Shades of Pleasure: Five Stories of Domination and Submission (9 page)

The guestrooms were all very nice. Kyler’s room made them
look like rooms at a cheapskate motel. It was decorated nothing like the rest
of the house. Instead of the contemporary style of the main living areas and
guest bedrooms, it was much more elegant, sophisticated, yet traditional. A bed
the size of a football field sat in the center of one wall, framed by
floor-to-ceiling windows draped in gorgeous curtains. Three walls were painted
a soft silvery-blue. The fourth, the one with the bed and windows, was a deep,
cool brown, with the exception of directly behind the headboard. That section
of wall boasted three large white panels, framed in ornate trim. The bed itself
was a masterpiece. The black headboard had a sexy, slightly French-ish, curved
shape and was hand-painted with swirling ivy and flowers. In another room, it
might’ve looked feminine, but not in this one.

A noise downstairs reminded her of why she’d better hurry.
She ran across the thickly carpeted floor to the first of two nightstands
situated on either side of the bed. She checked the surface for a phone then
ran around the bed and checked the other one.

No phone?

She did a quick three-sixty then headed for what she hoped
might be a walk-in closet on the other side of the room. Nope. Bathroom. And no
laundry basket. She tried the door next to it. Score!

She stepped into one of those closet rooms, the kind that
had cedar walls and fancy built-in furniture with shoe racks and drawers. On
one shelf, she found a basket, and her keys. No phone.

Well, one out of two wasn’t bad. She could still use her
cell, call Ashley, schedule a time for them to meet, and then head back to the
restaurant to get her car.

On the way, she’d tell Ashley everything. No sense keeping
it from her anymore. Ashley might be tempted to do something foolish to set
things right, but now that Elena had pretty much accepted the fact that her job
was history, there wasn’t much damage an enraged out-of-control best friend
could do.

She jammed her keys in her pocket and hurried down the hall,
back to her room. She called Ashley, told her she desperately needed her help,
told her the address—thank God Kyler had left a pile of mail in his closet.
They planned on meeting in exactly one hour.

Elena didn’t want Kyler to know she’d left, at least not
right away. She told Ashley she’d meet her down the street, and warned her not
to come to the house no matter what. Her phone chirped a warning just as they
were wrapping up the brief conversation, and died just before she ended the
conversation.

She stuffed her useless phone in her purse and rushed back
down the stairs. She made it as far as the front door when Kyler came
sauntering from a room just to the left of the door.

He looked her up and down. “Where are you going?”

She thought about lying. Then she thought about telling the
truth. It was too late for the lies to do any good anymore. “I’m leaving. But
don’t worry, I won’t bother going to work on Monday.” She brushed past him, her
gaze locked on the door’s handle.

He caught her shoulders and jerked her around. “No, no. We
had a deal.”

He was not going to hold her to that stupid bet, was he?
This whole blackmail thing was so over with. It wasn’t a game anymore, and she
wasn’t deluding herself either. She wasn’t his guest. They weren’t on a date.
And he didn’t give a rat’s ass about her.

Her heart was banging against her breastbone so hard it
hurt. And she could literally see her hands shaking. “I think we both now the
game’s over.” She spun back around, wrapped her fingers around the handle. “You
win.”

Once again, she was hauled back around. She growled as she
tried to fight free of Kyler’s iron-handed grip.

“You’re not leaving.” He dragged her toward the room he’d
just exited, an office with an enormous desk, bookcases, couch, a pair of
chairs and a sleek fireplace.

“Holding me here against my will is false imprisonment.”

“So, are you going to the police?” He rough-handed her
toward the couch. “Sit down.” His face was the shade of a tomato as he glared
down at her.

God, this dominating, controlling jerk thing was pissing her
off. She crossed her arms and stared straight ahead, at the empty fireplace.
“I’d rather stand, thank you. Actually, I’d rather leave but you’re being a
bastard.”

“Fine. Stand then.” He rounded the desk and eased into the
chair behind it. “I’m going to ask you one simple question, and I expect you to
answer it truthfully.”

