Cassandra's Conflict (2 page)

'I prefer to use my own driver. I dislike strangers around the house. Peter will drive you.' He picked up the telephone, spoke a few words in French and then replaced the receiver. 'The car will be round the front in a few minutes. I will walk you to the door and we look forward to you joining our household tomorrow.'

'About the contract,' Cassandra said hesitantly. 'The woman in Kensington explained about the money but she was a little vague about other details.'

'The terms are generous,' he said abruptly, as though annoyed she should doubt it. 'You also become a member of the family, but you do have to agree to abide by the rules of the house, which is not unreasonable. Apart from that there is just the secrecy clause.'

Cassandra, who'd always longed to belong to a family, looked at him in surprise. 'Secrecy clause?'

He shrugged. 'I'm rich and famous. When people leave my employment I don't wish them to go talking to the press about their life here. Like you, I desire privacy and seclusion.'

'I'd never talk to the press about you!' Cassandra said in horror.

'I'm sure that is true, but if it is in a signed document then you cannot, whatever the temptation. If people leave with an imagined grudge or ...'

Up above them a door opened and what sounded like a cry of distress floated down into the hallway.

'I knew you would understand,' the baron concluded abruptly. He then turned on his heel and walked quickly away from her, up the wide staircase to the galleried landing above.

Slowly, Cassandra walked out of the front door to the waiting car.

The baron stood by the lead-paned window of the master bedroom and watched young Peter, his valet for the past year, drive Cassandra down the driveway on the way back to the tiny flat, the location of which his inquiries had already unearthed. It was in a decaying area, full of people caught up in the downward spiral of debt and unemployment. He'd known that she would take the job if it was offered, but never in his wildest dreams had he expected her to be so perfect. A small smile of anticipation played around his mouth and he let out his breath in a tiny sigh.

The petite blonde woman lying naked on the huge circular bed heard the sigh and laughed. 'She should have come gift-wrapped; she must be the most exciting present you've had in years.'

Katya was excited too, but her voice had the bored tone of a woman who in ten years of jet-setting had seen and done everything so that life was now empty.

With her long, tousled silver-blonde hair and petite bone structure she looked misleadingly innocent. From a distance she could have been mistaken for an adolescent, but she was twenty-nine and without makeup the years showed. Not that she ever let the baron see her without makeup. She had no desire to be ejected from his life. Marietta's death had ensured her continuing presence in this house and now she was safely ensconced in Dieter's household she wasn't going to make way for anyone else.

'Did you see it all, Katya?' he asked her.

'Of course. I adore our in-house movies. Her expression when you told her that love and discipline were the perfect combination was wonderful. She quite obviously had no idea what you meant.'

'We must keep the tape. Before long she will know only too well. Once the game is over I shall enjoy letting her see herself as she was.'

Katya stretched lazily, running her hands over her breasts and wishing that Dieter would turn his attention to her. 'When does Abigail leave?' she asked.

He kept his back to her, but she saw the fingers of his left hand begin tapping lightly on the window ledge, a sure sign that she had his interest. 'Tonight; her contract terminates at six o'clock.'

'Don't you think she should keep working until then?'

There was no mistaking the cruelty behind the words and the baron's pulse quickened. Nevertheless, he played for time. It was his policy to keep his women on edge, uncertain as to what he did or didn't want. Besides, Katya's enjoyment of Abigail would be greater than his. He had already tired of the redhead who had never grasped the rules of the game and was far too easily reduced to tears. He didn't mind Katya having her pleasure, but it wouldn't hurt her to have to work for it a little.

'I think I'd prefer to wait for Cassandra,' he replied.

Katya's mouth tightened. She hated it when he was difficult, but still couldn't find the key to manipulating him. 'I just thought you might like to give her a farewell present, a bonus if you like,' she said lightly.

'She hasn't earned it,' he said shortly.

'Come and sit on the bed,' Katya coaxed. 'I've been lonely up here all the morning.' She used her little-girl voice, although she was slowly coming to realise that unlike most men, the baron wasn't affected by it.

