The next drawer down, he found more harnesses, these for smaller uses, balls, cock, jaw. There were also two carved boxes he pulled out and opened; their original use was for rings or jewelry but she’d put four cock rings in the purple velvet in one, and a number of gleaming nipple clamps with and without chains tangled against the blue silk lining in the other.
He put the boxes back, closed the drawer, straightened and took one last look around.
It was a well-equipped playroom. She could get creative and be clean and safe doing it.
He cast his eyes down to the top of the dresser, lifted his hand and swiped it along the top, shining his flashlight on his fingers when he was done.
Dust.
She hadn’t been in there in months.
He drew breath in through his nose, switched off the light and turned his attention across the studio toward the wall beyond which was her house.
Aryas had made him an offer.
He needed to make a decision.
So he needed to go there.
He went there.
The inspection he made of her house was cursory. She liked furniture. A lot of it. She liked it to be comfortable. She liked knickknacks, all of which, if he’d paid much attention, something he didn’t do, likely had a story or meant something to her.
The Willo district might have been set with land purchases made in the Victorian era, but homes hadn’t been added until the twenties and thirties. Her bungalow, his research had told him, had gone up in the late twenties.
Still, she decorated like that particular queen was going to rise up, make a visit and cast her judgment.
The heavy, cluttered, busy, flowery, frilly, fringy shit was not Branch’s style.
Then again, he didn’t have a style and he wasn’t moving in.
He was just deciding if he wanted the woman who lived there to fuck him.
So how she decorated didn’t factor.
On this thought, he moved from the living room up the narrow, steep-angled stairs that had been added at the front of the house when the attic had been converted.
The stairs led to a landing that had one of those plush lounge chairs women liked, a marble-topped table and standing lamp, all illuminated in that moment by the only window to the space that was original; the others were two sun lights set in the ceiling. Those sun lights would let in light, but with her trees, they wouldn’t bake the room.
He turned to take the last, short flight of steps, which went from a right angle to the other stairs, and saw her four-poster bed.
It was colossal.
Definitely made for the space, not something you got in a store.
Branch wondered if she’d had it made.
Then he wondered why he wondered.
With that, he stopped wondering and walked to the bed.
She was sleeping, smack in the middle of it.
Her huge mass of dark curls were easily visible against the light sheets, and her small body barely took up any of the large mattress.
He looked away immediately and did the checks he needed to do.
Silk ropes hidden under the bed, tied securely to the feet of the footboard and headboard. Nothing but a vibrator for her in the left nightstand (also excellent quality and a premier brand).
The bathroom off the left side of the room was sunken, the ceilings in the eaves of the house, so the large, oval tub with jets at the end was recessed even further, in the floor and down two steps. The shower at the top, though, was big enough for two (or three).
And the room was pale green and baby pink and also decorated busy, frilly, flowery, so over the top, it nearly made Branch smile.
Nearly.
The walk-in closet to the other side of the room was close quarters, nowhere near as big as the bathroom (but still large), two steps down and stuffed full of clothes.
In fact, he’d never seen so many clothes. And shoes. Shelves and shelves of them. And handbags.
She kept her playroom neat and organized.
Her closet, however, was a disaster.
He found what he was looking for, silently slid it out, made sure the closet door was tightly shut and again engaged his flashlight to look into her toy chest.
He almost didn’t bite back the low whistle when he saw how she liked to play in the intimacy of her bedroom.
Picking up a huge, black plastic phallus, he stared at it, his teeth in his lip to bite back his reaction.
“She likes to test a man’s manhood, that’s for fuckin’ sure,” he muttered.
Unbidden, thoughts of that cock shoved up his ass while he was in her massive frilly bed in her frilly room in her frilly house, maybe with his face stuffed in her wet pussy, Branch dropped the toy, closed the chest and pushed it back where it was meant to be.
Without delay, not looking at her sleeping in bed or making a sound, he exited the house, locked up behind him and walked to his truck.
He got in, fired his baby up, turned around in her drive without switching on his headlights, and he was all the way down her street before he turned them on.
He drove to his condo, parked in the underground parking and took the stairs at a jog up to the fifth floor.
He let himself into his place.
He had a TV. A DVD player. A sectional. A coffee table. Two stools at the bar (even if he was the only one who’d sat on either of them). And a bed in the one bedroom with a single nightstand and one lamp.
He had blinds.
He further had dishes. One pot. One skillet. One pint glass. And a set of four forks and spoons but only three knives he bought at Goodwill. He also had a bread knife, a butcher knife and a toaster.
These, and some clothes, belts and shoes in his closet, his truck and his gear, which was stored somewhere else, were all his worldly possessions.
He could move in with Evangeline Brooks in her frilly house in an hour, not needing his furniture, not having any problem at all with leaving it behind.
On that thought, he went to the packet on his coffee table and upended it.
One DVD fell out.
Aryas’s handwriting in red marker was across the clear front.
Watch this, it said, and call me.
He didn’t go for the DVD.
