Disappointed that he couldn't convince Cari to date, Ryan stood and noticing her coffee cup on the ground, stooped and picked it up. Her coffee had spilt over the tiled floor. He grabbed a napkin, bent and wiped it up. As he did so, he saw some of Cari's pages had slipped onto the floor under the booth. He bent low, swept them up and caught sight of his name.
Ryan started to read.
At home in her twin's apartment in the fancy old New Orleans style part of town, Cari squeezed back tears of disappointment. What was wrong with her? It had been easy to say no to invitations to date when she'd lived in New York after Rob had passed away. She hadn't been interested. Instead, she'd immersed herself in her teaching. But Ryan was a different matter.
He made her sizzle. There was something commanding about him that drew her to him. She'd cried tears of frustration with Annabel this afternoon over how stupidly she'd behaved. Her own twin had sworn Ryan would be good for her.
Cari sat at her dining table, reached into her handbag and pulled out her tattered diary. After Rob had died, she'd just started writing anything that came to mind to get the grief out. Over time, what with missing Rob and the companionship of a man, her writing had evolved into her erotic fantasies.
Too strange, too out there to do. For her.
She doubted she'd find anyone who'd want to act them out anyway. They'd be calling a therapist like her sister threatened. She started placing the ratty diary pages in order, diligently reading them over until she realized several pages were missing.
Dear god. Cari closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. She certainly wasn't going to trek back to the cafe to find them. Hopefully Lucy would throw the pages out. It wasn't as if she had her name on them and anyway, who had time to read someone else's drivel?
She needn't worry.
Chapter 2
Ryan parked on Gerome Street near The Club. He wasn't planning on staying long so he didn't use the private car park for members but he needed to resolve what was troubling him. He'd had a gutful of The Club. When he was there even visiting the Fisse Prive room last night - the spanking room - flooded his mind with memories he didn't want. The scene had left him cold.
He walked down the nondescript street to the corner where The Club resided in a building with wrought iron balconies and no windows on the first floor. The owners Jet Mak and Tallulah Belle Fremanis had gone to a lot of trouble to protect the privacy of the patrons. He pressed his forefinger on the scanner and the door clicked open. He recognized the head of security, Preston Stevens and gave him a nod in greeting.
The foyer was subtle, dark wood with some black and gold accents. Italian in flavor but not too over-the-top. On his right in the security room, he noticed the guard staring riveted at the security screen of training room three, one of the playrooms upstairs. Ryan walked over to take a closer look. There was a scene going on. A naked woman was pinned spread-eagled on her back on a table wearing just a corset, wrist and ankle cuffs. Each limb was tied to a table leg so she was completely helpless. A blindfold prevented her seeing what was about to happen to her. Her Dom was holding a flogger, which had left red stripes across her pale thighs. Her face turned toward the camera. Ryan recognized the sub from last night. Ruthie. A sub who'd flirted with him. Perhaps her Dom had decided to fulfill her fantasy of multiple men because there was another man in the room with an enormous erection and he was about to drive it into her. Still another turned her face towards him, his cock ready to penetrate her mouth. He pinched his forefinger and thumb on her jaw so she was forced to open her lips.
Ryan turned away. Although all of this would have been agreed upon before the session, it did nothing for him. He would never share his girlfriend. This was not a gift he could give because he was too possessive. From the look on Ruthie's face, she was enjoying himself. Her Dom appeared to be too. Each to his or her own. That was what The Club was about. Ryan didn't judge but even after several visits it never ceased to amaze him what turned other people on.
Ryan moved past the foyer and handed over his cell phone to Gianna who worked at the hostess stand.
"Thanks Ryan. Nice to see you back." The corset Gianna wore barely contained her breasts but Ryan hardly noticed.
In his pocket he fingered the page full of Cari's fantasies. They were so erotic, she had gotten into his head. He had to find Annabel, which shouldn't be too hard, given the model was an exhibitionist. He scanned the bar area on his right and then the dance floor which was writhing with hot, steamy bodies in all stages of undress. If Annabel wasn't dancing on the first floor or in one of the V.I.P rooms, she'd be performing in the voyeur room upstairs.
