Anything For Him

Dangerous Desires

Bad Boy Romance Collection

By Adriana Hunter & Carmen Cross

The office hummed with conversation, but none of it was personal. In every cubicle people were bent over their desks, working hard at their jobs. Nobody even considered attempting to slack off, or to simply look busy without being actually busy. The boss was in the place and everyone knew it.

Danny Sullivan walked through the office with his face set into a pleasant mask but his employees were not fooled, he was a man who demanded perfection and hard work and nothing less would satisfy him. Danny was a hard man whose full lips rarely broke into a smile although his warm baritone voice could charm the birds from the trees. His long legs and lean hips gave him a prowling grace and his broad shoulders and slightly too close set blue eyes, looking out from under brows of an utterly lightless black, made him look both cold and hard. Dangerous, as some of the women liked to describe him, saying the word with a delighted little shudder.

Meghan Lowry saw him coming, gave a tiny squeak and tried to jump into a cubicle. The woman sitting inside it gave her a cold glare and an upraised finger before using her foot to shove her back out and into the narrow hallway.

Danny saw Meghan as she stumbled back into the hall and while his expression never changed his interest was instantly piqued. His eyes raked quickly up and down Meghan’s lean body taking in the slightly too large skirt that brushed her shin bones, the ill-fitting suit jacket whose somber dark blue hue did nothing for her alabaster skin, the pale green blouse below it that he guessed she had bought because she had thought it would match the intense green of her eyes and the fiery red hair whose curls were doing their best to escape the severe knot that held them unwilling hostage.

Anxiety rolled through Meghan’s belly as she faced her employer. She raised a hand in a half-wave, thought better of it and then tried to get out of his way, unaware that the small bruise that lay on the underside of her wrist had caught his attention.

“I’m a temp,” Meghan finally got out. “One of your assistants is on maternity leave and the agency sent me. I was told that you have several companies but that here was where I was to show up.”

Oh you idiot, Meghan scolded herself as icy blue eyes studied her face intently, you should have said just introduced yourself instead of blurting out such nonsense!

Her wrist was suddenly caught in a firm grip; a small gasp of pain escaped her lips as the delicate flesh was squeezed, causing the pain of the bruise to burst into fresh life. Confusion overrode the pain as she saw a tiny small flicker at the corners of his sensual mouth.

“I am glad you showed up,” Danny murmured. “I could certainly use some assistance.”

Meghan tried to think of something to say. Her wrist was released but the warm pressure of his fingers lingered and embarrassing warmth spread upwards from her cheeks to her forehead. “I can do anything you need,” she began.

“Anything as defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary?”

The sudden interruption flummoxed her. Her eyes darted to the plain beige walls that outlined the cubicles, the equally bland neutral toned carpet and then to the tips of her own shoes as she tried to decide how to answer his quip. Should she joke with him? Stay silent? She thought about the zero balance in her bank account and decided to simply try a different tack.

“What may I do to be of assistance, Sir?”

The smile grew wider and several unbelieving employees stared openly as it did. “I am sure I can think of something. Jenkins,” This to the man who stood beside him, “Take her to my office please.”

Meghan opened her mouth to say something, what she was not sure, but before she had the chance to put any of her confused thoughts into a sentence, Jenkins gave her a long level look, crooked his index finger at her and whirled on his heel. She found herself having to practically run to keep up with his strides and she began to worry that the borrowed and slightly too large shoes would fall off of her feet before they arrived at their destination.

“In there,” Jenkins said, swinging open a door.

The room that she stepped into was large enough that her entire apartment would have fit inside it with room left over. A glowing rug that was so gloriously colored and gently faded that she knew instantly it had to be incredibly expensive, covered the polished hardwood floor.

Heavy leather furniture sat in small groups, a teakwood bar stood under a long bank of gleaming windows that overlooked the vast skyline and a tall cabinet with two heavy doors sat between a deep recliner upholstered in black leather and a rather odd and decidedly out- of-place wooden chair whose heavy arms looked like they had been through some type of battle. Hash marks covered them; deep gouges and shiny worn places also marked the wood. For some reason the chair made Meghan feel nervous.

A large desk sat in the dead center of the room, a chair behind it. The gilt-edged green blotter was empty; the Mark Cross ink pen was neatly capped and laid in a straight line beside the blotter.

The paintings, tastefully lit by track lighting, gave the room warmth but it still made Meghan feel too small and somehow very vulnerable. She wasn’t sure of what she should do so she stood in front of the desk, nervously clasping her hands in front of her waist and trying hard to stand perfectly stall and straight.

The door opened and she arranged her face into what she hoped was a pleasant expression. Danny Sullivan entered, his expensive cologne adding its own subtle aroma to the scent of leather that hung over the room.

“I have your file here,” he said as he sat himself behind the desk. “Do you want me to tell you what is in it?’

The red heat filled her face again and she wanted to run away or begin to weep. The folder, lying on his blotter, looked so innocuous. The pale manila folded exactly and tabbed with red over neatly typed black letters that spelled out her name was far from harmless however.

“I assure you,” she said in a quavering voice, “I am not going to steal anything.”

“I imagine if you had wanted to steal something you would have grabbed one of the paintings and run for the door.” There was amusement in his voice, but it made her feel no better. “Tell me why you did it.”

Meghan took a deep breath, “I don’t have a reason.”

That was true, but also a lie. Danny kept his eyes locked on hers and she tried to hold his arctic gaze but she couldn’t, she dropped her eyes to the toes of her shoes.

“Did it feel good?”

Meghan blinked. No one had ever asked her that. “Excuse me?”

“You broke into homes – estates, and robbed them. It must take a lot of sheer nerve to be a cat burglar, what I want to know is, did that feel good? Did you feel a rush, did your pussy get wet when you went through the windows?”

The word pussy caused her jaw to snap open. She whispered, “Yes,” before she could stop herself. Her hand came up to her mouth almost immediately in a vain attempt to trap the word, to take it back.

Danny watched her struggle with herself. He could see her discomfort and her shock, he knew that she was trying desperately to figure out a way to take back what she had said and still save face. He found himself amused by her, and intrigued but he was not quite sure that she was exactly what he was hoping she was. His eyes went to the sleeve of the jacket; it lay too long and wide across her wrist, hiding the bruise from his sight.

“You didn’t do it for the money, your family has enough of that.”

Meghan wanted to simply storm out. Once upon a time she would have but that had been before she had been caught robbing the house that belonged to the Beauchamps, one of the wealthiest families in town and the people who just happened to be best friends with her parents. Her parents had kept her from going to prison but they had disowned her and now she was broke and on her own, she could not afford to walk out on the only job she had been able to get.

“No, I didn’t do it for the money.”

“So it did make you hot. Say it.”

Meghan stared at the painting over his head. Danny counted to ten silently, wondering if she were going to break. He wanted her to, he wanted to hear those words tumbling from her tongue, wanted them to be said so she could hear them out loud but he doubted that she would say them.

He slowly perused her body, imagining her tied to the bed, her long legs opened wide and her mouth ready to receive him. He knew she was broke, that she was about to get evicted and that she had no other options but to work for him. That excited him, what excited him even more was the fact that she was a Lowry, he had an axe to grind with her father Tom and fucking her would give him an immense satisfaction on several levels.

Long seconds ticked out, counted silently by their heartbeats. Danny had begun to wonder if she would speak at all when she said, in a rush, “I came here to be your assistant. That is what the agency hired me to do.”

“I will pay you triple what the agency is if you will tell me why you did it.”

Danny watched her struggle with the offer. He had no doubt she would do it, life had long since taught him that every person had a price, some were just willing to sell themselves a little cheaper and others were able to hold out for more. Growing up he had seen all too often people selling their own flesh, and the flesh of others.

Meghan knew why she had burglarized homes. Growing up she had been the quintessential poor little rich girl. Her brother had inherited her mother’s blond good looks and her father’s business acumen as well as his love of sports. Gregory Lowry had sailed through school with good grades, girls hanging all over him, his father’s approval and his mother’s love. Meghan had been a pale and often sickly little girl who had burned a fiery shade of red every summer when they had gone to their summer beach house, had been totally lost on the tennis courts and average in class. Her parents had overlooked her and the girls her age had only wanted to be her friend in order to get close to Gregory, once they figured out he wanted nothing to do with his three years younger sister they ignored her in favor of other girls with brothers that they could use their budding wiles upon.

Meghan had spent her summers with a succession of nannies after her sunburns and colds had become too much of a nuisance for her family to deal with. By her junior high years her mother had grown tired of attempting to make her shy daughter more socially adept and so Meghan was shipped off to boarding schools.

The loneliness and boredom had been broken the day that she had slipped a small figurine into her pocket at a party. She could not ever explain how much she had wanted to get caught, had needed to be caught. She had, without knowing it, been in desperate need of attention from her parents. The attention she had gotten after she had finally been caught had not at all been the attention she had always dreamed of, that much she did know.

Danny was about to simply release her; he had grown bored with her silence when she finally spoke, “I had nothing to lose.”

Danny’s left eyebrow quirked up at her quiet response. It was the truth; maybe not the whole truth but it was the truth nonetheless. He could guess at the rest of it. He knew her parents, despised them in fact. The Lowry’s held control of a dying business and they cut personnel rather than cut back on their own lavish lifestyle. In his opinion anyone willing to starve people who had served them for no better reason than to satisfy their own greed weren’t worth knowing.

He shut that line of thinking off. He knew if he did not his own childhood would come creeping back to the front of his mind, bringing with it all the rage and pain of those dark, torturous years.

There are far better things to think about, he told himself firmly.

“Miss Lowry,” he said, “I require a certain type of service. I demand utter obedience and a willingness to serve. If you are willing to provide me with that, we may come to a very pleasurable agreement.”

The word pleasurable sent little shivers down her back. She was acutely aware of him as a man, she could not help it. Everything about him, from the way his long body lounged back negligently in his chair to the shape of his bottom lip, the undeniably firm set of his shoulders, made her feel a strange and incredibly erotic rush in her belly.

In her last year at a boarding school in France she had met a man whose brooding dark looks had created a similar reaction in her. She had let him seduce her several times but she had never been able to feel anything past that first brush of lust. If she had had a close female friend to ask she might have understood that it was due to his being inconsiderate of her needs, that she had done nothing wrong and that her inability to feel pleasure in the act was not her fault.

She had not felt lust since then and guilt at feeling it at that moment was rapidly overriding it. Danny saw that, her face was incredibly easy to read, and he made his move.

“Do you want to serve me?”

“Serve you?” The word choice seemed odd to her and her voice was laced with confusion. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

He was out of the chair and in front of her so fast she felt off-balance. His eyes held hers and she swallowed hard, her pussy felt heavy and full and her nipples tightened involuntarily.

“I mean will you obey me, will you do as you are ordered? Will you say Yes, Sir and please and thank you? Will you get on your knees and offer me what I want from you?”

