“You’ll be going to the top floor.”
To get thrown off of it?
I told myself firmly not to be ridiculous. Donovan had no reason to suspect anything, and even if he did suspect something, he wouldn’t just throw me off a building.
Would he?
I realized Colton was still staring at me and I gave a nod. “Thank you.”
“Have a good night.” His smile was open, effortlessly honest.
Colton, I thought wryly, didn’t have a deceitful bone in this body.
Inside the building, a gorgeous marble floor was inlaid with exquisite designs, and I tried to keep the posture Sarah had taught me so that I might feel like I was supposed to be there. Still, when the elevator attendant asked me where I wanted to go, I only felt as if I had successfully fooled him.
I rode up to the top floor with my heart in my throat. Was I going to have to dance? Was this a work party? Oh, God, I would definitely disappoint Donovan if it was a work party—and surely he would warn me, wouldn’t he? Still, panic was building in my blood and when the door opened onto a restaurant, I could have cried with relief.
He was waiting for me at the table. A bottle of champagne was chilling in a silver ice bucket, and a glass at my place bubbled cheerfully. I saw Donovan’s eyes rake over me and took an unsteady breath; it was clear that he wanted nothing more than to take me home right now.
Or maybe he wanted to take me here. I swallowed and tried to remember how to breathe.
“Something wrong?” He smiled as the maître d’ pushed in my chair.
“Not at all. This…” I looked around myself. The city spread away from the windows in a glittering tableau, and the tables nearby sported couples dressed to the nines. “This is incredible,” I finished. “I feel a little like an imposter.”
“You’re not,” he assured me. “One should never confuse money with class. Most of the people here have the former. You have the latter.”
“You have a high opinion of me.” It was half a joke, half despairing.
“I do,” he agreed seriously. He didn’t look at the menu. “Now. Why were you in Chinatown today?”
I felt my smile freeze on my face. His tone hadn’t changed in the least; it was just as light and pleasant. The steel was entirely in his eyes, which were fixed on my face.
“Were you following me?”
“Keep your voice down.” His eyes never wavered on mine.
It was the second time I had been stared down today. I waited.
“No, I was not following you.” He spoke the truth as he always did, a bored drawl. “But, as I recall, you promised to keep me updated on your movements.”
“I’ve never done something like that. I forget, all right?”
That, unexpectedly, seemed to hit home. “I forget that this is all new to you.”
“It would be new to most people!” I saw his warning glance at my tone and lowered my voice again. I had to behave as if there was nothing wrong with my visit to Chinatown. If I admitted that Sheng-li wanted me to stop asking questions, Donovan would wonder which questions I had asked. If I said he was threatening my friends…Donovan would find out why in the end. I couldn’t take that risk. “What does it matter to you if I go to Chinatown, though?”
“After having warned you about Sheng-li, I would think you would know the answer to that question.” His tone was brusque now.
My easy joy in the dress and the evening was gone. I looked down at my plate.
“Lily.” His voice did not soften in the least. “Look at me.”
I looked up unwillingly.
“Why were you in Chinatown today?”
“The same reason I was there the night we met. I miss Shanghai.”
This seemed to surprise him. “I didn’t know you’d been.”
“I studied abroad there. It’s where I met Bei. It was…” I paused. I didn’t know how to describe the feeling of being self-sufficient for the first time. I had loved Shanghai, not just for the city, but for the freedom I felt not to have to wear clothes Chris liked, speak only with people Chris approved of, and constantly wait for his criticisms. “It was the first place I got to live my own life,” I finished lamely. “I suppose that doesn’t mean anything to you.”
“You don’t know everything about me, Lily. And while living your own life may be appealing, I cannot allow you to court danger while you are involved with me. You’re sure there was nothing more to your visit there today? You wouldn’t have been asking questions, for instance? You’re sure you wouldn’t have been doing something that…for instance…Sheng-li would take exception to?”
I smiled, more bitterly this time. “I’m sure.”
He studied me for a moment, but there was only honesty in my face. Sheng-li was glad of my visit. It was Donovan that wouldn’t be.
“Mmm.” Donovan sat back as the waiter placed two plates in front of us. “You should eat. I have somewhere I want to take you after this…if you’re game.”
The way he said the words made desire spike through me, and whatever he saw in my eyes, he gave a low laugh.
“Eat. And Lily…”
I looked up, knife and fork poised over a gorgeous steak.
“If I find out you were lying to me, I will not be pleased.”
It took all I had not to swallow or let my eyes drift away from his. “You don’t have to worry about that.”
Please, please let him not find out.
“I’m glad to hear it. Would you like some wine with your steak?”
“No, I like the champagne.” I took a sip to punctuate my words, and let the bubbles slide over my tongue.
He smiled. “Eat, then.”
I managed a smile and went back to my steak, but I tasted neither it nor the champagne. Danger and desire were twisting together, and I hardly knew where one ended and the other began. When we were finished, he led me to the elevator.
