Chapter 1
Curiosity killed the cat. That could also be said for her concentration, Kelsey mused as yet another soft cry echoed up from the lower floor and distracted her from the numbers on the computer screen before her. Do not leave the office tonight, no matter what. Due to the secluded location of this private establishment, her foster father had insisted on driving her tonight and dropping her off with that dictate, one Jared Markham, the owner, had reiterated before leaving her alone in his office to audit the club’s books. Twenty-nine years old and Jordan still keeps an overprotective eye on me. She shook her head ruefully. It was hard to get upset with either Jordan or his wife, Theresa since they were the closest thing to family she’d ever known.
A shiver racked Kelsey’s body as the suspicious sound of leather snapping against bare skin reached her ears, the high-pitched shriek that followed making her jump. She didn’t know much about her accounting firm’s new client except that Dominion was a private club and the only time she could audit their books was in the evening as there was no one around during the day. But putting two and two together was easy and she knew, just knew she was inside a kink club for the first time. Growing up in Philadelphia, she’d heard all about the decadent social pleasures Pennsylvania’s largest city boasted.
“It’s none of my business. Focus, girl,” Kelsey lectured herself as she calculated the debit column for the third time. Odds were, the long dry spell since her last relationship ended contributed to her mind insisting on straying toward those foreign sounds. I mean, really, who shrieks like that during sex? Not her, that was for sure. As much as she loved doing the horizontal nasty and missed getting naked and sweaty with a hard male body, her orgasms had never rendered her a mindless ninny nor were powerful enough to draw a cry out of her.
She made it through the debit column before a low moan resonated upstairs, sounding as if it had been wrenched from a tortured woman’s throat just outside the open door. Kelsey glanced out into the hall and at the rail along the catwalk circling the lower floor. What could one peek hurt? Just enough to satisfy my curiosity so I can concentrate on work.
“Oh, hell, why not?” she muttered, pushing back from the desk. She wouldn’t get any work done at this rate. Her sneakered feet were quiet on the carpet as she stepped into the hall and sidled over to the far corner where she could stay partially hidden. She knew she shouldn’t be risking this. If caught going against a client’s instructions, she could lose her job, and the last thing she ever wanted to do was disappoint the McAllisters who had taken her in and kept her after the second foster family in five years turned her back over to the state.
Kelsey’s life before the age of five was as murky as the Hudson River, her only memory that of holding a small black puppy while angry male voices followed by a series of loud, unexplainable noises filtered through a closed door. She remembered nothing else, not even how she ended up a ward of the state. No one had claimed her then and no one had stuck with her in the twenty-four years since, not those foster parents or counselors poking at her memory between the ages of five and ten, and not one of the four men she’d enjoyed a relationship with in the last ten years. Only Jordan and Theresa, who never let the fact she wasn’t biologically theirs matter. She would do anything for them, including putting up with their ever watchful, overprotective concern that could, at times, stifle and irritate the hell out of her.
I’ll make it fast, she promised herself. Just a quick look, enough to answer the plaguing questions each of those sounds kept popping up. Leaning sideways, she peered down, her knees almost buckling at what she saw. The dimmer lighting didn’t hide the odd contraptions both men and women were bound to or the apparent pleasure they reaped from their partner’s attention and the public exhibitionism. Weren’t they embarrassed? she wondered, gazing down upon the pale, stripped bodies on display.
Kelsey shifted her eyes around the room and zeroed in on a tall man standing right below her, his face revealing displeasure as he appeared to rebuke the blonde who trembled before him wearing nothing but a sheer, thigh-length slip. She could only catch snippets of the man’s deep voiced lecture. “…attitude… not acceptable… know better… I’m disappointed….” The young girl paled at that last utterance and tears pooled in her eyes as she lowered her head.
Slapping a hand over her mouth, Kelsey watched wide-eyed as the girl slid her hands under her slip and lowered her panties to mid-thigh. With a barked order, the man snapped his fingers and pointed to the arm of the sofa next to them. Other people milled about, some pausing to watch as the subdued girl turned and positioned her hips on top of the arm, the slip inching up, baring her butt as she braced on her elbows and lowered her head to the sofa seat. Kelsey’s legs gave out and she squatted down, which wasn’t far considering at five-foot-two she was already halfway there.
She wasn’t surprised when the man pulled his arm back and swatted the blonde’s butt, but the ripple of shocked awareness warming her body with as much heat as she imagined those fleshy cheeks were feeling did. Oh, that’s just wrong. Kelsey groaned as the girl lifted her butt and pushed back, as if begging for more, which he delivered with enough force to jiggle the rounded globes. “Knock it off you two,” she hissed under her breath when her nipples puckered in response to the scene. “This is not our thing, so don’t get any ideas.” But when the next spank reddened the under curve of the girl’s right buttock and her stomped bare foot in reaction earned her a sharp-voiced reprimand and a smack that pushed her forward on the seat, Kelsey’s long neglected pussy spasmed and went damp. Fisting her hands, she rolled her eyes and cast a quick look down between her bent legs. “You too, you slutty bitch. Behave!”
