Heat (23 page)

“Come on, I’ll show you.”

Anya took her through the members-only side to a special set of elevators. If she hadn’t known where to look, she would have assumed the doors were just part of the wall. They opened up and Axe peered out.

“Going down, ladies?” He winked at them.

“You wish,” Anya said. “I’ll see you later, Mallory. Have fun.”

“Oh Anya,” Axe said. “I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave.”

Anya put a waggle in her step that Axe wolf whistled at. “Hello, dear,” he said to Mallory once the doors closed. “This is your first time, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Mallory said. “I’m here to see Max.”

“Bloody artist he is. You enjoy yourself now.” He held the doors open for her and she stumbled into a cavernous room. At the far end was a stage with chairs set up. There were black
drape partitions separating different scenes.

“Would you care for something to drink?” a hostess asked. She was wearing nothing but heels, a black thong, and a white bow tie.

“Jack and Coke,” Mallory said, trying to sound casual.

The woman nodded and sauntered off. Not knowing whether to stay in one spot until she got back, Mallory shifted nervously until the noises from behind the first curtain proved too much for her curiosity. She peered around the curtain to see a group of six men and women, dressed in leather chaps and chains, standing in front of a huge rope spider web. One woman was anchored in the center, spread-eagle. Her body was supported by thick, white ropes around her ankles and wrists and then with a crisscross pattern across her body. The rope lifted her breasts and presented them to the crowd.

“Max paints pictures with that rope,” one man raved.

Mallory faded back out of the room as the group surged closer to fondle the woman in her web. The woman’s harsh cries of passion followed Mallory. Tugging on her blouse, Mallory felt like she was wearing too many clothes. She was still in the suit she’d worn to the funeral. Kicking off her shoes, she accepted her drink from her hostess.

“Is there a place I can change?”

“Do you require privacy or would you like to be viewed while you change?”

“Privacy please,” Mallory said quickly. Couture was lowering her inhibitions, but she wasn’t
that
comfortable yet. She stashed her suit and heels in a locker and took a Couture T-shirt and a pair of stretch shorts off the freshly laundered rack.

The crowd was thicker when she got out of the dressing room. She followed the sea of humans to the next draped exhibit. This time a couple was tied to a pulley system. Their hands and legs were bound and they hung so they were almost, but not quite, touching. Mallory recognized two of the Doms who were with Angie in the first scene she’d stumbled across. They were adjusting the height and sway so in one moment the woman was on top, inches from the man’s mouth; the next, their positions were reversed. The ropes around the man accentuated his hard cock, while the woman’s circled around her breasts and pussy. Their expressions were frustrated and joyful at the same time. Mallory staggered back into the center of the dungeon. Max’s hot words about what he was going to do to her rang in her ears and pounded in time to the excited beat of her heart.

She passed by kneeling men and women, naked except for a single silver chain around their necks. Their eyes were downcast, but Mallory still felt their gaze. Where was Max? This place was like a dark carnival of sexuality that both frightened and titillated her.

The next black drape she peered around had one of Istvahn’s men standing guard. “This is a private scene,” he said.

“Is Max in there?”

“I don’t think so,” the guard said.

“Do you know where he is?”

“He’s mingling around here somewhere.”

“Thank you,” she said, feeling self-conscious when a buzz of electricity and a scream cut short behind the dark folds of the curtains. She was breathing hard now, not sure if it was the result of adrenaline, desire, fear, or an odd combination of all three.

The next black drape led to a corridor, but it was unguarded, so she followed it down to a showroom where men and women clothed in white rope dresses and harnesses were displayed as statues on a stone base. The artwork of the knotted rope was fascinating. Max had an eye for playing up a body type’s strengths so all you saw was beauty. If he could do this with cloth, nothing would stop his clothing line. In addition to all the other emotions, she felt pride for what he’d accomplished.

“Would you like to play with one of the dolls?” a man in a rope harness asked her.

“I’m just looking,” she said. “I’m actually looking for Max.”

“Get in line,” he said. “He’s very popular tonight.”

“I see.” Mallory put a hand to her throat and went to see what was behind the final curtain.

