Maelstrőm

by Michelle Love

  Another song came on and the girls made another screaming shriek and ran to the dance floor. Barbie grasped at the gorgeous dark-haired girl, but she shook her head and stayed at the table, alone.

  Arsen saw his chance and took his half empty glass and glided the distance between the tables, coming up behind her. He hesitated and took in her essence. The vague aroma of lavender wafted past his nose and he leaned closer to smell her hair that was shiny and full.

  His hand fisted at his side as he had to stop himself from taking a handful into his fist and pull it to make her come to him.

  “Hi,” he said, and she spun around, nearly knocking his drink out of his hand.

  “Oh! Sorry,” she said. “You scared me.”

  His first thought was that she was right to be afraid. “You should run.”

  She smiled and blushed. “Oh yeah?”

  He nodded as he leveled his dark eyes on her deep blue ones.

  “I think your eyes are gorgeous. I had to come and say hello. I had to see the color and I have to say I’m not one bit disappointed.”

  Her smile sent waves of some unknown sensation through him. She could be dangerous to him he thought. She could push him out of his comfort zone and he knew it without any doubt.

  “Your eyes are pretty nice too,” she told him then took a sip of the drink he’d sent her. “Thanks for the drink. I’m not really knowledgeable about alcohol yet. I only turned twenty-one a few weeks ago.”

  “I see,” Arsen took a drink as he looked at her. “What is it that you do?”

  “I’m in school. I wanna be a lawyer when I grow up,” she said with a giggle.

  Her voice was soft and easy on the ears. Her giggle was too. Not silly, or sexy, just kind of a sweet sound he thought he could listen to a lot.

  “I’m a lawyer.”

  Her eyes brightened. “Anyone I may have heard of?”

  His impending legal problems sprung to the forefront of his mind and suddenly his name was not a thing he wanted her to know. Just in case it ended up on the news in the near future.

  “Name’s A.C. I’m nothing big, just a small time lawyer.” He took a drink and watched her reaction.

  “We all have to start somewhere,” she said with a smile. “One day you’ll make it big, I bet. You have the look of a powerful attorney.”

  He smiled and thought she had a look about her too that showed she was capable of great things.

  “You don’t really fit in with the bitch pack, do you?”

  Her eyes traveled to the dance floor where the other girls had gone. She shook her head, making the dark waves of her hair move across her shoulders and one strand fell across her breast making Arsen’s cock twitch.

  “The tall blonde is my roommate. She turned twenty-one today and made me come. I’m not real big on hanging with, what did you call them, the bitch pack? That’s funny, I’m stealing it.” Her smile revealed straight, white, perfect teeth. Pink, plump lips pulled over them and everything about her was genuine.

  “Steal it,” he said and stopped himself from telling her the corny words that ran through his mind.

  Arsen had thought to himself that she was already stealing his heart, but those were not only thoughts he never had at least since back in the days of his naïve innocence and Beth. The words would never pass his lips.

  His time was limited before the bitch pack would come back so he asked, “Would you allow me to take you home. I have a car outside. I’d love it if you’d let me give you a ride.”

  “Sorry, I’m not that kind of girl,” she said and sipped her drink. “You’re a complete stranger after all.”

  The fact she was no easy piece made him thrilled, but he wanted her much too badly to take no for an answer. “Smart girl,” he said.

  “Thanks,” she looked him over and frowned. “You’re most likely married anyway. Have a house full of kids you’re here to get away from.”

  “What makes you say that?” he asked as he’d never been told he looked domesticated before.

  She bit her bottom lip as she looked him over. “Can’t say really. You just look like you’re used to getting your way. Not many single guys get their way very often.”

  He held his left hand up for her to inspect. “You will not find a tan line around this finger. I’ve never been married.”

  “Can I ask you a question?” She looked up at him and he found himself loving her basic character. She would be able to be what he wanted in a sub, he saw it in her.

  “Sure.” He moved a little closer to her, feeling the warmth which came from her.

  “How old are you?”

  “Thirty-five.” He moved a step closer and touched her waist. “Old enough to teach you things that you’ve never thought about knowing before.”

  Heat came off her body as her faced turned pink. “I bet you could.”

  “You should let me take you home.” He leaned into her, his hand moving from her waist to the small of her back, gently moving her body to his, their hips touching.

  He knew she’d fit him perfectly and his dick stretched the giving fabric of his slacks. Her body trembled with the contact and he knew she’d be fantastic in bed… and the living room, the hallway, the backseat of his Escalade.

  “I’m really not that kind of girl. There are plenty of easy ho’s around here though.” She peered up at him as she tried to take a step back, but his hand on the small of her back stopped her retreat.

  “I don’t do easy,” he said and found his mouth moving to take hers.

  She licked her lips and for a second he thought that he was home free. “Don’t.” Her voice was but a whisper, but her word stopped him.

  He moved back a little. She would be begging him soon enough. “Smart girl.”

  “I am and you, sir, I dare say seem a little bit dangerous,” she took in a deep breath and backed another step away from him.

