Page 67 of Scarlett Thief (Criminal Underground 2)

29

Scarlett

La Dame Noire. The Dark Lady. It was different from the club we'd gone to in Rome. I’d been sitting here for some time now, contemplating that as I scanned the room. Gone were the velvet drapes and the romantic ambiance. The walls were concrete and wood. The entire club was designed in clean modern lines with an open space that invited voyeurs to stare and admire the men and women trussed up and hanging from hooks in the ceiling—their bodies bound in intricately woven designs as their Doms and riggers attended to them. Everything was painted in black and white and gray lines. The only similarity between the two clubs was the people were all dressed in very much the same attire. Naked, corseted, or some variation of undress.

Wolf leaned down, his hand tightening on the leash he held—trailing from the collar around my neck to his palm—and gently pulled me toward him. "There's our mark," he said, minding his volume. Even as he pressed my head to his thigh, running his fingers through my hair, my eyes followed the straight line of vision in the position he placed me in and found, not all that shockingly, that he was right. The Prince was right there, out in the open.

What did surprise me, however, was the fact thathewas the one dressed in a pair of leather underwear. His wife stood tall in thigh high black boots and a skin tight dress that appeared to be made of the same material. Like me, the Prince was on a leash, kneeling at her feet as she talked to a few other members of the club. She was facing away from me so I couldn’t tell if she wore the diamond, but if our information from Ian was correct, she would be.

"I don't know how you and Hadrian managed to get us in so fast," I muttered. "But it's good that we found them early on."

Strong fingers slipped through my hair. It'd been quick—from the second we'd landed and been picked up from the private airstrip outside of the city, we'd been on the move. Now, here we were and it was about to happen. We were about to finally get that stupid fucking diamond and be done with this job. A second failure was not an option.

"Ian was right," Wolf said quietly. "I bet you anything that bastard has contacts all over the criminal underworld, and every single one of them is just as into this as he is."

A thought occurred to me. "Do you think Gaven Belmonte is?" I asked, peeking up at him.

A fleeting smile crossed his lips. "Doesn't Belmonte seem like the type to enjoy his control?"

Holy fuck, I thought.Then … well, I suppose birds of a feather really do flock together.Those from similar lifestyles and predilections tended to gravitate toward one another. Belmonte was in our sphere. Criminals really did enjoy their domination games.

Wolf's hand in my hair grew hard, and he used it and the grasp he had on my leash to pull me up off his lap. My back arched as I looked up into his mischievous eyes. "Since we're trading roles this evening," he said, "and I won't have you to myself later on, I might as well get some action from you now."

I frowned. "Wolf, we're here to do a job."

"Is that what you fucking call me when we're in the club?" he demanded, lowering his voice.

Automatically my eyes moved to the floor at his feet. Only a few short weeks in their presence—even less time in their bed—and they had me following the training protocols. "No, Sir," I said.

"Did you forget who's in charge when we're here?"

"No, Sir, I didn't," I replied. "I just think—"

"Ah, but it's not your job to think, baby," he interrupted. The grip on my leash tightened and my head was dragged back up as he leaned over. His expression softened. "Don't worry," he said. "We'll do this right. You know what to expect now. If that fucker shows up, Hadrian and I will take care of it. Follow the plan exactly as we've laid it out and all will go well. You were a part of the process, Scarlett. We’re a real team this time. Do you doubt yourself?"

It wasn't that I doubted myself. My eyes cut to the other side to there were indeed people watching. They couldn't hear us over the thumping of industrial music playing in the background.

“Scarlett,” Wolf said, his voice sending tingles shooting down my spine. “Look at me.” Against my better judgment, I did. Once my head was turned, I was captivated by those midnight blues of his. “Are you concerned about Jaxson?”

There it is, I thought.The kicker. The true reason for my anxiety.I’d done jobs before. Plenty of them without this much pressure. While our lives did depend on getting that damned diamond, the fear I felt wasn’t of failure—it was of Jaxson. He was a conniving, manipulative bastard. He knew how to talk to someone, how to get them on his side. It was what made him so goddamn good at his job.

I’d frozen back in Rome. Put everyone at risk because the second I’d seen him, my body had locked up and rebelled against my mind. Or perhaps my mind had been in on it. All I could think whenever he was around was our last encounter. The fighting. The slapping. The yelling. And then the apologies. The caresses. The comments that sounded as if they were meant to make me feel better, to feel special, to feel as though everything was okay again—and yet, they didn’t. They only made my fear worse.

Wolf’s fingers moved under my chin, drawing my attention back to him. “You know,” he said, “if this were any other job, I’d tell you that we could walk out of here—do you know what that means?”

I shook my head, confused by the statement.

“I’ve never once stopped a job, mid-action. Not for anyone or anything, but I would for you.”

My chest clenched.Fuck, what am I supposed to say to a confession like that?

“We’ve got eyes on the target, baby.” He lowered his head until his lips hovered right before mine. “So just let go. Let your Dom take care of you.”

He waited, wanting to see what I was going to do. I could lean back and start talking, refuse him my kiss. Or I could stop fucking overthinking for once in my damn life and kiss him back. That was another thing I liked about the lifestyle Hadrian and Wolf were introducing me to. When they’d had me research it—really do the background work—I’d learned just how important consent was in this life.

Communication was a top priority, but right above it—first and foremost—was consent. People looked at this as abuse and it was understandable. The methods, the terminology, the sheer sight of the things Doms did to their submissives, it was from a different era. It was like going back in time and seeing a darker part of humanity. It was different for us, though—for the people who played with the lifestyle today. Because nothing we did was wrong.

I didn’t have to kiss Wolf, but I wanted to. So, that’s what I did. I leaned forward and pressed my mouth to his, letting him take the lead and distract me from the volatile thoughts roaming the caverns of my mind. I needed a break, a safe haven in this riotous mission. He was it—they both were. I’d had my time with Hadrian on the plane and now this, this was my time with Wolf.

---