by Rynne Raines
“That must have made your father very happy, that he could fulfill that dream for her.”
“Oh, it did.” He gave a sure nod. “Hard work and determination is the key to success, he always said.”
“He wasn’t wrong. Look at where you are now.” Fiona smiled. “He must be very proud of you.”
“One would think that, wouldn’t they?”
At the bitter note in his tone, her smile faded. “He…he isn’t proud of you? How could he not be?”
“This isn’t the road he wanted for me,” Harrison answered. “All that time I spent at the shop, working and learning, he was grooming me to take over the business one day. When I received my acceptance letter from Harvard and told him that running the business wasn’t what I wanted, he was furious with me. I understood his anger.” He shrugged. “How could his son be too good for the family business, the business that fed us and clothed us for all those years? The business that he built from the ground up with sweat and blood. Oh, I was ungrateful and arrogant in his eyes.”
“Angry or not, he has to see all the differences your achievements have made. They have to count for something.”
“I used to think he would eventually come around. He didn’t.”
“But that’s just not right,” Fiona insisted.
“Maybe it’s not right, but that’s the way it is. My achievements are no more than salt in the wound to him, a reminder of my betrayal and selfishness. When I chose a different path, I disappointed him deeply. We haven’t spoken since the day I left for the university, and there’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about the decision I made.”
Fiona’s heart ached for him. She remembered the day her father shipped her off to private school. He wouldn’t even look her. She knew all too well what it felt like to be a disappointment in the eyes of someone you respected and loved. To her, it seemed unfathomable that his father would see Harrison as anything less than accomplished and honorable.
He tipped her chin up until their eyes met. “We all will disappoint our parents in one way or another and we can feel badly about it, but in the end we can’t change who we are in order to fulfill someone else’s expectations.”
His ability to get his point across without sounding condescending never failed to amaze her. Were their situations the same? Not entirely. Did they both want the respect and admiration of their loved ones? Of course, they did. The bottom line was that as much as Harrison and she wanted approval, they couldn’t change who they were to suit their parents’ designs and be true to themselves.
“Thank you for the talk,” she said. “I think I needed it.”
“Anytime.” He stroked his knuckles along her jaw line and smiled. “Now, go dry the rest of those dishes while I get ready. We have a date.”
Chapter Nine
Once they hit the city limits, they drove on back roads for over an hour. During that time, Harrison explained the basic protocol of the club and what she could expect to see once they entered the establishment. Every description and every detail he supplied heightened her arousal, excitement, and anxiety another level.
“They have sex in public? You mean with strangers watching?” As the last sentence slipped from between Fiona’s lips, a bolt of lust pulsed between her thighs.
“Yes. Although, sometimes those strangers do more than watch,” Harrison clarified, and slid a slow, sensual smile in her direction. “Some Doms like seeing their slaves fondled and teased and fucked by other people.”
Her heart paused, and she quickly redirected her wide eyes to where his hand sat on the gear shift.
Was he trying to tell her that he enjoyed seeing his slaves played with by other people? That he would enjoy seeing her fucked by someone of his choosing in the middle of a public venue…tonight? Oh God. Would she enjoy that?
The very idea made her stomach clench, but was it out of fear or arousal? Or perhaps a healthy dose of both? She flattened her palm to her abdomen and inhaled a slow, shaky breath, then swallowed hard.
Multiple questions and scenarios dangerously bounced around in her head as Harrison steered the vehicle slowly up a cobblestone drive toward a massive wrought iron gate. He stopped the car, rolled down the window, and leaned out to punch a code into the metal security box.
Almost there. A potent mixture of anxiety and eagerness bubbled inside of her.
Beyond the gates, they drove along another winding path flanked by more shrubbery and trees. Ahead, a glow isolated to one area kissed the tree tops in a way that couldn’t be caused by moonlight. One more soft curve and the landscape opened up.
