Finding Their Balance (44 page)

Cal cracked the whip. The tip danced shy of the front row. “Eyes on the stage. I’m the one you came to see. Unless you’d rather watch me peel the arrogance from this fuck-slave parroting his owner’s philosophy.”

Sidelong glances and low retorts spread.

Raising his head, the shaking slave stared at Jay.

“You can say ‘red’ when you’ve had enough.” Jay dominated the hall, the crowd quieting as though he spoke to them all and not his curious mirror. “He won’t admire you for taking a beating. He won’t listen for what you need. But we’re listening.”

The whip shot between them. Braided leather curled around the slave’s ribs from back to front and scored his stomach. He screamed.
“Red.”

“No. No, that’s not fair.” Cal yanked the whip to his side. “It doesn’t get to say. My slaves don’t have safewords. I haven’t allowed that babyish whining in years. I decide when the game ends. I decide.”

Will vaulted onto the platform and ripped the whip from Cal’s hand. “No, you don’t.”

The leather thumped to the boards.

Emma issued commands in a low alto, and black-banded play monitors took charge of unbinding the woman huddled on the platform and the man draped over the cross.

The man fixed his gaze on Jay.

“Do you see, now, how deep the insubordination and disrespect run?” Stepping away from Will, Cal spread his arms for the crowd. “I demand redress.”

“Paying for submission? Disallowing safewords?” Will gripped Cal’s upper arm and jerked him to face the board. “That’s two stains against the fundamental tenets every master and mistress here commits to follow in their membership agreement.”

Unable to shake loose, Cal struggled. Wild panic showed in his darting eyes.

Will clamped a second hand on his shoulder. “I’m satisfied with Calvin’s demonstration of his own unsuitability for continued membership. At least one of his partners will require medical attention, and neither appears to have been an entirely willing participant. Gentlemen and lady of the board? What say you?”

Cal’s laughter reeked of hysteria. “It’s not enough for Henry to jump up his fucktoys and flaunt them in my face, now he has his bulldog interrupt my demonstration without cause. He can’t stop my show. He can’t—”

“He can.” Master Laurence pushed himself to his feet. “He is obligated to do so, both as an honorable master in this club and as the newest member of its governing board.”

“What?” Cal’s screech reached the rafters.

“Master Jacob’s retiring,” Will drawled. “I’ve been appointed to fill the remainder of his term until the next election cycle. The board finalized the decision this afternoon. Did I neglect to mention that? Silly me.”

The crowd roared with acclamation and congratulations. Henry’s suggestions to Emma hadn’t gone unheard. The board seat had gone to Santa, and the power and prestige—and responsibility—had gone with it.

With gracious thanks, Will nodded even as he kept a firm grip on Cal. Hell, his smile probably owed more to having the bastard’s arm twisted behind his back.

Beside the platform, Jay helped his lookalike into a robe. Henry’s steady competence showed in his smooth motions. Calming the skittish colt he’d once been. His lips moved, though his voice didn’t carry. Two black-ribboned monitors stood by and let him work.

Grasping Henry’s hand, she turned up his palm. The lines traveled far. Eyes on Jay, he hummed a rising note as she traced them.

“You’ve been playing chess.” Tinkering with the guts of the machine, in her parlance, an infinite machine with uncountable and intricate moving parts. “Long game.”

His dark gaze grew less opaque, as if he’d invited her into the green wilds and she’d stumbled onto a cleared path. He pressed his lips to her brow in blessing. “The most satisfying ones always are.”

Henry set pieces in motion and found satisfaction watching others step into positions he’d cleared for them. Jay discovering his strength, Will joining the board, and Cal being removed. Henry didn’t demand a place in the spotlight for any of it. He’d mastered invisibility.

“You could’ve been the one standing up there.” Though Santa had a good handle on the situation. And on Cal. Sulky, struggling rage was fast becoming her favorite look on him.

“Victor would have had it so.” Henry glanced at Emma, who stood conferring with the other board members on stage.

“Not you, though.”

“Had it fallen to me in years past, I might have taken up the mantle. Running the club has never been my dream, though I might have settled for the task had you and Jay not come into my life.” Standing, he smiled broadly and offered her his arm. “Will has long desired this, and the timing is right. He deserves the leadership role. He’ll make an excellent guide.”

