Caught by Menace (28 page)

“Why?”

He kissed her shoulder. “Because I want to.”

She frowned. “So that’s the way it’s going to be

tonight?”

He skimmed his lips across the sensitive patch of skin

just below her earlobe. “Tonight is al about your

pleasure. The moment we walk out of the bathroom you

are going to give up complete control to me. You’re

going to trust me to take care of you.”

Could she do that? Naya watched him slide his soft

lips along her shoulder. His big hands spanned her bare

bely as he gently stroked her skin. The answer came

swiftly.
Yes.

Stomach wobbling and mouth dry, she whispered, “I

trust you to take care of me.”

Menace’s gaze snapped to the mirror. They stared at

each other for a long moment before he straightened to

his ful height. Even in the high heels, she was dwarfed by

him. When his fingers moved to the buckle on the white

bride’s colar, Naya experienced a tremor of uncertainty.

Had she said the wrong thing? Why was he taking his

colar off her?

“Easy,” Menace urged as he removed the colar he’d

used to claim her. He placed the white colar on the

counter. “We’l put this in a keepsake box for you.”

Naya touched her bare neck, the sensation strange

after a month of wearing his colar. She’d gotten so used

to its familiar embrace. She felt more naked without it

than she did in the skimpy leather outfit.

He reached into the pocket of his leather pants and

retrieved a bright-blue colar with a simple silver tag

dangling from the front. “It’s customary for a husband to

gift his wife with a permanent colar. I was going to give

you this one later tonight, but I think now is the right time.

Don’t you?”

His husky voice left her nearly breathless. To these

His husky voice left her nearly breathless. To these

Harcos men, a permanent colar was as good as a

wedding band. They put a lot of thought into picking the

right one. Instead of the customary black, Menace had

chosen her favorite color. The tag dangling from the front

bore the initials of both of their first names. His initial was

larger and in upper case while hers was smaler and in

lower case, denoting who was the master in their

relationship.

And he
was
her master. She’d balked at the very idea

of ever alowing a man any dominance over her…until

Menace. He hadn’t forced her submission through pain

or fear. He’d won her trust with kindness and pleasure

and by proving that he would take care of and protect

her.

When he finished fastening the colar in place, Naya

fingered the stiff blue leather and toyed with the silver tag.

Menace slid one arm around her waist and cupped her

face, turning her into his seeking kiss. Their lips met,

chastely and sweetly at first, sealing the moment that she

had freely given her trust to him. His kiss grew more

insistent and demanding but he didn’t take it any further.

He seemed to share her desire to draw the night out and

enjoy the anticipation.

enjoy the anticipation.

“I checked the chart,” Menace said as he caressed her

face. “We’re stil safe tonight.”

She smiled and nodded. He had become almost

obsessed with recording her morning fertility signs on the

chart he had helped her create on their household tablet.

Their application for contraception stil hadn’t been

processed but he was keeping his word on letting her

choose when or if they began a family. Their first month

relying on her chart and a version of abstinence during

the risky period had worked beautifuly. Menace hadn’t

been wiling to go without any kind of intimacy, so he had

made sure to show her various creative ways to use their

mouths and hands on each other.

He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Ready?”

“As I’l ever be,” she admitted.

Menace took her hand and led her out of the

bathroom. In the bedroom, he paused long enough to put

a pair of bright-blue cuffs on her wrists. The new cuffs

were stamped with his name and had a soft white lining.

Each one had a connection ring dangling from the

underside so they could be hooked together with a chain

or tethered separately. He hooked the cuffs to rings on

or tethered separately. He hooked the cuffs to rings on

either side of the wide leather belt around her hips.

Naya fought the surge of panic that gripped her. With

her arms cuffed at her sides, she would be unable to

defend herself. It was only Menace’s reassuring body

heat and the scent she had come to love so much that

broke through her haze of panic. She trusted him to

protect her. He would never alow anyone to harm her.

Tipping her chin, Menace asked, “What was that

thought? You looked ready to bolt.”

“I realized I wouldn’t be able to lift my hands to

protect myself.”

“But?”

“But then I remembered that you promised to take

care of me.”

The grin curving his sexy mouth told her just how

much her response pleased him. “I won’t let anything

happen to you tonight. If I somehow misread you, use

your safeword.”

“I wil.”

Menace placed his hand on the smal of her back and

gently pressed her forward. “We won’t be spending

much time on the main floor of the club. I’ve reserved a

private room for us. Main floor protocol is much different

private room for us. Main floor protocol is much different

than anything we’ve done together.”

“How so?” Anxiety fluttered in her core.

“You are not alowed to wander without me. If you’re

caught without your master, a monitor wil put you in the

stocks and let any man who walks by take a swat at you

with a paddle to teach you a lesson.”

Naya gasped and stepped even closer to Menace.

“You mean some other man could hit me?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t be letting you out of my sight.”

He rubbed her lower back before picking up an ankle-

length gray jacket from the table in the entryway. He

placed it around her shoulders and zipped the front.

“We’l take this off after we check in at the club.”

