Colin was starting to piss her off. The stress, the tension, of what they were going to do for money was rising as the end of the project got closer. The stress at work was taking its toll on the others, too. She got nothing from Donovan but a "I'm still considering it", and invitations to more dinners, which she turned down.

Damn him! He had all the money in the world. Some of the sculptures, paintings and books he'd shown her in his library were worth a million dollars by themselves! He could fund the project if he wanted to without it bothering his fat wallet in the least!

But why should he? That was the problem.

Damn it! Her house was nothing like the luxury he had, but it was cozy and warm and lovely, and they'd wind up having to lose it! At least, not until they sold it! That bastard!

And how was that his issue or fault, some part of her asked. He was under no obligation to help some stranger. There were a lot of people in financial difficulties. He couldn't help them all.

She'd have to make herself a lot less of a stranger in order to qualify for his interest. And she was pretty sure what that would involve. Could she do it? She had to at least think about it. He was not an unattractive man. Absent Colin she could see letting herself be seduced by him. There was a certain impressive and attractive quality to wealth and power, after all, quite aside from the fact he seemed witty, intelligent and sophisticated.

What would he be like in bed, she wondered.

But she was loyal to Colin! On the other hand, Colin was going to be ruined if she couldn't come up with her share of the bills. And as the time ran down there was only one way she could think of to do that. And he certainly would not approve!

Could she face herself being some sort of part-time mistress on the side to a wealthy man? For money? That was like prostitution! But then again, he wasn't paying her anything. So that made it something else again. Would sleeping with Donovan even guarantee the money would be given to the university?

Then again, he hadn't sounded like he was talking about a one time deal.

I shouldn't even be considering this, she told herself angrily.

But then again the contrast between the suave, sophisticated, charming Donovan and all his bright, sunny, beautiful penthouse, and her increasingly sullen, resentful, angry boyfriend was starting to make her think Donovan would be far more comfortable to be around than Colin!

Colin never blamed her, of course. He was honest enough to recognize that it was certainly not her fault. But he wouldn't be human if some part of him didn't hold her responsible, even if subconsciously, and the stress of impending financial disaster was not making him a pleasant guy to be around.

Her heart was beating a mile a minute when she called Donovan again and accepted the invitation to come over after work. She felt almost light-headed, sometimes despairing of her lack of options, and sometimes... filled with a strange sense of wild exhilaration and anticipation. Whatever being with Donovan was like, she didn't think it would be boring.

He was in an amazingly expensive suit when he opened the door himself.

"Delighted you could come, Miss Sanderson," he said, giving her a hug and a chaste kiss on the cheek. "Do come in."

Flushing, she entered, looking around for the maid.

"Servants night off," he said.

The tension in her ratcheted up, but there was a sense of relief, too.

He led her out to the pool.

"Go ahead, find something to put on," he said.

She flushed, cringing a little. He must know that her return visit meant she was more desperate than before, and probably thought she had reconsidered.

She was more than a little numb about the fact she indeed had reconsidered, and so simply nodded, glad to get her overheated face out of his sight. She breathed again as she closed the door and looked at the shelves. She tried to find the suit she'd worn last time but everything was in bags, new. What did he do to suits after people had worn them, throw them out and buy new ones?

As before, most of the suits were too small for her, or too large. But there was one that hadn't been there before. Oh yes, it was her size, all right. The top was smaller, not half cups, but maybe one third, barely covering her nipples. The bottom was a thong.

She shook her head and couldn't help smiling to herself, thinking of Donovan having this put her just for her. She was sure he had. Some part of him was still an adolescent. And some part of her was determined to parry him. So she opened another package and found an appropriate bottom (her hips were not unusually slim or fat, after all). Then she found a bandeau top which, while too small and too tight, was still considerable more coverage than the only top in her size he'd left her.

Feeling a trifle smug, she stepped out of the changing cabin, with a towel this time, wrapped around herself. Wouldn't he be surprised when he saw she wasn't wearing his carefully prepared bikini!

She was surprised as she saw him sitting on the lounge, for he hadn't changed. He was still in his expensive suit. That flustered her a bit. She felt oddly more naked when he was fully clothed. But there didn't seem a lot she could do about it. She padded around the pool to his side.

"You're not changed?"

"I'll change in a bit."

