by Shelly Bell
“And you know that for a fact?” Cassandra asked. The redhead’s eyes softened. “They have somewhat of an open relationship, at least on his end. After all, he’s the owner of Benediction, and not only can he have whatever slave he wants, he has.”
With every word Cassandra uttered, the vise on Danielle’s heart tightened. “He doesn’t have sex with the slaves.”
“True,” Cassandra said. “He mostly gets off on watching us. Matching us up with Dominants or sometimes other slaves. That’s when he becomes the director. He sets up a scene for the slaves and tells us what to do. He’s done scenes with slaves, but he refuses to penetrate. That’s because of her.” She pointed to Cole’s closed door. “Right, Sedona?”
Sedona gave Danielle an apologetic shrug. “I can’t confirm it, but she is a member of the club, and she’s the only woman who he takes to his private residence. Why else would she go upstairs with him?”
“Listen,” Cassandra said, throwing an arm over Danielle’s shoulders. “I know you think I’m a bitch, and well, yeah, I guess I am, but I’m going to be straight with you. Everything that happens here is make-believe. When he’s touching you and saying how wonderful you are, how beautiful, how special. When you’re vulnerable and in the arms of a Dom, receiving after-care, you begin to think maybe you mean more to him than just sex. Maybe it’s the real deal. Maybe we could have something permanent. Then the next night, he’s playing with another sub and you hear him saying those same words.”
Although the words certainly applied to Danielle’s situation, she had a suspicion that Cassandra was speaking from personal experience. Could that be why she disliked her? Was it possible she had fallen for Cole as well?
Danielle toyed with her locket. Feelings were irrelevant. The only thing she should be concerned about was whether Cole had a collared slave, because if he did, he’d be much more difficult to seduce.
Cassandra removed her arm and turned Danielle to face her, gripping her by her shoulders. “Cole DeMarco doesn’t only train, he remolds his trainees into individuals with self-esteem and self-worth. Just remember that.”
Sedona shoved Cassandra. “Cassandra, how’s she supposed to have any self-worth if you implied Master Cole is lying to her?”
Cassandra took her usual haughty stance and tossed her hair over her back. “Not my problem if she needs a man to bolster her self-esteem. I have it, and I know the truth. Same as you.” She turned to Danielle. “Enjoy your time here. Enjoy Master Cole. But don’t hang your heart on a happy-ever-after with the man, because you don’t mean anything more to him than I do.”
“Have you played with anyone but Master Cole yet?” Sedona asked.
To her, Adrian didn’t count, since he was a slave acting on Cole’s orders. “No. He hasn’t let me.” Not that she’d wanted to play with anyone else.
Cassandra and Sedona shared a look, then Sedona grinned at Danielle. “Are you finished with your assigned service?”
Her cheeks flushed as she thought about how Cole had made good on his promise to change service into sexy play. But Cassandra was right. That was Cole’s job as her Master and owner of Benediction. He would do it for any slave trainee. “I took a break, but I’m supposed to deliver waters to the members.”
Sedona linked their arms together and pulled her toward the stairs leading to the dungeon. “The rule is you can play so long as you’ve finished your assignment for the day. I’ll take over for you, and you can play.”
“I don’t know . . . ”
Cassandra joined her other side. “How’s this then? You learn firsthand how to negotiate a scene, and then if you want, you can follow through.”
Danielle didn’t trust her, but what was the worst that would happen? Cole would punish her? If she didn’t mean anything to him, he wouldn’t care. Besides he was busy with the perfect pantsuit. “Okay.”
Was she crazy? The minute she saw Cole with that woman she must have lost her mind, because she was actually taking Cassandra’s advice and accompanying her and Sedona into the dungeon. Could she allow another man to touch her? She knew if Cole had ordered it, she could, but without his knowledge? She wasn’t even sure she wanted to find out.
As they advanced toward the good-looking man she’d served water to earlier, she told herself it didn’t matter what Cole thought because right now, he was with another woman.
