Maelstrőm

by Michelle Love

  “While he fucked her. You know that’s how that works, Steele.”

  Steele nodded.

  “I’m completely aware of that. Thanks for reminding me though.”

  “He’s not a real nice man, Steele. You’re virtually innocent and he’s capable of making you into something you’re not. What has he made you do so far? Be honest.” Gwen sat back and looked casual. A thing Steele was aware of and knew she was anything but that.

  “He hasn’t made me do a thing. The emphasis on, made.” Steele sighed and looked Gwen in the eyes. “I’ve wanted to do it.”

  Gwen shook her head slowly.

  “He’s a Master, remember? He made you think you wanted it. So tell me the dirty details.”

  “He’s really not like that. Everyone sees this man who is closed off and arrogant, demanding, and somewhat brutal at times. Ask Rowan, he’ll tell you he’s a monster, and he’s hit Rowan a couple of times. But he’s not that. He’s more than that facade he shows the world. But I get to see more of him than that. I get to see some of who he was before he had to become that man to protect the hurt boy inside him.”

  Gwen smiled.

  “Bullshit, Steele. He’s only making you think he’s letting you in. He’s a master at getting what he wants and he wants little, innocent, sweet you to do what demanding, arrogant, BDSM master wants. End of story. Now you’ve yet to tell me what’s happened in the bedroom between the two of you. So spill it.”

  Steele thought for a moment. Would it be a mistake to let Gwen in on at least a little of what she and Arsen had done?

  She knew she needed not to hide so much. After another sip if wine she decided to let her good friend know about the life she was moving into.

  “Okay, I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to jump to conclusions or judge either Arsen or me.”

  Gwen gave her a nod.

  “I am in college to become a psychologist you know. I can be trusted, Steele.”

  “Yeah, I know. You’re in your first year so try to remember that. You aren’t thoroughly educated yet.” Steele put the glass down, kicked off her flats and folded her legs, Indian style.

  “The worst thing so far is that I’ve allowed him to punish me with spankings.”

  “Why?” Gwen’s one simple word made Steele’s mind go blank.

  Why had she allowed that?

  “I think I did it so he would see I was trusting him. I think you would have to have been in my head at that time.”

  “What made you think you needed to allow him to physically harm you for him to think you trusted him?” Gwen’s face had paled a bit and her hand shook as she took another drink.

  “I’m not really sure, Gwen. The truth is I’m not really sure why I’ve allowed the things I have. I fucking love the man and would walk through fire if he told me to. I don’t know if its trust or what the hell it is. I’d do anything for him and let him do anything he wanted to me.”

  The admission had her feeling heavy with an odd guilt. She knew Gwen was trying so hard not to let her see how appalled she was but the look was spreading over her face and it made Steele think she’d made some poor decisions where Arsen was concerned.

  “Does he make you do things sexually that make you feel used or abused?” Gwen’s finger tapping on her temple told Steele tons about how her friend was taking the news.

  “No. I mean my body is his to do with what he wants. I am his after all.”

  Gwen jumped up and began to pace.

  “I’m sorry, Steele. This is way too much! What the fuck, girl?”

  Steele looked up at her.

  “You promised! See, that’s why people don’t talk to others about this. Yes, I believe my body is his. But it’s not like you think. I can walk away anytime I want. I just don’t want to. His touch sends me to a place I’ve never been before. Everything he does to me feels like Heaven. Even when his belt falls across my ass, I fucking love it and get all wet with desire for him. The first two licks, anyway.”

  Gwen spun around and looked at Steele with wide eyes.

  “How in the hell are you romanticizing this shit?”

  “I’m not trying to. I’m just trying to explain why I decided to enter into an agreement with him. I’m his sub now. We signed a contract.” Steele closed her eyes as she readied herself for the explosion.

  Gwen’s voice surprised her when it came out soft.

  “You are his sub now. Wow! He wasted no time. It didn’t take him long at all to break the strong woman you are.”

  “I asked him to do it. He didn’t think I was ready. Told me I might never be ready. To me, that meant he might get tired of the boring vanilla I am. I don’t want him to get bored with me, so I’m learning how to be what he wants, what he needs.”

  “You? You told him you wanted to be his sub? You, said that? Well, that’s just crazy and I know you're not crazy. Tell him you want to tear that contract up. Tell him you want to be you, not the you who has changed for him, the you, you were.” Gwen sat down next to her and reached out and touched her shoulders. “You can stop this. He needs to accept you for who you are, not what he can make you.”

  “I don’t know if I can do that. You see, a big part of me would break if I made him go back to the soft way he was before his first girlfriend’s father beat him nearly to death when he was seventeen. The man put him in the hospital and Arsen’s mother abandoned him at the hospital. When he got out, he had to go straight into foster care. When he was eighteen, a woman, the mother of the girl he had loved, took him in and made him her submissive. She was cruel and nearly was the end of him.”

  “He told you this?” Gwen looked skeptical.

  Steele shook her head.