Her breath came out on a harsh exhale. Her heartbeat accelerated and a thin trickle of fluid slid down her slim inner thigh, she could feel it and she squeezed her legs together to try to halt its flow. Instantly she knew he had seen that movement and that it had been a mistake on her part. It had given her away.

“Is that a yes?” His voice was husky and his mouth was a bare inch from hers. A sound that might have been a word came from her mouth and his lips came down on hers.

The kiss was demanding and furious, she could feel her lips opening below his. His tongue slid against her teeth, forcing them open and then he was probing the recesses of her mouth, exploring its every corner and crevasse.

His hands slid down her back, his strong fingers dug into the curved out halves of her ass and he lifted her up and forward, tilting her pelvis so that her crotch was parallel to his. He deliberately rubbed his hard cock against her, relishing the sweet sound of her surrender. Her moan was low and soft and he stepped back, his eyes glowing with desire.

“Take your clothes off.”

The ruthless command surprised her. The thrill that shot through her frightened her. She stepped back, intent on walking away but he was not letting go of his prize so easily. He grabbed her by her jaw and kissed her again, causing her to groan and whimper.

“I will take them off for you,” he warned. “This is your only chance.”

She stood there, her lips bruised and pulped, her senses whirling and her head spinning. She could not seem to make sense of her thoughts or emotions. His hands went to the jacket and it fell to the floor but that did not alarm her. The sound of the blouse ripping did.

She protested but he ignored that, his hands stroked the fabric of her bra and she fell silent. His thumbs tweaked her hard nipples and then the bra was falling to her feet.

“Take off that skirt.”

Meghan’s fingers fumbled at her waist and the skirt landed in a puddle on the toes of her shoes. She stared down at them, wondering what she had been thinking when she had borrowed them from her roommate that morning.

“The panties.”

There was nothing soft about his tone and she felt a swirl of emotion rising in her. She could feel shame and fear but more than that, riding through that, was that heavy wetness in her pussy and belly. She thought of trying to do some little striptease, of trying to be sexy but instead she simply slid them off. She held the scrap of lace and silk in her hand for a moment, weighing it. It felt flimsy and frail and she closed her eyes as she let the panties drop to the ground.

The curves and angles of her body stood out in sharp relief once the ugly clothes were gone. The sun, striking through the windows, made her skin appear translucent. Gold streaks shot through her hair and he grabbed a handful of it, yanking it down from its knot, allowing it to spill over her shoulders.

He kissed her again and Meghan felt his knee coming up between her thighs, the hard muscle abrading and pleasuring her all at the same time. She whimpered as her feet slid across the floor, Danny was moving her toward the chair with inexorable force.

Her ass hit the wooden seat and she screeched but the sound cut off when he grabbed her wrist, the one that had the bruise, and yanked a heavy manacle from below the chair. The long length of chain rattled and the metal of the cuff sent a cool finger of dread into her.

“How did you get this bruise?”

“I ...my landlord wanted my rent money...I tried to walk away but he grabbed me.” The admission was painful. Worse it made her feel incredibly naked, naked in a way she had not felt even when the panties had come off. Her eyes went back to the shoes and the sheer stockings she wore, his followed. His fingers pried the shoes off and she winced in embarrassment as the toilet paper she had stuffed into the toes popped out and uncrinkled along the floor like some fanciful caterpillar.

Danny knew exactly what the paper had been used to do; he had worn many a hand-me-down pair of shoes. “Your parents turned their back on you.”

It was not a question. “They disowned me.”

That told him everything else he wanted to know about Meghan. He moved closer and the cuff snapped shut on her right wrist with a final sounding click. She was not sure what to think of it, she tugged at it experimentally and it did not yield. Her left wrist was similarly cuffed then her legs were forced open. Her ankles were locked into place, the chains giving that same hollow musical jingle as she was bound.

The shame came back. She could feel every inch of her own body, could feel her vulnerability and the sense of being exposed and helpless made tears come to her eyes.

“You are going to serve me,” Danny reiterated. “You are going to always be ready for my cock, for my mouth or my hands or whatever else I choose to give you. And in return I am going to give you what you always needed.”

“What is that?” Meghan whispered through her tears.

“All the attention you never had.”

Before she could reply his hands were on her body. His nails scratched her skin lightly, raising red trails and goose bumps. Her nipples grew hard again and he flicked them with his fingers before he used his teeth to nip at them, gently at first and then harder. Pain and pleasure collided and she squirmed against the seat, her own juices making the surface slick beneath her ass cheeks.

“You are being a very good girl,” Danny growled into her ear, “you keep on being a good girl and you will get rewarded, do you understand?’

“Yes,” she whispered.

Fingers slid into her wet pussy, they probed delicately at first then thrust harder. Her hips bucked helplessly against them, the friction growing with each plunge. “Who told you to move?” Danny asked and the fingers withdrew. Instantly she felt bereft, her walls ached and her belly quivered as she stared up at him as he said, “Ask me to forgive you.”

Forgive her for what? She was not sure and her pride rose up, making her feel defensive and angry. She wanted to tell him to leave her alone, to unchain her but when she opened her mouth what came out was, ‘Please forgive me.” That simple sentence took her breath and she felt more helpless than she had before, although she could not understand why.

“Good girl,” Danny said, then he knelt in front of the chair and his mouth moved to her inner thighs.

Sensation exploded in her skin. His teeth nipped and tugged at the sensitive flesh while his tongue moved behind the bites, licking and easing the pain. When he moved his mouth over her mound and his fingers slid through the wet strip of her pubic curls she groaned out loud and her back arched. Instantly he stopped.

“I see you are not listening to me. If I do not tell you to move, you do not move. Are we clear?”

“Yes,” Meghan said through her teeth. Sweat had formed under her hairline and she clenched her fingers, her nails raking the arms of the chair. That gesture made her aware of what those marks on the chair were from, the chains scraped against the wood and her nails had left fresh scars. Jealousy reared its head, surprising and rattling her all at once. She was jealous over the marks in the wood that proved other women had felt the same ecstasy she was feeling at that moment.

Danny’s fingers parted her labia, her tongue lashed out against her clit and all her thoughts became lost in a haze of pleasure. Her ass shook and the chains clattered with the effort it took to keep herself from moving.

Fingers pushed back inside her and she bit her lip to keep from crying out. Her thighs clenched and unclenched as wave after wave of bliss rolled through her.

“If you want to come, you have to ask me to do so.” His breath was warm against her skin and she had the urge to scream at him to shut up and go back to licking her clit but instead she said, “I want to come.’

“Is that how we ask?” There was a teasing note in his voice but Danny was not joking at all. He had moved away from her again and all of her pride crumbled in the face of her need.

“May I come?”

“May I come please Sir?”

“May I come please Sir,” Meghan parroted then she said it again, louder, “Please may I come Sir, please? I want...I need ...”

“Good girl,” Danny breathed and the words, the praise had an incredibly erotic effect on her. His mouth and hands worked against her once more, sending the smell of her own arousal to her nostrils. She threw her head back against the chair, her mouth opening wide as her heated slit began to throb. “You can come very soon.”

Meghan could not keep her hips from lifting up in a wordless plea when he stood up. Danny saw the gesture and grinned, and then he reached for his zipper. His long, heavy cock sprang free from his slacks and he pulled a condom from his pocket, unrolling it expertly up the length of that stiff flesh. He placed one knee on the chair and used his hand to guide himself into her willing depths.

“Beg to be fucked.”

Meghan uttered, “Please fuck me, please fuck me, please fuck me,” in a strengthless little voice.

Danny grabbed her hair, yanking her head up and forward, “Open your eyes,” he demanded.

It took effort. Her eyes felt too heavy and she could feel thick heat creeping across her chest and face, the precursor to her orgasm. His arctic eyes were locked onto hers and passion like she had never known slammed her senses. Her body jerked and she sobbed out loud as her pussy opened wider, stretching to meet his thickness. She could feel his heat inside of her own.

“Come now,” Danny instructed her and she did. She was helpless to stop it, her pussy clenched and opened on his pulsing meat, she shuddered and tears fell down her cheeks as she dug her fingers into the chair arms and tried her best to not move and still lift herself higher so he could go deeper.

Danny plunged and thrust inside the moist walls, enjoying the way her eyes had gone to half-mast and she was having to struggle to obey his command to keep them open as much as the feeling of her orgasm.

“Good girl, come on my cock. Let me feel how much you like me fucking you.”

The words made her come harder. Meghan had never been caught up in excitement like the excitement she was feeling and she could not gain any type of control over it. All she knew was that she wanted more, and that she would do whatever it took to have it.

Danny felt his balls moving higher, tightening and he began to drive deeper inside her tight heat. He thought of pulling out, of forcing her to suck his cock while he came in her mouth but he decided to wait for that particular delight. He grunted as his prick twitched and throbbed, his heavy white come spilling into the thin latex sheath.

He leaned against the chair, his breathing slowing as hers did. He waited until the aftershocks of her orgasm had faded away before pulling out of, enjoying the sight of her glistening juices on his deflating cock.

He unchained her and Meghan lay limp in the chair, her pussy pleasantly aching and the afterglow of her orgasm making her feel languid. When the cold steel of the chains hit the floor she began to become aware of what had just happened.

She sat up, crossing her hands over her breasts and crossing her legs in a protective gesture. The pressure made a small tremor course through her pussy and she uncrossed her legs. For a few seconds she went back and forth between crossing and uncrossing, unable to decide which was preferable, being naked or feeling that tremor. Danny watched the struggle with amused eyes.

“Get up and clean that mess up.”

The cold words felt like water splashed across her skin. She stared at him, unsure of what he meant. He reacted by grabbing her by her arm and pulling her from the chair. He hauled her across the room, opening a small door to reveal shelves stocked with cleaning supplies.

“I won’t repeat myself.”

“Are you insane?” Meghan demanded.

The words were met with a steely stare. “I told you that your sole purpose would be to serve me.”

“I am not...”

“Suit yourself.”

Meghan found herself tumbling over his knee. She was balanced there, her head hanging toward the floor and her ass pointed at the ceiling. A hand came down, smacking her cheeks, first one and then the other. The pain was immediate and stinging. She screamed and fought but his hold was unyielding and his hand heavy. Her ass grew hotter with each slap. The punishment ended as abruptly as it had begun, she found herself back on her feet and staring at him with wide eyes while he spoke.

“Now we are going to get this straight right now. If you do not obey, you will be punished, and you will not like it. Now, do as you consented to do. Serve me. Get your ass over there and clean up your mess.”

Shivers wracked Meghan and her pussy became wet all over again. Something about the idea of being spanked, of having been spanked, made her feel excitement that she had not felt since the first time she had crept across a dark room with her senses straining to hear the faint click that would betray an alarm going off.

“Yes sir,” Meghan said and reached for a sponge and cleanser.

