Harnessed (6 page)

The coachman tugged the reins hard, then kicked Tyler’s feet out from under him. Tyler stumbled and fell, and his booted ankles were quickly trussed together. From that point, he was easily overwhelmed. The sack was hauled over his head. It was long enough to encase him completely, and narrow enough that he could only wriggle. The coachman knotted the rope around the ends of the sack at Tyler’s ankles, securing him inside, then bound his feet to a hitching post.

Only when Tyler was helpless did Elise exhale. He thrashed on the ground, swearing and struggling, and she watched for a long moment, ensuring that he was captive.

“I do apologize, my lady,” the coachman said, brushing his hands as he stepped toward her and bowed. “It’s always risky to break a new horse with the carriage.”

She forced herself to straighten and smile. “I understand.”

Tyler was rolling and struggling in the bag, earning himself a dark glance from the coachman. “We’ll come back for him when the lady is safely home,” he instructed the boys, then tipped his hat to Elise and bowed. “Welcome to Windswept, my lady.”

“This is Baxter, my lady,” Hannah provided. “He’s the best trainer in our stables.”

“So I see. I commend you, Baxter, for such quick work.”

Tyler roared, evidently hearing Elise’s words.

“What will happen to him?” Elise was terrified that they would expel Tyler and send him home, that he’d find her sister in the middle of moving out her things.

Baxter smiled. “We have ways of training the wild ones, my lady. You need not concern yourself with it.”

“Thank you, Baxter.”

That man patted the rump of one of the three remaining horses. To Elise’s surprise, it was the other man who had been on the helicopter. He had the place beside the one Tyler had vacated. He didn’t look her way, but obediently kept his gaze forward and cast down. The blinders would have obscured his view, anyway. If anything, his build was more muscled and powerful than she’d expected. “I like the big gentle ones like Storm here, myself.”

“Indeed.” Elise reminded herself she was the lady of the manor for the week, and could do whatever she wanted. The other man’s stillness gave her a confidence she might otherwise have lacked. She walked toward the team, inhaling deeply of the scent of leather and perspiration. The other two harnessed men had a patina of sweat over their shoulders and backs, probably from pulling the carriage here. They were gorgeously muscled and tanned.

She was more intrigued with their travel companion, and the change in his manner since getting off the helicopter. She never would have imagined him to be submissive at all: he had such an aura of controlled power.

It would be exciting to have a man like this under her control.

She tingled with the realization that she wanted him.

Elise touched his shoulder, trailing her gloved fingertips over his tanned back. His skin rippled at her touch and she thought she heard him catch his breath. He was tanned all over, his skin gleaming against the black harness. His stillness made her bolder. “I believe I could come to share your preference, Baxter,” she said, as she slid her fingertip across the harnessed man’s nipple. She pressed it gently and saw him swallow.

But he still didn’t look up.

She wanted to see his eyes, so see his expression.

“You said his name was Storm?”

“Yes, my lady.”

“He is most fine.” Elise watched as he jerked just a little, and she caught a glimpse of his brown eyes.

“Indeed, my lady. You should come down to the stables one day, my lady,” Baxter invited. “We’ll be doing a lot of training this week and you might enjoy watching.”

Elise glanced at the wriggling Tyler with satisfaction. “Yes, I believe I would.” She had to believe they wouldn’t send him away before his booked time was through.

By the time, Tyler returned home, Elise wasn’t going to be there, and she wouldn’t be easily found.

* * *

Her touch was electrifying

Josh had been trying to deepen his horse frame of mind when he heard the click of high heels coming closer. His cock began to throb immediately, his conviction that she was approaching him making something inside him melt. He loved high heels, the way they arched a woman’s foot and pumped the muscles in her calves. He told himself not to look, but to stay in the mood, keep in his role. He faced forward, kept his head down and breathed steadily.

He tried to think about running. About oats and molasses.

Then she ran her hands over him. Her touch was totally different from the stable hand’s stroking. Hers was like a caress with a feather. The feel of her fingertips in those soft leather gloves sent a jolt through him. His cock was already hard and that whisper-light touch made it strain against the leather sleeve. He thought he might burst the leather, then realized it was acting like a cock ring, making him harder and more excited.

When she touched his nipple, he couldn’t resist a peek. He just glanced sidelong and saw her boot, a perfectly snug black leather number that did fabulous things even for the front of her foot.

What made his mouth go dry was that her skirt was slit right up the front, from hem to waist. The way she was standing, he could see the curve of the inside of her leg, all the way from ankle to creamy thigh. The boots were laced on the inside of the ankle, which was unexpected and sexy, and her stockings were dark. His cock was pumping then, even before he got a whiff of her wet puss. He remembered how pretty she was, how delicately built she was, and knew a survey of her in full Victorian gear would blow his circuits.

What if she chose to dominate him? Josh couldn’t even risk imagining it, not when he had to stand in harness, or be whipped and sacked as the other guy had been. She turned away, her skirts rustling and he couldn’t resist the urge to look.

He caught a glimpse of her sweet ass through the slash in the back of her skirt, then the riding crop cracked across his back.

“Remember your place, Storm,” Baxter muttered in his ear, running a heavy hand smoothly over the spot where the whip had lashed his skin. It was a good trick, to follow a blow with a caress, and it worked perfectly to excite Josh. “If my lady wants a pony, she’ll be the one choosing her mount.” Then he pinched the rising welt hard, nearly sending Josh to the moon. His cock was harder than ever and he’d only been on the island for ten minutes.

At this rate, he might die of pleasure before his time on the island was done.

* * *

It was just wrong.

How dare these fuckers change the fantasy Tyler specifically ordered? How dare they take Elise away from him?

