Playing Dom (4 page)

Once inside, I took
a moment to get my bearings. The place was quartered into different
sections. The first half of the building was divided between a
seating area and food booths. The second half was split between a
play area and toy vendors. No wonder the party was so big, it was
sponsor central. I rolled my eyes and sighed, wondering why I had
even bothered to come at all. Still, I had driven the distance, might
as well walk around a bit.

My natural
curiosities prompted me to go straight back to the play area, where
all I found was disappointment. A group of girls took turns stumbling
around a Saint Andrews Cross with beers in their hands, leaning
against it and lightly slapping each other with mini cat-o-nine tails
that they had obviously just bought from one of the toy vendors. Two
of the other Saint Andrews Crosses stood empty, while the fourth one
at the end had another group of girls who were standing around it
taking pictures as if it was a tourist attraction. The whole lot of
them absolutely repulsed me.

Disgusted, I turned
around and walked towards the food booths. The least I could do was
grab something to eat for coming all this way. I ended up with
chicken on a stick, which was surprisingly good, though not worth the
eight dollars I paid for it. I sat at a bench and ate while I tried
to drown out the bullshit racket around me. As soon as I finished
eating, I was out of here. Nothing to see. Nothing else to do.

I was down to my
last chicken medallion when I heard a harsh familiar voice address
me, “So, the little bitch boy showed up to taint the air
again.”

My appetite vanished
from recognition, and my mood got ten times worse when I looked up
and saw Chet Goines staring at me with his usual demeaning
expression. Talia was at his side, but I didn't even bother to look
in her direction as Chet sat down at my bench, obviously trying to
intimidate me.

“
So
you did.” I burned into him, throwing his own insult in his
face.

“
I
didn't think you'd have the balls to show your face around here again
after our little altercation.” He ignored my jab.

“
If
you think I'm afraid of you, you're sadly mistaken.”

“
Guys.”
Talia looked down on us with concern etched across her pretty face.
“Is this really necessary?”

“
Shut
up, cunt!” Chet barked at her, and she cowered. There was that
hint of breaking that wasn't there before, and it only fueled my
anger. He had laid his hands on her. I was sure of it now.

“
Hey,”
I tried to draw his attention away from her. “Your beef is with
me. Leave her out of it.”

“
I'll
do whatever the fuck I like. Now, sit down.” His agitation
flared, and he quickly gripped Talia by the arm and jerked her down
onto the bench beside him.

“
So
what? Are you just going to sit here and stare at me all night?”
I glared at him.

“
I'm
trying to get the point across that you don't belong here.”

I snorted before
looking into the crowd. “You've certainly got me there. I
definitely don't belong with this group of women and fakes.”

Was it really worth
sticking around? Did I really want to play this game again? Who can
outlast who. It seemed a bit ridiculous when I wasn't around people I
respected. Then again, I didn't want to seem weak in Talia's eyes. It
was the whole domination/submission bullshit, the alpha and omega.
The one who walked away with his tail between his legs might as well
have his balls lopped off. This was more a game of pride than
anything else, and though I hated to play it here, around all of
these stupid fucking fakes, it had to be played so that I could save
face.

“
Women
and fakes, huh?” Chet let out a short breathy laugh. “Maybe
you'd like a demonstration of what a real Dom is.”

“
If
I wanted a demonstration from a real Dom, you'd be the last person
I'd ask.”

“
Come
on, slut.” He ignored me, standing and giving Talia's arm a
sharp jerk to pull her into a standing position. “Let's show
this little cunt what he's missing.”

The second I
realized he was guiding her to the back of the room, my stomach
twisted with dread. They were headed to one of the Saint Andrews
Crosses. He fully intended on doing a scene with her, and I doubted
it would be anything less than brutal.

Talia seemed to be
thinking the same thing. She glanced back at me for half a heartbeat,
and I swear I saw fear behind her large brown eyes, which only made
me feel worse. This was my fault. He wasn't just doing this to be
cocky, he was doing it to punish us both.

You should go. If
you watch, he'll win. But wouldn't he still win if you left? He would
have driven you away.
I lost
either way. It was a shitty thing to admit to myself, but no matter
how the cards fell, I had drawn a losing hand. Watching would give
him the satisfaction of throwing his ownership of Talia in my face.
Leaving would give him the satisfaction of knowing he had driven me
away. Which was the less of the two evils?

Just go
, my
mind screamed at me, yet my body refused to move. I kept trying to
work out in my mind how I could get the upper hand in the situation.
Maybe one of these soccer moms would be interested in doing a scene
with me. Perhaps I could prove that I was the better Dom. Who was I
kidding though? None of these women took this stuff seriously. They'd
be giggling and flirting and talking through the entire thing. I'd
just come off looking like a jackass with no control.

My only real option
was to watch and look unimpressed. How could I expect to keep my cool
though when I knew his dominance would tip toward abuse? Maybe I
wouldn't have to worry about that. Surely, the hosts and sponsors of
this event realized that most of the participants were squeamish. If
the dungeon monitor saw that the scene was getting too intense, he'd
rush in to stop it. Then I would win, because I would be the one who
didn't get kicked out. Still, I wasn't sure I could watch knowing
what would go on behind closed doors with them afterward.

My body stiffened as
they reached the Saint Andrews Cross, and Chet assumed his dominant
stance with his legs shoulder-width apart, and his hands held loosely
behind his back. From a distance, it looked more like a position that
a sub would take, but I knew it was parade rest from his time in the
military, a position that he was comfortable in. Talia dropped the
bag that she had been carrying at his feet and then took several
steps away before turning toward him. Her eyes were trained on his
face while she began pulling her shirt over her head. My breath
caught in my throat as I watched her disrobe. For as beautiful as she
was though, I was too nervous to be aroused.

