Club Helix: The Power Games (22 page)

“Tessa and Rose, you two fan out a little,” Roman commands, his voice authoritative. “Michael, you cover the back.”

My protectors move away from us, and without looking at me, Roman says tersely, “You may be ready to quit, but I’m not giving up on you yet, Avalon. And I’m sure as hell not letting you go this way. You’re going to have to say it if you want to quit.”

“I don’t want to quit,” I say softly. “I want to stay.” More than I care to admit.

“Then why the hell did you volunteer to be captain?”

“I didn’t volunteer to be captain because I don’t want to stay in the games,” I protest. I drop my voice lower so only he can hear me. “I volunteered because Michael threatened to hurt Carly if they got eliminated because she was the captain. I refuse to stand by and see someone victimized.” My voice is steely with resolve.

“Christ, Ava,” he says, his voice a mix of exasperation and admiration. “You are arguably the biggest-hearted girl I’ve ever met, but you’re also the most frustrating. I don’t know what to do with you.”

“You’ve seemed to have some pretty good ideas so far,” I say drily.

He flashes that smile at me again, and I feel a tug of desire in response.

His demeanor changes in an instant. He holds his hand up for silence, and we all freeze, looking around warily. Even though I know it’s just a game, I can feel the hairs standing up on my arms, that pricking awareness of being hunted.

“You’re a good shot,” Roman whispers encouragingly. “Stay calm and take your time.”

Then all hell breaks loose. The other team bursts into the clearing, shooting, and we shoot back. I take Roman’s advice, shutting out the fear and distractions around me and focusing solely on training my gun on Stefan. I fire, and he looks down in shock as the paintball splatters on his shoulder.
Yes!
Desiree is standing next to him, and although I miss her with my next shot, either Tessa or Rose gets her. There’s another volley of fire, and a sidelong glance reveals that Tessa’s been hit and so has Michael. But not me. And not Roman. We’re still in the games, and we’ve taken out Caleb, Stefan, Desiree, Eva, and Sam, which is half their team.

“Rose, you okay?” Roman shouts.

“Yes, Sir!” Rose yells back cheerfully. “It’s not that Jake’s a bad shot. I’m just indestructible.”

Roman laughs and looks at me. “You okay?” he asks.

I nod.

“All right. We’ve got to assume there are four more of them still in the games, although according to Rebecca, Shawn and Megan are at their base guarding Sabrina. That leaves Karl and Bella still at large.”

The minutes tick by as we survey the field around us. I catch a slight movement out of the corner of my eye and train my gun on the woods. “I think I saw something,” I whisper to Roman.

I see Bella move through the trees, and I fire, hitting her as she raises her gun in my direction. There’s another volley of fire, and then Karl emerges from the woods, a bright blue splat of paint in the middle of his chest.

“Damn, Roman,” he drawls. “You sure you’ve never lived in Texas?”

“Remind me never to duel with you,” Roman says ruefully, and I notice the blue paint smeared across his safety goggles. “We’d both be dead.”

I look at Roman wildly. I need him. I can’t do this by myself. “Looks like it’s down to you and Rose,” he says lightly. “You girls have got this. You’ve only got to hold them off for a couple more minutes, tops. And all that’s left on their team are Shawn and Megan, and that’s assuming none of the rest of our team have shot them, which is unlikely.”

I nod, reassured. He’s right.

Rebecca reappears at our base, slightly out of breath from running, or maybe it’s just the combination of the plug, vibrator, and clamps that’s made her breathless. “Our team was ambushed, and everyone’s down but Emmett. He just took out Shawn, and he’s trying to get a shot at Sabrina now.”

“Good,” I say with relief. It’s got to be almost over.

Megan emerges from the trees where Rebecca just came from, holding her hands up. “I’m out of paint,” she says. Then she lifts her gun and shoots me, right as the air horn sounds. I’m officially out of the games.

* * * *

“I swear that bitch Rebecca totally planned that,” Tessa mutters to me under her breath as we walk back toward the clearing. “She’s wanted you off the show since day one because of your connection to Emmett, and she and Megan are friends. I bet they totally set that up. Rebecca’s been in first place for the past two events; she didn’t need the extra points.”

