Pretty in Kink (20 page)

Never mind the fact you just
allowed
him to
control you in the most intimate of ways. And loved every minute of it.

Diego strode to her, his hand clamping on her arm with a
force that gave her no other choice but to look straight into his eyes. He
glared down at her through slits of anger. “Did you forget you begged me? ‘I
want you to tie me up. I want to make love in that big four-poster bed of
yours.’ Do those words sound familiar?”

She tried to wrestle her arm free, but he wouldn’t let her
budge. “What? What are you talking about?”

“Your words,” he repeated. “Those were your words spoken to
me soon after you arrived on my doorstep not an hour ago.”

Her mind tore back through the last hour, through to that
thorough sex session and what had led up to it, further still to the moment
she’d climbed from the cab in an emotional turmoil.

She groaned, her exhausted memory confirming his point. “Oh
shit.”

“Yeah, oh shit’s right.”

He released her arm. She turned, sat on the edge of the bed
with a plop. “I…whew.”

Diego tipped her chin up. “I would never hurt you, or force
you to do things you didn’t want to do. Remember your safe word?”

“Pink,” she murmured, her face flaming.

He nodded, his mouth thinning into a tight smile. “Yes,
pink. And except for just now when I let you loose, I don’t recall hearing it
once tonight.”

“The photographs. Did you submit them to the magazine
contest?” When he gritted his teeth but remained silent, she demanded, “Did
you, damn it?
Did
you?”

“No. But I sure would like to know who did, because I’m
going to kill that bastard with my bare hands.”

It had a true enough ring to it, but Britt would not play
the fool any longer. She crossed her arms over her midriff. “Noble of you.”

“I swear, I’m going to make whoever did this to you pay
within inches of his life.” He jammed on his jeans and left them unzipped. The
sexiness of it sent a punch of desire to her womb.

She stood, sat back down. “How did you know about the
contest then? Is the magazine one of your subscriptions?”

“Yes, it is.” He blew out a breath, sat next to her and
rubbed on her neck. “Look, the truth is, I did see the pictures early on.”

She flung his hand away. “What?”

“Shh, just listen. The kid at the drugstore counter got them
out of the drawer for me then Lexi rang them up and bagged them. She didn’t
look at the envelope at that point, and neither did I. I didn’t realize it was
the wrong pictures until I got home. It was that night we met.”

He trailed a finger along her thigh. “Then I went back to
the store and took yours with me, exchanged them. And yes, as I said, I looked
at them, but at first I thought they were mine.” He took her face in his hands,
keeping her gaze on his, and shook her with a gentle though firm force. “But
you were
so
gorgeous, so kinky and pretty and…I just couldn’t help
myself once I got a look at the picture on the top of the stack. I’m sorry,
baby. So sorry I breached your privacy, and so sorry I didn’t tell you before
now.”

“I…” Britt swallowed. “I don’t know what to say.”

Wow. He’d ended up with her pictures after all. But was she
just as guilty as he of not being able to resist temptation? That night he’d
cuffed her to the chair on his deck, she’d hoped he
had
gotten a hold of
the pictures somehow. She’d gotten off on waiting to see the next pose he’d
enact, on the absurdness of it. She’d even been thrilled over the idea that she
could seduce him and control him through those racy snapshots. The thought of
it as her own secret foreplay had made her wet and horny.

How could she blame him after her own part in it?

“Please, don’t say anything yet. Just let me finish
explaining, unloading, getting it all out on the table, okay?”

She nodded.

“Anyway, the store made a stupid, negligent mistake, but for
me, I had settled in at home thinking I’d be looking at a pack of pictures,
which were technically Carolyn’s. See, she’d asked me to pick them up for her.
I suspected they were of Tyler, figured she’d been keeping them from me as
usual. Well, they were far from Tyler. They were of you. Then later that
evening, you crashed into my life, changing it forever. I didn’t tell you about
the store’s mistake or me looking at them because I didn’t want to alarm you or
embarrass you. Or make you think I was some creep. Again, you were
so
hot, so damn irresistible I couldn’t
not
look at them then I couldn’t
not
ask you out on a date. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have on either account. But I
didn’t make copies, I didn’t show them to anybody and I sure as hell didn’t
enter them in a contest for the whole fucking world to see.”

