Mr. Tanner chuckled, but he didn't stop, and I grinned down at him until his next thrust made my eyes cross.
"Yes!"
I wanted the entire theater to know how good Mr. Tanner fucked me. But more importantly, I wanted him to feel that same pride of being desired I'd felt when I'd stepped under the spotlight.
"Oh, fuck, sir! Don't stop, please! Please, yes!"
Mr. Tanner grunted and growled as he fucked me, filling me until I felt the force of him in my entire body. My eyes opened wide as the orgasm began to swell, my stare out on the audience. They were churning, touching one another, fucking and kissing and watching. I had done this. I had made this frenzy, and the knowledge rushed as fast and as deep as Mr. Tanner's cock.
And up from the audience, a figure rose, tall and well dressed, face shockingly clear in the shadows, strangely plain as if it'd been half-erased, already forgotten.
"Oh, god, sir—Sir, I'm going to—" My eyes widened at the terrible, amazing pressure building in me, even as the stranger held my gaze.
"You come on this cock like the good little girl you are," Mr. Tanner snarled, and my heart and cunt throbbed with equal delight.
There was one man in all the audience who wasn't participating. He stood, watching me, the edges of his features blurred, eyes blank, smile oily. Fear and pleasure hit me at the same moment, an impossible familiarity in the man's face and a beautiful breath-robbing storm of euphoria rushing through me.
I came with a scream, Mr. Tanner shouting with me from the floor, holding me fast to his hips as he filled me to the brim with heat and it splashed out between us.
He sat up, blocking the sight of the man in the crowd, taking my mouth in a claiming, possessive, tender kiss. I sank in, clutching tight to his shoulders, shivering and shaking in his arms with the aftershocks and with an unexplainable terror.
"There is someone watching," I gasped, body stiff, as Mr. Tanner released me to catch my breath.
One eyebrow arched, his lips quirking, but with a glance over his shoulder, he had me lifted from the floor, marching quickly to the wings with me still wrapped around him. His chest hummed with a low growl and one hand raised, tucking my face to his warm shoulder.
"Birsha," Auguste hissed as we reached the dark of wings.
"I saw," Mr. Tanner growled.
"Here, blankets," Auguste murmured. "The carriage is just outside this door. We need to go now before—"
"My dress is in the box," I said, trying to lift my head but unable to break Mr. Tanner's hold.
"You didn't like it anyway," Auguste said, but his voice was too strained to be really teasing.
"Let's go."
Mr. Tanner wrapped a pair of blankets around us both, and I got one last glance of the red curtains closing, the ridiculous mess of garments and tools we'd left behind still glowing on the stage floor, before we were out in the shocking cold of night, diving from the alley door of the theater and into our carriage.
The carriage rocked as Mr. Tanner forced his way inside, but he pulled me right back to his lap, Auguste sitting across from us and knocking on the carriage roof. We jerked forward and I caught a deep breath, looking back and forth between my men.
"Who the hell is Birsha?" I asked, the sudden clatter of hooves echoing in the alley.
Auguste stared over my head at Mr. Tanner, and I felt the great bulk of the man holding me shrug in answer before Auguste spoke. "Birsha is—was the king of Gomorrah."
My brow furrowed, and I squeaked as Mr. Tanner shifted me on his lap, one massive hand cupping my sex, two fingers dipping into my cunt as if to plug me. "Gomorrah, like…?”
"Sodom and Gomorrah, yes," Auguste said with a nod before smiling and tilting his head. "I thought you said you didn't pay attention in church."
I snorted. "I did when it was about sin. But I never heard of Birsha."
"Most of the kings were put to death—" Auguste started before being interrupted by Mr. Tanner.
"Birsha was put to death."
“—but he saw what was coming, or was warned, and he made his arrangements. We thought he was a vampire for a time, but whatever his immortality is, it wasn't offered by my kind," Auguste said, glancing out the window.
"Are we being followed?" Mr. Tanner asked.
"We might be followed?" I asked, stiffening. Mr. Tanner wasn't teasing me with the fingers inside of me, but the carriage ride was bumpy and the gentle friction was nice, drawing out the warm feeling from my crashing orgasm.
"I don't see any sign of him," Auguste said, although he didn't sound reassured.
"What would the king—"
"Former," Auguste corrected.
"The former king of Gomorrah want with me?"
Auguste and Mr. Tanner just laughed. "The same thing we all do, mon coeur," Auguste answered with a grin, although it slid into a frown as Mr. Tanner growled.
"Gomorrah was not unlike that theater, little one. Or Rooksgrave. Except its specialty was rape," Mr. Tanner said, letting me twist on his lap so I could see him better. My hand raised to cup his rough jaw and he sighed, blinking slowly at me. "After his kingdom was razed to the ground, Birsha built a new one. He owns houses all around the world, but their nature is very different to the one you know."
"Rooksgrave likes to arrange their clients with girls who will suit them and vice versa. Birsha's houses are free-for-alls and there's no limit on what a client can do in pursuit of their own pleasure," Auguste said, eyes watching me for fear. "You are exquisitely hedonistic, but Birsha would use your willing spirit against you. He would take pleasure in destroying your joy."
I sank against Mr. Tanner's chest, trying to draw up that eerie impression of a face I'd seen in the dark, but it was foggy now. Still, I remembered the sudden clarity of terror I'd felt in the moment.
"Could he be responsible for the wraith in the grotto?" I asked.
Auguste stiffened, but Mr. Tanner just hummed, the vibration from his barrel chest soothing me as I curled into him. "Rooksgrave and some of its sister houses have been fighting attacks from Birsha for centuries. I don't know if he doesn't like the competition or if he just likes smashing pretty things," Mr. Tanner said, his free hand coming to rest heavily at the back of my neck. "If he wanted to strike at Rooksgrave, stealing one of the girls would be a good start. And when he found you…the target would only be larger. We should warn Magda," he added to Auguste, who nodded.
"Maybe the sphinx was right about you leaving Rooksgrave," Auguste murmured, but he was looking at Mr. Tanner instead of me.
"Birsha has the resources to attack in two places, you know that," Mr. Tanner muttered.
"I'm not sure I know Amon well enough yet to let him dictate where I go," I added.