Slave to Love (41 page)

What was she pleading for? She wasn’t sure, knew only that Mick was the only man who could give it to her, that illusive thing she craved like air and water.

His fingers continued to explore her, sliding back and forth lightly over her clit. They teased, provoked, rimmed her throbbing forbidden entry like a flickering butterfly, and in-between reached up to pinch her nipples.

The vibrations within intensified. Her thighs trembled, threatening to betray her. Her breath came in gasps with the effort not to come.

She risked a look to see if Smythe was still there, and saw him glance at Mick, his face a portrait of hate and disgust. Cody was standing next to him, watching what Mick was doing to her with a purely lustful expression.

Suddenly the vibrations stopped and the dildo slid out, leaving her excruciatingly still and empty. She groaned, teetering on the brink of climax.

“Are you coming?” Mick asked, loud enough for the entire, by now crowded room to hear.

“No, Sir,” she answered on a rough moan.

“You’re sure?”

She clenched her muscles, aching to climax. “Yes, Sir.”

She stayed as she was, head down, bottom up, awaiting his next command. A moment later she felt his cock push deep into her.

“Who do you belong to?” asked his voice, low, demanding.

“You, Sir,” she answered threadily, fingers scrabbling on the polished wood for purchase. His cock throbbed within her, matching the thunder of her own heartbeat. “Just you.”

He pulled out and after a few seconds lifted her off the table into his arms and kissed her. She sagged into him. Her body felt drugged by the combination of unfulfilled sex and adrenalin, embarrassment and raw pleasure.

“Frustration,” she whispered, when she’d recovered a tiny fraction of her senses. “My frustration. That’s his trigger.”

Mick kissed her again, slowly. “Maybe. Let’s move on,” he finally said, then urged her toward the door. He put his lips to her ear. “What’s Tim Woodruff doing here?”

She shook her head. “He’s up north on another case.”

“I just saw him walking down the hall.”

She glanced up in surprise. “Maybe Bobby called him.”

“Bobby would have told me,” he growled, then added a few more choice words under his breath.

“What’s the problem?”

Mick gave her a scorching look but didn’t answer. Grasping her leash he led her out of the room.

“Never mind.”

They glanced into the next bedroom which was equipped with several mechanical “bulls” with special saddles attached. Each bull’s saddle had a different kind of huge dildo built into it—or at least Caro figured that was the case based on the two that were unoccupied. Three others were being “ridden” by women in varying stages of excitement. At the far end of the room a naked woman was bound to the wall in shackles. A man in a cowboy hat whipped her with a long bull whip. Just the very tip licked her back and buttocks, but it was enough to make Caro shudder.

Mick glanced at her inquiringly and she gave him an appalled look. A cowgirl was something she’d never aspired to. She’d much rather ride Mick.

In the next room four St. Andrews crosses were set up, each with a woman bound on both sides. Two were being flogged by their Masters, one was having her clothes cut off piece by piece by a man with a pair of embroidery scissors. Three of the bound women were surrounded by groups of men taking turns fucking them.

Lauren’s friend Rebecca was among them. She seemed to be enjoying herself. She writhed and pulled at her bonds, moaning, “More! Harder!” to the man who was fucking her.

The man pounded into her, his hips working like a piston, his head thrown back as he shouted out his climax. It wasn’t until he stepped back and turned, adjusting his tuxedo pants, that Caro realized the man was Tim Woodruff.

Why, the little hypocrite!

Tim spotted her and halted abruptly, giving her naked body a shocked once-over. But he recovered quickly. A small smile curled the corners of his mouth as he walked up to her.

He ran a hand through his disheveled hair, and said, “I was hoping I’d see you here, Caroline.”

Chapter 27

Mick had to stop himself from pulling Caro behind his back and flattening Special Agent Woodruff with a right hook. The man’s eyes had latched onto her painted nipples the moment he’d spotted her and hadn’t come up for air yet.

“Thought they arrested you,” Woodruff said, flicking him a disinterested glance.

Mick casually stepped behind Caro and pulled her against his chest. Woodruff always managed to bring out the caveman in him. Fine. He could use the added edge. “Thought you left town.”

Woodruff gave Caro a knowing smile. “Didn’t want to miss anything.”

Mick put an arm around her waist and held her closer. “Came back for the exciting climax, eh?”

Woodruff chuckled and glanced back at Rebecca, who was well into servicing the next man in line. “I like finishing what I start.”

“Me, too,” Mick said, and stared the other man down.

Woodruff broke the deadlock, turning back to Caro. “You look absolutely beautiful, Caroline. Your body could lure any man to his fate. May I?” He reached out to touch her breast.

