Love and Let Die (21 page)

At least he thought it hadn’t really touched her. It hadn’t been his intention to put her into subspace, but he was pretty sure she was still there. He needed to get her out of the crowd and ensure that he hadn’t burned her in any way. When Charlie was in subspace, she could take a lot more pain than normal. At least she used to be able to.

“Why don’t you take her to the locker room and let her come down?” Alex asked, stepping up to start dealing with the scene clean up. “I’ll take care of this. You deal with aftercare.”

Charlie was in a robe Eve had brought her, her arms wrapped around her middle, but a beatific smile on her face. God, she looked so innocent it was sometimes hard to remember all the shit she pulled.

“I’ll take her to the locker room for you,” Eve offered.

Eve was overstepping a bit, though she couldn’t really know it. Eve often took care of his subs after the play was done because they needed more than he was willing to give them. But this was different. He hadn’t signed a contract with Charlie outlining what he would and wouldn’t do for aftercare. No matter what he wanted, Charlie was his sub for now and he would take care of her. He swung her up into his arms and started walking away.

“Don’t you think that was a little rude, Sir?” Charlie asked, but her head was already drifting to his shoulder, her arms around his neck. “Shouldn’t you have said something to Eve?”

He thought he’d made himself pretty plain. “I prefer actions to words. Words can be taken different ways. Me walking away told Eve everything she needs to know.”

Like to stay out of his relationship with his sub. Except it wasn’t a relationship. Not really.

And maybe he’d gotten into topspace. Playing with her, having her trust him, had gotten him a little high, too. She wasn’t the only one who’d been hit with a ton of adrenaline. Every time he’d touched the wand to the cotton, a thrill had flared through him as well, and he didn’t pretend it would have been that way with any sub. This was his sub, the one who was attuned to his needs and desires, the one who somehow completed him. It was different with the others, and when she was gone he would mourn her all over again, but then he’d always known he would mourn her for the rest of his life.

His body was humming, a healthy lust strumming through his system. Why should he drop her off at the locker room? He’d been honest with her. He’d told her everything that would happen if she got sexual with him again. He’d explained that it wasn’t a relationship and never would be. It was sex, and sex between them had always been fucking incredible.

Charlie was a big girl who knew all the rules. Why should he leave her alone? Why shouldn’t he take this time and enjoy the fuck out of her body?

“Can I talk now?” Charlie asked in a low voice.

“You’re not very good at the whole ‘high protocol’ thing. We’re going to have to work on that.” He carried her past the bar toward the privacy rooms. There were three in Sanctum, each nothing more than a tricked-out bedroom with hooks and eyelets in the walls and ceilings for bondage and suspension play. He would have taken his kit with him, but there was no need. This wasn’t about discipline. It was about getting off. It was about letting his cock have its way.

“I get the feeling you would keep me in high protocol forever if you could.” She cuddled against him, not seeming to care that everyone in the club was watching them.

Ian cared, but there wasn’t a hell of a lot he could do about it. They would watch and gossip. It was a part of life. When he wasn’t on the receiving end, he was usually watching and commenting, so he accepted it. “We get along better when you don’t talk.”

“Caveman.” She slapped lightly at his chest but there was no real intent behind it. “You know you’re kind of a Neanderthal.”

Sometimes he envied the bastards. All they had to do to find a mate was locate a pretty female, knock her over the head and drag her away by the hair. No one thought a thing about it. The cavewoman was then expected to keep a clean cave, spit out some cro-mag babies, and make sure there was a nice sabertooth stew on when the hubby came home. He was betting cavewomen hadn’t run around becoming international information brokers with assassins after them. And they were probably damn fine at high protocol.

“You’re wishing we were cave people, aren’t you?” Charlie asked, a little frown on her face.

She had always been damn good at reading him. “It seems like it was probably a good time to be a man.”

She groaned. Again, not something he would have had to worry about with someone like Amanda. She would have agreed with everything he said and then turned around and made fun of all his female friends. Charlie, on the other hand, defended his female friends and made fun of him. Somehow, he liked Charlie’s way better. Her head came off his chest as she seemed to realize something was wrong. “This doesn’t look like the way to the locker room.”

