Page 116 of The Laughing Game

“I— What?” I said, my voice quiet. Was he suggesting what I thought he was suggesting?

He pointed to the mahogany armoire that was currently priced at exactlyfive thousand, four-hundred and thirty-nine dollars.

“Do you want it? It’s yours, if you’ll promise to look after it.”

“Vihaal. No. I couldn’t!”

He raised his eyebrows and turned to Gideon. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”

Gideon walked up to me. He took my elbow and led me to the armoire.

“Touch it. Go on.”

I looked at Gideon. I looked at Vihaal. I looked at Soresh then at Alice.

I turned back to the armoire and reached out, sliding my fingers along the varnished wood.

“Fuck,” I said, very quietly. “V, you can’t. It’s too much.”

“Nonsense. It’s yours. Now come along, it’s been a trying afternoon. I’ll arrange for the service to have it delivered to your house next week.”

“I—I—” I choked on my words.

“You’re welcome. Now come on, I’m taking you both to supper.” He gathered us with his outstretched arm as he looked over his shoulder at Alice.

“Make up a full-time schedule for Soresh, will you? And I’ll have someone hired to be your assistant within a week.”

“Thank you, Vihaal,” Alice said.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Although we knew he was relieved to have got rid of Dominic, and excited about growing the business with Alice and Soresh, Vihaal was subdued over the next couple of weeks. Learning that his father had deliberately put someone in charge of his business to undermine it, and steal from him, must have been a sobering thing. Not to mention the terrible things that had been said.

Luckily, our number came up at Maverick Molly’s. The Saturday evening we’d booked came around, and we were determined to make up for our interrupted session. Vihaal wanted to pick up exactly where we’d left off, so I found myself once again bound, spread-eagled, on the St. Andrew’s cross, naked except for the braided cock ring.

Flashes of the way Vihaal’s face had looked that day, with blood pouring out of his nose, came back to me, but I forced it from my mind. It was unlikely to happen again in the exact same circumstances in which it had occurred before.

Vihaal had been to a follow-up appointment and the assessment was that everything looked good, and that what had happened had been one of those rare events that life was full of. Vihaal had brought the nose spray with him, just in case.

I was surprised that none of the staff made any comments or jokes regarding what had happened, but seeing as we’d ended up at the hospital, they probably figured it was a sensitive topic. Maybe Sebastian had warned them not to mention it. The event had been upsetting but easily resolved, thank goodness.

I was back on the cross, just as I’d been that fateful day. However, it seemed that Vihaal had something else in mind for Gideon.

Vihaal had moved the stocks and the padded bench to the wall to create space. He had just spent thirty minutes wrapping Gideon in red ropes, lashing his arms together behind his back and knotting them around his chest. Then he’d run the rope up to a metal ring that hung from the ceiling, and now Gideon was held in place with one knee bent and wrapped with rope to the thigh, so that he was standing on the ball of one foot, balanced by the ropes that held him upright. If he lifted that foot, he’d start to spin or sway, so he kept it on the ground, ready for whatever indignity Vihaal had in mind.

Vihaal had gagged him, too, with a thick band of black silk that looked incredible between Gideon’s pink lips. Gideon blinked, his soft eyes gazing at me with a satisfaction that could not be denied. He seemed at home in the ropes, clutching in his hand a round bell that Vihaal had instructed him to drop if he needed to safeword.

“Now that’s a trussed-up boy, just the way I like him,” Vihaal murmured, winking at me over Gideon’s shoulder. “My, my, my. Whatever have I done to deserve this? Two beautiful men at my mercy.”

Gideon made a noise and Vihaal slapped his ass, making him sway and start to spin, except that Vihaal stopped the motion with a hand on Gideon’s pale hip. I loved the way Vihaal’s darker complexion contrasted against Gideon’s lightness.

“Let’s start with some finger fucking, shall we?”

Vihaal, naked except for a pair of dress pants, grabbed a black nitrile glove from a box and tugged it on. Gideon jerked in the ropes, almost losing purchase. He closed his eyes as Vihaal squeezed lube from a bottle into his hand.

I licked my lips, my mouth going dry as Vihaal’s hand disappeared and Gideon made a drawn-out groan. The muscles of Vihaal’s forearm strained as he showed Gideon exactly what he’d meant.

Gideon grunted and groaned, as Vihaal’s gaze met mine.

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