Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Juliet
The water had gone cold by the time I thought about getting out of the bath.
I was just so contented. The air smelled of the relaxing lavender oil I'd found on the shelf above the tub, and the bubbles had mostly dissolved, leaving just a faint shimmer on the surface.
Outside the bathroom window, the afternoon light was flat and grey, clouds having come in over the valley sometime in the last hour. It suited my reflective mood.
Nate and I had spent the afternoon walking the trail, up through the lower vines and into the tree line where the path narrowed, and the outside world seemed to disappear. He'd taken my hand somewhere along the way, his fingers closing around mine, making me feel like we were a real couple.
We'd stopped among the trees where it was cool and quiet, the smell of pine and damp earth around us, and he'd kissed me in a way that still made my spine tingle when I thought about it.
For reasons I couldn't explain, it felt like he'd laid claim to me in that moment, out there among the trees with nobody else around.
On the way back to the house, he'd pointed out the places where the property needed work before winter, a section of fence that had come loose along the eastern boundary, a spot where the path flooded when the rain came in heavy off the ridge.
I'd listened and asked questions, and somewhere between the rows of vines, I realized I was happy here.
As I thought about it now, while lying in the cooling bathwater, it scared me a little to know that there were people out there who wanted to rob me of this contentment.
While I contemplated that, my phone rang. I leaned over the side of the tub and saw my friend Bea's name on the screen. Leaping from the bath so fast I sloshed water all over the floor, I snatched up the phone and answered it.
"Bea, hi."
"Finally," she said as I struggled to wrap a towel around myself with one hand. "I thought you'd fallen off the face of the earth."
"No, I haven't gone that far." I sat on the edge of the tub, water dripping from me onto the tiles. "I'm sorry I haven't called."
"You're sorry." Her tone was flat, but I could hear the irritation in it. "Juliet, I've been losing my mind. Your mother rings me every other day asking if I've heard from you, and there are stories everywhere and these photos." She stopped to draw breath. "Are you safe?"
"Yes. I'm perfectly safe, better than safe."
"With Nate Harrington?" She sounded doubtful. "I've heard things about him. We both have. You know what he's into."
"Do I?" Playing dumb would get a rise out of Bea. "What is he into?"
"You know, like, stuff with ropes and handcuffs and whips and shit."
I stifled a laugh at how flustered she sounded, then frowned as I recalled he did have a reputation for far kinkier things than he'd ever tried with me.
Did I want him to whip me? No. Would it be exciting to be tied up and at his mercy?
Now that was a different proposition entirely.
I wondered how I could subtly introduce the idea to him.
"Juliet?" Bea prompted, and I realized I'd drifted into a daydream.
"I'm still here." I caught my reflection in the mirror above the sink.
My hair was piled on top of my head. With cheeks flushed from the bath and a towel wrapped around me, I was a bit of a mess, but my eyes sparkled in a way they hadn't in months, years maybe.
"Listen I'm here with Nate because it's where I want to be.
He's a good man, and he's never once done anything I haven't wanted him to. "
"But the articles…"
"Are a load of shit. Someone has photographed private moments and made them something they're not."
"You're sure you're okay?"
"I promise, Bea, I'm fine. Better than I've been in a long time. I love it out here."
Bea sniffed. "I have to admit you do sound happier."
"I feel it."
"Okay, I believe you. Now tell me about this vineyard you're staying on. Would I like it there?"
"Probably not. It's miles from the nearest town, and that doesn't have a single sushi bar or Japanese head spa."
"Hey!" my oldest friend protested. "I'm not that high-maintenance."
I snorted derisively. Since the moment we first met when we were seated together at an event our mothers dragged us to twenty years ago, I'd known Bea was into the finer things in life. Her idea of slumming it would be staying in a Presidential Suite with no hot tub on the terrace.
"You are, but I love you anyway. Now tell me about Francois. Are you still seeing him?"
"Who?" The confusion in her voice told me she wasn't. "Oh, him, no. He was so unfit. He couldn't keep up with me at the gym."
"The next guy will probably be too athletic." I couldn't help teasing her. This year alone, my friend had dated men she deemed too tall, too short, too bony, too muscular, too stupid, and too smart. She was like some sort of Goldilocks, constantly searching for a man who was just right.
"Yeah," she said with a sigh. "I don't suppose there are any hot men out there in the hinterlands?"
"I've never heard Alexander Valley described that way."
"Well you know what I mean. Do they even have running water out there?"
"Yes, I've just bathed in some. They even have excellent cellular service, as you may have noted. But to answer your question, the only hot man I've seen out here is Nate, and he's taken."
"So it's serious between you and him, then?"
I shrugged, even though she couldn't see me. "It's too soon to know, Bea, but for now, I'm happy, so please don't worry about me." Starting to get chilled now, I hugged the towel to my body. "Listen, I need to go, but we'll speak soon, okay? Love you."
Ending the call, I headed into the bedroom and set my phone down on the nightstand. I'd pretty much drip-dried, so I rubbed over my skin quickly with the towel to make sure no part of me was still wet, then dressed in jeans and my coral shirt.