~ * ~ * ~

Meghan woke up to a furious banging on her bedroom door. Her first reaction was terror, the time she had spent in jail had not been pleasant, and her second was confusion. Her lower body had an unusual ache and her wrists and ankles felt slightly raw.

“Are you alive?” Jenna, her roommate, yelled through the flimsy door.

“Yes!” Meghan called as she got up and opened the door.

Jenna bounced in, her china blue eyes glowing, “Tell me the truth,” she demanded, “Did you rob somebody again? I mean I’m not going to tell on you, hell you just saved our asses. I was just wondering if you had enough loot left over to buy a decent dinner.”

“Huh?”

Jenna laughed and waved a pink receipt under Meghan’s nose. “You paid our rent and all the late charges. We have three months before we have to worry about that bastard coming after us yelling to pay up or get out. So, did you rob someone?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She really didn’t. She had come home from the office yesterday with her head spinning. She had eaten a meager dinner that had consisted of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a cup of tea and quickly fallen into bed. The whole day had been so surreal, thinking about the way she had begged for her boss to fuck her made it seem even more so. Her expression gave her away by turning a bright red as she remembered the feel of his hard prick inside her.

“You are lying!” Jenna crowed.

Meghan liked Jenna a lot. She was an artist, or claimed to be, who lived on scholarships and whatever money she could earn at any of her odd jobs, odd as in strange. She sold panties online, got her exercise working as a dog walker, and sometimes she drew caricatures or played a lute for the traveling Renaissance Fairs. She was a feisty and eccentric young woman who had not cared at all that Meghan had less money than her share of the rent in the bank, that she was a convicted criminal or that she was from an old money family. What she had cared about was that Meghan had had no other place to go. How could Meghan not like her? At that moment, however, she really wished Jenna would just go away and let her go back to bed.

Before she could tell Jenna she had not paid the rent the ringtone that she had assigned to Danny’s number rang out. Instantly her nipples hardened and her belly tightened. She turned away from Jenna and grabbed the phone.

“Hello,” she said in what she hoped was a neutral tone.

Danny’s rich and deep voice spoke, “I need you to accompany me to a formal affair this evening. I am assuming that you no longer have a wardrobe that would allow you to dress appropriately for the occasion so I will be outside at five to take you to buy something suitable, be dressed and ready to go, we will go straight to the party afterwards.”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that.” She was not at all comfortable with it in fact.

“This is not a loan, nor is it a request. I require you at my side this evening and expect you to be dressed well. If that means providing you with a wardrobe so be it.”

“I’m not comfortable with that. Do you know how my rent got paid by any chance?”

“I paid it.” Danny said crisply. “I was not comfortable worrying about how I would get in touch with you if you were homeless.”

Embarrassment flooded her being. ”I do have a job. I assume this will be coming out of my pay.”

“Oh, you will pay for it,” Danny said and the line clicked dead.

“I have to go to work at four.” Meghan said to Jenna’s avidly curious face.

Jenna gave her a careful once-over, “You look awfully happy for someone who has to go to work on a Saturday. So your boss paid our rent? Wow, how can I get a job like that?”

Meghan didn’t reply; she was busy thinking of all the things she needed to do in order to be ready: her nails needed a manicuring and her eyebrows could use a little extra attention. Ruefully she thought of all the days she had spent in salons and spas but then she brushed that off. Danny wanted to take her to a party, going out in itself was a gift; things had been very bleak for her the past year.

“So I guess dinner is out of the question. But what the hell, since I can pay you back at some to-be-determined- date how about I order us the world’s sloppiest pizza?” Jenna offered with a gamine grin.

Meghan’s belly rumbled and she laughed at the noise, “I guess pizza it is.”

~ * ~ * ~

The sunlight beamed down on the slick black limousine as it pulled to the curb. Meghan found herself staring at it, wondering how she had ever taken riding in such a marvelous thing for granted. Danny’s chauffer popped out of the front and helped her into the car, instantly she was surrounded by the scent of leather and the sensation of being wrapped into a luxurious cocoon.

“Sit there,” Danny said, his finger pointing to the seat across from the one on which he sat.

Meghan took the seat and tried not to stare at him, he looked almost devilishly good in a black silk shirt under an obviously expensive and tailored jacket. His black slacks and highly polished shoes both spoke of money well spent. His cologne was intoxicating and she had to fight not to lean forward to try to inhale it into herself.

“I trust you slept well.”

She found herself unable to meet his eyes so she kept looking at his long and almost artistically elegant fingers. Then it hit her that those fingers had been inside of her and she yanked her gaze away, staring out the darkly tinted window at the crowded streets instead.

“Do you like the car?”

“I had forgotten how nice it is not to have to walk or take the bus.’

“I used to like the bus; it was the subway that I hated.”

“Really? Why?’

Danny had to bite his tongue to keep from telling her that the dark spaces under the earth had made him feel nervous and afraid. He doubted that she would understand it and maybe even ask why. That was not something he wanted to discuss with her or anyone.

Just the idea of having to discuss it made the entire incident rise back up in his mind. It had happened in what had been the first in a long series of foster homes for him. The foster parents had taken him out to a bleak farm whose main product was turnips and there he had been starved and beaten by the parents and the other boys.

One day a fight had seen him up against all five of the other boys, including the farmer’s son. To defend himself he had kicked the farmer’s son, the biggest and meanest of his tormenters, in the face.  The man who had owned the farm had dragged him to a root cellar and interred him there for three long days and nights. He had finally clawed his way out and run away to a nearby diner where a waitress with brassy hair and a chipped front tooth had given him food then a ride back to the city and the office of his social worker. The waitress told his worker she had heard all sorts of stories about the home he had been living in and the worker had, thankfully, listened.

He had gotten out of the root cellar, but dark places had always made him uncomfortable ever since. Trying to shake off that melancholy that followed that chain of thinking he looked over and caught Meghan looking at him with empathy.

“I don’t like small dark places.” She said calmly then she turned her head back to the world outside of the windows. “That was the worst part of being in jail, the smallness and dimness of the cells.”

“Were you afraid of those places before?”

“I used to have to sit in the closet so that one of my nannies could have smoke breaks. Sometimes she forgot me there and left me until it was time for bed.”

“Why didn’t your parents stop her?”

“They were in France that year. She left before they got home; she stole most of the silver and a lot of my mother’s smaller jewelry. The cook and butler had been given a year off as it was just us there so I was alone for a few days.”

“You must have been afraid.”

“No,” she said in a remote voice, “I was relieved. It was the only time in my life I wasn’t afraid.”

The car slid to a stop along a curb, halting the conversation. Meghan had fallen silent anyway, wondering why she had shared such personal information with Danny. She had never told anyone else about that incident.

Danny helped her out and they went to a small door set into a plain brick wall. He rang the bell and then announced his name. The door buzzed open and they made their way up a cramped set of stairs to a landing. There sat another door, when that one buzzed open they walked into a lavishness that would have seemed impossible to anyone who was unaware of what the shop really was, the private boutique that was stocked with some of the most expensive and extravagant clothing on the planet.

Thick carpet ran underfoot, small private sitting areas were discreetly hidden behind screens and Danny and Meghan were ushered into one by a tall leggy blonde whose face had been in a few magazines, hiring struggling models was but one of the boutique’s marketing strategies.

The chairs grouped around a small table were all of the softest leather, they sank into them and immediately a gorgeous man with hair that had been foiled and highlighted to perfection appeared, holding a bottle of wine and two glasses. At Danny’s nod the bottle was uncorked and the glasses half-filled.

Quiet music and the subdued lighting helped to create the sense that they were sitting in a calm oasis and the hours passed in a rush of decadent fabrics sliding across her skin, the feeling of Danny’s eyes resting against her nudity when she was asked to strip in order to have her body measured.

The boutique sent them a small dinner while clothing that would suit Meghan’s coloring and size were selected. The leggy blond came back holding three dresses over her slender arms that she declared fit for the night’s occasion. Danny examined them critically before asking her to show one.

The gown was a gorgeous confection of scarlet silk and chiffon. Its bodice was tight and the skirt had a long slit up one side, just looking at it made Meghan feel sexy and somewhat wicked.

Danny bought that gown and then several other dresses for the office. He also asked for a large selection of lingerie and then shoes. Meghan was a little confused by his lingerie choices: beautiful open cup corsets, stockings with ribbons and bows or with long black back seams, garters and several lace and silk robes but absolutely not one pair of underwear. The cost of the items was staggering and she was almost breathless at the amount of money he was spending.

“I will settle my bill momentarily,” he said to the blonde, who gave him a knowing smile and asked, “Would you like the use of the dressing rooms?”

“Yes.”

Danny helped Meghan to her feet and she followed him silently to the small room that sat in a plant filled nook. The door closed firmly behind them and Meghan could feel desire rising as Danny said, “Put the black stockings and the matching garter belt on, then the red robe, you can wear the dress when we get to the party. I want your hair up for the evening as well.”

Dressing while he watched was incredibly erotic. She took her time, sliding the stockings up her long legs gracefully. Her skin tingled as his fingers caressed the flesh of her back before he ruthlessly tightened the corset, lifting her breasts even higher and whittling her waist. He demanded the red stilettos with the thin straps that crisscrossed her ankles and she lost her breath when he knelt down and pulled a pair of tiny gold locks from his jacket pocket. His fingers slid along her instep as he snapped the locks closed. They hung heavy against the arch of her feet and the weight made her shiver with some emotion she could not name.

Even more exciting was the ardor in his eyes when he stood up and looked at her. She could see her reflection in the large glass; she looked like a wanton siren and she was not sure how that had happened, or if she cared. She tried to keep her eyes down as he ran his fingers across her bare nipples but the throaty chuckle that came from his mouth told her he knew that his touch was turning her on.

They exited the dressing room and made their way to the small and incredibly discreet office of the woman who owned the boutique, she handed Danny a black leather envelope and asked if his billing information was all the same.

“Of course,” he replied.

“I hope you enjoy your purchase.” Her eyes went to Meghan as she spoke and the meaning behind her words was far too clear. Meghan went rigid with anger but before he could reply Danny had her up and moving away and then out the door and down the stairs.

It had grown dark outside and she paused on the sidewalk, taking a long and steadying breath. Danny’s hand pressed into her lower back, urging her on and she let herself be placed back in the limo.

Once inside Danny said, “I want you to take that robe off, lie down and spread your legs, pull them back and up when you do.”

Meghan gaped at him. “What?”

“I won’t say it again.”

Being made to strip was just as exciting and terrifying as it had been in his office. Cool air ran over the parts of her body that were exposed, she could feel it against the wetness between her thighs and she shuddered in wicked pleasure as she laid back on the seat, parting her legs and bringing them toward her chest as she had been instructed.

Danny smiled as the pink glimmer of her pussy was revealed to him. He could see, even in the dimness, drops of pearly white fluid gathering around the wet slit. His cock grew harder as she unconsciously licked her lips, her eyes narrowing with passion.

