All He Desires: The Invitation (#1) (4 page)

The woman looked over her list, then grinned. “Ah, there you are. You can go on in, the event's about to start.”

“But I...” I swallowed and glanced behind me, but thus far, I was the only one to have walked in. “Maybe I'm too early.”

“Let me see.” She checked her list again. “Nope. He's inside.”

I bowed my head and took a deep breath. “Thank you.”

“No problem. First time to
The Limelight
?”

“That obvious, huh?”

There was that smile again. “We're all beginners at some point. Enjoy your evening.”

I frowned and glanced down the hall.
This has got to be the strangest restaurant I've ever been to.
Beginners?
Beginners at what?
And where the hell was the waitress or whoever was supposed to take me to our table?

Maybe you seat yourself.
That would make complete sense if he wasn't already in there. Realizing I wouldn't be getting an escort, I hugged my arms around myself and made my way down the hall. There was a door at the end of it, and as I got a closer, I realized the noise on the other side was probably a lot louder than I thought back in the lobby.

I opened the door and peered around the room, almost falling on my ass when I realized there weren't any tables at all.
This is no restaurant.
Couples sat, stood and leaned all around the room. Some of them wore a t-shirt and jeans like me; others wore very little at all. But every face I saw, none of them looked like him, or who I expected him to be.

I shrunk against the doors, feeling completely out of place. The noise in the room stopped as the lights dimmed, and like everyone else, I stared at a makeshift stage at the far end of the room.

My breath caught when a man stepped on stage, wearing what appeared to be the same suit my lover had been wearing in my kitchen hours earlier.
It's him.
It had to be. Out of everyone in the room, he was the first one to give me pause.

He said you'd know it was him.
But I couldn't be sure until he spoke. Feeling just as uneasy as when I first walked in, I stepped away from the door and leaned with my back against the wall.

A second man joined him on stage, as well as a very lithe woman in a robe. The man, who I was pretty sure was the same man in my apartment, laid out a length of red rope on the stage in front of them.

I craned my neck so I could see around the crowd in front of me, but from this far back, I only got a small glimpse of what was going on.

My client faced the audience. Cleared his throat. God, he was gorgeous. He wore his grey suit perfectly, and his lightly tanned skin only seemed to enhance the fact that he was every bit attractive as I'd imagined. Hell, I'd even gotten the brown curls right. The one thing I hadn't expected was that smile! My cheeks flushed, and I leaned against the wall a little more.

“Thank you all for coming,” he began, addressing the crowd, grinning when he met my gaze from the back of the room. “I see a lot of familiar faces here tonight, but for those of you who are new, there are a few rules we need to put in place. First, you're here either because you were invited or happened to come across an ad in the paper. Your being here now is a privilege.” He stepped to the side and gestured to the man and woman who were busy talking amongst themselves. “By now, you've probably noticed the couple behind me. Try to ignore them for the time being while they set up. I'll be explaining everything in a short while. If you haven't done so already, turn your cell phones off. I ask that you keep all questions until the end of the demo.”

A demo?
I glanced around the room, noticing a few screens lighting up as individuals took out their cell phones, likely to turn them off. Returning my attention to the stage, I had to wonder what they had planned. By now, there was more than enough rope to build a yarn ball that would make any cat happy.

I exhaled when the woman untied her robe, letting it fall to her feet. Underneath the thin layer of clothing, she was completely nude. My heart skipped a beat.
I know what this is.
I'd read about it. Hell, I'd even fantasized about it. It was the same reason why Dennis had bought those cuffs along with bed restraints.
He's a...a...

“I'm Master Logan,” my client said, “and this is Master Devlin and his lovely wife, Marisa. In tonight's demo we'll be covering safe rope play. A lot has been confused in fiction these days, so we're trying to do demos more than we did a year ago. Bondage can be a very powerful thing, but it must be treated with respect. Like all things, there is a right and wrong way to bind the one you love.”

He's a dom...
Holy fuck, the man that had been coming to my kitchen was...a dom. I shivered, and while my mind told me to run, my feet were planted firmly on the ground.

As the couple took their places, Logan continued to address the crowd, all the while looking in my direction.

“Now, there are two different kinds of rope that are acceptable for rope play—nylon and cotton. The kind you use will all comes down to what you plan to do with it. I personally prefer nylon as it's softer and you can untie the knots instead of having to cut your sub out, as you usually have to do with cotton. However, with nylon, the knots tend to slip unless you're a good knotsman such as myself and Master Devlin here. That said, your mileage may vary.”

“Yeah,” Devlin scoffed. “But I still prefer cotton. Gives me a good reason to do some knife play after we're done.”

“See what I mean, folks? To each their own. We're only concerned about rope play for this evening though.” My client, Logan, picked up one of the ropes, running it through his fingers. “Now, until you and your sub, or partner, get comfortable with rope play, I suggest using rope that's three-eighths of an inch thick. It's a decent size, and once you've gotten used to it, you can then decide if you want to go thicker or not. Some doms prefer a thick rope so it covers more area. Others prefer to expose as much skin as possible. Again, this all comes down to personal preference.”

  As he spoke, Devlin and Marisa stepped back a bit. I watched, fascinated by the long length of rope and how Devlin was masterfully capable of tying various knots without getting tangled in it himself. The rope must've been at least forty feet long.

He started by folding the rope in half and tying a knot, that, by the look of it, sat against the nape of her neck. Once each end of the rope was draped over either of her shoulders, Devlin then tied a knot between Marisa's breasts. Followed by another, and finally a third. I shivered when I realized the third knot was placed right over Marisa's clit.

