She shook her head. The fact was it fit a little bit loosely. But she wasn’t happy with the way it made her feel. Like an animal and not in a hot way either.
“I suppose I’ll get used to this.”
Arsen’s silence left her wondering what the man was thinking.
Will this become something we do often?
She’d signed the contract and whatever he wanted to do with her he could. When she looked back up at him, she saw a slight droop at the edge of his dark eyes. He wasn’t as happy as he had been.
His finger ran over her red painted lips.
“Think about things tonight when you see that lifestyle. Be true to yourself and to me. If you decide you want out of the contract, I’ll let you.”
Steele shook her head. No contract meant no Arsen, and she knew it.
“I’ll get used to this. I can get used to anything if it means I get to stay in your life, Arsen.”
“If I have my way, you will always be in my life, Steele.” Arsen kissed her cheek and picked up the leash. “Remember to follow a step behind me when we get to the club, baby. I don’t want one of the assholes there to smack your ass if you don’t. It’s not like any place you’ve ever been.”
As they went down the elevator to get into the car, Steele felt something inside her growing. It was fear and excitement and a little anger. She was feeling angry with herself for letting so much of herself go. But she couldn’t seem to stop herself. The thrill was outweighing the shame.
GWEN
Water was dripping somewhere in the open room. Gwen opened her eyes and looked around. It was dark and musty smelling. She could hear the sound of water lapping against the shore outside a window.
Lights glowed in the darkness outside the window which had been covered with a plastic sheet she couldn’t see through. She tried to move and found herself trapped.
Still groggy, she moved her head around and found herself chained to a small bed. It seemed like she was in an old warehouse, most likely down by the docks near the San Francisco bay area.
Though her mind was fuzzy she did remember telling Allen he had to leave as he was talking about kidnapping Steele for her own good. Now it seemed he must’ve kidnapped her.
Panic ripped through her as she recalled what Arsen had told her Allen had done to his high school math teacher that had him sent to prison. She wondered how anyone could be set free after what he did.
“Allen?” she called out.
Nothing came back, and she hoped he would leave her alone there rather than come back and do God knows what to her. Better to die of starvation and dehydration than to be tortured by the crazy man.
The sound of metal grinding against metal met her ears and then there were footsteps. She bit her lip and tried hard not to cry as Allen came near her. The light was dim, but she saw he was holding a whip in one hand and some type of odd contraption in the other.
“Allen, what are you doing, Sweetheart,” she asked in a really kind voice, hoping to make him see her for who he knew she was. They were going to get married after all. Though crazy, he had to love her she thought.
“I asked you to help me and you told me to get out of your house. I guess you have no idea what your best friend is going through with that monster, Arsen Sloan, so I’m about to show you what he does to women, Gwen.” He took a step towards her and placed something in her mouth.
The contraption he had in his hand had been some type of gagging device. After placing the ball in her mouth, he buckled the thing around her head.
She tried to talk and scream and it wouldn’t allow either. She shook her head, and he looked at her with no emotion.
“You have to see. So you understand what he does to your friend, Gwen. You didn’t understand me or maybe you didn’t believe me, so you see, I have to show you or you never will understand.”
He took a step back and let the whip fly, the thin leather fell across her stomach and she shrieked with the pain, only the thing in her mouth stopped it from ringing out in the air for anyone to hear.
Tears fell in streams down her cheeks. The whip flew through the air again.
So this is how I’m going to die.
ARSEN
The angels and demons residing in Arsen seemed to be at war with each other. On the one hand he found Steele beyond amazing in the outfit he bought her. On the other hand, that was not her.
She was tolerating too much, and he knew it. It was he who needed some change in who he was, not her. She was a sweet, innocent, young woman he met and radically influenced in a bad way.
Yet here he was taking her to a place he’d promised himself he wouldn’t. The car stopped in the alley where the entrance to Fierce was. He watched as Steele looked around, confusion riddling her beautiful face.
“Where is it, Arsen?”
He pointed to the rusty metal door.
“Right here.”
Paul opened the car door, letting them out.
“Call when you’re ready to leave, boss.”
Arsen nodded and placed the mask over Steele’s eyes then put his own on. He took her leash and heard her sigh. His heart sped up, and he wanted nothing more than to tell her to get back in the car and wait for him to go get the things he needed to so the police wouldn’t find them.
“Steele, would you rather wait in the car for me?”
“I want to see this place. I want to see what you found you had to have in your life these past years. I want to know all about you and what you need,” she answered.
“The only thing I need since I found you, is you, Steele. None of this is me any longer. I need you to start understanding that, Baby.”
She shook her head. “I’m no fool, Arsen. You will tire of me if I can’t be what you need.”
He shrugged his wide shoulders and took a step then turned back.
