Clifftop Fantasies [BDSM Menage Fantasies] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (2 page)

“Sit down.” His voice took her by surprise. It was completely different—deeper, more commanding than normal. She hesitated, trying to read his expression. They stared at each other, and the air between them seemed to thicken and crackle with tension. Allie moved slightly, trying to force herself to turn and get away from the way his eyes were pinning her down.

“I’m not going to bite you.” He reached out and put a hand on her arm, pushing her gently back down into her chair. Then he settled himself again on the top step, continuing to watch her as if she might bolt. When she didn’t move, he relaxed back against the rail and said in his normal voice, “Okay. Tell me what’s going on. I think I have a right to know.”

Allie debated with herself for a second. He probably did. Karl had been living here with her father, although Allie wasn’t exactly sure why. When she and Brad had come, Karl offered to stay on and do the renovations to the house while Brad got an accounting job in town. They hadn’t been able to afford to pay him anything, and he hadn’t complained. He’d only asked for the use of a couple of rooms in the remodeled barn and the state-of-the-art darkroom in the basement. That had been fine with her. She’d made one trip to the basement and had no desire to go back. It had been finished as some kind of studio, she guessed, painted black and red, with erotic art all over the walls and large piles of unidentified furniture covered with sheets. The quick glimpse she’d taken showed what seemed to be a large wooden structure. She had no idea what it was for and was completely uninterested in finding out.

“You know what’s going on,” she said finally. “We’re running out of money. My father didn’t leave enough to last very long, especially with the changes we’ve had to make. If we don’t start getting paying customers soon, we’re going to have to consider selling it.”

“Yeah, I know that part,” he agreed. “But what’s going on with you personally? Is Brad pressuring you to leave?”

“Sort of, although he’s too passive-aggressive to come right out and say it,” Allie admitted, miserably pushing the hair away from her face. “That is, not right away, but I don’t know how much longer he’s going to be able to handle the stress. Money problems are tough on any relationship. And those letters from the bank aren’t helping.”

“Mmm.” Karl continued to watch her. “And you? Do you want out?”

“No!” The word exploded out of her with surprising force. She returned his stare now, her misery evaporating in a wave of determination. “I love this house. I love this area. This is the life I want. I’m not sure how I’m going to make it work.” Her voice faltered a little, and she ducked her head again. “But as long as there’s any chance of keeping it going, I’m going to give it my best shot.”

He nodded, finally transferring his gaze back to the ocean.

A thought struck Allie. “Karl,” she began hesitantly. His eyebrows went up as he turned back to her. “Are you thinking of leaving? Because I don’t know when we’ll be able to get you the money we owe you …”

He laughed a little. “No need. I’ve lived here for the last ten years, and I’m not planning on going anywhere for a while. I promised your dad that I’d give you all the help I could. I’ll stick it out as long as you do. But if you decide to leave, you need to come and talk to me first.” A slightly harsh edge had come back into his voice.

She tried not to notice it. There was something odd about Karl. She had never understood why he’d stayed or why her father had asked him to. It wasn’t like he had any ties to them, or any share of the profits if the place was successful. She wondered, not for the first time, if Karl had been her father’s lover. He didn’t seem gay, but you couldn’t always tell.

“What was he like?” she asked. Karl looked at her in surprise then let out a short bark of laughter before stopping himself.

“I’m sorry.” His face went serious, but there was still a hint of amusement in his voice. “You’re asking me what your dad was like?”

Allie nodded. “After he left my mother, we didn’t spend much time together. As a kid your parents are just parents, you know? You don’t really think of them or get to know them as people. We were certainly never close. I couldn’t believe it when the lawyers told me he’d left me the house. I thought he did some teaching here. Didn’t he ever think of turning it into a paying guest house?”

Karl smiled again, a little ruefully. “There wasn’t a week that went by that I didn’t tell him that was more or less what he needed to do. There was a lot we could have done with the place. I had all kinds of ideas for ways we could make money, especially with the barn and the basement.” He laughed at her puzzled look. “But he was a stubborn one. All he would say was that he needed his peace and quiet and didn’t want a bunch of noisy guests running around demanding more towels. Privacy was very important to him. He didn’t like people hanging around while he did some of his more…unusual shoots.”

“You mean the nudes?” Allie blushed a little, in spite of herself. Her father’s photography had included a large collection of what many people classified as deviant art. But she had always avoided the temptation to see what they really encompassed. There had been some tabloid stories claiming he was into bondage, torture, you name it. Even aside from her own distaste, there was something about the idea of looking at her father’s erotic work that seemed indecent. When she and Brad had gotten together, she had been relieved to find he wasn’t into
Playboy
or
Penthouse
or any of those kinds of things. It wasn’t that she was prudish, she told herself, but pornography just didn’t appeal to her.

She’d given Karl instructions to collect and put her father’s nudes out of sight somewhere. She had wondered in her more paranoid moments if that had been a smart move. For all she knew he might be selling them on the side and pocketing the money. Her father’s popularity had been growing over the last decade, although he didn’t seem to have been any good at managing his money. Or, more likely, he had put most of it into this house. Its location on top of a hill overlooking the ocean made it worth a great deal, she knew. And he had left it to her, his only child. Or at least the only one she knew about.

“The nudes, yes, among other things.” Karl gave her a flirtatious but enigmatic smile. “Let me know when you’re ready to hear about it, darlin’, and I’ll give you all the details.”

She shuddered dramatically. “No, thanks. I’m not really interested in that kind of stuff, especially as it relates to my father.”

He laughed. “Fair enough, but tell me, what
are
you interested in?” He leaned a little closer, and his warmth and nearness affected her in strange ways. It would have been too creepy to be attracted to her father’s lover, but he had an undeniable, palpable masculinity. If she had closed her eyes she could have almost felt the heat coming off him.

