Page 14 of Black Velvet

"About the velvet rooms?" I answer breathlessly. Why does his touch have such an effect on me?

"Yes," he affirms. "You can tell me about them—and what you would do up there, if we were allowed to go up there together."

Chapter 10

Damon

The most alluring thing about her?

I can't have her. Not a single part of her. Everything I want—her body, her mind, the true person behind that outfit she's wearing—none of it is accessible to me. It has to be earned through hard work. It will take time. It may not even ever happen, though I highly doubt that outcome.

I always get what I want.Always.

But this time, with Elene, I will have to put some work into it. I won't get my fix just like that. Laying more money on the table won't help, buying her an extra drink won't help. She's a good girl, and she knows how to follow the rules. Besides, there's a reason why she's dressed in white tonight. She has slept with men in exchange for money before, but she won't do it here. There must be a reason.

Her fake eyelashes flutter nervously as she fights to find the right words. I don't think I could ever grow tired of watching her. The constant back and forth between her professional persona and the insecure girl hidden behind it. The girl I can't see. Not the girl in the tight corset, with seductive stockings decorating her long legs and her small breasts pushed up with such force that it's almost impossible to look away. Her platinum strands are loose today, her narrow shoulders draped in soft waves that are only slightly darker than the brilliant white corset around her torso.

"Tell me," I urge. "Tell me about the velvet rooms. Your madam refused to say much."

A smile crosses her face.

"Well, they are exactly what you would expect from the name," she begins, shyly looking up at me through her thick lashes. "Dark rooms with damask wallpaper and thick velvet curtains, the only means for privacy."

She pauses, displaying a cute smirk when her attention wanders across the room to something behind me. I turn around, my eyes following hers to the spiral staircase. A devil is leading a customer by the hand, swinging her hips seductively as she climbs the stairs in front of him.

"And inside the rooms?" I ask, turning back to her. "What will they find inside?"

Elene straightens her back, gaining height on me. She's no longer sitting at the bar as she was before, her body mostly turned away from me. Her position has shifted, her knees pointing my way and her body turned to face me.

"It depends," she says. "Everything has been accounted for."

"Everything," I repeat. "That's pretty vague. You'll have to give me more than that."

"Well, there's a room for pain," she starts, lowering her eyes to escape my gaze. "That's the red room. There are several of those. You know, for spankings, whippings—that sort of thing."

I nod when her eyes dart up to meet mine again.

"Then there's the blue room," she continues. "For sensory deprivation. There's no light and no sound. It's the only room that can be locked and it has a soundproofed door."

"No spanking in there, I assume."

"No spanking in there," she confirms, smiling. "Then there are group rooms, with larger upholstered surfaces."

"For orgies."

"Something like that, yes."

"I don't like sharing."

The smile on her face changes when she tilts her head to the side, shadows dancing on her porcelain skin as she looks at me.

"Whatdoyou like, Sir Graves?"

"Damon," I correct her. "And I don't think we should discuss this question. Not here, not tonight."

The expression on her face hardens.

"The black room," she says. "Maybe you'd like that."

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