by Jamie Knight
The doorman at the front door, in his dapper gray uniform, tipped his cap as he looked up at me, but when his eyes fell onto Pugsly, he grimaced.
“I’m sorry, miss. No dogs allowed. It’s a rule for the whole building.”
I frowned and crossed my arms over my chest. “You have got to be kidding me. We are just here for a visit. I’m seeing Ray Silver. He’s in the penthouse.”
He thought about that for a moment, obviously insulting Ray could cost him his job. I remembered the amount of clout Ray held with his building co-op the few times I had been here before. Hell, Ray probably had enough money to buy the building if he wanted to. He wasn’t as rich as Kane or Ashton, but I knew he was a millionaire.
I watched the doorman’s face as he thought over the situation. I could tell that he didn’t have anything against dogs personally, but he also didn’t want to get into trouble with any of the other tenants. I sure as hell was not going to walk home and back just to drop of Pugsly. No dogs was a stupid rule.
The doorman’s shoulders straightened, and I could tell he was about to say no and stick to his guns. So, I pulled out my cell phone.
“Lets just give Mr. Silver a call, shall we?” I said as I flipped through my contacts for Ray’s number and punched call.
The doorman went silent; his lips pulled down in a frown.
“Eileen?” Ray answered quickly, he sounded a little breathless and worried. “Did you change your mind? Please, I know it’s an odd thing to ask, but please hear me out.”
“I can’t get into your building.”
“What?!”
“The doorman says that I can’t come in because of Mr. Pugsly.”
Mr. who? Oh! Right, you’re new companion. Of course, I’m sorry Eileen. Had the phone to Daniel for me please.”
I did as instructed. The doorman took the phone in his hand, talked to Ray for a few minutes—mostly saying “Yes, Sir”—and then handed the phone back to me. He had an odd look on his face, and I started to feel bad for getting him in trouble.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
He nodded. “You can go right in miss,” he said opening the glass pained door for me. “Apparently it is very important to Mr. Silver to see you this evening. He just offered me ten grand to let you in.”
My breath caught in my throat. Ray was not kidding around. What was so important that he was throwing money around like this?
I nodded to the man as Pugsly and I passed into the pristine lobby. Luckily there was no one coming in or out and we rode the elevator up to the penthouse alone.
My feelings of excitement had turned. Now I was worried. This whole situation was so weird. Ray was usually very good with money. Hell, he was a CFA and tracked money for a living. The only things I saw him spend a lot of money on were suits and cufflinks. Otherwise, his spending habits were tame. Too know he bribed the door man…something was off.
The elevator dinged and opened to the hallway for the penthouse. Ray was the only one who lived up here. He had told me before that he liked to have quiet at home and preferred that his apartments not share walls with others.
When I knocked on his apartment door, he answered immediately.
“Come in Eileen,” he said with a big smile. “I’m so happy you are here. Would you like a drink? Can I get Mr. Pugsly a bowl of water?”
I found myself looking up into his model-like face and smiling back. There was a familiarity that was sneaking back into our mannerisms. It wasn’t completely erasing the awkwardness of what happened before, but it was helping and honestly, I was glad to be spending time with the man again. Maybe after this ball, we could be friends.
“Thanks, Ray,” I said as I lead Mr. Pugsly inside and into Ray’s very clean kitchen. “We will both have water.”
Ray went to one of his top cabinets and pulled out a glass bowl. He filled it from the tap and put it on the floor in front of my pug. Pugsly found it and started slurping away, getting drops of water and drool everywhere. I looked over at Ray to see if he minded, but he wasn’t even looking at the dog. He was staring at my face.
“Can I interest you in something more than water?” he asked. “Scotch? Can I make you a martini?”
I nodded and looked around the room. “I’ll have a gin and tonic, lemon not lime.”
Ray nodded and got to work on my drink.
“Nothing is different,” I told him.