He was looking at her expectantly, and Kerry felt her stomach starting to flutter, felt a new sense of tension. She'd worn the towel to surprise him, but now ... now she realized her error. Opening it would be sort of like... disrobing in front of him! She felt her chest tighten, and half turned away, then slipped it off as casually as she could.

That meant she couldn't be looking at his face as he realized his failure, but she couldn't bring herself to. She was becoming more self-conscious, and feeling the sexual tension growing. Resentment was growing too, though. Damnit! She hadn't gone to school for six years to have to sleep with men to support herself!

"Nice suit," he said.

She turned her face at last, a challenging look on it.

"Do you really think so? You didn't expect something else, perhaps?"

"What else?"

"Maybe a thong bikini with tiny cups?"

He shrugged and looked bemused. "I wouldn't have minded it."

She frowned, wondering. Could he possibly not have specifically selected a suit for her? Who bought the suits anyway?
She had to sit. Standing like this was like... like posing her body for him!

She sat abruptly.

"Mr Donovan," she said, bracing herself.

"Yes?"

"About that uhm, donation to the university."

"Yes?"

"I was wondering - ."

"Me too."

She blinked. "What?"

"You're a smart girl, Kerry," he said. "You also seem pretty solid, emotionally."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you don't act like a poor little girl who thinks any man ought to be willing to help you out any time you're in trouble. You know that's not true."

"Of course it's not!"

"So since there's no overriding reason for me to donate a million bucks to your university, you want to give me one."

"Well..."

"And the only thing you have to bargain with is your body."

Kerry felt blood rushing to her face.

"Not your body alone, of course. I could rent a body, a perfect, gorgeous female body, from any number of very willing women. Hell, I could buy them by the score. It's not your body I'm interested in, or at least, not by itself. Your body has very little value to me without the rest of you."

"The... rest of me?" she gulped.

He reached out and pressed his index finger lightly against the center of her forehead.

"What's in there," he said. "I want to interact with that, not merely with a body."

"Interact?" she said, blinking. "That's a strange word to use."

"Play with would seem insulting. Make love to would be dishonest. I don't love you. And you love another. I want to... enjoy your mind."

"Would I be... naked during this enjoyment?" she asked anxiously.

"Oh yes," he said with a deep smile.

She flushed again and her chest tightened.

"Colin..."

"Would never know."

"But I would know."

"Well yes, that's true. But aren't you doing this in part for him? In fact, isn't it mainly for him?"

She bit her lip. "You play dirty."

"I'm a dirty boy," he said playfully. "But always honest."

She felt a flare of anger. "Its not fair!"

"Fair? What in life is fair? How many young women never make it to your age because of some sort of awful disease? How many spend years educating themselves and then get hit by a bus? What's fair about you living in your lovely little house while millions and billions live in tin shacks with sewage floating past the front doorway? Life, my dear girl, is not and has never been fair."

"But - ."

"And, to be blunt, sleeping with me is hardly a fate worse than death. In fact, the central point of any encounter will be how many times I can make you climax."

She squirmed mentally, face flaming as she turned it away.

"You don't think much of yourself, do you?" she said scathingly.

"On the contrary. I think a lot about myself."

"All right," she said after a long, silent minute.

"Say again."

"All right," she said, only slightly louder.

"No, my dear. That's not acceptable. You will turn and you will look at me and you will speak up and tell me exactly what you're offering."

"Damn you!"

"And insulting me had best not be part of it. Look at me," he said, voice sharpening.

She turned and looked at him, her mind squirming with discomfort.

"I wasn't insulting you!"

"Damning me would once have been considered a crime, you know. You would be calling for me to be damned, quite literally one of the original curses. When people took religion more seriously that was punishable under the law. Do you want me to punish you, Miss Sanderson?"

She felt a flare of alarm, but something else again, a kind of intrigued sense of breathless anticipation.

"I'm too big to spank," she said without thinking, then cringed.

He smiled almost beatifically. "On the contrary, my dear. You are a perfectly adequate size for a spanking."

Oh God!

He stood up and she scrambled to her feet, heart suddenly beating very quickly. He moved closer and she backed up.

"Do you want me to chase you around the pool?" he asked. "I will if you want to, but aside from that..."

"No!"

He stepped closer, and, pulse racing, she forced herself not to move.

