Dark Rapture_A Disturbing Psychological Thriller Page 12

  Was he still speaking English? Pearl blinked at him, gave a small nod, and clutched her coffee cup to her lap.

  “Dragons are also Doms. You can expect hardcore bondage, impact play. So, tying you up, whipping you. Some are into con non-con. So having you pretend you’re not consenting to anything they’re doing, while you actually are. It sounds complicated: it’s not. But it can be tricky to get right. We only send experienced foxes to the Dragons.”

  “Foxes?” God, her voice sounded so strangled and weak.

  He slid his fingers toward her. “You’re a fox. You, Gia, Ivy… all of you.” Then his voice fell back into rhythm, resuming his script. “You’ll wear costumes when you service a client. I’ll brief you before each scene so you know what the client expects.”

  “Scene? So that’s when… they’ll—”

  Seth went on as if she hadn’t spoken. He’d obviously given this speech a few times because he spoke as if reading from an invisible teleprompter.

  “Tomorrow, you’ll need to set soft and hard limits for yourself. What you will and won’t do. I’ll explain more then. Today, you’ll observe. The wolf is here, busy setting up. Said he’s fine with you watching his scene with Gia.”

  Pearl nodded again. Her head felt loose on its stalk of a neck, and she gripped her hands tighter. Coffee sloshed in warning, and she hurriedly took another sip, scalding her tongue.

  “Will I have to… do anything—”

  “Not today. But pay close attention to what happens today. It’s the kind of thing you can expect on the regular.”

  Pearl’s eyes slid away from Seth’s face. Her heart rate had gone down a bit, at least. But her palms still felt clammy.

  “Last thing,” Seth said, his voice dipping low. “Some of our clients come here to learn. Jarred is one of the best Doms in the country and he specializes in impact play. Once we’ve established your pain threshold, Jarred might use you in his training sessions.”

  Pearl’s mind flickered back to the stripes on Ivy’s back.

  “How will I know it’s him?”

  “Oh, you’ll know.” Seth gave a brief, bark of a laugh. “He’ll be the only one not wearing a mask.”

  Pearl washed her hands, squeezing them together to try to stop their trembling. She looked at herself in the mirror and pressed her lips into a line. Her face was flushed; spots of color painted her cheekbones.

  “Done?” Seth called through the closed door.

  She cleared her throat and managed a cheery, “Yup,” pushing back her shoulders as her handler let himself into the small bathroom.

  Well, small in comparison to all the other spaces in the villa. It had a bidet, two basins, a wall-to-ceiling mirror and a random table with a random vase of random cherry blossoms still attached to their branch. Their sweet scent filled the space.

  Seth held a velvet bag in his hands. This he set on the marble counter beside the sink. A pair of massive hands wrapped around her shoulders, turning her to face him. Seth studied her face for a few seconds, his thumb brushing over her cheekbones.

  “Relax, kitten.”

  Psychotic butterflies fluttered through her stomach at those words, spoken in his deep rumble.

  “I’m trying,” she said, her voice quivering.

  His eyes left her hair and pinned her own. He laid his palm over her stomach, barely touching her. Goose bumps broke out over her arms. God, but his eyes were fathoms deep.

  “Breathe with your stomach, not your chest. You get more O2, and it’ll help you relax.”

  She nodded; not that she had a clue what he was talking about. After a few seconds, he shook his head.

  “When you inhale, stick out your stomach. When you exhale, tuck it in. Don’t move your chest.”

  He laid his other hand over her collarbones.

  Pearl followed his instructions, pushing out and tucking in her stomach with each breath. After a few seconds, Seth gave her a faint smile.

  “Good.”

  Calm slowly filled her, as if with every breath she was inhaling some kind of sedative instead of air. Laughing gas at the dentist. Anesthetic at the doctor’s office.

  Seth opened the bag and drew out an ivory-backed brush. It looked ancient and heavy but in perfect condition. He drew it through her hair until she could feel every sleek strand brushing her neck.

  He set down the brush and drew out a headband. Pearl stared at it with wide eyes, her previous calm evaporating instantly.