Made up of pillars, columns, and elegant terraces, a two-story mansion stood tall in the distance. By looking at it, no one would have ever linked such a stately and regal structure with a secret society and dark, forbidden pleasures, but Fiona now knew better than to judge a book by its refined cover. Harrison was much like the building before her, striking and distinguished on the outside with dark, sensual secrets on the inside.
She indulged in a sidelong look of Harrison’s profile and bit her lower lip. At first glance, he was classically handsome, all tanned smooth skin and striking angles that she was sure were created with the sole purpose of taking a woman’s breath away. Broken down detail by detail, his intense eyes, stubborn nose, and rebellious jaw spoke of a man who had lived a difficult life and had overcome adversity.
Harrison Lancaster wasn’t just some suit-wearing poster-boy for the Republican Party. He was a man with substance and experience and integrity. At the same time, he could melt her with a look, make her heart race with a whisper, and evoke a unique mixture of apprehension and arousal that rivaled any type of pleasure she had ever experienced.
“Are you one of those people?” she asked quietly. “One who likes to share?”
Harrison pulled the car into a stall, turned off the ignition and turned to her. The intensity in his gaze made her heart back-flip and her insides warm. He reached across the car, wound the length of her hair around his palm, and pulled her toward him. His warm stream of breath caressed her ear as he whispered, “Not tonight.”
****
The elegance of the mansion’s interior rivaled the outside with little effort. After they checked her shoes and jacket in at the coatroom, Fiona did her best to keep her mouth from gaping like a trapdoor. The beautifully vaulted entrance to the next stunning wing of the house deserved wide-eyed speculation and admiration. Between the polished wood floors, the historic tapestries, and classic artwork, it looked nothing at all like she had envisioned a sex club to look like.
“This isn’t at all how I pictured this place,” Fiona murmured softly as she padded barefoot down the wide stone corridor after him.
“You were expecting whips and chains and a dungeon, perhaps?” The amusement in his low tone made her face warm.
“Yes. Something like that.”
“I promise there are plenty of places here where I can tie you up if you decide to disobey me tonight.”
A slow, magnificent shudder rolled through her, and she shivered out a weak sigh. She had no doubt that after being a member for fifteen years, Harrison knew all the perfect places to wickedly restrain his partners. Speaking of partners…where were all the members?
Question and answer collided as Harrison slid open a massive pair of oak pocket doors. In the fraction of a second, the quiet house seemed to erupt into a living, breathing, vibrant being. Conversation and movement filtered through the dimly lit and enormous entertainment room.
Well, well. The curtain has been lifted.
Every corner of the room had a different scene taking place. To the far left, clothed in only a pair of saggy blue jeans, a thin and pale young man stood tethered to a wooden post. A large and beautiful African American woman donned in tight black latex took a cane to the soft spots under his wiry arms.
Directly to her right, a small-framed, naked Asian woman hung approximately four feet off the floor, suspended by several thick lengths
of rope around her ankles, thighs, waist, wrists, and breasts. An audience of men and women encircled the swaying submissive, and as Harrison had told her in the car, many of the audience did more than watch.
Among what might seem at first like chaos however, one man clearly controlled the entire situation. Slightly off-center of the suspended woman was a well-dressed, attractive, middle-aged man in a wheelchair, watching the scene in silence. Something about his posture or the way he surveyed the scene reminded her of Harrison’s usual composure. Calm. Controlled. Collected.
The longer she watched, the clearer it became to her that the man in the wheelchair was the sub’s Master. As audience participants toyed and teased the sub, her eyes never strayed from her Master’s. It was like the crowd didn’t exist. Their bond was as obvious as it was overwhelmingly beautiful. Fiona’s heart swelled.
Briefly, she shut her eyes and wondered what it would be like to experience that type of unspoken bond with another human being, to effortlessly entrust her body, mind, and soul to one man and allow him to restrain and make her feel whatever he chose for her to feel, all while knowing he would never lead her astray.
