses and licks were like nothing he’d felt before and the
most distant part of his brain, the part that was still able to put together a
coherent thought, wondered how Beth could be so skilled. Was it natural talent
or had some lucky bastard had the pleasure of teaching her how to suck a cock?

Adam pressed his back harder to the cold wall, using it to
bring himself back from the brink of orgasm. He wasn’t ready to come yet. He
had to know…

“Who taught you, Beth?” he managed to get out, looking down
at her, dreading the answer but needing it more. The thought of her in this
position in front of another man was killing him.

She looked down, a slight flush rising to her cheeks. “I’m
sorry, Adam. I wanted it to be good for you.”

Without her mouth wrapped round his penis, he was a little
more capable of articulating what was on his mind. “Did I say it wasn’t? Answer
my question.”

“No one. I’ve never…I never wanted to do it for anyone
before. I’m sorry.”

She was sorry
? “For what? For having a beautiful
mouth and knowing how to use it to please me? Never be sorry about that,
sweetheart.”

She looked up at him, her eyes glowing with emerald fire.
“Please…may I continue?”

He nodded. “But I’ll tell you when I’m about to come. Then
it’s your choice.”

Her choice was to give him a gift that almost brought him to
his knees in front of her. He gave her the warning he’d promised, expecting her
to back away but no, she remained in position, taking him deep into her mouth
as he climaxed.

Afterward, he allowed her to finish the task of washing him
so that they could get on with the serious business of relaxing for the rest of
the evening.

Relaxing
. That was a laugh, Adam thought some time
later as he lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. The half-finished pizza was
abandoned on the coffee table along with his beer and Beth’s wine. Neither of
them knew how the film ended, and he suspected that Beth cared as little as he
did.

Beth. She was already asleep at his side, naked apart from
the ribbon. His stomach clenched at the memories she’d given him, of her
kneeling in front of him while her mouth gave him pleasures that had blown him
apart. And then kneeling again, holding out the makeshift collar for him to
replace after the shower. He had done so with warmth, gentleness and care.

And so much love that he thought his heart might break from
it.

But now it was time for sleep. Adam began his usual ritual
of controlling his respiration, counting each breath as he tried to get into the
right frame of mind, hoping, as he did each night, that tonight the terrors
would stay away.

Monday morning Beth sat at her desk, feeling like a totally
different woman from the one who’d left the office on Friday night. And her
concentration was shot to pieces.

She’d arrived at the office fifteen minutes earlier with
Adam. It was only a quarter past eight now but it had been a very strange
morning, right from the moment she had dared to wake her sleeping companion
with a kiss. For a brief instant, an odd expression had passed over his face—then
it was gone and he was leaping out of bed and dragging her off to the bathroom
with him. Beth could swear she’d spent more of the weekend in that bathroom
than out of it.

Funny how quickly she was getting used to the intimacy of
communal bathing.

A finger ran across the velvet ribbon—she still needed to
remind herself that it was real. Not that she needed to do that to remind her
as there was a certain lack of underwear that was more than capable of doing
it. Especially when she got up to finish off making Adam’s coffee and take it
into his office.

He was on the phone to Japan again. While Beth was fluent in
French and could get by in a couple of other European languages, her employer’s
command of a variety of foreign tongues was seriously impressive. She was about
to leave when he signaled her to stay.

“Thank God that’s all sorted out now,” he said with a long
sigh when he put the phone down. “Come here.” She went around the desk, only to
be pulled unceremoniously onto his lap for a deep, lingering kiss. “Beth, you
have no idea how often I’ve wanted to do that since you started working for me.
You taste good.”

He didn’t taste so bad either but she refrained from
commenting.

“I should have mentioned it over breakfast but Dan’s coming
in just before nine to give me an update on the security problem we’ve been
having. I just want you to be prepared for when he notices this.” His touch was
gentle on her throat. “You know you don’t have to wear it in the office?”

“I know. I want to.”

The words left her lips before she realized they were spoken
and in the space of a heartbeat, she knew they were true. She felt protected by
Adam and because Dan Chesterfield was also a Dom, she knew that he would
respect that protection.

She wasn’t wrong.

“Good morning, Beth,” Dan greeted her when he breezed into
her office a short time later. To his credit, his initial reaction was barely
perceptible—an uninformed observer certainly wouldn’t have noticed it. But as
he approached her, she could see that his gaze was drawn to the ribbon.

He reached for her hand and kissed the back of it. Her eyes
automatically dropped. When he spoke again, his tone was completely different—warmer
and more intimate, with the hint of a shared secret. “He finally did it.
Welcome to the community.”

“If you say anything that starts with ‘I’, ends with ‘so’
and has ‘told you’ in the middle, Chesterfield, I’m dragging you down to the
car park and turning you into chopped bloody liver.”

