Black Light: Exposed (Black Light Series Book 2) Read online

  The three-inch lift from her shoes seemed to have her ass at the perfect height for him to pepper every inch of her skin, and he did. Starting out slow, with a breath or two between each smack, but then they grew faster. More intense, until the stings started to overlay one another and she knew she was squirming, tugging against the rope that slid like silk across her wrists without giving an inch. Murmuring incoherent pleas that she bit down on, because she knew he was being gentle, that the teasing burn he was building was nothing more than that – a tease.

  Because she’d had spanks like this before, and she wanted to know what came next.

  “There.” He stopped, running his hand over the warm skin of her ass, and she could feel the low heat in it as he squeezed. “So beautiful… all pink and ready to play. Are you ready, Maddie?”

  The bravery came from some dark, hungry place inside her, but she nodded and pushed her voice to give more than a whisper. “Yes, sir.”

  “Alright, now tell me the truth. Were you invited here tonight?”

  “Yes, sir.” A hard spank landed on her right cheek, and she cried out as the shock made her gasp. “What the –”

  “Want to try that again? Remember, honesty is important.” His hand brushed over the place he’d just struck, and she shivered. “Were you invited here tonight, Maddie?”

  “Yes, sir.” She lied again, and this time the swat to her other cheek was even sharper. It was a burst of fiery sting that made her bounce her hips trying to settle it, and if her hands hadn’t been bound she would have reached back to soothe the skin.

  Thomas leaned over her back, the brush of his shirt across her ribs making her shiver. “See, I don’t think that’s true, beautiful. It’s in the rules that any member bringing a guest has to be present. So, either your friend broke the rules and didn’t meet you, or you heard about this place from someone who should not have been talking about it and you tried to come in on your own.” He pressed an all-too-gentle kiss to her ribs, and she drew in a shuddering breath as her nerves ramped up. “And I sincerely doubt that anyone would invite you and then not be here to play with someone so impeccably beautiful. So… which is it?”

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  “Maddie?” His voice had that edge in it again, that chastising tone that made her want to apologize for things she couldn’t possibly admit.

  “You’re right, I, um, I heard about it, but I can’t tell you their name. It’s my fault, not theirs… sir.” Another lie, but this was one she hoped he’d believe.

  “So, you planned to just come in here and… what? Offer yourself to the first Dom that wanted to play?” He delivered a hard spank to the place where her ass met her thighs and it hurt even more, forcing her up onto her toes before she dropped her heels again.

  She nodded, agreeing to the lie. “Yes! Yes, sir. I just wanted to see it.”

  Thomas laughed low, standing up behind her. Another hard swat, but she gritted her teeth to stifle the whine. “You’ve been a very naughty girl, Maddie… and while I’m very glad I was the one to find you, I don’t like it when subs lie to me, and I like it even less when they put themselves at risk. Anyone could have offered to let you in.”

  “I’m sorry, sir.” Not a lie. Guilt surged inside her, and she felt bad for continuing to lie, but there was no way out now. She was in, she’d already seen one senator embroiled in this devious little underground sex club, and where there was one – there had to be more. A whole new, exciting layer to the Jaxson Davidson scandal.

  It had front page written all over it.

  Suddenly, Thomas slipped his hand between her thighs, cupping the evidence of her arousal as he applied the barest hint of pressure to her clit. The shock of it pulled the brake on her thoughts, shifting gears to the thrumming heat inside her, the pulse of desire that beckoned her ever closer to the darkness all around her. Maddie pushed her hips forward, seeking a little more, and she knew that the story wasn’t the only reason she was bent over this chair. No, she’d let him tie her down because some piece of her wanted this, wanted more than what she knew, and he seemed more than willing to give it to her. “Please, sir…”

  “Please what?” he asked, his hand staying still against the damp fabric of her underwear as she rocked more urgently against his touch.

  “Please touch me!” It was begging, something she wouldn’t have imagined herself capable of, but her mind was spinning out of her control, and her nerves were a network of need that she knew instinctively Thomas Hathaway could satisfy.

