Leather Bound (27 page)

The leering submissive moved in on me. Damn. He was all tongue and face, and I backed away from him. As though it wasn’t bad enough for my asshole landlord to see me while I had this guy trying to hump my leg … This was just getting worse and worse.

I started to say something, but then I remembered I wasn’t supposed to speak.

Sighing, I realised I was going to have to take matters into my own hands. Or paws, as it were. How did I get myself into shit like this?

The next time he came towards me, I snarled at him. A low sound in my throat, gravelly and totally inhuman. It was my first time trying it, so of course, it was way louder and much meaner than I meant it to be. The guy gave a yip like I’d actually bitten him or something, and backed off. Suddenly, Cherise was there, with a hand on my head. Black boots pulled her sub’s leash in tighter. The room was quiet. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, was looking right at me.

Even Wes.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

‘Don’t draw attention.’ Isn’t that what Cherise had said. ‘Be unnoticeable.’ That too.

So clearly the first thing I should do when I arrived at a place was draw every eye to me by getting into a fight. I wanted to stand up and say, ‘And this, ladies and gentleman, is why I stay home and read books.’

Wes sauntered our way. God, why did assholes get to be hot? It just wasn’t fair.

He came close enough that he was all shoes and pant legs.

‘That’s quite a little fighter you have there, Cher,’ he said.

‘In need of some training, if you ask me,’ Cherise said. Her voice had been sharp before, but now it was nearly bitter. Cutting. If it was fake, it was a good fake. If it was at all real, I felt like the world’s largest asshole.

‘What’s she called?’ Wes asked.

Cherise’s response was a murmur, but this time I could hear her clearly. The room was still silent, although the soft sound of talking was beginning to return.

All I could think about was what I must look like. Wes was standing directly in front of me, so close I could smell him, that dark musk of his skin. I didn’t dare look up. Maybe he couldn’t see my face, couldn’t tell that I was one of his tenants. I kept my eyes on the perfectly stitched seams of his dark jeans, on the leather of his shoes.

I caught another snatch of the conversation taking place above me, and cocked my head sideways to listen.

‘I’d be happy to take her in hand for you, see if I can’t teach her a thing or two,’ Wes said.

‘That would be absolutely lovely,’ Cherise said. ‘If you think you can work some magic on her, I’d be in your debt.’

‘I do believe I can do just that,’ Wes said.

He had my leash in his hand, and he snapped the end of it lightly against my thigh. It stung, just barely enough to make me yelp. Wes laughed above me, then squatted down in front of me. He caught my collar in his fingers and tugged it, forcing my head up.

‘I know you,’ he said. ‘You are –’

A voice cut him off, a voice I knew. ‘Why don’t you let me have a go at her instead? So that you can attend to your party, Wes.’

I couldn’t hear Wes’s answer, but I could hear Davian’s voice say, ‘Please, don’t worry about it. It’s my job.’ I was never so happy to hear that man’s voice.

The next face in front of me was Davian’s.

‘Come along, Hussy,’ he said. The sound of my puppy name on his tongue sent a shiver of want through me, a shameful desire, a feeling so sharp and strong that it made my pussy flare.

Jesus, I really was a hussy, wasn’t I? Everything turned me on these days. But especially, especially, this man who was taking my harness in both hands, who was urging me towards the back of the room.

I cast a glance at Cherise, who nodded as though she could actually see me. Her ability to sense what I was feeling was uncanny, and I wondered if that was part of what made her such a great lover. Without her sight, she was intuitive in her understanding of what those around her wanted and needed. So intuitive, so aware, in fact, that I wondered if her ignorance of the sub harassing me had been feigned.

Davian had said he wouldn’t be here. So what was he doing, leading me on my hands and knees towards the door?

* * *

‘I should like to see your form of discipline, Davian.’

Wes’s voice followed us. Ahead of me, Davian stopped so abruptly that I nearly ran into the back of his legs.

‘It is, after all, my party,’ he said. ‘And you’ve brought an uninvited guest.’

I wanted to say that he hadn’t brought me, but I wasn’t sure if I was still bound by the rules of dog-ness. Besides, I’d already got myself in more than enough trouble.