“Yeah, so, what’s in it for me?”

“That depends,” he said, coolly, resting his elbows on his
desk. “I think you’ve got a whole lot more at stake than I do. Are you a
gambler?”

At least five seconds ticked past, each one measured by the
grandfather clock standing in the room’s corner. “Fine, what’s the question?”

“I just want to know one thing…who the hell are you? I have
a picture of Elena Caine, and you’re not her.”

Well, fuck. The cat was out of the bag now. How had he
discovered her lie? And more importantly, she wondered how many other people
knew.

Petrified, she dropped onto her butt on the couch and
searched his face. Was he ready to call the police? She wished he was genuinely
interested in knowing the answer to the question he’d asked—for more personal
reasons. Wished he was back to being the concerned guy she’d met the first
night. But that guy was long gone.

“I tried to tell you earlier,” she confessed. “In the
kitchen. Remember when I told you about the cousin my brother and I had been
sent to live with?”

His brows furrowed, he nodded, steepled his fingers under
his chin. “Yeah.”

“Well, Elena Caine is—was—her name. How’d you find out?”

“My father has a private detective on the payroll.”

“Your father needs a private detective on his payroll?”

“Long story. We don’t have much time. I’d rather hear
yours.” His voice had softened a little, which was a surprise. She’d pretty
much expected him to keep playing the heartless bastard he’d become since this
morning.

“Mine’s pretty long too, but I can give you the abbreviated
version. I was born Amy Harris. Our cousin, Elena Caine, died shortly after my
brother and I had been sent to live with her—and no, I did not kill her. And
well…my best friend got rid of her body somewhere—I didn’t tell her to—and I
took over Elena Caine’s identity.”

He looked bewildered. She could understand his reaction.
“Why would you do that?”

She stared blindly at the floor, unable to meet his gaze.
“Seems pretty crazy, doesn’t it? Right out of a movie script or crime
television show. In fact, my friend got the idea from a TV program and
convinced me it was the only way. I did it for one reason—my brother.” She
glanced up, afraid of what she’d see.

He encouraged her to continue with a nod. His expression was
totally blank, devoid of all emotion. She had no clue what he was feeling.

“Eddy’s…sick. He has been in and out of the hospital for
much of his life. The only constant in his life has been me. I was afraid that
if he were put into foster care he’d either be abused, misunderstood, neglected
or die.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s severely bipolar. But at the time of my cousin’s death,
we still didn’t have a diagnosis. I was pretty much taking care of him around
the clock. Later, I was given legal power of attorney, or rather Elena Caine
was. I was forever trapped in my lie. There was no going back. And so I’ve
carried around this secret for years. Until Matt found out somehow. He
threatened to have me fired. Without insurance, my brother’s treatment will
stop.”

“Maybe Becker stumbled upon the same photograph my father’s
detective found.” Kyler’s gaze dropped to his desk. His expression turned grim.
He leaned back in his chair. Finally, he lifted his eyes. “Why didn’t you tell
me?”

“Because what I did is against the law, and frankly I didn’t
feel I could trust you. I don’t just go to jail if my lie is discovered. I
could live with that. It’s what it would do to my brother…”

He bit his lower lip. “Yeah.”

The most agonizing silence followed. She felt sick to her
stomach, wondering, waiting. What would Kyler do with the truth?

He finally lifted his head and stood. She watched him walk
across the room, stop in front of her. He scrubbed his face with his hands,
then shoved his hands into his pocket
.
“Your car’s outside. I had it towed
here. Go home, Elena. I’ll figure this out on my own.”

* * * * *

Kyler hit the button, ending the call. Sure enough, at least
some of Elena’s story had been confirmed. Tom and Sue Harris had tragically
died in a car accident, leaving their two children parentless. In addition,
Edward—Eddy—Harris was a patient at the Longfellow Center in downtown Ann Arbor.

Elena had told him the truth, at least about those things.

Before he ended the call with the detective, he gave him one
more assignment, “Check out Stacy Russell for me. Dig deep. Either she’s dirty
or she’s being fed some shitty information from somewhere. I want to know which
one it is.”

