“Better, but it’ll be a little while longer before I’m back in full fighting condition.” After a quick glance around, he asked, “Where’s Jordyn?”
“Business trip,” was the vague response. In other words, she was on a covert mission somewhere, and Carter couldn’t discuss it.
Ian slapped the operative on the shoulder. “Yeah, but at least you were able to show up—and not just for the food.”
The other man barked out a laugh. “With Jordy missing, I’m not sampling anything but the food, my friend.”
Stefan had no idea what the obvious inside joke was about, so he turned his attention back to Ian with a glare. “So, what’s this damn surprise no one seems to know about, Boss-man?”
His shoulders went up and down in nonchalance. “Nothing big, I assure you. I just figured for a welcome back celebration for you, we’d have a Shibari contest.”
“Huh?” He eyed the stage. The St. Andrew’s Cross had been pushed back to the far end, and several small tables with ropes atop them were evenly spaced across the width of the raised platform. “I’m the only Shibari Master in the club—isn’t it a bit unfair for me to compete against other Doms?” While there were a number of Dominants with rope play experience at The Covenant, Stefan’s years of training put him out of their leagues.
“Who said you’d be competing? You’re the judge.”
Okaaayyyy. That wasn’t as bad of a “surprise” as he’d expected. In fact, although he hadn’t known about it until now, it really wasn’t a big deal, so he had no idea why Ian hadn’t just told him about it earlier. “All right. It’ll be kind of interesting to see what my pupils have learned. I assume the Doms will be ones I’ve trained and cleared, correct?”
“Of course.”
Without another word, Ian climbed the few steps to the stage and picked up a microphone that’d been on the floor. While Stefan should’ve been at ease at the turn of events, he was still getting a strange vibe from the Dom-in-residence. Ian was up to something.
When the man tapped the microphone, someone lowered the music that filled the club. “I hope everyone’s having a good time tonight, as usual. We have an unannounced event taking place tonight to welcome back Master Stefan. Give the sorry bastard a round of applause for coming back from the dead.”
The club thundered as members clapped, whistled, and shouted at Stefan as Ian indicated for him to step up onto the stage. Embarrassed, he joined the other Dom, then just nodded and mouthed his thanks to the crowd, before waving his hands, gesturing for them to quiet down.
“We have five Doms competing tonight,” Ian announced, “in a Shibari contest. Master Stefan will be the judge. The winner and their submissive will receive a free month of membership to the club.” Considering what the monthly dues were, that was a nice prize.
Pulling a piece of paper from a small pocket in his leather vest, he continued. “Competitors, as I call out your name, please escort your submissive to the stage. You’ll have five minutes to inspect your equipment and get your sub in the starting position you desire. Master Dimitri. Master Zach. Master Renzo. Mistress Camilla. And Master Cain.
One by one, the Dominants made their way to the stage, leading their submissives. Two of the subs—one male, one female—were wearing collars, signaling the fact they were in a contracted D/s relationship. But the other three didn’t have any adornment on their necks. If a certain one of them had, Stefan would’ve killed Cain Foster, a member of Trident’s Omega Team and a former Secret Service agent—not that the man’s occupations mattered to Stefan. What did matter was Foster’s sub was none other than Cassie.
Stefan’s jaw and fists clenched as he watched Foster escort Cassie up the steps. Her gaze was on the floor in submission. Tonight, she was wearing one of Stefan’s favorite corset sets—a red and black, lacy number with a thong, and it pissed him off even more considering he’d given it to her as a birthday present a few months back.
Unable to take his eyes off Cassie as Foster pointed for her to kneel on the pillow next to the last table set up for the contest, Stefan let out a low growl in Ian’s direction. “What the hell are you up to, Sawyer?”
An exaggerated expression of innocence appeared on the other man’s face. “Up to? I don’t know what you’re talking about. The unattached Doms selected their own subs. This is just a simple Shibari competition—no sex involved. Well, that is, unless the Doms and subs agreed to it in their negotiations.”
The thought of Cassie having sex with Foster, or any other man, had Stefan’s blood boiling. She was his, damn it! But she really wasn’t. They had no contract between them, and he’d removed her collar at her request. All Stefan could do was concede the fact Cassie was a free sub who could scene with whomever she wanted. Now, he just had to figure out how to get through judging the event without killing one of the competitors.
