Dangerous (The Complete Erotic Romance Novel) (33 page)

The return address was Miss Jones’ apartment.

That made Reid frown. What was she doing, sending him something at his home? He checked the dates. It had been sent while he was in Asia. He tore it open, then stared at the photographs inside.

There was no note, just three large photographs. The woman in the first one was Miss Jones. The location was clearly her bedroom, where he’d just spent several hours. It was an even more amateurish shot than those taken by Leon, and was a bit grainy. It seemed impromptu, like an image taken without permission.

Reid smiled as he leaned back in his chair to study it. She was wrong, of course, to send him something like this, but it was exciting all the same. Like so many of Miss Jones’ transgressions, Reid found her initiative charming.

She was naked in the first shot, apparently considering her reflection. The welts he’d put on her body during that first scene were clear, and matched the date stamp on the bottom of the image. He took his time reviewing the pattern of the marks he’d made and how well they suited her, as well as admiring her. She was so beautiful that the welts only enhanced her appeal.

They made her look owned.

He’d have to use the riding crop again. Maybe later on this Sunday.

Reid smiled and turned to the next photograph. His smile immediately faded. Miss Jones was being fucked by another man in her own bed in this image. Not him. Not anyone he even knew. Anger surged through him as he checked the date stamp and the time displayed by the clock on her nightstand.

The third shot was evidently taken later, and showed Miss Jones alone, masturbating.

Reid flung down the photographs and paced the room again. What game was she paying? Why had she sent him these pictures? Was she flaunting the fact that she’d broken their agreement, almost immediately after signing it? He recalled her question about wanting to be disciplined. Was she trying to tempt him again, not to kiss her this time but to punish her?

Reid snatched up the images and studied them again, a second view doing little to change his reaction.

In fact, the heat of his response was a warning in itself. He was too angry too quickly. He knew he wasn’t emotionally involved—he had all of his barriers intact—but his reaction felt impassioned. That was a bad precedent and a sign that things were moving too quickly. Reid straightened and looked out the window. Miss Jones was snaring him, fascinating him in a way that wasn’t healthy. He was losing control.

He would regain it. Immediately.

A day away from Miss Jones would be good for him, and help him to put matters into perspective.

It would also give him time to plan how best to discipline her. He had to surprise her, maybe even shock her, to ensure that she never did something like this again.

Maybe he should give her exactly what she said she wanted.

* * *

Kendra nestled more deeply into her new satin sheets and smiled. It was late on Sunday morning, Jade wasn’t home yet, and Kendra was sure that everything was perfect. The rope and fabric was all put away so no one would see it, but she kept replaying the night in her thoughts.

Reid had been amazing.

He was the best fantasy assailant she could have imagined. Her skin still tingled from his spanking and she felt luxurious. Savored. Possessed. Kendra shivered luxuriously, unable to wait to find out what he had planned for this day.

He had something in mind. She knew him well enough to have seen that.

Going to that diner had been the perfect end to a perfect night. She’d worn the corset under her dress, the shackles under her boots and gloves. Her puss had been bare and wet within moments. He’d left before her, then picked her up on the next block, as arranged.

He’d made her blindfold herself again, then had driven fast across town. Kendra hadn’t recognized the area or the diner. It was near a highway, because she could hear the trucks, and more than one guy there in the wee hours of the morning had taken a good look at her.

Reid had fed her.

Right in front of everyone.

Kendra had been electrified. She still was, still desperate for him to take her again. She was becoming insatiable, all because of her sexy new master. The best part was that he’d promised to make the wait worth her while.

Jade unlocked the door and shouted that she was home. Kendra answered and got out of bed, quickly pulling on her bathrobe.

Who knew when Reid would call?

She had to be ready when he did.

* * *

But Reid didn’t call.

Not all day long.

Kendra told herself that he must be busy, preparing for the next day’s appointments at Esperanza, and did some preparation of her own.

She went to visit Leon in the afternoon.

She ate scrambled eggs for dinner, alone.

All the same, it bothered her that he was so quiet. She’d been sure that he would get in touch with her. She’d been positive that she’d see him again on the weekend. She had been convinced that he would call her today and put her out of her misery.

She was twitching with unsatisfied desire. He wasn’t taking care of her. It wasn’t fair.

By eight, she couldn’t stand it any longer. Jade was still out, but might be home soon.

Kendra called Reid’s cell phone. He answered immediately, much to her relief.

“Yes, Miss Jones?” His tone was crisp, businesslike.

Unexpectedly formal.

It gave Kendra pause. “I had thought I would hear from you today, sir,” she said, hearing the uncertainty in her voice.

“Then you were incorrect.” He was more than formal—his tone was glacial.

“Is there something wrong? Did I do something wrong?”

“Other than calling me?”

“But I called you yesterday...”

“You were instructed to call me yesterday,” Reid said with precision. “You were not told to call me today.”

Kendra sat down, fighting the sense that something was slipping from her grasp. “I see.”

“Do you, Miss Jones? You seem to delight in not following instruction, so let me be perfectly clear. You will never call me of your own volition. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.” Kendra couldn’t leave it alone. “But sir, I thought that you would finish what we started...”

“Miss Jones, your pleasure is not within the guarantees of our contract.”

Kendra closed her eyes, remembering his original words all too well. She was a toy, a sexual toy to be used for his pleasure. She supposed he’d just been gracious in letting her come before.

Or maybe she was being disciplined. “Yes, sir.”

“I will see you at the office in the morning, Miss Jones.”

