He smiled, which meant he probably noticed.
Damn, she hated not being able to read him. Especially when she felt like such an open book. Sitting there with bated breath. Her eyes wide with anticipation.
“Has she been whipped before?” Serenity asked.
“Never in public.”
The man traced lines with the whip down her sides, across her ribs, then he tapped it against both thighs. Finally he tested it in the air, a slight whistling sound filling the vacuum between the stage and the tables.
Never had Serenity heard such silence. No one ate now and no one drank. Every fork, every goblet was on the table. They were all watching. Absorbing. Vicarious.
Smack went the whip.
Right in the middle of her ass, the leather impacting on the soft, jiggling flesh and leaving a pink line in its wake. Before she could react he laid down a second one, this one at a slightly different angle, resulting in an X shape.
“I’ve seen enough,” said Serenity.
“You wish to go?”
“Yes,” she said, though she couldn’t take her eyes off the scene.
Twice more the man struck her, the last time on the middle of her back.
“Alice has a safe word,” Ross pointed out.
Serenity frowned. So Alice could stop this at any point. She was still in control.
“Why does she let it go so far?”
“It’s her fantasy, or so it would seem.” Ross cleared his throat. “Still want to go?”
Serenity said nothing.
The man undid the rope, freeing Alice. He helped her to her knees right there in front of him.
She opened her mouth as soon as she was kneeling.
A wave of heat overcame Serenity. Alice was going to suck his cock. She didn’t even have to be told. And she liked it this way.
“So much for women’s liberation,” she mumbled.
“It’s a release for her,” Ross offered. “There are many powerful men in turn who enjoy submitting to a strong woman.”
“You’re not one of them,” she ventured dryly.
“Afraid not.”
Blast him and that smile, the dimples. Such a deviant man should not be allowed to be so charming in this life. It was entirely unfair.
But he wasn’t exactly deviant. Everything was aboveboard. Or at least it seemed to be.
She would find some way to pop his balloon, though. She had to. Otherwise she would have to admit the possibility of liking him. Worse still, of liking his special brand of games.
Now Serenity understood why the man was naked from the waist down. It was for convenience sake, so he could feed Alice the cock she had made so hard.
As Alice kissed the tip of him Serenity felt the impact directly between her thighs.
A blindfolded, submissive girl performing fellatio on a stage in the middle of a club. Now that was something you didn’t see every day.
“I need to use the restroom.”
Ross looked at her.
She stared right back. “What do I need, a note from my parents?”
He pointed toward the exit. “There is a corridor. It’s the last door on the left.”
She practically leaped to her feet. Avoiding eye contact as much as possible she walked directly across the room.
Thankfully everyone was watching Alice, who by this time had taken nearly half of the man’s shaft between her lips, coating it with her saliva and suctioning it with her tongue. She was sweet in her movements, gentle and delicate, as if he was a summer’s evening lover after a long picnic instead of the torture artist he had shown himself to be.
But this was Alice’s thing. Alice’s, not Serenity’s.
The women’s room door was marked with a silhouette female. Unlike the male figure on the room next door, this one was clearly kneeling. Figures.
Pushing the door open, she breathed deeply, ready to enjoy her refuge, the one place the men could not follow.
Or so she thought.
It wasn’t exactly unisex but apparently the club’s owners had figured a neat way around that.
“Son of a bitch,” she muttered scanning the layout, the clear glass walls and the open bathroom stalls.
There on the other side, in an adjoining room were seats, a small theater virtually fit for taking in every single bit of the action. At the moment the room was empty but that was hardly the point. Serenity stormed out and headed back to the table.
“Is there a problem?” Ross wanted to know.
She stood over him, virtually shaking. “You know perfectly well what the problem is.”
He arched a brow. “By any chance did you go to the gold bathroom?”
“The tile was gold, what of it?”
His lips curled and he started chuckling. “My bad. I should have specified. That one, with the kneeling slave girl on the door, is for exhibitionists.”
“Exhibitionists?” She repeated the word for effect.
“Yes. Some women enjoy being watched, it’s part of the games they play with their dominants. The men watch them in the bathroom, inviting others to join them, that sort of thing.”
The man on stage had Alice down on all fours. He had mounted her from behind, and with his hand pressed to her back, he was running his cock in and out of her, causing her to sway and shiver underneath him.
All at once she began to push back, her hair wild as she bent her head back as if inviting him to grab her and pull her hair. A moment later he did exactly that and Ross’ words came screaming back in her mind.
Safe word. Safe word. She could stop this but she didn’t want to.
Serenity had never felt so naked as this, so on display standing here like this. “I don’t feel so well.”
A moment later as she tried to run through her mind an inventory of what she’d eaten today the room began to spin. Nothing, she thought, dimly. I’ve eaten nothing.
It was at this point her knees gave way and Ross was right there to catch her. Not that she wanted him to. Not in a million years.
