Masquerades and Charades Read online

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

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  Masquerades and Charades

  MMF Bisexual Menage Romance

  Maxene Novak

  Cover Designed by Duong Covers

  Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  The story may be over but

  CHAPTER 1

  Madison

  "So, Madie? Was Fifty Shades Darker everything you dreamed the movie version would be?" Kate asked with a grin as she linked arms with Madison and Tanya, her other best friend, on their way out of the theater.

  Cringing in advance of her reaction, Madison had to tell the truth. She shrugged. "It was…eh."

  Kate groaned, and Tanya laughed. Kate shoved Madison gently with her shoulder. "I knew it. I knew it! Even the great Christian Grey isn't good enough for our Madison."

  Rolling her eyes, Madison stopped by Kate's car parked at the curb, waiting by the back-passenger door. Madison didn't mind letting Tanya take shotgun. Like Kate, Tanya was outgoing and talkative. The two of them always carried the group conversation easier when Tanya didn't have to lean forward to talk from the backseat.

  "Do not give me that I'm just picky crap again," Kate warned as she unlocked the car and they all got in. As soon as their doors were shut, she continued. "You're never going to find another hottie with that attitude. You want way too much!"

  "Too much from a potential boyfriend?" Madison sputtered. "Just because my list includes something other than the size of his—"

  "No, I'm not even talking about potential boyfriends here. Just the occasional lay for you." Kate started the engine but didn't guide the car away from the curb yet, her fingers drumming on the steering wheel.

  Uh oh. Madison knew what that meant. "Whatever you're thinking…," she began in her strongest warning tone.

  "Masquerade," Kate murmured after a few minutes, earning a gasp from Tanya.

  "Oh Kat, not Masquerade," Tanya said with a laugh that sounded just shy of giddy. "She's too sheltered! She'll have a heart attack!"

  "I'm not an old woman," Madison said. "And what's Masquerade?"

  Grinning like a loon, Kate threw the car into gear and pulled away from the curb with a neck-snapping lurch. "Oh, you'll see."

  Shaking her head, Tanya crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine. But remember later, I warned you. We are never going to hear the end of this one."

  "What?" Madison asked them, a hint of rising caution knotting her stomach. "Kate, if Tanya thinks it's a bad idea, it probably is."

  Kate laughed as she steered them towards the edge of town. "Oh, Masquerade is always a bad idea. But it'll be good for you."

  Neither of them would say anything more as they continued out of town into the dark rolling pastures full of cows and corn that surrounded Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where they were getting ready to graduate from college with bachelor degrees in just a few months.

  A few miles outside of town, Kate turned left across the divided interstate onto a two-lane asphalt road. The world beyond grew much darker as they left the interstate's light posts behind. The only lights out here on this moonless night came from the sporadic farmhouses dotting the hillsides.

  Somehow, though, she still seemed to know exactly where to turn left again onto a gravel driveway. They quickly entered a small wood full of hardwoods and bushy evergreen trees mixed together at either side of the dark driveway. Then the trees opened up to reveal a two-story, cement building. If their car's headlights hadn't picked out the edges of the building, Madison never would have seen it…it must have been painted a dark green to match the nearby evergreens.

  Their headlights also skittered across a double ring of cars parked with an empty lane in between to allow for traffic to circle round.

  Kate stopped at the building's entrance, which was a single door painted black with a small sign lit on the exterior wall beside it. A valet in black slacks and a plain white button-up shirt with a thin black tie stepped forward to take Kate's keys. He gave her a purple wrist tag, similar to ones given out at rock concerts, which apparently would allow her to retrieve her car later. A bouncer checked their IDs, verifying that they were all at least eighteen years old and legally allowed to enter. Then Madison followed Kate and Tanya over to that black door, where Madison was finally close enough to see that the sign on the wall had no words, only a purple half mask on a black background.

  Kate knocked on the door, then they waited.

  Madison frowned. "You sure it's even open tonight?"

  Kate grinned. "Oh, we're sure. This is how you get in. You knock, and the door guy either lets you in immediately into a little entrance area, or you wait out here until the previous arrivals are fully inside the club before the door guy buzzes you in."

  Madison was still frowning in confusion as the door buzzed quietly and they entered a small entryway completely padded on all the walls in metallic silver upholstery. Above them, the ceiling was a glossy black, reflecting a pair of gleaming silver wall sconces dripping with glass or crystal teardrops and beads. Below, their heels clacked against a gray wood floor. The only furniture in the tiny room was a built-in chest of drawers painted a glossy black with its top two drawers left open. The left drawer held a stack of black satin half masks. In the right drawer, another stack of half masks, this time covered in glittering black sequins.

  "Boy masks," Kate said, pointing at the plain satin ones. "And glitter for the girls."

  Kate handed them each a black sequined mask with long black satin ribbon ties. Then she took one for herself and began to tie hers on.

  "It's to protect everyone's identities," she said when she noticed Madison was just watching her and Tanya. "This and the double entry, of course."