  “Oh, no. Not yet.” He pulled his hand away and she actually whined, twisting against the rope and shifting her weight from heel to heel in a miniature fit. The dark tone in his voice instantly quieted her, “You know the deal, Maddie. Naughty girls don’t get rewards, they get punished. Then, if they’re very, very good, they get a reward.”

  The next swat from his hand was so loud it seemed to bounce back off the ceiling, and she tried her best to swallow the shout as the full outline of his hand burned to life atop the still aching skin.

  “Are you going to be good and take your punishment for lying to me? For trying to get into Black Light without any kind of real invitation?” She could hear the slightly playful tone in his voice, but deep inside her guilt twisted like a knife. Thomas thought he was punishing her for just sneaking in because she wanted to play at the club, when the reality was so much worse.

  Maddie nodded her head, the fiery red of her hair probably competing with the shame-filled crimson of her cheeks. At least he can’t see that. “Yes, sir.”

  “Good girl. Remember your safe words.”

  There was no warning except the barest whisper of leather cutting air, and then a line of molten fire landed across both cheeks of her ass. She screamed, digging her nails into her palms as the pain peaked and then faded into the burning heat. ‘Red’, danced on the tip of her tongue, some part of her brain desperately enacting a fight or flight instinct urging her to shout it, but instead she clenched her jaw tight. Another lash from the leather, either a belt or a strap like he’d said, and the pain was unlike anything she’d ever felt. Sharp, unforgiving for a moment, and then it would fade and she would suddenly gasp in air.

  Again.

  And again.

  And again, and again, and again.

  Somehow always on a new place, a little higher, or a little lower, and she would cry out, but she knew she deserved it. She quietly begged him to stop, but there was no sincerity to the words. She knew she deserved the pain that had her so tense she was scratching furrows into her palms with her nails. There was no way she’d speak the words he’d given her to really stop this.

  She didn’t deserve them, didn’t need them.

  It was an unvocalized apology for using him like she was. Using him to gain entrance to this place, using him to lie her way past all of their elaborate security, and using him to explore this new, dark place inside herself that was steadily tipping her from the agonizing pain into some kind of humming energy.

  There were tears on her cheeks, capturing strands of her hair against her cheeks. Her breathing had been ragged at first, but it was calming, and as the next strike landed she felt the burning heat of it, the flash of pain, but it faded so quickly into the blur of sensation that she almost couldn’t track it.

  Another crack of the leather, another distant sting, and Maddie was floating somewhere outside herself. Somewhere the guilt was but a tiny blip in the sea of her mind. It was glorious, and quiet, and so much simpler than the chaotic torrent her brain was on a daily basis.

  This is incredible.

  The first lash across the backs of her thighs, just below her ass, made her lift her head, a quiet yelp of pain, but then she was limp again. A soft, low sound escaping her lips, and she couldn’t imagine using a safe word any more. Why had she ever wanted to escape this? It was catharsis embodied. It was perfect.

  She just needed it to continue, to keep going. To wait in this place where her body was a lightning storm
of tingling energy, where her mind was hushed and guiltless and free.

  Another snap that she heard rather than felt, and she was warm and glowing through and through.

  “Such a good girl, you’re such a good girl, Maddie…” Thomas’ voice filtered its way back into her awareness, and then she felt his hand between her thighs again. Rubbing, pressing the soaked fabric of her lacy underwear between her folds as he found her clit and focused his attention in delirious circles that had her hands twisting in the ropes again.

  “Oh, God,” she whispered on a moan, arching her back to lift her head and push back more firmly against his touch. Her head was swimming, so close to some kind of glorious, sparkling horizon, as the tense pleasure built and built. Every touch was expert, and when his other hand landed in the small of her back, pressing her down, she reveled in it. In his strength, the wicked rhythm his fingers maintained on the focal point of her body, and the constant assurances he voiced from behind her.

