Penance (Long Slow Tease, #2) (12 page)

Wyatt went to turn, but Yuki stopped him. “Yes, she is. She’s waiting for you, but I’ll need you in a few minutes to start our performance.”

He nodded and turned to leave their small group, but Yuki stopped him and whispered in his ear, “She’s had a couple drinks so she may not be as rational as she usually is. This means no playtime for you together. Understood? It’s the rules of the club and while Michelle knows that, she’s not in the right mindset for any kind of play.”

“Are you sure our performance is a good idea?”

Mistress Daniella and Collin moved to the far side of the table, discussing the candles and obviously trying to give them some privacy. “Yes, no, hell I don’t know. If we give her a good enough show and can drag her out of the funk she’s in it should help. She’s feeling very vulnerable at the moment and seeing you with Mistress Daniella sent her straight to the bar.”

“Why? All I’m doing is talking with Mistress
Daniella and Collin.” Irritation spiked along his nerves and he looked for Michelle, but couldn’t see her through the growing crowd. “Does she really believe I’d cheat on her?”

“No, that’s not it. Well that’s kind of it
, but not really. Look, just go talk to her, soothe her, and I’ll send James over for you when it’s time. She loves you, Wyatt, don’t ever forget that, but she’s in her ice queen mode right now so try not to let her freeze your balls off.”

Making his way quickly through the crowd, his gaze centered on his Domina and he only vaguely noticed she was wearing a pink latex dress that molded to her every curve
before flaring out at her hips with a silver chainmail corset around her waist. What captured his attention was the way she was slamming down two shot glasses of a clear liquid, one right after the other. After she slammed the glasses on the bar top her head momentarily sagged and her shoulders rounded in, a brief crack in her physical armor that was alarming on every level. Michelle never, ever let her emotions show in a public situation, and to see her this obviously distressed sent up warning flags.

He
needed to get her out of here.

Right
the fuck now.

She noticed him approaching and sat up straight, trying to affect her normal cool Domina expression. Only her fingers were twisting in her lap, a sure sign that she was either drunk, or close to losing it, or both. The bartender caught Wyatt’s eye and made the universal gesture of a finger across the throat to indicate that Michelle was cut off. Wyatt nodded and as soon as he was close enough to touch her, knelt next to her bar stool.

“You look beautiful, Domina.”

Anger and pain waged a battle in her slightly glassy gaze before she said, “Do you want to fuck her?”

“What?”

Michelle jerked her chin in Mistress
Daniella’s direction. “Do you want to fuck her?”

He rose until he could put his lips to her ear. She tried to jerk away but he easily captured her with an arm around her waist. “Better stay still, sweetheart, because you need to understand something right now, before we go a step further. You
’re the woman I love. You and only you. There is no one I could ever want more than I want you. Don’t you understand? You’re my beginning and end.”

She sagged in his grip and let out a hitched breath.
“I’m...I’m sorry, Wyatt. You don’t deserve my jealousy.”

“It only tells me that you care, but I won’t put up with you doubting me.”

Some of her steel returned to her spine, but her cheeks were rosy from drinking. “I never doubt you.”

“Then you have no need to be concerned about me talking to another woman
– even the one who trained Owen.”

Terrible pain flashed through her gaze, followed by hard guilt. “Don’t, please. I can’t talk about him right now.”

He could practically see the emotion seething beneath her skin and wondered how long they had before she totally lost it. While part of him wanted to pick the scab off her emotional wound, this wasn’t the place to deal with the fallout, not when there were so many people watching them, some with pity and others with a smugness that made him want to bash their faces in. Protective instincts flared within him and he gathered Michelle into his arms.

“I’ve got you,
sugar. Whatever you need, I’m here for you.”

She nestle
d against him and let out a long sigh. “Distract me, Wyatt. Keep me in the present. I’m so damn tired of letting my past destroy my future.”

“You know we can’t play here tonight. Not after drinking.”

“I’m sorry about that. Especially with your issues with alcohol. It was very selfish and cruel of me. Please forgive me for ruining your night.”

“Come on now, no need to nail yourself to the cross.
Booze and misery go hand in hand. I should know, but it doesn’t take the pain away, does it?”

She let out an almost haunted sigh. “No, it doesn’t.”

Yuki moved into his line of sight next to the bar. “Wyatt?”

He looked down at Michelle and gave her a small smile. “I have a surprise for you.”

She looked between him and Yuki. “You both know I can’t play tonight.”

“That is true,” a deep male voice said from across the bar.

Yuki smiled and actually squealed like a pre-teen meeting her favorite band when she said, “Petrov!”

Wyatt was watching Michelle as she turned and
beamed at a man with a full head of silver hair and piercing blue eyes. He was probably in his late sixties, built like a brick house, and radiated control. Dressed in a pair of black leather pants and a black leather vest covered in patches, he smiled at Michelle with obvious affection.

“Welcome back, baby girl
,” he said in a voice that held a thick trace of an Eastern European accent.

The man’s sweet talk didn’t sit well with Wyatt, but what pissed him off even more was the instant relief he felt coursing through Michelle. She turned as much as she could in Wyatt’s arms and reached out across the bar, gripping the other man’s hand in hers. “It is so good to see you.”

He looked up at Wyatt and raised a brow. “So, who is this Alpha male you’ve managed to seduce into submission?”

Michelle didn’t release Petrov’s hand or even turn to look at Wyatt. “This is Wyatt Callahan.”

Petrov gently pulled his hand from beneath Michelle’s and extended it to Wyatt. “It is truly my pleasure to meet you. And don’t worry, I don’t have any nefarious intentions towards your Domina.”

Feeling slightly chagrined, Wyatt shook his hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

The other man laughed, a booming sound that echoed even above the music. “No wonder you don’t like me.”