I feel like crying, but I’ve got to keep it together. Hardship and disappointment are old friends of mine, and I’ll survive this just like I’ve survived everything else. I focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

“We can’t prove it,” I say glumly. “Logan never said you couldn’t try to trick the opposing team. I was just dumb enough to fall for it.”

“You weren’t dumb,” Rose interjects loyally. “I believed her too. Besides, neither one of us had a good shot. Rebecca, on the other hand, could have shot her point-blank, but she didn’t.”

We continue walking in silence, and I steal a glance at Roman. His face is impassive as he focuses intently, his eyes trained on the path in front of him.

We’re the last group to reach the clearing, and we barely have a chance to catch our breath before Logan starts talking.

“Well, this game turned out to be way more exciting than I’d anticipated,” he says. “Apparently, both captains were shot just before the heat ended, so we don’t have a clear-cut winner or loser.”

I search for Sabrina and am shocked to see a splat of blue paint on her back. Emmett catches my eye and winks. I may have been shot, but Emmett had made sure the other captain was too. I smile back at him wanly. While I appreciate his effort, it’s not much of a consolation that both teams are probably leaving now instead of just me and Roman.

“Since it’s a tie, we’re going to leave it up to the audience, and of course our panel of official judges that consists of several Doms and submissives and a few key Club Helix personnel, to decide whether Shawn and Sabrina or Roman and Ava stay.”

There’s a murmur of relief, but I notice the glance that passes between Rebecca and Megan. Tessa was right. They’d set the whole thing up, and Rebecca’s not pleased that her plan to get me eliminated was foiled. Roman’s standing next to me, and he grabs my hand, squeezing it reassuringly. I look up at him and smile tentatively. He smiles back, but his eyes are somber, and I can tell by the set of his jaw that he’s still not too happy.

“Our last game, Sub Hunt, is a predator/prey form of tag,” Logan announces.

I swallow hard.
Prey?
But rather than sending shivers of dread up my spine, the word sends a little jolt of excitement.

“Doms will hunt their own submissives. If a sub is hit, she’s considered captured and must stop. Doms will secure their submissives however they see fit and bring them back to the clearing. As you can see, we have posts set up here. Captured submissives will be secured to the posts until the heat ends. At that time, the Dom may claim the bounty of his choice from his submissive, within her limits, of course. He can claim it here publicly, on camera in a private scene later, or off camera.” He looks from Roman to Shawn. “If our Doms who are in jeopardy play their cards right, this could be a great opportunity to tilt the audience vote in their favor.”

Logan gives us time to remove our various accessories. The blood rushes back into my engorged nipples as Roman removes the clamps. I hiss.

“Shh, baby,” he says, rubbing my back comfortingly as he pulls me to him so my breasts are crushed against the flat, hard expanse of his chest, his chin resting on my head. His bare chest feels cool against my flushed and impossibly heavy breasts, and even though the coarse hairs on his chest abrade my overly sensitive nipples, I can’t bring myself to move out of his embrace. After a few minutes he pulls back and lifts my chin with his finger, searching my face.

“Are you okay?” he asks softly.

I nod, undone by his unexpected gentleness. I don’t have long to fully enjoy Roman’s sudden lapse in character, because Logan announces that the third and final game is about to begin. The air horn sounds, and the submissives once again start running.

Although I don’t have a burning desire to be cuffed to a pole in the wilderness, neither do I have a burning desire to escape Roman. This is most likely our last day together, and I want to give him whatever he wants, whatever he demands this one last time.

Primitive instinct has me running for about five minutes, but my heart’s not in it, and I’m almost relieved when I feel the slight sting of the paintball on the back of my thigh. The world tilts as Roman scoops me up like I’m a sack of flour and tosses me over his shoulder.

“You can put me down,” I protest. “I’m not going to run away.”

“I’m not sure of that after the last few days,” he says darkly. “Besides, this satisfies my caveman instincts. There’s nothing more alpha male than slinging a woman over your shoulder and dragging her off to have your way with her.”

I snicker, and he whacks my bottom. “Show some respect,” he instructs, but I can hear the laughter in his voice.