No, no, no
. She stood up and turned resolutely toward the house. “Nothing like that,” she said over her shoulder as she opened the screen door.

She heard him chuckle as she stepped inside. He called after her, “Oh, I almost forgot. Charlie Wayne called yesterday while you were out. He said he’ll call back later.”

His boots clumped down the stairs, and he strode off across the lawn, whistling to himself, completely unaware of the crash of Allie’s coffee cup hitting the kitchen floor.

Chapter 2

It couldn’t be
him
. Allie had been sitting at the kitchen table for nearly an hour, her head in her hands. The words
Please, God, not him!
replayed themselves over and over in her mind, alternating with Karl’s voice saying, “Charlie Wayne called.”

The phone rang, making her jump violently. She lifted her head and stared at it, willing it to stop. It rang again, and she forced herself to her feet to go and answer it.

“Hi, Allie.” Brad’s voice was like a prison reprieve. She didn’t think she’d ever been so happy to hear it.

“Hi,” she said, leaning against the counter.

“Listen, I’m sorry about this morning,” Brad went on. “I know that place means a lot to you.”

“‘That place’?” she repeated, unable to stop the anger from rising. “What do you mean by that?”

“Allie, calm down. I’m sorry it came out like that. You know I didn’t mean to make you upset.”

“I know.” She forced her voice back to a friendly tone. He had said worse things that morning, but now was probably not the time to bring it up.

He went on cautiously. “But we’re going to have to have a serious talk soon about our future there. Do you understand that?”

“Yes,” she sighed, her previous worries piling back up on top of her new one. “But there’s
something
we can do. There must be.”

He sounded like he was forcing himself to be reasonable. “I know how badly you want it, honey. I’m not going to lie and say it’s my dream. It’s a nice house, sure, but if we can’t make a go of it then we’ll have no choice but to sell. Your dad’s pictures may be worth a lot of money someday, but for now they’re not going to save the situation.”

“I know.” She wandered back over to the table and sat down. “Maybe I should just try to get a job, too. Karl can deal with any guests during the day.”

“We can think about it,” he conceded, “but we both know we can’t make enough money to run that huge place. Karl’s been a big help, but he’s not going to stick around forever. I wish I knew why he’s staying now. I think he’s up to something.”

It was one of Brad’s favorite themes. “I don’t think there’s buried treasure under the house or anything,” Allie said tiredly. “Maybe he’s waiting for us to give up and sell it to him.”

“Maybe. But my feeling is he doesn’t have any money and thinks he can sponge off us.”

“Brad, that’s not a nice thing to say. He’s done a lot of work here. That’s not sponging.”

“Not yet,” he agreed. “But the renovations are almost complete. What’s he going to do then? Exchange lawn mowing for room and board? We’re going to have to have a talk with him at that point.”

Allie had a bad feeling about how that talk would go. She wasn’t sure why, but she had a vague sense that Karl had more of a right to be here than Brad did, and it worried her. She wanted to stay, but she didn’t want to give up Brad to do it. He’d been a really good, stabilizing force in her life.

“All right,” she said finally, not quite sure what Brad’s last words had been. “What do you want for dinner tonight?”

“I don’t care.” He was sounding distracted again. “Whatever you feel like. Are we okay, though? Do you forgive me for this morning?”

“Of course,” she said automatically. “I’d better get to work. I’ll see you when you get home.”

“Unless you want to come in and have lunch,” he suggested, but he didn’t sound enthusiastic.

“Better not. I’ve got a lot of work to do. Bye.” She hung up and went to the sink to start on the breakfast dishes.

The phone rang again, and she went back to it absently. “Hello?”

“Is this Allison Walker?” It was a man, and her instinctive thought that it might be a reservation died at the use of her name.

“Yes,” she said hesitantly, trying to place the voice. It sounded vaguely familiar.

“This is Charlie Wayne.” The plate she’d been holding almost went the way of her coffee cup, but she saved it at the last second. Her breath caught.

“Are you there?”

“Yes,” she whispered, as if she was afraid that she might be overheard, even though she knew no one else was in the house.

“I hear you’ve opened a bed-and-breakfast. Congratulations.” He sounded cheerful and curious, as if he was an old friend calling to check up on her, rather than someone who had ruined her life six years before.

“What do you want?” Her trepidation was turning into anger. What possible reason could he have for calling her now?

He chuckled. “I’ve got an offer for you. We’ve got a new project…”

“I’m not interested.” She made a tremendous effort to keep her voice from giving away the alarm his words had inspired in her.

“Oh, come on, honey. At least listen…”

“No!” She whipped around and slammed the phone into its cradle on the wall. She turned to the sink to steady herself then remembered that phones didn’t necessarily disconnect like that anymore. She swung back, shaking, and took it down to make sure. She heard a tinny voice saying, “—long time ago,” but she ignored it and hit the “End” button, wishing there was a more violent way of hanging up on people.

Her head was spinning as she washed and dried the dishes, barely aware of what she was doing. She was just wiping down the counter when she heard the guest bell.

Half expecting to see someone from a past that she much preferred to be dead and buried, Allie smoothed down her hair and straightened her T-shirt as she headed for the entryway. Brad hadn’t liked the thought of leaving the front door unlocked all day, but Allie had argued that if they were going to have guests coming and going, it was necessary. There was a desk with a bell just inside, and a woman was examining the flyer that described the property. She appeared to be in her midforties, with elegantly smooth, blonde hair and a dark gray suit that made her look as if she should be going to an office in the city, not checking in at a rural hotel. Allie could see a red convertible parked in the driveway through the screen door behind her.