My hard cock pulsed with that obedience. It was so good. So fucking good. “Good girl, Poppy.” I stroked her hair and with her body pressed into my thigh, I felt, rather than heard, her satisfied purr. Her tongue stroked my cotton dress pants, only one layer between that tongue of hers and my flesh. She tilted her head, licking the inside of my thigh, dangerously close to my aching, tight balls. My breath hitched in my chest, my grip on the armchair tightening. “That’s enough. You can relax now.”
Marly lifted upright once more and looked over her shoulder to Ash whose eyes were steeled onto us. Red heat stained her cheeks, spreading in a flush across her nose. I was pretty damn sure Ash had been watching the whole time. Shit, the whole room had been watching. That was the problem with taking a hiatus from a club like this. When you came back? You were the talk of the town.
I took Marly’s chin gently in my pinched fingers, pulling her gaze away from Ash to me. “You don’t need to look at them. I’ve got you, Poppy. Trust me?”
She swallowed, moisture brimming her eyes. A shattered breath dragged in through her parted lips. “Sticker,” she whispered, so low, I almost didn’t hear it.
Sticker, slow down. I jerked back, shock nearly overtaking me. Fuck. I’d been so certain she had been enjoying that—the scone, the crumbs… even the spanking from earlier. “What’s wrong, Marly?” I asked, not releasing her chin.
“I don’t know how to answer when you ask me to trust you. We’re in playtime… I know I’m supposed to say yes, Sir. But… that would be lying. And I’m not supposed to lie to you.”
“You don’t trust me,” I said, summing up what she was trying to say. It was like a punch to the gut, knocking the wind right out of me.
She pressed her lips together. “Trust takes time,” she said, shrugging. The shrug, meant to be casual, but it looked forced. An attempt to turn a heavy statement lighter. “And we barely know each other.”
Nothing else about the exercise caused her to pause. Not eating the scone off my lap. Not the spanking. Not the fact that my cock was fucking nearly brushing her cheek as she was between my legs, bobbing up and down, mimicking the movement of a blowjob.
Releasing her chin, I brushed my fingers into a stray piece of hair falling across her forehead. “Thank you for being honest with me. That’s how this trust is built. If I ask you something during playtime… you can be honest. You will never be punished for being honest, Marly.”
“So… when you asked ‘Trust me’… what should I have said?”
“You could have said, ‘I’m trying, Sir.’ That would be honest, right?”
She nodded, the movements tight. Still unsure. “What else is bothering you?”
“It just… it feels weird that our first lesson is in front of… of a bunch of strangers.”
Aha. There it was. “Here’s the thing. My job this week is to respect your hard limits, while also pushing your boundaries… never crossing them. It’s a challenging position. But that’s my job. And that’s also why I love it. Your job is to trust me… or learn to trust me… and open yourself up to the idea that this process, these games, are all for your and my benefit. Starting here, in front of the group is a little like throwing you into the deep end of a pool. But all these people in this room, are going to be roaming around the club this week. It’s better for you to see them now. Meet them now in a controlled, safe environment. So that later in the week, when you see one of them getting whipped in the chambers, you already know them in a more human element.”
She looked up at one of the candles burning on a post. The warm glow caught in her eyes, flickering orange against the bright blue. “That… actually makes a lot of sense.”
“Good.” I nodded toward the circle. “Now sit down, relax. Watch the group. Watch their interactions,” I whispered. “See how they speak to their Masters and Mistresses. And likewise, how the Doms address their subs.” Those azure eyes of hers took an extra long moment to sweep my body and the walls of my stomach muscles tightened as her gaze landed briefly between my legs. Through parted lips, she let out a small gasp and reluctantly, it seemed, jerked her head away, spinning to sit back down on the floor. This time between my spread legs.
From the profile of her body, the tips of her breasts were tight, as if the room was sub-zero temperature. Only, I knew the thermostat was set at a balmy 72. Which meant one thing. Marlena Taylor was just as turned on as I was.
Across from us, Kari wore a burlesque-ish corset and an above the knee pencil skirt over fishnets that crisscrossed down her slender legs. “Henry,” she said, swatting her sub with a leather riding crop. “I’m feeling a little dry.”
Her sub hopped to his feet, grabbing baby oil from the basket next to her chair. The stream squeezed from the bottle into his palms and he warmed the oil in his hands. Then, starting at her bare shoulders, he massaged the oil in, his hands traveling over her creamy skin in slow, tender movements. Kari sighed, closing her eyes and sipping her drink.
The other Doms chatted quietly about how life had been since they had all last seen or spoken. While doing so, Tim, a Dominant who was also some sort of internet mogul, tugged the hair of his sub, pulling her face to his crotch. She immediately unzipped his pants and went to work sucking him off.
I never really understood the appeal of that sort of instant gratification… blow jobs were earned. By both the Dom and the sub. But Tim was used to power and having things when, where, and how he wanted them. As his sub moved to her knees, bending over his erection, it was clear that beneath that short skirt of hers, there were no panties.
Another thing I never understood. I did not share. Whether she was my sub, my girlfriend, or my wife—she was for my eyes and my eyes alone. Something Layla never quite understood. Of course, in acting, it was different. In theory, it was not you on screen with another person… it was you in the mindset of a character. But I had to face it; in this business, lines blurred all the time. And with Layla? Well, hell. She didn’t think the lines applied to her. She somersaulted over them.
Marly ran her fingers over the edge of her water glass, her painted nails grazing the lip. She was either fascinated by her glass of water or uncomfortable with what was happening across the circle. When I looked up again, I was met with Ash’s raised eyebrow. Could practically hear his thoughts.She can’t even handle a girl’s bare ass. How was she going to manage full frontal nudity and gratuitous BDSM scenes?
She leaned back, her cheek brushing against my knee, sending a jolt of electricity through my veins. “How long are we supposed to stay out here?” she asked.
“Why, Poppy? Are you feeling a little shy?”
I cast a sidelong glance to Ash. Even though his attention was on his own sub sitting at his feet, I knew he was listening to every word we said.
“No,” Marly answered quickly, then ran her tongue over her lips. “No,” she tried again, quieter this time. “I just thought I should go back to the room… read over my LnS contract.” Her slurred words tripped clumsily over her tongue.
I sipped my martini, almost finished with it. “Once I finish my drink, we can go. Have a little more water.”
A breath puffed out of her pink stained lips, but she lifted the water glass regardless, taking a sip.
With a final glance around the circle, I swallowed the rest of my martini, chewing on one of the olives. “All right, I’d say you’ve seen enough for the first night.” I pushed off the armrests and onto my feet, holding out a hand for Marly. She looked up at me, all big blue eyes and pouty lips and I was tunneled back to our second meeting in the bathroom when I had accidentally knocked her on her ass. Or maybe she knocked herself on her ass…shewas the one who swung the door open hitting me.
She inched her feet beneath her, swinging her legs around. Shoulders stiff, back straight, she reached out her hand and dropped it into mine as a sliver of pink tongue swiped across her bee-stung lips. I sucked in a sharp breath. Holy hell if that plump mouth of hers didn’t fall right in line with my zipper. A small part of me, a little spec no bigger than the scone crumbs that she licked off my lap, loved that she was as affected by this as I was. It was comforting, not feeling alone.
Leveraging her palm against mine, she stood, bringing her water glass with her. She turned to deposit it at the bar, but I held tightly onto her hand, tugging her back into me. I glanced with a side eye at my own empty glass. After a second, recognition swept over Marlena’s face as she nodded, rolling her eyes. She grabbed my empty glass and brought them both over to the bartender before slipping out the door, not even bothering to wait for me.
