Dark Perception: The Corde Noire Series (19 page)

“
What if I don’t like what
you do?” she finally questioned.

He drew circles on her shoulder with
his forefinger. “Then you can tell me to stop. If you don’t like
what we do, I won’t force you. Just tell me to stop.”

It all seemed pretty straightforward
to Melinda. “I guess if it’s something you want … I’m willing to
give it a try.”

His hand went to her left breast, his
thumb grazing her nipple. “Think of me as your teacher. You want to
please your teacher, right? So you must strive to do everything you
can to follow my instructions.” Nathan roughly pulled her to him.
“Do you understand?”

“
I understand.”

He tapped his finger against the tip
of her nose. “I understand, Sir. To play the game you must call me
Sir.”

She slyly smiled. “Yes …
Sir.”

“
I definitely like the
sound of that.”

Nathan kissed her again while pushing
her to the bed. His hand opened her legs, and his fingers once
again awakened that tantalizing tingle in her groin.

A curtain of contentment settled over
Melinda. She had finally found it. The one thing she had always
been looking for … someone to take away all of her cares. As she
gave herself to him again, an unsettling vision popped into her
mind.

The white mist from the storage room
floated into her bedroom and hovered over her bed. When she looked
into the mist, she saw green eyes staring back at her. Then the
eyes grew wide with fear as a voice screamed inside her
head.

Run!

Chapter 13

Bright light from the sitting room
window filtered across the bedroom and landed on Melinda’s bed. She
watched as the streams of light cascaded across the yellow sheets
as Nathan slept beside her. The morning light helped chase away the
unsettling image of the entity with the green eyes. As she heard
that eerie voice repeating in her head, she shivered.

“
How long have you been
awake?” Nathan mumbled, reaching for her.

“
Most of the
night.”

“
What is it?” His fingers
caressed her right shoulder. “Are you having second thoughts …
about us?”

“
No, it’s not that.” She
hesitated, debating if she should even bring up the topic. “I saw
that ghost again. The one in my storage room,” she finally told
him.

Nathan sat up. “What did you
see?”

“
It was in my bedroom, and
this time I saw its eyes. It had green eyes, like mine. It was more
threatening this time. Like it’s getting closer or something.” She
ran her hand over his chest. “Probably doesn’t help that every time
I come home I find the door to the storage room open. No matter how
many times I shut it, I still find it open later on. It’s starting
to creep me out.”

“
Might just be the handle.”
He patted her hand. “I’ll tell Marv to put a deadbolt on that door.
I’m sure that will stop it from coming open.”

“
What if that doesn’t
work?”

“
I can tell Marv to
reprogram the intercom system so there is a direct line between my
place and yours. That way you can call me in case you see the
ghost. Then I’ll run over and slay it for you.”

She settled against him, giggling.
“It’s not a dragon.”

The past vision she had seen of
giggling naked in his arms as the sun rose through her bedroom
windows came to mind. Melinda wanted to hug herself. She loved that
sense of wonder the actualization of a vision always gave her.
Those aha moments never got old.

“
There’s something I want
you to have.” Nathan tossed the covers aside.

Melinda waited as he climbed from the
bed and went to his tuxedo pants on the floor. He hunted through
the pockets and when he returned to her side, Nathan let a small
piece of black cord dangle from his hand.

“
I want you to wear this,
day and night,” he instructed, holding the black cord up to her.
“You’re never to take it off.”

Melinda stroked the silky black rope.
At the end was a clasp made of gold. “Why do you want me to wear
this?”

“
It’s a collar, a symbol of
your commitment to me.”

“
A collar? Is that
necessary?”

He sat her up and placed the cord
around her neck. “It’s what a man like me does when he takes on a
woman who has submitted to him.”

He secured the tight collar. For
Melinda, it felt too snug and would be a constant reminder of why
it was there.

“
So what kind of man are
you?”

“
I’m a Dominant,
Melinda.”

Okay, this just got
interesting.

Fondling the collar, she gazed up at
him. “How long have you been a Dominant?”

He admired the cord on her neck. “I’ve
always liked being in control, but it’s just in the past few years
that I’ve discovered the art.”

“‘
The art’?” Her voice
oozed with sarcasm. “Is that what you call it?”

He grinned, appearing bemused by her
comment. “You should know what a Dominant is before
you—”

“
I know what a Dominant is,
Nathan. I may be naive, but I’m not stupid.”

“
I’ve never thought you
were either of those things, Melinda.” He sat back on the bed,
analyzing her. “Who told you that you were naive?”

She rolled her eyes, fighting back a
swell of emotion when a certain pair of hazel eyes came to mind.
“Jack. He always said I was too innocent for my own
good.”

“
Which would explain why he
hovered around you like an overprotective guard dog,” he griped in
a throaty rumble.

She played with the edge of the sheet
tucked around her. “That sounds like Jack.”

Nathan moved closer, nudging the sheet
below her left breast. “Have you ever been involved with a Dominant
before?”

“
Living in the French
Quarter, I always bumped into them. I’ve just never dated
one.”

He taunted her nipple with his
thumbnail. “This isn’t dating; not like you know it. From this
moment on, you’re committed to me and only me. There can be no
other men.”

Tilting her head to the side, Melinda
recalled what she knew about Dominants. “I thought there was
supposed to be some kind of contract signed in these things. Like
in the movies.”

“
No contracts … not with
me.” He eased the sheet lower, exposing both of her breasts. “I
just need your commitment to give us a try. The rest we will make
up as we go along.”