Wes continued. ‘So, I’d like to watch you do your work. I’ve heard you’re quite good. And this –’ I heard Wes approach and lowered my head yet again, but he caught my chin in his fingers, forcing my head up again ‘– is quite a lovely specimen. Aren’t you, Janine?’

I’ve never wanted so badly in my life to bite someone’s fingers.

Instead, I stayed quiet and brought my gaze up to Wes’s. I’m not a hater, usually, but I hoped he could see my intense dislike of him in my narrowed eyes.

Davian turned, catching my gaze with an unspoken question. I nodded at him as best I could while still being held by Wes’s tight grip.

‘I’ll need a table,’ Davian said. ‘Something knee-height.’

Wes snapped his fingers at one of the naked men holding silver trays. In moments, a long low table appeared next to me.

‘Return to your conversations,’ Davian said, opening his arms to the entire crowd. ‘I need a few minutes to prepare.’

‘Up,’ he said, popping his hand on top of the empty table. I hesitated, uncertain. I was pretty sure I could crawl up there on all fours. Most of the eyes in the room were on Davian, but I knew that, if I followed Davian’s command, those eyes would be on me sooner rather than later.

But I’d promised. And I’d come this far.

So I slowly shifted my weight and climbed up onto the table.

While fussing over my harness, Davian leaned in close to my ear.

‘How does Wes know you?’ he asked.

‘What are you doing here?’ I asked in return. ‘I thought you weren’t supposed to.’

‘Listen to me,’ he said. His face was so close to mine I couldn’t believe our lips weren’t touching. But there was none of the heat that had been in his eyes. It had been replaced by anger or confusion, or maybe both. ‘How does Wes know you?’

‘He’s our landlord,’ I said. ‘Lily’s and mine. At Leather Bound.’

‘Fuck,’ he said. He dropped his head for a moment, sighing. ‘You really are a pain in the ass,’ he said. ‘And so fucking irresistible I can’t keep my hands off you. You make me insatiable, always, but roped up like that, on your hands and knees, with your leash in my hands? I can barely think. And right now I need to think.

‘We’re going to have to get out of here,’ he said.

‘But I didn’t find the book yet.’

He shook his head, telling me that it didn’t matter.

Someone brought him a tray full of toys and, watching me, he chose one, a thin black crop. It had been a long time since I’d played like that, but I remembered it well, the whistle and slice through the air, then the crack and sting of the leather hitting my ass. I didn’t think I could get any wetter, but my body certainly seemed to be trying. I clamped my thighs tight together, aware that there were eyes on my exposed ass, on my naked and pulsing pussy.

Davian cocked a brow at me, a question in its own right, and I nodded. I wanted to tell him the whole story, how long it had been and how much I wanted that, maybe needed that, from him. But I couldn’t. So I merely did what Cherise had recommended. I leaned forward and licked the hand that held the crop.

Grinning, he caught my collar in one hand and ran the crop lightly over my curves with the other. The leather teased in its soft touch, almost tickled. He trailed it between my thighs, smacking the insides lightly.

He pulled it back and a moment later, brought the end of the leash down against my ass, the leather cutting into my curves, causing a yelp to come tumbling out of my mouth. The pain was unexpected but delicious, a single sear of fire that ran down my skin and then faded to nothing.

A crowd was gathering around the table. I could feel the weight of their gazes as Davian began to move around me, reaching out to tweak a nipple with one hand, his other moving my thighs farther apart. The harness kept snagging against my labia as I moved, a pain that eased into pleasure, and then seesawed between the two until all of my senses were focused on the hollow space between my thighs. A space that Davian quickly filled by inserting two fingers.

I groaned in pleasure as he scissored his fingers inside me, then remembered that I was supposed to be a dog and let the sound turn into some kind of growly noise that felt right. Especially when his thumb began to circle the tight tenderness of my ass. I clenched, pushing back into his touch, aching for that, barely noticing how quickly I’d stopped noticing or caring about the gathering crowd. All I cared about was Davian touching me and where and for how long and why he wasn’t doing more of it.

‘She’s delicious.’ An orange minidress and thigh-high boots came to stand in front of me, running her hands lightly through my hair. ‘Are you going to share her?’

‘She’s hardly mine,’ Davian said. ‘I found her being unruly with her master.’ He pinched and tugged a nipple as he spoke, sending little spasms through me so that I gasped. ‘If she likes you, you’re welcome to her.’

