Page 62 of The Broker

He wasn’t convinced. “Let’s see what everyone else has to say.” He turned to look at the audience, and his gaze zeroed in on someone on the other side of the aisle, a few rows behind us. “How about you?” he asked. “You think she deserves it?”

It’d been a guy Travis had been looking at, and the man’s answer came in a voice that was full of gravel. “Yeah. She’s been a good little slut.”

The comment caught Travis off guard, but he recovered in an instant. A slow smile burned across his lips before his focus drifted away, traveling across the crowd, before landing on a new person. “And you? Do you think thisgood little slutdeserves to come?”

Every cell inside me became a screw that had been turned a quarter inch too tight. He peered at Charlotte, awaiting her response. She didn’t seem to be breathing, so her unsteady voice had barely any power to it—yet it still flooded the room.

“Yes.”

He nodded in acknowledgement, and his gaze resumed its search for more feedback. However, there was really only one person whose opinion mattered to him, and he focused in on his partner who was seated in the front row.

Clay didn’t wait for Travis to ask his question. His head tilted a degree, and his tone was firm. “Not yet.”

Whatever expression Clay had on his face, it had to be the same as the one Travis wore now. The man on stage looked so fucking pleased. “I agree.”

Behind him, Lilith’s head tipped back in disappointment. She was impatient, eager to get off, and I sensed it was the same for most of the people in the audience. But I had the same thought as these men, that it’d be more rewarding if they made her wait.

Travis marched over to the bench his boyfriend had set to the side earlier, and he began to drag it across the stage until it was centered in front of Lilith. She watched him with anxious eyes, like she was unsure if she’d love what he planned to do next, but she was excited regardless.

He stalked toward her, pulled the riding crop from her mouth, and tossed it aside. His gaze raked over her body, as if he were savoring the image and perhaps reluctant to do anything else. I didn’t understand that until he reached up and unclipped one of her arms.

Ah.

Like him, I had a twinge of disappointment that her time being bound to the St. Andrew’s Cross was coming to a close. He unhooked her other handcuff from the ring, and while he bent to undo her ankles, Lilith lowered her arms back into the same ‘ready’ position she’d used before, holding perfectly still for him.

Such a good, obedient girl.

A deep, secondhand admiration swept through me. It was sexy as fuck the way they partnered together, and I was goddamn envious.

When she was no longer tethered to the cross, he grabbed the clasps dangling from her wrists and tugged her along to the side of the bench. She stood there, staring at the long strip of padding before her, while he freed her from her bra and dropped the lacy scrap of fabric to the stage floor.

He wasn’t mean or rough when he pushed her down onto the bench, flattening her chest and stomach to the pad, but he’d been firm, and her long hair spilled over her face. She wiped it out of her eyes and shifted her body subtly to find a more comfortable position.

Still, it probably wasn’t great. There was a padded bar wedged in her cleavage and she was bent over, her legs running parallel to the A-frame legs of the bench.

While she settled, Travis took off his shoes, pulled off his socks, and hurried out of his pants. It left him dressed in only black boxers, and they hugged his toned form. The guy clearly worked out more than I did, and although I wasn’t attracted to men, I appreciated his defined abs and obliques. It displayed all the hard work he’d invested in his body.

Chances were Charlotte appreciated them too, but when I glanced in her direction, she seemed to be more focused on Lilith. Not that I blamed her. The woman wasn’t just hot—she was stunningly beautiful.

And yet, the girl beside me was the one who held my interest. There was an innocence she seemed eager to shed, and watching her open her eyes to these new experiences was intoxicating. Her enthusiasm reminded me so much of how I’d been when I was new.

Travis padded on his bare feet to the other end of the bench, so he stood beside her head, and loomed over her. “Hands behind your back.”

Her arms had hung loosely down to the floor, so I had expected him to clip her to the rings at the bottom of the bench legs, but he had other plans, apparently. She did as instructed, tucking her arms behind her back, and the black cuffs looked like thick bracelets on her wrists.

There were rings on the clasps, and it took him no time to clip her wrists together. Maybe with a certain amount of twistingshe’d be able to free herself, but it’d be difficult, and it had to give her a similar feeling to being bound in a regular pair of handcuffs.

He jammed a hand under the waistband of his underwear, tugging it down out of the way so his dick was free. The woman across the aisle from Charlotte legitimately gasped.

Well, shit.

That envious feeling from before was back.

“I want this good and hard,” Travis stared down at Lilith and demanded it in a rough voice, “so I can give you the orgasm you’re desperate for.”

Two things happened.

She opened her greedy little mouth for him to shove his impressive dick inside, and the woman sitting two seats over from me came abruptly. Her cry was loud enough that several people near us turned to see what was going on, including Charlotte.

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