She squirmed when Devlin ordered her to turn around. As she did, I couldn't ignore the smile on his face or the grin on Logan's. They may have been binding her with rope, but from where I was standing, she didn't seem to mind it at all.

It's hard to say how many knots he'd tied by the time the rope play became something more. It wasn't just a dom and his sub doing a demo, it was a complete art form. Bit by bit, the rope started to form diamonds across Marisa's pale skin. And as it did, she seemed to get more and more relaxed.

At one point during the demo, Devlin had to ask for Logan's help so they could keep her upright by binding her arms to a hook hanging from the ceiling.

“Now, you may have noticed that Marisa isn't responding as much anymore,” Logan began to explain, helping Devlin with a few knots. “She's gone into a trancelike state known as subspace. She's not hurt, but even when a sub reaches this point, a dom needs to be extra careful. Devlin knows her better than I do, so if her body language sets off any alarms, he'll let us know. You must be able to read your sub at all times, even if she's too far gone to tell you herself.”

The demo continued. Logan didn't talk nearly as much as he did in the beginning, his attention fixed on Marisa. Around the time when they were discussing the right way to tie off a rope to make it more artistic, someone sat beside me.

“I didn't know you were in to these kinds of things, kitty.”

I winced and glanced around the room. I couldn't risk running because I didn't want to disrupt the demonstration, but I couldn't stay either.

“Dennis.” I didn't look at him. “What are you doing here?”

“You sound disappointed to see me.”

I didn't miss the note of surprise in his voice or the alcohol on his tongue. Now I did look at him, staring right into the eyes of a man I thought I once knew. “What are you doing here?”

“You know, you really shouldn't leave things out for others to find. You could get robbed.”

I frowned. The card. I'd left it on the counter after my appointment with Logan. Dennis must've seen it when he went in there to get a drink. Damnit. I really messed up this time. Don't make a scene, Dennis. Please, if you have any respect for those in the room, don't say it.

“So,” he began, whispering against my ear. “This was your special date?” He glanced to the other side of me and smiled. “Where is he?”

“Who says I need to be with someone to go on a date?”

“Umm, last I checked, a date involved more than one
person.
”

“Oh good, I guess that leaves you out of it then.”

He grabbed my wrist. “Listen to me, slut, I know you're here with someone, so why not just come out and say it?”

I yanked my arm from his grasp and got up.

He stood and pressed his hands against the wall to either side of me. My vision swept from one end of the room to the other. No one was paying attention to us, and Logan was missing from the stage.

I bowed my head. “What's it matter to you who I date?”

Dennis took both my arms and held them above my head. “This.” He yanked my hair with his free hand. “And this.”

I closed my eyes and spoke through clenched teeth. “Someone will notice you and—”

“And what? Look around, kitty. We're role-playing, that's it. No one's the wiser.”

“But. I. Am.”

That voice.
I opened my eyes just in time to see Logan standing right behind Dennis.

Logan put a hand on Dennis's shoulder. “Let her go.”

“Look, pal, I don't know who you think you are,” Dennis began, pulling his shoulder away from Logan before turning to face him, “but you're kind of interrupting. Do you mind?”

“And I'm telling you,
pal,
you need to leave. Now.”

Dennis released me, but kept himself between Logan as well as myself. “Or what, you'll have me kicked out?”

“No. I'm more than capable of doing that myself. I'd beat you down right here if there wasn't a demo going on. You don't belong here, so again I'm asking you—nicely—to leave.”

Dennis squared his shoulders and fixed his jacket. “Look, we were just talking.”

“Not from where I was standing. Seems to me like the lady was trying to escape and you attacked her.” Logan looked from Dennis to me. “Are you okay?”

“She's fine,” Dennis growled, pushing Logan back. “Why don't you go back up there and finish playing pretend. I've got things here.”

Logan narrowed his gaze, but said nothing. Stepping past Dennis, he wrapped an arm around my waist and walked with me in front of him. My head was spinning, and not just from the way Logan had arrived just at the right time either.

I started to wonder what would've happened if I'd stayed home.
Things could've been a lot worse.

“Keep walking,” Logan said in a thin whisper. “There's a door right in front of us. I want you to go through it and wait for me on the other side. Understand?”

I nodded, quickening my pace without looking back. But I couldn't help hearing Dennis screaming at me from the main room. The crowd erupted in a sea of voices, most of which seemed just as surprised as I'd been.
Keep walking, Kira. For love of God, keep walking.

Chapter 5

My heart jumped when the door to the small room opened. Searching around for something to defend myself with, all I found worth using was a cane. I held it in front of me, lowering it once I saw Logan's head poke around the corner.

“Jesus,” Logan breathed, closing the door behind him. He took the cane away from me and pulled me into his arms. “Are you okay?”

“Define
okay
,” I said, wincing when my voice cracked.

He drew in a deep breath and held me tight. “I am
so
sorry.”

I frowned and looked up at him. “Why should you be sorry?”

“Because. I didn't want something like that happening tonight. Here.” He guided me over to a sofa and sat me down.

While he checked me for the usual scrapes and bruises, I got a better look at him as well as the room. His dark, grey eyes are what caught my attention first. Maybe it was the lighting in the room or the testosterone Dennis had most assuredly stirred up in him. No matter what it was, his eyes seemed more feral than human.

As for the room, it was no bigger than my bathroom and had an assortment of items in it. Items such as the cane I'd used as a spur-of-the-moment baseball bat, floggers and cuffs. I shivered from the latter, the memory of Dennis holding a pair very similar to them still at the front of my mind.