The_Submissive - Tara Sue Me (19 page)

Oh, please. Oh, please. Oh, please.

Almost. Almost. Almost.

“Yes!” I screamed as the world shattered all around me in bright flashes of light.

He thrust one more time and released into me. I shuddered as a second orgasm hit.

I was vaguely aware of water running.

I tried to roll over, but my body wouldn’t work. I felt that weak.

Two arms lifted me and carried me into the bathroom. The light was dimmed, barely enough for me to see as he placed me carefully in the warm water.

He took his time bathing me. Washed me tenderly, taking care to be gentle. He was still naked and he must have been cold, but all his attention was focused on me. When he was finished, he took me from the tub, sat me on the edge, and dried me completely with soft towels.

“You were wonderful,” he whispered, brushing my hair. “I knew you would be.”

Then he lifted me in his arms, carried me to my bed, and tucked me in.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO

The sound of hushed voices from the living room woke me the next morning. I rolled over and squinted at the clock beside my bed. Seven-thirty.

Seven-thirty!

I sprang from the bed and threw my robe on before I realized I wasn’t at Nathaniel’s house. I was in the hotel. In Tampa. There was no kitchen. No need for me to fix breakfast.

Relieved, I sat back down on the bed and noticed the bottle of water and two ibuprofen on the bedside table. This reminder of his care for me made me all tingly inside.

I swallowed the pills with the cold water and went into the bathroom to get dressed. Elaina and Linda hadn’t said what time to meet them at the spa, so I took my time showering and getting ready. To be honest, I spent most of my time thinking about the previous night.

I’d thought the night in the library had changed everything for Nathaniel and me, but looking back,
I knew I’d been mistaken. The night before changed everything.

Last night I had been worried about wearing my collar to the spa. This morning I’d walk across broken glass for Nathaniel. Or hot coals. Broken glass with hot coals sprinkled around. Anything, absolutely anything he wanted me to do, I’d do. And I’d wear the collar to the spa with pride.

I walked out into the main living room. Nathaniel sat at the dining table adjoining the living area. I dropped my head when I saw him.

“Come sit down and have breakfast, Abigail,” he said.

I walked to the table. It must have been room service knocking that woke me up. My food was still warm. Bacon, eggs, fruit, and toast. Fresh orange juice and coffee. My stomach gave a loud gurgle.

“Linda and Elaina want you and Felicia up in the spa at nine-thirty,” he said. “I’m not sure what they have planned, but apparently you won’t finish until sometime this afternoon.”

Suddenly, I was a bit sad I wouldn’t spend the day with him. Our one whole weekend day and I’d be at a spa and he’d be golfing. Ridiculous that I’d be sad, but I was.

I ate in silence, thinking about how I could get out of spending the day away from Nathaniel—perhaps I could complain of a stomach-ache, a sudden case of
flu, maybe the ever-popular PMS. But it was a spa day and I would be with Elaina and Felicia and Linda.

And there was always the coming night…

When I finished eating, Nathaniel told me to stand.

He walked behind me. “Elaina and Felicia know of our lifestyle. I’d like to think my aunt doesn’t, but even if she does—” he unlatched the collar “—there’s no reason to flaunt it in her face.” He walked around to face me. “You’ll get your collar back this afternoon.”

I dropped my head.

He lifted my chin with his finger and his eyes sparkled as they looked into mine. “You’re still mine. Even with this off.”

That made me all tingly again.

I met Felicia outside the spa. “Felicia,” I said, jogging up to her. “Hey!”

She turned to me, all smiles. “Hey, how was your night?”

I was certain my smile rivaled hers. “Earth-shattering,” I said, wiggling both eyebrows.

She took my arm. “I so do not want to hear this. Ask me how my evening was.”

Which was just as well—I really didn’t feel like sharing my evening with her. “How was your evening?”

“Oh, Abby,” she said, blissful. “It was perfect. After dinner we went down to the waterfront. It was so
funny, Jackson trying to be inconspicuous and failing, because you have seen him, right? There’s nothing inconspicuous about him. People kept walking up to him, wanting shirts signed and all. And he was so nice to everyone, even though you could tell he just wanted us to be alone. But we finally found this quiet little spot and we just talked and talked and guess what?”

She didn’t stop long enough for me to guess. Rhetorical question, obviously.

“He doesn’t want to play pro football much longer,” she said. “He wants to retire soon and coach high school. And Abby, he wants four kids.”

To anyone else, this would have been a statement of fact, but for Felicia…it was so much more. She’d wanted a large family from the first day I met her.

“After he dropped that little bit on me,” she continued, “I told him how I wanted to open a school and he didn’t think it was funny or strange at all.” She stopped walking and grabbed both my hands. “I’m probably being stupid, but Abby, I think he’s
the one
.”

I hugged her. “I don’t think you’re being stupid at all. And I’m so very, very happy for you.”

“Thanks. Hey, where’s your—” she waved at my throat “—thingie.”

