“One at a time, greedy Mistress. Let the pieces make their moves first.” With a wicked smile, he pulled her deeper into the room where he playfully pounced her into one of the unoccupied couches.
Chapter 2
Nina Terestchenko stood there in the foyer, licking her wounds. Well, to be fair, it was only her stinging knuckles, but that little shit really smacked her hand hard. Normally she had more control and she knew better, but the tattooed bandit was just too yummy not to squeeze. It had been a long time since she’d seen someone so interesting at a party. House Mistress was a lucky woman. He was good looking but not the usual tall, well oiled, swimsuit model type.
They had been attending these parties since House Mistress started them. Ruby Otter, Sapphire Fox, Amethyst Badger, Emerald Bear and herself, the Topaz Lynx. They’d become friends in real life and had survived both heartbreaks and joys together.
Nina feared she was getting jaded after all these years. The slap on the hand underscored how her feelings about the parties had changed over the past few months. She used to enjoy the danger. The unscripted adventures in dark corners with God-knew-who.
Until the incident with Stag and Dove in October.
She liked Stag. It easily could have been Nina beaten in a back hall. She had also liked Hound and Hare. What did it say about her choice in men that those people got ejected from the house for breaking rules? Then there were the attacks on Owl and Archer in Tahoe. The continued rampant cheating continued during the pony races. She experienced a lingering disquiet that somehow not all the rule breakers were excised from the house. Many changes had been made and Nina should have been reassured, but how did House Mistress know all the troublemakers were accounted for?
Until recently Nina trusted the rules. She felt safe putting herself in harm’s way because the net would catch her. Now she wasn’t so sure. Those bastards had crossed a line between fun, consensual, safe hard-play and made it scary.
The guests and patrons tended to be athletic, thin and tall. Physically, they were most beautiful beings money could buy. It was fun to play with someone inhumanly handsome, but it didn’t seem real. There was a plastic, skin-deep quality to most of them. Nina herself had been criticized for not having bigger breasts. One former playmate offered to buy her better tits for Christmas. Just another entry on the list of things that made her question herself, her lifestyle choice, and the possibility that she was risking her safety playing here.
She needed to believe that these sex parties were still safe despite what had happened with Dove in October and Owl in November. Stag, Hound, Hare, Bee, Peacock, Kitten, Hummingbird, and Rhino were only a small sampling of those gone from the house. Stag had never been a problem until he’d hurt Dove. Was it possible others like Panda or Lark would do the same thing? Her friends assured her she was only sensitive because the past couple parties had turned sour. She knew that was true, and she agreed to attend the party despite her reservations because she refused to live in fear.
After the slap to her hand, her friends escorted her to their usual entry spot in the foyer. They were close to the flow of guests and patrons as they moved deeper into the house. From here they watched the exchange of tokens as partnerships for the weekend were formed.
Around her, her friends chatted, speculating on the events that might be planned for the weekend. The other four seemed untroubled and excited about the possibility of new playmates. Thankfully, even Fox didn’t show any concern about her recent breakup with Wolfie. There were rumors that while some invitations were revoked, others had been extended to unknown guests or patrons. Nina suppressed the quivery disquiet in her stomach. Strangers who might not understand the rules didn’t bode well for her right now.
Stag and Bee had been involved in the house for years and then suddenly had disregarded the rules for their own desires. Nina reminded herself that House Mistress had made changes to keep them all safe. Just because these people were new to the house didn’t mean they wouldn’t be respectful.
She was considering the possible dangers when a man with an unfamiliar mask walked in through the front doorway into the foyer. For a heartbeat he stood just inside the door with the air of someone performing threat assessment. It might have been her imagination but when he looked at her, she experienced a sensation like a pin scraping along her body. The prickle passed from her toes to crown before he prowled forward, moving directly for her.
Her friends continued to chat in their own cheerful bubble while she found herself slowly captivated. He carried his huge frame with a masterful grace. His strides were wide and balanced, not heavy but light on his feet like he knew how to move that enormous, sexy body.