She glanced down at the hideous coat. It was ugly as

hel but it would keep her modest on the trek to the club.

“Thank you.”

Menace gestured to the front door. She waited for him

to open it and stepped into the halway. While he locked

the door, he gave more instructions. “Also remember not

to address anyone, not even another wife, without first

getting my permission. You wil address other men as Sir.

Understood?”

Understood?”

“Yes. What about you?”

He tapped the elevator button. “What do you cal

me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Master, my liege, light of my life

—”

“Yeah, I got it.” Naya roled her eyes but couldn’t

squash the smile his playfulness inspired. They stepped

into the waiting elevator and he punched in the access

code for the private floor that housed the officers’ club.

“Anything else I should know?”

“I want you to stay open to possibilities tonight. Watch

other couples. See if anything interests you. We haven’t

realy discussed hard limits yet. There may be things you

see tonight that you are absolutely never wiling to try and

that’s al right. There may also be things that excite and

arouse you.” Menace used his body to box her into the

corner and let his lips dance along her neck. “I want you

to tel me about those things.”

The elevator ride ended much too quickly. Before she

knew it, Menace had checked them in, taken away her

jacket and led her into the darkened interior of the club.

It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the dimly lit

It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the dimly lit

space. Throbbing, thumping music blanketed the air. The

huge open floor-plan hosted a bar with multiple seating

areas.

Her first clue that she wasn’t in a real bar was the sight

of a bare-naked woman down on al fours and serving as

a table for the two men kicked back in chairs near her.

Two red cups rested on her flat back. How the woman

managed to maintain her untenable position perplexed

Naya. Judging by the red stripes on her ass and the pool

of liquid next to her hand, she hadn’t been successful.

Menace grabbed her lower arm, just above the cuff,

and gave her a tug. She matched his pace as he took her

deeper into the club. She got her first look at the public

stations. Some of the equipment she’d seen or used in

Menace’s playroom. The spanking horse, for instance, or

the restraint table, but that big scary X in the far corner

made her bely flip-flop. The woman tied to it shrieked as

her man lashed her back with a whip. People crowded

around to watch him whipping her as if she were a

broken-down mule.

Naya’s feet faltered. What the hel kind of place was

this?

this?

“Look at me.”

Menace’s deep, strong voice cut through her panic.

“It’s consensual, Naya. She wants it. She wants to be

whipped by her Master.”

“How can you possibly know that?”

“The monitor,” he said and pointed out the hulking

man standing near the station. “Any man with a bright-

orange armband is a monitor. They know when it’s time

to step in and stop something. The safeword for the

entire club is red, but every master registers his woman’s

safeword when we check in here. The same ID chips

that keep track of you around the ship keep track of you

here. See those watch-like devices they wear? Each one

has a screen that informs them of the safewords of the

couples closest to them.”

Naya’s gaze drifted from the monitor to the woman on

the cross. She rose up on her toes in anticipation of every

snapping bite of the whip. The muscles in her back and

legs weren’t tense with fear. For a woman getting the

snot lashed out of her, she looked relaxed.

It struck Naya that this woman probably had reasons

for enjoying the pain of her husband’s whip. Naya

relished the feel of Menace pinning her in place or cuffing

relished the feel of Menace pinning her in place or cuffing

her so that she was totaly submissive and at his mercy

because it was a taste of the danger she’d managed to

evade while living on the streets. Surrendering control to

Menace, letting him take her, gave her a rush that she

couldn’t eloquently explain. It was primal and real.

“Come.” Menace squeezed her arm and propeled her

forward. “I see some familiar faces.”

She wasn’t so sure she wanted to run into any familiar

faces dressed like this. Keeping close to his side, Naya

alowed her gaze to roam the bustling club. The amount

of skin and sex on display left her speechless.

Along one wal, there was some kind of game being

played. Naked women wearing red devices between

their thighs walked down lanes outlined in glowing white

stripes while balancing bals on their hands. She saw one

woman convulse with pleasure and drop her bal. Sweat

slicked the woman’s skin and her moans were high-

pitched. Naya figured the device was some kind of

vibrating toy. To receive her punishment for dropping the

bal, the woman bent over and grabbed her ankles,

presenting her bottom to anyone who wanted to take a

peek. A man stepped forward and gave her one hot

stripe across her backside with a cane.

stripe across her backside with a cane.

Tearing her gaze away from the rigged game, Naya

caught sight of an elevated seating area. It looked like an

exclusive place. She was a bit surprised when Menace

angled them through the crowd toward it. The monitor at

the stairs took one look at Menace and waved him

through. Apparently being high-ranking and wel-liked

had its privileges.

Up in the cozy room cordoned off by gauzy silver

curtains, Naya saw a very familiar and very intimidating

face. Leaning back in a comfortable chair, Vicious talked

with another man. The dark-haired man sported a pilot’s

haircut with four stripes shaved into the right side of his

head.

Her gaze fel to the spot next to Vicious’ chair. Even

with her forehead touching the floor and her naked

bottom in the air, there was no mistaking the petite frame

of Halie’s body. Shock gripped Naya like a vise. She’d