by Livia Grant
“Well then maybe we should start with something easier, like who the hell are you?”
Lukus looks amused at her sassy response.
He waits long enough to answer that Tiff is beginning to think he’s ignoring her. She’s not prepared for his answer when it comes. “My name is Lukus Mitchell. I’m Markus’ best friend and old roommate from college. I own this building. It’s where I live. It’s where my security firm is headquartered.
He pauses and moves his left hand up to run through her curls and hold her tightly behind the neck, just like he did at Markus’ house. He stares into her eyes, as if debating whether to continue giving her information.
“You sure you want to know what TPP stands for, baby? I’ll help you to your car right now. I’ll let you drive away. But, if I tell you what TPP stands for, you’re committing to coming inside. Sure… you’ll get to see Brianna, but you’ll also be agreeing to follow the same rules that she is following as my… guest.”
Tiffany instincts tell her that the best thing she can do is turn around and drive away. She’s senses that she’s in over her head with this man, but she is the moth to his dominant flame. She can’t leave him. And more importantly, she isn’t going to leave without seeing Brianna.
“You’re crazy if you think I’m leaving Brianna here alone with you. I demand you take me to her right away.” Her tone displays far more confidence than she feels.
“Okay, little girl. I don’t want you to say later I didn’t warn you. Remember, you’re going in by choice. I also want you to remember that so far today you’ve disobeyed me twice by not going home when ordered. You put yourself in danger when you ran through at least three red stoplights trying to keep up with me. And finally, you blatantly lied to my best friend about something as important as his wife’s safety and fidelity. Tiffany, you’ve been a very naughty girl.”
Her heart is pounding so hard and fast she’s actually starting to feel a bit woozy. Her brain is once again demanding she jump in her car and get the hell out of there. Instead she simply whispers, “What does TPP stand for, Lukus?”
“It stands for The Punishment Pit. It’s where Doms bring their naughty submissives to be severely punished. It looks like you’ve come to the right place since you happen to be a very naughty girl.”
Tiffany knows she’s seriously in danger of toppling over from the shock of his words.
Without warning, Lukus stoops down to lift her, sprained ankle and all, onto his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. He wastes no time in swiping his card and opening the door to the club. Tiffany makes an attempt at flailing, but only until he brings his free hand up to smack her hard on her upturned ass.
Her cry echoes through the alley. No one is there to hear her.
e
Lukus is positive he’s totally lost his mind. Even as he scoops Tiffany up and over his shoulder, he knows he’s playing with fire. Once again, he’s breaking his own rules by bringing a non-member into the club. And not just any non-member, but Brianna’s best friend. He can tell she’s struggling with her own submissive tendencies, but she’s a far cry from being a normal club sub.
With each step through the long hall on the way to the club office, Lukus’ mood gets darker and darker. By the time he reaches the elevator, all humor has left him.
‘You just keep doing one stupid thing after the other, Mitchell. As if being saddled with one non-trained and off-limits submissive wasn’t bad enough, now you’re stuck with two. Fucking brilliant.’
Chapter Fourteen
Brianna awakes feeling disoriented. A noise has startled her from her much-needed sleep. She moves her hands against the restraints as her eyes scan the room.
“Hello. Is someone there? Lukus, is that you?”
When only silence greets her, she suspects she simply dreamed the loud bang she heard. She closes her eyes, hoping to recapture the oblivion that will temporarily shield her from her obsessive fears and regrets.
‘Twenty-four hours ago I was making the biggest mistake of my life. If only I could go back and choose not to go with Jake.’
She wishes she could call Tiffany. She needs her best friend almost as much as she needs Markus. Only Tiffany understands Brianna, understands the dark part of her psyche that drove her to Jake. She promises herself that she’ll make things up to her husband and her friend, if she can just get the chance.
Bri tries to focus on Markus. She knows she loves him with all her heart. That part is easy to understand. What she can’t understand, or forgive, is that she’d actually allowed Jake - the man who had terrorized her and nearly put her in the hospital years before – to touch, to punish, to even fuck her.