* * * * *
The first thing Serenity saw when she awoke was the rack of whips and chains on the wall across from the mammoth four-post bed. More chains hung from the ceiling along with a metal cage just large enough to fit a large dog—or a small person.
Her limbs felt too heavy to move from the mattress but her mouth worked well enough. Taking the deepest breath possible, she began to scream.
“Easy,” said Ross, gripping her by the shoulders. “You’re all right.”
All right being a relative term.
“Where…am I?” she managed.
Good grief, it looked like a reject Lon Cheney set in here complete with stocks and what looked to be a whipping post. Add to this the fact that everything, walls, floor and ceiling was made of cut stone and you had your perfect BDSM paradise.
“We’re in one of the playrooms,” he said, wiping her forehead with a damp cloth.
“A playroom for what?” she retorted. “The Spanish Inquisition?”
He grinned and despite herself his happiness warmed her heart. It was so damn infectious. Then again so was cholera.
“How long have I been out?” she asked.
“Longer than I would have liked. It would have been less but I don’t carry smelling salts in my inventory.”
“You’d never have made it as a scout.”
“True. I was way too kinky.”
Something occurred to her now. “Have you been…?”
“Watching you the whole time?” he supplied. “I’m afraid so.”
Serenity tried to picture him, the expression on her face. What had he been thinking that whole time she was lying there in her skirt and blouse, defenseless?
“I suppose I should be morally offended.”
“Aren’t you?”
“It must be the aftereffects of the fainting, but no I’m not.”
She probably should not have said that because it seemed to have a direct effect on him as he leaned fo
rward, close enough to brush her lips with his.
She mouthed the word no even as she thought of the yes of Alice. Alice’s surrender, Alice’s punishment, Alice’s sexual taking in front of a live audience.
“You’re not my boyfriend,” she said, breathless, her hands on his arms, gripping his impossible biceps. “You’re not…anything.”
“Oh, I am something,” he replied, kissing her cheek and on down to her neck. “I am very much something to you and you and I are going to discover that something together.”
Serenity wanted more than anything to pull him down on top of her, to have him smother her and open her up all at once, his hands, his arms and legs, his body pressing, probing. Oh god, how she needed a man, even this man—especially this man—who was so quick witted, so intelligent and gentlemanly in his own way.
If only it wasn’t for the BDSM. If only he could make love to her like normal people did, as equals.
She could feel his cock hardening.
“Ross, no.” This had to be stopped before it was too late.
The kiss lingered another second, though it felt like an hour. Something scorched her soul and she was almost lost, nearly past the point of saying no again, ever at all.
Not with him. Ross Lassiter. He left her breathless. Soulless.
“It’s all right, darling,” he soothed, his hand caressing her cheek. “I had no intention of going further…not tonight.”
Serenity’s lip quivered. She slapped him without thinking, reaching up with her hand, laying it across his handsome face, always so confident and sure.
You can’t have everything, Ross Lassiter. You can’t say whatever you want. Words hurt. Actions hurt.
Ross’ angular smile told her all she needed to know. She’d had no effect. The man was cold, cold as a machine.
But what about his eyes? Something was there. It had to be.
“I will take a taxi home,” she said.
“I agree that’s best,” he said.
She exploded now, tired of him presuming and setting the pace and generally running her ragged. “I couldn’t give a flying fuck if you agree, Ross Lassiter, I’m telling you what I’m doing, not asking permission like some twit of a slave girl. Sorry if that puts a pinprick in your little balloon ego.”
The tirade took a little over ten seconds to deliver but he seemed to savor it for hours.
“What are you staring at?” she demanded.
He shook his head. “You are just so…adorable.”
She mouthed a curse that was anything but.
“Just get me a taxi and I’ll thank you never to contact me again.” As soon as the words dropped from her mouth she regretted them. Not because she wanted to see him again…exactly.
It’s just that her life hadn’t been this interesting in such a long time. And by a long time she meant never.
Chapter Four
“You know those things work a lot better if you pick them up and push the buttons, right?”
Serenity, jolted back to the present, looked up from her desk now to see the figure of Selia Reed, her personal assistant.
Selia, a long-legged blonde with a button nose and eyelashes to die for, had her arms crossed, one foot tapping inside her equally to-die-for white Italian leather pump.
The white went well with her navy skirt, pencil of course, and sailor jacket. The ribbon in her hair was the pièce de résistance.
“What are you talking about?” asked Serenity.
“That cell phone, you’re obviously trying to pull some Jedi mind trick on it.”
“I was just thinking, that’s all.”
“You’re thinking about him,” Selia supplied. “Like you have all week. Why don’t you call him and get it over with?”
Serenity sighed, regretting for the millionth time having spilled the beans about her little “date” with Ross. It had been five days now and other than the dozen roses he’d sent the day after their infamous night at the club, she’d heard nothing.
The card had been short and to the point. She’d memorized the message after reading it the first dozen times.
Dear Serenity,
I know you love Listonian proverbs, so here’s another one, ‘a man without a woman is like the moon without the sun’, not that I would ever admit female superiority.