Ryan made his way to the bar and ordered a rum and coke while he focused on the sweaty mass of dancers, the heat from their bodies punching the air in front of him.
"Here you go." The bartender pushed the glass across the bar and Ryan picked it up, took a large sip, glad for the cutting coolness. He scanned the room. Somewhere here was a Dom who liked to play rough. When Kerry had left him, he was certain a violent Dom had found Kerry. The bastard wore a mask, but Ryan was determined to locate him. Every time he came to The Club, he checked the crowd. One day he'd find the bastard and make him pay.
Unable to see Annabel either, he strode toward the V.I.P booths at the end of the room, briefly checking the V.I.P bar before he entered the double frosted glass doors. A sensuous vision greeted him in the first booth to his right. Annabel was sitting on the table like a queen holding court. Her blunt cut red bob framed her delicate face and she was holding a long lead. Her sub was attached to the end of the lead and he was sitting at her feet on the floor like a dog waiting for his mistress's command. He was wearing a leather collar and tight leather shorts, which would be damned uncomfortable if he had a boner. Ryan felt for the guy. He wouldn't be able to get any relief from the discomfort until Annabel, his Domme, allowed it.
The sub, who was one of Texas's wealthy oil ranch billionaires, was wearing a look of yearning and who could blame him, given the state of erotic dress of his mistress. Annabel, who had a glass of champagne in her hand, was dressed in a black leather corset with suspenders and thigh high black boots, which accentuated her superb long legs. A thin gee-string barely covered her sex. Tallulah, one of the club owners, though everyone called her Tally, was talking to her and several other members were gathered around them.
Annabel noticed him standing at the door and raised one finely shaped eyebrow. Ryan wasn't interested in playing court. There was only one woman who had caught his attention but he wouldn't go there until he had talked to her twin. He motioned to Annabel with his fingers to come and she did, sauntering over to him with a practiced model walk, which was generous of her given her queen bee Domme status.
"What brings you to my salon? I know how you like to play so it clearly isn't me."
Ryan ignored her flirting, knowing it was her nature. "Can we talk about Cari? I need your advice."
"Sure," she said, her expression turning serious. She pulled on the lead and her sub followed, crawling on hands and knees out of the booth and into the one next door, which was vacant. She lay back on the booth lounge, while her sub arranged the pillows behind her head so that she was comfortable.
Ryan chose to stand, careful not to be drawn into Annabel's web. "I liked your sister but I'm concerned about her."
"My shy, little twin. I'm worried about her too." Annabel motioned with her index finger to her sub. "You may start. Ryan won't mind watching."
The sub unzipped her thigh-high leather boot revealing her long semi-see through stockinged leg. He unclipped her stocking from its garter and peeled it off. His pink tongue snaked out of his mouth and he started to suck on her toes.
Annabel's eyes became hooded when she turned to Ryan. "I've known you a long time and I love my twin. I want you to help my sister. Jet Mak thinks if anyone can, it's you."
Damn. He could feel himself getting hard at the scene in front of him and he didn't want to. Wrong twin. T
here was little left to the imagination under Annabel's gee-string. Cari would look exactly the same as her twin, though he wondered if she would have her sex carefully groomed and cropped. Somehow he couldn't imagine Cari displaying herself for perusal and he wouldn't want her to, except for him. He put his hand in his jean's pocket, feeling the edge of his annoying boner, to dig out the now crumpled page of Cari's writing. "I asked Cari out. She wanted to go but she couldn't. What's going on?"
Annabel reached down and grabbed a fistful of her sub's hair guiding his face up her thigh as she started to spread her legs.
"Do you want me to lick you mistress?" the sub asked eagerly.
"Not until I say. We have a guest watching."
"We often have a guest watching," the sub said.