  Raising her eyebrows, Madison tied on her own mask.

  "Membership ID?" a male voice asked through some hidden intercom speaker.

  "Mistress Kat and two guests," Kate replied, ignoring Madison’s widening eyes.

  A quiet buzz signaled the inner black door was unlocked for them.

  Kate led the way, murmuring, "Welcome to…Masquerade," as they followed her into the club.

  It took Madison several minutes of eyesight adjustment to be able to make out the dim interior, which was lined in metallic black upholstered walls, booths, and cloth-draped tables for two, all set around a glossy white circular dais towards the far end of the room.

  Upon which was a woman, dressed in head-to-toe black latex, cracking a whip around a half-dressed man in black leather pants who was cuffed to the back of the same gleaming silver chair he kneeled on.

  Madison’s lips parted, and it was only when she nearly couldn't see Kate and Tanya before her anymore that she realized they were still walking and Madison had stopped in her tracks. Madison hurried after them, awkwardly ducking at the waist and whispering apologies to the masked audience members whose view she was surely blocking. Her cheeks burned as she tried not to look at the couple up on the stage.

  Couple? Actors? Strippers? What did you call people who worked at
a place like this, she wondered, whatever this place was?

  Seeing Kate and Tanya had boldly taken seats at an empty table right in front of the guy on stage, Madison kept her gaze lowered as she sank into her own chair. Oh my God, they were close enough to get sweat dripped on them here!

  "Shouldn't we sit somewhere…farther back?" Madison whispered to Kate, but she made a shushing gesture with her nearest hand, her gaze transfixed on the activity on stage.

  Bondage. It was bondage on stage. Madison was twenty-two years old, for heaven's sake. She'd had a few lovers, knew enough about sex to get by in a casual conversation about it amongst friends. But this…

  Slowly, Madison’s gaze slid upwards inch by inch until it locked with a pair of bright green eyes staring right down at her from the stage above a chiseled jawline.

  A strangely familiar pair of green eyes and strong jawline. And those lips, the way they quirked upward more on the left side, as if he knew something naughty…

  Madison’s breath hitched, and she pressed sweaty palms flat on the cool, liquid silver-draped table before her. She definitely knew him.

  But…what in the world was her ex doing performing bondage on a stage?

  "Jamie?" she felt herself mouthing in utter shock.

  That sideways grin kicked up a notch higher, just before the woman on stage with him cracked her whip across the backs of his thighs, making his back arch and his lips pucker with a hiss of pain. A happy hiss, considering how Jamie's smile widened still further.

  Those sensual lips of his always had been so expressive, as quick to show pleasure, like now, as disappointment, like the last night Madison ever saw him.

  The next day, he called to say they just weren't compatible and should see other people instead.

  It had hurt, that coolly determined verbal bomb that he'd dropped with only a hint of regret to his voice. But since they'd only been dating for a couple of months, Madison had managed to recover well enough.

  Though Kate would argue otherwise, citing Madison’s lack of boyfriends since Jamie.

  Whatever. Madison knew what she wanted, and none of the boys they ran into in college were it. They were too young, too immature, too unstable. Lost, like Madison once had been in high school before deciding on a path through life.

  So why waste time on boys when she knew what she wanted out of life, and they weren't it?

  But seeing Jamie's gorgeous abs, the flat planes of his chest shiny with a thin sheen of sweat, and those lean, strong arms flexing like a captured panther, made her remember.

  Remember why she'd fallen into bed with Jamie so quickly, after just two dates, breaking her own four date rule…

  Remember the thrill that had raced through her every time Jamie's strong, capable hand at the small of her back had led her into restaurants and movie theaters…

  Remember those same hands on her hips, flipping her on top so that she straddled Jamie, his hands cupping her breasts as he braced her upper body weight while she tried to find a rhythm to please him with…

  Remember that disappointed slant to his lips at the end of each night as he left the apartment she shared with Kate long before dawn, or even Kate’s return from clubbing with Tanya…

  Jamie and Madison had never had a problem talking with each other. It was the sex that hadn't been good, regardless of how hard she'd tried or the number of Cosmo magazine tips she'd attempted to use.

  Apparently, she hadn't fulfilled him in bed because he preferred it up on a stage…with whips…and leather…and an audience…

  She wanted to jump to her feet and run out of there, just wait in the parking lot by the valet until Kate and Tanya had their fill and were ready to leave.

  Who would actually, willingly stick around to watch their ex get whipped by a stranger on stage?

  And yet, Madison couldn't move. It was as if her backside was glued to that chair, and her palms to that tablecloth. She couldn't have gotten up if the fire alarms had gone off.

  And she couldn't stop watching the performance on stage, either.

  The woman stepped up close to Jamie from behind, running the palm of her free hand down his back, over his butt, down his leather clad legs, and back up to his neck again, like a cop frisking a bad guy but slower, almost…lovingly. She let the end of her whip drop to the stage floor, then reached around him to grab the whip end and encircle his body with it. She used both her hands to move the whip in a snake-like motion up and down his body, rubbing against the bulge in his pants several times along the way.

