Desired (12 page)

“Okay, I will. Thanks.” Ella didn’t know what it was about Presley that comforted her, but Ella had the feeling that it wouldn’t be so bad to get to know her. Presley seemed like one of those people you couldn’t help but love.

Though, now in the presence of two powerful men, she happened to agree with Presley. The more women the better, since the air seemed too thick with the men around. She watched as Presley headed down the long hallway, which led to a set of stairs she assumed went to the dungeon.

As Presley disappeared, Ella took in her surroundings. A huge balcony curved around the entire upper floor, leading to a grand wooden staircase.
Geesh
, Dmitri Pratt had to be a millionaire.

She leaned in to Kyler, and he wrapped an arm around her. She liked that Kyler wasn’t super-rich. That he had a job that put him in the same tax bracket as her. Not that she thought the wealthy were any different than her, but she was almost afraid to touch anything. Everything looked expensive, from the art on the walls, to the decorative sculptures, to the fancy-looking carpet.

“Please follow me,” Dmitri said, heading down the hallway.

Fingers brushed against her jaw, lifting her chin. Kyler smiled. “Breathe, Ella.”

She forced the air from her lungs. “Sorry, this is—”

“Shocking, I know.” He tugged her forward. “I suspect you’ll only become more surprised as the night continues, so keep breathing.” He winked. “I don’t want you passing out on me.”

She chuckled away the nervous energy bouncing inside her. “Right. Breathing is probably a good thing.” Looking in front of her, she noticed Dmitri disappear into a room on the left.

When they followed him into an office, she noted a black leather couch and a wooden desk in front of a bookshelf. Dmitri motioned for Ella to sit on the couch before he turned to the desk, grasping a clipboard. “I assume Kyler told you about what you would be signing?”

Kyler dropped down onto the couch, all too casually.

Ella sat next to him, crossing her legs. “He explained that it’s a privacy agreement to ensure I don’t talk about Club Sin to others.”

Dmitri settled in front of her with a soft gaze. “That’s right.” He offered her the clipboard, which pushed his sleeve up his arm. “Take a good look over it. If anything is confusing, let me know and I can explain it to you.”

Ella stared at Dmitri’s arm, seeing the same dragon tattoo that Kyler had on his arm. What she thought was simply a sexy tattoo now made her wonder if it held meaning in this club.

Something to find out later
.

She accepted the clipboard, seriously doubting that she’d be confused. She’d lived and breathed contracts since college. Once she settled the clipboard onto her lap, she read over the document for only a moment before she chuckled.

“Problem?” Kyler asked.

She looked up, and her cheeks warmed under the stare of two extremely manly men. “Aidan drafted this for you, didn’t he?”

Dmitri’s brows rose. “How do you know that?”

“It’s the wording.” She shrugged. “It sounds like him.” Months of reading his technique in how he worded documents now seemed natural. She knew he’d done it himself.

“I’m impressed you could tell that,” Dmitri said, folding his arms. “I’m beginning to understand why Aidan has you working for him—you are good with the details.” He smiled, then gestured to the document. “Please keep reading.”

Ella glanced down to the page and continued reading the standard privacy agreement. Knowing Aidan’s style so well, she skimmed over the page, trusting what was said. He never would have drafted a contract that wasn’t up to par, nor would he put it in front of anyone to sign if it wasn’t in good faith. She hadn’t realized how much she trusted Aidan, but she discovered she absolutely did.

Aidan was likely the closest thing to a friend she had in Vegas, but she really didn’t know much about him. He kept things strictly professional. As she reached the end of the document,
Dmitri offered her a pen and she accepted it. Then, with a sudden awareness and putting two and two together, she wondered if Aidan belonged to the dungeon, too.

Did her boss engage in kinky sex?

She pressed the pen against the paper and nearly laughed, not wanting to picture it. She did have to look him in the eye again. Besides, Aidan was on his honeymoon, and that meant he wasn’t there. As long as he didn’t see her at the club, she didn’t care what he did.

What he did in his private life was his business.

She signed and dated the document, then offered the pen and clipboard to Dmitri. He tilted his head, his eyes searching hers. “You signed that awfully quick for a legal assistant.”

