Page 72 of Devilish

The nightlife wasn’t for everyone, but I’d found it was where I did my best work.

“It’s quite the story—are you in for a bit of a tale?”

Kai nodded, sitting on the desk’s edge.

“Let’s see, where’s the best place to start…” I pursed my lips, then winked at him. “Italy, probably—Milan, to be specific. That’s where I was born. I know, it’s hard to believe I’m Italian with a name like Lucien and looking like this.”

Kai snorted and nudged my knee with his toes. “Be serious. I didn’t actually know you were Italian.”

“Sì, signore.I grew up between countries. Dad was Italian, mom American. So we split our time evenly. Six months in Milan and six in Manhattan.”

“Wow. That’s some childhood.”

“It was. One my parents always made sure I was aware of. They never let me take for granted the privilege their money afforded us. But at the same time, they got all that money by working hard and keeping busy. Which meantIhad a lot of time alone, a lot of time to get bored, and maybe a lot of chances to go a little bit…wild.”

“A little bit?” Kai cocked his head, his expression doubtful.

“To start with.”

“That sounds more like it.” He chuckled and I reached for his foot, rubbing my thumb up along the arch of it.

Kai moaned.

“You think I’m wild?”

“Um, you literally have a painting of a dom with his sub kneeling at his feet hanging on the wall behind you right now.”

His eyes flicked to the art piece I’d acquired on one of my trips to Amsterdam many years ago. It was one of the most beautiful depictions I’d ever seen of the lifestyle I’d always longed for. Soft yet commanding all at once. The love and trust exhibited by the sub, his full acquiescence, was something I’d been searching for ever since laying my eyes on the painting. And the dom, so enamored, so devoted that he would lay downhis life to give his sub all that he desired. It was something I’d craved since the first time I’d seen a D/S relationship in action.

“Maybe I am a little.” I shot him another wink. “In all my young curiosity, I’d sneak into clubs and bars. One night I heard people whispering about a place nearby, that they couldn’t believe the things they’d seen.Debauchery, they said—which, of course, meant I had to check it out.”

“It was a sex club, wasn’t it?”

“It was. My first introduction, and I was instantly fascinated. I came back every night, watching and learning, asking questions, though it was lucky for me those doms didn’t kick me out. They must’ve seen something of themselves in me, that I was obsessed with learning everything I could about the lifestyle, and showed me the ropes?—”

“Literally?”

I laughed and tickled the bottom of his foot, and he jerked away. “That too. Eventually I trained to be a dom and traveled all over the world. I got to be pretty well known for it.”

“Uh, no kidding. I’d beg you to come here too.”

“Would you?” I said. “Beg me?”

Kai blushed and shoved me in the arm. “Pretty sure I already have loads of times.”

I caught him by the wrist and brought his fingers up to my lips to press a kiss there. “My favorite sound.”

Heat sparked behind his eyes, but I let him go so it could simmer while I finished the story.

“Eventually I decided I could make my own club. A haven that was both luxurious and private, where I could be in total control. It was while I was there that a particularly powerful man came to be my submissive for a time. At the end of our sessions, he’d be so relaxed he would spill his secrets, and that was when I realized my other path in life.”

Kai’s eyes were wide with interest. “Stealing secrets?”

“Is it stealing if they freely give them? I have more money than I could ever spend, but trading in secrets? That’s a currency worth more than gold. So I opened another club. Then another. All over the world, there are places like The Veil, where the richest, most powerful members of society can go. They come in, have a safe place to land for anything the outside world deems too much. And if they happen to have loose lips, I use it to my advantage. But only if they cross me or my brothers first.”

Kai’s mouth opened, closed, and opened again. “So that’s the connection with Libertine?”

I brought my pointer finger to rest against my lips, keeping that question unanswered—out loud, anyway. I couldn’t divulge the secrets of Libertine. That we had connections most people couldn’t even dream of. Each of my brothers had roles to play, and mine had been set long ago. People came to me from all over the world for forbidden trysts, and I kept those associations in hand for anything that would serve us in the future.

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