Ice Man (5 page)

“If our association is going to be a problem—”

“It isn’t.”

“I don’t want to come between the two of you.”

Rowan clamped a hand on his thigh. “You aren’t,” he whispered. “I told him. He knows. I don’t know if he’s upset. I don’t care.” Their eyes locked. “I’m not property. I’m not a sub.” He leaned in closer. “What I am is turned on. What I want to do is fuck you.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“Let’s go.” The club was huge and Brett had only investigated a small part. The Pit held some appeal but not the rooms where pain played a role. Rowan paused in his steps and reached for Brett’s hand. “Come with me.”

“Where are we going?” He slid his fingers into Rowan’s strong, warm grip. His fingers were long and elegant, like a pianist.

“To a private room.” He led him to a wide staircase.

A shiver skittered up his spine. Brett had never ventured upstairs. “We’ll be alone?”

Rowan stopped midway up the stairs. “Yes.” He released his hand and pointed in the direction from which they’d come. “That isn’t me. I love working the bar but I’m not the man for you if you’re looking for someone to take to the Pit or to chain up in a bondage room. I’m not into this scene. I just work here.”

“I can vouch for him.”

They both faced Tac as he came down the stairs. Black leather pants encased long legs. A tight shirt clung to the contours of his sculpted torso. He was attractive and he moved and spoke with arrogance. The confidence fit him. Brett knew the type well from his business. Hell, he was that type too.

Tac smiled, seemed to accept that Rowan was with another man.

He stopped in front of Rowan. “I left a bottle of my best wine in the room for your friend.” A mischievous smile curled the man’s lips. “Nice.” He ran a knuckle over the chains in the harness. Rowan’s hands clenched at his sides.

Brett stepped forward. “We met last night.”
In an uncomfortable exchange.
Tension crackled between Rowan and Tac. Maybe he was just a distraction for Rowan, a way to make Tac jealous.

Tac stepped past Rowan and clasped Brett’s hand between his palms. A wave of sexual awareness slammed into his gut. His mind dizzied and he swayed slightly on the stair.
The alcohol must be hitting me hard.
Or perhaps it was because he hadn’t had dinner.

“No!” In the fog of his mind, he heard Rowan. “You promised not to get involved. It’s enough you’re in my head.”

“I don’t understand your anger with me.” Tac’s seductive voice flowed like honey through the thickened air around him. “But I do understand the fascination.”

Warmth seeped into Brett’s crotch. Tac licked his lip, staring at Brett’s mouth. He reached toward Brett and Brett leaned closer.

“Not tonight.” Rowan’s arm snaked out and grasped Tac’s shoulder.

Danger glinted in the man’s eyes as he narrowed his stare on Rowan. “I haven’t forgotten our agreement.”

Tac wrapped his fingers around the nape of Rowan’s neck and pulled him into his kiss. Lips touched. Mouths opened and breath mingled. “One kiss.”

Rowan inhaled sharply. As if unable to control the hunger, he sank into Tac. Tongues thrust against each other in wild fury. Tac fisted his fingers in Rowan’s hair and crushed their groins together. Brett sagged against the wall, cock hard and heart thundering. He gasped a breath.

If he were able to move, he wouldn’t. The mesmerizing kiss stirred him, sending a scorching wave of heat over him. An unfamiliar sensation sizzled on his skin. His veins surged with blood.

He gaped at Tac. His eyes were open, blood red as he kissed Rowan. “Holy shit.”

Rowan erupted, shoving hard against Tac’s chest. “Tac! No!”

His eyes slowly cleared.

“I’ll find you later,” Rowan said. “I promise.”

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Brett said.

Rowan snapped his gaze away from Tac. “Please, don’t go. I can explain.”

The feral, growling man with red eyes now seemed in complete control. “Excuse me.” He pushed past, refusing to look at Brett.

“Is he on something?”

“Huh?”

“Drugs? Rowan, that isn’t normal behavior.”

“It is for Tac.” He started up the stairs. “And no, he isn’t on drugs, more like he is one,” he said a bit quieter. He glanced over his shoulder. “Are you coming?” He continued stalking up the stairs, muttering under his breath.

