NightWhere (18 page)

“Something like that.”

The man shook his head. “Can’t help you though. I guess if you’re in the scene, you’ll find it.”

“Or it’ll find you,” Mark mumbled.

“Huh?”

“Nothing,” Mark said. “Thanks.”

He left the store. The next Bondage-A-Go-Go gathering was just two nights away, according to the free adult magazine ads. He prayed that he had better luck there.

Chapter Twenty-Five

The Morning After

Her back was groaningly stiff when Rae sat up. The silk of the sheets slid easily down from around her skin as she rose in the bed. Part of her was surprised that the blood from the wounds she’d sustained on the rack the night before had not dried and scabbed the sheet to her. She stretched and looked around in the dark, momentarily disconcerted. She remembered the night before, but for a minute she wasn’t sure where she was. And then she remembered that Kharon had left her here.

Kharon.

Images of his white body moving on top of her own flesh came at her in a rush, and she felt instantly warm.

She had agreed to stay in NightWhere, here in this room, after everyone else had gone home. She had promised herself to Kharon forever.

The memories all came back in a rush, and she found herself whispering one word.

“Wow.”

Rae assumed they had to get up and out of this building though. NightWhere couldn’t stay in one place for long, or the place would get busted. The police would never let any adult club be this extreme. She knew that most bondage clubs kept the patrons at least partially dressed and never broke the skin with their floggers. They were more for play than foreplay.

She shifted in the bed and was reminded of how different NightWhere was. They didn’t shy from doling out pain here.

She slid from the bed, feeling her way along the nightstand to the wall. There had to be a light somewhere… Kharon had turned one on and off in the living room last night. But at the moment, she couldn’t see enough in the dark to even find a switch. There were no windows here; this truly was sensory deprivation, level black.

“Good sleeping room,” she whispered.

Finally she found a switch and turned it on, squinting her eyes against what she assumed would be a wash of light. But she quickly opened them. The switch turned on a row of three red bulbs in the ceiling. They lit the room enough to get around in, but she felt as if she were walking in a photographic darkroom.

Rae frowned and stepped into the living room. There she found a more utilitarian light. She stood naked in the center of the room, taking it all in. Again she wondered at the decor. She appeared to be in a regular, permanent apartment, if one decorated with the eye of a denizen of NightWhere. But…they couldn’t set rooms like this up every month for the club; perhaps this was a room that had already been set up in this building, prior to NightWhere’s arrival?

Looking at the black walls, she thought that seemed unlikely.

Rae went into the bathroom to pee; it felt as if she hadn’t gone in hours and hours. When she stood up, she saw a black silk robe on the back of the door. She began to slip it on, but then caught herself in the mirror.

She turned to the side and looked at her shoulder, and then edged around to stare at as much of her back as she could crane her head to see.

There should have been scabs and puffy red marks where the whips had cracked just hours before.

Rae frowned.

Her back appeared blemish-free. She could see the smooth curve of her shoulder and the gentle bumps of her spine. Her skin looked pale and pure in the mirror.

“I guess I can’t complain about that,” she murmured and pulled the robe closed, cinching the ties. “I’m sure I’ll be bloody again tonight.”

Something inside her squirmed with anticipation at the thought. “You are one sick girl,” she said to herself.

A voice answered her private admonition.

“Are you ready?” a man called from the living room. Rae stepped out, and Kharon was there.

“For what?” she asked.

“For your first day in NightWhere.”

“I guess I need to get some clothes on first,” she said.

He waved a hand. “You look perfect just like that. A robe is more than many wear around here. We keep the heat high, so clothing is just for fashion, not for warmth. We don’t like to have too much in the way of what we’re all here for.”

He stepped closer and ran a hand up the silken material from her waist to her chest. He cupped one breast, forcing the nipple to show itself through the thin material. “You can take this off whenever you like,” he said. “Remember where you are.”

Rae leaned into his hand, exulting in the feeling. There was something about this man, some innate power, some innate…sexuality. On the surface, he was not beautiful. She pictured his deathly white skin and bony chest as he’d mounted her last night. Normally, she would have found such a man repulsive. But…she wanted him again, just as she had then.

He smiled, as if he could read her mind.

“Not now,” he warned. “We need to get you your badge. The day will pass quickly and then we’ll be opening the doors again.”

“What badge?” she asked, and Kharon held up his wrist to show the familiar twining-snake tattoo. “This shows everyone that you’re not just passing through. You’re one of us. You live here now.”

“But, Mark…all my things…”

“Do you really want to go back to that life?” Kharon asked. “You said last night that you would be mine forever.”

Rae felt a warmth in her gut as they walked down a long dark hall, back towards the Blue Room. Every day here with Kharon? Every day a chance to walk naked through a crowd? Every day a chance to whip and be whipped.

“I do,” she said. “I guess I just didn’t think I would stay here all the time.”

“You are either in or out,” Kharon said. “You can’t be a visitor forever.”

Rae nodded. “What about Mark? Can I tell him…”

Kharon shook his head. “We will tell him. It will be easiest that way. He’ll be angry, but I think he’ll understand. You were meant for this place, and he…wasn’t.”

As they walked into the main room, he pointed out Sin-D, who lounged on a chair near the bar. She underscored his point about the clothing-optional nature of NightWhere. Sin-D wore only a pair of black fishnets and a sheer black baby doll top. Open access, if any men cared to step up to the chair.

“She will take care of you,” Kharon promised. “She’s gotten pretty good with the needles. Then we’ll need to find out what you can do around here during the day to earn your keep, before the doors open.”

“But, don’t we need to move to another place?” she asked. NightWhere had always been in a different building each time she had come.

He put his hands on her shoulders and aimed her at Sin-D. But before he pushed her forward, he leaned to her ear to whisper. “We already have moved,” he said. “Everything’s set here for tonight.”

