54. Bronwyn

54

brONWYN

For the first thirty seconds, everything was weirdly normal.

The owner of the townhouse had knocked a few rooms together to create a huge, high-ceilinged reception area. A beautiful wooden staircase curved up to the next floor and a chandelier hung overhead. By the door, a man in a suit and tie was standing behind a desk, checking names and IDs, and Radimir paid him what looked to be a hefty entrance fee in cash. Three couples were standing around, talking and laughing, and other than everyone looking seriously rich—I was suddenly very glad I’d gone to Rachel and got a makeover—it could have been any classy party. A waiter in a crisp white shirt offered us flutes of champagne and I grabbed one and knocked most of it back in one gulp. Okay. Okay, see this is okay? I can do this, it’s not so ? —

A gorgeous woman about my age emerged from a doorway at the back of the room. She was in stockings, heels, and nothing else. I froze, a bunny in the headlights, as she strolled towards me. I crushed Radimir’s hand so hard in mine that it must have hurt. Do I look? Do I not look? I somehow wound up staring right at her bouncing boobs, watching them come closer and closer. Then, at the last minute, she turned and strolled up the stairs. I locked on to her naked ass for a few seconds and then managed to drag my eyes away and looked around. Everyone else seemed to be completely unphased.

I looked up at Radimir for help. He was glancing around the room. “Konstantin’s not here,” he said quietly. “Let’s try upstairs.”

We walked hand-in-hand over to the stairs, trying to look nonchalant. But a pretty, blonde-haired woman in a smart blouse and skirt stepped smoothly in front of us. “I’m afraid you’ll have to dress down to go upstairs.”

My stomach sank because I was fairly sure dress down didn’t mean jeans and a hoodie.

The woman pointed to the doorway at the back of the room. “You’ll find changing rooms through there.”

Oh crap.

We turned around and headed through the doorway. There were discreet silver symbols pointing men one way and women the other, like something out of a high-end spa. My heart was booming in my chest. The thought of walking around in my underwear was waking up every demon that had ever sat on my shoulder telling me I was too curvy, too pale, that there was too much of me. I stopped in front of the sign and looked down at our joined hands, not ready to let go.

Radimir brought our hands up and kissed my knuckles. “We can turn around and walk out of here,” he said firmly. “We can find another way.”

I loved him for that. But there was no other way. I squeezed his hand...and let it go, marching off into the changing room before I could change my mind.

Inside, it was just like a changing room at a gym, but with lower lighting and a scented candle burning. A few other women followed me in and started undressing, which made it a little easier. I found a locker, unzipped my dress and slid it off. But that was the easy part.

I caught sight of myself in a mirror. The lingerie set I’d got from Rachel was absolutely gorgeous, the dark blue of the sky just as the first stars come out, with detail embroidered in delicate silver thread. The material was silky and felt amazing against my skin, with pretty lace edging. There was a bra, a pair of panties and a suspender belt. With stockings and my black heels, I had to admit it looked vampish and amazing...but I’d never planned on wearing it in public. I swallowed, staring at myself. It wasn’t just being nearly nude. It wasn’t just feeling huge and pale next to all the slender, tanned women getting changed around me. It was that, even fully dressed, I didn’t have the confidence to strut around with everyone looking at me. On the rare occasion I did go to parties, I stood in the corner. I felt the panic rise in my chest. This isn’t me! I don’t go to sex parties, I run a freakin’ bookstore! I glanced towards the door and just the thought of going upstairs dressed like this made my legs go shaky. I was this close to putting my dress back on, yelling for Radimir and running.

Then a flash of metal in the mirror caught my eye. I looked down at my hand and saw my wedding band.

I was a geeky bookworm who ran a bookstore. But I was also Mrs. Aristov. And she wouldn’t be scared.

I felt something harden inside me. My spine straightened. The panic didn’t disappear, but it was sucked down deep.

I dug out a lipstick and touched up my lips. Then I locked my dress and purse in the locker and turned towards the door. Okay. I can do this. I took a step and then just kept going and God it felt weird, wearing this stuff outside the bedroom, but then the doorway was coming up in front of me and?—

I emerged into the hallway and Radimir was right there waiting for me, in a pair of black jockey shorts and nothing else. He looked me up and down and his eyes became molten. He put his hands on my shoulders, and I could feel the tremble of raw lust: he was just barely controlling himself. He slid his hands up to cup my face and said, “You look like a goddess.” He leaned down and kissed me softly, then led me by the hand towards the main room.

I tried to focus on him to keep my panic in check. If I was a goddess he was most definitely a god: the slow sway of his wide shoulders as he walked, the broad, caramel swells of his pecs and that tight, hard midsection. I felt like nothing could hurt me, with him by my side.

