Submit to Desire (3 page)

Charlotte took a slow, deep breath.

“Okay, I’ll stay for a few days. Maybe a month. I’ve been
trying to take a vacation for two years.”

Kingsley turned his head and smiled at her with a cocked
eyebrow.

“
Ma chérie
…this will be no
vacation.”

And then he laughed and something in that laugh caused her toes
to curl and dig into the rug under her feet. The laugh rippled up her body and
wrapped around her hips and dug like fingers into her stomach.

“Right…” she said, suddenly very aware of her nakedness under
the bathrobe. Knowing Kingsley still had the handcuffs on his wrists came as
both a relief and a disappointment. “I should go and let you get to work, I
guess.”

Charlotte started for the door but stopped before she
leaving.

“I should probably take those off you,” she said, remembering
the handcuffs.

Gasping, Charlotte found herself with her back pressed to the
door and Kingsley’s arms imprisoning her on either side. The handcuffs dangled
impotently off his right wrist.

“
Pas de problème
, Charlie. Anything
that needs taking off…I will do it.”

At first fear alone kept Charlotte frozen to the door. She
sensed the iron strength in Kingsley’s arms, in his body, that had her trapped
in place. Kingsley pushed forward until his hips pressed into her hips, his
chest into breasts, and the fear turned to another feeling equally powerful but
no less terrifying.

“Let me go,” she whispered.

“
Non
. Not yet.” Kingsley caressed
the right side of her face with his fingertips. “You’re here to learn. This is
your first lesson. The man I’ll train you for enjoys games like this…games of
passion and fear. He will want you ready for him always. In the middle of the
night he might wake you with his hunger. He may find you reading in the evening
and without a word take your book from you and your clothes. You will try to
pass him in the hallway, and he will stop you with his arms, turn you around,
press you to the wall and force himself inside you.
Comprende?
”

Charlotte swallowed hard.

“So this is the lesson? Learning to keep my mouth shut while he
does whatever he wants to me?”

Kingsley shook his head. He slid his hand from her face and
down the front of her body. She inhaled as Kingsley cupped her left breast and
gently kneaded her nipple with his thumb and forefinger.

“The lesson is that you must learn to speak when he does
something you do not want him to do. Do you know what a safe word is, Charlie?
We use them in my world.”

“No…” she breathed as liquid need began to gather in her
hips.

“It’s a word, any word, that the two parties involved agree
upon. It is the word that you must use to stop whatever is happening to you that
you don’t want.”

“I can’t say no?”

“No. For this man I will train you for,” Kingsley said as he
moved his hand lower over her quivering stomach, “the word
no
gasped in fear, in protest, will only stoke his passion further.
It is a game, you see. The more you resist the more he will desire you. Say ‘no’
and he will carry on. Say ‘stop’ and he will not stop. Say ‘don’t’ if you wish
but he will do whatever he will do. Tell me to stop. I dare you.”

Kingsley shifted his hand from her stomach to between her
legs.

“Stop it,” she whispered although she didn’t mean it.

“Stop what? This?” Kingsley’s middle finger slipped inside her.
Closing her eyes tight, Charlotte thrust her hips out and into Kingsley’s
hand.

“Yes,” she replied, panting the word. “Stop that.”

“Should I stop this, too?” He pushed a second finger into her
and began to move his hand, thrusting in and out of her with his fingers.

Charlotte nodded, unable to speak from the sheer pleasure of
his touch.

She sensed Kingsley’s mouth at her ear.

“Non,”
he said again. “I’m enjoying
myself too much to stop. You feel exquisite inside. So warm, so wet…did you know
if you touch right here—” Kingsley twisted his hand and pressed the tip of his
finger hard and deep into a spot one inch inside her “—I can feel your
pulse?”

“Kingsley…” His name was the only word Charlotte could push
past her lips. He apparently took it as an encouragement because a third finger
joined the second and Charlotte had to open her legs wider to take it.

