Highest Bidder Collection - Lauren Landish Page 0,118

him. Her eyes are glazed over, and her neck is turned to the side.

This room is alive with sin.

The four women swinging from the ceiling are tempting the men below. They don’t work for the club. Neither do the women in the cages. They’re simply Submissives who are enjoying the clublike atmosphere. Nights like tonight provide the women a little more room to be free spirited, so long as their Dominants allow it.

I’m not on duty tonight. Nonetheless, my eyes scan the room. I’m just waiting for her. For my kitten. I have a small bag with a pure white simple silk dress, the straps made of thin gold chains. I brought a toy for her too that I’m eager to attach to her. It's a thin gold chain that matches the dress. It’ll wrap around her neck, but it’s more of a necklace, and very lightweight, so it's comfortable. The best feature is the long chain that will fall between her breasts and under the dress with a clip that secures around her clit. It’s not tight, not painful, but a simple tug will elicit a spike of pleasure through her body. I intend to use it as a training mechanism for her tonight. I have my list of rules and requirements. One being she must wear this in place of a collar.

It’s a fair compromise. I don’t know what I’ll do if she denies me this request. I want her, but I need her submission. Her complete submission. Both for her benefit, and for mine.

“I’m assuming you collared her?” A deep voice from my right grabs my attention. Joe Levi. It pisses me off. Not because he’s out of line for asking, but because I have to answer that I didn’t.

“She’s not ready,” I answer easily, as though I’m not in the least upset by the fact.

“Oh?” he says, and his eyebrows raise and I can tell he’s genuinely surprised.

“She’s mine.” I don't care if she doesn’t have a collar. He had better not go near her.

“Understood,” he responds easily. “I have no intention of encroaching…” He takes a sip of whiskey from the short glass in his hand before adding, “so long as she shows no desire for me.”

My eyes narrow, and I take the man in. His crisp suit is fitted perfectly to him. His broad shoulders mean it’s custom. The man has an air of darkness around him, and it doesn’t help that I know he’s a crook. He’s associated with bad men, with criminals. I have no fucking clue why he’s even in here. Of course he’s masked. We all are. But no one here is a fool, and it’s obvious to one another who most of the men here are. There are only a few I’m not privy to knowing. Joshua and Madam Lynn are fully aware all the patrons though. Beyond them, some of the masked men are a mystery, even to me.

But there is no mystery to Joe Levi. His name has been headlined in the paper, and by some dumb luck he’s never been convicted of any of the crimes he's been accused of.

The lights bounce around the room, glinting off his mask as he turns to walk away from me.

“No hard feelings, I hope?” he asks with his hand on my shoulder.

“None yet,” I answer in a low voice. He only chuckles and walks toward the edge of the room, setting his empty glass on a silver tray held by a waitress. She gives him a tight smile and continues making her way around the edge of the room, avoiding the sea of bodies on the dance floor.

I’m not interested in staying here. I’m merely waiting for Katia. As soon as she walks into the foyer, I’ll see her from this position. I watch Joe’s back as he disappears into the darkness, searching for whatever he came for.

There’s no way in hell we’re staying here. In fact, as soon as she agrees to the rules, I have no intention of keeping her here at all. I want her in my home. In her room. Available to me at all times.

That’s where she belongs.

Fuck, I need her, too. I need her to ease this tension. Lucian called and needed a loose end taken care of. It was easy to find the perp, but setting up the hit required a delicate balance with two of my contacts. I’m on edge and in need. I can’t let it affect her. But I