The Death Lords, Volumes 1-3: His Wild Desire, Her Secret Pleasure, Their Private Need (20 page)

The men do not notice me. Their eyes are glued to the spectacle.

The women are beautiful but unfamiliar. They aren’t from Fortune but have the polished look of a Twin Cities woman. Their undulating bodies shimmer and glow in the soft light. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch movement and my gaze is drawn away from the women toward a man sitting in an arm chair. His legs are spread wide and between them a woman kneels, her head moving up and down. His one arm is bent backward and his hand is gripping the frame of the chair behind him while his other hand is buried in the hair of the kneeling woman.

If this is a quiet night, I’m wondering what a mash is.

“This what you wanted to see?” A low voice rumbles next to my ear. Michigan’s big body is behind me, close but not touching. A whiff of tobacco, spearmints, and warm male musk surrounds me. It’s intoxicating.

I don’t answer him right away but instead take in the entire room again. The men around the room are transfixed by the women dancing. A fire could be raging where Michigan and I are standing and no one would move. I’ve never seen a woman exercise this kind of power or be the subject of this kind of desire and adoration. Even if it is momentary, what a heady feeling.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to see,” I reply with heartfelt honesty. “But this is amazing.”

Michigan

When Annie turns up at the clubhouse wearing Easy’s cuff, my first instinct is to shove her out of the granary and drive her back to the parish home. Then I would find Easy and beat him into the ground. It occurs to me that the beating won’t be a sufficient deterrent. What if he decides to spring this shit again? Bringing some innocent to the granary wearing his claiming cuff? He’s a fucking fool. Time to teach him a lesson.

It’s Wednesday and the regular mash takes place on Friday but there’s always something going on at the granary and tonight there’s a show. I lead her upstairs to show her exactly what being with a Death Lord entails so that I won’t have to kick her out. She’ll run out on her own, full up with horror. But now I can’t take my eyes off her.

She’s not what I expected.

Oh, she’s red as a beet but transfixed by what’s taking place. And aroused. Her hand is touching her pleasure points. Her throat, the top of her chest. She rubs a finger across her chest, getting deeper and deeper, lower until her fingertip disappears below the cotton of her neckline.

It’s a path I want to trace with my own tongue.

And the need to punish anyone has evaporated, replaced with a lust.

I don’t know what is turning her on right now but there’s no doubt in my mind that if I reached between her legs, she’d be wet. How wet is gonna drive me mad.

I counsel myself to calm the fuck down. Just because a strip tease and sex show turns her on doesn’t mean she’s ready to be sandwiched between Easy and me for even one night.

No matter how many lectures I repeat in my head, my brain has no control over my body. The lure of Annie is too great. My feet move and I find myself standing behind her, looming really. This close I can see the rapid rise and fall of her small chest.

“This what you wanted to see?” I ask.

Her breathy, forthright response shakes me. If she’s not going to resist, then how can I? I plant a hand against the wall, high above her head to prevent myself from ripping off her clothes and giving everyone else in the room something new to stare at.

“Ever been to an amusement park, Annie?”

She nods and fixates her doe eyes on me. It’s a good thing I’ve braced myself because being the primary focus of her attention is staggering. As she runs her hot gaze over my face, takes in my chest and then fixates on my obvious erection, I mentally recite the alphabet backwards. If I don’t gain some control, I’ll come in my pants like an inexperienced teenager looking at nudes on the Internet for the first time.

Her tongue darts out to taste her upper lip. I don’t know much about innocents but I do know what she’s thinking. She’s wondering how I taste. The needy look in her eyes is screaming for me to throw her down on the floor and take her.
This
is what made Easy leave his cuff behind. I want to cuff her too—cuff her to my side and never allow her to leave.

“Sex done the right way is like the rides at a park. Good sex charges your adrenaline and makes you scream out loud. Did you scream on the roller coaster, Annie?”

“Never rode one,” she says and her gaze drops down to stare at my crotch again.

That gaze is as powerful as a direct touch and I jerk in response. “Seems like there are a lot of things that you haven’t done.”