He didn’t speak on the way down, nor did he kiss me. He didn’t touch me at all, in fact, until we were ensconced in the car and he tied a blindfold gently around my eyes. He trailed his fingers up one bare arm and I felt my nipples peak with desire.
“You look gorgeous.” His voice was a breath in my ear. “Later, I’m going to tear that dress off you and make you scream my name while you come.”
I could hardly breathe, I wanted him so badly, but when I swayed toward him, he only gave a laugh.
“Patience.”
I bit my lip to stifle a whimper.
It seemed like forever that I was stuck in darkness, very aware of him by my side. The desire only seemed to grow the longer I waited, and by the time the car stopped, I was shuddering with it. I went to take off the mask, and command was quiet, but no less strong for that:
“Leave it.”
He led me across pavement and in through a metal door. The music here was soft, conversation at a murmur, and—
I heard a whip crack, and a moan. I stiffened, and Donovan laughed. He was behind me, one arm holding me still as he drew away the blindfold and I saw, at last, where he had brought me.
Chapter 24
Donovan
Her eyes went wide and her gorgeous lips parted.
My eyes fixed on them for a second, tracing the crimson lines. Sarah had done well, elevating Lily’s beauty rather than erasing it. The woman she was tonight—confident, self-assured, fiery, somehow still innocent—was the woman she had yet to realize she was.
But she knew she was mine. Dinner, and the car ride here, had been a torment: seeing her, wanting to take her, knowing it would be better if I waited. Now she was here, pressed up against me, and I had to tell myself again to be patient.
I had been planning tonight for a long time. I wasn’t going to let Sheng-li get in the way.
I saw her eyes roam over everything: the low light that spilled from shaded chandeliers, the tiny alcoves, the low couches…
…The stages. Figures writhed, held in place by rope and cuffs, tormented with whips and t
oys and cuffs as they begged for more. The crowds leaned forward to watch, murmuring in appreciation. One or two of the couples on the couches were lost in their own worlds, shameless enough to perform in front of others. Men and women alike were on their knees, working their mouths and their hands to please those who still had their eyes fixed on the stages.
“What is this place?” Lily’s voice was soft, wavering.
“A club.” A very exclusive club, nothing like the dungeons filled with loud music and leather-clad performers.
“What do we…why are we here?” She looked at me, wide-eyed, and I saw fear and yearning in equal measure in her eyes.
“We’re here to watch.” I held her in place as my lips found her neck and I bit the tender flesh hard enough to make her gasp. “I want to see what you like.” I lifted my head, and saw with satisfaction that her eyes were hazy with desire. “Which show do you want to watch?”
She flushed. “I don’t know.”
“You have to choose. Come.” I took her hand. “When you see one that makes you want to stop, tell me.”
She followed dutifully, but hovered so close that she might have been my shadow. We passed a stage where a woman was bound, her head wrenched back and her legs forced apart with a spreader bar. As to women attached clamps to her nipples, a third dipped her head between the bound woman’s legs. The woman moaned, and gasped as the clamps tugged. I looked at Lily, and she shook her head after a moment.
At the next stage, a man was crawling toward a woman all in black. Her curly hair fell over her shoulders like a waterfall, and her perfect features were twisted in a cruel smile. As he kissed her boots, she flicked the whip over a back already striped with welts. Lily gave a little gasp of desire as the whip touched his skin, but she bit her lip and shook her head again.
I saw her interest before I saw the show. Her eyes fixed on something across the room and, almost shyly, she drew me to that stage.
A woman was bound with her arms tight behind her back, bent over a padded table, her ankles cuffed to the legs of it and a strap holding her in place. She moaned as the man behind her brought his hand down hard on her ass, and she cried out when a whip landed on her skin. She was naked, and even in the dim light, her dusky skin showed where the whip had landed over and over. It fell again, and again, the man’s lips curving when she began to beg, and then he slipped his fingers between her legs and began to work them.
She could barely move, but the woman was shifting her hips desperately, trying to take the man’s fingers deeper, faster. Her eyes had drifted closed while he whipped her, and she was lost in her own pleasure.
Lily’s breath was coming quickly, her eyes bright as she watched them. I watched her chest rise and fall above the low neckline of her gown and fought the urge to tear it off her body right here.
“You like this?” One of my hands circled her waist to press her against me.
“Yes.” She bucked her hips against mine; I knew she could feel how hard I was against her ass.
“Which part?” I murmured the words, so as not to draw the attention of the other viewers—though some of them seemed entirely lost to the world.
“All of it. I need…” Her voice trailed off and she looked at me, almost pleading. “I need…I don’t know.”
I smiled. As the man undid his pants and thrust into the woman, as she cried out and the energy in the crowd focused, I drew Lily away, toward the back hallway.
She stumbled as she followed me. She was looking over her shoulder, to where the man was fucking the woman hard, his hips slapping against her ass while she begged him for more. When we turned the corner and were alone at last, Lily looked up at me.
“What—”
“Hands against the wall.” I pressed between her shoulder blades to bend her over. “Good girl. Don’t move.”
She whimpered when I drew her skirts up. “What if someone sees us?”