“It’s a collar.” I rolled my eyes. “Nathaniel didn’t want to flaunt our lifestyle in front of Linda. She doesn’t know.”

Elaina and Linda arrived soon after we did and we
were all escorted around the spa. We ended up in a plush locker room, where we were given schedules for the day and bathrobes. We all had separate services scheduled for the first part of the morning, but we’d meet up again for lunch.

Felicia and I went off to change.

“Damn, Abby,” Felicia said. She pointed to my back.

“What?” I said, twisting around.

“You’ve got a scratch mark or a bite on your shoulder. What were you doing last night?”

I sighed, remembering.

“On second thought,” she said, “never mind. I don’t want to know.”

We were called then and went our separate ways—Felicia to a massage and me to a facial.

The facial was completely relaxing. I actually fell asleep halfway through. Not that it would have been difficult. The bench was warm and covered with fluffy towels. Soft music played in the background and the room smelled like spicy lavender.

The technician shook me gently to wake me up and then led me to a room down the hall for my massage.

It started with a salt scrub. Again, lavender, this time combined with the gentle exfoliation of salts. I washed the salt off in a large shower with multiple showerheads.

But thinking about showers got me thinking about Nathaniel and the bath he had given me the night
before. His hands. The way he washed me—almost reverently. And then he’d taken his time to brush out my hair and dry every part of me…

A knock on the shower door interrupted me. “Ms. King,” the massage therapist called, “are you ready?”

Once again, I found myself under warm blankets. I promised myself I’d stay awake this time so I’d remember the massage. Up to that point, I’d only had the one Nathaniel gave me on the plane. Hot wax and Nathaniel. Yum. I wondered what he had planned for the flight home?

“Any sore areas you need me to work on?” the therapist asked.

I wondered briefly what she’d do if I mentioned the particular soreness I had as a result of the previous night’s activities…

“No,” I said. “Not really.”

Before too long, I was in the spa’s ivory-colored dining area, waiting for Felicia, Elaina, and Linda. Soft music played in the background and candles flickered on the tables. I lay back in a thickly padded lounger and closed my eyes as I waited.

“Abby?” Linda said.

I sat up. “Linda, hey. I was just relaxing a bit.”

She sat down beside me. “Did you have a good morning?”

“Oh, yes, the best. It was so nice of you and Elaina to arrange this for us.”

She reached for a glass of water. “It was Elaina’s idea. I’d planned to spend the day shopping. This was a much better idea.”

Felicia and Elaina came in together as Linda was talking. They were laughing at something Elaina had said. They sat down right as four grilled chicken salads were delivered. They looked delicious—fresh greens, feta cheese, almonds, and cranberries. I smiled. Nathaniel would approve.

“Did everyone have a good night last night?” Linda asked, spearing a chunk of chicken.

Elaina smiled at her. “You and I have discussed the benefits of hotel sex many times in the past, Linda.”

Just a hint of color spread across Linda’s cheeks. “Yes, Elaina, but I was actually asking to make sure Jackson and Nathaniel were being good hosts, and acting like the gentlemen I raised them to be.”

“I’m not sure
gentleman
is the right word for Todd,” Elaina said, putting a napkin in her lap, “but he was good all right.”

Felicia snorted on her water.

Elaina and Linda obviously had a closer relationship than I’d thought. Regardless, I loved the way they could tease each other. The way they talked about sex and men like sisters would.

“Abby,” Linda said, changing the subject, “I understand you went to Columbia?”

“Yes,” I said. “Same as Todd, right?”

Elaina chimed in. “He did his graduate work there.”

“And Nathaniel went to Dartmouth.” I took a bite of cranberry with feta. You could never have too much feta. Feta went with everything.

“Yes,” Linda confirmed. “For the longest time he wanted to go to the Naval Academy. We had even arranged an appointment for him. But he changed his mind and went to Dartmouth instead.” She got a faraway look. “He was always a withdrawn child. I guess you can understand why. My sister’s death was very hard on him.”

I looked down at my plate, remembering the haunted look he had while I was at the hospital.

“Now Jackson,” Linda said, taking Felicia’s hand, “Jackson was always my wild child. It’s a good thing we steered him toward sports—there’s no telling what kind of trouble he’d have gotten himself into otherwise.”

“He still gets in plenty of trouble,” Elaina said in between bites. “Remember the skydiving incident?”

Linda laughed. “The coach made him sit out the next game as a result of that little incident. I don’t think he’s ever tried skydiving again.”

After we ate lunch, we changed into swimsuits and hung out in the hot tub. I pulled my hair to the left side to cover up the mark Felicia had noticed. I thought back to the previous night, trying to remember when Nathaniel might have marked me, but I couldn’t. I remembered pain in other parts of my body, but not my shoulder. Mostly I remembered the pleasure.

I think I spaced out in the hot tub for several long minutes just thinking back to the night before. I glanced up at the clock they had in one corner of the pool room. How long until I saw Nathaniel again?

“Abby,” Elaina said. “Did Nathaniel tell you?”