by Lexi Blake
“At Deena’s house?”
“When we’re playing,” he corrected. “When we’re at a party like this or when I bring you to Sanctum.”
“I thought you were holding off taking someone to the big club.”
“I was holding off with Kristy. I’ll take you in a heartbeat. I trust you.” Javier leaned back, relaxing. “So, I want you to think about what you want from me here. It’s okay if all you want is a mentor, but if you’re interested in the lifestyle, let me train you. I’m going to admit that I’m not a full-time top. I enjoy it sexually, but in real life I don’t want anything that’s close to twenty-four seven.”
“I don’t think I would need that kind of top. By the way, who says I’m not a top?”
A sexy grin crossed his face. “Says the man who recently made love to you. My darling, that sex might have been fairly vanilla, but you responded perfectly every time I took control. I want you to think about a specific scenario, and this is one that would take place in the D/s part of our relationship.”
“A scenario?” Jules asked.
“Yes, this is the play part of playing. I enjoy role-play. I want you to imagine that you’re a secretary. My secretary. Unfortunately, you’ve made a terrible mistake that costs the company money. You enter my office, desperate to save your job.”
She wrinkled her nose. “This doesn’t sound particularly sexy.”
“Oh, but that’s because you don’t know where I’m going with it. You see, I’ve been watching you, Miss O’Neil. The way I look at it, I’ve got two choices. I could call the police in and have them take you away or I can decide if it was all merely a mistake. I think the only way I would be able to trust you again is to bind you to me. How do you think I’m going to bind you to me? To tie you so closely to me that I don’t have to worry about you betraying me again?”
Sex. Naturally he would use sex. She could see herself. She would be dressed in a prim business suit, tears in her eyes when he suggested another way out of their problem. “What would you do?”
She wanted to hear him say the words.
“I would sit back in my chair and explain to you that your duties have changed and that means you’ll need a new uniform. Tell me something, Miss O’Neil, are you wearing underwear? Because I don’t think your new duties require those.”
“You’re a pervert, Leones,” she said, but she was feeling the heat.
“Am I? Tell me something else,” he said, his voice low and deep. He leaned in, his mouth close to her ear. “If I ran my hand up your thigh and let my fingers find your pussy, would it be wet? Did thinking about me having sexual control over you get you hot or did you find it distasteful? Does the thought of being in my power, of serving me in that fashion, knowing that I would be a kind Master and ensure your safety and pleasure, does that do something for you? Because I can smell you right now and I’ll know if you’re lying to me. Lying to your mentor could bring about unexpected consequences. Now, who do you think you are in this part of our relationship?”
All the air seemed to have fled her lungs. He was so close their mouths were almost together. “I’m the sub. Definitely the sub.”
“Yes, you are.”
She closed her eyes, ready to let him lead her in this. Boundaries. They would have boundaries, and that made her feel safe.
“All right, let’s go watch some scenes and then we can talk.”
She opened her eyes and he was standing over her, his hand out to help her up. What had happened? He wanted to watch other people and talk some more?
He smiled like he could tell exactly what she was thinking. “It’s part of the process, sweetheart. Let me lead you in this section. We’ll talk about how you want to proceed. Remember this. You’re the sub and that means ultimately you’re in control.”
It was weird and intriguing.
And she found herself walking back into the kitchen next to him.
Javier stopped her, stepping in front of her body. “What the hell happened?”
Big Tag and Charlotte were on the floor, a tangle of body parts and lemon desserts.
“Don’t you take the arrow out,” Charlotte was yelling into her cell phone even as she tried to stay completely still.
“You tell him I will kill him if this incident scars my baby girl for life,” Ian swore. “Charlie, baby, my shoulder’s out of socket. Could you help me out?”
Without missing a beat, she scrambled to her feet, leaned down, selected one of the unspoiled tarts and shoved it into her husband’s mouth. “Happy now? I told you that chair wouldn’t hold us both and it’s the babysitter who got shot. Boomer might die on our living room floor.” She was back on the phone. “I’m sorry. We’re on our way right now. Seriously, don’t take that arrow out.”
Big Tag was on his feet, chewing the last of the tarts even as his arm was at a completely unnatural angle. “Macon! Buddy, I’m going to need these to go. Date night’s fucked up again. Javi, some help here?”
Javier shook his head and put out an arm, bracing himself. “Has anyone ever told you you’re completely insane?”
Big Tag grinned and used Javier’s straight arm to shove his shoulder back into socket with an audible crack. “Never heard that one before. Use condoms. Like three of ’em.”
He turned and followed his wife out.
“First scene of the night,” Javier said with a shake of his head. “Let’s see if we can find one that’s less crazy. Let’s go watch the sadist. It’s probably less violent than what we just saw.”
She held his hand and let him lead her away.
Chapter Six
She was here and that was all he could ask.
Javier watched as the scene started to wind down. Kai and Kori could go at it pretty hard, which was precisely why he’d brought her out to the garage to watch their scene. Kori didn’t hold back. She howled and cursed her Master and giggled and laughed, and when she came he was surprised the neighborhood couldn’t hear it.
He was throwing her in the deep end, but she needed to see what it was like.
