Ivan's Captive Submissive (Submissive's Wish) (14 page)

Her crying was interrupted by Ivan knocking on the door. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, just trying to get myself together. I’ll be out in a moment.”

No, she wasn’t going to let him see her crying like some stupid, naive little girl. She hated crying, hated how weak it made her feel, and most of all hated that she’d let him get close enough to hurt her like this. The need to shore her defenses back up pushed away her pain for the moment and she concentrated on at least looking like she was okay.

He didn’t answer and she was afraid he’d break the door down to come in, somehow sensing her unhappiness. To both her dismay and relief he didn’t and she began to question how good of a Dom he was. She knew plenty of decent Masters from her club back home and had always admired how they seemed to know every facet of their submissives needs. Obviously Ivan didn’t know her that well, and she didn’t know him at all. She wondered if he’d been with escorts and suddenly wished with all her might she’d made him wear a condom. Then she remembered the rigorous health tests that all auction participants had to go through and calmed down. 

Okay, so at least she was physically safe. She had to endure five more days with him and she’d be done. Maybe she should look at this like he was. Just sex. She would keep her emotions out of it and be his submissive, but she would never let him get near her heart like this again.

Chapter Eight

Ivan looked across the dining room table to where Gia sat next to Nico and his submissive, Catrin. With over thirty people in residence, all the meals were casual affairs served buffet style in the solarium. Two large tables seating sixteen each had been brought in, and every seat was filled. Gia had barely touched her breakfast and had been coldly polite to him ever since they left their suite. He stared at her, trying to figure out what was going on. She had real warmth in her gaze when she smiled at Nico, and when she laughed with Catrin, he could see her happiness. Then she would look at him and her face would shut down into that polite, cold mask he was starting to despise.

Nico looked over at him and grinned before asking Russian. “Any reason why your submissive is giving you the cold shoulder?”

Ivan grimaced and jabbed a piece of sausage with his fork. “I have no idea. We were having a great morning, then she turned bitchy for no reason I can think of.”

Catrin leaned over and whispered to Gia, which sent her into a fit of giggles. He wanted Gia to laugh like that for him, to look at him with warmth in her expressive eyes. He suddenly realized he was jealous. It was such a foreign emotion to him he wasn’t sure how to handle it. He had women throwing themselves at him so often, he never really cared if a relationship went sour. 

Then again, he’d never met anyone like Gia.

Nico shook his head. “I don’t know what you did, but she is really pissed at you.”

With a frown Ivan sat back in his chair, giving up the pretense of eating. “I was doing some orgasm denial with her this morning, working her up then leaving her with no relief. Do you think she’s angry about that?”

Nico shook his head. “I don’t think so. She doesn’t seem to be frustrated, just pissed.”

He tried again to get Gia to talk to him. “Gia, would you like to go to the stables today?”

She turned to him and gave him a blank, cold look. “Whatever you wish, Master.”

Several eyebrows were raised around the table from other Dominants and submissives chatting and having breakfast. While they might not understand her words, her ‘fuck you’ tone came through loud and clear. Real anger burned through him at her disrespect, and he longed to spank her until she lost that cold look, but he’d never, ever touched a submissive while he was really pissed.

Ivan threw his napkin on the table with a low growl. “Fuck this. Nico, look after her. I need to go work out some aggression.”

Catrin gave him a sympathetic look that annoyed him even more, and when Gia refused to even give him a glance his temper almost snapped. He stared down the table and saw Pylar, one of his sparring partners. The tall submissive might look sweet with her long, curly dark hair and big blue eyes, but she was quick enough to keep up with him. She should be. Before she’d settled down with her Master, she’d been on the Russian Women’s Olympic judo team and had a silver metal to prove it.

“Pylar, want to spar?”

She gave him a wide-eyed look, glancing between him and Gia before nodding. “Sure. Let me go get changed and I’ll meet you in the gym.”

He walked past Pylar and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you.”

She smiled up at him, then frowned. “Your girl doesn’t look very happy with you right now.”

