TogetherinCyn (9 page)

Chris stood me in front of the mirror so we could admire the
collar’s beauty. “Do you know what this is?”

“A collar,” I said after a heated pause.

“And do you know what it represents?” Jared asked.

“That I’m yours…and you’re both mine.”

“Our ownership around your throat. Always,” Chris added.
“You don’t have to answer tonight but we already consider you ours.”

“I want to be yours. Both of yours. But do you expect me to
obey all the time?”

Jared snorted. “No, baby, it’s not practical and we don’t
want a slave. We want your submission when it comes to our pleasure.”

I opened my mouth but Jenna knocked and pushed inside.

“Are you decent or did you ravage her before I could get her
finished? I’ve got to get her beautiful and you guys still have things to
finish.” She stepped inside as Jared placed a soft kiss on my lips.

“She’s already beautiful.” Chris stared at the collar around
my neck, ran a finger across it and then they left without another word.

My stomach was a mess of nerves.

Jenna noticed the collar and whistled. “I figured those boys
had good taste, but damn.”

“What? Is it different than most?” I asked, feeling stupid
for not knowing. I turned to the mirror again and admired the collar’s simple
beauty.

“Those collars are one of a kind. They’re handmade and cost
more than two thousand dollars.”

My mouth fell open but nothing came out.

“Now, let’s give them something to rock their worlds, shall
we?”

I slowly inclined my head and circled the rings on my
collar, certain my house had fallen out of the sky into another world.
We
are so not in Kansas anymore, Toto…

In the mirror, a different woman stared back. It was me but
I didn’t recognize her. My whole life, I’d been in good shape, liked my body,
but this person? Well, damn.

Jenna had pulled my hair up into some complicated knot and
secured it with a number two pencil so you could see the collar simply by opening
my blouse. My makeup was understated. Utterly beautiful. My eyes were bigger,
my lips appeared pouty and my legs were a mile high.

Simple earrings in a dark shade of brown hung from my ears,
along with a pair of nonprescription glasses, making me look studious and a bit
like a participant in a
Teacher’s Gone Wild
video. The plain white
blouse set off my light tan and the red bra played peekaboo when I moved. I
wore higher-than-normal black heels that were surprisingly comfortable and
contrasted perfectly with the white stockings that gripped my flesh at the tops
of my thighs. The skirt was so short a glimpse of black panties could be seen
when I walked but it screamed flirty and fun.

Parts of my arms and neck were bare, most of my stomach and
about a two-inch strip of skin on my upper thighs below the short skirt.
Earlier, I figured chains and leather would be involved, and only a tiny bit of
each. But wearing more, covering the naughty bits, made me feel sexy. It ramped
up my anticipation of Chris and Jared taking off each piece later.

“I’m speechless,” I confessed, examining myself in the
mirror one last time.

“Your outfit will be sacrificed for the good of all us girls
who aren’t gettin’ any. When you hear fabric tear, know that I gladly donate
them to snaggin’ two hot guys.”

“Oh, I hope they don’t get ruined. They’re so pretty.”

I ran my hands along the pleated skirt as Jenna said,
“Honey, if Jared and Chris gingerly take them off, I surely don’t know what I’m
doing and will hang up my fairy wand right now.”

She walked over to her panel of goodies and brought back two
brown-leather, fleece-lined cuffs. She secured one on my wrist and I froze.
“Hey…you veered off into green territory. You nervous?”

“No, I’m good.” Trying to convince my heart those three words
were true was going to be a challenge. It had slowed to a crawl.

“Inhale, exhale, Cyn. No fainting on my watch.”

As instructed, I took a deep breath and the panic slowly
dissipated.

She stared at my wrist and backed up. “It was the cuff. Have
you ever been restrained before?”

After I swallowed my anxiety, to gather my courage I decided
to be honest…sort of. “It didn’t go so well.” Can you say
understatement
?
I might as well have declared Niagara Falls a little creek along the borders of
the US and Canada.

“Do the guys know?”

“Not exactly,” I answered. “I don’t want to be damaged goods
to them.”

“Okay, it’s none of my business but I’m going to give you
some advice that I wish someone had told me when I entered this world. You have
to tell them what you want. Yes, you’re submissive. But if something genuinely
freaks you out, you need to be upfront about it. You can’t build a relationship
on jagged ground. How it all starts will absolutely affect the rest of your
time together. The rest of your lives together if you’re lucky.”

“You sound like you speak from experience,” I commented as I
watched her fasten the other wrist restraint. My stomach heaved and the sense
of déjà vu was harder to ignore. I latched on to Jenna’s presence and that
immediately calmed my frayed nerves.

