Chapter 4 Velvet Chains

Raven wasn't wearing a collar when she walked back into Club Eden, but she felt it all the same.

It lingered like ghost silk at her throat, unseen but unbearably real. She kept touching the skin there, half-expecting to find the O-ring still pressing against her pulse. The phantom weight of it didn't fade, and neither did the ache between her thighs. An ache that had nothing to do with lust and everything to do with submission.

She was unraveling. And Jaxon Morreau was pulling every thread.

Talia didn't say anything when she passed Raven in the dressing room that night. Just glanced up from lacing her thigh-high boots and froze.

"You look different," she murmured.

Raven opened her locker, kept her voice light. "New lip gloss."

"Bullshit." Talia stood slowly, smoothing her mesh top over her hips. "Did he touch you again?"

Raven paused. "Why does it matter?"

"Because if he's choosing you, everything changes."

"Talia..."

"Just listen," she snapped, voice shaking. "Girls who get close to him, really close, they either vanish, or they forget who they used to be. And the rest of us? We're just left to clean up the blood."

There was something in Talia's eyes Raven hadn't seen before, fear, yes, but also guilt. A history unspoken.

"You know more than you're saying."

Talia looked away. "Knowing things about Jaxon doesn't keep you safe, Raven. It just gives him more to take from you."

Before Raven could press, a voice crackled through the lounge speakers.

"Raye to the top floor. Mr. Morreau requests your presence."

Raven's stomach dropped.

Talia reached for her arm. "Don't go."

But Raven was already moving.

The elevator ride was silent, slick, and smooth like the club itself, luxury hiding danger behind every polished surface.

When she reached the top floor, the double doors were already open. Jaxon stood by the window, hands in his pockets, gaze sweeping over the city skyline like it belonged to him. Maybe it did.

"Raye," he said, not turning around.

She stepped inside. "You asked for me."

"I did." He pivoted, his expression unreadable. "Tell me. What do you think you've earned?"

She swallowed. "You said you'd give me access. That I could learn more if I obeyed."

"I did." He walked to a cabinet and retrieved a folder. "You want inside? Fine. Let's see how deep you're willing to go."

He handed her the folder. It wasn't thick. Just a few sheets of paper inside. Employee rosters. Schedules. A list of names she didn't recognize, but the dates were what caught her attention.

Every girl who'd disappeared from her research had worked a shift the day before she vanished.

Raven's pulse kicked. "This is real?"

He nodded.

"But why give it to me?"

"Because I want to see what you'll do with it."

She frowned. "What does that mean?"

"It means trust is currency in my world, and I just paid you in full."

She glanced up sharply. "You're testing me."

"I'm always testing you."

He moved closer, reaching into his pocket to retrieve a slim, black keycard. "Starting tonight, you're mine."

Raven's breath caught. "As what? A toy?"

"As my personal assistant," he said. "At least, that's what the club records will show."

She blinked. "You're serious."

"I want you in my office. My meetings. My space. You'll shadow me. You'll see everything. But you obey my rules. No lies. No disappearing acts. And if I say kneel, you kneel."

Her thighs clenched at the memory of his last command. Her voice came out thinner than she liked.

"Why me?"

His eyes darkened. "Because you want something, and so do I. This arrangement will give us both what we need."

She hesitated. "And what if I say no?"

"You won't."

She stared at him. He wasn't wrong. Raven accepted the keycard. The moment it touched her palm, something shifted. Not just in the room, in her.

Power crackled between them. Not romantic. Not soft. Something older. Primal. Mutual destruction disguised as partnership.

Jaxon's lips curled. "First assignment: come with me."

He led her down a hallway she hadn't been through before. Past the lounges, the private rooms, deeper into the spine of Eden.

He didn't speak, and neither did she. But her breath grew tighter with every step.

Finally, they reached a black lacquered door with a fingerprint scanner beside it. He pressed his thumb to the pad. A soft chime. The lock clicked.

He opened the door, and Raven stepped into a room that didn't belong in a nightclub. This wasn't for drinking or dancing. This was for control.

The space was draped in silk and leather. Velvet benches, steel restraints, a gleaming X-cross bolted to the wall. The air smelled of sandalwood and skin. Every inch was designed to strip a person down to their instincts.

Raven's heart pounded.

"This is where you'll learn," Jaxon said.

"Learn what?"

