The Plume: The Second Anthology (34 page)

“Thank you, Mike.” Her voice had softened,
the way it always did when she was blindfolded and her body was
relaxed. He could smell the wet heat of her sex and wished—one more
time—that they were alone. But she’d begged Eric, and he knew his
old friend well enough to know he wouldn’t step away now.

The elevator was quiet and quick, soaring up
at Eric’s command to the top floor.

The penthouse.

They got out of the elevator and Eric led
them to the right. There appeared to only be the one door on this
floor, but the larger part of the floor was blocked off. Mike
guessed that the other resident had a private elevator.

They paused in front of the one door, and
Eric pulled two card keys from his pocket. He gave one to Mike,
then slid his into the door. The lock lit, like a hotel room door,
and Eric opened the door.

They stepped into what appeared to be a
deluxe closet, albeit one with a full bathroom on the left
side.

“Let’s hang up your jacket and skirt,
Joanna,” Eric said after he had shut the door behind them. “There’s
only one rule here, and that’s that you enter naked.”

Her mouth worked in silence, making her look
so vulnerable that Mike wanted to kiss her senseless. He hoped
she’d object, but instead she unfastened her jacket. Mike took her
purse and put it down on a side table, then helped her out of her
jacket. Eric hung it up on one of the padded hangers. Mike
unfastened her skirt, letting it drop to the floor and held her
waist as she stepped unsteadily out of it. Eric hung it up as well,
then gave her back her purse.

The corset looked as fabulous and sexy as
he’d imagined when he bought it, but the moment was spoiled for him
by the fact that they were a threesome.

But Joanna’s cheeks were flushed, and so were
her breasts. The smell of her arousal was unmistakable.

She was loving this.

There was another door to the right,
requiring another key card. The key cards were different colors, so
Mike knew he’d remember what order they had to be used.

If he ever came back.

“She’s not naked yet,” he said to Eric when
that man went to the second door. He knew that his only chance of
keeping his own control was if Joanna got out of the corset.

“You’re right,” Eric agreed easily. “Let’s do
it right.”

“But...” Joanna protested.

Eric caught her by the chin and backed her
into the wall, startling her with his quick move. “Did you have
something to say, little slave girl?” he growled.

“No, Master Eric,” Joanna gasped. “Nothing at
all, Master Eric.”

“Good.” Eric released her and ran his hand
over her breast. “Take it all off.”

Joanna quickly shed the corset and then her
stockings and shoes. Her hands were shaking and this time, Mike was
sure she’d protest.

She didn’t though.

The only thing she left on were the
sunglasses on, at Eric’s command. Mike put everything else on the
side table beside her purse.

Eric surveyed her with satisfaction. “Hands
clasped behind your back,” he murmured. “You don’t want to be
punished, do you?”

Joanna shook her head and locked her hands
behind her back.

“The perfect submissive,” Eric said with a
pleased sigh.

Mike had nothing to say.

“And here’s the perfect reward.” Eric
unlocked the second door and they stepped into an apartment. It was
decorated in an elegant combination of burgundy and ivory. The
walls were padded with leather on two sides and either velvet or
suede on the other two sides. There was only a narrow row of
windows around the perimeter of the room, comprising the last foot
before the ceiling. The ivory carpet was thick and plush
underfoot.

The sound of the door clicking shut behind
them seemed very loud.

Final.

A large four poster bed made of wrought iron
was set against one wall, and was made up with smooth white satin
sheets and lots of pillows. There was a couch and two chairs
surrounding a solid block of a coffee table. There was also a
rectangular box, waist high, upholstered in burgundy leather and
similar to the one in the dungeon at his townhouse.

And there were d-rings embedded in the walls,
the ceiling, the furniture and the floor everywhere Mike
looked.

This was a prison.

For Joanna.

Another man’s prison for Joanna.

To the left was a small white kitchen and to
the right a luxurious bathroom, one so generously proportioned that
a couple could have sex in half a dozen places. Prominently
displayed on the living room wall was a phone that looked more like
the panel of a security system. There were no closets or cupboards
in the rest of the apartment, which made the space appear larger
than it was. The exception was a niche to one side of the bed. Its
walls were hung with an array of bondage accessories. The bench
that filled the base of the niche looked to have a hinged lid.

