Chapter 45
Forty-Five
“ W here are we?” I looked out of the tinted car window and up at the building that was the picture of Georgian architecture.
“My place.” Kal had been unnervingly quiet since I’d gotten into the car.
He’d asked my preference on music, passed me a glass of champagne and then left me to my thoughts.
I was both grateful and frustrated by that.
I’d expected flirtation and teasing…distraction.
His silence left Alfie the freedom to wreak havoc in my mind. “That a problem?”
“No…I just thought you’d be taking me to a sex club or something.”
“Not quite.” He smiled at me, a naughty, easy smile. His blond hair was dishevelled, as if lusting hands had ravaged it earlier tonight. Buttons were missing from his shirt, revealing a generous amount of his chest. There was no way around it, the man was mouthwatering.
The chauffeur opened his door and Kal climbed out. I followed him up the steps to his front door which was promptly opened for him by a butler who quickly made himself scarce once we were inside.
I gasped as I took in my surroundings. Countless candles lit a pathway into the house, a house which was both modern yet evoked an era long since lost.
I realised quickly there were no lights switched on, the house was lit entirely by candle light. A decadent scent hit me and I sniffed the air. “Lily of the Valley?”
“You have a good nose.” He sounded impressed. “It’s the candles. I designed the scent myself.”
“Why?”
“I like coming home to it.” He stood in front of me, hands stuffed in his pockets, an unlit chandelier overhead. “You think it’s too much?”
“I think you’re a sensitive soul.”
“Yeah,” he chuckled, “I’m all heart.” He studied me as if deciding what to do with me. “Are you tired, Lola?”
I paused, taking stock of myself. The pain was there, a hibernating bear in the deep pit of my gut, threatening to come roaring awake any moment. “I think I must be but I’m strangely awake.”
“Are you nervous?”
“Yes.” The answer came without hesitation. Kal made me nervous. Being with another man made me very nervous. But Alfie was the one who had taken everything I offered and wasted it. He had no claim over me now and I owed him nothing.
“Are you scared?”
I took a breath, soothing my racing heart. “Yes. A little.”
He took a step closer, his chest inches from my own. “Why did you come with me?”
“I needed a ride and I didn’t have anywhere else to go.” Alfie had poisoned all other areas of my life. At least here, I was pretty certain Alfie wouldn’t have any cameras hidden anywhere. I almost burst out laughing at how ludicrous it was that I even had to think like that.
Kal laughed. “You really know how to flatter a man, Lola.” He turned and headed for the stairs. I followed, taking his unspoken invitation. He shrugged out of his jacket, tossing it over the banister on his way, the motion so un-Alfie it was staggering.
Upstairs, he paused at the top of the stairway and opened a panel in the wall. He quickly keyed in a code and the wall slid open revealing a lift.
“Holy crap.”
He arched a brow at me as I followed him inside. “You haven’t gotten used to this yet?”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to it.” I watched as he keyed in another code and the door closed. We sped upwards, a short journey before coming to a stop.
We stepped out into a small office that looked like it had come straight out of the 1920’s.
He took a seat at a large oak desk. I dumped my bag on the floor and shrugged out of my coat, draping it over the back of the other chair.
He rifled through a drawer, pulled out a document and pushed it across the desk to me.
A Non Disclosure Agreement.
“It means?—”
“I know what it means,” I cut him off. Elliot had once offered me the choice of signing one along with a fat cheque as ‘compensation’ for my time with Alfie.
“Of course, Alfie must have had you sign a dozen of those by now.”
“Not one.” He’d never asked. No matter how much damaging information he gave to me, he never once asked me to sign one of these. That didn’t mean anything. That didn’t change what he’d done. I took the pen and signed it without hesitation.
“Good.” He stood and crossed to a large cabinet behind him. He flipped open another panel on the doors and keyed in yet another code. The panel lit up green and he opened the doors with a flourish. My eyes bugged out of my head as I took in the contents.
The cabinet was home to what I was sure was a very illegal pharmaceutical collection. An array of tiny glass cases, each containing different items that did who knew what. He selected four boxes and placed each in front of me. “You've got to tell me what you need.”
I looked down at the boxes, one contained a blue and white capsule, the next white powder. The third contained what looked like shrooms and finally a pink pill.
He pointed at each of them in turn. “Sleep, party, trip, fuck.” He looked at me. “What do you need, baby?”
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped without meaning to but he had a knowing look in his eye that had me wondering if he’d used that name on purpose.