"Just kiss the inside of my thigh, pet." She patted him on the head.
Ryan could see the man's pink tongue glide close to Annabel's sex earning him a sharp smack across the cheek.
"Naughty," she said.
He smiled up adoringly at her. What Ryan wouldn't give to have the intensity of someone special in his life, someone who understood his world but he didn't want just anyone. Cari intrigued him.
Annabel turned her attention back to Ryan. "Cari needs to live out her fantasies to draw her out of her shell. I trust you. I saw how tender you were with Kerry."
Ryan winced.
"I'm sorry about what happened but it wasn't your fault. It's time for you to move on. I like you. Always have. I want you to try with my little sister."
Annabel was frank, alarmingly so, but he could see her words came from a place of love. Heartened, he held up the tightly scrunched paper. "I found a piece of her writing addressed to me this morning. It detailed everything she wanted."
Annabel yanked her sub by the hair so he stopped kissing her thigh, her large eyes alight with interest. "She gave it to you?"
"No. It slipped out of her diary."
"I didn't think Cari would be so forward. Not like me. I make it clear what I want, don't I pet?"
Her sub grinned, pointed his tongue and waggled it.
"If Cari had given it to me and expressly said she wanted it, I wouldn't be discussing it with you," Ryan said tersely. "I need to know, does she have any experience with being a sub? Does she understand the rules?" He didn't want to make a mistake with Cari. Normally he'd discuss every aspect with the sub before anything happened but even having a conversation had seemed difficult with Cari.
"Not in the formal sense."
"So she's never been to a club like this?" Ryan checked.
Cari rolled her eyes and laughed. "She really does think this place is a bowling club. Cari's the open twin in terms of telling me about her sex life. Her love life was vanilla or so she said. I never tell her about this place or that I'm an exhibitionist because it's too out there for her."
"But her writing contains everything and more." Ryan frowned thinking about the fantasies he'd read.
"Her fiance Rob was a dominating type of guy but he wasn't a Dom. She loved being told what to do by him. When he died she was lost. Still is."
"She wants to be taken."
"Every woman wants that. We only differ on how it is done. I want my twin to be happy and she liked you. Go gently. She'll tell you to stop if it's not what she really wants." Annabel let go of her sub's hair, reached into her corset and extracted a key holding it out to him.
He stalked across the room and took it from her, careful not to look at Annabel's sub kissing along the seam line of her gee-string. Ryan wasn't afraid to go outside the rules. Hell, it had kept him alive in the Middle East, but he was cautious too. He had to get this right. Cari was a delicate flower waiting to be opened.
"Look after my little twin. Use your instincts."
"I will." He knew the heartfelt connections that could occur if an intense relationship developed. If this relationship developed into anything with Cari, he was going to make sure she was safe in body and spirit.
"I need you to save my twin before she retreats too far inside her shell and never comes out again. I want my sweet little sister to be happy. Can you do that for her?"
"I'm going to try."
Annabel gave a nod to her sub and he began to peel off her gee-string.
Ryan opened the door and closed it behind him, glad to be out of there. The Club reminded him of the relationship he'd lost because of his youthful arrogance. Part of him wanted to put his last relationship behind him and move on. Once outside the booth, the heat and music closed in on him. This place contained too many secrets and lies. It wasn't what he wanted.
Cari flicked off the lights in the lounge area and yawned. She had to teach Shakespeare's Hamlet to her sophomore class on Monday, so she'd spent her Saturday night revising the soliloquies. She loved Hamlet's intensity and all his flaws, relating to his agony of inaction. The exam questions always came out of the soliloquies and she wanted her class prepared.
Looking at her watch, she saw it was well past midnight. She never waited up for Annabel who was having an affair with a wealthy Texan she'd hooked up with in that bowling club of hers. Who knew that bowling had become so upmarket?
