Haunted (3 page)

“But she has to be punished,” Athena whispered, before Rex pushed his fingers into her hair again and kissed her to silence. His was a possessive and domineering kiss, the perfect kiss to prove to her that he hadn’t been distracted from their plans after all. In a way, it was hot to make out in front of Amy, knowing how much the younger woman wanted the feast Athena was going to savor, knowing how closely she watched.

“That’s why we have staff,” Rex murmured when he lifted his head. He snapped his fingers and Rick was beside them again, inclining his fair head in deference. Rex never looked away from Athena as he gave the command. “Rick, please lock the doors and ensure that you thoroughly discipline Amy in your own room tonight.” He brushed his lips across Athena’s slowly. “Athena and I are not to be disturbed. We will have breakfast at eight in Athena’s suite. Amy will be delivered naked and in shackles to the office for nine, so she can begin making up for her mistake.”

“Yes, sir!” Rick said with enthusiasm.

Amy bit her lip, presumably to keep from protesting. Rex ushered Athena toward the stairs. “I hope you have a lot of white rope,” he murmured.

“Probably even enough for you.”

Rex glanced back from the turn in the stairs, and Athena surreptitiously watched him. She knew he would put the final touch on Amy’s punishment. “Oh, and Rick, you don’t need to be shy about expecting your own needs fulfilled. Amy assures me that she will do anything.”

Rick grinned, and bowed. Amy’s eyes were wide.

Athena stifled a chuckle as they climbed the rest of the stairs. “You are bad,” she murmured and shared a smile with Rex.

“You’re the one who said she needed discipline.”

* * *

Pathetic.

It was just pathetic.

No,
she
was pathetic.

Caitlyn didn’t have to force a smile when Zach’s black Jetta came around the corner and stopped in front of her apartment. Even with the dark tinted windows, she had no doubt it was him. Of course, he was right on time. He always did what he said he’d do. He was always reliable.

It was a little too easy to rely upon him.

No surprise that she wanted more than conversation with Luke’s best friend, but Caitlyn recognized a man of principle when she met one. She was off-limits, because she’d been his buddy’s girl—even though actually she hadn’t been.

What would Zach think if he told her the truth?

She’d have to tell him the
whole
truth, then he’d run like hell.

Caitlyn opened the door quickly and threw herself into the passenger seat, knowing Zach would have gotten out to open her door for her, even in the rain. He was still in the act of opening his own door and looked at her in surprise.

God, the man was sexy enough to bite. He’d obviously taken a shower in those moments before coming to get her, because his dark blond hair was still a bit damp. He must have shaved as well, and he smelled like soap and a very good cologne. He was dressed casually, which was one good thing. She’d seen him once in a suit and tie and nearly come on the spot.

“I would have gotten the door,” he said, a little edge of irritation in his voice that she knew would fuel her fantasies later.

“I know. And you would have gotten soaked.” Caitlyn smiled. “It’s already so nice of you to give up your sleep for me. I don’t want you to get a cold, too.”

“We’re both going to get wet at some point,” he said, matter-of-fact as ever and pulled away from the curb.

Caitlyn didn’t say that she was wet already. Just being in Zach’s car close beside him was enough to rile her up. Hell, hearing him answer the phone, knowing he was coming to meet her, knowing he was alive and somewhere in Seattle was enough to turn her on. She took a deep breath, liking the smell of him that filled the car. He was Mr. Clean. No cigarette or smoke smell. No garbage on the floor of the back seat of his car. No dirty hair or fingernails. Just Mr. Clean, Mr. Buff, Mr. Polite to a Fault. Mr. Restraint and the King of Self Control. He was the kind of guy Caitlyn had always wanted to meet and fall in love with.

He certainly was the kind of guy her mother would have liked her to fall in love with. Zach was quietly successful. She could tell by the expensive lines of that suit she’d seen that one day, and since then had noticed the quality in everything he owned or wore. He probably had millions secreted away—or if he didn’t, he would soon.