A fighter.
An enforcer.
Anubis, the jackal-headed god, laughed down at her. The mask appeared to be made from dark metal. Black, bronze and copper accented the angular lines down to a narrow muzzle tipped with brilliant white fangs as the jaws smiled. The tall, fluted ears gave several more inches to his already immense height. The eyes were lensed in opaque glass, one azure, the other amber concealing his eyes completely.
He got right into her personal space and offered out a token to her. Although his human face was hidden behind the full mask, the jackal grinned.
She stared at him from behind her own mask, dumbfounded as she shifted her attention from the gleaming mask to the wooden token with stylized canine curled into a crescent, toothy maw open as though it were laughing.
Laughing at what? And why in such unimaginable delight?
For a moment she found herself torn as the man towered over her. He let the token swing on a pendulum of the blood red ribbon. Part of her was outraged he was in her personal space. An equal response demanded that she arch her lithe, cat-like form against him. But most of all was shocked that she didn’t shove him away and out of her private bubble.
He wore a tailored suit that fit him exquisitely. Not flamboyant or stuffy but playful. For example, that silver bolo tie with an Ankh accented in fire-opals rather than a silk tie.
Hell.
“Lord of the dead,” Nina greeted him, surprising herself with the purr in her voice. She reached up and adjusted her enamel Lynx mask, feeling naked in her sheer saffron silks.
“Kittycat.” The voice snarled out from behind the disguise, rough and bestial. The mask did very nice things to his tone, echoing inside the bronze.
Her nipples tightened against the soft fabric of her dress and muscles deep in her stomach tightened all the way between her thighs and her sex. The sensation yanked her up tight with a sudden spear of need.
“Sorry, pup.” She pulled her key from the valley of her modest cleavage and made sure he could see it. “We’re on the same team.”
She couldn’t see his expression, but something in his posture registered his question. His head tipped a fraction to one side in a very dog-like gesture.
“You can’t offer a token to another key holder,” she clarified and pulled out one of her own tokens, letting the lynx mark show as she swung it back and forth from the yellow ribbon. “Sorry. You really are cute.” She started to turn away, but he slid into her path. He didn’t touch her, but, God, he was dangerously close to brushing his strong body up against hers. Heat radiated off him in waves that made her whole body tingle. Hairs along her arms and neck prickled up in gooseflesh. His presence was a magnet running over her skin, pulling the tiny hairs towards him. She thought, if they touched, he might shock her right off her feet.
Onto her back.
To fling her legs over those broad shoulders.
Fucking hell!
“We should trade,” he snarled quietly. It was the sound of an idling diesel engine. Steady, deep and with a bone-deep resonance.
“I don’t think so.”
“You haven’t even given me a try.” His smile was in the tone, just before his laugh rumbled over the words. He radiated a bemused, unflappable confidence.
“Buddy, you are pushy. You come in here l
ike you’re drawn to me. There are other—”
“I know what I want.”
She realized he was still offering out the token and she smiled as she glanced at it again. “I’ll beat the fuck out of you.”
“Mmmm.” The sound was like a rev of that big motor inside his enormous chest and he extended the gloved hand and the token with it. “Challenge accepted.”
“No, you don’t understand, big guy. I don’t bottom. Ever.”
“Never?”
“No.”
“I am not a domestic lap-dog you can kick around. I require more than brute abuse to excel.”
“That’s why I’m saying, it wouldn’t work out. Sorry.”
He was very still. The sort of quiet that made her want to climb him and pull his mask off and see his expression. Was he smirking at her? For some reason, she thought she could feel it through the layers of clothing and bronze. She couldn’t read anything from his relaxed posture.
“Well,” he murmured. “That’s unfortunate. I think you would be delicious as my adorable lap kitty for the weekend. Wouldn’t you look pretty with a bow around your eyes while I orchestrate what you do for the next two days?”
