The glow in his eyes threatened to combust her. “Yeah, no need for me to ask if that was amazing for you, since I already know the answer too.”
It was her turn to gape. “Are you saying what I think you are?”
He grunted. “Are all your orgasms like that? ’Cause it’s a bloody wonder you can walk afterwards.”
What in the hell is going on? She’d heard of mutual orgasms, but come on. “Well, at least you no longer think I’m crazy.”
“I never thought you were.”
She gave him a hard look. “No, you just hate the idea of being tied to me.”
“Avi, this isn’t the time or place to discuss this.”
“Don’t worry, we’re not. I already told you I’m done pursuing that fruitless dream.”
A dark emotion flashed in his eyes. She didn’t have the strength to care what it might mean. Didn’t matter. It couldn’t possibly hold a candle to the pain in her heart.
She’d made a valiant effort not to care. To put on a false front for him. It was all strictly for show. No more honest than this ridiculous dominatrix getup and the playacting she’d put on back at the party. Except when it came to her sensual reaction to Jerrick. Her body and heart didn’t need a phony cover when it came to him. But they were in desperate want of a safeguard against the devastation he could wreak upon them.
“Avi.” The impossible blueness of his gaze threatened to reel her in.
A knock rattled the door, a temporary stand-in for that safeguard she so severely required. Hurrying from the sink, she wrenched open the door.
Francesca gave Avily’s no-doubt-frazzled appearance a double blink. “I don’t mean to intrude, but I wondered if you cared to join me for a nightcap before closing.”
Avily brushed her bangs back from her forehead and took a series of grounding breaths. Better. She was here to do a job, not fall apart. She’d do well to remember that. “Sounds lovely.”
Her lingering concerns about having to face the club members dissipated as Francesca led them past the room where the party appeared to still be in full swing.
Francesca offered a contrite smile. “My apologies, but I’m afraid I’m growing too old to tolerate that many people in one place for more than an hour. Even in my own house.”
Avily shook her head vigorously. “Trust me, I’m perfectly okay with it. I confess to not being a huge fan of crowds myself.” Particularly those engaging in wild sex orgies.
She and Jerrick piled into the elevator with Francesca, and after the mistress tapped in a special code, they rode the conveyance up to the penthouse floor. Avily didn’t need to glance in Jerrick’s direction to know he’d committed Francesca’s pass key to memory. The brass doors slid open, awarding unimpeded access straight into the mistress’s private quarters.
The sumptuous space was a decorator’s wet dream, swathed in rich velvets, silks and priceless tapestries. Francesca’s beloved Artur’ak pieces were scattered throughout the central room, the predominant feature an enormous jade screen that took up nearly an entire wall. Avily tossed another look toward Jerrick and noticed him visually molesting the screen. Between that and the chandelier one floor below, his self-restraint was getting a severe kick in the ass.
Francesca waved to the leather sectional. “Please, take a seat.”
Resisting the urge to remind Jerrick that the mistress didn’t mean that literally, Avily settled on the cushion. He resumed his standard place at her feet and covertly scoped the room while Francesca headed to the kitchen.
A second later the mistress reappeared with three bottles of Larry the Fairy. Avily was thrilled to see the familiar label rather than the crazy sex punch from downstairs, but she was also surprised by the extra bottle.
Francesca chuckled. “The house rules stop at this floor. I paid a great deal more merca for these furnishings than those in the public rooms. I don’t relish the cleaning bill I’d be stuck with up here.”
More and more, Francesca Dominitri was proving to not be entirely the cold businesswoman Avily originally pinned her for. Sure, the mistress clearly had money coming out her wazoo and ran her kinky sex club like a tight ship, but she also had a sense of humor and a breakable heart under her glamorous exterior.
Reminded of the mistress’s relationship with Casper, Avily glanced about the space, almost expecting to see whips and chains stashed beside the silver tea server. Would you like one smack across the ass or two with your Jufferi? Fighting back a snicker, she took a sip of her Larry’s and eyed Francesca. “Your home is absolutely beautiful.”
Francesca beamed, her pride readily apparent. “Thank you. Casper and I spent a ridiculous amount of months merely on the decision of which rugs we would use in here.”
An extra beat thrummed through Avily’s pulse. Judging from the way Jerrick suddenly inched forward, he too was experiencing the same jolt of anticipation. Attempting to cool her excitement, she gulped another swig from the bottle and adopted a casual air. “Oh, did Casper live here with you?”
“Yes. It was far more convenient to his laboratory, though in the last few years before his passing, he did most of his work here anyway.”
Holy. Shit. Terrified she was going to reveal her excitement by dancing a jig and splashing Larry the Fairy all over Francesca’s pristine, cost-a-year’s-salary-to-clean furnishings, Avily cautiously planted the bottle on the table across from her. “You don’t say. Here? Really? So he had a lab and everything?” Gods, did that sound too nosy? Too suspicious and prodding?
Francesca nodded. “I used to get quite miffed when he’d spend too much time in there and not enough with me.” Her smile turned crooked. “He really got a good flogging on those occasions.”
Way too much information. Trying not to look disturbed by the image that’d just popped onto her mental big screen, Avily racked her brain, hoping against hope she’d dredge up the memory of a potential lab they’d passed during yesterday’s tour. This was when clearly marked doors would be damn helpful. Finally she admitted defeat and went with another leading question. “I can see how it would have been convenient, but how in the world did he deal with the distraction of all the club members milling constantly about?”
“Easily. His lab is back there.” Francesca gestured to the hall behind them. “No one ever came in here but me.”
It took everything inside Avily not to stare fixedly at the beckoning darkness at the end of that long corridor. Oh. My. Gods.
It was right there.
Right.
Freaking.
There.
Casper Winston’s mysterious research. The object sinister thugs had blackmailed Jerrick into stealing. The end barter for her life. The potentially dangerous commodity that the fate of the planet might rest on.
There was only one proper response when faced with a situation such as this.
Fuck.
Chapter Twenty
“She won’t let you go merrily waltzing in there.”
Jerrick checked the neighboring lane of traffic and gusted a swear word at the parking lot conditions boxing him in on all sides. Bloody hell. He was ready to give the one-finger salute to Amora and her horny, drunk and annoyingly everywhere revelers. “You think I don’t know that? I’m already working on a plan.”
“Care to fill me in?” Avi demanded.
“I will as soon as I’ve figured it all out.”
“Wow, not like I haven’t heard that one a million times before.”