Page 10 of Obey

To her credit, yet again, she’s steeled her spine, and she’s not been dissuaded by the fact that at the bottom of the stairs is a den of debauchery and fuckery. I should probably stay close behind her in case she passes out at the sight of the sex apparatuses when she hits the dungeon.

“You could stay up here if you wanted to.”

She’s stopped at the top of the stairs, staring down into the darkness, clutching the handrail next to the staircase. She sweeps her free hand. “In for a penny...” Her nervous laugh is back as she sweeps her hand toward the darkness. “Mr. Grumpasaurus, lead the way to your dungeon of depravity.”

Chapter Four

TALIA

I get two steps down and change my mind. This is beyond sensible. So I double back on myself. “I’ll stay up here.” There’s a note of hysteria to my voice, that’s contrasted by his silence as he continues his descent into the quiet.

The silence is creeping me out, but I’m in a sex club that this stranger coincidentally has the keys to, and I’m supposed to just willingly go down the stairs with him where he could do anything to me? I think not.

I don’t know how long I stare into the darkness, but the hairs on the back of my neck are standing to attention. I’m bouncing on the balls of my feet, and the throbbing in my palms is back. I can hear my heart beating, my heavy breathing, and... Oh my goodness. What was that?

A noise behind me sends a chill through my whole body, and suddenly I’m halfway down the stairs, choosing time with the guy from the plane in a sex dungeon over whatever made the noise up above.

With each step I take down the staircase, my chest tightens, and the air thins. I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into. If Dad saw me now, he’d probably take his belt to me. Not that he’sever been physically abusive to me before, but this would give him pause.

It was foolish to get into Bessie with a stranger. I still don’t know his name! It was worse to let him drive me to a building I didn’t know the address of, or even what it was, without more information. And I absolutely, positively had no business walking into a s-e-x dungeon with the man who’s currently looking at me with a glint in his eye.

If he thinks he’s getting near my person at the bottom of these stairs, he has another think coming.

He knows I’m single, but that doesn’t mean I’m open for anyone to come by and do business. That’s not how I work.

In hindsight, staying upstairs by myself was probably the more sensible plan. But I’ve spent my whole life being sensible. New Talia is pushing herself out of her comfort zone, facing new things like getting her hair shaved and coloring it blue. And apparently going to deserted sex clubs with strangers in snow storms.

And now he’s staring at me with a raised eyebrow. Is there something on my face telling him I’ve barely lost my... eh... v-card?

My face heats. I read dirty books. I know what happens in the type of dungeon I’m walking down into, but I can’t make my skin cool down, even with the bite in the air. I’ve almost made it all the way to the bottom, but my foot slips as I approach the last step, and I miss the landing.

He doesn’t even grunt when he catches me. He picks me up and dumps me back on my feet.

“Sorry.” I smooth down my shirt. I guess I didn’t wait as long as I thought I did to bolt down the stairs behind him.

“It’s fine. Happens more than you’d think.”

To me that suggests someone should probably look at the step and make sure it’s not something bigger than beingoverwhelmed by a dungeon full of sexy times, but that might be wishful thinking.

When I find my balance, he steps around me to flip on a light. After a beat of adjusting to the shift, I blink a couple times. Shapes start forming, and I take a step back, apologizing to the handrail as I bump into the staircase.

The giant man chuckles. I try to tell my body it’s not supposed to react to the grumpy man, but it’s not listening. There’s something about the timbre of his laugh that warms my insides. Does he... participate in the activities this place is designed for?

I swallow, but my mouth is dry. There’s a giant cross in the space I find myself in. The temptation to bless myself is overwhelming as my feet remain glued to the cold floor. This is a St. Andrew’s cross. I know this from the select few books I’ve read that passed the exit for steamy-ville and took me straight to kink-city.

I don’t know what most of these other things do, benches, tables, rooms branching out from dark corridors. Drawing in a long, slow breath, I’m surprised when I don’t smell anything but the vaguely lemon tinged scent of cleaning products.

I guess when s-e-x is your business, you make sure people clean up after themselves. Or you employ someone to do the cleaning for the whole building.

Either way, the smell isn’t offensive. If I concentrate, there’s a musky edge to the air, patchouli? Or some incense? It’s not bad.

Mr. Grump chuckles again. “Searching for the scent of the debauchery and depravity?”

My cheeks burn as I fold my arms across my body to protect myself from this man’s judgment. “I figured there’d be... I don’t know.” The wind has left my sails, and I’m kind of standing here, rolling onto the balls of my feet. Waiting. For what, I’m not sure.I’d say for the ground to open up and swallow me, but given my surroundings, I wouldn’t put it past the place to have a trap door. And who knows where that would lead?

“We do wipe down the equipment you know. We aren’t completely feral.” From the wolfish smirk on his face, he’s baiting me, like a predator toying with his food.

Trying to fight a reaction showing on my face, I shelve that nugget of information away in my chest. Mr. Still-don’t-know-his-name might be one of the single most beautiful people on the planet, but he’s probably into things I couldn’t ever be into.

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