Chapter 22
Unsurprisingly, Kara does not call off her PI, despite all of Nick’s urgings. She simply cannot put the puzzle pieces in place to understand his angle. For now, she must assume he is playing a game from his court, trying to manipulate her in his favor. He’s done it before .
But what if he’s not? Kara torments herself wondering if she’s making a mistake. She’s never seen him this adamant about her not doing something. Then again, his client has never been so close to prison time. There is that.
Problems for another day. Kara has her own immediate problems to fuss about.
Stepping into Dieter’s main estate, Kara hears a familiar female voice from the formal dining room, a space filled with crystal and fine china.
“…I made the changes to the contract for the engagement with Kellersman’s Holdings . You’ll see the new percentage cuts in place as directed,” Gale is saying just as Kara enters the room. Her blue eyes land on Kara with a faintly surprised smile. “Oh, Kara. I didn’t realize you’d be coming today, friend.” She gestures awkwardly to the paperwork spread across the dark wood table. “Dieter has been giving you quite the sum of work these days.”
“… yes .” Kara is still digesting what she just heard. She’s the one who wrote the Kellersman’s Holdings contract, stating the cut Dieter would be getting from the partnership. Why is Gale here, talking about the same contract, about making changes to it? She tries not to let her unease show. “Hey.”
Gale’s smile falters slightly. Dieter naturally looks unbothered from his seat at the head of the ornate table, despite the knowing look in his gaze. “There’s my favorite chickadee. Late as always.”
Unsettled anger is quietly growing under the surface of her outward calm. “What were you guys just discussing? Kellersman’s Holdings ?” There’s an edge in her voice that Kara can’t seem to hide.
Gesturing to a stack of familiar papers, Gale blithely states, “Oh, this? I hope you don’t mind, but Dieter had me make a few changes. Routine. You did a great job with the contract by the way. I’m so impressed with how far you’ve come this past year!”
The flattery does not cool Kara in the slightest. It’s becoming clearer to her now that both of the people before her operate in a manner meant to charm others into a false sort of comfort. “What changes had to be made?”
Gale blinks, as if suddenly realizing the nature of Kara’s stiff demeanor. “Just the percentages of Dieter’s take for the upcoming support in their business. We moved the twenty percent up to forty for the duration of the partnership, unless Dieter is bought out of it.”
“That’s practically robbery,” Kara intones flatly in disbelief, staring Dieter down. “They came to you for support in their business, not for you to push money into it and then suck out nearly all the profit-”
Dieter pretends to yawn carelessly. “Such is life, chickadee. I don’t-”
“Run a charity, I know .” Kara feels a scowl shaping her face, making it unpleasant. “But you and I both know there’s a difference between helping and being a predator.”
His eyes take on that empty sort of look as he holds her glare. It flickers away quickly though, as if it never were, leaving Kara feeling even more angry. He rarely rises to the bait, he’s too fucking calculated for that, isn’t he?
Packing up her fine leather purse, Gale gets to her feet and comes over to hug Kara. “You know that’s not for us to question. We simply write and read the contracts.”
Kara’s mouth drops open slightly in disbelief. Does Gale not care about the ethics or morality that should be observed in this? It makes Kara feel slimy, as if she’s been used to write something meant for better means, only to have it swapped for something far worse.
Gale kisses the air beside Kara’s cheek. “Bye, friend. We should chat more. I have some things to tell you about your father and the investigation into his ‘possible’ embezzlement crimes. Things are looking up!”
How is that even possible? Kara feels a hollow burn continue to grow in her chest.
“Bye, Gale. It’s been real.” Dieter calls after her cheerily. “Also, I see gray in your hair again. Did your stylist miss a spot? You should replace them-”
“ Behave, ” Gale snarls at him before slamming the door behind her.
Waiting to hear the sound of Gale’s car starting, Kara turns to look at him with fire in her gaze.
He’s giving her a fox-like grin, the one that says he’s thinking about what she looks like when he’s inside her, making her cum. “Just you and me now, chickadee.” He pretends to be fascinated with the time on his sparkling watch. “What shall we get up to?”
