Chapter 29
E verly
Shouts from outside the club made it up to the arched window in Connor’s apartment, and I stood with a hand to the brick, watching the crowd gathered below. Genevieve had told me how a festival atmosphere surrounded the game, with people waiting outside for the contestants to emerge. The victorious men would carry their claimed woman out to a waiting car, both naked, often bloodied.
Sometimes, they’d still be having sex.
Breathless, I stared down in wonder.
My whole body was infused with the same energy. My skin tingled under the lingerie and the silky dressing gown I’d recovered from the first night I’d come here. I’d taken time to style my hair and put on makeup, choosing a sexy pair of the heels Connor had brought for me.
I didn’t have the figure of the women who’d be running for their lives tonight, but in my own way, I was just as attractive.
The door snicked open across the apartment behind me, but I didn’t look around. Instead, I let my senses pick up on Connor prowling over the darkened space. I’d left the lights off, aside from the three pendant spotlights that hung over the tall kitchen counter.
“Take it off.” Connor drew a fingertip along my bra strap, over the pale dressing gown.
Ah, the half-naked thing.
“Don’t we need to be downstairs?” I asked.
“Off.”
His fingers twisted into my dressing gown collar, and he lightly tugged it backwards, pulling it free from my arms so it fluttered to the floor. I unclipped my bra, still facing the window when my breasts fell free, and my cheeks heated at how I was now flashing the world, even if only in silhouette. I’d already felt bold in my outfit, but now, every one of my senses was overwhelmed.
A kiss landed on my bare shoulder, then Connor’s strong arms rounded me, and he took two handfuls of my heavy breasts. From feel alone, I knew he’d stripped his shirt.
My pulse sped, and I closed my eyes and tipped my head back, loving how he touched me and the gruff sounds he made as the kiss turned into a bite and his caress into a possessive squeeze.
But the spine-tingling moment was short-lived. He released me to encase my fingers in his, then we were moving towards the door.
Panic shot through me, and I stalled, digging my heels into the floor. “Wait. My clothes.”
Connor didn’t stop, his movement propelling mine so I had no choice but to totter after him into the hall in only my shoes and knickers.
I gripped his wrist, and my voice came out in a squeak. “I’m naked. I can’t go downstairs like this. People will see.”
“What are ye worried about?”
He closed the door. I spun around and pushed it. Locked.
Connor clamped his hand over the code entry box.
“What if we run into someone I know? I can’t. Please.”
He was unrepentant. “Let them stare.”
“My father comes here. His colleagues.”
“Your father has not been permitted access tonight, nor any of the councillors. Is that better?”
A tiny degree of my dread eased, but it wasn’t enough. “No.”
He backed me to the lift. Pressed the button. In just his jeans, with the button popped open, he had so much ink work on display, and he was so beautiful. So well made that against him, I was ridiculous.
“Tough. You’re a goddess, Everly. Everyone should know.”
Tears sprang into my eyes, and my heart beat loud in my ears. “Please, Connor.”
The lift arrived, and he guided me inside. Centred his gaze on me. “Tonight, even more than usual, the building only exists for sex. It’s all everyone here wants and is looking for. Nobody is here who won’t fuck or be fucked. Your lush body should be admired, and your tits will bring men to their knees. They’ll dream of your curves for years to come. Ye should walk tall. But, if it’s anonymity ye want, hold up.”
From his back pocket, he revealed a skeleton bandanna, then he tied it around my face to hide the lower half.
Instant relief flooded me. One tiny change had made a world of difference. I gazed at myself in the mirrored wall. It wasn’t that the tiny piece of cloth concealing my features had any power to truly hide my identity, but more that it deflected focus from my face downwards. No one would look at me, not as a person. They’d ogle my breasts. My ass.
They’d see Connor’s strong, tattooed form and imagine him owning mine.
I wanted to sag against the wall. I also wanted to smack Connor for doing this, but at the same time, I fought the urge to hug him for forcing me to be brave.
I did neither. When the light lit for the third floor, I walked out into the brothel with my head held high.
The typical low thud of sexy music that played in the corridor had been replaced by sounds of a live stream video. While Connor led me down the hall, Arran’s voice came over the system.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the game.”
Cheers erupted around us, coming from behind closed doors and the dimly lit open space ahead. From memory, I knew it was a playroom of sorts, where live sex shows went hand in hand with interactive play between the sex workers and their customers. That was my impression from my single previous visit, when I’d peeked inside with curiosity but no confidence before I’d run away.
