Buttons & Lace Read online

  “It’s unusual...”

  I thought it fit my dark exterior, my rage, and my callousness perfectly. “Pearl is unusual as well.”

  She was about to grab her wineglass when she halted. “You know my name?”

  I didn’t break stride. “I know everything about you.”

  “But you’ve never mentioned it before.”

  “If you wanted me to address you by your name, you would have mentioned it a long time ago. Besides, I prefer Button.” I didn’t want to call her by a name everyone else used. She was my possession. She was mine in every sense of the word. So she needed a new name, something only I called her.

  She couldn’t hide the shock on her face. She stupidly assumed her secrets were safe.

  “Mechanical engineer. That’s very impressive.”

  This time, she didn’t seem surprised. She kept her face stoic, hiding her thoughts. “I like it. Every project is new and challenging.”

  “Very few women choose a career involving science and math.”

  “Supposedly.”

  “What made you choose that profession?”

  She shrugged. “I like building things. I like working from the ground up. I like making something that will outlive me. No two projects are ever the same. It’s something new every day.”

  My hand stopped moving my fork, and my eyes concentrated on her face. I felt my attraction to her grow, my respect elevate. She was so different from every other woman I met that I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. When they were in my presence, they folded like a bad hand at poker. They immediately obeyed me, intimidated or smitten by me. This woman was different. She worked by her own inner clock. She didn’t let anyone control her or manipulate her.

  Which was why I wanted to control her and manipulate her. She was the wildest stallion, the last free horse of the land. It couldn’t be broken or trained. It was too stubborn, too fierce.

  I loved the challenge.

  “Perhaps I have something for you to work on—if you’re interested.”

  “Depends on what you have in mind.”

  “At the winery, we’re always looking for ways to make our fermentation process more efficient.”

  “That’s how you make a living?” She’d never asked me anything personal before. She didn’t seem to care. I was just her captor, the person she wanted to flee from.

  “Yes.” In part.

  “Is that what you do with Cane?”

  “No. The winery is exclusively mine.”

  She was an intelligent woman, and the cogs in her mind were constantly churning. Thoughts were circling her mind now, and she deliberated on asking her following question. Finally, she went for it. “What do you do with Cane?”

  “Arms dealer. We make weapons and sell them to the highest bidder.”

  Her eyes narrowed, her mind working at full speed. “Bones does the same thing.”

  “Yeah.” He was my biggest competitor, my biggest adversary. Our rivalry went back to a different generation, when my father and his father were at war with one another. We inherited that fight, and we would continue until one of us was dead.

  “That’s your beef with him.” She said it out loud, but she seemed to be saying it more to herself than to me.

  “In a nutshell.”

  “And stealing me is a way of manipulating him.”

  Now she was off the trail. “No.”

  “No?” she asked. “What else do you want me for?”

  “Revenge.” I had to avenge Vanessa, my little sister. She wasn’t just my family but my friend. When our parents passed away, I became the leading man of the family. I’d become her father.

  “Revenge for what?” she asked. “What did he do to you?”

  I held her gaze but felt my lips compress. I didn’t want to talk about Vanessa. Whenever she entered my mind, I immediately shook the thoughts away. It was too painful, even for me. If I ignored it long enough, maybe the pain would disappear altogether. “That’s enough questions for the evening.”

  Her eyes burned with irritation. “So you can know everything about me, but I can’t know anything about you?”

  “You know a lot about me.” More than most.

  “But you won’t answer my questions.”

  “Would you answer mine?” I watched her expression and saw it slacken in resolution. If I pried into her personal life, she wouldn’t tell me anything. I knew that for certain. But fortunately, I already knew everything that mattered.

  Lacking a response, she looked down at her plate and finished eating. She was irritated I’d bested her. Her shoulders were tight, and her lips held a slight scowl. In the short amount of time I’d known her, I learned her habits. I learned how to read her thoughts. I learned her likes and dislikes without asking a single question.

