by Unknown
“I don’t need a keeper,” Sammy muttered under her breath, glaring at his reflection in the mirror on the wall behind the bar.
She felt his hand on the back of her neck, a gentle squeeze that sent shivers down her spine because she knew the gesture for what it was.
A warning.
She didn’t know why it didn’t frighten her, but it didn’t. Instead her breath came in soft little pants and goose bumps formed on her arms. Desire slid through her. Animal’s hand on her neck moved away and she felt bare, exposed. It was an odd sensation that she wasn’t sure she understood.
Sammy did know that this was the reason she allowed him to bring her here. She trusted him in a way she didn’t any other man. It had started the first time she’d looked into his eyes and realized he was able to show dominance with only a look. It had pierced her skin like a knife, flowing over her in waves of thick need, and she knew that she was doomed.
Animal leaned down to speak into her ear. His breath was warm as it teased her with the gentle caress against her neck, sending another shiver of lust down her spine in a tingling wave of passion.
“Stay here. You don’t have your collar and I am the only Dom who will touch you until this arrangement is over. You know how I’ll handle it if they try.” He stood and moved to the doorway that was to the left of the bar. Sammy watched him with a light shudder.
“Want a drink, Sam?” Luke the bartender asked.
“Rum and coke please,” she told him smiling.
“Sure, coming right up.” He started making her drink, handing it to her when he finished. Sammy looked out to the dance floor watching the subs dance. She had been watching them for about twenty minutes when Mark walked over and took the seat beside her, smiling.
“Hey, strawberry, what are you doing here? Not that I mind. I thought after that run-in at your place with Animal that perhaps you would be collared by now. Besides last time you visited I took you out in tears. Don’t fancy doing that again anytime soon.” Sammy blushed.
The night she had tried to let him help her get over the things Tom had done to her. She’d panicked as soon as she’d entered his private room. That scene with Animal at her place was just as embarrassing because he had been so damned rude to Mark, practically demanding that he get out, and she hadn’t talked to Mark since which made her feel bad.
“You won’t be,” a gruff male voice growled in a raspy tone. Sammy shivered because she knew that voice. She also knew who the possessive hand that cupped the back of her neck belonged to.
“Ah, like that is it?” Mark said smiling
“Yes,” Animal said in that same growly voice that he had used a moment ago.
“I should talk with you for a moment then about––things then. It’s important,” Mark said, glancing at her then back at Animal, sharing a look with him that she didn’t know how to interpret.
“I already know. Likely more than you do,” Animal replied and Sammy realized that they were talking about her and what Tom had done to her. Mark knew she’d gone home with Tom because she always told someone she trusted when she went home with someone new. Not that it had happened often, only twice, once with George and once with Tom. She was glad in that moment that she hadn’t told Mark Tom’s name that night so many months ago. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Tom punished, she did, but she didn’t want anyone to go chasing after him and get hurt because if that happened, she would never forgive herself.
“I see. Good. I assume you’ve taken care of that issue then?” Mark asked with raised brows.
“No, she won’t tell me his name,” Animal gritted out, his hand tightening again on the back of her neck in warning. “It will be taken care of when she does.”
“Very good. Don’t need riffraff like that in our club.”
“True. I talked with Lucian. No reports of issues with any of the regular subs. I think her attacker may have moved on. Lucian’s going to talk to Rick at the club in Huntsville. Maybe he went there. Closest club to us,” Animal said.
“That’s a good idea. Is he also talking to the manager at Tattered?” Mark asked.
“Already done. We should know if any issues arise from there too.” Animal’s thumb moved on her neck, sliding up and down her pulse as she listened to them talking about the other two bondage clubs in their area. She was surprised that her heart picked up its pace again and she was feeling a little breathless from the gentle almost absentminded caress.
“Good. If you need any help with Sam just let me know.” She felt Animal stiffen.
“That won’t be necessary,” he clipped. “If you’ll excuse us, we are headed to the viewing hall.” Animal’s voice was gravelly and his hand moved from her neck, both hands moving to cup her hips. He helped her off the stool. When she was standing beside him, his hands slid away and one moved to the small of her back to guide her. She waved goodbye to Mark and heard Animal’s grunted ‘later’ and then they were in front of the doorway. Her heart began to pound and she felt her body becoming liquid.
Sammy had been in the viewing hall a few times. It was a hallway set up with two-way mirrors into the twenty or so private rooms. You had to be invited into the hallway by a second tier member in order to enter so it was surprising when they only waved Animal and her through the roped off barrier. She looked at him in surprise, wondering if perhaps he hadn’t been here more than she realized.
As they stepped through the curtained doorway into the semi-darkness, Sammy felt his hand tense before it rubbed the small of her back gently. The rooms had shutters that slid into place when a couple in the private room wanted privacy. Many of the dominants and their submissives enjoyed this voyeurism and often included it in their play.
Sammy wasn’t a fan of being watched and to her it had always seemed a little disgusting. Although she wanted to please her dominant, she never wanted to be on display for all the club to see. She didn’t like thinking that she didn’t have control over who watched her, who could see her pleasure in the act. Maybe it was that she had been raised in such a constricting environment in regards to sex but she had always felt that sex between two people shouldn’t be displayed for public consumption. She didn’t want others watching, unlike the people who allowed others to view them and their partners.
