Cinderella (Once Upon a Happy Ever After Book 1) Read online

  “Mr. Danvers, I’m sure we’d all like to hear the rest of your presentation, but if I may interject, I’d like to offer a solution.” The old fucker’s jaw dropped. No one had ever interrupted him before. There’s a first time for everything, buddy.

  I ran down the key points of my billion dollar fix, watched as shock passed over everyone’s face, and left them with instructions to call my office for implementation and launch details. I called James as I entered the elevator.

  “Waiting out front for you, Mr. Waldorf,” he said without waiting for me to ask. That’s what I liked about James.

  “You’re getting a raise,” I said and ran down the itinerary for the evening.

  “Understood, sir.”

  “Did you give Ella any instructions when you delivered the package?”

  “Only that she should be ready by the stroke of midnight, Mr. Waldorf.”

  Excellent, James. Excellent.”

  Chapter Nine

  Ella

  “Holy shit,” I said as I looked at myself in the mirror. The gown was perfect. The beautiful shade of blue drew a stark contrast to my skin but didn’t wash me out like most blues did, and it fit like it had been made for me. Cinched through the bodice with a built in corset, it made my waist even smaller than it already was. The neckline dipped low, revealing the tops of my breasts, piled high thanks to the aforementioned corset, and the length was a very modern drop-hem, to the knees in the front and to the floor at the back.

  It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever worn and I felt like a princess, scratch that, I felt like a queen in it. I slipped on the incredible, glittering shoes James delivered with the dress and had to take a moment to compose myself.

  This is what my father wanted for me, a life of ball gowns and luxury, not one where eviction was a clear possibility if I didn’t figure out where my next paycheck. I dabbed under my eyes, blotting the tears before I ruined my makeup, and took a steadying breath.

  Though the gown and presumably the occasion called for a more put together up-do, I let my hair fall in loose waves around my shoulders. I’d caught Kase staring at my auburn locks a few times, and I wanted to him to see it in all its glory, wild and free.

  The cheap wall clock in the kitchen chimed. It was midnight.

  The second chime was drowned out by the ringing of my doorbell.

  This was really happening. I ran to the door, flinging it open expecting to see James. But there Kase stood, white tie and coat tails, and gorgeous as ever. I threw myself into his arms. “Thank you,” I said into his chest. “It’s so beautiful.”

  “Not nearly as beautiful as you are, Ella.”

  I squeezed him harder, hard enough that he chuckled and pulled me off. “We need to go, are you all ready?”

  “Yes,” I said, following him out of the building.

  “Your chariot awaits, my lady,” Kase said as James opened the town car door for me.

  I didn’t know how to get in a car in a dress like this but I did my best to fold in the layers of trailing fabric neatly next to me. Kase smiled as he situated himself next to me. “You have a grace about you that I haven’t seen since the debutantes on the Upper East Side.”

  I looked at my hands, dry skin cracked from stress cleaning and bitten nails that hadn’t seen a manicure in years. “That’s because I am an Upper East Side debutante. Or, I was at least.”

  Kase gasped, then nodded slowly. “You’re Cedric Ash’s daughter, aren’t you?”

  I nodded, steeling myself against the wave of sorrow washing over me at the sound of my father’s name.

  “My father was his estate attorney,” Kase continued. “I remember him talking about it at the dinner table. He was very concerned about the rate at which his new wife spent his money.”

  “So was I. That’s why I left. I couldn’t watch her burn through everything my father worked so hard for.”

  Kase rubbed his chin, eyes focused somewhere in the distance.

  “Wait a minute,” I said, looking at the hulking man next to me. “If your father was my father’s attorney, that would make you, Little Kasey!”

  He smiled as I called him by a name he probably hadn’t hear in quite some time, a name that had once been so familiar to me. “Little no, Kasey, yes. But I do prefer Kase now.”

  “But you were, little that is. I was taller than you when we were kids.”

  “I remember. But I’m not now, am I?” Kase smiled and pulled me into his chest. He definitely wasn’t smaller than me now.

  Mr. Waldorf, Kase’s father, used to stop by the penthouse with paperwork quite frequently, often with his dark haired son in tow. “We played together as kids.” I said.

  “We did.”

  “But your dad stopped coming over after my father remarried.”

  “You’re right,” Kase said. “Our fathers were friends and that crazy Tremaine lady made it very clear that she didn’t want my father in her house. So we stopped.”

  I leaned into Kase’s shoulder and watched as the streetlights whirred by as we sped down the highway. “Hey, where are we going anyway?”

  “The airport,” Kase said simply, with a smirk so broad I could hear it in his tone.

  Chapter Ten

  Kase

  Strange how such a tiny creature could make me feel so many things simply by resting her head on my arm.

  “The airport! Where are we going?”

  I laughed as Ella’s excitement turned her voice into a squeak. “To a ball, princess.”

  “I’d gathered that much on my own,” she said sweetly, gesturing to the gown. James did a hell of a job picking it. Ella looked like royalty, like the goddess she truly was. But it wasn’t quite complete.