The exchange dampened the mood but Brett still followed. This was sex. He didn’t need to become involved in whatever problems Tac and Rowan had. Their problems were just that—theirs.

But his gut still churned. Tonight shouldn’t be heavy with baggage. The run-in with Tac had changed the mood.
Not tonight.

With two long strides, he closed the distance between them. At the top of the stairs, phallic-shaped sconces lit a long hallway. Rowan strode to the third door. Silver Showers. “I hope the room isn’t some spin-off of a golden shower.”

Rowan laughed, entered a code and buzzed them in. “Not quite.” He swung the door open wide.

Brett made bank. He understood high finance and he looked at closing a deal as an art form. And while Karen had always worried about image, for Brett, money meant security. But that didn’t imply that he’d settle for less than the best in clothes, food and luxuries. This room fit his tastes perfectly.

Silver light bathed the room in an ethereal glow. A projection screen covered the wall on the right and smooth marbled rock carved the wall on the left. Brett stepped forward. A chaise lounge dwarfed an average-sized sofa. The soft gray leather lounge was about ten feet long and about five feet wide. The half back rolled like a wave. On the backrest and in the corners, bondage straps were stitched into the upholstery. Off to the left, a sex swing, suspended a few feet from the floor, hung from thick cables that were anchored to the ceiling.

But something else captured his attention. He crossed the room with purposeful strides. A large window, nearly floor to ceiling and about six feet across, looked out over the Pit. His heart slammed around in his chest and lust unfurled in his gut. His head lightened and his cock hardened. Twenty feet below, men entwined in a devilish display of flesh and sinful sex.

Rowan stepped in close behind. “One-way mirror,” he whispered. “We can watch the Pit.” He glanced toward the projection screen. “Or we can watch ourselves. There is a camera directed at the chaise and another angle focused on the rocks.”

Brett pivoted to the rocks. A short wall made of stone and about a foot high framed the area directly in front of the wall.

“I’ll show you why it’s called Silver Showers.” He crossed the room and flipped a large switch on the wall. A curtain of water cascaded over the rocks. “The dial controls the temperature.” He spun the knob until the water steamed.

“A waterfall.” The enclosure kept the water from splashing onto the plush gray carpeting. “This is incredible.” Brett took two steps toward Rowan. He smiled, humbled by the attention to detail. “How could you know? I mean, this is perfect.”

Rowan inhaled and let it out slowly. “It’s crazy but tonight I just want to say fuck off to the world.”

At least, outside this room the world didn’t exist. Brett turned, walked back to the window and braced his hands on the glass.

Rowan’s pants rustled and his chains clinked as he positioned behind him. Rowan’s chest brushed his back. Warm breath against his neck sent a shiver over his flesh.

Tugs on his Henley inched the fabric from his jeans. Quivers rippled over his stomach, tightening his abdominals. Anticipation compressed his chest. He waited for the first touch of Rowan’s fingers against his bare flesh.

Ah, his cock jumped. Rowan ran his hand over Brett’s hip around to the front of his jeans, grazing his dick through the denim. Inching higher, he waited for him to slip beneath the fabric of his shirt. Higher. He held his breath and didn’t move a muscle.

Rowan chuckled. “Would you rather be down there?” he asked, glancing twenty feet below. He moved his mouth over his neck.

“I want to be right here, with you. At first I was concerned, because of the phone call.” Now he was damn happy Rowan had made the effort. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you.”

Rowan slipped the buttons open at the neck of Brett’s shirt. “Take it off. I need to touch you.”

Grabbing the hem, he jerked the Henley over his head. He spun then leaned back against the glass. He traced the harness chains crisscrossing Rowan’s sculpted chest with his fingers. “I like the harness. So don’t take it off.” Rowan’s flat nipples constricted. “You’re so beautiful.” Taut muscles and lean lines. Contours to touch and taste.

Brett rasped his thumb over one nipple then bent his head and swiped his tongue over the tip. “You taste as good as you look.” He gently bit. “Better, in fact.” He laved the other nipple. Rowan moaned. “Ah, you like that.”

