Chapter 5

CHAPTER

FIVE

HARPER

As footsteps come down the hall, my eyes fall to my lap as I try to catch my breath and slow my racing heart. Nikki grabs my hand and gives it a light squeeze before she whispers, “If you’re having doubts, you don’t have to do this.”

I don’t have a chance to respond before I hear the footsteps come to a stop in the doorway. I take a deep breath in and exhale it slowly.

You can do this.

Brushing my hair from my face and tucking it behind my ear, I look up to find the source of the footsteps.

Fuck.

He isn’t even close to an old, fat, bald dude.

More like the polar opposite. He can’t be older than my dad.

Gross, Harper.

Let’s not think about that again tonight.

He’s tall and fit, with a thick head of dark brown hair. The well-trimmed beard perfectly frames his angled jawline. But it’s his eyes I’m locked on. They’re not quite blue, but more of a deep, slate gray. I’ve never seen anything like them before.

He stares back at me, and his gaze bores straight through me. I want to divert my eyes, but I can’t seem to look away from him.

“You.” His voice is deep and broody. “You are definitely mine tonight.”

He points at me and curls his finger in a come-hither motion, and I swallow hard. I don’t know what I was expecting tonight, but this wasn’t it. I’m about to stand from the couch when he commands, “Pick the two you want to join us.”

The what?

I squeeze Nikki’s hand. She talked me into coming, and I’ll be damned if she’s going to abandon me now. I muster the courage to speak and gesture to Nikki and the blonde girl sitting across from me. “These two.”

“Edmund.” He extends his hand to help me from the couch. I accept it, and his touch tingles across my palm.

“Harper.” I stare up at him as I stand inches from him.

Fuck, he even smells good.

“Ladies.” He gestures toward the door. Not entirely sure where I’m heading, I lead the way with the three of them following behind me. I nearly bump into a massive— also totally hot and not old —man.

“Sorry, kid,” Edmund smirks as he slips his arms around Nikki and the blonde. “I’m not a selfish prick. Grab your girl and come join us.”

Come what?

Relief washes over me when the big guy passes. I wasn’t expecting to have a foursome tonight, an orgy might’ve pushed me over my breaking point.

“The door on the right,” Edmund’s rich voice billows from behind me. Reaching the double wooden doors, I turn the handle and push it open. Every sex toy imaginable hangs from the wall. So many that I don’t even know what some of them are called.

Edmund walks straight to a cabinet and begins pulling out sets of leather cuffs— handcuffs. He binds Nikki’s hands and then the blonde’s without speaking a word.

“Tell me, ladies. Do you like it to hurt a little?” He’s speaking to all of us, but he stares into my eyes through every word as though he’s only talking to me. Dragging his fingers lightly down my forearms, he slips the cuffs around my wrists and secures the buckles. Hooking them together, he doesn’t let go. Instead, he holds my bound wrists in his large hands and continues to gaze into my eyes. “Because it’s going to hurt.”

Swallowing hard, I suddenly feel like my heart is trying to burst free from the confines of my ribcage. My breathing immediately accelerates to the same rapid pace. His eyes dip to my heaving chest for a moment, and a devilish smirk ticks at the corner of his mouth.

Fuck, that’s hot.

Using the short chain between the two cuffs, he leads me across the room to a wall lined with dark-stained wooden beams. Reaching the wall, he drops the cuffs and turns my back to him. He steps close— so fucking close his chest presses against me— and places his hands on my shoulders.

He takes his time sliding them down my arms, and my skin burns like it is on fire from his touch alone. His heavy breaths blow against my neck as he reaches my wrists and lifts them above my head. Securing them over a hook, his fingers trail back down my arms, and I can’t stifle the whimper that trembles over my lips.

“I can feel how excited you are, Harper.” His hands continue to slide down my body and around my waist. Breathing hard, his lips dust against the back of my ear, and he whispers, “Is it fear or intrigue?”

“Both,” I answer breathlessly.

I’m fucking terrified.

It was curiosity that killed the cat, wasn’t it?

I just never realized that meant my pussy.