Her blue eyes widened. “What the hell are you do—”
“Shut up.” I rested my hands against the wall on both sides of her face, then lowered my head and closed my mouth over hers, kissing her hard and swift and without mercy as I pressed my body against hers from knee to chest.
She grunted in protest as my tongue invaded her mouth, and her fingertips curled against my chest, fisting my dress shirt in her grip as she tried to push me away, but I didn’t let up. I kissed her harder and stroked deeper, holding her immobile against the wall with my body so she couldn’t move. Partly to keep her quiet. Partly to block any view of our faces. And partly because my blood was up and I couldn’t seem to stop myself.
She was mine, goddammit. Mine and no one else’s.
The voices passed, and the second we were in the clear, she jerked her mouth from mine and clawed at my chest with a growled “You don’t get to kiss me like that.”
If she’d told me to let her go, if she’d told me to stop, it might have diffused my anger. But her blunt declaration only lit me up even higher. It took every ounce of willpower I had not to grab her and shake some sense into her when I dropped my voice and said, “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“The same thing you’re doing here,” she hissed, shoving against my shoulders. “Looking for a good time.”
My vision turned red, and every muscle in my body coiled tight. A good time? With a perverted asshole like the one in the ballroom?
Fuck. That.
More voices echoed from the direction of the kitchen. Without even considering any other option, I wrapped my hand around her wrist and yanked her with me as I headed for the staircase.
“Where are you taking me?” she whispered, hustling to keep up with my long steps.
“Where you said you wanted to go.” I pulled her down two flights of curved stairs to the lowest level of the mansion. “You want to know just what kind of good time happens here? I’ll fucking show you.”
The corridor was dark when we reached the bottom level, the long space illuminated only by red lights in sconces on the walls that gave off an eerie vibe. Enormous mirrors reflected steel doors spaced every twenty feet down the hall. No sound echoed around us as I drew Natalie behind me, but against my hold, I felt her pulse tick up. And from the corner of my vision I saw the way her eyes widened as she looked right and left and tried to figure out what was going on.
The last door on the right was cracked. I shoved it farther open with one hand and yanked Natalie into the room with the other. The space was dark, but I’d been in this dungeon before—years ago—and I knew what was in this room.
Blood still pumping hot, I hauled her down the two steps to the sunken floor and across the carpet where I twisted her around so she was facing me, then reached up for the cuff I knew was hanging from a bar above our heads.
“What’s going on?” she asked in a nervous voice.
I slapped the leather cuff around her wrist and quickly latched the buckle.
“Luc, what the hell?”
Before she had time to fight back, I yanked her other hand above her head and latched the second cuff to her other wrist.
“Take these off me right now.”
Ignoring her, I crossed back to the door, slammed it shut, and flipped the locks, then I hit the lights—red and eerie and casting everything in a sinister glow.
Natalie’s eyes grew wide as saucers as she got her first look at her surroundings. The walls were painted a dark port wine, the ceiling lined with mirrors. Various pieces of furniture filled the room, each one built from dark woods and even darker leathers. Furniture I knew she’d never seen before.
A Saint Andrew’s cross was positioned against the wall to her left, a spanking bench to her right. Across from her was a dungeon table edged by various metal ring restraints atop a barred slave cage. And against the far wall, taking up most of the space, was a bondage bed complete with a leather headboard, black satin sheets, four tall posters housing numerous restraints, and a stockade built in between the bottom posts.
Her holy-shit gaze behind the kitten mask she wore jumped from the furniture to the instruments hanging from racks on any exposed walls—crops, whips, canes, floggers. All kinds of cuffs, chains, and ropes. Even ball gags, collars, and clamps.
“Wh...what is this place?” she asked, a tremor to her voice that hadn’t been there before.
“Their kind of fun. You said you wanted fun. You got it.” I was too riled up to touch her or—fuck—even look at her right now, so I crossed to the French armoire to my left, yanked my mask off, then jerked the upper doors open and poured myself a glass of scotch from the cut-glass decanter on a silver tray.
“Th-this isn’t right,” Natalie said in a quiet voice at my back. The chains hooked to her restraints jangled as I tossed back my drink. “Let me go.”
“So you can alert everyone in this damn place to your presence? I don’t think so.” I poured myself another shot, hoping the alcohol would cool me down so I didn’t do something I’d regret later. “You already made enough of a fucking scene.”
“Luc.” The chains rattled once more. “I’m not kidding. Let me go, or I’ll scream.”
“Go ahead.” I swallowed the second shot, feeling the burn straight down my chest. “That’s what this room is made for. No one will give a shit.”
“You sonofabitch.”
“I’m a sonofabitch?” I rounded on her, glass in hand, unable to stop myself. “I’m not the one sneaking around with zero regard for anyone else’s safety.”
“You’re worried about your safety?” Her eyes locked on mine from across the room, but they were no longer the wary and afraid eyes I’d seen when I’d first flipped on the lights. These eyes were as hot and dangerous as the center of a flame, ready to fry me to a crisp. “You looked pretty safe to me in that ballroom surrounded by all those kittens.”
She was jealous. That fact hit me square in the center of my chest and diffused at least a little of my rage.
“No, mannaggia, I’m worried about yours. And Felicity’s. That is how you got here, isn’t it? You conned Felicity into bringing you even when you knew it would put her at risk, all because you don’t fucking trust me even after everything I’ve done for you.”
She jerked on the restraints, her eyes blazing. “For your information, Felicity is the one who talked me into coming here. She was already on her way to be with Marco. Unlike us, they actually talk about shit instead of ignoring it. And why the hell would I trust you? You lied to me this morning.”
I drew a breath, knowing I was teetering on the edge, working like hell to keep from going off the deep end. She was ticked because I hadn’t come back to her today as I said I would, and she had every right to be angry. But she needed to know this was not an acceptable reaction.
“I didn’t lie to you. They took my phone as soon as I finished with Dante. I wanted to call you. I tried repeatedly to get to a phone to contact you, but they wouldn’t let me. I’m not even remotely tempted by what’s going on out there. I was biding my time until I could get back to you.”
“You tried to call to tell me about this party?”
“Yes. They wanted you to react like this. They’re trying to make you jealous even though you and I both know you have nothing to be jealous of.”