Harnessed (13 page)

Josh didn’t doubt that Tyler had deliberately isolated Elise from her friends and family, just to make sure the prison he’d created for her was complete. He also could easily imagine Tyler could turn on the charm and persuade others of his good intentions, if there had been any questions.

He consumed that tear and kissed her gently, trying to encourage her with his touch. He hated how even the memory could make her tremble.

“When it turned darker, he wouldn’t listen to me. He said it wasn’t my place to question my master. He said he would make all the choices and I would be glad of it.” Her breath fluttered. “Then he started to gag me so I couldn’t use my safe word,” she admitted softly and Josh was outraged on her behalf. “There was humiliation as well as punishment, and I felt more like an instrument than a lover.” She shook her head. “Never mind a partner.” She met Josh’s gaze. “I was afraid of him, especially when he became angry.”

Josh could understand that.

Josh held her gaze as he grazed her nipple gently with his teeth. She gasped, her lips parting as she stared down at him. He took his teeth right across the tight peak and thought she might come again in her pleasure. She shook beneath his weight, her fingers tightening their grip in his hair, and he smiled before turning his attention to the other nipple.

He flicked the tip of his tongue across the already-tight peak and she moaned softly. “Does everything have to turn bad?” she whispered, her voice uneven.

He knew she wasn’t asking about Tyler, but about him.

Josh shook his head then claimed the nipple with his mouth, teasing it until she writhed. For a while, she said nothing, just savored the pleasure he gave her. He abandoned the nipple and moved back inside her again, stilling when he was buried in her tight hot sheath. He kissed her on the mouth then, liking how she parted her thighs to coax him deeper, how she moved beneath him so sweetly.

“Don’t go back,” he whispered into her ear, finding himself unable to keep completely silent.

She turned to look into his eyes, her own filled with fear, her fingers wrapped around his nape. “I’m not going to,” she whispered. “But it’s a secret. You mustn’t give me away.”

“Never,” Josh vowed, rolling his hips so that he was deeper into her than ever. He felt a profound relief that she was making an escape and wanted to help her to succeed. A promise to keep silent was nothing, but it was all he could offer. “Never, my lady.” He moved slowly, ensuring her pleasure, and felt satisfaction at the glitter of pleasure in her eyes.

She kissed him then, her fervor showing her relief. Josh inhaled of her sweet scent and moved inside her with deliberation, surrendering readily to her spell.

Elise pulled away long moments, breathless and flushed, and locked her arms around his neck. “I want to ride you now,” she whispered, even as her legs tightened around his hips. “Roll to your back for me.”

Josh did as he was told, changing places with her on the stump. His arms were still harnessed to his back, the lady’s skirts spilled all around him. Her puss was locked around his cock, her nipples free of her chemise. He smiled up at her, liking the sight of her against the sky, her hair falling loose to her shoulders. Her knees were tight against his side, those boots pressed against his thighs.

She rode him hard this time, quickly taking him to the breaking point. He didn’t think he could hold out much longer, not when she was so demanding and he nearly begged for mercy. She suddenly bent to kiss him, her mouth locking over his just he feared he’d explode.

She gasped as he rubbed against her deliberately, then her body clenched around his as she came in a trembling torrent. He felt her lips against his throat, and heard her whispered word.

“Mine,” she said with thrilling ferocity, right before he came.

* * *

So, the bastard thought he could replace Tyler in Elise’s affections.

That wasn’t going to happen.

Tyler was out in the pasture when Elise and Storm returned. He knew Elise well enough to recognize that she was pleased. She had a glow about her after an orgasm and he could see it from a mile away.

It was an abomination.

He pretended not to care, even as he seethed. He chased some fillies around the pasture, trapping one against the fence and rubbing his sheathed cock against her. She was a tease this one—Princess, he thought her name was—and he would have liked to have drilled her hard. She knew he couldn’t, though, and laughed as she squirmed away.

Half an eternity later, the groom brought Storm into the pasture. The other guy looked tired but pleased with himself. He wandered away from the others as if lost in thought. Tyler waited for the grooms to occupy themselves and look away, then he made his move.

* * *

The attack came out of nowhere.

Josh was aware that Tyler was in the pasture, but the other man seemed to be more interested in chasing fillies than anything else. He was hearing the music again, bars and bars of magnificent music. It filled his thoughts, driving him crazy with the fact that he couldn’t write it down. He was trying to listen to all of it, to repeat as much as possible, to capture it in his memory before it slipped away forever. He knew now that there would be more, but it was so beautiful that he wanted it all.

Either he wasn’t paying as much attention as he should have been, or he’d underestimated the other man’s need to control Elise, or he’d trusted too much in the protection The Phoenix offered to its clients. Either way, the assault was sudden and hard.

He was on the ground an instant after he heard the footsteps approaching. He moved to defend himself but Tyler twisted Josh’s foot hard. Pain shot up his leg as the ankle was wrenched, then the grooms dragging Tyler off.

“I hope it’s broken,” the other man snarled. “I hope you can’t get in harness again.”

It wasn’t broken, but Josh couldn’t support his own weight on that foot. The grooms practically carried him back to his stall, but even Kerr’s close attention couldn’t change the truth.

He wasn’t going to carrying Elise anywhere anytime soon.

* * *

Storm could have become her obsession.

Elise dreamed about him that night, and resolved to go riding every day. There might only be days left in her vacation, but she’d make every moment count. But to her dismay, when she went to the stables the next morning, Baxter shook his head.

“He’s been injured, my lady, and is unfit for the harness.”

