Lily and the Beast (Lily and the Beast #1) Page 4

  “Do you ever leave the house?”

  “You think I’m some kind of a hermit?” There was a note of surprise to his voice.

  “Well… not a hermit, exactly, but sort of a recluse, yes. Every once in a while, the tabloids run a story about how you were spotted somewhere but they can never get a picture of you. And my dad says you never deal with people directly, always through an intermediary.”

  “I’m not a shut in. I go places.”

  “Like where?”

  “Wherever the fuck I want,” he snapped. “Talk about something more interesting.”

  Something more interesting… sure, like I could pull that out of my ass on command. “Okay, what movies have you seen then?”

  He made a noise of disgust. “I changed my mind, you’re shit at this. I’m trying to find out more about you, remember? What do you do for a living?”

  “You mean before my lucrative position as a sex slave?” I replied with a nervous titter, trying to lighten the situation, but I couldn’t tell if it worked with the damn blindfold on. “I was an English major at Vassar.”

  “What are your hobbies?”

  Did he really think his interrogation style of conversation was so superior to mine? I bit back the smartass reply that sprang to mind and answered him more politely than he deserved. “I like most kinds of music, and I can play the piano a little. I like to read. Oh, that reminds me. Do you think I could get my computer back?”

  “Why? Is there someone you need to talk to?”

  “No, I mean… sure, I’d love to be able to talk to my father and see if he’s okay, but I meant the laptop itself. It doesn’t have to have internet access.”

  “What for?”

  “Well… besides all my music being on it, I’m addicted to porn,” I quipped.

  “And you have an assortment of porn saved to your computer.” The disbelief was thick in his voice, and I figured I had to come clean.

  “Actually, I like to write, it calms me down.”

  There was a pause, and then he said, “Explain.”

  I shrugged, never really having had to put it into words before. “I don’t know. If I’m upset or worried about something, it helps me to write it all down and get it off my chest, you know?”

  “No, I don’t. What good does it do to write it down? It doesn’t change anything.”

  “It does for me,” I shrugged again.

  “Fine, I’ll have it delivered to you tomorrow. You said you can play the piano?”

  “Yeah, some.”

  “Play for me.”

  First of all, I had no idea where the piano even was in the room, I was all turned around with the blindfold on. Second, I was pretty sure I couldn’t string two notes together with my nerves so rattled. “I can’t play with my eyes closed,” I objected.

  “Then you’re not very good.”

  “I’m fine, as long as I have the music in front of me,” I frowned, annoyed that he’d already dismissed me without giving me a real chance.

  “Don’t bother,” he snapped, the silence lapsing between us again.

  “Is something wrong?” I ventured after a few minutes had passed.

  “Should there be?”

  “It’s just that you seem like you’re kind of in a bad mood.”

  “Don’t presume to know what my moods are like, Lily.” His snort of derision was clear enough. It was the first time he’d called me by my name, and I liked the way it sounded, even if he was being pissy. I really knew very little about him. My father hadn’t been one to gossip, and the tabloids never had any real facts, only speculation. For all I knew, his wife didn’t like the fact that he’d taken on a new slave and was making his life a holy hell.

  “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” I asked, taking the initiative again.

  “No.”

  “Are your parents still alive?”

  “No, I have no one.”

  Something about he way he said it, broke my heart. It wasn’t that he sounded sorry for himself, or down about it, he said it like it was the most normal thing in the world – as if he fully expected and deserved to be alone. I really wished I could see his face. “I’m sorry.”

  “Why? It’s not your fault.”

  “I’m still sorry. No one should be alone.”

  “I don’t need your pity.”

  “You get that there’s a difference between sympathy and pity, right?” Then again, maybe he didn’t.

  “New topic please,” he said, his voice muffled like he was speaking through his hands or something.

  “Okay. Have you ever been married?”

  “That’s it, we’re done.” I heard him stand, and I shrank back, wondering if he was about to take his irritation out on me.