* * * * *

Elena must have sat in her car for at least an hour, staring
at Kyler’s house. He’d given her her walking papers, told her she could leave.
He’d take care of everything.

She should be home now, preparing. Checking in on her
brother. And looking to see how much cash she had in her stash, getting ready
to pack up and leave town in a hurry.

But she wasn’t. She couldn’t. Why?

First, because she wanted to know who had told Kyler she was
sleeping with Matt Becker. That was so far from the truth. Just the thought of
that man touching her made her gag.

As she sat there, trying to work up the nerve to leave, a
million thoughts kept running through her head. Should she go to work on Monday
and plant the evidence? Or should she just pack up and leave town? What exactly
was Kyler thinking?

Finally, she decided to go back up to the house and ask him.
There were too many things hanging in the air for her to know how to plan. She
cut off her car’s engine and hurried back up to the front door. Rang the bell.
And waited.

Kyler looked so shocked to see her, she swore she could’ve
knocked him over with a feather.

“I can’t leave yet,” she explained, coolly.

“I’m…surprised. Ummm, come in.” He raked his fingers through
his hair again as he stepped aside to let her in. “I’ve been thinking this past
hour. And, well, earlier. When you…I had no right… Shit, I’m sorry. Not that
I’m making an excuse, because there are none. No matter what, I have no right
to treat you the way I did. But I’d heard one thing from you and something
different from another person, and I was having one hell of a time knowing who
to believe.”

She could understand that. She nodded. “Who told you I was
sleeping with Matt?”

“It doesn’t matter who said what or who you’re sleeping
with. That’s none of my business.”

Wasn’t his business? That was true, but she still felt like
he’d punched her in the gut when he said it.

His gaze dropped to the floor. He shook his head. “I’m so
fucked in the head.” When he finally lifted his head again, his jaw was set.
His expression was so dark, she didn’t know what to think. Suddenly, he turned
around and headed toward his office.

She stood in the foyer for a few minutes, not sure whether
she should follow him or just forget it and head back out to her car. Finally,
she decided to try to get the answers she’d come back for. She stopped at his
office door and, leaning on the doorframe, peered in. “What are you going to do
about Matt blackmailing me? I just need to know, so I can make plans.”

He was sitting at his desk, his face buried in his hands.
“I’m still trying to figure that out.”

“Maybe I should just go away. Leave town. Start over
somewhere.”

He tipped his head up, looking at her. “Where will you go?
What will you do?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know yet. But I might not have a
choice. Once Matt takes the proof he has about my cousin, I’ll be fired. I
wouldn’t put it past him to take the information to the police too, like he
threatened. He’d do that.”

Silence.

“Not if I give him what he wants first.”

“What do you mean?” She followed Kyler with her eyes as he
stood, ran his hands down the front of his creased trousers.

“I could quit. It’s a fucking shame. I didn’t want to leave
my job. It’s the first thing I’ve accomplished without my father’s help, and
it’s taken me over ten years to get where I am. But keeping my pride isn’t
worth the price you’d have to pay.”

Did she just hear right? Kyler was willing to give up his
job—the one that clearly meant more than she had ever guessed—for her?

She sat there, stunned, as he called Matt and told him he’d
won, the VP position was as good as his, but only if he brought the evidence he
had against her…all of it…to his house by six o’clock tonight.

No one had ever done anything that selfless for her. “Thank
you,” she said. It seemed so inadequate but she didn’t know what else to say.
She didn’t have the means to pay him back.

He nodded, toyed with the cordless phone. “I want to make
another phone call. But I won’t, if you tell me not to.”

“Who’re you going to call?”

“My father. I haven’t asked him for any help in years, but
I’d like to see what we can do for you. To keep something like this from coming
up again.”

Kyler had already gone above and beyond, no doubt trying to
make up for his earlier mistreatment. Life had taught her that there was a
price to pay for any favors done for her, at least favors that weren’t owed.
She never liked to owe anyone.

She shook her head. “I don’t know about that. I’d rather you
didn’t.”