by Madison Faye
3
Mia
I was nervous as hell as I stepped into Bucco, the insanely upscale, impossible to get a reservation for, restaurant in midtown. I swallowed as I glanced around the place, still not quite believing that this was happening, or that I was actually doing this.
I was dressed to the nines, borrowing some of Andrea’s better clothes and shoes for the occasion. I still couldn’t believe she’d talked me into this, but she’d swore up and down that sex was not part of the job — not what I’d be paid for.
“So, what’s he like?”
Andrea had shaken her head as she helped me pull my hair up into an intricate bun. “I’ve never met him. I only texted with him from Blaine’s phone after he mentioned that his friend was curious if I had any friends.”
I shivered at the thought of just how much of a stranger this guy was — Andrea hadn’t even met him.
“But Blaine says he’s nice, and good-looking.”
And now there I was, smiling nervously at the hostess as she asked me to follow her to my table.
The restaurant was dimly lit with candles — romantic and sexy, and yet also spooky in an exciting kind of way. We meandered through tables, through a curtain into a back dining room, and then suddenly, there he was.
He was tall, his features sharp in that “from money” way, with dark eyes and brown hair slicked to the side. I wouldn’t say he was gorgeous at all, as Andrea had described Blaine, but he was attractive enough. And yet, there was something dark, glinting there in the shadows of his eyes. He stood as we approached, his eyes narrowing at me.
“Hi, Ryan?” I smiled warmly. “My name is—”
“You’re late, Mia” he growled the second the hostess left us.
I frowned worriedly. “Am I? I’m so sorry, I thought we’d said we were meeting at—”
“It’s fine,” he snapped dismissively. I started to sit, but he suddenly grabbed my arm with a strong hand.
“Let’s go.”
My brow furrowed as I bit my lip. “Aren’t we having dinner?”
“Change of plans.” His eyes slid over me, sending an uncomfortable chill through me as he lingered at my cleavage, his eyes sparking.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought we were—”
“You’ll do whatever and you’ll go wherever I say,” he hissed under his breath, eyes flashing at me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, not sure what I was apologizing for.
“I forgive you.”
There was something edged and sarcastic about his voice that I hadn’t expected, and I shivered.
“Maybe Andrea didn’t tell you how this works, but we’re going to the club now.”
Andrea had not told me this.
“Oh, dancing?”
He laughed, though it felt more like he was laughing at me than anything else.
“Not that kind of club. This one’s a bit more exclusive than that. It’s where everyone goes with their girls.”
I frowned at his words, the use of “their girls” as if he owned me or something, but I quickly smiled. “Oh, I didn’t know that.”
“Well, surprise then.” He smiled darkly as he stood. “My car’s out front.”
“I—” I swallowed an uneasy feeling settling in my chest. “I should—”
“You should know your place and do as I say.”
I did frown then. “Excuse me?” I barked out a laugh, eliciting looks from a nearby table. “I don’t know what sort of girls you’re used to, but you better believe I—”
“I’ll put it in terms you’ll understand,” he interrupted. “Come to the club and have a drink with me, or you don’t get paid.”
His eyes met mine, holding them, and I shivered again at that hint of darkness there.
“Okay,” I finally whispered, scared by that look. After all, I was supposed to be getting $5,000 for a dinner with this creep. I might as well get paid.
He smiled wickedly and grabbed my arm, hard, escorting me though the restaurant. “Excellent. And please don’t forget to smile when we get there.”
We rode in silence in the back of a limousine. I was still furious at the way things had gone on this “date,” but I sure as hell wasn’t going to walk away without getting paid. And if going to his stupid club and smiling for his douchebag friends made that happen, so be it.
I was going to have a serious discussion with Andrea when I got home, though.
In the car, I pulled my phone out of my clutch and scowled as I typed out a message to her:
“We have to go to the club first, but then I’m coming home. This sucked.”
I got a sad face back, followed by “I’m so sorry!”
Then she texted again.
“What club? U going dancing?”
I frowned in the darkness of the limo, thinking of Ryan’s words. “It’s where everyone goes with their girls.”
I opened my phone again. “The club — doesn’t Blaine bring u there 2?”
Her reply came instantly.
“No??? What club??”
“We’re here.”
I jerked my head up at Ryan’s voice. His eyes dropped to my phone, narrowing. “There’s no phones in there.” He held his hand out, and my brow went up.
“Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously,” he muttered, glaring at me. “Jesus, someone needs to teach you how to behave.”
Under any other circumstances in the world, and I’d have slapped him across the face. But “any other circumstances in the world” wasn’t getting paid $5,000 to have dinner.
“You’ll get it back later, I promise,” he said with another dark smile.
I nodded, closing my passcode protected phone and placing it in his palm. He pocketed it, and then stepped out, giving me a hand to help me out as well.
It looked like we were somewhere in Soho, by the look of the old factory-style loft buildings and cobblestone side streets. Ryan led me to an unmarked door, manned by two large men in tuxedos, who nodded at him with cold familiarity before opening the door for us.
Red light glowed ominously from within, and I froze for a second, before Ryan’s hand tightened on my wrist, pulling me after him.