The more she thought about it, the more she realized that it shouldn’t shock her that Animal had been here more often than she first considered because Animal was a dominant and he had likely come here to find his submissives. She didn’t know if she liked that thought. She didn’t like thinking of him with other women and that was a bit worrisome because this wasn’t going to end with them in a relationship and she’d told him she could handle that, only she wasn’t sure that she could.
Sammy knew it was stupid. He was only helping her to get over what had been done to her, not starting a relationship. She needed to get her head on right and she didn’t know if she would be able to. From the moment she met him, something about him seemed to call to some deep dark place inside her that left her horny and unsteady. She didn’t want to think about how Animal eventually ending their agreement would affect her.
Chapter 11
Animal guided her into the hall, his hand sliding up her spine to cup the back of her neck again. His thumb rubbed along her pulse before he leaned forward, his breath teasing her as he whispered, “Tonight we’re here for me to learn your limits. I need to know how far to push. If you used to like something but are now frightened of it, tell me. I will study your reactions to the things we see to determine what you like and don’t like. Only I won’t be able to know if some things frighten you because of him so you need to tell me. Do you understand?”
Sammy let out a quick breath before saying, “Okay.”
“Good. Let’s begin.” Animal guided her to the first window.
The man inside the room had the woman on her knees, and her hands were bound behind her back with a silk tie. Her body was bare and she was blindfolded. The man moved forward, his hand
holding a ball gag. She felt Animal’s hand pressing against her lower back as she watched the man put the gag on the woman. Sammy didn’t like the gag but the rest of the scene didn’t bother her.
“Hmm, no gags. Good, I don’t like them either,” Animal muttered with a slight smile curving the corners of his lips. Sammy was surprised that he had been able to tell that she didn’t like them just from watching her.
“How did you know?” Sammy asked, looking up at him and wondering what he’d seen.
“Your lips tightened and your breathing changed,” Animal told her, that slight smile turning into a light smirk.
Sammy turned back to the window seeing that the man was now pushing the woman forward over a small bench. He was holding a paddle now and she felt her breathing speed up as her body loosened. Animal leaned towards her, his breath on her neck bringing her attention back to him.
“Let’s move to the next one,” his husky voice teased her ear. She felt another shiver of need flow down her spine. Animal guided her to the next window and Sammy flinched. Her heart began to race and her breathing came in short panicked pants. She felt lightheaded and she wanted to run; only Animal’s hand on the back of her neck stopped her. Animal turned her away from the window, moving her to the small booth that was nearby. Sitting her down, he pushed her head between her legs.
“Breathe, just breathe, Sammy. You’re okay.”
Sammy wasn’t sure she was. She didn’t want to react this way to something that used to bring her such pleasure but the sight of the woman on the table spread-eagle with her hands and legs bound outward while hot wax was dribbled on her skin had triggered the memories of Tom pouring scalding hot wax on her breasts and then whipping her burned skin with the whip. It had felt like fire burning her skin and just thinking about it, she could almost feel the pain again.
She felt her mind protest the images of the clinic doctor’s face when she revealed her body to him the next day when she needed to be healed. The look he had given her had been revulsion, because he knew she hadn’t gotten those wounds from any normal circumstances and he likely thought she was a masochist. She hadn’t corrected him because she had just wanted to get the hell out of that office and pretend that none of it had ever happened. She’d been so embarrassed by what he’d done that she hadn’t wanted to go for treatment at all but Tom had done so much damage that she didn’t have a choice unless she wanted to risk a nasty infection.
“Shhh, it’s ok. You’re okay. You’re safe.” Animal used his body to block the view of the room, holding her shoulders and rubbing them soothingly. She wanted to cry because she didn’t see how they were going to fix these issues when she couldn’t even get through watching it in a safe environment.
Tears stung her eyes as she leaned into the plush booth. Her chest ached because she didn’t want this to be her identity for the rest of her life. She didn’t want to be broken by what Tom had done to her.
“This isn’t going to work,” Sammy told him with a sigh of despair.
“Sam, baby, I expected you to react like this. It’s normal and it will help me to know what things scare you. That way I don’t push too hard and make things worse rather than better. You need to stop thinking so much about the fear. Part of the problem is you’re afraid to feel frightened of the things that happened. You want to just magically get over everything and that isn’t going to happen. It’s going to be work and it will take time,” Animal told her, his hand rubbing over her shoulders. His mouth brushed against her head as he pulled her to him.
“Why can’t I just let it go?” Sammy demanded, anger at her weakness filling her.
“Babe, he didn’t just break your trust, which is the key to any dom-sub relationship, he obliterated it.”
“I should still be able to move on. It’s been months.”
“Babe, it isn’t going to just go away. Someone hurt you and there are bound to be scars from that abuse. It’s the way it works.”
Sammy looked up at him, seeing the dark comfort his eyes offered. This was why she trusted him, because no matter how she reacted he was able to talk her down. Animal seemed to know what she needed to hear and he said it.
