by Lexi Blake
Kori’s elbow dug into her side.
She ignored her. It wasn’t the first time she’d interrupted the queen to ask a question. It wouldn’t be the last. It never seemed to bother Charlotte. For an alpha female, she didn’t mind a few questions.
“I want every one of you to take this time to get to know the Dom who’s been selected for you,” Charlotte continued. “For our three nights, you will call your partner Sir and he will use a pet name of your choosing. We want you to get to know each other, to have fun with each other, and take this wherever you would like for it to go. You’ll spend time with him tonight. Tomorrow you get to make the choice if you want to continue. I’ll explain all of that before tomorrow evening’s party. The Dom makes the choice on the final night, and then you’re free to continue the relationship if you like.”
“What will the couples be doing while the unattacheds are praying we’re not eating anything we’re allergic to?” Sarah asked. “Or that we hate a lot.”
Charlotte smiled. “Well, some of us get to watch.”
“Perv,” Eve said with a grin. “Some of us will be setting up for the party we’ll have afterward, where it will be a regular Thursday night and we have scenes going.”
“That’s why Tag wanted my spare night vision goggles,” Erin Taggart said. She was a lovely redhead wearing a pair of leather boy shorts and a matching corset. Her hair was piled on top of her head giving her elegant lines. Sarah had always wanted to get Erin in her makeup chair. Not because she wasn’t already gorgeous, but because she had such striking features they would be fun to play with.
She really should have been a makeup artist. If only it paid as well as saving lives.
“You have a spare set of night vision goggles?” Serena Dean-Miles asked.
Erin shrugged. “Doesn’t everyone?”
Apparently Big Tag didn’t, or maybe he’d borrowed for a friend. “So we have creepers?”
Charlotte grinned. “Of course. Where would the fun be without them? Also, before we get started, is everyone ready for the annual throwdown?”
It was one of the best times of the year. She got to sit on a picnic blanket outrageously overdressed for the occasion and watch as hot guys pretended like they could play football. And she would bring wine and cheese. Kori would bring a bunch of dogs who would try to eat her cheese, but it was okay because they were awfully cute. There was only one problem this year. She groaned. “I know I usually bring snacks, but I might have to send them with Kori. I promised Jared Johns I would work on his documentary this weekend.”
Because she wouldn’t be able to next weekend. God, she would rather think about hot guys who pretended they could play football.
Charlotte shook her head. “Not happening. I have it on good authority Ian views Jared’s arrival in time for the annual game as a sign from heaven that we’re going to win this year. I’m going to warn you though. He’s going to bench Liam and Si because of, well, the fact that they spend a lot of time trying to explain that it’s not real football. Sorry Avery and Chels.”
Avery stood next to Charlotte’s sister Chelsea, who was married to Simon Weston. “No problem. He’s still not over the Boomer incident.”
Chelsea frowned at her sister. “You know Simon thinks he’s an athlete. How do I explain that he’s getting shoved aside for some actor?”
“Jared is an actual athlete.” The words came out of Sarah’s mouth before she could call them back. Everyone turned and stared at her. Yep, she should have kept her mouth shut. “He was on American Ninja Warrior and everything. He made it through the whole course.”
She’d only watched it about three hundred times. It wasn’t her fault manly muscles did something for her.
So did his sweetness. She couldn’t help but remember how close she’d come to giving in and going to Malibu to see him. She’d known he would ask her when they’d started talking on the phone again. She’d fallen into his smooth tones and funny stories and the way he could make her feel like she was the only woman in the world when he focused on her. When they were talking, he wasn’t playing around on his computer or working out. He was talking to her and had attention for nothing else. She never had to say something twice to Jared.
Kori had a hand on her hip. “You sound like you care.”
“I do. About ninja things.” She wasn’t about to talk about how much she cared about Jared John Ferguson. Because she couldn’t. Because he would want far more than she could ever give him now. “I’m only saying that he probably plays football well. Maybe Simon could be a cheerleader.”
The big Brit would look good jumping up and down.
Chelsea’s lips curled in a grin. “I’ll pass that on. And I want a lot of cheese. Now that I’m not throwing up constantly I want to eat. A lot. Who’s bringing the sweets?”
“Macon and Ally.” Charlotte gave her sister an encouraging nod. “And Avery has promised to bring the Icy Hot.”
“I went to Costco,” Avery admitted. “It’s big in our house after Fight Club.”
The other women continued to talk but Kori took her by the elbow and led her over to the side of the locker room.
“Why are you doing this when Jared is in town?” Kori asked, her voice low. “You know you want to see him.”
“I am seeing him.” She was going to get in trouble because she hadn’t told Kori much of anything lately. It was probably best to tell her this so she didn’t have to reveal anything more. “I’m doing the interview for the documentary.”
“That’s not seeing him. Not really. That’s a work thing, though you should know he’s probably going to try to talk to you about more than the interview.”
“Then I’ll have to shut him down.” She knew he would use this time to try to talk to her about their friendship, but she hadn’t been able to refuse one last chance to see him. He would move on eventually. He was too amazing and he wanted a family so much. Some woman would snap him up, and she would likely be a gorgeous actress with a fabulous career. “I just want to find some closure. I’m sure Kai would think it was good for me if I were to ever talk about feelings stuff with him. Which I will not.”