"Since the cat appears to have got your tongue I should explain what I expect of you," he said, reaching out slowly.

His finger combed the hair back from her forehead, gently, skimmed along her cheek, and then as he moved around behind her, traced their way down her shoulder and bare arm. She felt herself trembling with tension and alarm.

"To begin with, here is my guarantee," he said, fingers combing through her hair, his breath warm against the back of her neck.

"First: Nothing I do will cause you any harm. Second: nothing we do, or you do will ever become public knowledge. Third: I will see to it your project is funded for a time. And if your relationship with me develops as I expect, I will within a few months, make that funding permanent and irrevocable."

His hand slid around her, fingers caressing her upper chest, but not touching her breasts.

Her heart was pounding wildly. "But - ."

His hand rose, fingers pressing against her lips.

"Don't speak yet."

His other arm slid around her, his hand on her trembling stomach, and she squeaked in surprise and alarm.

"You will promise never to reveal any details of our relationship with anyone. You will visit with me at least once every two weeks, either during the day or afterward. And what we do will be entirely up to me."

The hand on her stomach was edging lower, the fingers sliding into the waistband of the bikini bottom, teasingly caressing the skin as they slid from side to side.

Kerry's pulse was pounding in her throat, and she felt a sense of breathlessness, helplessness and anticipation.

She gasped as his other hand slid into her hair, tightened around it and then pulled back, slowly forcing her head up and back. She started to reach up for his hand but he halted her.

"No!" he said. "You are my plaything, in a way. I'll decide how to play with you, and what to do with you."

"I-It's my body, remember?" she gasped.

"Thus my promise to cause it no harm. Not that I would anyway. Why would one harm a work of art? Lower your arms."

So he wanted someone passive, did he? A plaything? Some part of her flared angrily at that. But her heart was still racing, and there was more than anxiety within her driving it. She could feel the tightness of the bandeau top around her breasts, could feel them swelling, the nipples already rock hard.

"I will take pictures," he said, continuing, pulling her head back further so that her back arched.

"None will ever make it out to the public. I'll even sign a contract to that effect, with a million dollar penalty if I fail to keep them secure."

She blinked at that. The thought that a naked picture of her could get out, say on the internet, had always been there, no matter how much she trusted Colin, and, okay, Joey, before Colin, and Mark. But a million dollars was a heck of a compensation for that kind of embarrassment!

"Keep your arms at your sides," he directed.

Kerry tried to control her breathing, alarmed and disconcerted. She was no virgin, but she'd never had an experience where she basically was required to do as she was told! All her sexual experiences had been partnerships, sharing, a joining of two people. This was... as if she was a model he was posing, or perhaps a toy he was playing with. Instead of doing something together he was doing it himself, but to her.

The fingers inside the bottom of her suit never made it into very dangerous territory, and slid back up, much to her relief, but then they skimmed lightly across the taut surface of the bandeau, across her breast, and she gasped aloud. They returned, fingers brushing, rubbing at her nipples through the top as her face burned.

He released her hair and she drew her head forward with a gasp of relief, then gulped again as both hands now cupped her breasts gently, their warmth enveloping her as she felt his warm breath against the back of her neck.

The bandeau was held together by a clip between the breasts. His fingers reached for it, then eased it open, pulling the bandeau back. Kerry felt a hot rush of embarrassment at the exposure, despite him being behind her. She was so focused on that she barely noticed, at first, as he drew the material back around her body, forcing her arms back as he did.

Then she felt her arms forced back even further, all the way back, with the material wrapped around them, tightening.

"Wha - what are you doing!?" she squeaked.

"Whatever I want that causes you no harm," he said in a soft voice.

"Th-that hurts!"

"Only a little, and it will ease," he said as he played with the bandeau.

Her shoulders ached as her arms were forced straight back, and the bandeau tightened around her upper arms. But the ache was only a minor thing. Her mind was focusing instead on the sudden exploding sense of helplessness!

But then again, she'd been helpless from the start. Realistically, he was twice her weight and could have done anything he wanted to if he was of a mind to force her. She tried to reassure herself with that, and it worked to some extent. She wasn't afraid of him, not fearing he was some kind of dangerous psycho (though the thought flitted through her mind).