If she didn’t get back to work soon, her own butt might be in trouble, but she couldn’t seem to pull herself away from that one scene. Not understanding why those two enthralled her, she forced herself to scope out some of the other activities. The two women kneeling at a man’s feet with their heads bent over his straining cock was certainly eye-catching and worth ogling for a few moments, as was the woman writhing under her raised, chained arms
as two men dropped melted wax onto her nipples. Kelsey’s nubs heated and pulsed even though she couldn’t imagine ever agreeing to try such a painful thing, her body’s continued betrayal giving her something to think about. But two men? Well, what red-blooded woman didn’t fantasize about that ultimate pleasure? She wondered if she would shy away from such an offer if she were ever lucky enough to get one.
Her gaze followed one man’s hands as they stroked down the young woman’s waist and thighs before trailing up the insides of her spread legs. A shudder ran through Kelsey as he cupped the woman’s bare labia, her head dropping back as her hips thrust forward into the cupped palm. She had never considered going further than keeping her pubic hair neatly trimmed but witnessing the woman’s reaction to such a light touch on that sensitive skin gave her one more thing to think about.
Unable to resist another look before getting back to work, she gazed back at the spanking scene and flinched every time the man bounced his hand off the poor girl’s bright red butt again. Oh, that’s wrong too, she thought again, this time with a gasp before biting her lip. It wasn’t the tormented young woman’s eager acceptance of the hard spanking Kelsey criticized – to each his own, whatever floats your boat and all that – but the tingles racing across her own cheeks, raising goosebumps in their wake from witnessing those punishing blows.
With a well-aimed swat right between her legs, the man brought the girl to her toes with a startled cry just as Kelsey heard a soft footfall behind her. Before she could come to her feet with a plausible excuse, a hard hand cut off her surprised gasp, the tight pressure sending a wave of cold terror through her. Why do these things always happen to me? was her first thought.
Whimpering in fear as he drew her up and tried to walk backwards with her back held tight against his front, she forced herself to recall the self-defense moves her foster parents had drilled into her over and over starting the first week she’d come to live with them. Digging her nails into his bare arm, she drew blood as she thrust her right foot behind his right ankle and yanked forward with as much strength as she had in her leg. Caught off guard, her assailant stumbled, loosening his hold enough for her to wrench free and let out an ear-piercing scream.
“Fucking bitch,” he swore, making a grab for her arm.
Panting, Kelsey put all her fright-induced adrenaline and momentum into swinging her body around, intending to deliver a back kick to his kneecap. Her aim was off due to his towering height and her foot snapped against his upper thigh hard enough to knock him back a step. In horrified disbelief, she watched him flail his arms out as he hit the rail, his overcompensated efforts to regain his balance forcing him backwards. Kelsey rushed forward and made a grab for his arm as footsteps pounded up the stairs. But neither her nor the people rushing to her aid were fast enough and he landed on the floor below with a sickening thud.
Shaken to the core, Kelsey inched forward and peeked over the rail, the sight of his awkwardly sprawled body threatening to bring up the nausea roiling in her stomach. Oh, shit.
Kelsey strained to hear what was going on outside the office where ‘Master’ Jared had ensconced her over an hour ago after rushing to her side at the rail. She twiddled her thumbs around and around, a nervous habit she had no desire to break. No one should have as much bad luck as her, either in being in the wrong place at the wrong time or as the target of some creep’s malicious designs, it was never clear which. Wasn’t an attempted kidnapping during her second-grade field trip enough? Or the late-night break-in through her bedroom window in her second foster home three years later that ended with that perp getting hit by a car when the alarms scared him off? Her life since the McAllisters had taken her in had been incident-free, thank God. And now, this. She supposed she should feel some relief in having two FBI employees on her side but fretted over causing trouble for either Jordan or Theresa.
Sirens had heralded the approach of law enforcement and, she assumed, an ambulance, well over an hour ago now. Since she hadn’t heard those blaring alarms signaling a fast return to a hospital, she knew her would-be attacker was dead. She shuddered, guilt and sadness overriding relief. To be responsible for another person’s death, regardless of the circumstances, was a burden she wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Louder voices neared the door and Kelsey recognized Jordan’s. She hoped Theresa was with him. Her foster mother often took her side as a teenager. Of course, eleven years had passed since she’d needed a buffer against getting into trouble with her foster father. The door swung open and, regardless of worrying over disappointing or angering either McAllister, she jumped to her feet and flung herself into Jordan’s outstretched arms the moment he entered. When he hugged her in return, whispering, “Thank God you’re safe,” and then transferred her to Theresa’s warm embrace, she broke down into sobs.