“We have company. I believe Dario wants to speak to us about your work. Go into the bedroom and put on what I laid out on the bed for you. Everything I laid out. Don’t keep us waiting. I think he’s been patient enough. If you’d obeyed me in the first place, we wouldn’t have had to keep our guest waiting at all.”
Elie was gentle as he helped her sit up on the cabinet top. She was definitely shaky and he gave her several minutes to orient herself.
“You need to drink water before you try to walk, bébé,” he reminded. “I’ll go with you into the bedroom.”
“I can make it,” she said, eyeing the distance, keeping her gaze steadily away from the kitchen and Dario.
Sitting up seemed to make her feel much more exposed. She didn’t seem to realize he was standing solidly between her and their guest and that Dario was staring studiously down at the screen of his phone.
Elie put his hands on her waist and helped her from the cabinet so she was leaning on him instead of the wood. “If you want to stop, you come out dressed in something else, Brielle. I won’t be disappointed. You never disappoint me.” He brushed a kiss on top of her head.
She pressed her face against his chest for a brief moment. “You give me . . . everything. More than everything I could ever ask for, Elie. You seem to understand me when I don’t understand myself.”
The little break in her voice turned his heart over. She really had a difficult time accepting this side of herself, although the craving in her ran deep. He needed to find a way to let her know he would love her all the more for that part of her. He couldn’t break role to assure her, that would have to come later, when he was giving her aftercare, but he wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her to him. Steeling himself, he turned her toward their bedroom, and when she took a step away from him, he smacked her hard right over the three cane stripes and the jeweled butt plug. She yelped and threw him an indignant glare over her shoulder as she walked very gingerly to their room.
Elie joined Dario in the kitchen and indicated they should go into the great room, where the stone fireplace and their couches were. There was also the “cozy circle” Brielle preferred with the four really comfortable chairs around the copper coffee table. He had a plan to continue their little game of punishment for her indiscretion.
Elie was learning Brielle’s limits. He suspected she was learning them as well. He preferred they learn them in the safety of their home and with someone he trusted implicitly. He knew no matter what happened, Dario would respect her and never humiliate her or judge her for her choices. Had he done so, Elie knew, as did Dario, that Elie would defend her with his life.
He indicated one of the long couches in front of the fireplace and then turned the logs on low. There was a large round coffee table separating the two couches. Elie made certain it was placed exactly in position between where he would sit with Brielle and where Dario had seated himself across from him. He studied the flames from the fireplace and turned them even lower until they were nearly off.
Placing a long pillow on the floor just to the right of where his feet would be, he once more studied the position to ensure Brielle would be safe from exposure.
Dario shook his head. “That woman of yours is spoiled already. Mine disobeyed me like that, she wouldn’t be smiling right about now. Your woman is practically purring.”
“I like mine purring, Dario. I want her happy, healthy and to want to be with me. How do you want your woman to be?”
Dario leaned forward and looked Elie straight in the eye. It was disconcerting to stare into those dark pits of hell. “Alive, Elie. If I ever really managed to find a woman that was mine alone, I would want to know I could keep her alive. That would be a full-time job with what I do. I’ve got so many people who want me dead, she’d be my number one vulnerability. You know damn well, Emme is Val’s and Brielle is yours. If someone wants to screw with you, they don’t have to kill you, they just have to take her from you and fuck her up. That’s worse than killing you. I can’t ever afford to allow myself to feel for a woman the way you do. You can tell yourself that you don’t love her already, but it’s obvious you’re already falling down that rabbit hole. It’s bad enough that I care about that dumb fuck Val. Or Emme. Or . . .” Dario trailed off.
Elie knew Dario was right. He had never considered he would feel that way about any woman, but he’d built up his fantasies of Brielle over the years they were separated. The times their shadows had connected had tied them together. When he’d gone to the places Brielle worked, his shadow had crossed with hers often and he’d felt the sexual rush, so much so that he’d gone back again and again, addicted to the feeling. He’d been sexually enthralled with his date for a few hours because of it, but that had tied him closer to Brielle without his knowledge.
“Dario, the only way you’re ever going to claim a woman is if you see one you find attractive already, then you realize she has the shadow you’re searching for and there’s some advantage she can give you. Only then will you allow your shadow to cross with hers to see what happens. The jolt will send rockets through you both and you won’t know what hit you.”
