Continental Life (16 page)

Ring.

Chirp.

XP: PICK UP THE GOD DAMN PHONE!!

***

Grief ripped through Xander like a locomotive. Seeing the tears crumble Bella’s composure felt like someone had punched him
directly in the diaphragm. All he wanted was to comfort her. Of course he was going to marry her.

Fucking Svetlana.

Unable to talk to her or hold her was killing him. It was like his limbs had been cut from his body as he sat motionless and helpless to do anything for the love of his life.
Fuck the DDTC.
They had pushed him too far. How could a school that prided itself on bringing couples together to live their lives in harmony mandate that they be separated for such a long period of time? How was that productive to a successful relationship?

He dialed her number again as he watched her curl up onto her bed and sob into a pillow.

Pick up. Pick up…

It rang and rang, but she covered her ears. When she did, the towel slipped off of her and his chest tightened when he saw the red streaks across her pale flesh. Who hurt her? Why did they allow things to go that far?

Xander’s grief turned to rage and the hair on the back of his neck bristled.
Dalberg.
He had it out for Xander and it wouldn’t surprise him if that man had caused this as some sort of misguided vengeance. He picked up his phone.

XP: Did Dalberg do that to you?

Bella’s crying slowed and when she saw the message she glared at the screen for a brief moment before responding with a simple nod of her head.

XP: I’ll kill him.

And he meant it. He tore out of his office, reached for his coat and keys and barreled down the hallway to the elevator. Just as the doors slid open, his phone rang out with Bella’s ringtone.

“Wait!” she yelled as the call connected.

“Fuck that. That man deserves what’s coming to him,” he punched the lobby button.

“Xander, please!
It was my fault, I lied to him! He asked my color and I told him green. He didn’t know!”

Xander’s body froze and he tasted the sour backwash of
disgust at what he had almost done. “What?”

“He had already apologized to me about his behavior.
After what you told me, I was upset. I just wanted to forget about everything and thought a good firm spanking would achieve that. I thought I could handle the pain, but I couldn’t.” Each word spoken became softer and more hushed.

As his rapid heartbeat slowed, his shoulders slumped in relief. The elevator reached the lobby level, but he promptly punched the top floor again.

“I’m not a masochist, Xander,” Bella sniffed on the other end.

Irony slapped him in the face
.
No shit.
Didn’t she remember their little bath brush incident? Wasn’t that clue enough?

“You’re not tell
ing me something I don’t already know, Bella.” He swore he could hear the surprise on the other end. “You know… for someone who’s going to graduate in the top one percent of her medical class, you sure can be dense sometimes. What the hell were you thinking? Dalberg doesn’t know you like I do…” his anger bubbled to the surface again at how recklessly she had acted. “Jesus, Bella. He could have seriously hurt you!”

“
Please don’t lecture me,
Lord Pettifor
,” she answered with bitter irony. “I heard it all already from both Dalberg and Hutchens.”

“Good! I’m glad. That was irresponsible and immature of you! You not only hurt herself by being dishonest about the situation, but you could have hurt Dalberg’s
and the school’s reputation!”

Silence.

Xander rolled his eyes at himself for defending the man who most likely had caused his suspension from the DDTC, though he didn’t quite yet know how he had managed it. With the other end of the phone line still silent, he walked back into hi
s penthouse and tossed himself onto the couch.

“We need to talk, Bella.”

“Not tonight. I’m tired… My back hurts…”

He ignored each of her protests. “I wish I was there to make you feel better, but we
need
to talk.”

“Oh, God,
now what?
” Bella moaned miserably. “What else have you been keeping from me? Next you’ll tell me that you were the one that Christopher’s Madam had the affair with…”

Xander bit his bottom lip at her reference to Jade being a
Madam.
“She’s referred to as Mistress not Madam,” he smiled.

“Whatever.”

As Bella would say,
it was go big time
. “And it wasn’t an affair. It was a relationship, albeit a very brief one.”

God damn s
ilence.
Again
.

The words hung in the air like shards of glass in a broken window frame and for a moment he thought she had hung up on him. “Are you still there?”

“We’re not going to get married, are we?” The faintest bit of bitterness colored her words, but the emotion caused her voice to quaver.

He bolted upright in the couch, both angered and startled by her statement as her words sent a shockwave through him. “Why would
you say something like that?”

“Answer me,” she persisted.

