Chapter Eight
Daniel
It’s Christmas Day, but I’m having a difficult time enjoying the holiday. Ever since my rendezvous with Ashley at the hotel, I’ve had trouble focusing. As I turned from the doorway to the bedroom and left the suite, I had to fight the urge to go back and take her. Take her hard and fast. My body demanded it, but I quelled the urge. I’m the Master. I will not allow myself to be directed by my own desire for her, to feel this way.
Now, two days later, I still feel distracted. Growing up, Christmas used to be one of my favorite times of the year. When I was a child, my mother would go all out with the decorations, engaging her staff to hang Christmas lights, put up the Christmas tree, with boughs of Holly and garlands around the house and all that, but by the time I was eight-years-old, I realized that she wasn’t doing that for me. She was doing it for show, for the parties she threw, the social event more likely an outlet for pent-up frustration and perhaps lingering grief rather than trying to make the holiday enjoyable for me.
I suppose it didn’t really matter.
Even so, I did enjoy the holiday season in the city. The lights, the Yuletide spirit and everything that entails. I spent every Christmas with my mother, more out of an unspoken rule than preference. This year, I’m also spending the day with Karen. The two of them together. I sigh. They seem to enjoy each other’s company, but I don’t really want to spend time with either one of them. Actually, my presence at my mother’s house today is out of my sense of obligation rather than any true desire to bond. As far as my mother is concerned, it’s just another holiday, and that spoils the ambiance for me. Looking around at the decorations in the living room, it all seems rather pointless. Why does she still bother?
Since I arrived early this morning, Karen due to arrive soon, my mother has bedeviled me with questions about the upcoming marriage arrangements, the plans, the details, none of which I know nor care about. Karen is handling most of it. She doesn’t ask my advice or opinion on anything, and I don’t really want her to. I find it all rather tedious. I’m not looking forward to any of it. I don’t allow my reasons for that to rise to the surface. Not today.
We sit in the living room now, she’s sitting in her favorite white-upholstered armchair, so proper, so stiff, her cup of coffee balanced ever so carefully on the saucer resting on her knee.
I sit in the corner of the sofa, one leg crossed over the other, arms outstretched, my cup of coffee untouched on the table in front of me. Magazines fan just so, as if the housekeeper has taken a ruler to make sure that the arrangement of Home, Gracious Living, and Bon Appetit all appear equidistant to each side of the table.
“Did you hear me, Daniel?”
I glance up at her, an eyebrow lifted in question. “Sorry, what did you say?”
She frowns with disapproval. “I asked why you didn’t attend the board meeting two nights ago? There are some important decisions to be made about expanding our reach into South America.”
What can I say? That I was busy that afternoon indoctrinating Ashley into the world of bondage? That I originally planned to make the meeting, but because I’d taken more time with her than I had intended, at lunch and then in the room, I was running late? That I left that room in dire straits, considering that I didn’t allow myself to achieve release, and I had to take matters into my own hand, literally, in the bathroom downstairs in the hotel lobby to seek said relief?
I almost smile. How would Mother respond if I actually admitted to such a thing? She’d probably have a heart attack. I sigh. “I talked to Roger yesterday. We’re having lunch tomorrow to discuss those issues.”
Her frown deepens. “Daniel, you know as well as I do that the board meeting is the appropriate place to discuss such things. It’s to be decided by everyone, not just you.”
I shake my head. I don’t want to argue with her today. “Actually, as the CEO, I have every right to make such decisions on my own.” She begins to protest, but I lift a hand and stop her. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to jump into anything without analyzing the data and consulting with the other board members. But I’ve been busy. I can’t just drop—”
“You’re running an international import-export company, Daniel. Your struggling publishing company is no match for—”
“We’re not struggling,” I say patiently, likely for the hundredth time since I’ve opened the business. “Actually, we’re doing quite well. We have three releases this month, with excellent authors.” I nod, thinking about it. “I’ve signed each of them to multi-book deals. Things are going well.”
She says nothing but lifts her coffee cup to her lips, not glancing my way. I know what she’s doing. It’s that old mantra that I’d grown up with: if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. Usually, she doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind, but perhaps, like me, she doesn’t want to spoil Christmas. As if.
I can’t understand why my mother is incapable of supporting me in my true passions for what I want in my career, and life. True, my position as CEO of the family business is an obligation, but I take it seriously even though my heart is in publishing. She knows that, but she doesn’t care, or at least act like it.
