Masked Definitions (28 page)

“No, but if this continues you may need to explain yourself to somebody at the top of the hierarchy in order to marry and have lots of gorgeous babies.”

Fuck
.

“I don’t even want to think about any of that right now.” I move past her and into the room I’ve been sharing with Elijah. “Why was Max at the club?”

“He was looking for you. I’ve never seen a man so frantic.”

I shrug. “He’s not my problem.”

Her brows vanish behind her fringe. “Did you even tell him that?”

She has a good point. “I… No.” Maybe I should have called. “I probably should before we go to America.”

“Good plan.” Sitting on the bed, she smoothes the sheets with her hands. “This is so wrong. I can’t condone the fact that you’ve both been having an affair.”

“It’s complicated…”

She raises her hands and looks toward the window. “I bet it is. Doesn’t mean it’s okay though.”

“I know.”

Her eyes, now made of steel, greet mine with a glare so potent I take a step back. “You’re the lady of the house now.” I’m not even sure what that means. “It is now on your shoulders. You need to take control of this situation, shut your soon-to-be ex-husband up. Get a decent PR team. Look after my brother and don’t fuck up worse than you already have.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard. Being with my brother isn’t going to be like being with
his
brother. You’re going to have to learn to respect the company he keeps, to speak and address people appropriately, to behave in a certain manner.” Holy fuck. “How to eat correctly, how to dress, because those hideous baggy jumpers will
never
be allowed.”

“My brain just exploded.” I say as my fingers bite into my temples. “Let me get through my divorce first.”

“No, I’ll not have you shaming the family name because you don’t know how to hold a fork correctly.” I see that she’s not joking and my mouth falls open.
This is insane.
“Set your divorce in motion before Max causes any more of a stir than he has already.”

“I will.”

Standing, she tugs on the bottom of her shirt to ensure that it’s covering her navel. “Also, did you by any chance come across a Tobias Lockhart at the auction?”

I think back to after Elijah and I fucked in the room beyond the function. “I recall meeting him outside the bathroom at some point in the evening.”

“He asked me to give you this.” She reaches into her bra and pulls out a business card. “He told me to insist that you call him.”

“He did?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

She shrugs. “If I knew, I’d tell you.”

“Oh.” I tuck it into the back pocket of my jeans and push it from my mind.

“Anyway, I should go. Tell my brother that I want that brooch.”

“I will.” I watch her leave as everything she said spins around in my mind in an endless twister. A headache hits me with a ferocity that I’ve never felt before and I find myself dropping to the ground so I can bury my head in my knees and squeeze my eyes shut.

What the fuck just happened?

“Whatever she told you it’s a lie,” Elijah bellows the second he enters the house via the back entrance. He strolls directly past the kitchen, missing me entirely.

I place the oven glove on the worktop and quirk a brow at Mildred, who only looks amused.

“I’m…” Is all I get out when he reappears in the kitchen archway and places his hands against the frame. “In here.”

His wary eyes scan the room as if searching for something. A sign that I’m leaving perhaps?

“So you don’t have a mistress called Ann?” I try to stop my lips from twitching but fail.

“Until you, I was always faithful to my wife, despite the fact that she never gave me the same respect.”

I wipe my hands on my apron and tilt my head. “I know. I trust you.”

He nods and his icy grey eyes soften but his fists do not unclench. “So why haven’t you answered your phone?”

“Because I knew you’d come home and we made you a cherry pie.”

His lips part. “You dragged me from an important, yet ridiculous meeting…” I hear his breath as he inhales sharply. “So you could give me pie?”

I nod, smiling. “And because I missed you.” And because I’m a super jealous bitch that can’t handle the fact he was sitting in a room with his wife. I’m a terrible person, though my plan worked so I’m trying not to feel too ashamed of my twisted mind.

“Leave us,” he orders Mildred, who does so immediately. I catch her smiling to herself on the way out. I don’t think we’re playing this very quietly but I know Elijah wouldn’t say things so easily in front of somebody unless he trusted them.

I think I might be in trouble.

His long fingers tug free his tie. “You ignored my calls so I’d come running to you?”

“Possibly.” I’m starting to rethink my choice on this. His eyes are flashing dangerously and the way he is prowling towards me is making me tremble with fear and arousal all at the same time.

“You are trying to lead me around by my dick.”

I smile seductively. “Am I?”