“That makes two of us,” he muttered and stalked off towards the gym, refusing to look back at Gia and see the unearned anger in her eyes. He’d done nothing to deserve her ire and it really pissed him off that she was throwing such a public snit. Normally, he’d have her face down on the table, blistering her ass, but he didn’t want to do anything to scare her after the trauma he’d put her through with the fake kidnapping gone wrong.

Gia watched Ivan stalk away and had to bite her lower lip to keep from crying. Nico stood and removed his plate. “I have something to attend to. Catrin would you please keep Gia entertained?”

“Of course, Master.”

When Catrin and Nico kissed Gia’s heart ached in envy and she bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood, determined to keep from crying. She hated sitting here, knowing they all thought she was a prostitute. A couple women kept throwing snide looks her way and she wanted to yell at them that she wasn’t a whore.

As soon as Nico let the table Catrin leaned closer. “What’s going on with you and Master Ivan? You were practically snarling at him.”

With a low sigh Gia rubbed her face, not sure how much she could trust Catrin. “It’s nothing.”

“Come on, something is bothering you. I won’t tell Ivan, I promise.”

The other woman’s gaze shone with sincerity and Gia relented, eager to talk with someone about this mess. “Ivan called me a prostitute.”

“What!” Everyone in the room looked at them and Catrin’s cheeks turned red. “Come here.”

Catrin dragged Gia over to the small hallway separating the kitchen from the dining room. The other woman smoothed the skirt of her red dress and gave Gia a stern look which only made the short, curvy blonde look adorable instead of mean. 

“Tell me exactly what Ivan said.”

Gia briefly went over what had happened, and by the end of the story, Catrin was shaking her head. “I can’t believe he said that.”

“Is it true? Does he hire prostitutes?”

“Master Ivan? No, he doesn’t need to. Women throw themselves at him.”

Gia’s stomach clenched again and she gave a stiff nod. “Well, he seems to have made an exception with me.”

“I don’t understand—”

Movement came from the corner of her eye and Gia turned and watched two big men walk into the hallway, each giving off that shivery vibe that made her bones hum. One was a tall man with a soft red beard, while the other man was a bit shorter, but stocker and had a deep brown beard with red highlights. They both stopped and looked at Catrin and Gia with amusement.

The man with the darker beard grinned at her. “Gia, so nice to see you again.”

She blinked, unsure of what to say. He sounded familiar. She tried to think back to when she’d seen him before, and it suddenly dawned on her. He was the man who’d just eaten her pussy. Heat flooded her cheeks and his knowing grin had her stumbling back a step.

“Is she okay?” his friend asked.

“Yes. She’s probably remembering me from when we airlifted her out of the woods. I was on the rescue team. It’s probably traumatic for her.” 

Then he gave Gia a wink that could only be described as lecherous and she narrowed her eyes in indignation. Why didn’t he scream out that he’d seen her writhing, begging, and moaning like a slut while he worked her over in front of Ivan? Most guys she knew would love to brag about something like that. Especially since he’d done it so well. 

With a hard pound her clit stiffened and desire flooded her. Fucking Ivan had her so primed for sex with his orgasm denial that all a man had to do was wink at her and she got wet. Really wet. 

This was such bullshit.

Terribly embarrassed, she turned to Catrin. “It’s a little warm in here. Can we go outside?”

Turning, Catrin grabbed Gia’s hand and pulled her down the small hallway into the kitchen. A few people milled around, cleaning up from breakfast, but Catrin kept tugging on Gia until they were outside.

Catrin gave her a curious look. “Why was Dimitri making you blush?”

Sure she was going to pass out from the rush of blood to her head, Gia turned and pretended to inspect the ivy growing up the side of the mansion. She wanted to talk about this and needed help sorting her head out. Catrin was a good listener who wouldn’t judge her for her personal kinks, at least she hoped not. 

“Um, I…Ivan let him do things to me.”

Catrin grinned. “Mmmmm, I’ve had Master Dimitri do things to me. He is very talented in oral sex.”

Gia placed her hands on her burning cheeks. “This is so odd. I mean I’ve never even seen his face before he said hi in the hallway. Ivan made me put my head in the pillows so I couldn’t tell who he was. Only his voice gave him away. That and the fact that he has a beard. Shit…I think he was the man who Ivan let eat me out on the helicopter.”

