Sugar Dust (15 page)

“And you question why you’re number one in my Library.” He fingered the straps peeping out from beneath the mattress. “We should get one of these beds.”

“That would go down well with visitors.”

“Why they would they be in my room?”

“Your mum?” Karen peered back into the room with a toothbrush clasped in one hand.

“I’m just saying, wouldn’t you like one of these?” Unlike usual, mention of his mother failed to fill Dan with slow, creeping dread. As if the events of the night before had shaken her power over him. Grinning, he tugged on one of the massive loops hanging from the rails. “We could suspend you.”

“We tried once, remember?”

“I’m surprised Pete didn’t figure it out then.”

Dan thought back to the holes in his living room ceiling.

It seemed such a simple thing; install some hooks, use the recommended knots then hang Karen from the ceiling like a piece of ham. A piece of ham gagged and naked, wet and moaning. She ended up a piece of ham bruised and covered in bits of plaster and dust.

Dan smirked. “I didn’t tell him
how
we pulled the fixture down.”

She grunted and returned to cleaning her teeth.

A quick roll out of bed and Dan stretched, scrubbing at his scruffy hair. Something sticky clung to his thigh and he grimaced, peeling a soggy condom off his skin. After tying a knot in the neck he tossed it in the bin and retrieved a fresh pair of boxers from the overnight bag. “Shall we have breakfast here, or do you want to go back to the Ball Room?”

“Bah ooom.”

“Hurry up then. We over slept.”

Karen’s stint in the bathroom was characteristically long. By the time she emerged, freshly scrubbed, moisturized and dressed in tight purple shorts beneath a matching corset, the clock showed 9 a.m. Dan raced through his shower and led the way back to the Ball Room. Before entering, he fastened the purple bell collar around Karen’s neck.

Like the night before, the room buzzed with laughter and conversation. In place of stalls and a long buffet table, lots of smaller round tables filled the space, each with six chairs clustered around. Draped with cloths of checked black and red, the tables held racks of toast, platters of eggs, bacon and sausages, bowls for cereal, and large kettles steaming with tea or coffee. Most were full, but Dan eventually settled on a table where two men, dressed in figure hugging dresses sat eating eggs on toast. Both wore wigs, one blond, the other brunet.

“Morning,” said the blond.

“Hi.” Dan pulled out a chair for Karen then sat on the other side, as far away from the two men as he could manage. Despite the distance, his skin prickled.

“Good night?” the stranger continued.

Karen nodded enthusiastically. “It’s so great here. Do you come often?”

The man grinned. He scratched his chin with perfectly manicured nails the color of claret. “Is that a pick up?”

Dan opened his mouth to snap “not bloody likely,” but Karen got there first.

“No, this is our first time. But you look really comfortable. I’m Karen.”

“I’m Dennis,” said the man. “This is Henry. Though here, I guess it’s safe to say Denise and Henrietta.”

The brunet looked up from his plate and offered a shaky smile.

“I’m Daniel.” He caught a searching look from Karen and ignored it, pouring them both a glass of orange juice.

“Nice to meet you both.” Denise licked a fleck of egg off his fork. Thick hands, with long, calloused fingers tucked a lock of shiny hair behind his ear. “We do come here a lot. It’s a pleasant get-away. Somewhere we can just be ourselves, you know?”

“And the toys don’t hurt, right?” Karen laughed.

So did the transvestites.

Dan gritted his teeth and snatched a bowl from the stack. He poured cornflakes into it and added milk. It splashed up the sides and over the table, dripping over the edge and on to his shoes. No one noticed.

Beside him, Karen chatted gaily, occasionally flicking her bell with the back of her hand when she gestured to her slave band or the bite marks on the side of her throat. Jealous of her ease, Dan shoveled food into his mouth and kept his head down. He didn’t notice the two new comers until they sat at his side.

“Morning, Spanx!” Beth clapped him on the shoulder.

His spoon flew from his hand and clattered into the bowl. Milk sprayed into his face. He bit back a snarl. No way could this morning get any worse.

“Hi, Beth,” he muttered.

“Vanilla names this morning? Fine, morning, Dan. Paul, say hello.”

The man known previously as Bones tilted his head.

Dan took the time to get a good look at him.