Hope bloomed in her heart. “Really?”

“Really. Britt, I want you all to myself.” He shook her
again, held her gaze with his pleading one. “You’ve got to believe me. It makes
me so damn crazy to think you’re out there in circulation for more than a
million subscribers to drool over.”

It took a long moment for everything to finish sinking in
and for her nerves to assimilate to the rational calm he offered her. It all made
sense, but it still didn’t explain how the pictures got into the magazine. Was
Lexi lying to her? Another possibility she hadn’t considered…maybe Doris had
some twisted reason to blow Britt’s career out of the water? She couldn’t
fathom why, but now that she thought about it, Doris had it in her to be
underhanded and come up with some bizarre scheme to net herself more
commission.

Or was it as simple as someone breaking into the store and
happening on the pictures, then submitting them to the contest?

It was all so farfetched, and such a convoluted mystery, she
didn’t know where to go from here.

“I swear to you, I didn’t do this.” He bent, brushed a
feather-soft kiss across her open mouth. “I don’t blame you though, for
suspecting me. I’m sorry, I should have told you, but you were so…innocent, I
didn’t want to scare you away. So I understand your suspicions.”

Her gaze locked with his, warm and tender even though she’d
just accused him of being dishonest in that Lexi-Doris fashion. Calm now with
truth seeping into her bones, she knew an absurd urge to tear her stare from
his and drink in the sight of the cock peeping from his jeans. “You really saw
them right before we ran into each at the drugstore?”

He nodded. “Yes. By accident. And if I could take that night
back, I wouldn’t have looked at them at all. I would’ve probably still bumped
into you though, and still gotten a date.” He grinned. “But wow. You hooked me
from the first shot, and I’d become almost obsessed by the time I got to the
last one. So stunning, like a naughty angel or something. You had my heart in
chains from the start.
You
were the one dominating things, not me. But
I’m still sorry, baby, sorry for looking at them, for not telling you, for
falling in love with you from the moment I pulled that stack out of the
envelope.”

“Falling?” She swallowed a tight lump. “Y-you’re falling in
love with me?”

He kissed her with tender heat. “You’re damn right. Falling
hard and fast. And I swear I’m going to find out who did this thing to you with
that contest, to clear myself, sure, but mostly to avenge you and hope your
modeling career isn’t damaged for good.”

“Aw, thank you.” She leaned in and sealed her lips to his.
“I guess I jumped the gun, didn’t I? I’m…I’m sorry I got so mad at you.”

He drew her into the circle of his arms and held her head
against his chest. He rubbed a hand up and down her spine, making her drowsy,
relaxed. “No problem, darlin’. I don’t mind being your buffer. I’m sure it was
a rotten day learning those pictures were in that magazine.” His hand paused.
His pectorals tensed beneath her cheek. “You had no idea about the contest?”

She could have worked her indignant ire back up to a full
mad, but his hands were doing such nice things to her, she hated to break the
spell. Instead, she inhaled his musky scent, all but melting into him. Every
muscle in her body went limp with relaxation.

“No. Well, actually, it was Lexi’s shoot and her idea to
enter the contest. I agreed at first but I changed my mind, chickened out, so I
took them back from her once they were found. I thought they were safe with me,
the last traces burning in my fireplace. I had no idea they’d been published
until Doris got wind of it from a rep for a prospective job—a very lucrative
one, Victoria’s Secret.” She made a face and snuggled closer. “And now, need I
say, Doris is livid that I might have lost the deal for her, and I’m left
trying to defend myself so my reputation’s halfway preserved in the business.
Who knows if I’ll ever work again, or get that kind of an opportunity?”

