Wanting It All (The Passion Series Book 1) (8 page)

She slowly looks up until her gaze falls upon the haunting dark eyes of her captor.

“I have some really bad news for you, sweetheart,” he says. “Markus is my friend – a very dear friend.  I owe him big time.  So here’s how this is going to go.  I’m going to take you down to that stage. And once we’re there, I’m going to make you wish you had never been born.”

When Brianna refuses to break his gaze, his grim scowl turns into an evil smile.  “I see.  So you think I’m bluffing?  You don’t believe me?”

After several more seconds of their showdown, Brianna finally answers in a defeated tone.  “Oh, I believe you.  I just don’t care.  I deserve everything you’re going to give me and more.  You were right.  I had it all, and I threw it all away.  If I’ve lost Markus, then there’s nothing you can do that will hurt worse than that.”  She continues to stare at him defiantly when it hits her. “So your name is Lukus?  As in the Lukus he just won a case for today?”

Lukus smirks.  “So now you understand just how much I owe him.  The ironic thing is tonight was meant to be a celebration for me and Derek and Markus.  Instead, you had to go and let someone stick his dick in you and break my friend’s heart.  I almost feel sorry for you, Brianna.  I’m not the kind of man you want to make angry. But I am angry, and this is personal. You hurt my friend.  I’m going to hurt you… bad.”

Brianna’s trip from the balcony to the stage occurs in a haze of numbness and fear. She is carried over the shoulder of her husband’s friend and is only vaguely aware of Lukus stopping to feed his security code into keypads as they pass through several locked doors. 

She knows she should be struggling to get away. For a moment she has the ridiculous hope of calling for help. But her cell phone is in the car, and even if she had it, who would she call? Her brother? Her parents? She can’t imagine facing them with what she’s done.

Tiffany?  Under normal circumstances the answer would be an unequivocal yes, but tonight Brianna isn’t so sure.  Hadn’t Tiffany warned Brianna repeatedly that she was playing with fire? Her infidelity caused the only argument she’s ever had with her best friend. Sometimes Brianna thinks Tiffany loved Markus as much as she loves her. But who didn’t love Markus?

‘
Apparently everyone except me since I betrayed him, and with a complete asshole like Jake. Whatever happens now, I deserve it.’

The dance music is much louder in the club again when Lukus finally stops walking and unceremoniously dumps Brianna on her ass. She is horrified by what she sees. They are backstage, but the area is a replica of the same dungeon on the stage, with a few extras.

She’s struck again by the reality of her situation.  This is no theater.  There are no porn stars waiting to go on-stage to perform.  There are no make-up or dressing rooms.  This club is one big punishment dungeon. And it is here that she will be made to pay for her sins.

Three waist-high metal cages line the wall. They look like large dog kennels to Brianna, only at The Punishment Pit, they are used to lock up submissives.  Two of the cages are occupied with naked slave girls.  In spite of the commotion all around, one chubby slave looks to be peacefully sleeping in the first, curled up on the small mat lining the cage floor.  The second cage is occupied by a girl tied in a way that has her pussy and ass sticking out of a two by two hole in the cage. The lascivious display has an obvious, depraved logic; with her bottom so presented, the girl’s Master can punish or fuck her at his whim.

Bri has been too entranced by the sights around her to notice that Master Derek has joined them backstage.  He’s squatting down right in front of Brianna, sizing her up.  “So you’re the fucking bitch that was stupid enough to cheat on Markus.  You must really have shit for brains.  I’d be saying my prayers now if I were you.”

Brianna remains silent.  What is there to say?  She has no idea how Markus found out about Jake, but now that he knows, it seems pointless to fight. 

Derek moves to stand beside Lukus.  They spend a few minutes huddled together, talking too quietly for her to make out what they’re saying.  

As she’s straining to listen, she glances across the room near the door to the stage.  Kneeling quietly near the door is the slave girl who had been on stage at Lukus’ feet giving him a blowjob.  The girl’s eyes are obediently lowered, but as Brianna watches her carefully, she shoots Bri what could be interpreted as a reassuring smile. It’s the first bit of comfort Bri has felt since entering the club.

The men have stopped talking and now return to Bri.  Lukus squats down at eye level with her, and when she fails to look at him, he reaches out and almost tenderly places his hand under her chin, raising her face up to meet his steely gaze.   They size each other up for a few seconds before Lukus lays out what’s about to happen.