  And she hated that.

  ***

  After I enjoyed my solitude in my study, I went to her bedroom. I already knew what she would be doing before I arrived. She spent all her free time reading. Her room came with hundreds of bound books, most of them in English. She always had something to do when I wasn’t entertaining her.

  My natural reaction was to open the door and walk inside. She was my property, and I could do whatever I wished. But for some reason, I gave her more respect than I gave anyone else. I raised my knuckles to the door and lightly tapped.

  “Come in.” Her beautiful voice crept down my spine, making me tingle.

  I walked inside and saw her sitting on the couch, exactly where I imagined her to be. I wore my sweat pants and a t-shirt, the clothes I always wore before retiring to bed. Only Lars and some of my staff saw me dressed this way. And now this woman.

  She shut the book she was reading and looked up at me, knowing exactly what I wanted without waiting for me to say it.

  I sat on the couch beside her and pulled the button from my pocket. It was brown with beige tinsel. I held it up for her inspection and danced it between my fingertips before I dropped it into the jar on the table. The first button sat at the bottom, and now it had a friend.

  Power radiated in my veins. The dominance took over, possessing all of me. I loved walking into that room and giving her a command without saying a single word. I loved making her mine by choice, not force. It was the greatest conquest I’d ever had.

  She eyed the button then turned her gaze back to me. The anxiety that was there last night was absent. Her lips were slightly parted, and her breathing picked up. My hand automatically wrapped around her wrist. She thought it was an innocent touch, but I was feeling her pulse. It immediately quickened, picking up speed to a dangerous level. These were symptoms of arousal, not fear.

  My cock sprang to life.

  I pulled her out the door and toward the bedroom down the hall. It’d become our fuck room, our private quarters where we did nasty things. I had a special room where my darkest fantasies played out, but I knew she wasn’t ready for that. I’d use a few buttons to get her prepared for what I really wanted.

  Once we were alone behind a locked door, my hands cupped her cheeks, and I kissed her just the way I liked. When I sat at my desk that afternoon, this is what I thought about. I thought about her plump and delicious lips against mine. I also thought about them tight around my dick.

  She kissed me back immediately, as if she’d been thinking about it all day as well. Her hands went to my waist, her fingertips digging into my sides. They strayed away and felt my powerful chest. Her breathing picked up as our passion increased.

  My tongue found hers, and they danced together like they’d done it a million times. Her small mouth was delicious. I loved tasting her, smelling her, and touching her. My hands moved down her back until I felt the steep curve that led to her ass. The curves of her body were perfect. She was worth every penny she’d been bought for.

  I undressed myself then removed her dress, letting her voluptuous tits pop out. They weren’t enormous, but they were womanly. I loved squeezing them within my palms. I pinched her nipples
and twisted them, making her wince in pain but sigh in pleasure at the same time.

  Every muscle in my body tensed as sexual desire overtook me. This woman drove me wild, made me fall further into darkness. I wanted to spank her ass until it was red and bruised. I wanted to squeeze her tits a million times harder, make her pant in agony. I wanted her to cry for me, to beg me to let her go.

  But that would have to wait.

  I pulled my mouth away from hers even though I wanted to keep kissing her. I wanted to do it forever. But my cock wanted that mouth even more. And when I went to battle with him, I usually lost.

  I sat at the edge of the bed with my cock resting against my stomach. I stared at her naked body, the heat scorching me. “Get on your knees.”

  The defiance moved into her eyes. She hated my commands. She hated being told what to do. For an instant, it seemed like she might defy me. She wanted to tell me to go to hell. But she held her tongue, knowing she needed to work for one more token of freedom.

  She lowered herself to her knees.

  My cock twitched. I won another battle. Subduing her always made me hard. “Blow me.” My hand moved into her hair, and I fisted the strands. I grabbed the base of my dick and rubbed the head against her wet lips.

  She obeyed this command with much less resistance. She took the head of my cock into her mouth and sucked it. Her tongue cushioned the bottom, the velvety texture feeling sensual against my throbbing cock.

