The Seduction of Destiny Rhode [The Seduction 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (20 page)

“No, Destiny, you two should share the space, besides if I see him all day, what will I talk to him about at night?”

For some reason a flash of the last time she’d been with Ronan came roaring into her mind, and left her a little breathless. They rarely talked, but then, they weren’t in a relationship. They were just fucking. She cleared her head.

“Well, I still think this should be your space, so I’ll find a new place for Aiden and myself to go. I have to admit, sharing the space with him has worked out very well.” She cleared her throat. “This morning notwithstanding.”

She hoped Cassidy would understand she was simply teasing. When she blushed and smiled, Destiny knew that she had.

“Okay, well I’m going to dig in then.” Cassidy waited as if asking approval.

“Sounds like a plan, and I think I’ll go find Aiden. I know he had something he wanted to tell me about a possible booking in our so-not-ready-for-primetime convention center.” She winked and wandered out of the front desk area.

For the first time she felt at ease about leaving the desk. It had been a constant source of stress up until then, but she had all the faith in the world in Cassidy’s ability to get things running in order. She was excited and enthusiastic.

She ran up to her suite to grab a moment of quiet after what had become quite an eventful morning, only when she arrived she found the box that Ronan must have sent sitting on the small side table right as she walked in the door.

Her stomach knotted. She had agreed to wear whatever he sent, and it had just that second occurred to her that he could have sent her a green dragon costume for all she knew. She pulled the ribbon from the box and noticed two smaller boxes on the table beside it. She turned her focus back to the larger box and pulled off the top.

“Holy fucking hell!” She dropped the lid and placed both her hands over her open mouth.

Ronan was out of his fucking mind if he thought she was going to wear that, and she was about to go find him and tell him so!

Destiny held up the dress that had been in the box. It was stunning, but it was more lingerie than dress. It was made out of the sheerest black material she’d ever seen and had tiny velvet dots from top to bottom. It had long sleeves that flared at the wrists. A thick band of lace emphasized a deeply-cut squared neckline that plunged into a v between where her breasts would be and another band of lace wrapped around the bodice just below the bust line. The dress would barely cover her ass, and anything beneath that fabric would be in plain view to anyone wanting to view it.

“He’s out of his ever-loving freaking mind!”

Then terror struck.

“What the fuck kind of party is he taking me to?”

She thought of all the things they’d done together, of how he was increasingly pushing her for more and more. Every time she wondered where her line would be, when she would finally say no to him, but every time she allowed him to push her, she was always glad she had. It was the strangest thing, but playing with Ronan, was changing her. He was pulling strength from deep within her, strength she never knew she had, and her confidence level was nearly incomprehensible to the woman she was before him.

She pulled the remaining three items from the box. None of them made her feel the least bit more at ease. Although the velvet cloak she supposed was at least something, but the garters and stockings made abundantly clear that there were no panties in the box, and as much as she liked to dress that way on her own, she wasn’t about to do it under a sheer dress that
anyone
could see
everything
under!

She quickly unwrapped the smaller boxes finding an exquisite pair of earrings that sparkled as if they were real diamonds. Even for costume jewelry, they were fine quality, and he must have paid a fortune for them. That made her uneasy. Fuck buddies didn’t spend money like this on one another. Perhaps she needed to enlighten him on this little fact.

In the other box was a thick red satin ribbon and a note.

Wear those red shoes you had on today, and wrap this ribbon around your throat. Tie it the same as you had that ribbon tied around your ankles. ~ Ronan.

She shivered. She heard his voice in her head as if he’d spoken the words right into her mind and ran her hand along her body up to her breasts and caressed them as if it was his hands on her body. She’d told him her deepest secrets at this point. She’d shared with him her darkest fantasies, and he always responds the same way, not shocked, totally accepting. He was wonderful to her. There was no questioning that, and she knew she was safe with him, so maybe…

As she stood there looking at the flimsy scrap of fabric he wanted her to wear, a part of her wanted to put it on for him. A part of her wanted to please him, be sexy for him. She wanted to make him proud. If he wanted to display her that way, or show her off in some way, then God help her, a part of her wanted that, too. It was the same part of her he always tapped into so easily. He made her do things she had only ever fantasized before. He made her feel things she only ever imagined before. When she was with him, his minx, his pet, his slut, he made her feel sexy and treasured and infinitely safe. That safety made her able to reach out and explore things she’d never allowed herself before.

He was bringing out new sides to her personality that she never knew existed before, and she thought she’d buried long since. She was enjoying every moment of it far more than she wanted to admit, but did she dare do what he asked of her this time?

This time it wouldn’t be in the privacy of his room or the semiprivacy they’d found around the resort. This time he was planning to take her out to a party, where there would presumably be other people.

He was very closed mouthed about his past relationships. When they were together, he rarely spoke of anything personal. He kept the conversation focused on her, or on what they were doing, but Aiden’s words constantly lived just on the front of her mind all the time.

You don’t know him.

She looked at the dress again.

But she trusted him.

And he seemed to know her in a way no one else ever had. It seemed to come naturally to him, as if he simply, instinctually knew who she was in her deepest parts. He said he just knew how to read her, but she couldn’t help feel like it was more than that. Somehow they connected in a deeper, more perfect way. She refused to let go of that belief.

But was she ready to trust him
this
much?

