The Double

There was a beautiful four poster bed with cream sheets and a crimson comforter, hung with matching crimson drapes. The wood of the frame was so old that there were no square corners left.

But what had stopped me in my tracks wasn’t the amazing room, or the bed. It was the rest of the furniture.

It was in the same style as the bed. Maybe it had even come from the same European palace, hundreds of years ago. It was all handmade, with elaborately carved wood, cold cast iron, and soft scarlet leather. It was beautiful. But terrifying.

On shaking legs, I started across the room, looking at each piece in turn. A bench that you would kneel on, your lower legs bound and your upper body pressed against the leather. An X-shaped thing you would stand against, your wrists and ankles held by straps. A thing like a gymnastics horse that you would bend over, your ass in the air, legs spread….

I came to a stop at the end of the room, next to a wooden rack holding whips and riding crops.

A dungeon. This was a dungeon.

Which meant Konstantin was into this stuff. I had a sudden vision of Christina bound to one of the benches and Konstantin hulking over her, teasing her and taking her over and over again as she wriggled and begged.

Except it wasn’t him and Christina, anymore. It was him and me.

But I’m not into this stuff! I’d tried BDSM once, with a boyfriend. He’d tried to tie my wrists to the bed but the plastic clothesline he’d used wouldn’t hold a knot and kept slipping apart, and he was too timid to be convincingly menacing.

Konstantin, though...he was plenty menacing. I looked down at the thing I was next to, the one I thought of as the “kneeling bench.” With those big hands, he could absolutely push me onto that thing, naked, my breasts pressed just there, and pin me there while he bound me....

A drumbeat started inside me, slow but insistent, resonating up into my head and down into my groin. I pushed my hand experimentally against the leather padding. Soft but firm. It was cool against my palm but it warmed to my body in just a few heartbeats. I kept my hand there, transfixed, and the room was so quiet, I could hear that my breathing had gone tight. The drumbeat inside me was building in power, each crash of it radiating out in slow motion, shattering everything in its path.

I fingered the thick leather straps and buckles. Once he fixed me in place, I’d be helpless. That word felt weirdly powerful, echoing again and again in my head, blending with the rising drumbeat and making me crush my thighs together. Helpless. Tied tight, all I’d be able to do was thrash and plead, and he’d just take me, just utterly, utterly, take me—

I snatched my hand away, shocked at what was in my head. I have to get out of here. Right now.

I spun around...and froze. The door was wide open and Konstantin’s huge form was silhouetted in the doorway. He stepped into the light.

“I should have known I’d find you here,” he told me.

And he kicked the door closed behind him.

19

Hailey

AS SOON AS the door closed, the atmosphere in the room changed. There was so much rock above us and the door was so thick, we were completely isolated from the rest of the mansion. I could scream and no one would hear me. That should have terrified me but instead I felt the crash of that drum inside me again, just a single loud boom that resonated right to my fingertips and made me ache between my thighs. What the hell is happening to me?

Konstantin started towards me, each heavy footstep vibrating through the marble floor and up into my body, making me twitch and quiver like a tuning fork. I’d never known anyone to have such a physical effect on me, just by their presence. The effect got stronger the closer he got: before one footstep could die away, the next hit me, setting up harmonics that made my breathing tighten and my heart race. By the time he stood in front of me, I was a panting mess.

“Look at me,” he ordered.

And that was when I realized I wasn’t looking at him, I was focused on his polished black shoes. I wanted to look at him, wanted to see that gorgeous face, fill my senses with his pecs, his shoulders. But for some reason I’d cast my eyes down as soon as he’d approached. It was something about this room.

Or...was it something about me?

I lifted my head and looked up at him. Instantly, I was pinned by that glittering, ferociously hot gaze. But there was something else going on, too, something I couldn’t put a name to, something that made the breathless heat inside me tighten and coil all the way down to my groin, where it became slick wetness. Konstantin is big, but I’d never felt so small.