  “I found a journal he wrote all this in. But then I told him I read it and he confirmed the story. See, it took him building that wall to get to be the strong man he is today. He’s a success story and his love for me is making him soft and I don’t want to be the person who ruins such a magnificent alpha male.”

  “What do you mean by soft, Steele?”

  “Don’t get pissed, but he told me not to be alone with Rowan. He caught us alone and when we got home, he spanked me. I cried, and he told me he was sorry. He told me he would never do that to me again.”

  “Good. That’s not going soft, that’s getting his head straight. Be glad about that. Keep working for that. Not going the other direction, Steele. If he loves you, he’ll accept you for who you are. That goes the same for you. If you love him, you have to allow him to be who he is with you. If that means changing some, allow that to happen. You said he’s built a wall around his heart to keep himself safe. He must feel safe with you and is letting the wall down, a brick at a time. Let him do that.”

  “So, what you’re saying is that I’m stopping him from being the man he is by having him make me his sub?”

  “That’s what it sounds like. You two have enough crap to deal with as it is. Don’t go adding in your desire to keep him a certain way add to that.”

  Steele thought about what all her friend had said for a few moments.

  “You know what. You might be right. But I want to stay with the contract for now anyway. You see, I want him to take me to the BDSM club. I want to see it and experience it. I know that sounds nuts but I want to know what he was like before me.”

  “Sounds like he was a real prick before you. A man better left in the past. It’s not a thing I think you’ll like,” Gwen said.

  “I kind of find it all romantic. Arsen says it’s not, but I think the idea of taking such good care of a woman that she wants to give herself to a man in all aspects is romantic.” Steele’s eyes sparkled with her fantasy.

  “You’re quite delusional, Steele. If Arsen told you it’s not romantic, you should take his word for it. He has been the master for a while now and who should know better than he?”

  Steele sighed and said, “I know. But, I’m a curious person and want to see the damn club. So I’m going to push for it. I
f I hate it, we can always leave. I’ve found out a thing or two about myself since I’ve been with Arsen. I’m a little bit of a freak in the sheets.”

  Gwen laughed and got up.

  “So, want to hear about my new guy?”

  Steele sat up with excitement.

  “You have a new guy? Yes, do tell.”

  Gwen smiled. “He’s older, almost as old as your guy. He’s cute, with dark hair and dark eyes. And he’s like this awesome Christian man. He goes to different prisons and jails to talk to the inmates about God and stuff. He’s great, Steele.”

  “Sounds awesome. So you two are serious?” Steele asked.

  “He stays here a lot. You’re never home anymore, so I didn’t think you’d mind,” she said with a laugh.

  Steele laughed too.

  “I don’t mind. So, what’s his name?” Her cell rang, and she saw Arsen’s name and held her hand up to stop Gwen from answering.

  “Hello, Arsen. Okay, be right out.”

  The way Steele hauled ass to get out to his car had Gwen shaking her head. “Bye, and don’t forget what we talked about, Steele.”

  “I won’t,” Steele said as she walked out the door.

  ARSEN

  It was five minutes after eight p.m. when the doorman buzzed Arsen to tell him a young woman was there for a meeting she’d sat up with him. He told him to send her up and prepared himself to see the new detective who’d been put on his case.

  He left Tanner out of the meeting on purpose. He was a criminal lawyer himself after all. He knew the rules.

  Arsen was not prepared for the gorgeous woman who walked off the elevator and stepped into the living area of his penthouse. Clad in an expensive tight fitting, short pencil skirt in black and a silk blue shirt, she’d left the top three buttons undone on, and sky high black heels. He had a hard time not letting his eyes roam all over her.

  Her dark hair was falling over her shoulders in waves and her blue eyes were piercing.

  He shook his head to clear it.

  “You must be Detective Fontaine.” He extended his hand as he walked toward her.

  She took his hand and shook it with a slow movement and held it a bit too long.

  “And you are the infamous, Arsen Sloan. What a pleasure it is to meet you. I have to tell you I’m not a fan of your work as you get way too many of the bad guys off the charges we work so hard to make stick.”

  With a shrug he pulled his hand away and said, “Someone has to defend the accused, Detective. Please come this way and we can talk in my office.”

  He wanted her in there where he could be the one to sit behind the large desk and make her feel he was in charge and not the other way around.

  “Can I offer you a drink? A Cognac or a glass of wine?”

  She laughed a little as she followed him.

  “Afraid I’m still on the clock, but thank you. Perhaps another time when I’m not working. You are a single man, aren’t you, Arsen?”

  He almost stopped and turned around as she asked him such a personal question.

  “As far as anyone knows, I am,” he managed to say with a laugh. “What woman in her right mind would give me the time of day with all the news out there that I’m a BDSM master with three dead subs after all?”

  “I guess that would cramp your love life a bit.” She took the chair in front of the desk he gestured to and he went around and took his large, leather chair.

  He noticed her taking him all in and frowned.

  “It has. Now, tell me what you need from me.”

  She bit her bottom lip, and he thought how easily he could bend the woman over his desk and take her anyway he pleased. And then it hit him. She had to be part of a set up against him.

  “I need to know why your hand prints are on the three victim’s necks. If you don’t mind. I need explicit details.”