21
Yup, I’m a manipulative bastard—no offense to Mom and Dad, of course.
Ian led Stefan over to a small table with three chairs in the left front corner of the stage as the Doms prepared to start their rope play. Mitch was already sitting there. If this thing played out as Ian hoped, he and his cousin would need to take over the judging of the contest when four couples remained.
The Coastie is fit to be tied—excuse the pun. Nah, don’t excuse it . . . it was intentional and pretty funny if you ask me.
Chuckling quietly at his own joke, Ian sat between the two men and waited for the fireworks to begin. After filling Cain in on the scheme, the other Dom had been more than happy to take part in it. Mitch, Carter, and Devon were the only other people who knew what was going on—hell, Cassandra didn’t even know. Ian had done that for a few reasons. He’d wanted her reactions to be real, and, as a Dom, Ian could be sneaky and get away with it. After basically ordering Cassandra to be Cain’s submissive for the competition, he’d given her the only out he doubted she would take—her safeword.
Ian had always had a soft spot for the pretty blonde. Of course, not in a brotherly way, since he’d had his fingers in her pussy and ass at one time. And not in a romantic way either. But he always hoped he could find the perfect Dom for her. Stefan was that Dom—Ian knew it deep in his gut. Now he just had to prove it to the stunad and his little pixie.
After checking his watch, he picked the microphone up from the table and announced, “Doms, you have fifteen minutes to impress Master Stefan with a design on your sub. And go!”
While the crowd’s eyes were all on the competing Doms, Ian took great pleasure in watching Stefan watching Cain and Cassandra. The man was going to need a dentist soon if he didn’t stop gritting his teeth so hard.
Over at the other end of the stage, Cain was making a mess of his ropes and not applying them to Cassie’s wrists properly, which she held up in front of her chest while he worked. Although, if one looked closely, it was clear he’d left the rope loose enough not to hurt her. She was kneeling on the pillow, and, from the expression on her face, she was holding back from telling the Dom he shouldn’t be wrapping the rope around her wrists. Anyone who’d been trained in even the basics of Shibari knew to avoid the wrists where too tight a knot could damage the nerves there. The rope should be two inches higher or lower from any joint—in this case, higher on the arm.
Stefan crossed his arms and let out a low growl. “What the fuck is he doing?”
Ha! This is too damn easy!
Fighting back his laughter, Ian responded, “Guess he’s going to lose points for that, isn’t he?”
Over the next few minutes, Cain continued to “screw up.” He left the ends of the rope dangling, instead of tucking them safely into the design, and tied knots the wrong way, where they would fall apart if Cassandra moved. The man was looking around, as if distracted by everything going on around him, his focus not on his submissive as it should be.
When Cain brought a rope to Cassandra’s neck and hesitated, Stefan stood up so fast, his chair would’ve gone flying off into the audience if
Carter hadn’t been standing to the side of the stage with quick reflexes. Every Dominant on the stage froze. With his eyebrows raised, Ian tilted his chin up to study Stefan. “Problem?”
The man’s hands were balled into tight fists as he glowered at him. His voice was low and threatening, so only Ian and Mitch could hear him. “You son of a bitch. Foster’s not this fucking stupid. You set this up.”
Ian shrugged. “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. Either way, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the woman who’s madly in love with you doesn’t have your collar around her neck and is scening with another Dom. Why? Because you’re either deaf, dumb, or blind, or a combination of all three. So, my question is, what the hell are you going to do about it?”
The other man’s eyes had bulged when Ian had dropped the “L” word, and Mitch had noticed the reaction too. He laughed. “Why is it we guys are always the last to know when someone’s in love with us?”
God damn, manipulative son of a bitch! If Stefan thought he stood a chance against Sawyer, he’d kick his ass right then. But even when Stefan had been in the best shape of his life, the retired SEAL would’ve been a formidable opponent. Now, he didn’t stand a chance.
And what the fuck is the guy talking about? Cassie’s madly in love? With me?