We stepped out into the main room. There were three couples in their underwear, now, and only one newly arrived couple who were still dressed, which made it a little easier. But I still nearly stumbled as I felt the cool air of the big space brush over my near nakedness. And then everyone turned to look at us and for a second, I just wanted to disappear…

But it was like jumping into a swimming pool. There was a quick shock of cold and then, after a few seconds, it started to feel okay. People looked...but then carried on with their conversations. I felt the tension in my chest start to ease.

Radimir led me to the staircase again and, this time, the woman smiled at us and stepped aside to let us pass. As we climbed, we could hear voices and laughter from upstairs. And then another sound: rhythmic cries, rising steadily. I swallowed. Yep. That is the sound of someone being fucked.

“Sooo... people come here to, um...have sex with other people?” I mumbled. “I mean...with people not their partner? ”

“Some just come to watch, or to be watched. But mostly, yes.”

Anxiety suddenly clawed at my chest. “But we won’t have to...I mean, if someone asks us to?—”

He stopped and turned to face me. “Do you really think I’d let someone else touch what’s mine?”

I relaxed a little. We climbed up the last few stairs and?—

This floor was laid out in an elongated C, wrapping around the staircase. It was darker, up here, with just a few wall sconces throwing out warm pools of light, and flickering candles casting moving shadows everywhere. The walls were a classy dark blue and the low light meant that they dropped off into blackness long before the ceiling, so it felt almost like we were outside. Four doorways led to bedrooms, all with their doors wide open, and inside…

I stopped, transfixed. I was vaguely aware I was blocking the stairs, but I couldn’t make my feet work.

I’d never actually seen other people having sex: not live, not right in front of me. The woman I’d seen downstairs, in opera gloves and stockings, was riding one man while another knelt behind her and cupped her breasts and a third stood beside the bed, kissing her. A noise from the next bedroom along made me turn and suddenly I was looking right into the eyes of a black-haired man as he fucked a petite, dark-haired woman with a nose stud who was on all fours. He gave me a proud grin, running an adoring hand over his girlfriend’s rump, and I quickly looked away.

The sex wasn’t confined to the bedrooms. Two couples were going for it up against the walls. And dotted around the wide hallway, I could see every stage of the process: people meeting, chatting, flirting, finding a bedroom together. And I could feel the sexual energy throbbing through the air: I’d never realized before that lust was infectious. My skin was hot, and time felt slow, as if we were all in a dream. But at the same time, I was starting to feel urgent and needy: I could hear myself breathing fast and there was a pulse of arousal rolling down my body and becoming wetness when it hit my groin. I glanced at Radimir and saw his gray eyes narrowed and hungry: it was affecting him the same way.

And yet for all the lust, it felt... safe. It didn’t feel like a nightclub or bar where men stalked and hunted and women were prey. And there wasn’t that same suspicion from the women that can so easily turn vicious and sharp. I made the mistake of looking too long at a gorgeous, blond-haired guy with a beard and then an arm slid around him from behind and his partner’s face appeared over his shoulder. I jumped guiltily, bracing myself for the outraged are you looking at my man? But she just smiled and stroked his pec. Are you looking at my man? Yeah, he’s hot, isn’t he?

I blinked and looked away, stunned. Am I supposed to feel like that, too? I saw a few women staring at Radimir and I felt...not exactly poke their eyes out with my heels but there was definitely jealousy stirring in my stomach. I felt like the geek at the cool kid’s party all over again.

Then I looked round and froze. Radimir had locked eyes with a man and was scowling, absolutely furious, his hands balling into fists. I tensed. Was the guy an enemy? One of Spartak’s guys?

Radimir grabbed my hand and very firmly and publicly wrapped his fingers around mine. And it clicked that the guy’s crime had been looking at me.

And as I turned a slow circle, I realized other men were looking at me. A lot of them. I’d been so self-conscious, I hadn’t even realized. When Radimir saw them, he pulled me against him, then rubbed his hand up and down my side, caveman style. She’s mine. And the guys, seeing his Bratva tattoos, went deathly pale and instantly dropped their eyes. My paranoia about being uncool exploded into a deep, warm glow that lit me up from the inside out.

“ Let’s find Konstantin.” Radimir’s voice was a low growl, throaty with lust and possessive anger. I nodded mutely and he marched down the hallway keeping me close against him.

But it was impossible to move fast. We had to check every room we passed and there were just too many people standing in the way. And every second we stayed there, surrounded by the soft moans of women and the hard cries of men, I could feel the tension building in Radimir.

We made it to the end of the floor and started up the stairs to the next floor. But progress was getting slower and slower: there were people fucking up against the wall and others watching, and we had to skirt around them. Radimir glared at two more men, scaring them off. Then he looked at me and?—

I saw the look in his eyes and gulped. Ever since we got there, he’d been carefully controlling himself. But the atmosphere, the possessive jealousy the other men were stoking, the sight of me in lingerie, it had all finally pushed him past his breaking point.

