All Souls' Night - Renee Rose Page 0,130

hunk. Tiberius is a solid mountain I cling to for safety while a tsunami of anxiety and desire threatens to suck me under and drown me in my old fears.

I want this more than anything I’ve ever wanted before.

Even more than my freedom from my family.

Tiberius stands, lifting me with him before carefully setting me on my feet. With a protective arm around my shoulders, he walks me across the room to a vacant bench in a far corner. When he starts covering ground rules with me, I can’t help staring into his gorgeous blue eyes, and everything he says pretty much goes over my head.

“Understand?” he asks, and I nod. I could be signing my life away to him for all I know.

Shockingly enough, I don’t even care.

He smiles and reaches out, cupping my chin. “I need to grab my bag. Stay right here.”

I nod. He steps over to a suit-clad man standing watch a few feet away, whom I assume works here. After a brief word with him—and both of them glancing my way, which appears to be Tiberius asking him to keep an eye on me—Tiberius sprints away, apparently moving faster than any human is capable of.

But I don’t really have the brain cells to process that right now. I turn around, watching as, at another station, a well-dressed woman in boots and a black leather corset starts tying up a naked man who looks almost as hunky as Tiberius. And the man’s cock is hard and—

Gulp!

I’m still staring at the well-endowed guy’s erection, around which the woman is slowly wrapping red rope, when Tiberius returns with a black bag. He pulls one of the implement stands over and opens the bag, withdrawing a variety of things that look terrifyingly sexy and hanging them on the hooks lining each side of the rack.

It must be the near terror on my face that makes Tiberius chuckle. “Don’t worry, baby. Anything you don’t want me to use on you, I won’t.”

I don’t recognize my own voice. “Can I touch them?”

“Certainly.”

He stands there, arms casually crossed over his chest as I finger one of the floggers. It looks very similar to the one I saw in use earlier, with a black handle and red suede falls. It’s difficult to believe how soft and pliant it feels slipping between my fingers. It certainly doesn’t appear evil in this context.

I summon bravery. “What does this feel like?” I ask him.

“Would you like me to demonstrate to you over your shirt?” His rich, cultured British accent slips like sweet, warm butter across my skin.

I nod a little more eagerly than is probably wise, but over my shirt, that sounds safe, right?

He has me straddle the padded bench and lean forward on my hands, rounding my shoulders as I do. Plucking the flogger from the rack, he steps in front of me. With the bundle of leather draped over his other hand, he holds it close to my face. The falls spill over his palm, the red suede drawing my attention. A whiff of leather floats to me and I know it’s now my new favorite scent.

“What are your safewords?” he asks.

I know we covered this already but I struggle to recall them. I want to stare up into his eyes all night and let him have his way with me.

Finally, I manage to make my mouth and brain connect and work together. “Red, yellow, and green.”

“Good boy,” he purrs, making my cock painfully press against my zipper.

Those two words stroke something deep inside me that’s never been touched before. If I die at this moment, it’s literally fine. I’ve never felt happier than I do right now.

I can’t remember ever being praised by my family. The first several weeks at my job, I had difficulty accepting compliments from people there, especially the bakery owner. I was so certain everyone was lying to me, or about to deliver some sort judgment against me. Only after carefully watching others over several months did I realize this was yet another of those “normal” things I missed out on because of my toxic upbringing.

Tiberius walks around behind me. Even though I’m anticipating his touch, I still flinch when his hand settles between my shoulder blades.

“Where are we, baby? Give me a color.”

The music and sounds of others playing around us fade away as I close my eyes. The world disappears, leaving us in a sexy bubble I hope never pops.

All I hear and focus on is the