  The band held a pair of long, pointed fox ears. The fur was the exact same shade as her hair. Black tufts sprouted on the tip of each triangle of crafted leather.

  Seth slid the ears onto her head, spending a few excruciating moments arranging her hair around them. She started to turn to the mirror, but he caught hold of her chin, preventing her from seeing her reflection.

  “Not done,” he said.

  He spun her away from the mirror until she had her back to him. Then he drew her zipper down. The rasping of its metal teeth was too loud in the hush of the bathroom. Pearl’s stomach expanded as she tried Seth’s calming technique. Surprisingly — or not — it worked just as well as the first time.

  Cool air brushed her naked back. The dress slid to the floor, pooling at her feet. Seth tapped her ankle, and she lifted her feet one at a time so he could retrieve the dress from the floor. He wadded it up and set it on the counter.

  Pearl caught a glimpse of something furry, but forced herself to stare straight ahead before she could identify it. She hugged herself, feeling Seth’s eyes on her back, her ass, her thighs.

  She’d thought this dressing would have been as clinical as when he’d done it to her yesterday.

  It wasn’t.

  His demeanor had changed the instant he’d sent her in here to empty her bladder. His expression, although nowhere near soft, had been almost sentimental, as if he enjoyed this ritual. She shuddered at the thought.

  His cool fingers touched her waist, drawing something cold and supple over her stomach. She glanced down at the pale strip of leather spanning her belly like a creepy, flesh-colored belt.

  He cinched it tight. Something furry brushed her ass cheeks. She shivered at the tickle of a touch, and Seth let out a small huff. Pearl glanced at him over her shoulder, but his eyes were fixed on her tail, not on her.

  Another tickle, this on her thigh, as he let the tail drop. Seth turned her around, eyes now on her face, and studied her again. He reached blindly into the bag and drew out a small bottle and a brush.

  “Hold still.”

  He tipped up her head, his breath warm on her face as he began painting the tip of her nose. She tried not to look at him, but her eyes kept returning to his, drawn inexorably by his sheer gravitas.

  “Where’d you learn to do this?” she asked, trying not to move her lips too much.

  “Here. Used to have a lady come in and do it, but figured it looked easy enough. Just need a steady hand.”

  He set the bottle aside, lifted a different one from the bag. When he faced her again, his eyes were on hers. Her stomach thrilled under their attention. Pearl squirmed a little, suddenly aware of a faint throbbing between her legs.

  This, she didn’t need.

  “Hold still, kitten,” Seth murmured. A flicker of his eyes; his gaze settling on her mouth for just a second. “Close your eyes.”

  She did so without hesitating. At least, this way, she couldn’t see those onyx orbs studying her, dissecting her, wondering what she tasted like.

  Maybe.

  Or what she’d look like, sucking his dick.

  Really, Pearl?

  A cold eyeliner pencil touched the middle of her lid.

  What was he doing? You weren’t supposed to—

  No, not pencil. It was too cold, too slick. It must have been that same brush. Those tiny, delicate bristles drew a line of ice over her eyelid. He swept his hand back, dragged it left and right a few times by the outer edge of her eye. Then he moved to the other eye.

  It t
ook him less than a minute.

  “Open.” The warmth of his breath on her eyelids made her shiver.

  He was less than an inch from her, but he drew back immediately, eyes darting from left to right as he studied his paint job. He gave a small nod.

  “I’ll have to do your eyebrows tonight. No time now. Don’t want you red and blotchy.”

  “Okay,” Pearl managed after clearing her throat.

  The last item to come out of the bag was a palette of lip stains. He used his pinkie finger to smear color onto her mouth before snapping the case closed and sliding everything back inside the bag.

  Then Seth turned her to the mirror.

  Pearl stared at her reflection, that coiling in her stomach slowly releasing.

  She looked adorable in a sexy, come hither, kind of way. Her fox ears poked out between her hair, their headband masterfully disguised and her own ears hidden behind a sleek veil of hair. He’d given her a cute button nose, pink pouting lips, and black wings on each eye. Her gaze moved down, taking in her tightly hugged arms, her neat patch of chestnut pubic hair, her squeezed-together thighs.

