Sugar Dust (19 page)

“It’s never come up. You don’t sub.”

“Right.”

She stared at him. Her shoulders slumped. “Dan, I’m so sorry. You really don’t want to be here, do you?”

He shrugged, simultaneously relieved at her perception and disappointed in his inability to be subtle.

“We just talked about this. We need to be honest with each other. Trust each other. I won’t get upset because there’s something you don’t like.”

“But you were so keen.”

“So? That’s me.” She moved closer. “Dan, I love
you
. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. Let’s go.”

“Wait,” he clutched her arm as she aimed for the door.

“You don’t have to, Dan. Honestly.”

“I know, but I want to see.”

She frowned.

“I know, but you look so keen. And that’s a bit of a turn-on.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Dan’s shoulders lifted. His body no longer weighed down on his knees to the point of discomfort.

“Really? You’re not just saying that?”

“Positive. Go on. Do whatever it is you planned to do.”

Karen bounded across the room and dropped to a kneeling position beside Henrietta. She held out one hand and Denise lowered the pinwheel into it. Her slender fingers touched Henrietta’s bare thigh, gliding up then down.

Dan frowned before he could stop himself.

Denise cleared his throat. “Relax, Dan. I don’t think he’s her type.”

“What?”

He cast a significant glance at Karen. “I
know
she’s not his type. You’re safe.”

“I didn’t say anything,” he said huffily.

“Your body did. And now you’re blushing.” He rubbed the side of his nose. “It seems to me that Karen has an itch she needs to scratch. And you just told her to. She did ask, remember? This is a safe place for her explore since neither I nor Henrietta are competition. After this, if you want, you can talk to her about it.” He shrugged. “But if she’s still with you after all that drama with Beth then a little fun with a pinwheel isn’t going to change anything.”

Dan gazed at the other man and felt a grudging flicker of respect. “Pretty sharp, aren’t you?”

“My nose again?”

“No, I mean—” he broke off when he saw the other man giggling. “Come on!” He laughed through the mild exasperation.

“But you make it so easy. Sorry, don’t mind me. Just watch your lovely girlfriend.”

He did, leaning against the wall to get comfortable. Karen used long, firm strokes up the thigh, back down, along the side of the knee and across the calf before travelling up again. Over and over she moved the wheel and Dan watched the spikes prick that pale, hairy skin and leave tiny red marks in their wake. Henrietta’s breathing hitched. His bound hands twitched. Pre-cum began to dribble from his cock.

Denise whistled softly. “She’s good.”

“Apparently so.” Dan wiped his mouth, surprised to feel his own cock stirring. He shoved his hands into his pockets and imagined the scratchy tickle of those spikes on his own skin.

Karen crawled around and ran the pinwheel along Henrietta’s other leg, up the side of his body and into the curve of his armpit. He whimpered and threw himself forward, eyes wide, but she swayed out of reach and kept going. She teased the pinwheel along his arm and into the palm of his trembling hand.

“Shhh,” she cooed. It was a voice Dan had never heard before. It was deeper than usual and heavy with the weight of authority.

Dan choked back a groan. The sight sent a charge through him, tightening the muscles in his gut. He became aware of the depth of his own breathing and the faint whimpers from Henrietta.

Even Karen seemed to struggle, licking her lips and wiping her face. “Shhh, I’m almost done.”

Tiny beads of sweat popped out on his forehead a marked contrast to the desert like conditions of his mouth. Dan licked his lips but it didn’t help. “Kaz?”

She continued manipulating the pinwheel. Back along Henrietta’s arm, over his shoulders and down the far side.

“He’s close,” Denise whispered.

“Can I?” Karen spoke quickly, without looking back.

Dan opened his mouth to answer, then realized that the question wasn’t meant for him. He looked at Denise, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Of course you can, sweetheart. He deserves it. Try the back of his neck.”

Nodding, Karen wheeled the spikes down again then traced them in a light circle around the base of Henrietta’s throat. When she reached the nape of his neck, she used the other hand to push on the vibrator protruding from his ass. He let out a shuddering moan and tossed his head back, shaking in his bonds. Karen ducked aside as an impressive stream of cum burst from the end of his trembling cock to stain his T-shirt. Several drops missed and hit the bed, others, the floor.

