The Mount Series Boxset

by K D Grace

  ‘All right!’ Elsa stepped in front of Nick with her hands up. ‘All right, I’ll do what you ask. I’ll pay you the money, just put the gun down.’

  Havers lowered the gun slightly. ‘There, you see, Chase. She can be cooperative when it suits her.’

  The electronic door lock sounded like a gunshot in the charged atmosphere and the faltering in Havers’ attention was all Nick needed. He dived at the man and the gun went off. He heard Elsa shout his name just as the bullet shattered the light fixture overhead. In his peripheral vision, Nick caught a glimpse of Tanya. As Havers rolled and bucked, Elsa stomped his wrist with a sharp stiletto. He yowled and cursed, and the gun fell away from his grasp. She grabbed it up, and Nick rolled off him just as Tanya nabbed him in the neck with a stun gun. He convulsed, gurgled, and went limp. Almost before it could all sink in, the room was flooded with police.

  ‘It’s all right now, Ms Crane.’ A policeman took the gun gently from Elsa’s hands and gave her arm a reassuring pat. ‘Everything’s under control. It’s all right. We have everything we need.’

  Tanya launched herself at Elsa, smothering her in a hug that could have cracked ribs. Then she stepped back and looked expectantly, first at Nick, then at Elsa, and Elsa came into Nick’s arms with a little sob. She held on to him tightly while the cops cuffed Havers, and Nick was very all right with that.

  ‘Are we all going to be in trouble?’ he asked as two of the policemen dragged Havers to his feet.

  A squat cop built like a fireplug answered with a jerk of his head. ‘Only one in trouble here’s Detective Havers. Thanks to Ms Crane and Ms Povic, we’ve got all the evidence we need to finally bring him down.’

  Nick looked from one of them to the other. Elsa lifted onto her toes and kissed him. ‘I specialise in voyeuristic experiences, remember?’ She nodded to the control room. ‘This was just one more.’

  As they left the hotel suite, Fireplug Cop leant in close to Elsa. ‘Ms Crane, I don’t suppose there’s any chance of us getting our hands on a copy of that act you were just recording? Some of us would like to know what happens with the billionaire and his virgin bride.’

  Her laughter was a sound from heaven to Nick. ‘I don’t think Mrs Keyser would mind at all,’ she said, ‘especially when she knows nothing about this little fantasy.’

  Nick raised an eyebrow. ‘You mean it was all a set-up?’

  ‘Oh, it’s Mrs Keyser’s fantasy all right. We just happen to be acting it out two weeks early. I didn’t expect Rita and Edward to show up so soon and, well, there’s no keeping a secret from Coraline Martelli’s daughter. That being the case, it looks like the two of us might still get our chance to play the billionaire and his bride.’ She batted her eyelashes delicately.

  Back in the suite at the Bellagio, the three of them were overwhelmed with hugs and backslaps, and especially from the bride and groom, still dressed for their nuptials. Pike shoved his way forward and group hugged all three of them. ‘Welcome back, Tanya. We missed you.’ Then he turned his attention to Elsa. ‘Don’t you ever, ever pull a stunt like that again and then keep it from us or I’ll have you in my dungeon whether you like it or not.’ He folded her in a hug that lifted her off her feet, then he gave Nick a meaningful nod toward the empty bedroom. Nick didn’t have to be told twice. He grabbed Elsa by the hand and marched her to the only place in the suite that wasn’t crawling with Mount folks.

  Before she could say anything, he scooped her into his arms and kissed her long and hard. ‘I don’t care,’ he said, when he finally pulled away. ‘I don’t care that you kept this whole thing from me – well, I do care, but it doesn’t change the way I feel.’

  ‘Nick, I –’

  ‘I don’t want to hear excuses. I know everything was a ruse to help the cops bring down Havers and his gang, and I understand why you couldn’t tell me. I do. But the rest of it, the rest of what’s happened between you and me, is real and you can’t tell me it isn’t.’ He took her face in his hands and forced her to meet his gaze. ‘I love you, Elsa Crane, and it took nearly losing you to make me realise that.’

  ‘No!’ She pushed his hands away and stepped back. ‘No, you don’t love me. You can’t possibly love me. If you really knew me, you wouldn’t say that. You couldn’t.’

