“Maybe it was just a draft.” I tried to smile. Then a new question formed. “Where’s Yana?”
“She went to bed. It’s past her bedtime.” Roza grinned. “Why, you think she went down to play a trick on you?”
“No…” Yana was unfriendly, but I couldn’t imagine her sneaking behind boxes, avoiding the mice. “I just… I’m sorry.”
“Get some rest, darling.” Roza stood. “Taylor, I’ll declare you the winner of this game. Let’s go have a nightcap.”
“Sure!” Taylor jumped up. Wren looked up in surprise and glared at me.
She’d really thought she could use my story to win.
* * *
That night I startled awake, facing the door. Someone was walking by in the hall, the footsteps rapid and noisy. Still half-asleep, I turned on my lamp, slipped out of bed. and tiptoed to the door. In the light spilling out from my door, I could just make out someone hurrying along.
Something was wrong.
I followed, trotting down the dark hallway.
“Wait!” I squeaked, keeping my voice down so as not to wake the others. It felt important. This person was in trouble, desperate trouble, and I needed to help.
The figure scuttled along even more quickly, turning out of sight to the landing. I jogged faster, determined to catch up.
But when I reached the landing, no one was there. I walked slowly to the banister. The gray and white marble floor made a beautiful mandala, crossed with moonbeams shining in from the front hall windows. The circular table was almost directly below, topped with a vase of pink roses.
As I studied it, warm arms slipped around my waist. The arms were bare, pearlescent and glowing in the moonlight. Hard nipples pressed like pebbles into my back.
“Finally.” The voice was barely a whisper in my ear. Shock and confusion held me in place. A heavy jasmine scent filled my nostrils.
“Roza?” I ventured. I felt blurry, unable to fully understand what was happening, as if I’d been drugged.
The woman chuckled. “Don’t you know me?”
“Wren?” I started to turn around, but her arms tightened. I inhaled with surprise.
“You’ve wanted me for such a long time, haven’t you, Al?” There was a smile in her low voice. “Long before that night.”
“Wren, what the fuck?” I muttered. I wanted to pull away, but part of me felt oddly cozy in this tight embrace.
“Remember what it felt like?” Her breath was heavy in my ear. “What I did to you?”
“Why?” I asked, suddenly mournful. “Why did you do it?”
“What? You want to hear that I was in love with you?” She scoffed. “I did it because I could. Because you were my little pet and I could do whatever I wanted to you.”
“Okay.” I shifted but her arms were like a vise.
“I saw the way you looked at me. You wanted to consume me. You wanted to kill me. It was such a fun game, wasn’t it?” Her left hand drifted up and her thumb gently stroked my nipple through my tank top. I felt a stirring in my groin.
“Do you want me to stop?” She pinched, gently.
And even though I couldn’t believe this was happening, I didn’t want her to stop.
“No,” I sighed.
“And this?” Her other hand lowered, snuck inside the waistband of my pajama pants.
I gasped at the intensity. “Fuck.”
“Feels good, doesn’t it? Wow. You’re already wet, Al.” Her fingers circled my clit, gentle and insistent. “You’re my good girl, aren’t you?” The intensity melted into a new, desperate need. Something began to build, a rumbling of energy from my tailbone.
“Aren’t you?” she asked again.
“I’m not your anything,” I managed to say, still swooning.
“But I want you to be. Let’s get back together. Wouldn’t you like that?” Her voice was low and hypnotic. “I’ll win this contest and then we’ll have all the money we need.”
The words cut through the sudden desire. I shook my head. “You’re not going to win. Not with your stupid actress story. I’m going to win.”
“Al.” She chuckled, and now her voice was threatening, tinged with malice. “I always win. You know that.” She kissed my neck, grinding her hips against me, bending me over the railing. I clutched at it. The marble floor was so far below.
“Say it.” She bit my shoulder hard. “Say I win.”
I gasped at the sharp, sweet pain, then laughed. “No.”
“Say it.” Her fingers swirled faster and I pushed against them, the energy lifting in my belly like a tsunami.
“No,” I moaned. “Never.”
She pushed me harder, forcing my upper body over the bannister. I dangled, feeling deliciously weak and helpless. I was suddenly scared of the railing breaking under our combined weight, of falling two floors below, but that, too, added to the rising tension: the raw mixture of lust and fear and anger and submission and even hate, all swelling under her firm, swift movements.
“Say it.” With her other hand she grabbed my hair, cranked my head back.
“Fuck you,” I spit out, grinning.
She pulled so hard, I thought my head might pop off like a doll’s. My breath was ragged and I couldn’t stop making noises, somewhere between a laugh and a whimper.
“Al…” Teasing, threatening. “Say it or I’ll stop.”
She slowed and I didn’t want her to. “No, don’t.”
“Say please.”
“Please!”
Her fingers resumed their pace. I was moaning loudly now, caught in a dark energy that seeped into my pores. My whole body was on fire, every cell throbbing, a dam about to burst.
“Say I win.” Her voice was a growl.
I couldn’t speak. My moans were my true nature, my true self: her toy, her pet.
“Say I win.” Her nails dug into my scalp, bright points of pain. The railing creaked.
“Yes,” I whispered. The pleasure enveloped me, placental, whole.
“Say it!” The order thundered in my ears. I was there, on the brink, on the edge of a great cliff. I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to.
“You win!” I wailed. I’d wake everyone up but I didn’t fucking care. “You win! You win!”
The orgasm that engulfed me was like a nuclear explosion, white light filling my vision, an eruption so powerful that I didn’t realize I was falling until I was already in the air.
The back of my skull slammed into the round marble table. My vision shattered into a billion stars, a heavenly pattern that disappeared when my body hit the floor. I landed on my back, struggling for breath, bolts of lightning still jerking my arms and legs.
At first, I could see only faint outlines. I felt no pain. Actually, I couldn’t feel my body at all. Had I broken my neck?
Then my vision sharpened. There was Wren far above me, leaning on the railing with her elbows. Somehow, in the instant I’d started to come, she’d shoved me over the railing. Now she grinned and waved, like a parent spotting their child onstage. She straightened and stretched. Suddenly done with me, she sauntered away, back where I could no longer see her.