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“He thinks it’s part of the game,” Gabriel said.
“Well, game’s over!” Tess tapped at her watch. “Do you realize what time it is? I scheduled a run-through with Erica Summers tomorrow at eight-thirty.”
“That’s why we’re hitting the club tonight. You have to see this place to believe it.”
“Hey, I already have the concept for the ad, and I’m not changing it. I want to go home and sleep.” She shot him a hard stare. “Why do you care what I do with the Faustini account? Unless you want me to make a wrong move and fall on my face.”
“That’s cold,” he said. “The account was supposed to have been mine, and I put in a lot of time thinking about it.”
“Sounds like a reason to want to sabotage me, not help me.”
“It would be, if I worked that way. This is a concept you might have learned in kindergarten, Tess. It’s called sharing.”
Conviction again. And it was very convincing when he decided to turn it on. A shock of dark hair had worked its way free from his ponytail and was flirting with his jawline. He didn’t bother with it. She wanted to. It was difficult not to wonder what he’d look like with his hair loose and flowing. Way out of style these days, but probably wildly sensual on him. The man could have invented sex. It was that bad.
“Okay, maybe I shouldn’t accuse you,” she said, hoping to appeal to his sense of honor. Ha! “But some other night, okay? You can take me to the club and punish me for being bad.”
“You said it. I’m not letting you out of this cab, though.”
“That’s abduction, Danny.”
“You called me Danny.” He said it as if that had some kind of special significance to their situation. “And no, it’s not abduction in the criminal sense. It’s a great sexual fantasy being played out by a man and a woman, whom everyone will believe are two consenting adults. I could throw you over my shoulder and carry you into the club kicking and screaming. No one would say a word.”
“That’s evil.”
“Yeah, it is. You’re going to love the place.” His smile was panic-inducing. Probably that damn scar.
“I’ll love it some other time.”
“Come on, check it out. What are you afraid of, Tess? That someone else might have a good idea? Or that you might like the club?” He lifted a dark eyebrow. “You’re a freak at heart?”
“You wish. How do you know so much about this place?”
“Mitzi, of course.”
“Mitzi’s freaky?”
“She’s adventurous, which is more than I can say for you.”
Tess heaved a sigh. Clearly, she wasn’t going to talk him out of it.
“I’ll take a look,” she finally said. “Fifteen minutes, and then I’m out of there, with or without you, agreed? Those are my conditions, but only if you pay the cabbie in advance to wait outside, all night, if necessary.”
“Not a problem. I already have the cab for the night, the entire night.”
Moments later, the driver pulled into an underground parking garage and stopped in front of an elevator bank. Graffiti marred the garage walls, making it look more like a tenement than an upscale club. Tess didn’t have much hope for the place, and she was more suspicious of his motives than ever.
She’d locked most of the materials for tomorrow’s run-through in her desk drawer at the office, but her sketch pad didn’t fit in the drawer, and at the last minute, she’d crammed it in her tote bag. She didn’t like the idea of leaving the tote in the cab, but it was probably safer than taking it into the club, so she put the bag on the floor, hoping the driver wouldn’t realize it was there. As she and Danny got out of the car, she noticed a symbol painted on the wall above the elevator. It looked like a snake, curled in a perfect circle and swallowing its own tail. How reassuring.
The elevator rose to an unmarked floor and the doors opened to oceanlike darkness. Things slithered and swam in front of Tess’s eyes. Light and shadows? Living beings? She couldn’t tell.
She didn’t move until Danny took her hand. “Come on,” he coaxed, leading her out of the car and onto a path illuminated by red votive candles with white flames. “I’ll protect you.”
She didn’t miss the irony in his tone, but Tess wasn’t so sure she wouldn’t need protection. Muted screams drifted up from some lower floor. The club probably had a dungeon. Tess imagined floggings and body parts being stretched. But probably it was nothing more than tattoos and piercings being done without benefit of anesthesia.
They’d only taken a few steps when a scarlet spotlight illuminated a scene to their left. Tess’s vision hadn’t adjusted, but it looked like a woman in stocks. Her head and hands were enclosed in wooden yokes that were secured to low posts, forcing her to bend at the waist. A man stood just behind her, and—
Tess ventured closer. Was she naked? At first, Tess thought they were statues. Neither seemed to be moving, but then she caught the rhythmic motion of the man’s hips, and the look of utter ecstasy on the woman’s face.
Tess jumped back. They were both naked, and he was either having carnal knowledge of her from behind, or doing a very good job of simulating it.
