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“I’m good, rhythm man.” Katie smiled, swiping at the tears of laughter beneath her eyes as she nodded.
The music transitioned. It was different and yet the same. Deeper. Louder. Seductive. Angry-sounding strings, violin and bass, carried on with the notes of “If I Had a Heart” as two figures appeared on the platform below.
“Yeah!” Matt whooped, then he turned to her. “Hear that?”
Katie grinned.
“No synth. Pure strings, baby.”
It was a man and a woman on the platform. The man was all in black. He was tall and wore a death cloak, his face concealed behind a hooded mask—or perhaps it was the cloak that was hooded. Katie wasn’t sure.
The woman wore a similar cloak. Long waves flowed down her back. Everything about her was red, from her hair to her cloak to her full painted lips. The man came to stand behind her and parted her cloak. Red lace corset. Garter. Stockings. No panties. High-heeled boots. She untied the cloak at her neck and it fell to the floor, a crimson puddle at their feet.
The set on the stage was sparse. Only a stone altar with a silver bowl, candles and goblets placed on it, and a concrete slab—which she was sure was not actually made of concrete and stone, but from where she stood it looked like it. The scene reminded her of something out of an old Bela Lugosi film.
Katie glanced up to the screen over the stage, suspended from the ceiling in front of her. Large tattooed hands wrapped around the woman’s throat and she tipped her head back to rest on his chest. Bo’s thumb still slowly moved up and down, tracing the vein in her neck. Matt held her waist a little tighter. Or was she just imagining it?
One of the man’s hands slid from the woman’s throat to reach inside the red lace corset that hardly contained her ample breasts. He squeezed the flesh like he was angry with it and pinched her nipple until she screamed, then reached into his pocket and attached a clamp to her swollen nipple. A ruby-red gem, in the shape of a teardrop, dangled from it.
Matt squeezed her waist, his fingers caressing her hip. Now Katie knew for certain she wasn’t imagining it. Was he just turned on or was he hitting on her? His gaze was riveted to the screen so she assumed it was the former. She couldn’t say why, but it was getting to her too. It was getting too warm, tucked between him and Bo. Tiny beads of sweat erupted on her skin.
Where’s Brendan?
Katie watched him from her peripheral vision. His gaze only moved from the screen to the stage below. The woman screamed again. Matt squeezed her hip. She returned her attention to the screen. A matching pair of blood-red gems dangled from her nipples, her corset gone. The woman appeared to be moaning, but the only thing Katie could hear was the hypnotic strains of the melody.
She felt his gaze on her and turned her head to look at him. Matt looked forlorn. Like she possessed something he knew she could never give him. His pupils were so dilated his eyes appeared black. He slowly licked his bottom lip and turned his head back toward the screen. His hand fell from her waist.
“Fuck,” Bo muttered. “Red.”
The hand around her neck disappeared. Bo was nudging Chloe on the other side of him and he leaned toward her, whispering in her ear. Katie glanced around to find everyone joining them at the railing. Jesse and Taylor on the other side of Chloe. Kit and Sloan took the spot next to Matt. Kodiak and Dillon stood behind Bo, Kyan and Linnea sidled up behind her. Kyan put his hand on her shoulder. Monica and her wife were the only ones who remained seated on the purple sofa.
And where’s Brendan?
Kyan squeezed her shoulder. He kindly smiled at her, almost like a parent would to reassure a child. “It’s not what it looks like.”
“What?”
She turned her head toward the screen. The woman was now totally nude, except for her boots, covered in blood. The man, kneeling at her feet, painted it on her thighs as she rubbed the red congealing liquid into her breasts. Katie, not quite sure what she was seeing, whipped her head back toward Kyan.
“If you’re trying to tell me that’s not real blood, I believe you, but it sure looks like it to me.”
He released an exhale with a chuckle. “Corn syrup, chocolate syrup, and food coloring.”
“I bet that’s fun to clean up.” She giggled.
From beside her, Matt muttered under his breath, “It can be.”
Katie looked to the screen. The man was licking stage blood from the woman’s thigh.
Ohhh.
Bo hooked his arm back around her shoulders. “Why don’t we all get a drink and sit back down, yeah?”
“I’m all for that.” Kyan gently pulled on her shoulder. “C’mon.”
It all happened so fast. Katie thought it was part of the act at first.
The woman yanked the hood from the man’s head, but Katie still couldn’t see his face.