  I released a moan right off the bat.

  She moved her hands to my balls and played with them lightly, stroking them in a sexy way and sending chills up my spine.

  I didn’t even have to tell her to do that.

  She took my length deep into her throat until she almost gagged then pulled out again. Her fingers kept massaging me, stroking me with her saliva as it ran down my length.

  My eyes feasted on the image before me. I dominated her, forcing her to her knees with my cock in her warm mouth. My hand gripped the back of her neck, and I guided her up and down my length, showing her exactly what I wanted and how I wanted it. She gave amazing head, the best I’d ever had.

  I watched her closely, seeing her mouth widen just before she deep-throated me. Instead of closing her eyes, she kept them wide open. She stared at my dick as she took him in and out. The fire slowly burned deep in her eyes. It grew brighter and hotter, her pleasure mirroring mine.

  She enjoyed it.

  I wanted to feel her wet pussy. I wanted to wipe her slickness down my length. I wanted to know just how turned on she was. She loved my cock in her mouth and her pussy. And soon, she’d like it in her ass too.

  I wanted to enjoy those wet lips a little longer, but I couldn’t hold on. I wanted to squirt my seed into the back of her throat and watch her swallow it. My mouth wanted to do other things to her, but I needed to come first. “Take it and show it to me.” My fingers dug into the back of her neck, and I shoved myself deep inside her throat. My chest rumbled with pleasure as heat billowed through me. Hot and on fire, flames rocked through my core and exploded in my balls. A powerful orgasm, the kind that made me moan, shot through my body and down my length. I felt my cock thicken as I released into her mouth.

  She opened her mouth automatically so I could see my cock squirt on her tongue. She jerked her hand up and down my shaft, giving me a long orgasm that stretched on for nearly a minute.

  “Fuck.” My fingers dug so hard into her neck, I thought I might choke her. I finished giving her every drop before I drifted down from the high. “Show me.”

  She stuck out her tongue, my white seed covering most of it. It was an impressive amount, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit I was a little proud. My hand wrapped around her neck, and I gave her a threatening squeeze. “Swallow.”

  Instead of being afraid when I gripped her by the throat, her eyes lightened in response. She closed her mouth and gave a dramatic swallow, the muscles in her neck shifting to accommodate my come.

  That turned me on again. “Good girl.”

  That phrase yanked her from the moment, and a glare took hold.

  I preferred her anger. I found it sexy. “On the bed. Now.”

  She obeyed my command, holding herself up on all fours.

  I came behind her, my dick semihard. It wanted to deflate from the orgasm I just had, but seeing her ass in the air like that just fired me up again. I stared at her pussy and saw the slickness gleam. Her pussy was wet and slick, just as I expected it to be.

  I smiled in victory then shoved two fingers inside her. “You’re so goddamn wet.” My breath shook as I felt the warm moisture between her legs. “You love sucking my dick.” I could tell she enjoyed it despite her attempts to hide it. “Is it the taste of my cock? Is it the size? Is it the fact I love how good you suck?” I fingered her and slathered my fingers in heat.

  She didn’t answer me, but her body responded. The arch in her back deepened, and her breaths became labored.

  “Tell me.”

  She held her silence defiantly.

  I moved to my knees on the floor and pulled her hips to the edge of the bed. My face dove into her sweet pussy, and I licked her aggressively, circling her clit with my tongue before I sucked it harshly into my mouth.

  A suppressed moan escaped her lips. She put all her effort into hiding her pleasure at my touch. She refused to give me the satisfaction of pleasing her. But the cause was futile because her soaked pussy did all the talking.

  I circled her clit again, making her back arch farther so she could get as much of my mouth as possible.

  I pulled away. “Tell me.”

  She breathed hard, deep and loud.

  “Answer me, Button.” I sucked her clit harshly, pushing her to the edge of an orgasm then abruptly pulling back.

