more extensive collection. At the club, tucked in those dark rooms with music blaring and dangerous strangers all around me, I’d been afraid. But here, in this beautiful room where I can tell each item has been chosen with precision and care, my anxiety melts away and becomes something else entirely.
Excitement. Desire. I stroke a slender, black leather collar with a silver ring fixed to the front. I hold it up to my neck, wondering what it would be used for.
Cam makes a choking sound. A muscle throbs in his jaw. Tense and raw. I catch the look of pure lust in his eyes, and suddenly, it all makes sense.
He wants me. This. The strange tools and exotic accessories—and everything they represent.
My heart pounds as I look at him. “You’re into this, aren’t you? That’s why you were at the club that night.” I look around, trying to understand. Cam seems a million miles away from the cruel actions of Brent and the way he treated me, but they’re the same thing, aren’t they?
“Is it…? Is it like what Brent did to me?” I ask, my heart sinking.
Cam shakes his head angrily. “We’re nothing alike.”
“So explain,” I ask softly. “Show me what you mean.”
Cam steps up to me and gently takes the collar from my hand. I expect him to put it away and tell me to leave again, but instead he unbuckles the metal clasp. He weighs it a moment in his hand, like he’s deciding something. Then, slowly, he brings it up to my neck.
He slips the leather around my throat, softly caressing my skin. I shiver.
“What Brent did to you…it has no place here.” His voice is low, and full of emotion. “He’s a brute, an animal. I promise you, I’m nothing like that.”
“I know,” I whisper. Something flares in his eyes. But then he pulls the collar away, steps back.
“This room, though.” He gestures around anguished. “I know you must think—”
“You don’t know.” I grab his arm, frustrated now. “You don’t know anything about me. Why are you so determined to push me away without giving me a chance to understand?”
Cam stares back at me. I let go of his arm, wondering if I’ve gone too far.
But then, slowly, he brings the collar back up. I stand, ready and waiting, as he fastens it around my neck. He tests the tightness with a final tug and it sends a shock of lust straight through me. When he turns my body around I see a mirror hanging on a post—with our reflection in it.
“I’ve dreamed about you wearing my collar since the day we met,” he murmurs, his voice growling low in my ear.
Another bolt of liquid heat shoots through my body and pools between my thighs. He’s so close to me, I can smell the faint scent of his cologne. Feel the powerful, masculine heat of his skin.
I gaze at our reflection now: at his strong hands resting so gently on my skin. Power restrained. I realize, he could do anything right now. I would be entirely at his mercy.
The thought thrills me. A strange new desire pounding deep in my veins.
“My relationships are completely consensual,” Cam says, watching me in the mirror. “Always. There may be force, there may be pain, but only if they agree. I only dominate my women with their total consent.”
I hang onto every word as he explains, amazed at how turned on I’m getting. He strokes my hair back from my face, teasing his fingertips down my jaw, and lower, to my throat. He hooks one finger through the ring on the collar. Toying with me. Teasing me.
I tremble at his touch.
Cam continues, “The relationship between a sub and her dom is about trust. I will find your limits and push past them to a place of total surrender. A master teaches his sub to relinquish all control, to forget the rules she’s learned and the expectations to fake and please someone else.”
His voice deepens, grows raw with lust. Still, his eyes are fixed on my reflection in the mirror. I can’t look away.
“The women who are invited to visit this room are ready to abandon any pretense of power and give themselves up to total physical pleasure,” Cam murmurs, pressing his body against my back. I can feel him, the hard muscle of his body, and the thick ridge of his cock pressing against my ass. “In giving up control, they find something far sweeter. Total freedom. Complete surrender.”
I sink back against him, dizzy with desire. Cam is right. This is nothing like my experiences with Brent. He was always way more concerned with his own orgasm than mine. And instead of feeling safe, I felt exposed. Intimidated.
But Cam…I can already tell, he means every word he says. My pleasure would be the only thing that matters. My surrender, his goal.
I would be safe with him.
“If I was your sub, what would you do to me?” I glance around the room, overwhelmed by the possibilities. “Tie me up? Blindfold me? Whip me with one of those floggers?”