“Don’t you even start with that!” Kara snaps, face red. Shouldn’t have slept with him, nope , never. “You had her edit my contract to have those foul terms. Why ?” She feels betrayed, stabbed. Up and down, up and down with this rich bastard…
A rich bastard you slept with far too happily, bitch. He made you see stars.
Seeing the expression on her face, Dieter scoffs and rolls his eyes as he departs the expertly carved dining table. “Because I had an inkling that this is how you would react if I told you how I really wanted that contract written. Gale and Reggison deal with the uglier side of my business. You, well, you’re too nice for that, aren’t you? So, I keep you shielded from it. Aren’t you pleased?”
Oh, so his other lawyers are who he really trusts with things, is that it? Because they are willing to dirty themselves with his schemes? Her jaw clenches unbearably as she watches him walk away, walking up the stairs to his other rooms.
She follows, red in her gaze.
“You are a spoiled, wretched man with far too much power and too few consequences,” Kara snaps at his back, fists clenched at her sides.
He turns and glances at her over his shoulder, a hint of a grin on his mouth. He isn’t offended by her statement, but there is a glint of something predatory in his green gaze. “And I suppose you believe I need to suffer? Criminal punishment or divine justice?”
He slowly steps away, towards his room, the one with the giant bay windows that overlook the trees stretching into the distance. Perhaps Kara shouldn’t be so familiar with the large estate, but she’s had to follow him from room to room before, going down a list of outstanding business for the day, the way she used to see Gale do with him.
“I don’t know what you deserve, you vicious fuckboy,” Kara retorts, hot after him. She’s just outside the doorway of his room, the one he just disappeared into, when Dieter takes her by surprise.
A hand grips her wrist, pulling her into the space with sudden ferocity. Dieter’s there, in her space, close enough to consume, his nose nearly brushing hers as he gazes into her face. Her heart skips a beat, seeing herself reflected in those yawning pupils. She looks fierce, her eyes blazing.
He looks perfect, like a dream.
“Don’t you want to be the one to do it?” His voice, teasing and viciously dark in equal measure. He pulls her further into the room, placing her hand at his throat as they walk backward toward his neatly made bed.
Kara can’t swallow the saliva gathering in her mouth. Almost forgets to breathe. Why is he doing this? Why does he always know how to push her off her feet? “Do what, exactly?”
Sitting on the edge of his bed, Dieter remains holding her hand at his throat as he looks up at her, all soft, false submission. “ Punish me.”
A heavy ball of hunger unfurls within Kara’s belly, flickering red.
She pushes him back so that he’s lying down on the bed, sprawled there in that effortless manner of his. Glee whispers in his gaze; she’s doing exactly what he wants and a part of her wants to tear him apart for that smugness.
“I loathe you,” she grits out harshly, looking down at his form.
“Prove it,” Dieter replies with a cruel sneer. “I want you to make me believe it.”
Sitting astride him, Kara pins him in place, snarling. She buries her hand in his soft hair, exposing his throat. “You want to fight me, is that it?”
That sneer grows wider as he presses his hand between her legs, cupping her there. “Whatever gets you off, chickadee.”
The persistent rubbing of her core makes her head tilt back as she grits her teeth, feeling arousal grow. “You’re a sick bastard.”
Their clothes go, tossed to the side of the bed. Gasping mouths, wet lips meeting in a harsh kiss. Skin against skin as Kara keeps him under her, her hands pinning his wrists down as their mouths play together. She bites him, digs her nails into his wrists, wanting to hurt him-
None of it phases him. Not in the slightest.
“That’s it,” he says against her skin, rolling his hips eagerly. “Take it.”
His cock juts proudly up from between his legs, slick beads of precum dribbling down the side of it. Kara ignores it, instead crawling further up his body, seating herself over his face. “You’re being punished. Not rewarded.”
To his credit, he takes to this change of pace without pause. The feel of his tongue and fingers finding purchase within her makes Kara gasp wantonly. Her hips, shifting as she shamelessly takes her fill of him, rubbing her clit against his nose.
She drips into his mouth, like honey on his tongue as he delves into her, stroking her to madness. Kara puts her hands on the headboard, using it as leverage as she gasps and moans, using him for all he’s worth as he grunts into her flesh, his cock swollen and aching, untouched.
