Chapter Seven Sanctum
"A woman knows by intuition, or instinct, what is best for herself."
CW: Light Submission and Sexual content.
If Lennox wasn't holding the promise of freedom over her head, she would have scratched his eyes out for even suggesting she wear his collar.
Submission wasn't her thing-- if she could help it.
It was why she fled her past courtesan life.
Adan couldn't stand the meek, demure and mindful woman they were raised to be.
The thought made her skin crawl. It was why she would rather the possibility of death in the fighting pits than being on her knees.
She curled back her lip in disgust. Not to say that Adan didn't have moments in her life where she had no choice but to bend the knee.
At least she still had a say in whom she brought to her bed--for now.
It could easily be another thing taken from her.
"It is a sex club, love. If you don't wear it, then all those men will have every right to take you from me."
He chuckled again before she could snap at him.
"Unless that's what you're in to." She scowled at him, crossing her arms.
"But without this collar," he shook it for added effect, "I wouldn't be able to stop them. Sanctum has strict rules; un-collared slaves are free game. Besides, no one would believe that I would let my slave walk into my club uncollared."
his gaze darkened. "I'm far too possessive of what is mine."
She narrowed her eyes at him, and then the collar.
Snatching it up before she thought better.
She would do this if it meant her freedom.
Even the possibility of it. She would do this to safe her skin from unwanted advances.
Not that Lennox's were--would be. Adan swallowed hard while glaring at the gold ring in her hands.
Lennox watched the whole thing with keen interest, his green eyes almost glowing in the dark carriage.
She had no choice but to trust Lennox, that he would hold up his end of the deal.
She clasped the gold collar around her neck. The metal cold against her skin.
"Anything else you would like from me, my lord?" She spat out his moniker with slow, seething venom. It had little effect on him, it only made him smile broader. His perfect teeth gleaming in the moonlight. His eyes dipped to her mouth for a moment, and then to her neck.
"Not presently, love." His eyes simmered.
She narrowed hers, "Just because I agreed to our deal doesn't mean we're suddenly friends."
she folded her arms over her chest again.
If only to stop herself from fiddling with the collar.
She pushed down thoughts of her days in the pits.
Her mental walls solid, while her whole body wanted to revolt.
"I don't want any more friends." He said flatly.
"I hope you're ready for this because we're here."
Adan moved to touch the handle when Lennox's hand shot out, wrapping around her wrist, dwarfing it in his grasp.
"You need a safe word, and since you will not be allowed to speak unless spoken to, you will need a sign."
Adan tried to rip her arm free, but Lennox held on tighter and leaned in.
His nose grazed her neck and hot breath fanned her ear. "Might I suggest nibbling on my ear?"
Adan almost didn't hear him over the pounding of blood in her ears--and it wasn't from her usual emotion of rage.
Her entire body hummed at Lennox's proximity.
It lasted all of a second before she lunged, intending to take a real bite out of his ear.
He managed to predict her little act of rebellion, and dodged her snapping teeth.
He tsked, all the while chuckling at her.
Lennox released her arm, and Adan keenly aware of its absence.
"Careful, love. I bite back." He flashed those straight teeth in a vulpine smile.
Lennox knocked on the roof again and the door opened.
The sound of people and music filled the world.
Drowning out the pounding of Adan's heart.
Lennox stepped out first, turning sideways to allow his broad shoulders room.
He stuck his hand back in the carriage for Adan.
She took a breath and slipped her hand in his.
His large fingers curled around her hand and she felt the tell-tale signs of calluses from sword play.
She had yet to see him use any of his power, and only a brief glance at his wings.
Adan was taught that unsheathing wings was something private--intimate.
Or in dire circumstances and--obviously--flying.
Though, not everyone in Lymia thought the same.
He turned quickly, stopping her, stepping in close and caging her against the carriage with his massive arms.
Some couples walking by stared, and Adan fought the urge to knee Lennox in the groin.
Her acting skills would have to start now, or the consequence could be severe.
His one hand brushed aside the flap of her jacket and reached between her legs.
Her head when blank and every muscle in her body seized up.
He didn't break her stare as his fingertips trailed up her thigh.
Adan breathed again when those deft fingers unclasped the sheath of leather, and he pulled it free, dagger and all.