Elise wasn’t sure whether that was the truth, or whether he didn’t want to be ridden by her again. “Perhaps tomorrow?” she suggested.

Baxter shook his head again. “I think you should choose another mount, my lady. We may not see Storm back in harness again.”

Elise didn’t choose another mount. She returned to the house and the pleasures to be found with Amy. She felt rejected and disappointed, and wished she could have seen him again herself. But then, she knew she should get used to being independent and alone. She’d be starting her life over again in a few days, and maybe this was good practice for it.

Although she had to think that more fabulous sex would have been better.

* * *

By the second day in his stall, Josh was going crazy. The grooms didn’t want him to put any weight on that ankle, and a doctor had come to visit him from the manor house. He was confined to his stall, and mostly lounging on his bed.

The music was incessant, poignant and it was breaking his heart that he couldn’t write it down.

“Your fantasy appears to be at its end early,” the doctor said quietly, his gaze searching. “Did you want to leave sooner?”

Josh shook his head, not wanting to sacrifice the possibility of a last glimpse of Elise.

“Anything I can get you?”

“Paper and a pen?” Josh suggested hopefully.

The doctor smiled. “Not a usual request for ponies, but I think we can make an exception.” He removed a thick pad of paper from his bag, adding couple of cheap pens. “Don’t let the grooms see that I’ve indulged you.”

Josh smiled and nodded, then frantically began to record the music he’d heard.

* * *

It was Tyler’s last night at Windswept when the hot little maid appeared in the doorway to his stall again. Once again, Baxter hovered behind her, the man’s disapproval more than clear.

“Come to give me a fantasy again?” Tyler demanded. “Because I’ve got a list.” He’d been locked down since attacking the other guy and claustrophobia was driving him berserk.

“Something like that,” Amy replied.

Baxter frowned and shook his head. The older man muttered about talking horses, but Amy offered Tyler something that looked like a contract.

He regarded it with suspicion. “What’s that?”

“A special offer from The Phoenix to compensate you for unexpected mingling of fantasies during your time on the island,” she said. “The partners would like to compensate you for the inconvenience.”

Tyler read the first paragraph, then regarded her warily. As much as he distrusted offers that seemed too good to be true, the last one Amy had offered him had been for real. “A free bonus week?”

“You can just stay on.”

“What about Elise?”

“The same offer has been extended to the lady of the manor.”

This was promising. “What if I want to change roles?”

“It can be arranged. What role would you prefer?”

“Lord of the manor,” he replied immediately. “And she stays as lady of the manor.”

Amy smiled. “Unfortunately, no one can dictate the choices of any other person on Windswept.”

“Does she like it there?”

“She loves it. She told me she wished she could stay forever.”

That sealed it then. Tyler would be lord of the manor for a week, and he’d be sure Elise got everything she deserved. So would everybody else in this place, once he was in charge. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“When does your fantasy visit end?”

Amy shook her head. “You misunderstand. I’m a full-time employee of The Phoenix, just like Baxter.”

So she wasn’t leaving. How awesome was that?

Elise and Amy. Tyler liked the idea a lot. He could alternate between them, or have them both at the same time. It would take him a week to get his fill of that scenario. “Where do I sign?”

“I would suggest you read the entire contract.”

“It’s the same as the other one,” Tyler said with impatience. “I’ve read the important part.”

Amy handed him a pen and he signed the bottom of the last page, dating it as well.

“There are two copies,” Amy said, handing him the other one. “One for you and one for us.”

Tyler signed rapidly, then handed the paperwork back to her. “All right. Let’s go.”

“No, your first week ends tomorrow morning,” Baxter said with a tight smile. It probably gave the bastard pleasure to keep Tyler locked up for another night. “We’ll do the transition then.”

Amy nodded and ducked out the door, her reddened ass flashing at the open back of her apron. Tyler clenched his fists, forcing himself to surrender to the rules. It wouldn’t be much longer.

He started to pace the stall.

This night was going to last forever, but he’d get through it. It would be worth it in the end.

“And I almost forgot to mention that you have a visitor,” Baxter said.

“What?” Tyler spun to face the door, only to find the one man on the threshold who he didn’t want to see. The current lord of the manor stood before him, nude, smiling and with that huge hard cock.

“We have unfinished business,” Nigel said, his tone silky soft, and Tyler watched as he eased lubricant over his erection. “Baxter, if you will do the honors.”

“Of course, my lord.”

Tyler opened his mouth to protest but Baxter and the other groom cornered him, before gagging him quickly and securely. The groom bound Tyler’s hands to a ring embedded in the wall over his head, then turned for the door.

“This one’s for the lady,” Baxter whispered in his ear.

For Elise? For Amy? Which one of them had commanded this?

Or permitted it?

Tyler had no ability to ask and not a lot of opportunity, because Baxter left, locking the door behind himself.

Abandoning Tyler to the whim of the lord of the manor.

The only consolation was that within twenty-four hours, that role would be his.

* * *

It was over.

Josh couldn’t believe it.

The morning of his departure dawned cool and sunny. He was rubbed down and harnessed, then led from the stall with his blinders on. He was still limping a bit, but could manage to walk on his own. It felt good to have the harness on one last time, never mind the sheaf of papers he had, covered with notes and lyrics. He’d gotten exactly what he’d come to Windswept to find.

Kerr packed the papers with care into a satchel, then entrusted them to Baxter.

“They’ll be there for you when you change, Storm,” the older man murmured, and once again, Josh had to trust his captors.