Catriona's Golden Angel [Prometheus in Chains 6] (Siren Publishing Classic) (9 page)

When she could stand, he allowed her to slide down his body and finished washing her. She was none too steady on her feet, but she managed to wash his back. He helped her out of the shower, and then dried her with the soft, matching bathrobes in green he had bought for them. He dried her hair with the hair dryer and helped her onto the bed.

“Shall we take a nap before we eat, Mistress?” he asked.

“Yes, my Angel,” she murmured, already half-asleep, as she curled into his shoulder. As she drifted off to sleep, she noticed that his arms wrapped about her, in an automatic gesture of love and protection.

Angel was furious. He loved his parents, and he enjoyed his job in the family firm, but he was not willing to renounce Catriona, as she meant too much to him. He made up his mind to go and see them the next day. He called his father and arranged to meet them, but first he
had
to see Catriona.

She was waiting for him, and she looked happier. He hoped that by the time he’d finished, she’d be back to her old self. She sat waiting for him on his green leather Chesterfield.

Firstly, he said he’d had Roger Welland correct the rumours.

“I know this is going to haunt you for a long time. It will not go away whatever he does or says, and for that I can only say I am so very sorry, Mistress.”

“I have weathered worse than this, my Angel. Fuck him. Fuck them all!”

“Tell me how you became interested in Kinbaku, Mistress.”

“My teacher, Miss Jepherson, was a great help as I told you. One day I got the results of my accounting exams, and I decided to go and see her to tell her. I took her flowers, chocolates, and wine to celebrate. It wasn’t one of our days, so she didn’t have the time to move some of her books from the coffee table.
Shibari
by Master “K” was on top, and I picked it up. The pictures in it changed my life. The lighting, the models, the photographs were all superb. The
way
they were tied and the patterns blew my mind. I asked her if I could borrow it, but she wasn’t really pleased I’d seen it. That was a side of her life I knew nothing about, as she had not wanted to influence me. I spoke to her at length and, eventually, she took me to a demonstration. Then I knew what I wanted and what I needed to do to be complete.”

“How did you become so skilled?” he asked. He could see that his questions were helping to calm her.

“I read and researched, then I practised by myself. It wasn’t enough. I knew I needed instruction. It’s not enough to read the books. I travelled to the USA to conferences, demonstrations, and workshops. I met Arden Leigh, and she took me under her wing. I learned the singletail from her, and she taught me how to deal with the prejudice she had encountered from some of the older pro Dommes and male rope Tops. Our cases weren’t the same. She loved to dress as an ingénue, but she had made sure she could out-rig the lot of them. I was just a beginner then, but I loved my corsets. Being much taller helped, too. It’s usually the case that the older Dommes are afraid of anyone younger, prettier, and more skilled.”

“Yes, and in the case of my mother, all that applies. I know you haven’t said that, but I’m saying it for you. I am also telling you that I will give up my family, and my job in the firm before I give
you
up, Mistress.”

“I don’t know if I can carry such responsibility,” she said, doubtfully.

“The responsibility won’t be yours. It’s my decision to make, as it concerns my future life and happiness. I don’t want you to leave me, under the mistaken impression that it’s for my own good.”

He looked at her and saw what he had feared. Someone, his mother he assumed, had already suggested that to her. My God, but this had been a close-run thing. What if she’d been influenced by his mother to leave him? He wouldn’t have survived. He felt his chest constrict and his heart speed up. He felt physically ill. He put out his hand to her, and she took it.

“What is it, my love?” she asked with such concern in her voice.

“If I lost you. I wouldn’t know how to go on living without you!” he said.

She drew close to him, and suddenly they were urgent and couldn’t wait. She started to strip him, and he her. Their hands tangled, but clothes came off and were flung away. Then they were both naked. He looked at her beautiful body, and she returned his gaze. Then they kissed and went up in flames. He held her close, bent her back over his arm, and his tongue invaded her mouth. She gave as good as she got, and their tongues tangled as his hand came up and found her nipple. She fisted her hands in his hair and held his mouth to hers, moaning, “Yes, Angel.”

He flicked her nipples with his fingers and, as she became ever more aroused, he increased the pressure, kneading, flicking, and tweaking until she writhed in his arms. She arched her back and moaned.

“Fuck me. Now! I want your cock deep inside me now!”

He got her onto her knees on the sofa, with her hands holding the back. He straddled her legs, keeping her knees close together. He sank into her inch by glorious inch until he was almost all the way into her pussy. He withdrew slightly, flexed his hips and rammed himself home.

“Harder, Angel. Hard and fast now!”

“That will be my pleasure, Mistress.”

“Miss Guthrie?”

“Speaking, who is this?”

“I’m Adrian’s mother.”

“Yes, Mrs Webster, what can I do for you?”

“I want you to leave my son alone. You’ve got him into this dreadful club. If it gets about that he is being led around on a lead, as it will, he will be ruined. He will be a laughingstock.”

“Adrian was in the lifestyle before he met me. I didn’t get him into it. I love your son and he loves me.”

“You
’
re no good for him. He needs a woman who moves in the same circles, he needs a wife who will help him in his career, not hold him back.”

“I won
’
t hold him back.”

“You will ruin him. He will never be able to hold up his head, he will have to leave the firm, if it becomes known he is a member of such a club. If that happens he will have lost all he has worked for. It will be your fault. If you love him you won
’
t do this to him.”

“We love each other, Mrs Webster, does that mean nothing to you? If your son loves me he won’t be happy with anyone else.”

“Catriona, please let him go. Let him live the life he was meant to live. If you love him you will do this.”

Catriona was silent. She knew what was being said about her, the rumours were going to take a long time to live down. She knew that mud always stuck. She didn’t want him hurt. She didn’t want to be the cause of his ruin and his losing his family.