“Yes, sir.”

But the line was dead before Kendra even finished her reply.

She stared at the phone, her sense that something was wrong multiplying. Something
was
different. Something had changed. When Reid had punished her before, he’d informed her of it.

Jade came home just then, slamming the door behind herself and punctuating it with a sneeze. “I’m so sick!” she wailed, her arrival distracting Kendra from her thoughts.

Jade
was
sick. Her nose was red and her eyes were running.

“Present from your new lover?” Kendra teased, but Jade shook her head.

She sneezed again. “Not funny.
So
not funny. I’m going to bed.”

“Maybe it’ll be better tomorrow. Do you want anything?”

“You’d better keep your distance. You don’t want this one.”

Kendra silently agreed. Jade shut the door to her room, quarantining herself and leaving Kendra to think.

Was something else wrong between her and Reid? If so, Reid wasn’t going to tell her what it was, which meant she couldn’t fix it. Her euphoric sense that they were building something together dissolved completely, leaving her exhausted and dissatisfied.

But no. Kendra wouldn’t give up that easily. Maybe this was a test, a test to see how badly she wanted to be his sex slave. She already knew he liked to mislead her and then surprise her. Well, she’d surprise him instead.

Kendra would wear the corset to work the next day, and make sure Reid knew it. She’d need a bigger purse to take the gag along, too, but she wasn’t going to disobey his instructions.

No. She was going to be the perfect slave, and she’d keep at it until Reid saw the truth.

Until he fitted her with a collar and claimed her forever.

* * *

“It’s official,” Marianne said when she burst into the office on Monday morning. She flung down a newspaper on her desk before shrugging out of her coat. “Men are disgusting.” She shook the snow off the shoulders of her coat.

The first heavy snow of the season had started to fall during the night, and Kendra was terrified the airport would be closed before the buyers arrived from New York. The accumulation still wasn’t too much, but the roads were getting slippery. She had her fingers and toes crossed, hoping that the weather didn’t conspire against her plan for Esperanza’s rebirth.

Of course, everything was going wrong. Maybe that was the issue with Reid. Maybe he knew the buyers weren’t going to come and her plan wouldn’t work and Esperanza would be bankrupt by the end of the week.

Maybe he was already planning his escape.

When Marianne arrived, Kendra was on hold with both the limo guy who was meeting the first guest’s flight and the hotel catering manager. Not everything had arrived for the meal Kendra had chosen for lunch and the chef was searching for options. She was wishing belatedly that she’d kept the menu simple, instead of trying to impress anyone accustomed to eating in Manhattan, and not very interested in another of Marianne’s tirades.

“Any particular man or just the gender in general?” Ginger asked mildly.

“Men who do shit like that.” Marianne jabbed a finger at her newspaper, even as she stood on one foot to unzip her boot. “Might be all of them, might just be some. I’m not sure anymore.”

Ginger plucked the paper off Marianne’s desk. “I saw this on the news last night.” She turned the front page so Kendra could see the headline.

Murder Victim Found by Dog Walker

Kendra nodded, just as the limo driver came on the line. She’d seen that story on the news, too, but hadn’t been very interested. She’d been more concerned with the change in Reid’s attitude, and her own uncertainty as to what had caused it.

Everything had to go right on this day.

Even though it appeared that everything would go wrong.

The line clicked and the limo guy picked up the line again to give her an update. “Arrived? Excellent! Thanks so much.” Kendra clicked over to the catering manager again. “Brenda? Right, I’m here. What options do we have? Okay, I’ll hold.”

Ginger shook her head at the newspaper headline, and bit her lip as she read the beginning of the article. “I wonder who she is.”

“It says she’s been dead for a while,” Marianne contributed, poking at a point lower in the article.

“At least two years.” Ginger grimaced. “But stored in a freezer before being left in the woods.”

“Ewwwwww,” both older women said simultaneously.

“What is it with people who have dogs?” Ginger demanded. “Why do they have to go poking around in forests?”

“It’s not them, it’s the dogs. It’s what they do.” Marianne shook her head as she took her seat. “It says she was tied up. Hog-tied.” She grimaced.

“Like a kidnapping victim,” Ginger suggested.

Kendra glanced up at that, before realizing that her co-workers were still talking about the news article.

“Naked?” Marianne said with skepticism. “I think she was some other kind of victim, but they’re not telling us the whole story.”

“If it gives them a better chance of catching the guy who did it, I’m all for keeping the details out of the press,” Ginger said. “Did you see CSI last week?”

Kendra reminded herself to give Jade a call once she got this sorted out. Her roommate had stayed home with that cold, which had blossomed overnight instead of going away. She crossed her fingers, hoping she managed to avoid the cold. The link clicked just then and Brenda’s cheerful voice was on the line again. Kendra ignored Marianna and Ginger as she listened to what the chef could offer as an alternative to her luncheon choices.

Reid strolled into the office then, looking even more purposeful and expensive than usual. He barely gave Kendra a glance as he walked to his office, but tapped a fingertip on her desk on his way by.

A summons.

Kendra’s heart skipped. She nodded and tried to finish up her call, even as Marianne rolled her eyes. “The most obedient little assistant he’s ever had, I’ll bet,” she murmured, and Ginger laughed.

Kendra didn’t care. She finished the call and went into Reid’s office to give him a status report.

She reached to close the door, but he stopped her with a curt gestured. He raised his gaze to hers, his eyes as chilly a blue as she’d ever seen.

As if they were strangers.