Which brings my thoughts—with a certain amount of resentment—to Karen as I glance at the clock on the mantle of the cold fireplace. She’s late. Again. My mother calls her tardiness “fashionable” but I just find it annoying and rude. I sigh, shift my position on the couch, and glance around the room, neat as always; a place for everything and everything in its place. I grimace. What is with the Disney references? A Freudian desire to revert back to childhood, when things weren’t so complicated?
Or on my sense of duty to my mother, whom I do love, which is the only reason I’ve allowed her to convince me that marrying Karen is a good thing? She doesn’t know about my secret. She doesn’t know about my membership in an underground and very secret society—
a club of sorts, where those with my… proclivities can indulge with others of a like mind without judgment.
I don’t love Karen, I know that. I’m not even particularly attracted to her. She’s beautiful, no doubt, but now that I’ve indulged with Ashley, I have trouble keeping my mind off her. I’ve never indoctrinated a newbie into the world of bondage, but her delectable willingness and enthusiasm during our first encounter, a pre-introduction into that world has gone so very well. My dick espouses interest at the memory—
I hear voices coming from the front of the house. Moments later, Karen sweeps into the room, as she usually does, as if she’s a movie star arriving on the red carpet. No doubt, she’s beautiful, her corn silk waves draping delicately along her shoulders and her slender build by no means absent of voluptuous curves.
Still, as she arrives, much to the delight of my mother, I can’t help but compare Karen to Ashley. Ashley being the opposite of Karen in hair color, height, as well as personality. When talking with Ashley, I feel myself attracted not only to her figure, but her large, warm brown eyes, quite different from Karen’s dark blue eyes that rarely display any signs of emotion. She’s cool, Karen is, and slightly haughty; a trait I normally admire in women, but that sense of aloofness carries over into just about every other aspect of her life.
I stand, as expected of me, forcing a smile toward Karen, who approaches with a smile on her lips as well, wraps her arms around me, and air-kisses each cheek. Still close enough to catch the hint of the aroma coming off her bright red lipstick and the floral perfume she wears, triggering an instant headache. I’ve politely—and repeatedly—asked her not to wear such fragrances, as they tend to trigger migraines, but as usual, Karen Queen does what she wants, when she wants, and however she wants.
“Karen!”
Mother greets her, animated for the first time since I arrived over three hours ago. I watch the two greet one another with true affection. They’re birds of a feather, the only thing separating them in personality being their age. They’re both pretentious, both drama queens, and not only competitive, but jealous in nature. At the moment, they were smiling, head-to-head, murmuring in French, which I never cared nor bothered to learn.
Finally, my mother turns to me with a smile, her hand clasping Karen’s. “Karen just informed me that she’s found the perfect florist to decorate the church for the wedding. Isn’t that wonderful?”
I nod, pretending interest, wishing I were anywhere but here. I want to be back at my desk at the Pen and Quill. Familiar and comfortable territory. Even though it’s Christmas Day, I’d rather spend my day editing than enduring… this.
I return to my place on the sofa and Karen follows, sitting close, reaching for my hand, leaning her head on my shoulder.
“You need to come with me to the florist the day after tomorrow,” she informs me. “You have to help me decide whether we’re going to go with roses or tulips.”
I glance at her. “Tulips in winter?” I don’t meant it to sound condescending, but as usual, Karen takes it that way. She lifts her head from my shoulder, pouting.
“Daniel, don’t be that way,” she says. “You know as well as I do that we’re more than capable of acquiring tulips in wintertime.”
She glances at my mother with a slight shake of her head. She fidgets for several moments, and then with a grin, which I suppose is meant to be seductive, she leans upward and whispers into my ear.
“Come with me upstairs, Daniel. I want to show you something.”
I glance down at her, starting to shake my head. I’m not interested—
“Please, darling?” she purrs, casting a glance and a wink toward my mother. “It’s important.”
“Go ahead, Daniel,” my mother says, sipping her coffee. “Indulge your fiancée… heaven knows you need to be more gracious with your time.”
Before I can reply, Karen grasps my hand and tugs me out of the room and upstairs. She enters my old bedroom, shuts the door, and then pulls her blouse over her head, giggling softly.
“Come on, Daniel, won’t this be fun? Fucking here in your old room while your mother sits below, waiting patiently for us to come back down? And on Christmas Day? Now, that’s the kind of present I want.”
So, I indulge her, without much effort or enthusiasm, but she writhes beneath me, moaning and groaning—
loudly at times—as if to prove to anyone in the household who just might be interested, that we’re doing it in my old bedroom. As if anyone cares. I certainly don’t.