Without the mask, Bones—or Paul—looked deceptively normal. Wide, pale blue eyes, set above a crooked nose with flaring nostrils. White-blond hair, cropped short and an insolent smile that matched the one from last night.

“’Sup,” he said.

Instead of answering, Dan looked to Karen. A certain tightness around her mouth and eyes were the only signs of her anger. Dan placed his hand on her knee. His urge to protect her crackled like an electrical surge.

“I’m fine.” She spoke through gritted teeth.

“Paul was telling me how much he enjoyed last night,” Beth announced, as she spread Marmite on a slice of toast. Instead of her ball gown, she wore an under-bust leather corset with a shrug of dark blue lace to cover her breasts, arms, and shoulders. Beneath it, the trail of pale scars was clearly visible. When she saw him looking, her smile grew wider. “He had fun picking playmates.”

Karen’s leg jerked. Dan pressed down on her knee. “Did he find anybody?”

“Just one girl. Turned out she was a cock-tease though.” Beth sighed. “I wish I’d seen her; I could have taught her a lesson. Doesn’t she know the rules?”

“What rules?” Karen’s voice resembled shards of broken glass.

“Don’t lead someone on unless you plan to follow through.”

“I don’t remember seeing that published anywhere.”

Beth chuckled. She tossed her head and sent her green hair flying in all directions. Henrietta ducked to avoid getting a mouthful. “Not the Sugar Dust rules, Karen,
The Rules.
” She made air quotes with her fingers. “The unwritten rules that everyone knows.”

Dan cut a quick glance at her. He felt a twinge of sadness in realizing that she hadn’t changed at all. “What about the rule that says ‘back the hell off if someone isn’t interested’?”

The smaller woman snorted and stabbed at a sausage on her plate with unnecessary force. “That’s just common sense.”

Dan glanced at Paul, pleased to see the other man stare at the table with a pink flush in his cheeks. “That’s right. Nobody wants to give how we live any more bad press. It’s hard enough with people assuming rape and domestic abuse. We need to help each other quash that sort of bollocks.”

“Oh, I know!” Denise straightened and gestured with his fork. “I remember when that book first came out—this place was so busy. Couldn’t move for all the wannabes. There was a lot of that then.”

“What?”

“People pushing where they weren’t wanted, trying to be
dominant
when in truth they were nothing more that predatory juveniles play-acting at BDSM. As if a bit of kink removes the rules of common decency.” He huffed, flicked his hair, and cut a sympathetic look at Henrietta. “Some tried to make moves on you, didn’t they?”

Dan looked at the two men. His mind struggled to place them together, let alone someone making unwanted moves on Henrietta who was short and dumpy with skin resembling old leather. “Right.”

He jumped as something struck his shin. A glance to the left revealed Karen, glaring at him.

“What?” he mouthed, rubbing at the sore spot.

“Be nice.”

Sharp responses whirled through his mind, most of them unpleasant. Why should he be nice to these two weirdoes? He returned to the safer target presented by Paul. “You’re new to Beth, are you new to the scene too?”

“Yes,” he tore his gaze away from the tabletop. “Is it obvious?”

Though he longed to explain that no experienced Dom or sub would pull the stunt he had the night before, Dan couldn’t do it. Instead he shrugged. “A little. But you’ll learn soon enough. Some mistakes you only make once. Know what I mean?”

Narrowed eyes and pursed lips were answer enough. Paul rolled his shoulders, and despite his size, seemed smaller than he had a moment ago. Satisfied, Dan slurped the last of the milk from his cereal bowl and stood. “I’m going to look around. Coming?”

Karen glanced at him. Then she looked at Denise and Henrietta. “I’ll be along in a bit.”

He blinked, taken aback by her cheery tone. “I thought you didn’t want to be alone.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Don’t worry, Daniel, we’ll look after her. Won’t we, Henrietta?” Denise smiled, his thin lips painted with their delicate lipstick pulled up at the corners.

Henrietta mumbled.

“Really?” Dan focused on Karen. From the corner of his eye he saw Beth lean forward, licking her lips. Fingers of dread crawled down his back. “We can look at some of the new violet wand attachments or the clamps. You wanted more nipple clamps, right? There are some really nice ones around, we should look at those.”

“In a bit. Unless you want me back in sub mode?” She prepared to stand.

