Untaming Lily Wilde (6 page)

Ana shook her head at once. "Not at all pathetic. Maybe not so unusual either. But - exciting too, no? So much unexplored territory! Or maybe you'll start to see it that way soon. Perhaps when the break-up is less raw."

Lily looked up, amazed that Ana's thinking was so in tune with her own. "No, no you're right. That's exactly how I see it... When I'm not blubbing like an idiot around total strangers."

“Ah, but we're not strangers now. We already know about each other's struggles in love, so we've fast-tracked.”

“Thank you,” said Lily, genuinely appreciative. Her nervousness at meeting Ana had evaporated, she realized.

“Don't mention it,” said Ana. “I'll be honest; I was anxious about meeting you. I'm sure you can understand that.”

Oh sure. What’s not to understand?

Ana clutched Lily’s hand. “And then with you being a journalist too... But I was wrong to be. We have much in common- a similar outlook on life. I must admit I envy you - so much to discover. You should unleash yourself! Have some guiltless fun.”

“That's the plan. I've made it my New Years resolution actually,” Lily admitted.

Ana clapped her hands together, seeming genuinely impressed. “Good for you!”

“Good for me, in theory. We'll see. I'm not sure I've got the guts to be so - what’s the word I’m looking for -
hedonistic
.”

“Hedonistic? Christ, what did I miss?” Laughed Grayson, striding in and passing Lily a glass of water.

“Oh - thanks.” Lily cringed a little with embarrassment.

“Lily was just saying how she's now free to enjoy herself. In fact she's resolved to do precisely that.”

Ana looked meaningfully at Grayson who, in turn, responded with the subtlest of shrugs.

“I'll drink to that,” he said, dramatically, as though nothing had passed between him and Ana.

“Sorry to interrupt,” announced Seb from the doorway, his voice dark and unsettling.

“Are
you, my love?” replied Ana, and Lily had to resist shivering at the chill between them.

Seb continued as though Ana hadn’t spoken. “Lily - Cayley's finished with the altar. Strangely she couldn't remember needing to speak with me. Anyhow, she's just helping housekeeping set up the banqueting table. Once that’s done, she wants your help arranging the harnesses.”

Lily felt her eyes widen. She couldn’t help it. She felt like the dog in the fairytale with
eyes as big as saucers
.

“OK. Thanks,” she managed to stammer, while Grayson and Ana fell about laughing.

Again, Seb ignored them. “Don’t mention it. I’ll be outside,” he said, gesturing with his cigarette, as he moved toward the door, pausing just briefly to look back at his wife in disgust.

Ana calmed herself. “We shouldn’t laugh. Your innocence is so endearing. You’re a delight. I’ve made a decision. I think you should sleep with my husband.”

What??!
Her eyes widened yet further.
Oh here we go, she thought,
‘next you’ll see a dog called Lily with eyes as big as mill wheels’.

Grayson wrapped an arm around Ana’s shoulder. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Yes, I am. It's what he wants, and it’s what she needs. I’ve had this all wrong. Let him get it out of his system. Don't be too surprised, Lily. We do sleep with other people, so that doesn't concern me.”

“Uh-huh,” gulped Lily. It was all that she could manage.

Grayson tossed the idea to and fro, “I can kind of see where you're coming from. I mean, so long as Lily doesn't want a relationship with him - you don't, right? - then, yeah I guess it might take away the whole forbidden fruit thing.”

“And it would be so good for Lily,” said Ana, now looking at her. “He's an amazing lover.”

… and next you’ll find a dog called Lily with eyes as big as a castle tower…

“Uh-huh,” she said, again. “You're serious.”

Ana smiled, taking Lily’s hands in her own. “It's strange for you. Of course it is. But you should consider it.”

“Right. But you just said - literally twenty minutes ago -”

“What? That I'm afraid he'll leave me, afraid he'll give up on our marriage. I still feel this way.”