  “That’s it. You did so well, come for me, beautiful. Go on, let go and come for me. You did so well, you’re such a good girl…” His sweet lies pushed her to the very edge, the pleasure building until it was an almost agonizing boundary that she teetered over, her body tense to the point of pain – and then she fell.

  White light burst behind her eyes, and she called out something incomprehensible as she came against his hand, every thought obliterated once more for a blissful moment of nothingness where she drifted in warm, golden perfection.

  Bliss.

  This was what that word meant. Languid, pure, unfettered by the bounds of reality.

  Thomas’ touch left her a moment later and she felt lost for a second, confused, until she felt his deft, talented fingers at the rope near her hands. He released her and then his arms were under her, lifting her like she weighed nothing before he spun them and settled her in his lap in the chair. His strong arms wrapped around her, holding her firmly until she melted against his firm chest. Cool cloth brushed over her skin and she opened her eyes to see that he’d covered her with his suit jacket, the silk lining set against her. “Shhh, Maddie. Relax. That was… incredible.”

  She mumbled something in agreement as he adjusted her in his lap and pulled her closer, letting her heels drape over the side of the chair.

  “You are so beautiful,” his voice purred against her hair and she let herself just be. All of the pieces of herself, the parts that were usually in such a frenzy reminding her of her never ending to-do list, her failures, her mistakes – they were all hushed and calm. Sated beasts sleeping in the corners of her mind.

  For a few minutes she wasn’t the disappointment she always saw herself as, she was just Maddie. Just a languid set of muscles, and bone, and still tingling nerves wrapped in his warmth.

  If only the world would really fall away.

  Awareness returned slowly, first with the steady brush of his thumb up and down her arm, the gentle touch of his hand near her knee where he held her in his lap. Then the strong, pounding beat of his heart under her cheek. Even and powerful. When she went to shift she felt the other strong thing nudging her… Thomas Hathaway was still hard as a rock under her ass.

  Twisting in his arms, he relaxed his grip a little so she could move, but as soon as she reached between them to brush the steel of his cock through his pants he moved his arm from under her legs and caught her hand. “Just rest, Maddie.”

  “But you’re –”

  “Fine. I’m just fine, I want you to relax. That was intense, and I’m not sure I’ve ever had a sub drop into subspace so quickly from a belt.” He laughed and it was a warm, shaking feeling since she was propped against his chest. “You kind of surprised me.”

  “Subspace?” she asked, still a little dazed.

  He leaned forward to look at her, his hazel eyes shadowed with concern. “Has no one ever put you in subspace before?”

  The blush that fired to life in her cheeks seemed to answer for her. “Thomas, I –”

  “Oh, Maddie… that’s...” He sighed. “It’s terrible that no one’s taken care of you. You deserve so much more.” His interruption cut off her confession, and she bit down on her lip. He was too good. Too good to have stumbled into her twisted plans. “Masochists don’t always get treated well, but you deserve that. You know that, right? You deserve to be treated well?”

  Her brows pulled together, because that was a word she definitely knew. Masochists were people who liked pain, but that wasn’t her. She wasn’t messed up like that… right?

  “Madeline.” His use of her full name made her look up into his gaze, shifting in his lap until they were almost eye-to-eye. “Just because you enjoy this, doesn’t mean you don’t matter. People can’t just take advantage of you, and you can’t let them. Okay?”

  “Okay.” She nodded, still unsteadied by everything that had happened, and then she cursed herself silently. “I mean, yes sir.”

  Thomas chuckled. “Play is over, beautiful. You can just call me Thomas.”

  “Alright, Thomas.” Maddie went to get off his lap, but he tugged her back.

  “You don’t have to get up, I’m enjoying holding you. Aftercare is one of my favorite parts of play.” He leaned his cheek against her hair, hugging her against him once more. “Has no one done this for you either?”

