by Hart, Rye
By the time I turned my attention to what was in front of us, I was being led into a part of the building that was partitioned off by a large, black, velvet piece of cloth.
We stopped in the dimly lit hallway and he quickly turned in my direction. I gasped, backing myself into the wall as he took a small step toward me. His hands reached out for my mask, trying to lift it from my head and I grasped his wrist. The point of tonight was for no one to see me. No one was supposed to know who I was. If he saw my face, it would be easy for him to know I was lying about my name. I didn’t even plan on giving anyone my name, honestly. The plan was to stick close to Crystal and Eli and just witness.
Digest.
Experience.
His eyes connected with mine and there was an odd sort of softness behind them. His body was chiseled underneath his clothes, but there was a slight hint of something else. Not sadness and not weakness. Softness wasn’t really the word, either.
Patience.
He was waiting for me to give him consent and there was something about that idea that made me oddly comfortable.
I slid my hand from his wrist and swallowed hard. He proceeded to remove my mask slowly. Intimately. Almost as if he were unwrapping a present. My face came into view as I looked up at him and the patience behind his eyes vanished. Now, I was looking into the eyes of a man who considered me his prey. His eyes grew steely as his hand cupped my chin and he slowly twisted my face from side to side, like he was studying me.
Making sure I was up to his standards.
“Perfect,” he murmured.
His voice was low, like rolling thunder off in the distance. He wasn’t the Dark Prince. He wasn’t mangled royalty. He was the oncoming storm and something told me I was about to get wet.
Soaking wet.
He raised his arm and snapped his fingers, and suddenly, a pair of servers appeared. The man and the woman were clad in nothing but straps and buckles with all of their most intimate parts on display. The man was holding an ice bucket with a bottle of what looked to be extremely expensive champagne and the woman was holding two long-stemmed glasses. I watched the man they called the Dark Prince inspect the glasses before he took a look at the champagne. He was examining everything closely, attentively, like he was in control of every single thing that went on in front of my eyes.
That was what he was trying to prove.
That he was in control.
He waved them off so they could pour the champagne. Then I saw the man hand him two glasses. He held one out for me, and I took it, rocked by the attention he was giving me. He wasn’t just making sure things were perfect for him, he was making sure things were perfect for me.
I had no idea what I was doing. I’d never even been on a proper date, much less found myself alone with a man like this. The intensity of his gaze and the fact that he didn’t speak caused my heart to pound deep within my chest. The man and the woman stood there while we sipped our champagne in the dimly lit hallway, his eyes grazing up and down my body. I could see them sparkling, drinking in my curves while his decadent lips curved around the champagne glass.
I’d finished the champagne quicker than I’d intended, causing a shadow of a grin to pull at his cheek.
He plucked the glass from my hand and, just for a second, our skin touched. It sent electricity ricocheting up my arm, puckering my skin as my eyes widened. I had no idea why this man called to my body the way he did, but as he held his hand out for me, I realized what he was doing.
He was asking for my consent again.
I could feel the wetness growing between my legs as I stared at his hand. My heart was pounding in my chest and the blood was rushing through my ears. I was a virgin, a young girl taking care of her orphaned brother. I had no experience; I had no skills. I had no idea what I was doing in a place like this and I sure as hell didn’t know how to pleasure a man like the one that was standing before me.
But I knew one thing for certain, one thing that rang out in the forefront of my mind. His commanding demeanor and his ruggedly handsome appearance called to me in a way no man ever had before and I knew, if I walked away from this, I would never forgive myself.
So, I slipped my hand within his and, for the first time since I’d seen him on that balcony, he smiled.
That smile of his could’ve lured Satan out of his lair and I shivered with anticipation as he began leading me down the hallway.
Chapter Four - Camillo
The woman placing her hand within mine looked like a princess. Like Snow White, her pale skin, ruby red lips, and raven tresses made me ache for her in a way I’d never experienced before. The innocence she exuded through her white lace dress tugged at my body, pulling me toward her like a magnet to her smooth metal gaze. I wanted to devour her and not come up for hours. The way she was silently studying me, debating on whether or not to take my hand, thundered my heart in my chest.
All I needed was her consent and I’d whisk her away into a world she’d never even dreamed of.
She was a natural submissive that much was for sure. The way she held still for my gaze while I studied her was enough to prove that to me. We walked up a back set of stairs that wound to the top of the warehouse, straight into the room that sat across the hallway from my office. I opened the door and ushered her in, leaving the pair clad only in buckles out in the hallway, guarding my door. I watched her take in the room, the darkness of it falling around her pale curves as her hand danced along the thick wooden bedpost she would soon be against.
She turned toward me, her silent stare hooking back onto my lips. I stalked toward her, my movements rooting her in her spot as I reached my finger out gently to touch her cheek. I traced her jawline, feeling the softness of her body against my touch. Then, I trickled my fingertip down her neck, grazing her pulse point as I headed for her chest.
She allowed me unfettered access to the beautiful valley between her breasts before she took in a sharp gasp of air.
