When I'm With You Part V: When You Submit (3 page)

“Oh no,” she said sympathetically. “What will you have to do?”

“Deal with it,” he said brusquely after a pause. “Monsieur Leboeuf will be arrested as soon as I get there to provide concrete evidence of the embezzlement. But I’d rather not think about it at the moment. I’d rather hear from you why you were waiting up for me.”

Her heartbeat began to throb in her ears. “Are . . . are you sure you don’t need to leave for Paris . . . book a flight right now?” she asked nervously.

His eyes ran over her face. “Yes. I will have to leave. Very soon. It’s my fault, what’s happened to the Three Kings.”

“How can you say that? You hired that man because you trusted him. You had no idea he was going to steal from you.”

He closed his eyes briefly. “My father’s property was not a responsibility I wanted. But it is mine nonetheless. I’ve let hundreds of employees down because of my refusal to take part in his businesses . . . because of my stubbornness.”

“Lucien, that’s not being fair. You know it’s not. It’s a complicated situation. You being repulsed by your father’s fortune and properties, by his legacy to you, is very understandable.”

“Understandable, yes. Forgivable? Given the possible consequences, perhaps not,” he said, meeting her stare levelly. “Why were you waiting up for me?”

Something about his tone told her the topic of the embezzlement and his guilt at what had occurred was closed.

“I . . . I wanted to talk to you about something, but that was before all this happened,” she said, waving at his phone. “I don’t want to bother you with unimportant things.”

His hands enclosed both of her feet at once, his thumbs pressing gently into her arches. “You’re not bothering me, and I consider what you have to say very important. What did you want to talk to me about?”

She swallowed thickly. He seemed so calm, so expectant . . . as if he knew precisely how difficult this was for her. How did one begin talking about their hopes . . . their desires? She felt naked, despite the summer dress she’d donned upon arriving at the penthouse.

“I . . . um . . . I was talking to Francesca this morning and . . . she encouraged me to talk to you about this idea that I have.”

“Idea?” he asked. As he spoke, he began massaging her feet again. Did he instinctively sense her anxiety and was trying to relax her? She’d never known anyone who could read her the way Lucien could. “Elise?” he prompted when her words got clogged in her throat. A shadow fell across his face as he studied her closely. “Just tell me,” he insisted gently.

It all spilled out of her. Everything she’d told Francesca about Michael, about their friendship . . . the trauma of losing such a unique man. She told him her idea about the restaurant she wanted to open, the words coming out of her in a pressured fashion. She couldn’t meet his eyes the whole time.

“And so that’s all of it, I guess,” she said after several uninterrupted minutes. Lucien still held her feet in his warm hands. Through the reflection of the floor-to-ceiling windows, she could see that his head was turned, and that he stared at her face. “Francesca said something about mentioning the idea to you because you know so many people in the industry. I thought maybe you could . . .”

“What?” he asked gently when she faded off.

“Help me,” she whispered.

“Elise, look at me.”

Her throat convulsed. She dragged her gaze off his reflection and met his stare.

“Did Michael give you those pearls?”

She nodded, tears burning in her eyes. “For my twenty-fourth birthday, just weeks before he died. He didn’t really have the money to buy me a gift like that.”

“You really loved him, didn’t you?”

“Yes. Not in the romantic way, but
yes
. He changed my life.”

“He brought you to me.”

One tear skittered down her cheek at his stark statement.

“Of course I’ll help you, Elise.”

“You will?” she asked slowly.

“It’s a very good idea. Why wouldn’t I help you?”

“I don’t need money or anything. By the time I can open the business, I’ll have control of my trust fund. I just need advice. Support.”

“You have both. You have whatever I can offer.”

The tightness in her chest and throat amplified. “It’s that simple?” Her gaze glued to his small smile.

