Second Time Lucky (Club Decadence Book 5) (36 page)

“I expect you to take your time, answering each question honestly. Got it?”

“Yes, Master. I got it.”

“Good.” His hand came to her chin, tilting her head back. When he spoke, the explosiveness had disappeared. “This is part of our transparency, nightingale. I’ll be at my desk working if you have any questions.”

She nodded. As he walked away, she sucked in a breath to calm herself. She wouldn’t underestimate Sean’s commitment to their new D/s lifestyle again. Bending her head, she scanned the first page, skimming over the first few activities on the list; anal sex, anal beads, breast sex, butt plugs. It was all pretty standard and she had answered yes to all of it the first time around. Then she noticed the header at the top of the page read novice activities. She didn’t recall the list being so lengthy. The next page listed intermediate play. All the items had been marked and initialed in her handwriting, but she must not have given it much thought at the time since edging was marked as willing to try and she hadn’t even found out what that was until last week. Little did she know it was orgasm control and Sean had been using it on her since almost day one. She flipped to page three. As she quickly scanned the page, her eyes flared wide and she flipped back to the beginning.

“That isn’t what I had in mind by line by line, Mara.”

Her head came up. “I’m scanning.”

“Mm-hm,” was his guarded response without looking up from his laptop. “If you run out of time before our appointment, you can finish up afterward.”

“
Our
appointment, but I assumed—”

“Baby, I mentioned it in the car on the way over.”

He’d told her he had a training session scheduled with a new Dom on impact play. She assumed she’d wait for him in his office doing whatever tasks he assigned. Stuck like glue obviously wasn’t a euphemism. Silently, she shrugged, watching a training session would be a lot more fun than working on her list. Frowning, she returned to it.

An hour later she wasn’t half done. She hadn’t changed much, her hard limits—most of which were listed on page three—remained the same: edge play (knives, fire play, and all the really scary stuff that could be life threatening) extreme pain, body modification, breath control, and blood and body fluids. The last one was a big fat no, because first, ew, and second, it was too much like work. The rest of the three-page document she hesitated over, second-guessing every one of her previous answers.

The most difficult section of all was group play. She had checked no experience but willing to try way back when the club first opened, but that was a lie and now Sean knew it. She remembered it being a soft limit for him, which meant he hadn’t ruled it out. He’d never asked it of her in the past but they were new at that time and Sean was possessive. He hadn’t considered sharing with the Doms in D.C.

“
She is mine—exclusively
.”

His words at the time had been emphatic. Did he feel differently since learning her history, particularly about the ménage scene? She swallowed tightly. They hadn’t discussed much of his sexual history, but he had admitted to being in threesomes before and considering he was a Master and ran a successful sex club, she expected his experience was extensive. He had never wanted to get into the details and she certainly wouldn’t have wanted to reciprocate if he had, but she had to wonder.

Her mind drifted back to the awful day Joanna and Lexie had come to visit, after Sean had brought her here to recover. He had already left out of frustration, leaving her alone as she’d asked. They had been livid, perceiving his departure as neglect despite having left her in the care of professionals. Joanna had immediately gone into rescue mode. She’d called the home care agency Sean had hired and told them not to come back. In the blink of an eye, she’d taken her to her home and set her up in her guest room, all without a word to Sean.

He’d arrived within the hour, however, and an argument ensued. For the most part, the voices were muffled, but she recognized Sean and later more men had arrived, the general being one. With her room so far away, she couldn’t determine any others and their conversation was mostly unclear. At one point, Joanna’s usually soft, melodic tone had become angry rising unmistakably above the low hum of the men. She was chewing Sean up and spitting him out, accusing him of fucking everything in a skirt since she’d been gone.

Mara didn’t know why or how that had come up, but it had answered one of her unspoken questions and had hurt, terribly, cutting her to the quick. After that, she’d pulled the pillow over her head to keep from hearing more. She had no right to be jealous or expect him to have been abstinent, she’d left him and as far as she knew, they were divorced. Her acceptance of the harsh truth hadn’t kept all manner of scenes starring Sean and beautiful subs from flooding her thoughts.

