CHAPTER TEN
Pet
One week later, I standoutside the theatre where I danced my first and last principle role as the Swan Queen. It’s been months since my debut as Odette, months since I set foot in a ballet studio. I’m afraid to try, lest I’ve forgotten how.
There’s a new ballet showing now,The Sleeping Beauty. Dimitri is playing the principle role of Prince Désiré. I promised I would come see him. Tonight was supposed to be that night, but as I stand outside the theatre looking up at the twelve-foot banners lining the foyer, I can’t bring myself to go in.
It’s too soon.
I don’t remember my abduction, but the reports show this is the place where Ares first took me. I stand at the entrance of the theatre, one of many in New York, but it isn’t just a theatre. It runs much deeper than that. This theatre is the gateway to a world I’ve been locked out of. If I enter, he won’t be there. If I enter, I won’t be reunited with my Sir. This place and the house on W 47thare the only two portals that might have led back to him, but there is another way to enter that world—I’ve just been avoiding it. Since my first encounter with Atticus and Violet, both shame and guilt have kept me away.
He set me free, so why does it feel like I’m cheating on him every time I give my body to someone else?
You’re mine. You will always be mine. I want you to remember that.
I remember. It seems he’s the one who forgot.
I turn away from the theatre and hail a cab, and I don’t look back.
***
I’m overdressed. Way, way overdressed forsub, I realize, as I stand outside looking at the neon sign and the blank-faced security guard.
“You know, most people have to enter the building before they find reason to stare.”
A humorless laugh escapes me. “It’s Tony, right?”
He nods. “It is.”
“I don’t know if you remember me, but—”
“I’m under strict instruction from the Mistress and Master to grant you immediate entry.”
“You are?”
“Just said as much, didn’t I?”
A smile creeps over my face, and I bite my lip to hide it. “Are they mad?”
Atticus had suggested I visit them every Tuesday and Thursday. It is now Friday, a whole week since I’ve seen them, and I’ve missed both appointments.
“Does it look like anyone confides in me? I just man the door, lady.”
“Okay then, I’ll just . . .” I motion to the stairs, and he steps aside. I descend and exhale a long deep breath before opening the door.
Inside, there are people everywhere in various states of kink attire and undress. I make my way to the bar and wait for the man in front of me to be done ordering. Once he moves past, the bartender—a gorgeous Asian man with a spectacular jawline—grins when he finally looks up from the cocktail glass he’s putting on a rack.
“Hello, fresh meat.” He leans over the bar and playfully yanks on a lock of my hair. “Are you playing tonight? Because I get off in an hour, and I’d happily get you off too.”
“Playing?”
He raises a brow, as if the words were self-explanatory. “You do know you’re in a kink club, right?”
“Right. I’m ah . . . I’m here to see Violet and Atticus.”
“Who isn’t?” He straightens, as if I’m a lost cause. “Well, you’re in luck with at least one of them. Mistress Violet’s just about to go on.”
“Go on? Is she . . .” I trail off at the man’s “Oh, honey, how are you this clueless?” expression.