The Billionaire's Bet #2: A Hot Call (BDSM Erotic) Read online

  We hadn’t spoken the entire trip. When we came home, the night was still young, but Dominic went straight off to bed after cleaning the toy. I was supposed to go with him. A rule was a rule and breaking it meant getting punished and I wasn’t going to have that any time soon if it were up to me.

  Oh, and he wants me naked.

  With reddened cheeks, I took off my clothes, but he didn’t even look at me. He faced the ceiling, eyes wide open, ignoring me completely. I got into the bed and pulled the covers closer, shivering from the cold. I hesitated to crawl closer to him, but I did it anyway. He pulled away from me.

  “Don’t,” was all that came out, but it was enough. It hurt though. It was harsh and felt cruel. I needed his warmth and touch, to feel that someone wanted me, but he wouldn’t give it to me. I felt tears sting my eyes, but blinked them away. What was I doing? This man only wanted to have sex with me, not love me. Why did I ever think he might?

  I rolled onto my side and moved as far away from him as I could. Our contract had only just started, but I was already thinking about calling it quits. How could I be someone’s sub, be a complete slave to someone, and do everything he desired, if he couldn’t give me what I wanted in return?

  I brushed away a tear that had forced its way out and hugged my pillow. He sighed. It sounded like a breath of agony that had to come out. Frustrating.

  He moved around in the bed and then I felt his warm hand on my side. It slowly slithered across my waist, toward my belly button until it reached the end. Dominic slid closer to me; I could feel the bed shift in the air. He dragged me closer to him and let out a heavy sigh again, this time against my shoulder blades.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  I sighed and closed my eyes, not knowing what to say. Not even knowing if I was allowed to say anything.

  “Say something,” he said, after a while.

  “It’s hard,” I whispered, trying to hold back the tears.

  “I told you from the beginning that being a sub is hard. If you don’t enjoy our contract, we can end it.”

  “No, that’s not it.”

  “Then what?”

  “I … I want more … from you.”

  “Like what? I give you pleasure. Isn’t that what you were after? At least, that’s what I thought our mutual agreement was.”

  “It is. But you know what I mean. What you did back there, in the car after we had sex, that’s what I want. I know you felt it too. I could feel it by the way you touched me. Don’t deny it, please.”

  Dominic was silent for a few seconds and just caressed my belly. “I’m not.”

  I turned around in his arms to look him straight in the eye. “I need it, badly. I know I said I could deal with just your lifestyle, but I need more than that.”

  He kissed the nape of my neck. “I know and you deserve it. Especially considering the way I treat you.” He let out an awkward chuckle sounding more like he wanted to ease the mood.

  “Then why don’t you?” I said.

  He shifted his gaze to the ceiling again and then closed his eyes. “I just can’t.”

  “But why? What are you so afraid of?”

  Dominic’s eyebrows drew together and he bit his lip. “I don’t want to talk about this now.”

  “But I do.”

  “Stop this. You are still my sub and you are to behave. We’ll have this discussion later. I need to sleep.”

  I rolled my eyes and moved back to my side again, moping. There was something about this that just did not feel right. He wasn’t telling me everything. I knew he’d hide some parts about his life, especially since I was new, but now that I was actually considering staying with him, I wanted to know more about him. He just wouldn’t let me in.

  ***

  When Dominic went to work then next day I felt so alone in his huge loft. I just wanted a breath of fresh air, so I decided I’d go jog for a bit. He wasn’t home anyway so if I didn’t make a mess and would clean myself afterward, he wouldn’t notice I was gone anyway.

  I ran for an hour or two, I didn’t really keep track of time, but the freedom and exercise were an amazing feeling. This was what I needed after such a tumultuous week. Some time on my own outside the house, even though I knew it wasn’t allowed without his permission. Well, he didn’t give me the chance to ask. He was gone before I was out of bed.