  She growled in frustration.

  I gently blew on her opening then gave her a gentle kiss.

  She snapped like I knew she would. “I love how much you enjoy it...” She spoke with self-loathing, hating herself for giving in. She sighed with defeat, her backbone crippling. “And I love the way it tastes...and I love how big it is.”

  My dominance grew, and I felt like a true king. I was on top of the world, and she was beneath me. I conquered her again. I took everything from her and made her into a humble servant.

  I pressed my face between her legs and gave her the reward she just sacrificed herself for. I sucked her clitoris hard then circled it, using more precision than my fingers could ever give.

  She immediately moaned, no longer holding back the screams of unbridled pleasure. She arched her back farther and pressed her ass into my face, wanting more of that schooled tongue.

  She combusted with an orgasm just as powerful as mine. Her yells turned into screams, and she rode the high. “Oh, god...” She gripped the sheets of the bed and turned into mush. “Oh, god...” She pressed her face into the mattress, her body giving out as heat seared her from the inside out.

  When her screams died away, I knew she was finished. She panted on the bed, a crumpled mess from the head I just gave her. I knew I had her then. And she knew I had her too.

  I moved behind her and positioned my dick at her entrance. After that performance, my machinery was revved up and ready for action. I shoved myself violently inside her, my cock savoring the feel of her slickness and my saliva mixed together.

  And then I fucked her until she screamed again.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Pearl

  Guilt weighed me down. I was drowning in my private suffering, hating myself for giving in to my ruthless captor. The button deal was purely business. I’d only accepted his offer because there was no other option. But now, I looked forward to the evening. I waited for him to walk through the door, a button tucked deep in his pocket.

  I wasn’t supposed to enjoy the sex, but I did. When his mouth was between my legs, I ignited like a firework. Jacob hardly ever went down on me, and when he did, he wasn’t very good at it. It felt like a lizard was licking my
lips with a thin tongue, hardly moving and doing a half-assed job. Crow ate my pussy like he was starving.

  I’d never come so hard in my life.

  Now that I was alone with my thoughts, the hatred emerged. When I was taken from Jacob, I tried not to think about him. I pitied him, imagining him at home and worried about me. When I thought about him, loneliness welled up inside me. He was the only family I had in the world. My parents were both abusive alcoholics, and I was taken from them when I was just ten years old. I didn’t have any other relatives. I was alone in the world—literally.

  I was immensely attracted to Crow. He gave me the kind of sex I didn’t believe existed. He pleased me so well, and he seemed to enjoy giving me orgasms as much as receiving them. I tried to pretend I didn’t love his cock inside me, but I couldn’t do it anymore. Crow manipulated me right where he wanted me to be.

  And I crumbled.

  I betrayed Jacob. When Bones raped me, I couldn’t stop it. But I could stop Crow. I simply chose not to. How much would that break Jacob’s heart? I was enjoying sex with another man. Actually, I was loving it.

  In one way, Crow was worse than Bones. He actually made me want to stay. He gave me a beautiful place to live with the freedom to venture outside. He respected my privacy and never forced me to do anything I didn’t want to do. He made me feel safe when I shouldn’t feel safe at all. And that made me not want to leave.

  So he was much more dangerous.

  Now I really hated him.

  I hated his arrogance. I hated his intelligence. I hated his ruthlessness. This was just a sick game to him. He wanted to best me because he got off on it. He was the dominant one in the relationship, and he relished every time I submitted.

  I despised him.

  He stripped me of my weaponry and armor. I was vulnerable and open to attack. He somehow convinced me that this button deal was a good idea. He tricked me into opening my legs and giving him exactly what he wanted.

  I fell right into his trap.

  And I hated myself.

  ***

  I avoided him like the plague.

  When he was in the house, I made sure I was outside of it. He had a beautiful pool in his backyard, so I spent my time lounging in my bikini and sunglasses. Every time he came outside to speak to me, I slipped into the pool where he wouldn’t follow me.