She sucked in an unexpected breath. It wasn’t what he proposed but how he offered it. He didn’t speak in terms of control, force, or demand. The request for her company was phrased in a seductive package. Her legs quivered as she imagined what he suggested. Her desire almost overcame her uncertainty.
Then her lust chilled. This was a complete stranger. She knew nothing about him and couldn’t even speculate if he was trustworthy. She realized how much she relied on familiar play-partners here, even though they were in masks, they had developed a reputation.
It wasn’t the same as when she first played and trusted the rules. Now it was dangerous. Stag had been controlled and respectful for years before he had dragged Dove into a dark hallway and beat her. Bee had forced herself on her ex-lover after many years as a steady, dependable Mistress. This man was a stranger to her. By boldly offering her his token, he displayed a basic lack of understanding the basic rules. How could she trust he would respect her boundaries? The reminder of the risks made her throat close up.
A small voice of reason whispered that House Mistress had removed the dangers. House Mistress would keep the play safe. The pep-talk didn’t stop Nina’s doubts from gnawing at her.
Her expression seemed to be answer enough for him. With courtly grace he bowed his huge frame towards her in acceptance of her mute rejection. He swept his big fist closed over the token and pressed the knuckles over his chest.
The movement, elegant and practiced, plucked a familiar memory from her. It had been years since she thought about the foundation etiquette classes under the watchful eye of her mother and aunt. ‘Proper manners are easily offered but rarely done in this day and age. It takes you only a moment to show your respect to an ally offering fealty. Terestchenko honors its vows, always remember that, daughter.’ “Wait…” she said.
“No, lady. I can see your doubt. You are so beautiful, you made me forget myself a moment.”
She found that she wanted to deny it and explain herself, but he was already gracefully striding away and into the crowd. As the gravity of the big man swept away from her and left her without an orbit she realized her friends were staring at her. The flash of memory vanished with his departure. His gesture was one of tribute, completely out of place in this context, but the opportunity to find out more slipped through her fingers.
Before she could form the right words, they started speaking all at once.
“Wowza! Momma Lynxie, who is that?”
“Is he your new toy?”
“Did he just run in here to find you?”
Nina shook her head. “What? No. He didn’t.”
“Oh, hell yes, he did.”
She glowered at her friends and then leaned in to hug them. “Whatever. He’s not my type.”
The four women laughed right in her face and then hugged her.
“Oh. Sure. Totally not your type. Tall…”
“Dark…”
“Covered in muscles….”
“All right, stop it. He is also clearly just…I don’t know, confused. He didn’t know I’m a keyholder. He just latched onto me first in his desperation to get laid. He’s new. Of course, he’s moving fast. Actually, I think he’d let me whip him silly just so he could dominate me the rest of the weekend to show me how what a ‘real Dom’ he is.”
Her friends shared looks of disbelief.
“There are steps between you know, Lynxie. Power plays and the finesse of wrestling for control.” Fox laughed, eyes shining behind the sapphire vulpine mask.
“Not for me.” Nina replied firmly. “Never, ever for me. I’m not a vessel for someone to use for their pleasure.”
“Well, it’s a shame. He seems just your type. Well, since you’re not going after him, who are you going to chase?”
That question cooled Nina’s desire several more degrees than she expected. Who indeed? “Maybe Lark will be free.” She turned to look but saw that he was already kneeling at the feet of Swan. That was disappointing. Somehow knowing that woman was going to have her dirty hands all over her former toy made her feel a strange pang. It wasn’t jealousy really. She had no propriety to Lark. She thought of the big Jackal in the same spot and heat filled her chest. The jealousy lit her up like a spark to gasoline.
Whoa. Easy, kitty. Dial it down several notches!
“All right, girls. The mission, as always, is to find the most delicious playmate, and bring them to breakfast to report.” Bear, in her emerald silks adjusted her glossy enamel mask with a slanted smile. They stood in the foyer which was still busy with mingling party goers. “Strike first. Strike hard. Show no mercy.” She flashed a grin of teeth.