  I was out of breath when I reached the lobby of his apartment building and the guy at the door greeted me with a confused look on his face. Guess he wasn’t used to seeing Dominic’s girls outside the house without him knowing of it. I wondered if he might tell.

  I took the elevator up and went inside. My heart stopped. Dominic stood there with a note one hand and a lighter in the other. He flicked it on and let the piece of paper burn almost to his fingertips before dropping it in the trash can. Then he turned around to look at me with furrowed brows and narrowed eyes.

  Oh, dear. This doesn’t look good.

  “I … I …” I stammered. Why was he here? He shouldn’t have been. Work wasn’t over yet. Did something happen?

  Shit, I didn’t see this coming.

  “I know you went outside, Julie. No excuses. You didn’t ask for my permission.”

  “I’m sorry, Dom,” I said, walking closer to him, but he held up his hand, demanding me to stop.

  “We’re in my house. These are my rules and you’re to abide by them. You didn’t, so you know the consequences.”

  With a menacing stride he stomped to me, his eyes blazing with anger. I stumbled back, but he grabbed my wrist just before I could turn around. His grip was strong and harsh, burning into my skin, while he dragged me across the floor. Stopping right before the couch, he pushed me forward so I fell down over the arm rest.

  “Dom, please, I didn’t mean to!” I yelped.

  He jerked down my pants with fierceness, the buttons giving away. My butt was fully exposed and when his hand came down it wasn’t like the times before. It was painful and agonizing. Shameful.

  “You know the price for disobedience,” he lashed out. “You went outside without my permission.”

  My face was buried into the leather. He held my arms down as he towered above me. I cried out each time he smacked me. The slaps sizzled after on my aching skin. After his hand came down on me ten times, I didn’t feel the pain anymore. All I could feel were the tears stinging in my eyes, the sudden feeling of unfairness. Why was I punished so severely for craving something?

  When he stopped slapping he released my arms. I just lay there, my hair gently falling over my red, wet face. My eyes were swollen, so I closed them. I didn’t want to look at him. Didn’t want to look at anything besides the hollow insides of my eyes. The blackness was the only comforting thing I knew.

  Block it out.

  I heard him breathe heavily; taking in gasps as if he’d just run laps like me. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn’t stop the sound from entering my ears. I heard his feel shuffle back. It was quiet for some time, except for my snivels. Then he treaded closer.

  I flinched and drew back when his hands reached for my face. I expected vicious punishment, but instead he cupped my face gently. I leaned on my elbow meeting his gaze. It was tender and filled with tears he wouldn’t let out.

  What? What was wrong with him? Why was he the one almost crying? He’d hurt me!

  Dominic moved a strand of hair from my moist face and tucked it behind my ear. He looked down at the carpet for a moment, biting his lip. He was mulling over something, I could see it.

  “I’m sorry …” he whispered. He sniffed and brushed his hand through his hair, blowing out a long sigh.

  “Come,” he said, and he took my hand and pulled me up from the couch. I staggered to stand, while he lifted my legs and took off my pants completely. I was shivering, not from the cold, not because my lower half was naked, but from fear.

  He guided me up the stairs in complete silence, his face smooth and unwavering when he looked at me as he showed me into the
bathroom. He closed the door behind us and I stood there, shaking. His hand brushed along my shoulder, but it felt distant and I was afraid of his touch.

  He hesitated when he reached my breasts as he moved down my shirt, then he carefully unbuttoned it. Draping my clothes off me, he kept standing behind me, his touch lingering, just like I knew his gaze was.

  I swallowed back the tears. I didn’t want him to see my weakness. I couldn’t show it to someone who was so rough and brutal.

  Dominic walked past me and turned on the shower. He took off his own clothes until he was completely naked, and then beckoned me to come to him. I could see his taut flesh, the muscular pectorals, the veins pulsing under his skin. Normally I’d be turned-on seeing him like that, but now I knew those muscles were dangerous, too.