“He just needed to be seen as one.” Taking down Cal made for a hell of a first day on the job. Santa would build a reputation as a decisive but fair governing master.

“Appearances.” Henry tucked her arm into his elbow. “Real or illusory, much rests on them. Over time, the image one projects may sink deep enough to become the person instead of the role.”

Following his gaze to Jay as he shared his deep well of compassion and wisdom, she basked in the reflected thrill. “And they finally see the strength and beauty in themselves that others see in them.”

The robed slave threw his arms around Jay. A nanosecond of surprise flashed in Jay’s eyes and stopped his mouth before his empathetic reflexes took over. He shot the pair of them a brilliant grin.

Wandering closer, Henry chuckled. “Our boy does take after you, dearest.”

“Me? What’d I do?”

“Inspire others.” He nodded toward Jay and the man huddling against his chest. “He has his own Leah.”

Yeah, he kinda did. The younger man clung to Jay for stability the way Leah had done to her until her master had arrived. He’d be adrift until he found a Henry like Jay had. “You know this means you’ll have to find him a nice playmate who isn’t Jay.”

“Actually, I believe that responsibility falls to Will.” Humor lurked in Henry’s eyes. “We’ll simply offer a suggestion or two.”

“—me through the front desk.” Disentangling from his unexpected embrace, Jay chattered like they were at home. Comfortable and safe being himself. “Emma will make sure I get the message. Do you shoot hoops? I know some other subs you should meet. We might start a regular pickup game.”

Radiating self-confidence, he shone brightest in the room. Jay took fucking fantastic strides with adorable swagger. Maybe the day when he’d kiss Henry courtside in the park had grown closer.

“Immediate expulsion, then.” Master Laurence’s declaration wafted over the crowd. “A unanimous decision.”

Will marched Cal to the stage steps. “Walk or fall, I don’t care which.”

With noisy, booted disdain, Cal clomped down the risers. His sweeping glare encompassed them all.

She shot back a sunny grin. Emperor’s new clothes. They’d pantsed the bully and paraded his flaws. Word would spread to those who hadn’t attended. And the best part was that he’d done it to himself in a Henry-engineered design.

“We’ll have your belongings boxed up and delivered. You’ve forfeited your privileges.” Handing Cal off to a pair of play monitors, Will stared him down. “You’re no longer welcome here.”

“My father—”

“Your father.” Command swirling, Henry dropped into his dominant voice and paused the world. “Your father was an arrogant but respectable man with an enormous blind spot for the flaws of his offspring. Your behavior caused his rift with Victor. You cost him the goodwill of his friends and drove him from his home, and still he defended you. You’re a disgrace, Calvin.”

“I am a master.” Cal ground out the words between clenched teeth. “You will treat me with respect.”

“You were never a master.” Jay, his hand on the former slave’s shoulder, mimicked Henry at his blandest. Delivering facts so obvious they needed no emphasis. “Your title is as empty as you are.”

With Emma’s wave, the play monitors hauled Cal away. He hurled invectives and pleaded for a hearing but received turned backs and silence. Fitting for Jay to utter the definitive statement of Cal’s tenure at the club. He’d earned his right to pass judgment in blood.

Emma, Master Laurence as her escort, gathered up Cal’s demonstration partners and sent them on their way. Medical care and statement-giving awaited them downstairs.

“Well done, Master Jay.” Emma straightened his tie with a teasing smile and a touch of fussy mothering. “Master Henry.” She inclined her head. “Mistress Alice.” The smile she shared with Alice and Henry carved a harsher edge of grim satisfaction.

With Cal ousted, his clique would follow him into exile or learn to play by the rules. The club would regain its balance. Santa would reinvigorate the board, and Emma would reclaim her place shepherding submissives.

Master Laurence patted Emma’s arm. “Time to tend to the last of this nasty business.” With farewells for them, he steered her toward the exit. The other two board stalwarts fell in behind. “Will’s been telling me he has some thoughts for making certain this ugliness isn’t repeated. I thought we might fit in an extra meeting.”

The crowd thinned as the excitement ebbed. The area behind the stage had quieted to the three of them and Santa William.

“Plenty of good ideas.” Will clasped Henry in a bear hug. “I wonder where I got those.”

“I’m sure I haven’t the slightest notion.” Henry hugged back, hard, and disengaged. “It does me good to know you’ll be at the helm. Your guiding hand is sorely needed. You’ll do wonders for Em.”

