by Zara Chase
“Well, if I’m right about them wanting to ski the stones out of here, they’re gonna have to speak with Jack and ask him to fly them up to the drop-off point. The same one we went to yesterday. The only time they showed any animation during the descent was when we got to the point where they could have gone off and finished up in Spain. They had a map with them which they consulted and did a lot of pointing at, jabbering away in Dutch. Then they asked our guide a whole lot of questions about the route down to Spain. That’s what firmed up my suspicions. Apart from that, they didn’t utter a word, except to one another.”
“So, supposing I agree to be bribed,” Jack said. “What then?”
“That’s just it.” Chelsea shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“We could get the local police to raid their hotel room,” Jack suggested.
“That won’t work,” Chelsea replied. “If they’re out skiing, they’ll have the stone with them. If they’re not, you can bet your lives they’ve found somewhere to hide them where they’ll never be found. The package will be very small.”
“If Jack agrees to drop them off, we could have the Spanish police waiting to intercept them on the other side.”
Chelsea shook her head again, more emphatically this time. “Smith is a rich man and pays generously to have eyes and ears in all the major police forces throughout Europe. If this is going down the way we think, then he will have someone on the Spanish side ready to let him know the moment word gets out that we’re onto them. Besides, I’d never see my commission if that happened. Others would claim it as theirs.”
“Is that all that matters to you?” Jack demanded to know. “The money?”
She sent him a scathing look. “If it makes you feel superior to believe that, then be my guest.”
Jack didn’t feel superior. He felt cheap for having made that leap. It was obvious that the money was important to Chelsea but he didn’t know her well enough to understand why. He’d probably never get the chance. Not that he wanted to know her, of course. The trust had gone. But still, he was curious about her need for a decent payday. She didn’t strike him as being mercenary.
“Right,” Leo said, standing. “You’ve convinced me that these guys are up to something. I need to run the whole scenario past Padron, see if he has any suggestions.”
Jack nodded grimly. If Leo was going direct to Padron, then he really was a worried man. “Good thinking,” he said.
“How much time do we have, Chelsea?” Leo asked.
“Rob’s threatening to descend upon us mob-handed in two days,” Chelsea replied, grimacing. “Besides that, Bushnell and Closson only have three days left on their trip. I’m guessing they’ll make a move tomorrow or the day after at the latest. I checked the weather and it’s due to close in the day after that, so they can’t risk leaving it until then. Besides, if I was them I wouldn’t leave it until the last minute.”
“You need to bounce more ideas off me?” Jack asked Leo.
“No, let me talk to Padron first. We have a bit of time. Nothing will happen tonight.” Leo headed towards his office, pausing to send Jack a probing look over his shoulder. “You have locked doors to explain, if you feel so inclined.”
“No point.”
“Your call, but if it was me,” Leo said, glancing at Chelsea, “I’d say you had one hell of an incentive.”
* * * *
Jack stood up again as soon as Leo left them room and Chelsea thought he was going to leave, too. She stood as well, unable to remain passive when there was so much animosity flying between them. She was unsure whether she felt more relieved or apprehensive when Jack, still simmering with resentment, fixed her with a long, level stare but didn’t actually leave.
At least they had accepted her explanation without laughing their asses off. That was something, but it didn’t let her off the hook with Jack. She glanced up at his profile, dark and forbidding, and would have given a great deal to know what thoughts were passing through that smart brain of his. But she could read nothing from his expression as he watched her in deliberating silence, as though trying to reach some sort of decision himself.
“What do you want to know?” he finally asked.
“About what?”
“Because I don’t live like a slob, you seem to think I’m some sort of freak.”
Her eyes flared. “You care what I think, after what I did?”
“I understand why you did it, which helps. Don’t mean I approve, of course. You could just have come right out and asked.”
“I wanted to.” She reached out a hand and touched his arm. He didn’t try to stop her. “All that matters is that you believe I went to bed with you because I wanted to. I wanted to so much that I couldn’t seem to think straight.”
“Yeah.” He nodded slowly and the ghost of a smile broke through his reserve. “I know.”
Chelsea closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
They remained standing where they were, neither one of them seeming to know what came next.
“What’s your history with this Rob guy?” he asked.
Chelsea was surprised by the question but also glad he’s asked. It showed he still had a tenuous personal interest in her.
“He hit on me as soon as we started working together and didn’t like it when I pointed out he was a married man.” She shrugged, “Seemed it hadn’t stopped him before but, as it transpired, he didn’t take rejection well. So, when he had the opportunity to get rid of his only personal failure, that’s precisely what he did.”
“Jerk!”
“Actually, he did me a favor. I work better alone.”
“But you don’t want him coming here?”
“He’ll screw it up. Besides, he thinks he’s God’s gift and hasn’t given up on me. He still keeps telling me how much he could do for my career if only I’d be nice to him.”
“He sounds like a dinosaur. Can’t you report him for sexual harassment?”
“It would be my word against his and he’s so far up the directors’ backsides that they think the sun shines from his own…well, you get the picture.”