I looked down at my options.
I could sleep and wake up with my problems still firmly in place. That's not what I wanted, what I wanted was escape.
Trip and party? Both of those put me firmly out of control.
That left only one option. A dangerous option.
Kal was Alfie’s friend but right here, at this moment, I didn’t care. I felt too numb to care. The pain was there, waiting, but it wasn’t here yet and I wanted to keep it at bay for as long as possible. Kal could help me do that. Besides, I owed Alfie Tell nothing.
Fuck him and fuck his cameras.
I pointed at the final one. Fuck.
Kal’s eyes didn’t even flicker, he just held my gaze with his own, studying me. “Are you sure?” He asked and I nodded.
‘Liar.’
Alfie’s voice, once again poisoning my ear. Even imaginary Alfie knew when I was telling a lie.
A predatory look in his eye, Kal rounded the desk. My breath hitched as he came to stand in front of me, not slowing his pace. He walked me backwards, pressing me up against the door.
“Shouldn’t I take the pill?” I whispered.
“It’s for later.” He reached around me, he opened it and my jaw dropped as I stepped inside.
“What the fuck…”
The room was circular, with a table akin to a sacrificial altar in the middle. Candles lit up the edges of the room in one complete circle. The ceiling was a tinted glass dome, the rain hitting the glass sent falling shadows around the room.
The atmosphere was electric, almost suffocating. Huge mirrors were placed at intervals around the room, broken up by large built-in cabinets, the contents of which were hidden.
“Two way mirrors, for the audience.” Audience? The word had me spinning to face him in alarm. “Don’t worry, we’re alone.”
I eyed him, wondering if he was telling the truth but something in his air told me he wasn’t lying.
I stepped into the room, exploring it. I moved to one of the cabinets and opened it.
Inside was more rope than I’d ever seen, in an array of sizes and colours, beautifully twisted and hung on hooks.
A variety of cutting knives were attached to the door.
I swallowed, realising what this room was for.
“You put on shows here, like you did at the club?”
“Yes, that’s right.” He nodded, watching me closely as if I were a spooked horse prone to bolting. “Very exclusive shows, of course.”
“You want to do that with me?”
There was a dark glint in his eye. “Some people are made to be bound, I think you might be one of them.”
My chest fluttered, the shrapnel throbbing harder, warning me that I was doing wrong but I ignored it.
“Pick your safe word, Lola.”
Alfie.
I clenched my fists, hating that despite everything, some part of me still believed Alfie was my safety.
“I don’t?—”
“First time?” he asked and I nodded. “I’ll make it easy.
While I bind you, I’m going to ask for your colour.
If you’re enjoying it, you say ‘green’. If your limits are being pushed, say ‘orange’.
If you want it to stop for any reason, at any time, you say ‘red’. Clear?” I nodded again. “Words, Lola.”
“Clear. If I want to stop, I say ‘red’. You’ll definitely stop?”
“If you have to ask me then you shouldn’t be doing this.”
“I want to.” I didn’t. I just wanted Alfie out of my system. Kal scrutinised me briefly before finally stepping back. He circled around me slowly, looking me over. His eyes dissected all of my parts. He was deciding how he was going to tie me.
Tie me.
I was about to let this man I barely knew tie me up. My palms were sweating, my skin felt thick somehow, but at least I wasn’t thinking about what Alfie had done. Kal had chased away the crawling on my skin, the screams in my throat.
Kal took my sweater and lifted it enough to see the vest top I wore underneath. He lifted it over my head. I shivered, trying to ignore the sick feeling in my stomach.
This wasn’t right, this wasn’t me…but I didn’t care.
“Don’t worry,” he pinched my chin, “I’ll take it slow. You’ll stay dressed for now.”
He walked me backwards then lifted me onto the table that looked more like a sacrificial altar. “Up on your knees.”
I did as he asked, my body trembling. He held out his hands and I filled them with my own. He examined my wrists, pressing his thumbs on the delicate insides until I let out a small gasp, only then did he let up.
He moved to the vast array of ropes, selected two different kinds and cut off a length of each.
He returned to me, holding up the thicker one and placing the thinner length next to me.
“This is soft hemp, it’s easier on skin that’s sensitive like yours.
” He crouched, threading the rope through some unseen fixture under the table that I hadn’t known was there.
He rose and began winding the rope around my wrists in a complicated series of motions I couldn’t begin to keep up with.
“How did you know my skin was sensitive?”