Kori stared at her for a moment. “He would say it’s a good thing. You do need closure. I’m supposed to do an interview, too. It’s going to be hard to relive the day, but I think Jared needs this.”
She glanced back to where Charlotte was starting to lead the subs toward the “dark room” as she’d called it.
She stared at the door in front of her. It was one of the main rooms in the dungeon, one that normally was reserved for suspension play. She knew the room well since nothing made her happier than being held in ropes like a work of art for all to look at.
She might be an exhibitionist.
That room was not about exhibitionism this evening.
“And I think I need this.”
Kori reached out and squeezed her hand. “I wish you would talk to me. I know something’s going on.”
Sarah had to force back tears. She wasn’t doing this. It was precisely why she hadn’t told her bestie. “I’m not ready to talk about it, but you should know I’m handling it. I’m going to be fine.”
It was blatantly obvious her bestie didn’t want to let it drop, but she sighed. “All right. I’m going to help Kai set up a hard point. You have fun. I want to hear everything about it when you’re done.”
She nodded and let go of Kori’s hand. It was time to see if she could make a connection.
Chapter Four
In which connections are made and chocolate is had…
It was dark. Super dark. She was sure one of the guys could compare this darkness to a cave they’d explored or a moonless night in the forest, but she wasn’t much of a camper. The Four Seasons always had a light she could turn on.
“I suppose if one of us breaks a leg walking around in the dark, I’m going to have to set it,” she muttered as she took another step.
“I’ve got night vision on,” Adam Mil
es said. He was her “escort” basically meaning it was his job to ensure she made it to the Dom without falling all over herself. “It’s okay. I’m going to get you to your station and make sure you’re comfortable. Then you should know there are a couple of us staying behind to monitor the situation and ensure your safety.”
“Or to watch to see if any of us go for it and fuck in the dark.” She knew what they were really here for.
“Or that,” Adam allowed. “All right. You’re here and this is your Sir. Sir, your submissive for the night wishes to be called Princess.”
A big hand covered her own, an immediate heat flashing through her system. That hand was callused and rough, the hand of a man who worked, and not sitting at a typewriter. “Hello, Princess.”
That voice. Deep and strong, with a hint of Western accent. He sounded almost like…that was just where her mind was going tonight. Straight to Jared, but he didn’t have a hint of an accent and he always sounded so happy. Like nothing could bring him down ever. There was gravity to this man’s voice.
“Hello, Sir.”
He held her hand in his and covered it with his other, enveloping her in his warmth. Without being able to see him, she would be forced to focus on his touch and the sound of his voice. She wasn’t thinking about whether he was handsome or plain. She was thinking about how good his hand felt holding hers, how soothing his voice was.
“I’m going to help you sit down now. There’s a chaise lounge half a foot to your right. I’ll help you sit, and then I’m going to take the space to your left. In front of the chaise is a small table and there’s another to the left side that I will feed you from.”
He was going to feed her. “All right.”
At some point Adam must have moved away because all she could sense was Sir. “Can we wait a moment? Could I touch you? I just want to get a feel for how tall you are.”
“Only if I can touch you as well.”
That sent a delicious shiver through her. “Yes.”
“Give me your other hand.” He kept one in his left palm and she placed the other on top of his free hand.
He flipped it over and seemed to take a moment, his thumbs running over her palms, studying her hands as though he could memorize them. He threaded their fingers together, sliding them along until they felt like puzzle pieces that had gently found their place.
“You’re not a regular here.” She’d been told he wouldn’t be, but somehow she didn’t think he was from The Club either.
He brought her right hand up and placed it on his chest. His skin was warm, a light dusting of chest hair tickling against her palm. “No. I’m not from Dallas. I live out on the West Coast. I have a couple of friends who live here. You’re from Texas?”
She knew there were other people around them. There were twenty subs and Doms participating, and probably another ten watching whether for safety or prurient pleasure. Big Tag and his wife were probably doing pervy things somewhere in this room, but all she could hear was the deep timbre of his voice. “Yes. I’ve lived here most of my life. I’ve moved around the metroplex, but I’ve stayed in North Texas.”
She ran her hands slowly over his chest and up to broad shoulders. She could feel the edges of his leather vest, soft against her skin. The leather was buttery and likely worn.
His fingertips brushed over her, finding the line of her neck like he was exploring each curve and valley. “You don’t have an accent. I would expect Texas girls to have a twang.”
She chuckled, covering the shiver his touch was sending through her. “Not in the big cities. Dallas is very international. It’s full of people who came from other places, and it tends to affect our accents. I grew up surrounded by kids who were from Michigan and California and New York. It’s a big old melting pot.”
“I like that.” The words were said with a chuckle that seemed to caress her skin. “Is your hair up?”
“You can take it down if you like, Sir. It’s held up by a single pin.” She’d piled it on her head, pulling down some tendrils to frame her face before she’d understood no one was really looking at her tonight. Not until the after party.
