by Lila Dubois
I bowed my head, tears stinging my eyes behind the blindfold. “Yes, Master Clay.”
“And would you pay that price to protect this boy?”
“Yes, Master.”
“I haven’t told you the price.”
“I’ll pay it.”
“First, you’ll tell me what you were texting about that made you wet.”
“We were just flirting, Master Clay.”
“And flirting with him made you wet, wetter than being on camera submitting to me?”
I’d fallen into Master Clay’s trap. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been texting him.”
“I’m disappointed, Leona.” The leash jerked and I was pulled forward. I caught my balance, swallowing hard against my fear. “I think that I’m not the Master for you.”
No. He couldn’t do this. I’d run away from the boy I was falling in love with for him, for the life he represented.
“Master, please, I gave up everything for this.” If he decided I wasn’t worth it, then I would have nothing.
“Yesterday a man came to see me.” Master Clay’s tone was casual, as if he were chatting over brunch rather than holding my life in his hands. “He is interested in taking you.”
“Taking me?” I was both horrified and disgustingly aroused by the idea. Maybe he was talking about the Dom with the warm hands, the one whose touch did things to me I couldn’t explain. But how had this “friend” known about me?
“While you are not my slave, and therefore not truly mine to give away, I think that this other Master is a better fit for you. You’ve responded elegantly to his touch alone.”
He was talking about the other Dom. Warmth spread through my belly and chest, making me aware of my nakedness, aware of how on display I was. I liked it.
Master Clay came around behind me and grabbed both of my wrists in one of his hands, holding them in place at the back of my neck.
“Leona, I’d like you to meet my friend.” With his other hand he removed the blindfold.
Brad was sitting on the couch before me.
He wore a simple button-down shirt and jeans and was leaning forward, his forearms resting on his spread knees. The other end of the leash attached to my collar dangled from one hand.
He was both familiar and different. There was a stillness, a seriousness about him that I’d never seen, and his eyes, his pretty green-gold eyes, were fixed on me.
Surely this wasn’t real.
“Hey, Princess.”
I let out a little sob and scrambled away, trying to slide off the platform and pull my hands away from Master Clay’s grip.
Master Clay tightened his hold on my wrists, then reached for my throat. He held me under the jaw, forcing my head up so I couldn’t avoid looking at Brad. He placed his knee on the platform between my calves and forced my legs open.
“No, please,” I begged. “I don’t want him to see me like this.” I struggled to free my hands so I could cover my face, hide my nakedness. Master Clay’s thigh pressing against my ass, I whimpered and gave in. Between his hands holding my wrists and neck and the leg between mine I couldn’t get away, couldn’t hide.
“Let her go, Wayne,” Brad said.
“Please use Clay while we’re in the Marquis’ Quarters, Brad.”
“Fine. Let her go, Clay.”
Master Clay ignored him. I couldn’t turn my head away, so I closed my eyes. My heart was pounding so loud I thought they’d hear it. Brad was here, Brad knew Master Clay. There were from two completely different parts of my life. The coincidence was too much. Was this all part of some big plan? Had they been playing me since the beginning?
Master Clay released my neck long enough to grab the chain of the nipple clamps. With the chain caught in his fingers he stroked my face, each movement causing the clamps to pull. As confused as I was, I was no longer numb, no longer unaffected. My body was responding to Master Clay’s control…and the sight of Brad watching it all.
“You see, Leona, Brad is a friend of mine. I hired him to develop an app for me, and it made my firm one of the premier real estate companies in the nation. Because we worked together so closely Brad had the opportunity to see me as Master Clay, not Wayne Clayton.”
Master Clay was Wayne Clayton. One of the biggest donors to the museum. God, what a fool I was.
“Leo, baby, it’s okay.”
“No, it’s not okay,” I whispered. “You…you knew all along? Is that why you…” I couldn’t even bear to say it. I wanted to get out of here. “Please, Master Clay, let me go.”