Adam glared at his old friend to reinforce the threat and
was rewarded with a who-gives-a-shit grin. “About bloody time, Ad. But what’s
with the ribbon? Don’t you think she deserves something better?”

“Of course she bloody does! We’re taking the afternoon off
to do something about it.”

“Where are you taking her?”

“Giorgio’s. I want to get her fitted for something special
for day wear and a suitable play collar. I wasn’t planning on doing it so soon
but hell, I just want her collared so I can start to build her confidence. ”

Dan nodded. “Have you thought about taking her to the club
or is it too early for that?”

“Too early—way too early. She needs time to come to terms
with everything before I take her there. She needs to trust me fully to protect
her.”

“Of course.” The other man’s tone was sober. “So what’s
eating you?”

Adam watched him sit down before speaking. “She woke me up
with a kiss this morning.”

“And your problem is?” The light dawned. “You didn’t have
the usual—”

“No. I can’t remember falling asleep, nor can I remember
waking up, not until this morning.”

Dan had known about Adam’s nocturnal demons for a long time—they
were a major factor in his decision to walk away from the private security firm
they’d founded after leaving the military. Dan was the only one who knew about
the problems Adam had and the only one who knew the cause of them. Consequently
he was the only one with whom Adam could discuss the matter.

As much as alpha males could ever be said to discuss
anything remotely personal.

“Then perhaps Beth’s the answer, Ad.”

A troubled look passed over Adam’s features. “She’s the answer
to a lot of things, Dan. There was a time when I didn’t want to do anything to
scare away the best assistant I’ve ever had. Now I don’t want to scare away the
woman I—”

He broke off abruptly. The first person to hear what he was
about to say shouldn’t be the man opposite him. Besides, he wasn’t sure he was
ready to hear himself say the words aloud—yet.

“Dan, what’s the latest with the investigation? Are we
talking industrial espionage?”

“Nice segue,” the blond man observed with a grin, then
became serious. Very serious. “I can’t prove anything yet, Adam, but my gut’s
telling me that this isn’t just common or garden-variety industrial espionage.
There’s more to it than that, a lot more. I may be wrong, but I have a hunch
it’s personal. Maybe connected to the old days. Especially after what you felt
yesterday.”

“You’ve no evidence yet?”

Dan shook his head. “Nothing we can use. We’re working on
it, though. Got a couple of leads to chase up—they got sloppy with some of the gadgets
they installed.” He paused, his mouth pressed into a thin line. “The
investigation is still ongoing but we’re tracing the supplier, which will lead
us to the bastards responsible for installing it. I have a gut feeling, though,
that whoever that is, they’re just a third party working on behalf of the real
enemy.”

“And until we find out who that is, we have no way of
knowing what this is about.”

“My guess is revenge,” Dan offered. “And if it is revenge,
both you and Beth could be in real danger.”

“Revenge for what, though? If that’s what this is about… “

“If it is, then it’s someone who’s been bearing a grudge for
a long time, if it relates to something that happened while we were in the
Regiment. I’ll look into it from that angle but whoever it is, if they’ve
justified it to themselves, that’s all they need. We’ve got their equipment, so
they already know we’re onto them—”

“Therefore, whatever it is they’re planning, they may move
their timetable up.” Adam’s tone was grim. “I can’t let anything happen to
Beth. I’m going to take her to Winterleigh—I can protect her better there.”

Dan sighed heavily. “Adam, I know you don’t want to hear
this and I don’t want to say it but you know as well as I do that she’d be
safer if you put some distance between the two of you until this is resolved.”

Adam’s refusal was immediate. “I can’t. I have to see her,
see that she’s there and she’s all right.”

“It’s okay. I’d feel the same. Just watch your back, okay?
As soon as I get something we can act on, I’ll be in touch.”

The two men talked a while longer. Adam watched his friend
leave and then a cold, brooding darkness descended over him. It looked like his
initial instincts probably weren’t wrong. A threat from the old days? For a
moment he was transported back to the heat, the dust, the danger, the adrenaline
rush…and the pain. He looked at his hands, flexing his fingers to banish the
image of broken bones and bloody flesh, starvation and raging thirst, the
gut-wrenching degradation…

Damn it, he could even feel that prickling sensation moving
down his spine, the one that had always warned him of an impending threat. His
hand flexed again, as if getting comfortable around the grip of the
semi-automatic pistol that had been his constant companion through that living
hell—apart from the time when he’d really needed it…

Adam forced his mind back to the present. If it was personal,
he had to protect Beth. The enemies he’d gone up against back then would think
nothing of going through her to get to him and he would not allow her safety to
be compromised.

