Twenty-One Days (Pleasure Series Book 3) Read online

  Twenty-One Days

  PLEASURE SERIES BOOK 3

  Amber Rayne

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Amber Rayne

  TWENTY-ONE DAYS

  © 2017, Amber Rayne

  [email protected]

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

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  Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  EPILOGUE

  MESSAGE TO THE READER

  CHAPTER 1

  I rolled over and found myself alone in the king-sized bed, where Aiden had been just hours before. I sat up and looked around the room. Empty. Had he left in the middle of the night? It was foolish to think someone like Aiden would abandon his rules. Last night it had been as it would always be—sex. Nothing more, nothing less.

  My clothes had been folded and placed on the dresser along with a toothbrush and toiletries. I went into the bathroom, brushed my teeth and showered, and put on Aiden’s shirt, which was lying next to where my clothes were folded. Hints of his cologne wafted off it. I ran my hand gingerly over my wrists, which still bore the marks of being tied to the bed and writhing against the restraints. And my ass was still tender from the strikes of Aiden’s palm against it. Each smack had just aroused me more. Reliving last night in my head, I thought of the way his lips had felt on me, the way he’d tasted, the firm touch of his hands on my body, his rough, commanding voice.

  But I was quickly pulled out of the moment when I looked at the empty bed. He’d left me in the middle of the night. I shook off the feelings because I didn’t have a right to them. The rules and intentions have been discussed. I hadn’t gone into this blindly. Aiden had been upfront with everything. Forcing myself to deal with it logically, I wasn’t angry or frustrated anymore. Those feelings had been replaced with need. The desire to feel Aiden in me again, to repeat all the naughty things he’d done to me, and to hear him whisper all the salacious acts he planned to do to me.

  I smiled the moment I found Aiden in the kitchen.

  “Good morning. You were sleeping soundly. I didn’t want to wake you,” he greeted me, his voice deep, sexy, and silky. A direct contrast to the night before. Heat brushed my cheeks as my mind drifted back to the night before. My gaze dropped from his for a moment as I cleared my thoughts. When I looked up again, he flashed me a devilish grin that settled over his features as he watched me. There wasn’t any doubt that he knew what I was thinking about. His tongue slipped out to moisten his lips and the warmth licked at my face again.

  “This morning?”

  He nodded. He had spent the whole night. Relief—I hated that I felt it, but I couldn’t control that feeling.

  “We spent the night together?”

  The corner of his lips lifted into a small smile. “Of course.”

  I stood rooted just a few feet away from him. It was seven forty in the morning, and he was already dressed: dark blue suit, pale blue shirt, and the untied the patterned tie he had draped casually around his neck. Once again, my thoughts went to a sensual place. I immediately thought of the time he’d used his tie to bind my hands before introducing me to temperature play and spankings. Just as my body had responded then, it responded now. A grin coursed over his lips as though he knew the place where my mind had ventured.

  He stepped closer, his lips brushing against my cheek as he spoke. “We’ll play later, when I get back,” he offered.

  “Work?”

  His smile faded as he took a ragged breath. “Something like that.”

  The strained look meant it had something to do with his father. Aiden wasn’t much different than I was in that aspect. Bound by paternal love, he did things for his father, a man he might love but clearly despised, for no other reason than that he was his father. He broke my train of thoughts when he brushed a strawberry over my lips. I opened my mouth and he put it in.

  When I finished it, he pulled off a piece of a croissant and offered it to me. His fingers lingered over my lips, and he smiled when my tongue lightly flicked against them. He hesitated, then leaned in, his warm breath drumming against my lips and faintly wisping along my cheek before he made his way to my ear. He kissed it lightly. “Ella, stop that. I have things to do. You keep that up and I won’t make it out the door.”

  I grinned when he patted me, and not gently, on my butt. I sat on the counter and watched him as he prepared a plate for me—croissant, cheese, fruit, and smoked salmon. When he handed me my plate, I started to hop down from the counter to take a seat at the table, but he shook his head, easing his way between my legs. Wrapping the salmon together, he served it to me.

  He laughed when I winced at the juice he served me. “You don’t like grapefruit juice.”

  “Making a disgusting fruit into a juice isn’t going to make it more likable,” I offered, turning my head when he offered it to me again. He waited for a few minutes and tried it again. And this time I took a small sip.

  Frowning, he pulled the glass from my lips and walked to the sink to pour it out. He leaned against the sink and studied me in silence for several long, excruciating moments.

  His voice dropped to a low grumble, his dissatisfaction with me apparent. “Ella,” he said, my name rolling off his tongue, strained and cool. “You didn’t want it, so why did you take it?”

  I didn’t have an answer, so I remained quiet.

  “Ella, answer me,” he demanded.

  Finding his gaze hard to hold, I dropped it. “Look at me.” I didn’t immediately respond. He sighed. “Please.”