  ‘What, because of your past? Fuck, we all have pasts and I don’t care. All I care about is now. All I care about is us.’

  ‘But Nick, I –’

  There was a soft knock on the door and Leo stuck his head in. ‘I’m sorry to interrupt. I know is not a good time and you two have been through rough night, but you are needed. If you would please come.’

  Elsa didn’t try to pull away when Nick took her hand. In the lounge, everyone had settled on sofas, chairs, and the floor – all with plates and drinks, and the feeding frenzy was on. Rita, still dressed in her bridal gown, sat between Edward and Leo on the sofa. She smiled up at Nick and Elsa. ‘I like the dress. Thought I’d wear it a little longer for fun.’

  ‘You look good in it,’ Elsa said.

  ‘I know the two of you’ve had a rough night,’ Rita said, ‘and you deserve a break. Well, I promise you’ll get one soon.’

  From somewhere, Pagan and Pike produced a couple of chairs for them, and they sat. Rita nodded her thanks and continued. ‘What I have to say is too important to put off, especially after all that’s just happened.’ She came to her feet and stood in front of Elsa and Nick looking more like a priestess than a bride. ‘Nick, you know that people who petition for membership into The Mount have to undergo an initiation. We talked about that the other night. I hope you want to be a member of The Mount, because the Mount definitely wants you.’

  ‘I’d like that. Very much.’ Nick spoke around the lump in his throat. He hadn’t realised until Rita had asked him just how badly he did want membership into The Mount. ‘I’d like to be a permanent part of Mount Vegas, if they’ll have me.’

  There was a spontaneous eruption of applause and cheering from the assembled crew. ‘And there’s your answer,’ Rita said. ‘The decision hasn’t been taken lightly by any member of the Mount Vegas Council, but they all agree your place is with them and you’re an asset that’ll very much enhance Mount Vegas.’

  ‘What do I have to do?’ Nick asked, feeling Elsa’s fingers curl around his in encouragement. ‘For my initiation, I mean.’

  ‘We’ve also discussed that.’ This time it was Elsa who spoke. ‘We’ve all agreed that there’s nothing we could put you through, as far as an initiation goes, that would prove your worthiness more than what you’ve already done, for us and for Tanya. So the membership’s yours if you want it.’

  There was another round of applause and then Rita cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention again. ‘There’s one more very important matter to discuss and that’s the elevation of Mount Vegas to full coven status.’

  The room was suddenly silent. Even the clink of cutlery on porcelain stopped. Nick wondered if all breathing stopped too. Rita continued. ‘We all agree, as do the High Council members in Rome, that the time has come for Mount Vegas to take its place as a fully-fledged coven.’

  There were cheers and whistles, and Nick nearly pulled Elsa out of her chair in his enthusiastic kiss. Then Rita raised a hand for quiet. ‘There is one more thing.’ She moved to kneel in front of Elsa’s chair, taking her hands and looking up into her eyes. ‘And this is not so much an initiation as it is a moving forward, an opportunity to heal old wounds and a favour for me, Elsa.’

  Elsa glanced nervously around the room. ‘Ask me what you want, Rita. I can hardly refuse you.’

  ‘You can, sweetie. In this case you can. But I’m hoping that you won’t.’

  ‘Ask me.’ Elsa’s voice was barely more than a whisper. All colour drained from her cheeks.

  ‘I want you to do an act for me, for us –’ She nodded to the rest of the room. ‘I want you to go into the dungeon, Elsa, and I want you to take Nick as your sub.’

  The room w
as dead silent. Elsa’s pulse jumped against her throat. She pulled her hands away from Rita and, when she spoke, her voice was breathless. ‘You can’t ask this of me, please, Rita, you can’t. You know I can’t do this.’

  Before he knew what he was doing, before he could think, Nick slid from the chair and knelt next to Rita, but kept his eyes averted. ‘Then may I ask this of you, Elsa. Will you please do this for me?’

  ‘Nick, you don’t know what you’re asking, please. You don’t know.’

