Sleeves (2 page)

She looked like an idiot up there.

“How about a kiss for my trouble?” Maddie asked several minutes later when it seemed hopeless to bust him free.

“You know the rules. No kissing. You can pet me if I allow it, you can break me free, but no mouth on any of my skin,” her captive man said.

“Yeah, you’re on the inside anyway; not like she can really get to you when she’s out here,” Casey grumbled. For some stupid reason, Casey was mesmerized by him. How to get in that cage? Was there a way?

There had to be simple explanations for these cheap tricks.

She turned back to the bartender, but kept her eyes riveted on the magician behind the bars. “Has anyone ever broken him free?”

“Nope. That’s why he does it at the end, to prove it can be done. They just have to want it bad enough.” He wiped down the bar around her.

“And what’s the most anyone’s ever paid for a shot at it?”

“A thousand. That woman got to go in the cage with him. We thought if anyone could break him out, she could. It didn’t work though, and she almost fainted from the exertion. That woman was determined, too. I still see her at least once month. We gave her a full half hour to work on it. Didn’t matter how much time she had,” he said, drumming his fingers on the countertop.

She turned her full attention back to the cage and her friend. No one had ever told her before coming here that women bid on the chance to break him free.

“Please!” Maddie wiggled around some more up there. It was evident she was begging to grope him, and it was difficult to tell if he was allowing her to stroke him through his jeans or not.

A primal wave of possessiveness hit Casey, and she bit the inside of her cheeks to fight off the urge to run up there and rip Maddie’s hands off him.

Why did she feel this way? She didn’t know this man, yet she couldn’t look away.

Even from this distance, she could tell he was insanely gorgeous, but that wasn’t the draw. There was this imperceptible charge in the room, and it was coming directly from him.

It compelled her to want to free him—to have him for her own.

No wonder these women were snarling maniacs, ready to slit each other’s throats for the chance to ogle him up close and maybe touch him.

Casey’s mind raced, her thighs vibrated with lust. Enough!

She got up; headed to the bathroom to clear her head.

On her way back there, she spotted Jana, who’d disappeared almost the moment they entered the place.

She was making out while seated at a corner table with one of the few men in attendance.

Hmm . . . Casey might be stuck here for a while. Terrific.

She pushed the door open to the restroom, went inside and like an imbecile just stood there, leaning against the counter.

It was clean enough.

“C’mon. Finish your drink. Quit being such a moron,” she told herself then ran her hand over her hair as if it’d been displaced from rolling around with Kel.

Kel? She wasn’t familiar with him, so why did she feel like she was comfortable enough to refer to him this way?

Screw this.

She marched back out to the bar, gulped down more than half of what was left of her drink and then turned back to the cage.

Maddie was pouting, but it appeared her time was up.

She gripped the bars, rattled them and actually snapped her jaw at him.

Was she insane?

“My God.” A hint of jealousy tinged Casey’s tone.

“Kel’s changed his mind—he’ll give more than one lady a chance tonight to try and break him free . . . Next up, the lovely Darla,” the announcer said.

That’s when she realized the announcer was the bartender behind her.

He was lowering his voice when he used the microphone but the intonation and cadence was clearly his.

All tricks and deception—this place was repugnant in so many ways, yet she stayed seated.

Maddie spotted Casey at the bar and worked her way over to her with a look of frustration on her face.

“Goddammit, I didn’t get to touch it,” Maddie said when she plopped down onto the barstool next to her.

“Why did you think he’d even let you?” Casey chuckled and shook her head, downing the rest of her drink.

“The last time I was here, women were all over him. He had that cock of his out for all to see. He’s playing the crowd tonight, working them up into a frenzy first—the bastard.” Maddie signaled for the bartender to come take her order.

He smiled at her and then went straight to filling her order.

After a few minutes, she was nursing a Long Island Iced Tea and bitching about how she didn’t bring any more cash with her.

She included Casey in her plans in acquiring more so they could attempt freeing the caged beast at the other end of the room.

Casey groaned.

“I know . . . Such a waste of a magnificent man,” Maddie said.

That wasn’t why Casey was making that grating sound—only enough cash for two or three drinks. Not enough to buy herself into the cage, and if she went up there, that was the only outcome possible.

As Maddie continued to piss on about how unfair it all was, Casey continued to stare at him from afar.

No way he looked as good close up as Maddie kept insisting.

That kind of stunning beauty was impossible; it was already almost too much to look at from
this
distance without feeling breathless.

Casey shifted in her seat and then heard an unmistakable, “You. Your turn.”

She swiveled toward the cage. Kel was staring and pointing straight at her.

“But she hasn’t paid,” the bartender said, gripping the counter.

“I don’t give a fuck. In the cage.” Kel grinned with a wicked glint in his eyes as he continued to stare at Casey. His gaze flickered to the bartender. “Thirty minutes. And don’t tell me I only have five left, or I’ll chain
you
inside this trap.”

Casey’s mouth went dry, and her legs shook as she slid off the barstool.

Before she could take a step, the bartender was rounding his way past her and up to the cage.

He grumbled something about Kel being high.

Wait a minute . . . She wasn’t going to get in some cage with a drug addict, no matter how pretty and intriguing he was, and no matter how much experience she had dealing with addicts.

She sat back down.

“Get over here,” the bartender said, waving her forward. “Your time’s running out.”

