Killing Time: The Bonus Collection (15 page)

“Nothing about Severin is neatly put into a box to understand, Aurélie. Hell, he is my identical twin and I don’t even completely get him all the time. I think he is suffering from burnout to be honest. He’s done some of the most depraved and extreme acts the lifestyle has had to offer but like everything else, it can get boring. I can only thank some small part of his functioning morale that still exists he hasn’t commissioned a snuff film. Usually when members of our community…snap…the consequences are great for everyone involved.

“I’m sorry but I saw no other choice. If sharing you pulled him back from the precipice then I was happy to do it but that doesn’t mean I
wanted
to do it. In some small way you will never understand, you are mine and although I have no right to declare ownership over any part of you, I am still overly protective of you and I will defend you at all costs.”

I don’t know why but I leaned over and kissed Rory’s mouth. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Everything. That whole situation could have turned so ugly and although it wasn’t exactly pretty, I never felt unsafe because you were here.” I lay my face against his chest and inhaled his scent. “I must sound absolutely certifiable. I have never done anything like that and I don’t think I want to do it again but…promise me, you won’t ever put me in a position where I have no choice.”

“I don’t really think that should be an honest concern of yours seeing I have to deliver you back to the city and the arms of your fiancé by this evening.”

I said nothing further and he didn’t probe me either. I had no intention of going back. My whole life had changed the moment I heard of Trésor’s untimely death and I still planned to investigate it and delve into this new world Rory had introduced me to but that meant leaving the country and long stints abroad. I was considered a French national—and by default, possessed European Union citizenship. I also had American citizenship through my mother though I was born in France. It had all been a rather fun affair to drive down to the United States Consulate and register my birth outside of the United States, or so she had told me.

In surrendering all control in one night of pure and unadulterated ecstasy, I had actually regained a part of myself I’d forgotten existed. I didn’t want to be beholden to any man and although I knew it would hurt Grayson, he was a born survivor and would soon move on without me. I had my sister’s modest inheritance though Rory still hadn’t told me how much it was worth, and what better way could I live then trying to find out how she got involved in the BDSM community and what had really happened to her? It was the biggest story of my life and a journalistic coup, but unless I found evidence of foul play, it would never reach the airwaves.

I wasn’t doing this for my own personal glory or the public’s. I felt compelled to speak on behalf of my sister who’d lost her dynamic voice in the basement of an extremely expensive apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Chapter Eight

I LAY BY THE POOL
with Rory and thanked God it was one of those glassed indoor affairs. All the windows could be opened and there was a gorgeous skylight that could completely slid back on warm, humid days but it was starting to get cold and the weather looked ominous outside our glass palace. We could see the sea from the view the indoor pool afforded us and it was choppy with fierce waves that crashed against the natural sea barriers.

To my utter chagrin, Severin had not left. He’d only shacked up in a spare bedroom before he walked down in an open black robe and a pair of black swimming trunks. His slaves, Claudette and Hans, followed behind on dog leashes collared to elaborate silver chains around their neck.

It seemed like the man had a bit of decorum as even though they sat on either side of them, they were seated on plush pillows instead of the hard marble flooring of the pool area.

“So, did Gabriel get around to calling you yet?” he inquired out loud.

I looked around and realized he was talking to me. Although I wore a modest white bikini that looked great against my rich skin, I still wanted to pull my robe on and cover my body. Regardless he knew what every inch of me looked like, I still felt naked under his intense gaze.

“Who?”

Severin chuckled as he swigged down the rest of his martini; he placed the expensive Baccarat glass on an even more elaborate and disgustingly expensive art deco glass table. “Gabriel Klume. He’s our personal attorney. Rory’s and mine, that is, as well as our financial advisor.”

I tried to avoid looking at him. It just felt wrong I had had his cock down my throat earlier that morning and now here we were having a normal conversation. I kept trying to remind myself to someone like him, this wasn’t strange at all except perhaps he would like me knelt down on those soft pillows with a white gold chain around my neck and a leash attached to it.

If he ever thought that would happen, he had another think coming because that would never fucking be me. I was very comfortable in my own skin; I didn’t particularly trust people and I had no false security anyone
other
than me could keep
me
safe.

“No, I haven’t heard from him yet,” I replied as the iPhone Rory had given me the night before began to ring. It was obvious who it was but my heart started a deep thud before I answered the phone.

“Hello, sweetheart,” I greeted in a warm voice. “I was beginning to think you’d never call.”

“That son of a bitch isn’t keeping you held hostage, is he? I thought you would be home by now,” Grayson replied in a voice filled with anger.

“No, it’s nothing like that. He actually drove me up to the Hamptons for the day. We were just going over the arrangements for Trésor’s funeral.”

Wow, that was a smooth lie. Where did
that
come from?

“He hasn’t tried to fuck you yet, has he?”

A sudden image of the two of us the previous night flashed in my mind—him taking me from behind on that weird triangle spongy device down in his basement and how much that turned me on despite the pain and his force. My face immediately heated up and I had to squeeze my legs together to stop the sudden heat that grew and flooded my sex with longing.

“Of course not, honey. Why would he do that?”

“Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, Aurélie. The man eats, sleeps and drinks sex. Do you really think his lustful looks at the precinct escaped me? He wanted you so bad he would have fucked you in front of all of us if we’d been game. He has absolutely no shame and
those
people don’t think like normal people.”

You mean like us in the vanilla crowd?

I bit my tongue and instead replied, “I noticed that too but he has been a complete gentleman. He’s still so choked up about Trésor, he must have gone through three bottles of Cristal and he passed out on the sofa. I slept in my sister’s old room.”

“Surrounded by all those disgusting sex toys and weird ass sadist devices she keeps in there? Those masks are enough to freak me the fuck out.”

“How would you know what her room looks like?”

I didn’t even know what her room looked like because he never took me there.

It was his turn to sputter. “Uh, remember last year when you couldn’t go to the Hamptons due to the assignment in Darfur you couldn’t extricate yourself from?”

“Yes,” I replied, my hand holding the damn cell phone so tight, I thought I might break it.

“Well, I went with Jason and Kaysa. We stayed at Rory’s place and Trésor was there. You know how my brother and his wife are and what they’re like. Severin came by with his slaves, Claudette, Hans and his pet slave who didn’t have a name…it was all so depraved and disgusting what happened that night, sweetheart. It would have never happened if we had gone to the Hamptons together like I’d planned.”

“What did you do?” I kept my voice neutral though tears were threatening to break free.

“I don’t want to talk about it. The poor girl is dead now, isn’t she?”

“Yes but last summer she was very much alive so what the fuck did you do, Gray?”

“Shit…” He sighed heavily. “The wrong thing is for damn sure. I participated in their sex orgy. All the guys pulled a train on Claudette, Trésor and Kaysa. It was pretty…rough. You know it’s not something I would normally do but it reminded me of college. We got drunk and loaded and you know how men can be—”

“Yeah…I know how men can be. Is that because I told you I was raped by Renaud?”

“Well, you two were in a relationship at the time of said occurrence so was it really rape?”

“Priceless,” I murmured. “I get it. If two people are romantically involved then a woman automatically loses the right to say ‘no’ if she doesn’t want to have sex? Is that how it works? Forget I said anything. I’ll be back in the city tonight.”

I ended the call and threw the phone to the marble floor. The iPhone faceplate shattered but remarkably the phone itself didn’t break.

I wiped the tears away from my face with anger and walked inside the house for a moment to compose myself. Though instead of pulling myself together, I fell apart in the sitting room and collapsed on the sofa.

It was all so long ago and Renaud had apologized for his behavior. We’d managed to move past it and he still dumped me in the end so why was I crying about something that had happened in our relationship? Perhaps most people thought like Grayson and didn’t really consider a woman in a relationship a rape victim if it happened with her partner?

I breathed deeply and opened my eyes. They were still downcast as I faced a pair of perfect feet, especially for a man. I slowly looked up and knew immediately it was Rory.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. One minute, I was talking about your personal financial advisor with your brother and the next I’m having a horrible disagreement with my fiancé on the phone on what constitutes rape. Actually, I’m just great.”

He sat next to me though he went out of his way not to physically touch me. My bare right thigh rubbed against his jean-covered left thigh and I swore I could feel the heat from his body through the fabric. He wore a black wife-beater which showed off his toned yet lean physique.

“It really isn’t any of my business about the whole ‘rape’ subject but do you want to tell me what happened?”

I breathed again. “It was between my ex-boyfriend and I so it wasn’t a stranger like with Trésor.”

Rory said nothing and I looked at him. His crystal blue-green eyes glared at me in surprise. “You knew about that?”

“Yeah, she told me because she knew what had happened between Renaud and I and she didn’t want to end up like me…battered, broken and completely unable to trust men. I mean, if I could act like that about an incident that happened with my then-boyfriend…what would happen to her when she didn’t know the guy? She thought it was best he was some random photographer and she would never have to see him again but I ran into Renaud everywhere in Versailles, even after we broke up.

“It was part of the reason why I left France. I just couldn’t stop seeing his face and that smug look. I don’t know if he did it to hurt me psychologically or because he was as drunk as he claimed but in the back of my mind, I always knew he knew it happened so…how drunk could he have been, you know?”

“Rape isn’t the end of the world even though it often feels like it is. If you can understand that and learn to deal with the incident then it is half the battle. It happened and sometimes we have to move on. The devastating effects on the human psyche are often times worse than the act itself. It hurts us deeper than we can ever imagine but we have to keep moving forward and eventually, each day it hurts a bit less but you have to acknowledge it happened first. You felt weak and helpless at that moment but no one will ever make you feel that way again,” Rory explained in a soft voice.

I stopped sniffling and stared at him. He didn’t have to say anything because I already knew. “It happened to you, didn’t it?”

Rory smiled though there was no mirth in his expression. “It was my first time at a BDSM club. A hardcore one in Hamburg…I was twenty-one and Severin was with me but we got separated. He wanted us to stay together and I didn’t know why he was so concerned but I soon found out there was a method to his madness and he wasn’t being overly paranoid. It was geared more towards homosexuals though there were some women. I witnessed an act of a woman being assaulted and by the look of helplessness on her face, I knew she wasn’t enjoying it at all.”