The Devil Inside

CHAPTER 24

Shae left the three of us alone, slipping outside to sit on the bench and look in the window. I’d have liked to get the hell out of there, too, but that didn’t appear to be among my options. Dominic looked miserable, but determined, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. When Shae beckoned the crowd of perverts over to our window, I seriously considered storming out of the room and punching that malicious little grin off her face.

Adam looked at me, then at the gathering crowd, then at Dominic. “We’re not doing this.”

My heart lurched, but as desperately as I longed to save Brian, I didn’t have it in me to protest. That Dominic would even consider doing something this degrading for the chance to help a total stranger-and it was a chance only, for who knew if Shae would hold up her end of the bargain? — amazed and humbled me.

“Yes, we are,” Dominic said. As miserable as he looked, there was no hesitation in his voice. “I’m not leaving a helpless, unwilling victim down here.”

“Dom-”

“No, Adam. I could never live with myself if I just walked away.”

“I’m so sorry I dragged you into this,” I said.

He waved that off. “It’s ultimately my choice.” His eyes locked with Adam’s. “And I choose to do it.”

Adam cut a look in my direction. I had a feeling this was one more sin he was going to blame me for. I had a feeling I would blame me for it, too.

“Stand over there in the corner,” he barked at me. “Stay out of the way.”

His tone would ordinarily have raised my hackles, but I sympathized too much with his anger to object to it. I meekly obeyed. Adam cupped his hands around Dom’s face and looked into his lover’s eyes.

“Forget about everything,” he said, and the anger had disappeared from his voice as if it never existed. “Forget about everyone else. It’s just me.” He laid an almost chaste kiss on Dom’s lips. “And if you need me to stop, say the word and I will.”

Dominic swallowed hard and nodded. They both looked toward the table, and Dom heaved a heavy sigh. Then, with Adam’s arm around his shoulders, he moved to stand at the table’s foot. Adam stood close behind him and ran his hands over his chest, moving downward until his fingers found Dom’s belt buckle. Dom leaned back against him and closed his eyes as Adam undid his pants and pulled them down.

Not surprisingly, considering how tight those pants had fit, Dom wasn’t wearing any underwear. My eyes slid away, but they soon returned to the spectacle. I’m not sure if it was morbid fascination, or whether I wanted to punish myself for putting them through this by making myself as uncomfortable as I could possibly be. Whatever the motivation, I watched as Dominic bent over that table and allowed Adam to cuff his wrists and ankles to the table’s legs. Adam whispered something in his ear that made him smile briefly.

From the corner of my eye, I saw movement behind the window, but I didn’t allow myself to look. I didn’t want to think about how many people were out there, witnessing this. Bad enough that I was witnessing it.

Adam left Dominic bent over that table, his ass bare for everyone to see, as he selected a paddle from among the many choices. He slapped it hard across the palm of his hand. The noise, far louder than I’d expected, made me jump. Adam frowned at the paddle and put it back, making another selection. He tried a few others, his hand getting redder and redder as he hit it. Was he punishing himself? Or was he really just testing them out? I didn’t know.

He finally picked one and went back to the table. He smoothed his reddened hand over Dominic’s butt, the gesture unmistakably tender.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Dominic’s hands tightened into fists. I felt a fist-sized lump in my throat, and I pressed myself as tightly into the corner as I could, wincing in anticipation.

The table was positioned parallel to the window so that the watchers outside could see both his butt and his face. Unfortunately, my position gave me a really clear view of his butt-not that it wouldn’t have been nice to look at under other circumstances! But I got to watch as the blows rained down on him and his skin glowed an angry shade of red.

Dominic was very quiet, though every once in a while a soft whimper escaped him. I don’t know if it was because of the audience, or the taint of Shae’s malice and blackmail, but no one watching could think he was enjoying himself. His hands stayed clenched, and he struggled feebly against the bonds, trying to avoid Adam’s blows.

Adam’s face was as red as Dom’s ass, but it wasn’t from exertion or pleasure. Fury radiated from him. If I’d been in that audience, watching for pleasure, I’d have run like hell when I caught a glimpse of that face.

Finally, Adam hurled the paddle across the room so hard it broke clean in half when it hit the wall. Even with the insulating glass, I could hear the audience outside gasp.

