KING (Mistress & Master of Restraint) (8 page)

“I’m working on that,” Ezra
defensively says.

“You do that,” I say dismissively. “Take your time; that isn’t what this conversation is about
, anyway. We’ve been friends since forever. I want you happy,” I murmur and place an affectionate touch to his shoulder. I smile when he relaxes into my caress.

“Cort’s only going to
Marcus because he’s a pussy. Cort needs a strong top and you ain’t that,” I tease, and Ezra smirks at me without shame. “I happen to know someone who’s even stronger than that asshole who’s taking my wife away.”

“Oh, yeah…” he drawls, feigning a lack of interest. “And who might that be?”

“Me,” I say without a shred of arrogance. “I bow to no man. I will always be the man when it comes to sex- something Regina doesn’t like to accept,” I grumble.

“I can help you with that,” Ezra
smugly offers, his eyes twinkling like stars through gray storm clouds.

“Do tell,” I purr
, thoroughly intrigued. Regina’s mind is one that I’ll never crack even with a lifetime.

“After you,” he gestures for me to continue on my path.

“Fair enough,” I concede. “Right now your marital life is balancing on a knife’s edge. The only person holding you all back from being happy is Cortez. You can’t change it, so you might as well seek what you need. You’ll never be happy unless you’re in the middle. It’s why your marriage would work if only he’d come to grips with reality.”

“Don’t analyze my marriage,” the pissed off psychiatrist hisses. “Tell me s
omething I don’t already know. You think I don’t breathe this shit with every breath?”

“I happen to know a very strong top that is a sexy beast,” I snicker while waggling my eyebrows
, completely ignoring his furious outburst. “I also know a beautifully gay, bottom to a fault, man who will make your toes curl.” If Dalton isn’t ready for our happily ever after, maybe he’ll be happy fucking our way there.

Ezra grabs my shoulders in an unrelenting clench of his elegant fingers. “What do you need from me,” he says with an intensity that borders on madness. His eyes
flare with a deep hunger I’ve never experienced and I’d do anything to feed.

“Get a pass, Ezra,” I state as if the answer to all of his problems is that simple, and it is. “Your wife has access to any female she wants and to our well-hung sadist. Cortez would defy nature just to be near Marcus. Yet you, Ezra, are denied. Don’t ask, tell them- tell them you’re taking a lover since they won’t feed your needs.”

“I can’t,” Ezra cries, his fingers raking through his blond hair- frustration leaks from every pore. “I can’t hurt them like that,” is gutturally torn from his chest.

“They don’t seem to have a problem hurting you,” I point out. I pat his hands in comfort because tears are
welling in his eyes. Ezra holds his eyes wide to ensure that the surface of the moisture doesn’t break and blink tears down his cheeks.

“Get a pass,” I coax, just as much for me as him. “Let them know what they are throwing away without any thought. Push Cort into Marc’s arms. It’s the only way he
will get over this insanity. Cortez is in love with you. Any fool can see that. But what will work the best is jealousy. Cort went postal about Dexter, and that was an accident. Imagine his reaction to you taking a real lover and asking for permission first.”

“It will kill him,” Ezra
bites out.

“And I believe that’
s the point,” I tease him, doing to Cortez what Dalton is doing to me. I know how jealousy can light a fire under your ass quicker than anything else.

“Why me?”
Ezra mutters under his breath.

“Plenty of mirrors in this dusty old house of mine- pick one,” I gesture to the three in the dining room alone.

Ezra bashfully blushes and refuses to meet my eyes.

“I want you,” I honestly admit, my voice ringing with longing. “You were the first man I ever wanted. You’re the only man I’ve ever wanted besides Dalton. I feel your pain as if it’s my own and I want to take it away. I know what this feels like
, and I haven’t lived it as long as you have. I’m not looking to fall in love or some shit. I just want to be your lover.”

“What about Dalton?”