  “Here,” I said, handing her a box I’d pulled from beneath the front seat. “The finishing touches, so to speak.” Ella opened the box carefully, her gaze darting from me to the lid at least a dozen times before she lifted it.

  “Oh my,” she said. “Kase these are exquisite.”

  “And yet they still don’t do you justice.” I reached over and placed the tiara atop Ella beautiful fiery hair. I pointed to the pale blue opera gloves still in the box. “Do you know where we’re going yet?” She shook her head. “We’re en route to the Waldorf-Astoria hotel for the Viennese Opera Ball.” Ella looked excited but also like she didn’t have the slightest idea what I was talking about. “Ella, it’s the biggest debutante ball in New York. How do you not know about it?”

  She smiled at me. “When my father remarried, Agnes Tremaine stopped all my cotillion lessons. She said it was ‘an old fashion tradition rooted in treating women as commodities’. Which, well, she’s not wrong, but she didn’t care about women’s issues. She just wanted the money spent on my lessons put to her own use. I never got much passed the beginner stuff.”

  I nodded, amazed that she spoke of the woman who ruined her life without a trace of anger and that her grace and poise came naturally. “You are incredible,” I said and hit the button raising the partition between us and James. Ella’s eyes grew wide as I leaned into her. “Absolutely incredible, and I’d have you right here and now if I wasn’t saving that for later.” Ella bit her lip and lowered her eyes and my cock was instantly rock hard.

  No one had ever gotten my so hard with such a slight show of subservience. No one.

  With a quick tug behind her knees, I yanked Ella down in her seat and angled her to face me. She rested on her elbows as she looked at me from between her knees. “What do you want me to do to you, Ella?” I asked as I hooked each of her knees around my shoulders. Reaching under the gown I found the elastic of her panties and ripped them off her.

  Ella gasped, eyes even wider. “Anything, sir. Anything at all.”

  “Don’t say things you don’t mean, Ella.” I grabbed her hips and lifted her body to my mouth. She writhed against me, grinding herself on my tongue and I didn’t stop her. I sucked on her clit, hard and strong and before I knew it she was coming all over the pla
ce. I lapped up her sweet, sticky juices as she moaned and clawed at the seats.

  “Is that what you wanted, Ella?” I asked, lowering her back down.

  She took a minute to answer, her body still shook and shivered slightly from coming so hard. “No, sir,” she said, much to my surprise.

  “No?”

  Elle lifted herself off the seat, hoisted up her skirt, and before I registered what was happening, she straddled me and was working on pulling my cock free. “Whoa, Ella, not here. Not like this.” I grabbed her wrists and put her back in her seat.

  “Don’t you want me?”

  Jesus fuck! If she only knew how much I wanted her. “Ella, you can’t imagine the amount of restraint it takes to keep me from fucking you senseless right here and now. But let me assure you, I want you. And I will have you. But I’ll be damned if your first time is going to be in the back of a town car.”

  Ella pursed her lips at me. “What does it matter? I want you, you want me. Let’s just—”

  “No, Ella. Trust me, this is just as hard for me as it is for you. But I promise the wait will be worth it. Just wait until you see what I have in store for you.

  Chapter Eleven

  Ella

  I pouted next to Kase. I didn’t care what he promised. I wanted him now.

  “I don’t like seeing that look on your face, Ella.”

  “Then take off your pants and fuck me,” I said pointedly.

  Kase growled, a rumbly, sexy noise that sent a zing of electric excitement directly to my pussy. “You’re killing me, Ella. But my answer is firm.” He grasped my chin between his thumb and forefinger, turning my head to meet his eyes. “Shall I give you an order so that it fully sinks in?”

  I nodded as my cheeks grew hot with flushed desire.

  It earned me a smile. “That truly turns you on, doesn’t it?” His dark eyes drilled into me.

  “It does, sir.”

  “Remarkable. I’ve been with more than my fair share of subs but no one comes close to getting as turned on by the Dom/sub dynamic as you, Ella. “Listen closely, Ella because I won’t repeat myself.” My breath quickened and my eyes rolled up when Kase’s voice dropped into his Dom tone, a thicker, deeper, but quite voice he only used when playing like this. “You’re mine,” he said and a shiver ran through my whole body. “And you’re not to even mention sex again. I’ll have you exactly when and how I see fit, and exactly when I’m ready.” He snapped my chin up, making my eyes flutter open. “Am I clear?”

  I took a deep shuddering breath. “Yes,” I whispered, lips trembling around the word.

  “Yes, what?” A darkness crossed Kase’s features, darkness that I really wanted to explore. I didn’t respond to his question. I knew what he wanted, me to end the sentence with “sir”. But what I wanted more was to see what would happen if I didn’t.

  It’s the sub that has all the control.

  “Yes what, Ella?” Kase repeated, his eyes boring into me.