“I’m not sure if I’m pissed at you or fucking horny.”

“Both?” I grin, wagging my eyebrows.

His eyes narrow and his hands tug the tie tightly between them.

“Are you planning on using that on…” I scream when he ducks and shifts his shoulder into my stomach. The air leaves me sharply and the world spins on its head as he stands, gripping my thighs to his chest tightly. “I’m heavy!”

“You actually are heavier than I thought you’d be.”

I gasp with offense at his words and sink my teeth into his left arse cheek. His palm connects with my left arse cheek, spreading a sting across my skin and thigh.

“You can’t tell me I’m heavy!”

He carries me down the hall and towards the stairs. “You’re not heavy; you’re just heavier than you look. It’s all of the muscle from the pole dancing. You probably have better upper body strength than I do.” I hear the smile in his voice as he continues. “You should probably be carrying me.”

“You’re ruining this sexy moment. Cavemen can’t talk.”

“Ugh,” he grunts, further ruining the sexy moment by making me snort with laughter.

“I will admit though,” I make my own grunt as he ascends the stairs. “The whole shoulder in the stomach thing… not comfortable when climbing stairs.”

“Oh.” He drops me immediately, three steps from the top. It rattles my bones it’s so sudden. His hand grips my bicep and he takes to tugging me towards his room instead.

Giggling like a child, I step into the bedroom and hold my hands out in front of me the second he orders me to do so. I have never been tied before and I’m not sure if I like it. Well, not until he loops the tie around my hands, pulls me forcefully to the bed and ties the remainder of the tie around a gap in the wooden headboard.

“This is new,” I comment. “I might have to lead you around by your dick more often.”

He bites my neck in response, making me squeal, and lowers his body onto mine. My arms remain stretched over my head as his lips tease my jaw and move to my ear. “I’m extremely pissed at you. I’ve had to reschedule my meeting for tomorrow.”

“Let’s not talk about work when you’re about to eat me.”

He growls and bites the swell of my breast.

“That hurts… it’s turning me on,” I breathe. “Is that weird?”

“No.”

Tingles of pleasure curl in my stomach when he pulls my top over my chest and licks a path to my jeans. I love it when he does this. A moan escapes my parted lips. I wet them with my tongue and shiver as he pulls my jeans slowly down my thighs.

“I like it when you tie me up,” I whisper, trembling with need as my jeans leave my legs entirely, and he kisses a path directly to my lace thong, which matches the dark red bra that he recently purchased for me as a gift.

“I love this colour on you,” he murmurs against my skin as his tongue traces over my hipbone.

“Your sister is a bit of a bitch,” I comment, randomly, and his head whips up faster than a flash of lightning.

“Can we not talk about my sister while I’m about to…” He flicks his eyes to my underwear. “It’s too weird.”

“Well then get on with it. If I’m thinking about other stuff then you’re not doing it right.”

“Cheeky!” His laughter is infectious. My lips tingle in preparation for the kiss I know is coming as he slides up my body, kicking down his trousers at the same time. “I love you.”

“You like saying it.”

He wraps a hand around my jaw and forcefully presses his lips to my own as his hips join the parting of my thighs. The sound he makes as he sinks inside makes me clench with desire around his heated length. I wait until he’s buried deep inside before wrapping my legs around his hips to bring him closer.

“You always feel better than before.” He murmurs, sucking my lower lip into his mouth. “I can never get enough. I never want enough.”

His words, as he drives inside and hooks my leg over his arm, send me spiralling into a fit of pleasure. I cry out, unable to control myself, the way I buck against him, the way my body trembles, as he moans his heavy breaths into my ear.

“Faster,” I pant, my body moistening with a thin sheen of sweat. The tingling in my stomach is too much; he’s going too slowly.

His pace quickens, his breathing becoming hoarse and erratic. He’s almost there, I can tell. As if to confirm my thoughts, he leaves my body, kneels between my legs and hisses through his teeth as his thick cock spits its seed over my navel.

My mouth falls open as my eyes watch him rub his shaft, emptying it fully.

“What just happened?” I ask, straining to pull my hands free of the tie so I can drag him back inside my body.

“I finished.” His comment is level, normal, as though we haven’t just had sex.

“I… I see that.” I pull on my restraints again. “I haven’t.”

“Nope.” He grins wickedly and admires the spillage across my stomach. “You haven’t.”

