by Alice Raine
‘OK, why do you like it?’
I jerked my shoulders again, unable to quite voice my reasons. ‘I don’t know, it’s just nice. I like the spicy flavours.’
‘It’s exactly the same for sex,’ he explained simply. ‘People might not openly admit it, but just like favourite foods, drinks, or sports, everyone will have favoured sexual positions or activities.’
Oh, as simple as that. I’d never really considered it that way, but I suppose that made sense.
‘For me that involves being in control.’ He leaned in closer, and as I imagined him kissing me again, my body froze. His face was just a few centimetres away now. I could feel the warmth of his breath on my cheek, see the darker flecks in his denim blue eyes, and even though I knew it was dangerous, he was dangerous, I couldn’t summon up the effort to move away. ‘And like you, I also like it spicy,’ he added in a low, wicked tone, giving a suggestive jerk of his eyebrows.
If it were possible for words to suck the air from my lungs, then that statement would have done it, because I could barely breathe. I’d never met someone so fascinating. His looks were obviously appealing, and confidence oozed from his very being, but it went way beyond that. His expressions, the tiny movements of his eyebrows, the way his lip tweaked when he was suppressing a grin, the movement of his hands as he spoke … He was so compelling I couldn’t look away. Plus, he had sex appeal by the truckload, which helped, too, I guess.
I cleared my throat, hoping that perhaps I could distract myself from the overwhelming stimulation that was Mr Oliver Wolfe, and finally managed to shift backwards slightly and create a little breathing space between us to reflect on what was occurring.
It didn’t look like I was getting a dinner invite, as I’d first thought, either, and as stupid as it was, I once again felt a little pang of disappointment.
He distracted me from my pondering thoughts by holding up his hands in a dismissive gesture. ‘I’m a bit of a let-down, aren’t I?’ he said, sliding his hands into his pockets and drawing my attention to his long legs which seemed to go on forever.
A let-down? I wouldn’t say that, I thought dryly, running my eyes back up his strong thighs and over his impeccable suit until I was looking at that incredible grin again. His teeth were so straight that he simply must have worn braces as a kid.
‘It’s nowhere near as exciting as the tortured characters in the books you’ve read, I’m afraid. I think it’s just the way I’m built. I like control. Especially in the bedroom,’ he added, throwing a sly smile my way that sent a pulse of desire to my groin and made me gulp and shift my legs to try and ease my arousal.
‘Uhh …right,’ I said, just for something to fill the awkward silence. ‘That’s not a let-down,’ I remarked softly. ‘I wouldn’t want to try and write about a tortured soul on my first attempt, anyway.’
‘Quite right,’ Oliver agreed with a nod, before a devious twinkle sparkled in his eye. ‘Perhaps you would rather be the one being tortured?’
My eyes widened so quickly that my top lids briefly ached. ‘What? No! I … er… no.’ What a gigantic swing in the conversation! He was certainly keeping me on my toes. ‘I … er … I … just wanted to soak up a bit of atmosphere, really,’ I stammered, not entirely sure if he was coming on to me, or simply playing with me. Probably the latter, if the wicked glint in his eye was anything to go by.
Oliver lifted a hand and rubbed at his jaw, and I could have sworn he said “shame” as he did so, which caused my heart to skitter wildly in my chest.
How did I respond to that?
Outwardly this man was dreamy to look at, but that feeling of danger was never far from my mind. Not in a threatening way, but I had a feeling he would be distinctly hazardous for my heart’s health if I let him close.
I didn’t reply to his whispered remark, so in the end we both just stood there in silence staring out at the dance floor for a few minutes. The reprieve from his intense stare was definitely needed, and I managed to take my first proper breath since meeting him.
‘So, the tour,’ Oliver announced. ‘You’ve already seen the dance floor and performance pedestals. What do you think of the place?’
‘It’s nice. Not what I expected at all, really.’
Tilting his head, he smiled. ‘What did you expect?’
Shrugging, I rolled my eyes. ‘I dunno. Sex, I suppose,’ I blurted, embarrassed by my naivety. ‘But there’s nothing like that at all.’