He’d paid a lot of money for this vacation, and he wanted what he’d paid to get. Nobody screwed with his plans. Nobody took anything away from him that was his. Nobody tricked him and lived to tell about it.

Somebody was going to pay for this.

And Elise, the deceitful bitch, she’d pay for the rest of her life.

Despite his situation, Tyler was looking forward to that.

* * *

It was done.

Elise tried to relax after she was handed into the carriage. She reminded herself that Tyler couldn’t touch her for a whole week.

By the time they returned home, her sister would have finished moving Elise’s stuff. She’d already moved all the online connections for her business, routing her emails to a dropbox. She was the only one who knew the passwords, and they didn’t exist physically in any given place. Her cell phone would die on this day, and she’d use a burn phone for a while so it couldn’t be traced to an address. Tyler wasn’t nearly as smart with such details as he liked to pretend he was. He wouldn’t have an easy time finding her.

Elise had to hope their time on Windswept convinced him not to bother.

If Tyler had ever listened to her for more than two minutes, he’d have known they weren’t a good fit, and his fantasies didn’t work for her. If he’d ever been able to see beyond his own desire—and his conviction the world existed to please him—then such dire choices wouldn’t have been necessary.

Maybe it would be good for him to be a slave on the island for a couple of weeks.

Maybe he’d learn something.

Or maybe he’d like it. He’d often whined that she didn’t understand how much responsibility and work it was to be the dominant one, but hadn’t been dissatisfied enough to let her give it a try.

The way he laughed at the idea made her want to whip him until he bled.

The truth was Tyler didn’t know Elise and her secret desires at all.

She watched the two women sitting opposite her and knew this scenario suited her much better. Now that the worst was over, she should take the chance to enjoy her role. She thought of the smoldering dark eyes of the other guy who arrived with them and felt her puss get wetter. He was so powerful, and simmering with an intensity that reminded her of a volcano. He seemed to be all about self-control.

She would definitely go down to the stables to visit the horses.

But first, she’d train her household staff. She pointed at the floor of the coach. “On your knees, Hannah,” she commanded softly. The other woman’s eyes widened slightly, but she immediately did as she was told. The rocking of the carriage made her stance more precarious, but she managed it well.

Elise supposed she’d done it before.

“Expose your nipples to me, then put your hands behind your back.”

Hannah did as instructed. Elise could feel Amy’s approval as she bent forward easily and caressed the nipples with her gloved fingertips. Hannah closed her eyes, her lashes fluttering. “Eyes open, but downcast,” Elise whispered. She could have slapped Hannah or punished her, but that would have been Tyler’s reaction. She wanted a complicity in her domination of others, not a forcible claim.

“Yes, my lady,” Hannah murmured, her submissive tone and her blush feeding Elise’s desire.

“You will bring me a selection of clamps when we arrive,” she instructed, even as she tightened the ones Hannah wore, doing that ever so slightly. She watched the maid with care, noting the instant she fluttered, the moment the pinch was just right. Elise knew these weights and the sweet torment they could create, the pain of the pinch followed by the pleasure of release. “I trust there is also a variety of weights available.”

Hannah paled a little, a striking contrast to the glitter in her eyes. The balance was perfect, in Elise’s opinion. “Yes, my lady.” She was breathing a little too quickly, though, a sign of consternation.

Elise bent and touched the tip of her tongue to one tightly constrained nipple. Hannah shivered and caught her breath, her face suffusing with sudden color.

“Very good,” Elise breathed, letting her breath fan the woman’s skin. She cupped the breast, caressed it, then sat back to consider the view. Hannah trembled ever so slightly. “Please leave them exposed and sit back,” she instructed.

“Yes, my lady.”

The carriage was pulling into a driveway. Hannah was flushed, and achingly beautiful in her agony of pleasure. Elise would only increase her torment before letting her climax. Amy was watching with care and she sat taller as soon as Elise smiled at her. “Amy, do I understand correctly that you will be my personal maid?”

“Yes, my lady.”

“Then when Hannah brings the selections, we shall choose clamps and weights for you to wear.”

“Yes, my lady.” Amy bowed her head as the carriage came to a halt.

Elise felt a surge of optimism and a sense that she could have her fantasy come true—at least so long as they kept Tyler restrained. Baxter opened the door to hand her out, his gaze sliding immediately to the flustered Hannah then back to Elise. He seemed to bite back a smile, and certainly his eyes sparkled a little more.

Elise was going to enjoy this.

* * *

Amy hadn’t expected Elise to be so afraid of Tyler.

On the other hand, she hadn’t realized he was so violent. That he hadn’t used his safe word was striking to her. This was a man who got off on rough sex, and liked it much rougher than Amy had ever expected. Erik had liked to play with violent scenes, but violence was a game to him, not a preoccupation.

This guy was serious trouble.

Amy didn’t believe for a minute that he’d abandon his expectation very easily. She also felt that her own reputation with Rex was riding on the success of Elise’s fantasy. She’d been the one, after all, to suggest the modification in the original applications submitted by Tyler and Elise.

She had to make sure Elise got what she wanted.

Which meant that Amy had to deal with Tyler.

When night fell and her lady had retired to her chamber, she finished her duties but remained in the kitchen. When the other maids went to their rooms in the attic, Amy claimed a cloak from the row of hooks in the back hall and slipped out into the chill of the night.

She wasn’t afraid of Tyler, at least not as long as he was on Windswept.

Which meant she could be the one to teach him a lesson.

Chapter Three

Josh was exhausted by the end of the first day. He’d had hours of training—how to walk, how to run, how to stand—and felt the riding crop a dozen times. Kerr, a demanding and resolute trainer who expected perfection of the horses he trained, had chosen Josh as his new project. Within hours, Josh found himself striving for Kerr’s murmured “good boy” and that seductive stroke over his rump.