Riding the Storm Read Online Free PDF Page B

one
level and more of a party type room on another level, a kitchen area, and even
a small dining room.
    “Creating video games must pay very well.”
    He shrugged. “I started my own company a while back, and
managed to successfully market a few cutting edge games. One of the larger game
houses bought my company for about ten times more than it was worth, and part
of the deal was that I’d continue to work for them. I pretty much got to set my
pay, so I told them I wanted a salary plus a cut of the profits on any game
that was my brainchild, and I wanted to work from home. They’d rather have me
on their team than as the competition, so they agreed without much negotiation.
Some in the gaming world said I sold out, but in reality it just freed me up to
do what I really wanted to do anyway — create video games. Running my own
company was a huge pain in the ass, and I only did it because no one wanted to
let me just create a game on my own, without letting a damned committee make
all kinds of changes before it was even off the ground. I didn’t want to go to
meetings about it between conception and creation, and argue to try to keep it
as my creation. This arrangement allows me to conceive it and then create it,
with an awesome team to help with coding and animation, which was the goal all
along.”
    They walked into a more casual room, obviously designed with
parties and entertaining in mind, and Kendra made a point of looking around
before saying, “I don’t see a dungeon or a play room, is it downstairs by the
boiler room?”
    He grinned. “Look at the wall behind you and tell me what
you see.”
    “It looks like an interior designer got creative with those
huge anchor chains. It’s an attractive way to decorate the spot of blank wall,
and though I might not have taken it all the way to the floor, it works.
Whoever did it had an eye for what would look good in here. Rough chains
wouldn’t have worked, but the gunmetal black ties it in perfectly with the
other hardware in the room.”
    “The wall’s been reinforced, and the chain is anchored well
enough so every link can be used as a bondage point. I can tie you to it to
give the feel of a Saint Andrew’s Cross, or a whipping post, or a number of
other pieces of equipment. You noted the canopy over the bed in the master
suite? The struts across the top have been reinforced enough to use for
suspension. There’s decorative hardware in the headboard, foot-board, and all
up and down the sides of the bed that double as bondage tie-off points. The
bench at the foot of the bed? The legs are adjustable, so I can put your knees
on it and bend your hips over the back of the foot-board, and it’s a perfect
spanking bench, complete with tie-off points to secure your ankles, knees,
thighs, lower back, and hands.”
    Kendra’s lower body went into overdrive. Never mind his
reinforcements couldn’t hold her, she was so aroused by the mere idea of
being restrained in the ways he was talking about, she was in danger of
self-combustion. Thank goodness Eric couldn’t smell her arousal, though she was
certain he was aware of it, even without vampire senses.
    She rolled a half dozen responses in her head, and decided
her best course was to change the conversation. “Let’s open the wine and sit
where we can talk. I’d hoped you could take me for a ride after we talked, but
now that I’ve seen how big this thing is, I imagine it’s quite a job to get it
in and out of the boathouse.”
    “It’s no problem, but I have a smaller ski boat we can take
out, and it’s more fun for a joyride. If you want to talk first, we can
certainly do that.”
    He brought the wine in a bucket of ice along with two
stemmed glasses. He opened and poured as if he’d done it a thousand times, and
nodded her towards a more formal living area.
    Before starting, she probed into his mind enough to place a
beginning marker. If she had to clear his memory later, she’d wipe it from this
point