“Excuse me?” he looked up at me with his blue eyes wide.
“Your kitchen. You haven’t changed a thing since I was last here.”
“Oh.” He shrugged. “I suppose not, but it wasn’t that long ago.”
I felt my shoulders slump. It really hadn’t been that long ago. What was I doing here? And with my ex-boyfriend-slash-boss? I frowned. This was stupid. I was just starting to get over Ray and now I was back in his apartment.
When I looked over Ray was watching my face again. He handed me my drink and poured himself a glass of scotch.
“Come into the living room and have a seat,” he told me. “And you can let Pugsly off the leash. I shut the bedroom and bathroom doors; he won’t be able to get into anything bad.”
“Thanks.”
I knelt down and unhooked the lead from Pugsly’s black collar. He snorted a bit at me as I patted him on the head and rubbed his torn ear gently.
“Go have a look around,” I told the pug, “but no chewing.”
He yapped and then started following his nose around Ray’s floorboards. I wrapped the leather leash up, set it gently on the counter. Ray was already in the living room waiting for me.
As I crossed through the doors, something black and velvet caught my eye. I stopped and stared. Hanging from a coat rack was a long shiny cape with a hood. It was something like what a princess would wear in a fairy tale. I couldn’t resist. I walked over and started running my hands over the soft material.
“Do you like it?” Ray aske with a grin. He was sitting in the middle of his large steel-gray sofa with his arms over the back.
“It’s beautiful. Is it for me?” I asked hopefully.
“Yes.”
“And the gown it goes over?” I asked almost breathless with excitement.
Ray’s lips twisted into an odd frown. He took a sip of his scotch and stayed quiet for a minute. “Um…well…You see, it’s not quite a dress…”
I held my hand up to my chest in shock. “Pants? Ray this cape is too formal to go with a pantsuit. I really should have a ballgown.”
He sat forward and ran his hands in his black hair nervously. When he looked up me again, his usually confident eyes held uncertainty.
“Eileen, what I want you to wear in in that box. It’s not quite a dress, because, well, this ball is quite different from other balls.”
Endless amounts of questions filled my mind. But I looked over to the side table where a long, low box was sitting. It was like the kind that tailored shirts came in but longer. Clueless, I pulled the top up and stared down at my…outfit.
“Ray, this is a leather catsuit,” I stated plainly, knowing that my face was covered with a confused frown. Where was my diamond tiara and my ballgown?
“Yes, it is.”
I pulled the fabric into my hands. It was high quality leather; the fabric was soft and pliable. There were a few buckles to make the suit tighter or looser and…odd zippers.
“What are these zippers for?” I asked as I pulled on them. There were about five. “Like this one in the crotch, if you pull that my…oh my God!”
I turned to Ray, my cheeks burning with a blush. His eyes met mine and he glanced down quickly.
“Maybe you should sit down for a second, so I can explain,” Ray kept his voice low and even, like he was uncomfortable with what he had to tell me.
Still holding the leather catsuit, I moved over to the side chair and sat down.
“I have different tastes then most people,” Ray started. He pulled on his cuffs and then wrung his hands together. “And this ball
is the biggest event for people like me. It’s a celebration and an exhibition of our lifestyle. If you still agree, you and I will be performing there on Saturday night.”
I didn’t quite understand. “And this performance is important to you?” I asked, trying to wrap my brain around what he was saying.
“I have never performed there before, but I have gone to the ball a few times.”
“But this year is different?”
“Yes.” Ray wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Eileen, my uncle is dying, and he wants me to prove to him that I think his life work is…well, valid. I need to do this performance, because, while Ronnie and I share similar tastes, I always thought his devotion to the life was stupid. And I’m beginning to think it wasn’t and I have been acting like an ass for years.” He ran his hands through his dark hair again.
Ray’s distress bothered me, and my heart ached. I had never met his uncle, but I knew that he was the only family Ray had left; he had to be hurting. I stood, dropped the catsuit into the chair behind me, and went to Ray’s side. I sat next to him on the couch and rubbed his back gently.