  He reached for my hand and pulled me into the shower with him. The hot water falling down on my skin didn’t soothe the aching beneath my flesh. Even if the marks would fade, my pain would not.

  His bright blue eyes were skimming my face, but I felt emotionless, sucked dry. He grabbed a bottle of soap and squirted it onto his hands. He rubbed my back and smoothed across my painful butt, being gentle on my sore skin. I could feel it was red from the burn.

  He massaged the soap over my body, but it wasn’t sexual at all. It was almost as if he tried to take care of me.

  When he was done, he pulled the showerhead closer and rinsed it off. I just stood there, shaking, frozen in place. I could cry all I want, he wouldn’t be able to see under the shower anyway.

  He took his hands off me and I heard him plop down on something. It took me a while to turn around and see what he was doing. He was slumped over on a stool, his head between his hands, looking defeated.

  “Dom?” I managed to say.

  He brushed his hands through his hair again and wiped his eyes. They were red and swollen, just like mine.

  Dominic looked up at me and held up his hands, his arms wide and open. He tugged me forward and pulled me into an awkward embrace. His head rested on my belly, his arms around my back. I didn’t know what to do.

  Something deeply troubled him and I didn’t know if it was because of what he did to me or if it was something else. He seemed broken. Lost.

  “I’m sorry,” he said again and he rubbed his cheeks up and down against my skin. “I shouldn’t have been so hard on you. Not so fast. Not like that.”

  I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing when he said that.

  “I was just doing what I loved. I wanted to go jog and you weren’t supposed to be home yet …” I muttered, sniffing in between.

  “I know. It’s okay.”

  “You hurt me, Dom. It. hurts.”

  “I know, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so harsh on you.”

  “What is wrong with you?” I cried out.

  He was silent for a moment. His finger brushed away a tear that rolled down his cheeks. I had trouble not to feel. He’d hurt me, but now he was crying and I couldn’t take seeing him like this, even after what he’d done.

  “I’m a monster …”

  “Why? Why do you have to be like that? Why can’t it just be love? I know you like spanking and I like it too, but that … that was totally different. That was crude and I feared for my life.” I clenched my hands into fists. Anger boiled up inside.

  “Don’t …” Dominic took my hand and brushed his own skin with it, pecking it softly in between. “Don’t be afraid of me, please. I never wanted that.”

  “Then what do you want? What do you want from me? Why do you ask me to come here, to be in some sort of relationship in you, if you know I want more than that? I need love. I need commitment. I thought I could get both from you. I thought you were looking for that too, eventually. You said you needed a partner. Instead I feel like a whore who’s just here for your entertainment.”

  He pushed me forward and looked me straight in the eye. “You are not! Don’t ever say that about yourself!” His voice was coarse and heavy with emotion.

  “Then what am I to you? You are barely here, I can’t get to know you, yet you think you can control my every move. Why do you want to do that?”

  “It’s part of the Dom and sub relationship, you know that,” he snapped. “You read and signed the agreement yourself. We had a deal. You’d get money, I’d get you. You wanted more and didn’t take the money. Not my fault it’s not turning out the way you wanted …” The moment the words had spat out he was already looking at the floor again. His eyes rolled back as he let out an annoyed sigh and then closed his eyes, slapping himself across the forehead.

  I took a step back. “How can you say that? How can you be so cruel?”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I’m stupid, okay?” Dominic palmed his face hard a couple of times, like he wanted to smash his own skull. “Jesus Christ what a fucking shitty day!” His fist came down on the wall so hard it created cracks. My heart jumped and I closed my eyes and turned around to stand under the shower again. Maybe the warm beads would make it go away. Of course they wouldn’t, I just imagined they did.

  “Fucking hate myself …” he said, his voice turning into a whisper halfway through.

  After a while he started to alternate sniffs and sighs. Then they turned into sobs. Louder and louder. Until I could no longer ignore it.

  I sighed and turned around. His face was buried in his hands, his elbows leaning on his knees. He let out a sad moan and rubbed his eyes with his fingers until they were really red and swollen.

