When the doors opened, she had to adjust her eyes to the dimness. The room was lit only by candlelight. Blindly, she stepped forward, unable to blink anything into focus. Abruptly, the elevator doors closed behind her, and she was surrounded by darkness. The sound of music hummed in the background, filling the room with a sensuality as thick as smoke.
Suddenly, a strong arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her into the hard surface of muscled flesh. Thandie looked up to see the silver eyes of Elliot Richards. He did not look happy to see her.
He leaned his head down low enough to whisper in her ear. “I believe I told you not to come up here.”
The sheer size of him was unnerving. He was even more impressive up close, not a blemish or hair out of place. It was really quite insane for one man to be so breathtakingly beautiful. Her blood felt as if it was boiling beneath her skin, and a slow ball of heat was growing in the pit of her stomach.
“Are you going to answer me?” he growled down at her.
“Huh?” Wrapped in his powerful arms, words seemed complicated to create.
“What are you doing up here?” he snapped.
“My feet.”
“What?”
“I—I came up here looking for a place to sit down.”
“Couldn’t you find a chair downstairs?”
“The place is packed.”
He frowned. “Well, there isn’t much room to sit down up here, but there are plenty of places to fuck.”
She turned her head to look around the room. Thandie would have fainted if it weren’t for Elliot holding her up. Her eyes finally adjusted to the dim lighting to reveal a room full of naked bodies. Every corner of the room was occupied by screwing couples; some were groups satisfying each other. She gasped to see three men pleasuring a moaning woman at the same time. Horrified, Thandie buried her face into Elliot chest to block out the scene around her. Only now did she realize the whole room was moaning, grunting, and delivering cries of ecstasy.
“You deliberately ignored my request,” he said in a low voice.
She shook with mortification. “I—I had no idea,” she stammered. “I thought—thought—I’ll leave.” She tried to push away from him, but he wouldn’t allow it. He pulled her closer to him.
“You can’t leave,” he said.
“Oh, yes, I can,” she nearly shouted. If he thought he was going to hold her hostage, then he was sadly mistaken. “Let me go.”
“Be still. You can’t go, because someone just took the elevator down. The stairwell is on the other side of the room, and it happens to be blocked.”
She followed his gaze to see he was right. Six or so people were naked and screwing each other like animals in heat. “Let me push the button to call the elevator up,” she said in a weak voice.
“It won’t do any good. The couple got in there to have privacy.”
“What?”
“They’re having sex,” he said simply. “The lift is on emergency stop.”
“How do you know?”
Elliot nodded toward a red light that was lit above the elevator doors. “When that is lit, it means the car has been stopped. You’ll have to wait until it turns green. Until then, you’re stuck here.”
She tried to push away from him again, but he was far too strong. She searched the room for another source of escape, but there was none.
“I’m going to find you a seat,” he said.
She shook her head. “I don’t want to sit down on anything in this room.”
“You don’t have a choice. I’m sitting down. If you don’t come with me, you’ll be left standing here by yourself.”
Thandie’s eyes went wide with outrage.
“And at your own risk, I might add.”
“At my own risk!”
Swiftly, Elliot placed his finger over her mouth to stop her from speaking any louder. He lowered his head to speak without being overheard. “The members that have access to the Tower pay good money for privacy and discretion. I can’t have you making them nervous while they are enjoying themselves. Understand?”
She wanted to fight him tooth and nail, but he had a fierce frown on his face. Without another word, he took hold of her upper arm and led her to a long settee. The sight of a man’s face buried between a woman’s open legs at the other end of the chaise made her pale. She was seconds away from running and beating on the elevator doors when Elliot took his seat and pulled her down beside him. He placed his arm behind her and drew her into his side. Their seat gave them a voyeur’s view of the room. Thandie lowered her head, not wanting to make direct eye contact with anyone. Elliot, on the other hand, seemed to be comfortable with the setting. He sat back and watched her literally die with embarrassment, an arrogant smirk on his handsome face.
“I bet you’ll listen to me in the future,” he taunted.
She frowned at him. “If I’d known what was up here, I wouldn’t have come. So what’s your excuse?”
“I don’t need one.”
“You come up here on a regular basis?”
Elliot grinned. “Wouldn’t you love to know?”
She scowled at him. His plan to make her burn with shame was working, and she didn’t like it one bit. She lashed back at him. “So this is what you’re into?” Her gaze swept the room. “Voyeurism?”
He fixed her with those silver eyes. “You don’t want to know what I’m into.”
The seriousness of his tone robbed her of any smart retort.
Pleased he’d shocked her into silence, Elliot flashed her a devilish grin. “Or is that why you really came up here? Interested in knowing what gets me off? Curiosity killed the cat, puss.”
“I don’t desire to know more.”
“Unfortunately for you, we’re going to learn a lot about each other tonight.” His large hand cupped the underside of her breast. The pad of his thumb brushed slowly across her nipple, making the bud instantly harden. “More than you can handle.”
Her temper was boiling. He meant to embarrass her, overwhelm her with his presence, expected her to run and hide. Was this his way of punishing her for not leaving well enough alone? Did he plan to make her regret accepting the job? Forcing her to see why he only hired men? He would be very disappointed.
Not bothering to push his hand away, she met his gaze with a steady one of her own. “There’s nothing you could throw my way that I can’t handle.”
“Careful, pussycat, I might take that as a challenge.” His gaze dropped to her lips. “That lovely mouth of yours is about to get you into a world of trouble.”
“I doubt that—oh!”
A strange hand landed on Thandie’s thigh. She followed the hand to its owner; a bare-chested man with glassy eyes. He squeezed her leg affectionately and said, “Come over here and join us, sweetheart.”
Elliot clasped his hand around the man’s wrist and pushed it aside. “She’s with me, Steinberg.”
The man focused his blurred vision on him. “Elliot, is that you? I didn’t know she was with you, man. My mistake. You better start fucking her before someone decides to take her away from you. She’s a nice piece of ass.”
Elliot