“I don’t think I’ll ever look at my therapist the same way again,” she admitted as they stepped back into the house. She stopped, seeing that Eric had Deena tied to a St. Andrew’s Cross and was using a flogger on her.
It was a lot. Maybe he should have gone slower.
“Any questions?” Or would you prefer to run screaming from the house?
She turned and grinned up at him, a light in her eyes. “What can I try?”
He breathed an audible sigh of relief. “I thought I scared you off.”
“It looks fun. I don’t think I’m ready for suspension play, but I get some of it,” she replied. “It’s about stimulating parts of your body that don’t get stimulated often. I realized that there’s this part of PT I always look forward to. I thought it was weird and maybe a little perverse at first, but I always want to tell the guy who puts the TENS on my arm to turn that sucker up. It’s feeling where there was none before. I like it.”
Oh, he knew what they should play with. “Come on. Let’s see if anyone’s using the violet wand. I don’t know if they have a TENS here, but this should work.”
He’d turned away earlier. When she’d closed her eyes, he’d known he could have kissed her. Hell, he likely could have laid her back on the chaise and had his way with her, but they would have been right back at the start. She knew he could handle her sexually. He had to prove he could be more than a walking, talking vibrator.
He ducked into the guest bedroom where he knew Eric had set up the violet wand. He was in luck. It was quiet in here and it looked like everyone had been busy with suspension and impact play. He picked up the wand and attached a head, this one a flat glass piece.
“Normally, we would sit down and negotiate a contract between the two of us and I would go over what kinds of play you’re interested in and what your hard and soft limits are.”
“But I don’t know anything, so I have no idea.”
&
nbsp; “Trust me, you could answer some of them very quickly,” he said with a chuckle. “And if you want to pursue this past tonight, we’ll need something in place between us. But for now we’re just going to play around, and if at any time you’re scared, tell me and I’ll stop.”
Her pretty blue eyes rolled in a perfectly bratty expression of disdain. “You’re not going to scare me with that wand thingee. I was in the Navy, you know. Not exactly a fainting flower.”
It was one of the things that made him want her. “Okay, then. This is what we call a violet wand. It sends an electrical charge across your skin.”
“Fun,” she said.
“And stimulating.” That was the point. He flicked the wand on and the air suddenly smelled like ozone as the glass held a purple charge. He set it on the lowest setting and tested it. Like everything Eric owned, it was well taken care of and did its job. “Let me see your arm.”
She started to hold out her whole arm.
“Nope. The other one.” It was the one she tried not to use, the one that got the least stimulation.
She bit her bottom lip but did as he asked.
He let the sound crackle through the air. “So this is a low setting. It should feel like bubbles over your skin. I’m not going to play it over the surgical adhesions. It’s a little different than a TENS and I want to avoid anywhere with nerve damage. That’s fun you’ll have to have in PT.”
He ran the wand over her skin, starting at her elbow and skimming it down to just above where the limb ended. He was rewarded with a shiver and a smile.
“It does feel like bubbles,” she said. “You know you’re the only person outside of my doctors who ever touch me there. You can take it higher. I think I’d like more.”
He upped the wattage slightly. He held her arm with one hand as he played the wand over her. “This should feel like a caress of light. I think more people would if you let them in. It’s not that anyone cares. They simply don’t feel close enough to touch you.”
“I think your friend Kristy would disagree,” she replied with a gasp. She grinned, obviously enjoying the sensation.
“Turn around.” He could light her up if that was what she liked. He pulled her hair to one side, loving the silky feel of it against his palm. “Kristy is a person who doesn’t matter. If you need the world to be with you, Jules, you’re going to be disappointed. I’ve learned to make my world small and filled with people who count. Even then they can disappoint you because at the end of the day we’re all human and make terrible mistakes.”
Her head turned, eyes coming up to meet his. “I was putting her name out there because I heard she was here and I was jealous.”
Sweet honesty. They were making progress. “She came on to me. I sent her away in no uncertain terms. I know who she is. There might have been a time when I would have taken what she offered, but it’s gone now.”
She turned her head to face front, but not before he’d seen the satisfied smirk on her lips. Confident and sexy. “Deena owes me twenty bucks.”
He should protest, but apparently she’d bet on him. He brushed his fingers over the nape of her neck. “I’m glad I came through for you. How do you like this?”
He cranked it up slightly and ran it over her nape and down her spine.
Her head fell forward. “I like it, Javi. I like it a lot. It feels good.”
The husky sound of her voice went straight to his cock. The new plan sucked. The new plan required him to be patient, to not throw her down on the first convenient horizontal surface and fuck her like she was the last woman on earth. Nope. He wasn’t going to do that because he’d done that before and it hadn’t brought about the result he wanted.
“I’m glad. I like playing with the wand, too.” He ran it down both her arms, enjoying the way she responded. He got down on one knee. Damn, she had the prettiest ass. He couldn’t possibly let her know how easy it had been to tell Kristy he wasn’t interested. She’d shown up in her most angelic white corset, her blonde hair a halo around her face. She’d been beautiful but in a calculating way. She’d had nothing on his Jules, with her wavy red hair and guileless eyes. And this ass. He brought the wand just below the curve of her ass and she jumped.
