In Service To The Billionaire (16 page)

Harriet's words struck right at the core of Sophia, the fear generated by this entire ordeal. That Sand, like the rest of them, would be done with her soon.

As if bidden by her thoughts, Sand approached then.

“Hello, Harriet,” he said, reserved.

“Mr. Gerald!” Harriet exclaimed drunkenly. “What a surprise. Who knew that you would actually be here while your date was too? Are you sure you don't have another date squirreled away in a corner somewhere?”

Suddenly, Sophia realized there was a history between them. It was written on both of their faces. Sand looked pained.

“Jealousy looks bad on you, Harriet.” He shook his head, taking Sophia's arm. “I wouldn't have expected you to react so poorly. I hope you feel better soon.”

Sand's hand slip up the back of Sophia's dress, pressing hard against her pussy behind the bar.

“Time to go,” he whispered in her ear.

* * * * *

“You look so fucking beautiful in that dress,” Sand whispered in her ear as they rode up the elevator.

“Thank you, Master.”

Sophia did her best to ignore all the trepidation that the night formed.

He kissed her sweetly on the lips, the neck. When she didn't moan or coo like usual, he pulled back

“What is it?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

“No, there is something. I feel like there has been for a while. What is it?”

Sophia's jaw worked, trying to formulate the thought. “It's nothing. It's just that was...odd. Being there so suddenly. And having to deal with all those people who I didn't know, and who clearly gave no shits about me, and...”

He laughed suddenly.

She blushed angrily. “What?”

“You think they didn't care about you? Sophia, every woman in there was drooling with jealousy over the way you look. And, not to be immodest, but who you were with.”

“Oh.”

“If they dismissed you? It's because making you small makes you less threatening to them. And they should feel threatened, because you left all of them in the dust.”

He kissed her again, and this time she kissed him back. The hottest girl at the ball. She liked that. His hot girl at the ball, his hot trophy to show off, better than all the other trophies.

She couldn't stop loving the thought of that, no matter what. Her lips crushed against his, her need quickly picking back up.

Soon, they made it to his enormous California king-sized bed—her expensive gown torn apart from Sand's desire.

“I want you so bad,” he groaned, pushing on top of her, his hardness rubbing up her naked thighs. “I need you. I need my slave.”

Her heart melted, all thoughts from the ball totally gone. “Yes,” she moaned. “I need you too!”

His thick, perfect length entered inside of her, and he pulled her body tight to his. His strong muscles crushed her frame, trapping her and guiding back and forth on his cock as he pistoned into her cunt.

And then, suddenly, his hands wrapped around her throat. Instantly, she thought of her suspicions earlier. Was this some payback? Was he teaching her a lesson for keeping something from him?

“H-hey,” she tried to breath out. “Th-that’s...that’s...”

But his face was full of the same furious passion as ever, lost in the throes of his lust even as he gripped her throat harder. It became hard to breath—and in fact harder and harder by the second.

With some dread, she remembered his online profile—the insisting that she loved breath play. She
thought
she was open to it, but this was...this was not
play
. This was
choking the fuck out of her
.

And even as terrifying as it was to feel his strong grip close, it made her entire body vibrate with bliss.

She wanted to call out, tell him to stop or slow down, but he wasn't listening. He stared at her with such intensity that she was truly afraid if she said anything, he would choke even harder.

Fuck, but if she was so scared then why was she so fucking wet?

“M-Master...” she called out weakly, barely able to form a whisper. “
Master
...”

The breath continued to leave her, his thick, veiny shaft filling her up like never before. She thought again of Harriet's warning—as soon as he had controlled her enough, he would just get rid of her.

For several seconds, genuinely had no idea if he was going to kill her or not. And with as good as it felt, as hot as he continued to drill into her, she had no idea if she cared or not. It was twisted, hellish kind of heaven from one blissful stroke of his dick to the next.

“I'm gonna cum, slave,” he moaned, bringing up his other hand now, gripping her throat so tight. “Gonna cum for my slave.”

