Chapter Twenty-Three

Tori lay there quietly panting, her mind floating and fluttering in waves. Impulses and ideas flitted about like butterflies in a field of too many poppies, and she was unable to settle on one. Never in her wildest imagining would she have believed that it could be this wildly exciting to be tied down and fucked, totally at the mercy of someone else. She hadn’t known it could be so all-encompassing, that one could lose oneself completely in the moment.

But something was…wrong. A little off.

She felt it but didn’t understand it.

Then, on a heartbeat, ugly clarity battered through her happiness.

“You said my name!” she shrieked, so crazed she almost couldn’t understand her own words.

Outrage swarmed next, leaving hideous pain behind.

“How in bloody hell do you know my name? My real name?”

Dread, disappointment, and degradation circled like three vultures ready to pick her bones.

He stared down at her in blank incomprehension. “Wha…?”

“Who are you?” she demanded. Still bound to the bed, she thrashed about, trying ineffectually to buck him off and pull free.

Her rage suddenly registered with the near-comatose lover lying on top of her. He jerked upward onto his arms to blink down at her, obviously confused.

Then a sudden look of horror spread over his face. “No, please. I didn’t just— Please, no!”

“Get off me! Untie me right now. How could you do this?”

Verging on hysteria, she twisted about, madly pulling at her bindings and trying to squirm herself free of him.

Choking on her hurt, she refused to let a single tear escape. She felt defenseless, impotent, wanting to rip the mask from his deceitful face, but she was unable to move. How had she ever believed this was erotic?

“Please. I’m sorry! Honest. I had planned to tell you.” He pulled out of her and climbed off. Racing, he worked furiously to untie the bindings from her hands.

Before he could untie her feet, she reached for his face and yanked his mask off. Horror filled her eyes.

“You! I can’t believe you would do this. Deceive me in this way.”

Deep within, however, she realized she had already sensed the truth. The niggling feeling had been there ever since she’d heard his full voice earlier. Perhaps even from the moment she’d first met him at Club Exotica. She simply hadn’t wanted to put it all together—had wanted instead to keep her mysterious masquerade-ball prince.

Jabbing at his back as he worked to untie her ankles, she peppered him with accusations. “How could you do this to me? What were you thinking? Was it just some big game? Let’s play fuck the judge. What, what, what were you thinking?”

She froze, renewed shock blazing through her. Her voice barely audible, she asked, “Did you do this to get revenge after losing that case last month?”

He whipped around. “No! God, no. Please, let me explain. I’ve wanted you for a long time.”

Finally free, she scooted backward, away from him, until her back was pressed against the headboard. “When you couldn’t get me any other way, you tricked me into fucking you. Is that it?”

“No, it wasn’t like that! I swear!”

She scrambled off the bed and started grabbing her clothes. He reached out to touch her, but she roughly brushed his hands off her.

“Don’t touch me. Don’t you ever touch me again!”

Quietly he tried again. “Will you please let me explain? I like you so m—”

“There is nothing you can say that will make me understand why you did this. I don’t want to hear another word from you…ever!”

Having finally managed to tug on her shorts and shimmy her sweat-covered body into her corset, she started for the door. “I’m leaving. Don’t try to stop me and don’t follow me, or I’ll call the bouncers. Do you hear me?”

He nodded miserably.

She left him, but this time she didn’t look back. Not even a single glance.