Zach, however, wasn’t the kind of guy who ever fell in love with Caitlyn. Nope, she drew the losers with a magnetic force that was staggering. It was a gift. The gorgeous losers hit on her in bars, they approached her in the street. They came out of the fucking woodwork, smelling of cigarettes and booze and cheap cologne, reeking of their own self-adoration. They were usually good-looking, they always worked out, they were invariably dangerous to know, and they were interested only in themselves. Women were accessories for their own pleasure.

Like Luke. He’d been perfectly typical—if a little more charming. She’d been determined after two dates to break it off—it had been hot and dangerous, but the kind of flame that sputtered fast. Then she’d met his best friend. Holy shit. Meeting Zach had been like being struck by lightning. Caitlyn known instantly that he was The One.

But he was a nice guy, and she was dating his buddy. Worse, she wasn’t one of those sleek blondes, turned out to perfection in designer clothes. Women who looked expensive and were a lot of trouble were just about as different from Caitlyn as possible—and it had to figure that they were Zach’s kind. He had a different one on his arm every time she saw him.

The crux of it was that the only way to see Zach again was to keep dating his loser buddy. On and on that relationship had gone. It might still be going on if Luke hadn’t died.

Well, if she and Luke hadn’t had that last fight.

Because Luke, for all his faults, hadn’t liked the discovery that he was a substitute for anybody else. The hot loser boys were all like that. They had ego and to spare. Caitlyn had been an idiot to tip her hand.

Not that she’d had a choice, really.

She stole a glance at Zach and he winked at her as he backed into a parking spot at the cafe they’d frequented since Luke’s death. It was just a friendly reassuring wink, a hey-pal wink, but it made her heart skip a beat all the same. Of course, he parallel parked perfectly, nailing it the first time with ease, while she would have had to give it three or four tries to even be close at getting it right.

Mr. Control.

The really big problem was that Caitlyn had a taste for sexual adventure. That’s what she got from the hot loser boys. They were always up for it, although there was a risk of everything going wrong. Caitlyn kind of liked the danger.

She might have told Zach about her feelings, but she was pretty sure he’d be disgusted by what she liked in the bedroom. Danger couldn’t be his gig. He’d probably lecture her about having a low self-worth. She didn’t have a low self-worth. She just liked being trussed up, being given what she wanted most while unable to do anything about it. She wanted to surrender completely to a guy she could trust totally.

Like Zach.

Caitlyn sighed and didn’t have to fake the tear she shed. The only way to keep seeing Zach now was to mourn Luke, which was a lie because she didn’t miss Luke at all. But telling Zach any of the truth—never mind all of it—would only ensure she never saw him again.

She sighed and felt shaky. She was relying on some stupid scheme to have the people at The Phoenix fulfill her fantasy, which was just about the most pathetic thing on the planet.

“You okay?” Zach asked with concern and she realized he was watching her. “We could go somewhere else, if you’d rather.”

Caitlyn looked out the window, her heart clenched tightly, and took a chance. “No, it’s fine. It’s just the rain.”

“Kind of a bummer,” he agreed then smiled at her. He reached into the backseat for an umbrella. “Let me get the door for you this time.”

“The rain’s not a bummer for me,” she said quickly. “It just really turns me on.” She wriggled a bit on the seat.

She felt his shock.

She saw his gaze flick to her butt.

She had a heartbeat to hope, then his eyes narrowed. “And that makes you miss Luke,” he said flatly. “I get it.”

Zach was out of the car immediately, leaving Caitlyn grimacing at her own stupidity. Any other guy—well, any of her typical loser dates—would have seen that as an invitation to jump her bones. She would have been in the backseat of the car by now, getting drilled hard and fast, instead of having Zach’s fingertips under her elbow and his umbrella sheltering her from the rain.

She shouldn’t have been so overt about it.

She should have known better.