“Yes. It’s that simple. All you have to do is ask. You don’t have to manipulate, or seduce, or do something crazy or dangerous . . . or forsake your pride. Those are the tools of our parents, of a past I’d rather leave behind. If it’s within my power, I’ll give you whatever you need. But you must ask.”

Whatever you need.

His nostrils flared slightly as he stared at her. Again, she experienced his patient anticipation. “Did you want something else?”

His quiet voice tickled her ear and caused her heart to throb.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Then tell me.”

Her lips felt numb when she opened them. His gaze was both blazing and somehow compassionate, like a steady, strong flame. It gave her courage.

“I want to give myself to you. I want to submit to you . . . please you. I want to trust you enough to give you control sexually.”

His nostrils flared slightly. His massaging hands stilled.

“You don’t
want
to trust, Elise. You either do or you don’t,” he said, his gaze narrowing on her. “You undoubtedly have had good reason for the majority of your life to keep a tight rein on other men. Do you trust me enough to let go, or don’t you?”

She searched his features, looking for any hint that she was making a mistake. She saw nothing but his rock-solid fortitude. Still, it was a frightening thing, to trust.

“I trust you,” she said, hoping he didn’t hear the tremor in her voice.

She was glad of her decision when she saw the flash of happiness and pride cross his features. She tucked that expression on Lucien’s face safely away with other treasured memories.

“Come here,” he said, putting out his arms. She swung her legs around to the floor, anxious, but also eager to go into his embrace, to begin to discover well and truly what he meant when he said he wanted to dominate her sexually, to find out what it meant to submit to desire.

His phone began to ring. Elise glanced at the screen as she moved into his arms.

“It’s the Hotel Louis,” she said, pausing next to the couch.

Annoyance flickered across his features. He hesitated.

“It’s okay, Lucien,” she assured. “It must be an emergency, for them to be calling at this hour.” Still, he didn’t reach to answer it, seeming undecided. Finally, he cursed under his breath and snatched up the phone.

Elise’s concern rose as she listened to him speak in terse French to whoever was on the other end of the line.

“It sounds bad,” she said when he eventually hung up.

“I had Monsieur Atale, the manager of the Hotel Louis—a man I trust implicitly—look into something for me. He’s been working on it and reporting back to me every few hours. It seems our main accountant was in on the embezzlement scheme. Monsieur Atale doesn’t have adequate funds to complete the payroll, and it’s payday tomorrow.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, hating the worry lines on his forehead.

He pinned her with his stare. “I can handle the technicalities of getting things back on track. I’m just furious at those sons of bitches for forcing the issue now. Just when you finally spoke your desire aloud to me.”

She gave him a shaky smile and sunk down next to him on the couch. She took his hand. “It’ll still be my desire when you get back.”

He squeezed her hand and lifted it to kiss her knuckles.

“You’re going to have to leave tonight, aren’t you?” she asked.

“As soon as my secretary in Paris can book me a charter flight. She’ll be calling back any minute. I’m sorry, Elise. It’s rotten timing.”

“I understand,” she assured, ignoring the ache expanding in her chest. “Of course you must go. The employees of all three hotels have dependents . . . families relying on them. They need their paychecks and jobs.”

“I’m glad you understand.” He stood and took her into his arms. When she looked up at him, he cradled her jaw, his fingers caressing her tenderly. He glanced at his cell phone and then back at her. She heard him curse under his breath. The next thing she knew, he’d swept her into his arms and was carrying her toward the hallway.

“Lucien?” she asked, amazed.

“A few minutes isn’t going to make that much of a difference,” he said grimly.

A moment later, he lowered her onto his bed and placed his hands on either side of her hips.

“Do you own a vibrator,
ma chère
?” he asked, his face just inches from her own, his voice striking her as decadent and rich, making her skin prickle with awareness.

She swallowed thickly and shook her head.