“Just for the record, you should know I don’t agree with the course of action Markus has asked me to take with you tonight, Brianna. Personally, I’d like to take you out there and spend the next three days putting you through every conceivable punishment my sick mind can think up.  Unfortunately, I can’t because you aren’t a member of the club and Markus wants to protect Derek and me.  So here’s how this is going to work.  I’m going to drag your ass out to center stage and string you up to the whipping post. Then I’m going to lay out your crimes along with all of the evidence against you.  You’re then going to be given a choice of signing one of two pieces of paper.  Personally, I’d love to force you to sign them both, but Markus has made it clear to me I only need you to sign one.”

He stops long enough to make sure Bri is still paying attention before continuing on.  “The first piece of paper is a standard contract that all members sign when they join The Punishment Club.  It outlines all of the rules of the club and grants legal consent for Master Derek and me to punish members in any way we deem appropriate, for as long as we feel appropriate.  Every member is given a safe word, which they can invoke at any time, but the second they do, the punishment stops while we evaluate.  If their life is not threatened and I think they are just trying to escape, the punishment continues until I say it's done.  We don't play games here. Of course, we can't force members to stay.  They can resign their membership if they disagree with my decision."

Brianna feels a surge of hope knowing they won’t touch her unless she signs a contract. She realizes now that Markus was likely representing the club over some dispute with a member.

Her voice is small.  “Why would I knowingly sign a paper giving you legal permission to beat the shit out of me?  Do you think I’m stupid?” 

“As much as I look forward to lighting up your ass, I honestly hope you don’t sign my contract,”
Lukus replies. “I’d much rather you sign the second piece of paper - a letter of intent to proceed with an immediate, uncontested divorce. Markus is in pain and he just wants closure as quickly as possible.  Against my advice, he’s offering you one get out of jail free card to avoid your extended stay here at the Shang-ri-la.  All you have to do is sign that and we cut you loose. You’ll be out of our lives, and out of Markus’ for good. Hell, I’ll even be a prince and let you use my cell phone to call someone to come pick you up.”

As Brianna absorbs his words she swears she can hear the pounding o
f her own heart. She knows she should be grateful that she’s being given any choice at this stage of the game, but the realization that Markus has put into motion paperwork for a quick divorce in the space of just a few hours cuts her to the core.  Until Lukus said the ‘D’ word, she’d been holding out hope that Markus would cool down and possibly give her a second chance once she was punished.

Lukus doesn’t bother to wait for her answer.  Instead he drags Bri to her feet and she finds herself sandwiched between the two muscular men briefly before Derek grabs her and throws her over his shoulder.

“Don’t forget,” Lukus tells his partner as they head to the stage. “If she chooses option one, she’s all mine and then you’ll have just one job tonight, Derek – to make sure I don’t lose control and kill the bitch.  I swear to God, I’m going to whip her raw.”  His words sound menacing, but Bri suspects her husband’s friend is just trying to lay it on thick in an attempt to coerce her into signing the quickie divorce papers.  At least she prays that’s what he is doing.

As they burst through the door to the stage, Brianna can feel the heat of the stage lights through her little black dress.  She can’t see the audience from her vantage point over Derek’s shoulder, but she can tell the stage curtains must still be open because the club is quickly quieting down and the music has been lowered. 

Derek saunters to the heavy whipping post and unceremoniously dumps Bri from his shoulder. As she totters on her heels, he reaches up and pulls down manacles attached to a hook high on the whipping post.  He brings the chain lower until he is just able to lock each of Brianna’s wrists into the heavy metal restraints, immobilizing her arms above her head. 

When Bri realizes she’s facing the audience, she closes her eyes to shut out the horror of her situation. She knows there is no escape.

Lukus begins to pace the stage as he addresses the audience.  “Members, tonight I have the unpleasant job of putting the wife of one of my oldest friends on trial for her infidelity to her husband.  Tonight was supposed to be a celebration for her husband, Derek and me. Instead I have been asked to make sure the little whore understands the severity of her
situation
.”

He moves over to her, so close now she can feel his warm breath as he leans in to whisper in her ear.  “You make your choice yet, sweetheart?  You taking door number one or door number two?”

Bri refuses to open her eyes as she answers in a voice loud enough for only her captor to hear. “Fuck you, Lukus. I’m not signing anything and you can’t touch me or I’ll sue your ass so fast you won’t know what hit you.”