He reached into a compartment, pulling out a long vibrator whose end was a heavy round bulb. He put a condom over the rounded end and then he pulled a small bottle of lube out as well.

Meghan gasped as his slick fingers slid into her without any warm up or warning. He thrust against her walls and her hips bucked wildly and involuntarily. Danny withdrew his dripping fingers and her desire spiraled out of control as he stuck those fingers into his mouth and sucked on them slowly and with obvious relish.

Danny gave her a few seconds then his hand came down, slapping her pussy gently. She shrieked in surprise then pain. The pain was brief, however, the pleasure endured. His hand left behind a heated and stinging sensation, her clit jutted outward toward that hand. Danny slapped her pussy again and she whimpered while juices, oddly chilly, slid down her ass crack and pooled onto the seat below her.

There was low purring sound and Meghan moaned in total surrender as the vibrator touched her swollen clit. The friction was intense, incredible and her ass muscles clenched as she raised herself up, her mouth opening in a soundless plea.

The car rolled through the night and she could see colorful lights streaking past overhead, reminding her of stars.

“Please,” she begged, “Please will you fuck me?”

The words made her feel shame but the weighted locks swinging against her ankles made her feel safe and secure in a way that she never had. Her hands clawed at the seat, her feet kicked as she tried to hold off the orgasm that was rolling through her.

The vibrator was removed and she sobbed, her fingers going to her clit. His hands yanked those fingers away before she could do anything more than touch that hard bud at the top of her slippery mound.

Danny slid his cock free of his slacks and said, “get on the floor.’

She managed it. The corset made it difficult and the area was cramped but she found a way to settle herself between his splayed open legs. He sheathed his prick in a thin latex condom and then he held her by the back of her neck.

“Suck my cock,” he ordered and she did. Her mouth opened wide and she took him in, working her head down the shaft while her tongue swirled and rubbed against the heavy veins that ran across it. She worked her tongue against the small ridge that separated the helmet from the shaft while her hand pumped the heavy weight up and down in time with her mouth’s movements. She felt a sense of utter triumph when Danny let out a short hard gasp and his hips jerked up at her face.

She moved lower, taking his heavy balls into her mouth, sucking them and licking. His sooty pubic hair tickled her nose and she waited until she felt his balls tightening to move back to the throbbing hardness of his prick. Smears of pre-come marked the inside of the condom and she wished she could taste it but she contented herself with sucking even harder in order to apply greater pressure. The smell of his maleness was causing her pussy to twitch and leak fluids, her nipples were hard and taut and she worked harder, determined to make him come.

That was not to be, however. Danny grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head off of his cock. “Get back on that seat,” he growled.

She complied, lying down in the position he had commanded her to assume earlier. Danny positioned himself between her slender thighs then guided his hardness inside her snug and oiled walls. “Yes!” she cried as he reached down, tugging at her nipples with unrelenting fingers.

The vibrator came back and the dual sensations were too much for her. "Fuck my cock," Danny said through gritted teeth, “be a good girl and fuck my cock. I am allowing you to have it, now show me why you are worth it.’

Meghan slammed her ass higher, greedily taking every inch of him inside herself, the vibrator made her clit ache and her pussy clamped down tighter on his hot prick, making her cry out in a pleasure so powerful that she could not even form words. Tears spilled down her cheeks and she twisted her head from side to side as her orgasm drew nearer.

“I own you.” Danny said hoarsely. “I own every inch of you. This is my body to use whenever I want to. I own your pussy, your mouth and your ass if that is what I want. I own you; all of you and you will serve me for as long as it pleases me. Say it, tell me who owns you.”

“You own me!” Meghan screamed. “Please! I want to come!”

“Then you better ask. You have to ask for that, you cannot just want it.”

Please may I come?” Meghan panted,” Please may I come on your cock sir?’

“Good girl,” Danny cooed and then he slammed deeper into her while he pushed the vibrator closer to her sopping wet hole. The sensation of her pussy clenching and unclenching on his cock hurtled him toward his own orgasm and he came with his cock buried deep inside her juddering slit.

He waited until she began to come down from the wave of pleasure and then he withdrew his cock. Maneuvering up to her face he jammed his cock between her parted lips with the words, “You made a big mess on my cock. Now you clean it up.”

Shame and shock went to war inside Meghan. The taste of her own pussy both thrilled and disgusted her. The sugary salty stickiness dripped down her throat and clung to her teeth, his cock was not flaccid yet and he tilted her head so that she gagged slightly as he drove it deeper into her face.

“If you keep it hard it will be going back in your pussy,” Danny said and shame evaporated as she began to suck harder. Danny watched her head bob with both amusement and pleasure. He was proud of her; she was rapidly turning into the woman he had always wanted. He wondered if she would remain that loyal and obedient if she knew what it was he had in mind for her family. That thought erased his pleasure and he felt himself going soft in her mouth.

He removed himself and took off the condom. Meghan watched him with huge eyes and he knew he should reassure her that she had done well so he wrapped her in his arms, stroking her back while he murmured good girl into her ears. He could feel the way her heartbeat accelerated as she heard the words. He knew she had had precious little praise in her life and he could see how much that small bit of it meant to her.

Meghan snuggled in deeper, enjoying the feeling of his heat through the silk of his shirt. His heartbeat was very steady and reassuring; she closed her eyes, reveling in his scent and the smell of sex that surrounded them.

The car stopped and he hit the button. ”Give us ten minutes please.”

“Yes sir,” was the reply.

Giggles rose up in Meghan’s chest as Danny tossed her a handkerchief soaked in mineral water and ordered her to clean herself up. She wiped the stickiness from between her legs, wincing at the soreness there, and then he helped her into the scarlet gown.

When the door opened the air felt cool and bracing, the lanterns strung along poles that outlined the long and curved driveway made her blink and for one second she felt a dizzying sense of déjà vu.

“This is my house,” she whispered to Danny.

“No, this is your parent’s house.”

His hand was hard, it clamped down on her upper arm and she found herself moving toward the front door. Her heart beat in trepidation and anger, her face felt like it had grown too tight for the bones beneath it.

“I can’t go in there!” she hissed.

“Yes, you can.”

She staggered up the long steps, her heels clattering on the marble and then Danny was announcing his name to a butler with an impassive face. He was not one she had ever seen before and he apparently had never seen her either because he did not stop her.

They followed the sounds of noise and laughter to a brightly lit room where glittering lights blazed down on people in expensive gowns and suits. Discreet catering staff mingled with trays of canapés and tall flutes of champagne, Danny told her to take a glass but not to eat anything.

“Do you think this is Hades and we will be stuck here forever?” She asked a trifle nastily.

Danny’s lips quirked in a grin he hastily hid. “I like your spirit. But I do not want to see you get sick.”

“Why would I do that?”

“We are about to talk to your parents.”

Horror froze her feet but he pulled her forward. Her breath escaped her in a small moan and her mouth was suddenly arid. Her father appeared and she had to blink, his red hair, a much more brassy shade then her own, had been weaved through with gray in the year since she had seen him. His jowls had sagged even further and the signs of dissolution were even more marked. Her mother, on the other hand, had not one line on the porcelain skin of her neck and face. Her blonde hair, artfully arranged, showed the glossy maintenance that only the most expensive salons could impart and her gown showed a figure that was still lean and stunning. Meghan knew her own thinness was due to the near starvation she endured, her mother’s was due to the surgeon’s skill and to two hours that were spent in the gym every single day.

Gregory stood to one side of his parents; the wide toothy smile that had gotten him through his life still in place but Meghan knew just how often he had practiced that smile, and just how false it was. He had loved to beat her when they were kids, kicking her and hitting her with his fists when she was sick and he had to stay indoors rather than go out on the sailboat with their parents. She had told him once that they had left him, not because they were afraid he was sick too, but because they didn’t want him around anymore than they wanted her. He had broken a rib that day and told their parents that she had done it falling out of a tree. She had been grounded for the entire school year.

She felt the same helpless fear she always felt around the trio but Danny’s fingers stroked along her arm and he whispered, “I love the way you look tonight. I might have to have someone paint you,” and fear disappeared, replaced by a hot and unquenchable lust.

“Meghan?” Gloria Lowry’s face registered the same displeasure at the sight of her daughter that it always had, “What are you doing here?”

“Maybe she has come to rob us.” Gregory joked.

All across the room heads turned and voices were dropped to whispers. Meghan felt her face flaming red.

“Thieves do seem to be bred, don’t they?” Danny asked casually. “Perhaps that would explain why it is that you,” he addressed that to Tom, her father, “looted her inheritance and then claimed to have used it to pay restitution.”

“I beg your pardon!” Gregory exclaimed. “How dare you come in here and accuse my father of wrongdoing!”

“I have no issue accusing him of that because it is true. I checked into it, not one cent has been paid in restitution and yet her trust was broken nearly six months ago. I am sure that some of these people here have been told that as soon as your lawyers manage to open your wayward daughter’s trust they will be paid back for all of their missing items. Which, by the way, were never sold by Meghan and I can prove that as I bought some of the items and have the name of the man who sold them, at your behest.”

Meghan stared up at him. She had kept every single thing she had ever stolen, and had told her father where she had hidden them. She had been confused by the legal jargon and terribly frightened. She had honestly believed that once she had given everything back it was going to be okay. She had had no idea that she had even had a trust fund, she could not fathom what Danny was saying but the effect of his words was obvious on her family.

Her father had gone pale and her mother had stepped back, her eyes darting through the crowd that was gathered there in her home. “Get out of my house!” she said in a hard whisper, ‘And take that little tramp with you!”

“I am going,” Danny said softly, “But know this; I am going to bring you down. I am going to make sure that you know exactly what it is like to be out on the street and broke. I am going to make sure it is your turn to suffer.”

“She is not worth it,” Gloria snarled, her teeth rising up to reveal her beautiful little white teeth.

“Who says I am doing it for her?” Danny asked cruelly. “I have all of your assets and shareholders in my pocket. I have enough evidence to have you convicted on several crimes, not the least of which is stealing your daughter’s money, money left to her by her grandmother. Trust me, I am going to enjoy making you suffer.”

Meghan could not breathe. Tears stood out in her eyes and she managed to whisper, “You took my money?” before she was being propelled back down the hall and into the cool night air.

Danny put her in the limo and gave his driver the order to drive away before he spoke to her.

“You belong to me. Do you understand? You belong to me. That means you will be loyal, you will obey and you will serve. In return I will protect you. I keep what is mine, and I keep it safe. You are safe with me.”

Tears soaked her face and she looked out the window at the shrubbery that marked the boundary of the property that she had grown up on, for some reason those well clipped hedges made her think of the fence that had surrounded the jail.

“I have something for you.”

Meghan blinked at the solid silver cuffs that Danny dangled in front of her face, “Will you take these? Will you agree to be mine?”

“Yes,” she whispered and held out her slender arms.

The right cuff locked down, then the left. There was no chain between the two; to a casual observer the twin cuffs would have looked like a very lovely set of bracelets, but for the tiny little locks that hung on the underside of her wrists.