  He knew what she was doing and wouldn’t play into her devious hands. He leaned forward and laced his fingers together and placed his chin on them.

  “Those particular women were into something not a lot of people know about. They liked to be choked. You should really look it up on your own. It’s not appropriate to discuss in mixed company.”

  She crossed her legs, leaving them open for a moment and Arsen saw the flash of red panties she’d meant him to. He almost laughed out loud at her antics. “Please, Mr. Sloan, let me into your world a bit so I can help you. Tell me about why the women wanted you to choke them to death.”

  He laughed and sat back in his chair.

  “I didn’t say to death, Fontaine. I didn’t even choke them until they were unconscious. Merely until they could take no more and touched my forearm, telling me to let them go.”

  “Could you show me?” she asked as her eyes lit up.

  He shook his head and laughed.

  “No.”

  “But I’m asking you to and that’s what you said the other women did. I want to feel that. Can’t you understand? It could help me find out who really did this to them. I don’t think it was you.” She leaned forward and her breasts spilled over her bra and she moved in a way to make sure they jiggled.

  “If you want to feel that, I advise you to ask your boyfriend to help you out with that. I’m not going to. You see, there’s a little more to it than just cutting off the oxygen supply to the brain for a little while. It’s during intercourse, so you see how that’s not going to happen?” Arsen opened his bottom drawer and pulled out a small glass and a bottle of Scotch.

  “Am I making you nervous, Arsen?” she asked as she sat back and spread her legs apart, allowing the red panties to remain in his line of vision.

  “You, no.” He wasn’t nervous, he was growing angrier and didn’t want to lose his temper with the woman who thought she was so enticing. She was anything but that. And the fact is all he could think about was getting the meeting over with and getting Steele back by his side.

  “I’d like to help you. But I need you to let me in. You see, I think you might have an idea of who the real killer could be.”

  He did, but he was unsure if he should share that information with the woman he felt more and more was some type of trap they thought he’d fall into. He shook his head.

  “If I had any idea, don’t you think I’d already have thrown a name out there?”

  “It’s occurred to me that you might be thinking you’re smarter than we are.” Her eyebrows arched, and she smiled as she looked intensely into his eyes.

  “I don’t think anything of the sort. Now, unless you have anything else to ask me, I have somewhere to be.” He sipped his drink as she smiled.

  “Oh, I see. Well, there is one more thing. It’s about this club called Fierce and how you have a private room there and how we need to get in there and take some samples of any type of bodily fluids in the room. I was hoping you’d see fit to help us out on that, without us needing to get a warrant.” She sat back and made damn sure her panties were showing as she hitched up her short skirt a little higher.

  He smiled.

  “Afraid I’m going to have to let you get a warrant for that. And you will find evidence of all three of them in there.”

  “I see. And how about in here?” she asked as she gestured around.

  He shook his head. “I never let them come here.”

  “Never?” She looked surprised. “You never let your girlfriends come home with you.”

  “They weren’t my girlfriends.” He took a long drink, growing tired of her.

  “But you have had a girlfriend before. Beth, right?” Her eyes sparkled as she knew she’d hit a nerve.

  His eyes narrowed. “She had nothing to do with this.”

  “No, but her mother might. You see, I think your ex-mistress might have been the one who killed your ex-submissive partners. She actually came to us, asking us to protect her from you, Mr. Sloan. Tell me when you last contacted her.” She leaned forward and smiled. “And try to remember to be truthful, as she’s told us.”

  �
��I have not contacted her in years. Not since I got away from her. So whatever she said was a lie. She’s prone to lying. She kept her lifestyle a secret from her family. I assume with her coming to you she must’ve finally divorced her husband or something.” He sat back and refused to let the woman see how irate he was.

  “He’s dead, Mr. Sloan.” Her face went emotionless.

  His eyebrows rose.

  “I hope you’re not about to accuse me of that as well.”

  “No,” she said with a smile. “He had a heart attack a few years ago.”

  He sat back with relief. “Fucking bastard,” he muttered.

  “She told us, he’d beaten you nearly to death and that her daughter saw you as a weak coward. Mrs. Sinclair said she helped you to become the man you are today. A successful billionaire.” She stood up and looked down at him for only a second as he quickly stood.

  “She had nothing to do with my success. I became the man I am despite her. And I don’t care enough for the miserable woman to bother to threaten her in any way. I have walked away from her, much to her disapproval and I have the scars on my back to prove she was a harsh mistress.” He walked around the desk. “I’ll see you out then, Detective Fontaine.”

  He walked down the hall to the elevator as she followed behind him. He pressed the button, and the door opened up. She stepped inside and smiled.

  “Be seeing you soon, Mr. Sloan. As soon as we get that warrant.” She gave him a wink just before the doors closed.

  Arsen stood staring at the closed doors and cursed silently to himself. He had to get to the club and clean up some things before the police went in there. And he would need help. He knew the one person he could count on, but it really wasn’t what he wanted for her.

  He had no choice though!

  STEELE

  Arsen’s face was unreadable as she got into the car with him.