‘The worst part is he made me come. He made me enjoy it… ok, maybe not enjoy it, but certainly want it… definitely need it.’
Only then does Brianna remember Jake is not her only indiscretion in the last twenty-four hours. There’s no denying her attraction to her husband’s best friend.
‘The freaking gorgeous, sexy… okay, stop Brianna. Get control of yourself.’
Brianna knows it’s his dominance that’s the draw. He’s treated her exactly as she’s been dreaming of Markus treating her. Sure, he’s punished her severely, but even she can’t deny she deserved everything he’s dished out. Lukus is the perfect balance of dominance, protectiveness and tenderness she’s craved all of her adult life. Bri is at least smart enough to know she needs to keep her wits about her when he returns.
‘I wonder what kind of Dom Markus was to Georgie? Was he just like Lukus?’
The revelation that Markus was once part of the D/s lifestyle is almost unbelievable to Bri. Her initial excitement over being married to a real Dom has been overshadowed by his having hidden his nature for so long.
‘And he’s pissed at me for lying to him? He’s been lying to me since the day he met me.’
At first her anger at her husband seems unjustified, but the longer she thinks about it, the madder she gets. As a Dom, he should have been able to understand her needs and fill them. Before yesterday, she just thought Markus wasn’t capable of understanding her submissive needs. Now she knows he was just too blind, or too lazy to see them. He’s neglected her.
‘Damn him. Why couldn’t he have been more like Lukus who had no trouble figuring it out?’
Brianna catches motion out of the corner of her eye. This time she knows she didn’t imagine it. She glances around nervously.
“Who’s there? Lukus?”
Brianna focuses on the bedroom door and is finally rewarded with the glimpse of a woman who is clearly trying to peek into the room undetected. She jerks back quickly when her eyes meet Brianna’s, but the jig is up and she knows it.
Brianna tries to coax her out.
“Please,” she implores softly. “Can you come in and untie me? I really need to go to the bathroom.”
Bri will try anything to get her aching arms free, even if only for a few minutes. Not to mention, the butt-plug Lukus shoved in her is becoming more and more uncomfortable now that she’s awake. Bri isn’t used to the foreign fullness feeling that is oddly, but not totally, unpleasant. It dawns on her that the constant pressure of the plug is like an invisible tie to Lukus – a reminder of the power he yields, even when he’s not in the room.
She tries again to reach the woman. “Hey, I know you’re there. There’s no point in hiding now.”
A petite young woman takes a few hesitant steps into the room, hovering near the door. She looks afraid, as if Brianna is somehow going to hurt her. The newcomer remains silent as she takes in Brianna’s predicament.
It takes a few minutes, but Brianna finally recognizes the waif of a woman as the naked slave girl from the dungeon the night before. She’d been naked and weary-looking on stage. Today, she looks young, fresh and almost innocent dressed in a flared floral mini-skirt paired with a long-sleeved lavender sweater cut low enough to emphasize her ample cleavage. The low neckline also puts her thick gold choker on display.
There’s no mistaking it’s a submissive’s collar. An unwanted and completely unjustified feeling of jealously flares up in Brianna as she wonders if this is Lukus’ collared slave. Still, there’s no denying she must belong to Lukus since she’s here in his home. She thinks back to the night before, when both Lukus and Derek had used the girl’s ponytail as a handle while face-fucking her. Today, her beautiful hair is down, flowing around her shoulders and down her back.
“Hi. My name is Brianna. I saw you last night downstairs with Lukus and Derek. What’s your name?”
The girl’s eyes get a bit bigger at Brianna’s comment. She opens her mouth as if to talk, but then closes it again. It’s clear she’s struggling to keep quiet. When she finally answers, her tone is more authoritative than Brianna would expect from a sex slave.
“You shouldn’t call them Lukus and Derek. They are Master Lukus and Master Derek or just plain Sirs. It’s not right for a sub to be so informal.”