It was strange but she had the unassailable feeling that he had somehow managed to free her by taking her prisoner.

~ * ~ * ~

Danny watched the night sliding past the windows but his thoughts were far away. He had known that Meghan’s parents had not cared about her, and that her burglaries had provided them with an easy way to excise her from their lives so that they could legally take the trust set up for her. The trust had been ironclad; it could only be opened if Meghan herself caused a financial burden of catastrophic proportions. Her grandmother had seemed determined to protect her, though why she had felt that need was still something of a mystery to him.

He had studied the Lowry’s ever since he had been a kid. He knew everything about them. Just reading through her files had given him a strong sense of kinship with Meghan and knowing her personally had made him feel that bond again. He had been unloved and disregarded as well, and while he knew she had suffered in that manner he had not expected the almost palpable amount of hatred her family held for her. He had not known that their resentment towards her was so visible.

I should have known and I never should have taken her there, he castigated himself as he stared at Meghan’s ashen face. The silver tracks of her tears hurt his heart and he had to stop himself from reaching out a hand to comfort her. He knew from hard experience that the things that hurt people the most were the ones they were the least likely to want to talk about, or to be comforted over.

He decided to speak. The silver cuffs on her wrists had soothed her but she was withdrawing and he wanted to bring her back.

“Your family, they dislike you because, quite frankly, you control the sum total of their fortune. Or rather, you did. When you reached twenty-one the trust was supposed to revert to you. The business was also yours, and the truth is they stole it out from under you.”

“You must be mistaken.” Meghan whispered. “My father owns the company; it was left to him by his mother.”

“Your father had a brother, you had an uncle. No one ever discussed him, I take it? Regardless, he was the apple of your grandmother’s eye. He was also a bit of a hell raiser and one hell of a businessman. Before he was twenty-two he had made three million dollars for the company. He opened up a whole new division; he brought jobs to this city, and gave a lot of people hope. Then he died in a car crash and your father inherited.”

“I heard stories of my uncle,” Meghan said softly. “My grandmother used to come visit me and tell me stories about him. I was only five or so when she died so I don’t remember much about her but I remember that she always fed me ginger cookies and root beer and told me stories about Uncle Michael. I thought she made him up, truly. She made him sound like a superhero.”

“He was a good guy.”

“How do you know?”

“He gave me a glove at a company softball game.”

“You knew my uncle?’

“Yes, my parents worked for the company then.”

Meghan was not sure what to say to that. “So what does my uncle have to do with my parents and me?”

“Your grandmother didn’t like your father; she thought he was a fool and that he would run the family business into the ground. Incidentally she was correct on both counts. Add to that the fact that your mother was not her choice as a daughter-in-law and what you come up with is a woman who decided to will everything to you.”

“But why me? Why not Gregory?”

That was a question he had asked himself quite often, and to no avail. He had no idea why her grandmother had chosen her over her grandson but she had. Before he could say that Meghan spoke again, “Do you think Gregory knew about the money?”

“He was unkind to you, wasn’t he?”

She didn’t answer, she didn’t have to. Danny read the answer in her downcast eyes and the teeth that bit down on her bottom lip. She had pride, and that filled him with admiration and pleasure in his choice, but he also wished she had trust enough to tell him.

Trust given too lightly or taken by force was never really trust and she had come a long way, she wore his cuffs and if he had his way she would wear an object that said, more than any other, that she was his and that he owned her completely, that she trusted him with everything. He decided to be content with knowing that Gregory had hurt her and even as he patted her knee in a roughly affectionate gesture he added one more reason to his long list of them to seek revenge on the Lowry family.

But she’s a Lowry, he told himself. That halted his thoughts for a moment. He wondered just how far he could go in that revenge before some vestige of loyalty to those who had raised her reared its head, if it did at all.

Meghan was unaware of Danny’s line of thinking. She was too exhausted to even attempt to comprehend it all, it was mind-boggling. She was the person who held the purse strings of her family’s fortune? That explained a lot of why they had treated her so horribly, they had to have resented being cut out of the will. Another thought occurred to her, “What did you mean when you said my father ran the company into the ground?”

“It’s almost bankrupt. Your parents, and your brother, have lavish spending habits. While your father has good business sense he also has a taste for the most extreme and the best of everything. When the company ran into some financial difficulties instead of curbing the personal spending he bought a new yacht and laid off three hundred employees, he shut down an entire division.”

“How do you know that?”

“My family was among those laid off. The official statement said that the division was being closed due to its not being as profitable as it could be and the fact that labor was cheaper overseas. Two days after that the newspaper’s society section showed a picture of your parents christening the new yacht.”

“I’m sorry your parents lost their jobs.”

The sincerity in her voice did nothing to quell the ever-present sting of their deaths. His father had killed himself in utter despair after the mortgage company had finally repossessed their home and his mother had turned to dancing in a tiny strip club on the seediest section of town just to try to keep them in a place to live. One night she had decided to go outside of the club for a private party, one of the other girls she had hung out with had gone as well. They had both been killed. The police report said that the two women had gotten caught in a dope deal gone wrong. His mother had fought the attackers; she had been beaten severely but had managed to fight them enough to run. She had almost made it out of the house too, but had been caught in the blind alley and the five bullets in her back had ended her life. The cops had found his photograph in her wallet alongside her driver’s license. The men who killed her had taken her money.

Looking at Meghan he wondered if revenge for what his parents had suffered was the only reason he was attracted to her but it only took one look at her green eyes and curling red hair to know that was not the case. She was not just beautiful; she was everything he had wanted. He did not believe they had met by chance, he did not believe in chance, what he believed in was making one’s own Fate. And she was just that, his destined lover.

“We are not going to my apartment?”

“No, you don’t need to be alone tonight.”

What he didn’t say was that he wanted her close to him - that he wanted her to sleep next to him. Her slim shoulders drooped with exhaustion and there were dark circles under her eyes from stress. That made him even angrier at her family but he pushed that anger aside.

“It’s too bad the past is never as simple as you think,” Meghan said.

That startled Danny so much that all he could do was agree.

~ * ~ * ~

The sun slipped its lemony yellow fingers through the narrow opening between the expensive drapes and Meghan rolled over, watching the pearly gray gloom of the room lift and turn rosy then golden. She loved the peace of early mornings, loved the feeling of being alone in a waking world.

Danny was still asleep and she rolled over, her eyes examining the high planes of his cheekbones, the sharp line of his jaw. In sleep his mouth lost the sensual sneer it typically wore and he looked more innocent but just as handsome.

His eyes opened and she tried to withdraw but his hand gripped her wrist, “In the kitchen you will find a book, the cover reads Household Manual. I had it made a few years back and so far nobody has been here to use it. I have a cook and a maid. They are both aware of my predilections and know what it is I have been looking for.

“That book is to be your guide from here on out. You can start by making my coffee. As today is Sunday it is a good day to move all of your belongings over here.”

“You just paid my rent,” Meghan stuttered.

“I was not sure if I wanted to keep you then.” Danny said casually. “Besides, if it does not work out you can go back, I will pay your rent there from here on out and if you do leave you will have a stipend until you get back on your feet. That is, unless I manage to recoup your company for you, in which case you will have your own income.”

Words failed her. She sat up, tried to think of something to say and could not. The weight of the cuffs on her wrists made her feel reassured even though she knew she should not be. She had only known him for a matter of days. There was this odd little feeling in her belly, she felt like she was on a long and steep hill and going down it very fast. It was scary and yet exhilarating. She decided that she rather liked that mix of emotions and that she could sort out the rest of it later. She swung her legs off of the bed and looked about for something to put on.

“You won’t be cooking.” Danny said with amusement, “No need to worry about those nasty splatters.”

He gave her ass a firm swat as he spoke and she jumped, and then giggled. She felt a little embarrassed to be walking around naked, especially when she left the bedroom but she forgot that as she took in the rooms that she passed through.

She had been too exhausted the night before to really notice anything and the apartment took her breath away. The city skyline rose all around her when she peeked out of the floor to ceiling windows that took up one entire wall. Bookcases lined other walls and she saw first editions of writers that she loved along the shelves, including some that surprised her.

The carpet was thick and absorbed all sound, the walls held paintings, some expensive and others that appeared to have been bought simply because of the subject matter. By the time she got to the kitchen it was obvious to her that Danny was a man of good taste.

But how had he gained all of his wealth? She knew he had not grown up with it and she found herself curious about his past even as she flipped open the leather-covered book embossed with the words Household manual. For a moment that book nearly made her laugh, it seemed slightly absurd but when she read the first page she understood it was not absurd at all.

There were directions on how to prepare coffee, tea, what drinks were served at what times, when to order flowers, what flowers were preferred in certain rooms, orders on how to handle the staff, meal times and a list of things to wear and not to wear. There was even a section on exercise and hygiene.

Meghan felt resentment at the words written there, but underlying that was a sense of total freedom. That heady sense of being cared for, of being totally safe and secure flooded back in and she set about making his coffee.

Danny got up from the enormous bed and walked to the windows in the bedroom. He put his head to the glass and stared down at the city. As a teenager he had read The Great Gatsby. It had galvanized him. At fourteen he had a set of foster parents who had not cared what he did as long as he did not screw up so badly the cops or the social workers had to get involved. He had been hustling for a small time hood named Vinnie, selling stolen televisions and car stereos to people at local flea markets, a dime operation if there ever was one. Reading the story of a man who had totally remade himself had made him see a bigger picture and he had set out to become someone else entirely, and to gain his revenge.

He had bent his head to the books, working hard to get good grades but he had not been fool enough to think that alone would get him into the places he wanted to go. He had worked any number of hustles out on the streets. He had been the lookout for a group of dealers, he had been the protector of two young prostitutes who had decided to go independent and who were willing to pay a percentage to him rather than hand over their entire earnings to a pimp. Several other girls had joined up, at seventeen he was bringing in close to a thousand dollars a week from that hustle alone. He ran numbers for a guy on the east side of town and worked as a dealer in a high stakes and very hush hush poker game, which is where he had first gotten an up close look at Tom Lowry. He knew that the man had a gambling habit and was often running in the red, he had not told Meghan that and he doubted that he would, he didn’t want to have to explain how he knew that.

He had pulled on every favor owed to him and gotten a few choice references to add to his grades and other accomplishments, which had led to him being accepted at an Ivy League school. Once there he had shed every ounce of street thug from his surface and focused on becoming a businessman.

He was incredibly successful and his companies were run with an iron fist that held his employees fast, and safe. He did not believe in lay-offs or in sacking pension funds. He was personally involved in every detail of his empire, which stretched across the globe and included several ventures. He had come a very long way from being the frightened boy who had walked into a kitchen to find his father slumped over the remains of dinner with a letter of eviction clutched in one cold hand to being Danny Sullivan, business magnate.