Would she be able to tell who her Sir was? Would she look out over the crowded dungeon and know his broad shoulders and muscular chest? He had to be six two or three since she was forced to reach up to smooth her hands over his shoulders, loving the moment she passed the soft leather to find his skin.
She forced herself to breathe as he gently framed her face with his big hands and then brushed them up and over her hair until he found the antique hair pin that held her loose bun in place.
“Does this double as a weapon?”
She smiled as she explored the warm flesh of his neck. He was incredibly fit, but lean, too. His neck wasn’t massive like some steroided-out gym maniac. “No, Sir. It was a gift from my grandmother meant only to look pretty.”
“I have to ask given where we are. Some of the women are deadly.”
He wasn’t wrong about that. The Sanctum crowd had a whole lot of ex-military or former/current law enforcement. “I’m a ‘save lives’ kind of girl. No spy stuff for me. Well, except when it comes to gossip, and then I will spy like James Bond.”
He gently pulled the pin from her bun and it tumbled free, falling around her shoulders and down past her breasts. He sighed as he threaded his fingers through her hair, running them along her scalp and down until he brushed the tops of her breasts. “Gossip girl?”
That did sound kind of bad. She should explain. It was hard to find words when her nipples had tightened to almost the point of pain. Luckily, she liked erotic pain. A lot. “Only in a good way. I’ll be honest, one of the reasons I like Sanctum is the lack of nastiness. Since Queen Charlotte banished a bunch of subs for bad behavior, we don’t have a ton of mean girls. Well, we have Maia, but only when Big Tag needs her to manipulate the legal and political systems to do his will. That happens surprisingly more than you would think it does.”
“She’s the ADA?”
“She won the DA’s race a couple of months ago, so I expect she’ll be around a lot. She’s mean, but like to everyone, so it’s hard to take it personally.”
“She’s mean to you?” The question came out hard, and she was pretty sure if she could have seen his eyes, they would have narrowed.
She’d expected an alpha male. Sanctum was full of them, and the Doms liked to take care of subs. She couldn’t take that personally either. “Not really. She’s got a sharp tongue and she was born without a single fuck to give. I can handle myself. But like I was saying one of the reasons I love it here is the lack of nastiness, so when it comes to gossip, it’s usually stuff like friends doing silly things. Like Jesse Murdoch and Simon Weston having a secret bet on who can stay on the hamster wheel the longest.”
The hamster wheel was a giant…well, hamster wheel. It was in the largest of the dungeons in the club and for the most part was used to “punish” subs by making them light the sucker up. The faster the sub ran the more colors they lit up. If she was in any way interested in running, it would have been fun.
She was not.
“Who won?”
“We all did because they thought they could come in after hours and have their runoff in private, but my friend Vince overheard them in the locker room and we snuck back in. There’s apparently a trick to running on a circular track that neither one of them got. The good news was we had a laugh and I got to snap Jesse’s shoulder back into place.”
His hand was in her hair as though he couldn’t quite stop touching it. “And what was your punishment? You snuck in and watched two Doms who were looking for privacy. There should have been punishment.”
Every word was deep and dark, honey rich and ripe with promise. What would this man’s punishment be like? “Did you forget the whole snapping his shoulder back into place part?”
“I did not. I also didn’t forget the disrespect part.”
“Vince did have to spend three days crawling around.
Mistress Jackie is his Domme and she takes that stuff seriously. Master Kai put Kori in some pretty nasty bondage for a whole evening. He carted her around like a piece of luggage and she wasn’t allowed to speak. She really hates the ball gag.”
“And what happened to you?” Sir asked.
“I was the chick who saved Master Jesse’s ability to throw a baseball.”
His hand fisted in her hair sending the most delicious thrill down her spine as he tugged to just the right side of pain. “No one punished you?”
“It’s not that kind of club. I don’t have a Dom and Big Tag is surprisingly indulgent if he likes a person.”
He pressed up and forced her to her toes. Her breath hitched as she felt his warmth close to her ears. “Poor sub. You should know if you decide to dance for me tomorrow night, I would have punished you. I would have put you over my knee and spanked your ass silly. I would have forced you to stay at my side and serve my every need, and many of those needs would have been sexual. I would have kept you naked and desperate for my affection.”
Charlotte was totally right to have done this because she didn’t care what he looked like. All that mattered was how he made her feel and that was desired and achy and super, super horny.
“I’ll keep that in mind, Sir.” She couldn’t help the way her breath came out in little puffs.
Yes, she could spend the weekend with this man. He wouldn’t be here for long. He would stay for the weekend and maybe come back from time to time since he had friends here, but she wouldn’t get invested in him. She would be smart and safe.
“Let’s sit for a while,” he whispered. “I want to talk to you. I want to get to know you, Princess. I want to know if the name you’ve picked for yourself is perfect or perfectly ironic because I think you might be a horrible, wicked little brat.”
“Do you like brats?” She’d known some Doms who didn’t, who wanted a perfectly obedient sub. They didn’t come to Sanctum. Sanctum was what she liked to call sugar kink. It was for play and no one took it too seriously. Brattiness was often seen as entertainment.