He lay back on the bed, gasping. Silas swallowed, coughed, and moved away to take a gulp of wine.
“Not done that in a while,” he muttered. “And I fucking warned you, Tory.”
“Not fair.”
“Never said I was fair. Strip.”
Dominic swung himself off the bed, undressing quickly. There was a glint in Silas’s eye that made him want to laugh, a pure, impish spark of enjoyment.
Silas had always treated him with terrible seriousness before, dark pleasures taken in a dark mood. Now he had an almost conspiratorial look on his face, and Dominic felt a bubble of happiness that put nothing in the way of his nervous tension.
He lay on the bed, naked and spread-eagled on his back. Silas moved around, chaining him down with the padded iron cuffs attached to each bedpost. The cuff around his left ankle gave trouble, and Silas swore under his breath as he forced it shut.
“Right,” he said, and came over to sit by Dominic’s head, pulling off his neckcloth. “Can’t have you distracting me with those pretty, begging eyes of yours, can I?”
A blindfold. Dominic swallowed. “Please don’t.”
Silas ran a finger down Dominic’s face. “No? Why not?”
“I don’t like it.” It terrified him. To be at the mercy of an unseen figure, not to know what was coming…The blood thumped in his ears.
“Afraid of the dark?” Silas asked. “And what if I want you to be afraid, Tory?”
Dominic licked his lips. He wanted, truly wanted, to say no, and that awareness had his whole body shaking with arousal, poised at that exhilarating point between pleasure, pain, and fear. This was the torment and insanity, the enjoyment of angels, when he was helpless in Silas’s hands.
“Frighten me,” Dominic whispered.
Three hard, quick raps rang out. Dominic couldn’t even tell where they came from for a second, and then the door was thrown open. He pulled, uselessly, against the chains as Silas sprang up, protectively shielding Dominic’s face from whoever was coming in. “What the hell—”
“Raid.” Mistress Zoë’s voice, but without the usual calm courtesy. “Get out now.” An urgent command.
“The devil!” Dominic jerked at his bonds, careless of his nakedness in front of a woman, of anything except the very real fear.
Silas was already undoing his left wrist cuff, clumsy with urgency. Zoë hurried to Dominic’s left ankle. Silas got his cuff undone first and scrambled over the bed, down Dominic’s body to his other ankle. Dominic lunged underneath him to free his right wrist, fumbling with the unfamiliar mechanism.
“Go!” he barked at Silas. “You’re dressed. Don’t wait.”
“Piss off,” Silas said through his teeth as the ankle cuff came loose, and moved back to take over freeing his wrist.
“Get out of here!” Dominic glared up at him. “Just go.”
“Silas boy, listen to him. If you stay in this room, he is a fucked man.” Zoë was still struggling with the left ankle cuff, the one that had given Silas trouble when he shut it. “Because this ain’t coming off.”
“Hell and thunder.” Dominic pulled against the cuff. No give. Of course there was no give in the iron around the sturdy oak. He jerked harder, feeling the bond cut into his skin.
Zoë slapped his ankle. “Stop that. Not helping.”
“Buggery,” Silas said. “Let me—”
Zoë shoved him physically, backward to the door. “Fuck off now, before you put him in the pillory. Get out!”
“Go on!” Dominic put everything he had into it, frightened now beyond anything he’d known in a long time. “Silas, go.”
“I’m not leaving you tied to a fucking bed!” Silas snarled. He grabbed the bedpost, desperately exerting his strength against it. Dominic sat up, hampered by the chain, ready to help against the solid, seasoned wood.
Zoë glared. “Don’t be stupid. Go! Ah, hell, they’re through the main door.”
Dominic had heard it too, the sudden increase in noise that meant someone had the heavy, padded downstairs door open. There were screams, feminine ones, mingling with masculine shouts and the tramp of feet.
Silas’s eyes were wild and wide. “Run,” Dominic begged him. “Please!”
“No,” Zoë said. “Too late now. Get behind the screen.”
“What?” Silas said incredulously.
“Do as I say. Me and the gentleman will handle this. Now, fuckster!”
Silas gave Dominic a last look and ducked behind the screen that stood in the corner, as if that would stave off discovery for more than thirty seconds. Dominic opened his mouth and received a powerful shove in the chest from Zoë’s hand.