He went to one of his unsurprisingly empty kitchen drawers, yanked it out, turned it upside down on the counter and ripped off the big manila envelope taped under it. An envelope that Aryas had given him eleven months ago.
The two DVDs in that envelope he took to his TV.
The one marked #1 on the front he pulled out, shoved in his player, and turned on his TV.
He went back to his couch, slouched in it, pointed the remote to the player and hit a button.
What filled his screen didn’t stir him and not because these days it took some serious extreme to stir him, and even that often didn’t work anymore.
No, it didn’t stir him because he knew what happened two days after what was recorded on that tape at Aryas’s club, the Bee’s Honey.
And also because, the morning after that, the man on his TV screen being fucked up the ass by a Dom while he ate his Mistress’s pussy, Branch had beat half to death. He’d then spent the next month dismantling his life so he was now living with his mother in Baltimore, unemployed, with a lisp that he’d never get around since he’d bitten off part of his tongue when Branch was kicking his ass, and he was totally broke in a way Branch had fixed it that it’d take some doing for him to stop being.
Aryas had told him to relay the message.
When a situation warranted Aryas not offering those communications himself but instead calling Branch in, Branch was always instructed to relay strong messages.
But the one Branch had delivered was not entirely Aryas’s style.
And Branch had no qualms that he took that straight into overkill.
She didn’t share, that fucktard’s Mistress. Her slaves were hers alone. She might let people watch her work in a room at the club, but that was rare and that
was all. She didn’t even go to the social room at the Honey unless it was as an observer and she never went to outside parties except simply as a guest to be with her brethren, which meant for most of the festivities, also solely as an observer.
She played in a playroom at the Honey with the blackout, or if she was in a certain mood, the silhouette blinds down, her playroom in her studio, or in that huge-ass bed in her bedroom.
Her gig was intimate. It was just him and her. Every sub she had, Aryas had told him, it was that way.
But this sub in particular.
The fuckwad had wanted what Branch was watching on his TV. Begged his Mistress for it.
And Branch watched as he took his ass fucking and loved it. Even if the Dom’s meat was impressive and the man wasn’t holding back—the sub’s ass had to be raw—he still lost his cool and shot his load on the floor before he was given permission.
The Dom he requested his Mistress allow him to serve didn’t fuck around, which meant, as Branch fast-forwarded to it, he was made to lick his cum off the floor even while he watched the Dom eat his Mistress until she came.
The few times he’d watched that DVD, Branch had always avoided looking at her face when she came.
Alone in his living room, the night still on Phoenix, he finally allowed himself to look at her face, that unbelievably pretty face surrounded by all that dark, curly hair.
Then he turned off the DVD.
He hauled himself up and switched out the DVDs, went back to his couch and started her up.
As an exercise in control, he juxtaposed the retribution he’d doled out over the visuals he was currently seeing.
Branch had no idea what caused it. No one did. The sub had been servicing his Mistress—by that time exclusively—for seven months. They were an item, even outside the BDSM club they belonged to, Aryas’s club, the Honey. They were liked, both together and separate. Members were talking about them moving in together. Maybe a wedding in the future.
It could be the guy couldn’t come to terms with the fact he liked a real cock moving up his ass, even if he’d requested it his own damned self. It could be he wasn’t big on licking up his own cum from the floor, even if the Dom he’d requested was known as a ball-buster, and in that particular Dom’s case, that was literal. Not to mention, the asshole could have just used his safe word and all would stop. It could be he didn’t like his woman being eaten out right in front of his face, and witnessing how much she liked it, even if he’d set that shit up his damned self too.
It could be something that had nothing to do with his kink.
But the facts of the matter were, he’d snapped, he’d done it during a scene, after he’d slammed her against a wall and dazed her, he’d wedged a bench under the door making it difficult for security to break in.
And then he’d gone apeshit and in the limited time he did have (because it might have been difficult to get in, but Aryas didn’t fuck around with security, so they didn’t fuck around getting in), he beat the fucking crap out of her.
Branch fast-forwarded again and saw the Honey’s Queen Bee Dominatrix, Amélie Strand, holding her and cooing to her, as well as some sub he didn’t know, who was a nurse practitioner in the real world, tending to her while Branch stood with Aryas across the room, getting his orders.
The sub by then had been hauled away.
She hadn’t even looked at him.
He’d looked at her.
And when he had, not yet even having seen that very tape, just seeing the results on her face, he’d felt the first feeling he’d felt since Rob had died in his arms, after which all emotion fled and he’d gone cold inside.
Dead.
His only drive being vengeance.
And that feeling was fury.
He stopped the DVD, got up again and switched it out to the one with Aryas’s handwriting on it.
He went back to his couch, took a breath in through his nose and turned on the DVD.
It was Amélie’s pad. He knew it, even though what was being filmed had to be long ago since the woman who was on the screen had totally checked out.
Branch knew she was in Amélie’s house because he’d been to the place, now that his friend Olly lived in it with Leigh.