At the very edge of his peripheral vision, Mick saw Smythe leaning against a wall, watching their exchange closely.

Caro shrank back against Mick’s chest. He could feel her heart pound through her whole body as she looked up at him, expecting him to refuse Woodruff permission to touch her.

Instead Mick shrugged. “If you want,” he said, and Caro sucked down a breath of surprise.

“Oh, I do,” Woodruff said.

Mick held her fast as the other man skimmed his fingers over one pretty nipple, then the other, making them pucker to tight scarlet points. She squirmed in his grip as Woodruff brushed them again, then closed his hands over both her bare breasts and squeezed.

“
Mick, what are you doing
?” she whimpered in protest.

“Trust me, baby.”

He could feel her reluctance, but she stilled, allowing the other man’s touch. Because it was Mick’s will she do so.

Conflicted by her blind trust, Mick grasped her chin, turned her face to his and kissed her. He caught her gasp in his mouth when one of Woodruff’s hands started wandering. She moaned, her body quivering as his fingers ventured lower and lower.

Just as the other man’s hand reached the juncture of her thighs, Mick whisked her out of reach.

“Sorry,” he said with a taunting smile. “Not there.”

Woodruff’s fingers curled into a ball. “You’re going to stop me?”

“Oh, yeah.” Mick turned Caro toward the door. “Count on it.”

“We’ll see about that, McGraw,” he called after them, “when I throw your ass where it belongs!”

Mick herded her quickly along the warren of upstairs hallways until he found a vacant bathroom. He pushed her into it.

Slamming the door behind them, he grabbed her and held her still for a punishing kiss. Not that she deserved punishment.
He
did. For making her submit to another man without a choice. That wasn’t one of her fantasies. And it sure as hell wasn’t one of his.

He didn’t want Woodruff touching his woman. He didn’t want
anyone
touching her except himself.

With Bobby this afternoon it had been a test. To see if Mick could handle it without killing his best friend. Or her. Thank God he’d passed that one.

Slowly, the anger drained from his churning blood, turning to worry instead.

No, not worry.

Fear.

Caro’s tongue twined with his, caressing him, making love to him along with her sweet lips and mouth.
Pure, blind trust
. Trust he didn’t deserve.

He pulled away, exhaling deeply. “This isn’t going to work. I want you to leave, Caro. Now, before anything happens.”

Her mouth opened in surprise. “But Smythe—”

“We can get him some other way. You have to go. I mean it. It’s getting too dangerous here.”

“But the plan is working. Smythe hasn’t let us out of his sight since he—”

“Fuck Smythe. It’s Woodruff who’s making me nervous. He’s up to something. I can feel it in my gut.”

“He’s here to catch the Teddie Killer, Mick, same as we are.”

“No,” he growled. “He’s here for you.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re wrong. He saw Smythe watching. We both knew what you were doing.”

“You’re certain about that?”

She hesitated. “If you’re right, there’s even more reason for me to stay.”

“Caro—”

“He thinks it’s you, Mick. If we don’t catch Smythe in the act tonight, Woodruff’ll put you in jail.”

“You sure it’s Smythe?”

She stared at him, taken aback. “Are you saying it’s not?”

He considered his words carefully. “Are you willing to take the chance? Don’t forget what the killer has in mind for you.”

“You, too. And no, I haven’t forgotten.” Desperation crept into her gaze. “But if they put you in jail, he may as well go ahead and kill me. I don’t want to live without you, Mick.”

“Ah, Caro.” He closed his eyes, completely undone. He put his forehead to hers, not wanting to hear her to say those words.

Wanting nothing more than to hear her say them.

“Don’t, baby. You promised me no strings, remember?”
Better that way. Safer for her
.

“And you promised me no badges. Then look what happened.”

“I know.” He held up a hand before she could list his infractions against her career. “But it’s your own damn fault. I used to be the Iceman. Now I can’t control myself worth shit around you.”

“But you can control
me
,” she softly reminded him. “I need you to control me now. Use me to get this bastard before he kills again. And before he takes you away from me.”

Mick set his jaw, battling to be strong. She was more important than his own future. “No, baby. I couldn’t live with myself if you got hurt.”

The pleading in her eyes turned to determination. “Whoever he is, he knows where I live. Who’ll watch over me if you’re in jail? Bobby?
Woodruff
?”

Mick felt a nerve under his eye jump. “You know just what buttons to push, don’t you?” he gritted out, knowing she had hit upon the one argument certain to prevail. Especially if his plans went to hell tonight.