Dan was right, of course. The sensible thing would be to
distance himself from her but the chances of that were slim to none and the
last he heard, Slim left town. He’d just move up his plan to have her move in
with him. She’d balk at the suggestion but hell, she was his woman and his sub
and she’d damn well do as she was told.

“Adam?”

Her voice broke into his thoughts. His eyes swept over her
as she stood in the doorway. So concerned…for him. He glanced at his watch—not
quite ten-thirty. Way too early to call it a day but what the hell—he was the
boss and truth be told, he’d made enough money out of this business over the
years to walk away from it right now and not look back.

“Beth, I want you to cancel every appointment for the rest
of the week. We’ve finished for the day, we have things to do and then we need
to talk well away from here.”

* * * * *

Just when she thought things were about to settle down.

As soon as she’d seen the look on Adam’s face, Beth had
known that something major was going on and probably as a result of the meeting
with Dan Chesterfield. It had also made her feel very uncomfortable.

And now this. She put the phone down, after canceling the
last of the week’s appointments. Life was getting crazy all of a sudden, and
the craziness was showing no signs of going away. She switched off her
computer, gathered her belongings together, and was putting her coat on when
Adam emerged from his office.

“Ready? Good. Make sure you’ve got everything because you
won’t be coming back here for a few days.”

“I won’t? Adam—”

“No questions, Beth,” Adam cut across her, every inch the
Dom. “Simon’s going to run the office for the next few days. You and I have a
little shopping expedition and then we are going to get your belongings from
your flat and move you into my place. When we’ve done that, we’re going to Winterleigh.”

“Whoa! Stop right there!” Beth dug her heels in—literally.
Adam had hold of her hand and was almost dragging her out of the office. “I’m
not—what are you talking about? It’s too soon! We need to talk about this!” She
tried to disengage her hand from his but he wasn’t having any of it. The look
he turned on her froze her blood.

“If you don’t want to be my sub, Beth, you have only to say
your safeword. If not, then you’d do well to obey me without question.”

He’d said he was a sexual Dominant, not a lifestyle Dom. She
wasn’t expecting to be ordered around like this. The safeword that would end it
all hovered on her lips and from the sudden look of—fear?—in his eyes, Adam
knew it.

“Please, Beth.” His voice was less harsh now. “Trust me.
I’ll explain later but for now we have to move quickly. I have to keep you
safe.”

Safe from what?
A thousand questions raced through
Beth’s mind as she accompanied Adam to the basement car park. Once they were in
the Aston Martin and were heading out on the street, she asked him where they
were going.

“To see a friend of mine—Giorgio. He’s the best in the
business.”

“And what business would that be?” Beth hadn’t heard him
mention the name before.

They’d stopped at a traffic light. Taking advantage of the
standstill, Adam turned to face her. “Collars, among other things. I wasn’t
going to do this just yet but now it needs to be done sooner rather than later.
And I lied. The necklace you wore to the restaurant was a collar. Your collar. I
had it made especially for you.”

Beth’s stomach flipped again. He certainly knew how to
overwhelm a girl with a few words. And the whole thing about his having had the
collar made for her—that was just too big even to contemplate right now. “If
this threat is so terrible and so urgent, then isn’t this shopping trip just a
little frivolous?”

The car started moving. “Possibly, but until we find out
what’s at the bottom of this and the threat is removed, you’re staying with me,
Beth. No arguments, even if it takes keeping you collared 24/7.”

Eyes wide, she looked at him, not quite understanding where
that came from, and it infuriated her. “I’ll argue if I damn well please, Mr.
Granger and I’m not wearing a bloody collar!”

“Then what the hell’s that round your neck right now? If you
want to argue, Beth, use the bloody safeword, end this right now and take that
piss-poor excuse for a collar off—then you can argue all you damn well please!
Until then you are going to do as you’re told. And that’s final!”

Beth had the feeling that, had they been on the motorway,
he’d have slammed his foot down and been looking at losing his license.
Whatever was going on, he was seriously worried.

And if his life were in danger, she had no intention of
walking away from him. She loved him. The somersaulting gymnast in her stomach
disappeared, replaced by the rolling fire of the love for him that was in
danger of consuming her. She glanced over at him, noting the firm set of his
jaw and the fisted hand resting on his thigh.

“I’m sorry.”

The fist slowly uncurled beneath her touch. His thumb
reached out to trap her fingers against his and he lifted her hand to his lips.
“I promise I’ll tell you everything when we’re safe at the house.”

The anger and frustration had gone from his now-quiet voice
but there was still a note of preoccupation about it.

About ten minutes later, the car pulled up outside a small,
fairly nondescript office building. Evidently it was their destination, as Adam
came round to open the car door and offer her his hand.