Now, as she perused the list, she wondered how many of the activities he had performed before her or since. Things like group play, which was next on the list. The first question under the group heading was ménage. She was supposed to list the specific makeup of the trio she favored: MMf, MfM, FfM or Mff. Again, she vacillated as a vague picture of her and Sean with another woman popped in her head, it quickly morphed into a clear image of the woman riding him enthusiastically while she looked on at a distance. She flinched, stung as if by a fiery lash and she let out an unintentional whimper.

“Struggling with something in particular?”

Glancing up, she carefully considered her answer. In her vision, he’d been fully engaged and enjoying the other woman. She wanted what he wanted, what pleased him and made him happy, but could she bring herself to give him that? Guilt inundated her. She’d done nearly the same thing. Should she give him this to make up for what she’d done?

Her hand rose, rubbing at the sting behind her eyes. She had a really warped perspective. The other problem was she didn’t know what he wanted, if their interests aligned anymore. In Galveston, they had seemed in perfect sync, but that had been one on one and didn’t necessarily carry over to club play. She got an idea.

“Can I see your list?” she blurted out. She’d simply make her list match his.

“No.” He practically barked, frowning at her yet again. “You’re supposed to be answering honestly about what you want, not trying to guess what I want or to please me. If that’s what you’re doing, start over.”

Her eyes returned to the page, zeroing in on gangbang. Yeah, it was actually listed that way on the page. The BDSM crowd being nothing if not direct.

“Mara.”

Her mind was whirling with indecision as she glanced up again.

“Honest answers.”

She nodded. “I’m trying, Master.”

Scanning down the list she saw gangbang had been no, a definite hard limit. But what about Sean? Was group sex something he was into now? Moving on, she frowned at the next item on the list. Grope box. She had no clue. Bukkake—uh, no! Co-Dom and alpha sub came after that. The terms were new to her, but their meanings were obvious and she didn’t particularly want them either. Her fingers tightened on the papers, crumpling them.

A shadow fell across the page and his long fingers pulled the forms from her grasp. She knew what he’d see; not a speck of red ink.

“You’ve been staring at the same spot on this page for twenty minutes, nightingale.” His tone was filled with warmth without a hint of anger or irritation. The endearment, which she’d lived without for close to a year, made her heart beat faster as it always did. She tried to smile, but couldn’t manage one.

He squatted beside her. “I had no idea this would be so difficult for you. What are you thinking?”

“I’m confused. When I filled this out the last time, I didn’t give it much thought. I marked what I presumed you wanted. But now, some of these things, well, to be frank, they scare the crap out of me and…”

“Finish your thought. And what?”

“I’m afraid I’ll take something off that you enjoy.”

“Baby, I don’t want anything that doesn’t bring you pleasure as well. Tell me what has you so stumped.” His intercom buzzed. He ignored it at first, holding her gaze, but it buzzed again. “Dammit.” He got up and pressed the button.

“Your two o’clock appointment has arrived, Master Sean. I sent her up to the room you reserved.”

“Thank you, Lenore.”

“Her?” Mara questioned. “I understood you were training a new Dom, a man.”

“I don’t think I specified, but dominants come in both genders. Adele is definitely a female. She also has no interest in me whatsoever, other than training. She has her own sub, a female.” He was back by her side, staring down at her as his fingers brushed along her cheek.

She breathed out, relieved. “So her sub is going to be there too?”

“Again, I don’t think I said, but I should have. That’s on me. I had intended for you to participate.” He glanced at the list in his hand. Mara knew it was turned to page three, unchanged, and ménage was listed as willing to try. “I can see you’re on edge about this, however. I’ll get someone else—”

“No.” The concept of Sean with two other women, one of them a club submissive, who he could have been with before, made a shockwave of jealousy arc through her. “I’ll do it.”

“Mara.”

“What is the lesson today?” She pressed on, ignoring his reluctance.

“Impact play. At least that’s what we have planned, but you know what this type of thing entails. Often, one thing leads to another.”