“No, Leona. I won’t let you go. Because you see, Brad figured out your desires. Though you tried to hide it he could tell.”
I looked at Brad. “Is that why you asked me to the gala?”
Brad shook his head. “No. When I saw your…” He looked away, the muscles in his jaw flexing. “When I saw your ass I realized you’d been caned. That was the last piece of the puzzle. There was one time when you were in my car and I grabbed your wrist and said something and you got really still. I realized you were responding because I had said it like an order while holding you, instead of asking politely. At first I thought I was imagining it, that maybe seeing all the submissive stuff when I was working for Wayne, I mean Clay, had warped my mind.
“At the gala I saw Wayne when I was taking you Champagne. When I got there you had this weird expression on your face. I figured I was wrong, that it was too much of a coincidence.” Brad’s gaze shifted from me to Clay. “But I know caning is Clay’s preferred form of punishment. As soon as you ran away from me at the beach I came here.”
Master Clay was still stroking my cheek, still pulling on my nipples. “And I had realized that you were aroused by the person you were talking to via text message that night. When Brad showed up and said that he was falling in love with you, and demanded that I turn you over to him, I double-checked the video I kept, only then realizing it was Brad’s number. What a small world Los Angeles can be.”
Master Clay continued talking, but one thing he said had my heart skipping a beat. I bit my lip and looked at Brad. “You’re falling in love with me?”
Brad started to smile but then Master Clay tightened his grip on my wrists and held me by the neck once more. Reflexively I dropped my eyes.
“Dammit, Wayne. Let her go. She’s mine.”
A shiver worked its way down my back at Brad’s words.
“I’m afraid what I said earlier was true.” Master Clay’s tone was frighteningly casual with a hint of regret. “Leona is a rare find, and if properly trained will be a submissive of unparalleled obedience and elegance.”
“Well, fuck you and fuck that, because she’s not submissive.”
I looked at Brad. That was a stupid thing to say when I was kneeling mostly naked on a display platform in the middle of a room full of kinky sex toys being held in position by a man I called “Master”. Brad caught my gaze and rolled his eyes. For a moment he was back to being the smart, geeky, funny boy who I was falling in love with.
“I mean she’s not just submissive, she’s more and she’s less. Leo, baby, look at me.”
I focused on him. I was so confused by what was happening that I was no longer embarrassed. This other version of Brad, the intense, serious Brad, demanded my attention and I felt compelled to obey. “You’re not submissive. What you are is scared of having your heart broken, and you’re kinky. Somehow those got combined in your head to make you think that you’re a submissive. But I guarantee you that if we went out to a bar and I pointed out a cute girl and said ‘let’s have sex with her’, you would get into it. It wouldn’t be an order. It wouldn’t be a command from your master. It would just be you and me doing kinky shit.”
I could picture Brad and me sitting together in a dark bar, my legs draped over his as we scanned the room looking for somebody sexy enough for us to take home.
Desire flooded me and I shivered. Master Clay tugged on the nipple clamps and I arched my back, moaning.
“See?” B
rad said.
My eyes popped open when I realized how obvious my response had been. Heat flooded my cheeks and I dropped my gaze.
“Well, it appears that I might have no choice but to give you up, my pretty Leona.” Master Clay released my neck and wrists. I dropped my arms to my sides, unsure what to do. Confusing as it had been to have Master Clay touching me, it was worse to be kneeling here naked and unsure. I started to cross my arms over my breasts, but Brad reached out, taking my wrist. My gaze flew to his.
“If this is what you really want, then I’m game. I can use you like this and we will both enjoy it, but I think that there’s more, that we can have more fun, more pleasure, by just being us.”
He released my wrist and grabbed the chain between the nipple clamps, tugging it. I dropped my head back, moaning. Brad jerked the leash, pulling me off balance, but I shouldn’t have worried because he caught me, wrapping his arms around my back and dragging me off the platform onto the couch. My nipples were still pinched in the clamps, but now were also pressed against his chest. He was warm and hard and smelled good. This was it. This was what I wanted. I tangled my fingers in his hair, happy, so happy, that I could touch him.
