Bending to the side, he lowers his voice and speaks to the bearded one. Then he indicates for me to come around to the wall behind the table. Something is triggered, perhaps by where he puts his foot, and a section slides back to reveal a shallow hall lit by a single lantern.
“After you.”
The gallant way he indicates forward is nothing to be fooled by, and I shouldn’t be as composed as I am while I step into the hidden hallway. I’m not frightened of him, though, for I know what I have to offer is invaluable, even though he thinks it’s just something as irrelevant as my body.
The panel slides back in place with a thump, and when he stays where he is, I turn around to face him.
“It’s customary for me to search for weapons.” He steps in close, and he smells clean and fresh, nothing of mead or sweat upon him. “You understand that women get no dispensation from this.”
His hands move around my waist and proceed upward until he meets my underarms. Then he leans in very tightly to reach around the small of my back and go up and over my shoulders.
“Nothing yet,” he says in a seductive way. “But let us see what we have here.”
I am without the red felt coat, wearing only a small white blouse that buttons up to the throat. He takes his time with the fastenings, revealing my camisole bit by bit.
Pulling apart the shirt’s two halves, he lifts up the lace and stares down at my bare breasts. “No weapons, yet. But we have to be sure.”
His fingers skate over what only Merc has touched, and I can’t keep my grimace to myself.
A chuckle ripples through his chest. “What did you think was going to happen with this offer of yours?”
I shove his hands away and pull the camisole back into place. “You are checking for weapons, remember.”
There’s a pause. “So I am.” He sinks down to the floor. “Spread your feet. Please.”
As I do so, he kneels before me and goes under the red felt skirting. Ifocus on the panel and breathe evenly as he feels the outsides of my ankles, my calves, my knees. He continues up to my hips before returning to the floor and repeating the ascension. On the inside of my legs.
He goes all the way to my sex, and he lingers with his hand there. “Oh, look. I’ve found something.”
When I stay silent, he frowns. “If you have a favor to ask of me, you’d do well to provide me with an enrichment worthy of the request.”
“My body is not what I am offering.”
The hand between my thighs retracts and he straightens to his full height.
“I am not the kind of man you want to toy with,” he says in a low, threatening voice.
“I have something else you need, something far more valuable than what you can easily find elsewhere. With a woman who holds enthusiasm toward you.”
There’s a pause. Then the man stomps on the floor and a different panel opens beside me.
Clamping a hand on the back of my neck, he all but throws me into the black hole on the far side. I stumble, but catch my balance, and as my eyes adjust, it’s obvious that these are his private quarters.
With another stomp of his boot, he shuts us in and then strides over to a side table set with crystal decanters and delicate glasses.
“Care for a drink?” he drawls. Then he glances over his shoulder. “Before we get down to business?”
There’s a bedding platform in the center of the space, and the padded handcuffs that hang off the headboard gleam in the light of the lanterns that simmer from various hang points. On the far wall, a wardrobe is locked up tight, but has a line of top hats resting on its top, and beside the monolith, a fan of swords is mounted on a freestanding wheel.
“No?” he says as he pours himself some whiskey and downs it in one swallow. “How ladylike of you.”
The man leaves his glass behind and comes at me slowly, like a cat with a mouse. When he stops, he reaches out and touches my exposed collarbone, running his finger back and forth.
As he continues down the lace to my sternum, I straighten my spine and say, “If you think you can shame or intimidate me by another fondling, you have the wrong woman.”
That chuckle rumbles out of him. “I can do anything I want with you in here. No one will hear you scream.”
“You don’t strike me as a man who considers being endured a compliment. And if you kill me, then you won’t know what I have to offer, and you willmiss out on the single most important piece of information someone such as yourself can possess.”
