Emet paused in the doorway.
Both of them were so absorbed that they didn’t notice him.
He couldn’t believe his eyes. Lady Alyss dangled from the rig in Adom’s studio. Adom sat before an easel capturing every one of her lines. Lady Alyss closed her eyes in rope bliss, a condition Emet frequently indulged in. Rope bliss was that space in time when the suspension, combined with the tension of the ropes, relieved all pressures and the bound one went inward to a place were all things were calm.
Adom was a master at the craft of rope binding and suspension, making the ropes both artfully tied for his renditions and a pleasurable experience for the one bound.
But it hadn’t always been that way. Years ago when they were both still Pleasure Hounds, Adom tied up a young lady under his tutelage. The young woman had not given into the ropes. She’d become frightened and panicked. The situation escalated and her Mother had been called in. The older woman was more afraid of a scandal involving her daughter than she was irate, and luckily Emet had been on hand when Adom called. He came in and, using his gift of logic and persuasion, quashed the situation. Adom never touched another woman after that experience. He kept his hands and his ropes solely on Emet’s body.
Until now.
Emet couldn’t fathom why this was happening? How this was happening?
Lady Alyss had shown up in that dress today. She’d gotten it from Adom. Emet hadn’t thought she’d lower herself to come to a shop owned and operated by males, but perhaps she had. And if she had, she had to know that Adom was Emet’s bond mate.
But Adom knew who she was too. Emet told him her name last night.
Emet wanted answers immediately as he looked between the two. But he couldn’t get his mouth to work. His heart was having trouble beating in his chest. He’d nearly lost his friend to a similar situation as the one on display before him. He’d walked beside his lover when they both left the Pleasure Temples. He’d supported his husband as he pursued his dream of becoming a respected artist. Emet had thought Adom supported him too, but…
Emet’s feet carried him away, down the hall and into their shared bedroom.
Emet sat on the bed. His mind awhirl, not holding on to anyone thought.
“Em?”
Emet looked up to see Adom standing in the doorway. Adom’s face turned from the artist high he always had after leaving his studio and into concern and finally guilt.
“You saw?”
Emet couldn’t respond. He didn’t need to. He and Adom had had wordless conversations since they were young boys. He just couldn’t comprehend why they hadn’t had a conversation about what he just saw before it got this far.
“She’s gone.” Adom came into the room. He had a rag in his hands. The rag had gotten much of the paint off his hands, but now Adom worried the rag between his fingers, scrubbing away the evidence trapped under his nails.
“Its not what you think,” Adom said.
“Tell me what I’m thinking?” Emet’s voice was breathless more than angry. “Because I can’t seem to form a single thought.”
“She agreed to it. She begged me to. She wanted it.”
So Adom thought Emet worried about the lady’s consent. He wasn’t. “She’s my adversary.”
Adom blinked. “Right. I know.”
“You bound and suspended my adversary. One of the most powerful ladies in the city who is intent on taking me down along with the rights of men. A lady that can easily have you thrown in prison, and likely will because she’s playing some kind of game-“
“She’s not,” Adom insisted. “I can’t explain to you how I know, but she’s not playing a game, Emet.”
Emet blinked rapidly. He struggled to bring the man he loved into focus.
“When she saw the dress she…” Adom paused, searching for words. “If you could’ve just seen the look on her face you’d-”
“Oh, I saw the look on her face when she flounced into the Chambers. I only wish you had seen the look on her face when she couldn’t puzzle out why I didn’t succumb to her girlish charms or that I knew how to use big words. She thinks men are mindless creatures whose only desires are to be led about by women.”
Adom sighed. “I don’t think that’s what’s truly in her heart.”
“But you know for certain what’s in my heart,” Emet said to the man whom he’d stood by through thick and thin. “You know what’s important to me, why I fight. And you kept this from me. How long has this been going on?”
“She’s the girl in the red painting.”
The red painting? The painting of the Goddess laying on the earth. He’d painted that months ago. Emet’s fingers tightened on the quilt spread across their bed. Adom had made it from their monk robes as a bonding gift. They’d taken vows as monks together in their youth, and then they took vows to each other as men. “You’ve been lying to me for three months.”
“No.” Adom knelt before him, eyes pleading. “I saw her three months ago when I went to Jian’s to give Lady Chanyn her present. I didn’t know who she was, but I couldn’t get her out of my mind. So I painted her. The gallery patroness loved the pieces. She wanted more. And then like magic, Alyss turned up to buy the dress. It all happened so fast.”
“Like magic? The women of her family are treacherous. They’ll do anything to get this bill passed.”
“Not Alyss-"
“She’s blinded you. Just like she does all men to get her way.”
Adom hung his head. Emet almost reached out to him. He couldn’t stand to see Adom upset. But Adom wasn’t looking at the upset he’d caused Emet. In pursuit of his own agenda, he’d likely dashed Emet’s dreams. What had Lady Alyss gleaned from Adom about how Emet planned to defeat the Insemination Bill?
“I’ll put a stop to it,” Adom said. “I’m sorry that I hurt you. For what it's worth, even if she harbored some secret plan, I think she’s a closet artist. She knows more about color than I do. And she’s aroused by the ropes. I thought she might orgasm from the sound of the pencil on the canvas.”
Adom smiled. But wiped it away when he saw Emet’s face.
“I’m sorry,” Adom said again. “I was going to tell you. I wasn’t going to let her in this afternoon, but I got carried away. The last thing I ever want to do is hurt you.”
Adom reached for him, but Emet pulled away. They rarely fought, and when they did they made up almost instantly. But this? This Emet couldn’t let go of immediately.
“I think you’re only sorry you got caught.”
“Em-“
“When you get in that painting mode, you don’t think about anyone but the canvas. So don’t let me interrupt your thoughts. Why don’t you spend the night in your studio near your paintings.”
Adom opened his mouth to protest, but then turned and went out of the room.
Emet slumped back onto the mattress. Even flat on his back the world still spun around him. He could barely grasp onto any thought save one. Lady Alyss bound in Adom’s knotted dress, suspended from a bondage rig with her eyes closed in rope bliss.
He didn’t know what kind of game was she playing at, but she’d just raised the stakes.