The red antechamber was small, and the sense of being trapped washed over me as the men in tuxedos closed the doors. The velvet wall in front of us suddenly swung open and I gasped.
The club was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Sensually lit by recessed lighting and dimmed, low hanging crystal chandeliers, the place oozed sexuality. Dark booths and alcoves half-hid a myriad of gorgeous couples, dressed to the nines in suits and incredible evening dresses. Soft beats pulsed across the room, and I brought my hand to my mouth as off to one side on a raised platform, two completely nude women danced sensually in a cage.
A cage.
Ryan’s hand on my arm tightened again as he pulled me into the hedonistic place that I never in a million years would have imagined myself in. We walked down a small flight of wide, curved, velvet-lined stairs onto the main floor and headed for the dark bar in the corner. The bar top was some sort of frosted glass, lit from beneath, sending an eerie glow up against Ryan’s face as he gruffed out an order to the bartender.
My heart hammered in my chest as I glanced around the place — it was full of younger, gorgeous women coupled with mostly older, mostly strikingly handsome and powerful-looking men. Off in one of the dark recessed booths, a beautiful brunette in a short black dress sat astride the lap of a man with piercing dark eyes, her hands stroking his chest while her lips nibbled at his neck, all while he sat there calmly sipping his drink. In another corner, on a rich looking sofa, two other girls giggled and bit their lips before they slowly came together in a soft kiss, right in front of a grinning, impossibly handsome man who nodded, stroking their arms.
My pulse pounded in my chest, my eyes widened as I took in the raw sexuality going on around the room. Ryan pressed a glass of champagne into my hand, and I shivered.
Where was I? And
again, Andrea’s words came rushing through my head: there’s no sex implied.
Clearly, Andrea’s Blaine hadn’t shown her this place.
I took a nervous sip of my drink as my eyes continued to move across the room, and that’s when I first saw them.
Them.
There were three of them, and they were absolutely gorgeous. They were all three dressed impeccably in tailored suits, and they sat on a couch, drinking slowly from rocks glasses as a beautiful girl in a short white dress with long black hair danced in front of them.
The club was full of good-looking, powerful men. But as soon as I saw the three of them sitting across the room, I knew the rest of the place paled in comparison to these men.
Everyone else there worked to show how powerful and rich they were.
These three just exuded it, naturally.
They were stunningly good looking — all smoky eyes, chiseled jaws, impeccable hair, and clearly built frames straining at those suits. But beyond that, they just seemed to pulse with the type of power that dominates a room.
The type of power that demands obedience.
My breath caught as my eyes were just drawn to them, held fast by the way they seemed to pull the energy of the room around them like some sort of vortex.
They scared me. But there was something so visceral about the way they just pulled my attention. And there was something about how in a room full of the powerful, they seem to command the place in a way that sent a thrill of something…I don’t know, something heated through me.
And again, they were gorgeous.
One was blonde, with blue eyes so sharp I could see them clear across the room, and his strong, squared jaw and perfect cheekbones gave him a sort of Nordic Viking look. The man next to him, smiling thinly at the dancing girl as he sipped a glass of something had similarly piercing blue eyes, only with dark black hair and long, almost enviable lashes.
It was the last man though, that really sent a shiver of something frightening through me. Dark hair, dark eyes, and a faint stubble across his perfect jawline — his face held a sort of brooding darkness that had my breath catching in my throat and my fingers tightening on the stem of my champagne flute.
“Let’s get one thing fucking straight.”
I gasped as Ryan spun me around. “You’re here with me, got it?” he hissed. Any semblance of the man who’d smiled charmingly at me in the restaurant was gone as his eyes narrowed at me. “You’re mine tonight.”
I swallowed, wanting so badly to just run away from this whole thing, but not sure how to tell my feet to do that. I couldn’t believe I was there, and I couldn’t believe I’d let Andrea talk me into this!
“Let’s go.”
Ryan yanked me after him, my feet half tripping as he marched me to a booth of our own.
“Dance for me.”
I shook my head, stammering. “W-what?”
“I said dance for me, slut.”
My jaw dropped. “Who the fuck do you think—”
“Jesus Christ,” he growled, suddenly grabbing me and yanking me onto his lap. He started to push me down, and I stumbled as I fell to my knees in front of where he sat. Suddenly, Ryan started to reach for his zipper.
“Okay, no.” I yelled. This was my breaking point, and I was done with this bullshit. No money was worth this.
I shook my head as I started to get up. “Absolutely not! Keep your fucking money! I’m—”
I gasped as he grabbed me by the hair, yanking me back down as he started to get out of his seat.
“You’re embarrassing me, you little bit—”
“It appears we have a problem here.”
I froze at the sound of that voice — dark, powerful, supremely confident, and with almost a hint of benign humor in it.
Ryan suddenly let go of me at the sound of the silken baritone behind me.
“Keep out of this, Blackwood.”
“I’d love to — we’d love to, actually, except you’re making a scene.”
I swallowed the heat from my face as I slowly turned…
And my heart flip-flopped.