“Dimitri was eyeing you like an ice cream sundae on a hot summer day.” Catrin fanned herself. “
O bozhe moy
! Ivan was a fool to let him near you. Dimitri wants you and he’s used to getting what he wants.”

Giving a small snort, Gia looked around to make sure no one could hear them. “Well he’s going to be disappointed.”

A bird flew overhead and Catrin turned her face up to the sun. “Ivan must be quite talented in bed for you to say that.”

“You haven’t had sex with him?”

Giving her a droll look, Catrin shook her head. “No. I know Ivan through Nico and Nico would never share me with his personal friend. We see Ivan in social settings all the time. It would be too weird. You know what I mean?”

“I do know.” Gia smiled, relaxing as they laughed. “Your English is excellent.”

“It should be. I’m the daughter of the former Russian Ambassador to the United Nations.”

“Wow.” Gia had to blink a couple times. “What the hell is a woman like you doing here?”

Gia flushed and stuttered an apology that Catrin waved away. “I know what you mean. I should be somewhere serving tea to a bunch of stuffy old women. No thank you. I married my husband because I love him and he is, quite simply, my world.”

Envy moved through Gia and she sighed with yearning. “That’s so romantic.”

“Please don’t cry!” Catrin made a distressed noise. "I can’t stand tears.”

 “I’m okay.” She sniffed and pulled herself back together. “Is it always like this?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not used to all this…excitement.”

“You mean drama? It’s like your American soap operas around here.”

Gia nodded, finding an absurd similarity to how crazy her life had become and the programs she’d watched when she was a teenager with her friends. “Yes. People aren’t like this where I’m from. I’m not a bad person and I’m not a prostitute but you…all of you are way out of my league.”

 “First, no one is in any league so there isn’t anything for you to be out of. We are all human beings. And no, nobody thinks you’re a prostitute. Almost everyone here was at the auction! If you’re a whore, so are they.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Didn’t you notice how almost everyone at breakfast was speaking English? Wouldn’t that be odd in a house full of mainly Russian, German, Polish, and French people?”

“I thought they were being polite,” Gia muttered and looked down at her hands. “Ivan thinks I’m a prostitute.”

“No, he doesn’t.” 

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” 

Licking her lips Catrin dropped Gia’s hand and looked away. “Just remember this is only for a week. Ivan will show you the time of your life, but when your time is up he will be on a plane back to Russia without a second glance.”

Gia’s heart hurt, but she tried to play it off. “Don’t worry. I know this is only physical.”

“That’s the problem. With BDSM it gets to be more than physical pretty quick. If you aren’t connected with your Dom in that special way, you’ll never get into subspace.”

“So what should I do? Have sex, but don’t let him top me? Pretend to be submissive? Fake subspace?”

“Goodness, you Americans certainly are…passionate.”

Gia took a deep breath and let it out slowly when she realized she’d shouted the last word. “Sorry.”

“Apology accepted. Now, you are a big girl who can make her own decisions. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity so my advice would be to go with it.”

“Just go with it?”

“Yes.” Catrin reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze. “Honestly, usually Ivan is a very nice man. He’s not the relationship type so don’t get attached. He’ll treat you like a queen, be the Master of your dreams, and still leave you.”

Forcing a smile, Gia shook her head. “Don’t worry about that. Ivan has quickly cured me of any desires for him other than physical. I’ll chalk this up as a learning experience. And thank you for taking the time to talk to me.”

“You need to talk to Ivan,” Catrin said in a sure voice, a look of resolution coming over her sweet face. “Maybe he misspoke or something was lost in the translation.”

“And say what? You think I’m a whore and technically I am?”

“You are not a whore, stop calling yourself that.”

Rubbing her eyes, Gia nodded. “I’m sorry. I’m not usually like this. Usually I’m very calm and rational.”

“You’re not in a very calm and rational situation, Gia.” Catrin smiled. “Go, talk to Ivan as a woman. Tell him what is on your mind.”

Guilt and tightened Gia’s stomach. “I don’t want to fight with him. He paid a lot of money for me.”

Catrin rolled her eyes. “He has more money than God. I’m sure whatev—”