But then, if she kissed him or made any kind of first move, he’d just think she was using him as a substitute. She had no idea how to appeal to man like Zach, which probably meant it couldn’t be done.

Didn’t it just figure that Luke had left her in a bind like this? Fucking people over had been just about his favorite thing to do, and that last time, he’d exceeded himself royally.

Caitlyn leaned a little bit against Zach as he escorted her to the cafe, and dared to dream a little dream about the people at The Phoenix.

They were her only hope.

She refused to make too much of the fact that she hadn’t heard a word in response to her application, other than the acknowledgement of receipt.

* * *

Amy couldn’t decide if she was in Heaven or Hell.

On the one hand, she was back inside The Phoenix. That had to count for something.

On the other, Rex had taken great pleasure in giving her a task that was impossible. She had to accomplish it to stay at The Phoenix, which was a lot like being taunted with her heart’s desire but knowing she’d never be able to claim it. She felt like a cursed princess in a fairy tale, given some insurmountable obstacle to prove her worth.

Too bad she didn’t have a fairy godmother.

Or even some ugly little troll like Rumpelstiltskin.

Part of her wanted to insist that Rex’s demand wasn’t fair.

The other part of her—okay, the larger part—wanted to succeed so brilliantly that he was awed, dazzled, amazed, and determined to let her not only stay at The Phoenix, but learn to be a dominatrix.

Preferably trained by Rex himself.

Preferably with the graduation present of getting to dominate Rex himself. Amy felt all hot and bothered just imagining the possibilities.

Which meant she had to figure this out, somehow.

Amy was naked in the office of The Phoenix. The door was locked and Rex was lounging at his desk. He was working on his laptop, but Amy knew that if she moved, he wouldn’t miss it. Her ass was already sore enough from Rick’s spankings but that would be nothing compared to punishment from Rex. Amy was done with punishment.

She was ready for reward.

She was wearing black leather ankle and wrist shackles, which were chained together, and nothing else. She knelt at Rex’s feet, as commanded, with a ridiculous array of paper in front of her.

Paper
. It was barbaric to keep any records on paper, in file folders.

“Welcome to the nineteenth century,” she muttered, expressing just a little bit of her defiance, and picked up the first folder with a sigh.

“You can always admit defeat,” Rex said quietly, then flicked a glance down at her. He was amused by her, Amy could see as much, and she hated that, too. She wanted him to be impressed by her, or to want her, not to look at her as if she were a tedious child.

“Paper is archaic,” she said. “And these files are already all digitized. I could solve this more quickly if I had access to a computer. I could search them quickly and even craft a little app to find patterns between them.”

That was a thought. There might be some kind of overlap between them.

“Common names or locations,” she mused aloud.

“But you aren’t going to have a computer in this office ever again, or even have a phone while you are at The Phoenix,” Rex reiterated patiently. “You have proven yourself to be untrustworthy.”

“But…”

“Prove otherwise,” he invited and returned his attention to his laptop.

He was probably playing Angry Birds or something that was a similar waste of technology. Amy pursed her lips and considered the pile of files again. In the absence of a plan, she needed a system. She had to satisfy three of these apparently impossible sexual fantasies to earn her chops, so to speak. It didn’t matter which ones to Rex and Athena, and really, they were equally as tough. Amy had been through the whole pile twice already.

She closed her eyes and rummaged through the file, determined to solve whichever one she picked blindly.

Great. It was the woman who wanted one last night with her dead lover.

“How good are your connections?” she asked Rex.

He glanced at the file and smiled. “Not that good. You’re on your own.”

“It’s not that uncommon of a fantasy, though, is it?” Amy asked.

“What do you mean?”

“People always want a second chance, or the opportunity to say something they should have said before it was too late.” She was thinking about sending that picture of Rex to Michelle and that she shouldn’t have done it. Amy was seldom impulsive, and she’d learned not to be in future. Rex wouldn’t be so angry with her if she hadn’t done that. She might not have had to beg her way back in here.