She was standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows, the lights of Phoenix at night behind her spread out along the Valley, seeing as Leigh’s place sat snug to the south side of Camelback Mountain.
She was in a little black dress, seriously high-heeled fuck-me sandals, the fingers of her small, delicate hand wrapped around a wineglass, the tips long and painted dark red.
She was petite. Maybe five-two. In those heels, he’d still tower over her. She was curvy. Fuck, lots of curves, everywhere. She even had a little belly that was so fucking sweet, he almost had to turn his eyes away.
And that hair. Dark, nearly black. And curly. Those thick, abundant, twisted, amazing, wild-ass curls no implement could tame, and thank God for that. They surrounded her head, fell in her eyes, bounced on her shoulders, tumbled down her back.
As the camera got closer to her, she turned her cute face with her perfect skin and brilliant blue eyes to it and smiled, little white teeth showing through the reddest, sexiest lipstick he’d ever seen.
Her makeup perfect.
Everything about her …
Perfect.
“You’re a goof.” Her voice sounded on the video, oddly low and sultry when she looked like the spunky high school cheerleader every guy was dying to fuck, her eyes sparkling at the camera.
“Be good and say hi to Sixx,” Aryas ordered off camera. “She’s missing us.”
She turned her head slightly and looked out the sides of her eyes and gone was the spunky high school cheerleader.
She was just the woman every guy was dying to fuck.
“I’m never good, Ary,” she said in that sexy fucking voice. “You know that.”
“Then blow her a kiss,” Aryas demanded.
Without delay, she lifted her hand and did just that.
Then she winked.
Branch’s dick got instantly hard.
The visual of Evangeline Brooks cut away and a selfie video of Aryas Weather’s big, black, bald head with his thick black beard filled the screen.
“You say no to that, brother, you’re a lost fuckin’ cause,” he declared.
Then the screen went black.
Branch turned off the TV, tossed his remote aside and pulled out his phone.
He engaged it, went to his contacts and hit the button.
“It’s just after four in the morning. You better wanna play, slave,” Whitney spat as greeting.
“Get over here,” he ordered and hung up.
She didn’t waste time. For a shot at him, the bitch never did.
He opened the door to her and saw she’d brought a bag with her.
That was good. He didn’t have his own toys.
He also didn’t want to be surprised with what he got.
He needed it.
He moved away from her, barely looking at her, and headed to the couch, taking off his clothes as he went and making a point, like always, even if there was nothing to see, that that room was the only room in his place she’d be seeing.
He heard the bag drop on the sectional and only turned back to her when he was naked.
“You don’t use lube, I’ll break your neck,” he told her calmly.
Her eyes flared.
She was very pretty. She had a great body, in the way every magazine, movie and TV show wanted you to believe.
For his tastes, she was too tall.
And too thin.
And she had fake tits, which sucked.
Since she rarely let him touch them, it didn’t much matter.
He let her tie his hands behind his back with rough rope in a knot he could get out of in about four seconds, if he’d wanted to. He also let her gag him, shoving a small scarf into his mouth before tying another one around his head to hold it in.
She’d then taken his ass with a huge cock while he was on his knees in the seat of his couch, his face shoved into the seat cushions, his arms bound behind his back.
She’d used lube, thankfully. Sometimes she didn’t bother, which meant Branch had to expend the effort to break the scene, break his bonds and get up in her shit.
But he’d shot his load not feeling her fuck him while smacking his thigh (Jesus, totally uninspired, but that was Whitney).
No.
He’d come, hot and hard, closing his eyes and remembering Evangeline Brooks blowing a kiss.
Half an hour later …
“Yo, brother,” Aryas answered Branch’s call. “It’s early. What the fuck?”
“Brooks,” Branch replied. “Set up a meet.”
“Sweet,” Aryas whispered, no longer sounding perturbed, now sounding pleased.
Branch hung up.
And before he could think about it—or think better of it—he hit his bed and went to sleep.
two
I’ll Still Get Him
EVANGELINE
It was broad daylight when Evangeline walked up to the Bee’s Honey, which was weird. Except for her interview to be a member years ago, she’d never been there in daylight.
It was actually just weird for her to be there at all.
It had been months.
But when Aryas had called her two days ago, asking to see her, telling her he had something important to discuss, she knew it was time.
Long since time.
She’d not only been avoiding the club, she’d been avoiding everyone in it and that was stupid.
They weren’t Kevin. They weren’t the life. They had no involvement in what had happened to her, the mistakes she’d made. They’d had nothing to do with it.
And each and every one, especially Aryas, Leigh and Felicia, had tried to stay close. Take care of her. Heck, Leigh and Felicia had both texted in the last couple of days to remind her the next book club meeting was coming up, and even though she’d missed nearly a dozen of them, they wanted her there.
But she’d pulled back. Stayed distant.
She wasn’t mean about it. She returned texts. She made excuses. She didn’t cut anyone out.
She also didn’t let anyone in.
Now it was high time she let it go, and Aryas calling, telling her he had something important to discuss, was a reminder she had to pull herself together and reenter her life.