Tearing Down Walls (Love Under Construction Series Book 2) (55 page)

Vic’s eyes went wide. “Miranda. Good to see you.”

But when he tried to keep walking, Miranda put a hand on his chest to stop him. “So, got some time for me tonight? Because I’d like to take advantage of your hands-on approach later.” Now Laura was getting
really
pissed.

Vic shook his head. “I’m sorry, hon. I’ve got something very important I’ve got to do tonight. Maybe some other time.”
Not if I have anything to say about it,
Laura fumed to herself.

“Oh. I see how this goes. Can’t even return a phone call? Yeah, there was time for me when you were fucking me,” Miranda hissed, leaning in toward Vic.

“That was a scene; you know that. You’re not new to the lifestyle. I’ll see you another time, but right now, I’ve got something very important to do.” Vic tried to walk on past her, but she stopped him again.

“So who’s this?” Miranda looked Laura up and down, and Laura wanted to growl,
Your worst nightmare, bitch,
but she kept her mouth shut. “She your next scene?” She turned to Laura. “He’s good, honey,
really
good. You’ll enjoy yourself – until he starts pretending you don’t even exist.” Miranda turned to glare at Vic again.

“We’ll talk about this another time, Miranda. Right now, I’ve got to get busy, so we’ll be going.” Vic reached up, took her hand from his chest, and dropped it to her side, then walked on by, Laura’s hand still in his.

Doug looked up as Miranda stalked past the bar and, as she did, she called behind her, “Yeah, right, Cabrizzi, we’ll definitely talk about this another time.”

“What was
that
all about?” Laura snarled when they made it to the end of the hallway.

Vic wheeled to face her and put a hand on each of her shoulders. “Sweetie, listen to me. We’ve got something very,
very
important we’ve got to do tonight. I can handle that later. Don’t worry about it; don’t even think about it again. That was before you and I . . . well, that was before there was an us. Everything’s different now. Trust me?” Laura nodded. “Okay. Let’s get to this.” He retrieved the dungeon keys from Steve’s office and stepped down the dungeon stairs, Laura’s hand still in his. Evie had been waiting for them at the stairway landing and she followed them in.

There was an addition to the dungeon – Steve’s big office chair was there. Vic had asked Doug and Jared to bring it down for Laura, and he laughed to himself when he thought about how Steve would wonder where it had gone. “This for me?” Laura pointed to the chair. Vic nodded, so she sat down in it and waited.

Vic took Evie’s hands in his. “Okay, we both know the drill. Safeword?”

“Red,” she nodded.

“Good. So let me tell you what’s different this time. Steve’s friend has a lot more experience than I do, and he gave me the formula for a preparation to use. It has a lot of ingredients in it, but the two most important ones are wintergreen oil and niacin. The wintergreen oil intensifies the contact, and the niacin increases the blood flow wherever it’s applied, which also increases the intensity of the contact. So what I’m trying to tell you is,” Vic said, taking a deep breath, “this will hurt like a motherfucker. Not kidding. If this doesn’t get you where you need to go, I don’t know what else to do. After I got it mixed up, I put some on, waited a few minutes, and had one of the guys here thump me with an evil stick. I almost passed out. So it works. Do you still want to try it?” Vic asked her.

“Yes,” A peace settled over Evie’s face.

“Okay. Everything off, sweetie. I’m going to forego the Dom-speak. You don’t need that tonight.” Vic waited while Evie undressed and went straight to the whipping bench. Laura’s eyes went wide, but she said nothing, just watched as Vic fastened the cuffs front and back on Evie’s wrists and ankles, then went to the wall and chose a paddle. “We’ll do ten with the paddle, I’ll put the preparation on, and ten more; that kind of helps it move into the skin. Then we’ll move to the sjambok. I’ll be asking you for a count, so pay attention. Ready?”

“Yes.” Evie’s voice was clear and strong.

I hope this works the way it should,
Vic prayed to himself. “Here we go.” He started out on one side of Evie’s ass, then the other, followed by his customary circular rubbing. Laura was shocked – Evie didn’t make a sound. Two more sets, and Vic said, “The count, please.”

“Six,” Evie said, her voice strong.

“Good. Ready?” She nodded. He applied two more sets, then stopped and put the paddle down. “Honey, I kept this in my pocket so it would be warm, but it’ll probably sting.” Vic looked at Laura, pointed to a stack of washcloths, and asked, “Would you please take a couple of those cloths up and wet them with warm water? Not soaked, wrung out.” Laura nodded, took three of the cloths, and ran up the stairs.