He said nothing, but moved away from her. She watched, her breath coming in increasingly erratic puffs, as he turned and opened one of the bedside table drawers. He removed an unopened box and tore through the seal, tipping the contents into his hand. She saw a chrome, bullet-shaped object and several red elastic bands fall into his palm. He chose one of the bands and attached it to the vibrator. He secured the chrome bullet to his finger using the band and sat on the bed next to her.

“Take off your panties and lift your dress to your waist. I’m going to pleasure you, and you will return the favor. It’s going to be quick, out of necessity,” he said, his mouth twisting slightly in dissatisfaction, “but effective, and I want to explain something to you.”

Quick but effective.
Her pulse began to thrum at her throat.

She felt his gaze on her as she whisked her panties down her thighs and off her legs. “Sit in the middle of the bed,” he demanded quietly when she started to raise her dress. She scooted to the center and leaned against the pillows, her breathing growing choppier by the second from mounting excitement. His gaze remained glued to her pussy when she lifted her dress to her waist.

“Now spread your thighs,” he murmured, edging toward her on the bed, one knee bent, the other long leg left draped over the side of the mattress.

She watched with bated breath as he flicked a button on the vibrator and she heard a muted buzzing sound, like a bee had invaded the room. She gasped loudly when he matter-of-factly pushed the metal bullet against her labia. Delicious vibrations stimulated her clit.

“Oh,” she cried out, her eyes going wide. It created a wicked tingling, and then an addictive, slow burn.

He studied her face and smiled. “Feel good?”

“Yes,” she assured breathily. The metal was warming against her hypersensitive flesh. In the distance, she heard the insistent sound of his cell phone ringing. She opened her lips, but he spoke before she did.

“Ignore it,” he said tautly. “This is your vibrator now. It’s an expensive one—very powerful. I want you to use it on your little pussy every night at eleven thirty while I’m gone. I want you to think about what you told me, about how you wanted to submit to me in bed. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” she replied. He’d pushed the vibrator deeper between her labia and was pulsing it ever so subtly with his finger. Her hips began to flex against the precise little instrument.

“And every time you are about to come, I want you to pull the vibrator away and stave off your orgasm. You may apply it again after you have cooled some. When you begin to crest again, you must pull the vibrator away. Picture me telling you that you must.”

“How many times must I do that before I . . . come?” she gasped when he pulsed his finger against her with added pressure.

“Until you imagine me giving you permission to climax. Remember,” he said, gray eyes glittering with arousal and amusement, “I’m a demanding master, but not a cruel one.

“When I call you every day, you’ll tell me how successful you were—or how you failed,” he continued. “I expect complete honesty. You know I could always tell when you were lying. Even when you were a girl,” he reminded her as he watched his finger pulsing against her clit. “If you are successful in showing discipline, I will reward you. If you aren’t, I’ll tell you what your punishment is.”

Liquid heat surged between her thighs at the potent combination of the vibrator on her clit and his illicit instructions. She could just imagine how erotic it would be, reporting to him her intimate moments of masturbation, anticipating his rewards and punishments when she next saw him. Yes, the punishments, because she knew she would fail miserably at the challenge. She’d never been very good at denying herself pleasure, especially such a delicious one. Her hips bobbed against the vibrator. It felt so good . . . so hot.

But suddenly Lucien lifted his finger. She whimpered at the deprivation.

“Do you understand, Elise?”

She swallowed the protest on her tongue. “Yes,” she whispered.

“Good. Now, unbutton your dress and show me your pretty breasts.”

Chapter Ten

Her chest was heaving against her fingers as she unfastened the row of buttons on her sundress. Lucien grunted softly in approval when she peeled back the fabric and he saw she wasn’t wearing a bra.

“That’s beautiful. I would prefer it if you didn’t wear underwear here in the penthouse when it’s just us, and we aren’t expecting visitors. I will want you frequently, and it’s best that you are prepared. Now, squeeze them and play with the nipples while I put the vibrator back on you,” he instructed in a tight voice.