Lily didn’t know where to put herself. This whole scenario was mortifying. For one thing, Lily didn't entirely believe that Seb had any real interest in her, beyond teasing her and trying to provoke a reaction. More likely he was lying to his wife. Faking an interest in Lily to hurt Ana.

“I - I don’t really know what to say.”

Ana laughed, "You should say 'thank you Ana Pancheva for allowing me to fuck your gorgeous husband'... But more likely, you'll say no, I expect. No matter. It was just a suggestion."

"Have you even considered... Do you think that maybe you've got it wrong? I mean what if all he's really trying to do is make you jealous?"

"I know him. I can tell the difference," Ana insisted.

Lily nodded respectfully but remained unconvinced. She refocused on her job. With all the tears and drama, she felt like she'd been more of a hindrance than a help. In an effort to pull herself together, she grabbed the remaining chiffon.

"Honey, just leave those," said Grayson, as Lily began hanging the cloth. But she insisted, determined to at least partially earn her pay.

Once finished, she went in search of Cayley. In the entrance hall, Gav was adjusting the lighting while Rob checked the sound system. Cayley, they told her, was waiting for her in the dungeon.
By that point Lily just nodded.
Dungeon - right - sure.
After the shock of Ana’s offer, she doubted anything else would shock her that morning. She’d been wrong, of course.

Gav pointed her in the right direction; past the now table-less dining hall, complete with fake marble statues and a kinky altar; along a corridor; past the gym/climbing wall, and down a flight of stone stairs. Lily found her friend attaching hand cuffs to a red velvet love swing. The room - she guessed it had once been regular cellar - was dimly lit, which was highly convenient as her eyes were no doubt still red and puffy. It was decked out in wrought-iron candelabras, shackles, straps, hooks and buckles. A flagellation rail, for want of a better term, hung on the far wall, supporting a variety of whips, paddles and other bottom welting implements. Various sections of wall were leather-padded, and the slate-tiled floor was warm under foot; at odds with the dungeon’s harsh appearance.

Lily poked at the leather padded interior. “How exactly does all this fit with the Bacchanal theme. Ancient Roman dildos I can kind of believe in… but this lot?! Kind of stretching it, don’t you think?!”

“It’s just what the guests expect. They think
orgy
, they expect to see some bondage. Most of the gear barks louder than it bites. Here, put your hand out-” Cayley fetched a riding crop.

Lily put her hand out and squeezed her eyes shut. THWACK! She flinched, half-expecting it to burn, but in reality it was little more than a quick sting.

“OK, point made. Not bad, but I don’t really get the appeal,” she said.

Cayley shrugged. “Depends whose doing the punishing I suppose,” she said. Then in her best attempt at an American accent,
“Please remove your panties and let me spank that fine British butt of yours!”

That brought a much needed smile to Lily’s face, and for that remaining hour, busily re-arranging the dungeon, she was thankful to Cayley for offering some distraction.

By 2.30, as the Bellevue staff clambered back into the van, they felt like they’d done a day’s work in the space of a few hours. Cayley apologized for being uptight that morning, and the guys shrugged it off, saying they were used to it.

Grayson and Ana, waved them goodbye, and Seb, the man apparently so taken with Lily, was nowhere to be seen.

She tried not to be disappointed. She told herself she wanted nothing to do with Seb Harper and his commitment issues, that this whole stupid situation was way too messy. And if she told herself these lies for long enough, she thought, she might just start believing.

6

He leaned into the window frame and exhaled a slow trail of smoke into the chilled outside air, as the van became a distant speck on Hatherly's long drive. Down below, Ana and Grayson stood side by side on the gravel, thick as fucking thieves. They'd been his closest friends. Family. But it was high time to say goodbye. They'd outgrown each other, he told himself, before deciding false modesty didn't really suit him. Fuck it. He'd outgrown them.

