Netherworld: Drop Dead Sexy (16 page)

I told the men, “Todd finds traditional
to be soothing. He actually dislikes his own work, but the offbeat
brings in the money so that’s what he gives his
clients.”

I moved about the familiar room,
frowning. The bedside lamp burned despite the strong afternoon sun
beaming through the window. Other items on the nightstand made me
pause: a bottle of wine in an ice bucket that contained not ice,
but water. Two wine glasses. Except for the lack of ice, it was
Todd’s typical setup for our dates when we weren’t attending some
out of town party. And there was something else too.

The house was suddenly too quiet for my
liking, as if the structure itself held its breath in anticipation.
Some sounds of traffic outside and the roar of the ocean intruded.
But the quiet pervaded. It was then I noticed the sickly sweet
scent, so subtle I hadn’t caught it at first.

“We didn’t get to this part of our
date,” I said. “The ice in the bucket is melted, the wine not
poured. And Todd’s cell is on the nightstand.” I turned to the men
who watched me carefully. “Todd doesn’t go anywhere without his
phone. He won’t even go into the bathroom to squat without it. So
we were in the room when something happened.”

“What, Brandilynn?” Tristan asked.
“There’s no sign of a struggle in here. The bed hasn’t even been
mussed.”

He was right. The bed still awaited
Todd and me, perfectly made without a wrinkle marring the
lace-trimmed duvet or pillow cases.

“Something drew us out of the room,” I
said. A murky recollection of Todd walking away from me to check a
noise we’d heard flitted across my mind. I looked at the open
doorway that led out to the rest of the second floor.

Dan walked out, following the direction
of my gaze. He paused just outside the doorway. “It stinks out
here. There’s something wrapped around the railing.” He stepped
farther out, coming to the wrought iron railing that ran the length
of the second floor, overlooking the grand entryway of Todd’s home.
He grimaced. “Your friend is dead, Brandilynn.”

Dread filled me, and I followed Tristan
out to the upper floor’s walkway.

The sickly, overripe smell I’d detected
in the bedroom increased a thousandfold on the balcony overlooking
the home’s entryway. My hand covered my lower face in an effort to
ward off the stench as my eyes spied the bedsheet tied to the
balcony railing. The wrought iron had bent from the weight hanging
from the straining sheet. One step closer to the balcony edge, and
I saw the top of a dark head.

Dan peered over the side and grimaced.
“You might not want to look, Brandilynn.”

I didn’t need to. I knew that dark
brown, almost black head of hair. Todd had been a nice man who
always treated me like a real girlfriend during our sessions, not a
convenience. I swallowed a lump in my throat. I’d never hear his
self-deprecating jokes again or be surprised by a single long
stemmed rose given at the end of some of our trysts.

He’d been a good person who’d died
badly. Because of me.

“He didn’t commit suicide. Not
willingly, anyway.” I walked back to the bedroom door. When I
reached the opening, I turned back around and surveyed the
scene.

Tristan followed me. “Are you
remembering something?”

“Todd went out of the room. I was
standing next to the bed, and I saw him sort of freeze after a
couple of steps. He said nothing, just stood absolutely
still.

Tristan mused, “The vampire must have
captured him with glamour right away. What happened next,
Brandilynn?”

“It was strange the way Todd froze and
didn’t say a word. I thought he’d discovered a burglar, and I came
to the doorway to see, to help him if he needed me. I reached this
point and … and … it was cold, empty, like a void.”

“Definitely vampire glamour,” Dan
muttered. “He immobilized your friend, and then he snared
you.”

“I heard a whispering, like far away.
Not really a voice, more like intent.” A trembling had seized me,
remembering that cold nothingness I’d been imprisoned
in.

“Your friend Spaulding might have done
this deed himself, but he was ordered to.” Dan glared at Tristan.
“We’re talking an older vampire with the kind of mind control that
can hold two people at once, Tristan. Not only that, but he stalked
Brandilynn and followed her here. This was planned, not
opportunistic.”

