But I don’t think he could. He was in charge. End of story. I was asking to learn how to be in charge. That left no place for Gray.
Shit. I hadn’t thought of that. How could he be in control of me while I controlled someone else?
It sort of worked with the harem. Except totally not. Gray was never around. Not how I wanted him to be.
“That’s why I need your help. Can you get me in to...what’s it called again?” I knew perfectly well what it was called. This was giving Gray the upper hand.
He folded his arms and narrowed his eyes at me. “The Asylum.”
“Like mental?”
The easy conversation and stupid small jokes between us were how we used to be together. I hoped he’d take the bait. I needed to find a way to keep it there, or at least remember what it felt like so when I missed him, I could pull it out like a photograph.
Gray stood and turned back to the car, avoiding looking at me when he spoke. “No, like sanctuary for people who like dark, kinky sex.”
My body jerked, wanting to move toward him, to connect again. “I like kinky sex.”
His head went back under the hood and his voice should have had a tinny echo sound to it, but the low rumble was unmistakable. “You have no idea, baby.”
I’d stirred the heat up, but we were back to the flippant and distant Grayson. Sigh. One step forward, one giant leap for mankind back.
A new temper flared in me, I could taste it in the front of my mouth. The bitter flavor of irritation, indignation itched to spear Gray’s righteous attitude.
“You’re the one who—”
No. Gray may have steered me toward the path I was on to find the real me, but I’d chosen to step onto it and keep to it. I wouldn’t blame him for not liking my choices.
“Look, we can argue all day and into the night about this. I know you don’t like who I’m becoming, but I do. I’m going to The Asylum. I’ll go on my own if I have to, but I’d rather go with you.”
I didn’t give him a chance to strike back. I was too wired with the adrenaline of what I’d just said.
I did like who I was becoming, and I could continue to do it without Gray if I had to. It would be horrible if I did, but I could do it.
I would be a lot more fun and exciting with Gray by my side.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Kinks and Minx
Gray huffed and puffed and tried to blow my plan down. When I threatened to call Foster up and ask for an invite for myself, he finally relented. We were going to the Asylum.
Score one for team Angelina.
I told the guys we were going on a field trip and went to prepare myself for the night. The right clothes for the right occasion in this case meant a whole host of new lingerie.
Luckily my recent bout with boredom had meant lots of online shopping. I laid out lacy bras, panties, a couple of corsets, and a black slinky dress. Hmm.
The dress showed off my cleavage, but it might be too mundane for a sex club. I hadn’t actually worn a corset before. So many strings.
“The front of The Asylum is a bar and vanilla clothes are expected there.” Gray stood in the doorway to my room.
I had that giddy teenager with a boy in her room for the first time feeling. But I pretended this was any average day and conversation. “So, I should wear the dress?”
Gray came in and stood behind me. I could feel his breath on the back of my neck, smell his clean dark scent, and waited for his touch.
“No. As much as I’d like every inch of your skin covered when we get into the club, you need to look the part. A pretty newbie like you wouldn’t make it five minutes wearing a dress like that.”
“Oh.” What would happen after five minutes? My imagination went way past wild and into whooooo. I imagined Gray ripping the dress right off me and ravaging my body. Mmm. “So, the corset?”
He breathed in, he breathed out. His lips brushed my ear. “Yes.”
If I moved, my knees would give out. I grabbed the red corset with black satin laces and held it up. My voice came out at a whisper. “Will you help me into it?”
For infinity we stood there together, letting the electricity and tension between us bloom and spark. He touched one of the satin laces and took the corset.
I didn’t move, couldn’t. There was too much anticipation barreling through me.
Gray was finally touching me.
He came around and sat on the bed in front of me. Those damn assessing eyes tried their best to drill into my psyche. I wished I could be all nonchalant, like I wasn’t asking him to help me undress and then putting on clothing fit for a sex club.
Gray pulled at the laces, loosening them. “If I do it, you won’t be able to breathe.”
“I’ll just ask one of the guys then, shall I?”
He spread his legs and pulled me between them. “No, you won’t.”
I was exactly where I wanted to be. “I can’t get into it myself.”
Gray set the corset on his lap and ran his fingers along the hem of my shirt. “Take this off.”
That voice. Somehow different than any old request. It was the Dom voice. The one he’d used on me only a handful of times. The sound sent my body into arousal overload. Instantly a tingle started in my pussy.
I pulled my top over my head and was rewarded with a twinkle in Gray’s eyes. He liked what he saw.
“Take off your bra.”
“Why don’t you do it for me?”
He smiled, but it wasn’t in acquiescence, more like he knew he’d have fun teaching me a lesson. “I’m not one of your puppies.”
I glared at him, but did as he asked, unhooking the bra and dropping it on my bed. My breasts felt heavy and my nipples pearled, turning into hard baubles beneath his stare.
I wanted him to touch me, to taste me, to make me his. I closed my eyes and swayed gently toward him.
So quiet, so soft, his words floated across my skin. “Lift up your arms.”