'Lonely!' He turned to face her at last. 'I don't believe you were exactly alone, my darling. Peter certainly wasn't in his quarters when I rang for him, and I distinctly heard Abigail weeping a few moments ago. I only hope young Cassandra didn't realise what the noise was. We don't want to alarm her yet.'

'When I say lonely, I mean without you. Peter's just a boy and Abigail's becoming tiresome.'

The baron laughed. 'Peter's a very well-built nineteen-year-old.'

'And Abigail's a well-built twenty-year-old. If she hasn't earned a bonus, perhaps she should have a final punishment?'

'For what?' Despite himself, Dieter was intrigued by the lengths his mistress would go to, to get her own way.

'For failing to complete the game?'

'Very good! Yes, I think that would be fair. It's important to be fair, otherwise the entire game is pointless, but a penalty for not finishing it is an excellent idea. Ring for her then.'

Katya smiled and kissed the side of his neck. 'I will. She's already distressed, which will make it even more enjoyable. You're so good to me, darling.'

'It's nice to know you appreciate me.'

A small warning bell sounded inside Katya's head. She mustn't push him; she had to seem independent but never bossy. He didn't want a clinging woman – Marietta had clung – but neither did he want an overbearing one. Sometimes she didn't think he wanted a woman permanently at all. He wanted the excitement of the game and nothing more. Love, closeness, emotional ties, they were all anathema to Dieter; and yet Katya was sure he was searching for something more. If only she could discover what it was.

Summoned by the buzzer in her suite of rooms that was soon to belong to Cassandra, Abigail tapped on the door and entered at the sound of the baron's voice. He was sitting on the side of the bed and she looked nervously at him. Despite all that had happened over the past few months she could still feel the impact of his masculinity, and the overwhelming sexuality of him that had given her such pleasure at the beginning. It had all been good then; it was only the woman who had spoilt it.

The baron watched Abigail's grey eyes turn towards the middle of the bed where Katya was sitting in the lotus position, her small firm breasts erect, and he saw the fear on Abigail's face. She had never learnt to share, never learnt to accept Katya's pleasures as well as his. It was a pity, because now she would never know what she might have become if she had played his game for longer.

'Katya's upset that you're leaving us,' he explained, walking behind Abigail to lock the bedroom door. 'She's especially upset that you and she have never managed to get on better, and she feels that it must be her fault.'

Abigail watched the baron as he moved round the room but she didn't attempt to answer him. She knew that the words he was saying were meaningless, the truth was always something else, something she'd never learnt to work out quickly enough to please him and now she chose silence because if she was silent she couldn't break a rule.

'Do you think it was her fault, Abigail?' he continued, putting a hand beneath her chin and tilting her head.

Abigail managed to whisper, 'No.'

'Good, because neither do I. I think it was your fault. Basically you're an intelligent girl, but you never really tried to understand us, or the way we like to run our household. You broke the rules, but refused to accept punishment. You were like a small child who shuts its mind to all learning. So, you were to blame and you spoilt the game for all of us. Because of this we have had to abandon the game and start a new one. Such an inconvenience calls, I think, for a penalty payment. A small fine before you leave us for ever.'

Abigail's breath quickened and the baron watched the rise and fall of her breasts beneath her clinging summer dress. Slowly he reached out and slid the straps from her shoulders so that her arms were pinned to her sides, then he undid the two buttons above her waist and slid his hand up to cup one of her bare breasts. As his fingers moved in tiny circles around the nipple it sprang to life and she swallowed hard.

'Come to bed.' His voice was smooth, reassuring, but she took no comfort from that because Katya was still there, crouched naked at the foot of the bed with her green eyes shining like a cat's. Abigail hated her. Hated her innate cruelty, and uncanny knowledge of how Abigail's body responded.

'Come!' He put his free hand round her waist and pulled her to the edge of the bed, then pushed her so that she fell backwards onto the goosedown duvet.