  “No,” she confessed, but when he sighed and held her a little closer she flinched. Aftercare? She didn’t even know what the fuck that was. No one had ever done any of this, any of it, because she was pretending to be someone she wasn’t – or she was discovering something she was for the first time – or she’d lied so thoroughly the whole damn night she couldn’t tell anymore – but regardless, she didn’t deserve this kindness. This warmth, this generosity. Not from someone like him.

  “I was only going to give you ten with the belt, but I thought I felt you teetering on subspace, so I went for it. You sure you’re okay?”

  “It was wonderful, I can’t think of the last time my head was that quiet.”

  He hugged her tight again. “Oh, Maddie… women like you are so unique. I have to admit I’m glad you showed up tonight trying to sneak in, even though that was very wrong.” There was a playful tone in his voice, but her guilt woke up like an angry bear inside her chest.

  “I’m really sorry, Thomas, I never should have –”

  “Oh, no, beautiful… shhh…” He adjusted her on his lap, tucking his coat tighter around her to trap his body heat against her skin, warming her when she hadn’t even realized how cold she’d been. “That’s the beauty of punishment. You make a mistake, you take a punishment, and all is forgiven. I think it’s one of the many things BDSM gets right when it comes to relationships. Vanilla people will sit on things for years, bring it up later just to toss it in their partner’s face, because it’s never really been resolved. This? All resolved. Over and done with, and I won’t speak another word about it.”

  “Thanks,” she whispered, but his words had only poked the bear of guilt. The punishment had felt good because she’d known she needed to be punished, but he didn’t know what she was really doing here.

  What she was still doing here, if she were honest with herself.

  As she’d slowly woken up out of her daze, her eyes had been roaming the room. Catching sight of different people, memorizing faces just in case she recognized them later. Building up her little list inside her mind so she could update her notes when she got home.

  Good for you, Maddie, you’re just like every other selfish, self-righteous reporter out there now.

  It’s what you’ve always wanted.

  Despite the undeniable guilt for how she was using him, she knew that it was secondary to the whole mission of the night in the first place. Before she’d been sidetracked by his handsome face, his tempting flirtation, and his wicked words – she’d come for a story, and now she had the beginnings of one hell of an article. A chance to expose a fresh layer of scandal to the Davidson story – Antoine was going to lose his m
ind.

  “How about one more drink before I tuck you into a car home?” Thomas’ low whisper tugged at the guilt again, and she sat up in his lap to look him in the eye, the insistent nudge of his erection still present.

  “But I haven’t taken care of you.”

  “I got what I wanted, beautiful. Trust me.” He lifted her in his arms and then settled her on her feet, his suit jacket still held against her front. “Let’s get you dressed.”

  He was as good at getting women back into their clothes as he was at getting them out of them, and when he finished zipping her up, he turned her around to take his jacket, smiling as he pulled it on. Then he checked both of her wrists, rubbing them with his thumbs in an effort to ease the redness with a kind of gentleness that belied the actions that had put them there, before he ran his hands over her hair and cupped her cheeks.

  “You are wonderful, you know that?”

  “Sure,” she whispered, but it was half-hearted. Thomas pulled her into a hug anyway, and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, then he caught her hand and walked them back to the bar. The chorus of moans, cries of pain, and the whisper and crack of leather in the room now seemed to be nothing more than background noise to her.

  He settled her on a bar stool, and she hissed as the pressure of the stool woke up the welts across her ass and thighs. “Oh, hell. Are you okay? Would you rather sit on one of the chairs?”

  The sudden concern for her pain made her genuinely smile, because, after all, he’d been the one to cause it. Maddie shook her head, and squeezed his arm. “I’m fine, I promise. It just surprised me.”

  “Well, I’m sure those marks will look even more beautiful tomorrow.” He winked at her and then waved down one of the bartenders. “Order whatever you want, I just need to run to the bathroom. I’ll be right back, I promise.”

  “Okay.” She maintained the smile as he walked away from her, and she waved when he glanced back at her. Then she turned around to find a pretty bartender in front of her with pin-straight blonde hair, tan skin, and a curious expression on her face.