Fear in Her Eyes (Fire & Vice Book 5) Read online

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Addison didn’t run from Daniel that evening, or any other that week. Curiosity, pride and the raging libido he’d stoked within her kept her home. She decided to go through the motions of her usual routine and see what would happen. Oddly, she never questioned if he showed up, only when. There was nothing about Daniel that seemed unreliable. Unstable, yes. Unreliable, no.

  She was somewhat distracted at work each day as she looked forward to getting home, which luckily went unnoticed since she was largely off the hook on instrumentals. On Wednesday, she was teamed up with Maestro and Erica on orchestra seating for the upcoming performance in six weeks time while each section worked on their pieces.

  “Of course my First Chair, along with the rest of the cellos and violins must be left stage, as always. Mark it down, Erica,” Maestro announced.

  Addison nodded absently.

  “But Maestro, won’t she sound better centre stage? Isn’t that where the star of the show should be seated?” Erica complained on Addison’s behalf.

  Addison rolled her eyes and saved her breath on an explanation about the intricacies of sound and harmony that would be lost on Erica. For about the millionth time she wondered how Erica got her job. She excused herself for a moment and made her way downstage toward the violins to sit next to Mikhail. She leaned her head on his shoulder and pouted. He obliged her by setting his instrument down to pat her head.

  “Erica thinks I should sit centre stage for the performance,” Addison told him with a heavy sigh.

  He chuckled and said in his thick accent, “Erica also thinks the flutists should wear spandex and prance down the aisle. Maestro Charles will sort it out like he always does.”

  She nodded.

  “Do you want to play?”

  Addison nodded and reached to take his instrument. She’d learned to play several instruments at a young age, though her heart had ultimately settled on the cello. The violin felt small and foreign in her hands. She stood with it, finding it less awkward for her to play the violin standing than sitting. She placed it beneath her chin and called up the sheet music in her head. She would have to play the cello part because she hadn’t memorized the violin part, but she was only goofing around anyway.

  Tapping her foot to catch a rhythm she launched into the classical chorus with gusto, playing with heart and talent if not her usual perfection. The other instruments fell silent as the musicians enjoyed the rare treat of Addison Sterling playing a violin. Gradually, she realized she had an audience and she graciously played for them, launching into the classic rock song Paint It Black. They laughed and clapped along. She finished on a high note and laughingly handed Mikhail back his instrument.

  “Back to work!” she announced. “Before I get fired for inciting a revolution.”

  Mikhail took his violin and bow lovingly from her hands and placed it in the case. “Come outside with me while I have cigarette, yes?”

  “Of course,” she agreed and allowed him to escort her backstage, down the steps and out the back door.

  They chatted and laughed for a few minutes while Mikhail smoked and described a future visit from his mother-in-law. Addison laughed sympathetically and offered her assistance. He gratefully accepted. His wife loved Addison and was always happier when she came over for meals. Mikhail insisted Addison would be able to charm his austere mama-in-law, as she did everyone else. She promised to at least try.

  He put out his cigarette and unlocked the back door to let them both in, holding it open for Addison. She thought about having to deal with Erica and her own distracted thoughts. “I’ll be just a few more minutes, I’m enjoying the afternoon breeze too much to go in just yet.”

  “I would join you, but as you see, I need to ice this wrist before I get back to work,” he said regretfully. “I wish I had young arms like yours again, to play so beautifully as you do.”

  “Ha! You never played so beautifully,” Addison teased.

  “Just for that, you are on your own with Maestro’s assistant, Madam First Chair,” he announced haughtily, opening the door. “Do you have your key?”

  Addison reached for her side and realized she didn’t have her purse. “No, but I can go in the front.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you in a few.”

  The door closed behind him and she sank down on the concrete stairs, leaning back against the railing of the loading dock. The chill air of the afternoon seeped through her clothes, but she enjoyed the relative quiet after the stifling cacophony of the orchestra practicing independently. She only intended to sit for a few minutes, but her thoughts quickly turned to Daniel and wandered on a path of their own.

  An unnatural scraping sound startled her back to reality. Addison jumped and pulled herself to her feet with the railing. She had been so deep in thought that she couldn’t be sure exactly what she had heard. She stood against the brick wall and listened intently. Then she heard it again, a scraping sound, like shoes against the pavement, only this time closer.

  “Is someone there? Daniel?” Addison asked, her heart picking up speed.

  There was only the symphony hall on that block. The alley behind the symphony was a dead end. There was nothing back there except the loading dock. The only people that went back there were the musicians, staff and people dropping things off. But every instinct in Addison’s body told her that someone was back there with her and they weren’t responding to her question. Visions of her stalker flashed through her mind and danger signals shot through her.

  “I’m… I’m blind, so you have to tell me if you’re there,” she said pleadingly, sliding sideways down the stairs with her back to the wall. “Please, just say something to me.”

  They didn’t say anything, but she could hear them keep pace with her as she moved. They were watching her every move. Mirroring her. She considered running toward the street and tried to remember how many steps it was. She was too scared though. Adrenalin kicked in, screaming at her to start running. But her legs felt frozen. It was everything she could do to put one foot in front of the other. Her breath came out in pants.