Was that legal in the state of New York? Tess didn’t look at Danny. She must be as red as the glow from the spotlight.
Another scene lit up the path to their right. Tess could see a man kneeling in a pool of soft fuchsia light. He was holding on to the thong of a bullwhip, the end of which was wrapped around his neck. He wore a tattered T-shirt and jeans, but the woman who wielded the whip was nude, except for her tightly laced stiletto boots and the snake bracelets coiling up her arms. Clearly, she was the dominant of the two, a fuchsia goddess as she gripped the whip handle in one hand and a branding iron in the other.
“This is all playacting, right?” Tess resisted the tug of Danny’s hand. “Tell me it is, or I’m leaving.”
“Sure, play-acting.”
Tess allowed herself to be nudged along, until a howl of anguish brought her to a dead stop. Not the branded love slave. It hadn’t come from his direction, but it was nearby. “What was that?”
“A sound track, obviously. It’s all playacting.”
“Thanks.” It was a sad state of affairs when a smart-ass like Danny Gabriel was your only ally in a hellhole like this. Tess had no desire to see what came next, but the path kept lighting up as they walked, and it was nearly impossible not to look. To their left, a sinuous female creature in black body paint writhed over the supine body of a naked man, who, except for the twitching, looked nearly comatose. And deliriously happy. Maybe he was the one who’d howled.
“She’s a succubus,” Danny explained.
“And a succubus is…?”
“A nasty little she-devil who preys on sleeping males, drains all their precious vital fluids and leaves them for dead.”
“Maybe I could help her pick her next victim.” Tess locked her gaze on the path ahead and kept it there. These places were not designed for women who’d sworn off sex, especially if they were in the throes of PMS, which for Tess was the hormonal equivalent of a Siamese cat in heat. Possibly she should have wrestled the whip from the fuchsia goddess and laid claim to the love slave, although the comatose guy was probably more her speed.
More spotlights came on, creating a vibrant rainbow in the red-to-purple spectrum. Since Tess was reluctant to look, Danny was kind enough to describe the new scenes, one being a contortionist who could pleasure herself while doing back bends, the other a female magician who was making the clothing disappear, one piece at a time, of a restrained man whom Danny referred to as unnaturally well endowed.
It was too dark to check her watch, but Tess was certain her fifteen minutes must be up. “Well, it’s been fun,” she said, “but I have to be going.”
“Not quite yet.” With a flick of his wrist, Danny drew her in front of him, as if he were partnering her in a dance move.
“Is this where I get sold into white slavery?” she joked nervously.
Before he could answer, another spotlight came on. It threw an eerie blue glow directly in front of them. Tess watched it cover her feet like a poisonous mist and creep up her legs. Her denim jeans seemed to absorb the color, but it was turning her oatmeal turtleneck a ghastly shade of red. Bloodred.
Danny had a death grip on her arms. She wasn’t going anywhere.
“Heads up,” he whispered. “It’s our host, the Marquis.”
Silhouetted in blue, the Marquis was a towering figure. But as he stepped forward, Tess realized that he wasn’t the personification of evil she expected. He was tall and lean enough to be wraithlike, but with his classically sculpted face and slicked-back hair he could have been any haughty maître d’ in a tux at a fancy restaurant. Maybe she should have been relieved.
“Welcome,” he said in a hypnotic voice that barely rose above a whisper. “I’ve been expecting you.”
Ignoring Danny, the Marquis approached Tess with studied elegance, took her hand and kissed it. His lips were warm, human. That was a relief. She wasn’t dealing with the living dead, at least not yet. Something rough scratched the inside of her palm, and she felt a mild stinging sensation, but she didn’t pull away. That would have been rude, wouldn’t it? Who knew about the rules of etiquette in an S&M club?
As he released her hand, the walls opened up behind him, revealing a dark fairy-tale world of red velvet draperies and sparkling crystal chandeliers. He beckoned for Tess and Danny to follow him, and Tess did so automatically, feeling almost as if a spell had been cast over her. She was barely aware of the small voice in her head suggesting that she should have known better than to do it again—pass through doors that magically opened.
They stepped into a hall that could have been a lavish period movie set. It resembled the lobby of a Victorian opera house, but done on a very grand scale. Ebony and gold carpeting covered the floor and staircases. Crushed-velvet drapes the color of garnets set off antique chaises and settees, and richly woven wall hangings added to the opulence.