Walking quickly back to the office, he stared at the computer screen to see Bella sitting on the edge of the bed. Her strangely calm demeanor contradicted what he was hearing on the phone. When he didn’t immediately respond to her, he heard the click of the phone as she disconnected the call. Panic coursed through his veins as he stared at her image walk to the camera and angle it away from her.

He knew calling her b
ack would be futile. She was hurting from his lack of response to her question and new admission, and withdrawing from him.
Why hadn’t he just answered her damned question?

XP: Of course we’re getting married! Again you doubt my honor?

MsDarcy: When?

He fingered the keypad but quickly typed out a response before
she misinterpreted his delay as a gutless action to answering to her question directly.

XP: As soon as you’re done with med school. That was ALWAYS my intention.

Ms Darcy: Then why didn’t you just say that? Why did you lead me on and change the subject every time I asked?

XP: I wanted your full attention on school. I don’t know what Svetlana told you or what happened today, but there has NEVER been any doubt in my mind that we would get married.

XP:
I LOVE YOU

MsDarcy: You say that but still you
’ve kept things from me. You told me not to doubt you, but that’s what you’ve done to me. I’m a big girl. I could’ve handled the truth.

MsDarcy:
Did you ever plan on telling me about Svetlana? Or Jade? If I hadn’t asked… would you have told me?

He sat quietly for a moment unsure of how to respond. Reaching deep, he knew the answer.

XP: Yes. In my own time. But I just realized something. My boundaries need to be pushed too and apparently so do I. I’m so sorry to have hurt you. You have to know that.

Several minutes passed with no response. Unable to take the silence, he dialed her number. After the first ring, she answered. It was a good sign.

“I don’t like to think of you in that way.”

“
What way?”

“
As a submissive. You’re my Alpha, Xander. My Ruler and King. I don’t want to think about you being that way…” her tone bordered on melancholy.

“Then don’t because that’s not who I am. I never was. What happened with Jade was an experiment in my sexuality. That’s all.
I was young and still learning what it was I wanted in a woman. The most important thing learned from her is that I am
absolutely
a Dominant and nothing less than a woman’s submission will satisfy me.” His husky timbered voice was no more than a whisper as he laid his heart open for her. “Do you want to know what I’ve learned from you?”

“Yes, Sir.”

God, how he loved those words and the sound of her voice flowing over him like warm honey.

Passion thickened his voice. “That only
your
submission can fulfill me and that I am absolutely, undoubtedly,
your
Dominant.”

With each passing day, Bella began to feel her resentment toward the DDTC growing. She understood their reasoning for everything, including the necessity for keeping up appearances for the sake of the school, and even his suspension for their breaking the rules, however, being separated from him seemed unnecessarily cruel.

Dominic had volunteered to be Xander’s replacement in the
interim and he was nice enough very knowledgeable, but he wasn’t Xander. Phone conversations and texts just weren’t mending her broken heart. She needed to feel Xander’s hands on her and to feel his warm breath on her ear… They clearly had more things to talk about and to work through, but they were the kinds of discussions that needed to be had face to face and while embracing and looking into each other’s eyes.

By Friday, it was clear to
her that things just didn’t feel right without Xander sharing in this journey and lighting her educational path. As Dominic stood at the head of the class and told them of their next exercise, her fragile nerves nearly splintered at the thought of what she was going to be faced with next.

“The other instructors and I have had a chance to go over your
wish lists.
It’s a time honored tradition that this school grant those wishes to each of its students without fear of judgment from any of us. We are all well-versed in various kinds of fetishes. That being said: you have each been assigned an instructor to carry out one of the fantasies you made mention of.”

Everyone in the room seemed excited at the prospect of being used and/or abused
and pleasured by one of the Dominant male instructors and having their kinkiest dreams come true. Except for Bella.

Dom
inic turned his brown-eyed gaze toward Christopher. “Since your fantasy doesn’t involve M/M play, we have asked a Domme at our sister school for training Dominants to help with this portion of our program.”

Bella’s ears perked up.
So that’s where Xander learned his skills.
As he talked more about the exciting sexual exploits on their horizon, she knew there needed to be a change in her routine and that change needed to happen sooner rather than later.

At the end of the night and after deliberating for nearly three hours and barely listening to l
ecture, she decided to do the unthinkable.
Quit.
Unable to bring herself to accept the despicable idea, she decided instead to tell herself that she was
resigning.

