Don't Ever Stop: A BDSM Billionaire Romance (18 page)

‘You know, we don’t always have to meet up to drink,’ Patrick said, shielding his eyes from the sun, and looking at me intently. ‘It’s not like I need to get drunk to spend time with you or anything.’ He laughed, and prodded me. ‘Hey, Rose, what happened to your leg?’

I looked down to see my skirt had ridden up my thigh. There was a red rope burn halfway up the thigh. It was the only burn I’d got; I must have been leaning on the rope in a way that put a lot of pressure on that particular part of my skin. It had healed a lot since last week, but still looked quite sore and fresh.

‘That?’ I stalled. ‘Oh, I ran into a table.’

‘You ran into a table?’ Patrick frowned.

‘Yeah. On the way to my exam. Was running late. Really stupid.’ I looked at the sore, pink line across my flesh. I thought perhaps you could make out the pattern of the rope on there too, the twists of jute, having pressed their marks into me, but no – I was just being paranoid. Patrick would never be able to tell that was rope burn. Besides, most ‘normal’ people probably didn’t even know what rope burn looked like, right?

I pulled my dress back down over my legs.

Just then, I felt a buzz in my handbag beside me. My cell was vibrating. A text message.

Thinking about where we were this time last weekend. Making me horny. RC.

I felt the blood rush to my cheeks and pushed my cell back deep inside my bag.
How dare he text me like that? And how dare he tell me he’s horny? That’s his own problem. It’s inappropriate.

‘You alright?’ Patrick asked, seeing my obvious discomfort.

‘I’m fine, Patrick, I’m fine,’ I replied, in a tone that gave away the fact I obviously wasn’t. ‘Some people though, eh?’ I tutted, and Patrick nodded his agreement out of politeness.

This was the first I’d heard from Redmond since the weekend, except for my emails containing dietary instructions. I assumed he’d been with Nisha the whole time, and had forgotten about me. Maybe he was with Nisha now. Maybe he slipped out and sent the message to me when she wasn’t looking, or found the opportunity to send a quick text while she was in the bathroom, or something. Well at least Nisha would be able to ‘help out’ if he was getting ‘horny’. Ha.

I looked at Patrick, filled up with anger. ‘Patrick,’ I said. ‘You’re a good one.’

He shrugged modestly, and at that moment I thought he’d never looked more perfect. His cute boyish looks. His messy, blonde hair. Patrick was fun. Fun was sexy.

I felt myself wriggling a little closer to him on the grass, and saw his eyes widen. He wriggled a little closer to me.

‘You’re gorgeous, Rose,’ Patrick said quietly.

‘Shut up,’ I said, blushing. ‘I’m not.’

‘You are,’ he replied. ‘You’ve got something no-one else has got. A real understated beauty. Elegant and natural. There’s no-one else like you in the whole of New York. Or anywhere. I mean it.’

We looked into each other’s eyes while we listened to the sound of the Hispanic guys playing their corny love tunes behind us. And within seconds, Patrick’s lips were on mine, his hands were on my neck, running down my spine, around my hips… His tongue delved into my mouth as he pulled me closer, and then, suddenly I could feel him. The hot, hard, bulk of him, pressing against my groin, trying to find a way into me, yearning for me. ‘Patrick…’ I gasped, pulling away for just a moment, and then locking my mouth hard onto his again.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Sick Day

Another Monday morning. Ugh. I just didn’t feel like going in this morning. I’d had a lovely weekend, in the park with Patrick and then with my parents, visiting a new art exhibition on Sunday. I’d just about managed to get Redmond out of my head by the end of the weekend, and then: BOOM. Monday morning was back once more.

I kissed Mom and Dad goodbye, and then headed out of the house towards the bus station. It was so warm that I didn’t even need a cardigan today. What a day to be cooped up inside. I took a big, deep breath, enjoying my last few moments of freedom.