“Aidan drafted it,” she replied with a slight shrug. “I trust him, and I’ve read hundreds of privacy contracts. It’s all simple and standard wording, nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Well, then, I’m glad Aidan has given me a good contract,” Dmitri said with a genuine smile. “So, you understand, then, what happens in the club stays in the club?” At her nod, he added, “It goes the same way with you, Ella. No one will speak about you outside of the club. We take privacy very seriously here. All clear?”

“All clear,” she replied.

“Very well.” Dmitri returned to the desk. He put her contract in a folder and then placed it in a filing cabinet.

Yeah, no kidding, you take it all very seriously. You keep a filing cabinet for your kinky club!
She restrained her smile.

Kyler rose and offered his hand. “All right, Ella, let’s see to that challenge of yours. I’m sure in a few moments, you’ll be wondering what in the hell you’ve gotten yourself into.”

“Oh, please, I think I can handle this.” She slid her hand into his, loving how he locked his fingers around hers. There was something so special in the way he held her hand. As if his arms wrapped around her and he’d never let her fall.

Dmitri chuckled as he headed to the doorway. “Ah, a brave woman, I see.” He glanced over his shoulder and winked. “Brave women do well at Club Sin, Ella. You’ll fit in just fine.”

She swallowed past her dry throat, as that seemed like a warning of sorts, as if he’d hold her to her bravery. Maybe she wasn’t as brave as she was putting on, but was people having sex that big of a deal? Since she’d become single, she’d watched pornography. Hell, she liked watching those naughty videos and getting herself off.

This couldn’t be much different than that.

Grasping her hand tight, Kyler led her down the hallway behind Dmitri and approached the basement steps. Her heart rate hammered in her ears as she followed, surrounded by stone walls leading to an iron door at the end of the hallway.

Dungeon, indeed
.

She wondered if she should have a moment of fear, considering by all appearances they were bringing her into a basement that had an iron door, for cripes’ sake. But as she looked to Kyler’s back, she couldn’t find herself in the flight mode. Considering what had happened with Rory, she thought it odd she could trust him so easily, but it was the way he talked so openly and his overall persona; Kyler was an easy man to trust.

Plus, he was a cop and Aidan’s friend. That helped, too.

Dmitri opened the door, and the second he did, the sounds of pleasure mixed with screams that rang with something that sounded suspiciously like pain brushed Ella’s eardrums. An odd sense of excitement mixed with nervousness engulfed her.

This
she had to see.

She entered Club Sin and the sensual noises further engulfed her, kicking up her heart rate to match the beat of the hard-rock song. She must have absentmindedly stopped walking, because Kyler tugged her forward. And she was only too glad that he held her hand, because she surely couldn’t look in the direction she was walking.

She scanned the dungeon, barely taking it all in. The large room was simple enough, with numerous black leather couches that had chandeliers over them. The space wasn’t entirely dark, but the lighting was low and intimate. Sconces hung against the stone walls, giving a soft, romantic glow.

The décor of the club held her focus for only a millisecond, as her gaze landed on a bench where a woman was placed over the top of it. Tied down with ropes on her wrists, legs, and back, she couldn’t move as a man used a black wooden paddle on her bottom.

Ella’s eyes widened and her face flushed. She’d heard of BDSM and the kinky lifestyle during college, so she wasn’t completely clueless to it all. Still, taking all this in was a mental adjustment that she had trouble processing.

When Kyler had told her he belonged to a BDSM club, it actually didn’t surprise her as much as she thought it ought to. In fact, it seemed to fill in the missing pieces that she couldn’t
figure out about him. He did have the whole bossy thing going on, and being dominant suited him.

The spanking, his domineering nature, and the dirty talk … yeah, that’s so Kyler
.

When he’d told her about Club Sin she had become aroused, and that’s what led her there tonight. Had she ever imagined coming to a place like Club Sin?
No
. Could she see herself doing BDSM?
Possibly
. She was aroused by the idea of it, and that, along with her challenge, meant she needed to act.

Some things were so complicated. Other things were not.

As they strode farther into the dark club, she glanced from the wooden X with a women being flogged, to another woman suspended in the air by ropes. The woman on the X had red marks along her torso. The one suspended in the air was being penetrated by a tall, muscular man. Ella’s body temperature rose like she had a fever.

The sexual acts going on around her didn’t horrify her.

They revved her libido.