  Seth stood behind her. His cool arms folded over her, squeezing her once, hard, before gripping her wrists.

  “Look at you,” he whispered, bringing his mouth to her ear. “You’re gorgeous, kitten.”

  He drew apart her wrists, revealing her breasts. Her nipples hardened in the bathroom’s cool air and under Seth’s unreadable gaze. His fingertips traced the underside of her arms, the curve of her waist. He gripped her hips, his fingers folding into the cup of her pelvic basin, and he twisted her hips so the plush, two-foot-long fox tail attached to the base of her spine swayed against her ass. It made a small arch over her backside, the spine section of the red tail stiff, before flowing down and dangling several inches below where her ass curved into her sex.

  “Sometimes,” Seth murmured down to her, “it helps to pretend that you’re not doing this for the money…” he twisted the tail around his wrist, gripped it, and traced a sinuous line over her left ass cheek with the tip. “…but that you’re doing this because you want to. Because you love it. Because it turns you on as much as it turns them on.”

  Pearl shuddered, grabbing hold of the counter in front of her to steady herself. His eyes hadn’t left hers: they were still fixed on her reflection as he drew her tail over her thigh and down her belly, stopping less than an inch from her clit. Pearl made a soft sound in the back of her throat before she could stop herself.

  She was getting wet from this. How the fuck could she be—

  “Sorry, kitten, but we have to go,” Seth rumbled in her ear. “The Wolf’s waiting.”

  The bathroom opened into the villa’s main hallway. Pearl covered herself with her arms, checking left and right to make sure there was no one else in sight as she followed Seth one door down.

  This door, like the others, took a key card to unlock. And, when it swung open, Pearl saw how thick it was compared with the others. Walking behind her, perhaps Seth had noticed her glancing to the side. Or, perhaps he’d developed a sixth sense about these things.

  “Each dungeon is sound proofed,” Seth said. “But we always monitor the scene to make sure that our foxes aren’t being mishandled.”

  “You watch?” Pearl asked. There was a sloping chamber, darkly lit, that led down and around. The air wasn’t hot or cold, but there was a faint scent of metal in the air, like damp coins.

  “It’s for your safety, kitten.”

  They reached a set of massive, arched doors bound with strips of dark pewter and brass studs.

  Pearl wrapped her arms around herself.

  Seth pushed open the doors and stepped inside. After a few seconds, Pearl followed.

  The large room beyond had brick walls unevenly lit by dripping candles flickering in cages. An abundance of shadows lurked in the room, nesting in the corners and pooling in the veiled heights of the ceiling.

  Pearl was dimly aware of Seth grabbing her elbow and drawing her through the room as her gaze fluttered from object to object, her brain screaming at her that this wasn’t a fun little sex room, a cozy boudoir, a fucking nice attempt at anything. This was a torture chamber, and even the uneven cobbles beneath her bare feet bore testament to this.

  She jerked back on Seth’s hand. It didn’t do any good. He drew her into the middle of the room. To the dais. To the broad, leather-covered altar waiting in the middle.

  “No,” Pearl managed. “No, no, no. Fuck no.” She jerked again, but Seth didn’t seem to notice. Didn’t seem to care. Their movement disturbed the candles — shadows danced for her, attempting to lure her closer. Pearl trembled, digging in her heels, managing to find purchase in the cleft of a pair of cobblestones laid by a blind and drunk cobbler.

  Seth turned to her, black eyes dancing with the shadows. “What?” It was almost a growl.

  “I can’t do this,” Pearl whispered. The room wobbled as tears accumulated on her bottom lids. “Please. I can’t—”

  Seth grabbed her shoulders and her thighs, scooping her up before she had a chance to scream. She was still drawing breath when he spun back and walked past the altar. Just behind it waited a small cage of dark metal. Inside, a faded velvet cushion and a strip of lace.

  Pearl’s legs quivered when Seth put her down. He opened the top of the cage and motioned her inside. She looked at the tiny space, back up at him, back at the cage.

