Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Marcus takes me not by the hand, but puts his fingers on the nape of my neck. I flinch, mostly because the touch reminds me of the sharp pain of being chipped. He steers me through the lounge with that possessive grip, making sure that everybody knows exactly who I belong to.
I feel eyes running over me. Are they wondering who I am? I am nobody to anybody here. I am a perfect, total stranger. Their interest in me is not personal, I am sure. It is the same interest a butcher has when looking over a pen of pigs. I am flesh, and they are wondering how I will look when I am strung up.
Marcus’ fingers tighten on the back of my neck.
“Do not worry, pet,” he says. “You are safe enough with me.”
Those words are disturbingly reassuring. I am safe enough with him. Not entirely safe, just safe enough. I did need to hear something like that. I needed to be reminded that I am not here to be thrown to the wolves. That would be a truly terrifying proposition. I am here with Marcus, and he is initiating me into his world.
This is what I have been stupid enough to dream of. Simply paying attention to the goings on in this room would be enough to satisfy my hopes for a while. But I think there is more to come this evening. I think I am about to end up so far out of my depth, I have no sense of where the bottom is. Marcus has taken me to the very edge of an abyss, and he is going to force me to look into this void.
“Marcus!” A man with a voice like a bassoon greets us as one of the inhabitants of this lounge waylays us. “It has been a long time since we’ve seen you at the Embassy. I was starting to think you must have lost your appetite!”
Marcus looks him up and down. They are both tall men, though the greeter is older. He has salt and pepper hair, a sharp jaw, and the dull, dark eyes of a shark. I know instantly and instinctively that he is not one to be trusted.
“Perhaps I did for a time, Earnest.”
“Yet here you are, with a very tasty morsel. She looks practically untouched. Did you pick her up off the streets and drag her here?”
These two men loathe each other. I can tell by the way Earnest is talking about me as if I look like a street walker. I don’t look any less put together than the woman who is chained to a nearby man’s wheelchair by her neck. I am more clad than many of the other female guests, most of whom lounge around with bared breasts and expressions like well-fed felines.
“Nice to see you again, Earnest,” Marcus says. He does not attempt to defend my honor. He does not engage with the beastly creature at all.
Instead, he sweeps me away to another little group of people. These ones smile more genuinely at the pair of us. There are two men, a redhead and a blond, and they have a pair of dark-haired ladies with them. Nobody is collared, chained, or obviously marked. These four look as though they could be in the lobby of any number of fine hotels.
“Ladies,” Marcus says. “And gentlemen.”
“You,” the redhead says, his lips twisting in a slight smirk. “I didn’t think we’d see you here again. Not after last time.”
I am now intensely curious as to what happened last time, but this clearly isn’t a good opportunity to ask the question.
Marcus smiles, but does not dignify the comment with a response.
“He can’t stay away,” the blond says.
“Charlie, this is Steven and Steven,” Marcus introduces me. “And their wives, Lisa and Lisa.”
“Ha,” I say, assuming it is a joke, but not a particularly funny one.
“This is Charlie. She is my guest for the evening,” he says.
“We’ve not seen you before. This must be your first time,” one of the Lisas says.
“What a treat,” the other Lisa smirks. “I wish it could be my first time again.”
“A dose of the right stuff, and anything can feel like the first time,” one of the Stevens says. It doesn’t really matter which one. They are all clearly playing up in some silly way.
“Is this why we’re here? To have banal conversations?” I try to ask the question discretely, but there’s no real way to do that, and I am sure I am overheard.
“She’s eager to experience the pleasures of the Embassy,” the other Lisa says.
“Manners, pet,” Marcus chides me.
I never thought I could be bored by a conversation at a secret cabal’s twisted sex party, but it turns out that some people can make anything feel very pedestrian and ordinary.
“Why are we meeting these people?” I murmur the question when we are out of earshot.