Dan gaped. “Jesus.”

“Oh, well done,” Denise clapped.

Sagging, Henrietta let out huge sigh. He smiled around the gag and grunted something that was probably a heartfelt thank you.

Karen pressed a chaste kiss against his cheek then walked back to Dan. The deliberate sway of her hips reminded Dan of a snake, though he doubted that he was the charmer in this scenario.

“Did I do good?”

With a start he realized that this question
was
aimed at him. He opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again and whispered, “Hell-fucking-yes.”

Karen’s eyes shone. “Good, because I liked it.”

“Me too,” he breathed.

“Really?”

“I’ve never seen you act like that before. Fucking hot. Your voice went all...
bitch queen.
”

“If you want to hear it again, just ask.”

The idea swelled in Dan’s mind. He played with it, turning it over and over, searching for any reason it might be a bad one. “After Beth—” he began.

She cut him off with a raised hand. “Sorry, it’s okay.”

“No, I mean, after Beth, I didn’t think I’d trust anybody to do something like that to me. I like control, giving it up is a big deal. But...I trust you.” His stomach gave a pleasant flutter as he recognized the truth in his words.

Denise cleared his throat. “Would you like to keep that pinwheel? I have dozens.”

Karen clapped her hands. “Seriously?”

“Of course, sweetheart. Enjoy it.”

She brandished the toy like a trophy. “Give me your hand, Dan.”

He did at once, and shuddered at the prick of tiny spikes rubbing over his palm and fingers. “That feels good.”

“Now imagine that all over you.” Karen pushed on tiptoe and whispered in his ear. “Chest. Stomach. Legs. Cock.”

“Kaz...”

“Say the word, Dan. You taught me a trick or two, how would you like to be on the receiving end?” She leaned in and nipped his ear.

He winced. The little flash of pain sparked something way down low, woke it up with teasing promises of more to come. He adjusted the front of his pants, longing for privacy so he could remove them completely. Her breath caressed his neck and he turned toward her to better see his own lust reflected in her eyes.

“You’ll pay for that later. I don’t remember saying you could bite me.”

Karen gave a cheeky grin and tucked the pinwheel into the top of her corset. “Sorry, Sir. It won’t happen again.”

“It better. But only when I ask for it.” He grabbed her ass and squeezed it to accentuate the point. “I’m still the master around here.”

She lowered her head, peering up at him through the curtain of her lashes. “Yes, Sir.”

Chapter Seventeen

The following morning Karen stretched and rolled over to find Dan staring at her. His gaze followed a lazy path over her lips and nose before landing on her eyes. She grinned, thinking forward to what it would be like to see that every time she woke for the day.

“Good morning,” she murmured.

“Morning. You snore a little, did you know that?”

“I don’t.”

“You do. It’s cute, like a little grunting kitten.”

Karen snatched a pillow and beat him over the head with it. “Take that back.”

Dan reared up, grabbing the pillow and hurling it aside. He dived at her and Karen fought back, giggling as he pinned her to the bed, trapping her wrists with his hands. He was so strong. His power lay not only in his desire to control, but his physical strength too. It added a fine layer of icing to the cake that was him as one delicious whole. When his lips pressed down against hers she wriggled against him, opening her mouth to offer her tongue. He sucked it gently, teasing the inner edge of her lip with his. She tilted her hips and spread her legs. Dan sank into the space left between them and she linked her ankles at the small of his back, trapping him in place.

“Morning fuck?” Hope gave her voice a husky edge.

“I considered it.” He released her wrists and trailed his fingers down her arms. When she tried to move a stern look filled his eyes. “Hands.”

That voice...he could tell me to do anything in that voice...
She stretched her arms back to their original position, pressing the backs of her wrists against the rumpled duvet.

“Good.” Grinning now, he kissed a hot path down her chest. He lingered over each breast, tonguing each nipple into stiffness before going down. Ribs. Stomach. Belly button.

Each abandoned point on her body melted beneath the flames of passion he left behind. Her limbs jellied until she could no longer move. Not that she wanted to.

Karen watched him reach the faint line of pubic stubble and waited, holding her breath.