“You’ve never been here before. How do you know?”

She looked over his shoulder. “I made a quick trip around the place when you dropped me off.”

Well, naturally she wouldn’t stay where he put her. Again, another point for the caveman. Still, he understood what she’d been doing. “How many ways out did you find?”

She would need to know. After so many years of having to survive, Charlie had an ingrained need to know every escape route and possible point of ingress. What Ian had learned from years in the military and CIA, Charlie had learned in childhood.

“Four, but I actually feel pretty safe here. It’s kind of like a fort, isn’t it? There’s the front door, though it’s guarded. Is that bulletproof glass in the doors?”

She had a good eye. “Yes. There are only a couple of windows, but they’re all tinted and bulletproof.” He didn’t need people off the street watching his clients and friends playing. Some of his clients included very high rollers. The CIA might have paid shit, but Sanctum made its money back in droves.

“There’s the back door with the fire escape. You keep that guarded, too. I could get out the window in the storage room,” Charlie said. “But I doubt many people could get in.”

That little tiny thing? “It’s secure, baby. I don’t know that you could get out even if you could get it open.”

“Trust me, I could wiggle out. I’ve gone through smaller places before.” She shivered a little.

“Well, I think our Russian assassins probably won’t try. They would get stuck and they wouldn’t like what I would do to any body part that happened to be inside my building.” It would be fun actually. Like that Winnie the Pooh story Sean had read to Carys, only way more bloody and with Pooh Bear screaming in agony.

“See, I always get scared when you get that look on your face.”

“I was just thinking happy thoughts. What’s the third weak spot?” He was curious. She had a damn better eye for weakness than anyone else he knew.

“The air ducts.”

He breathed a little sigh of relief. He wondered where she’d found a spot high enough to get up and check out the air ducts. “They’re my escape hatch. That’s why they’re so big. They’re locked, too. I had them custom fitted with gates and electronically protected. The guy who built it for me thought I was fuck-all insane. I need to hire an engineer who won’t look at me like I’m crazy. I need a MacGyver, but I worry I would just get another Adam.”

Two of him was too much. Why were all the creative thinkers such smartasses?

“So I’ll say it again. We’re not going to the locker room.” This time when she said it, there was a husky, seductive quality to her voice.

It went straight to his dick. He nodded as he walked past the bouncer who took care of the privacy rooms.

“Number three is open, boss,” the bouncer said.

It was a busy night at Sanctum if he had to go to three. He’d seen Jesse sneaking back with a pretty brunette named Jana, who liked it rough. Ian wasn’t going to mention that to Charlie, though. She’d handled the fact that he’d screwed Amanda pretty well. He wasn’t going to give her a rundown of what every sub in the club liked and didn’t like. “How do you know I’m not tossing you out on your lovely backside?”

Her smile was sure as she glanced up at him. “Because I was a good girl and let you set me on fire. You owe me.”

He did and that was just another reason to let his dick loose. A night of orgasms was one of the ways he liked to balance the equation. The subs gave him what he needed and he gave them what they needed. Oddly enough, most of the time the sex was unsatisfactory for him, a mere biological process.

Maybe that’s the way it would be this time, too. Maybe his brain was making too much of the connection to Charlie. He’d been younger, less wise. Maybe it was just the first time he’d met someone he really sparked with. Charlie was different from anyone he’d ever met. Perhaps memory was playing tricks with him and he’d fuck her and she would be just like the other women in his life.

Good luck with that, buddy. Because this is your dick talking and my memory is way longer than that piece of meat you call your brain. That is my pussy and I can’t wait to get back in it, so you keep right on thinking as long as you fuck her.

Damn, even his dick had an inner monologue. That was Charlie’s fault, too. It was actually a little handy to have someone around he could just blame for everything. Usually he had to spread out the guilt, but Charlie was a one-stop blame shop. Who to blame for his solitary existence? Charlotte Dennis. Why was his left side aching a little? He’d hit a rock when he’d been forced to save Charlie. Why was the price of oil so high? No idea, but he was sure Charlie was somehow behind it.

