“When you fuck around in a sex club, you’re not in control. People let their demons out to play and get lost in fantasies. They keep their secrets close until they’re here and can act them out. This is a place where you see the most raw side of a human.”
“You may have more experience in a club, Rome. But I’ve been attuned to what sex does for a human for a very long time. I know how the sway of my hips can draw a man’s attention; I know the way I lick a finger can bring a man to his knees. Sexual desire is a pleasure and a weakness. What better way to connect with us all?”
I couldn’t control grabbing her hair and pulling her face close to mine. She needed to understand how serious this was, “If you open the box, I won’t be accountable for my actions after.”
A slow smile crept across her face. “That’s perfect, Rome. I’m not taking accountability either.” She leaned in and nipped my bottom lip. Then she kissed me hard and I met her bite for bite. We shared something between us right then. We’d always been equal but I tasted her anger and wanted whatever she did. I was going to support her tonight in any way I knew how.
I loved her. Every crazy, furious part of her.
Once we calmed a bit, she turned to grab a pair of black lace gloves off the small stool in the fitting room. She slid them on slowly and then pointed to her back. “Now tighten my bodice so we can get this show on the road.”
No further prompts were needed from either of us. I yanked the ribbon harder than necessary. I tied her in so tight, I hoped no one would be able to get her out. It was only a matter of time though.
Tonight, I knew as well as everyone else, the devil and all our demons were coming out. I wanted to show the bratva just who they thought they could have her forget, and she just wanted a show, period.
We’d succumbed to the darkness and were about to let it envelope us. That was the allure of a place like this. As we walked back out, I saw that they’d dropped the rings from the ceilings so that guests could start using them. People draped themselves across them, folded around them, and fucked around them too. We snaked through the crowd, Katie glancing at sex scene after sex scene. A woman let two men have her on a couch.
I nodded at her when she waved. “She’s opening her 10thspa downtown this month.”
Katie nodded and stayed close to me to talk. “She’s definitely celebrating the right way.”
“With both those men?”
“To each their own. You can’t really go wrong with more than one, right?” Katie shrugged.
I saw the way her eyes lingered, how she licked her lips. Katalina was contemplating it, and that was the allure of a place like this. It opened your eyes to possibilities you thought were impossible. A woman could have more than one man, you could dress the way you fantasized, you could tempt and punish however you wanted. There was a labyrinth of possibilities, and as the lights flashed and strobed over everyone, you caught glimpses of all that could be.
“You think more men would hit you harder than just me, Kate-Bait?”
She dragged her metal-colored eyes up and down my body. “The more, the merrier.” She swung her gaze to a velvet booth sequestered off in the corner where a celebrity was eating out her friend. She smirked at me and kept moving like what she’d said hadn’t fried every nerve in my body, hadn’t made me want to slap a leash on her and drag her home.
Katie needed to learn that she was the queen of the city and that I, along with everyone in this town, would bow to her, except when it came to us. Between her and me, I ruled. I could bring that woman to her knees with pleasure in seconds. She might fight me on it, she might act like other men would do just as well, but in the dark recesses of her mind, she needed to be sure.
Tonight, I had a feeling, we were going to see that happen. Everyone here, everyone that mattered, would understand that Katie was tied to the Armanelli Family in a way no one else could be. She held the hearts of all of us men in a way not even I wanted her to.
Tonight, we would worship our queen to make everyone understand that they bowed to her or we would destroy them.
Even if I wasn’t going to like it.
24
Katie
Rome and I meandered around. He followed me as I turned corner after corner to see the dark sections of the club and witness all the aspects of it. There were orgies and roleplay and sex toys and pure uninhibited freedom. The bass vibrated through you with slow, melodic music or fast up-tempo beats.
Every beat had me thinking of something else.
Had Vladimir acted alone? Who was on his side and who was on mine?
Did I call Ivan and tell him that I’d taken a man’s life in front of the bratva? The leadership of it all was foreign to me. I knew it was my place now. I knew I’d taken the role, but when someone goes for so long without ownership of even themselves and then without true equality, it’s normal to falter. It’s normal to feel like you may not be able to handle it, that you’re not fully equipped.
Yet I’d been through it all for a reason.
I’d learned to dissociate, I’d learned to survive, and I’d learned to control my mind in even the most horrific situations.
Now, I stood in one of the most surreal ones, next to a man who was willing to do whatever it took, with a baby in my belly who would bring innocence to families without a trace of it, in a club that allowed us to explore our most sinful thoughts.
“This is like a dream, Rome. I don’t know how it can all be real, how any of you can get away with having all this happening under one of the biggest buildings in the city,” I said to him at one point.