Saved by Venom 3 (Grabbed)(54)

“We don’t need one.”

Her eyebrows bunched together. “And why is that?”

“If you ask me to stop, I stop. I’m not playing games with you or trying to edge you or push you. I asked for complete honesty when we’re together and you’ve given it. You trust me to keep you safe and I trust you to know when you’ve had enough.” He gave her braid a tug. “Do you want a safeword? You can pick one if it would make you feel more secure.”

She considered his offer for a few seconds. “No thank you. I think we’re fine just the way we are.”

Glad that she agreed with him, Venom took her hand and led her through the gathering crowd. A few times, Dizzy stopped to gawk at the public play stations they passed. He thought her eyes were going to bug out of her head when she spotted a woman down on all fours and the line of men waiting to have their chance with her.

“Venom! Is that—I mean—what the hell?”

Before answering her, he tilted his head to see if the woman was a mate or a poppy. The black collar around her neck answered that question quickly enough. Venom wondered at the motives of her husband. “It’s probably a gangbang fantasy.”

“That’s gross!”

“No,” he calmly scolded her. “It’s not gross. It’s their choice. Remember—it’s not our place to judge. For all we know, that couple thinks we’re crazy because I tie you up.”

Dizzy gasped when the next man in line rammed his cock into the woman’s ass. The woman cried out with pleasure but Dizzy didn’t see it that way. She was too shocked by what she was witnessing to actually see the scene. The woman was pushing back and egging on the man taking her from behind.

Venom winced when Dizzy gripped his hand tightly enough to cause pain. When she lifted her terrified eyes to his face, he kissed her forehead and tugged her along. “Let’s go.”

They weaved in and out of the mingling bodies toward the private rooms in the back. His class tonight was relatively small—only six couples and ten single officers—so he had been given a moderate-sized room equipped for hardcore rope bondage, including reinforced suspension rings from the ceiling and a pulley system and a leather bondage table.

Venom grasped Dizzy by the waist and lifted her onto the table. He took a moment to study her beautiful face. Her shaken expression confirmed his worst fear. “This is why I didn’t want to bring you.”

“I know.” She clasped his arms. “You’re sure that woman enjoyed that?”

“Yes. There were monitors there. Her mate would have discussed the scene with them before it began. The monitors would have questioned her to make sure she was open to the scenario.”

Dizzy gulped. “Is that how all women are shared?”

“No,” he answered emphatically. “That was an extremely unique and hard thing that you witnessed. Many couples who share do it in a gentler, more loving way. That couple seems to have very distinct tastes.”

Her face turned bright red as she asked, “Do a lot of women like to…you know…there?”

“Are you asking me if women enjoy anal sex?”

She looked as though she was about to slide off the table in embarrassment. He often forgot that despite her age and her success as an independent woman, Dizzy had come into his life incredibly inexperienced when it came to sex.

“Yes,” she finally managed.

“Lots of women enjoy anal sex and lots of them don’t.” He shrugged. “I suspect it has to do with their introduction to it.”

Her cheeks still stained red, she asked, “Do you want to do that to me?”

“I’ve thought about it,” he admitted. Cupping her face, he teased their mouths together. “Rest assured, sugar, if we decide to try that, we’ll do it my way. It will be gentle and slow and you’ll be the one in charge.”

“Me?”

“You.” He tapped the tip of her nose. “Sit here while I get everything ready.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything. Her wide eyes scanned the room. Slowly couples and single officers started to file into the space. He could almost smell her nervousness. It shouldn’t have excited him but it did. He liked having her off-kilter because her responses were so much sweeter.

But as her mate, as the man who was falling head over heels in love with her, his first priority was always going to be her well-being. No matter how much he wanted to publicly bind and decorate her supple body, he would never do anything to harm her mentally or emotionally.

Using his body to block out the gathering crowd, Venom braced his hands on either side of her thighs and peered right into her eyes. “Be honest with me. Do you want to go home?”