He hesitated. The thought that Karen would rather linger with these strangers than follow him brought an ache to his gut. But showing weakness before Beth resembled waving chocolate in the face of heavy dieters: dangerous and foolhardy.

“No,” he sighed. “Not in sub mode.”

She grinned. “Then I’ll stick around here. I’ll find you later.”

He loitered, searching the room for inspiration, anything to get Karen away from that table.

Beth smiled his way. “I offered you the crop, Dan. You know what to do.”

“We don’t work that way,” he snapped. A stab of anger pierced the despondency coating his insides. “She can stay if she wants. Later, Kaz.”

“Sure.” She smiled and blew a kiss at him.

A soft derisive chuckle came from Beth’s direction. Dan ignored it, knowing that he’d backed himself into a corner by rising to the bait. He mimed catching Karen’s kiss then walked away, telling himself that the itch between his shoulder blades had nothing to do with Beth watching him go.

Chapter Thirteen

Karen smiled at Denise then Henrietta. Their comfortable smiles and obvious closeness brought a warm glow to her chest. She touched the chains running over the back of her hand and felt it again.

“How long have you two been together?”

“Six months.” Once more Denise did the talking. “Are we that obvious?”

She shrugged. “There’s a vibe about you. Don’t worry,” she added at the horrified looks she received in return. “It’s a good thing. I don’t see it often enough. Places like this are so much about sex that people forget about the relationship.”

The two men shared a happy glance. On the other side of the table Beth snorted into her coffee. Karen gripped the table, grinding her nails against the wood before angling a hard glare at the other woman. “What’s funny, Bethany?”

“Nothing.”

“Could have fooled me.”

“Your holier-than-thou relationship bullshit. What about the fun?”

“I have plenty of fun. But I’m also here to share something with my boyfriend.”

Beth grinned. “Bodily fluids and a hot, naked chick?”

“No—yes. Not just that. We’re here to share an experience. Because we enjoy giving ourselves to each other.”

“You sound like the back of a Hallmark card. I’m here to spank some dirty bitches who deserve it. The really naughty ones get a taste of this.” She reached to her side and pulled out a whip, which she cracked over the table with a practiced flick of her wrist.

A few soft cheers came from nearby. Paul snickered. Karen clenched her fists on the tablecloth. “Then we’re here for different things. I doubt we’ll have much to say to each other.”

“Oh don’t get all prissy.”

“I’m not.”

“No? Practically fanning your petticoats and snorting your smelling salts.”

She took a deep breath. In the still that followed, Karen could see Henrietta looking at Denise, gnawing his bottom lip. Paul looked delighted and watched everyone with such intensity that he might have been committing the scene to memory.

“I’m not prissy, I’m content. I have something special with Dan and this is one of the ways we express it. When you find something similar you may change your mind.”

“And who says I haven’t already? Or that I once did? Bloody presumptuous aren’t you? Who says I didn’t have it and let it go when I realized what a waste of time it was?” She cast a significant glance at Dan’s empty chair.

Karen bolted to her feet. The glasses and bowls leapt across the tablecloth and a small jug of milk wobbled before toppling over. Milk flooded the surface and slipped over the edge. She balled her hands into fists. The very air in her lungs burned on the way out. Beth smirked. Fierce tingling raced down her fingernails. They crawled with the need to claw that terrible smile away.

“Bye Denise, bye Henrietta.” She exhaled long and slow. “I need to find Dan. Sorry we couldn’t talk more.”

She strode away without giving them a chance to answer. At the main doors Beth caught up. Though tiny, the other woman showed startling strength and slammed her hand against the wood to hold it shut.

Karen gave a grunt and jerked back. “Excuse me.” She kept her gaze on the door, while her jaw tightened and her head throbbed with suppressed rage.

“Wait a minute, Karen. I don’t know what’s got your thong in a knot, but I guess it’s something I said.”

This time she did look. Her heart gave a little skip and she became aware of the rush of blood through her body as the familiar phrase struck a chord. She heard it again, in Dan’s voice and jerked as if to strike out. At the last moment she pulled her limbs under control.

Heat flushed her face. Muscles across her back and shoulders tensed. “No shit,” she snapped.

“Let me explain something to you. It might make my attitude easier to understand.” Beth flicked that ridiculous green hair. “I did the relationship thing. Falling in love. Giving up parts of myself. Living together. It didn’t go well. He and I wanted different things.”