“I’m so sorry. Of course, I will help you please your uncle. You didn’t have to offer me a million dollars, Ray. You could have just asked me.”
He looked up at me with a wry smile. “Even if you have to wear that?” he asked, gesturing to the catsuit with his chin.
I looked back at the strange suit and brought my hand to my jaw. “I suppose. It’s an odd costume, but I’ll wear it to help you.”
“Even if we have to have sex onstage in front of thousands of people?”
“What?!”
I scooted back, away from him and into the couch some.
Ray sat up and looked me full in the face. There was something hot and predatory about his look. I pushed myself back from him as much as I could.
“I’m a dom, Eileen. I need you to pretend to be my pet and fuck me in front of a crowd on Saturday.”
He had to be joking. I relaxed a little and put my arms over the back of the couch. I smiled at him.
“In that case, I will need the million dollars.”
Chapter Eleven
Ray
Eileen thought I was joking. She leaned back into the couch, inches away from me and gave me a sexy smile. She hadn’t completely run out of the apartment, so that was good. It did seem like she still cared for me.
I decided to admit to everything. This was such a big thing to ask, I might as well tell her the whole story.
“I’m not kidding, Eileen.” I took another sip of scotch. “My uncle owns The Dark Club here is town, several magazines and websites. His empire is based off of sex—showing it and creating spaces for where certain kinds of sex can happen. He just got diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and before he passes, he wants me to prove that I’m his heir for this empire.”
“An empire of sex-stuff?” she asked, her lips pursing and her golden eyes wide.
“Yes. You see, even the website that you and Mandy were looking at this afternoon, Ronnie owns that. He owns sites for toys, websites for cam-girls and websites that stream porn. But The Dark Club is his baby and I practically grew up there. We would be representing the club at the Leather and Lace Ball on Saturday night. Ronnie used to preform years ago when he was a younger man. They called him the king of the ball and now he wants me to prove to him that I can have the same honor.”
Blinking at me in confusion, Eileen got up from the couch and shuffled over to find her drink. She took a few sips of her gin and tonic as she paced the room.
“You’re going to inherit a sex empire?” She turned to look at me with her eyebrows raised.
I nodded.
“What are you going to do with it?” she asked, but then raised her hand to stop me before I could speak. “No. Stop. One issue at a time. So, you want me to have sex onstage to promote a local club?”
“That’s the gist of it, yes.”
“Will anyone I know be there?”
“No, Kane and Reese aren’t going this year.”
Eileen stopped her pacing so quickly that a bit of her drink sloshed on to the floor.
“What?! Reese is part of this club?”
“Yes, she joined when she and Kane got married. Ashton and Maria just joined too.”
She raised her eyebrows again. “Are all the executives at McKenzie Tech members of this club?”
“I shouldn’t be telling you this—the club has a strict policy of silence—but yes, they are.”
“Ray, what kind of sex club is this?” she asked plainly.
“BDSM.”
“What is that?”
We stared at each other in silence for a few minutes. I knew Eileen was innocent and not very sexually experienced, but she had to know what BDSM was. But she just kept staring at me blankly.
Oh my God.
I took another sip of scotch. How could she be twenty-eight and so innocent?
“Let me show you.” I downed the last of my scotch, stood, and headed to the bedroom.
Eileen hesitated, but then I heard her footsteps as she followed me. “Do…Do I need to bring the catsuit?” she asked. Her voice wavered a bit and she sounded timid.
“No, leave it. I’ll just show you some things. You don’t have to do anything. I promise.”
We passed her new pug as we walked down the hallway. He was sniffing at my potted plants, but it didn’t look like he was chewing on them or doing any harm. As we passed, the little, fat dog fell into step behind us.
I opened my bedroom door and waited for the gasp I knew was going to come from Eileen.