I kissed him, taking the initiative. That was something I would have given up—being able to demand kisses when I wanted. Or maybe I would have had to give up being kissed, since Master Clay hadn’t ever put his lips on mine. Brad tangled his hand in my hair as he deepened the kiss.
By the time we broke apart we were both panting. I wiggled forward until I could feel the ridge of Brad’s cock through his jeans.
“Why did you run?” he asked.
“You deserve a normal girl. A nice girl. I’m not the girlfriend type.”
“Those other guys must have seriously messed you up.” He tucked my hair behind my ear. “As far as I’m concerned you are the girlfriend type. My girlfriend. And no one is normal, some people are just better at hiding their freak flag.”
“Like you are? If I’d known you were into this…” I trailed off, suddenly aware that Master Clay was still in the room.
Brad stroked my cheek. “When I started to wonder if you were into being submissive I should have pushed. Honestly, I thought you were either playing hard to get or sleeping with someone who you hadn’t broken up with yet.”
“I shouldn’t have been flirting with you when I’d just started training with Master Clay. I resolved not to mess around with frat boys and then there you were, all cute and sexy and fun.”
“I wasn’t in a frat.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Leona raises an interesting point.” Master Clay’s tone was tinged with annoyance.
I shivered and pressed closer to Brad. He rubbed my back and I relaxed.
“Leona and I have a contract.”
“Shit,” Brad muttered.
I frowned. “What contract?”
Master Clay took a seat beside Brad and it made me nervous that he was once more so close. “Did you read the contract page at the end of the checklist?”
I vaguely remembered a page of text at the end of the checklist that I’d signed, but that wasn’t a contract.
“I didn’t sign a contract.”
“You did. The checklist is a contract. The final page has several rules, including that you agree not to have sexual contact with anyone else for the duration of the contract. Which, in your case, was two months.”
I stared at Master Clay in shock. During a chat before we met he’d mentioned that while I was training with him I wasn’t supposed to have sex with anyone else, and I wouldn’t have slept with Brad while I was still seeing Master Clay, but that had been about common decency and safety, not a contract. Or so I’d thought.
Brad touched my cheek. “Did you sign anything, Princess?”
“Yes, but it was…” I looked between Brad’s grim face and Master Clay’s smile. “It can’t be legal,” I sputtered.
“For approximately the next six weeks you agreed not to have any sexual contact outside of our play time and also make yourself available to me at least three times a week.”
“You’re just trying to scare her,” Brad said.
“I’m simply reminding her, both of you actually, that while your little love story is touching there are other obligations that must be addressed.”
“So what, you’d force me to keep coming here?” I was getting angry and weirdly more turned-on. “I’ll use the safeword the instant I walk in the door.”
“I’d suggest you watch your tone.” Master Clay leveled a cold stare at me. I dropped my eyes, the fire of defiance sputtering and dying. My heart was thumping against my ribs. I shouldn’t have spoken to Master Clay like that.
“Enough, Clay. Leona, baby, it’s okay. I saw him do this to another girl. It’s about business. He wouldn’t really force you to keep coming here. He can be a bit of an ass but he’s not a rapist. He is, however, serious about his contracts. What we have to do is buy your contract, offer him something in exchange for ripping up whatever you signed.”
“Can’t we just go?” I asked in a whisper.
“Sure, baby, and if that’s what you want that’s what we’ll do.” Brad kissed me softly.
“If you do that,” Master Clay said, clearly having heard despite my whisper, “I might no longer feel so friendly toward Brad.”
What did that matter?
Brad’s lips tightened. “You can be an ass, Wayne.”
With a start I realized what was going on. If Master Clay was the one who’d recommended Brad for the LACMA job, and the one who’d made him so rich that he could buy a fancy car, that meant that if Master Clay stopped being friends with Brad, Brad’s business might really suffer.
