sudden change in his demeanor.
He forced her to meet his eyes.
“I haven’t played this game in years,” he said, his voice low and forbidding. “That does not mean I’ve forgotten how.”
Eleanor didn’t dare to blink or breathe. Daniel loosened his grip on her chin but did not let her go.
“I may not touch you again for the rest of this week,” he said. “Or I may fuck you blind, deaf and dumb. But you will be respectful of me while you are here no matter what the sleeping arrangements prove to be. Understood?”
Eleanor blinked and nodded. “Yes, sir,” she said through trembling lips.
“Good. Your room adjoins mine. It is at the top of the stairs, the second to the last room on the right. Your bags are already there.”
“Thank you,” she said, her voice little more than a squeak.
Daniel smiled but it was not a kind smile. It sent a chill into her stomach even as his fingers against her skin made her uncomfortably warm. “You flinched,” he said. “This must not be how he usually gets your attention.”
“It isn’t. He grabs my neck. Or my wrist.”
“Which do you prefer?”
She shrugged. “I hate them all the same.”
Daniel’s eyes momentarily brightened with suppressed laughter and Eleanor was struck again by how handsome he was. This was going to be a long week.
“Go,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Relieved to be dismissed from his unnerving presence, Eleanor practically bolted toward the staircase. Taking two steps at a time she made it to the top and down the hall to her room in no time. She threw open the door and slammed it behind her, grateful to be safe and alone for once that day. Well, perhaps not safe, she told herself. But at least alone.
He had told her why she was here, what would be expected of her. But only now did the realization that she would be Daniel’s sexual possession this week truly register. She went to the window and peered out, trying to see where Daniel’s property ended and the outside world began. But a new snow had begun to fall and Eleanor had lived in New England all her life. She knew those heavy dense flakes dropping from a deep gray sky meant a snowstorm. She was trapped here, trapped with him. She was here and for now she was his.
Unpacking had only taken a few minutes and although her bedroom was elegant and spacious with an equally elegant bathroom attached, there was little to be explored. Eleanor tried to read—she’d packed one whole suitcase full of nothing but books—but her mind wandered too much down too many dangerous paths. She was consumed by thoughts of Daniel. Lying on her bed she stared at the ceiling, recalling the rough grip of Daniel’s hand on her face. She’d felt the force in him, felt he was a man to be reckoned with. She lay there until she fell asleep and dreamed she was drowning in a sea of black snow.
An hour or a day later, she awoke shivering in the dark. She glanced around trying to get her bearings. She reached for the bedside lamp and tried to switch it on. Nothing happened. She stumbled to the wall and flipped that switch, but again the darkness remained untouched. Wearing only a white cotton nightgown, she dove under her bedclothes, desperate for what warmth they could offer her. In bed she noticed a light streaming from underneath the door that separated her room from Daniel’s. How did he still have electricity when she didn’t? Curiosity overcame fear and she eased out from underneath the covers and trod quietly across the floor. She considered knocking but the silence in the house seemed too pervasive to break. With a shaking hand, she turned the door handle and found the door unlocked. She took a deep breath and slipped inside.
“Can’t sleep?” Daniel’s voice came from a chair in front of an imposing fireplace. The orange and roaring fire was the source of the light she’d seen.
“I’m cold,” she said and moved nervously toward the sound of his voice. “What happened to the lights?”
“Just a line down from all the snow.” He sounded world-weary, tired. “They’ll be back on by morning, I’m sure.” Eleanor found him still dressed but with an extra button undone on his dress shirt and a glass of white wine in his hand. “You’re welcome to share my fire. I won’t even charge you rent.”
She gave him a tight smile, knowing exactly what he meant by rent, and sat down on the plush rug in front of the fireplace. She wrapped her arms tight about her and breathed the smoky heat into her lungs.
They sat in silence for what felt like an hour, the only sounds in the room the popping and spitting of the wood being consumed.
“I’m sorry.” Eleanor finally broke the silence.
“For what?” Daniel asked, taking a leisurely sip of his wine.
“For what I said about your wife. That was uncalled for.”
“Uncalled for? Yes, I suppose it was. Still, this can’t be the most comfortable situation for you.”
She shrugged. “No one held a gun to my head. I do what he tells me to do, what he wants me to do. Because I love him. That simple.”
“Simple … is it? We’ve never met before today, Eleanor. He expects you, wants you to give yourself up to me. Not very simple from where I sit.”
“He’s infuriating but I’ve known him and loved him since I was a kid.”
“You’re twenty-three, yes? You’re still a kid.”
“But he’s never taken me anywhere I was too young to go. Never asked me to do anything …” Her voice trailed off as she realized the implications of what she was saying. She took a quick breath. “Anything I wasn’t ready to do.”
Eleanor met Daniel’s eyes for the briefest moment and glanced back at the fire.
“Are you ready?” Daniel asked and sat his glass on the table next to his chair.
She counted to ten before answering. She knew the answer at “one” but the little feminine pride she had made her wait nine more seconds.
“Yes.”
If Daniel was pleased by her response, his face didn’t show it. His expression was inscrutable.
He sat forward in his chair. Eleanor studied him as he moved. It seemed he was looking only at his own right hand. He fanned his fingers out, gazed at his own palm. His hand curled tight into a fist. But it was the sound of his fingers snapping, loud and unexpectedly sharp, that really demanded her attention. He snapped and pointed at the floor. She responded with well-trained obedience, rising off the rug and kneeling again at his feet.
She inhaled as he laid a hand on the side of her face. His thumb caressed her cheek.
“I won’t kiss you if that makes you uncomfortable.”
“To be honest, I think not kissing would make it worse.”
“Honest,” he repeated. “Yes, be honest. It’s been over three years for me, you realize. I need you to tell me if it’s something you don’t like.”
“What
