“Yes?”
“Can we take a boat?”
Chapter Eight
Despite Varushka’s worries about traveling by air, the flight didn’t seem to scare her after takeoff. Everything had gone smoothly, and she’d seemed to have fun watching out the window while Konstantin amused himself, kissing her neck and whispering dirty things in her ear.
Considering the pleasant weather forecast, each of them only needed a small duffel bag of beach clothes and sandals. His vacation home stayed stocked with towels and toiletries even when he wasn’t there. Konstantin threw the bags in the backseat of a taxi that was waiting outside the airport terminal and the two of them slid into the remaining space beside them. Konstantin gave the driver directions, and for a few minutes he simply enjoyed watching Varushka stare excitedly out the window.
But he hadn’t brought her there for the sights.
Excitement and anticipation thrummed through him. They were far away from everyone they knew, and it gave them permission to be who they were for an extended period of time, instead of needing to wear their public faces for hours every day. The anonymity of bringing Varushka to Saint Thomas, where he’d taken care not to get to know anyone, opened up possibilities he’d never allowed himself to consider with her.
He reached past Varushka and unzipped the side pocket of his duffel bag, withdrawing the leather collar he’d stashed there. Watching her reaction, he let it dangle from his fingers. She licked her lips and nodded, her grin shaky.
“This is temporary. You’ve been asking what it’s like to be a slave. This week I’ll show you what it could be like with me, if you want to try it.”
She nodded eagerly, silly girl.
“If you like this experience, we can discuss making it more permanent.” He fastened the thing around her neck, where it laid cool against her warm skin. “You asked me before what I was into, Varushka,” he murmured in her ear. “I’ve shown you a little, but now I’ll show you more.”
Shyly, she touched the thing around her neck, her fingers following the smooth leather. It looked like a collar a man might put on a dog, too obvious to use in public, but for now it made a point.
“We’ll see what you think and go from there. You still have ‘rutabaga’ if something bothers you, but you’ll wear that until we leave. That and nothing else.”
Her arm snuck across her chest, covering her anticipated nakedness. “But only when we are at your house, right?”
Konstantin had a vision of parading her through the town square naked, on a leash. If he got her hot enough she might just agree to it, not that it was legal here or anywhere else that he was aware of. Keeping her naked on his property was a different story. There were no neighbors nearby, so he had her at his mercy for a week.
He chuckled and nodded, then toyed with the bare skin of her knee, trying to make her wonder if he’d do something sexy and vile to her in the back of the cab.
When they pulled up in front of the house, Varushka leaned over his lap to press her face against the window, giving him a generous flash of bare thigh.
“It’s so beautiful!” she breathed. “Your house in America is very fancy and modern, but this one looks—warm and lazy. More like a house and less like a place where you work.” She sat quickly back on her seat when his hand grazed the back of her thigh under her skirt. The way she averted her gaze and blushed pushed him one step further into Dom space.
He flipped through his wallet and handed the taxi driver a stack of bills, then urged Varushka out so he could grab their bags.
When they got to the door he punched in the entry code, then led her inside. She looked around, admiring the pretty foyer.
“The banister . . . someone carved this? Look at the mermaids!” She ran her fingers over the wood. “And the little tiles on the floor make a picture!” She tiptoed off of the mosaic to get a better look at the swirling tentacle pattern in the entryway.
Konstantin shut the door behind them, then turned to watch her. The girl was like a naive and helpless fawn who’d stumbled into a wolf’s path. She gazed around, so soft and sweet that Konstantin was almost drooling. There were so many things he hadn’t done to her yet—so many things she didn’t even know people did, let alone that he wanted to do them to her.
There was a moment when all of his monstrous thoughts came to the fore—all of the dark fantasies he never admitted to other people begged for his consideration. His sadism ran deep, as well as his need to dominate a woman completely. It had been over a year since he’d really mastered a woman, and longer since he’d administered a serious beating. He’d been holding back with Varushka, not wanting to scare her, knowing he needed to ease her into things, but the most sinister parts of him paced in the cage he’d made, eager to be released. Opening the cage door a crack would mean having to shove it closed again before too much of his evil got out. She might be ready to see a little, but no woman could take it all. No woman should have to.
Dropping the innocuous mask he often wore around the girl, he let a hint of his depraved thoughts show in his expression.
Varushka read the difference in him immediately. She froze in place, apprehension showing in the tension of her every muscle. They stared at each other across the short expanse of the foyer, like predator and prey. Both knew how the game would end even though the fawn seemed to hope her stillness would render her invisible. Stalling, he struggled to shove the worst of his evil back in its cage. He folded his arms and leaned a shoulder against the door.
“Strip. Now.”
She blinked at him, shocked. He set his jaw in the line which signaled that a spanking was imminent.
Trembling, she unbuttoned her dress and let it fall to the floor.
Amused irritation flashed through him. “I thought I told you not to wear panties,” he growled.
Maybe she’d thought she would be able to sneak to the bathroom and remove them before he found out.