I leaned away from Brad. “You should go.”
“It’s just money,” Brad said.
I stared at him. “That is…a very stupid thing to say.”
Master Clay laughed softly and Brad shrugged.
“Just get out of here,” I said. “I’ll call you later.”
“You seriously think I’m going to leave and let Clay put his hands on you again? I don’t think so. I barely stopped myself from punching him earlier.”
I wanted to tell Brad that it was my choice, that I could take care of myself. But I didn’t say anything. The part of me that had so longed to give up control and be a sub was screaming at me to trust Brad, to let him take over. The part of me that enjoyed really kinky shit was reveling in this mess of a situation. Here I was, being held by the boy I liked, who was into kinky stuff just like I was, but we couldn’t be together because I was contracted to be the submissive to a powerful man who had control over both of us. It was both romantic and fucked up—and I liked it.
Brad’s gaze met mine and there was a seriousness in his eyes that drew me in. He eased me away from his chest, examining me from head to belly, eyes lingering on my breasts.
“All right, Clay, let the negotiations begin. What do you want?”
“First of all, for the remainder of this conversation I expect Leona to behave appropriately. She is a guest in my home and knows the rules of the Marquis’ Quarters.”
“And would you be willing to have this conversation somewhere else?”
“No.”
“Figures.” Brad rubbed my back a final time and gave a gentle tug to the nipple clamps. “On your knees, baby.”
The order coming from Brad made me want to grab him by the hair and kiss him until we both passed out from lack of oxygen.
I slid off of his lap onto the floor, making sure his legs were between me and Master Clay.
“And?” Master Clay said.
Brad sighed, then cupped my chin and forced me to look at him. “For right now I need you to be the perfect sub. Do you understand?”
I shook my head. What was he getting at?
Brad’s jaw clench and he looked at Clay before turning back to me. “He invited me here are a guest, but you’re still his sub, at least until we work somethi
ng out. Whatever his rules are, you need to follow them.”
I risked a glance at Master Clay, who crooked his finger at me. I wanted to look at Brad, to see what his reaction was before I moved.
When I hesitated Brad leaned forward and kissed the side of my head. “I want you all to myself, but I totally respect the game that you’re playing with Master Clay. If you don’t want to play anymore we’ll get up and walk out of here. Otherwise you need to act like nothing has changed.”
I touched his jeans-covered calf, needing the contact. “You won’t…you won’t think I’m a slut?”
“Nope. I think it’s hot that you’re kinky.”
“But, but what if I enjoy it?” I jerked my head toward Master Clay, hoping Brad understood my concern. I was now very wet, and as frightening as he was I knew that when Master Clay touched me I’d respond.
“You’re supposed to enjoy it,” Brad teased.
“I think what Leona is afraid of is that now that you are here, and not only her body but her emotions are involved, she will not be able to hold back. Though I’ve pushed her there’s a part of her I haven’t been able to touch. With you here I expect that last bit of control will disappear.”
“That’s why you’re pushing this, isn’t it?” Brad asked.
Master Clay shrugged. “As I said, Leona has the potential to be a truly elegant submissive. I’d like to see it, even if I do not have the opportunity to train her long-term.”
The way Master Clay was talking about me was making me wet. The numbness I’d felt when arriving was long gone, as was the fear of Master Clay that had me shying away from him. I pictured myself between the two of them, being fucked by both, and shivered.
“Leona.” My name was a command on Master Clay’s lips.
This time I didn’t hesitate. Still on my knees, I scooted past Brad’s legs until I was kneeling between them, facing the empty space on the couch.
“On your feet, arms behind your back, legs spread.”
I obeyed, squashing little twinges of embarrassment and nervousness. Focusing on the back of the couch, I once more raised my arms, lacing my fingers behind my neck. The leather collar was smooth under my palms.
“Brad, would you like to take the lead?”