“Not much storage,” Eric said, noting the
direction of Mike’s glance. “But a sex slave doesn’t need a big
wardrobe.” Mike could have argued that, as Joanna had a lot of
corsets and boots, but he kept silent.

His opinion didn’t seem to be relevant.

Eric crossed the room and opened the bench.
“It’s pretty much empty now, but will be good for lingerie and
other toys.” The coffee table also had a hinged lid, and Eric
showed that it was fully stocked. There were cable ties of all
sizes, a wide variety of tape, a pile of silken scarves and every
kind of rope Mike could imagine. There were at least four kinds of
gags there, even though he’d said the room was soundproofed.

But then, Mike remembered how Eric liked the
sound of a woman securely gagged.

“You worked fast,” Mike said, with some
admiration. It was easy to arrange an apartment like this one.

Eric grinned. “My new business venture.”

“What?”

“Every city needs a few places like this,
available for rent to the right clients. This is the first one
finished, my favorite of them all, actually.”

“You can find tenants?”

Eric nodded. “I could fill them with
submissives for myself and just make the rounds all day and night,
but that wouldn’t make me any money. A few words here and there and
I’ve got a list of interested parties. I’m guessing I’ll be able to
rent them as quickly as I can get them finished.” He shrugged.
“Maybe because the Plume is in town. There’s a certain market
here.”

“You’ve thought of everything,” Mike said,
trying to ignore how Joanna was practically vibrating in
anticipation.

“I’ve been dreaming about this for a long
time,” Eric admitted, casting an admiring glance over Joanna. He
kissed her temple and she shook visibly. “Welcome home, Joanna. You
can take off your sunglasses now.”

She took off her sunglasses and looked around
the apartment, her eyes widening when she realized that the door
was secured with no inside latch. She turned to Mike with
astonishment in her expression, but her nipples were tighter than
he’d ever seen them.

And he could smell how wet she was. The scent
of her arousal was driving him crazy.

“I think you should gag her the first time,”
Mike said.

Joanna made a choking sound.

Mike turned away from her, opening the
ottoman to reveal the storage area. “Let’s try this wide black
tape.”

“Great idea,” Eric agreed.

Joanna seemed to be fighting the urge to
speak, but Mike didn’t want to hear her beg for more again. He tore
off an eight-inch length of the tape, and handed it to Joanna.

“Silence yourself,” he said, his tone rough.
Mike thought for a moment that she’d argue or defy him, and he
could see the flutter of her pulse at her throat. Then she took the
tape, stretched it flat and put it over her own mouth.

“So fucking submissive,” Eric whispered in
delight.

“Scream,” Mike commanded.

Joanna tried to follow his order, but her
scream came out as a moan that could barely be discerned. Her gaze
locked with Mike’s and he wondered whether there really was a plea
in her eyes, or whether he was imagining it.

Just because he wanted there to be one.

“You’re going to love this place,” Eric said
to her. He put his hand on the back of her neck and pushed her
across the room to the phone that was mounted in the wall. “When it
rings, it sounds just like a phone. You touch this button here, and
listen. Do you understand, Joanna?”

Joanna nodded.

“Make that moan again,” Eric cajoled. “Just
for me.”

She did and he caught at his own chest,
apparently too delighted for words. “Okay, Mike, let’s go.”

Mike blinked. “We’re going to leave her
here?”

“Why not? She was bad, and we need to punish
her. This is the perfect place and the best time to start.”

Joanna made a long low moan and leapt for
Mike. Eric caught her and threw her on the bed. “You walked in her
willingly,” he told her, his tone harsh. “You had to guess that you
weren’t going to walk out anytime soon.”

Joanna lunged toward him, but he pushed her
back onto the bed so that she bounced on the mattress.

“I can smell how much you want this,” Eric
said. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. We’ll make sure you get exactly
what you deserve.”