It was a carnival of rope. There was a tightrope stretched across the rafters fifteen feet in the air. One man was attempting to cross. A net of rope stretched tightly underneath, to catch anyone who fell. Two women were kicking and giggling, trying to free themselves from it. On the other side of the room was a rope trapeze with two men swinging from their knees, trying to catch passersby. Dodging away from their hands, she stopped dead at the carousel. Men and women were tied up as horses and other four-legged beasts of burden. They were muzzled and connected to a giant spinning disk. People would approach the carousel, climb aboard one of the human ponies, and ride it around for a short time as the disk spun beneath them.

“This is incredible,” Mallory said.

“Glad you like it.” Max was beside her. He must have come up as she was gawking at his creations.

Dark shadows hovered in his dispassionate eyes.

“Like it? It’s magnificent. Everyone is talking about it. You’re a great talent.”

“What are you doing here, Mallory?” he asked.

“I was looking for you.”

“Why?”

Mallory cocked her head at him. “What do you mean ‘why’? I wanted to see if you were all right. Did your family make it to the airport without any further incidents?”

“I’m fine. They’re probably home by now.” Max looked away. “I have a few scenes to tweak. Can we talk tomorrow?”

“Sure,” she said and hugged him.

For a moment he stiffened and she thought he was going to push her away. But when she just hugged him tighter, he began to melt, and soon he was gripping her as tightly as she was him. Standing on her tiptoes, she whispered in his ear. “When will it be my turn with the rope?”

“Soon,” he vowed, and claimed her lips with a brief but thrilling kiss.

“How about now?” she found herself asking him as he turned to walk away.

He checked the movement and turned back to her, the look in his eyes churning that soup of emotions to the surface. A length of rope appeared in his hand and he took her right hand in his. “I’m in a strange mood.”

“It’s been a strange day.”

He tied the first knot around her wrist. It was snug, but it didn’t hurt. He wrapped the rope five more times and through his deft hand motions, she had a lattice-like pattern securing her forearm. The end of the rope was in his hand.

“Come with me,” he said, pulling on it.

She followed him, like a dog on a leash—which she probably resembled. But no one looked twice at them. “Where are we going?”

“Wherever I want,” he said with that edge in his voice that made her knees tremble.

He rattled a key chain until he found the key he was looking for, and unlocked a door that was embedded in the wall.

“I don’t think I’ll ever find all the hidden doors in this place,” Mallory said in an attempt to joke a little normalcy into the atmosphere.

Max led her to the center of a small room and then locked the door. He pulled on a string and a soft red light filled the room. The shadows chased hard edges down his jaw so he looked like a satyr or a devil coming to torment her. They were in a bedroom with a four-poster bed and canopy and a tray of toys on the bedside table.

“It might not be a good time for this,” he said. “I’ve got some emotions I haven’t sorted through.”

“I trust you,” she said.

“Do you?” He went over to the night table and came out with a long bundle of silk rope. He tossed it at her feet. “How much?”

“I’m ready for this.”

“I will stop if you ask me to,” Max said. “But no games. One ‘no,’ and I shut this scene down and you go to bed alone while I stay down here and stew in my own brooding.”

“And if I don’t say no?”

“I’m going to cut your clothes off you. Tie you up so you are a work of art. Then I’m going to fuck you in every possible way imaginable.”

And just like that, lust overrode all the other emotions. She wanted him. She wanted this. “I can imagine quite a lot.”

He picked up an object from the table. It was a hunting knife. Her knees went to jelly when he approached her.

I trust him
.

He cut through the collar of her T-shirt and then ripped the cotton off her in long, deliberate strips. Coming closer, he traced the outline of her breasts with his fingers. Max lingered over the tight buds pointing through the silky garment of her bra. Mallory’s mouth opened in a sigh of longing that turned into a gasp when he bunched up her bra and in one swift movement cut it off her. Tucking the knife in his belt, he picked up the rope and wrapped it three times under her breasts. Mallory sucked in her breath, but it didn’t hurt. She felt snug, and the rope felt more like a corset as it forced her to stand up straight and jut her breasts out.