She gathered her breasts in her palms, squeezing at the soft, firm flesh, growing more enthusiastic in her movements when she saw the way Lucien’s eyes blazed as he watched her and the vibrator buzzed and stimulated her clit. Oh, she was starting to burn in earnest. She used her thumbs and forefingers to pinch at both nipples at once. She’d never done it before, not having much interest in her own breasts, despite her former male companions’ avid fascination for them. It felt good. She pinched hard, the spike of pain spicing the stimulation on her clit.

“That’s right. Do you like that?” Lucien asked, his finger pulsing against her clit more strenuously.

“So much,” she said, bobbing her hips against Lucien’s hand and the vibrator with more force.

“You’re so beautiful,” he muttered. “When I come back from Paris, I’m going to keep you in bed for days. That’s right. Pinch those pink nipples.”

She did what he said, her excitement mounting by the second. The bottoms of her feet began to tingle. The vibrator was extremely accurate and powerful.

“Oh, I’m going to come.”

“Ask for my permission.”

Her gaze darted to his face in surprise. His expression looked rigid with arousal . . . and entirely serious. “May I . . . come?”

“First spread your lips apart. Let me see your pink little jewel,” he said, his voice an arousing combination of a purr and a growl. “Ah, that’s right. Lovely,” he muttered, momentarily lifting his vibrating finger to eye her glistening clitoris. “I expect you to use more discipline than this while I’m away,” he said pointedly. “But since we are short on time tonight . . .”

She gasped and whined when he placed the vibrator on her exposed, naked clit.

“You may come,
ma chère
.”

A few seconds later, she shook in orgasm. She kept her labia spread wide with one hand and squeezed a breast with the other, her hips bucking in short jabs against Lucien’s finger.

It felt so right, letting go in front of Lucien . . . giving herself to him.

“Very good,” she heard him say a moment later as her shudders waned. She opened her eyelids sluggishly and watched in a daze as he removed the bullet vibrator, which looked glossy from her juices. He hastily grabbed for a different-sized elastic red band, and replaced it with the one that had been around his finger.

“Come up on your knees and kneel with your face over my lap,” he demanded. She loved the sound of his lust-roughened voice.

“Like this?” she asked, breathless with arousal and confusion as she bent, and her lips were just inches above the fullness behind the zipper of his pants. Her mouth watered as she stared at the column of his erection pressed against his left thigh. His fingers moved fleetly, unfastening his pants. He stood momentarily and unceremoniously jerked his clothing down to his lower thighs. She only had a covetous glimpse at his muscular ass and thighs before he sat again, and she was staring down at him.

It was the first time she’d really been this close to his cock with the light on. He wouldn’t let her touch him while he masturbated and pleasured her at night, and the restraints ensured she couldn’t get closer to all that glory. His cock was long, thick, and straight, the color a rich caramel cast with a blood-flushed, rosy hue. There was some dark hair clipped very close at the base of his cock, but his balls were shaved. Her clit pinched tight at the image of the full, round testicles. When they’d hung free that night in Ian’s penthouse when she’d sucked him, they’d been a delicious weight in her palm. He looked awesomely lush and virile and masculine, teeming with life and raw power. She licked her sensitive lips, longing for the hard pressure of his cock.

“You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen in my life,” she told him sincerely, glancing up at him. He looked extremely sober and formidable as he stared down at her. “May I suck you? Please?”

A muscle jumped in his rigid cheek.

“How do you do it?”

She blinked, unsure what he meant. “Do what?”

“Play the submissive so perfectly at times that even I believe you.”

“Because I’m not acting, Lucien. I do want to please you. So much,” she whispered, wonder lacing her tone as she realized what she said was one hundred percent true.

His nostrils flared slightly as he looked down at her. He placed his hand on the back of her skull, his fingers delving into her hair. Then he was reaching for something. Confusion swept through her when she saw he’d grabbed the vibrator again. She gave him a questioning look.

“Open your mouth.”