She can hear his sharp intake of breath followed by a slow, long exhale.  The unexpected intimacy sends a shiver through her entire body, drawing a low laugh from Lukus.   He steps away from her and continues to address the club.

“What Brianna here doesn’t understand is that running the club is just my hobby.  My
day job
as they say is owning and running one of the biggest private investigation and security firms in the entire Chicagoland area.” 

Turning back to Brianna he continues. “You thought you were being so careful, but several months ago Markus came to me to ask for my help.  He didn’t have anything concrete, but he just had a feeling that you’d cheated on him.  See, he noticed what looked like faint cane or riding crop marks on your ass when you were in the shower and since he knew you didn’t get them from him, he decided he might want to find out what the hell was going on.”

With this new information, Brianna’s eyes fly open. She sees Lukus smiling smugly at her.   She’d been so careful and now to find out that Markus had seen the welts from one of her earlier trysts is alarming.

Sensing her disbelief, Lukus addresses her directly again. “That’s right, bitch.  Your husband had started to suspect things months ago. I really do have to hand it to you.  We’d pretty much given up tailing you because you had managed to keep yourself clean.  We didn’t trace any calls between you and any another man.  We didn’t see you meeting anyone.  There were no suspicious charges on your credit cards.  All in all, you looked to be the perfect, doting wife. Until today that is.”

He has moved close to her again. “For the record, if you would have stayed within a few miles of your salon, you’d have most likely gotten away with your little fuck-fest, but since you were stupid enough to drive in your GPS enabled SUV all the way to downtime Chicago and park at a big downtown hotel, you set off a few monitoring alarm bells.  It took us all of ten minutes to pull security shots from your salon and see your ex, Jake, there to collect you for your afternoon booty-call.  Add to that our tracking of your cell location as well as Jake’s cell location and we have a pretty concrete case.  But just in case you’re going to try to convince me that you just went to the hotel to talk or something innocent like, say, exchange recipes, you should also know that once we decided we needed to know more about your location and activities, we enabled the recording device that my team installed in your big ole’ purse months ago.”

Lukus’ is in her face now, practically shouting at her. “Do you know what the hell it was like to sit next to Markus while we listened to your ex-boyfriend fucking you.  That’s right.  Your purse was close enough to the action that we could pick up on every single nasty little detail.   We could hear you screaming at him when he shoved the butt plug up your virgin asshole.  We could hear you begging him to fuck you hard when you couldn’t wait any more to have his cock shoved in your traitorous cunt.  Those things were bad enough Brianna… but you should have seen the look on Markus’ face when he realized that you were actually enjoying being tied down… being spanked on your bare ass… even going wild when that asshole whipped you with his belt over and over.”

Bri isn’t even trying to hold back her tears anymore. 

‘Oh my God… Markus was listening the entire time.  He’s never going to forgive me. Never…’

Finally unable to control his anger another minute, Lukus grabs a hand-full of Brianna’s long hair and whips her head back, leaning in over her to stare down into her tear-filled eyes.  “What’s it going to be, Brianna?  Are you joining the club tonight or becoming a divorcee?”

She’s trapped.  She only has one choice that gives her even the tiniest chance of getting Markus to forgive her.  With silent tears streaming down her face, Brianna answers his question. “I don’t expect you to understand, but I love Markus.  I will never sign anything that makes it easier for him to get rid of me.  I’m going to do everything I can to prove to him how sorry I am and how much I love him so I’ll never - do you hear me? -
never
sign the quick divorce papers.”

“Well that only leaves the other, doesn’t it?” Lukus asks, his voice deceptively soft.  “I hope you know wh
at you’re doing, little girl. You may think you can handle the punishment because you get all juicy when your jerk of an ex spanks your ass for a few minutes.  But you have absolutely no idea what I’m capable of when it comes to dishing out pain.  Last chance.”

“I said never.  I don’t care what you do to me Lukus.  I’ll never sign the divorce papers.”  Bri is surprised at how strong her voice sounds considering the rest of her body is crumbling.  She can feel the manacles cutting into her wrists under her weight. 

Lukus reaches up and unlocks Brianna’s right arm from her overhead lock, which only puts more weight on her left wrist.

“Get the pen and contract Derek,” he orders, his eyes still locked on Brianna’s.