He stood, rubbing his body against mine, then slipped the corset over my head and arms. He slid it into position over my breasts all without touching me any place I wanted his hands to be. I already couldn’t breathe and it wasn’t from the laces.
“God how you tempt me, Angel.”
Give in, touch me, taste me, take me. I wanted to scream the words at him, I wanted to whisper them, anything to get him to act. But I knew they wouldn’t do any good. Not now, not yet.
“I know.”
That must have been the answer he was looking for because he chuckled. “I’m sure you do. Turn around.”
I did, and he tugged at the laces, pulling them in here and then loosening them there. He made them tight enough that I felt secured, but not so I couldn’t breathe.
“Put on the long black skirt with the slit. It shows off your legs when you walk.”
I hadn’t worn that particular item of clothing in months. How did he even remember? “Okay.”
“And these.” He set a small bag that he’d hidden behind his back from a very high-end lingerie shop on the bed. “Meet me downstairs in ten minutes. I’ll get a car out.”
I waited two seconds, breathing hard, after he left to dive for the bag and yanked out the silvery tissue paper. Wrapped up inside was a pair of panties. Black lace, enough to actually cover my ass. Thank god for that. If he’d wanted me to wear a thong I would have given them back.
My butt and thongs did not mix.
The rest of the material was soft, silky and see-through. I yanked off my jeans and my everyday underpants. I stuck one leg in and then the other. With the scrap of material between my legs I discovered what was so special about these panties.
They were crotchless.
Dirty boy.
How long had he been holding on to this present?
I finished dressing and headed out to the garage. Gray was already waiting for me in the little red Porsche.
I got in and glanced at Gray. “Uh, I’m all for making richy rich first impressions, b
ut where are the guys going to sit?”
He started the car and pulled out of the garage before I even had my seat belt on. “They aren’t coming.”
One breath, two. This corset was not designed for sissies, or sitting down. “Why not?”
He shifted gears and then laid his hand on my thigh, rubbing circles on my skin. “Tonight, it’s just you and me.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Asylum
I couldn’t breathe and it wasn’t because the laces on my corset were too tight. I was both excited and worried and more than a little turned on.
Just me and Gray... at The Asylum... together.
For the first time in my life I was grateful for Manhattan traffic. It would give me some time to get a damper on my racing heart and imagination. Would Gray finally fuck me?
My reprieve was short lived. Speed demon that he was, Gray scooted in and out and around the other cars getting us to the warehouse district in about seventeen seconds. He tossed the keys to a valet and led me into a very industrial looking bar.
Everyone here looked totally normal to me. No sex maniacs or anything. Not that I knew what a sex maniac was supposed to look like. Me maybe.
Gray continued through the bar to a dark door with a speak-easy viewer. He knocked three times. A return knock sounded with two beats. Gray responded with just one rap, then the window opened. Two eyes scanned us, glanced at Gray and the door popped open a crack.
“Welcome to The Asylum,” the gorilla at the door croaked. He had to have been the offspring of King Kong and Darth Vader.
Gray stepped into the hallway behind the door, but I stood stock still, staring.
“Is this a guest of yours Mr. Baker?” Darth Kong asked.
“Yes, one guest for the night. I’ve given her the rules and she’s agreed. Her contract should be waiting at the desk.”
All right, that was all a giant load of lies. I had no idea what he was talking about with rules and I hadn’t agreed to a contract. I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to forgo the chance to get in.
“Thank you, sir.”
Such formality from such a big alpha man. I found it kind of sexy.
I inched my way past the guard and the door, pressing up as close to Gray as I could. Three feet ahead, the room opened into a dark den of Bacchus himself.
I could either stand there with my jaw hanging open or walk into the place like I owned it. That I knew how to do.
Yeah, I should totally just buy it, or a place like it. It’s not like I wanted to spend any more of my life with the boys and girls at the country club.
“Have a seat in that leather chair right there and don’t move from it. I’ll make the proper arrangements with the club to have you here and find Foster.” Gray motioned me to a small seating area with dark black leather furniture. A love seat, a small couch, two club chairs formed an open, but intimate grouping. There were several of them spread throughout the space, all full. There were people milling about and I didn’t understand why these seats hadn’t been taken.
Gray walked to another area nearby and spoke with a man sitting behind a counter, which gave me time to gawk.
To the left, near the edge of the room was a larger group of people. They surrounded a man who looked like he was holding court, men and women at his feet. He was made of cold steel with his silvery white hair and emotionless face. A half-naked woman approached him, bowed and then whispered in his ear. She indicated toward me. The club king glanced over, looked me up and down. A shiver spasmed in my back.
“Holy hell.” I was slightly opposed to following any directive from Grayson, but anything was better than the icy grip of that man’s eyes on me.
With my best sashay, I sauntered across the floor to the area Gray had indicated, trying not to stare at the hedonism going on around me. Impossible. There were people in too many stages of undress and in the process of playing games I could only wonder at. I felt a bit like Rudolf not getting to join in any reindeer games.
