Page 7 of Their Cruel Love

He notices and smirks before he follows skull dude. They shut the door.

My heartrate is fast, and I’m feeling skittish and torn between running away and staying. I came here to accomplish something. Is there a way to still do that? There might be, but I’d probably have to crawl to the taciturn guy and lick his boots or something.Ick. If he’s a Dom, he’s completely unkeen on me. He’s rich and no doubt has a stable of willing women to choose from.

Then why did he, they, agree to meet me? Are they only here to pump me for info?

Marcus

“What are we doing here?” Razor holds out his hands and asks, when we are two rooms away from where Phoebe waits. This bedroom is far cleaner. I sink onto the four-poster bed.

I picture her still standing there, obeying thatstaycommand that Razor casually chucked at her. Fuck me, that appeals.

He continues. “We are being false, and so is she. She’s trying not to tell us anything while mining us for info. Well? Do we abort?”

“No,” I croak. “No.”

“More, please. It’s obvious she’s not going to actually volunteer to suck our cocks. That bad blood between you must be pretty stinking bad, and yet you’re doing all this just to see her begging for information. Got a hard-on yet?”

“Several. Hard-ons on top of hard-ons,” I say absentmindedly. Razor is smart, and I never want to deceive him, even if my past is not going to be displayed to anyone else.

“You can explore this without involving her further. If the frat board is worried that we might have someone grabbing girls, we can still investigate without her help. Though I guess she might have some information you cannot find elsewhere.”

“That is a good point.” I think it through. “Also, what if she tries to get a police case opened? She has tried that once already.”

“She might. Stopping her doing that would require executive approval of more extreme action, I’m guessing? I’m not privy to what they do.”

Me neither, not precisely, but security issues keep me closer to that inner circle. “They won’t do anything, yet.” Unless shegoes overboard. Unless there’s a risk she will expose them in majorly bad ways. Such as alerting the police to a link to abduction or human trafficking in the fraternity. “I say we reel her in.” I eye him. “Get her to come to a party with you. it buys us time to probe this.”

“Say what? I can see you beating me over the head with something if I touch her. Or probe her.”

“I won’t. Promise.” I stand, cross my heart. I cannot afford to get intimate with her. My sadistic self would have way too much fun if I let that part of me off the leash. Besides, do I really want to? Really?

Razor takes on that keen, interrogative look he wears when he is contemplating a new investment or biotech discovery…or a new girl.

I tilt my head, draw another slow cross over my heart.

“Yeaahhh.You’ll kill me. Challenge accepted.”

“What? What fucking challenge?”

“To get you to come in your pants while I do things to her. You break cover, interfere, and you pay me. Let’s say five thousand?”

I freeze for a second then have to laugh. “Done. Now all you have to do is get her to come.”

“Get her to come?Ohhh.To a party you mean. Easy. Follow the master.”

I glower at his back.

4

Phoebe

When they return, I say the obvious. “I don’t know why you agreed to meet me if this course is impossible.”

I can’t see how I can get anything more from him.

Razor halts only a few feet away, with Skull Face at his shoulder. “If you’re truly curious, why not come to our next event? It’s a party in Spain, at a beautiful old castle, and there are hundreds of people there.” He leans forward, and I must resist my impulse to take a step backward. “You might find someone there to instruct you further.”

His pause and lower tone are full of sub-text. Emphasize thesub, I tell myself wryly.

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