Maddie’s finger dug into Casey’s back, and she prodded her off the seat. “Go! They’re calling you, and we’re waiting.” She grinned.

“Are you insane? I’m not going in there with him!” Casey crossed her arms over her chest, and a knot yanked at the top of her gut, making bile tickle at the back of her throat.

“Your friend’s money back if you get in here in the next two minutes,” Kel said, smirking.

“Oh, hell yeah!” Maddie was shoving Casey forward once more. She hissed in her ear to share all the details when she got back.

It didn’t seem to help—being pushed forward. Casey’s feet dragged, and her gut tightened so hard it was damn near impossible to breathe.

Once she made it to his edge of the room, she shifted her weight into her right foot and pushed her left hip forward, giving him a “fuck off” vibe, even though her facial expression was bland.

“Inside you go,” the bartender said, helping her in.

Kel was pacing like a wild animal, staring at her through his lashes with his head bent down.

He was studying her.

Clannnnng!

The bars shook as the door closed, and then it was locked from the outside by the bartender.

She waited for the curtains to be closed since she’d been told when a woman was given thirty minutes in the cage, it was done in privacy. The curtains remained wide open.

Fabulous. Her shame was going to be available for all to see.

“I can smell your virgin blood from here,” Kel said, his jaw twitching, making his five-o’clock shadow more noticeable.

“And you know the state of my sexuality based on what facts?” She started pacing with him, mirroring his actions.

The oddest thing happened as she swayed along—he slowed down. Not only that; he stopped. The arms that had been tensed at his sides relaxed, and his eyes went from suspicious, maybe even a little frightened, to intrigued and genuinely curious about her.

“You’ve never done anything like this before—been with a man like me,” he answered.

“Yeah, I think it’s safe to say very few women have been with a man like you, but that doesn’t make them virgins.” She snorted and stepped closer to him to see what he’d do.

“It does to me. They don’t know what it’s like . . .” His pacing resumed.

“What’s it like then? Tell me, and I’ll share it with the masses,” she teased him.

“It’s a bloody hell—it’s dangerous, dark, and it drags you into the deepest corners of sensual pleasures that you can’t ever get back out. I’m stuck—I’ll never get free.”

“Is that why you’re chained up in here? To protect yourself?”

“No.” He blinked and stopped moving. His body leaned toward her and his nostrils flared. “It’s to protect
you
.”

He moved over to the seat at the front corner and sat down.

There was a small wooden table next to it with some kind of bottle of lube, a few penis sleeves and a bottle of water. Her eyes roamed over his body as he sat there looking vulnerable.

It was odd how comfortable it made her to see him this way after she’d already witnessed him being unhinged, like a rabid maniac.

“I don’t need protection. I’m fine, thanks.” She kneeled down in front of him, her head level with his stomach.

“You want to touch me,” he said with a smooth, even tone.

It sent shivers through her spine, then made her thighs tingle.

“Not the way you think.” She reached out and slowly ran her hands up his jean covered thighs. They spoke of power, of brutal strength and masculinity.

“That . . . You can’t.” His voice was shaky and his eyes followed her hands.

There was nothing sexual about it. This was empathy. He was trapped in here like a scared animal, snapping at her. Her heart clenched for him.

“You’re hurting.” Her eyes were piercing in that moment, even more than her words.

He wet his bottom lip and bit it. His eyes were filled with anguish.

“It hurts more than you can know,” he whispered, leaning forward.

“I’ll make it go away,” she said, moving her hands up his sides and to his arms.

The minute she touched his shoulders, he jerked and cowered away like she was torturing him.

“Shhh . . . It’s okay. I’m going to make it better.” She feathered her fingertips across his inner arms that were trembling, but still bound at the wrists.

Her hands tickled back up to his shoulders, and she made several sweeps, noticing long gashing scars across his right pec. Three of them were lined up like a lion had raked across his chest and had swiped at him.

Over and over, she ghosted her fingertips, and he tensed and tightened with each slight brush.

His skin was chilly in some spots and burning hot in others.

Such a paradox—this man.

“That stings,” he murmured.

“It shouldn’t. It should relax you.” She kept her tone lighter than her touch.

“It’s . . . I’m not the same as you.” He grimaced.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is you need someone to be gentle.”

“Gentle burns—it destroys me.” His eyes clenched closed, and he banged the back of his head up against the bars repeatedly as she roamed her fingertips across his chest.

“Should I stop?” she asked, scooting closer.

His inner arms pinked at her touch as she moved away.

“I . . . I don’t want you to, but you should.” His jaw clenched.

“Why?” She blew across his chest hairs, leaning ever closer to his heartbeat.

She could imagine his heart flying in his chest, hammering bits of her offered kindness into his battered soul.

“Because if I touch you back, it’ll hurt
you
,” he said. Suddenly, without her realizing how he’d done it, his bound wrists were unattached, and he was all around her, encompassing her.

He was rubbing his cheeks and lips on her arms, her chest, and taking deep whiffs of her scent at her hair and neck.

It was the most erotic thing she’d ever experienced. She was breaking out in goose bumps across her chest and around the backs of her shoulders.

The strangest thing about it was he was careful to keep the rest of his body away from her. Only his face and hands touched, and that was it. But he moved so quickly, with a predatory attack, she had no idea where he’d strike or contact next.

She inhaled and closed her eyes, and the next thing she knew, the chair had been moved to the center of the cage, facing away from the crowd.