Free Beauty and the Baritone by Lori Green Page A

expected to audition for the Hamburg State Opera in three weeks’ time.” She acted as though he hadn’t spoken. “Until then I’m expected nowhere and have no one caring where I am. So I’m here.”
    “I want you to leave.”
    “David told me you became a recluse after the accident. He described your injuries to me and I don’t care. I know you were once the greatest baritone in opera. Now you live here. David says he doesn’t think you have sex with anyone, you have a dominant streak and you won’t hurt me. I’m here Senor for you to fuck. Then I’ll be gone.”
    She took the bottom of her blouse in her hands and in a single movement lifted it over her body, dropping it on the floor. Her bra was a pale color and just as easily fell onto the discarded top.
    Her breasts were full and without the bra, drooped slightly from the weight. He could imagine how they’d feel in his hands: heavy but soft, the dusky nipples hard.
    Her hands were on her jeans, undoing them.
    “No. Stop.” His hand reached behind him and grasped the door knob.
    “I have nowhere to be,” Carolyn said.
    Mateo slipped from the room, into the hall. He drew his cape around him and moved toward the large staircase.
    “Sir?” He hadn’t heard Simon approach, but then, he never did.
    “The woman,” Mateo said. “She can have the red room.”
    “She’s staying?”
    Mateo didn’t answer. He escaped up the stairs to his suite to try and decide what to do about this new turn of events.

    *** *** ***
     
    The gentleman had called it the red room. Carolyn didn’t know if he was the butler, major domo or just a British guy who liked scarred baritones. He hadn’t introduced himself; he’d just walked in as she was putting her clothes back on and offered to show her to her room.
    “My things are at the hotel,” Carolyn said.
    “If you’ll give me the key,” he said, “I’ll have everything delivered here and settle the bill. Now follow me.”
    He was true to his word. Within an hour all her things were with her and she was now living in Mateo Lopez’s home.
    It was everything and nothing she wanted. Damn David and his dirty games.
    No, it wasn’t David’s fault, Carolyn amended. She knew what kind of parties David gave and she’d gone because she had nothing left to lose. Without the Met contract she was just a wandering singer again. Europe would have opportunities, she hoped, and the unexpected chance to experience what everyone in the opera world whispered about was just too exciting.
    She hadn’t expected to like it.
    Her pussy tingled remembering that night. It was, very simply, an orgy. But the women were bound and there were paddles and other things in play. She hadn’t enjoyed all of it and simply saying no was respected.
    But when she’d been on her knees and a masked man stood in front of her, his penis the only exposed part of him, she hadn’t hesitated. Nor had she minded being taken by a different man later, spread open in front of others, eaten out by one man and then fucked by another.
    She couldn’t feel shame from it.
    David’s tales of Mateo Lopez were like Carolyn’s discovery of her desires: dark and tempting. The beautiful man damaged in a car accident of which he was the only survivor. The tortured singer who could no longer sing. Who would no longer sing.
    “He’d love you.” David stroked her, his long fingers reaching deeper than she was used to being touched. Carolyn strained toward him but she was fastened on his table, the shackles holding her tight.
    “Mateo didn’t like the pain either,” David continued. He’d asked her to stay as people began to leave. He had an idea, he said and although he’d led her to the table and fastened her to it, he really did have a suggestion for her.
    “Mateo was more old fashioned; he liked the wooing and claiming of a woman. But he had a wild side too; he just didn’t indulge it that often. Like you, right here.” He stroked that place inside her that