"You won't be needing this." He tossed her only weapon into the carriage.
"Afraid I might accidentally stab you?" Adan raised a brow as he turned back to face her.
He gave her a wicked grin, "Accidentally? No." He placed a hand on her lower back and steered her towards the towering black double doors of Sanctum. The warmth of his hand bloomed boiling hot through the satin of her corset. The boning digging into her ribs, making her breaths short and quiet.
There was a line, gated by a red velvet rope, filled with different sorts, not just members of Shadow House.
Of course, Lennox didn't go towards the queue.
He walked right up to one of the guards.
The tall, balky brute nodded, unlinking the rope, and allowed the two to pass.
Lennox guided her ahead, whispering something to the guards, before quickly returning to her side, his hand returning her back.
"You do not leave my side." He dipped his head to whisper in her ear while two more guards opened the double doors simultaneously.
The sounds of trumpets and brass and base boomed as they held those heavy doors open for Adan and Lennox.
It was an onslaught of sensory overload that Adan was not used to. It was one thing to go to a club and dance and drink with several strangers, but this was an entirely different beast.
The attire for one.
Adan realized that Lennox had let her off easy.
Most women in her vicinity were practically naked.
One woman had on a tight latex skirt that cinched her knees together, but her lap and backside were completely bare.
Leaving nothing to the imagination. Not to mention, her corset didn't cover her breasts at all, it just cinched in her waist.
Lennox moved his hand from her back and swept her hair away to gently curl his fingers around her neck, just above her collar.
His fingers brushing her nape as he turned her and began to help her out of her coat.
She was in such shock of the debauchery in the room that she didn't even fight him on it.
Another woman was on her knees and face first in a man's lap.
He was sitting playing cards, and she was tied to his chair.
She suspected that she would probably spend the remainder of the night strapped to him.
"You own a place like this, and yet you offer me my freedom?"
She hissed quietly to Lennox as he steered her away from the cloakroom, his hand back on her neck, his thumb brushing against her pulse.
He squeezed her neck gently in warning to keep her voice down.
Adan couldn't help but notice the smiling coat attendant that couldn't look away from Lennox and was currently ignoring the couple behind them in line.
"I own the building, the men who come here pay an annual fee. Who they chose to bring with them is their business. I don't own any whores, just the slaves that work the tables and the wait staff."
He whispered into her ear, he was pressed right up against her side, and she realized how little skin she had on display compared to the other women.
Another woman crawled on her knees, completely naked with the exceptions of the hood of her head.
She could do nothing but hope that her master was leading her properly.
Glancing at his drunken state as he bumped into a nearby poker table suggested, not.
"And that makes this okay?" She seethed.
Just because he owned the building and some people inside it somehow meant he wasn't complicit?
His moral compass was practically none-existent.
The whole system is built to protect males like Lennox Hollow, and it turned Adan's stomach.
It helped remind her that he was the enemy.
"Don't be naive. These men will just go somewhere else if I didn't supply the local. The money that I make from this location alone is enough reason to stay in business." He smiled and nodded at a patron that walked by, but neither exchanged words.
Not only is he a slave owner, but also a capitalist, who believes what he is doing is right. Adan wanted to puke all over his alligator loafers. He was everything that she hated about her world. The pompous twat was a self-centered, egomaniacal, mogul, with a title to match.
Lennox stopped abruptly in front of a table, dragging Adan back with him. A game of dice already being played with three smartly dressed males in attendance.
"Nox!" A silver-haired young man stood and sauntered around the table to clap Lennox on the shoulder.
"Duke. Lovely to see you." Lennox's words were like silk, the voice of a lord.
But Adan could see those calculating green eyes assessing the Duke, the way his jaw clenched.
She had seen the silver-haired male in the castle throne room many times.
She knew he was a Succubus, making him a member of Shadow House.
Succubi are known to have beguiling mental power.
It was why so many of them made good whores, but not this male—this Duke.
Who was obviously born in the right family, his arrogance was suffocating.
Adan could swear she could see his silver spoon sticking out of his breeches.
He had that pretty boy look to him, his blue eyes swept over the room before he leaned in to whisper something in Lennox's ear.