Bought for Christmas (3 page)

The
floodlights came on, illuminating the gravel driveway, and he flinched and
turned his head instinctively, all too aware that his scars repulsed most, if
not all people.

Emilia
gasped, and he expected her to run, to scream at him that she would never agree
to this, but instead he sensed her movement. His bear bowed his head in
submission at the tentative stroke of her fingertips over his scars. The digits
were cold on his hot flesh, and he forced himself to stay still under her
gentle exploration.

Neither
one of them spoke a word, the air between them thick with tension as she
trailed along the worst of his scars, and followed their path into the neckline
of his shirt.

“Do
they hurt?” she asked, and he croaked his answer.

“No, not usually.”

“They
look as though they should.” She dropped her hand, and Hunter suppressed
another groan as she put it on his chest, and left it there. “Do you mind?
You’re so warm, and my hands are freezing.”

Hunter
smiled down at her, and shook his head.

“No,
I don’t mind at all.”

She
brought her other hand up, and Hunter growled and pulled her in closer until
she was wrapped up in his arms, and his bear smiled his approval.

Emilia
sighed and snuggled in closer, and closing his eyes, he rested his chin on the
top of her head, and enjoyed this precious bundle of curves in his arms.

“We
should get you inside. You’re frozen, kitten.”

She
shook her head against his chest.

“I
told you, I’m not going back in there. They as good as sold me to you, for
fuck’s sake.” She stiffened and tried to pull away. Hunter tightened his grip on
her, and after a moment’s struggle she relented and sank back into his embrace.

“Leo
says you got him drunk, and that you cheated him out of his shares, but you
didn’t, did you?”

“No,
kitten, I didn’t. In fact I stepped in and saved that insolent pup from losing
everything to a card shark. He was drunk and high on cocaine, not the best
combination. I might be an asshole, but I couldn’t let him gamble away
everything your father worked so hard for, especially when…” He hesitated, not
at all sure how much more she wanted to hear, and Emilia shifted in his arms
and pulled away slightly to look up at him.

She
shook her head when he slanted his, and one of her little hands crept up to cup
his scarred side.

“Don’t
hide them. They don’t scare me. They never have,” she said and offered him a
tentative smile that made his chest feel tight with longing.

“They
should do. I’m the beast. Haven’t you heard?” His humorless laugh echoed around
them, and she shook her head.

“I
think you hide behind your scars so no one can come too close.”

Hunter
forgot to breathe at that quiet statement, delivered with absolute conviction,
and he took her by the shoulders and pushed her away. It was that or
ravish
her right there, and show her what a perverted beast
he truly was.

“I’m
not a fairytale, Emilia. You can’t make me into the hero here. If I was, I’d
have simply delivered your brother home, not cleaned him out myself.”

Emilia
worried her bottom lip with her teeth, and went a little cross-eyed as she
concentrated hard. It was the most adorable sight, and meant he grew even
harder.

“So,
why are you here, then, giving him an out?
 
I’m not such a catch that you’re doing this just to have your wicked way
with me.”

His
bear growled his disapproval at his mate’s low opinion of herself, and for once
Hunter was in perfect agreement with him. The fact that she didn’t shy away
from him, just went a delightful shade of pink, made him want to simply grab
her and have his way with her right now. He couldn’t do that, however. Not
until she knew everything there was to know about him and he had somewhere
where she couldn’t run away, when he revealed his true self.

Then,
and only then, would he show her not only his bear, but also the other, darker
side of him, that made him want to tie her up, and mark her body with his
hands, teeth, and claws.

“I
think any man would be lucky to have his wicked way with you, kitten.”

Her
blush deepened, and she shook her head.

“Only
if they want my money, and newsflash, I haven’t got any, other than what I
earned myself and I’m damn proud of that.”

She
raised her chin in a defiant gesture, and he grinned.

“As you should be.
Your mama would
be proud of you.”

Tears
sprang into Emilia’s eyes, and Hunter cursed himself for all kinds of a fool.
Clearly her grief was still raw, as was his own, truth
be
told. Annalisa had kept in touch with him after the rift between Hunter and her
husband. As far as he knew it had been the only time she had gone against her
husband’s wishes, as disgusted with his using sub-standard building materials
on their latest contract for social housing as Hunter himself had been, when he
found out. Hunter wasn’t sure if Emilia knew the particulars. Her father had
laid the blame for the disaster that had followed firmly at Hunter’s door.

He
crunched his teeth in remembrance. Too many innocent lives had been lost in
that
collapse,
and it had taken Hunter years to
rebuild his reputation.

It
gave him a small amount of satisfaction that Duncan Enterprises had never fully
recovered from that, whereas his own business was thriving.

“I’m
not at all sure of that,” Emilia said, forcing his attention back on her. “Mama
tasked me with keeping an eye out on Papa and Leo. I haven’t exactly managed to
do that. They both have just got worse since she died. I wanted this Christmas
to be different. Instead they’re not talking to me, Leo is using more than ever,
and I’m about to enter into an agreement to save my father’s ass like some sort
of a whore.”

She
screeched when Hunter pounced and slammed her against his car in his
frustration.

“Dammit,
woman, don’t ever call
yourself
that.” He gentled his
hold on her when he sensed her sudden leap of fear, and groaned. “Forgive me. I
didn’t mean to be so rough, but don’t ever talk about yourself like that. I
told them, this is your choice entirely.”

Emilia
kicked him in the shin, and pointedly looked at his hands on her shoulders,
until he let her go with a muffled curse.