“You’re such a slut,” Kara whispers, not knowing if she’s talking about herself or about him. Perhaps she means them both.
He’s for fun. He’s just for now.
You like him, you stupid girl.
He whines against her heated cunt, his hands gripping her thighs. His gunmetal rings press against her skin, leaving indents, a sliver of pressure that edges towards pain as he allows her to ride his tongue to oblivion.
When he brings her too close to the edge, she pulls herself away, wanting to find her end with him inside of her. His condoms are in the side drawer and she puts one on him, urgent, needing to be filled. Needing the stretch of his erection deep within.
“Will you fuck me now?” He asks sweetly, eyes glazed with lust. He’s using the submissive tone still, the one that makes Kara pant with hunger. It’s hot, the way he mimics being obedient. He’s anything but. She wants to ruin him.
The slick feeling of him, sliding deep within her. The stretch, the pleasure of being filled. The look in his lovely eyes, sending her spinning with want. He is everything she wants and hates. His ego, his beauty, his ruthless inability to truly care about those he views as beneath him-
He’s a spoiled monster of a man, but the way he makes her feel drives her to insanity.
His hands cup her breasts, playing with the softness of her flesh. Exploring the way she fills his palms, how he tells her how perfect her tits feel-
“Because they’re real ,” Kara tells him heatedly, seeing his eyes dance with playful amusement. She knows his penchant for dating all plastic women.
Scorching moments pass as Kara takes what she wants from his body. Rocking and rubbing her clit against his pubic bone, rubbing deliciousness into her core, trying to hide from her doubts, her view of how wrong this is.
He’s not Nick. Dieter is something else entirely. He plays his games with everyone, even in bed.
Kara rides him however she wants, taking charge of her own pleasure, bouncing and grinding. He’s along for the ride, gasping, head thrown back, exposing his jugular.
She controls it all. His submissive act, sexually charged in ways Kara can’t describe.
The sensuality shifts as he takes her hands and places them just so at his throat once again. “I’m waiting,” he says huskily. “I thought you meant to make me suffer for my wickedness?” The feel of his skin under her palms is terrifying and intoxicating, pulling her along with no hope of escape. Kara can feel his pulse, a strong steady pace. How can he be so calm when he’s under her like this? With her hands around his throat?
“Tell me what to do,” she utters, not recognizing the raw sound of her voice. She doesn’t recognize the very words; she never asks to be told .
She can feel his cock pulsing inside of her, pressing against all the right places as she remains seated on top of him, pinning him to the bed. Dieter gives her a dark little grin, his hips shifting slightly. His voice, like sin in her ears. “I think you know what I want you to do.”
The knowledge is an eerie whisper in her ears, coiling and unfurling. He wants you to choke him while you ride his cock.
The violence of it draws her in even as it terrifies her. He wants this to be done to him . To be choked by her as she rides him to oblivion, using his cock as his vision goes black. A dangerous, risky sort of bedroom game.
“What’s this?” His words are a mocking song, playful and wrapped around all her bones. “Is my tigress afraid? Is this yet another thing you cannot do for me?” The mocking edges turn into razors.
Hating him, wanting him , Kara squeezes her hands around his flesh, feeling his pulse under her thumbs. It’s beyond intimate, a whirl of terror and want. To control him in this way. To punish him.
Moaning, Kara applies pressure and feels his cock twitch inside of her, swelling bigger. The stretch is delicious as she rides, so close to her edge. The squelch of where their bodies meet, a lurid sound of sex and filth.
Squeezing, squeezing more . The feeling is foreign to her as she takes his life into her hands, playing with a dangerous edge she has no business touching. This is not how things should be, but the power at her fingertips is intoxicating. He’s giving himself into her control-
When he writhes under her, struggling to breathe, eyes dark with lust even as his face reddens, Kara feels her resolve shake. Her hands loosen their grip, afraid, because strangling him is the last thing she truly wants as she rides along the length of him, gasping her pleasure-
“Don’t let up until I’ve cum,” he demands, panting for air. “Strangle me, Kara.”
Her name on his tongue is both a curse and a prayer.
It’s so wrong, this is so wrong.