  Arsen shook his head. “A little dangerous, no.” He was very dangerous, and he knew it. A young innocent thing like she was didn’t stand a chance under his expert hands. He’d bend her to him as easily as a young sapling to a post.

  She surprised him as she leaned back in close to him and whispered, “I have to tell you that you are the first man who actually made me think about doing what you asked though.”

  He smiled without realizing he was doing it. She was a bit dangerous herself. He felt a pull like he never had before. It was a thing he couldn’t even afford to have at that time in his life.

  There were no guarantees he’d even be walking the streets the next day. He could be scooped up by the authorities and placed in custody at any moment. The detective had made that abundantly clear to him just that afternoon.

  The other young women were coming back to the table, and he wasn’t about exchange pleasantries with any of them. He kissed his fingertips and placed them on her lips. “See you around then.” He turned and left before she could say another word.

  After paying the tab and taking care of the bill for the party that the young woman was a part of, he took his credit card back from the bartender and went out to get in his car.

  Paul jumped out and opened the back door for him. “No girl, boss?”

  “Not yet,” Arsen said as he sat in the back. “Give her time. She’s coming, she just hasn’t realized it yet and I don’t want to hang out with her idiotic friends.”

  He took a beer and sipped on it as he contemplated his day and all he was up against. His mind wandered off to how it was he got involved in the life he led.

  All the way back to how he was living out of his car in Los Angeles after he got out of the hospital. His mother had left him there, leaving him alone after Beth’s father’s beating had put him in the hospital.

  It was her chance to have a valid excuse to finally abandon him the way he knew she’d wanted to for years. She said the hospital would make her pay if she stuck around. It was in his best interest if no one could find her, then the state would have to pay his hospital
and doctor bills and he’d only have to live six months in a foster home after that.

  She told him she was doing it all for him. He’d be eighteen in six months, a month after that he’d be out of high school and being in the system would ensure him that he could go to college, like he always said he wanted to do.

  Yes, she was sacrificing all for him.

  He frowned with the thought. After a long drink from the tall bottle he nodded and thought, at least he was able to go to college and make something of himself.

  And physically, with the help of Beth’s mother, he made sure his body toughened up as well as his heart. It was she who set him up in a small apartment near Stanford University where he got his law degree and learned about the life of a sub under her tutelage.

  Under her firm hand, he learned to turn pain into something else. Power and pleasure. While the professors in law school worked his brain out and made it work in a way that would take him into a productive future, Mistress Sinclair taught him how to take his power in his own hands.

  The apartment was where she had taught him all there was to know about BDSM. She was a closet case who had to hide her obsession from her family. Her husband would have been a terrible Dom, she’d told him. He was too mean spirited and lacked self-discipline.

  She taught him to be strict and to dole out the proper punishment when it was called for to get the sub to do what made the Dom happy. She taught him, what she would later tell him, was a little too well as he quickly outgrew his desire to be a submissive to her.

  He was made to be a Dom and when he sought out the underworld where people went to find others who wanted the lifestyle, he had begun to enjoy Mistress Sinclair who tried hard to punish him back into submissiveness to her. All the lashings in the world would not see him spend a lifetime in that role.

  Arsen’s back still carried the scars from the whips she used to try to subdue him, but the lashes healed eventually and she came to realize he was not going to bend to her will any longer. He’d grown into a huge man, muscles on muscles and a determined spirit that refused to follow anyone.

  He held the reins. He held the chains, He held the whip, and she had no want to be at the stinging end of it. That’s when he moved out to his very first place and found his very first sub at one of the clubs he’d found. Kyla was his first and now she was gone.

  They’d spent a year together. He never loved her, but she was good at doing what he wanted. In the end, it was her entire devotion to him and what he wanted that soured their deal. One couldn’t call what they had a relationship.

  He took her on no dates, sent her no flowers, and called her no sweet names. He did take care of her. Gave her a car, kept her in a nice place, though not the same place that he lived in. He gave her money so she didn’t have to work. She was to be available to him whenever he wanted and she did have to come to his office many times to give him what he needed there as well.

  People asked about her and him and what they were to each other, but Arsen only told them they were acquaintances who occasionally fucked. He thought about the one legal aid he had. She was an older woman who’d helped her lawyer husband before he died.

  She often told Arsen he was wandering down a path that would never make him happy. He found it odd the woman in her sixties had even an inkling into what he was really doing.

  She never came out and told him she knew, only hinted that she did and let him know it would grow old one day and he’d want someone to love and cherish. Not bend to conform to his will and dominate with his authority.

  So far, Arsen had found no one who made him want to open his hard and dark heart to allow to come in and possibly hurt him or take control of him. But the young woman who was inside the club with her friends had nothing in common with what had made something twitch not only in his pants but also in his heart.

  Now was not the right time for any type of relationship. Definitely not one of traditional means. No normal woman would understand the things that were most likely about to become public knowledge about him.

  The young law student certainly looked like a girl who’d run if she knew his dark and troubled secrets. His eye twitched as he thought about her pretty, little face that was so full of life and hope falling as she heard the things he’d done.

