Page 134 of Look, Don't Touch

“You looked for me?” My cheeks heat.

“After I knew to look. Every time.”

The walls and ceilings are painted the same deep color that looks black at first glance but hold tints of navy at certain angles and hunter green in others. It drips with architectural features like molding and bas-relief sculptures of women and men embedded in the walls. Each depiction is a person in an elegantly compromised position.

It all lends to a decadent feel.

We weave past a casual seating area of club chairs and low tables atop thick rugs. People of every race, gender, orientation, and nationality carry on conversations as though there isn’t a man hanging from the ceiling hugged by a harness in the center of the clusters.

The man is short and lean and naked as the day he was born. He’s also at the mercy of…everyone. His face is awash in lust as a man nibbles up the inside of his thigh and a woman sucks his fingers into her mouth.

His cock head is soaked in precum.

“Want a taste?” Arlo’s unique voice filters in through my ears and smacks into my brain.

My head whips around to find his gaze bouncing between me and the slowly tortured man.

“No.”

“You can, if you want.” His voice is rich and enticing. Like a honeyed trap.

“I don’t want.” I shove at his shoulder, urging him on and away from the groups.

“Suit yourself.” He grins, grabs my hand, and tugs me along behind him.

I think my intellect leaked out my ears and left a mess on the floor back there, kind of like the suspended man. My mouth opens and closes several times. My eyes follow suit, focusing and losing the back of Arlo’s head at a steady beat.

Surely, he was just fucking with me. Right?

We pass a circle bar made of veiny wood with green velvet stools with backs. A well-dressed bartender offers us a warm smile while a woman in a crisp suit eyes us with definite interest.

Arlo pulls me to his side. “How about her?”

My eyes go wide. “What about her?”

“I’m sure she’d give you a taste or just be happy to taste you.”

I search his face for the joke. His features are serious. My mouth opens once more, but only a squeak comes out.

“Too much?” He kisses my forehead. “I’ll calm down.”

There’s a slightly raised stage with a man securing intricately knotted ropes across a woman’s small breasts. I urge Arlo past it, which is where I think he was headed anyway, then yank him into a dark alcove.

His lips descend on mine before I can get a word out. He holds my face and tilts my chin where he wants it, sweeping his tongue over mine as though it’s the first time. It is since we’ve come back together earlier today. The hours since then have been a whirlwind, and I’m still swept up in the gale.

I shove at his shoulders, and he eases back.

“Are you fucking with me, or are you trying to prove a point?” I don’t give him a chance to answer. My hands go to his lapel, and I yank him forward and down to my level. “I don’t want anyone else. I want you.”

His jaw flexes, and his gaze flashes in the low light.

“Will you let yourself have me?” he snarls.

Again, my voice is worthless.

“I’m not proving a point, Hailey. Not yet. But I will.” He bites my lower lip and pulls me close. “You are more important to me than anything. Your wants and needs come first. If you need the bench, I’ll give it to you. If you need more cock or another cunt to play with, the same rules apply. If you hadn’t safed out when I was away for work, I wouldn’t have stopped caring about you.”

“We weren’t together then.”

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