“Okay, let’s do this then. I want to get this over with.”
Animal’s eyes narrowed and his hazel eyes darkened even more. “No, sit for a while and calm yourself down. Tell me what made you panic?”
“I don’t want to sit,” Sammy told him defiantly.
“Shush, no lip. Not right now. I will have to punish you if you do and since I don’t yet know what you can handle, that might not go well,” he growled, his hand on the back of her neck again. His look was foreboding and he wouldn’t allow her to look away from him.
Sammy didn’t want to tell him about the wax. She didn’t want to talk about it but she knew that he wouldn’t allow her to hide. It was the reason she had come to him to help her with the issue in the first place. She leaned her head back into the booth and sighed. Animal allowed her to do so without complaint. He waited, watching her silently. She knew she wasn’t going to get out of telling him.
Staring at the ceiling above her, looking at one of the black paneled tiles, she whispered, “The wax. He burned me and then he wh–whipped me over the burns.” She knew that if there had been any sound in the hall that he wouldn’t have been able to hear her but she couldn’t bring herself to talk any louder. It was degrading to admit that she had allowed herself to be tied up and abused by a madman because she liked kinky sex.
“I see,” Animal clipped out, his body tensing and his fists clenched against his legs as he sat next to her. She didn’t look at him and he was glad. The rage that filled him at her words was almost too much to bear. He knew that this was only the beginning but hearing the quiet words made his mind fill with a red haze of thick fury that seemed to want to take him over. He wanted to rip the man that had abused her into tiny pieces while he was still breathing.
Animal wasn’t a nice man and he had done things that didn’t qualify him for sainthood but he couldn’t condone what had happened to her. The man she refused to name was going to die just as soon as he got Sammy to tell him his name.
Animal brushed his hand possessively over her head. His fingers sliding into the silky mass of strawberry blonde waves, he gripped it lightly. Tugging gently, he pulled her head back so that she had to look at him. “Before he did that, did you like the sensation of hot and cold created by alternating wax and ice?” he asked, needing to know if she had liked the play before that son of a bitch had abused her.
“Yes,” Sammy whispered, her cherry colored lips parting slightly. He growled because he wanted badly to take those lips with his own.
To dominate them, own them.
Only he knew that she wasn’t ready yet. She wasn’t ready for them to start playing in his world. Not until he knew where her limits were because if he kissed her, he wouldn’t stop there. He’d take her to his private room and strip her naked and take her. He wouldn’t be able to stop the need to have her, it was too strong, and that was why he should find another man to help her with this. Another dom who he trusted to take care of her needs, but even as the thought entered his mind, the raging beast that lived inside him roared with denial and a fury so hot it scorched his skin and flowed through his veins. No one was going to be touching her, no one except him.
“Let’s move to the next window and see what other hurdles we will need to overcome.” He pulled her gently to her feet keeping his large body in front of her so that she didn’t see the woman on the table or the man who was dripping wax on her. He led her past the next window, which had its privacy shield down, to the next room.
He felt her stiffen when she saw the woman in the room being taken by two men. One was taking her mouth and the other her ass. Animal was grateful that her reaction to the sight wasn’t positive. He didn’t think he would ever be able to allow her to be touched by another man. It just wasn’t something he could imagine. The thought alone made him crazed.
Earlier when Mark, who he knew had been with her in the past, had said that he would be willing to help, he had wanted to shoot him. He didn’t like that Mark had touched Sammy. He didn’t like it at all.
In fact, it made him want to punish her even though it was before he really knew her. It didn’t seem to matter to the beast shredding his insides with razor sharp claws. It didn’t like the knowledge at all.
He guided her past the three lovers and on to the next room, where a man was propping his feet on his sub and calling her names. Animal stiffened. This type of play had always seemed abusive to him, almost too humiliating.
Sammy looked at him and whispered, “He did that. He told me I was fat and a whore an–and that I was worthless as he cut me wi––with a knife.” Sammy’s eyes were wide and her face was pale and she looked like she was going to break at any moment. It brought every protective instinct inside him to the surface and he pulled her into his arms clutching her pliant body to his, wanting to shield her from the memories of the man who’d hurt her. He didn’t like that he needed to bring it all to the surface in order to help her overcome the fear that was eating her up inside. He didn’t like it at all.
Animal kissed the top of her head, his arms holding her tightly as she began to whimper and then cry. Although he knew it was good for her to cry, it felt like knives stabbing into him with hot ashes burning him. To say he didn’t like that Sammy was hurting was an understatement.
He hated it.
He held her, his hands running soothingly up and down her back as she cried in his arms, her hands clutching his cut tightly. After a long while of standing in his arms and crying, she pulled back and looked up at him with tears marring her normally beautiful features. He leaned down as she parted her lips to speak and took them with his own.
His tongue plunged into her mouth like a conquering hero and his hands gripped the back of her head to angle her mouth perfectly for his hot invasion. He felt her gentle and relax, her body softening into his, and his beast roared in satisfaction. He devoured her lips, his tongue plundering every inch of her mouth. His hands slid down, cupping her ass and pulling her closer. He let out a growl of need and pressed harder against her needing more. Needing her to surrender.