Lust pulls tight behind her navel despite her unease, filling her with want even as she tightens her hold on him, leaning her weight into her hands as she grinds her clit against his pubic bone. So close, so close. Yes, there . The deliciousness of the pressure, just above where he plunges deep into her, is filthy perfection. Kara moans, eyes fluttering shut as his body tenses up under her, his cock getting thicker, spreading her as his excitement grows.
He struggles against her, face starting to turn colors, his air truly cut off. Against all reason, Kara doesn’t let up, doesn’t let go, because that’s what he’s told her. Don’t let up until I’ve cum.
A satisfied grin shapes his mouth, his eyes nearly black with hunger as he comes apart under her, his sex pulsing inside of her, shattering her last bits of sanity as she tumbles over the edge with him. Ecstasy and madness, a blur of sin.
In the end, when she sees the smug satisfaction on his face, she realizes she was never in control at all.
“I don’t know if I liked that,” Kara admits afterward, staring down at her hands, feeling vaguely dirty. “It freaks me out.” It felt wrong.
Dieter exhales, clears his throat a bit. Rubs a hand over his skin, as if rubbing a minor ache away. “What did it feel like to you?” When he speaks, his voice is raw. She’s never heard him like that and it twists inside of her.
Kara barely whispers the dark truth. “It felt like killing you.” That is the part she didn’t like, even with her earlier anger at him. She’s never wanted to hurt him. Not like that. She adores this stupidly pretty man, even when he infuriates her.
A strange little grin shapes his mouth, flashing teeth. “I imagine it did. A moment of playing God.” Of course, that sounds like something he would enjoy.
“You enjoyed forcing me to do that to you,” Kara says with a sudden realization. “I was never in charge, was I?”
Crossing his arms behind his head, Dieter contemplates her, gaze unreadable. “I do enjoy giving the illusion of domination to someone else,” he drawls, sleepy satisfaction in his tone. “I can be both submissive and dominant, if I must. I’m quite resilient . I can be whatever I need to be for any given moment.”
What a nice talent , Kara finds herself thinking uneasily. He manipulated her into thinking she was in control when the reality was far from it. Never are things what they seem with him. It hurts, to think she enjoys this man who plays games with everyone in his vicinity.
Even I am not safe from his ploys , she thinks.
“Can I ask you something?” Here goes nothing, Kara thinks. If he can play games with her, then she is going to get something out of it. Something for her . He owes her that much.
“That depends on what it is. Go for it.” Though the words seem inflexible, the softness in his tone shows how at ease he is. He’s malleable, in this moment.
“What is the age-old beef you and Nick seem to have?”
God, I hope that was the right question to kick this off. If I’m too direct and simply ask what happened to Nick, he might not say a damn thing.
She hears Dieter’s breathing change, a slight pause. Barely noticeable. Then, he smirks. “There’s a lot to unpack there, but I suspect I know what you’re after.” He pauses, as if to insinuate that he’ll give nothing away. He drinks in Kara’s discomfort for a few seconds, a sharp grin in place as he lounges against the plush pillows. Then, “I’ll tell you, but not because you’ve surprised me into saying anything. It’s not because you want it. I’ll tell you because I want you to know .” And Nick doesn’t.
I want you to know. There’s something in his tone. Hinting at a hidden warning. Kara can read between the lines. There’s a threat here.
He runs a hand through her tresses, softly, his lips shifting into a patronizing smile. “There’s a lot of bad people in this world, chickadee.”
“Tell me something I don’t know. I represent shits like you, remember?”
“ Ouch .” A false hurt pout. “Maybe I won’t tell you anything.”
Kara rolls onto Dieter’s body, straddling his hips. Fisting a hand in his lovely hair, she jerks his head back, exposing his throat. Gritting her teeth, pushing forth her most aggressive voice, Kara snaps, “You’ll tell me what I want to know right now, Dieter.”
His pupils dilate slightly and he makes a small noise in his throat, excited. “When you ask so nicely…” he rasps, delighted by her sudden shift in dominance.
She doesn’t let up and she means it, tugging his hair. “ Speak .”