Then my cell phone buzzed in my handbag. That’d be Patrick. I smiled, remembering our kiss, remembering the feeling of how much he’d wanted me. I was going to meet him tomorrow, after work, to celebrate my shorthand exam results. Except that I knew it was going to be a commiseration. Still, we’d arranged to go out for dinner and a movie – not just our usual childish drinks, and I was kind of looking forward to it. I’d even spent yesterday daydreaming about how our kids might look together. His boyish, blond and distinctly Irish looks, and my brown hair, pale skin and green eyes. Our children would look quite European. Scandanavian, maybe, or Dutch.

Not that anything much had happened between us yet. There’d been the kiss in Central Park. And then another one in the bar we went to for drinks afterward. And then another when we said goodbye. Okay, there’d been a
lot
of kissing. But nothing inappropriate. Not yet. It felt like it was building that way though. Sex. And maybe it wasn’t so inappropriate after all. Patrick was a similar age to me, with some similar interests. He had a decent job and a sense of humor. What more could a girl want? At this point, this morning, I was ninety-two percent sure I was going to lose my virginity to Patrick. The eight percent was factored in to make things more interesting. You didn’t want to be too cocky about these things.

I looked at my cell, grinning.

And then the grin disappeared. Redmond.

Come and see me in my office today, Rose. I’ve missed you.

Oh god, what a jerk! This guy had no idea how to conduct business professionally. Sitting there at the top of his glass tower, fucking all his staff, telling them what to eat and then requesting that they go to ‘visit’ them when they’re meant to be at work. Forget it. I typed out my reply.

Not interested. Besides, I’m sick. Must have been something I’ve eaten.

I hoped he’d realize the last part was aimed at him. He’d been telling me what to eat. I, for some reason, was
still
following his orders. Well not any more. Fuck it. This was it. I was cutting loose. Time for a sick day!

I stopped walking towards the subway station, called reception, and coughed. Putting on my best sick voice, I told the (no doubt extremely gorgeous-looking) receptionist that I had suspected food poisoning, that it was hopefully just a twenty-four hour thing, and I’d be in tomorrow. The receptionist said ‘Get well, sweetie,’ and, feeling slightly guilty, but nonetheless relieved I didn’t have to face Redmond today, I began walking towards the subway steps, and headed for my old place of work.

I wasn’t actually heading for The Chronicle office, though. Of course I wasn’t. I hardly wanted Patrick to see me ‘pulling a sickie’. There was nothing big or clever about it. I’d never faked my way to a day off in my life. But sometimes mental health came first, and today was one of those days. Redmond Cooper was not going to bully me into going to visit him today. I was
just
starting to get over him. This was a delicate time for me.

So, for fear of getting caught somewhere fancier, I decided to go and browse the mall by my old work.
Nobody
I knew would be seen dead around there. Even my old boss, Christina, called the place a dump. It was the perfect retreat from the world.

By the time I stepped off the subway, I had let the guilt drain clean out of me, and I felt sure that I was doing the right thing.

The mall was deserted at this time in the morning, which suited me just fine. I had nothing to do in here anyway – just be myself for a while. I walked past the store fronts, some of them not even open yet, and the more I walked, the angrier I felt.

What had happened to me?

What had I let Redmond do?

Would I ever be able to have a normal relationship after this?

Was I going to ask Patrick to hit me, or tie me up?

What if I didn’t enjoy sex without those things?

The store windows were full of summer dresses, miniskirts, pink vests, and all manner of floaty, girly things. If clothes could speak, they’d have cried out:
Hey there!!! Isn’t life great? You can dress up soooo pretty if you buy me! You will have such a magical day! You will be a reeeeal princess!

I walked past each window, bubbling with vitriol. Maybe I’d never feel like a princess again. Princesses didn’t let their bosses see them naked. Princesses didn’t agree to get tied up and spanked in warehouses. Princesses didn’t let their bosses bathe them, running a sponge between their legs, making their nipples go hard and their pussy get wet…

No. I certainly wasn’t a princess.

Suddenly, I stopped marching through the mall. I’d seen something familiar. A white mannequin, its skin like polished marble. And the tightest, most revealing dress I’d ever seen.

The dress I’d dismissed as most definitely ‘not me’ the last time I was in here, buying a dress for my first meeting with Redmond Cooper.