  My eyes flew up to meet his. “Because you offered it.”

  “But you didn’t want it.” It wasn’t about grapefruit juice, it was about his rules and what he believed and what this week was about. Pleasure. My pleasure, but doing only what I wanted to do, what made me happy. “Don’t do that with me. When you walk out the door and you want to sacrifice your happiness to make other people happy, regrettably, I can’t stop you from doing it, but don’t do that with me.” He turned from me and pulled out several different types of drinks, and I nodded at the smoothie. He smiled and handed it to me.

  Emboldened by his words, I asked. “Am I your first?”

  He chuckled. “No, you aren’t my first. I’ve had sex plenty of times.”

  I rolled my eyes. “The first to stay in your room, in your bed.” Aiden had rules, strict rules about his pleasure weeks, and the one he was most strict about was that he slept alone. Languidly, he eased closer to me, once again nestling between my legs, his fingers stroking my inner thing.

  “You are the first in a long time.” He inhaled a sharp breath, and I tried to figure out how he felt about it. He appeared wrought with apprehension and I didn’t understand why.

  He slipped away and I immediately missed his presence. “Bane
can take you to get some clothes.” His eyes moved over my attire, which was just a shirt of his and underwear. “As much as I love this look, it limits our activities. You need clothes.”

  I hated being chauffeured around by the stolid Bane. I’m sure he was used to Aiden’s various guest and didn’t care either way, but I felt like he was judging me. I was fucktoy number whatever.

  I nodded, and he kissed me lightly on my cheek, the warmth licking at it and lingering for several moments. I hated that he did that to me.

  He slipped away as he started to tie his tie while watching me with his intense amber eyes.

  A few minutes later he had settled between my legs, his hand roving over my butt and then grabbing my ass cheeks, hard. Pleasure and pain from my sore bottom blended together and inched through me. Heat started between my legs and coursed over my stomach and my breasts. My nipples hardened. He leaned down and flicked his finger over them, coaxing a moan from me. He stepped back and grinned.

  “I have to go to a meeting.” He looked at his watch.

  He kissed me, his tongue searching mine. His fingers roving over my body. Don’t respond. Don’t respond. I wanted so badly not to react, but I always did, and Aiden enjoyed every moment of it. His dark, amused chuckle drifted throughout the room moments after he’d walked out the door.

  CHAPTER 2

  Twice, Bane refused my offer to come into my apartment and wait while I packed. Instead, he pointed to a weathered paperback in the passenger seat of the car. My bags were packed, including a selection of casual clothes and several of the dresses Aiden had given me over the past two weeks, which still had the tags on them. Just as I started out the door, a garment bag and suitcase in tow, my phone buzzed. I checked it: an unknown number. I considered ignoring it just on the off chance that it was Jason again, but after Aiden had threatened him, it was doubtful that it was him. Aiden could be trying to call me, so I picked up.

  “Ella,” Jason breathed my name softly.

  I cursed under my breath, and when I spoke, it was difficult to keep the irritation out of my voice. “Jason, what do you want?” I asked.

  “You. Ella, I was wrong and I’ve been miserable without you. Can we meet and talk?”

  “How sweet. What will we talk about? Your wife? Or how you married the woman you were cheating on with me with? Do I get the glorious opportunity to be the one you’re screwing while the woman you claim to love waits at home for you? I wonder how she’ll respond when she finds strands of brunette hair on your clothes when she’s blond. From experience, denial is the first course of action. But I’m sure since she was once the other woman, she would never go that route,” I snapped.

  He maintained the cool intonation of arrogance and self-entitlement. “Are you still with Aiden? Is he the reason for this new confidence and attitude? He won’t be there forever. When he no longer desires your particular flavor, he’ll toss you aside like the others. He has a reputation, and everyone knows what you are to him. Don’t get too comfortable next to him. I saw the photos from the fundraiser. The happy couple. In three weeks or so, there will be another photo with a different woman. You’re just a rest stop.”

  “Me not wanting to meet you has nothing to do with Aiden and everything to do with me having self-respect. You’re not sorry. You’re sorry you got caught and that I’m not at home pining over you, depressed and whining about not being able to find another man like you. There’s nothing more for us to say to each other. Leave me alone.”

  The weighted silence lingered for several moments. I was about to hang up when I heard him speak. “Ella, I still love you.”

  “For how long? Until you find someone else who interests you? What you have foolishly mistaken for love is your need for a challenge. Let me assure you, you need to stop looking at me as a challenge and see this for what it is: something that will never happen.” I hung up and picked up my luggage and garment bag and continued out the door. But I couldn’t get Jason out of my head. It was hard not to feel foolish for ever loving him. I had once taken his narcissism and arrogance as confidence, his cruel insults and backhanded compliments as his desire to make me a better person. He was just a reminder of how naïve I had been, how committed to meeting my mother’s expectations for me and not my own. When the phone rang again as I got into the back of the car, I didn’t answer; I let it go to voicemail. It rang again a few minutes later.