The woman knelt down in front of me and leaned in to kiss me. She had short dark hair and light green eyes. But I recognised the mouth, those perfect lips. Kitty, without her wig and contacts. Her smile was cherry red and full of lust, and I met the press of her lips with a fierceness that surprised me.

‘Mmm,’ she said. ‘You taste as good as your partner.’

Kyle? Davian? I didn’t know who she was talking about. I wanted to ask, but a moment later, she held a red ball gag in front of me. It was clear from her expression that she was waiting for me to accept it. I opened my mouth, and a second later I was nearly gagging, the red orb keeping my mouth wide and full.

‘Gorgeous,’ she breathed. She kissed me around the gag, licking my lips with her warm pink tongue.

If I kept my head down, I couldn’t see Wes, standing there, his arms crossed over his chest. If I kept breathing, my gasps ragged and harsh around the rubber, I could almost pretend that I wasn’t in front of an entire room of people who were watching me. Davian brought his crop down on my ass again and again, until my flesh was pink and sore, his fingers working my clit with a fierceness that made an orgasm hover just out of my vision. The woman in front of me had a hold of my nipples, every tug of her fingers causing little mewling noises to come through the gag.

‘Come for me, hussy,’ Davian hissed. ‘Come for me, you little bitch.’

I couldn’t help it. I came for him, my pussy clenching hard and fast, my head snapping back with the pleasure of it. If I hadn’t had a gag in, I swear I would have been howling at the moon.

Instead, I let a second orgasm roll through me, a sweet surrender that had me shuddering and breathless.

It wasn’t until I felt Davian’s hands softly caress my burning ass, felt him touch the top of my head and heard him whisper, ‘Good girl,’ into my ear, that I could breathe again.

Once my orgasm receded and my lust was sated, at least temporarily, I wanted answers.

I didn’t think I was going to get them tonight.

Davian barely got me through my front door before I felt exhaustion come over me. I yawned, my jaw cracking. He’d unwrapped me after the party, peeling the layers of rope off of me until I’d stood before him, naked and tingly. Then he’d run his fingertips over every indentation left by the ropes before he’d wrapped me in a coat and taken me home.

‘Tell me everything,’ I said, as I peeled my coat off, not even caring that I was entirely naked in front of him. ‘I need to know everything.’

‘After you sleep,’ he said.

He said something after that but I lost it in another yawn.

‘To bed with you,’ he said.

I had a moment to realise he was leading me into my bedroom, and another moment to think about how surprisingly comfortable I was with that. He’d never been here, but he moved like he knew the place. I was OK with that too.

Sleep kept threatening me, especially once Davian got into bed with me, still clothed, his body radiating heat next to me. But there were a few things I needed to know.

‘Why was my landlord there?’ I asked as I snuggled up next to him, fully aware it was an action that would speed sleep towards me but unwilling to resist. ‘And why were you there? I thought you weren’t supposed to be there. Or something.’

When I get sleepy, my words catch on themselves. I fought it.

‘I didn’t know he was your landlord,’ he said. He kissed me on the corner of my mouth, and I turned into it, unable to resist feeling the press of his lips against mine. ‘You were so hot, all roped up, that I couldn’t stand not to come. I thought I’d just stand in the corner and watch, but when I saw Wes coming toward you, I wanted to save you. He’s kind of a dick.’

I laughed at that.

‘You rescued me?’ I had no idea why that made me feel all warm and fuzzy, but I was going to blame it on the blanket that he threw over me.

‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘But I blew it. You didn’t need rescuing, and I made everything worse. Now he knows that we’re together.’

Together
. I felt him pause when he said that, as though he hadn’t expected to say it any more than I’d expected to hear him say it.

‘Which means we’re going to have to find the book another way,’ Davian said. ‘If Wes knows you’re looking for the book, he’ll try to stop you.’

‘Why?’ I asked. The pieces were finally coming together, but they were still shadowy and dark, and sleep was threatening to overtake me.

Davian moved closer to me, throwing one arm around me and tugging me towards him.

‘Because whoever has the book runs the club,’ Davian said. ‘And Wes wants, more than anything, to have that power. The trouble is, no one else wants him to have it, but they’re too scared of him to say so.’