Oliver hummed, as if considering my words, and then swept back a curtain behind himself with a flourish. ‘Like this, you mean?’
Oh good God and holy hell balls.
Behind the curtain was a side stage, illuminated from above with spotlights and containing … well … containing two people shagging rather vigorously. Except they weren’t just having sex. The man was banging into her and tugging on her breasts, but the woman was spread-eagled on some type of bench, each of her limbs tied down so she was unable to move, and in her mouth was a black rubber ball, presumably to stop her speaking.
Jeepers. I blinked, then blinked again, and my mouth dropped open as I watched in muted fascination. Her skin was slick, as if covered with oil, and her nipples were bright red from the attention they were getting. The scene aroused me far more than I would have expected it to.
After allowing me to watch for a few moments, Oliver dropped the curtain and turned back to me. He rolled his shoulders back to straighten his already perfect posture, and grinned wickedly as he raised a hand and used a thumb to gently assist me in closing my gaping mouth. ‘I am assuming, from your delightful blushes, that your sex life thus far has been vanilla?’
God. This was all a bit much. Talk about straight to the point! I’d only met him ten minutes ago and now he was asking me about my sex life!
I had been desperately hoping to steer the conversation back to more mundane topics, but all this talk of torture, punishment, and now “vanilla sex” was seriously making me question why I was spending my Friday night here. I had no clue about half the things he was talking about, or half the things I’d just witnessed.
‘V-vanilla?’ I stuttered, my throat raspy and dry. ‘Like normal? Boring?’ I was fairly sure I’d read that term before.
Oliver barked out a short laugh, and ran a hand through his hair, his dark eyes twinkling with mirth. God, he was so attractive it made my stomach clench with need.
‘Boring?’ he questioned, clearly amused. ‘Poor little Robyn with her boring sex life. It’s no wonder you’ve ended up wandering through our door.’
I tried for an outraged expression, but instead my mouth merely hung open again, causing Oliver to laugh at me yet again as he held his hands up in surrender. ‘Don’t look like that. You said it, not me.’ His smile was pure wickedness. ‘But yes, I meant normal, as in not kinky.’
My head bobbed around uselessly, and my tongue felt like a piece of dry carpet as I tried to answer. ‘Um. Yeah.’
‘Interesting.’ His eyes swept over my features again, and he briefly bit down on his lower lip, as if imagining something utterly filthy and wicked. Something like the forbidden fantasies I occasionally had, but would never dream of telling anyone about. His lust-filled expression made me quiver between my legs, and I had to fist my hands to try to control the sudden trembling in my fingers.
Finally breaking the eye contact, Oliver drew in a deep breath and placed a hand on my lower back, his touch making me jerk briefly, before I managed to control myself. ‘Come, this way.’
We navigated the edge of the room to the other side, passing several small candlelit booths as we did so. ‘These are the watcher holes. Small and cosy if you fancy a private drink, but also positioned with a perfect view of the second stage.’ He pointed to another curtain, and I could just see beyond it to where a woman in a black catsuit was strutting around a naked man bound to a cross. Holy smokes, this place was insane! Although I had to give it credit for its discretion, because until Oliver’s enlightening tour, I had been
completely unaware of the naughtiness occurring in here.
‘And, finally, this corridor leads to the private rooms.’
That caught my attention, and I ripped my eyes away from the stage and back towards Oliver. ‘Private rooms? Like a hotel?’
Oliver smirked at me, and nodded. ‘If you mean hotels which rent their rooms by the hour, then yes.’
Oh. My cheeks were burning with heat by now and I found myself averting my eyes as Oliver continued to stare at me.
‘Would you like to see inside one of them?’
His husky words brought my head snapping up again and I rapidly shook my head. ‘No!’
It seemed that Oliver could no longer contain his amusement, and he threw his head back and laughed at me, before leading me back to the bar where our stools were still vacant. His timing couldn’t have been better, because after all his flirtatious remarks, lust-filled looks, and teasing comments, my legs were just about ready to give way.