Meghan stood in the doorway watching him. She had never seen him fully naked before and she could not help but stare at the heavy muscles in his broad chest, the lean V- shaped muscle that ran from his waist down to his lean thighs and the gloriously molded cheeks of his firm ass. There were scars on his back, long stripes that ran from his shoulder blades to the small of his back. She wanted to go to him, put her mouth on those scars and kiss them away. Instead she spoke softly, “I brought coffee and breakfast.”

The words startled him out of his reverie and he turned to see Meghan holding out the wicker tray. The coffee cups sat beside the silver pot, the creamer was in its place and there were two plates stacked neatly beside two folded napkins and two butter knives. Crisply golden toast sat on one large dish, along with orange slices and two cold hard-boiled eggs. Raspberry jam and real creamery butter sat in tiny dishes to the left of the toast dish. He watched as she sat it down on the small table that he pointed to, admiring the flex of muscle in her ass cheeks and upper thighs as she did so.

The crisp curls that covered the sweetly pink lips of her pussy caught his eyes and he grinned as she fussed with the dishes and the cups. She waited until he sat and handed him his coffee, the handle extended toward him just as he had instructed and he smiled. That gesture was an indicator of just how willing she was to serve, most new submissives forgot or were unwilling to hold the hot bowl of the cup in their palm while waiting for their Master to take it from them.

Meghan put his toast on his plate and buttered it and then added jam. She waited until he nodded his head and then she took her own seat and poured her own coffee and helped herself to a piece of toast with butter.

Danny watched her eat, she licked away the crumbs with the unconscious satisfaction of a kitten and his eyes followed that pink triangle of flesh with amusement and a growing arousal.

“Leave that,” he said as she moved to clear away the tray.

Meghan looked up and the ardor in his eyes was so obvious that she felt an immediate and undeniable reaction to it, it was so sexy, the being wanted, that she could feel herself getting wet.

“Come here,” Danny said.

She went to him; he pushed his chair away from the table and took her by the upper arms, holding her in place while he kissed her hard and deep. She went limp beneath the sweet onslaught of his mouth and tongue. He walked her backwards to the rumpled bed and once there he picked her up and tossed her across it.

Adrenaline pumped through her and giddy laughter poured from her mouth as his knees sank into the soft mattress. He walked himself up between her thighs and pinned her to the bed, his mouth and hands busily exploring her flesh. His teeth and tongue teased her nipples, his fingers stroked between her legs and she surrendered to the ecstasy that followed in the wake of his touch.

Danny reached below the bed, pulling the long lengths of black silk rope up and then he used it to secure her, looping sections of it around the cuffs on her wrist and making small loops around her ankles. The other ends were fastened to the bedframe and Meghan struggled against the bondage just to feel how tight it was, the sensation of it electrified her senses and she whimpered as he pulled a pillow under her hips, raising them higher.

His tongue licked along the edges of her labia and he spread them with one finger, happily noting that her pussy hair was already soaked from her juices. Her clit peeked out at him from its hood and he licked it, once, laughing when she shuddered and yanked at the bonds.

He slid one finger inside her gash, his tongue lashed against the hard button of her clit while his fingers began moving lower towards the puckered seam of her ass. He tickled that tiny opening then he began to apply pressure with just the tip of one finger, coaxing the tight ring of muscle to open. She jerked and shrieked, nobody had ever touched her that way before and she was not sure if she liked it. Danny refused to back off though, he could feel the vibrations in the sensitive skin that ran from her drenched slit to that seam and he took advantage of that obvious desire, skillfully suckling and licking her clit while he pressed harder.

Her ass opened slightly and he sank one finger inside that impossibly tight tunnel. Meghan sobbed and her legs thrashed as the small pain gave way to bliss. Danny pumped his finger in and out and she whimpered, propelling her hips as high as the bonds would allow her to. Her fingernails dug into her own palms and she howled, wanting to be free so that she could hold his head close to that pulsating center of her passion.

“Ask.”

“Please will you fuck me?”

“Please will you fuck me...?” He let the words trail off meaningfully.

“Sir! Will you please fuck me Sir? Oh please...!’

“I am going to fuck you.”  Those words filled her with gleeful lust; the next ones froze her in place. “I’m going to fuck you in this precious little ass.”

Danny moved to the bedside table, he opened a drawer and pulled out a slim dildo and a bottle of lube. He put a generous amount of the slippery substance on the lightweight cock before taking up his previous position again.

Meghan had grown rigid with fear and he murmured at her to relax, his hands stroking her knees and thighs as his lips found her pussy and began to torment her once more. Little by little she did relax and when he felt that softening in her muscles he pressed the dildo against her ass crack and gave a slight push.

She opened for him; he went past the ring of muscle and deep inside her ass. She grunted and then screamed but he kept his tongue firmly on her clit and eventually her moans of protest and pain became groans of pleasure. He waited for her to adjust to the hard length inside of her and when she did she tilted her pelvis, gasping at the rapture that followed that tiny movement. Danny worked his tongue against her pussy, relishing her sweetly salty taste and smell while she bucked her hips against the fist that held the dildo tightly.

He watched it going in and out of her body, seeing her being fucked was turning him on to no end but he wanted her to come before seeking his own orgasm. He wanted to give her something nobody else ever had.

When her pussy began to throb and a thick gush of liquid spilled out he lifted his head, watching her face. He loved the way her eyes rolled back in her head, the way she struggled to keep her eyes open at his command, the red tide that spread up her neck and onto her cheeks.

When her orgasm finally slowed then halted he removed the dildo and walked to the side of the bed, grasping her head firmly in his strong hands.

“You didn’t ask my permission to come. You never come without permission, rule number one when I fuck you. Did I not make that clear?”

Meghan lay there sated and yet she still wanted more. “I’m sorry,” she said softly.

“I’m sorry...”

“I’m sorry Sir. I will always ask for your permission to come.”

“In the meantime you already came. Now what should we do to make sure you never forget again?”

“You could fuck me again and let me make sure I ask.” Meghan could not even believe she had put forth that suggestion and the gleam in his eyes told her she was in trouble for doing so. But was it a good kind of trouble or bad?

It did not take her long to find out. Danny sheathed his prick and grabbed a fistful of her hair. “Let’s see if you making me come with that smart mouth will ensure that you remember your manners from here on out,” he said and shoved his hard prick down her throat.

To her surprise the way her head was positioned made it almost ridiculously easy to deep throat his dick. She lingered along the shaft, stroking the belly with her tongue, eliciting an inhale from him. Her tongue swirled across the tight helmet and then rubbed the indented spot right below it. She nipped adroitly at the head and he hissed in a breath.

“I’m going to come,” Danny ground out.

Looking up at his face, swollen and red, his eyes narrowed to slits, made pride flow through Meghan. She considered gurgling out, ‘Say please’ but decided against it but the spark of mischief that thought had lit in her remained. She took him out of her mouth for one moment and said, ”Why thank you Sir,” and Danny howled laughter even as his hardness began to throb and pulse inside the channel of her throat.

He went to the bathroom to clean himself and came back bearing a soft, scented cloth that he had dampened with warm water. She lay blissful and still as he cleaned her gently and then unbound her. They cuddled together, her head cradled on his strong chest and their limbs intertwined.

~ * ~ * ~

A few hours later they were both dressed and having lunch at a small café on the east side of town. A filthy young man with blonde dreads under a knitted cap was blowing some of the sweetest jazz Meghan had ever heard and every few moments Danny would look up at some note or another and nod his head.

The man came over to their table and asked, “Hey man, how about a contribution to the cause?”

Danny pulled a twenty out of his pocket and handed it over. The young man’s eyes gleamed with blue fire and he yelled, “Hey all right! Thanks man! That is so fucking awesome!” before he dashed down the avenue and out of sight.

“Would you like to see the museum?” Danny asked. “There is a great new exhibit there this week.”

“I would love to!” Meghan answered cheerfully. “That is what I missed the most, having the money to go to museums. I wish, oh how I wish that they were all free. I understand they have huge operating costs but think of all the people who never get to see the things inside simply for lack of money.”

“I know exactly how that feels,” Danny said. “Shall we walk? It’s just a few blocks.”

“Walking sounds good to me.”

Danny held out his arm and she took it, her fingers settling in the crook of his elbow. It occurred to her how unusually old fashioned his manners were. He opened every door for her, he insisted on walking on the outside of every hallway and sidewalk, he put his hand on the small of her back to guide her into a room. A smile creased her face as they walked through the mild air.

The street was small and tucked into a quiet neighborhood, the grinding traffic of the city had dulled to a faraway roar and neither of them paid any attention to the low black car cruising behind them.

Meghan heard an engine slow down and a car door open but she thought nothing of it. Neither did Danny. One minute they were discussing their favorite painters; the next two men wearing ski masks came running up behind them, it was their footsteps that alerted Danny.

He turned already prepared to fight and his fist sent one man crashing to the ground but a third jumped from the car. Meghan was knocked sideways over the wrought iron banister of a stoop. Her palms and knees collided with hard concrete and she screamed in pain. There was a short and serious scuffle going on between Danny and the three men and she got to her feet and dashed in.

Her fists connected with the back of one man’s head, he shook her off and sent her back down onto the ground. Danny punched another one, sending bright scarlet blood squirting from his nose. The sounds of the scuffle caused a window above to open and she yelled, “Call the police!” before charging back in.

She was knocked down a third time and that time her head connected with a gray concrete stair. Dark spots exploded in her vision and she put a shaking hand up to the wet trickle of blood oozing down her forehead. Danny was still fighting but he was one against three and he was being dragged away slowly but surely.

Meghan stared in horror as he was shoved into the car and the door slammed shut. The engine revved and roared and the tires squealed, leaving black streaks on the pavement. As the car passed her she saw one of the men yank the mask off of his face and she let out a tiny shrill sound that was half disbelief, half misery.

~ * ~ * ~

The cops had taken her statement and she sat, alone and in a huddle, on the same stoop that had almost knocked her out. The ambulance drivers wanted her to go to the hospital but she refused. While she had told the cops almost everything she had not told them all of it, she knew who one of the men who had abducted Danny was.

He was Gerry Moore; a shadow of a man known to do her father’s bidding.

~ * ~ * ~

Night had fallen and she stood in the shadows that gathered around her family’s summer home. The light burning in one of the lower windows cast a square of golden light on the well-tended lawn and she skirted it stealthily before heading for a small but sturdy drainpipe against the easterly facing wall.

The alarm would go off if she so much as touched the wall but the window above her was open, it had a broken latch that had yet to be repaired, a fact she knew because she had been the one to break it and she had never told anyone, she had been too afraid she would get yelled at.

“Hi Daddy,” she muttered as she reached for the drainpipe, “It’s the prodigal daughter. And I have come for my man.”

She put one hand over the other and began the climb.

~ * ~ * ~

The window loomed above her head and Meghan pulled herself up with one last effort. She put her fingers on the frame and pushed lightly, hoping that nobody had discovered the broken latch.