“Hold still or I could hurt you,” he warned. “Hold on to the table.”
There was a good-sized massage table in the room, and he had to wonder if Eric was thinking of opening his own damn club. The man definitely had a hobby. She leaned over and put her hand on the table, stabilizing herself.
He ran the wand all over her legs, making lines of light down to her feet. She squirmed and wiggled, and every gasp made his cock tighten because he knew it was all prepping her. Prepping her for something he couldn’t give her.
He was going to masturbate like crazy tonight. He was going to grip his own dick and stroke himself, thinking about her the entire time. He would go over every filthy way he could have her and do it again and again until he could think straight around her.
“The violet wand can be especially fun. Did you know if you held a light bulb in your hand and I got close enough with the wand, you could light it up?” Javier asked, trying to keep his mind on the task at hand. He was mentoring her, teaching her about how fun play could be. Maybe a few weeks from now they could move this section of their relationship to the next level.
Boss/employee, neighbors, mentor/trainee. He had to take it slow so he could move them along to coworkers, true friends, lovers. Goals. A man had to have goals and had to be patient enough to reach them.
“That would be fun,” she said, her voice shaky. “I can see where this would be a fun scene to watch or play around in. But Javier, I would like to feel this all over. It’s nice on my arms and legs. What would it be like in other places?”
Fuck him. It would be incredibly hot. It would be sexy as hell. His dick would explode in his jeans and he would look like the biggest idiot on the planet. Doms were supposed to be in control even when they were only Doms in a play space. And yet, it was his job to serve her this evening, to let her explore the boundaries. She’d been incredibly open and tolerant up to this point. He couldn’t not reward her sweet curiosity—even if it meant leaving himself in a very bad place. But then who hadn’t walked around a dungeon with a massive, not-going-to-get-any-relief-tonight hard-on?
Still, she might not understand that he couldn’t touch her over her clothes. “I can’t get too close to the corset, sweetheart. It’s got metal in it and that would conduct the electricity in a way that wouldn’t be fun.”
“That’s okay. I would love to take it off.”
Yes. He was going to die. “Jules, I can get you out of that corset, but I’m not good at putting clothes back on a woman. It was never my goal. If I take you out of it, you’ll have to walk around half naked the rest of the night.”
She was quiet for a moment, the hum of the wand the only sound between them. “I saw lots of boobs and dicks and butts today. I was surprised that it didn’t bother me. It felt okay, like I was just getting to know people better.”
“Because they’re comfortable with it and they don’t make a big deal out of it,” he replied. It was going to be pure hell to get her naked and not touch her with anything except the wand, but then he’d made his bed by jumping into hers without setting the ground rules. “So do you want to play more?”
“Unless it would bother you.” Self-consciousness was creeping into her tone and he hated that. She’d found a confidence while they’d walked around that had been a lovely thing to see.
“It won’t bother me at all.” It would make him crazy. He would spend the rest of the evening attempting to leash his inner caveman. He flicked off the violet wand and put it down on the table. “Let’s get you out of this.”
He loosened the laces, easing them out. She looked gorgeous in the corset, but her skin was lovelier, and that night they’d spent together had been too quick. He’d been so eager he’d only taken a few moments to look at her before he’d gotten
his mouth on her. This time, with no expectation of sex, he could take his time and appreciate her beauty.
Maybe it wouldn’t be bad. Anticipation. He needed to get used to it. He managed to loosen the laces enough that he could ease the corset over her. Her hair spilled down her back, making her look like some mermaid he’d caught, one who he’d never throw back, so he needed to figure out how to take care of this mysterious, gorgeous creature because she was his.
He couldn’t stop himself from reaching out to brush his fingers over the grooves the tight corset had left in her skin. Those were lovely, too.
She relaxed under his hands. “That feels even better than the wand.”
He chuckled but ran his palms over her back. “That’s because you probably are taking your first full breath in a couple of hours. Fet wear can be part of the torture. The crazy thing is once you’ve stopped torturing yourself, the act of getting undressed feels satisfying and pleasurable.”
“And free.”
“And free.” He gathered all that hair and brushed it to one side. “How free do you want to be? How far do you want me to go? There’s no metal in your thong. You can keep that on if you like.”
“I don’t. Like, that is. I think I want to be naked. I like how I feel when I’m naked and you look at me.”
Those words threatened to split him open, and he decided then and there to give her everything she wanted and to take nothing for himself. She needed to understand how much he was willing to give her, how far he wanted them to go.
“Then I would like for you to take them off and give them to me. I’ll keep them until you need them again. If you feel like you need them again.” He needed to get her used to the whole Dom/sub byplay thing. Her clothes would be something they would play with. He would demand them or leave them on as he would. He would build the anticipation or strip her bare so she could feel the cool air on her skin right before he slapped her ass and got her hot.
She hesitated, but only for a few seconds, and then she turned around, showing him her breasts. Her eyes met his and she slowly hooked her thumb under the waistband of her thong and tugged it down those long, luscious legs of hers. She straightened up and held them out. “Here you go, Sir.”