My nipples harden at the strange thought. I’ve never done anything like this before, never felt the burn of curiosity and craving like this. But I love it.
Cam leans close, and his lips brush my ear. “So much more, my sweetheart. You can’t imagine the heights of desire I’d take you to.”
His hands skim lightly over my front, grazing my pebbled nipples, sweeping over my sensitive skin.
“Together we’d strip away all of your defenses, one by one, until you trust me completely. I’d teach you what it means to want someone so much it hurts. To need them so much you can’t think straight and all you can do is surrender,” he murmurs, tracing lower, lower.
My head sinks back against his shoulder, but he reaches up with one hand and tugs the collar, forcing my head back up—so I have no choice but to watch us in the mirror, see every touch and move he’s making.
God, it’s so hot, I can’t stand it. My body throbs with need. He rests his fingertips lightly against the apex of my thighs, and I gasp, thrusting against his hand. “By the time I’m through with you, you won’t be able to hear my voice without wanting to come,” Cam vows, stroking harder. I whimper in his arms.
“You’ll love every minute of it,” he promises. “The exquisite suffering of knowing that you can’t give in to the pleasure until I say you can.”
“Yes,” I gasp, thrusting against his hand. I’m getting close, God, just from the gentle sweep of his fingers on my clit and the unfamiliar pressure at my neck. “Show me,” I beg him. “I want to experience it all. I want this…Master.”
Suddenly, with that one word, a change comes over Cam. The dark fog of sensuality and power clears from his face. He releases me, stepping away.
“That will never happen,” he says, his voice brusque now. “You wanted to know what I do in my private life, and in this room. Well, now I’ve told you. But you aren’t ready for this, Isabelle.”
I love the way my name sounds coming out of his mouth. Like it has great meaning to him. But I hate what he’s saying. Why won’t he give me a chance?
He deftly unbuckles the collar from my neck, tosses it in the box.
He looks at me and I know I see regret in his eyes, but it doesn’t change a thing: he still leaves me standing there alone, stunned and shaking with desire and wanting him.
TEN: CAM
I storm out of the apartment, knowing I can’t spend another minute under the same roof as her. Not when she’s standing in the middle of my playroom with that intrigued look on her face.
Fuck.
I take the elevator to the parking garage and pick one of my cars, a custom Aston Martin. I drive out to the street so fast the tires screech, wrenching the wheel with pent-up anger and frustration.
Isabelle doesn’t know what she’s saying. She can’t. She thinks this is all just fun and games, but she’s an innocent in my dark world and she has no idea what she’s dealing with.
Who I am when the lights are off, and the doors are shut, and there’s nothing holding me back from the desires I have…if she saw that, if she knew that man…
She wouldn’t call me Master so lightly.
I’m wound too tight to focus, so
I drive to the only place that can offer me some relief tonight. The Underground. The valet takes my car and I storm inside, brushing off the concierge’s offer to help me find my partner for the night. I already know exactly what I want. A beautiful blonde woman, with long legs, a sultry face and juicy red lips. Maybe if I can get this hunger for Isabelle out of my system, I can stop it destroying me from the inside out.
I find Dax in the VIP lounge, a drink in his hand and a curvaceous redhead on his arm. “This is Suzie,” he smiles. “She’s new to the club, and she brought a friend.” He nods to the woman beside them on the couch.
“Hi,” the woman smiles, eyeing me up and down with obvious approval. “We’ve just been saying, I need someone to show me around. I’m ready to learn the ropes.”
She’s blonde, gorgeous, and a first-timer: everything I was looking for tonight. But staring at her, I can’t help but think of Isabelle. The way my collar looked around her delicate throat. The way her body responded to my every touch. That irresistible combination of innocence and desire.
“Perhaps another time,” I say smoothly. “Enjoy your night.”
Dax sends me a questioning look, but I ignore it and head out to the club’s main floor. There’s a restless hunger in my blood, a pent-up lust from the past day with Isabelle. I need release. Soon.
I make a slow tour of the club, not even sure what I’m looking for. There are plenty of drop-dead sexy women here, but no one appeals to me. Maybe I just need some inspiration. I get another drink and select one of the private