Sure enough, she gasped when she saw the way my bedroom was decorated. She had never been back in my bedroom. I never brought women into my sanctuary unless I knew they wanted that sort of thing. Eileen and I’s one night had been at her apartment and I never thought I would bring her back here.
Eileen looked over the various glass cabinets of toys and whips. She cautiously eyed the hook hanging from the ceiling and ran her hands over the leather straps and cuffs that were attached to each bedpost of my canopy bed.
Pugsly regarded my odd room with little shock. He grunted, jumped up on a low black velvet chaise lounge that sat next to a window and made himself at home—wheezing and watching us with large brown eyes.
“So, this is what you like?” Eileen asked shyly, her fingers tracing the line of a whip. “How does any of this even work?”
“Have a seat,” I told her and gestured towards the bed.
Eileen sat, crossed her legs primly, and took another sip of her drink. I looked over the cabinets and thought about where to start and how much to explain.
“There are certain people who…well… like to express dominance in their sexual relationships, it helps get them hot, and make the sex more pleasurable.” I pulled a set of plain handcuffs out of a drawer and turned to Eileen.
She looked at what was in my hands and swallowed. “So, you like to feel dominate and have your partner…”
“Pet. They are called pets.”
She blinked at me once while holding her mouth open but didn’t comment. “Okay, Pet. You like to have you pet handcuffed?”
“Handcuffed or bound with leather straps or tied up to the hook attached to the ceiling. Anything that makes her submissive to my every whim.”
Her face flushed a little bit. “I see,” she said in a very even tone, which gave me no indication of what she was thinking or feeling. Eileen downed the rest of her drink and set the glass on my bedside table. “So, you would like it if I let you put those on me?”
She moved her hand till they were clasped together in front of her. I felt a shiver go through my whole body, but I didn’t think that she understood what she was doing to me, so I tried to hold back.
“I would like it,” I told her, “but really cuffs are my least favorite. For binding I prefer leather straps.’
“Show me,” she whispered.
The tension in the room jumped up and I m
oved without thinking. I pushed Eileen back onto my bed and grabbed one of her hands. Pressing it up against the wood of my bedpost, I wound the leather strap quickly around her wrist and tied it. She blinked up at me with confused and slightly scared eyes. I caught myself and stopped before I grabbed her other hand.
I pulled back from her, but she caught my shirt in her free hand and held the material. Our faces were very close together and I could smell the gin and tonic on her sweet breath.
“So, both hands?” she asked calculatedly, like she was trying to figure all of this out—figure me out.
I nodded to the bedposts at the foot of the bed. “Both hands and both feet, all bound.”
She bit her lip while thinking. “And what would you do to a…pet…when she was trussed up like this?”
I found a smile forming at my lips. I leaned down and whispered into her ear, “I would lick her exposed pussy, maybe use a vibrator or two on her until she begged for my cock and then I would fuck her for hours.”
She panted slightly, but the look in her honey-colored eyes was still unsure.
“I see and this is what excites you the most?”
“No. I’m an exhibitionist. I come hardest when there is a possibility that other people are watching.”
Her eyes went wide, and her lips formed a little O. It was too much for her, I could tell, so I pulled away from her and turned my back. There had to be more to our little show then just fucking so I needed to explain the rest to her.
“There are other aspects, other sex acts that go on that I find pleasurable.” I crossed to a glass cabinet and took out my favorite paddle. It was formed black leather with a little slit in the middle that grabbed the ass when you spanked it. I touched its edges lovingly.
Behind me, I heard Eileen untying her restraint and a few seconds later she was standing at my side.
“What do you to with that?” she asked, her voice still hushed.
“It’s for spanking. Lot’s of pets find that a little pain enhances the pleasure that they feel during sex.”
“I see.”
“Do you?” I couldn’t help the heat in my voice. Having her here, in my bedroom, was enough to get my desire flowing.