If it was a movie, it was The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton’s turn-of-the-century novel about social mores. But far from innocent, Tess realized as she got a closer look at the wall hangings. Garden of Eden-like scenes were laced with furtive couplings and erotic dalliances of all kinds. Men, women, and fairy-tale beasts copulated with abandon and in all manner of combinations.
Tess glanced overhead and saw that the vaulted ceilings were painted with landscapes, mostly forests and glens teaming with magical animals, horned satyrs and swooning virgins. Women being carried off by Minotaurs was a popular theme, but there were plenty of helpless men getting roughed up by lustful nymphs, and even a princess being ravished by a god in the form of a black swan.
Several dramatic chords of music sounded, and the chandeliers dimmed. Tess turned to find out what was going on—and got the shock of her life. The Marquis had transformed in the seconds she’d turned away. His hair was now long and silvery-white. His eyes were yellow with black slits—serpent’s eyes—and the hiss in his throat was a death rattle.
Tess jumped back, bewildered. Was this some kind of joke? The sounds of high-pitched chatter assailed her. Suddenly the empty hall was filled with laughing, costumed people in various states of undress. A lion on a leash was actually a man on all fours, his handler a young woman in snakeskin with a riding crop between her teeth. A magnificently muscled black man in a turban and a diaper-like garment nuzzled with a cobra that was wound around his neck like lethal jewelry.
Where was Danny? Tess spun around, frantically searching the room, only to discover that now the Marquis was gone, too. She found herself in the direct path of a knot of men and women wearing the garish paint and powder of the French court. The men’s tight breeches cupped obscene bulges, and the women’s empire gowns were cut to expose their jiggling, rosy-tipped breasts.
As they neared Tess, one of the women drew a long, hot-pink feather from her ghostly white hair and stopped to caress Tess’s face with it. The woman pursed her violently red lips, inviting a kiss. Tess felt fingers tickling her butt, and she whirled, aware that the group had surrounded her. They were laughing, whispering, touching and petting, crowding closer.
“Excuse me!” Tess pushed through them and nearly collided with Danny. She’d never been so glad to see anyone. “Where did you go?” she demanded.
Danny’s hair was long and flowing out of the ponytail. His eyes were dark, fevered.
“I didn’t go anywhere,” he said. “You turned and looked right through me, like you were in a trance or something. You didn’t see me?”
Tess didn’t know what he was talking about. Of course she hadn’t seen him. He hadn’t been there, unless she was having hallucinations, which was beginning to seem like a possibility. She did feel a little disoriented, but who wouldn’t in a place like this?
Her thoughts raced back to the Marquis’ handshake, and the scratch she’d felt on her palm, but she had no time to reason things through. The Marquis’ voice boomed in the massive room. Tess was startled to see him just a few feet away from her and looking exactly as he had, black hair slicked back from his severely handsome features. What struck her as different was his voice. It sounded as if it was coming from speakers instead of his body.
“Good evening, my lovelies,” the Marquis said, bowing as he addressed the strange crowd. “The last live performance of the evening begins in five minutes. Please take your seats in the Exhibition Hall immediately. The red seats are electrified with a random charge of varying wattage, for your viewing pleasure.”
His lovelies began to file through large open arches that led to an auditorium. Tess caught a glimpse of massive chandeliers and gilded box seats and miles of crimson velvet.
“Are you up for a live performance?” Danny asked.
“Of what?”
“Your guess.” He shrugged. “We can always leave…I think.”
“Sometimes having options is worse than not having them.” She sighed, exasperated. “What the hell. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering what-if, as I’m sure I would in this case.”
They waited until the motley crew had taken their seats before entering the auditorium. A hush had fallen over the room that made Tess feel as if she were at Lincoln Center, anticipating a performance by the Ballets Russes.
Danny found seats in a row near the back, which Tess eyed suspiciously and then refused. It was too dark to see what color they were, and she didn’t need another shock right now, thanks. Instead, she planted herself in the aisle and watched the curtain rise, wondering what in God’s name she was going to see next.
Chapter Six
The curtain opened to an empty stage and a magenta spotlight, circling to find its target. Finally, the light enveloped a young woman, her head bowed, her body turned away from the audience in an attempt to conceal her emotional distress. She wore a slip dress that clung to the taut curves of her dancer’s body.
Beautiful, Tess thought. There was inexpressible beauty in every restrained line of her being.
Soft music swelled to fill the auditorium. Tess recognized the passionate strains as a theme from Straus’s Don Juan, an opera about a man incapable of love yet driven to search for it in the arms of woman after woman.