“If you love my son, you will do the right thing. Please let him go. He needs a wife of his own class. He has a place in society. Let him take that place. Don’t ruin his life.”

Catriona heard the words and they seared into her brain. She was just an ordinary girl from Drumchapel. Angel was a rich man, and he had a brilliant future. Was she holding him back? She loved him more than life itself and she believed he loved her. Was she the right one for him? His mother clearly believed she wasn’t. Did Catriona have the right to come between Angel and his family? She’d thought she did, but now? She was weary and dispirited. She saw that the future she’d dreamed of was not to be.

“Very well, Mrs. Webster. I will leave your son.”

Catriona didn’t hear what, if anything, Mrs Webster said. She rang off and collapsed in a chair. At first she couldn’t even weep, the hurt was too acute. It was a physical thing. She couldn’t breathe. Her chest hurt. Then gradually she regained control of herself. She had to pack and leave now…while she could before he came home and she lost her nerve.

* * * *

Angel picked up the note and read it.

I’m going away. I’m not what you need. You will be happier without me. Love always, Catriona.

For one moment he thought the world had stopped.
She’s gone. Who has
…He didn’t need to finish the thought. He knew who…

He went to the bedroom and her clothes and things were gone. She
’
d taken the two books he
’
d given her. In the kitchen her collections of dishes were still in the cupboard. He collapsed into a chair, his head in his hands.
She’s gone. I’ve lost her.
For the rest of the night he sat there, tears spilled down his cheeks and the words went round and round in his head.

* * * *

“Adrian will be here tomorrow, my dear.” Mr Webster placed one hand on his wife’s shoulder. “We should talk before he gets here.” He could feel the tension in her, beneath his hands, and he massaged her shoulders.

“What is there to talk about? He must leave her. She will hurt him in the end. She will ruin his career with this fetish nonsense. If she hasn’t already.” Her voice was getting gradually higher and more strident and he needed to calm her down.

“Nobody knows what he does with her, and if these photos are not made public, no one ever will.”

He bent and shuffled through the pile of photos the private investigator had delivered to them, including the negatives, he was relieved to see. He just hoped they were the only copies. He wondered if his wife realised just what she’d risked by setting the private investigator on their son and his lady. He made a note to have a word with the man himself, and make his own position very clear. He had the wealth and influence to further the man’s career if he proved discreet, or ruin him if he didn’t. It came as no surprise to him that he was prepared to do whatever it took to protect his only son.

He chose two photographs and held out the first one to his wife.

“What do you see here?”

“It’s her, and I do
not
want to look at her.”

“Look at her now!” He didn’t often speak to her in that tone, but when he did, she had better oblige him, and oblige him she did.

She took the photo and looked at the woman’s face, and he saw her wince.

“I don’t see what my Adrian sees in her. ‘Catriona’ he calls her. She has a coarse accent, too. Glasgow, and some back slum, I’d bet.” As she said it she shuddered.

“What do you
see
?”

He persisted and saw she looked again, then he gave her the one of her lovely son. He was dressed in nothing but a black leather thong, and she blushed to see him.

“He’s looking at that woman, and the expression in his eyes…”

She didn’t go on. It seemed it had taken her breath away. Her husband noticed and said, “Just so. Now look, and see she has the selfsame expression as she looks at him. They
love each other.
”

He dropped another photo on her lap. It was of a very young girl in jeans and a T-shirt, gazing up at a young man in adoration. She picked it up and looked at it for a long time.

“You will always be that young girl to me. I would
never
,
ever
have given you up, and my mother was wise enough to see that. She had the selfsame doubts, because our backgrounds were so different. Look how our marriage has turned out? It’s lasted forty years. Would you deny him the same chance of happiness? Can’t you find it in your heart to give her the chance you were given? Do you want to lose your only son? Never see your grandchildren? He won’t give her up, and I suspect that’s what he’s coming to say tomorrow.”

He looked down at her and saw the tears falling. She loved Adrian to distraction, and hadn’t realised what she was risking, he was sure. He pulled her to her feet, and cuddled her close.

“My dear, he’s a grown man, and has to take his own risks. I do believe she would do anything for him, even give him up. But if
she
does
he
won’t forgive us. He will know it’s on our account, and we will lose him anyway.”

He saw he had given her enough to think about, and he held her close, petting her, and soothing her. She would do the right thing, he was sure.

Later that evening he went to her as she sat in her favourite chair.

“Well, my love?” He took her small, cold hands in his large, warm ones, and carried her fingers to his lips.

“It’s not what I understand, or can like, this fetish thing, but it’s what
they
like. I’ve been very foolish, haven’t I?”

“Yes, my little one, you have, but it’s not too late to put it right. Have you seen the medical notes that PI copied? Adrian’s blood pressure is back to normal, and his stress-related symptoms have largely disappeared since he met Catriona.”

“Yes I’ve looked at them, and you’re right. It’s not too late, I hope, to put it right.”

He bent and kissed her cheek. He’d known she would respond to his logic, and she did
so
love their son. She hadn’t looked at it from his point of view before, but she was an intelligent woman, and had soon seen what was in front of her eyes. He watched with pride as she stood straight, then he patted her on her still slim and very attractive little bottom. She looked over her shoulder at him as she went over to the telephone.

* * * *

The next day Adrian called on his parents. He wasn’t looking forward to the interview and had slept little. He had changed clothes and shaved in deference to his mother. He loved them dearly and suspected that what he was going to say would mean a rift that would not soon be healed. He loved Catriona, and she him, and that was his future. If they wanted to be part of it, they had to accept that. Catriona had left him. He suspected she had been persuaded to leave by his mother. He suspected his father wasn’t against them, but Mr Webster would stand with his wife.