They'd been three spoilt rich kids, never having to work or fight for anything, and thinking the world owed them a good time. And he was still spoilt. There was no denying it. He had it all. The house, the luxury, the endless no-strings lovers eager to lick his dick. And still he wanted more. Not love - probably not - the idea of it had become so alien to him that he could barely imagine the feeling. But maybe closeness. It had been a long time since he'd had that. Being close to Lily - knowing her inside out - he'd be able to please her in ways she didn't even know she wanted to be pleased. He groaned, hardening near instantaneously at the thought, and slumping further still into the timber frame. He'd please her alright. It was what he was good at. Getting under a woman's skin. He'd have those innocent, indignant, pouting little lips of hers so red with lust that all manner of filthy desires would spill out for him. And her other lips... Christ. They would be even redder, would taste even sweeter. Seb's eyes were no longer focused on the scene below, they were fogging over, allowing him to see something entirely more pleasant. God - what he wouldn't give to spread those silk-smooth thighs and run the tip of his tongue along that pretty little slit, torturing her until her lips glistened and her clit swelled plump and suckable and...

He took a final dissatisfying drag on his cigarette. For fuck sake. Why did he always have to be such a lewd, chauvinistic cunt? He knew the answer of course. It was because lewd Seb was easy. The path of least resistance. He could excel at being lewd Seb. He'd sure had enough practice. Doting, monogamous Seb was a trillion times harder. By now, for all he knew, being
that
Seb might just be impossible. But he'd wanted to at least give it a shot even before Lily had stumbled into his eye line. He'd had his reasons then, and now -
now
he had his incentive. Even if Lily
was
too sweet for him. Too unmistakably lovely for such a sick bastard.

She deserved better. But hey - he might have left the hedonism parties behind, but he wasn't quite ready to announce his sainthood just yet. He wanted Lily and unless she had any objections he was going to have her.

Or maybe not. He was like two men warring in one body. One man wanted to rip the clothes from Lily's pixie-ish little body and devour her.
That
guy was insatiable. Almost hulk-like in his bullish hunger-driven determination. The other man was the problem. The one who cared, actually
cared
that Lily was vulnerable right now. Because she obviously was. No matter how hard she tried to act in control, a blind man he could see she'd been hurt. And could he really stand to hurt her again? Because he might. If hulk-Seb got his way.

Though as he watched Ana and Grayson, probably scheming, down below, he had the cold suspicion hulk-Seb
would
get his way. The more anyone told Seb he couldn't have a thing, the more determined he was to have it.

Ana turned serenely toward his window, as though she knew just what he was thinking. She was no doubt going to make seducing Lily as hard as humanely possible. Well, if she thought pissing him off was going to make him stay, she had another thing coming.

Ana waved then. Oh, she was a mind reader alright. Her lips twisted smugly, and Seb tried to remember wanting to fuck her. Because he
had
wanted that. A long time ago. For a while he'd thought of very little else. Funny now that seeing her waving up at him made his erection deflate nearly as quickly as Lily had made it rise. Funny that after all this time, Ana didn't want more for herself than this.

He almost felt sorry for her. Almost. She was overdoing the whole dejected and vulnerable thing and it was starting to erode his sympathy.

He'd do right by Ana. She didn't need to remind him of the promise he'd made. He wasn't a monster. When the time came to split, he'd make sure she was provided for. But in the meantime he was damned if he'd be putting up with any more of her games.

What the hell did she say to Lily?!

Mon, 17th Jan

Dear D,

So, today a rich and beautiful baronesa (Spanish baroness- I Googled it) offered me her husband as a fun-filled fuck buddy. Erm... I literally have no idea what you say to something like that. And in other news, it turns out my fuck-wit ex boyfriend was cheating on me with Emma's mentally unstable little cousin. Effing brilliant.

I phoned Emma after work, and Celia was there, in her flat, high as a helium balloon. Em swears blind she didn't know, and I don’t suppose she'd lie about it. Anyway the whole thing is pretty gross and just goes to confirm Tom's status as a major prick.