“You will.” Such a simple sentence, but Britt heard the
conviction in his voice and it warmed her heart. An urge swept her to reassure
and explain further to him.

“Diego, I swear after I changed my mind, I didn’t authorize
those photos to be put in that magazine. Yes, at the time they were taken, Lexi
had worked her magic on me and had me convinced no one would ever know it was
me. In her convoluted mind, we’d both walk away with an easy twenty-five grand.
She has this way about her…I don’t know, kind of persuasive. I’ve often told
her she should be a politician.” She laughed. “Anyway, by the time the pictures
were even dry at the lab, I’d gone spineless and put a stop to it. But
apparently she didn’t respect my wishes.”

The more he massaged, the more the last traces of tension
eased from her body. He relaxed as well, though she wasn’t sure if her
reassuring words did it, or the blissful closeness re-forming between them.

“Ah yes, Lexi. She’s a stubborn one, isn’t she?”

“Very.”

He sighed. “What do you say we change the subject? You
should get some sleep. Come here.” He drew her with him to the head of the bed,
tossed aside the blankets. She settled in with her back to him, curling her
weary body spoon-fashion into his. “Here with me in this big four-poster bed of
mine. The one you look so delicious tied to.”

The corners of her mouth curved up even as her eyelids
drooped. “And it was heaven, so naughty and decadent. But, Diego?” Her muscles
let out a sigh of their own when her head sank into a downy pillow. An
outdoor-fresh fragrance filled her nostrils. It pleased her how clean and neat
he was.

“Yeah? He kissed the back of her head and combed a hand
through her hair, making her scalp shimmer with goose bumps. “What is it,
sweetheart?”

“I don’t mind the naughtiness. I love it, in fact. I just
don’t want the whole world to see it. I want it to be just between you and me.”

He squeezed her tight, drawing her along the bend of his
body. “My sentiments exactly. You’re mine. This is ours. I don’t want to share
it with anyone else…except maybe to see you and Michelle together.” He
chuckled. “Now just sleep, babe, sleep.”

She needed to hit the bathroom, but exhaustion claimed every
muscle, every cell of her tired brain. “Ha-ha, very funny. I’ll think about it,
about Michelle. Night,” she whispered.

“Good night, Britt.”

The soothing, raspy tone lulled her further into relaxation.
She longed to ask him more about his encounter with Lexi today, but a muzzy fog
overtook her as the last thoughts of consciousness passed through her mind.

One of many questions formed on her heavy tongue as she gave
in to the clutches of slumber. Lexi’s phone message had been filled with
negative comments about Diego. And Britt knew he’d have some very colorful
things to say about Lexi as well. But Britt’s inquisitions slipped away,
carried into the dreamy bliss of long-awaited sleep.

“What do you want?” Britt spun from the door, leaving it
ajar. She didn’t feel up to dealing with Lexi first thing in the morning. Diego
had dropped her off not thirty minutes ago. Even though they’d gotten little
sleep, and had made love several times throughout the night, life and energy
still sizzled in her system.

Until now.

“We need to talk.” Her eyes were puffy, her face drawn and
void of makeup, unusual for the flamboyant Lexi Sorensen. “I haven’t told you
everything.”

“Everything? I don’t think there could possibly be more to
this whole mess.” Speaking over the breakfast bar, Britt slathered a thin layer
of butter on dark toast. Screw that bland diet margarine she’d used in the
past. She wanted the real thing now, the sinful things in life.

Britt tried to focus on the perk of the coffeepot and the
eye-opening aroma wafting through her apartment. She resented Lexi’s tainting
of her mood and the glowing memories of the night before. Still, dread ate away
at her gut, though she made a concerted effort to appear unfazed.