She stripped down to
her bra and underwear, her mouth responding with adorable little
'Yes. Master's after every command. I couldn't hear her say it
through all the people talking, but I knew the words well enough to
read them on her lips.

When he started
strapping her in with her back facing the crowd, the party
participants began to take notice. A few women gathered around to
watch, perhaps anticipating that they were about to see something
very real. Out of all the men at the play party, Chet was one of the
few who looked like an actual Dom. His leathers were pristine, high
quality, and perfectly stitched. I looked like a noob by comparison.
You didn't come to show off.

I tried to focus on
Talia as the seconds ticked by like hours. Looking at her back
silently enraged me. Chet had definitely been there. His signature
was in the bruises and small cuts. The pain would likely be
excruciating if he focused on the same area, and I was sure that he
would. He was a sadist like that.

Once Talia was
sufficiently strapped in, Chet walked back over to the bag on the
floor to rummage through it. My heart beat fiercely with anticipation
as I waited to see his apparatus of torture. What he pulled out of
the bag made my breath hitch, and my body stiffen. This definitely
wasn't going to be good.

Instead of starting
with something low sensation, like a soft leather flogger, he had
gone straight for one made of chain, a high-intensity toy meant for
only the most experienced players, a toy that could cause a
debilitating amount of damage in the wrong hands—and his were
definitely the wrong hands. This was not an exhibition of dominance;
this was going to be a display of pain at one of its highest degrees.
My muscles twitched as the protective instinct raced through me to
stop this before it even began, to keep the first strike from ever
falling.

I exhaled heavily as
Chet took his position next to Talia and drew the toy back. It was
going to take everything in me to watch, to sit there and do nothing.
Already, my eyes were searching for the dungeon monitors, hoping that
one had taken notice of what was about to go down. Surely, this would
not be allowed. No one was looking though. No one but me and the
curious women who were quickly gathering, giving the flogger a queer
look, likely having never seen one made of chain before.

The first strike
across Talia's back elicited a shrill cry, and I felt my chest
tighten as her body heaved for breath from the shock. Many of the
women standing around jumped, their expressions disturbed. Chet
glanced back, zeroing in on me. He pointed the flogger at me and
mouthed something I couldn't make it out, probably some bullshit
about this being how a real Dom does things. Then he struck her
again.

I tried to look
unaffected, but panic was racing through me, and my stress levels
were rising by the second. The dungeon monitors weren't paying
attention to the play area, probably because they didn't expect
anything intense to be going on there. By the time I returned my
focus to Chet and Talia, another group of women had walked into the
gap of people I had been looking through, obscuring my view. With all
the noise from people chatting, I could barely hear Talia crying out
over the crowd or the sound of chain crunching against chain with
each slap of the flogger against her back. I doubted that the dungeon
monitors were as tuned into it as I was.

I thought about
going to get one of them and draw their attention to the scene, but I
honestly wasn't sure how they would react, and if they did nothing,
then I would just look like some pansy that couldn't take a scene.
None of the women were reporting it, so why should it bother me?
Because I really knew what was going on, and they didn't. That's why.
These people had no idea how much a toy like that could hurt, and how
much I was certain it hurt when wielded by Chet. With each strike,
Talia's cries contorted, moving further from tolerance into
unbearable pain. It was something an untrained ear wouldn't catch,
but I could hear it, and it clawed at my heart, pulled at my muscles,
tugged at my conscience until I couldn't sit still any longer.

I took to my feet,
leaving my trash on the table as I made a beeline to the play area.
Some of the women who had been watching were beginning to walk away,
whispering among themselves with disgusted looks on their faces. This
was surely something they hadn't expected to see, the cold cruel side
of the lifestyle when someone used it specifically to live out their
sadistic side. This is what it was like to see a fake Dom in action.

The closer I got,
the louder Talia's voice became, the more intense the sound of the
chains slamming against her back. It made a sickening thud
accompanied by a clanging. When she finally came into view, it felt
like the wind was violently pulled out of my sails. Her body was
limp, leaning against the cross in defeat, her back heaving softly
from muted sobs. Chet stood behind her, uncaring, a sick grin
twisting his lips. He was barely giving pause between strikes now,
hitting her repeatedly. Already, her skin was turning a pale shade of
purple where the lashes fell. Bile rose up in my throat as I took a
deep breath and pushed my way through the crowd, grabbing his wrist
as he drew the flogger back to hit her again.

“
That's
enough!” I said.

Chet spun on his
heels, and it only took a moment of recognition for his expression to
shift from pleased to angry.

“
Let
me go, you little cunt,” he yelled, pulling out of my grasp.

It was too late to
avoid a fight. I could see what his next move was, and I braced
myself, falling into a defensive position. The flogger fell from his
hand like an afterthought, and his fist came rushing toward my face.
I caught it in my palm, pulling him forward as I slammed my knee into
his gut. While he had a slight advantage in size, I made up for it
with speed. He choked for half a second before trying to right
himself, and I took the advantage, grabbing a fistful of his thin
blonde hair and holding him while I drove an uppercut straight into
his face. Blood rained down on my fist as I felt his nose crunch from
the weight of the blow. I was winding back for a second uppercut when
strong arms grabbed me from behind, pulling me away from Chet. That's
when he struck, like a coward who needed me restrained. He landed a
jab across my cheek before another dungeon monitor got a hold of him.
My mouth filled with blood. Damn, that son of a bitch could hit hard.
If it wasn't for the fucking dungeon monitors pulling us apart, I
probably would have never had to feel it. Worthless pieces of shit.
Only coming in at the last fucking minute.