The door to three was obligingly half open. He was pretty sure the bouncers left them the slightest bit open because most Doms entered with a sub in their arms, and kicking the door open was the most expedient way to get in.

The lights were on a dimmer switch. The whole room was a low amber. He tossed Charlie on the big bed and stared down at her. Her hair looked a fiery red in the low light, her skin a silky pearl. She let the robe fall open, giving him a spectacular view of her breasts.

“Ian, are you going to make love to me?”

Yes, this was why it was so much easier when she wasn’t talking. “Charlie, I thought we already discussed this. No, I am not going to make love to you because I don’t love you. I am willing to fuck you because you did a good job out there.”

Even in the dimness, he could see the way she flushed. “So this is just payback?”

His brain took back over. His dick wanted to lie. His dick wanted to tell her no, baby, this is all about you, wanting to be inside you, needing to take you. But she deserved the truth. “I want you. I won’t lie about that, but it only goes that far. We’re thrown in together until we can fix your problem, but then I do want you out of my life. I know you think you’re good for me, but I consider you responsible for some of the worst events that ever happened to me.”

“I can make up for them, Ian.”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. But this is your choice. I’ll take you back to the locker room if you would rather go there.”

She got to her knees, shoving the robe off her shoulders and kneeling proudly in front of him. “I’m not willing to give up, Ian.”

There was a piece deep inside him that relaxed. His dick just got harder. His eyes went straight for her bombshell body. Her breasts were a heavenly handful, her waist gracefully flowing into hips he could grip hard while he fucked into her from behind. His brain was starting to shut down, his cock hard and balls already tingling at the thought of shooting off inside her. “Then we both understand what the stakes are.”

“Kiss me, Sir.”

He almost reached for her, almost covered those luscious lips with his own. He wanted to taste her, to remember what it felt like to breathe with her. But he couldn’t. He shook his head shortly. “No. I said no kissing. I meant it. Charlotte, you’re forgetting who’s in charge. I can’t allow that.”

He needed to be in control in the bedroom with her. It was the only way to remember that she wasn’t his wife. She was the woman who had used him and left him behind to pick up her mess.

That plump bottom lip disappeared behind her teeth as she considered what he’d said. “Then may I kiss you? I won’t touch your mouth, Ian. Just let me touch you. You’ll still be in control. You can stop me at any time. I just want to get my hands on you so badly.”

He knew it was a mistake, but his head inclined slightly and that seemed to be all Charlie needed. She moved forward, her hands pushing at the front of his leather vest, drawing it off him. Her body was so close that he could feel the heat pouring off her. Their chests bumped together, her nipples brushing against his flesh as she pulled the vest around his body with one hand. She laid it on the bed and placed her palms on his chest, her eyes closing as if she could feel his heart beating. She might be able to. It was pounding in his body, blood racing to his cock. He wouldn’t be able to think with no blood left in his brain, but he was pretty sure in a minute he wouldn’t give a damn about thinking or making good decisions or anything except getting inside her.

He looked down, watching the place where her breasts touched him. Her nipples were hard little nubs, the usually big areolas at their tightest point. Even with the nipples drawn in, they were still bigger than quarters. He would still have to suck hard to get them fully into his mouth.

A shudder went through him as Charlie put her mouth on his throat, her tongue coming out to trace his Adam’s apple. She ran that hot little tongue all over his neck, stopping to suck and bite gently. His hands went to her hair, burying themselves in her silk.

She trailed down his chest, and he fought to stay still. He closed his eyes, letting her work her magic. This was what other subs didn’t get. They allowed him to service them, but they never tried to give anything back. It wasn’t to say the sex wasn’t good. It was how he preferred it.

Except with her.

He growled a little when she licked at his left nipple. “Bite me, Charlie. Make me feel it.”

He liked a bite of pain, too. Yeah, he didn’t accept it, though, from anyone but her. Years had rolled by and he’d denied himself. He wasn’t willing to do it tonight. Tonight he was going to get what he needed.