Will snorted and shook his head. Stepping in front of her, he threw his arms wide. “Mistress Alice, may I?” At her nod, he boosted her off the ground in a hell of a hug and planted a bushy beard kiss on her cheek. “You keep these men in line, now. I don’t want complaints about them running wild in this club.”

“Oh, they know”—she landed in the gentlest of set-downs—“when to be wild and when to be gentlemen.” Her glance at Henry met his. “Might be what I love most about them. They’re both a two-for-one deal. I never have to settle.”

Jay got the same polite inquiry and hardy hug with less floor-leaving.

Shrugging his suit coat into place, Will sighed. “I hate to run, but I have shiny new responsibilities waiting downstairs.”

“And I’ve a date with two deserving submissives at home.” Henry draped a dark, hungry net over them with his gaze.

Will winked. “I’d offer to trade, but I doubt the world holds enough of anything to sweeten that deal.”

Not for her. She reeled in Jay and claimed a kiss. Threading her fingers in his hair, she pushed every ounce of her love into him.

“No, not anything.” With an intimate murmur, Henry wrapped them in boundless affection. “I possess exactly what I want.”

On Friday afternoon, Alice plowed through her third straight hour of searching for the magic numbers to push the Frellinger project’s fail point into the safe zone on the stress sim analysis. In a blur, a pine-green lunch sack settled beside her elbow.

Eric the humble stood by her desk. “Bike messenger left this. I told Nancy I’d bring it up.”

“Thanks.” She projected a professional, asexual impression at work. So no asking if the messenger had been a whippet-thin tower of muscle with shaggy black hair and a charming grin that covered every expression from Bashful Boulevard to Cocky Lane.

“Welcome.” He shuffled off. Uncurious guy for an engineer, with zero creativity but a solid baseline for their design pod, married, dependable, and completely uninterested in teasing her about a secret admirer. His deskmate would’ve announced the delivery to the room and asked if her bang boy could send him lunch, too.

She swiveled the insulated bag. The pink delivery tag bore Jay’s logo and listed the sender as
available upon request.
Two taps would put her on the phone with Henry, requesting he make himself available. Inappropriate at work, but tonight was a play night. He’d cooked up a new way to tease.

Fingers tingling, she tipped out a bento box and a sealed envelope. The heavy cardstock held a nap like velvet, rough and smooth.
Miss Alice Colvin
graced the center in Henry’s neat, swirling hand.

She sliced the edge with her letter opener. A trifolded paper landed in her palm.

Alice,

This note comes frightfully late, but I do hope you recognize the sentiments behind my missives arrive with a wealth of forethought and deliberation. Please enjoy all of your mid-afternoon snack, as dinner will be flexible—shall we say fluid?—this evening.

Not to worry, all is taken care of. I believe you know your dual responsibilities by heart. We shall see tonight.

Yours,

H.

The computer simulation ran merrily along as she resolved to obey and enjoy her almond granola mix, peanut butter, and tightly wrapped apple wedges. Every bite of the slow-burning stamina treats sparked anticipation of Henry’s sure intention to wring the energy from her later.

At quarter to six, as she slid her key in to enter Henry’s domain, the apartment door swung open without her push.

“Gear drop, please.” In formal dress pants and a button-down, Jay gestured toward the side table. “If you’ll leave everything here and follow me?”

Henry had started the game an hour early. With a shiver, she abandoned the day and the outside world with it. “Is the master of the house otherwise occupied?”

“You’ll meet him when you’re properly prepared.” From the way Jay’s eyes danced, his solemn tone and unfidgety stance qualified as marvels of Henry’s engineering. “He’s very particular about his guests’ comfort.”

“Is he?” No Henry occupied the living room, and no shouts of greeting came from rooms beyond. Memory overlaid milieu, night after night of surprises, the risk of the unknown and the body-shaking rewards of the courage to submit. “I could go ask him.”

“No peeking.” Jay took her arm gentleman-style and steered her to the bathroom. “Your instructions are inside. If you have—” Gazing up, he silently repeated himself.

“Take your time.” Whatever Henry’s plans, Jay would insist on executing them to perfection. If she rushed him in her excitement, she’d twist him between the desires of two masters. She rubbed his forearm. “I’m enjoying myself on the arm of a handsome escort with excellent manners.”