“Now pretend for a moment that you aren’t actually enjoying
this as much as we both know you are,” Kingsley said, making lazy circles with
his hand inside her. “Shocking thought,
oui?
”

“Oui,”
Charlotte agreed. She truly
couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt anything so erotic. The expertise of
his technique, the pressure, the movements were beyond pleasurable, but far more
so was the power of the man who held her pressed to the door and refused to let
her go even as she said “no” and “stop” and “don’t.”

“Let us say you really did want me to stop, but I love that
word, love your protests, far too much to heed it. And we both know when you say
‘stop’ you don’t really mean it. Not with me. So you should have a word that
truly means stop and to that alone will I listen. That is your safe word. Do you
understand?”

“I think so.” Charlotte grasped his left forearm and held onto
him as she felt her climax building. Hung over…scared…in a stranger’s house…and
yet she could scarcely breathe for her desire. “So what’s my safe word?”

The muscles deep inside her tightened around Kingsley’s hand.
She felt a rush of wetness between her thighs.

“As you are my little red-headed fire-breather, your safe word
should be ‘dragon.’ You must say it whenever you truly wish me to stop whatever
I’m doing. No other word, no amount of struggling will do it.”

Charlotte’s breathing turned hard and heavy as Kingsley’s hand
moved faster and deeper into her. His thumb massaged her clitoris. Never before
had she been with a man who knew how to manipulate a woman’s body so well.

With his lips Kingsley traced a path from Charlotte’s ear to
her shoulder. Charlotte dug her fingernails into the fabric of his jacket.

“So if you truly wish me to stop what I’m doing, Charlie, you
will say…?”

“Dragon.”

Kingsley pulled his hand abruptly out of her body and took a
step back. Charlotte nearly collapsed from the sudden shock of his departure as
her vaginal muscles fluttered in protest.

“C’est ça,”
Kingsley said. “It’s
like magic.”

Kingsley stepped forward, took her hand and kissed the back of
it.

“Get settled in,” he said. “I’m off to work now. No rest for
the wicked.”

Kingsley pulled her away from the door, opened it and strolled
into the hall whistling a song she thought might have been the French national
anthem.

Charlie closed her eyes and imagined fire shooting out of her
mouth and burning Kingsley to the ground. She must have actually audibly hissed
because Kingsley stopped whistling long enough to call back to her.

“Patience, Charlie. We have all month.”

* * *

Charlotte spent the rest of the afternoon in the bedroom
Kingsley had assigned to her, a bedroom nearly as luxurious as his own. His
secretary came in and gathered information from her—emergency contacts, food
preferences, even allergies.

“Allergies?” Charlotte had asked.

“Yes. Latex, for example?” Kingsley secretary answered with
hardly a blink or a blush.

“Oh, God.”

An hour after returning from her apartment with a month’s worth
of clothes and supplies, Charlotte tried to get some sleep but her mind wanted
to wander down far too many dangerous paths. Kingsley Edge… The one and only
Kingsley Edge. She finally worked up the courage to call her younger brother and
let him know a little of what was going on.

Simon sighed heavily, so heavily Charlotte nearly laughed
aloud.

“You sure about this, Char?” Simon asked.

“I like him.”

“Do you like him because he rich and infamous or because you
actually like him?”

Charlotte thought about the question, a perfectly valid one,
for a few seconds before answering.

“Yes.”

After getting Simon’s blessing, or at least his promise to not
call the police, Charlotte hung up and stared around the room still not quite
believing she’d be spending the next month here. What would Kingsley do with her
during her stay? Part of her was terrified at the prospect. Another much bigger
part of her couldn’t wait to find out.

Charlotte started as an envelope slipped in under her door. She
picked it up and found a hand-written invitation.

Charlie—Present yourself at my bedroom
door this evening at nine o’clock. Wear your finest. We shall attend a
piano recital in the Music Room. Do not be late. The consequences will be
both severe and enjoyable if you are.

Charlotte corrected herself. Invitation? No, this was a
summons. And although she knew she should bristle at the order to present
herself on time or be punished, she almost wanted to be late simply to force
Kingsley to make good on his threat.

For a solid hour, Charlotte stood before the bathroom mirror
primping for the recital. She did her makeup quickly and spent the rest of the
time curling her waist-length hair into thick red waves. The fanciest dress she
had was a little black number. Hopefully the effect of her hair would distract
Kingsley from the simplicity of the dress.

