Bound by Rapture (11 page)

A new song started as he stood to my side and ran a hand along my chin, trailing down to the slick skin between my breasts. He tugged on the little scrap of fabric at the center, making my tits bounce. There was a collective gasp from the crowd and I knew we still had it. This chemistry, this movement that drew them in and made them want more. 

I didn’t know what it was about us that mesmerized them. Vic was handsome and fit; there was no denying it, but we had nothing outside of this. Outside of these few moments where we put on show. 

He grabbed the side of my face to force me to look at him, but I wouldn’t. It was part of the game, part of the story. I had to resist him, this god before me. I had to act like his presence didn’t thrill me. I moved my hips slowly back and forth as I denied his command. 

In response, he grabbed the side of my tight skirt and ripped it from my body, tossing it onto the stage. Just a tiny g-string covered my shaved pussy. He walked around me, eyeing my body as if he was sizing me up. When he reached my other side and tried to grab me, I shimmied out of his grasp and climbed the pole. My hands slipped along the smooth surface, but that didn’t stop me from spinning my body and hooking my leg until I was halfway up the pole and hanging upside down. The warm oil poured down my leg, tracking onto my inner thigh and down my stomach. I twirled around before it could get to my face and slid down the pole with my legs spread wide. The only thing covering my cunt was the pole. If the pole wasn’t there, they would be able to see it all. My plump bare lips, my pink pussy. The tiny g-string didn’t hide anything.

When I was nearly to the bottom, Vic snatched me off the pole, forcing me to straddle his waist. I rocked my hips into him and twisted just as he did, then put one of my legs over his shoulder farthest from the audience. He held my hips firmly while my other leg was wrapped around his upper torso under his arm. This gave the crowd full frontal view of my body while I popped the clasp between my tits, letting the shells that covered them fall into the pool of oil beneath me.

My breasts bounced free and I covered them with my hands, slathering the oil over my nipples. The crowd groaned when I pulled my hands away, revealing shiny globes.

Vic moved his arm and I slid down his body until my hands sank into the oil beneath us. I flipped over and crawled to him, through the oil. He backed up and stepped out of the bowl. I followed him, my hands leaving shiny prints on the black stage. We faced each other, me on my hands and knees and Vic standing. I flexed my hips and shook my ass as I reached for his pants and tore them off, revealing tight underwear that could barely contain his hard cock. 

I reached up and tugged at the elastic band, eyeing the crowd. A cheer of female voices sounded. They wanted to see Vic’s hard cock bounce free, but they wouldn’t get to. I let his underwear go with a pop and he pulled me to my feet, twirling me around to face him. The song playing over us was almost over. The thick electronica pop sped up for its final run. 

We moved faster, our bodies bumping until he jerked me into him, my breasts sliding along his bare chest. He reached down and played with the string on my hip, facing the crowd. Men shouted. They wanted to see them off, see me bare to the world. But Vic let the string go with a smack against my skin.

I knew the next move like the back of my hand. Vic would spin me around and I would put my ass right in his crotch and bend over. He would grip my hips and lift me up off the floor until I was up high enough to flip forward. I would slide across the stage until I was upright again. My legs would slip apart and I would go into a split. My cunt would be revealed for just a few seconds before the lights would cut off and it would be over. 

But it didn’t happen. Vic didn’t spin me around. Instead, he held me in place. His hands slipped along my waist. His eyes were shrouded in shadows and I couldn’t figure out what he wanted from me, what I was supposed to do. I stood looking up at him, letting him move my body how he wanted it, thinking I’d be able to fall into step with whatever he was planning. 

But he did what I never expected. 

He kissed me. 

I nearly jerked back, but then I remembered we were on stage in front of hundreds of people. 

“Trust me,” he whispered against my lips. And I wanted to, but I didn’t see how this was right. How would this help catch the person behind all this madness? It didn’t make sense, but I didn’t pull away. I let it happen. 