Then, God help me, Adam attacked his pants, getting them open and down in about five seconds flat.

I couldn’t help admiring him. I just couldn’t, no matter how sickening this spectacle. He had an ass a body double would kill for, lean and rounded and very, very firm. And his cock… Well, let’s just say my earlier cucumber analogy was surprisingly apt.

He had to stroke himself awhile to get himself to full tumescence-which he did while baring his teeth in a feral snarl at the audience. I guess Shae was wrong about him enjoying this against his will, though from the look in his eyes it wasn’t much consolation. He went through two condoms in his bid for safe sex, the first one tearing from too much rough handling. Then he was finally ready for action.

I looked away at first. It was just too much. But in the end, I suppose I was as much a voyeur as everyone else in the place, for my eyes were inevitably drawn back.

From my vantage point, pretty much all I could see was Adam, his body shielding Dom from view. I watched the muscles of his spectacular ass bunching and releasing, and heard the little sounds Dominic couldn’t seem to help making. No matter the public humiliation, no matter his discomfort, no matter his basic unwillingness, he couldn’t help enjoying what Adam was doing to him. I suspect only reluctance to give Shae any satisfaction kept him from letting loose completely.

For his part, Adam didn’t make a sound. He pounded away, fucking Dom as brutally as he’d beaten him. It had to hurt, but you wouldn’t have known it from Dominic’s sighs and moans.

I could tell when Adam came by the stiffening of his stance and by the change of rhythm. Still he made no sound, though his breath came in ragged gasps. Looking exhausted, he leaned over Dominic’s back, resting his hands on the table.

“Draw the fucking curtain,” he snarled at me over his shoulder.

Outside, the audience gave an enthusiastic round of applause. I hurried to the curtain on shaky knees, wobbling on my damned high heels. I drew the curtain as fast as possible, then kept my back turned on Adam and Dom to give them a belated moment of privacy.

It occurred to me that Shae wouldn’t have the same decency, so I moved to the door and pressed both hands against it. Sure enough, I felt someone trying to push it open.

“Give us a minute!” I said, not quite a shout but close to it.

Being a demon, she could have forced the door easily, but she didn’t, at least not yet. I kept leaning on it anyway, putting as much of my body weight into it as I could. Behind me, I heard Adam and Dom dressing.

“All right,” Dominic said a moment later. “You can let her in now.”

I didn’t want to, but I moved away from the door. Shae sauntered in, looking terribly pleased with herself. She sighed with contentment.

“And you thought you couldn’t put on a good show anymore!” she said.

Adam’s eyes glowed. “You don’t want to push me just now, Shae.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Is that a threat?”

“My self-control is not boundless. Give me the keys and get the fuck out of my face.” Dom put a hand on his shoulder as if to calm him, but Adam shrugged it off. “I mean it, Shae!”

She smiled. “I know you do. And I’m a woman of my word.”

I had to resist the urge to snort. If she was such a woman of her word, then why was she helping us, if that’s what she was doing?

Shae fished a couple of keys out of her pocket and held them up to Adam. “The big one is to the rack room. The smaller one is to the ‘fire escape.’” Yes, you could hear the quotation marks around the term. “You’ll wire the money to me as soon as the bank opens in the morning. Right?”

Adam nodded. “Assuming I live that long and that none of the people under my protection dies, yeah.”

Her eyes narrowed. “That wasn’t part of our arrangement.”

“It is now.”

Apparently, she wasn’t entirely insane, after all. She took one look at the expression on Adam’s face, then shrugged and handed over the keys.

“Fine.” She looked at her watch. “It’s one twenty-five. At one thirty-five, I’m going to make the call. I suggest you move your glorious ass.”

For a moment, I thought we were going to have to waste precious minutes prying Adam off Shae, but he managed to control his obviously brittle temper. With one last goading smile, Shae left the room. The rest of us followed.

In the hallway, the crowd had gathered in front of another window, closer to the stairway leading out of Hell. Shae waggled her fingers at us as she climbed the stairs, but the rest of the crowd ignored us completely, enjoying whatever sick perversion was taking place behind that window.

We reached the room with the black curtain, and Adam made to slip the key into the lock. I stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“We don’t even know if there are guards,” I said.

He batted my hand away. “We will in a minute.”

Before I could utter another protest, he turned the key and pushed the door open.