  I sank to my knees and took his hands. “What’s bothering you so much?”

  He gazed at me with those bright blue eyes, half opened mouth, defeated look on his face. “That I can’t give you what you want, okay?”

  He stood up and walked to the shower, leaning his head against the wall, bathing in the water coming down.

  “Why? What’s stopping you? Is it so hard to fall in love with a girl like me? Do you ever want more than just a relationship based on sex?”

  He snorted and turned his face around. “Yes! It’s not hard, but I have so much to deal with right now, that I can’t. That’s the problem.”

  Suddenly it hit me. He didn’t just give me a spanking because he was angry at me for having broken the rules. He’d smacked me because he was angry at something else. Something had happened to him, whether it was at work or something else in the past, but I could sense it influenced him, even now. He was taking his rage out on me.

  The realization was frightening, but at the same time I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. What drives a man to do such a thing? He was even crying, just now, and it seemed like he was totally drained. It was like he was tortured by his own mind.

  I walked over to him and stood still right in front of him, spats from the shower falling down on my face. He held his hand firmly on the wall beside us, his features robust and menacing, but his stance and slumped head made him look beaten.

  “Look, I’m sorry … please don’t ask me why,” he said. “I can’t explain it. I don’t want to. This is something I have to deal with by myself.”

  I swallowed, feeling crippled by his words in my attempt to understand him. “I want to get to know you, Dom, but you have to trust me, too.”

  “I know,” he said. His arms dropped and with one tug he pulled me into his embrace. He buried his face in my neck and nuzzled my wet hair, pushing my body into his chest. “I’ll tell you when I’m ready.”

  He sighed and delved his fingertips deeper into my skin as he hugged me tight. “Goddamn, it’s been a long time since I held a woman like this.”

  I chuckled and it felt like my fear of him had suddenly vanished. Somehow the idea that I could make this work wormed its way into my head. My arms moved out of their own when they entwined behind his neck.

  “You make me weak, you know that?” he whispered close to my ear.

  I couldn’t withhold the smile from popping onto my face. “I can see that, but is it so bad?”

  “It’s not something I
’m particularly fond of, no.”

  “You’re more into authority and power. Yes, I know.”

  He chortled and planted a kiss on my shoulder. “Well, I want one thing clear though. I don’t intend to change that. I’ll love and keep on being dominant for the rest of my life, so if you can’t handle it then …”

  “I know. I don’t want you to change,” I said. “I just want more. More love. More trust. More like this.” I pressed my head further into his pectorals to hug him more.

  “Maybe. I could work on that,” he said.

  We both laughed and kept holding each other, gently swaying under the hot shower, until we’d both rinsed away our pain.

  Chapter 4

  As the days went by we grew closer to each other. We spent some time together at the park, strolling around like an old couple. We ate lunch at a few different restaurants, trying out different things like tiny pieces of stuffed duck and a spicy pumpkin soup. We even watched a movie together, as if we were just a normal couple. It was almost funny.

  Dominic always went to work at the same time, I spent my day working on my manuscripts. I had much more to write about now, especially with this turbulent relationship I was in. Whatever kind it was.

  But he hadn’t put his hands on me ever since. Not even to make love.

  However, Dominic decided to get us tested for STD’s, because he said he wanted to have sex freely. Odd, considering our sex-free days. Nonetheless, I was happy with it. It meant we were pushing toward a more steady relationship. Also, because we were both clean, which was a relief.

  When Dominic came home he had this provocative smile on his face that made me laugh. “What?”

  “I want to take you somewhere tonight,” Dominic said. He came to the table where I sat and placed his strong hands on my shoulders. “You must come.”

  I chuckled. “I assume I have no say in this?”

  “No. None at all.” He bent over and I felt his warm breath in my neck, creating goose bumps all over my skin. “I want to take it a step further, you see, our relationship. I want to show you more of what I love to do. To increase your submissive experience.”