  He pulled her fingers to his lips. ‘I do know what I’m asking, Elsa. I know exactly what I’m asking, and there’s no one else I would ask this of. Please. I’m yours. I want to be yours. I want you to do with me what you will.’ He kissed her knuckles again. ‘I trust you, Elsa Crane. I trust you with all of my heart.’

  Chapter Twenty-two

  ‘What should I do?’ Nick asked. He had joined the Mount contingent in the living area of Elsa’s office where they were all gathered around a cinema-sized screen that had been pulled down from the ceiling. Elsa had insisted that she and Nick not spend the night together before they shared the dungeon. She had kissed him tenderly and told him he would need to be well-rested, that he would need all his strength for what he would face, and so would she. Of course, he hadn’t slept, and he doubted if she had either. But it didn’t matter. He was ready. He would do this for Elsa.

  ‘Don’t worry, she will tell you exactly what you will do,’ Leo said. He nodded to the screen. ‘She has just finished preparing for you.’

  Nick’s stomach somersaulted as he looked at the vacant dungeon, larger than life, on the big screen. It wasn’t the pain he knew he’d endure that frightened him; it was the pain he knew Elsa would have to endure. Hers was pain far beyond the physical that he would bear.

  Just then, the door opened and Elsa walked in, as he had never seen her before. She wore low-slung khaki cargo pants with lots of pockets. Nick could tell some of them were heavily weighted with who knew what. The matching tank top didn’t quite meet the waistband of the trousers. She wore no bra and no shoes. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail set high on the back of her head. And Jesus, the woman wore a hunting knife belted around her waist! The skin on his scalp prickled. Her face was porcelain pale, making her eyes seem like blue fire. Everyone stepped back until only Elsa and Nick stood in the centre of the room. She studied him as though she could read him, read all that was inside him, and in that moment, he felt certain she could do just that.

  With a short length of rope she unclipped from a belt loop, she bound his hands, wrist over wrist. As she bound him, the look on her face dissolved into distant neutrality that sent gooseflesh cascading down his arms; that compelled him to lower his gaze until his vision took in only her lovely bare feet, which he found himself wanting to kneel and kiss. Once he was bound, she tugged slightly on the lead end of the rope.

  ‘Nick Chase, you’ll come with me to the dungeon where you’ll submit completely and wholeheartedly to me. You’re not to speak unless spoken to. You’re to do nothing without my permission, without my direction. For the duration of our time there, you belong totally to me. There’ll be no safe word. If I decide you’ve had enough, I’ll stop our session. If you speak when not spoken to, I’ll assume you don’t want to continue, so guard your tongue carefully.’

  Then she gave a tug on the rope and turned. He could do nothing but follow her out of the room that Pike had led him to what now seemed like ages ago, to descend the steep stairs.

  It took for ever to get there, and yet it took only a second. Nick noticed all this from somewhere outside himself. Once they arrived, Elsa led him to the centre of the dungeon, which had been strangely cleared of equipment. She guided him to stand between two concrete support pillars. There, she curled a finger beneath his chin and lifted it until he met her gaze, no longer distant, no longer neutral, but exacting, demanding, and totally present.

  ‘I don’t play like the others do, Nick, so forget everything Pike and Beetle taught you, and listen to me. Focus on me. Do as I say, pleasure me, and, if you do it well, I’ll take you with me.’ She removed the bindings from his wrists. ‘Do you understand?’

  ‘I understand, mistress.’

  In a movement that was predator-fast, she grabbed him hard by the hair and pulled his face close. ‘Don’t call me mistress. My name is Elsa, and that’s what I wish to be called by you.’ She bruised his mouth with hers. He struggled to breathe, smothering in arousal nearly too heavy to bear. The weight of it surged through his groin like an explosion, like he’d already come and ripped himself to pieces in so doing. Then Elsa pulled away, still holding him in her gaze. ‘I’m going to empty you, Nick Chase.’ She gave his cock a hard grope through his trousers. ‘I don’t mean just the emptying of your balls; I mean the emptying of all you are. And then I’m going to take up all the space that you have, Nick; I’m going to turn you inside out and invade every cell of your body. I’m going to be the demon that possesses your soul, the tiger that devours you whole. That’s what I’ll do to you,’ she whispered against his ear. ‘And in the end, you’ll give it all to me willingly, happily.’