Tristan looked scared and angry all at
once. He asked me, “You’ve never dated vampires in your work, never
been around them?”

I fought the curl of disdain that
wanted to come out. I hated that I remained so bigoted despite
having finally banged a vampire. Nevermind he wasn’t a vampire when
I did him, but Tristan was still one of them. Time to stop being so
darn high and mighty. “The company I work for doesn’t serve paras,
but I go to parties with clients, parties with vampires and weres
in attendance.”

“Did you recognize any of my people
when you came to the hotel last night?”

“No, though I believe your sister and a
couple of your staff have been present at some of the functions
I’ve been to. I knew about the glamour thing, so I kept my eyes
down when I was around your people.”

Dan paced back and forth, his brow
heavy with concentration. “Then there were men who didn’t mind
being seen with you publicly, who might not have minded others
knowing they hired escorts. Can you think of anyone who fits that
description, who might have been friendly on a personal basis with
paras?”

“Snoot Lassington.” I felt a rush of
excitement. Snoot had been mean enough to introduce me to the paras
he knew, even though he was aware I felt uncomfortable around
them.

“The personal trainer?” Tristan sounded
excited too. “Several of my shifter staff go to him.

Dan stopped pacing, coming to rest in
front of me. “Can you take us to his house?”

Uncertainly, I answered, “Yeah, I
guess.”

“
What’s wrong?” The weight
of his hand on my shoulder comforted me a little.

I looked at the two men. “Snoot’s into
BDSM. He’s geared more to sadism and likes to give more pain than I
like to receive. I stopped seeing him after he ignored my safeword
and got way too rough. Quite honestly, he freaked me
out.”

Tristan stroked my hair. “He can’t hurt
you now Brandilynn. He won’t see you if he’s home.”

It wasn’t the prospect of seeing Snoot
that bothered me. I worried more about Dan, so new to my particular
brand of sexual expression. I couldn’t imagine what he’d think
after getting a look at the paraphernalia I’d enjoyed with Snoot
before he got abusive.

Chapter Nine

I wasn’t surprised when, despite my
best efforts to the contrary, I materialized us in Snoot’s
playroom. After all, this room had made the biggest impression on
me.

A padded sawhorse-type bench with
restraints sat in the middle of the room. Shackles hung from chains
attached to a wall. Whips, floggers and leather straps hung in the
open closet, waiting to be wielded. Painted black walls sported
rows of built-in shelves that held other implements of pain and
bondage.

Dan’s face was comical in its shocked
expression. “Holy shit. Sorry Brandilynn, I know you don’t care for
the cursing but … wow.” Wide-eyed, he wandered the room.

“Yeah, Snoot’s into his toys. He wishes
he had a big basement so he could have a whole dungeon
setting.”

Tristan grinned like a kid in a candy
store. “No chances of a basement with the low water table here.
Nice setup though. Did you spend a lot of time in here?”

“While I was seeing him. It was fun
until he used a taser on me.”

Dan looked horrified. “No
kidding.”

I swallowed. Snoot had been beyond
scary that night, ignoring my screamed safeword. I’d lost control
over my bladder, and he’d lost a steady Thursday night playmate. “I
dropped him as a client after that, and he was blacklisted from the
agency, not to mention the local kink community. I’m surprised you
didn’t hear about it, Tristan.”

The commissioner shook his head. “I
don’t have contacts with the local leathers. Bad for politics, and
it would get out.” He considered the shackles, and my insides
clenched. Being chained up and at Tristan’s tender mercies had a
great deal of appeal.

I grinned. “You like those? Too bad
we’re not all solid, huh?”

To my surprise, Dan spoke his interest
first. “Actually, we can make use of some of these toys.” He
stepped to the closet and set the hanging straps swinging with a
swipe of his hand. “Remember, you just have to pull on the energy
around you.”

Dan moved to the flatscreen TV hanging
from one wall. Snoot liked to view porn while he played. “There’s
some electrical wiring here, which will give you more
substantiality. Come close.”