This was the kind of decision that she undoubtedly should have discussed with Xander first, but she knew he would try and talk her out of it and
make her case
, but that was going to take up too much of their precious time. Time that would be better spent making kinky love and confessing their undying love for each other.

She found Dominic in the conference room embroiled in a conversation with Dalberg and asked to speak with them.
Once seated in front of them in the same chair that her
inquisition
had taken place, she inhaled deeply as she tried to put her thoughts into words.

The distant sound of night creatures drifted in from the open window on the soft summer breeze and frogs croaked in unison with cricket’s chirps
, soothing her tension. The voices of the other students from the other room filtered through the walls.
She would miss them
…

“What is it, Ms. Darcy?” Dom’s voice shattered her deep inner thoughts.

There was no point in procrastinating because every minute wasted was one she could be spending under Xander’s intense green-eyed gaze. “I have decided to leave the program.”

Both Dalberg’s and Hutchens mouths gaped and their eyes rounded.

Dalberg was the first to react. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Dom leaned forward. “
I wish you would reconsider your decision. Is this school not meeting your educational needs? Is there something more you need from us?”

She paused and pushed her hair off her forehead. “
Thank you, but I believe the DDTC has provided me all that it can. What I need now, can only be provided from the one and only Lord I need. Xander.”

“Is this because he’s been suspended?” Dalberg straightened up.

Placing her hands in her lap, she readied herself for their barrage of questions. She had hoped they would just say,
okay, goodbye,
but there was no such luck. “Yes and no.”

“Elaborate, please,” Dom ordered.

She sighed and glanced out the window as the breeze from the ceiling fan overhead cooled her heated flesh. “I understand why he was suspended and your wishes to keep the integrity of this school intact. But for a school grounded on the principle that honesty and communication are mandatory for a successful partnership, and whose sole purpose is to strengthen relationships; I feel that by keeping us apart, your actions are contradictory to your mission statement. Being in this program has only brought heartache for Xander and me. I wanted so badly for this to be a good experience and so did Xander… I just wanted to learn how to be the best wife I can for him…” she felt the blood from her cheeks drain and tears welling up in her eyes, but forbade them to fall.

Dalberg stood and turned away from
her as he walked toward the window. Leaning down, he poked his head out and inhaled deeply.

“I know that you feel I’ve unfairly taken a spot here, Lord Dalberg and that by my leaving
, someone has been deprived of a spot, so I’ve decided to donate a full session’s tuition for someone.” She reached into her school bag and pulled out the check she had written just before arriving to their office and slid it across the table toward Dom. “I’m no quitter. I want to make that very clear. I had every intention of sticking this out, but there’s nothing any of you can teach me that Xander can’t, and moving forward would only be wasting everyone’s time. Most importantly: I cannot and will not be with another man for the sake of enlightenment. Xander is my Lord. My
only
Lord.”

Both men said nothing more and only the sound of her stilettos on the wood floor could be heard as she walked toward the door. Her eyes burned with unshed tears as she faced them one last time.

“Thank you all for your time and effort. Please don’t hold my actions against Lord Pettifor. He loves this school.”

***

Xander hung up the phone with stunned shock. Dalberg had called to explain himself and apologize, though he wasn’t sure why Dalberg suddenly felt it necessary to confess that he had been the one to rat him and Bella out. Apparently a lunch date with his mysterious significant other
in the coffee shop across the street is where he saw Bella entering his office building. It was just destiny… or fate, depending on how you looked at it.

The secret lover in question, it turned out, was Dalberg’s business partner. No one had ever met him or even knew his name, so when the application came across Dom
inic’s desk, it was simply put into the
potential students
pile
.
If Dalberg hadn’t been so damned stubborn and brought it to everyone’s attention, the board might have admitted his partner. He pointed out the irony in the situation and the fact that Dalberg’s dishonesty about who the applicant was, was deceitful. What if the man had been accepted into the program and no one knew of their relationship? Who was the hypocrite now?

Just thinking about it made Xander seethe,
but he decided it was best to just let it go. At least Dalberg had been man enough to finally apologize. As angry as he had been with Dalberg over the past several weeks, he strangely felt like they shared a kindred spirit – both businessmen, both dedicated to sharing their knowledge about DD, both Dominant and headstrong but willing to concede when necessary…He shook his head. They were never going to be best friends, but at least they could move forward. Whatever the reasoning was for Dalberg’s change of heart, he was appreciative of it.