She considered his answer. Floggers, paddles and straps, no doubt. Whips were unlikely since she was a beginner. That wouldn’t be so bad. “Does sex usually occur in training sessions?”

“It can, but varies by the participants. Adele is committed, so she won’t be expecting sex. She will need to touch you to test your responsiveness, however. Fingers, mouths, tongues are all on the table and if the submissive is cooperative, a reward with an orgasm or two isn’t uncommon.”

She nodded slowly, closing her eyes. In her past, she’d had female clients and although it wasn’t for her, the women had been gentle for the most part. Mistress Arianna, from The Gilded Cage popped into her head. What if Adele was a sadist like her?

“I’ll see if Dano or T is available.”

“No, I can do it.”

“Clearly you don’t want to, Mara. You’re pale and tense, and if you squeeze that pen any tighter, you’re going to break it.”

As if on cue, the plastic casing of the pen cracked.

“It’s not something you have to do. There are plenty of other people who enjoy training sessions. I’ll find a volunteer from the unattached subs if Dano or T can’t step in for me.”

“You enjoy training, don’t you?”

He hesitated.

“You do,” she answered for him. “I’m being silly. You’ll be there and I have a safeword, right?”

“Always.”

Sean had told her once that mentoring was one of the things he liked most about owning the club. She didn’t want to take that away from him. If he was going to do it, then for damn sure, he wasn’t going to do it without her.

This time, her answer was decisive. “Okay, let’s do it.”

Chapter Twenty-five

While leaning against the back wall, he observed as Adele worked a generously proportioned vibe over Mara’s pussy, stopping not once, but twice to apply lube. Something was definitely wrong. He’d used the same device on Mara and within minutes had her writhing and bucking in her restraints.

He considered the scene before him. Wrists cuffed to chains above her head, legs spread wide and bound with ankle cuffs to D-links in the floor, her body, bare except for the black satin blindfold, was on blatant and magnificent display. But she was stiff and reserved, not once had a moan or anything sounding remotely pleasurable passed her lips in the thirty minutes since Adele had started the scene. To his experienced eye, the sub appeared bored and disinterested, the mistress frustrated and nearing her wits end.

Another ten minutes passed and he couldn’t bear to watch any longer. Discreetly, he signaled his student over. Adele, a tall, lithe, Norwegian beauty immediately complied. With a few murmured words to Mara, she came to his side.

“What seems to be the problem?”

“I’m not getting through, Master Sean. She’s as dry as the Mohave.”

The concerns he had about her participation today were coming to fruition. Damn, he should have followed his gut.

“Give us a minute.” He strode forward, determined to get some answers.

“Mara?” Purposefully pitching his tone low, she jumped anyway.

“Yes, Master?”

“Color?” With the backs of his fingers, he stroked slowly up her belly.

“Green.”

Taking in every nuance of her response to his simple touch, he traced up the midline of her stomach. She trembled, her abdominal muscles rippling. The rise and fall of her chest quickened as her need for oxygen increased with her excitement. Her breasts swelled, the nipples already ruching into tempting peaks. Always a barometer of her arousal, her mouth—that glorious mouth—opened slightly as her tongue slipped out in a slow glide, slicking along the full curve of her lower lip, demonstrably revealing her escalating desire.

“You’re certain?”

She hesitated, tilting her head as if considering his simple question. “Yes, Master. I’m green.”

His hand rotated so that his palm lay flat against her ribs before moving up to cup the bottom curve of her breast. “Then you’re being deliberately defiant.”

“No. I—”

“Did I tell you to obey Mistress Adele as you would me?”

“Yes. Have I done something wrong? I’m sure I’ve done everything she requested.”

Leaving his hand in place, he stepped around her, pressing his front fully against her bare back, the button fly of his dark jeans and the hard length contained beneath brushed against her bottom. His other arm encircled her, his hand lifting to cup her other breast. In her ear, he murmured, “This may be true, but you’re holding back.”

She shook her head in denial, but didn’t speak further, when he captured each nipple with a thumb and forefinger and pinched firmly.

“You are, Mara, and it’s obvious you aren’t enjoying it. Is the position uncomfortable? Are your bindings too tight?”