Screens had been placed around the edges of the room, and on the picture, Arran and Genevieve stood together, her in a stunning and tiny black dress, and him bare-chested, like Connor, with a low-slung pair of jeans open at the button.
They were beautiful together. Her golden hair and slight figure, and his much bigger, powerful form. I could only imagine how wild the crowd had been at their contest.
Arran continued talking about the provenance and rules of his game, and I took a second to scan the room we moved through. Bare flesh was everywhere, including people fucking on sofas and against walls. Women stripped in gold cages suspended from the ceiling. The scent of sex in the air won the battle over the pretty perfume that usually infused the place.
It wasn’t just sex workers with male customers here. There were female clients as well. Normal-looking women who appeared to have come with a partner, and who had cheeks I imagined matched mine for the brightness of their blush.
We kept on going, deeper into the darkness.
In the centre of the space, a mostly naked dancer constrained a second much curvier woman to a padded table by her ankles and wrists, spreading her arms and legs wide. I exhaled at the exposure but couldn’t tear my attention away. The helper tied a blindfold around her eyes and whispered something that had the constrained woman bucking against her ties.
All it did was show her she had nowhere to go.
A man approached the head of the table, fully clothed, but with his dick in his hand. At another whisper from her co-worker, the constrained woman tipped her head back with her red lips open and ready to receive him. Meanwhile, another man climbed up to kneel between her legs, his gaze locked on her completely bare pussy. A third guy stripped his jeans beside the table and set a heel to the table’s surface. He shoved the second guy out of his way so he could take his hard dick to her entrance.
The dislodged man grappled him. They fought over her. Over who got to fuck the tied-down woman.
The last man held out and thrust into her, right as the blow job dude came on her face.
I shivered, unable to imagine what it would be like to be so exposed and to have so little control over who touched me. It made walking through here a piece of cake.
“Don’t even think about it.” Connor ran a possessive arm around my shoulders, keeping me close.
“No?” As if I’d been picturing being in her place.
“Never. I want every arsehole here to see what I’ve got, and at the same time, I’m making plans to stab all their eyes out.”
I could have laughed, but I was too pent-up. Too turned on.
“Where are we going?”
I wanted him, badly, but I didn’t want to share what we had publicly.
“I’m taking ye behind closed doors,” he said.
Relief mixed with my other much stronger emotions, and I let Connor guide me to a quieter corridor where he unlocked the door. As he did, my gaze slid down his powerful back muscles until I landed on two bulges in his jeans back pockets. One was his phone, and the second was his little leather case. The one that contained his sedative kit.
My breath caught. I wanted that precious release, but no, not tonight.
I had other plans for him that I needed to be wide awake for.
We entered the room, and Connor locked the door behind us while I took in the display ahead. Aside from a big bed, there were two other components. The first was a screen displaying the view of the basement. Arran and Genevieve had gone, and instead at the camera displayed a group of nervous-looking women spilling out of a locker room. Most were barefoot. All were skimpily dressed and entirely beautiful.
The game was about to begin.
The second part of our room was a display of sex toys. Vibrators and dildos, plus a whole lineup of other things I didn’t recognise on a broad counter.
Fresh heat zinged through my body. Connor kissed my throat and ran his hands around me to cup my breasts. He squeezed my nipples, and I gasped.
His low voice filled my ears. “First, I’m going to clamp these. Choose a pair. Then pick a butt plug. I’ll put those into place before I sedate ye. After that, it’s my choice over what I fuck ye with while we watch the women get claimed.”
I moaned, my toes curling at the thought. Except I couldn’t let him sedate me. “Not yet. I want to play first.”
At the table, I drew my finger over the selection of nipple clamps. It was obvious now I knew what they were.
“These vibrate.” Connor moved my finger to a pair. At my faint nod, he collected them then made his suggestion for the other toy. A butt plug which also had a vibrating function.
At a sound from the screen, I twisted back to watch a holding pen full of angry men, all wearing masks, some with black paint across their eyes.
“Why do they do it?” I asked softly.
“Predator-prey is one of the biggest and most underserved kinks. The violence within it has an impact on those willing to bond with someone else over it. It takes trust to let someone else willingly hurt ye.”
“How did it come about?”