Exhaling in the way of the long-suffering, Dieter starts by saying, “Delphine Havenwood-Calais is an awful woman. You always hear the media talking about the kind of men who will do just about anything in their climb to power. Sometimes, it talks about women who will sleep their way to the top. Frankly, sleeping their way to the top is a pretty docile method, compared to the alternative.” He pauses for effect. “What happens when a woman is trying to gain favor from a more powerful woman, do you think?”
Kara lets go of his hair, confused. A sickly, grey feeling falls over her. She thinks of her relationship with Gale, but she never felt that she was trying to earn Gale’s friendship. It was a healthy mentorship, at least, that’s what Kara initially thought. “I don’t know. She tries to be her friend? Tries to be liked? Finds a way to be noticed, to be close to her. I assume favors and bribes, if we are talking about the more dubious ways.”
“ Hmm . And…what if the favors are…shall we say… illegal ?”
I don’t think I like where this is going. This is going somewhere ugly, I can taste it.
“I brought his mother up before and Nick shut it down pretty quick,” Kara says with her mouth going dry with nerves. She’s brought up his mother a few times. She never failed to notice the way his eyes would go flat at the very mention of her.
A bitter quirk of the mouth. “Not surprising.”
“Did she…did she do something to him?” Sickness pools in her belly.
The smile vanishes from Dieter’s face. Just a blank expression, as if reciting a normal story. “ Oh . It’s not what she did to him. It’s what she let someone else do. Repeatedly.”
Kara stiffens, sitting away from him as if burned. Suddenly, she isn’t sure that she wants to hear this story after all. There are maggots wriggling in her guts, bile on her tongue.
“Nick’s good old ma has long been in the game of law and dark politics, as it were. And back then, she was trying to build her favor with one of the judges out east at the time, some bigshot broad in her…ah, late fifties, early sixties.” He sneers, lost in memory. “All the lawyers that graced her courts either kissed her feet or hated her. Many wanted her favor to gain more power. She controlled more than she should have, but that’s the way of politics, isn’t it?”
The Judge.
“Anyway,” he starts again quite demurely. “It was known in certain circles at the time that this judge liked her boytoys young. Teenagers, really. An age group that she could groom to do as she liked…and she liked pain. Not hurting others, but herself. A painslut. When she asked Delphine if she could spend an afternoon with Nick, to ‘mentor him’…well, Delphine didn’t say no. Which turned into more afternoons. Which turned into a thing that no one talked about.”
A thing that no one talked about, involving a teenage boy who had no power and no choice.
“…did she know what that woman would do?” Her voice is a bare whisper of horror and disbelief. Her own father may be a narcissistic monster in his own right, but he never would have used her as currency in such a hideous fashion. Would he?
“She knew the rumors.” Dieter sits up and leans against the headboard. “People of a certain circle tend to know the dark dirty secrets of others around them. It’s how they keep everyone in line. A filthy machine that just. keeps. churning .”
The words fall like stones, a strange ringing in Kara’s ears. She can’t believe what she’s hearing. Nick had been abused and his mother had…orchestrated it. For what? More sway in the courts? Political power for a future judge seat? “ How could she do that to her own son?”
“I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, power corrupts,” he says with a strangely flat voice. “It was out of sight and out of mind for her. It isn’t like he could complain to anyone; that judge held everyone under her thumb. Too much power and everyone was afraid of going against her. He knew his mother’s favor leaned on him behaving. Nicky doesn’t like to disappoint dear old mother; bit of a quirk of his. A terrible flaw, perhaps. He puts so much stock in trying to keep that bitch happy. Hence, Claire, see?”
The very air in the room is too thick to breathe.
“Was…was he the only one…that woman hurt?” She doesn’t want to think of nameless boys, at the mercy of some sick old witch, tormenting them with her disgusting whims. She can’t even begin to think of what that would do to a boy. Twisting sexuality into something purposely sick and cruel .
“Don’t be silly.” This time, Dieter scoffs. “Of course, there were countless others. You think people like that only strike once?”
When Kara finds her voice, it’s thick, full of disgust and horror. Her childhood was a mess. Her broken home, her mercurial, cruel father. Her hopeless, broken mother. But this? No. This is not something that ever darkened Kara’s door as a girl. “What happened to her?”