When she returned, Vic had spread what looked like oil on Evie’s ass and was rubbing it in with care, making sure it was spread out far enough to cover any area he’d be striking. Laura folded the cloths neat and square and put them on the table nearest the whipping bench, and Vic picked one up to wipe his hands. Then he picked up the paddle. “Ten more with the paddle. Keep count, please.” After the first two sets, he called out, “The count, please.”

“Four,” Evie said without a hint of discomfort.
This is weird
, Laura thought.

When the last paddle strike was finished, Vic asked Evie, “You okay?”

“Yes.” She stopped for a second, then said, “That’s warm.”

“Yes, baby, it’s supposed to be. Ready?” He took up the sjambok.

“Yes.” Evie dropped her head and sighed.

Laura watched with a mixture of horror and fascination. Vic’s hand seemed to not move at all, but she could hear the “pop” of the tip of the sjambok. After twelve strikes, Vic called out, “The count, please.”

“Twelve.” Evie’s voice was not quite as bright as it had been earlier. Laura wondered if her pain level was increasing or if she was tired of the whole thing and wished it was over. Vic motioned to her, so she walked over behind Evie without making a sound and was shocked at the welts that were popping up on Evie’s ass – they were bright red. And that’s when she saw them.

The scars.

Laura’s mind reeled. This woman had scars all over her backside, a maze of them. Laura thought of her own. She knew Vic had seen Evie’s before, but she also remembered Vic telling her how beautiful he thought Evie was, and he never mentioned her marks.
This guy, he’s something
, Laura thought.
He doesn’t see the outside of people. He sees the inside.
It amazed her to think a man as gorgeous as Vic didn’t think about how anyone else looked from that perspective.

Laura sat back down, thinking about everything she was seeing, then she heard Vic call out, “The count, please.”

“Twenty-six,” Evie said. She sounded a little different, maybe not so quick, but Laura looked at Vic and he didn’t seem concerned.

“Continuing.” The popping sound of the sjambok’s tip filled the room again, seeming louder than before. Laura counted too, and at thirty-two strikes, Evie let out a soft moan. When she did, a tiny smile broke on Vic’s lips. Laura was appalled; how could he smile when Evie was in pain? “The count, please.”

“Thirty-four.” Evie seemed to be struggling to remember how many strikes Vic had rained down on her, but she got it right.

“Very good, sweetheart. You ready?” Evie nodded, and the popping began again. By the forty-first strike, Evie had started to moan with each strike. “Your safeword?” Vic called out, but she didn’t respond. “Evie! Your safeword!”

“Red, sir.” Evie’s answer was a strangled whisper.

“Do you need to use it?” Vic waited.

“No,” she managed, but she said nothing else.

“Okay.” Vic started again and, within a few strikes, Evie was muttering a soft moan with each strike. Vic stopped at fifty-five and stroked the welts cropping up on her ass. When he touched them, she let out a loud cry. “Evie! Your safeword!”

“Red,” Evie whispered. “Oh god.”

“Do you need to use it?” Vic asked again.

“No.” Her head dropped and she moaned again.

“Then I’m starting again.” Through the seventieth strike, Evie would cry out with each strike. At that point, Vic barked, “Evie! Your safeword!”

“Oh god, red.” Evie panted with the effort it took to say the words.

“Do you need to use it?” Vic asked.

“No.” He had trouble hearing her response and started to say something else when she said, “Keep going. Please.”

Laura was horrified. It was obvious this woman was in terrible pain, but she was asking for more. Vic called out, “Continuing,” and dug in to give her ten more, a grimace on his face. Then it happened.

On strike number seventy-six, Evie began to cry.

“Evie! Your safeword!” Vic called out.

“Red, sir!” Evie yelled through a sob.

“Do you need to use it?”

“No! Please continue!” she cried out at the top of her lungs.

“Continuing.” Vic made it to strike eighty-two when the gasping woman screamed out the magic word.

“Red! Red, sir! Oh, god, please,” she sobbed, and Vic dropped his sjambok. He ran to her and undid all four cuffs, then took one of the cloths Laura had wet down and ran it with great tenderness over Evie’s welts. When he’d wiped off all the preparation that he could, he threw a blanket over her and snatched her up into his arms, heading up the stairs two at a time with Laura following.