Well, I don’t know what it was this time – I wasn’t thinking straight, I guess – but I found myself walking into the shop, and asking the sales assistant, a girl, maybe not even eighteen yet, if I could try the dress on.

‘Sure,’ she smiled, her gold hoop earrings wobbling around enthusiastically as she spoke. ‘I
love
that one. No-one’s been, like, brave enough to try it on yet!’

She went over to a rail of hangers near the window. ‘What size are you?’

I hesitated. I
was
a size two… but since I’d been eating Redmond’s special diet, I’d put on a lot, fast… ‘I’d better try a four,’ I replied, feeling the fat on my hips, and the new, womanly shape I was developing. ‘And a six.’

I went into the changing rooms, feeling strangely euphoric, despite, or maybe because of, the anger that was still burning inside me. I took off my knee-length, plaid dress, and looked at myself in the changing room mirror. I certainly had curves where there had been nothing but straight lines before. My ribcage didn’t show through my chest any more. I looked healthier, and I guess, sexier.

I decided to start with the smaller of the two dresses, the size four. I pulled its short, tight skirt over my hips. It was a little tight if anything, but I figured something like this was probably meant to ‘cling’.

Then I grappled, like a complicated game of Cat’s Cradle, with the straps at the top of the dress, squeezing them over my shoulders, pushing my arms through the tangle of straps, until I managed to get the two thin black triangles of shiny fabric (barely) covering my breasts. My navel was completely on show, with just two thin black straps down the sides. I turned to look at my back in the mirror. The three straps across the back ran all the way down to the base of my spine, where the skirt began. It was the most naked with clothes on I’d ever been.

‘You okay in there?’ called the assistant. ‘Can I, like, help you with anything?’

Bravely, I pulled back the curtain, and stepped out to show her. It was early, fortunately, so I was the only customer in here.

The girl’s jaw draped when she saw my standing there in it. ‘Oh my
god
,’ she said. ‘You look
amazing
.’

Either the girl was an extremely good actress, who works on commission, or she was right. I looked back at myself in the full-length mirror, trying to be objective about it, and I figured that maybe she was right. This dress reminded me of something, but I could figure out what. I felt like I’d seen myself wearing it in a dream before, or something.

I spun around as the girl continued to gawk. ‘That’s, like, the hottest dress I’ve ever seen,’ she cooed.

‘Okay,’ I said to her. ‘I’ll take it.’

Without thinking about it any further, I went into the changing cubicle and put my clothes back on. I took a moment to enjoy the dopamine rush of having made decision to do something crazy on impulse, and following through with it. It felt
wild
.

Even better, when I came out of the cubicle, the assistant told me the dress was only eighty-five dollars. Eighty-five dollars, for an adrenaline rush lil this! It was a bargain. Particularly now I’d received my first Global paycheck, which was – let’s just say – considerably higher than my hourly rate at The Chronicle.

The girl wished me an enthusiastic ‘good day’, telling me that if she had a figure like mine, she’d be buying the dress in an instant. I smiled and thanked her, and practically skipped out of the store with excitement.

Back in the mall, I realized that my mouth was watering. I could smell something delicious. What was it? I looked a few stores up ahead of me, and spotted it. McDonald’s. I walked towards it, visualising a double cheeseburger.

For the first time in a fortnight, I was about to decide what
I
wanted to eat.

I was about to break Redmond’s rules. And it felt good.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

All Dressed Up And Everywhere To Go

So, unbelievably, I passed my exam. By half a percent. But a pass is a pass, right? I was now proficient in beginner’s shorthand! Now don’t get me wrong, there was still
buckets
I needed to know. But I knew a few initial squiggles and how to use them, and that was what mattered. I found out the news on Tuesday morning, and Tegan was so pleased she actually
hugged
me. Gee, that girl wasn’t such a badass after all. I called Mom and Dad on my morning break, and I’m pretty sure Mom actually cried when I told her! She hadn’t cried when I got my English Language Degree. A qualification in something that was actually vocational made a world of different to my parents. Dad told me we were getting Chinese takeout to celebrate tonight. I told him I had plans (I was possibly losing my virginity to Patrick tonight), so he said we’d get takeout tomorrow instead.