“I learned from the master,” she replied, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him on the mouth. “So we follow the plan. Right?”

His heart sank, knowing in some things his little pleasure slave would not be ruled. “Right,” he said, and understood what he had to do.

He had to finish this, come what may. That was the only way he could keep her safe.

Even if he ended up spending the rest of his life in jail. Or worse.

***

“Come,” Mick said, and led Caro out from the bathroom and into the hall with grim determination.

He needed to get back into the spirit of things. After the encounter with Woodruff and his subsequent near-panic over Caro’s safety, Mick did not feel like playing, or scening, or even fucking. His nerves were shot. He just wanted to get the hell out of there, go back to his own bed, curl up in a protective ball around Caro and sleep for a week.

Where the hell was his father ? He’d expected him to show up long ago. Could he have miscalculated?

Caro halted in front of a room and peeked in. Her jaw dropped, distracting him from his train of thought. He looked around the door and saw what had shocked her. A naked, blindfolded woman was strapped into a kind of streamlined exam chair. Her wrists were bound above her head and her thighs were strapped to the sides so her legs were splayed wide apart. Between them were positioned two mechanical arms, each tipped by a dildo. One was penis-shaped, long, thick and blue; the other was narrow and black, formed like a series of marble-sized balls placed end to end.

At her knee, a man played with the dials on a remote control. The pneumatic arms moved back and forth at his command, sliding the dildos in and out of the woman’s passages, faster and slower according to the man’s whim. Each time she was penetrated she cried out in pleasure.

Several other men were grouped around the chair, blowing streams of air over her body through their mouths. None of them touched her.

“Would you like to try?” Mick murmured in Caro’s ear, halting her with a hand at her waist when she made to turn away from the room.

“Think I’ll pass.” She pushed against him in an attempt to back out of the doorway.

The man at the controls made the big dildo go faster.

“Women say it’s an experience like no other,” Mick murmured. “The machine can go on for hours. Days. They say you can have a hundred orgasms in one session.”

As if on cue, the woman in the chair started to convulse, screaming out her climax. “No, stop!” she cried afterward. But the man at the controls didn’t let up on her. He just made the dildos go even faster.

“I prefer you,” Caro said, rubbing her backside up against him.

He felt himself stir and grasped her nipples, pinching and pulling at them. Within seconds he was hard. He flicked the switch on the small vibrator he’d left inside her back passage.

She gave a surprised moan and pushed harder against his groin. “Take me, Mick,” she whispered.

He couldn’t resist her plea, though he knew he should pace himself better. He had more stamina than most men, but was no machine.

Pulling her out into the hall, he placed her hands on the wall, bent her at the waist and slid his cock into her from behind. He groaned at the sudden blazing heat and the delicious buzzing sensation from the vibrator, separated by mere millimeters from the sensitive flesh of his penis.

He thrust into her as deep as he could go, withdrew, and thrust again. She started making that whimpered, breathy feminine noise she always made just before coming.

He pulled out.

She gave a short, inarticulate groan. “Please, Mick!”

He zipped up, switched off the vibrator and turned her, giving her a quick kiss—and noticing their audience. “I want you begging for it, little slave,” he said with an autocratic leer.

“I
am
begging for it!” Her gaze faltered as she also saw the small clutch of men looking on. Including Smythe. “Sir,” she added, and licked her lips. “I’ll do anything,” she pleaded breathily. “Even the machine.”

His erection lurched, fully awakened and ravenous again. He nearly weakened. The thought of her strapped to that chair, helpless and vulnerable as he controlled her pleasure, was seductive.

But no. He had something else in mind.

Something he’d been waiting for, for days.

He took her hand and led her down the hall toward the far end. He could see a large sitting area with people lounging on comfortable furniture with drinks in their hands. Among them Mick spotted Bobby. About damn time his partner showed his face. He wondered what he’d been up to.

Bobby and the others were watching something in one corner of the room. Mick hoped it was a stage.

Sure enough, a low, round platform had been set up in front of the large windows overlooking the glittering valley below. On it, a solid-looking frame was bolted on the right side, a pommel horse to the left, and a floor-to-ceiling dance pole stood in the middle. In the generous floor space in front of the equipment, two nude women were going down on each other 69 style, moaning and gasping.

Mick was stunned to see one of them was Lauren.

Though she’d never before mentioned a preference for women, he shouldn’t be surprised. After her terrible marriage, it was no wonder she’d decided men were expendable. But in that case, why had she been pursuing him so doggedly for the past week? And why was she here at a Male Dom event?