  She’d hate him for sure. He should just leave and stop waiting for one more chance to get her to let him take her home. She wasn’t the type he usually went for. She wasn’t one of the girls from the club who was looking for that sort of thing.

  She was a nice girl in a normal club. She wore cowboy boots and jeans, not stilettos and ripped stockings. Her blouse covered her ample breasts, not torn and leaving nothing to the imagination.

  She stood tall and held herself with confidence even though she was young and had yet to start her law career. He envisioned her in a tiny leather corset, a collar around her long and slender neck, with a chain he held as she made her way through a dark room on her hands and knees.

  The men in the clubs he went to would be so fucking envious of him if he took her to any of them. She was a true woman of great beauty and confidence. To have her doing for him as he wanted would be some big feat.

  Arsen shook his head to clear it. What in the hell was he thinking? Women should be the last thing on his mind. They were the reason his freedom might be taken away.

  Everything he worked so hard for might be gone in a flash because of women and how he chose to have sex with them. He needed to go home and be alone. Contemplate his case and his whole damn life.

  But just as he was about to tell Paul to take him home. The door to the club opened and out she walked. “I’ll be right back,” he told Paul as he got out of the car.

  He followed her as she walked down the busy sidewalk of downtown San Francisco. She was all alone, and he found himself thinking that she was too pretty to be walking alone. Something bad could happen to her.

  Arsen slowed his pace as he thought what it was he wanted to do to her and that it wasn’t entirely good for her either. He wanted to hold her down and make her beg him to fuck her after all.

  Some young guy took notice of her as he walked towards her.

  “Hey, baby, where you off to?” he asked as he approached her.

  Arsen’s body filled with tension as the guy spoke to her. She turned her head, ignoring the guy, but the idiot had the balls to reach out and grab her arm, making her stop. Arsen stopped only feet behind them, his hands balled into fists.

  “Too good for me, or what? Not even a, fuck you, can you be bothered with saying to me,” the guy said as he glared at her.

  “Let me go.” Arsen watched as her hand slipped into the purse she had hanging from her shoulder.

  The bottle she was pulling out had Arsen stopping and falling back to be sure he got none of the pepper spray near him. A little doorway offered him protection from the stuff which was about to fill the air, but he could still keep an eye on her.

  “Who do you think you are, bitch?” the man slurred at her and yanked her arm hard.

  Arsen had to cover his mouth to keep the laugh quiet as he watched her pull the pepper spray out of her purse in one swift motion and spray the fucker right in his baby blues.

  He screamed and let her go. She turned around and went right back into the club she’d just left. Arsen smiled all the way back to his car and climbed in, telling Paul all about the tenacious young woman and how much more her actions had him intrigued.

  Paul turned around and leveled his eyes on his long-time friend.

  “Okay, Arsen, give me the news.”

  Arsen stopped smiling and looked at his friend turned employee.

  “My ways have caught up to me, Paul. That’s all it is.”

  “Your ways, while questionable, are not illegal. So how is it they’ve caught up with you?” Paul asked with a frown.

  “I’m not sure how much I really want you to know. You see as a person who is aware of almost all of my comings and goings, you’re sure
to be brought in if they decide to make a case against me. It’s best you only know what it is you truly know, not what I can add.” Arsen leaned his head back on the leather seat and looked at the ceiling.

  “So, I can expect to get called in myself. Fantastic!” Paul groaned. “Crap! The shit I’ve seen you do are not things I ever wanted to talk to anyone about, Arsen.”

  “Sorry,” Arsen said as he continued to look up. “As far as a friend to you goes, I haven’t been the best, have I?”

  “Don’t think like that, Arsen. I love you, man. I’m not judging you by any means. So you should tell me what I say and not say. If they ask me if I’ve seen you hit a woman, how would I answer that?”

  “Fuck if I know,” Arsen said with a moan. “Maybe something like, everything he did was mutually accepted by all parties he engaged in those types of activities with.”

  “That’s a fucking mouthful, isn’t it?” Paul asked and had to laugh. “What about that time you had me hold that chick for you while you took your tie off. I tried to get the hell out of the room before you got started but I saw you tie her up and hang her up on that door and smack the shit out of her with your belt. I remember her begging you to stop.”

  Arsen ran his large hand over his face which had gone ashen with the memory his friend brought up.

  “It’s part of the act. Our safe word was rose, and she knew that. She wanted to beg, that’s all. Man, that’s one of the girls this shit is about. This is bad, Paul. This is really bad.”

  “Not that chick!” Paul ran his hand over his face as well. “Man, Arsen, she was into that crazy violent shit. There was the time she begged you to choke her. Then another time when she came out to the car completely naked, and you two went to one of the clubs and when you two got back in the car, her body was covered in bruises.”

  Arsen’s stomach was hurting again, and he felt like he might throw up. He grabbed another beer and downed it.

  “I’m in so fucking deep, Paul.”

  “And why are we waiting out here for yet another female, Arsen? I can’t tell you what a bad idea this is. Does the word, ‘stalking,’ ring in those ears of yours?”