  “Please,” she whispered.

  “Play for me…” a voice whispered back longingly, so close to her that breath touched her face.

  Addison screamed. She reached out to push whoever was there, but her hands touched nothing. She turned and ran toward the street, desperately counting steps, trying to remember as she went how many there should be. She ran her fingers along the bricks of the symphony building scraping the sensitive pads until she ran out of wall and then she hurtled out into empty space, flying toward the street. She was running so fast she couldn’t stop herself before she hit the curb and tripped, falling into the street and rolling into oncoming traffic. She heard a masculine shout and then strong arms wrapped around her middle and scooped her up out of the road.

  “What the hell was that, Addison?” Maestro yelled, pulling her to her feet once they were safely back on the sidewalk.

  “I’m… I’m so sorry Charles, there was someone in the alley with me. I completely panicked,” she said, gasping for air.

  He continued to hold onto her and she felt him twist around to glance back into the alley. Her stalker would no longer be back there. They would have run away after she’d nearly killed herself running into traffic.

  “Let’s go back inside,” he said gruffly. “Get you a glass of water and maybe some paperwork with Erica for the rest of the day. Something undemanding.”

  “Oh good, my favourite,” Addison sighed, following him inside and rubbing her shoulder where she must have scraped it.

  Thankfully the rest of Addison’s day passed much less eventfully and she even managed to convince herself she’d overblown the whole thing. Except for the whispered words “play for me,” spoken in an eerie whisper. She tried to place the voice, but it was so characterless she found she couldn’t even describe it. Recalling that managed to chill her no matter how she tried to shrug off the whole incident. Once home
, she’d poured herself a healthy glass of red wine and shakily drank the whole thing before setting about her normal routine of making supper.

  It wasn’t until later, as she drew herself a hot bath and sank into the scented depths that she discovered the numerous scrapes all across her body from her fall into the street. Of course she had felt them at the time, but adrenalin had stopped her from experiencing too much pain. And her distraction over the course of the day stopped her from dwelling. Until the bathwater touched the wounds and drew a hiss of discomfort from her. Of course, Daniel chose that moment to join her for the evening. She was really going to have to have a discussion with him about where his key to her condo came from and the value of knocking.

  “You’re hurt,” he said coolly from the doorway of the bathroom.

  Addison resisted the urge to reach for a towel to cover her nakedness. “And you’re observant.”

  “How?” he demanded, moving to the edge of the tub and going down on one knee. He placed a finger against the edge of one of the deeper scrapes on her shoulder and then moved to her knee, inspecting the damage.

  She shrugged. “I’m blind, sometimes I fall when I’m not paying attention.”

  She felt his instant annoyance like it was a living thing, his hand tightened on her bare leg. “I don’t buy it. Never seen you make a mistake unless you’re upset.”

  She’d forgotten how darn observant he was. She dropped her head, letting her hair curtain her face. The tips dipped into the bath, soaking up the lavender scented water.

  “I thought I heard something outside at work. It scared me, so I ran away. I tripped and fell,” she admitted.

  “What did you hear?” he asked shrewdly.

  She shook her head. She didn’t want him involved.

  He took her by the chin and tilted her face up to his. “You’re hiding something, Addison.”

  “We barely know each other, Daniel,” she answered back, avoiding the topic. “You don’t get to decide that I’m just sex to you and then care about a few scrapes when I take a nasty spill.”

  She could feel the tension rising in him and knew she was skating the edge of his patience. He touched her mouth with a callused thumb, sliding it across the fullness of her bottom lip before tugging it open and gently sliding it inside. She bit down lightly on his thumb and sucked a little, enjoying the erotic banter.

  “Keep your secrets for now,” he said huskily, reaching into the tub and pulling her to her feet. Ignoring the streaming water, he swung her up in his arms. “I’ll find out everything I want to know when I want to know it.”

  Addison gasped and looped her arms around his neck as he once more carried her to her bed. He tossed her down and, when she tried to struggle back up, held her down with a hand on her belly that felt like a steel weight. She moaned when he shoved her legs apart with his broad shoulders and began feasting on her exposed pussy.

  “Too much!” she squealed trying to close her legs as sensations overwhelmed her.

  “Don’t care,” he growled against her. “Been thinking about this pussy all day. Shut up and take it.”

  Addison arched her back with a scream and reached up to grip the pillows over her head as he continued to attack her. After another minute of eating her, he finally eased up enough that she was able to relax into a rhythm. Moans of pleasure escaped her until she was rocking against his mouth. He slid his fingers into her and hooked them up into her G-spot and began massaging her from the inside while continuing to lick her clit and suck on her labia until she was nearly insane with delicious sensations.

  “Oh god, oh god, I’m going to come!” she yelled.

  “No, you’re not,” he growled, sitting up and smacking her hip.

  “What?!” Addison screeched in shock. She had been so close to orgasming it was like having a bucket of cold water thrown over her. She reached down to finish herself, but he grabbed her wrists and held them tightly against her stomach.

  “No you don’t.”