“That’s why I’m wearing the cuff.” She raises her right wrist. I want to slap my own on her bare left wrist and then bind them together while I fuck her like an animal. “It’s why I’m here.”

Voice hoarse, I corral my thoughts. “You understand that putting on that cuff means more than just watching a few strippers dance. It means getting on the roller coaster and riding it until the conductor says you can get off.”

“Are you the conductor?”

“Easy or me.”

She reaches and presses a hand on my chest right over my heart.

“I want that.” Her hand travels all the way down my chest to stop at the top of my jeans. Wide-eyed, we stare at each other in amazement over her brazenness. She’s red again, but determined. “I want that,” she repeats and then places her small hand against my hard-on.

I’m all kinds of a fool because I don’t push her hand away. Instead I lean into her caress, wanting those fingers to grip me and then pump me hard. Gritting my teeth I lift her hand from my groin and spin her around.

My hand itches to slide inside her loose-fitting jeans but I settle for palming her abdomen and pulling her hard against my body. Her frame stiffens at the feel of my cock jabbing into her back but she doesn’t move away.

Annie’s only a few inches shorter than me and it takes no effort to brush my lips across the top of her ear. She gasps at the light contact and I feel that intake of breath all the way to my balls. In front of us, Trestle approaches the woman who I think is Macy, a woman who works at the Cut-n-Curl, and unbuckles his belt. He runs a palm over her ass and dips between her legs.

“He’s testing her, to make sure she’s ready,” I murmur into Annie’s ear. I imagine myself smoothing my hand over the round curve of Annie’s ass as she’s sucking on Easy’s dick. My own cock swells at the thought. I’d spread her wide, as Heap is doing now, and arrow into her pussy. Each thrust would push her toward Easy. We’d teach her to take us deep. I stifle a groan.

“How does he know?” she asks.

The innocence of her question stops me short. “You ever touch yourself, sweetheart?”

Although I can’t see her face, I sense she's red again. “Sometimes.”

“You just rub or stick your finger inside?”

“Just rub.” Her head dips down as if in embarrassment.

“Sweetheart.” I can’t believe this. “Nothing inside you?”

She gives an awkward chuckle. “Is this a job interview? I mean, do I have to have a certain amount of experience before I can be considered?”

I grab her hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

She follows but not without a last longing look at Heap and Trestle who is thrusting hard inside Macy. I don’t know what to do with her. As hungry as I am, Easy and I shouldn’t be bringing any girl like Annie into our dark world. She needs to be gone before the tattered connections of my self-control completely dissolve. Another word out of her mouth about how much she wants us and I’ll be stripping her of every virgin thought she’s ever had. I hustle down the hall wanting to get her out before Easy shows up.

When we reach the end of the hallway, I see I’m too late. Easy is on the stairs and his eyes light up when he spots us. A quick glance takes in our clasped hands, his claiming cuff on her wrist, and my still very evident erection. “Starting without me?”

Shit.
I rub a hand over my short cropped hair. “Annie was just leaving.”

“Actually, I wasn’t. I thought we were going somewhere to talk.”

“Sounds like a plan to me, Little Red. How about we go upstairs?”

“There’s another floor here?” she asks.

I’m not sure how it happens but Easy separates us and leads Annie upstairs, acting like a fucking tour director as he explains the layout of the granary. I want to yell at him that she’s dangerous, that she’ll ruin me. But I follow them both because I’m already caught. She’s got me by the balls and the fucking irony is that she doesn’t even know it.

Annie

On Thursday I can’t concentrate. The images of the girls dancing and the threesome in the corner of the room haunt me, not to mention the feel of Michigan’s big body behind me driving me crazy. I can’t stop thinking about the men and being pressed between both bodies. I know the word for it.
Ménage
. Michigan is right when he implies that I barely know enough about one-on-one sex to be able to handle the two of them. But it’s the two of them I want.

That every fantasy I could dream up could be fulfilled makes me dazed and I end up making several errors in the bulletin for the Sunday service before I finally produce one that Father approves.