Images of her doing such wicked things, being tied up and spanked by Kyler, rushed into her mind, making her lower half achy. She shivered, squeezing her legs tight against her throbbing clit. Then she found herself plowing into a strong back. “Oh, shit.” She gasped.

Before she could tumble over, Kyler grasped her by the arms and chuckled. “A little stunned, are you?”

“It’s …” She blinked, seriously hating how red her face must look. “It’s a lot to take in at once.”

“It is.” He ran his hands down her arms, bringing heat. The twinkle in his eyes declared he enjoyed her ruffled state. He gestured to his left. “I’d like you to meet Porter and Kenzie, both members of Club Sin.”

Ella looked next to her, realizing they had stopped beside a couch. Dressed in a gray T-shirt and jeans, the man with the soft hazel eyes and stylish brown hair grinned at her, as did the strawberry-blond woman with the darker hazel eyes that held a bit of sass. Kenzie wore red lace lingerie, and that’s it. Ella began to feel like a woman seriously overdressed. “Oh, sorry. Hi, I’m Ella.”

“Nice to meet you, Ella,” Porter said with a low, smooth voice.

“You have that whole dazed look going on.” Kenzie smiled. “You must be new to the
lifestyle?”

“Um, yes,” Ella replied.

Was she even
new
to the lifestyle?
Hell
, she wasn’t sure what she was with it, other than she was there in the club. She glanced to Kyler with raised brows, wondering what to say next.

He laughed loudly, wrapping his arm around her. “Ella is here to find out if she might like what she sees.”

“Oooh, enjoy yourself.” Kenzie bounced in her seat. “The first look into the lifestyle is always the best. Well, until your first scene, which is much better.”

“First scene?” Ella repeated.

Kyler tugged her toward the couch across from Porter and Kenzie, dropping down and pulling her with him. “When a Dom and a submissive play together, it’s called a scene.”

“Gotcha.” Though she really didn’t understand how the whole Dominant/submissive relationship worked. While she understood the meaning of BDSM, she didn’t understand what was expected of the women in Club Sin.

A gazillion questions hung on the tip of her tongue. She also wasn’t about to ask any of them with two people around her she didn’t know.
Don’t look too inexperienced, Ella
. She finally looked from Kyler to Porter to Kenzie, who all watched her.
What does one say in this incredibly awkward moment? So, you come here to fuck?

She smiled awkwardly. “So …”

Porter’s eyes crinkled with his grin. “I see you have questions, so we’ll let you two get to them. Enjoy yourself tonight, Ella.” He turned to Kenzie. “Come with me, little troublemaker.”

Kenzie stood from the couch, smirking at Porter, then followed. That’s when Ella noticed a few welts on her back and many sore-looking red marks on her bottom. “Is she okay?” she asked Kyler.

His gaze swept to Kenzie’s back before he smiled to Ella. “Kenzie likes rough play that leaves her marked up.” He gestured to the woman on the bench. “You see Dani there on the spanking bench? She doesn’t. See how her bottom is just nice and red—without the marks? That’s as far as a Dom will take her.”

Ella tried to get a handle on the situation. “So, the woman decides what she can handle?”

“Yes.” Amusement twinkled in his gaze, as well as in his voice. “Club Sin submissives set out their limits and decide how far they’ll go
before
play. But that doesn’t mean a Dom won’t
push on those limits as far as he can.”

“Oh,” was Ella’s dry reply.

Kyler’s eyes softened as he ran a thumb over the back of her hand. “You have questions, Ella. It’s okay to ask them.”

Geesh, where to start?
At the beginning, she figured. “Why does Porter not have the same tattoo I’ve seen on you and Dmitri?”

“The dragon tattoo is the Club Sin symbol. It means that the men who wear it are experienced Doms.”

“And you’re an experienced Dom?” At his nod, she considered. “A Dom is basically a man who knows kinky sex?”

A burn flickered like fire in his eyes. “A Dom is a man who has practiced BDSM for many years, like me. I’ve been in the lifestyle for ten years now. And it means that the Dom knows how to handle a submissive. As in, he knows when to hold her hand if she needs it and he knows when to give it to her rough if she needs that, too.”

Desire rushed into her core, wetting her, preparing her … for what? “How did you know you wanted to get into BDSM?”