Still occupied at the table, Connor replied, “Do ye recall me telling Cassie I knew her brother, Jamieson? He and Arran once had a conversation about sex and kinks. Jamieson wore his preference on his sleeve. He’s da to three or four kids now and happily married to a lass who shares his likes. Arran took notes. He told me he wanted others to be able to bond like that and not fear the extremes, but my guess now is he wanted it for himself, too.”
“Have you ever gone in there?”
“No. My kink is you being unable to run from me.”
Hence the sedation.
He pressed against me from behind. “Also your tits. They make me so hard I might go insane. Your soft belly is another obsession. Touching your skin. Feeling how curvy ye are. Don’t even get me started on your arse.”
A klaxon sounded in the basement, and the camera view changed to a door sliding open. The men were released from their cage. Fury poured off them, and they ran, fighting each other on their violent exit. Fists flew, growls of anger unleashed. Left in the cage was an unconscious individual, blood dripping from his lips to his bare chest.
Already, one had lost the battle.
A scream followed. A group of men pounded down the wide concrete expanse, the bright lights revealing a woman fleeing in the opposite direction, her eyes wide in terror as she peered back at the pursuing pack. Beyond her, metal steps ran up to a suspended walkway, a second camera giving us a view of a scared-excited girl climbing to temporary safety.
Hooked on the sight, I jumped at Connor’s touch.
He circled me, grazing his fingers up my body to capture a breast. He inched in to run his tongue around my nipple. It hardened, and I rolled my shoulders at the sensation.
“Mask off,” Connor said against my skin.
He sucked me, hard, then glided one of the clamps over my pebbled nipple. Removing the bandanna, I squirmed, my pulse speeding when he tightened the clamp. He performed the same act on my other breast and pulled back to admire his handiwork.
My breasts tingled, the weight and tightness of the toys both strange and hot as hell. I touched myself. “Can you turn on the vibration?”
He bit back a smile. “Impatient little thing. Touch the end.”
Exploring the devices, I found a tiny hidden button then pushed it. Instantly, a low buzz thrilled my nipples.
“God,” I released.
“Any god would be gentle with ye. I won’t.” Connor took up a bottle of lube then reached both arms around me while burying his face in my breasts.
He nuzzled. Flicked his tongue over one clamped bud. Tipped lube down my ass and at the same moment, used a fingertip to get me slick. Over his head, the action on the screen caught my hazy focus once more.
A woman was pinned to a wall, two men battling each other to claim her. They each held one of her arms, her dress ripped to reveal her toned body. She struggled against them, her fall of jet-black beaded braids hiding her features.
I gasped at one of the men who smacked down the other and got between her legs. He tore away her underwear then freed his dick, the camera at the perfect angle to see straight down their bodies. To capture the moment he fucked into her.
Ecstasy broke over her features.
Connor’s finger was replaced by a solid object entering my ass. I gave a low moan of pleasure at the stretch. He’d already turned on the vibrating part of it, and along with my nipples, a wealth of sensory pleasure delighted me.
“Going to sedate ye now. Don’t worry, ye won’t miss the show,” he promised.
“Wait.”
Just like the men were fighting down in the basement, I needed to rally to control my thoughts. “I need to ask something. How can you be sure the sedatives are safe for me?”
“I’d never put ye in danger.”
My whole body trembled. “Did you test it on yourself? This particular one, I mean.”
Connor sat back on his haunches. His sedative kit was open on the table, the needle ready to go. “Aye, I did. Why do ye ask?”
Inside, my body tightened, an orgasm threatening.
It was now or never. I had one chance.
“Take your jeans off,” I asked softly.
For a beat, he held my gaze, then stood and lowered his zip, half turning to balance on the bed. His lack of underwear and his ultra-hard dick springing free almost distracted me, but I needed to do this. I lurched for the sedative case, uncapped the syringe, then perfected my betrayal.
Grabbing his hip, I stabbed him in the butt and pressed the plunger.
Connor wheeled around and snatched the needle free. His gaze sought mine, the revealed emotion unexpected. Fear, panic, and horror dwelled there.
“It’s okay.” I reached for him, guiding him to the bed. “Just like you’ve needed to do this to me, I have to do it to make you listen. I tried to speak to you, and you shut me down. I’ve tried to explain myself, and you won’t hear me out. This is my only option.”
“Everly.” His single word was half mumble and half desperate plea.
But I couldn’t undo what I’d done.
Connor Michaels was getting a taste of his own medicine, and I’d make this as good for him as he always did for me.