His face came right next to hers, breath pushing hard into her face. She could only moan, her body a torrent of slick hot need and desperate fear.

Finally, mercifully, he exploded inside of her and his grip relinquished off her throat. It felt so good—like returning from the dead. She gasped hard for breath, coughing and shaking her head.

She had to get out of there.

Quickly, she slipped out from under him, pacing around the room, holding her naked breasts tight.

“Come back to bed,” he said, his voice sluggish. “That was hot. I want to hold you. You were perfect.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, putting her things together—the outfit from earlier that day. “I’m sorry. I just...I just...that was really...I just...”

She was shaking, unable to form even one coherent sentence.

He got up on the bed, holding out a hand.

“Slave, come here,” he said.

It took all of her willpower not to obey him immediately. She bit her lip, looking at his outstretched hand, wanting to trust him so much.

But maybe this
was
all just a game to him. Maybe he
would
just choke her and use her and throw her away. Or maybe he’d actually go through with it—maybe once he found out she'd do it whenever he liked, he’d actually
kill
her next time?

It was a stupid, stubborn, terrible thought to have. But she couldn't make it go away. Maybe it would be different if he loved her, if he would tell her...but that wasn't the case.

God, what if Todd was right, and it was only sickos and weirdos who dug this sort of thing?

Somehow she found herself with all her clothes on. Sand looked at her, scared and vulnerable. She hated herself, hated her reaction, but she couldn't stop it.

“Okay, I'm gonna get going. I um, will call you? Right? Yes. Or you will me? Okay. Okay!”

And she fled.

Chapter 19

Early Sunday morning, still groggy from the unsettling sleep after her awkward-scary experience the night before, Sophia got a call.

She wasn't able to reach her phone in time—but after crawling out of bed and listening to the message, she found out that Elle was getting out of the hospital early. Way, way earlier, as a matter of fact, than anyone expected.

So, an hour later, Sophia met her just at the entrance of the hospital, with the orderlies already wheeling Elle out. Her family was, of course, nowhere to be found.

Not for the first time, and probably not for the last time, Sophia reflected again on how she didn’t quite understand Elle’s family and their stodgy hatred of Elle’s alternative lifestyle. Sophia, safe within the confines of Sand’s grip, had found herself embracing it more and more.

Even now, with Sand scaring her a bit, she found that Elle's courage to embrace new adventures sexually was a gift much more than it was anything else.

Truth be told, if she had half a second to think about it, being choked like that hadn't been
that
bad...

But no. She had to focus on her friend. Overhead, the sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky. The temperature was a nice, cool seventy degrees, and Sophia felt more than comfortable in her jeans and hoodie combination. It felt nice wearing something so casual after the day before with all the pageantry.

Greeting Elle with a smile, Sophia leaned in and gave her a gentle hug.

“How are you feeling?”

“Oh, I’m okay.” Elle shrugged, and then grimaced. “It only hurts when I breathe.”

In Elle’s lap was an enormous bouquet, layered with roses, daises, daffodils—literally every kind of flower that Sophia knew a name for.

“Where did you get those?” Sophia asked.

She was afraid, for a moment, that Sand had sent them. One more thing to be indebted to him for.

“Oh, these?” Elle leaned in and took a sniff. “Todd sent me these.”

“Todd sent you flowers from Europe?”

“Well, he sent me flowers, and he was in Europe at the time. But they’re not like, you know, European flowers.”

“Right. But still! Wow!”

“Yeah, he was really concerned when he heard. He said he was super proud of you for threatening to cut off so many people’s heads.”

Sophia rolled her eyes. Then, she thought for a moment about what Elle said.

“You talked to him?”

Elle shrugged. “He called me. I was bored. I think he wanted to test the waters with you. You know he gets back later today?”

Long and low, a sigh chugged out of Sophia's body. One more reason to be stressed out.

“Ugh,” said Elle. “I guess you do. I guess I shouldn't have told him how all you talked about while he was gone was sucking his cock?”

“I did not!”

Elle laughed mischievously.

“You're such a troublemaker.” Sophia shook her head. “Okay, let’s drive you home. Do you need the wheel chair?”