The music soared, announcing a male dancer in a matador’s jacket and tuxedo pants. He was as straight and proud as a military officer, yet limber, willowy. His body language said he’d come to make a plea. He seemed to be asking for forgiveness, but the woman waved him off.
When he persisted, she savagely pushed him away.
The music soared to another crescendo as he disappeared into the darkness. The young woman turned to the audience, her head lifting, fiery and defiant. Tears poured down her cheeks.
Tess hadn’t understood much of what she’d seen so far in this club, but she understood this performance. The woman had been betrayed, and she was lashing out, rejecting the man and the pain he’d caused her. She might have wanted to forgive him, but there was a part of her that couldn’t forgive anymore. She’d been hurt too much.
Tess had never lashed out. She’d dropped out. The coward’s way, she realized now. Her wounds had scarred over and were taking up space that could have gone to something else, like having a life that was more than work, 24/7. Never once had she passionately retaliated or defended herself or her feelings.
But the sadness she felt had no chance against her talent for denial. Grand acts of defiance were for the stage, the movies, she told herself. Life was not an idealistic drama. It was getting through.
At least no one could say she hadn’t gone after the brass ring. She’d tried it all, everything from one-night stands to long-term engagements—and come away each time confused and disillusioned. Men had hurt her in little ways. They’d hurt her in big ways. And she had let it happen. She’d even gone back. Eventually, she’d seen the pattern. It was needing things that men couldn’t give that had gotten her into trouble. That’s when the lightbulb had gone on. Needing was her problem.
The hot magenta beam followed the young woman to the other side of the stage where a second man waited, slender and stealthy in his fedora and single-breasted pinstriped suit. With a cold smile, he approached her. And for some reason, she didn’t resist him. He tipped her chin high and stared into her eyes until she stopped crying.
She seemed not even to breathe.
With slow precision, he kissed her. His lips brushed, danced. He waited, then drew back to look at her. What did he have here? A wounded bird or an irresistibly clever tease? His tongue flicked the curves of her unyielding mouth. But she didn’t respond, even when he lowered the strap of her dress and bared her breast.
His hand cupped her flesh.
Her eyelids quivered and closed. She had slipped back into the pattern. This was her fate, and she was helpless to change it.
Tess understood. She understood too much.
The first male dancer—the matador—sprang from the darkness. He pulled the other man away and yanked off his fedora. Long dark hair tumbled free, waves as beautiful and silky as a girl’s. The two men struggled, but the matador was clearly stronger. He ripped open the other man’s jacket, revealing breasts as round and firm as ripening fruit.
Tess was startled. A male impostor?
The matador laughed uproariously, kissed the impostor and flung her away. She tumbled to the ground, where she coiled like a snake and spat at him, daring him to come near. The young woman stepped in, as if to protect the impostor. Her fierce expression warned the man off. She would defend even her enemies against him. He had cut her that deeply.
The matador came straight for her, and the dance began. A tango, the eternal struggle for sexual power. She ripped open his jacket, and buttons flew, exposing pectoral muscles that were very much a man’s.
She cracked his face with her hand. Cymbals clashed, and the music took on a Latin beat, brooding and sensual. He stepped back, confused, hot with frustration. He circled her, moving in rhythm with the music, seducing her with burning looks. If he’d been an animal, his fangs would have been bared.
He came around her from behind. With a snap of his wrist, he broke the other strap of her dress. The slip floated to her waist, hanging on her hips. Magenta fire lit her shivering breasts. They were the only flesh that moved on her rigid body. Her arms were pressed to her sides, her fingers curled into knots.
Tess watched from the aisle, increasingly aware of Danny who stood next to her. He’d turned his body slightly, perhaps not even consciously, until the curve of his hip pressed against hers. She glanced at him, not surprised that he was fixated, too. He was watching the ménage à trois with a mixture of fascination, undisguised curiosity and something that might have been male lust. His jaw was taut, his mouth parted, poised as if he was imagining himself in the matador’s place.
Tess probably shouldn’t have expected anything else, given what was going on. But it hit her wrong. Men, she thought. They’re all dogs, even when they’re women posing as men. She averted her eyes, refusing to watch any more of the performance. She could imagine how the dance was going to end, with the two of them having sex onstage, probably standing up, and she didn’t need to watch it.
She heard another whistle and pop and wondered who’d gotten smacked this time. The audience gasped, and finally Tess couldn’t stand it. She looked up just in time to see the young woman standing over the matador’s fallen body, a smoking gun in her hand.
Apparently she’d taken fate into her own hands. Literally.