  Grabbing the phone out of my purse, I was prepared to tell Jason where to go and how to get there. But when I saw Aiden’s number, the anger wilted away.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Nothing, why?”

  “I was informed you were upset and it seemed to have taken you a while to gather your things. Are you having second thoughts?”

  My eyes narrowed on Bane. Snitch.

  “Not at all. Jason called me. I just wish he would leave me alone.”

  “Have you told him to?”

  “Yes, and I was adamant about it. I’m a game to him. You know how some men are.” I immediately regretted the last part. There was truth to it in regard to Jason, and to a lesser extent, Aiden. What transpired between us was a game with intricate and detailed rules. And he was the gamemaster. It changed at his whim. Seven days became twenty-one. I slept in the guest room until he no longer wanted me there. He disclosed things to me when he wanted and not a moment before. I got to know what little he revealed by a predetermined number of questions he allowed me to ask. It was a nebulous game, but a game nonetheless. Aiden remained silent on the other end as Bane negotiated the crowded highway. It was the first time I’d had second thoughts about spending another seven days with him. What happened after?

  “After this week, what happens between us?”

  He was silent for a while, and I appreciated the consideration he gave to my question.

  “What do you want to happen?”

  That wasn’t an answer, and I figured he wouldn’t give me one. I didn’t want to answer either, afraid of the rejection. Aiden was honest, and that was something I appreciated, but it opened me up to harsh truths that I wasn’t ready to deal with.

  “Nothing. I’ll see you when you get home.”

  Aiden was waiting for me when I entered the penthouse with Bane behind me, carrying the small luggage. He eyed it and made a face, but I wasn’t sure if he was concerned that the bag was too small or too large. Packing for an excursion with Aiden was always a task because I wasn’t sure where we would end up. Bane hesitated as if he’d misheard Aiden when he asked him to take my things to his room.

  Once Bane left, Aiden took off his jacket and laid it across the sofa, then slipped off his tie. I eyed it until he placed it over his jacket. Standing inches from me, he pulled me closer to him, his fingers interlaced in my hair as he kissed me. His tongue seductively played with mine and explored my mouth. Tentative fingers slipped under my shirt and kneaded at my skin and then roamed along the curves of my body. His thumbs stroked against my nipples. The hardened pebbles strained against my bra. He slipped my shirt off, and then his fingers slid across my back and unhooked my bra, and I let it slip to the floor. He teased each nipple with his tongue. My breath came hard, and I tugged at his shirt, pulling him closer to me. He gathered my hands in his.

  “We have plans. I hope I wasn’t too presumptuous, but I wasn’t sure if you would bring something for our outing.”

  “Where are we going?”

  He grinned. “Out.” He released my arms, and I hated that everything he did to me, no matter how casual the act, reminded me of the naughty things he did to me. The simple act of releasing my arms was a reminder that they had been outstretched above my head as he’d played with me, his fingers coursing over every inch of me, his tongue and warm kisses eventually following. How alluring and deliciously tormenting it was to be touched by him and unable to respond. To lie there as he pleasured me the way he wanted and the way I loved it.

  Standing in front of him, naked from the waist up, I didn’t move f
or a moment. Nor did he, his gaze focused on my breasts and how aroused they were. Keeping my hands at my side, I refused to cover them, teasing him with them.

  “Ella, we have to go.” He stepped closer and urged me to his room to get dressed.

  CHAPTER 3

  The moment we stepped out of the building, he gave my attire a long, lingering look. The midnight-blue strapless dress hugged my breasts enough to give them a slight lift, and the A-line style made the dress casual enough to complement Aiden, who still wore the blue slacks and white French-cut button-down. Still midday, the weather was nice enough, and I was surprised when he said we were walking. Then he looked down at my three-inch heels. “It’s close.”

  He extended his hand to mine, and I paused before taking it. Another one of his rules, broken. I hated the rules, and part of me wanted to forgo them, but as my fingers interlocked with his and he looked over at me and smiled, I didn’t feel lust, or the feeling of warmth that crept over me and caused me to desire him on a carnal level. I felt something different—something that I knew probably wasn’t going to end well. I inhaled the crisp air and focused on the people we passed, the cars, the large buildings and the shops, allowing them to distract me from the odd influx of emotions that I was having a difficult time sorting out.

  Our destination was just a few blocks away, and we turned into a small cigar bar. The bright sun was filtered out as soon as we closed the door behind us. The scent of expensive cigars wafted through the air. I didn’t like cigars, but the smell was always more alluring than the taste. Despite people sitting at the bars and tables, taking small draws from them, the air only held light hints of it.