Five minutes later, I’m cuffed to a post, and a finger of dread creeps up my spine as I realize I have no idea what bounty Roman intends to claim. For all I know he plans to whip me or use some other diabolical implement of torture I don’t even know about but unwittingly agreed to when I’d so innocently and stupidly filled out my hard-and-soft-limits work sheet.

My heart beats erratically as he comes to stand next to me, the toy bag dangling from his fingertips as he runs his hand possessively down my back and over the curve of my ass, squeezing it roughly. The wicked glint in his eyes does not ease my mind.

Logan starts at the end where Desiree is cuffed, Stefan standing next to her. “What will you claim from your submissive?” Logan asks Stefan.

The burly Dom smacks Desiree’s round bottom. “I’m going to claim what I shot first today—her delectable ass.” Desiree stiffens, but I can see she’s turned on by the way she’s trying to clench her thighs together. He nudges her feet apart, chastising her good-naturedly to be patient. “But I’ll wait to claim that until we’re back in our suite,” he adds, and she sags with relief.

Logan moves on to Luke, who pulls out a small whip similar to the one that had been used on me during Western Night and says with his eyes gleaming, “I believe I’ll play with my prey right here.”

He trails the leather strands across Tessa’s back, and I almost hyperventilate. I struggle against the restraints, some primitive instinct compelling me to go save her. Roman presses his hand firmly against my back, stilling me. The authoritative action somehow halts my panic, and I watch Luke almost lovingly whip Tessa’s body, each lick of the leather strands sending her up on her toes as her breathing becomes faster and her eyes glaze over. Tessa, whom I’m starting to realize is as uninhibited as I am inhibited, revels in it, her head thrown back as Luke brings her to orgasm with nothing but the implement. Huh. How is that possible? Although the flogger terrifies me, I wonder if it’s possible that it could actually feel good. Doubtful. But, I think with a tiny pang of regret, I’ll probably never find out.

Then it’s our turn, and I’m sucking air into my lungs, reminding myself that I can handle whatever Roman decides.

“What do you want from your submissive?” Logan asks.

Roman fists his hand in my hair, turning my head so our eyes meet.

“The truth. Off camera.”

Chapter Fifteen

Roman

The atmosphere on the ride back to the hotel is markedly different from the atmosphere on the way to the games. The submissives are tired, and some of them are snuggled in their Doms’ laps while others are clearly nervous or excited or both about what the remainder of the evening holds for them. Ava is quiet, and I can tell by the way she keeps worrying her bottom lip that she’s part of the apprehensive group.

“Remember what I told you about biting your lip,” I murmur in her ear. The heat that flares in her eyes makes my cock stir to life. Not that it would take much. It’s been five long days for me as well as her, and being around Ava, even a pissed-off and brooding Ava, is a powerful aphrodisiac. I take her face between my hands and rub my thumbs from the corners of her soft, full lips to her cheeks before taking her mouth gently. She sighs and melts into the kiss, and I feel a flicker of hope that maybe what we have doesn’t have to be over. Even if we’re voted off the games, maybe she’ll consider staying on with me in a full-time submissive relationship.

I know the odds are good that we’ll be voted off tonight, particularly since I chose not to do a public scene. But I have to clear the air with Ava, for her sake and for mine, and we have to do it alone.

When we get back to the hotel, I take a quick shower and then order room service while Ava takes a significantly longer shower. When she emerges from the bathroom, she looks pink, soft, and utterly fuckable, with damp little tendrils of dark hair framing her heart-shaped face. We eat in near silence, the tension crackling in the air between us. When she’s polished off the pasta I’d ordered, along with half of the Caesar salad and several slices of bread, I say quietly, “I’m ready to collect my bounty, Avalon.”

She looks at me apprehensively, and then she sighs with resignation. “You said at the paintball field that you wanted the truth,” she says. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything. I want the truth from you. I want to know why you were so upset after Western Night, and whether you really want to stay and compete and win the Power Games, or whether you’re going to want to quit anytime I ask you to do something out of your comfort zone.”

She looks at me aghast. “You think I wanted to quit because I was outside my comfort zone? There isn’t a single thing that’s happened in the past two weeks that hasn’t been outside my comfort zone!”

“I don’t know why you wanted to quit,” I respond rationally. “That’s why I want you to tell me. The foundation of a good D/s relationship is trust and honesty. It’s integral.”