“Are you going to finish me?”

“Nope. I’m going to leave you tied.”

What the
fuck?
“Elijah…”

“I have work to do.” He climbs from the bed and kicks off his trousers fully. “Right after a shower, that is.”

“Untie me,” I snap, glaring at him.

His answering laugh is all the answer I receive as he pads into the en-suite, leaving me almost naked and definitely vulnerable. The stickiness on my stomach is beginning to tickle as it dries.

This is fucking insane.

“ELIJAH!” I yell, tugging on the tie again. “Get back in here and finish me.”

He whistles causally to himself and I hear the spray of the shower begin.

He’s not kidding. This is a punishment for tricking him into coming home.

“Elijah!” I beg, wishing he didn’t know how to knot properly so I can pull myself free. “I swear I will never blow you again if you don’t untie me this second.”

I get no response so instead I close my eyes and plot my revenge.

It feels as though my eyes have closed for only moment when something warm, soft and wet rubs away the stickiness on my stomach. I keep them shut, refusing to look at him during my sulk.

“I almost feel bad,” he tells me as he cleans away the mess he made on my skin. “And still horny. I can’t decide if I should simply use your prone body until I’m so sated I can’t move, or if I should grant you the orgasm you so strongly desire and then use your prone body until I’m so sated I can’t move.”

“I don’t desire anything but to be free.”

“I know that’s a lie.” His finger gently caresses the glistening folds between my tightly shut thighs. “You’re still wet.”

“Because I haven’t been permitted to clean myself.”

Like before, he climbs onto my body and nudges my legs apart with his. My eyes remain shut. “I want you again, badly.”

I feel evidence of this fact poking against my entrance and bite my lip to stem my lustful murmurs.

“Say you’re sorry, untie me and I might let you fuck me.” I state.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Love, but you’re in no state to bargain.”

He’s not wrong.

Fuck
.

My eyes open, shooting daggers directly into his.

“I merely find that threatening gaze rather sexy.” His lips touch mine and his nose nudges my own. “May I be permitted entry so as to give you the orgasm you so desperately need?”

My body shakes and pulses.

“I find that permission enough.” He grins and pieces us together like the jigsaw pieces of a two-piece puzzle. Never in all of my life have I ever felt so full, so perfectly fitted to another. Not that I’ve had many others.

Despite the game he played and the length of time I was left alone, my arousal is still strong and within minutes I find myself falling over the edge on a silent screaming wave of euphoric bliss.

If I did not love him before, I certainly do now.

“Would you be offended if I install a pole in every room?” He asks as his fingers gently tickle up the length of my spine before tracing a path back down.

“Only if you requested I dance to an audience other than yourself.” I state, nuzzling my cheek into his chest.

“I would never do that. The thought of sharing you makes me feel nauseous.”

I wince at the thought his words trigger. “I should call Max.”

His body tenses beneath mine so I slide my leg higher up his thighs and lean onto him. The delicate tracing of his fingers doesn’t desist, despite the fact he’s clearly feeling some amount of stress over what I’ve said.

“He needs to hear it from me that it’s over. I’ve avoided him for long enough.”

“Is it wrong that I’m jealous?”

At this, my own body tenses. “Jealous?”

“I guess I fear he’ll convince you to return to him.”

“Never.” I kiss the space between his brows and roll my body fully onto his. My fingers twizzle the fine hairs beneath his neck. “I felt that way when I heard you were visiting your wife.”

His smile flashes and I find myself mesmerised by how handsome he is. “We’re a pair of fools then, aren’t we?”

Giggling, I turn my head and rest it under his chin. “That we are.”

“So… how are you going to tell him?”

“I’m going to call him when I find the courage.”

“I’d like to be there,” he whispers against my hair.

This makes me happy. “Good, because I think I might need the support.”

We shower together and eat the pie I made with Mildred before finally sitting down to make the call. My hands shake as I hold my phone in my hands and press the green button. Elijah keeps a comforting hand on the back of my neck as I listen to the dial tone through the speaker.

“Liv?” Max’s sad voice carries loudly into the room.

“Hey, Max.” I wince at how awkward I sound. Elijah squeezes my neck for support. “I thought I should call…”

“You just left.” He states. “You just fucking left me.”

“I know. I should have texted you or something.”

“You just walked the fuck away, without a goodbye.”