by Cara Adams
She jumped down and stood with them. “Aren’t you going to try?” she asked them.
“Hell no. I like my legs just as they already are. Not broken,” said Tally.
But Sam decided to try it. He was almost certain he’d fail, but he wanted to have a turn.
With the advantage of watching Heather succeed, he knew he had to jump a hell of a lot higher than he’d originally anticipated just to make it. His first two turns, he crashed into the wall, but the third time he scrambled to the top. Not quite a victory but not a total disgrace either.
They moved back to the regular trampolines and bounced some more, loosening up their muscles, and then their time was up.
“That was awesome. I’m so glad we came,” said Heather.
Tally rubbed a knuckle over her cheek. “And you aced The Wall as well,” he said.
“You would, too, if you wanted to,” she replied.
“You’re pretty fit to manage it. It’s harder than it looked,” said Sam.
“Your feet have to be higher than seems logical. But it’s awesome fun,” replied Heather.
“Everything is awesome fun to you,” responded Tally, and they all laughed.
“Will you come out to dinner with us tonight? After we’ve all taken a shower,” Sam asked.
“I’d like that. But I absolutely have to be home by midnight.”
“I thought your name was Heather, not Cinderella,” said Tally.
“I’m serious. I was really tired on Friday and I need to be more alert than that at work.”
“I understand. We’ll have you home by midnight for certain. What time can we pick you up?”
“How about in seventy-five minutes? That should give us all time to drive home and shower and change.”
“Done deal.” Sam wanted to kiss her, so he did. Just a little peck, but at least he could touch her. That would have to be enough for now. Until later.
* * * *
Tally had driven his car to the trampoline park, but he handed the car keys to Sam. “You drive home. I’ll make the bookings at the BDSM club. I guess you’ll want me to book a room there as well as dinner, in the hope that Heather allows us to spend some more intimate time with her.”
“My dick likes that plan.”
Tally snorted and swiped his contacts, bringing up the main phone number for the BDSM club.
“How do you have their number in your contacts? Have you been going there lately?” asked Sam.
“No. The manager gets me to order in special films for them from time to time. They hire cinema four for private parties each month.”
“You show porn movies? What does Cadfael think of that?”
Tally laughed. “Not porn movies, but there are plenty of legal movies around designed to make the pulses pound. So far we’ve been able to find a fresh one each time and it’s good for my business as well as his.”
Sam was silent as Tally organized a table overlooking the dance floor, and then booked a room for after the late show. “Done,” he said happily as Sam pulled into the staff parking lot.
It had started to rain, so Tally was pleased when Sam found a parking space near the stairs down to the fourth level. The fifth level, the top level of the parking lot, had no roof and the less distance they had to run to get out of the rain the better.
“Likely we could have parked on the fourth level but there’ll still be customers in the fitness center, the theater, and the restaurants, so it’s better to obey the rules,” said Sam.
Tally agreed, sprinting for cover.
He showered fast, and then changed into black pants and a blue button-down shirt, before pulling on a splash jacket and picking up an umbrella.
He wanted Heather so much. He’d loved watching her today bouncing happily all over the building, landing as light as a feather on trampolines to the right or left of her as well as in front of her. Always somewhere totally unexpected. Just as she was unexpected. He’d never ever in a million years have thought of taking a date over the age of six or seven to a trampoline fun palace. And yet other people there had been easily their ages. Heather had clearly enjoyed herself and that was important to him. The vital next step was to discover if she liked BDSM. He had a gut feeling she’d be the ideal sub, a little pushy, a little cheeky, and oh-so-passionate.
Unfortunately, gut feelings could be wrong, and nothing but an actual scene would clarify that for them all. But watching her face during the floor show should give him some clues. Even her body language as they entered the club would tell him a lot. If she wasn’t relaxed inside the venue they would have to go back to the drawing board and reassure her they loved her anyway, with or without the BDSM.
* * * *
Heather wished she’d thought fast enough to ask where they were going to dinner so she’d have known what to wear. Still, they’d specified “dinner” instead of “for a snack,” so she translated that as “wear a dress.” Besides, she actually liked dressing up from time to time. Not all the time. She’d hate a job where she had to wear fancy clothes and high heels all day long, but the concept of dressing up to go out somewhere appealed to her. She’d been out so seldom over the three years since she’d gotten her own business. Her own florist shop had been all she’d wanted for so long that achieving it, and building it up into a going concern, had consumed her energy utterly and completely.
It was much more recently when she’d decided a man—or two—in her life would make it even better than it already was. Well, she’d thought her trip to the mating party had been a total waste of time except for the fun she’d had in dancing class there. But it’d turned out to be a good thing as it’d encouraged Sam and Taliesin, or Tally, as Sam called him, to date her. She really liked them both. She’d been attracted to them for years, although she’d hardly ever seen them outside their businesses. It seemed the time was right. Not only had she decided to get a social life, but exactly at the same time they had done the same. Which was pretty awesome!