Michelle reached back and stroked Wyatt’s face with her fingertips, relaxation flowing through her now. Either that or the shots she’d been pounding down were kicking in. “Where’s Maya?”

“She’s out there somewhere, probably indulging in some kind of debauchery with the bride.” He winked at Wyatt. “My wife has a taste for Topping women and I like to indulge her now and then. Part of the fun of marrying a switch.”

Yuki cleared her throat. “Wyatt? Shall we?
It’s time.”

Michelle tensed slightly. “What’s going
on?”

In an effort to ease her Wyatt began to softly kiss along her neck as he spoke, “I want to give you a gift that Yuki, James and I have been working on for you. Something that you
’ll love.”

Turning abruptly, Michelle’s gaze went right to the suspension area. “You’re going to do a performance?”

“Yes.”

She froze beneath his hands and a chill practically radiated from her. “Are you asking for my permission to have sex with Yuki?”

“What?” Yuki nearly screamed in Michelle’s face. “No, you ungrateful bitch. We’re going to do a suspension scene for you. I know how much you love the flying eye candy though now I should have your ass blindfolded and force you to sit and listen to the crowd.”

Wyatt exchanged a glance with Petrov and the other man tapped the counter to get each woman’s attention
and said in a low, calm voice, “Ladies, let’s take it down a notch unless you want to do some oil wrestling for your penance.”

Each woman immediately simmered down and Wyatt found himself slightly in awe of the older man.

“Think about what I said, Domina,” Wyatt whispered into Michelle’s ear. “I love you and only you. Trust me.”

Petrov took Michelle’s hand in his again
. Now that Wyatt could look past his jealousy he noted that there was nothing carnal about the action, only comforting. “Come with me, baby girl. I have a viewing area set up for us, the best seat in the house.”

Michelle tried to keep from fidgeting as she sank into the black leather couch with Petrov. Her head was
spinning slightly and she knew she drank way too much. But it was either get drunk enough to numb her mind or succumb to a raving, screaming fit of sorrow.

All because of that fucking picture
in the women’s locker room.

She was sure Petrov and Maya hadn’t even thought about the image of Owen hanging in the women’s locker room. It was a
large, tastefully done black and white photograph of his freshly canned back and ass. She’d been the one who had put those marks on him and remembered the wicked smile he gave her as he posed, showing off his stripes. He had a wonderful ass for beating, and when she saw the images, memories came crashing down, leaving her trying to stifle her sobs as she took a shower. If there hadn’t been so many people in the room she would have touched the photo, wet the glass with her tears as she tried to find some comfort with a physical memory of her first love.

Time seemed to overlap and she had to fight her mind to stay in the present. Everywhere she looked, everything she touched reminded her of Owen
, and she felt a deep shame, not only because of her role in his death, but because she’d replaced him with a man she was pretty sure she loved more than she’d ever loved Owen. And that brought guilt of epic proportions roaring down on her. Owen had been the first person to love her unconditionally, to show her that there was a world outside of the carefully constructed prison her mother had made for her. Most people couldn’t understand how profound of an impact he’d had on her life, but he’d been her everything. The first ray of sunlight in the desolate darkness of her young adult life.

Even now, sitting on this leather couch, she couldn’t help but picture Yuki tying Owen up for
Michelle’s pleasure. This was before Yuki had met James and the two women would often torment Owen together. Yuki never did anything sexual with him, but she loved to tie him up. Now she watched her friend strolling around James and Wyatt as they stripped. Tonight Yuki was wearing a perfectly tailored men’s suit with no shirt beneath that looked fantastic on her slender figure. She had her hair pulled back in a severe braid, her face bare of makeup except for deep red lipstick, but she still looked beautifully feminine.

Someone to Michelle’s left made a
ribald comment about Wyatt’s muscles as he began to disrobe and she wanted to yell at them that he belonged to her. He was her submissive, her man, her everything. Jealousy flared back to life and she almost choked on the mental image of Wyatt talking with Mistress Daniella. His easy smile and the way he examined Mistress Daniella had been like an emotional slap in the face.

How dare he look at another woman like that
?

Petrov patted her leg. “Eyes on the stage. Your friends and your submissive went to a great deal of trouble to do this for you. Look at how nervous Wyatt is. He needs your reassurance that this is okay. Think about how far out of his comfort zone he is.”

While part of her, an angry and selfish part, wanted to tell Petrov to fuck off and stop lecturing her, the tiny portion of her brain not saturated in vodka told her to shut the hell up and pay attention to what he was saying. Petrov knew his way in and out of a submissive’s mind to the point where it was almost scary. Hell, he knew his way around her mind as well. He should. He’d been her confessor.

To Michelle’s surprise her voice came out slightly slurred as she said, “
I don’t deserve him.”

“Please, spare me the melodramatic self-pity. Whether or not you deserve him is irrelevant. He loves you
, so you will be worthy of that love.”

Her heart cramped but she managed to focus
on the stage again. Wyatt had stripped to a pair of black boxer briefs and a leather harness. At the sight of the harness and all that bare, bronze male flesh her body went tight and hot. His dark gaze caught hers and held as
Radioactive
by Imagine Dragons came from the speakers. All around them play slowed as more and more people gathered to watch Yuki, and with good reason.

Yuki
was a shibari artist, and when the bars used for suspension play lowered from above, Michelle was interested to note that they looked like they’d been made by Yuki. Her signature scroll work was embossed on the bars and she realized Yuki would have had to build the rig special to support and balance both James and Wyatt. Smaller bars extended out from the main one and she could imagine how beautiful it would look once Yuki got the suspension right, like a mobile made of steel and flesh.