She parted her lips wide without hesitation, even though her bewilderment amplified. She tried to say something but couldn’t, because Lucien had gently grabbed the end of her tongue and was sliding the band of the vibrator over it. A moment later, the little bullet vibrator rested in the middle of her tongue, her own taste soaking into her awareness. He turned it on again, sending a pleasant pulsation through her flesh. When he removed his fingers, she closed her mouth to contain her saliva and swallowed while the vibrator buzzed away happily on her tongue.

Her eyes sprang wide in understanding when he fisted the base of his cock and held it at a upright angle from his lap. He noticed her amazed expression and smiled.

“I’ve learned firsthand just how talented you are with that mouth of yours. I can’t stop thinking about it, to be honest. It haunts me. You hardly need any assistance in giving me pleasure, but since we are tight on time . . .”

He faded off and gently pushed her toward his cock with the hand at the back of her head, but Elise was already on her way. Once she understood the rules of the new game, she was eager to play. She could tell by the pressure of his hand on the back of her head that he wasn’t in the mood for a tease or a trial, so she went straight for the kill, taking his cockhead into her mouth. He stretched her lips wide as she slid down over his staff, pressing the vibrator against first the fleshy crown and then the stalk experimentally, gently buzzing him, before applying a firm pressure that made him growl, deep and guttural, and tighten his fingers in her hair.

It felt so strange, having the vibrator tingle against her flesh, knowing he was feeling that same energy pulse into his sensitive skin. She bathed and massaged the first half of his penis with her mouth and tongue before pumping him between her tightly clamped lips and pulsing him with the vibrator.

“So eager, so lovely,” she heard him murmur from above her, his tone gruff and strained. It excited her to think of him watching her as she swallowed his cock.
Yes
, she was eager all right. She was also curious about the benefits of the little bullet. She slid her mouth off the tip of his tapered cockhead, feeling his fingers tighten in protest. Before he could say anything, however, she twisted her head, fitting him between her lips in the opposite direction. He seemed to understand her intent, because he altered the angle of his cock with his fist. She took the first few inches of his flesh into her mouth and used the vibrator against his supersensitive slit.

He gasped. “You clever little minx,” he groaned. “God, that’s good. You really are going to make short work of me.”

A flash of sadness went through her at the reminder he would soon be leaving her. Still, she wanted to give him his due. She lifted her mouth and turned again, sliding him deep at the more hospitable angle.

“No. I will hold it,” he said roughly when she tried to replace her hand with his in order to pump his cock while she sucked. He groaned when she sunk him deep and bumped her lips against his forefinger. “I should turn your bottom red for being so blessed good at this.”

She glanced up at him in a startled query, her mouth full of his throbbing flesh, her cheeks hollowed out from sucking so hard.

“Fuck,”
he said savagely, urging her with his clutching hand until she bobbed up and down on his cock at a rapid pace, her jaw and lips aching from the sustained pressure. “I can take almost anything, but not your eyes,” she heard him mutter darkly.

She felt him swell impossibly large a few moments later. He began to come, ejaculating on her tongue. It was difficult to keep up. The vibrator made controlling even her own salivation a challenge, and now she added Lucien’s copious emissions. Still, she loved it: the feeling of his cock throbbing against her tongue as he came, his singular taste filling her mouth, his grunts of sharp pleasure, the sound poignant to her somehow. Beautiful. He was the definition of power to her. She loved that moment when his strength swelled and broke, and she held him close while he shook in bliss.

“No,
ma chère
. No,” he mumbled in a tight voice a moment later as she licked and sucked him clean. “It’s like stimulating a raw nerve doing that.”

She blinked, coming back to herself. Reluctantly, she began to slide him out of her mouth. His penis was already overly sensitive in a post-climactic state. The vibrator combined with the enthusiastic cleaning with her lips and tongue was too much for the nerves in his satiated flesh. Much to her surprise, he halted her, however, holding her down with the hand on the back of her head. His expression was amused and self-deprecating when she met his stare.