  “I’m sorry if I’m not doing this right, it’s my first time,” I reminded him quickly. “What do the other girls usually talk about?”

  That stopped him in his tracks. “I don’t talk to… I haven’t kept anyone like you at the house before.”

  My lips parted in surprise. He’d sounded so sure of himself, so in control. I’d imagined I was only the latest in a long line of girls. “Then you haven’t…”

  “I didn’t say I haven’t fucked anyone at the house before, I said I haven’t kept any of them around.”

  That explained the odd conversational turn the night had taken. He had no idea what to do with me when we weren’t in a scene. Or was it all designed to keep me off balance? “Would you tell me if you had?”

  “Of course, what reason would I have to lie?”

  “I don’t know, not everyone wants to admit to kidnapping.”

  “This isn’t kidnapping,” he bellowed, his temper pricked again. “You’re here by choice. I have your signature.”

  “I know.” Shit, I hadn’t meant to piss him off again, but his voice had turned cold and hard.

  “You can always go back on the deal. I’ve got more than enough evidence to make your father suffer for the rest of his days.”

  “No! No, I agreed to a year, and I intend to stick it out.” My father would die if he set one foot in prison. No, I could get through this, I had to. All I had to do was figure out how to keep him happy before he had me bound and gagged.

  “What are you thinking about?” he demanded, his voice towering over me.

  What had I been thinking about? Shit. My mind was a complete blank with him so near. “I don’t know… stuff.”

  “Tell me.” It was that lover’s voice, the one that sent a shiver down the length of my spine and a rush of heat to my cheeks. Torn between wanting to tell him anything he wanted to hear as long as he kept talking to me that way and standing up for myself, my obstinate nature won out.

  “You might own my body, but you don’t own my thoughts.” I thought he might pull away then, or turn cruel, but his touch along my cheek was a gentle caress.

  “One might argue that I own all of you.”

  Yes… I wanted to whisper, but my mouth got in the way, stubborn to the end. “No. I agreed to be your property, I didn’t agree to share my innermost secrets.”

  “Then you admit you have secrets.”

  My tongue darted out to moisten my lips. “Don’t we all?”

  His touch slipped lower, fingers tracing the neckline of my sweater to dip into the hollow between my breasts. “Don’t we all, indeed.” A sharp knock came at the door, and he withdrew in an instant. “Come,” he called out, the displeasure booming from his chest.

  The door creaked open, and I heard Mrs. Fisk speak. “Doctor is here to see you.”

  “Good,” Aidan replied with approval. “Stay here,” he added, footsteps carrying him away from me. The heavy door swung shut again, and try though I might, I couldn’t hear more than the deep murmur of his voice, the words indistinct. When it opened again, I braced myself for his next command, but it was another voice that spoke.

  “You can remove the blindfold, Miss Gray.”

  Embarrassment warred with disappointment
as I pulled it free, blinking at Dr. Jeffries’ back. He stood hunched over his medical bag, pulling out implements I couldn’t identify.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Good news,” he said with a tepid smile. “Your test results are clear. We can go ahead with the next phase now. Did you decide if you want an IUD or an implant in your arm?”

  “I… don’t want either one of those things,” I frowned, wondering why that was even an option.

  The doctor picked up a set of surgical gloves and tugged one on. “Mr. Pierce was very clear that you must have reliable birth control.”

  “I’m already on the pill, can’t I just stay on that?”

  “There is a larger margin of human error with a daily pill. I can assure you, both are completely safe, and I can install them here without any fuss.”

  “Well, you can forget it. I’m not doing it,” I insisted, taking step backwards. I didn’t agree to let myself get shot up with invasive hormones, especially without being able to research which was the best option for me.

  “Miss Gray,” he started to say, but I crossed my arms, taking up a determined stance.

  “No way. Not until I have some time to think about it.” I half expected him to press it further, but instead, he tugged off the glove with a heavy sigh.

