Page 62 of Caught By Menace

The grin curving his sexy mouth told her just how much her response pleased him. “I won’t let anything happen to you tonight. If I somehow misread you, use your safeword.”

“I will.”

Menace placed his hand on the small of her back and gently pressed her forward. “We won’t be spending much time on the main floor of the club. I’ve reserved a private room for us. Main floor protocol is much different than anything we’ve done together.”

“How so?” Anxiety fluttered in her core.

“You are not allowed to wander without me. If you’re caught without your master, a monitor will put you in the stocks and let any man who walks by take a swat at you with a paddle to teach you a lesson.”

Naya gasped and stepped even closer to Menace. “You mean some other man could hit me?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t be letting you out of my sight.” He rubbed her lower back before picking up an ankle-length gray jacket from the table in the entryway. He placed it around her shoulders and zipped the front. “We’ll take this off after we check in at the club.”

She glanced down at the hideous coat. It was ugly as hell but it would keep her modest on the trek to the club. “Thank you.”

Menace gestured to the front door. She waited for him to open it and stepped into the hallway. While he locked the door, he gave more instructions. “Also remember not toaddress anyone, not even another wife, without first getting my permission. You will address other men as Sir. Understood?”

“Yes. What about you?”

He tapped the elevator button. “What do you call me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Master, my liege, light of my life—”

“Yeah, I got it.” Naya rolled her eyes but couldn’t squash the smile his playfulness inspired. They stepped into the waiting elevator and he punched in the access code for the private floor that housed the officers’ club. “Anything else I should know?”

“I want you to stay open to possibilities tonight. Watch other couples. See if anything interests you. We haven’t really discussed hard limits yet. There may be things you see tonight that you are absolutely never willing to try and that’s all right. There may also be things that excite and arouse you.” Menace used his body to box her into the corner and let his lips dance along her neck. “I want you to tell me about those things.”

The elevator ride ended much too quickly. Before she knew it, Menace had checked them in, taken away her jacket and led her into the darkened interior of the club. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the dimly lit space. Throbbing, thumping music blanketed the air. The huge open floor-plan hosted a bar with multiple seating areas.

Her first clue that she wasn’t in a real bar was the sight of a bare-naked woman down on all fours and serving as a table for the two men kicked back in chairs near her. Two red cups rested on her flat back. How the woman managed to maintain her untenable position perplexed Naya. Judging by the red stripes on her ass and the pool of liquid next to her hand, she hadn’t been successful.

Menace grabbed her lower arm, just above the cuff, and gave her a tug. She matched his pace as he took her deeper into the club. She got her first look at the public stations. Some ofthe equipment she’d seen or used in Menace’s playroom. The spanking horse, for instance, or the restraint table, but that big scary X in the far corner made her belly flip-flop. The woman tied to it shrieked as her man lashed her back with a whip. People crowded around to watch him whipping her as if she were a brokendown mule.

Naya’s feet faltered. What the hell kind of place was this?

“Look at me.”

Menace’s deep, strong voice cut through her panic. “It’s consensual, Naya. She wants it. She wants to be whipped by her Master.”

“How can you possibly know that?”

“The monitor,” he said and pointed out the hulking man standing near the station. “Any man with a bright-orange armband is a monitor. They know when it’s time to step in and stop something. The safeword for the entire club is red, but every master registers his woman’s safeword when we check in here. The same ID chips that keep track of you around the ship keep track of you here. See those watch-like devices they wear? Each one has a screen that informs them of the safewords of the couples closest to them.”

Naya’s gaze drifted from the monitor to the woman on the cross. She rose up on her toes in anticipation of every snapping bite of the whip. The muscles in her back and legs weren’t tense with fear. For a woman getting the snot lashed out of her, she looked relaxed.

It struck Naya that this woman probably had reasons for enjoying the pain of her husband’s whip. Naya relished the feel of Menace pinning her in place or cuffing her so that she was totally submissive and at his mercy because it was a taste of the danger she’d managed to evade while living on the streets. Surrendering control to Menace, letting him take her, gave her a rush that she couldn’t eloquently explain. It was primal and real.

“Come.” Menace squeezed her arm and propelled her forward. “I see some familiar faces.”

She wasn’t so sure she wanted to run into any familiar faces dressed like this. Keeping close to his side, Naya allowed her gaze to roam the bustling club. The amount of skin and sex on display left her speechless.

Along one wall, there was some kind of game being played. Naked women wearing red devices between their thighs walked down lanes outlined in glowing white stripes while balancing balls on their hands. She saw one woman convulse with pleasure and drop her ball. Sweat slicked the woman’s skin and her moans were high-pitched. Naya figured the device was some kind of vibrating toy. To receive her punishment for dropping the ball, the woman bent over and grabbed her ankles, presenting her bottom to anyone who wanted to take a peek. A man stepped forward and gave her one hot stripe across her backside with a cane.

Tearing her gaze away from the rigged game, Naya caught sight of an elevated seating area. It looked like an exclusive place. She was a bit surprised when Menace angled them through the crowd toward it. The monitor at the stairs took one look at Menace and waved him through. Apparently being high-ranking and well-liked had its privileges.

Up in the cozy room cordoned off by gauzy silver curtains, Naya saw a very familiar and very intimidating face. Leaning back in a comfortable chair, Vicious talked with another man. The dark-haired man sported a pilot’s haircut with four stripes shaved into the right side of his head.

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