Dario didn’t deny it. He shrugged. “Yeah, I get that the shadow thing can mess with control. I’ve seen it with all of you riders and even Val. You know me, Elie. At least you know me better than most men do. I’m rigid when it comes to control. I have too many demons not to be. Never going to have a woman of my own, I already know that.” He shrugged again like it didn’t matter.
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know because I have a standard now. I know what kind of woman I have to have and I would never take less. I’ve got Emme. She accepts me just the way I am. Doesn’t care that I’m a freak and a monster. She loves me and I feel that every day. I see her and now I see your woman. She’s worth something, Elie. Don’t fuckin’ let her walk all over you when she’s in danger. She’s like Emme. She thinks she’s a warrior, but she’s soft inside. I can spot that a mile away. Even though I know that’s what I want and need, I’d tear up a woman like that.”
Dario glanced up at the same time Elie did, both aware as Brielle padded through the open dining area to the great room toward them. She moved in silence, a stark contrast to the storm seething outside, the rain hitting the roof and windows angrily, a dark tempest raging violently.
She wore the short little robe he’d left on the bed, the one he’d found in her luggage when he’d put her clothes away for her on their wedding night. She’d been exhausted and he’d thought to help her, but ended up intrigued with her choice of clothing. The robe was a filmy concoction of smoke gray and pale rose, the two colors swirling together as if paint had been mixed and dumped on the thin, stretchy material. The thin fabric could be transparent in the right circumstances, like when it stretched over the sweet curve of her ass cheeks or the alluring temptation of her breasts.
The robe was held together with a single tie at her waist, relying on the stretch of the fabric to keep the gaps closed. Elie had instructed her not to wear anything he hadn’t put on the bed. He hadn’t included underwear. Each step she took, the little robe would open just a tiny bit at the bottom, flashing him a brief glimpse of the very top of her inner thigh. She kept her arms at her sides, not attempting to cover up, knowing he would send her back to start all over if she did.
“Bébé, I left the pillow on the floor. Would you mind moving it before you sit down? Just to the edge of the conversation area will do.”
Brielle glanced at him from under her lashes and then at Dario. Dario didn’t look away this time. He looked hard. Dangerous. Every bit the man he was. He was probably the scariest man Elie had ever run across. She inclined her head like the little princess she was. He should have known she would have the grace of royalty as well. She remained sideways to both sofas, allowing the flickering flames to play over her face and the front of her robe. With the grace and skill of a shadow rider, she crouched low and caught the edges of the long pillow and then straightened, backing to the area where the cozy circle of chairs was. She simply dropped the pillow on the floor beside the nearest chair.
Elie wanted to laugh at Dario’s raised eyebrow. Both of the men knew Brielle was still playing Elie’s little toy, but she had totally outsmarted him with her flowing grace. He had the remote and he hadn’t used it on her. He could have. She still wore the jeweled butt plug. The shock of the thing vibrating at just the right moment would have interrupted her little performance, but he was just too proud of her to take her perceived victory from her.
He patted his lap when she would have seated herself a little distance from him on the same sofa. Pressing her lips together, she curled her body sideways onto his, trying to turn away from the flames. Elie didn’t allow it. His much larger and stronger hands caught at her hips and straightened her so she was straddling his thighs and facing Dario.
“Dario has a business proposition for you, bébé. I realize it’s late, and you aren’t dressed appropriately, but the matter is pressing and he caught us in the middle of your punishment.” Deliberately, Elie pushed the tangle of wild, out-of-control waves and spirals of curls cascading down her back away from her neck so he could bite down on her soft skin. She shivered, reacting instantly. He loved that she was always so receptive to his touch.
Brielle tipped her head back just as he knew she would, resting against his shoulder to offer him her bare neck. That slight change in her body thrust her full breasts against the pale smoke-and-rose robe. Elie ran his fingernails very gently along her bare thigh, all the way to her buttocks. Back and forth, as though he wasn’t aware of what he was doing, but he knew he was bringing every nerve ending to life and that small movement would center her entire attention right back on her hunger and need to climax. Right on him. She needed release and he was very skilled at keeping her on edge.
“You’re extremely good with your investigations,” Dario said. “Did Elie tell you that you won the competition?”