I kissed him back. 

It was one thing Vic and I had never done—kiss. We had fucked monthly at Rapture X. We had writhed against each other on this stage weekly, but our lips had never met. It was an unspoken rule, something that kept everything from being too intimate. It was almost like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. It kept the distance. It was me respecting his relationship with Chris, and Vic likewise. 

I was tempted to jerk away. We didn’t need this kiss. But I still didn’t. I moved my lips against his. There was a small part of me that always wondered what it would be like to kiss him. Not because I wanted him, but because I had never had it. I’d had Vic in every other way a woman could have a man sexually, but not this. 

His lips were soft against mine when he parted them and swiped his tongue into my mouth. For a moment I was certain the world stood still. The music surrounded us as his hand slipped between our bodies and beneath my g-string before I could stop him. Brushing through the oily wetness that coated me until he reached my ass. 

I gasped against his mouth and tried to step back. This was too far. This wasn’t Rapture X. But he didn’t let me. His hand held me stiff against him as he mashed his lips on mine and pressed a digit against the tight opening of my ass, right as the song ended. An eruption of applause sounded and the lights went out. 

I pushed Vic away and stumbled back. 

What the fuck was that?

I didn’t know. I couldn’t see his eyes since it was dark and I couldn’t ask him because we were still on stage. The DJ’s voice boomed over the speakers as I turned and hurried off. Confusion snaked through my body. Confusion and disappointment. Nothing had happened while we danced. No one tried to attack. Nothing. 

I was barely two steps backstage when I slammed into a muscular chest. I glanced up, my gaze trailing along a chiseled torso covered in a black shirt, dark, loose hair framing an angular jaw. Two dark eyes stared down at me. Eyes I knew. Eyes filled with such venom, such poison I recoiled. 

They were the eyes of a man who murdered his brother.

Cole’s eyes. 

NINE

Julia.

“Have fun?” Cole grabbed my elbow roughly and jerked me forward, his fingers slipping on my oily skin. 

I was about to say something when his mother ran up to us. “Oh, Cole, you’re out! Are you okay?” Worry was etched into her brow. “If I’d known you’d made bail, I would have come to pick you up.” I stared at her impeccable acting job, my mouth gaping.

Instead of responding, Cole pushed his way past her, pulling me along behind him. 

“Cole, where are you going?” Jennifer asked.

“I’ll deal with you later,” he grumbled. 

Fuck. This is bad. How much did he see?

“Cole, let me talk to you. I can explain this.” Guilt coursed through me. I knew what it looked like out there. 

“Shut up.” His words were cold. He opened the door to the closest dressing room. Several dancers were inside putting on make-up in front of mirrors surrounded by big white bulbs. “Get the fuck out.” They all jumped at his booming voice.

“But—”

“I said now!” he yelled, and all three of the girls hurried out of the room without a backward glance. 

“Cole.” Randy’s voice came from just behind me. “Let her go, man. Ya don’t need to do this.”

The pleading in his voice scared me as I turned and met his gaze. Fear pounded against my veins. 

“This isn’t your business, Randy. Now leave.” Cole started to shut the door, but Randy stopped it with his foot. 

“Ya remember that talk we had? Remember when I asked ya what you would do when you loved her? Remember? It’s here and ya don’t want to hurt her. None-a this was her idea.” 

“I said
get out.
”

“No—”

Cole lunged forward and shoved Randy, surprising him so he stumbled backward. It was enough. Cole slammed the door shut and clicked the lock into place. Pounding immediately began, but Cole ignored it. As he grabbed one of the make-up tables and shoved it against the knob, lipstick and perfume bottles clattered to the floor.  

No one can get in.

The thought quadrupled my fear, especially as Cole turned toward me. The room was bright, illuminating everything. His eyes were hollow, dark as if he’d gotten no sleep. He fisted his hands at his sides.