Looking around the bar, he swept one hand out, gesturing around the room. ‘Now your tour is complete, sit back, take a look around. Ask me about anything that interests you.’
Chapter Six
Robyn
Now his intense gaze had shifted away from me, I felt a wave of relaxation in my muscles but, confusingly, it was tinged with a pang of disappointment at the loss of his attention.
Shaking off the sensation, I shifted on my stool, rotating it towards him and resting one arm on the bar so I mirrored his posture. I sat facing more towards Oliver so we could talk, but also see the room around us.
Before I even had the chance to ask any of the hundreds of questions brewing in my mind, we were approached by a huge man who came to stand right before me, far too close for my comfort. He must have been near to seven feet tall and was built so broadly that he completely blocked my view of the dance floor.
‘Good evening, Oliver.’ The new man had a voice so deep and rough that it rumbled through my chest, and perfectly matched his rugged appearance. He may have been speaking to Oliver, but I noticed his dark eyes were well and truly latched on to me as they raked unselfconsciously over my body, making me feel an almost instant revulsion towards him. Talk about intrusive.
‘Dominic,’ Oliver replied curtly, his voice noticeably cooler than before. Glancing across in surprise at his chilly tone, I saw that Oliver now sat bolt upright, the front of his shirt straining as some seriously decent muscles seemed to stretch the fabric almost to its limit. Oliver didn’t introduce me formally to his acquaintance, but that didn’t stop Dominic from swooping forwards, grabbing my hand, and lifting my knuckles to his lips for a kiss. The sensation of his dry lips skating over my skin made me shudder. There was something innately unsettling about him that set my nerves on edge and had me tugging my hand free and snatching it back into my lap.
‘And you are?’ he asked, as he looked at my clenched hand with a flicker of a frown. I only just managed to avoid the urge to wipe my knuckles on my dress, then rested it back on the bar, well out of his reach.
Before I could reply, Oliver did the job for me, his tone still frosty. ‘This is Robyn.’
Although I barely knew Oliver, I felt the sudden need to shift closer to him. He seemed to offer so much more safety than this unsettling newcomer, and I leaned sideways on my stool to close the distance between us. As if sensing my discomfort, Oliver released his glass and shifted his hand next to my arm, so his index finger was brushing the skin of my wrist. Oddly enough, even this minimal contact from him, a virtual stranger, somehow reassured me.
My guardian’s movement may have been small, but Dominic’s gaze immediately shifted from my face to look at where Oliver’s hand was now touching mine. His eyes narrowed as Oliver wrapped his fingers more firmly around my hand, an intimate gesture that I would usually have pulled away from with a new acquaintance, but in the presence of this unnerving man I found myself instinctively turning my hand and linking my fingers with Oliver’s.
Oliver dipped his head to look at our handhold, and briefly we made eye contact, his gaze searing into me as I gave a small smile. He returned my smile, and nodded his head, as if approving of my action.
‘And as you can see, Robyn is with me.’
I wasn’t with him, not really, but there seemed to be some strange power play occurring between the two men, so I chose to remain quiet. This was his home territory, he knew how things worked around here, so I was happy to let him take the lead.
Dominic gave an indecipherable grunt of apparent irritation. ‘Finally back in the game, are you, Oliver?’ he asked in a decidedly scornful tone as he pushed his meaty hands into the pockets of his trousers, to which Oliver shrugged and nodded.
Oliver was now rhythmically stroking the side of my hand with his thumb, and I couldn’t deny that the sensation was rather lovely, so much so that I began to return the gesture to his hand with my own thumb, which caused his grip to increase around mine. ‘It would appear so.’
After giving us both a hard stare, Dominic looked again at our linked hands with a narrow-eyed look of irritation. ‘Then I shan’t disturb your evening further.’ Tearing his gaze away from our hands, Dominic stared intently at me again, making me shrink back a fraction in my seat. ‘Enjoy Club Twist. If there is anything I can assist you with, Robyn … anything at all, don’t hesitate to find me.’ His disturbingly suggestive tone made my skin crawl. His gaze roved over me one more time before he shot an intense look at Oliver and stalked away.