“It feels like too much, but it feels
good
, too,” he said. “You could probably have me coming again in the underside of five minutes. A man doesn't stand a chance with that mouth of yours, Elise.” His cock twitched between her smile. She tickled him lightly with the vibrator and his eyes flashed.

She was more than game, if he was.

His phone rang again in the distance. Lucien closed his eyes briefly in regret and released his hold on her head.

“I should go, as much as I might wish otherwise.”

Elise slowly, reluctantly slid her mouth off him. She bent her head to remove the buzzing vibrator and set it aside. He put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her to him. Elise’s throat tightened as she breathed his scent and luxuriated in his embrace.

“It meant more to me than you know, the way you expressed your desire,” he said near her skin as he kissed her temple. “You are always difficult to resist, but when you’re open and honest? Impossible.”

A strange mixture of feeling rushed through her: embarrassment that she’d made herself so vulnerable, but also gratefulness that he’d recognized how difficult it’d been for her . . . and pleasure that she’d pleased him.

Out of sheer habit, she opened her mouth to say something like,
It was my pleasure
, or worse yet,
It wasn’t a big deal.
But no, she wouldn’t diminish either the challenge she’d faced or the gift she’d given Lucien.

She just looked up at him, her heart in her eyes. He blinked. The next thing she knew, he was kissing the daylights out of her and all rational thought vacated her brain.

“Why do you always have to make things so hard, Elise?” he said next to her lips a moment later.

“Because you always make things such a challenge for me?”

His mouth curved into a smile.

“I never knew walking out a door could be so difficult until this moment,” he said soberly. He dropped his hands, frowning. “You will do what I said? Every night at eleven thirty?”

Her cheeks heated. “Yes.”

“Good. I will enjoy picturing you, knowing you are testing yourself with only my voice in your head to instruct you. I hope in addition to what I said, you’ll also hear me saying how lovely you are,” he murmured, stroking her cheek. “How irresistible. It’ll make me feel as if we’re together, knowing you’re hearing me in your mind, even if we are an ocean apart,” he said before he stood and pulled up his clothing.

She pulled her dress up over her breasts, all the while thinking to herself that she heard his patient, guiding voice in her head with increasing frequency even without his instructions tonight. She’d begun to internalize his steadfast reassurance. He was cultivating the courage and confidence in herself that she so craved.

Elise was beginning to suspect that was what Lucien had intended all along.

* * *

The next night she returned to the penthouse late. Thursday nights were often packed with late-nighters at Fusion. Although the kitchen closed before the bar, they still prepared dishes later on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights than they did earlier in the week. Denise had needed to leave early, and Elise had volunteered to stay. She didn’t mind. She enjoyed her work, and it kept her distracted from Lucien’s absence.

The penthouse felt depressingly empty when she entered a little after eleven. She’d already eaten her dinner at Fusion, so she headed straight back to the bedroom. On the way to the bathroom to change, her gaze lingered on the large, three-drawer nightstand next to Lucien’s bed. He’d put the vibrator she was supposed to use at eleven thirty in the top drawer, she recalled, her cheeks flushing with heat at the memory of his instructions. She edged toward the polished mahogany cabinet.

What other instruments of torture and pleasure did he keep in there?

The top drawer slid open. Her gaze ran over several boxes and implements, some of which made her heat with excitement, some of which puzzled her. There was an unopened box that appeared to hold several rubber plugs, the larger sizes making her eyes go wide. There was a long, slender, mechanized dildo that made her frown. It hardly compared to Lucien’s gorgeous cock. She picked up a short-handled, highly polished wooden paddle and felt heat rush through her sex. Why did she get so excited over the idea of Lucien using it on her bottom? She opened a lovely velvet box and stared at an assortment of chains with clips and tweezers at the ends. Her nipples tightened. Without thinking, her hand flew upward and she pinched lightly at a crest to staunch the sharp ache.