“The judge?” Dieter’s eyes flicker here, his tone shifting with odd amusement. An almost grin pulls at the corner of his mouth. “She had an accident , chickadee. During a fox hunt, hosted at one of my father’s properties out east. She so loved to fox hunt, after all. Bit of a blueblood thing, you wouldn’t get it. There was a mishap with her tack. You know the girth, right? I showed you last time we tacked up the fat bastard in the back field?”
Numb, Kara replies, “The thing that hooks up to the saddle and goes under the belly? That we tightened to make sure the saddle didn’t slip?”
“Bingo!” He snaps his fingers, pleased that she remembered. “Well, she didn’t tend to be the sort to tack her own mount, nor did she check the work of those who did . It was loose when she rode off with the rest of the hunt. While they galloped through the fields, it slipped completely, the saddle going right under the horse. She landed wrong and snapped her neck. Dead as a doorknob. Only reason she didn’t crack her stupid skull was because of her helmet, not that it mattered. The horse trampled her wicked bones.”
Dieter tilts his head back and looks at her from under lowered lashes briefly, continuing his ugly tale. “After her death, the videos she’d made came to light of countless boys she besmirched. No one wanted to investigate too far . There was a lot of corruption when she held her seat as a judge. Her crimes implicated many. So, someone influential made it disappear. She died a well-respected judge.” He sneers briefly.
It took Kara a few moments to pull herself together, because inside she simply wanted to cry . The thought of this happening to Nick…twisting him, ruining his ability to have a normal relationship with other women-
Being abused and videotaped? She shudders and tries to hide how defeated it makes her feel.
When the world stops spinning on a hideous carousel in Kara’s mind, she settles on one strange question. “What does this have to do with you, Dieter?” What is the real point you wanted to make to me? “Why does Nick…why is he untrusting of you ?”
“ Ah ah ah …you’re not asking the right question.” He wiggles his finger in her face.
Not in the mood to play his little games, Kara huffs out a furious breath and thinks through what he just told her. The right question? The horrible woman, the accident, the horse, Nick being wary of Dieter-
Like mother, like son.
A putrid thought sticks in her gut. “Who tacked up her horse the day she died?”
For a moment, Dieter is silent, appraising her in the darkness of his grand bedroom. He runs a finger across her bare thigh, watching her skin prickle with awareness. Every movement of his is perfectly calculated, predatory. “Oh, it’s nothing so devious as what you’re thinking. The answer is that one of the grooming staff tacked her horse that day. They were all fired. Each and every one.”
The barest hint of relief slides through her. It isn’t much comfort.
“You knew what was happening to Nick,” she utters slowly, mouth tasting bitter with bile. “He confided in you, about what was happening-” She stops speaking, feeling choked up. “Did you tell someone, betraying his trust? You must have told…someone else must have heard and he must have gotten in trouble with his mother for telling-”
When Dieter replies, his answer is no answer at all. “Poor Nick. His mother was so displeased with him when that old hag bit the dust. He was so afraid of his mother’s disappointment as a boy. Still is. Sickening, really. Mine was never around, so I couldn’t comprehend the sentiment.” He says it with a certain finality that makes Kara’s skin crawl. He doesn’t blink and his fingers dance across her naked hips. His pale green eyes are nearly a complete yawning black.
He’s enjoying this , she finds herself thinking with a distant sort of horror.
Ice fills her veins as she tries to piece it all together. Something is missing. “…but, the judge had an accident, why would Nick’s mother blame him-”
His head tilts slightly. “Did she though?”
Her mind races, twisting over everything that isn’t being said. “Dieter-”
When his eyes shift over to her, there’s a brief flash of a terrifying emptiness, a sea of darkness, empty of a soul. Empty of morality and anything remotely holy. Rarely has she seen him look this way. When she blinks, the impression is gone, as if it never was. He’s grinning sweetly now, pleasant. “I’m just playing with you, chickadee. Don’t look so scared shitless. That old bitch died in a tragic accident; she should have checked her tack before riding out.”
Kara’s mouth goes dry and she stares at him, feeling a strange tremble come to her fingers.
She doesn’t know what to think.
An eerie voice that sounds like her own mother whispers venom in her mind. Like mother, like son.