Dan stared for a brief moment then dipped his tongue into her slit, teasing his way past her outer lips with the tip. She groaned as he lapped her clit, dragging her to the brink of release with so little effort that she felt almost embarrassed by his total hold on her body.

She clawed the duvet. Bucked her hips. “Yes, yes, please—”

Ecstasy reached a painful peak. Every inch of skin fizzed like a shaken champagne bottle, set to explode the moment the cork popped free.

“No.” At the last possible moment Dan leaned back and dropped a chaste kiss at the top of her pubic bone. “Go get us some breakfast.” He leapt to his feet.

The order made no sense. Through the mist of pleasure teetering on the edge, she blinked and tried to work it out. “Wait, what?”

“Cereal and tea please.”

The promise of paradise faded. Her body ached, riding the ebbing waves until they settled down to nothing. Air seared through her lungs as she sat up, panting. “Tease!”

“Yep—toast if they have it. Chop chop. Check out is at ten.”

Check out. She’d forgotten about the world beyond the walls of Sugar Dust. It seemed like the cage beneath the bed, condoms on demand, and porn on every channel was the real world, while PhDs, bills, and irritating family worries were the dream.

“I don’t want to leave. It’s great here.”

“We’ll come back.”

“When? Can it be soon?”

“If I start looking now, maybe in time for Halloween or Christmas.”

Karen grinned. “Imagine being here for your birthday. Tinsel. Holly. Mistletoe. We could invite Rebecca or Hannah, or both.”

“I thought you didn’t like the Library.”

She chewed her bottom lip. “I don’t, but I do. I like having playmates, I just don’t want to spend
all
of our time with them.”

“That seems fair.”

“Can we talk about it more at home?”

“Of course we can. Now go get breakfast.”

Grinning, Karen bound to her feet. She tugged on her rumbled pajamas and hurried down to the Ball Room.

The large area bristled with bodies and chatter. So close to check out time, there were no demos or displays, but some people still wore kink and fetish clothing. The majority had returned to their causal daywear and Karen saw jeans, skirts, and even suits among the crowd.

She snatched a tray and started to pile things onto it, head still in the clouds. In the middle of choosing between Cornflakes and Weetabix, she noticed the volume of surrounding conversation rise to an unusual volume. Unlike the day before, many tables were empty. Instead guests clustered around the stack of shelves holding the day’s offering of newspapers, broadsheets and glossy magazines. She moved closer, trying to decipher the excited snippets of conversation.

“It would have been worse,” one man said.

“I know.” The woman beside him frowned at the colorful pages of a magazine. “No pictures, which is good. No names. But easy to figure it out, if you know them.”

Karen inched closer, leaving the tray on a table. She reached the newspaper rails and snagged the last paper from the shortest stack. A man to her left tutted and slouched away. She frowned after him. “What’s all the fuss about?”

“No idea.” Henrietta stood close by, munching on a slice of toast. “Mind if I join you to find out?”

She smiled. “Sure.”

They sat at an empty table.

Several others, thwarted in their attempts to get a copy, hurried nearer to peer over her shoulder.

“It’s in the cultural magazine,” said one woman. “Somewhere in the middle.”

“What is?”

“An article on kink, BDSM and polygamy.”

Karen rolled her eyes. “Not another one.”

“No, no,” the woman reached over and began flipping pages. “Someone came here under cover. They’ve been ‘living as a sub’ for about six weeks to figure out what it’s all about. Like method acting.”

Henrietta drummed his long nails on the table. “What sort of woman would do something like that? It’s not easy if you’re not into it.”

“That’s just it.” The woman gave a sage nod. “It wasn’t a woman.”

“Seriously?” Karen helped to turn the pages.

“There.” She stabbed the paper with one finger. “There, see, that’s his picture. No one recognizes him, but he must have been here. He’s written about the rope workshop and needles demo.”

Karen waited for the woman to move her finger then looked at the picture herself. It took every scrap of control she had not to shriek out loud.

Henrietta gasped. “Isn’t that—”

She kicked him in the shin. When he looked her way she gave him a discrete shake of the head.

“Do you mind if I read it?” The nosy woman leaned in again, her hand curling around the magazine.