To her immense relief the window swung open soundlessly and she clambered inside. Her feet hit the thick carpeting and she stood there, adrenaline pumping through her veins and a slight sheen of sweat coating her body. Her breath was a little too fast and it hit her that as serious as what she was doing was, she was actually having fun.

She let her eyes adjust to the gloom. There was a faint gleam of light coming from one direction, it was boxy in shape and so she knew that the door lay that way, and that the hallway had been left lit. That might pose a problem, she admitted to herself.

She knew the house fairly well but the truth was she had been left at the house in the city more than she had been brought to the waterfront house in which she stood. She knew, thanks to Gregory locking her in them, that there was an extensive underground cellar system, complete with a wine cellar and a small room that had been used to hold the flotsam and jetsam of their summer lives: old boogie boards and the wicker lawn furniture, the croquet sets and the nets from the tennis courts. She doubted that they would be holding Danny in there; it was too small to even walk in, much less contain a man as large and powerful as he was.

That left the wine cellar and the dank old rooms that were what Gregory gleefully called the horror chamber when they had been kids. After he had locked her in there that summer she had been relieved to be allowed to stay away from the house during the summers. Being alone in the city had not been as difficult for her as her family would have thought it was for her.

The oldest section of the house it contained long shelves that were filled with the literal fruits of her grandmother’s labor. Having weathered a Depression and two husbands her grandmother Ellie was not one to waste money or turn her back on traditions. She had often grown huge gardens filled with fruits and vegetables, canning quite a lot of them as well. She had retired from the city completely in the years before her death and the section of cellar that she had used to store those tightly sealed jars had never been cleaned out. In other families that would have been due to sentiment, in the Lowry’s case the room simply sat there unremarked and mostly forgotten because nothing about their plain beauty held appeal.

Meghan hated the cellar but she knew if she was going to help Danny she had to go down there, it was the only place that they could hope to hide him and keep him hidden. It was not yet the season but there were locals who lived nearby and many of them worked for the people who owned the large waterfront homes, if any of them saw something suspicious at any house they would report it.

The room she stood in had been her bedroom when she had been allowed to spend time at the house. She cast a glance around it, there was nothing of her personality imprinted upon it, the curtains were the same spotless white voile, the floors were gleaming hardwood, and the bed lay under smoothed straight linens. The same bland seascapes dotted the walls and as she passed the armoire she caught sight of a glimmer of lace. Curious she eased the door open and found herself staring at her forgotten confirmation dress. She had been drinking an orange soda, she remembered, and she had gotten a spot on it and her mother had been furious, the dress and the day had both been ruined by that spot. The dress had somehow managed to escape the trash barrel or being given away to charity and as she looked at it Meghan found herself wanting to weep with frustration and sorrow.

“Why did you hate me so much? It couldn’t have just been money,” she whispered and then she softly closed the door as she realized that she was wasting precious time.

The hallway was lined with old-fashioned sconces. Her grandmother had loved them and she had refused to have them removed. Meghan put her back to the wall and clung to the shadows as she neared the landing, her ears straining to hear any noise that would tell her if there were other people in the house. She had seen her father’s jaguar parked in the garage when she had peeked inside, parked cheek and jowl to the low black car. Her nerves were stretched to the breaking point by the time she had cleared the graceful staircase and stood in the low ceilinged kitchen. The door to the cellar was firmly closed but a bottle of brandy stood on the granite countertop with a lipstick-imprinted glass next to it. Meghan knew that color all too well; it was a deep plummy red shot through with gold undertones. It was her mother’s signature color and had been for years, it was made specifically for her.

The wave of anger that crested inside her at the sight of that lipstick shocked her. She had often feared her mother, and there had been many days when she had wished for her approval but she had never felt anger, and she was not sure how to deal with that emotion.

She was still standing there, too caught up in the unexpected feeling to pay attention to her surroundings when she caught the musky spice of her mother’s perfume mingled with fresh cigarette smoke. She whirled around just in time to see Gloria come through the small door that led to the patio.

The surprise on her mother’s face quickly turned to suspicion and uneasy fear, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Where is he?” Meghan hissed.

“Who?”

“Danny.”

“I have no idea.”

“Yes you do. Gerry took him, I was with him when it happened and the car is here. Tell me where they are right now.”

Meghan had a feeling that her mother would not tell her, and what was more she knew from hard experience that nothing said or down on the top floor could be heard in the cellar so she was not really concerned that someone would hear the two of them, she was trying to make up her mind what to do with her.

“Get out of my house.” Gloria said casually and turned her back, reaching for the glass and bottle on the counter.

“Did you use my money to keep living here?”

The words were as lethally sharp as any knife. Gloria actually flinched. “Your money,” she sneered as she reached for the bottle yet again, Meghan saw her hand tremble as she lifted it to pour another finger of the amber colored liquor into the heavy bottomed glass. “You know, that man is just some blue collar opportunist who turned petty thievery into millions.”

“Unlike you and father, who turned millions into nothing with your thievery?”

“I like that caustic tone on you. It makes you sound like you actually have a backbone.”

“I do have a backbone.” The words were quiet but they rang with sincerity.

Gloria’s eyes came to rest on the silver cuffs and her lips moved to form words but before she could the doorknob on the door she had entered through jiggled. Meghan slid to the right and grasped the doorknob for the door that opened the door to the cellar. She took one step into the inky darkness of the staircase and it was from there that she saw Gerry move into the room, his sullen and grim face as large as a moon over the pistol that gleamed dully in his right hand.

“What...” was all Gloria managed to get out before Gerry fired.

Shock was upstaged by terror. Meghan did not wait to see what would happen next, she reached out one shaking hand and shut the door, praying he had not noticed it being open. Instantly she was thrown into blackness so deep her senses were rendered momentarily useless. Her fingers fumbled at the knob, the click that was the lock sliding home made her sag in relief but that was shattered when a hard kick made the door rattle in its frame.

She reached out blindly, scraping her nails across the rough walls until she found the banister. Her feet shuffled as she tried desperately not to lose her balance, the fall alone could kill her and she knew it. The stairs were pitched at a nearly direct angle but worse, the floors were cold and uncovered concrete.

A second kick made her whimper in fear and she felt her knees start to shake. A thin high pitched whine followed by a loud noise that sounded like a hollow thud coupled with light pouring through a hole that had appeared in the door told her Gerry was shooting his way in.

She ran, her feet slipping and her heart racing. She cleared the last stair just as the door caved in under the brutality and allowed him entry.

“I know it’s you!” Gerry yelled. “Come on up here and I won’t have to do anything to you.”

“You killed my mother!” Meghan screamed before she could help herself.

“No, Meghan...” His words dripped with annoyance. 

“I saw you!”

“She wasn’t your mother,” there was a slow chuckle from above her and Meghan ducked into the shelter of a small overhang that had been used to store small bags of fertilizer at one time.  There was another whine and small chips of the plaster and brick from the wall splintered and flew. “Hell, you little bitch.  You’re all grown up now; it’s time you knew. She wasn’t your mother and Tom...well, he isn’t your father.”

Meghan saw Danny just then; he was seated in an old kitchen chair that had been placed in the center of the large central room. His head was hanging and his arms and legs were bound to the chair with thick lengths of hemp rope.  He raised his head and, carefully - steadily, he tipped his head her way, in a quiet attempt to let her know that he was okay.

Another bullet whined off of the cold floor and she saw that if she didn’t get Danny out of harm’s way he would be killed. She smiled at him and his face went stern. “No,” she heard him say and then she was moving across the floor.

Bullets chunked and thudded. She grabbed the chair, with him in it, and half-dragged, half- threw it across the room. They hit the far wall with a solid thunk and Danny wheezed out an injured breath. More bullets shattered the shelves in front of them.

Danny stared up at Meghan. His thoughts were in total disarray and he knew he needed to think but he was completely at a loss at her courage, at her willingness to die for him.

The ropes came undone and Danny staggered to his feet. The blood returned to his limbs in a painful rush and he found himself unable to walk unaided. He had to lean on Meghan’s slight form and they made it into the second part of the cellar just as Gerry tired of trying to kill from the staircase and rushed into the main room.

Meghan slammed the thick wooden door shut, bullets chunked into it and she automatically ducked.

“How many bullets does that bastard have?” Danny asked.

“I don’t know. He shot my mother.” Tears swelled up in her eyes and she leaned her head against his chest, relishing the feel of his solidity and warmth. “He said she wasn’t my mom.”

“I heard him.”

Things were starting to make sense to Danny but he could tell they had yet to click in Meghan’s head. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close as more bullets tore into the door.

Meghan stared at the shelves. The dusty bottles of wine sat in their dusty rows, cradled securely in their little nooks and the floor radiated a chill below her feet. She could not believe Gloria was dead; she did not want to imagine that she was. Her mother had never been especially warm or even kind but she had still been her mother. Or had she been?

The sound of a second set of footsteps put an end to her thoughts. “Dammit Gerry, what the fuck is going on here?” The words were muffled but they could hear them thanks to the holes in the door.

“Your wife was going to tell the cops what we were doing if we didn’t give her a bigger chunk of the payoff,” Gerry replied. “I don’t know about you but I am not willing to share.”

“I guess that doesn’t fucking matter much now, does it? She’s dead! Where the hell is Sullivan?”

“Hiding out in there with your beloved daughter.”

The sarcasm in Gerry’s voice made Meghan flinch. Danny shook his head at her and pulled her toward the small room where her grandmother had stored the food she canned. “Windows,” he said, pointing to a dirty pane that was barely visible on the far wall.

Meghan followed him into the chamber and fear rapidly set in. She felt like a child again, one who had been locked into a small space and left behind. Her heartbeat accelerated and her breath grew quicker. Danny noted her distress and wondered at the cause but his highest priority was getting her out of there and to safety. The fact that she had had to come to his rescue was not lost on him and once more he was astounded by her obvious love for him. And he was grateful for it as well.

The door shuddered open and the two men came in. Gerry headed right; Tom came at them from the left. They rushed through the room, past the jars filled with the cloudy liquid that surrounded apricots, grape jam, pickled watermelon rinds and spiced pears. Tom spotted them heading for the windows and he rushed Danny.

Danny had already turned around. It took him only a second to size up the situation. Tom was unarmed, Gerry still held the gun but the angle he held it at told a story Gerry was unaware of. He was letting it dangle limply and Danny knew he had used all of his bullets. He might use the gun as a bluff but it would be a useless one.

Tom was a scant few inches from Meghan and Danny reacted. He clasped his hands together, pivoting on the balls of his feet in order to use his entire upper body strength to hit the other man. When his hands met Tom’s solar plexus a satisfying whoosh of air ensued and Tom bent double, his face red and his mouth open in a gape of pain and fear.

