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“We need to talk to her now.”
He searched her eyes carefully. “I don’t know you very well, Lily, but Eve’s theater can be hard to take if you aren’t prepared.”
“I don’t care about that,” Lily said. “It can’t possibly be worse than anything else we’ve been through so far.”
“You’ve got a point.” He turned back to Rumy. “Is she still using The Ruby Cave?”
At that Rumy smiled, a crooked tilt to his scarred-up lips that looked lascivious and cute at the same time. “Yep.”
Adrien thanked him for his help.
Rumy called out, “I’ll keep my ear to the ground. If I hear anything you need to know, I’ll give you a holler.”
Adrien nodded, turning back when he reached the doorway. “You’ve been a good friend to me.”
“You’re all right, Adrien. You’re always welcome here, you and your brothers.”
He thanked him again, then took Lily by the hand.
Once in the cool hallway, she asked, “What did they do to those men?”
“I won’t pull any punches here, Lily. They killed them.”
“No prison time?”
“That’s part of the problem. We don’t have dedicated prisons and no real justice system.”
“What about that cavern where you were held?”
Adrien snorted. “That’s not a prison, just one of several locations Daniel uses to inflict pain, or couldn’t you tell?”
“How would I even know what’s true or not true about your world?”
“Another good point.”
He led her back the way they’d come, crossing to the other branch of the tunnel, which led deeper into the Como system.
The tunnel widened and intersected with a broad avenue-like hallway, richly appointed with crystals in patterns over the walls and an opalescent gleam to the floor.
A number of sounds assaulted her at once. First was a low level of music that had a strong bass beat, very rhythmic, like Eve’s floggers, very sexual. She had to keep reminding herself that this was essentially a sex club.
Adrien led her down the broad hall, which opened up into a massive cavern, definitely the biggest one she’d seen so far.
Much to Lily’s surprise the music was live, performed by a band of musicians composed of beautiful men in elegant leather outfits, studded, exposing muscular arms and chests.
She watched them for a moment, and noticed that the audience listened while seated at small intimate tables, candlelight casting a soft glow throughout the space.
She opened her mind to his. Everything is so tasteful. I thought—But she broke off the rest of it. Maybe he was getting tired of all the slurs she cast on his kind.
Adrien smiled, however, something he didn’t do much, as he glanced down at her. You thought it would be one big orgy? He still had hold of her hand.
She couldn’t help but chuckle. Yes, that’s exactly what I thought. I mean, the flogger—
Rumy has dozens of specialists. He runs a tight ship, everything by appointment, each theater with doors that close. His hand was on her waist and she felt the sudden tension in him as he guided her to yet another hall. “This staircase takes us to a new level of the cavern system.” She descended what proved to be about a hundred steps that circled down and down.
Once the music grew faint, he said quietly, “The club extends several miles deep into the surrounding hills. Many of the workers have homes here, including Eve. Rumy has numerous guest suites and even has a villa somewhere deep in the earth and hidden. I’ve never even been there. Again, everything is very private. I’m going to use altered flight to get us to The Ruby Cave where Eve presents her Dominance Theater. Just wanted you to be prepared.”
“For what? Your new version of altered flight or Eve’s act?”
He laughed. “Both.”
A moment later the flight began.
Lily had expected to arrive in a room with a red theme, since Adrien had called it The Ruby Cave. But she hadn’t expected the entire theater, except for a black onyx ceiling, to be a rich scarlet. Although ruby was the right word, as though the walls had been covered in the precious gem.
What’s this made of? she asked, mind to mind, her gaze fixed to the glittering walls.
But nothing returned to her.
Adrien’s lack of response sharpened her attention. Pivoting toward him, she saw that he stared hard at the scene on the stage below, of a tall woman, her blond hair in a long ponytail that hung past her bu**ocks, slowly rubbing with one hand the thighs and backside of a large, powerful, and very naked man chained facedown on a table.
The theater was unusual in its layout. Those nearest the stage sat in a small cluster, but almost everyone else stood in loose pairs and groups throughout the angled room.
Lily felt her cheeks heat up. The air here, as in the office earlier, was charged with sex. The man’s face was turned toward the audience. His eyes were closed, his face squeezed up as though he was in pain. But she knew it was much more than that.
The soft chanting once more filled the air as Eve lifted her flogger and once more began a rhythmic beating of the man’s back, thighs, and ass. She kept up her indistinguishable, singsong words.
Lily thought the woman’s voice mesmerizing.
The next moment, however, Adrien tugged on her hand and pulled her out of the room the way they’d come.
The hall was cool, and for that she was grateful. She took a deep breath and was about to express her gratitude that Adrien had brought her back out here when she realized something was wrong. He was turned away from her, one hand on the smooth wall of more polished granite, this time in flecks of brown and black, the candle sconces in bronze.
Her chain vibrated strongly once more and she opened to Adrien, to what he was feeling and experiencing.
What returned to her was a level of arousal that astonished her.
He was close. That was why he leaned against the wall, his forehead pressed to his wrist.
Bondage? Chains? Flogging?
And yet what flew through her mind was a fantasy of seeing him chained up like that, held immobile and worked over. She touched the chains on her neck. Was this his fantasy or hers?
Her breathing hitched as she felt the depth of his need. Maybe she didn’t understand why Eve’s theater had affected him like this, taking him to the edge so fast, but the scent he exuded, so masculine and full of erotic herbs, had given her a new idea.
“Adrien,” she said softly. She laid a hand on his back and he arched at her touch then groaned. “Take me. Now.”