“You have no idea,” she answered, her trademark wink
surprisingly absent. “Just remember. No matter what happened in the past, this
is Chris and Jared and they’ve waited a long time to bring you here. They want
tonight to be perfect. So if you aren’t ready to rock the boat, fake it ’til
you make it. Yes, you’re going to be nervous and uncertain but it can make the
experience out-of-this-world good.”

She checked me over one more time. “Ready?” She held up a
leash and clipped it to the front of my collar. She released the catch and the
click made me jump.

“As I’ll ever be,” I mumbled. She led me out and I wanted to
hide.

Nerves jittered up my spine and tingled at the top of my
head. Too soon, the elevator dinged, signaling our arrival at the ground floor.

The cold A/C on my exposed thighs made me shiver. It could
have also been the sight of closed doors along the corridor.
What happens in
there?

The possibilities were endless and my imagination had no off
button. Fire play, deep-throating, pony training, orgies? The internet should
have come with a warning label since I had a few hours to kill earlier.

“Smaller play spaces are here. You’ll be going to the left
where the larger ones are located. To the right are public areas. The guys have
classes pretty often on the main stage because it’s so big. Chris is one of the
best Doms I’ve seen on a whip, he’ll have to show you sometime.” She winked and
I’m sure it was supposed to be comforting.

A whip. Of course he had to be good with a whip and Jared’s
favorite toy was probably a ball gag.

We entered a big open area with sea-green walls and I fought
the urge to panic. A wooden stool called my name at a bar that took up nearly
one whole wall.

It didn’t take long to get everyone’s attention since I was
the only one dressed like a naughty librarian. It was a real possibility I
might have to ask for a brown paper bag to hyperventilate into.

The furniture was probably beautiful but I couldn’t
appreciate anything. The lush carpet would slow me down if I had to rush past
all the well-dressed people to puke in one of the tall potted plants in the
corner.

I was about to yank the leash from Jenna’s hands—

“Holy…fuck,” came from a vaguely familiar male voice. Nick
from earlier eyed my fashion upgrade and my fleeing instinct took a backseat to
pride. He hadn’t closed his mouth, nor had he moved from his barstool.

“So—what do you think?” Jenna asked, parading me in a tight
circle. I caught the appreciative stare of an attractive man with a goatee
behind the bar but didn’t maintain his eye contact.

Nick stood to his full height and stepped closer, inspecting
my collar. “Not bad at all. You could tempt a saint.”

Jenna laughed softly. “And you would know this how? You’re
no saint, from what I hear from Jackson, so don’t give me that monk BS. You get
plenty of action with the club subs.”

“I’m willing to commit. For the right woman. You can help me
out of my hedonistic ways anytime. Say yes and let me strap you to a cross—”

“In your dreams, Casanova,” Jenna responded flippantly then
edged him out of the way.

We were on eye level due to my upgrade in footwear and when
she hugged me, I held on for dear life. “You’ll be fantastic,” she assured me.
“Fake it ’til you make it, ’kay?”

“I’ll try,” I whispered as she stepped back and handed the
leash over to Nick. Everyone still watched us and I didn’t want to make any
errors before the guys even saw me.

“Problem with the restraints?” Nick asked quietly. I hid my
wrists behind my back self-consciously.

“Baby steps.” Jenna whispered something in his ear.

He simply nodded and I couldn’t help but relax. I’d thought
he was going to ridicule me as the only sub in the place with a fear of
bondage. A nervous laugh tried to break free but I ground my teeth together and
tried in vain to calm down.

“Good luck,” Jenna said before giving me one hell of a
goodbye kiss. She was softer than I’d imagined her to be. Her lips ate at my
mouth, coaxing a reaction out of me until I melted into her. My tongue made its
way inside and I tasted her.

It reminded me of her attention to my sex earlier. The
orgasm that followed and the guys watching everything. I couldn’t help the
needy whimper that passed from me to her.

Nick cleared his throat a bit on the loud side—to get our
attention or keep the rest of the people focused on us? “You know the bosses
are going to hear about this, right?”

She nibbled my mouth and my hand strayed to the curve of her
ass.

“Yeah, but it’s worth it.” She winked at me one more time.
My nervousness transformed into an ache that settled low in my pelvis. My skin
tingled and I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth to taste her grape lip gloss
as she walked away.

“That woman,” Nick muttered as he headed to the other side
of the room. When the leash went taut, I followed automatically and kept my
wrists behind me. “The scene you are about to enter has been designed
specifically for you by your Masters. They’ll fill you in on everything else.
Do you have any questions?”