“Well, it should be okay since I’m not their submissive. I’m…” Only then does Brianna realize she’s going to have trouble explaining exactly what her relationship is to the men, since she herself has no clue. She simply ends with, “I’m married to Lukus’ best friend.”
“I know,” the girl says. “I can’t believe you’d be stupid enough to cheat on Master Markus.” As soon as the words our spoken, the girl clamps her hand over her mouth as if she’s said something she wasn’t supposed to.
Ignoring the obvious insult, Bri confronts her. “Wait a minute. You know Markus?”
When the girl refuses to talk any more, Bri tries to befriend her. “I’m sorry. I still didn’t catch your name.”
The girl doesn’t immediately reply. She’s clearly conflicted. At one point, she starts to leave before turning back around and taking her hand down from her mouth.
“My name is Rachel,” she confides. “I’m Master Derek’s submissive and collared slave. I’ve also been his wife for the last four years.”
Brianna hates the sense of relief that flows over her at Rachel’s introduction. But that relief quickly turns to curiosity when she realizes Rachel most likely has information about Markus’ hidden past life.
“Nice to meet you Rachel,” Brianna says, keeping her tone conversational and non-threatening. “Four years is a long time. You must have known Markus back when he was coming to the club before he met me, right?”
Brianna’s heart rate is going up. She feels a little bit guilty leading her new friend into thinking she knows more than she really does about his life back then, but Bri is desperate for information about the secrets her husband has been keeping from her. She decides to take a wild guess and adds on. “You know, back when he and Georgie used to come here.”
Rachel looks relieved. “Oh, so you know about Georgie? I didn’t want to be the one to tell you about him bringing someone else here.”
“Well sure. I mean I know about his first wife. I’m sure there are details he might not have told me about her because he was trying to protect me, but I know how they belonged to the club back then.” This seemed like a logical enough guess for Bri to put out there in hopes of drawing more information out about her husband.
Rachel’s eyes look to be getting a little dewy. “I hated that Master Markus stopped coming to the club like he did. It really upset Master Lukus a lot at first. He tried to hide it, but Master Derek and I could really see how hurt and alone he was back then. The only good thing that came out of the Sirs’ arrest was we got to finally see Master Markus again when he’d come by to work on the case.”
That was a surprising piece of new intelligence. “Yes, he came by here quite a bit, didn’t he?” Brianna keeps fishing for details, in spite of her growing fear of what additional secrets she may find out about her secretive husband.
“Well sure, but it was almost always in the middle of the day instead of at night like he used to. We would sometimes go to his office downtown, or meet at a restaurant for lunch. He has a really beautiful office.”
“Yes… yes he does.” Brianna isn’t sure how she feels about this beautiful submissive visiting her husband at his office and going out to lunch with him, but she reminds herself that surely Derek and Lukus had been there with them. She’s also relieved to hear her husband was at the club during business hours instead of visiting at night as a Dom. It’s heartbreaking enough to discover that he’s been withholding his dominant nature from her; if he’d been going behind her back to go to The Punishment Pit to play with other subs… well, that would just push her over the edge.
“Rachel, can you please undo my arms just long enough for me to run to the bathroom? I promise, I won’t do anything stupid and I’ll come right back so you can tie me up again. Master Lukus doesn’t even need to know.”
The look on Rachel’s face is one of terror. “Oh, I don’t think so. Master Derek told me not to even talk to you so I’m already in so much trouble. I know he wouldn’t want me to untie you.” She starts to turn to leave.
“Oh please… I promise I’ll be fast. I really need your help, Rachel.”
Brianna sees the indecision on Rachel’s face as she turns and with great hesitancy unties the ropes binding Brianna to the headboard. Once free of the bindings, Brianna takes a minute to rub her wrists and is just about to sit up when Lukus bursts into the room.
“What the fuck is going on here, Rachel?”
Lukus is clearly pissed, and while Rachel is blocking Brianna’s view of the angry Master, she can tell by the sub’s panicked expression that she wasn’t expecting him. Rachel immediately drops to her knees.