  Madison’s hands had never ached to be a whip so much in her life.

  There was no music, only the sounds of the audience breathing heavily around her and the performers' breaths, even harsher and faster still, above her.

  Gradually Madison’s focus shifted from Jamie's arching, undulating hips beneath the woman's touch, to the woman herself in her full body latex suit. Unlike Jamie, most of the woman was covered by her corseted, long sleeved pantsuit, with only her neck, the lower half of her face, and her hands bared to the spotlights. Her long, brunette hair was gathered onto the top of her head in a wild bunch of curls that cascaded down the sides of her cheeks and swung with each of her movements.

  Interesting, how the punisher got to stay all covered up, while the punished—Jamie, in this little scenario's case—was half-naked.

  Madison unglued her tongue from the roof of her mouth and swallowed hard.

  She really wanted to draw a line down Jamie's spine…with the tip of her tongue. Weird, because she'd definitely never dared to do anything like that with him when they were seeing each other.

  But oh, how she wanted to now.

  The whip cracked in the air, and Madison jumped in her chair. Her hands instinctively dropped down to grip the sides of her seat, the chair's metal a sharp, cold contrast to the heat steaming out from her hands. Her heart was beating so fast and hard, she felt like she might choke on it.

  Then a third person walked out onto the stage from behind the side curtain panels. Well, more like undulated onto the stage, his hips kind of rolling into every step that he took. The spotlights slid down his carved pecs and abs like an orgy of loving hands. He was taller than Jamie, his shoulders broad enough to hint at some kind of athletic background.

  He too had a strong column of a neck leading up to a chiseled jawline to rival Jamie's, but thinner lips that, at least currently, smiled less.

  In an instant, Madison was struck by the thought that a girl would probably have to earn smiles from a pair of lips like those.

  He strolled up to Jamie, grabbed his chin, and turned Jamie's face to his for a kiss that went on…and on…and on…

  More heat flooded Madison’s face. But this time, it also expanded downwards straight to more southern parts of her body. She squeezed her legs together, still unable to look away as her ex kissed the strange man passionately.

  Ah. Now she understood. This was why Jamie had dumped her without warning, why he looked so disappointed with her in the bedroom the few times they'd had sex.

  Because he was into dicks, not chicks.

  Frowning, Madison waited for that ever-present knot low in her belly to finally loosen up. It had been there, it seemed, ever since Jamie.

  But it stayed stuck there. Like a ball of vines all grown into and around each other. A permanent part of her now.

  Which was ridiculous. She'd only dated Jamie for a couple of months. And she had never been the kind of girl to stay hung up on some idiot boy.

  Not even Jamie.

  Then Madison’s gaze locked onto the strange man's hands as they slid down over Jamie's chest and abs towards the button on Jamie's pants, his strong fingers nimbly unbuttoning, then slowly unzipping the leather, reaching inside to cup Jamie…

  She had to get out of there. Right now.

  Madison found herself already standing and lurching away from the stage, back towards the club's entrance, a sea of dimly lit, darkly glittering masked faces all turned to stare at
her…

  Madison ran.

  CHAPTER 2

  One Month Later…

  "Oh God, I'm dying," Kate groaned from the gray suede couch in their living room for the hundredth time in two days. She really was the worst sick person Madison had ever been around. And considering what Madison had seen over the years, that was really saying something.

  Because Madison, of all people, knew just how much of an asshole a sick person could become.

  Shaking her head, Madison switched out the now hot wet cloth from Kate’s forehead for a freshly rinsed cool one. Kate moaned in gratitude, closing her eyes and pressing the heels of her hands against the cloth.

  "You'll be fine," Madison promised her, heading for the kitchen to get Kate a Sprite from the fridge. Madison expected her to be asleep when she returned with the soda can. Instead, Kate was nowhere to be found.

  "Kate?" Madison called out, looking around.

  She heard the sliding of Kate’s closet door from her bedroom.

  Madison went over to the open doorway and peered in. "What in the world are you doing?"

  "Gotta go to work," Kate mumbled, digging through the pile of clothing on her closet floor. "Got the call. Got to go in. Gotta make…dat…dough…" She emphasized each word with a lewd swivel of her hips, giggling hoarsely.

  Frowning, Madison darted forward to grab her hands and still them. "You're not going anywhere, Rocky. You're staying right here so you don't…"

  But Kate was already making a bent-over beeline for the nearest toilet.

  Madison held her hair till she was done, then gave her a glass of water to rinse her mouth with.

  "Better?" Madison asked her as she helped Kate to her bed.

  Kate groaned, her eyes squeezed shut. "Friggin’ flu. I've got to go to work now! How am I supposed to pay off my loans like this?"

  Madison sat on the edge of the bed beside her in sympathy. "Hon, the library can do without you for one night."

  "Er, about that…" Kate mumbled, her hands fidgeting with the edge of her thick, down-filled comforter beneath her chin. "Confession… My part-time job's not at the library. It's at Masquerade."