  “You’re fucking kidding, right?”

  “Pearl…” Seth murmured in warning.

  She took a deep belly breath — despite the fact that it popped out her stomach like a pregnant woman — and half-clambered, half-fell inside the cage. She was acutely aware of how much of her previously-private regions she exposed to Seth while she tried to get all her limbs inside the small cage.

  Perhaps he had, too — he ran a hand down her spine, wrestling her tail free from where it had become caught between her calf and her thigh. He used the tip to tickle her armpit as she tried to get the red cushion under her ass, flicking the strip of lace out of the cage in irritation. She scowled at him, but his only response was the ghost of a smile making a brief show of moving his mouth before the cage door slammed shut over her.

  He snapped closed the padlock.

  “Seth—” Pearl cut off, her face suddenly aflame. It was the first time she’d spoken his name. And calling it out in that panicky tone of voice had sent a thrill down her spine, reactivating the distant throbbing that had begun in the bathroom outside.

  “Don’t worry, kitten,” Seth murmured. “You’ll be safe in here.” He tugged at something around his neck, hidden behind his shirt. An old-fashioned brass key appeared from behind the fabric.

  Seth ducked, retrieving the strip of lace she’d tossed from the cage, and scrunched it in his hand as he disappeared into the shadows.

  Pearl swore as the cage jolted up nearly a foot, her elbow slipping through a grate. She bundled herself into the corner, the small pillow her only comfort, and watched with sickening intensity as Seth hoisted the cage up.

  He returned wearing the same deadpan expression as always. But the lace strip dangled from his fingers, and he lifted it up to her as he approached. The cage was now on eye-level for anyone of Seth’s height standing on the dais. It swung from side to side, still to settle after Seth’s violent hoisting.

  Pearl took the strip of lace from Seth with shaking fingers. This made the tiny bell on it tinkle gaily.

  “What…” she began.

  Seth tugged her arm out through the cage and slid the lace around her wrist. He cinched it using the small clasp at the end and then shook her arm.

  She jangled.

  Seth leaned closer and tugged at her tail again. He seemed fascinated with the goddamn thing.

  “Keep it out like this,” he said. Pearl glanced behind her, saw that the tail was dangling down through the grate. Seth’s eyes weighed on her again, and Pearl turned back to him.

  “The Wolf might
want to touch you. If you’re okay with that, let him. Otherwise, just move away. This one’s… understanding.”

  Pearl managed a nod, wrapping her fingers around the grate. Seth tugged gently on her tail, running his hand down its length as he stared at her.

  “Try and get into it. You know, make noises. If you’re scared, cry. If you feel trapped, scream. It all adds to the feel of the place.” Seth used her tail to point out the altar a few feet in front of her. “Gia’s going to be there. The Wolf’s going to do a lot of stuff to her. I need you to remember that, just like you, she’s consented to all of this. But act the part and try and get the Wolf to show her mercy. It’ll make their day.”

  A last brush of the tail against her thigh, then he released her and stepped back. A flicker of candlelight burnt umber in his black eyes.

  “Are you thirsty?” he asked.

  Pearl licked her lips. “A little.”

  He nodded, turned to the door as if hearing a sound, and then strode into the shadows again. Pearl’s gaze followed him, but it stuttered on the silhouette of a large cross standing upright on the dungeon floor, manacles at every point of the large ‘X’. She shuddered.

  Seth returned with a pink water bowl in his hands. He slid it through the grates and placed it on a mesh square at the other end of the cage. If she wasn’t careful with her feet, she could knock it over. She stared at it, stared at him.

  He smiled at her then. “Time to get into character. If you want to drink, you’ll have to do it like a little cat, got it?”

  Pearl cringed away from him, her fingers tightening around the grates. The bell around her wrist jingled faintly.

  Seth’s smile grew. “If you make the Wolf happy, then I’ll give you a treat tonight when you’re done.”

  “Tonight? How long am I—”

  “However long the Wolf needs you for,” Seth said. “Now be a good little kitten, Pearl.”

  Seth tugged on her tail a last time before turning and leaving the dungeon.