Page 47 of A Taste like Sin
one.
“You can lie here,” Daphne suggests, stopping short.
I tentatively reach out, alarmed as my fingers brush a silken surface that gives slightly when I apply
pressure. A mattress? I lower myself onto it, and soft footsteps betray Daphne’s retreat. Barring the
audience, I’m alone in this arena now. Thin fabric forms a fragile base beneath me as unseen eyes
take in more of me than anyone has ever seen. The blindfold obscuring my vision serves as my lone
piece of armor.
And I don’t even know how many spectators are present. Ten? Twenty? Hundreds? Their murmured
voices echo in a constant hum: an ocean of rejection, or scrutiny, or judgment.
Panic sets in. My hands twitch upward to cover myself as my heart hammers a silent command against
the inside of my rib cage:run.
I can’t do this. I can’t…
Wait.That low, rumbling clearing of a throat rises above all other noise. I’m insane—there’s no way I
could pick him out so easily. So definitively. It’s another man I’m straining my ears to catch. A
stranger, whose voice drips directly into by ear, fed by the object nestled there. An earpiece, I
realize.
“Sweet dulce niña.Did you think I’d let you have full rein for your little performance?” His deep,
raspy laugh twists my stomach into knots. “I warned you: This performance is for me.”
“Oh?” I gasp, unsure if he can even hear me through the device.
But he can—another grated chuckle proves it, laced with faint hints of static.
“I thought you were supposed to be teaching me control?” I whisper—but even the faint sound isn’t
loud enough to drown out the persistent hints of the others in attendance. I can smell them. Perfume.
Cologne. Cigar smoke. An amalgam of strangers watching me. Waiting.
They demand entertainment.
“This is mine,” Damien declares as casually as if commenting on the color of the sky. “Lie back. Do
not hide. Place your hand on your belly. Now breathe deeply. Like that.”
I obey, letting the sound of my breathing and the blood humming through my veins drown out all other
noise.
“Keep it there and let your other hand sweep along your hip. Feel the softness of your skin. Like silk,
¿sí?”