By the time she’d dried herself after her shower and combed her hair, she’d decided what dress to wear. Every member of her family would have removed it from her closet and burned it if they’d seen it, which was possibly why she loved the dress so much. It was skintight around her breasts and to her waist, and then flew out into a flirty knee-length skirt. And it was red. Her family would hate the color and she loved it. She wore the same black stilettos she’d worn to the movie, and slipped her cell phone, a lipstick, and a clean pair of panties into a small black purse.
Helena was in her room and there was the muffled sound of a computer game playing, so Heather left the apartment quietly, dropping her apartment key into her purse, and demurely took the elevator down to the lobby. She’d intended to wait for the men outside, but it was raining. Heather spent a few minutes trying to decide whether or not to go back upstairs and get an umbrella, when a car stopped right out front and Taliesin jumped out holding an umbrella.
Heather pushed the door open and stepped under the shelter he offered. “My hero.” She giggled as he escorted her to the car holding the front passenger seat door open for her.
“I love that dress. The color really suits you,” said Tally.
Heather turned around to look him in the face. He didn’t seem to be teasing her. “You really think that?”
“Of course. Red looks great with your skin and hair. And legs,” said Sam.
“Why would you think it didn’t?” asked Tally.
“My family don’t approve of red for business wear. Or when going out somewhere. Or really at all.”
“This is the parents and three brothers in New York City?”
“Yes.”
Just thinking about all the ways she’d failed them made Heather feel nauseous. But then she forced herself to think positively. She’d passed her course and bought a business and it was doing well. It was only a little over three years and she was paying off the bank loan much faster than she was obligated to do.
“Does your fami
ly have conservative religious beliefs?” asked Tally.
Heather smiled. He’d phrased that very carefully. “Not so far as I know, but they do have strong beliefs about being a success and being seen to be a success.”
“But you are a success. Your business is doing great,” said Sam.
Heather relaxed back into her seat. “That’s the whole point. It’s a business. I work with my hands and with flowers. In their minds I’m only one very small step higher than the checkout chick at the grocery store. Of my three older brothers, one is a lawyer, one a doctor, and the other an accountant. My father is a professor of engineering, and my mother is the CEO of a marketing company. All my brothers are on track to be partners in their companies quite soon.”
“But you already own your company,” teased Tally.
Heather laughed. “That’s one way of looking at it.”
She looked out the window as they drove into the heart of town. She didn’t get into town very often. Really, there was no need to go there. Everything she needed was at the mall and it was so easy to shop in her lunch break or to rush off and pick something up while Barry watched the store for her. However, when she’d been studying and then working for a large chain of florists, she and her friends had come into town at times for parties. Not that she’d partied a whole lot even then. She’d been saving her money to put a deposit on her own store.
Despite all that, as Sam drove down a ramp and into basement parking lot, she knew where they were. The BDSM club. Well, well, well. Like so many werewolf shape-shifters, these men were quite possibly Doms. That was very interesting indeed.
There’d been a jeweler’s store at the mating party and he’d had several BDSM collars on display. Heather had gazed longingly at them and wondered if she’d ever find a Dom of her own. She supposed Keelan, the jeweler at the mall, had some as well, but she didn’t feel quite so free to go looking in his store.
Tally opened the car door and helped her out, then he and Sam walked on either side of her across to the club. The security guard scrutinized their IDs, which reminded Heather of the mating party once again, and they were allowed inside. Their table was on the mezzanine floor overlooking the dance floor, which was absolutely perfect.
Heather relaxed back into her chair, ready to have a wonderful night. She chattered happily with the men about the food they chose, and when she wasn’t talking she was people watching, although trying not to make it too obvious who she was observing at any given time.
The floor show was amazing. Heather watched breathlessly as a man and a woman stepped onto the stage. The man was a blond giant wearing skintight black leather pants, black boots, and a black wristband. He carried a whip and some ribbons. It was obvious what the whip was for, but the only reason Heather could think of for the ribbons was to tie the woman up, and surely rope would be more appropriate?
The woman was also blonde and not slender, but not fat either. She had a round ass and breasts filling out the long, flowing white dress she was wearing. The man cracked the whip and she bent over and held her ankles, her rear to the audience. The man flipped her dress up, exposing her ass, with just the line of a G-string around her hips. He proceeded to whip her until her ass was red, and Heather began to wonder how the woman’s back was feeling in that position. It wouldn’t be easy to stand like that for so long.
When he stopped, instead of putting her dress down, he tugged it up over her head, as she whirled around to face the crowd, revealing her to be wearing a tiny bikini top which matched the G-string. The woman danced around him, their movements leisurely and sexy, and quite clearly choreographed. When he took her hand and twirled her around, Heather finally saw her back. From her neck to just above her ass was a long row of double piercings. Now she knew what the ribbon was for, but she was also aware of how clever the Dom had been. He’d flung her dress up so easily, yet hadn’t revealed any of her back at all. That certainly would have been a lot harder to do than it looked.
Now the couple danced round the stage some more and the Dom began trailing the ribbons over her skin. Finally he started hooking them to her back, lacing up the piercings and tying a neat bow at the end which rested on the curve of her ass. He pulled her to him and they kissed passionately, adding an extra layer of steam to the already erotic atmosphere.