“Steele, if we get separated somehow, you need to immediately go into that little submissive sit I showed you. As long as you have my collar and leash on and take that position, no male will mess with you. If you’re wondering around free they might mess with you even though you have the collar and leash on. If you’re wondering around free and it’s off, you’re fair game to them. And all the screaming and yelling will be ignored or even stopped by a gag.”
“You’re just trying to scare me into staying in the car, aren’t you?” She smiled and giggled. “So dramatic!”
Arsen shook his head and knew she was about to really freak out, but she was too tenacious to believe him. Once he opened the door, and she saw how dark it was she hugged up behind him. Her hand moved into his and he stopped and looked back at her.
“You can’t do that here.”
“Oh! Yeah, sorry. Okay, let me get into character. Wow, this place looks spooky. Don’t you think it’s creepy in here, Arsen?” She took a step back and seemed to be rambling.
“You have no idea, Baby. Now, keep your mouth shut and follow me. Remember all the rules, please. I don’t want some mother fucker smacking you and pissing me off.” He led her down the stairs and prayed she’d follow the rules he’d laid out for her.
When they rounded the corner to the coat check he heard Steele gasp at the freak show who was running the counter. The guy did look rather ghoulish with his spiked black hair and ruby red lipstick. The piercings all over his pale face were gruesome, and he was dressed in only tight leather shorts. His nipples were pierced, and a chain ran between them.
Arsen turned and took off Steele’s coat and saw her eyes go wide behind her mask as he revealed her nearly naked body. Her chest rose as she held her breath.
“You need to breathe, Baby,” he whispered in her ear as he pulled the coat completely away.
“Nice,” the young guy said as he took the red coat. “Room 21, right?”
Arsen nodded as the guy placed the coat on a hanger and pressed a sticker to it with his private room number. Arsen looked back to find Steele biting at her lower lip and shook his head at her. She stopped and fell
into place behind him.
With a few feet of privacy before they got into the main room he told her, “Walk with your head up high. You’re proud to be with me after all and want all to know that. But don’t make eye contact with anyone. Look forward and stay only one step behind me.”
“Okay, man my stomach is full of butterflies. I guess I should’ve had a drink or something before I came in here,” she said.
Arsen smiled knowingly.
“I wanted you completely sober to see this place. Now no more talking until we get to my private room.”
Steele shut her mouth and Arsen walked into the room, holding her leash and loving the stares the men were immediately giving his woman. He walked through the crowd of scantily, leather clad people and had to hold back a smile.
She was stealing the show, just like he knew she would.
STEELE
Steele was amazed by the people she tried so hard not to look at as Arsen had instructed. Nearly naked women everywhere on leashes. Some on their hands and knees while others stood. But all seemed to be looking at her and Arsen as they strode through the middle like they owned the place.
The air was cold and had her nipples as erect as they could get. A good thing she supposed. A scene from the corner of her eye made her head turn just slightly to see a man who stood and looked on as another man fucked the woman he had on a leash, from behind as she looked up at her master.
The word, degrading, hit her mind like a brick and she looked at the back of Arsen’s head instead. Her stomach was tense, and the butterflies had transformed into pterodactyls.
The six-inch heels were proving hard to walk in as the cement floor was a little slippery and she glanced down to see a fair amount of fluid was here and there on the floor.
Bile rose in her throat as she thought of being made to move through the room on hands and knees as some were having to do. It was disgusting. Arsen had been right about how she’d see it.
The scene changed as they walked into another room. A disco ball was suspended high on the ceiling and hard rock music played loudly. People danced, and it was an odd feeling as the lights flashed off and on.
Arsen turned to her and pulled her up in his arms and moved them to the hard beat of the music. He whispered, “Okay, so far?”
“I’m okay, Arsen. This is not what I expected though.”
He pulled back and turned away from her, pulling her along after him again. Once they made their way out of that room they entered a dark hallway. Then turned and went down another.
Doors were on each side of the dimly lit halls. Odd sounds leaked out of some of them as they passed by. Some good groans, some not so good groans, and some horrific groans had Steele second guessing coming into the club.
Arsen finally stopped at a door and used a key to open it. He led her inside and turned to close the door behind them.
“So, you like this place, Steele?”
“Um, uh, It’s uh, different. I can’t say I do or don’t like it,” she stammered.
He pulled the collar off her and smiled.
“Really? Maybe the full treatment will help you make a decision then.” Arsen turned a knob on the wall near the door and the interior of the dark room lit up.
“Oh my God, Arsen,” Steele said in a whisper as her eyes traveled over his extensive collection.
An odd wooden structure was in the middle of the room which she found to be rather large. She pointed at it and before she could ask, he said, “That’s a bondage bed.”
“It looks medieval. And anything but comfortable.” She walked over to it and almost touched it.
“Stop!” he said with a sudden sternness to his voice. She stopped, and he walked up to her, then pulled some surgical gloves from a black box under the bed. He put them on her hands. “I don’t want your finger prints on anything in here.”