“They need to know you’re mine,” he hissed. “And mine only! ”

He hauled me up the last few steps, spun me around to face him and then his lips were on mine, hard and hungry and brutal, and I melted.

I stumbled backwards, clumsy in my heels, and he used his arm around my waist to guide me. My eyes closed. His tongue sought out mine and danced with it and I was panting, the blood thrumming in my ears as all the pent-up lust took hold. My bare ass brushed cool, painted wood: I was being pressed up against a door frame. His hands came up and took angry possession of my breasts, kneading and squeezing them. My nipples were already pebble hard, pushing through the thin silk, and he growled as he stroked them.

I was lost in the kiss, my hands roaming over the hard muscles of his back as I spiraled up, up, up . He crushed his lips against mine harder, as if he wanted to destroy me, and I pulled him in, needing to be destroyed. He pushed right up against me, and I had to step back with one foot to keep my balance. That opened my legs a little and suddenly he was between them, his hips spreading me, the hard, hot length of his cock scalding my inner thigh. He shifted, and I felt the head of his cock press up against the opening of my lips, the only barrier a few thin layers of fabric.

And then suddenly, I heard him ram his jockey shorts down around his thighs and there was only one layer of fabric, the gossamer-thin silk of my panties, already soaked through. I could feel the arrow-shaped head of his cock pressing my lips apart…

My eyes fluttered open. I was so lost in lust, it took me a few seconds to focus on the moving shapes behind him. They slowly formed into people. And most of them were watching us, waiting for us to— Oh God are we going to do it right here?

Radimir grabbed a condom from a side table, tore open the foil and rolled it on. I felt him wrench aside the silk of my panties, the cold shock of the air against my flesh and then his cock was spreading me...

My gaze locked with a dark-haired woman who was watching. She was vaguely familiar, but I didn’t have time to think about it because at that second, I felt Radimir’s cock push into me and my eyes widened in shock. Oh Jesus yes, we’re doing it right here!

His cock surged up into me, gliding over every square millimeter of my aching, needy flesh, and my eyes closed. I suddenly didn’t care who was watching. He pushed closer between my thighs and thrust again, filling me, and I moaned and grabbed for his shoulders. He pulled back, thrust a third time and I felt my mouth open as he slid into me to the hilt.

He broke the kiss. His lips brushed my ear. “I’m going to fuck you in front of all these people, Krasavitsa .”

I wasn’t capable of speech. “ Mmm,” I nodded.

His hips drew back, a satiny pull that made me want to beg and claw at him, and then he slammed them forward and the wave of pleasure made my knees weaken. His hands came up under my ass, grabbing me and then lifting me. My legs came up around his waist and I caught my breath as his cock shifted inside me. He held me there, pinned between his body and the doorframe, and began to fuck me with fast, hard strokes. Oh God. I was skyrocketing, helpless, each thrust pushing me higher. The heated pressure of his body against mine, my nipples stroking his pecs as my breasts bounced, the steady pumping of his thick cock into my depths... His fingers dug into my ass cheeks as if he wanted to leave marks, wanted to mark me as his, and I went weak at the thought . I tried to imagine what we must look like to the people watching and it made it even better: it was like I was experiencing everything twice, once as me and once through their eyes.

His thrusts got faster and I moaned. I was getting close, already, and I could feel he was, too.

“ The men are all wishing they were me,” he hissed in my ear.

My eyes fluttered open for a second. As Radimir’s cock slammed into me again and again, I glimpsed the men all standing there, watching. And, God, the feeling of them all wanting me was amazing. I felt myself soar even higher, shooting towards my peak. But then I closed my eyes again and everything narrowed down to just him, and that was better still. Because?—

I found his ear and whispered in it. “But only you get to have me.”

And that sent both of us over the edge. He kissed me deep and hard, rammed into me one more time, and wrapped his arms tight around me as we both came together. The room faded away as the orgasm roared through me, making me arch and tremble, but I could feel Radimir’s arms around me, holding me securely until I’d finished.

Radimir gently withdrew and set me down. I stood there for a moment panting, eyes still closed. By the time I’d opened them, he was pulling up his jockey shorts. I looked around at the crowd, my face heating...but no one looked shocked or judgey. They were all smiling and I felt...oddly proud. I slumped against Radimir, happy and drunk on endorphins. I felt closer to him than ever.

Then, over Radimir’s shoulder, I saw her: the dark-haired woman I’d locked eyes with just as Radimir entered me. This time, I recognized her. My eyes snapped wide. If she was here, then?—

“You’re a long way from Chicago, Radimir,” said Konstantin from right beside me.