“I asked you a question, princess.”
“How do you even know about that?” I back up, putting distance between us, but not space. Not with the way his fathomless eyes eat me up. His black tux and matching mask hide him from me, but I can still feel him like a weight.
“I know everything about you.”
“Not possible.”
“You left school last year. Then you began your ruse to become a sugar baby. Why?”
I cross my arms. He can’t interrogate me. My private life is none of his damn business. “We had an agreement. I needed favors. You gave them, and I paid. That’s it.”
“One more payment, Lily.” His words are a soft threat.
I’m scared, but not as scared as I should be. “You know how badly I needed to fit in tonight.”
“Did you really think Graves would propose?” He gives a cruel laugh.
“Of course not,” I snap.
“Oh?” His dark brows rise beneath his mask.
“I just needed him to see me as … as—”
“An equal?” He tsks.
I throw up my hands. “He has to believe I come from money. Otherwise, his family would never approve.”
“Why did you leave school?”
“I don’t have to tell you shit.” I hate this man. He’s the devil. One who came to me with a bargain that seemed so easy at first, the price small. But it grew and grew, and now he’s here, haunting me through this fantastical party that never seems to end.
“You left because you needed money.” He answers his own question as he takes a step toward me.
I back up, but it only leads me deeper under the wisteria arbor, into the fragrant dark. “Maybe I wasn’t college material.”
“You had good grades until your last semester.” He follows, each step predatory.
“How do you know that?”
“I told you, princess, I know everything there is to know about Lily Elise McDaniel.”
“Then stop asking me questions.”
“I want to hear the truth from you for once.” He moves faster now, closes the distance, and then grips my waist.
I raise a hand to his mask, but he takes my wrist and squeezes. “Don’t.”
“Afraid I’ll find out who you are and go to the cops?” I try to keep my tone even despite the heat that blazes inside me. I’m in a dark place with a predator who treats me like nothing more than a silly princess, but he hasn’t lied. Not once. I do owe him. And I knew the price before I accepted the bargain.
“What would you tell the police, princess?” He growls against my ear, then he whips me around and presses me against the wall of wisteria. “That a stranger paid your bills, set you up with a trust fund baby, and bought you expensive gifts—all at your request?” His dark laughter trickles down my spine as he yanks my dress up.
“Stop.” I try to turn.
He keeps me right where I am. “Stop? Would you like me to inform everyone that you’re here to do cleanup? I’m sure I can find a maid’s uniform if you—”
“No.” I press my cheek against the vines. “Don’t.”
“A bargain is a bargain.” With a yank, he rips my thong away, a slight burn flaring on my hips where the elastic snapped.
Then his fingers push between my legs, feeling my wet slit as I gasp.
“You might be a princess to that idiot Graves, but your cunt is a slut for me.” He circles my clit. “Soaking wet, ready for my cock.” He runs his teeth along my bare shoulder and bites as he presses two fingers inside me.
I moan and grip the wrought iron and the vines, my hips moving as he finger-fucks me. When he pulls them out and circles my clit again, I can’t catch my breath. My legs start to shake. He bites harder, holding me in place like we’re wild animals fucking under a full moon.
“I should fuck you right now, take my payment and go,” he grates against my ear. “Is that what you want?” He thrusts his hard cock against my ass.
I can’t answer. I don’t know what I want. But when he touches me like this, I know I don’t want him to stop.
“Can that little boy give you this?” He moves, then takes my hand and wrenches it behind me.
My fingers wrap around his cock, and I moan low in my throat. He’s thick, hard, and I stroke him as he keeps fingering me, then torturing me by strumming my clit.
I want his cock inside me so badly that I think I might slip and ask for it. No, I’d beg for it. It’s sick and wrong. But he continues finger-fucking me as I stroke him, wishing he was inside me—my pussy, my ass, my mouth—anything and everything.
“This is just the start of what you owe, little princess. Before I’m through, my come will be leaking out of every hole on your pretty little body.”
I shudder from fear and pleasure, horror and delight.
My body demands more, all. All of this anonymous man who took my life into his hands and twisted it for his sick fantasies. But I can’t stop the ache between my thighs, not without him. The plea is on the tip of my tongue. I’m weak, my hips moving as if I’m riding his cock. I want him. I want him so badly. My tormentor. And I owe this. It’s his to take.
With a gulp of air, I say, “Just fu—”
“Lily?” Graves’s voice cuts through my request.
The man freezes, then he bites my shoulder harder and shoves my dress back into place.
When I turn, I see nothing more than his wide back in the black tux as he disappears from beneath the arbor.
4
Clark
“Hey, Lil, where’d you go? Look, I’m so fucking glad you scored an invite to this party. I met up with a bunch of my old frat bros.” Graves stumbles into the arbor, too high or too oblivious to notice me only a few feet away.
I need to get myself under control. This wasn’t my plan. I intend to take my time with Lily, to debase her in every possible way. It’s the reason I responded to her sugar daddy request in the first place. Money is easy, mundane. But an innocent fool who thinks making deals with a man like me is safe? That’s irresistible, fascinating.
Or perhaps she knew I wasn’t safe. I ponder that as I follow them deeper into the property, Graves leading her toward the guest cottage along the eastern edge of the main house. Though called a ‘cottage’ it’s easily ten times the size of the average family home. The party continues inside and out, plenty of people dancing, drinking, smoking, and fucking.
“Maybe we should go.” Lily pulls on Graves’s hand, but he won’t be deterred.
He keeps going, past the pool, past the girl on her knees giving a three-way blowjob, past every bit of debauchery and excess. And I follow. Because I’m drawn to her, to the foolish girl who sold herself to me again and again.
I blend in with the other partiers, my black attire common when surrounded by jesters in bright colors or plague doctors with long birdlike masks and bulbous eyes. The grotesque and surreal are everywhere, and mixed in are plenty of society elites who wear thin masks to cover their usual ones, and designer clothes to hide the yawning emptiness inside.
Lily longs to be one of them. Why? Her blonde curls disappear inside the guest house, and I follow. Our bargain binds us together, but there’s more to it. Isn’t there always?