“Oh! Smart, Arsen.” She looked around as he put the white gloves on her.
Two long poles leaned against one of the black walls. A rusty color was running down the tan poles and she knew immediately those were the things Rowan had told her about. She gulped and asked, “Is that blood on those things over there.” She nodded her head towards the poles.
Without looking at her, he answered, “It is.”
“You beat women until they bled?” Her mind was spinning.
“I did.” He still didn’t look at her.
A block of wood caught her eye next.
“Is that like a stockade? Like from the old days when people would get locked up in them for committing a crime?”
“It is.” He finally looked into her eyes.
“So you would lock women up and then do whatever you wanted to with them?” Her lip was beginning to quiver as she was realizing the man she knew was so much more messed up then she imagined he was.
“I did, yes.” His eyes were dark and hard as if daring her to tell him he had done anything wrong.
A leather, full-face mask hung on the wall near a hook and silver handcuffs dangled from them. Along the wall was a line of various items used to flog people. Her heart began to race.
“There is not one thing in this room which doesn’t bring pain, is there, Arsen?”
He shook his head slowly.
“So what do you think of this place now, Steele? Think it’s a place you’d care to frequent? Think it’s a place you belong in?”
If she wanted to stay in his life, she’d better figure out how to take all he was about.
“Show me how you take a woman on this hard wood bed, Arsen. Show me how it feels to be in here with you as my Master.”
He chuckled and his eyes softened.
“You know stubborn isn’t a strong enough word for you, Steele. I’m not going to be taking you in this room, ever. This is not for you. It’s not a thing you want. Your mind was not made to handle the pain that this lifestyle is about.”
“Show me how to do what you want, Arsen,” she said and fell to her knees on the cold cement floor. “If this is you and what you want, then teach me. Teach me to take the pain you like to give out.”
He turned away from her and put his head in his hands. “Get up!” he snapped.
She did as he said. But her mind was racing with the newfound knowledge he had never really had sex that didn’t involve pain. She had to be disappointing to him.
“If you won’t take me in here then at least put me in some type of bondage thing you have so many of in here. I know you want to, so just do it. I want you to do it.” She looked around and pointed to a table.
It looked benign enough.
“There, that table thing. Do to me what you did to other women on that table, Arsen.”
He looked at where she was pointing then back at her with an expressionless face.
“I leaned women over that and flogged them with various things until they begged me to stop. Then I held them down and fucked them on it. Is that what you think you really want?”
“I want some of what you gave other women here, Arsen. I feel left out of a part of you.” She stepped towards him and found him moving back from her.
“Be glad you’re left out of this part of me. This part of me only wanted to cause pain the way pain had been done to me. You don’t seem to understand. This is about overcoming pain, Steele. Learning to handle the harsh reality that some of us are dished out a hell of a lot more than others are. Learning how to overcome it.” He spun around and pulled his jacket off, hanging it in a closet. He pulled his shirt off next and hung it up.
Steele’s heart began to pound, thinking he was finally going to give her what she’d asked for.
“Arsen, it kills me that you were ever hurt.”
He picked up one of the long poles and carried it over to her. She looked at it and flinched.
Why would he want to use that?
Arsen held it out to her.
“I want you to take this and match it to the faint marks on my back.” He turned, and she held it to the three places on
his back where faded scars were.
That woman who’d been his mistress had hit him with the thing and split his flesh wide open more than just one time. “Arsen, this is horrible.”
He looked back at her.
“No, what’s horrible is when I did that to others. When I first met you I told you that you should run and you should’ve. I am a monster, Steele. And now that you’ve seen this and what I have done, you know it’s true.”
“I don’t think of you as a monster. You had tons of pain inside you. You still do. I can see now why the women asked you to do the things you did to them. I also want to take your pain away and would feel the bite of your strap or whatever you had to endure to take it away from you,” she said then ran her hand over his cheek.
“That’s not what I want for you, Steele. I don’t want you to feel pain. Shit! You can’t take it and you shouldn’t have to. Your life wasn’t bad. You have no reason to need to accept pain and learn how to deal with it and I won’t be the one to make you.” He took the pole from her, turned and walked away.
In that instant it all became crystal clear to Steele. Arsen was never going to be able to stay with her. She turned and ran from the room at full speed. All she could think was she had to get the hell out of that place and away from the man she loved more than she ever could’ve imagined, but he was never going to allow her to be what he needed.
ARSEN
The door slammed, and he turned to find Steel had gone. He cursed and ran after her, not sure which way she’d turned in the hallway. He took off the way they had come in, but he knew she might’ve gone the other direction and he hoped she hadn’t done that.
After searching the two rooms they’d been in, he found nothing. He stopped by the coat check stand and saw her red coat still hanging and he knew she wouldn’t go out without it.
Maelstrőm Page 62