“You’re crazy,” he spat, but the man’s words were tumbling through Stefan’s mind. Was it possible she felt more for him than just as a friend or a Dom? Was that the reason why she’d asked him to remove her collar? Because she’d fallen in love with him, and he’d been oblivious to the fact? And what about how he felt? He’d been miserable after she’d failed to re-sign their contract. And the past few weeks, he’d really enjoyed getting to know her on more than just a superficial basis. But the icing on the cake, was seeing her scene with another Dom. It wasn’t just the fact that Foster was doing a craptastic job of fucking up the scene. It was the green-eyed monster raging within Stefan that told him Cassie meant more to him than any other woman ever had. He’d never had the urge to rip another man’s head off his shoulders like he did right then.
The realization hit Stefan like a sledgehammer—he was in love with his sweet, little pixie. He wanted her in his ropes, in his bed, and in his life. He wanted her to move in with him so he could fall asleep next to her every night and wake up to her every morning. He wanted to help her study to become a nurse and then be the loudest one cheering when she was handed her diploma. He wanted all that and so much more . . . but only with Cassie.
Unable to take his eyes off her, he said, “I’m invoking my rights as the club’s Shibari Master to stop their scene before he does something to hurt her.” While they all knew Foster would never do anything to purposely harm a submissive, it was the only reason Stefan could come up with for interfering with another Dom’s scene with an uncollared sub. And if Stefan had his way, Cassie wouldn’t be uncollared anymore after he sat down and had a long talk with her.
Ian stood. “I wholeheartedly agree the scene should be stopped. Playroom number fifteen is empty if you’d like to take the poor sub there and administer aftercare.”
His eyes shifted sideways to glare at the man, but Ian held up his hand before Stefan could say anything. “Yeah, yeah, yeah—I know. I’m a manipulative bastard, a prick, an asshole, and a son of a bitch all rolled into one—we’ve already established that—but at least I’m not a twat-knot. Go get your girl, Master Stefan, and make sure you don’t screw it up this time.”
He wasn’t sure if he hadn’t already screwed things up for good, but he knew if he didn’t at least try to win Cassie back, he’d regret it for the rest of his life.
Striding across the stage, he was a man on a mission. Step one—stop the ridiculous scene. Step two—try not to take a swing at the retired Secret Service guy. Step three—stake his claim and take Cassie to the playroom. Step four—restrain her, properly, and spill his guts, then hope she really did love him, because, by God, he was in love with her.
“Master Cain, I assume you’re in on Master Ian’s little scheme. If that’s the case, I won’t demand you retake my class before letting you rope play with another submissive. But as of right now, your scene is over.” Damn, he’d said that calmer than he’d expected from himself at the moment.
Foster eyed him, then at something over Stefan’s left shoulder. Glancing back, Stefan saw that Ian had followed him. The head Dom nodded at Foster who smirked and dropped the rope he’d been holding. “Took you long enough—I was running out of ways to mess things up.”
Stefan was fucking surrounded by manipulative bastards. Cassie hadn’t truly been in any danger, but that wasn’t the point. As the man squatted and began to undo the poorly tied ropes around her wrists, upper torso, and thighs, Stefan interrupted him. “Stop. Cassie, eyes on me.”
He knew she’d noticed him walking toward them, but like a good submissive, she’d kept her gaze on the floor in front of her. But she hadn’t been good about everything. When she lifted her chin and their eyes met, he crossed his arms and frowned at her. “What’s your safeword?”
She blinked a few times before answering. “Um . . . red, Sir?”
“Are you asking me if that’s your safeword or are you telling me? And speak up.”
A blush stained her cheeks at the reprimand in his tone. She cleared her throat, then spoke louder. “I’m sorry, Sir. My safeword is red.”
“And if you needed to slow things down and discuss something that was worrying you, what would that safeword be?”
“Yellow, Sir.”
A tic in his temple throbbed. His hand was going to make some serious contact with her ass in a little bit, but first things first. “You’ve been involved in rope play long enough to know what has the potential to hurt you and what doesn’t, correct?”
“Y-yes, Sir.”
“Then, explain to me why you didn’t say your safeword when you realized what a shitty job Master Cain was doing with the ropes, especially when he tied them over your radial nerves.”
