Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 73397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Suddenly I hear a sharp Slap! echo around me, quickly followed by a decidedly feminine moan.
Wait—moan?
I rub and blink my eyes, begging them to adjust so I can react to my surroundings. Finally, I make out the shape of two men, each of them shirtless and wearing leather chaps while wielding strange-looking instruments―and a woman, at least ten years my senior, dressed in black lingerie and leather bindings.
Her ass looks red and raw. Despite being tied up, there’s a look of ecstasy on her face that brings a flush to my cheeks and I think I actually start sweating at the sight.
“I…think I’m in the wrong place…” I slowly back away and hit the door.
The two guys stop to look at me. Their sweat-soaked bodies glisten in the dim light. They’re obviously trying hard to show off what they perceive to be their best features, though the word compensation comes to mind.
“Miss Travers. We were warned—er—told you’d be coming soon,” one of them muses. He approaches me. “My name is Lars. Your parents have spoken about you quite a bit. It’s great to finally meet you.”
I stare at him, at a loss for words at the images in front of me. I look past the men and find a room that looks fresh out of some unexplainable hell.
Straps hang from the ceiling―objects that would not look out of place in a medieval castle. And there are strange wooden seating structures that might have been designed for a creature with twice the number of joints mostly found in people. To top that all of is a metal structure that looks like a children’s play set if it was in the fever dream of an asylum patient.
The man, Lars, has a large, dirty smile on his face as he looks me up and down. “I take it by your stunned silence you’re enjoying what you see, then?” He laughs.
“I…um…” I stammer, my head swimming. “I honestly have no idea what it is I’m even looking at. My parents didn’t exactly fill me in on…any of this.”
The other man behind Lars laughs. The sound echoes around the room. My first impression of him is that he’s not at all much of a pleasant man, even in this dim light.
“Just like them, eh?” he says, chortling. His voice coats the walls, thick like a large cloth. Goosebumps pepper my skin. “I’m Draven, by the way. We’ll get acquainted soon. Work to do, people to do. You know the drill.”
“I, for one, don’t know what you’re talking about…” I begin, but the sound of a woman deep in distress stops me.
I push past Lars towards the source of the sound. There’s a black door to an adjacent room, and I throw it open in panic.
A woman is in front of me with her limbs strung up in ways that stretch the boundaries of both human imagination and decency, while a stocky brute of a man whips her back and thrusts his hips into her as she moans and screams.
“What the fuck!” I hear both the woman and myself exclaim.
“Who said you could talk?” the man fucking her yells―and then slaps her across the face.
“S-sorry…” the woman says sheepishly.
I hear Lars come up behind me. “This is Ash…and one of our regulars. No worries, they’ll be done soon. Her time is almost up anyway.”
“Er…okay. Excuse me, I guess,” I say, turning to close the door. “So…this is what I’m doing now. I assume I at least have an office?”
Lars nods and grabs me by the hand. His touch is slimy, even though his hand is perfectly dry. This is going to be a lot to get used to.
We enter the office, and I breathe a sigh of relief. There’s finally a relatively normal room here, with a nice, fashionable desk, as well as a normal computer, phone, and pretty much everything I could ask for in a simple office.
“Th-thank you, Lars,” I say. “If you’ll excuse me, I just need a few minutes alone.”
He nods but lingers at the door for a moment. I try to ignore him and study my new office, but the whole time, I can feel his gaze move up and down my entire body. Goosebumps crawl across my skin and don’t go away until after the door finally clicks shut.
Once he’s gone, I take a moment to sit at my desk. There’s all kinds of paperwork strewn across the desk, but overall, my parents did a good job keeping everything together. The only thing that’s distracting me is the blinking red light on the phone.
I shrug and click the voicemail button.
“Hello, this is Detective Burke with the NYPD. We would like to speak to Mr. and Mrs. Travers with regard to the employees of the Scarlet escort service. We just have a few questions to ask to help settle a case; it should only take a few minutes of your time. Please call us back. You have the number to my office.”