At nine on the dot, Charlotte stood outside Kingsley’s bedroom
door waiting impatiently. She still barely knew the man. The more time that
passed from their one long conversation this morning, the more she questioned
her decision to stay with him for the month. This was crazy, right? Spending a
month with a stranger? No one in her right mind would have agreed to his offer.
Why was she doing this?

Kingsley opened the door.

Okay, that was why.

“Wow,” she said when all other words failed her.

He wore a black suit with silver buttons on the
black-and-silver embroidered vest. His riding boots had been polished to a
near-reflective shine and had she looked down she would have seen her wide-eyed
face staring back at her.

“You approve?” Kingsley asked, a slight smile at the corner of
his sensual lips.

Charlotte slowly nodded. “Um…yes. You look…damn.”

“And you,
ma chérie
, look
enchanting.” Kingsley took her hand and kissed the back of it. “Utterly
exquisite.” Raising her hand over her head, he spun her in a slow circle. “
Parfait
, Charlie.”

“Merci,”
she said and curtsied.
“The dress isn’t much. But it’s all I have that’s semiformal.”

Kingsley took her by the arm and they started down the
hallway.

“It will look lovely on the floor by my bed.”

Charlotte blushed and laughed.

“Is there any particular reason why you dress like it’s the
nineteenth century instead of the twenty-first?”

“There’s only one reason that matters,” he said as he escorted
down to the main level of his home. “Because I can.”

Still on his arm he led her to the Music Room. Kingsley
introduced her to his guests. Most of men sat on the chairs and the love seats.
But although there was enough room for all, a few of the women sat on the floor
at the feet of the men they’d come with. One woman, almost forty and stunningly
beautiful, took an imperious seat on a chair and snapped her fingers. Her date,
a young man of about thirty, sat at her feet. Charlotte looked down at Kingsley.
He had a wicked gleam in his eyes and watched her. She sank to the floor and
leaned back against his knee. He ran a hand possessively through her hair. Now
she knew why no one asked her who she was or how she’d met Kingsley. All his
guests were part of his kinky little community.

Charlotte adjusted herself and found the floor was actually
quite comfortable. The carpeting was thick and lush and Kingsley’s fingers in
her hair and on her neck felt extraordinary—sensual and seductive and also
relaxing. She could stay here all night.

A tall blond man entered to a smattering of applause and sat at
the piano. Charlotte’s eyes widened when she saw he was dressed like a priest. A
beautiful young woman with black hair followed him and sat on the floor next to
the piano bench. Once the applause ceased, the man began to play. Charlotte sat
entranced by the breathtakingly handsome pianist and the woman who rested so
contentedly at his feet.

Kingsley leaned forward and put his mouth at her ear.

“I know he’s handsome as the devil, Charlie. And you’re welcome
to look all you want. But don’t touch. That,” he said, inclining his head toward
the piano playing priest and the young woman, “is a love match.”

“A love match?” she asked. “One of yours?”

“Oh, no. Destiny brought those two together. I had nothing to
do with it. When destiny fails, that’s when I get called.”

“You should put that on your business cards,” she joked.

Kingsley reached into his pocket and handed her a black
business card embossed with silver lettering. “Kingsley Edge, CEO, Edge
Enterprises.
When destiny fails…
” it read.

She covered her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud as
she looked up at Kingsley. He was smiling at her. But it wasn’t a normal smile
of mirth or pleasure, but a smile that sent her body temperature shooting up a
few degrees.

Charlotte turned away and tried to let the music calm her down.
But it was such passionate music played so skillfully that Charlotte felt it
wanted to seduce her as much as Kingsley. And both were succeeding. By the time
the recital ended Charlotte was so desperate for Kingsley that she pretended to
stumble when standing just so she could lean her full weight against him. He
pulled her close to him, and she inhaled his scent. He smelled warm and
masculine and every nerve in her body sat on edge at his nearness. When he bade
his guests a swift goodbye and escorted her back upstairs, she was nearly
shaking with eagerness. They stopped at the door to her room.