Ricochet (35 page)

was nothing he could do to stop this. He was on

this roller coaster ride and there was no way off

until the end.

There was a sigh behind him, and then he

heard his new dom crouch down and lean over

him, ghosting a warm breath over his naked back.

"You," a voice whispered in his ear, and he

tensed up, waiting to hear his dom's instructions.

"Are a complete idiot."

Matt's eyes flew open, and he looked up to

see a pair of long legs encased in tight black

denim, a scarlet shirt hugging a broad body, a ring

shaped like a panther's head on a tanned thumb,

and, finally, Rick's face, leaning over him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Matt

demanded.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"You're not…" Matt looked around wildly. "I

mean, you didn't… this isn't…?"

"Am I one of Fantasia's clients and was I

matched up to be your dom for the evening? No,

I'm damn well not," Rick said flatly. "Damn it,

look at you, Matt." He gestured at Matt's naked

body. "You do know this place has cameras, don't

you?"

"Yes, I do," Matt said defiantly. "But they

said they'd lock the tapes away and keep them

safe."

"Oh, did they?" Rick's voice dripped with

sarcasm. "Well, that's reassuring because I'd

certainly trust Mr. Fleece-you-for-all-you're-worth

Grable with footage of a TV star having sex, any

damn day of the week."

"So I strip naked and get fucked in front of the

cameras in here, or I do it next week in front of the

cameras at work - what the hell is the difference?"

Matt asked angrily, still reeling from this

unexpected turn of events.

Rick rocked back on his heels, shaking his

head. "That's what this is about? The stupid sex

scene?"

Matt flushed. "Yes. No. Look, it's none of

your business."

"Yes, it is. Now put on some damn clothes."

Rick strode over to the closet, pulled out a

bathrobe, and flung it at Matt. Then he went over

to one of the cameras, leaned up and yanked out the

electric cord, causing the red light to wink out. He

did the same with the other one, disabling them

both.

Matt pulled the bathrobe on quickly, feeling

stupid and embarrassed. "How the hell did you

even know I was here? Did you follow me?" he

demanded, trying to get back some of the moral

high ground.

"No - I stole your cell phone when you were

doing a scene earlier and read the text message

from this place that you've been looking at all

day."

"You stole my phone? You stole my fucking

phone?"

"Yeah. Thief remember," Rick said sourly.

"Sticky fingers." He held up his hand and waggled

them.

"How dare you! Who gave you that right?"

"I was worried about you! Everyone is

worried about you. You've been a pain to work

with, snapping people's heads off, and you've been

lying to me."

"I don't owe you any explanations."

Rick's eyes narrowed, and he rocked back on

his heels. "Maybe not, but I thought we were

friends."

"Friends don't steal your cell phone and spy

on you!"

"It's a good thing I did," Rick said flatly.

"See, I met your fantasy dom outside a few minutes

ago, and let's just say that I don't think he was the

good time you were hoping for tonight."

"Well, we won't know because I never got to

meet him!" Matt paused. "What did you do to

him?" he asked, curiously. Rick rubbed his

knuckles absently, and Matt saw they were

bruised. "Oh, that's just great," he snapped. "Thank

you so fucking much, Rick."

"Oh, he's fine! He got moody with me at first

when I told him I was here to spoil his evening, so

we had a little fight, that's all; it didn't take much to

scare him off." He shrugged.

Matt glared at him. "So you read my private

text and then you followed me here? Why didn't

you wait for me in my trailer and talk to me about

it if you're so damn worried about what I do in my

spare time?"

"Because I didn't really believe you'd do

something so stupid and out of character!" Rick

glared back. "So, I figured I'd follow you, to see if

you were really going to go through with it and to

make sure you were safe." He pressed his lips

together tightly, frowning. "When I got here, I

talked my way in and found the guy you were

supposed to be with tonight getting ready in that

little room over there." He jerked his thumb over

his shoulder. "He looked like a mean bastard."

"You don't know he was mean - that could

have just been how he looked!" Matt protested.

"Yeah, well, I told him I was new to this

place and asked whether it was any good and what

the subs were like, and he said - and I quote: 'Yup

- there's a subby piece of shit in the next room that

I'm gonna nail.' And he grabbed his cock and

grinned at me when he was talking, so if you

thought I was going to turn around and leave you to

him, then you have a very different definition of

friendship to me."

"It was still none of your damn business! It

was my mistake to make. It if went wrong, it was

down to me," Matt said defiantly.

Rick gave him a hard look. "Your fantasy

dom also knew who he was going to fuck tonight."

"What?" Matt blinked.

"He told me he was, and again I quote, 'gonna

go in there and fuck that stupid blond kid off the

TV show about collars'."

"What?" Matt repeated blankly.

"Now, I figure that not even you were stupid

enough to walk in here and give Grable your real

name."

"No. No I didn't." Matt wrapped his arms

around his body, feeling suddenly very stupid.

"How did he know?"

"Oh please, did you maybe wear a baseball

cap on your first visit and think Grable didn't

recognize you? You're on a big TV show, you

idiot!" Rick snorted. "Grable must have seen the

dollar signs flashing the minute you walked

through the door! I bet you hadn't even reached the

parking lot after your interview before he was

phoning around his clientele to see who'd pay him

the most for a night with Matthew Lake."