Fox kissed Nina’s cheek wetly. “Find someone sweet to take your aggression on.”
But Fox knew Nina wasn’t into this right now.
Nina wasn’t even going to accept the invitation for this event, but Sapphire Fox had convinced her. House Mistress had made changes. Things were going to be better. Besides, Foxy and her lover, Wolfie, broke up recently and her friend needed the distraction as much as her support. Being with her friends was top on her priority list.
And Opal Owl was there. The small woman was full of an unfathomable joy. Nina could power a city block off the delight radiating from her. If Owl could get over the attack she was involved in back in November, why shouldn’t Nina trust the changes in the house would keep something like that from happening again? Learning that several young men had showed up at the house in Tahoe during a party in costumes and masks to partake in non-consensual sex had deeply unsettled Nina. The play was safe, until things went bad.
The rules were the safety net.
The net should always catch them.
Except it had not caught Owl and she’d been hurt.
Tonight, Owl sat on the Archer’s knee as though she were holding court. She seemed so small in his dark shadow, but her curved body was poised with a queenly dignity. She talked with the man in the dragon mask as he pointedly ignored the faery masked woman kneeling at his feet. Owl stroked the end of a thick ivory and steel scepter along Archer’s bare chest, glowing with confidence and radiance as though she’d not been subjected to Nina’s worst nightmare.
Non-consensual sex.
Again, the small voice whispered that changes had been made. Nina didn’t need to be afraid. Irrational fear didn’t listen, it remained nested in her chest.
Nina went in search of a drink first, annoyed at having switched on her jealousy’s internal nuclear setting. That thing had never been trigged before. It didn’t make any sense, but neither did the reality that she was now afraid to risk a new playmate.
The response and her cooled lust put her off offering her token to anyone. That’s how she found herself with a scotch in hand, sprawled over the piano, singing.
It wasn’t like she
’d never gone partner-less before. Her friends would get a good giggle about her being alone at breakfast. In fact, she rather liked the idea of being stag this time. Right. The party had other activities to enjoy.
Tonight, she was the entertainer she dreamed she could be if her obligations didn’t tether her. Behind her mask she was safe to follow the dream. For just a few hours. she could be fearless. The net would catch her!
From her perch she watched the couples play and enjoy themselves. She, meanwhile, took requests, sang, and got stinking drunk off the drinks the guests fed her in payment for her warbling. The pianist teased and tormented her, flirting outrageously between the songs, and inspired her to sing the bawdiest lyrics she could dredge up.
It had been awhile since she fully enjoyed being a voyeur. House Mistress and her outlaw consort were enjoying the public display in the room. Gleaming gold and indigo, there was something so erotic and primal about the pair of them. Nina had never seen anything like it. She had never witnessed House Mistress play in public before. Not only was it sexy, but also sweet and endearing.
Nina wondered how House Mistress had earned the scars on her back. Marks like that came with a story, usually a deliciously epic one. Maybe it had something to do with her new lover. She wanted to ask how she’d met this tattooed savage. After watching them play, she needed to find out if he had a brother!
She was flirting outrageously with the musician between songs. Caught in laughter, she looked up and nearly choked on the sound as she realized that the dark corner of the room was filled by Anubis in the jackal mask. It was impossible to tell if he was looking at her from the gleam of the glass lenses flickering in the candle light. He was alone, massive legs spread and his gloved hand rested very comfortably in his lap.
It was one of the least lewd acts happening in the room and the most evocative. She felt like she was singing for him, particularly when he rubbed himself. She sang the raunchiest song she could remember. He might be stroking himself watching the brazen sex all around him. It didn’t matter. He didn’t take out his cock and present it to the room or satisfy himself in such a vulgar manner. Nina imagined him teasing her, a silent display of how he was affected by her voice and the songs.
All Thorns Eve_Gems Book 1 Page 3