  Her words made a serpentine path into his brain, into his heart, and coiled there, so close to his centre. And God, he wanted what she wanted. More than anything, he wanted what she wanted, even as his inside turned cold with fear. He was nearly convinced that she’d already totally possessed him; that she’d already taken up residence in his emptiness when she pulled away, leaving him desolate. But surely that was just an illusion.

  She selected two hanks of rope from where they hung on the wall and bound his arms outstretched – one with each hank – to metal rungs on the columns, so that each wrist trailed a long ribbon of rope which coiled to the floor. He shivered. Was she trying to recreate with him what she’d done with her husband all those years ago? Dear God, what had he got himself into? But before his imagination had time to run wild, Elsa stood to face him.

  ‘I almost forgot. I need you naked.’ She undid his jeans and, as she slid them and the boxers down, his cock sprang free. She smiled down at it. ‘Always at the ready, Mr Chase. I like that about you.’ Then the smile was gone, and she shimmied his jeans down and off over his feet, which were still not bound. ‘As for the T-shirt –’ she unsnapped the holstered hunting knife with its wicked blade and Nick held his breath ‘– afraid thoughts of your nasty cock made me forget all about the T-shirt. Never mind.’ She moved behind him and grabbed it by the tail, lingering to caress his bare arse. ‘I’ll buy you another one.’ Then, with a single brisk move, she slit the shirt completely open. He sucked breath between his teeth at the feel of cool metal as the unsharpened side of the knife skimmed up his spine. Then she did the same to the front, so the shirt hung halved against his raised shoulders. She left the halves where they hung.

  ‘Your cock enjoyed that, I can tell,’ she said, cupping his balls and stroking the length of him with one hand, while the other expertly sheathed the knife. ‘You like being a little bit nervous, don’t you, Nick – a little bit out of control.’

  With her knee, she forced his legs apart until his feet rested against the two pillars and he stood spread-eagle. ‘What I want to know, Nick, is just how much control you’re willing to give over to me before you get too nervous, too scared, before it hurts too much. Will you let me take you to the place I have in mind? Will you be able to?’

  She was just talking, Nick told himself. Sometimes the threat of something was much worse than what was being threatened, and the waiting was the hardest. Still, his pulse kicked up a notch.

  Elsa moved back behind him and began to braid the two ropes down his spine in a plait of square knots. As her hands efficiently worked the rope, she stepped in close and whispered against his ear. ‘You asked me once if I would hurt you, Nick Chase …’

  She paused to run her tongue over the spiral of his ear, then down his neck, the humidity of her breath sending warm shivers over his belly to his cock. ‘The
answer is yes. I will hurt you.’ Just as she said it, just as his pulse ratcheted up another notch, she tied a thick pebble of a knot and nested it tight against his anus. But before he could be fully surprised by it, she ducked under his raised arm, slid the trailing ropes up between his spread legs, and moved to stand in front of him. Then she pulled the ropes up tight to separate his arse cheeks before she crafted a cock ring of rope that settled uncomfortably close and pressed his balls upward into a heavy bulge. He bit back a curse as she guided each rope back through rings that studded the length of the posts – first at waist level, then she weaved them like a spider’s web, zigzagging down each side and over and around his thighs and calves before she bound them off around each ankle. And suddenly Nick couldn’t breathe.

  She stood and studied him, then she lifted his head, forcing him to hold her gaze. ‘Do you want me to stop?’

  He shook his head.

  ‘Then you have to relax. You have to trust me. You have to trust that I can take you where I want you to be.’ She kissed him. This time gently, and his breath slowed at the touch of her, at the taste of her. ‘Shall I continue?’ she asked when she pulled away, still cupping his cheek.

  He nodded.

  ‘Good.’ She selected a heavy leather crop from the implements displayed on the wall and ran it across her open palm. Nick pulled a deep breath and braced himself. ‘You know what I’m going to do, Nick. You don’t yet know why, but trust me, it’ll be worth the pain.’ The words were barely out of her mouth before she brought the crop down with a sharp snap against the top of his bare thighs in quick succession and frighteningly close to his erection.