In the recovery room, he sat down on one of the sofas and pulled Evie into him, careful to wrap the blanket tight around her. He looked at the refrigerator and mouthed
water
to Laura, and she grabbed two bottles and opened one. Vic opened the blanket and took a good look at Evie. Her face was soaked and she was sobbing so hard that she was trembling and shaking. “Here, baby, you need to drink some of this. Don’t choke, okay?” He held the bottle to her lips and she drank a couple of sips before dissolving into choking sobs again.

Laura watched as Vic held the woman close, rubbed her back, stroked her face and hair, and whispered to her. She heard him say, “Cry, sweetie. Get it all out. We’ve got as long as you need. I’m right here.” He rested his chin on her head, and she shook and cried like a frightened child. Laura was a little alarmed to see a tear escape from each of Vic’s eyes and roll down his face, landing in Evie’s hair. Then she saw it: He smiled.

In that moment, Laura understood. They weren’t sad tears. They were happy ones. Evie’s crying? That was what he was
trying
to get her to do, and he’d succeeded. That was why he’d asked Laura to come – he wanted her to see what he could do for Evie. And what he could do for her.

In one blinding flash, Laura was terrified – and excited. Maybe he
could
help her. She wanted to
feel
, to be happy, to be in love, to be sad when she was supposed to be. She wanted to stand in the sun and feel bliss, to stand in the rain and shiver and be cold and think about how good it would feel to sit by the fireplace and warm up with someone who cared that she was there. She watched Vic stroke Evie’s face, all the tenderness he was lavishing on her, and Laura wanted to be her, to sit in his lap and kiss him, have him stroke
her
face, stroke
her
hair, and know how it felt to have her heart connected to someone else’s. To Vic’s. Her pulse pounded in her temples as all the things she’d thought were never possible ran through her mind, things that just might be possible after all.

She watched Vic and Evie. It was as though there was no one else on the whole planet but the two of them, and while Laura could’ve been hurt or angry, instead she felt proud of the way he cared for this woman who’d been destroyed by the things that life had dealt her and by her own actions. While he could’ve been repulsed by what Evie had done that had visited all of this on her, he was overwhelmingly compassionate and supportive.

After what seemed like forever, Evie began to quiet, and Vic looked up at Laura and smiled. She couldn’t help but smile back, and she wanted to run to him and kiss him, thank him, tell him how much she loved him. He motioned for her and whispered, “Can you please go and get her clothes?” Laura nodded. When she returned, Evie was sitting up in Vic’s lap, wiping her eyes with tissues he’d given her. “How ya doin’, baby?” he asked the tiny woman, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Never better,” she sniffled. “Oh, Vic, I don’t know what to say . . .” she began, then started to cry again.

“Shhhh, shhhh, it’s okay, honey. But I need to look at your skin, okay?” She stood and let him look at her ass. “It’s not broken anywhere. You were a trooper. I’m so proud of you.” She sat back down on his lap with the blanket wrapped around her, and Vic pushed her hair out of her face. “I’m going to let Laura help you get dressed, but you take your time, okay?” Evie nodded. Vic leaned over to Laura, put a tiny kiss on her forehead, and walked out the door, disappearing into the hallway.

The tiny woman was crying and shaking so hard that Laura had to hook her bra – she couldn’t get her hands still enough to do it. When she was dressed, she sat back down on the sofa. Laura sat down beside her and put an arm around her and, to her surprise, Evie leaned into her shoulder and began to cry again in earnest. “Are you okay?” Laura asked the blond.

“I’m so . . . so . . . so relieved.” Evie let out a deep sigh and leaned against the back of the sofa. “I’ve been trying to do that for years. I finally feel free.” She looked at Laura and smiled. “That guy of yours? He’s an angel. I hope you know how lucky you are.”

“Thanks. I think I am,” Laura whispered to her.
If he feels the way he says he does about me, I’m the luckiest woman in the world
, Laura thought. “Want to stay a little while longer? We can just sit here.”

“I guess I need to go. Where’s Vic?” Evie asked.

“Let’s go find him,” Laura told her, and she took Evie’s hand as they made their way out into the hallway.

They couldn’t find him. Laura checked the parking lot – his car was there. Steve came out and asked if they were through with the dungeon, and Laura told him that Vic was there somewhere. “Please tell Vic I’ll give him a call tomorrow, let him know that I’m all right,” Evie told Laura as she hugged the brunette and got into her car.