“I’m so sorry,” she sobs. “Please forgive me.”
Now that Rachel has dropped to her knees, Brianna can see Lukus. Under any other circumstances, she would have been focused on his anger. But it’s the woman thrown over his left shoulder in a fireman’s hold who gets Brianna’s attention.
“Tiffany! Is that you?”
“Yes, it’s me,” Tiffany answers, her words muffled by her graceless position. “So glad you can recognize me just from the view of my ass up in the air, swung over this damn barbarian’s shoulder. Lukus! Put me down!”
Tiffany is struggling to be released from his tight hold. Bri can see she’s ineffectually pelting his back with her fists. Rather than release her, Lukus instead chooses to quickly swat her ass several times, hard, with his open palm. She squeals, but it’s effective at settling her down.
Lukus looks to Bri as if he’s about to self-combust and really… who the hell would blame him? He’s a dominant Master who finds himself faced with not one, but three defiant women. She’s tempted to giggle at his obvious distress, but luckily thinks better of it.
Knowing how he feels about having Brianna here in his private loft, she can only assume with Tiffany here, he’s had an interesting afternoon. Bri isn’t surprised he decides to address his easiest problem first.
“I’m very disappointed in you Rachel,” he says, fixing her with a withering gaze. “Did Master Derek give you instructions when he sent you up here?”
“Yes Sir, he did,” she manages to squeak out without looking up at Master Lukus.
“And those instructions were what exactly?”
“I was supposed to just come and make sure nothing bad happened to Master Markus’ wife until you returned, Sir.”
“And… were those his only instructions to you?”
“No, Sir.” Rachel begins to whimper.
“I’m waiting, Rachel, and you know I don’t like to wait. What were his complete instructions to you?”
Brianna can tell she doesn’t want to answer. “I was to be quiet and not even let her know I was here. I wasn’t supposed to talk to her unless the building was on fire, Sir.”
“And yet I arrive and you’re not only very visible, but you’ve managed to free her from the ropes I secured her in and you’re carrying on like you’re best friends having a damn slumber party. And the building is not on fire, so what am I mi
ssing here?” He’s clearly disappointed in Rachel.
Clutching the sheets around her nakedness as she sits up, Brianna jumps in out of sheer guilt. “Lukus, stop yelling at her. This is my fault. I heard her moving around and kept calling until she finally came in. She didn’t want to talk or let me loose, but I made her. Don’t be mad at her.”
Lukus moves closer to the bed and the subjugated slave on the floor. “Nice of you to offer an explanation Brianna. I’ll see you get equal punishment as well for your part in this then. But that changes nothing. Rachel is not a newbie submissive. She knows the rules and she knows what happens when she chooses to disobey her Master’s orders, don’t you Rachel?”
“Yes, Sir.” She sounds defeated, resigned to her fate. “I’m so sorry, Master Lukus.”
“I’m sure you are. I want you to go down to the dungeon. Get undressed and drape yourself over the spanking bench and wait for me there. I’ll be down later to carry out your punishment of a dozen lashes with the cane for your blatant disobedience today.”
Rachel’s gasp tells Brianna that this is a severe punishment for the young submissive. Then it hits her that it means she’s going to get a dozen lashes with the cane as well. Her heart pounds at the thought of it.
When Rachel doesn’t immediately follow directions, Lukus appears even angrier. “What are you waiting for? Were my instructions unclear?”
Rachel is now sitting straight up on the floor, kneeling in front of Master Lukus. “It’s just that Master Derek is going to be so very angry at me. Do you need to tell him about this, Sir?”
“What do you think?” Lukus is very short with her.
“I think you’re going to tell him, Sir.”
“You’re damn straight I’m going to tell him. He needs to know his wife and submissive disobeyed his direct order.”
Brianna can hear Rachel crying again. “I understand, Sir. It’s just he believes if I get in trouble with you for something, then it must be really bad and so I’ll receive double the punishment from him. That means I’ll be getting thirty-six lashes with the cane, Sir.”
