Conference Cupid (7 page)

He pulled, but his wrists stayed secure.
Panic engulfed him. The blindfold scratched at a deeper vulnerability. As a
child he’d braved years of pitch black nights. His parents had been the type
that believed that people only conquered fears if they faced them head on. Even
now, as an adult, complete darkness unnerved him. “
Keary
,
I’d prefer to see.”

“My captive, your preferences mean nothing
to me.”

Devin pulled on ties that bound him to the
bed, more uneasy than ever. Her hands caressed his body and her mouth sought
out his nipple. She flicked her tongue over his flesh and watched his cock come
back to life. She slid down on the bed and licked around the head of his penis.

He sighed.

A squeak of the bed spoke volumes; she’d
moved away from him and left him helpless in the darkness. The keys to her
laptop tapped out a tune while he waited.
What on earth was she doing?

“
Keary
?”

“Yeah, it’ll just take a few minutes, but
you know us writers. Have to get the story down while it’s still fresh in the
mind.”

“Are you serious?” his voice squeaked.

“Oh, hold on.”

The sound of her approaching eased his
mind. She licked around the head of his penis again and let her lips ride over
it and down the shaft. He relaxed and pleasure built to a frenzied pitch.

Then nothing.
Her
mouth disappeared and cold air replaced it. The typing started up again.

Amazing how the sense of sound became
heightened when he could no longer see or move.

The knock on the door alerted him to the
outside world and to danger.
Keary
flipped the sheet
up over his waist.

“What are you doing? You’re not going to
answer it are you?
Keary
?
Keary
?”
He yelled her name the second time as her footsteps
padded into the other room.

Had he made a mistake?

Could it be that what he loved was nothing
more than a teenage fantasy?

How could he have made love to her all
week and never seen the real
Keary
?

Chapter Ten

Splashing ice cold water on her face
wouldn’t have brought her back to reality any sooner than that one bold lie.

At first
Keary
had hoped to avoid having sex with him again. Lust enticed her and she not only
went off Roman
Candle
style on the fourth of July, but
she wanted it so much, she allowed him to do the dance without a raincoat.

No pride.
Just lust.

 Her nipples hardened and the folds
between her legs wept with longing, begged to be fucked. She relished his body
and the sensations it gave her.

Until he said he loved her.

She vaulted back to reality. He’d lied.
And now he tried to take advantage of her even more. The truth was she’d been
falling in love with him until she learned of his deception.

Now she needed to focus on vengeance. She
wanted to believe him.
Wanted to love him.
Wanted more than anything for him to love her.
For real.

But he’d faked it and for that, for making
her believe in love again, she wanted justice.

Slipping into a sweat suit she’d left on
the couch,
Keary
opened the door and let in a few of
her writing buddies. Susan led the crew and wielded a digital camera. Maggie,
who’d inadvertently caused the coup, followed behind her with Janie bringing up
the rear.

“Whoa, what a gorgeous
suite.
This must be costing you a fortune,” Janie said, eyeing the room
from corner to corner.

“Wait ‘til you see the rest of it.”

Susan snorted.
Keary
shut the door behind them and bolted it. No need to take chances.

“Absolutely gorgeous.
I think the only one in the hotel that’s better is the owner’s penthouse
suite.”

“Yeah, that’s what we’re here for, Maggie.
It appears the owner has been masquerading as first a model and then a
masseur.”

“
Suz
, why would
he do that?”

“All in an effort to get
into
Keary’s
pants.”

“Did he make it?” Janie asked.

Keary
wished she
could control her blush, but the embarrassment and shame at getting played
burned on her cheeks.

The two ladies that had
been out of the loop commiserated and chastised
Keary
and Susan, for keeping them in the dark.

“Keep your voices down. He’s in the other
room and I don’t want him to hear what I have planned for him.”

Janie stepped closer and whispered. “How
do you know he won’t just open the door and come out?”

Keary
grinned at
them.
“Because I have him tied to the bed.”

In spite of her warning to keep their
voices down, Maggie and Janie squealed and guffawed. Janie’s hand reached up
and clutched her pearl necklace with the slightest bit of discomfort. “And what
did you call us here for? What do you want us to do with him?”

Keary
placed her
arm around her friend. “Don’t worry. Nothing too bad,” she whispered. “I just
want to scare the ever-living shit out of him.”

Maggie shifted her weight from one foot to
the other. “What if you have the wrong guy? What if he’s not really the owner?
What if it’s Peter playing both parts? Do you have that picture? I’d hate it if
we spent this entire week screwing the same guy.”

Keary’s
stomach
knotted. If that was the case she’d find an even bigger way to humiliate him.
The thought of him touching Maggie or any other woman caused her fists to
tighten. Racing to the table, she grabbed the picture and handed it to Maggie.
“Devin’s the one on the left.”

“
Your
left or
left in the picture?”

“This one,” she said, pointing to Devin.

Maggie breathed a sigh of relief.
“Yup, not my Peter.
Well, thank God for that. I wouldn’t
want to find out I was sharing without my knowledge.”

Keary’s
shoulders relaxed and she let out the breath she’d been holding. “Well, that’s
just what we’re going to pretend to do ladies—share. I’m going to take you into
the bedroom and pretend that we’re all going to enjoy his favors.”

“Won’t he just get off on that even more?”

“Not necessarily. Besides, he’s
blindfolded. He won’t know what’s going on. I’m going to call out names and use
the name Bill. He’ll think one of us is a guy and that won’t sit well with him
at all. All we have to do is run our hands over his arms and chest while Susan
takes pictures.”

“Oh, I don’t know,
Keary
.”
Janie looked like she was ready to bolt from the room.