“Some fucking choice.
If I don’t
agree to this, I’m letting everyone down, and you can sugarcoat this any which
way you want, but you bought me, so in my eyes that makes me a whore.” She put
her hand on his mouth when he opened it to say something, and continued.

“The
worst thing is
,
all you had to do was ask me out. I
would have jumped at the chance to get to know you. Now, this is all sordid and
just plain wrong.”

She
shrugged out of his coat and handed it to him.

“Get
your lawyers to draw up some damn contract and I’ll stick to my side of the
bargain. Just let me know where you want me.”

She
turned on her heel and marched away from him, head held high, and Hunter felt
every ounce the beast he was rumored to be.

She
would never believe him now, if he told her the real reason for this.

Chapter Three

The
deep rumble of Hunter’s sports car announced his arrival, and Emilia took a
deep breath and wiped her clammy hands on the side of her dress. If you could
call the itty bitty little thing he’d sent for her to wear a dress. Clinging to
every one of her curves, the burgundy designer creation had a deep neckline, low
back, and a hemline that ended just above the top of her stockings. As per his
instructions she wore the lacy black bra he’d also sent, together with a lacy
garter belt and sheer stockings. The unfamiliar heels she wobbled in meant she
would at least be able to kiss him without having to stand on tiptoes.

Now
where had that thought come from? Emilia studied herself in the floor length
mirror, and frowned. This was a business deal, nothing to get excited about,
yet her face was flushed, her nipples hard little beacons clearly outlined
against the silk of her dress, and she was breathing so fast she threatened to
spill out of her cleavage.

She
had to give it to him. He had got her size just right, and even though she
would never in a million years, have chosen this outfit for herself, she liked
what she saw in the mirror. The woman that stared back at her looked
sophisticated and sexy, rather than slutty.

The
doorbell rang, and Emilia’s insides tightened in need when she heard the deep
rumble of his voice carrying up the stairs. Taking another deep breath she
picked up her overnight bag. It contained little else but toiletries and a
going home outfit, and she groaned as the action shifted the egg he had
insisted she wear inside her pussy.

Emilia
clenched around it, and her arousal grew as the thing shifted and rubbed
against her g-spot with every step she took.

Part
of the contract had been detailed instructions on how she was to prepare for
her weekend, and Emilia shook her head in wonder. It hadn’t come as a total
surprise that Hunter was a Dom. She’d guessed that from the way he carried
himself, and how one look of his could reduce her to a simpering mess. Emilia
had dabbled in the lifestyle at university, so filling out her soft and hard
limits should have been easy, were it not for the fact that imagining Hunter’s
large hands on her, doing the things he so avidly described in his instructions
to her, had her so aroused that she’d had to seek her own relief more than
once, before she could complete her task.

Fortunately
he hadn’t added a
no
self-pleasuring rule to his list,
or Emilia might have gone up in flames. Having to insert the increasing size of
butt plugs to prepare herself for his taking her anally at some point over her
stay with him, had been enough to send her into
a frenzy
.
Experienced as she was, she’d struggled accepting the last size, and she hadn’t
been able to help but wonder how big he was. If it was true that the size of a
man’s hands gave a good indication of the size of his cock, then lord help her.
The man was massive in a bear sort of a way that made her feel oh so small and
delicate despite her size and height. At five foot nine she was tall for a
woman, yet he still towered over her.

The
medical statement he’d included in his list, confirming that he was free of any
diseases, had given her renewed palpitations. His preference was to not use
condoms, and she had signed her consent on the dotted line with shaking hands.
There was no need for them, not with her contraception shot up to date, but it
had been another indication of how meticulously he had planned all this. The
man had thought of everything, it seemed.

There
was a timid knock on her door, and then Jenny stuck her head round the corner.
Their elderly housekeeper wasn’t privy to the details of their arrangement, and
her eyes widened when she took in Emilia’s appearance.

“Oh
my, you look stunning Miss Emilia, and your …
erm
,
date is here.”

Emilia
smiled at her, and Jenny stepped further into the room and took her bag off of
her.

“Are
you sure you packed enough for the weekend, Miss? I mean this is awfully light,
and with it being Christmas and all…”

Her
words trailed off when Emilia touched her shoulder and nodded.

“I’m
sure. Don’t you worry over me, or Papa or
Leo.
They
will no doubt spend Christmas drunk as skunks, and I’m glad you’ve got your
family to go to.” Emilia couldn’t quite keep the bitterness out of her voice,
and Jenny pulled her in for an impromptu hug.

“I’ll
be okay, you’ll see. You just enjoy Christmas with your new grandson,” Emilia
said.

Jenny
released her, and her whole face lit up as though a candle shone from within.

“Oh,
I will. He’s just the right age now to take it all in, even if we had to tie
down the Christmas tree to make sure he can’t pull it on top of himself. To see
it all through his eyes is just magical.”

Emilia
smiled and blinked back tears. Here she was about to go out on a wild weekend
of sex and debauchery, and her housekeeper was going to have the sort of
Christmas Emilia desperately wanted for herself. A husband, children, laughter
and joy, just like it used to be in this house when she was growing up, and the
man who had bought her for his nefarious ends used to bounce her on her knee
until she laughed so much she snorted.

How things changed and not for the
better.

She
shut her eyes and willed her fragile emotions back under control. She wasn’t a
child anymore, and if Hunter took her on his knee now it would be either to
fuck her or spank her and that thought really shouldn’t make her wetter. This coming
weekend had nothing to do with love, and everything to do with getting her
rocks off. As long as she remembered that, she would be able to enjoy it for
what it was and take those memories back home with her, when she returned to
her tiny flat in
Toddington
, and resumed her work as
a community midwife.