Cari made her way to her bedroom, stripped off her jeans and tee-shirt and took a shower. Under the hot steam, she ran her hands over her breasts soaping the day's disappointment away. When she slid her fingers between her legs, she thought of Ryan. The man seemed strong at a time when her own strength had deserted her. How she wanted to have his hands on her, touching and savoring her. She moved her fingers around her clit savoring the sexual buzz as she imagined Ryan touching her. Yet she couldn't even accept one date and move on from this paralyzing stasis. Cari turned off the taps and dried herself. Life had to be something more than spending night after night miserably alone sure that life was passing her by.
She hung her towel on the bathroom towel rail and opened the door to her bedroom. Confused, she realized the bedroom was in darkness so she walked to the doorway to turn on the main bedroom light. She could have sworn she'd left it on.
A hand closed over her mouth and an arm wrapped around her torso pulling her back, binding her against a hard naked male body. Terrified, heart in her throat, Cari fought, digging her nails into the hand that bound her mouth. He smelled of soap and raw male lust. She was tall but this man was taller and strong. She kicked at his shins with her heels, twisting and writhing, determined to free herself.
"It's time to play, Cari," he said, his voice smooth and slow. Cari recognized Ryan's voice instantly.
"I'm going to give you everything you want, but you're going to do as I say. Nod if you understand me."
Cari nodded. Her heart still thundered in her chest, her throat constricted with fear, but Ryan, though controlling, wasn't rough.
"I'm going to take my hand from your mouth and you are not going to scream."
"Ryan?" she asked, the moment he removed his hand. He kept her bound close to his torso, his erection burning into her back, hard and big.
"Your new master."
"Master?" She recognized the word from her writing. He must have picked up the missing diary page. A sexual rush buzzed through her core. Ryan was gorgeous.
"I found what you wrote in the cafe. You're mine now. We're going to act out your fantasy and you're going to enjoy all of it. Understand?"
Fear and shame flooded her. "Do you think I'm an oversexed freak?" If only he knew the truth.
"I think you're beautiful. The hottest, sexiest woman I've met," he murmured in her ear. "I was attracted to you the moment I saw you."
"Yes." Oh god, oh god. Could this really be happening? A thrill of excitement surged through her replacing her embarrassment.
"There are rules for this kind of play. Any time you want to stop, you say 'red'." His fingers pinched one of her nipples, pulling and rolling it.
Cari let out of soft moan, savoring the sensation of his touch. She missed sex. She missed Rob but he was dead. Even if this was just one night of e
cstasy, she had to have it, the loneliness unbearable. "Don't stop."
"Good. Stand where you are and don't move."
He shifted from her and she felt him take her wrists and bind them with a soft fabric.
"Are you sure you're not going to turn into a crazy person and hurt me?" The rational part of her mind back flipped into fear again. Uncertainty that her written fantasy could become a living nightmare, throbbed in her mind.
"I've known Annabel for six years and she thinks we'll suit. Since I can't get you out of the house, I'm going to pleasure you instead, in your bedroom until you learn to trust me. Annabel gave me your house key. Any time you want me to stop, I will."
"My twin is so controlling." His hands were so gentle, so sensuous. Annabel had insisted she'd have Ryan kidnap her this morning. Cari relaxed into the fantasy.
Ryan laughed. "So am I in the best of ways. I'm going to take you beyond your wildest dreams. I'm going to touch you, lick you and spoil you." He kissed the back of her neck and Cari sighed, her disquiet subsiding. His kisses were hot and possessive causing little goose bumps to rise all along her shoulder and his touch sure and gentle. She started to turn, wanting to kiss his lips but his hands clamped on her waist.
"Don't move, unless I give you permission. Tonight your mind and body belong to me. Understand?"
"I shouldn't do this. I'm a respectable school teacher." Although she could hardly believe this was happening, something about the dominating way he spoke, eased the nerves from her body.
"You'll always be that on the surface, but tonight I'm going to make you mine. I read what you want and I'm going to give you every little thing until you forget how respectable you are."
Make Me (The Club #17) Page 2