I expected him to rush at me, but he didn’t. Instead he stood in front of me, his gaze raking up and down my body, brimming with something close to hate. I backed up slowly, trying to put as much distance between us as possible.

I held my hands out in front of me. “Listen, Cole. I danced with Vic again to lure the killer—”

“Shut up.” A muscle ticked in his jaw.

“But I—”

“I said to shut up.” He walked toward me slowly. His gaze was everywhere at once. I’d seen him be the predator before, but not like this. Like he wanted to slaughter me and fuck me all at once. The very idea made my cunt wet and terrified me at the same time. 

He murdered his brother. 

“I’m scared, Cole.” My back met the wall. 

“You should be.” The slightest smile curved at his lips as he reached into his pocket. Out of it came a knife that he clicked into place. The bright lights reflected off the blade, making its smooth surface shine brightly.

“What is this, Cole?” I didn’t know what to think.
Did he do this? Is he the one who’s been trying to hurt me?

But he couldn’t be. Why would he do all this? It didn’t make sense. 

“It’s a knife, Julia.” He stepped closer, his stare never leaving mine. “Or should I say
Jewel of the Sea?
”

“Cole, I did this to help you.”

“To help me?” He twirled the blade against one thumb. “Getting naked with another man on stage. Letting him touch your body.” He spun the knife faster, until blood started to drip. “Letting him kiss your lips.” He stopped inches away from me and rubbed his bloody thumb against my mouth. “That’s how you thought to help me?”

My heart sped up. 

To my surprise, he took a step back. “You’re just saying these things.” He smiled. “You’re just saying them because you’re scared of me now. I knew you would be…after you found out the truth. And you do know the truth now, don’t you?”

I eyed him cautiously and nodded my head.

“You know what I did.”

“But I don’t believe it.”

He lunged at me, caging me with his big body. “You should believe it, Julia. You should fucking believe it, because it’s true.”

I blanched at his words, staying completely still. “You killed him?” The words slipped out unbidden.

Something dark lit the blue in his eyes. “I did. And if I was given a do-over, I would do it again in a heartbeat.” His words were soft; if he weren’t talking about murdering his brother, they might’ve been a lover’s words. “But that’s not why I brought you in here.” He slid the dull side of the knife down my body and I was reminded of the night he danced with me here at Rapture, when he strung me up on that pole and sliced the cups of my bra open. Something liquefied deep inside my cunt and I fought back a moan. 

“Did you like it?” He brushed his lips against my ear.

“Like what?” My voice was breathless.

“Writhing on
him
.”

“Cole—”

“Answer the fucking question!” He pressed the blade against my belly. 

I let out a breath. “No.”

“You’re lying.” He let the blade slide farther down until he reached the strap of my g-string. “Tell me the truth.”

“I’m not lying. I did this for you. I wanted to draw the killer out and—”

He pressed his lips against mine hard, forcing my head back against the wall. Our teeth clashed together as I kissed him back. He ravaged me, controlled me, commanded me. My body melted for him, lust and fear swirling together in my belly, flooding my cunt with wet heat. I slid my hands up his torso, running them against his hard muscles. 

“No.” He broke away. “Don’t touch me.”

My mouth gaped open. “But—”

“Turn around.”

“But Cole—”

“I said turn around.
Now
.”

Something in his eyes dared me to disobey and it sparked something inside me. “No.”

“No? You really want to play with me this time? A murderer? The man you let into your bed, into your cunt. You want to push my buttons now?
Now?
When I’m on the edge of fucking losing it.”

“I don’t give a fuck what you’re doing or what you did. No one tells me what to do.”

He moved so quickly I hardly saw him. He spun me around, slamming me against the wall so hard I could have sworn I saw stars. The cold blade of the knife pressed against my hip just as I heard a snapping sound and felt the g-string flutter to the floor. The knife followed it a few seconds later, clattering against the tile. His big body pressed against me, his hard cock spearing my ass through his pants.