“
I like the idea of no
contracts.” Melinda enjoyed the way his devilish eyes were
scrutinizing her breasts. “Makes it seem less like selecting a
wireless carrier and more like a relationship.”

Nathan crept toward her. “I never
thought of it that way.” He kissed her right breast and eased her
down on the bed with him. “We need to mark our special commitment
with a celebration. How ‘bout we start with brunch at Commander’s
Palace?”

“
Really?” Her toes curled
with excitement. “I’ve always wanted to go there.”

His mouth teased the nape of her neck.
“Then we can stop by this little designer dress shop I know and buy
you some better clothes.”

She abruptly sat up on her elbows.
“What’s wrong with the clothes I’ve got?”

“
They’re too revealing,” he
chided, appearing disappointed she had pulled away. “The dress you
wore last night was beautiful, but I would prefer it if you showed
a little less skin in the future. I want you to look classy and
sophisticated.” His fingertips tantalized her forearms. “You’re
mine now, and you need to look the best you can.”

Filling with apprehension, she bit her
lower lip. “But I don’t know how to look classy or sophisticated. I
had to have Ellie help me pick out all of my clothes.”

“
I will pick out your
clothes. I don’t want your friend dressing you anymore. Her taste
leaves a lot to be desired.”

Melinda pouted her lips. “She was
trying to make me look sexy so I could seduce you.”

“
You didn’t need sexy
clothes to seduce me. I’ve been fantasizing about you from the day
we met.”

She let her mouth hover inches from
his. “I think you were sending me all of those sexy messages on
purpose.”

“
I was,” he murmured, and
bit down on her lower lip. “There is someplace special I would like
to show you,” he announced, embracing her.

“
What place?”

“
I think it’s time you see
what we have both been working so hard to get.” He played with a
silky lock of her red hair. “Since it looks like I’ve lost Denise’s
backing, we will have to keep on working for a while
longer.”

“
What will you do for
funding without Denise Becnel?”

He ran his hand through her thick
hair. “Bud Moore is still interested, but he wants a lot more
control over the building plans than I’m willing to give
him.”

“
You should consider it.
You can trust him, Nathan.”

“
I can’t trust him like I
can trust you.” He gathered up her hair in his fist and tugged her
head back as he bit her exposed neck. He let her hair go and was
about to back away when Melinda tossed her arms around his neck,
begging him to return to her.

“
Don’t stop.”

Peering into her eyes, a cocky grin
stretched across his lips. “You didn’t say the magic
word.”

She eased her body beneath him.
“Please, don’t stop.”

“
Sir. Please don’t stop,
Sir.” Nathan’s lips started at the black cord on her neck and
worked their way down her chest and stomach. “Say it,” he demanded
as his fingers thrust into her.

Melinda threw her head back. “Please,
don’t stop, Sir.”

His darting fingers made her undulate
with desire. Wrapping her long legs around his waist, she entreated
him to come inside her.

“
Easy, baby,” he cooed
while kissing her shoulder. “We’ve got all morning to
play.”

* * *

After brunch at Commander’s Palace,
Nathan drove her to the abandoned power plant on Market Street.
When she stepped from Nathan’s Jaguar, Melinda discovered the
property was a lot bigger than she had envisioned.

The old factory and connecting office
building were made from a beautiful red brick that still looked new
despite the rusted metal piping, multiple broken windows, and
massive amounts of graffiti covering both structures. Mammoth
multi-paned windows rose from above the main entrance of the
factory and were surrounded by decorative arched brickwork, while
smaller windows had been placed along the plain façade of the
office building. Rising from the center of the factory roof were
two bricked smokestacks covered with rusted access
ladders.

“
The factory building dates
back to the late 1800s when it was used to power the electric
trolleys in the city,” Nathan told her as he came up to her
side.

Melinda took in the high chain link
fence surrounding the property. “How many acres is it?”

Nathan removed a set of keys from the
pocket of his blue jeans. “Seven, including an additional two the
energy company used for parking their trucks.”

Melinda turned to her left and looked
out over the high levee blocking their view of the Mississippi
River.

“
There’s a great view of
the river from the top floor,” he said behind her. “I’ll show
you.”

“
How did you find this
place?”

He slid his arm around her waist and
ushered her toward the padlocked gate. “I’ve made a lot of
connections through the years cleaning up blighted properties after
the storm. One thing led to another, and I ended up befriending a
few city leaders who had been trying to do something with this
plant for years.”

She scoured the remains of rusted
outbuildings as they came to the gate. “Is that how you met Carl
Bordonaro?”

“
Carl and I share a lot of
the same connections. In my line of work, you get to meet all kinds
of people. The one thing they have in common is they all want to
make money.”

Melinda waited as Nathan opened the
padlock and removed the long chain securing the gate to a ten-foot
high barbed-wire fence. He pushed on the wide gate and moved it
back.

He waved her inside. “Mind the debris.
There’s old rusty piping and broken glass everywhere.” Once on the
other side of the gate, Nathan added, “They used to get a lot of
gangs and homeless people here before they put up the
fence.”

“
Is it safe?” she
questioned, scanning the grounds.

“
It’s safe during the
daytime, but I wouldn’t dare come out here at night.”

They moved down the main entrance
roadway that passed a derelict guardhouse and the empty office
building.

“
Can you tell me what was
going on between you and Carl Bordonaro last night? It all sounded
rather intimidating.”

His arm went around her shoulders.
“Carl was letting me know that other parties who were once
interested in acquiring the property still want to financially
benefit from the development.”