She reached to tug off the tape, but Mike
lifted a hand. “Be good, Joanna. Kneel on the bed, knees apart and
feet together. Put your hands on your knees and leave that tape
alone.”

She glared at him for a heartbeat, then did
as she was told.

“Nice,” Eric whispered, but Mike didn’t
agree.

“Let’s go,” Mike said to Eric and headed for
the door.

He couldn’t stand this. He didn’t want to
think about Joanna being in a place like this, not if she was going
to be used by anyone other than him. And if this was what she
wanted, since this was what she wanted, he knew they had no future
together.

One night of sharing had been more than
enough for him.

* * *

Four

It was evening when Athena had decided.

As was typical for her, her choice seemed
impulsively made, but it wasn’t. She’d been thinking all day about
her argument with Rex, about the future, about the choice the Count
had offered her. She’d been dressing to go back to the Plume,
preparing for Rafe to pick her up in the limo, when she knew what
she had to do.

There was really no choice. She had no future
until she dealt with her own past.

Rafe held the door of the limo for her and
she paused beside him, trying to see his eyes behind his
sunglasses. “Not the Plume tonight,” she said, but Rafe hid his
surprise.

Even when she gave him the address of the
Count’s new house.

* * *

Rex nearly jumped out of his skin when his
cell phone rang.

For a moment, he wasn’t sure what the sound
was. Evening had fallen and he was still in Leya’s studio. They’d
slept again and he was once again weaving jute rope, though now
with more skill. As it became darker, the candles seemed to turn
the air to honey and make time irrelevant.

The sound of the cell phone didn’t belong
there.

Rex strode to his messenger bag and pulled
out the phone. It rang again and he answered, as much to silence it
as anything.

“Mr. Rex, I’m keeping our bargain,” a man
said. His voice was unfamiliar. “You have fifteen minutes to get
out, if you’re at the Plume.”

Rex couldn’t make any sense of his words.
“Excuse me?”

“Fifteen minutes. That’s what I promised you
and you might have just barely that before the first cars get
there.”

“Do you have the right number?” Rex asked
with a frown.

The man cleared his throat. “I know we talked
about Wednesday night at ten, but it’s gone way over my head. This
is coming from the top, and it’s going down now.”

Wednesday at ten. That was when Leya was
scheduled to bind him in the shibari demonstration for the Plume,
but Rex couldn’t connect that with this man’s warning.

“Am I supposed to know what you’re talking
about?”

The man laughed. “If you need to pretend that
you don’t know about the police raid that you facilitated in order
to save face with your friends, that’s fine by me. I’m just keeping
my promise to you. They’re moving fast. Twelve minutes at the
outside.”

And he broke the connection.

Rex stared at the call display. The man had
called from the police station.

“What’s going on?” Leya asked.

“A raid. He talked about a raid on the
Plume.” Rex looked at her in astonishment. “There’s going to be a
police raid on the Plume in twelve minutes.

Leya was on her feet in an instant. She
dressed and shoved on her shoes, jamming her belongings into a bag.
She cast him a look and Rex began to dress as well, infected by her
urgency.

“The files,” he said to himself. He had to
delete the members’ files because all of their personal information
was there. It was evidence that could be used against them.

“What’s the plan?” Leya asked. That she knew
he had one for such emergencies was yet more proof that they
thought similarly.

Rex was shoving on his shoes. “We’re wired
with two alarm systems. The blue one is for the event of a raid,
although I never thought we’d use it.”

“Good thing you installed it.”

“There’s a software worm that will wipe the
drives in the office once I launch it.”

“From there?”

“Yes. It’s the only way.”

“But their data will be lost. Good. Do you
have a car here?”

“Yes, I’ll get it.” Rex slung his messenger
bag over his shoulder.

“Give me the keys,” Leya ordered. “Tell me
where to meet you. Twelve minutes isn’t enough time.”

She was right. Rex turned and tossed her the
keys. “Red Jeep parked by the exit ramp. I’ll meet you at exit six.
It’s an unmarked fire door on the back side.” And farthest away
from where the police would likely enter the building. They might
not even realize there was an exit there.