Another loaded silence ensued. Jack was very good at silences and they didn’t seem to bother him. She, on the other hand, was trembling with a combination of nerves and trepidation, especially since she could sense sexual tension fuelling the atmosphere with its interfering presence. The magnetism was still alive and kicking between them, but what would Jack do about it?
She sifted through all the questions she wanted to ask him and blurted out the first one that sprang into her head.
“What did Leo mean about locked doors?” she asked.
A hint of amusement formed the bedrock of Jack’s expression. As though he’d just turned a corner in his mind, the grip of winter too left his eyes and a slow, sexy smile lit up his rugged features.
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“Absolutely. I’ve decided you’re not a houseful of axe murderers, so anything else will be a bonus.”
“Come on.”
He grabbed her hand and led her towards the locked door she’d noticed the previous day, the one controlled by a keypad. Jack pressed in the numerical code and it swung open to reveal a very different world. Chelsea gasped, her head swivelling from side to side as her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting and she tried to take in everything at once.
“What on earth…”
Jack didn’t respond but she was conscious of him watching her as she continued to behave like a spectator at a tennis match, trying to keep up with the action from both ends of the court, damned near giving herself whiplash in the process. She giggled when she saw what was going on below her, thinking whiplash was a good metaphor. They were on a walkway that surrounded a dungeon immediately below them. The walls were a deep crimson with old-fashioned sconces lighting the space. Frescos depicting highly erotic scenes as well as some very well taken black-and-white photographs decorated those
walls and there were mirrors absolutely everywhere. The glass showcases holding an array of sex toys held her interest as she tried to decide what purpose some of them could possibly be put to.
“This is a dungeon,” she said, looking up at Jack in frank astonishment. “That’s what you’re all into.”
Jack chuckled. “Sorry it’s nothing more sinister.”
“I’ve heard about such places but never set foot in one before.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” he replied in a soft, sexy drawl.
“All you guys…you’re sexual Doms.”
“I should have thought last night would have given you a few clues.”
“Well yes…I mean no. The thought never seriously crossed my mind. Why would it? I’ve no experience, you see. I never would have guessed in a thousand years.”
“That’s the way we like to keep it. This set up is by invitation only.”
“Am I invited?”
“Do you want to be?”
She leaned on the railing and looked down at the action as she considered the question. There weren’t many people in the dungeon. Presumably it heated up later. Even so, it was very educational and Chelsea’s eyes bugged as she tried to take everything in at once. A larger woman, dressed all in PVC with her tits and crotch on display, was leaning over a bench while a naked and very erect male whipped her backside. She had a complicated arrangement of vicious-looking clamps attached to various bodily parts.
“Ouch, that must hurt,” Chelsea said, avoiding answering Jack’s question when the sound of the whip landing on PVC echoed like a gunshot through the space.
“Does Tanya look distressed?”
“That’s Tanya?” Chelsea looked over her shoulder at Jack, her mouth hanging open. He was standing directly behind her, very close, and his arms came forward to encircle her waist, pulling her back against an impressive erection. Well, of course it was impressive! She’d already had firsthand experience of his attributes and had absolutely no complaints on that score. She appeared to be forgiven and he was making it very obvious that he still had an interest in her. Even so, if she had to go down there, put herself on display and take all that pain…she just didn’t know if she could do that, not even to make amends to Jack. “Ward’s Tanya?”
Jack chuckled. “Don’t you recognize him with his clothes off?”
“Oh my god!”
“Repulsed? Excited? Disinterested?” he asked, breathing the words against her ear and making her shiver.
“No, yes, and hell no! This is fascinating.” She glanced at Jack again. “Don’t they mind us watching them?”
“That’s kinda the point. We all get off on voyeurism. You included, I’m guessing, since you seem very interested in what Tanya’s about to get.”
Tanya looked up, noticed them, grinned broadly, and waved. Ward followed the direction of her gaze and grinned up at them as well. Then he cracked the whip—literally—and Tanya instantly dropped her gaze and returned her full attention to him.
“You’re all Doms,” Chelsea breathed. “That’s your secret.”
“That’s our secret.” Jack pushed her hair aside and nibbled at her neck. “You turned on by that?”
“I liked what you did to me last night but I can’t ever imagine myself down there doing what Tanya’s doing.”
“Nor could she when she first found out about it. Now she and Ward are down there more often than anyone. Darcy and Ross specialise in that trapeze thing,” he added, pointing up. “He harnesses her up to it and fucks her ass while they swing over the dungeon.”
“Goodness! No wonder they live over the garage, if they have a little girl. Can’t have her finding her way in here.”
“Right. This is strictly for consenting adults only.”
“Who consents to play with you, Jack?”
“No one right now, I’m between subs. That’s why I’m horny all the time.” He pressed his groin against her backside, as though to prove his point. “But you need to know, I’m telling you all this because I trust you to keep a secret. You’re not into the life and that’s okay. You’ll be gone soon anyway.”
“Don’t I get any say?”
“You want to get involved? I figured when you ducked my question earlier that it wasn’t for you.”
“Well, it certainly gets my juices flowing.”
Jack chuckled. “From recollection, that don’t take a hell of a lot.”