“Would you like that?” I drew my fingers up the backs of her legs. “Feet apart. Yes, like that. Good.” I slipped my fingers inside her, savoring her little cry.
I was gentle. After tonight, after seeing the harder side of this, she needed gentle. Much as I wanted to tie her, make her whimper with pain as well as pleasure, she needed gentleness now. I slipped my fingers in and out of her, marveling at how wet she was, and it wasn’t long before she was moving her hips to take my fingers deeper.
“More.” I didn’t think she was aware that she had spoken. Her eyes were closed. “More.”
“More like…” I let one finger circle her clit, and smiled when she shuddered.
“Fuck me. Please, sir.”
My fingers shook as I undid my belt and my pants, and I sank into her with a groan.
“Fuck me hard,” Lily whispered.
Almost, I gave her what she wanted. And then I realized. I slid into her to the hilt and drew away, just as leisurely. “Afraid someone will see us, pet?”
“I…” She looked over her shoulder.
“Hands on the wall. Arch your back for me. God, your ass is perfect.” I gave a few slow thrusts. “So you want me to fuck you fast so no one will come along and see this?”
“Oh, God.” She whimpered the words.
“See you with your ass up, not even tied, just taking my cock right here because I said so?”
“Oh, God, Donovan, please.”
“You call me ‘sir,’” I reminded her.
“Sir. Please, please—”
“You’re afraid someone will see what a slut you are for me, is that it?” I braced myself and reached down to tug the bodice of her gown down. I traced my fingers around one nipple and squeezed it hard as she rocked back against me. “Your hips are moving, Lily. I think you like that thought.”
“Sir, I—I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me.” I cupped her breast as I fucked her. She was burning up inside, wetter than I’d ever felt her. “D’you want someone to see us? Tell me, Lily.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Why?” My pace was increasing; I couldn’t stop.
“I want them to know…” She caught her breath as I slid deep. “I want—don’t stop—I want them to know I’m yours.”
“And?”
“I want them to know I’m a slut for you.” She gasped out the words and her back arched to take me deeper. “Please—Donovan, sir, come in me.”
“You don’t control this.” I grabbed her by the neck and tightened my fingers slightly as I pulled her head close to mine. I had stopped, deep inside her, moving my hips only slightly. “I control this. If I say I want to fuck you here where someone might see, you bend over and give me that perfect pussy of yours.”
“Yes.” She was beginning to shudder, her hips were moving against mine. Her eyes had drifted closed.
“If I say I want to take you in my office, where anyone might hear…” I began to move again, hard this time.
“Yes.” She bit her lip on the word. Her fingers splayed against the wall as her body shook with my thrusts.
“If I say I want you on one of those stages, taking me while everyone watches—”
That was as far as I got before she came. She arched as she shuddered around me, eyes fluttering, and I felt my own pleasure come in a rush. I spurted deep inside her and lost every ounce of control. I was fucking her hard again, both my hands back at her hips, digging into the skin, and she was rocking back against me for more, whimpering for it.
Reason returned slowly. I pulled away and lowered her dress, and she swayed as she stood; I drew her against me for balance.
“That was…” She looked up at me, eyes wide. She was near the limits of what she could take in one night, I judged.
“Would you like to come back here sometime?” I drew her toward the exit, to where the car was still waiting.
She blushed and lifted a shoulder. “I think so.”
“Good.” My hand found her ass and squeezed. “There’s so much more to teach you. For now…let’s get
you home.”
Chapter 25
Lily
The bell rang for the end of class, jolting me back to reality, and I stared down at my test in dismay. I’d managed to answer every question, and I was relatively sure most of the answers were even correct, but it was far from my best work, and I had no time to check it over.
I joined the line of students filing up to the front to place their tests in front of the teacher, and then I went to push my way out the door into the crush in the hallway.
“Lily!” Bei pushed her way nimbly through the crowd and smiled at me. “That went well, I thought. I was glad that we went over Section 4 again last night.”
“Uh-huh.” I couldn’t for the life of me remember what was in Section 4.
“Do you think you did well?” Bei looked concerned. “I would hate to think that we missed something you wanted to study.”
“Oh, no—no, I’m fine.”
“You’ve been so distracted....” She frowned.
I bit my lip and tried not to go beet red. The truth was, I couldn’t stop thinking about the club. Every time I thought of the low moans of the performers, and the panting of the patrons—some of them willing to take their pleasure even in front of the others—I felt a pulse of heat between my legs.
If Donovan had bent me over one of those couches, where any of the other patrons could see…
I swallowed and hoped I hadn’t allowed my moan of desire past my lips.
“I’m all right,” I assured her. “I really am. I…” Couldn’t think about anything except that club. I wanted to know what else there was to see, and what Donovan wanted me to learn. “I have to go. Oh, Bei…”
“Yes?”
“You wouldn’t happen to know anyone who lives around that bar we went to that one time, right?” Someone, for instance, who might have known what those cops were searching for that night. Someone who might have seen Donovan with the body.
“I think so.” Bei frowned as she searched her memory. “I can ask. Why?”
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