“Is there something wrong, Annie?” he asks when I bring him the third version for review. “You seem very distracted.”

“No, just tired,” I lie. “I stayed up late and watched movies.”

He harrumphs. “You’re an adult but still my child. The things that you see on television these days are an abomination. ‘Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?” ’ ”

“Yes, well, it’s only television. I’m not going to be casting spells or anything.” And network television at that. The movies late night television shows are far milder than anything that goes on in my own head.

Neither man has touched me in a sexual manner. Easy wanted to. When we sat in one of those rooms upstairs, he told me what he wanted to do to me in graphic detail.

I want to kiss you all over from your forehead to your toes and every spot in between. I want to suck on your tits until you come around my cock. I want to eat you while you’re sucking on Michigan’s dick. I want us all to fuck and come until we’re blind and stupid. And then I want to do it all over again.

I hear Michigan too.

She’s never even stuck her finger inside herself, man. What are you doing?

Easy didn’t stop looking at me. He wanted me to know that it was my decision. As he escorted me out of the club, he’d said Michigan was scared and to cut him some slack.

When I get to the library, I’m in desperate need of counsel. I am inexperienced so I don’t know if Michigan’s obvious arousal means he wants me or if he was just turned on by what we were watching. The pheromone level was real high in that room.

I don’t want to show up at Easy’s place and have the same kind of mixed up reception. Unfortunately we’re so busy that I’m not able to get Pippa alone until close to quitting time.

“Are you friendly with all the Death Lords?” I ask my boss.

She purses her lips and gives me a considering glance. I know she’s weighing how much she can share with me. “Not all of them. I’m getting to know them slowly. Judge takes me by the club every so often and everyone is really respectful but he’s the president and so long as he approves, I feel like they’ll approve.”

“What about Easy?”

“The Sergeant at Arms? He’s a good guy. I find him to be good humored and openly affectionate with his brothers. Michigan is much more reserved.” She shuts down the computers and turns to me.

“What’s the Sergeant do?” Neither of them explained their roles in the club.

“He keeps order in the club. If Judge issues an edict, it’s Easy’s job to make sure everyone carries it out. He also listens to complaints and passes them on. Michigan’s an Enforcer. He exerts the will of the club on those who won’t oblige them voluntarily.” Her eyes tell me that these are real positions, not play ones that some might toss around for a weekend. She’s warning me that these are dangerous men who have responsibility and I need to take that into account when I make a decision.

The real question I have, though, is if I have to make a decision about both at the same time. It’s embarrassing to ask though and I don’t even know how to delicately hint at it.

“What is it, Annie? You can ask me anything. I won’t judge you.”

I finger the bottom of my pale blue blouse for a moment. “Is it true that Easy and Michigan are a pair?”

A smile lights her face. “That’s what I’ve heard.”

“So if one of them is interested and the other is sort of reluctant, what am I supposed to take from that?” Feeling ridiculous but wanting to be informed, I continue, “Easy left me a cuff. The waitress at the Brew Ha Ha said it was an invitation but when I get to the club, Michigan is clearly angry that I’m there and tries to chase me off but not before my back is imprinted with his…you know.”

She shakes slightly at a suppressed laugh. “I think you have big old Michigan running scared. The big silent types are marshmallows inside. He’s just afraid for you to see his soft gooey center so if you’re interested in both of them—but know that it’s both—then go for it.”

“You’re not going to tell me to stay away for my own good?”

“Shoot, why would I do that?” She places an arm around my shoulders and squeezes me. “I know you’ve lived a sheltered life but if this is what you want, go for it. You might get your heart broken but it’s better than sitting at home alone with those awful
what ifs
running around in your head.”

Before I leave the library, I dial the number Easy pressed into my hand when he sent me off last night. I could have texted him but I want to hear his voice when I give him my answer. Anticipation, excitement and even a little fear swirl in my belly as my fingers press down on the keypad.

“Annie,” he says after the first ring. “Is it a yes?”

I nod and then realize he can’t see me. “Yes.”

His low voice gets even deeper. “Do you want me to pick you up or do you want to drive over?”