I stepped to Dan’s side and buzzing
coursed through my body. The vibration was subtle, but definitely
there.

He asked, “Can you feel that? Like a
warm, static charge?”

I nodded and waved my hand over the
television. “It’s strongest right here.”

“That’s where the wires and cables go
into the wall. Draw the energy in like you did before.”

I remembered his earlier lesson and
power flowed through me. The energy fairly crackled, and I suddenly
felt high, like I’d enjoyed a really good bottle of wine. “Wow,
that feels good. I’m all tingly,” I giggled.

Dan grinned, probably at my drunken
tittering. “Now try to move something. Grab one of those straps
over there like I did.”

I floated to the closet. I grabbed a
thin leather strap, remembering it slapping my bare butt once upon
a time. The thought aroused me. I wondered if Dan had the stomach
to spank a naughty girl or if that remained beyond his limits. I
jerked on one end and watched it slither off the pole it hung from.
I held it aloft, a conquering heroine displaying her prize to the
two watching me. “It worked! I’m holding it.”

Tristan shook a cuff at me, making the
chains holding it to the wall rattle. “Want to play while we have
the opportunity?”

I grinned at him. I dropped the strap
and rejoined a smirking Dan by the TV for another hit of energy. It
made me downright giddy. “Woo, this is better than a bottle of
champagne.” I skipped to Tristan’s side. “Okay, now
what?”

“Concentrate all that energy in the pit
of your stomach. When it’s there, stick your wrists in the cuffs
and then let the energy flow through your whole body
again.”

I did as he said, facing the room. As
soon as the power I’d gathered suffused my entire being once more,
the cuffs held solid around my wrists. I yanked on them, and my
arms didn’t slip through. I faked terror. “Oh no. I’m at the mercy
of two big, strong men.” My clothes disappeared in a
twinkling.

Tristan reached for me, but Dan quickly
said, “Unless I’m mistaken, it’s my turn with her?”

A twinge of temper showed on Tristan’s
face, and I reminded him, “That is true, Mr.
Commissioner.”

Tristan’s expression quickly smoothed.
“Of course, Dan. She’s all yours.”

He stepped out of the way, and a very
naked, very ready Dan stood before me. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Sexy
Marlboro Man had me in his sights. He stepped close, his front
touching mine. His beard stubble rasped against my cheek as he
rubbed his jaw against my face. The crinkly-crisp hairs of his
chest were a delight to my peaked nipples, his belly warm against
mine and his long, thick sex probed right where I wanted it most.
He cupped my buttocks in his hands, pulling me even closer. Oh
yessir. This was right where I wanted to be.

“Now this has real possibilities,” he
growled, sending my skin into gooseflesh. He licked my ear, setting
off shudders down my spine. Next, he kissed his way across my
jawline to my chin. He traveled down my throat, licking and
nibbling a wet path down to the hollow, then farther down to the
valley between my breasts.

Dan nuzzled his face deep into my
cleavage, his light growth of beard sandpaperish on my soft skin. I
caught my breath at the rough sensation, even more so at my
helplessness to move away from it. With a devilish glint in his
brown eyes, Dan scruffed his way up one mound, nipping until he
reached the summit of my breast. He caught the rosy tip between his
teeth, and I trembled at the growing pressure. A

pleasurable dart of pain sizzled from
the hard nub to my sex, making me mewl. My inner thighs were slick
with honey.

Dan’s tongue darted over the captured
nipple, sending hot excitement through my flesh. The chains holding
the cuffs to the wall jangled with my shaking. Then he released the
taut, reddened peak to lick a slow circle over the areola. He
dragged his rough chin all over my breast, reddening the tender
mound. Then his mouth closed over it, sucking as much as he could
draw into his mouth. I groaned to be so hungrily
consumed.

Once the nipple of that breast had been
teased until it blushed fire-engine red, he repeated the whole
routine with the other. The entire time Dan mauled my orbs, his
hands clutched my buttocks, digging his fingers into the pliable
flesh. I felt beyond possessed. I felt owned.