“Blame yourself for that. It’s been a while for me and you know all the right buttons to press.”
“Well, I’m not sure about it either, as it happens.”
“Aw!” She turned her head and fixed him with an accusatory glower. “But you just said—”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think it through. There’s a lot of training to be done. I’ve never had a sub who wasn’t already indoctrinated and I’m not sure you have enough time left to learn.”
“Were Tanya, Darcy, and Sabine already indoctrinated?”
“Well no, but they decided to stay.”
“Is that what you’re asking me to do?”
She was aware of Jack’s grasp on her waist loosening and tried not to feel disgruntled when the pressure of his cock became less aggressive. Clearly, she’d said the wrong thing.
“Hey, I didn’t mean anything by that. It’s just that you got me curious last night. I can see you didn’t do much to me compared to what’s going on down there. Oh my!”
Jack laughed and his hands tightened around her waist again. “Anything goes, darlin’. We have men on men, women on women, and just about every combination thereof. Leo has two subs. He has them fuck each other, then fucks each of them himself. Now I’m betting you’d just love to see that. Leo puts us all to shame.”
“I find that hard to believe.” She was conscious of his hands roving beneath her top and coming to rest on her tits. The next thing she knew, her bra snapped open and his hands covered her bare skin, tweaking her nipples painfully hard. She inhaled sharply against the pain and then relaxed into it. It felt like heaven. No one seemed to be taking the slightest bit of notice of them and so she leaned back against Jack, rubbing her ass against his hard length. “Hmm, that feels good.”
“You are so fucking hot.” She heard him unzip and sigh when his cock sprang free of his jeans. “I ought to be pissed at you but all I wanna do is fuck your brains out.”
“I can live with that,” she moaned as he unzipped her jeans and his hands delved inside, homing in on her sweet spot like a guided missile.
“Wanna go down there?”
Chelsea knew he meant the dungeon. “No, but if you’re willing to risk having me up in your rooms again, perhaps you’d like to give me my first lesson in submission.”
“Baby, you just got yourself a date.”
She heard the smile in his voice. “Does that mean I’m forgiven?”
“Hell no! It means you’re gonna get that cute butt whipped for being a real bad girl.”
Chapter Eight
Chelsea was so desperate to submit to Jack that all other considerations—like the fact they were all but getting it on in front of people—paled into insignificance. Who knew that she, a reserved Brit who disliked being the center of attention, had it in her to be so brazen? She didn’t even bother to adjust her clothing as she allowed herself to be dragged from the dungeon with jeans flapping open and an unoccupied bra dangling from her shoulders. She wasn’t sure if Jack trusted her, but he was making no secret of the fact that he still wanted her and that knowledge gave Chelsea the confidence to go with her instincts. She’d seen the way other women looked at him. He could take his pick, or at least stick to a female who understood his sexual preferences.
And yet he had chosen her. Hold that thought.
His cock jutted aggressively from his open jeans as he ran up the stairs. Chelsea kept pace with him just so she could enjoy the view, wondering what he had in store for her this time. Whatever it was, she’d take it without complaint. The pain b
eing inflicted in that dungeon was real but, perversely, she trusted Jack not to hurt her. Passion clouding judgment or some sort of sixth sense? Chelsea neither knew nor cared. All that mattered was that she gave Jack pleasure.
He held her wrist like he planned never to let it go, opened his door, and kicked it shut again behind them.
“That voice you used on me last night,” she said, breathless after their headlong charge up the stairs. “That was you being Dominant, right?”
“That’s you being Dominant, Sir?” Jack corrected.
Her eyes bugged. “I have to call you Sir?”
“Damned straight you do. The first thing you have to understand is that I’m in charge. If I tell you to do something, even if it seems degrading, you jump to it.”
“Why?”
“Because your job is to please me. Did you notice how Tanya dropped her gaze the moment Ward recalled her attention to him?”
“Yes, I wondered about that.”
“A good sub has only one objective in mind, and that’s to please her Dom. When she’s playing sex games with him, her attention should be for no one other than him. Tanya’s probably being punished as we speak for letting her mind wander but I doubt if she’s complaining.”
“She likes being punished?”
“Oh yeah.” Jack’s eyes glistened with amusement. “And so will you. Trust me on this.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I have a sixth sense about such matters. You have an aura about you that you probably don’t realize is there. It speaks to me. Tells me you were born to enjoy our lifestyle. Leo sensed it, too, otherwise he wouldn’t have suggested opening locked doors.”
Chelsea’s mouth fell open. “He did?”
“Hey, that’s a compliment. There’s no need to look so embarrassed. Leo is very selective about who gets into the dungeon.”
Chelsea swallowed. “I see.”
“No you don’t, not yet, but you will. We’ll work out a safe word before we get started. That way, if something hurts or offends you, you can get me to stop. My job is to teach you stuff about yourself you’re not currently aware of and explore your thresholds for pleasure and pain. It’s all about self-control and getting the pain to stimulate the pleasure endorphins in your body.” He dropped his voice to a gravelly purr. “Darlin’, if you place your trust in me, it’ll rock your world and there’ll be no turning back once you realize what you’ve been missing.”