He spun her around suddenly and she stumbled, but was caught, his hands on her waist. Her arms jerked sharply against the bandeau binding them behind her, to cover herself, but of course, she couldn't. Which, she was sure, was precisely the idea. She couldn't resist staring at him as he examined her breasts, then jerking her eyes down, face hot.

"Head up and back," he ordered, reaching behind to grip her hair and force her head back.

"Don't!"

"Then do," he said.

He studied her, and she burned with embarrassment, pulling her arms helplessly against the bandeau.

"Untie me!" she gulped.

"Why?"

He smiled and moved behind her. Kerry gasped as she felt him grip her hair, felt herself being tugged backward, then down.

He was sitting on the edge of one of the loungers, and now she was sitting across his lap, pulse racing again. Her breasts were at a level with his face and he was examining them with interest.

"You really are the complete package," he said softly. "Your breasts are incredible. They're perfect."

Despite the wild anxiety and embarrassment Kerry felt a little smug sense of pleasure at the obvious admiration.

Then he cupped one of her breasts, jolting her. The feel of warm flesh on her flesh, the feel of her breast throbbing in his hand as he squeezed lightly and lifted. The sight of him looking at her erect nipple made her mind twist and her stomach flutter.

He looked up at her and his lips quirked up.

"Shall we play, my dear?"

What did he mean by that!?

She gasped as he seized her hair again, forcing her head up and back.

"Oh! Don't!" she cried.

Her head was so far back he couldn't see him any more. But she felt his finger circling her erect nipple, felt the pressure as he seized her nipple between his fingers, felt him ... plucking at it, rolling it softly, then pinching and tugging it out from her body until it stung.

"Ow!"

She heard his soft chuckle, then her nipple was released, and she felt his fingers gliding down her taut, stretched body, down between her legs. Her eyes widened as he cupped her and squeezed lightly.

"Naughty little girl," he purred, fingers pressing into her, rubbing up and down through the suit.

Kerry tried to get hold of her breathing before she hyperventilated, but when she felt the string at the side of her bottom released, when she felt him tugging her suit bottom off, her pulse shot up, and her face flamed as she squirmed wildly, instinctively trying to pull away.

"No, no," he said. "The prisoner is going nowhere until she is properly punished."

Oh God, she thought. He was a kinky perve!

But his fingers caressed her gently, and felt a startling surge of sensation.

"Spread your legs," he barked, in a voice which caused her to instantly obey before she even thought about it.

Then she tried to jerk her thighs closed, only to feel his hand between them, cupping her again, his fingers curled in and she hissed as they penetrated her, twisting around in the mouth of her sex. Her mind was spinning with indecision, not helped at all by a wild sense of sexual anticipation gripping her.

She gasped as she felt his mouth on her breast, around her nipple, felt his teeth against her skin, felt the warmth of his breath and then the feel of his tongue sliding across her rigid little pink button. The sensations rippled through her chest and she squirmed helplessly, gulping in air even as his fingers pushed deeper into her sex.

She ... ached. How many fingers was he pushing into her!? At the same time, the sensation of being penetrated was intensely arousing, and then she felt a finger against her clitoris, and the sensations grew even more intense.

She couldn't even see what he was doing! She couldn't watch it! With her head pulled so far back she could only look up at the sky! It was almost as if she was divorced from her own body, or blindfolded, only able to tell from ... sensations. And the sensations were flooding into her!

His fingers began to slide in and out, and she realized, with a sense of deep embarrassment, that she was very wet, very slick. The finger rubbing at her clitoris felt even more exquisite as it stroked slickly across her, and her breast was on fire. Her mind was flooded with excitement and sensation, and she felt her hips grinding helplessly against him.

Oh fuck! She didn't want to - !

The orgasm washed over her, and left her trembling and shaking, gurgling breathlessly as her hips bucked spastically against his pumping fingers. She'd had orgasms before, of course, many times. But aside from masturbation, the only time she'd had them with Colin were when he was performing oral sex on her.

And she'd never had one quite this intense. The rush of sensation was overwhelming, and her body bucked and twisted as her mind focused everything on the pleasure, the wild, wanton, incredible, wonderful pleasure. She didn't care about anything else in the world so much as having it continue as long as possible. She shuddered and moaned and shook, not even breathing as she let the sensations take her where they would.

And then, finally, as it subsided, she gulped in air, only then realizing she'd forgotten to breath, and slumped bonelessly back against him.