I mean really, who would have thought there would be a whole wall where the bottom half of real live men and women’s bodies were shackled in giant upside-down Vs of legs, ready and waiting to be used. Their top halves were unseen, hidden in dark body-sized holes in the wall.
Oh, but not all. A few feet away were three women, only their heads sticking out. Past them was a pair of rather large breasts.
It was like a trophy wall for sex hunters.
These bodies were being fucked and sucked and fondled. I couldn’t help wondering if the people who were mounted were getting a punishment or a reward.
The wall was the tame compared to what was happening just beyond it. I shivered and rubbed my arms. A row of big wooden Xs were lined up on a stage. Two were occupied. One by a man and the other by a woman. Both naked.
I couldn’t imagine wanting to be beat until I was bloody or have needles stuck through my skin like they were. This was some scary shit.
I pulled my eyes back into my head and made it to the seating area. In the center of the chairs, instead of a coffee table, was two small padded benches. The padding on top was too curved to be a comfortable seat, and no drink would balance there. I glanced around the room to other groups.
About ten feet away I saw Jim. Yeah, that Jim. My occasional bodyguard.
Oh. Madre de Dios.
He had three women doubled over those benches, bare asses stuck up in the air in varying shades of pink and red from the spankings he was giving them. Each woman had someone else underneath them, faced buried between their legs. One cried out, clearly orgasming.
I plopped down onto the closest couch before anyone got any ideas of my bum being exposed to the room and spanked. It wasn’t the pain I was afraid of. There were a lot of things I wanted to experience but worrying about how big my ass was compared to the other women here was not one of them.
A waitress, wearing only a collar and delicate chain around her waist came over and set a tray of bottled water on the empty space next to me.
“Thank you.” I tried to smile at her, but she avoided my gaze, looking only at the floor. Without a word or any acknowledgment of me, she padded away. I wondered if her feet were cold.
I grabbed the water and sipped at it simply to have something to occupy me while I waited for Grayson. I sure didn’t want to admit that he’d been a little bit right about the shock value of the club.
My heart bounced between my throat and my stomach. I’d thought I was really pushing the edge to have three men living under my roof specifically to sex me up. My mind went nowhere near the dark scenes going on at The Asylum.
“Doing okay, Angel?” Gray came back and perched on the arm of the couch next to me.
“Yep. I’m great.” What the hell was I thinking? This was not at all what I imagined a sex club, even a BDSM club, would be like. I’d envisioned a French boudoir vibe with sexy fun and games.
Gray stroked my hair. “Not all clubs are like this. The Asylum caters to the darker fetishes.”
I almost asked why he was a member then.
Cono.
Because, this was what he was into.
I needed another drink of that water. I suddenly couldn’t swallow.
“Is that why I was supposed to agree to some rules and sign a contract?” Now would be a good time to read those terms.
“Partly. All clubs have rules. Boundaries might get pushed, but even here the safe word is sacred. I have no plans to let you play tonight, so I skipped your orientation.”
The word let bothered me, but in this environment, I was glad to have someone looking out for me.
“Still want to talk to Foster?”
“That’s why we’re here.” Mostly.
He took my hand and rubbed the back of it with his thumb. “Listen close, Angel. I don’t plan to let you out of my sight, but if for any reason we get separated, you come straight back to my chair. No one will approach you here without my permission.”
I glanced around at the em
pty seats around me. “These are yours?”
He nodded. “Yes. All VIP members have their own play area in the club.”
Another clue about Gray and his proclivities that I’d never been privy to. That smarted and I’m afraid my voice came out a little snippy. “How does one become a VIP member?”
Gray either didn’t notice my attitude and irritation or he chose to ignore it. He pulled me to my feet and stared down at my face. I waited for him to move, to kiss me, or spank me, or drag my ass out of there all together. Instead he cupped my cheek and said, “Experience.”
Double gulp. Okay. I’d learned more about Gray in the past minute since this whole sexcapade started than in the five years previous.
He pivoted my body so I stood in front of him and pointed me in the direction of the large group of people and the club king. With his hand on the small of my back, he pushed me forward and we walked across the room. “You’re going to see a lot of stuff in here that is probably far beyond your dirty little mind.”
I bit my lip and then decided that made me appear too much like a newbie. “Oh, come on. I’ve got a pretty active imagination.”
“If at any point you want to leave, for any reason, simply say so.” He was all business and bodyguard now.
When he went all protective like this it was best if I went along with whatever he directed me to do. “Okay.”
Not once as we crossed the room did his hand leave my back. He was proving his possession to the whole club with each of our steps. “This part is important. If anyone asks, especially any men, if you are available, you tell them no.”
“But—” Were men actually going to approach me? I didn’t want to do anything with anyone except Gray. No way would I let him to leave me alone in here.
He steered me around a group of men tying a woman up like a maypole. “I should have made you agree before we came in. When we are in these four walls, you are mine. No one else touches you. Fuck, I don’t even want them looking at you. If anyone thought for a second that you were unclaimed and submissive, well, I’d have to kill them.”