As soon as he was gone I felt my shoulders sag in relief. That had been one seriously weird encounter.
A few seconds of silence passed after our unplanned guest had departed, and neither Oliver nor I immediately moved to separate our hands. I’d only just met him, so it felt strange to be holding on to him, but equally, he made me feel safe, so I wasn’t quite ready to give up the contact while Dominic was still circling the bar area like a shark.
In the end it was Oliver who instigated the separation– albeit somewhat reluctantly – by pulling his hand away slowly and dragging his fingertips across my palm in the process. Excited shivers ran up my arm and I shuddered with pleasure before averting my eyes and shifting awkwardly on my stool. He’d have to have been blind not to see my response to him, and I inwardly kicked myself for being so transparent. This man made me feel like an open book.
‘My apologies for his behaviour,’ Oliver murmured, picking up his drink and taking a large swig, as if he, too, were trying to avoid eye contact with me. ‘Dominic is another of the owners of Club Twist.’ He placed his tumbler back down and finally raised his gaze to mine again, but this time his face was twisted in distaste. ‘Between you and me, he’s a cabrón. Watch yourself around him if you meet him again.’
‘What does that mean?’
Oliver gave a thin smile. ‘My apologies. For some reason, even though I’ve lived over here for years, I still swear in Spanish. Cabrón is not a polite term … it’s similar to arsehole.’
So my sixth sense had been correct about Dominic being bad news, but more interestingly, Oliver had hinted that his native language was Spanish, which would certainly explain his accent and dark good looks.
‘You’re Spanish?’
He quirked an eyebrow at me, and then nodded slowly. ‘Sí, señorita.’
The sound of the familiar foreign words purring from his lips made my stomach lurch and a wave of pure lust washed through me as I had visions of him whispering sweet nothings in my ear in his low Spanish accent.
My response to him was so unexpected that I was really floundering; and just taking in a normal, non-wheezing breath suddenly felt like the most complex task on earth. ‘So, is Dominic, you know … is he like you?’ I asked hesitantly.
Meeting my gaze straight on, Oliver shook his head. ‘No, he and I are nothing alike.’ His statement was almost spat out, showing exactly how much he disliked Dominic. ‘But if you meant with regards to sexual outlook, then yes, he’s a dominant, too.’ The grim express
ion on his features suddenly lightened, ‘I don’t like the guy but you gotta love the irony of his parents’ name choice. Dominic, as in “Dominic the Dom”.’ He chuckled, and I found myself grinning, too, until Oliver’s face sobered again, ‘Seriously. though, he’s bad news, Robyn. If you choose to come here more often to do your research, stay away from him, please.’
‘OK.’ For whatever reason I felt like I could trust Oliver, so I agreed immediately, ‘He was pretty intimidating.’
Rubbing his chin, Oliver nodded, his gaze hooded. ‘He is. He’s into some very extreme stuff,’ he confided, his voice lower now and causing me to lean closer so I could hear him over the music. ‘Actually, he’s probably a bit more like the characters in the books you read. He definitely had a troubled upbringing. God knows what went on in the children’s home where he lived but he likes dishing out some serious pain while he’s having sex.’ A shudder ran though me at Oliver’s blunt words and I suddenly felt cold despite the oppressive heat inside the club.
‘Dominic can be …’ Oliver paused, frowning as he seemed to be deciding what to say, ‘Predatory,’ he decided upon finally. ‘When he sees something he wants, he goes all out to claim it. I thought I saw a gleam in his eye when he looked at you, which is why I took your hand.’
‘Staking your own claim, were you?’ I asked in what I hoped was a jokey, light-hearted response, but my wobbly voice probably gave away my nerves.
Please say yes. Please say yes.
The thought caught me off guard, surprising me with how instantly I had been attracted to this man, and how thrilled I would have been if he showed a real interest in me. Thrilled, that was, until I really gave it some thought, considered his bedroom tastes, and ran for the hills.
Who was I kidding? I might find the guy attractive, but he was a self-confessed control freak in the bedroom, and I was as vanilla as they came. If he actually made a move on me, I’d be utterly terrified.