“Okay, you take the pictures and
Suz
will join in the torment. Will that work?”

Nods of agreement brought them to the
door.
Keary
opened it with a flourish.

* * * *

How could he have been so wrong about
Keary
?

He couldn’t. At first, he’d thought he’d
get the fantasy out of his system. But he’d gotten to know
Keary
and she was the woman he fell in love with.

The woman who’d just opened the door
wasn’t the same woman he spent the week with. This one scared him. He’d heard
her on the other side of the door. The voices were low but Devin was dead
certain there was more than one. And by the intake of breath when she opened
the door, she had at least two people with her.

His stomach knotted and his heart
clenched. He yanked on the ties that bound him to the bed but they held strong.
“What do you think, I know I’ve been selfish keeping him to myself, but I
needed him for research.”

Bile rose and lodged in his throat.
Research?
Did she mean what she said to these women? Could
it be true that he’d meant no more to her than research for a book?

“Oh, he’s divine,
Keary
.
Let me ride him first.”

“Hey, why should you get to go first?” a
second woman questioned.

Bullshit. There’d be no way they’d get him
hard now. Who knew what was on the other side of his mask? He couldn’t see and
wasn’t feeling in an amorous mood.

After
Keary’s
betrayal he wasn’t sure if he’d ever be in the mood again.

“
Keary
,” Devin
snarled, “get them the fuck out of here. No offense,
ladies
, but I’m not
in the mood for your little game.”

“Devin, I don’t think you heard me
earlier. No one cares what you want. And I don’t think Bill appreciates being
called a lady.”

Devin froze and his blood ran cold. She
couldn’t mean it.
Keary’s
voice came closer and hands
touched him. He twitched, not sure if they belonged to
Keary
.
Two more hands caressed the other side of his chest and his arm.

Four hands.
Two
more than
Keary
had. Two more grazed his thigh over
the sheet.

Six hands.

Shit.

At least they were female hands; even in
the dark he knew the difference. If there was a Bill, he hadn’t joined the game
yet. But those female hands...

Don’t get aroused. Don’t get aroused.
Don’t get aroused
.

Keary
wouldn’t
share him like a pizza with her hungry friends. This might have been a fantasy
for some men but not for him.

He was a one woman man. Well at least one
at a time. This would kill him.

“
Keary
.”
Devin yelled her name so loudly he was certain the people in the next room
could hear. That’s what he’d do. He’d shake the bed the way they had the other
night and he’d keep doing it until the neighbors complained. He’d be so loud
they’d have to call the front desk.

The hat that kept him in the darkness was
suddenly yanked off his head. A camera flashed and his eyes began to focus. Her
friend Susan stroked his left arm while his cousin’s playmate stroked his
right.
Keary
crawled up on the bed and leaned so she
faced the camera and her head rested on his chest. A woman he never met before
flashed off pictures, the epitome of a master photographer running a photo
shoot.

Keary
tugged at
the sheet to expose more of his legs. They weren’t tied down. Devin kicked and
twisted his body, fighting his way to freedom.

“Good enough. Take the camera and we’ll
meet you in your room.”

The woman with the camera nodded and left.
Keary
and her two other friends moved away from him
the second the camera stopped clicking. So they wanted pictures of him, but for
what?

“
Keary
, why are
you doing this?”

“You know, I asked myself the same
question of you, when I found out you owned the hotel. Let’s go girls.”

“Oh shit. Fuck!
Keary
,
you don’t understand.
Keary
.
Untie me. Where are you going? You can’t just leave me
here.”

But his words fell on deaf ears and the
three women left the room the same way the first had. He heard the soft click
of the room door shut and then silence.

Chapter Eleven

It had hurt less when her husband
announced their marriage was over. At least she’d been prepared for that. Her
feelings there had suffered through a long illness so its death had been
expected.

Not the case with Devin.
Keary
hadn’t been prepared for the sudden demise of a
relationship still in the honeymoon stage.

Anger battled sadness. For the moment
sadness won.
How can I still want him?
  That’s what hurt the most.
Keary
didn’t want to believe what happened, wanted
desperately to find the entire thing some horrible misunderstanding.

“You okay?”
Suz
asked.

“I’ll live.”
Keary
avoided her friend’s gaze so she wouldn’t see just how affected she’d been by
Devin’s betrayal.

“You can’t just leave him tied there
indefinitely. At some point you’ll have to go back to the room.”

“The hell I will. Not with him there.”
Keary
strode up to the front desk and waited for the man
behind it to come to her aid.

“May I help you?”

“You certainly may. Mr. Barnett is in my
room and slightly...incapacitated.”

Susan started to laugh and brought her
hand to her mouth to pretend she was coughing.

“Mr. Barnett?
The
owner?”

“The very one.
You’ll need to send a few staff members to assist him.”

“Is he all right, ma’am?”

Keary
hesitated.
“He’ll live, but he’s in need of assistance. It can’t wait.”

Susan slipped into another fake coughing
fit and walked away from the desk. The gentleman picked up the phone.
Keary
nodded and strode over to Susan, who leaned against
the edge of the couch in the lobby and tried to hide her laughter behind a
potted plant.

Two burly men in hotel attire approached
the desk and were handed a key card.

“What I wouldn’t give for a hidden video,”
Susan said.

Keary
smiled.
She didn’t enjoy humiliating him any more than she enjoyed being humiliated by
him. She tried to imagine what he’d feel like when his employees showed up and
found him naked and bound to the bed.

She’d lowered herself to his standards.
This wasn’t the type of person she was. Guilt tugged at her conscience and she
pushed it away.