It was them — the three men I’d seen earlier exuding raw power from across the room. My eyes went wide as I looked up at them, all three men turning to let their eyes sizzle over me in a way that had my skin tingling.
If they’d looked powerful from across the room, they were demigods this close.
The one who’d spoke was the one with the dark hair and the piercing blue eyes — eyes that lanced right into me as he calmly reached down and offered a hand.
Ryan slapped it away.
“Leave it, you prick. This one’s mine.”
“That’s not how it works,” the tall, Viking-looking blonde man spoke this time, his voice steely and edged. “You know that’s not how things are done, Cunningham.”
“And you know who my father is.”
“We do,” the third man growled, those dark eyes glinting wickedly. “We just actually don’t give a shit.”
“Rules are rules, Cunningham,” the first man spoke. “You don’t bring them here unless she’s been formally purchased at the auction.”
My heart slipped again as my brows shot up. Formally purchased?! The auction?
Where the fuck was I?
The man Ryan had addressed as Blackwood reached down again. I swallowed as I took his hand, and when the contact was made, I felt a shiver of raw…something lance right though me. He pulled me effortlessly to my feet, and suddenly, I was face to face with all three of them.
It was like looking at consuming darkness.
“I believe I’d have remembered if I’d seen you here before,” the blonde man spoke, his eyes searing into mine, making my whole body warm.
“I— I’ve never, I mean—”
“We’re aware of that,” the dark haired, dark-eyed man said grimly, also eyeing me in a way that had me chewing at my lip and curling my toes.
“Which means you don’t belong to anyone,” he added.
My brow shot up? “What? Oh, no, I—”
“Yet.”
My mouth snapped shut, and my eyes went wide at the fierce look on his face.
“She’s mine, you fucking pricks,” Ryan hissed from behind me.
“Not yet she isn’t,” Blackwood growled.
“There’s an auction—”
“Tonight, we know,” the blonde man said icily. “But I know I haven’t seen her on the roster.”
They were speaking about me like I was some sort of commodity, and like I wasn’t standing right in front of them.
Quickly, I shook my head, taking a step away from all four of them. “You know what? I’m done here.”
“Done here?” The dark-eyed man said with a small smile across his chiseled, perfect jaw.
“I— yes,” I managed to get out. “I think I’m here by mistake, actually.” I glanced at Ryan quickly, seeing him glaring daggers at me. “And I think I should be going.”
I whirled, and before they could say or do anything, I bolted.
I ran, feeling my face burn at the shocked looks from the other people there, but I didn’t care. I half-tripped up the stairs and yanked open the double doors to the deep red foyer room. For a second, the front doors didn’t budge an inch, which had the panic rising inside me. But then the interior ones did, and then they opened.
I went tumbling out, past the two men out front and ignoring whatever they were saying as I ran off into the New York night.
Tears stung my face as I finally stopped running a few blocks away, and I shook my head angrily as I wiped them away. I felt utterly humiliated, and used, and lied to.
And scared.
Whatever world I’d just stepped into, it was one I’d never wanted to peer into again. All that talk of being “sold” or auctioned — no way. Whatever that was, and no matter how gorgeous those three men had been, I wanted no part of that world.
Angrily, I opened my clutch, looking for my phone to call Andrea. My face
fell as I remembered that Ryan the asshole still had it.
Fine, whatever. I could buy a new—
I never heard the footsteps until it was too late.
When I did, I half turned, the scream rising to my lips before the hand clamped over my mouth. More hands grabbed me — men in dark suits and masks yanking me roughly with them towards a dark limousine that suddenly swung around the corner.
My blood turned to ice.
I knew that limo. It was the same one I’d rode in earlier that night.
The door opened, and suddenly, a grim-faced, sneering Ryan Cunningham stepped out. “Shoulda played nice, kitten,” he hissed, reaching out to stroke my cheek. I screamed into the hand over my mouth, twisting away from him, but the hands held me tight.
“See, you don’t just get to leave the club. I may have broken the rules a little bringing you there tonight, but my father…”
He trailed off, grinning. “Well, it doesn’t matter that rules aren’t meant for men like me. Because after tonight?” His smiled deepened, his eyes lancing into me.
“After tonight, you’ll be mine. Get her in,” he growled to the two men holding me.
I screamed again, twisting helplessly against them as they tied my hands behind my back and replaced their hands with a gag before shoving me into the back of the limo. Ryan followed me in, chuckling as I tried vainly to kick at him from the floor of the car.
“Fight now, little kitten,” he smiled, chuckling. “Because after I win you at the auction tonight?”
He grinned evilly at me, and I felt my heart sink.
“After that, I’m going to really enjoy breaking you.”
The limo drove off into the night, my heart pounding in terror, my skin crawling, and my screams falling on deaf ears.
4
Mia
Strong hands gripped my arms as I stumbled down what seemed like a hallway. I’d screamed into the gag as they’d dragged me out of the car, and the sounds of the city had quickly gone silent with a click as they’d led me inside a doorway.
To here — wherever here was.
The gag was pulled from my mouth as we stumbled and walked.
