That image spurred him on. “Get up,” he said gruffly, his cock throbbing. “Let’s go to bed. You’re going to be fucked. Get your ass ready. Now.”
Daniel stared at him with shining eyes as he hoisted himself to his feet. He nearly ran to the bedroom with Liam just behind him. Daniel positioned himself on all fours on their bed. He smeared lubricant on his nether entrance and lowered his head submissively to the mattress.
“Please fuck me, Sir. Use me.”
Liam positioned himself behind his lover, nearly trembling with lust and aching with need. For one bizarre second, he caught a small blond head in his peripheral vision, green eyes flashing. She was kneeling naked beside the bed, pert breasts tipped with dark pink nipples hard as pebbles.
But when he turned to see, there was no one there.
~*~
Alex’s mouth was dry and when she tried to speak her voice was hoarse. She cleared her throat and tried again. “I want to stay. I mean, not forever.” She giggled nervously. “You know, to try it out. What you said. True submission.”
God, she was insane. She didn’t even know this guy. But then, she hadn’t known Liam and Daniel either when she’d agreed to the trial week with them. Damn it, she was tired of always being so careful. She was going to go for it. If Anthony turned out to be a dick, she’d hit the road.
“Is there anything you need in your car? I’m hoping you’ll want to stay a while.”
He walked with Alex to the front door and watched as she retrieved her overnight bag. There was still time to change her mind. She could just climb into the driver’s seat and leave then and there.
Except for the fact her purse with her keys was in the house.
And except that she didn’t want to go.
A strange spirit of recklessness had settled over her, no doubt fueled by the wine, by his kiss, by his dark, exciting words and his fingers on her nipple. She grabbed her bag and returned to him.
He took her into his arms at the open door and kissed her, pushing her back so she started to fall and then catching her, keeping her off balance while he claimed her mouth with his.
When he let her go, she could barely catch her breath. He led her into the house and shut the door. “I wanted you the second I saw you, Alexandra. This isn’t a game. Not to me. Let me claim you in the way I know you long for.”
Alex’s heart was pounding. “Um, what about a safeword? Mine is butterfly.”
“Safewords are for players. We won’t need them.” While she absorbed this, he said, “Let me show you the house.”
The first floor contained the usual assortment of rooms—along with the living room and kitchen she’d already seen, he showed her the den and the dining room. The rooms were neat and tidy but nondescript. Alex couldn’t help comparing the warm colors and inviting arrangements in Liam and Daniel’s place where fresh-cut flowers graced every room and the delicious aromas of Daniel’s cooking invariably filled the house.
He led her down to the basement, which he’d converted into his leather workshop for his whip-making business. There were swaths of soft leather hides hanging over most of the surfaces. One counter held spools of cut leather of all different thickness and color. There were several whips in various stages of completion, partially braided and lined up in neat rows.
“Wow.” Alex was impressed. “This is some setup.”
“Thank you. I learned the craft from a master whip maker in Spain. I do everything by hand using techniques honed over hundreds of years.” The pride in his voice was evident. Alex had a feeling if she asked a single question, she would be in for an hour’s lecture so she held her tongue.
Upstairs were three bedrooms, two of them guestrooms as neat and lifeless as motel rooms, the third the master bedroom. Anthony’s bed was king-size and set low to the ground on a black metal frame. The head and footboards were made from the same black metal, thin rods set into the frame like the bars of a cage.
The room was large but sparsely furnished. There was a leather lounge chair and a small table beside it. Along one wall was a high, narrow chest. There was no bureau in sight but there were two doors off the bedroom and Alex speculated one was probably a walk-in closet dressing room and the other the master bath. He didn’t show her what was behind those doors, however.
Instead he walked to the center of the room and pulled a long, thick string that was attached to a trap door in the ceiling. The door opened and a folding set of stairs came down.
“What’s up there?” Alex wrapped her arms around her torso, a frisson of fear sliding into her gut.