Max stared at her with such intensity, she bit her lip in nervousness. His eyes tracked the movement. He covered her breast with his hand, his hold possessive and sure. Her lips parted on a sigh and he kissed her. The brush of his mouth was so familiar in this alien environment that she sagged against him in relief.

“So pretty,” he murmured against her lips as his fingers toyed with her nipple.

He circled around her, crossing the rope between her breasts so Jayne Mansfield would be proud.

“If this wasn’t your first time, I’d collar your neck, too. But I think that would be too much.”

Mallory swallowed hard.

“How do you feel about heights?”

She whipped her head up to find his eyes were smiling at her.

“Whatever you desire,” Mallory purred, and she rejoiced in the white-hot flash of desire that surged through her when his eyes filled with promise.

“I like that,” he said, putting his hands on her hips. He pulled her shorts and panties down in one quick movement and then helped her step out of them.

“No one will come in?” she asked.

Max shook his head. “I know you’re not into that.”

“Are you?”

“I like to be the one watching. You know that.” He trailed his fingers down over her belly. “Spread your legs.”

She did, but he only tied the other wrist so it looked like the first. Then he pulled her
arms behind her back. Her mind flashed on Angie from the first time she saw a scene at Couture. Then it flashed on David, pinning her against the wall. Mallory couldn’t help a slight struggle. Max stopped immediately.

“The word you’re looking for is ‘no,’ ” he said.

“Don’t stop,” she whispered. She trusted Max. He would not harm her and if she just let go, he would bring her to a level of rapture she had been thinking about since he laid her across his lap and spanked her. “I want this.”

“Be sure, Mallory,” he said. “Because this is a part of me as much as my martial arts and my designing.”

“I know.”

He tugged on her arms and she stumbled back. “Hmmm, that’s not going to do.” He untied them and she rested her arms back at her sides. “But I reserve the right to change my mind.”

“You’re the Master.”

“Yes, I am.”

He pulled her arms over her head and attached them to a ring that was hanging from the ceiling. Turning a pulley, she was lifted to her toes.

“Now then.” He slapped a firm hand on her backside. Wetness flooded between her thighs even as she gave a startled cry.

“I have a few issues with you that I’m going to work out.” He smacked her again, holding his hand on her butt cheek a moment longer after whacking it. “That was for not telling me about the X tablet until later.”

“I told you my reasons,” she said.

He spanked her again. “Doesn’t mean I like them. I understand, but I didn’t like being in the dark.” Max threaded the rope through her legs, framing the V at the juncture of her thighs. Just as her cheeks were cooling off, he laid his palm hard against the curve of her backside. Her breasts jiggled with the impact.

“Ow, what was that for?”

“That was for not pressing charges against David.”

“I want nothing more to do with him. Not even a court case.”

Max soothed the spot with his hand, then bent down to kiss it. Kissed around her hip to her front. He spread her legs apart and used his thumbs to open her intimately for his perusal. His tongue touched her clit and she pulled at the rings, stretching herself to meet the caress. Mallory was trembling; her nerve endings were on fire. He put a steadying hand on her back and swatted her again as his tongue was dancing inside her.

“Yes,” she encouraged.

His hand hit harder and harder still, but his tongue was a gentle frenzy against her swollen bud. Butterflies tickled her stomach and a keening desire to have him take her as roughly as he did the other morning in the shower surged through her.

“I’m coming,” she said, as the blow against her backside flared into a stinging pain and then soothed into pleasure. Mallory writhed against his tongue, each lick driving her on and on in a moaning ecstasy until she was afraid she would pull her arms out of their sockets. He curved two fingers inside her and she shook as if electrocuted on the wire. The intensity of the orgasm shaking through her rendered her mute.

The room was silent save for her sobbing breaths as she fought for control. He untied the ropes from the rings and, weightless, they dropped to her sides.

Connecting the rope that girdled around her hips to the corseting top, Max reinforced it. He tugged at the connection by her belly button. “I could hang you from the ceiling like a suspended sleeping beauty. I will one day. But not tonight.”