"How to give up control."

He circled her slowly, like a wolf gauging prey. "You think you're still in charge of yourself, Raven. But your body told me otherwise that first night, when I kissed you. Then again, when I told you to kneel."

Her cheeks flamed.

"You wanted to fight it," he said softly, "but your thighs were already shaking."

"I'm not your submissive."

He stepped behind her. "Then why are you wet right now?"

She froze.

"I can smell it," he murmured. "The heat. The hunger. You're soaked through, aren't you?"

She didn't answer.

"Take off your clothes."

Her breath caught. "No."

"Good."

She turned to face him, confused.

He smirked. "Obedience is only valuable when it's earned. If you strip too easily, it means nothing. I want your resistance. I want to break it slowly."

He took a step closer, fingers brushing the keycard still clenched in her hand.

"You want access to my world? You have it. But it will cost you."

"What do you want from me?"

His voice was low. "Everything."

Raven stood motionless, the keycard still gripped in her hand like it might burn through her skin. Her body buzzed with tension, but it wasn't fear, not exactly. It was anticipation. Suspicion. Arousal. A dangerous cocktail she hadn't tasted before Jaxon Morreau. And now, she was addicted to the flavor of it.

He turned away from her and crossed the room, fingers trailing across the top of a velvet-lined bench. "This place isn't for sex," he said. "It's for surrender. Control is earned here, piece by piece."

Raven swallowed hard. "Is that what you want from me?"

"I want your truth," he said simply. "And I'll take it the only way that matters, in silence. In obedience. In the way your body gives it before your mouth ever does."

He turned to face her again, slow and deliberate. His gaze pinned her where she stood.

"You're going to resist me, Raven. You'll hate yourself for wanting this. You'll tell yourself it's all for the story, or the missing girls. But that won't stop you from craving the way I make you kneel."

She should've run then. She should've thrown the keycard back in his face and walked out the door. But instead, she said: "What happens now?"

His smile was a razor. "Now I teach you."

He walked to a cabinet and retrieved a soft, black velvet box. Inside: a blindfold, a small leather journal, and a pair of handcuffs that shimmered like silver in the dim light.

"These are your tools," he said. "The journal is for confession. Every night, you write what you're feeling. Even the things you won't admit to me. Especially those. If you lie in it, I'll know."

"And if I don't write?"

"Then I'll write on you," he said, lips twitching at the corners. "In bruises."

Raven's pulse spiked.

He handed her the blindfold next. "Not tonight. But soon."

She ran her fingers over the soft interior. Silk-lined. Luxurious. It looked gentle, but it wasn't. It was control disguised as comfort.

"And the cuffs?" she asked.

He stepped closer. "You'll wear them when you're ready. Not before. Submission isn't something I take. It's something you offer."

The gentleness in his tone shook her more than any barked command could have.

"Why me?" she asked again. "Why not pick someone easier?"

"Because easy bores me." His fingers grazed her cheek. "And you're not here just for me. You're here for the truth. Which means I can trust your hunger."

She shivered under his touch.

Then he pulled back and nodded toward the door.

"That's enough for tonight."

"That's it?"

He smirked. "Were you hoping to be tied up already, little liar?"

Her cheeks burned.

"I told you," he said, voice lower now, "this isn't about rushing. It's about watching you choose this. Not once. Over and over. Until you don't even remember how to choose anything else."

Raven moved toward the door, unsteady but walking.

He called to her softly before she reached it. "Raven."

She looked back.

"I'll own you by the end of this. But you'll love the way I do it."

Back in the dressing room, Raven tucked the keycard into her bra like it was both armor and a threat.

Talia was waiting. "You're pale," she said.

"I'm fine."

"You're shaking."

"I said I'm fine."

Talia grabbed her wrist before she could pass. "Whatever he's doing to you, whatever he's giving you, it's not worth it."

Raven met her eyes. "What if I want it?"

Talia's breath hitched. "Then you're already lost."

Later, alone in her hotel room, Raven opened the black journal. She stared at the blank page for a long time. Finally, she wrote: I thought I was here to expose him. But every time he touches me, I forget why I started. I think I want him to ruin me.

Or maybe... I want him to save me by doing it."

She closed the book. The ache inside her hadn't faded. But for the first time, it didn't feel like pain. It felt like velvet chains, luxurious, heavy, and exactly where she wanted to be.