Lexi slid onto a barstool, her gaze level as she folded her
hands on the countertop. Britt noted the slight trembling. She longed to take
Lexi into her arms and comfort her, but the sentiment faded when she reminded
herself of Lexi’s betrayal with the photos and the contest.

“He had the pictures that night.”

Britt paused, the knife poised over the warm toast. “He?”

“Yes, he. Diego.”

The palpitation whooshed up into her throat to strangle her.
Here we go with the drama.
The knife slipped from her hand and clanked
against the countertop before tumbling to the floor. “I know. He told me last
night.”

“He did? About when the packet went missing and that he
ended up with it?”

“Yes. But he didn’t submit them to the magazine, I’m certain
of it now.”

Lexi planted her palms on the tiled surface. “Hm. You sure
are whipped,” she mumbled under her breath.

“Stop it, Lex. I don’t want to hear it.”

“Well.
Some
one—and I swear to freaking god it wasn’t
me—took that packet from where I left it on the break table, made copies
and
sent them in to the magazine. Wait a second.” Her eyes widened. “Omigod.
Mansini versus Malone, get it?”

Britt bit into her toast, sighing when the sinful butter
melted in her mouth. “Yes. I already got that part.”

“Aha. I’ve finally pulled the mystery together. Ding-dong.
It just hit me. I bet that someone is my fucking bonehead teenaged assistant,
Jaxon. He just came in to work driving a brand-new car. Now where would he get
the money for
that
working as a lowly clerk in the store?”

Britt couldn’t speak. Her voice clogged in her throat and
her body shook so hard she couldn’t control it. “You think Jaxon did it?”

“Maybe so. It fits. But I do know I’ll corner that little
bastard and find out the truth. And I also know
I
was not the one who
submitted them to the magazine.”

“Okay, okay. I believe you.” She waved a hand and poured
them both a cup of black coffee.

Lexi grinned, took the cup and blew on the steam. “You do?”

“I do, and I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. But holy cow. He’s
just a teenager. And he saw me? Like
that
?”

Lexi paused, and in the swirl of dizziness, Britt thought
she saw vengeance there. “No. Wait. I remember his mom saying something about
getting him a car for his birthday. Shit.”

“That’s right, this is so shitty,” Britt said, taking a
small sip of coffee and burning her tongue. “It’s getting so confusing. I don’t
know what to do.”

“Britt, you’re not going to like me saying this but…”

“What?”

Lexi swallowed. “It
has
to be Diego who submitted
them to the contest. There’s no other way they could have gotten there. Someone
got a hold of them and copied them—which I take responsibility for doing the
dumb shoot in the first place. The credits in the mag give ‘Anonymous’ as the
winner. I called the magazine and tried to get information, but due to a
privacy policy, they refuse to release the name of the entrant—who also won
fifty fucking thousand dollars by using
my
photography work of
your
body. There’s no one else besides you, me, Jaxon and Diego who’s had the pics
in their hands.”

No, not again.
She’d accused him then believed him,
now she wavered again.

“No.” Britt pressed a hand to her pitching stomach. “No. I…I
think I’m going to throw up. It’s not him. I really don’t think it’s him—and
it’s not because I’m heart-whipped. I talked to him about this and I believe
him. In fact, he’s hell-bent on finding the bastard who
did
do this.”

Lexi rounded the counter and took Britt in her arms, her
wild-scented perfume filling Britt’s nostrils and making her even more
nauseated. Lexi rubbed her back and cooed, “I’m so sorry, Britty, I’m so sorry.
I would never hurt you intentionally. Never. B-but I think
he
would.”

His words reverberated in her mind, words she’d held on to
at the time like a lovesick teen.
Ah, babe, you might be the one tied up,
but let me tell you, you’ve got my heart imprisoned. I’m falling hard.

Falling hard, yes, and so was she.