"But he said it was all anonymous," Matt

protested, his brain going into free-fall as he tried

to process this.

"Yeah well, newsflash, Matt - he lied."

"I don't… I can't… but he…" Matt found his

mouth opening and closing like a fish, unable to get

any words out.

"Not only that, but after tonight, Grable would

have had footage of Matthew Lake being brutally

fucked on film." Rick gestured to the now defunct

cameras. "You'd have been his sub-slut after that,

Matt. He'd either have used the footage to

blackmail you into giving him money, or he'd have

had you coming back here every week to service

any skeevy dom prepared to pay the price for a

night 'fucking that stupid blond kid from the TV

show about collars'."

Matt felt his legs start to give way, and he sat

down on the floor, the full extent of what had

almost happened finally sinking in. "Oh shit," he

whispered.

"Yeah. Oh shit." Rick crossed his arms over

his chest and glared down at him. "And it gets

worse. When I saw that text and realized you were

coming here tonight, I made some calls to see if

this place was safe. I spoke to a couple of my

friends from my youth." He gave Matt a meaningful

look. "And it turns out Grable pulled a similar

stunt in New York - which lost him his license by

the way, so technically he's not even allowed to

operate anymore."

"Damn it, I've really fucked up." Matt

wrapped his arms around his knees and hugged

them tightly to his chest.

"Yes, you have," Rick said bluntly.

At that moment there was a loud knocking at

the door. Rick went over there, opened it a tiny

crack, and peered through.

"There's something wrong with the cameras in

this suite," a voice called.

"There's something wrong with this shithole,

period," Rick retorted.

"I need to come in and fix…"

"Not gonna happen," Rick snapped. "Now go

back and tell your sleazy-assed boss that Rick

O'Shea will be up to see him soon. Then you can

have your lousy suite back."

Rick slammed the door shut and strode back

over to Matt. "Now, where were we? Oh yeah, you

fucking up. Let's talk about that some more, shall

we? See, I took this off your fantasy dom." Rick

held up a piece of paper that Matt recognized as

his Fantasia questionnaire. "You came in here

without a safeword, Matty? Really? You seriously

came here to hook up with a complete stranger,

and you were going to do it without a safeword?

Even if this place had been okay, you were still

taking one hell of a risk. "

"How is it any different to you picking up

some stranger in a club and taking them home and

fucking them?" Matt flung at him.

Rick's eyes flashed. "For one thing, I at least

get to see and speak to my potential partner before

deciding if I want to take them home and fuck them.

Any bad vibes, and I back off. For another, I'd

never play with any sub I'd only just met without

giving them a safeword. And thirdly, I've had years

of experience of this kind of thing. You don't."

"Well, maybe I wanted to change that," Matt

said defiantly.

"By going from 0 to 100 miles per hour in ten

seconds flat? There are ways to gradually ease

yourself into this kind of thing, and this isn't one of

them." Rick crouched down in front of him, gazing

at him thoughtfully. "Seriously, Matt - what's really

going on here?"

"I had to do something!" Matt said

desperately. "Something big that I couldn't back out

of or sabotage. Something I had to go through with

because I didn't have a choice."

"But why?" Rick looked completely baffled.

"Because!" Matt wrapped his arms even more

tightly around his body and gazed at his bare feet.

"Matt?" Rick asked, in a gentler tone.

Matt looked up miserably. "Because during

that rehearsal I saw myself as you see me: the

prissy little sub who keeps himself safe all the

time; the control freak sub who doesn't know how

to let go and enjoy his sexuality."

"That's not how -"

"It is! I saw the expression on your face when

you met my mom - I know how we looked to you.

All tightly locked up in our safe little world,

turning everyone else into an enemy we didn't want

to let in, and I realized I was suffocating, Rick. I

felt like I was trapped in a box, and I couldn't get

out."

"This isn't a way out," Rick said bluntly.

"There had to be a better way, Matt. Why choose

to do something this risky all of a sudden? I mean,

why -?"

"Because of you! Because of the spanking

sessions!" Matt blurted out.

Rick blinked. "What?"

"You showed me my sub-space, Rick. You

took me there, and it was so good that I had to have

more," Matt explained desperately. "I needed to

know what it was like to do it properly. Not just

spanking, but all of it."

They were silent for a long time, gazing at

each other.

Then, eventually, Rick spoke. "Why didn't

you ask me, Matt?" he asked quietly.

"Because we had a deal! We said it was a no

strings thing - that it wasn't anything more than

spanking. We both agreed on that. Besides, this

was my issue, not yours. I'm the one who's kept

myself locked up a box for all these years."

"You were just, you know, being sensible."

Rick stood up and waved his arm around vaguely

in the air.

"I was being a coward. Then that stupid plot

line came up, and I realized that Ben - sweet,

naïve, innocent Ben Harris - has more guts than

me! He was prepared to do something risky,

something way out and dangerous, in order to

experience his true self."

"He was about to do something really stupid!"