“You can do whatever you want to me.”

“Promises, promises.”

With a gentle shove, Rowan became aggressive and had Brett’s shoulders pinned to the window. “Do you want promises?”

Countering the force of Rowan’s pin, he grabbed the center links of the harness and jerked. “Oh yeah, I want promises.” He closed the space between them, mouth meeting mouth. Teasing the seam of Rowan’s lips with his tongue, he tempted his way in and claimed his carnal, dark delicious kiss.

The snap on his jeans popped. Oh God. Brett reared back and hissed through his teeth. Rowan reached into the fly of his jeans and wrapped his fist around the swollen girth of Brett’s cock. He wanted both to savor the sensation of having a man grasp and stroke his shaft and at the same time, ached to shove his jeans past his hips, thrust like a wild fiend and reach orgasm as fast as he could. He closed his eyes and rested his head against the glass. “Don’t make me beg.”

“Would you? Beg?”

He lifted his gaze and stared into Rowan’s darkening green eyes. “Fuck, please.” He captured Rowan’s lips in a bruising kiss. Using lips, tongue and teeth, Brett ravaged Rowan’s mouth, sending electric pulses through every nerve in his body and pooling liquid heat in his groin. For him, nothing existed but this moment, this man. Tilting his head, he speared his tongue into Rowan’s mouth for another taste, savoring the flavor and texture.

Rowan’s hands roamed over him, stroking up his back and down to grasp his buttocks. He squeezed his ass and Brett clenched, knees weakening under the onslaught of erotic need.

Rowan pulled back and gasped for breath. His brows furrowed, his nostrils flared and his lips morphed into a feral sneer. He balled his hand into a fist and smacked it against the window. He glared at the crowd.

Brett turned, trying to see what Rowan saw when watching the men below. What made him pull away? Beneath them men had sex, were lost in passion and wild abandon.

“He’s down there…hoping I’m standing here at the window.” His voice grew quiet. “Knowing I’m standing here…with you.”

“Who?”

“Tac.”

“You’re thinking about your lover while you’re kissing me? Rowan, that’s fucked up.”

“I don’t want to.”

He grabbed onto Rowan’s biceps and spun him away from the window. “You don’t want to kiss me or you don’t want to think about him?”

Rowan gaped at him. “Do you really need to ask?” His voice held an edge of danger, it was almost volatile. “I’m not his lover, not like you think. It’s complicated.”

“You’ve mentioned that before.”

“Yeah, well nothing has changed in the last twenty-four hours.”

“Look, Rowan, I’m not into head games. A moment ago, I had my tongue in your mouth wishing it was my cock. I don’t want to sound crass, but we don’t know each other, don’t have to make excuses, and you certainly don’t have an obligation to be here if you’d rather be with Tac.”

He seemed confused by the words so Brett clarified. “I’m member 6489 and you’re the bartender I want to fuck. If you don’t want to be here, then leave. I can find someone else to suck my dick.”

“No.”

“Then get him out of your head.” He crossed to the rock wall and paced back to the window.

“I can’t!”

Brett raked his nails over his scalp. “I’m here with you tonight. If he is too, you might as well have brought him into the room with us. He’s here anyway.”

“I can’t explain and you wouldn’t believe me.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I knew what would happen before we walked into this room. I came in anyway.”

What in the hell was he saying? “I thought we both understood why we were here. You invited me to the club to fuck. That’s it.” Whether or not he wanted more than sex didn’t matter. He wasn’t ready for a relationship beyond a physical one.

“Yes and no.” Rowan moved to the chaise and sat. “Will you stop pacing?”

Brett smiled. This almost felt like their first argument. He couldn’t call it a lover’s spat since they weren’t lovers. Yet.

Crossing the room, he paused in front of Rowan. Rowan spread his thighs, wrapped his hands around the back of Brett’s legs and pulled him a step closer. He rested his forehead against Brett’s bare stomach and slowly drew his hands higher. Reaching around to the front, he finished unzipping his jeans and tugged the denim down. His cock sprang free, bobbing twice before flushing with blood, thickening and swelling another inch.