“He used me, true.” Speaking it made it even more real.
Britt wiggled herself out of Lexi’s embrace and stared at her, wishing to god
Diego was here with her to help her explain this whole mess. “You, or someone
in your shop, gave him my pictures by accident. He didn’t realize it until he
got home and had the pictures out. He…he was mesmerized and couldn’t resist
looking at them all. He says he fell in love from that moment on, even
reenacting several of the poses with me. But he returned them right away and
got his—the ones of his son.”

Lexi’s eyes flared in shock, but Britt went on. “Yes, we’ve
been together ever since and we’ve made phenomenal love. He tied me up and took
me to places I’ve never been to before. I even had a few déjà vu moments about
our lovemaking mirroring the poses, but I dismissed them like some obsessed,
lovesick, sappy idiot.”

Lexi heaved a sigh. Suspicion and dread darkened her eyes.
“Lovesick? Aw shit, Britty. Please tell me you’re not in love with him.”

“No, I-I… Oh Lexi, I don’t know. I can’t figure it all out.
But please. It
can’t
be him.” Britt stumbled back and crashed into the
wall right next to the trash can. She slid down the cold surface and collapsed
on the floor in a crumpled mess.

“Britty, sweetheart, please don’t—”

“No, no,” she wailed, burying her face in her hands. “It
can’t be. Please tell me I’m not in love with a man who can manipulate me into
believing him one minute then I talk to you and I’m thinking maybe he’s a
no-good loser.”

Lexi sat on the floor Indian-style. She took Britt’s hands
in hers. “You’re not in love with that no-good, untrustworthy ‘hoodlum’. I
hope.”

Emotions washed through her, ones that made her chest ache
and her body long for a man who wasn’t even a real man after all. “I… I-I think
it’s too late. I think I
am
in love with him.”

“Yes. I know.” Lexi blew out a resigned breath. “You’re in
love with him.”

“Why didn’t I listen to you and Doris?”

Lexi pulled a face. “You didn’t listen to Doris because,
well, Doris is always dissing your choices.” She smiled and a fond twinkle lit
her eyes. She brushed a strand of hair from Britt’s forehead. “And you didn’t
listen to me because you were in love from the first moment you met him. Hell,
I could have been in love with him if it weren’t for the fact I was too busy
worrying over the pictures and trying to steer you clear of him.”

“He brought the pictures back that night.”

Lexi nodded in short jerks. “Yes. He had pictures of his
own, and his address is in our computer system. That’s how I knew where to find
you the night I burst in on you at his house. I about shit an elephant when I
saw you two talking at the store.”

Ah, his address in the store computer. So many unanswered
things are becoming clear now.

In all the confusion, she’d forgotten about that, about
questioning how Lexi had known where to find her. But it wasn’t important
anymore.

“I swear I wasn’t trying to be deceitful, Britt. I just
didn’t see any need to alarm you when, at the time, I assumed the fuckup with
the missing pictures was over. When I banged on Diego’s door that night, I had
no idea they were going to show up in the magazine—but as I said, I think he
did. And I about shit elephant number two when he sat all smug-like at his
house. We argued outside that night.”

“You did?”

She nodded, glanced away with a guilty flush. “Yes, and I
know I should have told you. We argued so loud, I’m surprised you didn’t hear
us. But what ended up happening was, he sort of blackmailed me.”

“What?”

“Well, I kind of started it. I told him I’d inform you that
he’d looked at your private pictures and asked you on a date just so he could
see how many of those poses he could get you to reenact. In spite of the fact
he’s the epitome of the bad-boy poster guy, I talked myself into thinking he
wouldn’t dare get all kinky with you the same way as in the pics. But it sounds
like my initial instincts were right from the start.”

Britt’s pulse pounded. She shot to her feet. The more Lexi
revealed, the tighter the noose got around Diego’s neck. And the more foolish
she felt. She flexed her fingers and asked, “So then he blackmailed you back?”