With the phone call behind him and hopefully all grudges washed away, he got back on task. There were still more airline and hotel reservations to be made. His family’s had all been taken care of and now it was time to start getting Bella’s relative’s travel plans lined up. He glanced at his desk calendar and circled
a two week period in black ink, then a Saturday in the shape of a heart in bold red marker. He smiled. Yes, he was a romantic. There was no denying it…And there was no point in waiting until Bella was done with med school. Life was too short to make love wait.

The day had been a long one. Meeting after incessant meeting
... Since his nights were now free, he opted to stay at the office and get things done. A look at his wall clock notified him that he had an upcoming
date
with Bella. She would be on her way home right about now. As he packed up his briefcase, Bella’s perfume wafted into the office. Turning on his heel, he saw her standing in the doorway with the strangest look on her face.

“You know the rules. Are you trying to get kicked out of the program?” he asked sternly.

“We don’t have to worry about that anymore.”

Her seductive tone vibrated through him but her stateme
nt and expression bewildered him. Sitting on the corner of his desk, his eyes raked over her while he waited for her explanation.

“I left the program.”

The DDTC had pushed her too far.
He swallowed hard to hide his stab of disappointment. Leaning back on his hands, he sat quietly waiting for her to make her case. Without being prompted, she stood before him and stated her reasons.

“I’m sorry I made the decision before coming to you, but I believe I made the right decision for
us.
I can’t be with another man.
I won’t
. I don’t want my fantasies fulfilled by anyone but you. It’s not right, Xander. The DDTC can’t teach me anything that you can’t. I already have my own personal tutor. I have for five years now.”

He couldn’t bear to hear or see her laying her heart open for him to only crush it. The look she was giving him made him feel like someone had squeezed his heart’s next beat fr
om his chest. He never would have asked her to quit even though he had been feeling the same way. Plain and simple: they had made a bad choice by enrolling her in the program. Being forced to be apart had proven too much for them. And was that so wrong? They were in love. The needed each other. Life partners weren’t meant to live separate lives. It wasn’t healthy and this little experiment gone awry had proven that. Bella had made the right decision.

“
So you quit?” he asked, not in seriousness but simply to see her reaction.

She flinched but held his gaze.
“I resigned.”

He stifled the urge to laugh.
“You’re not employed there.”

When she saw the
not-so-subtle smile on his face, her own expression of amusement replaced her seriousness. “You should have been a lawyer, not a CEO.”

He reached out and pulled her into his lap.
“They don’t make enough money.”

Glancing at his
desk calendar she saw the black ink. “Boo. A two week business trip?” she pouted.

“
A merger of sorts…” he answered furtively.

“Where
to?”

Tugging at the knotted hair on her head, her hair
loosened and her long, ebony tresses trickled down between his fingers and down her back. “Naples.”

A lazy look of dreaminess came over her.
“I love Naples…”

“I know. You were such a good girl in Naples.”

“I was…” she agreed. “It’s like our minds are in sync, Sir. I’m wearing something from that very trip right now.”

His eyes lit up.
The flowered panties.
“Show me.”

Lifting her skirt slowly, centimeter by centimeter, her smooth, firm
, lace stocking covered thighs came into view before revealing the panties of mythical legend. As many kinky memories as they held, he really should get them framed. But then again, that would mean the frilly panties would have to be retired.
What a tragic thought
.

“Take everything off except for your panties…”
he ordered.

Her sexy grin widened.
Standing, she shed her clothes, folded them neatly and piled them on his desk.

God, he loved her efficiency.

“Now walk to the other end of the room and crawl to me.”

His words temporarily left her speechless and her brows quirked in surprise
, but slowly, deliberately and painstakingly sensual, she lowered herself to her hands and knees. Her obedience caused his blood to race through his body and settle in his cock, but sexual desire alone couldn’t account for the way he was feeling about her. What they had was deeper than a physical bond; much deeper and far more intense.

With feline gracefulness
she crawled hand over hand, knee over knee, toward him. With each sleek movement of her lithe body, her large breasts swayed side to side and her narrow waist that sloped down to curvy hips sashayed teasingly under the floral panties, flooding him with memories of their time in Naples.