“Whew,” said Heather fanning herself as the clapping ceased and the couple left the stage.
“You enjoyed the floorshow?” asked Sam, smiling at her.
Heather’s nipples tightened and her belly clenched. The blond giant had been attractive but he had none of the appeal of the two men sitting with her. Sam and Tally already knew how to push her buttons and start her engines.
“It was very clever the way the man made everything look so smooth and easy, yet he must have had to practice and practice to make the show so teasing. Throwing her skirt just to the exact limit so we could watch him whip her ass, but with no hint of the piercings in her back. Also he had to time the whipping just right or her muscles would have been stiff from holding that position and she’d have been unable to dance. So yeah, planning and timing but also practice.”
Just then their meals arrived. Heather stared at Sam’s kung pao chicken, loaded with spices, garlic, chilies, and Szechuan peppercorns.
“Would you like a taste?” he asked her.
She picked up her fork and took a small piece of chicken, rolled it in the sauce and added one of the peppercorns. “I expect I’m going to regret this. I anticipate it’ll be much too spicy for my taste.”
Tally poured a glass of water and placed it in front of her. She supposed that meant he agreed it’d be very hot indeed. Carefully, Heather bit into the chicken and then the peppercorn. It was hot, yes. She could feel the sweat breaking out on her forehead. But she really liked the flavor. She wasn’t sure she could ever eat an entire plateful of it, but she decided a small scoop with a lot of rice would be delicious.
She sipped the water but nodded. “Something else to add to the list of things I must try again later.”
“You liked it?” asked Tally.
She nodded and the conversation turned general again, but underlying everything they said and did, was the knowledge that soon Heather would need to decide. Would she go straight home with perhaps another hot kiss or two, or was she going to spend time with the men? Horizontal-in-bed time.
Which brought her back to her worry that they would consider her cheap and easy.
* * * *
Sam went to the bar and bought them all another drink, then slipped out of the dining area and back downstairs to collect the key to the room they’d booked. Dropping the key into his pocket, he returned to the bar, picked up the tray of drinks, which were ready, and carried them back to the table. He wondered if Heather had noticed him disappear, and hoped she just thought he’d gone to the bathroom. Or maybe it might be better if she was curious and wondered what he was doing. If she agreed to come up to the room with them it would only be for the merest taste of BDSM anyway. Tonight was more a means to check that the idea didn’t frighten her than to actually carry out much of a scene. She’d given them a midnight deadline to deliver her back home, which meant there wasn’t time for a whole lot of games to be played anyway.
But if she was fascinated by BDSM, if she expressed interest in the lifestyle, that would be a giant step forward. It would mean he and Tally could begin planning a proper scene, one designed to give her ultimate fulfillment. But whatever happened, they were going to need to spend a longer time together. The short snatches of time available to them at present were by no means enough. What they all needed to do was take an entire day and go somewhere. Maybe they could go trampolining or whatever Heather wanted to do, and then they could spend hours together in the bedroom learning all about each other.
Tally gave him a nod and they each took one of Heather’s hands. She smiled as she turned slightly so she could look at them both at the same time.
“We were hoping the night woul
dn’t end just yet,” said Tally.
“Will you come with us now?” asked Sam. It was important to him he not give her a hint of where as yet.
She hesitated for a few moments and Sam’s breath caught. Please, please, please, don’t let her say no.
“I’d like that.”
“We’d like it, too. Very much.”
He led the way from the dining area to the elevators and swiped his room card. Just like the elevator in the professional suites at Hanson Mall, this one would only go to certain floors without a keycard. But this one also had labels beside all the floor buttons so he could easily find the fifth floor.
He unlocked the door and pushed the card into the slot so the lights turned on, then ushered Heather in and stood to the side so Tally could watch her look around. The bed was a huge white mattress on the floor. Beside it was a teapot with tiny cups on a very low table, and a red silk kimono with a huge obi.
“This isn’t a genuine Japanese tea ceremony. I’ve been told it takes ten years to learn the true symbolism involved in such a thing, This is just a game of pretending the geisha is here to wait upon her men,” he said.
“If you expect me to wear the costume, I hope there’s a YouTube video demonstrating how to put it on,” Heather replied.
“Again, since it’s just a game, I don’t think there’ll be an outcry if we don’t get it quite correct, but I did watch a few videos first,” said Sam.
“Before we can begin, we need to get you naked,” said Tally.
Heather giggled. “I had a feeling that would come into the program pretty soon.”
Sam kneeled at her feet and stroked his hands up her legs. Her legs were wonderful. Long, straight, soft, yet with a hint of the muscle just beneath the skin. He might be prejudiced, but he didn’t really like huge, obvious muscles on women. However, he didn’t like stick-thin waifs who looked like they’d never eaten a hearty meal in their life either. Heather was just perfect. Slender, but with curves at her breasts, hips, and ass, and with a strength that was hinted at rather than being overt.