Only her legs were free, but they felt heavy with fear and in any case she knew there was no point in fighting the pair of them, they always won and she had never known pleasure like the baron could give her; it was just that she couldn't bear to have his mistress there as well. Fear was not an aphrodisiac for Abigail, and that seemed to be considered a failing in this terrifying household. Despite that, she still hoped that this time the baron would give her the pleasure he had at the beginning. She always hoped.

The baron watched the conflicting emotions play across her face and felt a spark of excitement. It was always a pleasure to watch someone fight against their own sensuality, and even if this lush redhead was too obviously sexual it was still exciting to know that her greatest moment of ecstasy yet would be ruined by Katya. The piquancy of the situation was enough to make it worth letting Katya have her way.

He turned to his eager mistress. 'Fetch the cords.'

'No!' Abigail shouted, but the baron laid a finger lightly on her lips. 'Of course we must have the cords. It increases the pleasure. You learnt that early on, remember?'

'Not with her here. I don't want her here when I'm tied down. Please!'

'My dear Abigail, this is a penalty. You're not here for your pleasure but for ours.'

Abigail fell silent, but she wished desperately that she'd been able to use her bathroom before she came. Her bladder was uncomfortably full.

With a speed born of practice, Katya brought the soft silk cords from the ottoman beneath the window, wound them round Abigail's ankles, then spread the girl's long legs wide as she slipped the cords through the metal loops that were concealed all round the edge of the circular bed.

Once that was done, Dieter took off his own clothes and then sat beside Abigail on the bed, slowly unfastening the remaining buttons of her dress until it fell away from her, revealing the heavy, dark-nippled breasts that so fascinated his mistress.

With a glance at the silent girl lying there rigidly, he took hold of her arms and Katya moved round the bed to fasten Abigail's wrists in the same fashion as her ankles.

The baron's eyes slid down the creamy body. She was far too lush for his taste he realised. Katya had chosen her while he had been in the Loire overseeing the renovation of the château. She would never have been his choice, and mentally he filed that away as an error by Katya.

Also, whilst unwilling to lose herself in the game that had been set up, she had been far from inexperienced and offered very little resistance to anything that the baron had done. But for her constant battle against Katya's teachings he would have tired of her long ago. When he compared her full-blown body with the slim figure of Cassandra Williams he could hardly be bothered to continue with this final act, but he supposed Katya deserved it.

Bending his head he kissed Abigail's closed eyelids and temples, at the same time letting a hand wander over her shoulder and down the inside of her arm before straying across her hip and stomach. He lowered his head and inserted a nipple into his mouth, flicking at it with his tongue as his roving hand continued down over her stomach until the heel came to rest on her pubic bone.

Briefly he exerted gentle pressure, and she gasped and tried to push herself down into the bed. He heard Katya laugh. 'Her bathroom door's been locked all morning,' she purred from the shadows. The baron smiled at Abigail whose eyes had opened wide with fear and discomfort. 'That should increase your pleasure,' he murmured.

Abigail knew better. 'No, please,' she gasped, but his quick fingers pressed against her aching bladder and despite herself she gave a whimper of discomfort and fear. Immediately Katya moved forward, bent down and closed her tiny sharp teeth sharply over the imprisoned girl's nipple, already swollen from the baron's ministrations.

Pain shot through Abigail's breast like a tongue of flame but this time she bit her lip and kept silent. The baron watched her closely, waiting for the effects of the bite to die away. Then he spread the palm of his hand flat against her lower stomach and massaged her carefully, increasing and decreasing the pressure according to the expression in the girl's eyes. The torment she was suffering excited him, and he felt himself growing hard so that the head of his manhood brushed against Abigail's hipbone.

For endless minutes he continued to press and release until Abigail was quite certain that she was going to lose all control and flood the bed. It had happened to her once before, when she'd been alone with Katya, and the punishment had been so terrible that she didn't think she could bear it again.

Her eyes pleaded with the baron, but he was impervious, and then just as she felt that she must cry out, the tension and pressure began to send different signals to her brain, tiny sparks like electric shocks that made the lower part of her abdomen tense and her hips lifted slightly off the bed.