“What about him?” I shrug.

“Won’t he be pissed?”

“Not if I include him.” I huskily laugh when his eyes nearly pop from his head. “It’s only been a few weeks for us. There’s been no
I love yous
spoken. I’m a married man who just took over his dynasty. Right now I’m just learning to be gay after years of pretending. I want to have some fun in the way I was born to.”

I feed him a total line of bullshit to get what I want.
It’s how I’ve survived the life I was born into. It also helps to walk around in a world of our own creation; the pain is less if you don’t deal with reality.

“It will upset him,
” Ezra says with certainty.

“I have no doubt that it will,” I say sadly, casting my gaze to the floor.

“Cut the shit- spill,” Ezra commands.

“Alright,” I concede. “I’m in love with him, like the heartbreaking forever kind of love that warps your mind.
But I don’t want to live my life wondering over the
what-ifs
.”

“Don’t I know all about that shit,” Ezra snarls.
“Wonder about what?”

“
I want to fuck you,” huskily flows from my chest- gravelly and deep, filled with longing and desperation. Ezra’s breath hitches in his throat, and it’s the sexiest sound I’ve ever heard in my entire life. “My God, I want you,” I hiss between clenched teeth, my eyelashes shuttering my need.

When I glance up to mee
t Ezra’s stormy gaze, I find it heavily lidded. His mouth is parted on a pant. It takes everything in me not to attack that supple mouth of his.

“Get a pass,” hoarsely spills between my lips. “Fuck,” is torn from my throat, filled with ache and frustration. “Please,” I beg.
My cock furiously beats- goes wild at the prospect of finally being inside Ezra- anywhere inside Ezra. 

“What about Dalton?” He repeats from earlier.

And I ask again, “What about him?”

“You want me to tell my spouses that I want to take you as a lov
er, but you offered Dalton’s ass up as well. What do I tell them? And what does Dalton think about this?”

“Tell them
that I’ll be your lover, but Dalton and I are a package deal. Tell them you’ve allowed them to explore their fantasies and you’re going to indulge now- no matter with whom. If you’re with me, we’ll fuck whomever I fancy.”

“Jesus,” Ezra
hisses and plunges his fists back into his pockets to hide his erection. Nothing will camouflage his need. I’m offering him everything he’s ever sexually wanted, with the promise that jealousy will get his partner to yield to him. My eyes feast on the front of his trousers. He hisses a curse again as his cock jumps in his pants, eating up my gaze’s attentions.

“Don’t worry about my boyfriend. I’m Dalton’s master
, and I can assure you that his favorite pastime is being bent over with a stiff cock sliding along his prostate.”

My eyes catch Roman’s gaze
, and I try to push out the vision of him bending my boyfriend over. I growl under my breath and bare my teeth at him.

“Oh God,” Ezra shudders
, and I know I’ve won.

“He’ll
even beg you for it,” I taunt.

“Just take her,” Ezra
abruptly says.

“Huh?” I mutter in confusion, t
he turn of conversation dizzies me.

“Regina,” Ezra
says in way of explanation. “Just take her. Regina fights what she wants worse than Cort ever could. Don’t give Regina the choice. Don’t ask her. Just take what you want. If you take her by surprise it’s all the better.”

“What?” I gasp in shock. “You’re telling me to… to do that to my wife,” I mumble in disbelief.

“Yeah…” Ezra pulls his fingers through his hair only to think better of it when he’s no longer camouflaging his rampant hard-on. “Yeah, I’m not suggesting it; I’m telling you to do it. Don’t breathe this to another person,” he intensely warns and doesn’t continue until I agree.

“Okay. I promise.”

“It’s Regina’s kink. She has a few, but it’s the one that really makes her tick. In the wrong hands it could be devastating.”

“Who knows? And what is it?”