  “Alright, if that’s the way you want it.”

  “It is,” I nodded, relieved by his giving up so easily.

  “I’ll be back.” He left without packing up any of his gear, and I started to wonder if he’d given up at all. Seconds slipped by, stretching into minutes, and I got antsier with every tick of the clock. I’d started to wonder if I should go back to my room when I heard Aidan’s voice reverberating through the halls.

  “She what?” he roared, followed by what sounded like something awfully breakable smashing into a million tiny pieces. Fuck.

  Seconds later, the door cracked open and Jeffries poked his head in, looking uncomfortable. “Your blindfold, if you please,” he prompted, and I quickly tugged it into place, my heart kicking into overdrive as the door slammed open.

  Expecting a tirade, I was surprised when Aidan’s voice sounded so controlled. It probably had to do with the fact that the doctor was in the room. “What’s this I’m hearing about you having a change of heart on the birth control issue?” he asked, as though we were discussing the best way to wash a car.

  “I’m already on the pill, I didn’t think anything else was necessary,” I replied, doing my best to stand my ground, even though my calves felt like they might give out at any moment.

  “Will you please excuse us?” I assumed he meant Jeffries and not me, and a few seconds later, Aidan grabbed me by the elbow and gave me a shake. “What the hell is this?” he hissed.

  “I don’t want that in my body,” I replied, wincing over the grip.

  “I don’t give a fuck what you want,” he growled, letting go of my arm with a shove that almost made me lose my balance. “You don’t have a choice.”

  “I agreed to let you do what you want with me but…”

  “That includes making sure you’re not going to breed. You wouldn’t be the first one to try and trap me with a baby.”

  “Trust me, having a baby with you is the last thing I want,” I retorted, rubbing my elbow absently.

  “Good, then I’ll get the doc back in here and you can get it done.”

  “But I don’t want…”

