Page 16 of The Price of Power

“And I’m sure that you are,” Gabriel countered. The absolute certainty in his voice made me doubt myself. “You can start slow. Just turn it halfway for now.”

I checked over my shoulder one more time.

The couple did look like they were enjoying themselves. And since we were already watching, surely there couldn’t be any harm in listening in as well. After all, the switch was right there.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I reached forward and turned the knob one place. Instantly, our room was flooded with the sound of heavy breathing and pleasured sighs.

It shouldn’t have been anything new.

After all, I wasn’t a virgin. And even though I’d always been a more reserved lover, I’d watched porn before. I knew what wild, passionate sex sounded like—at least what the internet wanted me to think it sounded like.

But this was different. These weren’t actors on a screen. They were real people who were only inches away. So close they were practically in the room with us. Hearing them pant and moan took on a whole new erotic quality I’d never experienced before. One that sent goosebumps up and down my entire body.

“Come here.”

I looked up to see Gabriel gesturing for me to move closer. My heart was hammering so hard, I didn’t think twice.

“Sit down,” he said, opening his legs to make room for me to settle on the floor between his thighs. “Watch with me for a while.”

I did what he asked.

Honestly, at that point, I didn’t think I had it in me to say no. I couldn’t remember ever being so wound up before. Nothing I’d experienced had even come close.

A moment after I sat, his hands cupped over my shoulders. Slowly, they began to move. Gently at first, then harder—kneading away all the nervous tension trapped inside. Just like the rest of him, Gabriel’s touch was demanding but not painful. Powerful but not cruel.

“Relax,” he commanded, and I was shocked when my body instantly complied.

He must have felt my moment of surrender because he sounded pleased when he leaned in closer to whisper, “Good girl” in my ear. I didn’t want to admit the electric thrill that zipped through me at the sound.

“Now look at the couple behind the glass.” Again, I did exactly what he asked. “And tell me what you like.”

In the next heartbeat, all the tension he’d drained from me came rushing back.

“I…I…”

“Don’t think, Liv. Just say it.”

Oh God, what was it about this stranger that made it so easy for me to hand over all sense of control to him? It had to be something about the temporary nature of the moment, knowing that it was just for tonight, that once I walked out of this room, I’d never see him again, that took away my fear.

The irony wasn’t lost on me that the only place a good girl like me felt free enough to be my true self was in a sex club with a total stranger.

“I like the way he’s touching her,” I said. “The way that he’s rubbing her breasts.”

“Like this,” Gabriel’s hands slid from my shoulders to my chest.

I hissed in a sharp breath as he began to mirror the movements in front of us. Even though my clothes were still on, the feel of his touch through the fabric of my dress was intense enough to make me close my eyes and let my head fall back.

But Gabriel wasn’t about to let me off that easy. After only a few seconds, he nudged my head back up. “What else?”

Even though I knew what would happen next, I didn’t hesitate.

“The way he’s kissing her neck,” I said.

In an instant, he pulled me up off the floor and nestled me into his lap. In the same breath, his lips were on me. His open mouth pressed hard against the exposed column of my neck as he hungrily began to kiss that vulnerable part of me.

My lips fell open, and a sound I’d never made before came out of me—an echo of the unrestrained, pleasure-filled cries of the woman I was watching. My spine arched, and as my ass slid against the silk of his pants, I felt the hard length of his cock rubbing against me.

“Oh God, yes,” I moaned before trying to twist myself around to face him.

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