She opened her eyes and met Harrison’s intense gaze head on. Such powerful emotion rushed into her. She couldn’t breathe, and yet it was like she didn’t even need to. He was her air in this magical world of wonderment and sin. At least, that’s how she felt about it. She traced her fingertips along the velvet collar snugly clasped around her throat and smiled to herself.
Was it possible to form that type of bond with someone in such a short amount of time?
“Follow closely,” he instructed, and then made his way into the grand playroom.
Fiona obediently fell into step behind him. As they wove a path through the crowd, she absorbed the provocative sights and sensual sounds. The smell of sex and power seeped into her bloodstream like an aphrodisiac. The adrenaline rush was an exquisite mixture of the nerves and excitement that accompanied being on the verge of doing something labeled as taboo by so many. Just walking around the room was enough to heighten her blood pressure and warm her insides.
A girl could get used to this.
By the time Harrison showed her around the main playroom and kindly introduced her to several of the members, Fiona’s blood was humming. Drunk on the atmosphere, she counted her blessings that Harrison had insisted she accompany him tonight.
Harrison led her to a sofa in a quieter corner of the playroom and pulled her to his lap. His arm curved possessively around her waist and a ball of excitement tightened in her stomach. She liked how he held her, as if leaving no question to whom she belonged.
“This is all so amazing,” she commented softly and observed the scenes taking place around them. “I can’t thank you enough for sharing this place, this private part of your life with me.”
“You make it sound as if I lack selfish motivation.” His long fingers trailed down her bare ribcage like a xylophone and she wanted to purr like a kitten. “I can assure you, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Turn around for me.”
Side-saddle across his lap, she shifted until her legs fit between his, her back to his chest.
“Arms behind you, please.”
Each of his commands made her heartbeat faster. Time for watching was over. They had been spectators long enough.
Ever-so-slowly, he wound the long lengths of fabric belonging to her skimpy top around her forearms and wrists. The gossamer cloth was smooth and initially cool against her warm skin. The tighter he bound her, the harder her clit throbbed. That he was restraining her in the middle of a crowded room should have probably made her more nervous. Her mind was clouded by his touch, the warmth of his breath on the nape of her neck, how his long, deft fingers worked effortlessly to secure the knot.
“I recall you like to squirm,” he murmured against her ear. “Now, if you squirm you’ll lose your top and you won’t be getting it back until we leave.”
She didn’t dare turn around and pin him with the horrified look surely painted across her face. She only squirmed when he gave her good reason.
“Lie back and spread your legs,” he told her and she moaned at the suggestion.
Careful not to tug on the ties binding her arms, she eased backward until his chest supported the majority of her weight and his shoulder braced her head. Firm and well-toned, his powerful body curved beneath her. Quite a comfortable lounger, she decided as arousal swept through her. Only it wasn’t a lounger. It was Harrison Lancaster. The rigid length of his thick cock pressed against the lowest portion of her ass wouldn’t let her forget that.
Just when she was starting to get comfortable, he reached down and hooked his hands under her knees, drawing her legs up over his parted thighs. Fiona sucked in a sharp breath as air kissed the dampness already gathering on her upper thighs and she shivered. The way he had her positioned now, only a single, black strip of fabric from her wispy skirt concealed her damp throbbing pussy from anyone who might care to look in their direction.
A middle-aged, Latino man with a half-naked, full-figured blonde on the end of his leash stopped to observe them on the loveseat. Shit. Instinctively, Fiona started to pull her legs together.
“Don’t. Move.” The low command was enough to stop her heart, let alone stop her from trying to shut her legs. “If I wanted your legs shut, I wouldn’t have positioned you this way.”
Slowly, his hand began sliding up the inside of her bare thigh. The surveying couple continued to watch, now with keener expressions. Fiona’s pulse pounded in her head. Her senses seemed to sharpen. She could suddenly hear more, see more, smell more, and without a doubt, feel more intensely.
