Page 8 of Desire

The crack of the flogger against bare skin echoed through the dimly lit dungeon. Dante monitored the scene from his usual vantage point, arms crossed over his chest as he studied Creed’s technique.

Bella trembled with a heady mix of pain and pleasure with each strike. That was, until Creed’s strikes became more erratic, more punishing. Dante’s brow furrowed as he detected the subtle shift.

“Red!” Bella’s cry pierced the air. The safe word should have brought the scene to an abrupt halt.

Except Creed didn’t stop. His arm reared back, flogger raised high as he prepared for another brutal lash. Dante was across the room in three long strides, his hand clamping down on Creed’s wrist before the blow could land.

“She safe-worded. It’s over.” Dante forced calm into his voice, but he was close to losing his shit on this asshole.

Creed’s nostrils flared with rage at the interruption. “This is none of your fucking business, Ashton. I’ll finish my scene how I want.”

With a twist of his wrist, Dante wrenched the flogger free and tossed it aside. “Not if you can’t follow basic safety protocols.”

Bella hung in her bonds, whimpering quietly at the mounting tension. Dante snapped his fingers and Jana and Leo rushed to help her down.

“Don’t you fucking touch her.” Creed whirled on Dante’s subs, who didn’t even acknowledge Creed’s words.

In a blur of motion, Dante shoved him away with enough force to send him stumbling back several paces. “Get out of my dungeon before I throw you out.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jana press the panic button hidden in the wall. Security should be here any second.

Creed steadied himself, fists clenched as he took a menacing step forward. “You’ll regret laying your hands on me.”

A harsh laugh pushed past Dante’s lips. “Walk away while you still can.”

The first punch came like a wildcat’s swipe, swift and vicious. Dante deflected the blow with reflexes honed from years of defending himself, countering with a crushing jab that snapped Creed’s head back.

And just like that, the storm unleashed.

Jana screamed, but it was a soft sound over the roaring in Dante’s ears. Dante saw an opening and seized it, twisting his body to drive his shoulder squarely into Creed’s midsection. They crashed to the ground. Dante dropped his full weight down hard on Creed, whose breath exploded from his lungs as he was driven into the concrete floor.

With his opponent pinned, Dante was able to rain down a series of short, blistering strikes to his ribs and kidneys. Only when security managed to latch on to Dante’s arms and haul him bodily off did Dante come back to his senses.

Panting, blood trickled from the corner of Dante’s mouth where Creed had managed to split his lip. But he wore the damage like a badge of honor, chest heaving as adrenaline still thrummed through his veins.

“Get this piece of shit out of here,” he growled at the security team, who were already hauling the worse-for-wear loser to his feet. “If I see him again, he’s leaving in a body bag.” The threat landed with a sort of quiet, lethal promise, as he glared at Creed being dragged away.

Only when Creed was gone did Dante finally allow tension to bleed from his shoulders. He scooped up the discarded flogger, using its tails to gesture the attending Dungeon Monitor over.

“See that Bella gets treated,” he said, voice softening just enough to convey genuine concern for the shaken submissive. “Then we’ll debrief and discuss what happened with Colleen.”

Creed was about to be removed permanently from Club Inferno and smacked with enough gag orders that he wouldn’t even dream of leaking anything to the press.

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