Gerry raised the gun and Meghan grabbed a jar of pickles from a shelf. Her arm flexed and the jar sailed across the room. It turned end over end and then it hit Gerry with a solid and far from hollow boom in the area right above the spot where his eyebrows met. His eyes rolled upwards and a look of almost comical surprise crossed his face before he crumpled to the ground.

Danny, his hands up in preparation for another shot at Tom saw Gerry go down. He heard the crash of the jar as it hit the hard floor. The vinegary reek of the pickles filled the room and Meghan sneezed before slumping to the floor, the long delayed reaction to the whole surreal situation finally settling in. Tremors wracked her body and tears flew down her ashen cheeks. Danny punched Tom again, savagely, knocking him to the ground where he curled up in a fetal position.

Meghan fought his hands when he tried to comfort her but he persisted, wrapping around her and stroking her hair.

“It’s okay,” he murmured, “we are getting out of here and you never have to come back ever again. These people are not your family, I am. We can start all over.”

“She was never my family,” Tom wheezed and Danny saw the baleful look in the older man’s eyes. “That damn brother of mine got some whore pregnant and if he had lived she,” he nodded at Meghan,” would never have even been thought about. Someone would have paid her mother off and she would have fucking vanished and the inheritance would never have gone to her. But he died and my mother turned him into a fucking saint. We had no choice but to take that little bastard in and raise her, if we didn’t she would have cut me off totally.”

It all clicked together. Meghan remembered her grandmother’s stories of her uncle, the way she would hold her on her lap and tell her of the man who had been so wonderful. She thought of Danny saying he had met her uncle and that he had been a decent guy.

Sirens wailed from the distance and running feet hit the stairs. Gregory appeared in the doorway, still wearing the dark clothes he had worn when he had helped his father and Gerry kidnap Danny.

“The cops!” Gregory yelled before his brain had time to process the entire scene. “Dad? What is going on here?”

The steel cuff on Meghan’s wrist felt as heavy as her heart but she knew, without a doubt, that it was time to pick a side. “You are all going to jail.”

Gregory stared at her and then his face crumpled. Never, in his entire privileged life, had he ever been beaten at anything. He had believed that if they grabbed Sullivan they could make him tell them where he had the information on them that could ruin them. It had never occurred to him that they were committing a crime.

He had come into the kitchen to find his mother bloodied and moaning feebly as she tried to crawl across the floor. His first thought had been that Sullivan had gotten free and shot her but she had told him Gerry had shot her. Everything crashed in and he put his head down and began to weep.

“You fucking little coward!” Tom sneered as he got to his feet, keeping one eye on Danny.

“You’re the one down here on the floor!” Gregory yelled back.

When the cops came into the cellar the scene they happened on was one that they would discuss for a long time. Gerry, who had a goose egg the size of a fist on his forehead, had woken up and was muttering incoherently, Gregory and Tom were arguing heatedly and Danny and Meghan were holding each other tightly, as if they would never let go.

~ * ~ * ~

The bedroom was filled with the smell of lilacs and jasmine. Meghan, fresh from a long soak in the tub, stood against one wall as she had been instructed, her naked body gleaming in the moonlight filtering through the drapes. Her eyes were heavy with desire as she watched Danny finish his preparations. Her skin tingled and her pussy gave a moist throb as he turned to her and beckoned.

“Kneel,” he said as she moved to the spot he had pointed at.

She did, her knees sinking into the luxurious carpeting. The sound of her heartbeat seemed abnormally loud and her mouth felt dry, she licked her lips to compensate.

“This means you are mine. This is more important than a wedding ring, although I may choose to give you that one day as well. A collar shows that you are owned, and that you are loved and wanted. The cuffs are a smaller piece of what the collar represents. This collar, if you accept it, means that we are bound together in ways that go beyond mere love, beyond just being together.”

Meghan watched as he took a small key from his pocket. His face was solemn as he spoke again. “This unlocks the collar I want to give to you. If you choose to keep this key, and you can, it is your choice; you can still wear your cuffs. Your cuffs show you serve me, and you can do that without choosing to acknowledge yourself as a submissive, as someone who wants and needs to belong to someone who will always earn the right to be the dominant person in this relationship.

“However, if you choose to allow me to keep the key, then I will place my collar around your neck. It is all up to you.”

He proffered the key. Meghan watched it draw closer to her face; her eyes traced its every inch from the barrel to the head, noting its shape, its solid form. He took her hand and pressed the key into her palm. “Choose,” he said.

Meghan felt dizzy and butterflies exploded in her stomach. Everything narrowed down to just the two of them and the tiny key that was resting in her hand. She looked up at his face, surveying its planes and angles, imprinting it on her mind.

She could hear the beating of her heart under her ribs; smell the lingering scents of her bath oils. His eyes were fastened on hers, compelling her to choose. He stood there, tall and strong in his black silk shirt and slacks, his shoes gleaming with polish and his ebony hair stuck through with blue highlights, and she knew he was the most incredibly gorgeous man that she had ever seen.

But it was more than that. He was loyal and he protected what was his. He had forced her to a decision and truth about her family and in the weeks following the incident he had stood beside her as the inevitable scandal had erupted. Her parents had kept her crime spree conviction as under wraps as possible to save themselves from public shame but once that news reporters got wind of all that had transpired and that the entire Lowry clan, with the exception of Meghan, were in jail on various charges, there had been no place to hide.

And he had not allowed her to. He had stood right beside her and spoke to the press for her. He had issued what had come down to a challenge to overly eager reporters and they had backed off after that. Her family life was still being talked about in the gossip rags and would for a long time to come as the empire that they had nearly ruined finished the slow topple it had begun and was then set back to rights.

They had discussed all options and it had been decided that many of Lowry’s employees would go to work for Danny’s various companies while financial questions and concerns were answered and settled.

He had been there for her during what had been some very hard and difficult nights and she felt pure joy flowing through her as she handed him the key back.

The metal, warmed by her hand, hit his palm and Danny felt a grin break out across his face. He reached over to the small nightstand where he had laid the collar and he unlocked it. It was a cunningly made circle of gold inlaid with a strip of emeralds, stones that reminded him of her eyes. His breath caught as he clasped it around her neck, fitting its two pieces together and then locking them together with the tiny gold screw and key.

“I take you as my submissive, my responsibility. I will love you, take care of you and protect you. I will never let anyone else cause you harm. You will always have a home here, in my house, and in my heart.”

Tears stained her cheeks as the lock clicked shut. “I will be yours forever, Sir.”

Danny fastened a solid gold leash to her collar and she crawled beside him to the bed, feeling the gentle tug of the leash against the collar on her neck. The weight of the collar was unfamiliar but welcome and when he told her to get into the bed she did, arranging herself against the colorful pillows so that he could see every inch of her.

“I want to see every inch of you.” Danny instructed.

The toys were already on the bed. The dildo sat beside the small tube of lubricant and the vibrator and she oiled her fingers before she flicked them across her nipples. The sensation of touching herself was not new, but having someone watch her while she did it was and for a moment she had to wrestle with a sense of shame and discomfort.

Looking at him she saw approval in his eyes, and when her eyes traveled lower she saw the telltale bulge in his slacks. That hard bulge made her cheeks flare with color and heightened her arousal. She bit her bottom lip as her fingers spread her own labia and she stroked the delicate flesh of her clit. Her ass jerked forward when she slid one questing finger inside of herself. Heat blossomed and a fire followed as she rubbed at her clit again, enjoying it. She pressed harder and rubbed faster, then slowed down, the subtle shift delaying an orgasm that she could feel building.

She wanted it to last; she wanted to show him that she was willing to do whatever he wished. But that was not all, she knew, instinctively, that what he was doing by ordering her to do this was asking her to trust him when she was the most vulnerable, to show him her most secret of places.

She brought her fingers to her mouth. Danny gasped softly as she licked them and suckled at them, her senses exploding as she took in her own juices.

She knew she could not slow it down much longer so she parted her legs farther, drawing them close to her chest. She lubed up the rubber cock and then slid it just between her lips, teasing and playing with it and him even as she played with herself. The head of it slipped inside and she shuddered in bliss, the cock was large and she could feel its weight. She had to rearrange her lower body a bit before she could slide more of it into her slippery tunnel. It bumped along her walls, its ribbed belly making her whimper and gasp. Her nipples pointed at the ceiling as she arched higher and backwards, shame and fear forgotten in the wave of sheer pleasure that had moved over her.

“Take it,” Danny ordered as he undid his slacks and dropped them to the floor. His cock, rigid and pulsing, came into view and he gripped the head of it tightly, squeezing hard as Meghan’s pussy swallowed the dick.

He climbed up on the bed, kneeling between her spread legs. His fingers stroked his prick’s head, drops of pre-come dribbled out and he used them for lubricant, drawing the slick moisture down the shaft and then tightly fisting the belly again. He felt like he was fucking her even though he was not. He began to fall into her rhythm and she noticed it. Her eyes half-closed and color stained her cheeks as his purple cockhead vanished and reappeared. Her fingers worked harder, the juices pouring out of her soaking the bed below her ass cheeks.

“I want you to come. Right now.”

She did not need to be told twice. Come spilled from her, spooling down her thighs. “Thank you! Thank you Sir!” She screamed as she felt her pussy opening and closing on the soaked cock.

“Take it out of your pussy.”

Meghan tossed the dildo aside and Danny thrust into her. There was no pause, no need for words. His mouth came down on hers hard, teeth colliding momentarily in their hunger. He thrust hard and fast, his cock riding along the pleasure-swollen walls of her pussy. She groaned and whimpered his name, her fingers coming up to his back to feel the hard muscles moving under his smooth skin.

Danny realized he had forgotten the condom but he didn’t care. The tight wetness surrounding his cock was the most incredible sensation he had ever felt in his life. Sliding into her was like sliding into well-heated oil and he wanted to feel that for as long as possible.

He tried to remove his mind so he could hold out longer but she locked her ankles around his narrow waist, her feet bumped against the small of his back and she began to make the small mewling noise that meant she was going to come.

“Please Sir,” she pleaded gutturally. “Please can I come on your cock?”

“You may,” he said, “But only if you come right now with me.”

“Oh please,” Meghan muttered as her pussy clenched and contracted.

“Do it,” Danny snarled. “Come with me, come to me my sweet girl, my good girl, come for me. Give me your pussy.”

She came, hard. Her inner thighs literally shook and a low moan turned into a scream as she was brought to orgasm after orgasm. Dimly she felt his cock throbbing inside her, felt his head dropping to her shoulder and his breath on her neck and in her ear but the tides would not let her go until she was spent and limp.

Danny cuddled her close and she put her hands up to his face while he undid the long thin gold leash.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“You are welcome. Now get some sleep. Tomorrow we begin your training.”

Meghan blinked. “Training Sir?”

Danny let a devilish grin light his face. “Oh yes. I have a lot to teach you.”

Meghan laughed and curled closer. She was not sure what the training would consist of but one thing was certain, she was home. And that was all that mattered.

* * *

Read more in the follow up to “Anything For Him – The Final Chapter!”