  “You… you’re such a sadistic monster!” she wailed.

  He chuckled darkly. “That’s right, baby.”

  Holding her wrists he bent down and flicked his tongue against her swollen clit until she was writhing and bucking underneath him again. Like an evil dance, he lead her toward the bliss of orgasm over and over again, but refused to push her over the line until she was screaming and begging for mercy.

  Finally he lifted his head, pulled himself up her body and shoved his tongue deep into her mouth. She tasted herself on him, tangy and sweet at the same time. He pushed his fingers into her body the way he knew would make her scream in wild ecstasy and ran his thumb across her clit in hard, fast strokes until she came, opening her mouth to scream for him. He swallowed her screams, shoving his tongue into her mouth and stealing her cries for himself.

  He released her only long enough to divest himself of his own clothes. He lifted her easily, though she felt boneless, and placed her arms around his neck. He dropped her slowly down onto his length so she could feel every inch sliding into her slick pussy. She gasped and wiggled as her body accepted the thick girth. He pulled her knees back so they slid alongside his hips, making their connection impossibly tight.

  Addison dropped her head back, closed her eyes and bit her lip as her body adjusted to the painful, pleasurable fullness. He grasped a handful of her curls and brought her head back up, tilting it forward until her forehead touched his.

  “Open your eyes and look at me,” he demanded, his voice strained, the accent noticeable again.

  “Why?” she gasped, confused.

  “Want to see them.”

  She didn’t understand why he would want to see her eyes when he couldn’t possibly see anything in them, but she gave him what he wanted. The moment her eyes opened he began moving his hips, thrusting his cock up into her body. Addison cried out as her body was forced to take even more of the fullness and dug her nails into his bare back.

  “Fuck yes, baby. Leave your mark,” he growled and began pumping into her with more force than before.

  Addison held onto him while he took control of their lovemaking, pumping into her, fast and then slow. It hurt at first, but then her body adjusted and got used to his rhythm. After a while she began rocking her hips in unison with him, creating a symphony together that went higher and higher until it reached its inevitable crashing conclusion.

  Daniel picked Addison up by the waist, threw her down on the bed and began thrusting into her with more force than he’d been able to manage while she was on top of him. She widened her knees and arched her hips up, throwing her arms out wantonly as his pelvis created friction against her already stimulated clitoris. She came in an explosion of sizzling lights several seconds before he followed her with a growl of his own.

  Addison decided she was going to enjoy the afterglow of her stunning orgasm today. She completely ignored the way Daniel immediately rolled off her bed and started reaching for his clothes without a word. She also didn't say anything when he told her to be there the next night. She simply lay there basking in the happy endorphins of exploding rainbows coming out of her lady bits. She ignored the sound of her front door closing and the deadbolt engaging.

  Reality didn’t set in until she noticed how very sore her body was. Her tumble into traffic, combined with the acrobatic sex she and Daniel had engaged in after over a year of abstinence was taking a toll on Addison’s poor body. She rolled over and gasped as she came into contact with the extremely wet part of her bed, where Daniel had thrown her after plucking her straight from the bath.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  She’d done it.

  Addison had taken a break from Daniel Mercer. Although she was pretty sure he wasn’t going to see it that way. He was going to think she had run away from him again. But dammit! She did actually need a break from the most intense week of sex she’d ever experienced. Literally. Her vagina was sore.

  Daniel had come to her condo every night for the past week after
they both finished work and made love to her in the most imaginative, dominant ways. He took her to heights she’d never before experienced and forced her constantly out of her comfort zone. Really, he did that simply by being present, let alone by tying her up and fucking her.

  He made her body sing with pleasure. But he denied her any real connection to him. Every time she tried to have any meaningful conversation, he cut her off, or he forced her up against a wall, or bent her over a couch, or whatever his ruthless imagination could come up with. The result was a serious lack of life details on her new sexual partner. And sore privates.

  She sighed as she enjoyed the luxurious feeling of the Four Seasons bathrobe against her skin. She sat on the edge of a deep tub and drew herself a bath. This was the second and last night of her impromptu “holiday.” She’d decided two nights would be perfect. One would give her body time to recover from Daniel’s merciless bouts of lovemaking and the second would give him time to recover from his undoubted fury over her disappearance.

  She’d called in sick at the orchestra for the first time ever. She’d felt a little guilty when a concerned Maestro had called her back to check on her and tell her to take all the time she needed. She’d assured him that it wasn’t anything too serious, just contagious enough that she didn’t want to spread it around the symphony. She felt doubly guilty for using the orchestra’s credit card at the hotel, but she knew Daniel would trace anything in her name.

  Addison blamed Daniel. He was the type of person to prey on weakness and use any disadvantage. He was a bad influence and she’d been hanging out with him for a week.

  She traced her fingers through the bathwater and sighed in satisfaction. Shutting off the taps, she stood and felt her way to the bedroom. Picking up the hotel phone she dialled room service and ordered strawberries, chocolate syrup and champagne. She knew it was cliche, but she was already spending $415 per night to stay at the Four Seasons. She was going to enjoy every moment of it before she had to return to her confusing new reality.