Through the window, I could see Ramon's truck still parked down by the main building of the winery. It was almost seven thirty and he'd been out here since early morning. The man gave everything to this place. I understood why better than I would have a few weeks ago.
Knowing Eileen would have dinner underway, I headed for the stairs. I was halfway along the corridor when Nate stepped out of a room on my left. The expression on his face was one I'd seen before. Disappointment tinged with anger.
"Come in here," he said.
I followed him into his study, a room I hadn't entered before. It was lined floor to ceiling with bookshelves. His desk sat near the window, its surface covered in papers, open notebooks, and discarded coffee cups. It was more disordered than I'd have imagined, given Nate's need for control.
He moved behind his desk, and I stood in front of it feeling a bit like a naughty schoolgirl summoned to the headmaster's office as he silently appraised me.
"Scott flagged a call from a Los Angeles number," he said after a painfully drawn-out silence.
"It was my friend Bea. Beatrice Davenport." He would surely recognize the name. Bea's father owned one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the country. "She's been trying to reach me for days. She was worried about me."
"That's understandable, but you know the rule."
"She called me," I protested. "I didn't call her."
"You didn't check with me that it was okay to take the call, Juliet. What if she says something indiscreet about your situation here?"
"She wouldn't." Actually I wasn't confident about that.
Beatrice could be loose-lipped when someone gave her the attention she craved.
"And anyway, what does it matter? Garrett already knows exactly where I am.
He had people watching us. He's planted stories about us in the press.
What possible difference could a phone call with my closest friend make? "
"Probably none," Nate said.
I waited for the rest of it.
"But that's not the point, honey."
Damn, I loved it when he called me honey. It made me all gooey inside even if it was the prelude to telling me he was about to spank my ass.
"Then what is the point?"
"You understood the rule, and you broke it anyway."
He was right. I'd known the rule, but it hadn't even entered my head that I was breaking it when I answered Bea's call.
"I'm not sorry I spoke to her," I said defiantly, before conceding. "But I should have told you first."
He looked at me for a long moment, making his decision.
"Remove your jeans and panties."
"Why? What are you planning?"
"We're going to try the belt again. If it's too much, I'll switch to using my hand, but you will receive eight strokes."
Eight? Had I managed half that many before falling apart the last time he punished me with his belt? I couldn't remember.
"Juliet," he said when I hesitated a moment too long. "Are you going to accept the consequences of your actions or is our agreement at an end?"
I didn't want to think about what it would mean for our agreement to end. I doubted Nate would throw me out on the street and leave me to fend for myself against Garrett. But it would probably mean the end of any intimacy between us.
Already drawing my jeans and panties down my legs, I nodded. "I accept the consequences."
"Good girl," Nate said as I stepped out of my clothing and kicked it aside. "Now, place your palms flat on the desk and spread your legs wide. I want you up on your tiptoes with your ass pushed out."
As I obeyed him and got into position, I realized how different this was from the last time. There was something blatantly erotic about the way I posed my body. Nate flipped my shirt up around my waist, exposing me to his view.
"You're going to count," he said. "Out loud."
I blew out a breath. That seemed like an extra challenge I didn't need.
"Yes, Nate."
The belt fell across my right buttock, and I gasped at the sharpness of it.
"One." My voice was clear and surprisingly calm.
Nate delivered the next one on the other side, the crack of leather filling the silence as lightning zapped through me.
"Two."
He continued, unhurried, giving me a moment to absorb the pain of each impact. The strokes all landed in a different spot. My voice became less steady with each number. I counted on as my arms shook slightly from the effort I was putting in to holding my position.
Tears came after the fifth stroke.
"Do you need to use your safeword?" Nate checked.
"No." I was determined to handle the punishment better than before. It was different this time. Nate was being more cautious, giving me space to breathe between lashes.
"Three more, then."
The last two strokes were harder than the others.
I shrieked out the numbers, the sound emanating from my throat almost inhuman.
I was completely wrung out. My limbs trembled and pain throbbed through my punished flesh.
With it came a sense of satisfaction. I'd dealt with the thrashing without complaint.
Nate set the belt on the desk next to me. He helped me up and turned me to face him.
"You did very well, Juliet." He pulled me close, his arm around my back, and brushed his lips over my forehead in a light kiss. "I'm proud of you."
Restlessness thrummed through me as he held me tight. I needed something, but I didn't know what. I pressed myself against Nate, and he seemed to understand what I craved before I did. Slipping his hand between our bodies, he caressed my intimate flesh.
I parted my legs. With the quiet confidence of a man who knew exactly what he was doing, he pushed two fingers into my drenched pussy, curling them until he found my g-spot.
As he stroked it gently, his thumb circled my clit.
I grabbed his shoulders and held on tight as he teased me to a frenzy.
His other hand sought my nipple. He pinched the rosy peak between his fingers, and that was all it took to send a wave of ecstasy through me.
Nate withdrew his fingers and steadied me as I collapsed into his arms. When the last ripples had died down, I straightened.
"Now it's your turn." With a wicked grin, I sank to my knees.