From the back of the stage, two men in loincloths rolled a massive wall to angle toward the audience, locking it in place on the floor. Chains with manacles, meant for wrists and ankles, hung from the wall, similar to the ones Reyes had put her in earlier.
Another woman, also carrying a whip, entered the stage completely nude.
The two loincloth men returned, dragging a third man in a black tux. The spotlight focused on him as the first two chained him up.
The completely nude woman, a very athletic vampire, used her whip. The first crack caught the man’s coat in a deep tear.
He winced, and the audience knew the whip had stung.
Soft groans moved around the theater, but Reyes’s tension level ramped up. The female repeated the process in quick succession, her arm and eye trained to strip the man of his clothes while leaving very few significant cuts behind.
The male servants tore the strips between strikes so that more and more of his well-muscled body appeared.
The music continued to beat the erotic rhythm and the whip kept time so that even Angelica could see the exquisitely orchestrated artistry of the performance.
But what surprised her the most was that once the servants pulled the torn pants away, the man was fully erect behind a pair of snug briefs. He clearly enjoyed the experience, the fear, the pain.
She was pretty sure the entire audience held its breath as the female, on the beat, and in two quick successions, cut to either side of the man’s groin and sent his briefs falling to the floor. The two men gathered up his torn-up clothes and left the stage.
Angelica covered her mouth with her hand. Despite the fact that the man was clearly enjoying the performance, she couldn’t get past the public nature of the spectacle.
The woman moved forward and, no surprise, began fondling his arousal.
The whip, the chains, the seductive female, drew Reyes into the past, his years as a slave. He’d belonged exclusively to Sweet Dove to use as she saw fit, to share him when it pleased her.
She had places of punishment and of pleasure, so that over time his body became confused. What hurt him often dealt out reams of exquisite sensation, and what should have been pleasurable caused him a terrible agony of his mind and his vampire soul.
Sitting in front of a show, beside a woman he’d desired intensely for months now, had his body in an uproar. The whole time, guilt and shame tightened his chest.
The sight of the woman now caressing the slave’s thighs and groin, her lips surrounding his erection, sent shock waves through his body. He wanted to look away but couldn’t.
Eve walked around the performers, cracking her whip to the beat of the music. The tempo increased, and the woman rose from her knees.
On cue the two servants returned and lifted her, poising her split legs over his cock. The man struggled in the chains, thrashing his head back and forth, feigning his unwillingness.
She mounted him and the man grew still, his eyes rolling in his head.
How many times had Reyes known this moment with Sweet Dove, trying to restrain his desire only to have all the physical sensations, both brutal and sensual, coalesce in an erotic wave of pleasure.
She wrapped her legs around his waist. Once she was secured with her hands on his shoulders, the servants drifted back into the shadows.
She rode the slave hard, using her vampire strength to work his body. She shoved his head to the side and he in turn shouted his pleasure as the woman bit into his vein and started to drink. No playacting, either. This was the real deal.
But at the moment that the play should have cl**axed, the wall began to tremble and the slave’s arms flexed. The woman cried out, a long lingering groan that turned to a scream as the slave broke free of his chains.
The audience gasped, crying out in shared ecstasy as well.
The slave, now free of his manacles, whirled the woman in his arms and with his h*ps pistoning hard drove relentlessly into his owner.
This time, he bit into her neck, returning the favor, grunting as he pushed inside her in heavy, powerful thrusts.
The woman’s face looked pained at first; then her arms wrapped around him and she began to moan, then utter cries of ecstasy.
Finally, the man lifted off her neck and pounded into her so that her whimpers turned to screams as she came and as he shouted his release.
Reyes watched unblinking as both pairs of h*ps settled down, the music subsided, and the lights grew dim. The couple on stage breathed hard.
Reyes gripped his thighs, his fingers digging in deep.
A single spotlight followed Eve to the front of the stage. She met and held Reyes’s gaze. “May you know the pleasure one day of release through domination. And may you break free of your bonds.”
The lights went out and the audience applauded wildly.
Reyes could have adjusted his vampire vision, but he didn’t want to; in fact, he couldn’t. He sat, unable to calm his erection, his body trembling.
Angelica’s voice once more slid through his mind. You’re shaking.
He couldn’t speak, not even telepathically, as though the nature of the show had scrambled his neurons.
The crowd had already started moving around. Someone stood in front of him speaking his name, but he couldn’t make it out, couldn’t focus, couldn’t think.
He lifted his gaze slowly and in the recess of his mind recognized that Engles now stared at him.
“Reyes?” His name sounded as if spoken underwater, only with long echoes.
The performance had taken him back at least a century in time, to the middle part of his captivity when despair had made him contemplate chewing off his own hands, halting the healing process, and welcoming death.
He felt a hand slip around his elbow and squeeze, a tender touch that startled him blinking.
Reyes, come back. You’ve got to come back. Engles looks suspicious. I don’t know what you’ve got planned, but you’re about to blow this whole thing.
He turned slowly to stare at her, horror-stricken. Why are you touching me?
He couldn’t believe anyone would want to touch him. He was a filthy slave, used so many times by Sweet Dove and her friends that he was unworthy of ever being touched again. But then Angelica didn’t know the complete truth of who he was, how many times he’d orgasmed on command for Sweet Dove, or how many men he’d f**ked during his captivity in hell.
And with that his mind shut down completely.
Chapter Six
Angelica watched Reyes turn away from her to stare blankly at the now empty stage. Something had happened to force his mind inward. Maybe the performance had been too much.
She glanced around and saw that all eyes had turned to them, waiting expectantly.