  I pressed my lips together. The action spoke louder than words. Before I knew it Kase had me by the waist and pulled me over his knees. He fished through the layers of my skirt until I felt the dress rise over my ass. I squealed when he smacked it, partly from surprise, partly because it hurt in a really good way, but mostly because I couldn’t help it. “Yes what, Ella?” He asked again. I remained silent and was rewarded with another firm smack on the ass. The pain zinging through me like nothing I’d ever experienced, heightening my senses until my whole body hummed with pleasure. “Ella?” Kase’s voice was thick, deeper than normal. He must be enjoying this as much as I was. When I didn’t answer a third time he smacked my ass even harder.

  As the delicious, intoxicating pain blew over me Kase yanked my legs apart and fingered me from behind. He pressed hard against my folds, sliding up and down before plunging what felt like his whole hand deep into my pussy.

  I gasped at the sensation squeezing my eyes shut and grabbing at the seat to brace myself. I’d never felt so full in my life! He fucked me so hard, his fingers finding all the sensitive spots inside my body. “Tell me what I want to hear, Ella.”

  I couldn’t even if I’d wanted to. I was on the brink of the most shattering orgasm I’d had in my whole life. He plunged his hand even deeper into me and fucked me even harder and faster than before. Then, he slipped his other arm under me and hoisted me up so I was now kneeling on the seat while still across his lap. From that angle, he had even better leverage and pounded into me.

  I was pretty certain I was going to die from orgasm.

  The other thing he could do with me at this new angle was reach my clit with his other hand. As he pounded me with what had to be his whole damn arm, Kase rubbed my clit with the flat of his fingers. I wailed as he brought me to a devastating climax. Wave after wave broke over me and all I could do was let go and let it.

  “Yes, sir. Yes, sir. YES SIR!” I screamed as I came over and over again.

  Chapter Twelve

  Kase

  When Ella’s body stopped convulsing around my hand I whispered in her ear, “You’re mine.

  “Yes, sir,” she panted and collapsed across my lap.

  Good thing the seats were leather. James was going to have a mess to clean up later. I’d have to make sure to give him that raise.

  Ella slept until we reached the tarmac. I’d seen it before, subs experiencing such altered states of mind while in “sub-space” and achieving such intense orgasms that their bodies kind of shut off when it was over.

  I picked her up, carried her to the waiting helicopter, and got her situated in a seat. She slept the entire flight and I stared at her gorgeous perfection the whole time. When we landed on the roof of the my hotel, I gently prodded her awake.

  “Ella, we’re here.” Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled at me. “Are you ready for your homecoming?”

  She nodded and I led her down to the main ballroom.

  “It’s not too late is it?” Ella asked glancing at the Bavarian clock in the lobby.

  “This year’s theme is Midnight in Paris and they adjusted the start time to match. We are very fashionably late.”

  Ella nodded and we entered the ballroom.

  For the first time in my life I didn’t command the attention of everyone in the room the instant I walked in. Ella did, and I wasn’t the least bit bothered by it. Everyone stared at her, she was the most beautiful girl in the room.

  “Pretty risky wearing a gown like that,” a girl I didn’t recognize said to Ella.

  She was right. Ella’s dress was too short. I made sure of it. I wanted her to stand out. I wanted her to be the most spectacular thing here.

  “How do you mean?” Ella asked sweetly, not hearing the biting tone in the deb’s voice.

  The girl smiled. “Well it’s not to dress code, obviously.”

  I was about to step forward and tell the bitchy know it all exactly where she could stick her obviously when Ella put a hand on my forearm.

  “Sara-belle?” she asked. “Sara-belle French?”

  The girl’s jaw dropped as she grabbed for a her necklace. A three strand leather choker with a dangling silver pendant, that I’m certain, once unhooked was a tiny flogger.

  I’d have to get Ella some wearable toys like that.

  “Ella? Is that you? Heavens it’s been forever!”

  They hugged and briefly chatted about getting together to catch up, and then we made the our rounds in the ballroom. Every fifteen or so feet someone would recognize Ella and tell her how beautiful she looked. Not a single person even acknowledged me, the owner of the hotel they were all partying in.

  And I didn’t mind one bit.

  After about the fourth or fifth time someone approached her Ella tugged at my sleeve. “Have we been here long enough? Can we go now?”

  I laughed long and hard at the request. “Of course we can go, Ella.”

  “Great. How far away do you live?”

  “Not far at all,” I said as I took her t
o the elevator, reaching for the key card that unlocked the penthouse floor.

  Ella eyed the card as we entered the elevator. “Do you live here?” she asked when I hit the button for the top floor.

  “I do.”

  “Is this your hotel? Are you that Waldorf?”

  “I am.”

  “I thought your father was an attorney. I didn’t know he was also a hotel mogul.”

  “The hotel is a family thing, passed down to him and now me. He made his name with his estate law firm. Just like I made a name for myself as a business consultant. Which is why I was in Delaware in the first place. The hotel kind of takes care of itself, really. I just live here.”