She shook her head, her gaze zipping from his to Ian’s and back again, as she started to realize she was in some serious trouble. “He—he wasn’t hurting me, Sir. I-I didn’t think . . .”
“Cassie, look at your wrists. Are the ropes in the proper position?”
Her eyes flittered to her arms, and she swallowed hard. “No, Sir, they aren’t.”
“Then why didn’t you, at least, say your yellow safeword?”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “I-I . . . I don’t know, Sir. I’m sorry.”
“You’ll be a lot sorrier in a little bit. You and I have things to discuss in private. For now, apologize to Master Cain for not saying your safewords, then inform him you won’t be scening with him anymore tonight.” She wouldn’t be scening with Foster, or any other Dom, ever again if Stefan had his way, but she wasn’t ready to hear that just yet.
Her brow furrowed in confusion. “Sir?”
“Don’t make me repeat myself, little pixie. I’m very pissed off right now, and most of it is not directed at you. Don’t change that.”
Her eyes looked like saucers, but then she turned her head to peer up at Foster, who stepped closer to Ian, so she didn’t need to crane her neck. “I’m sorry I didn’t say my safeword, Master Cain. I knew what you were doing was wrong, and even though I didn’t think you would hurt me, I still should have, at least, said, ‘yellow,’ and asked why you were wrapping the ropes directly over my wrists.”
“Yes, you should have, Cassandra, but since this was all a ploy to get Stefan to man up, I’ll forgive you.”
Her face scrunched up, confirming to Stefan she had no idea what the Doms had been up to. “Man up, Sir? I don’t understand.”
“I’ll explain later, Cassie,” Stefan assured her. “You still need to say one more thing to Master Cain.”
“Yes, Sir.” She focused on the other Dom again. “I’m sorry, Sir, but I won’t be finishing the scene with you. I’m also sorry if that means you can’t compete for
the free month of club fees.”
Foster grinned. “No worries, little one. I wasn’t expecting you to. And don’t worry about the prize. Master Ian has already taken care of that.”
Of course, he has. Fucking manipulative . . . sigh. I can’t keep calling him a bastard because that’s insulting to Marie and Chuck Sawyer, who are really nice people. They can’t help it if their grown son is an asshole.
Well, enough about Ian. You’ve got more important things to take care of.
Stefan took a step forward and went down on one knee. It only took a few moments to release Cassie from the ropes, and he dropped them on the floor. Standing, he held out his hand to her and helped her to her feet. “Ian, you and Mitch will have to judge the rest of the contest yourselves—although, I’m sure you already knew that. Come, little pixie, you and I have some things to talk about.”
A flash of panic appeared on her face, but it was gone just as quickly as it’d come. Stefan’s gut churned. Was Ian wrong about Cassie loving him? God, he hoped that wasn’t the case—not after Stefan had finally realized he was in love with her.
Bending forward, he put his shoulder into her abdomen and gently threw her over his shoulder, caveman style. Yeah, Dewayne would probably yell at him for overexerting himself—not that Cassie weighed all that much—but it was time for Stefan to stake his claim, and no one was going to stop him.
22
Cass let out a short shriek as she was unexpectedly thrown over Stefan’s shoulder, and his hand came down hard on her ass, eliciting a less audible squeak. “Quiet, little pixie.”
He quickly descended the few steps from the stage to the floor of the pit, then strode purposely toward the playrooms. Cass was beyond confused, and it had all started when Master Ian had called her that morning to ask if she was free tonight. When she’d told him her class had been canceled, due to a death in her professor’s family, he’d demanded her presence at the club promptly at 7:00 p.m., dressed in her favorite corset set. When she’d arrived at The Covenant and been advised she would be scening with Master Cain for a contest, she’d almost wished she did have a class to be at. Not that she didn’t like Master Cain, but she hadn’t scened with anyone since her collar had been removed. Then when Master Stefan had shown up and walked down the grand staircase, Cass had wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole. She was still mad at him and distressed about everything that had happened over the last few months. Seeing him tonight had just made those emotions blaze hotter. But, instead of saying her safeword, she’d obeyed Master Ian’s order to be a submissive for the event.
Knot a Chance: Doms of The Covenant Book 3 Page 16