Nerves ate at my insides but I didn’t want to reveal
anything by speaking.

I shook my head and he nodded. He reached for the door
handle and I braced myself for anything. He pushed it open and time slowed
down. “Then welcome…to The Library.”

Wonder filled my bones as Nick led me inside.

For as long as I could remember, I’d wanted a library
identical to this.

Mahogany bookshelves, at least twelve foot high, lined the
walls from floor to ceiling.

I linked my fingers tightly together to keep from running
them along the spines of the books we passed.

We stopped several feet inside and I vaguely registered the
door closing behind us.

No matter how I tried, I couldn’t focus.

A wide table filled with books dominated the center of the
space. No other women sat in the chairs or the couches between the bookshelves,
nor were any on the chairs beside the coffee tables scattered here and there.

Only me.

Imposing men dotted the landscape. Four stood together
engrossed in conversation. They quieted when I moved farther inside but didn’t
cease speaking altogether.

They were dressed similarly. Inky-black leather, no shirts,
boots. Most of them had drinks. With how they were dressed, they should have
looked out of place but somehow it fit right into my fantasy.

I made eye contact with one of them and quickly focused on
something else. His lust scared me as much as it turned me on.

A closed door caught my attention on the left and
possibilities of what it held made me squeeze my thighs together.

On the right, a ladder slanted against the top of two
shelves, allowing access all the way up. I followed the rungs down, one by one,
until my gaze locked with a dark-haired man’s. The tilt of his lips made my
panties wet. I had a tough time remembering to breathe. He reminded me of
someone I’d seen in passing at the gym.

His white shirt hung open, revealing a six-pack and a bulge
straining the crotch of his leather pants. I couldn’t look away until another
guy stepped out through an open doorway behind him.

An unfinished black tattoo adorned one side of his upper
chest. He had slightly longer blond hair, which he tucked behind his ear, and
he stood an inch or so shorter than the man next to the ladder.

When the blond caught sight of me, he said something to the
guy with the white shirt. He didn’t answer, didn’t say a single word. Simply
stared at his shirtless companion. Their power exchange intensified. It didn’t
take a collar on the blond to know the man with the shirt was his Dom.

Tension increased until the Dom inclined his head in my
direction. The sub headed right for me. I took a step back, running into Nick.
I tried to flee but he tugged on my leash and the cuffs on my wrists, holding
me in place.

The sub stepped right in front of me then moved past. He
stopped at a couch behind us. Nick whipped me around and I stiffened. The Dom
was in front of me, less than a foot away. Staring at me, as he’d done since I
arrived. He looked into my eyes. What he saw, I have no idea, but he winked.

He scrutinized me from head to toe then followed his sub.

My tension seeped out and I relaxed against Nick.

The pad of his thumb gently stroked the inside of my wrist
above the cuff. That simple gesture hit me as if I’d been slapped. It wasn’t
sexual. He wanted to comfort me. No one had ever done that before except Jared
and Chris.

The sound of ice falling into a glass made me take a deep
breath and pull myself together. A small, built-in bar tucked into a recessed
corner framed a gorgeous man. In profile, he lifted a square glass to his lips
and sucked the clear liquid past the ice cubes, into his mouth. I knew Chris
from the broadness of his shoulders and the cut of his hair before he fully
turned.

“Sir, your submissive got lost in the halls…again. I thought
you’d want me to bring her here. In this
condition
, I didn’t think she’d
be safe otherwise.” Nick guided me forward but tightened the leash, holding me
in place when I tried to keep going.

I hadn’t seen Chris in a suit after he’d left the military
and oh, sweet Mary. The world had missed out in the years since. He was made to
wear it. It screamed authority. The striking-blue color of his tie was
startling against the cream of his shirt. He commanded the room—and my
attention. I wanted to kneel and beg to please him.

I’d been getting a reverse striptease all evening, starting
with Jared dressed in pants only then adding the shirt, and now the full suit
on Chris. Knowing what those clothes covered up made me shake with need. I left
teeth marks in my bottom lip and had to concentrate to stay in place.

“I wondered what happened to her. She’s been gone way too
long.”

“No problem, Sir.” Nick walked in front of me, unclipped the
leash from my collar and hesitated. He went over to Chris and told him
something too low for me to hear.

Had I done something against the rules? Panic welled inside
me, the urge to flee returning with a vengeance.

I retreated a step but hesitated when a tall man came in
from the entry on the left. My mouth went a little slack.