I looked up into her face and saw that telltale flush creep across her cheeks. A flush that had given away so many women before her. Except she didn’t try to hide it. She didn’t attempt to fight it.
Nor did she stop my finger from traveling down her body before naturally falling away.
She reminded me of a songbird that would stop in the tree outside my childhood home in Italy. The white bird, with its icy blue eyes, would sing a beautiful song, so clear and innocent. That bird always found a way of lifting my spirits during the worst times of my childhood. The song it sang would sink its talons into my heart, like this woman had somehow sunken hers into me as well.
“In the swamp in secluded recesses, a shy and hidden bird is warbling a song.”
I muttered the line as my eyes slowly grazed back up her body. Her picturesque beauty was something I could never have conjured in my wildest dreams. She was too pure for the sordid surroundings that encompassed her. Too innocent for the devious thoughts that existed in my head.
Her eyes widened as the line fell from my lips and I couldn’t help but be shocked when she responded.
“You read Yeats,” she said.
Even her voice reminded me of the songbird. Light and lilting, with low notes that rounded out such a full and heart-wrenching sound.
My little songbird, displayed to me for the taking.
I nodded. I read Yeats and other famous poets and philosophers as a little boy. Books of poetry were the only ones I had access to, with my father being the control freak that he was. When he enlisted me to hunt down my mother’s killers, the beautiful words would jump off the page, blocking out the horrid shrieks of the men I’d delivered to their maker.
This young woman wasn’t just a pretty face. She was intelligent as well. Her following me would be the best decision she’d made all evening. No man in that room could handle the beauty, grace, and intelligence that encompassed the woman standing before me. No man understood how to strum the strings of a woman who expected so much good from the world
around her.
“My friends are out there,” she said.
“They will wait,” I said.
I reached over to the switch on the wall and slowly brightened the dim lighting of the room. She looked around and gasped, taking in the walls and the space that surrounded the bed she’d anchored herself to. I could tell she was staring at the expanse of it all. I’d taken up almost half of the hidden upstairs of this warehouse for my own personal pleasures.
It was like a sound stage with small vignettes. One corner was outfitted as my own personal stone dungeon; another was a sumptuous sitting area with ropes that were hidden beneath the opulent fabrics. There was another area that had a sunken in tub large enough for ten people and beside it was a massive, glass-encased shower. She had already become familiar with the expansive four-poster bed, but the light revealed beside it a sitting area that was designed with a modern black and white motif, complete with leather furnishings.
I watched her while she slowly walked around, taking it all in as the flawlessness of her skin finally broke. Goosebumps were raging across her arms and her stomach, carrying with it a healthy flush I would pull from her time and time again before the night was over.
I could tell she was taking things in for the first time. That everything she was seeing was new for her. She was a true innocent, something that twitched my cock and made it grow beneath my tailored trousers. I’d amused myself with women for years. Women who just wanted a little taste, and women who were so submissive, they wanted to be humiliated. I’d satiate my appetite with them for an evening before casting them out, never fully whetting my palate the way I wanted.
I’d never considered anything serious until this very moment and I knew, then and there, I would seduce her. I wanted her, more than I could stand. Her long legs and her flat, toned stomach. Her supple breasts aching for my lips and her long black hair begging to be wrapped up in my fist.
She turned and looked back at me with curious wonder in her eyes and the undercurrent wafting between us was unmistakable. Her eyes ran down my body, drinking me in, the way I had just done with her, and I couldn’t help the smirk that rose upon my cheeks.
She was wanton and I was ready to make her mine. This woman was special and I intended to treat her as such.
I just had to find out why first.
I walked over to her and held out my hand, silently asking for her consent once again. She took my hand without a second thought, and I slowly led her over to the sitting area by the bed. I held my arm out for her, allowing her to steady herself in her heels as she sat onto the full-leather chair, then I pulled up the ottoman and sat with my back straight.
I rolled my shoulders back and drew in a deep breath, expanding my chest as her eyes took in my every movement.
Then, I asked the one question that would start off a night I would never forget.
“Why are you here?”
Chapter Five – Rose
I felt like I had been hypnotized. As I sat there, staring into the eyes of the man every woman downstairs wanted, all I could hear was the blood rushing through my ears. My body was being tugged toward him, wanting him in a way I’d never experienced before. My nipples were painful peaks underneath my lacy bra and I could feel my underwear growing wet as I sat down into the leather chair. His movements were fluid. Languid. Simple. Caring in a way I didn’t expect with how Eli seemed to describe a dominant. His icy gaze held onto mine as my surroundings hit me with an unrecognizable force and, suddenly, I started to digest what was happening.
I was in a dominant’s lair as an inexperienced virgin.
Surprisingly, I didn’t give a damn.
I was surrounded by some sort of fantasy. A room designed to fulfill things people could only conjure up in their imagination. The shower looked absolutely decadent and the tub was something I could swim laps in. The dungeon was an avenue that shivered me with fear and yet the man before me wasn’t someone to be feared.
At least, for me he wasn’t.