She licked her lips. “Yes.”

“Do you also want to stay and give this a try?”

She nodded. “I do.”

“So what’s it going to be, sugar? Do we stay? Or do we go?”

Dizzy ran her hands from his wrists to his shoulders and back down again. “We stay.”

“All right.” He leaned forward and kissed her. Instead of a simple, easy kiss, he plundered her mouth, taking what he wanted from her and reminding her how much he desired and needed her. He backed off just a little before swiping their tongues together one last time.

Venom enjoyed the sight of her swollen, pink pout and lust-darkened eyes for a few seconds before turning around and clapping his hands together. “Okay. Let’s get started…”



What the hell am I doing here?

The only things keeping Dizzy from bolting from the room were her shaky legs—and Venom’s commanding presence. As she sat there in her flirty outfit waiting for him to strip her down to her undies and tie her up with rope in front of three dozen or so people, she wondered where this burst of courage had originated. All it took was one encouraging smile from Venom and her anxiety fled.

It finally occurred to her that she wasn’t just falling in love with Venom. No, she had already fallen in love with him.

As Venom talked about ensuring the safety of the submissive partner and then choosing the right ropes for the right scenes, Dizzy tried to figure out when her heart had become his. It had come upon her so slowly that she couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment. She could only say with certainty that it had happened.

The logical side of her brain screamed that less than two weeks with a man was way too quick to fall in love. Her heart thudded wildly and basically told her brain to shut up. Right, wrong, fast or slow—she loved Venom.

When he came closer to grab short lengths of rope he had prepared so his students could learn to knot, he reached out and playfully pinched her thigh. It took every ounce of her self-control not to throw her arms around him and tell him what she had just discovered. For now, she allowed herself to smile at him and hoped that he could see just how much he meant to her.

Venom’s expression registered a bit of surprise but he didn’t say anything. This obviously wasn’t the time for him to interrogate her as to what had put that sappy smile on her face. Instead he turned around and started handing out the ropes while talking about bites and loops and all sorts of other bondage-related vocabulary.

As Dizzy gleefully enjoyed the realization that she loved Venom, she looked out over the crowd of students following his instructions. She spotted Raze hovering in the doorway. Though he seemed to have a permanently pissed-off expression on that mean-looking face of his, he showed his lighter side by winking at her. She suspected he was like Venom. Beneath that rough exterior, he was soft and sweet.

While she counted up the attendees, Dizzy realized two more women had appeared. They wore expensive-looking lingerie with lots of lace and ribbon. Bright-yellow bands squeezed their upper arms. She quickly ascertained that these were the paid pleasure women—the poppies—who had been brought in to provide the single officers a chance to enjoy themselves.

Sneaking discreet glances at the poppies, Dizzy decided that Venom’s assertion that his culture treated these women with respect was true. Unlike the scrawny, malnourished women who pandered down in Low Town, these prostitutes looked well-fed and healthy with shiny hair and bright eyes and gorgeous skin. There was none of the haunted sadness in their eyes that Dizzy had witnessed in the hookers who hung around the gritty street corners of The City.

Or maybe these women were simply better actresses. It was probably easier to pretend that you enjoyed your line of work when you had nice housing, clean clothing, adequate food and medical attention provided. These poppies weren’t scrounging for scraps in the garbage or bruising their knees to make grocery money for their babies.

When she first thought of Venom sleeping with other women, her jealousy had flared but the more she thought about it the sadder she became. She thought of the way Venom had described their relationship as being real. How cold and lonely was it for these sky warriors and their pleasure girls?

There were so few choices afforded to them. The men in the military couldn’t have girlfriends or wives unless they survived enough battles to earn the valor points required. They could either arrange a marriage through their families or a matchmaking service or wait for an open Grab slot.

And these women? They had grown up in the harsh environment of the Kovark prison system, a place where most criminals didn’t even survive. Their choices were to stay there forever, marry a guard or go into pleasure work where they could somewhat control their destinies.