“I…I feel strange,” she admitted softly. “Strange in a good way.”
“It’s the adrenaline,” Harrison reassured in a gentle voice then walked his fingers under the scrap of fabric draped between her legs and teased apart her moist slit. She trembled and bit her lower lip as his fingertips grazed up, down, and around her ever-stiffening clit.
“Your anxiety about that couple watching me touch you is triggering the rush, which means stimulation of your heart rate, contraction of your blood vessels, and dilation of your air passages. Your mental awareness has skyrocketed, and you can feel so much more.” He pushed two fingers inside her drenched hole and her pussy stretched to accommodate his long digits, welcoming his invasion with a greedy clench.
“Oh God!” She moaned and with her newly sensitive hearing, it sounded loud as thunder in her head but, it didn’t matter. She no longer cared who could hear or see her. The audience was an aphrodisiac, and a powerful one at that. Already, her lower abdomen tensed and quivered with the warning of an orgasm. If she could just shift a little to the right maybe it wouldn’t be quite so intense…
Harrison clucked his tongue and gripped her firmly with his free arm. “What did I tell you about squirming?”
Crap.
“You…you told me that my top would come down,” she panted and weakly smiled. “Guess it was just a half-squirm.”
“Someone’s a sassy little rabbit,” he murmured, and then tapped his thumb sharply on her clit, making her hiss. “Suppose a half-squirm deserves half a punishment.”
Before she could ask what that meant, she felt a sharp tug on her top and gasped. She didn’t have to look to know that one of her bare breasts was now fully exposed. The cool kiss of air on her skin and her ever-tightening nipple told her as much.
“Squirm again and the other side comes down,” he warned, and then slowly circled his fingertips around her areola. Her eyes rolled back in her head. “I think our friends over there would like it very much if you did happen to squirm again.”
With desire-heavy eyes, Fiona lifted her gaze to the couple across from them. The blonde on the leash licked her lips in seeming appreciation of the show and then turned and dropped to her knees in front of her Latino Dom. She had the man’s cock out of his leather pants and into her mouth quicker than someone coul
d utter the word, blowjob.
After years of conditioning about what was proper and improper, Fiona’s mind demanded she look away and give the lovers a shred of privacy, but she couldn’t. Something about the unorthodox exchange of pleasure between the four of them captivated and aroused her nearly as much as Harrison’s skilled teasing. Another warning wave rippled through her belly and her legs shook as she desperately tried to ward off her climax.
“Please,” she breathed and sent Harrison a pleading look. “Please, Sir. Can I come?”
Harrison growled quietly then brushed his mouth against her forehead. “You’re so pretty when you beg. I can’t wait to hear you beg with a gag in your mouth while I stripe the laces of my flogger over your sweet little ass.”
“And how do I beg with that in my mouth?”
“Oh, you’ll whimper, whine, and beg with every inch of your body.”
The pad of his thumb pressed down hard on her clit and another throaty moan ripped from her throat.
“Please! Please,” she whispered.
“Yes. You can come, love.”
The moment the words were out of his mouth, her body trembled. Her clit tightened and then erratically pulsated. Without pause, no gradual incline. The climax tore through her with merciless precision and every nerve in her body tingled with complete awareness. Harrison murmured soft praise against her forehead as he teased his thumb firmly over her clit, prolonging the heavenly throbbing throughout her entire body.
A time later, Fiona found herself cradled lovingly in Harrison’s large lap. The Latino Dom and “Cherry” she had decided to name her because of her bright red lips, lounged on a sofa kitty corner to them. Cherry looked just about as comfortable sprawled across her Dom’s lap as she was in Harrison’s arms. For a woman who hadn’t reached climax yet, she sure had a glow about her. When Cherry caught her looking over, her bright right lips stretched into a warm smile and instead of feeling embarrassed that she was caught staring, Fiona couldn’t help but smile back.