I take a deep breath and wonder if he expects me to go inside.

Not likely.

The voices get closer and I know, right then, I know. He’s bringing him this way on purpose. He’s gonna let some strange man look at my naked body to hammer home his point.

I’m his property and he can do with me what he wants.

I watch them as they approach and then, just before they turn the corner that will give this stranger a full-frontal view of my naked and dirty body, they stop. There’s a junction there. A fork in the road, if you will.

And I feel like this is a fork in the road for me too. Because if he brings that man over here, I will turn and go inside. That’s a line I won’t let him cross.

I take a deep breath and steady myself to disobey. They chat loudly, laughing. I can hear the conversation now. They are talking about my bag. Vaughn must have picked it up and carried it back from the clearing. They are looking inside, because the other man is asking Vaughn if he’s got a naked girl stashed somewhere.

“I do,” Vaughn says. “I’m going to her now.”

“Don’t forget lunch, dude. See you in a few.”

And then the other man walks down the path that leads away and Vaughn comes into full view.

He’s smiling. Quite big. “Good, girl. You have no idea how pleased I am.”

I’m humiliated and confused but I’m pretty sure he’s got every idea about how I feel. “I’m sorry, Master. For disobeying you.”

“I’m sure you are, Grace. But we’re not done here, not even close. I am a fountain of ideas, girl. You need to understand what you’re getting into if you deny me again. I’m going to make this incident your example.”

My mouth drops into a frown. “What else do I have to do?”

“Please yourself, Grace. Here. Now. And once you do that, once you make yourself come in public for me, I will allow you to go inside and clean up.”

I just blink at him. He wants me to masturbate? Here?

“Hurry up, girl. I’m waiting.’

“I—I can’t, Mr. Asher,” I say, breaking the Master rule so he knows I need some leeway right now. “Really, I’m not kidding. I hardly ever come when I masturbate without a vibrator.”

“Do you have a vibrator inside?”

“No—”

“Then you are shit out of luck, girl. Not put your f**king fingers between your legs, stick them inside your pu**y, and make yourself come.”

I draw in a deep breath and try to decide if I want to continue with this.

I do. I can’t f**king help it. I do. I want him to f**k me, dammit. And not just because he’s Vaughn Asher, the man I’ve fantasized about for years, but because I’m so damn horny, I just need it!

My hand dips down to my legs, but a voice on the next path makes me freeze. I look up at Asher and he’s smiling. Asshole.

“Keep going, Grace.”

He’s confusing me with the name thing. He’s calling me Grace, but he’s not being sympathetic to my situation at all. I take a steadying breath and begin to stimulate myself. I watch him intently as I do it. I picture him naked to get myself wet, and then I picture him on top of me, kissing me with that delicious mouth of his. And now that I think about it, I’ve gotten myself off to his image hundreds of times. At least. And here he is in front of me, in the flesh. In the rock-hard flesh.

“Your c**k is hard, Asher,” I say, surprising myself.

He just smiles.

“Your c**k is hard and my pu**y is so, so wet. You have no idea what you’re missing. You can stand there and stare all you want, that’s fine with me. Because I’ve got what you want, even if you refuse to admit it right now. You’re going to watch me play with my clit, then you’re going to go back to your room and jerk off, thinking about me doing this. So I’m the one in control now, Asher. I’m the one—”

He drops my bag and walks towards me.

I gulp and keep going.

“I’m the one being satisfied, Asher. I’m the one in control, because I’m the one who will make you masturbate when you leave. So there. I win.”

He cups my face in his hands. More voices and laughter come from off to the left. The rain has let up now and the place is getting busy again. “Miss Kinsella, would you like me to let you win this one?”

I nod. “I would. I really, really would.”

“Will you agree to be a good girl for the next command, Grace? If I let you have your way at this moment? No matter what I ask?”

I know the answer to this, and that answer is no. No, no, no! He’s setting me up, I can feel it. But I have a hard time saying no to people in the best of situations and right now all I want is to be spared the public humiliation of being caught touching myself by strangers. But at the same time, I really want to keep the game going. So of course, I say, “Yes, I will. I will, Mr. Asher. I swear. If you want I’ll go inside and give it a try in my room. You can even watch, but I won’t be—”

“Shh,” he says with a finger to my lips. And then he leans down and kisses me gently. His tongue slips in slightly, but not far. Just a small, tender kiss that makes my whole body melt like butter. “You win then. OK?”

He pulls back, his strong hands gently resting on my shoulders, the back of his hand lightly sweeping up and down my cheek as he takes me in. “You win. Now inside is a box. Open it and follow all the directions.”

He leans down and kisses me again and then goes back, retrieves my bag, and then slips it up my arm until it rests on my shoulder. He uses my key card to open my door, waving me in with a flourish of his hand.

I step across the threshold and let out a long breath of relief when I see a prettily wrapped box on the bed. When I turn to ask him what it is, all I see is his back as he makes his retreat.

Chapter Seventeen

ThatListIsGettingLong

THE box is large, white, has a black bow, and everything about it says it’s expensive.

I squeal after I close the door and then skip over to the bed and almost touch the precious, perfect gift box before remembering I’m a filthy mess of naked mud.

I run to the bathroom and look in the mirror.

Je-sus Christ. He saw me like this. I’m a f**king mess! I’ve got mud streaked down my whole body, my hair is a rat’s nest of tangles and that’s not easy to do with hair as straight as mine. I run the shower and jump in. I’m not sure how long I have before I need to meet him, so I wash quickly and wrap myself up in a large plush towel. I wrap my hair up next and then walk back out to the room and take in the box for real.