I had to admit, I was titillated. My eyes kept darting around the room, taking in its wonders as I settled back into the leather chair. I could feel his eyes on me as he sat on the ottoman in front of me, his stature growing tall as he straightened out his back. I had no idea what type of world I was stepping into. Hell, I didn’t even know how much of this stuff was supposed to come into play. The ropes and chains that donned the walls and the toys that hung up on hooks were things I didn’t even recognize.
But then my eyes fell on a line of paddles that were affixed to the wall just beyond the dark prince’s shoulder and I started to shiver.
The intensity of the moment was too much to bear. I could feel my entire body trembling in the leather chair as a chill shot down my spine. The intensity of the man before me, surrounded by the chilling intensity of the room he’d led me into, bubbled something in the pit of my gut I’d never felt before.
I wished I could define it but all it did was bring tears to my eyes.
“Why are you here?”
His voice ripped me from my trance and I paused, attempting to formulate my answer. My watery gaze connected back with his but, if he caught it, he didn’t show it. I felt a tear trail down my cheek as a shuddering breath left my lips and, for the first time in my life, I honestly didn’t know what to say.
Why in the world was I here?
“Well,” I said breathlessly. “My friend, um, brought me here.”
But all he did was stare at me and I got the feeling that my shaking sentence hadn’t been enough for him.
“She, uh… invited me to… to New York. To see her. For the weekend. I, uh, haven’t seen her since culinary school and I’d missed her. I’m from a small town near the Poconos and I don’t really get to the city often. At least, since I left school. After, well… after everything happened.”
I felt like an idiot, stammering on like a childish schoolgirl, while this poised man held his hungry gaze on my face. I felt my words trail off as another silent tear cascaded down my cheek and, in a split second, I felt his fingertips graze my skin.
This thumb was wiping away my tear trails before his hand cupped my cheek, bringing my gaze back to his.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Why are you here now? With me?”
I felt my cheeks heat up with his touch as I involuntarily nuzzled into his palm. I had no idea why I was here with him, so I simply stayed silent.
“It’s very clear you’re inexperienced,” he said.
“I’m sorry.”
His hand rushed to my chin, clenching it tightly, and I yelped; not in pain, but in surprise.
“Never be sorry for something like that.” It was as if his voice had dropped an entire octave and I could feel a throbbing between my legs. I wanted him to use that voice again. I didn’t know why and I didn’t know for what, but all I wanted to do was hear those notes grace my eardrums again.
He released my chin and I let out the breath I was holding, waiting for him to say something else.
Anything else.
“Have you ever been spanked before?” he asked.
“You caught me staring at those paddles,” I said.
“You’ve been caught in nothing,” he said. “I’m merely studying you.”
I shook my head slowly, answering his question as that devilish grin reappeared upon his cheeks. I had to be honest with him. If there was anything this man needed to know, it was the secret I kept hidden away from the world.
The secret my friends constantly teased me about.
“I’ve never had sex, much less been introduced to any of this,” I said.
I heard him take in a sharp breath of air and my eyes flew back up to his. I’d folded my hands in my lap, ashamed of the woman he’d decided to waste his time on. No man of his expertise and his sexual appetite would ever want to be with someone who truly didn’t understand what they were doing, and I knew he would cast me out, consider me a lost cause, and force me to find my way back to the
dance floor.
But the way his eyes held my body in its silent clutch, I got the feeling that my statement had intrigued him more.
“And yet you came here with me?” he asked. “Has your curiosity overwhelmed your sense of danger?”
He slid the rolling ottoman closer and I could feel his leg snake between mine. I felt his knee press all the way between my aching thighs as his face came closer and closer. My eyes fluttered closed, taking in the musk of his cologne while his breath pulsated upon my neck.
“Make no mistake, songbird. I am dangerous.”
I could hear a faint accent in the low notes of his voice as I leaned into him a bit farther. I could feel my chest lightly grazing his, my body trembling at the mercy of his voice. I clenched my thighs, feeling his knee lightly grind closer to where I wanted him to touch. This man was the sexiest man I’d ever seen.
No matter the danger he brought into my life, I knew in that very moment I wouldn’t leave without experiencing what he had to offer.
I felt his hands creeping up my arms, pulling goosebumps to the surface as I sighed into his shoulder. My forehead lightly touched him, and my body leaned into him as he slowly peeled the lace away from my shoulders. I could feel his warm lips touching my bare skin, pulling me closer and closer to his body. I felt myself scooting forward, his knee delving farther and farther between my legs while my thighs continued to clamp down around it.
His lips slowly worked their way up my neck, stoking a fire within me as my hands lightly rested on his thighs. My head fell back as his lips continued to brush my skin, ghosting along my naked flesh as I sighed in soft pleasure.
“Are you ready to obey?” he asked.
His voice ricocheted through my body, rattling my ribcage as his lips stayed poised above my skin. I wanted him to touch me again. To kiss me again. To allow this fire burning in my gut to rage all across my body. I wanted to burn this room down with the fire he kept kissing and stroking from me, but when I thought about the answer to his question I honestly wasn’t sure.