Page 107 of Twilight of Embers
Annoyance flitted across her perfectly made-up eyes. “I guess the rumors are true.”
“They are,” Knox said coolly. “Feel free to spread the word.”
The woman’s jaw tightened, but she nodded. “Enjoy your evening.”
“Oh, we will,” Knox said, a grin in his voice.
“What do the bracelets mean?” I hissed.
“That you’re taken or don’t want to be touched,” Cáel informed me as we made our way deeper into the space.
It was darker than the bar upstairs. The lights had a purplish hue to them. It fit with the hypnotic music pumping through the speakers.
A woman in front of me turned to the side, and I gasped. The dress she wore was made entirely of delicate chains, but there was nothing underneath. You could see everything from her nipples to the small dusting of hair between her legs.
But it was more. A leather band was cinched around her throat and attached to a chain that a man held in his hand. A collar and leash?
Heat flushed my body as I watched her follow him through the crowd. Where the hell was I?
Cáel leaned down, his lips skimming my ear. “Supernaturals are incredibly sexual beings, shifters especially. We crave touch, contact.”
My gaze flitted up to his, questioning. Cáel rarely let anyone but me touch him. Did that mean his animal half was starved for connection?
I lifted a hand, placing it on his stubbled cheek and stroking. He dropped his head to mine. “Little One,” he whispered hoarsely.
Cáel brushed his lips against mine and then pulled back, his eyes hooded with promise.
I forced my gaze away from his, trying to take in my surroundings. My focus settled on a stage, and I stilled.
There was a woman restrained on what almost looked like some sort of medical bed, except the leather was too nice to be found in any doctor’s office. She wore nothing at all, her red hair cascading over her shoulder and almost skimming the floor. Her arms were fastened to rests in the front, her legs to rests in the back. Her backside was on display as a man behind her brought down something against her ass.
I jerked as she cried out. But the woman’s sound wasn’t pain-filled, exactly. It was more.
“It’s a sex club.” The words didn’t sound like they’d come out of my own mouth.
“Cillian wasn’t big on calling it that,” Knox said as his fingers ghosted over my belly through my silk dress.
The woman on the stage cried out again as the leather strands of whatever the man held in his hand came down hard across the globe of her ass.
“It’s called a flogger,” Knox explained.
My gaze jerked up to his face. “Do you do…this?”
He grinned. “I’m not really one for public play.”
My stomach flipped; a mixture of apprehension and excitement flew through me. But the heat won out, pulling me closer to the stage, Cáel and Knox at my sides.
A second man stepped forward, lifting the woman’s chin. She sucked his thumb deep into her mouth, and he groaned. The sounds and sights had my core tightening.
The first man brought the flogger down again, and the woman’s thighs trembled as she moaned. The man soothed the sting of the swat with his palm, his hand dipping between her thighs.
Heat flared at my back, and smoky cedar swirled around me. “You like to watch, Little Flame.”
It wasn’t a question, but heat still licked my cheeks. I tried to look up at Cillian, but he gripped my chin lightly, forcing it back toward the stage. “Eyes on them. Don’t look anywhere else.”
My heart hammered against my chest, and I could feel Cáel’s and Knox’s gazes on me. The three of them were surrounding me, their heat, their scents.
Cillian’s hand dipped beneath my short silk dress. “Yes?” he growled.