“Just my father and me… and now you… She… Regina likes force. She needs it to overcome her true nature. She’s the most stubborn- powerfully controlled person I know. Regina needs it to hit heights she can’t reach otherwise. Regina trusts me, fuck if I know why,” Ezra grumbles. “The act mixed with the trust is what Regina needs.”

“You’re telling me to just,” I choke on the word.
Rape
.

“Take,” Ezra
reassuringly says. “Trust me, Whitt. Why would I steer you the wrong way?”

“You wouldn’t,” I say in a daze.

“I’ll make a deal with you,” he barters. “You get from your wife what you need and I’ll tell my spouses what I need.”

I eagerly say, “Deal!”

“Tonight,” Ezra says in parting.

~Chapter Six~

“C’mon, I wanna show you something in my room,” I coax Regina, tugging her out of the theatre where my party is still in full-swing.

“Just tell me what it is? I need to make sure the kids end up where they belong.” I smile as she slurs her words a bit.

“Would you like
another glass of Champagne for the road?” I hand Regina one before she can reply, and pull her from the room. “The kids are having fun. Don’t worry about them.”

“I don’t want to be a grandmother yet,”
she pointedly says.

“I doubt Niel’s going to jump Ava in a room full of their relatives. Besides, I have Whitney on the case. No hanky-panky,”
for them
, I silently add, because I’m sure as hell gonna get some.

I’m a perverted sonofabitch.

Here I am, dragging my half-in-the-bag wife from my birthday party before anyone notices and can save her. I do this with the intent of forced sex. I hope to God Ezra isn’t screwing with me or this could get bad- fast.

I grab the flute from Regina’
s hand before she spills any more Champagne. I drain it and toss it near the entrance to the theatre. Dalton’s words echo in my mind. Is this love or obsession- an addiction?

Since
that night over eighteen years ago, when Albert drove Regina to the vestibule doors, I’ve wanted to possess her. As a five-year-old, I just wanted her as a friend. Regina was kind to me, talked to me, read me a story, and held me while I slept. I instinctually knew she’d protect me. I fell in love with her that night.

I waited and waited for Regina
to come back. That month felt like years. Every day I waited on the front steps from the time my tutoring ended until it was well past dark. And then one day, Albert drove up and my heart started fluttering wildly in my chest. I’d closed my eyes and prayed, wished, hoped, and made promises I had no plan to keep. When my eyes opened, Grant was getting out of the passenger side. My heart dropped to my feet and I bled out…

…and then I heard her voice. It was like a spotli
ght shown down from above. I ran to Regina and hugged her waist. She was angry at Grant, but not me. She hugged me back and smiled at me. But she wasn’t here for me. Regina was brought for Grant, and it was the first time I felt jealousy and hatred.

I watched as
Regina’s belly swelled with Niel, and I wished he was mine. I watched as Cora disrespected Regina and wished Cora would disappear. Years, I followed Regina around making wishes. Wishing it was my lips she kissed goodnight. Wishing I was the one she cuddled in bed. I was so obsessed that I noticed Regina swelling with Ella before she did. It was that day I wished Grant no longer existed. I wanted Regina as my Queen.

All those wishes
came true.

Cora didn’t disappear, she died. Grant no longer exists. I raised Niel as my own. I finally got that goodnight kiss and those cuddles in bed. That baby girl calls me Daddy. And lastly, Regina is my Queen.

I’ve felt nothing but remorse for those wishes and wants since
the night Grant died.

And yet, here I am, leading my wife into a trap. Later I may feel remorse, but right now… I just
want
!

“I can’t believe you kept this,” she giggles.

I blush and glance away out of embarrassment. “I… I kept it because it reminded me of you.”

“Why?” Regina’s
fingers trace the teddy bear plaque that adorns my bedroom door.

“It took you a long time to navigate these halls. I remember you’d get lost, but you always found the teddy bear.” My words get stuck in my throat as she tears up. For once I’m not manipulating, bullshitting, to get what I want. I’m being genuine.