He licked her ear and said, “You were asleep a long time.”

The tattoo hurt, but in the end, it looked awesome. Sin-D worked quickly, pricking the ink into Rae’s skin and the snake took shape around Rae’s wrist in no time, twining and winding around her hand to eat its own tail.

When she was done, Sin-D leaned back and smiled. Rae thought her teeth made a delicious contrast against her tan skin. The other woman’s breasts pressed sumptuously against the thin silk; she may as well not have worn anything. She wore a belly button ring as well. And shaved her pussy. Also pierced.

“Do you like what you see?” Sin-D asked.

Rae blushed. She hadn’t meant to stare so obviously. But Sin-D was definitely one hot chick built for hot nights. And she knew that Mark had fucked her at least once. Something she guessed he wouldn’t get to do again. Part of her felt guilty for leaving him so suddenly, so easily, for this…after all, he’d indulged her in all of her sexual adventures, whether he really had wanted them or not.

But in the deepest core of her heart, she did not ever want to go home again. She had found a place—maybe for the first time—in which she really felt at home. It was dark and wicked and full of pain and perversion.

And she fucking loved it.

Sin-D stepped forward and put her arms around Rae. She took Rae’s hand and entwined their fingers. “Don’t think too much,” she advised. “Just do what you want to do.”

She leaned in and kissed Rae hard on the mouth. Sin-D’s tongue was thin and moved fast in her mouth, and Rae felt herself respond, sparring against Sin-D’s quick tongue with her own. She felt the other woman’s breasts move and meld against her own, and Rae moved one hand down Sin-D’s back to massage the other woman’s silky ass. Her fingers slipped across Sin-D’s skin as if it were slick with oil.

Normally Rae didn’t play much with women; it was the hardness of men that she craved. But every now and then, she had indulged. And Sin-D definitely excited her.

Sin-D’s hand disentangled itself from Rae’s and while still tongue-wrestling, she slid her fingers beneath Rae’s robe. She put one hand on Rae’s crotch, tracing the edge of the hair down between her legs and then back up the other side before cupping her whole mound and massaging it with a ripple of fingers. Then she moved a hand over Rae’s breasts, gently kneading them up and then letting them fall before taking the nipples between her fingers and pinching.

Rae gasped in her mouth and Sin-D smiled. Then she pushed Rae’s robe to the floor and led her behind the bar to the couch.

“Lie down on your back,” she said.

Rae did, and suddenly Sin-D’s ass was in her face, and the lips of her smooth pussy pressed against her mouth. A warm, wet tongue began to loosen the folds between her own legs and Rae gasped, opening her mouth without another thought to take the other woman’s sex in. In minutes, she was moaning into Selena’s pussy, as wet with her own saliva as with Selena’s lubrication. Her own hips bucked in a rhythm matching the staccato squeaks of her partner.

Rae’s orgasm came fast and hard, and neither woman held back on screaming out the joy of their release. Rae was still blinking from the rush when her partner’s body shifted and Sin-D’s wide smile appeared at Rae’s face. The other woman knelt next to the couch and gave Rae a fast kiss.

“You taste nice,” Sin-D said. Then without a beat, she added, “Have you ever fucked a horse?”

Rae made a disgusted face as her eyes widened.

Sin-D laughed. “Baby, don’t look so shocked. It’s a lot of fun. They feel soooo different than a guy, I don’t care how ‘hung like a horse’ he might be, no guy has anything like that.”

“Um, okay,” Rae said, unsure of what to say.

Sin-D held up Rae’s wrist, glossy with the antibiotic cream she’d applied after finishing the tattoo. She pressed her own snake to Rae’s.

“You’re one of us now,” she reminded. “You can do anything you want here. I mean anything. Don’t be shy about exploring. You already know you can whip people to your heart’s content, but there’s so much more here than that. You want to really do it doggy style? Just ask. Kharon will have a Great Dane for you in no time. You want to stab a guy to death while you fuck him? Just ask. Kharon can make anything happen. And the nastier you get…” Sin-D raised one eyebrow high, “…the more he likes it.”

Sin-D stood up. “So don’t hold back, huh?”

Rae sat up on the couch and looked at Sin-D. On the surface, she looked like a mischievous, playful beach baby. But she also had scars that suggested that she had indulged in NightWhere’s darkest corners. Rae had felt them on Sin-D’s back when they’d made love. And Sin-D had a snake around her wrist to prove that she was not just a perky sex kitten. What else had she done to join NightWhere full time? What dream did this place fulfill for her?

“What have you always wanted to do, but never could out there in real life?” Sin-D asked.

Rae thought about all of the times she’d been with Mark and the urges she’d held back. He’d let her play a little, but she had always had to be careful. There were times that she had held her hands around his neck just a little too long and really scared him.

“I like the fucking a guy to death idea,” she admitted softly.

Sin-D nodded. “Nice. Do you like sharp or blunt objects?”

“Just my hands,” Rae whispered, squeezing her thighs tight as she spoke.

“You are
so
going to enjoy NightWhere.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

A Clue

His first thought upon walking into the dark bar lit with a combination of neon beer signs and long strands of colored Christmas lights was,
“Well, this certainly isn’t NightWhere.”

No, Mark reminded himself. This was Bondage-A-Go-Go, a monthly bar scene meet-up for those who flirted with the S&M set.

Flirted was the right word though, he realized as he walked the club. The waitresses were all wearing black skirts and tight black tops. If they poured drinks as deep as the cleavage, you’d get drunk here really fast, he thought.

On the lower level, a DJ spun some ’80s techno, and couples and groups clustered at the long wooden bar and around some black highboy tables. Upstairs, a crowd had gathered around a small stage to play voyeur to the beating.