  This time he grabbed both of my arms, leaning close enough that I felt the force of his breath against my face. “Get. It. Done.”

  ~~~

  Aidan was in a shitty mood and he knew it. He never should’ve sent for her. What did he think they’d do, sit around and have a fucking conversation? She didn’t want to be there and he’d been gone from polite society for too long to have a clue how to talk to a woman. Truth be told, he didn’t know what to do with a woman who didn’t gush over gifts of fancy clothes and jewelry. Okay, so he hadn’t specifically bought them for her, but she didn’t know that, and Felice sure didn’t have a use for them anymore. It’d never once occurred to him that she wouldn’t like the same things. What bothered him more, was why he cared at all.

  He should’ve just focused on business – the trouble was, he couldn’t focus. Not just on business, but anything with her in the house. Twenty-four hours. Twenty-four long-ass hours until they could fuck. True, there were all sorts of other ways he could get his jollies from her until the birth control took effect, but he couldn’t trust himself not to slip, not with her.

  What was it about her? He’d had countless women on their knees before him, every bit as sexy and appealing as Lily, and he’d never stopped to think about more than which hole to take first. He should’ve blistered her ass for daring to oppose him in front of the doctor, but instead, he’d practically fled back to his bedroom to keep from tearing her clothes off and fucking her where she stood, safe or not.

  Twenty-four hours. Forty-eight if he wanted to make absolutely sure the implant had taken effect. Aidan checked the clock with a groan. For the moment, he headed to the gym to burn off some excess energy. It was either that or jack off again, and his hands were starting to develop calluses since she’d come into his life. Twenty-four hours and he’d show her exactly what it meant to belong to him.

  ~6~

  It took me a long time to fall asleep.

  I kept waiting for the call from Aidan after Jeffries put in the implant, but it never came. Had I really ticked him off that badly? The thought made me uneasy, and the idea that I was anxious over him possibly being angry troubled me even more. Was I relieved or disappointed when Aidan didn’t exercise his right to ravish me the second the implant was in my arm?

  I finally passed out sometime after two a.m., still wearing my sweater and jeans, all twisted up in the quilt. Despite my intention to sleep in, I’d forgotten to close the drapes the night before, and the sunlight streaming over my face woke me up a little after eight. I sent a quick text to my sister, Darlene, asking how Dad’s lungs were holding up, but she either wasn’t awake yet, or avoiding me.

  My arm was sore, but not too bad. Jeffries had told me the scar would fade so I’d hardly even notice it after a while. I don’t know how they magically knew I was up and around, but by the time I got out of the shower, my bed was made again, and a tray with piping hot coffee and toast waited for me on the bedside table. It couldn’t be a surveillance camera, or I would’ve been busted for having my cell phone already.

  Beside the tray sat a long, velvet box atop my laptop. I slid the box off, eager to get to my baby, plugging it in to charge right away. I didn’t have access to the Wi-Fi without a password, but I didn’t care. The first thing I did was start my mellow playlist, the music doing more to soothe my nerves than a team of masseuses. Now, I could pour myself a cup of coffee and enjoy my morning.

  The next thing I did was check to see if it looked like he’d gone through my files – not that I could actually tell – but I still looked around to see if everything was in place. A rich, powerful man like Aidan Pierce probably had better things to do than sit around and rifle through the personal laptop of his sex slave. Still, I decided to password protect some of my more personal files, like the journal I kept.

  Once I was sure it was secure, I poured out my heart about the past couple of days – the awe and fear in coming to such a place, and the uncertainty I felt over my position. And finally, my thoughts on Aidan himself. Power obsessed sexual deviant – obviously, but I couldn’t help but think there was more to him. He’d been trying to relate to me on a human level, even if our conversation had crashed and burned. That had to count for something.

  Right before lunchtime, I realized I hadn’t bothered to look in the velvet box yet. More jewelry? Not that I was complaining, but I hadn’t even dipped into the other stuff beyond playing dress-up. Inside the box sat a black velvet choker with a tiny blue flower pressed into glass dangling at the throat. It wasn’t as flashy as the other pieces, it was
more the kind of thing you’d pick up at a craft fair, but I loved it. Slipping it on, I went to check myself out in the mirror. It was pretty and feminine, and reminded me of a bygone era. Too bad I couldn’t wear my hair up, it would display the choker pretty well, I thought.

  The rest of the afternoon dragged as I was bit by the restless bug. Sitting around reading sounded too tame, I couldn’t string two words together on the computer. I even gave the treadmill in the gym a shot, but it wasn’t enough. Finally, I started reorganizing the books in the library. It turned into a giant, fucking mess, filling all the available table space in the room, but hell, I had a whole year to sort it out, right?

  But still, the nervous energy didn’t dissipate. I knew what was coming, there was no putting it off for much longer. Aidan would have to claim what was his sooner or later, and the wait was driving me crazy.

  I went down for dinner, only to find Mrs. Fisk waiting for me. “The master has given instructions that you’re to make yourself ready for him.”

  Already? It wasn’t even dark out yet. “What about dinner?”

  She produced a plate with a half sandwich and a cluster of grapes. “I’ve made you a snack. Cook’s been informed that you’ll want something more substantial afterwards. I mean, later,” she said, leaving me to believe she knew exactly what my night was going to be like and so did the cook. No wonder most of the servants wouldn’t look me in the eye. Did the whole house know I was nothing more than Aidan’s fuck-slave?

  My mouth went dry. It took a couple of swallows before I could speak again. “Just between you and me, Mrs. Fisk, what do you think he’d like me to wear? I’d rather not start the evening out pissing him off again.”

  “I daresay it doesn’t matter much what you wear, dear. What matters the most is that you’re ready for him.”

  Ready. How could I be ready when I didn’t know what to expect? “Do you know what he normally does with girls?”

  All of the color drained out of her face, as though I’d asked her to take off her clothes and run naked through the halls. “That’s none of my business, I’m sure. Go on up to change now, I’m sure he’ll send for you soon.”