“No, no. They said I would be fine without it. It’s just...getting back in a car.”

“Oh,” said Sophia, nodding. “Right. I’m sorry. We can um...”

There was really no getting around it. There was no way they could walk, and every way back to Elle’s home involved lots of highway.

“It’s all right,” said Elle, seeing the concern swelling on Sophia’s face. “Really. Just drive slow, okay?

Sophia did. Forty-five minutes later, she was helping Elle back up into her apartment. Elle lived in a small house on the south side of the city. The houses were small and close together, with gravel alleys connecting the backyards of houses on parallel streets. It used to be, everyone in that area worked at the factory—but the factory had closed down. Now, Sophia had the distinct and grating feeling that she would get shot at any moment. It was sort of like the air was permanently licking a battery.

“God,” said Elle, stepping into the stuffy air of the small three-room studio apartment. “It feels like I’ve been on a vacation, you know? Like a bad, bad vacation.”

“I’m sorry,” said Sophia, immediately feeling responsible. “I should have swung by and turned on the air for you. I didn’t even think of it.”

“It’s fine. Don’t sweat it. Could you turn it on now, though?”

Elle plopped herself down on the couch as Sophia turned the A/C low, just how Elle liked it.

“Are you going to be okay by yourself?”

“The doctor said I would be fine. That physical therapist that you found for me...he’s just a dream. He’ll be coming over tomorrow around noon, and I should be back at work the week after that.”

“That’s great!”

“The funny thing is, though...every time I ask him about payment, he says it’s been taken care of.”

Sophia put a hand to her face. It was time to come clean.

“Elle...do you remember how I told you how I was um, fucking a billionaire?”

Elle slapped her on the arm. “No way! You got him to pay for my bill?”

Her lovely face lit up at the sudden juicy bit of gossip—and then another grimace of pain shot through her.

“Oh god. Please don’t excite me like that.”

It was impossible not to blush.

The lovely blonde laughed and rolled her head back on the couch. “I can't believe it. You're whoring out the billionaire. Or he's whoring you out.”

“Nobody's whoring anybody.” Her voice became very cold and distant. Elle noticed immediately, of course.

“What's wrong?” Elle asked. “You've been like, chipper all week. Now you're down after your big date with him yesterday?”

Uncertain, but needing Elle's comfort and advice, Sophia dished.

When she was finished with all of it—the high society ball and all the snobbery, the choking—Elle nodded.

“It seems like,” Elle began, “and this is me just reading what you're giving off, but it seems like you really think you just can't exist in the world that he wants to have.”

Sophia nodded. “I think you're right.”

Sophia took a long drink of water.

“Todd comes home later today, Elle, and I know he wants to get back together, and I...” Sophia put her hand in her face. “I just...I don’t know what to do!”

“Do you...do you love him?”

Sophia didn’t know if Elle was talking about Todd or Sand. Either way, the answer was the same.

“I don’t know. I thought so.”

Elle was quiet for a long time. Then she leaned forward.

“Do you want to hear something screwed up?”

Sophia put her water glass down. “Sure.”

“Okay, here it is. That shrapnel that went through my shoulder? The doctor told me right before I walked out of the room that if it had been just one inch to the right...I would have died. I would have been dead before I even got to the hospital. Some artery or another loops through there.”

“That’s awful. I’m so sorry, Elle.”

“Thanks...but that’s not what I was going for. It’s just, like, I know you’ve been enjoying seeing Sand, and as a matter of fact, I’ve never seen you so happy, but babe...”

“What?”

“I mean...and I say this knowing I’m the one who told you to go for it with him, okay? I know I said that. But life is too short to break your own heart and to not go all the way with the one you chose.

“I don't know who you should choose, really. But you've made
two
choices now. And only you can decide what's really going to make you happy. And I know you can do that, Sophia. I know you're smart enough for that.”

Elle's hand slid over Sophia's.

“No matter what,” said Elle, squeezing Sophia's hand. “I'm here for you, babe.”

* * * * *