If she dressed in this…in this… She held the dress up to the light again, but even in shadow, it was completely sheer. If she dressed in it and went to a party with him in it—she may have been naïve and inexperienced, but she wasn’t dumb—there was only one reason he’d want her to wear this around other people. He planned to share her in some fashion. He was going for her fantasy, and knowing that scared her as much as it thrilled her.

She thought she had such a clear picture of who she was, but since Ronan had walked in to her life, she was beginning to question it.

No. That wasn’t right. It wasn’t that she was questioning who she had become. It was more that she was
remembering
who she was before her mother and Oscar had convinced her otherwise. That quiet awakening was beginning to feel wonderful, and though there used to be a part of her that would have argued she wasn’t brave enough to take a chance like this or to step so far out of her comfort zone, buying the hotel had seemingly rendered that voice silent.

She looked down at her shoes, the ones Ronan wanted her to wear, then pulled the thick ribbon for her neck through her fingers. She wondered what it would look like, what it would feel like. She drew her fingers across her neck, feeling her collar bone. She started to imagine the expression on Ronan’s face if she did what he asked. He wouldn’t push her too far. That much she knew. If she told him to stop, he would.

Did that mean she was going to do this?

“Technically I already said I would.” She chewed her lower lip.

She had agreed sight unseen because she
knew
she could trust him. What had changed in the hour or so since then? Nothing had occurred to make him any less trustworthy than he had been when she agreed. So would it really be right to change her mind now? If she did, it would speak louder of her own insecurities than it did of Ronan, and she honestly didn’t want to be an insecure woman any longer. She wanted to be the brave, confident woman who was beginning to actually control her destiny.

That settles it.

She would go.

And she would wear everything Ronan had delivered and not one thing he didn’t.

She gulped, but even as she did, a thrill spiraled up inside her. Whatever happened that night, the memory would last forever—no doubt about it.

* * * *

Ronan was feeling uncharacteristically nervous when he heard the knock on his door. He checked his watch.
Right on time.
His palms were sweaty. He fidgeted with his cuff links. He had been worried he’d pushed her too far with the dress, but he knew she could handle it. He pulled open the door, and all he could see of her was her head as she had the long velvet cloak he’d sent her late that afternoon wrapped completely around her body all the way from her chin to her toes.

He refused to overwhelm her further with a ton of menial directions, though he had considered it. He left all the other decisions to her and found himself richly satisfied with the choices she made. The luscious shade of red on her lips, the intoxicating and exotic scent he was only getting the softest hint of and the way she’d left her deep auburn hair down by her own decision. It lay in a very precise wave-style reminiscent of the forties, split on the side. She had a gardenia behind her right ear.

“You are exquisite.” He could barely push the words out.

She smiled, but looked away from him. She was shy, but he’d seen her fire as well, and he loved her layers. Though they had enjoyed many a night in his bed, and her obedience and surrender had pleased him greatly, he needed more and knew she was the right woman to take there with him. He thought it from the day she laid into Aiden, and he
knew
it the day she let him teach her to swallow his cum, but he had to be careful. If he pushed too fast or too hard, she’d get scared, or worse, break. If he didn’t push at all, though, she’d never discover her core self, a truth he saw in her that he knew she was still coming to grips with.

“Are you ready for tonight, minx?” He smiled, knowing she’d be nervous and needing to put her at ease.

It was his job to lead her in slowly, but he was determined to make tonight the most memorable night of her life.

“I think.” He heard the wobble in her voice.

He tipped her chin up until she looked into his eyes.

“You’re my good girl, Destiny, and I have all the faith in the world in you.”

He watched her entire body relax.

“You look amazing, too.” She smiled sweetly.

He wore a dark Valentini suit that was ultra formal, but completely appropriate for the night he had planned.

“Thank you, come inside. I want a chance to examine you and make certain you are ready.”

He stepped back, and she came in, a bit more hesitantly than she had in quite a while.

“Ronan, I’m not sure that…”

“If you can’t show me, then how will I be able to show you off, my pet?” He spoke tenderly, but firm.

She stared him in the eye while she gathered her courage, then unsnapped the collar of the cape and let it fall at her ankles.

Ronan went instantly hard.

He put every ounce of strength into not showing any outward sign of just how pleased he was with her. He stepped slowly in a circle all the way around her. She fidgeted slightly, rubbing her hands together, but mostly she stood there for his appraisal.

She was the most pleasing submissive he’d ever been with. Though they hadn’t formally qualified their relationship, that’s how he saw her. Though they had spoken of it once or twice, he knew she was still uncomfortable with the word. As most American women had such a misplaced idea of what it meant to truly be submissive, her reaction didn’t surprise him. To Ronan, there was nothing else in the world more beautiful than a woman in submission to her Dom. He had never spoken the word to her, but he had been leading her slowly and carefully down that path. Even though there was a great chance she would refuse him if he ever formally asked, he would still protect and cherish her as if she was his already.

He moved back to the front of her and tipped her chin up.

“And you are comfortable wearing this in public?”

The sight of the red ribbon tied so prettily around her neck aroused him. For at least that night, she would be his, and everyone at the club would recognize that.

“I think I am,” she answered honestly.

“I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to. There are safe words, you may use one if you like,
red
is rather common for stop, but as I’ve told you from the beginning, Destiny, you say stop, and I stop. Period.”