Keep well,
RL
Over and over she’d tried to interpret it. Was he looking for a connection without BDSM? Was he interested in anything at all? Was it just a fancy way of saying goodbye? Have a nice life? Were the flowers an apology, a brush-off, what?
If he was trying to drive her crazy he’d done a good job.
“I couldn’t call him if I wanted,” Serenity said. “I don’t have his number. And don’t tell me I can get it from Lucretia because I don’t want to talk to him in the first place.”
Selia arched a brow, giving her get real look. “Sure, you want him to call so you can not talk to him, right?”
“You know most personal assistants are nice to their bosses,” Serenity grumbled.
“I’m not most personal assistants.”
“You can say that again.”
“Say what again?” This from TJ, the IT wizard and overall the only person on the planet less skilled at relationships than Serenity.
“Great, this is all I need, the two of you ganging up on me,” Serenity lamented.
“Is that like a threesome?” TJ quipped. “Count me in.”
“Cool your jets, Comic Book Boy,” Selia warned. “The only three-way you’ll get from us is The Three Best Ways to Get Lost.”
“What are those?” asked TJ.
“I don’t know. I haven’t made them up yet,” said Selia.
“You know what I don’t get…” said Serenity now, jumping into the middle of her own internal dialogue. “Why do you send roses to someone and then ignore them. Isn’t that lame?”
“He’s playing hard to get,” said TJ. “You need to give him a dose of his own medicine. Call him up and start stringing him along.”
Selia shook her head. “You are both overthinking way too much. You call up the guy and you hook up with him and get it out of your system.”
“But I’m not attracted to him,” Serenity protested. Never mind the sleepless nights, the strange dreams and the waking fantasies that were eating up more and more of her daytime hours.
Her productivity had gone straight to the dogs. Even TJ was starting to make sense. She had to do something.
“I won’t hook up with him,” she decided. “I will just talk to the man. Some closure, over coffee.”
Selia rolled her eyes. “You know how I know you and this guy are perfect for each other? Because you both talk, talk, talk. He sends you riddles, you want coffee when what you need is to be screwed within an inch of your life.”
“Hey, if you need a volunteer, you’ve always got me,” said TJ.
It was Serenity’s turn to roll her eyes. “In case you’ve both missed the memo, I am the acting CEO, so you need to treat me with kid gloves.”
TJ and Selia looked at each other and laughed.
Serenity laughed too because she knew she had no greater allies, no more loyal friends anywhere in the company in any position.
“Now scat,” she said a few minutes later. “I’ve got a call to make.”
She dialed Lucretia.
“I was wondering how long it would take, darling,” she said, by way of hello. “Have you got a pen and paper handy to write the number?”
Serenity frowned. “Does everyone on the planet know what I’m thinking nowadays?”
“Pretty much,” said Lucretia. “Except for the one person who should.”
* * * * *
Ross arrived ahead of her, which she took to be a pure power play. Choose the seat, establish territory, order drinks, she got all that.
But did he have to be totally off the hotness chart with his black T-shirt, jeans and boots? The only thing he lacked was a motorcycle and if she kne
w anything about the man he probably had one parked just down the street ready to drive up to the door on autopilot like the Batmobile.
His instant smile made her forget everything. Including her own name. Damn him for having this effect.
“You’re looking splendid, Serenity.”
She had a black skirt on and a white blouse, sort of a compromise. Hedging bets if you will. Selia had wanted her to wear all black, naturally.
“I had a specific reason for asking you here,” she said as he pulled out her chair for her.
“Oh?”
“Yes,” she said, wanting to lay out the rules of engagement right off the bat.
“Does that reason include drinking coffee? I took the liberty of ordering you a mocha latte with a shot of espresso, no whipped cream, two blue sugars. I believe my mother said that was your preferred poison?”
Great, Serenity thought, and what else had Mommy Dearest told him about her? That’s all she needed, a double agent feeding him information.
“That was kind of you, but I don’t expect this to take that long.”
Ross was across from her now, leaning in, his large hands gripping his brick-red coffee mug. She could smell the beans, a delicious Sumatra.
Perfectly suited for the man. Vaguely exotic, but still simple and to the point, no frills but robust as hell.
“In fact,” she added hastily. “This could probably have been done over the phone.”
He arched a brow. “And yet here we are.”
“The thing is…” She decided to launch while she still had the courage. “We both have a relationship with Lucretia and I don’t want that to be awkward for her.”
“That’s very considerate.”
Serenity busied herself with the latte, staring into it as if it contained all the fortunes of the world. Why in heck had she gotten herself into this? Where could it go except wrong? She didn’t want a relationship…but she didn’t want nothing either.
“Maybe we could be friends,” she blurted.
Ross shook his head. “That’s not possible.”
The point-blank rejection caught her off guard. “Excuse me?”
“What we have is far different. You are fighting it and I’m giving you time to adjust. But the wheels are set in motion, you have to know that.”
Stealing Serenity Page 5