“Yep, the jerk.” She stared up at Brit, her eyes narrowed.
“And he had me good. He might as well’ve dumped me in a vat of wet concrete as
much as I was stuck between a rock a damn hard spot.”

“What happened?”
I swear, Diego, you’re dead.

“First of all, the bastard knew I couldn’t tell you he’d
seen your pictures. See, if I told you, I’d also have to admit I’d fucked up by
giving out your pictures to him in the first place. Then he compounded it by
reminding me that if I told you I knew he’d had the snapshots, he threatened to
inform Stan that I’d developed your film at the shop for free. Which, of
course, is what I did and is against store policy massive-time. Not to mention
cause for a manager to call in the law if they choose to. Britt, I’m sorry, but
I couldn’t afford to lose my job. I just hoped my ass off that one of you would
dump the other before anything even became an issue. Though I suppose seeing
that look between you two that first night in the store, I should have known
better.”

How could she have been such a fool last night?

“He’s going to get dumped all right.” All sorts of murderous
scenes flashed through her mind. She flexed her fingers, fisted them so tight,
her fingernails cut through the skin of her palms. “Real good.”

Lexi leaped to her feet, her eyes glazed with vengeance.
“Ah, now that’s the spirit. What can I do to help?”

“Oh no. This is going to be all mine.” Britt stood there,
the tears drying even as she pictured Diego tied to a chair—to anything. Yes,
if her plan worked, it would be satisfying revenge. She shook her head. Never
mind the pain of walking away and giving up on love. She would just have to let
time heal her torn heart. Besides, how can love be real when it’s bound tight with
all those lies?

* * * * *

Diego punched numbers on the calculator. The customer buzzer
sounded and the glass door out in the reception area swung wide. His initial
reaction came as annoyance.

But the woman standing on the threshold proved to be an
angel. Diego’s heart did a trip and stutter. His libido kicked into high gear,
sending a zap to his cock.

Britt stood there gripping the door handle, feet planted
apart, long, loose tresses fluttering in the breeze. It made him think of
Superwoman, her cape flapping behind her just before pursuing and conquering
her enemy. When her gaze met his, her pink-painted mouth curved into a smile
that didn’t quite reach her eyes. As she glided forward, he noted an odd gleam
in them, how they glittered similar to dew on grass in the moonlight. Something
extra shimmered there, confidence, sassiness, dominance perhaps? Or was it
anger?

Distracted by the stunning picture she made, the question
didn’t quite receive the attention it warranted. He scanned her body, his
hungry stare taking in every curvy detail. She wore a tiny pink top with
straps, and it did little to hide the swell of her jiggling, braless breasts.
He rubbed his palms over his thighs to soothe the itch to cup the soft flesh.
His gaze moved down to her abdomen and he praised god for tight, short little
tanks. It rode up so that he got a glimpse of the tanned, flat plane of her
belly. Diego could well remember the silkiness of that skin, the sensation of
dipping a finger or his tongue into that deep navel.

Into her tasty pussy.

“Wow.” He let out a low whistle, shook his head. “Baby, you
look dazzling.”

Low-riding, cropped white pants, the hem snug around
midcalf, drew his eye to that nice V between her legs. Her hips swayed as she
approached, and he got a fleeting image of the tigress on the runway marking
her territory.

“Hello there, Diego.” The purr of her voice confirmed the
cat in her had emerged. His mouth went dry. He held his breath, waiting,
wondering to what he owed this pleasant surprise.

“Hello back.” He lounged in his chair, tried to relax.
“Mmmm, I must say, you’re looking mighty pretty in pink today. Uh, make that
melt-in-my-mouth-like-cotton-candy pretty in pink. Because damn, you sure do
look good enough to eat.”

“Thanks, in spite of that greasy shirt, you’re not looking
too bad yourself.” She stepped up to the desk, curled her long pink-tipped
fingers over the corner. Leaning forward, she snared his eyes with hers and
asked, “How about going for a ride?”