“Sir Logan,” Cassandra said. “This is Danielle. She’s a new trainee.”
He smiled and offered his free hand, a beige loop of rope in his other. “Nice to officially meet you, Danielle. What can I do for you?”
Logan’s face lit up from his smile, light laugh lines appearing at the corners of his lips, but his eyes remained intensely serious. Too serious for someone so young. With brown hair worn in a buzz cut, he towered over her five-foot-seven-inch frame, and his simple white wife beater enhanced his firm, lean physique. But despite his attractiveness, her heart didn’t thump any faster.
Sedona slid her arm around Danielle’s waist. “As part of her training, she needs to practice the skill of negotiating a scene, and we thought you’d be able to help.”
“Just negotiate?” He stepped closer. “Or will I get the privilege of playing with you as well?”
She averted her eyes and checked out the floor instead. “I’m not sure. I haven’t . . . that is . . . Master Cole has been present for my previous scenes, and I’m not sure how I feel doing one without him.”
He gently tipped up her chin with two of his fingers, forcing her to look at him. “Do you have permission to do a scene?”
“Sir Logan, you know she can scene so long as she has a dungeon monitor’s approval, and since you are a dungeon monitor, she doesn’t have to worry,” Cassandra said.
“I’ll tell you what,” Logan said softly as if he and Danielle were the only two people in the room, “why don’t we just talk and see where it goes?”
“Have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Cassandra said.
Sedona grabbed Cassandra by the arm and yanked her away, both of them in hysterics. “Come with me, slut.”
Logan dropped his fingers and stepped back, keeping his gaze locked on her.
Danielle waited until the women were out of earshot. “May I ask you a question, Sir?”
“Of course. I don’t follow a lot of protocol.” He gestured to the nearby loveseat, and they went to sit on it. “You can call me Logan. What’s up?”
“Should I be concerned that Cassandra is being nice to me?”
He frowned. “I’m not sure. She was acting unusually supportive tonight.”
“Yeah.” At least she wasn’t the only one noticing it. She scanned the room and didn’t see either of the trainees. “I wouldn’t put it past her to be setting me up for something.”
“Listen, if you’re worried, I can call him and ask his permission first.”
“No. He’s busy,” she said a little too forcibly. She couldn’t bear it if Cole gave Logan permission to scene with her. It was better not to know. Besides, she hadn’t decided to do a scene yet. Surely she didn’t need permission to talk to Logan. “I don’t want to disturb him. It’s fine.”
“Right. I almost believe you.” Logan leaned into her. “Why don’t you tell me what brought you to Benediction, Danielle?”
Wringing her hands together, she took a deep breath and prepared herself to lie again. “There’s a man. My fiancé. Well, not really my fiancé because I haven’t accepted, but he’s a Dominant. No, I guess that’s not really true. He’s dominant but he’s not a Dom. And he said it wasn’t important to him that I . . . I’m here to learn more about submission.”
“That was a nice story.” He reclined and crossed his arms. “Complete bullshit, and your acting job wouldn’t win any Academy Awards, but I can see why Cole would accept your application.”
She had to hand it to him. His laid-back demeanor and gentle teasing made it impossible not to like him. “Oh yeah? And why is that?”
“
To peel back your layers and discover what’s hidden in your core.”
“Are you comparing me to an onion?”
He shook his head. “You smell too good to be an onion. You’re more like the Internet. Everyone takes it for granted. What you see is what you get. What people don’t realize is how complex it really is or how many layers there are to it. The deeper you go, the more secrets you find—secrets that are right there for everyone to see if they only knew where to look. People can attack it, do some damage, but the core is strong. It survives.”
She didn’t know how to respond to something so insightful without revealing anything more about herself. Since the best defense was an offense, she turned the tables on him. “Are you a computer engineer or something?”
“A criminal defense attorney with a side business in software design.”
With a hobby of tying women up with rope. Busy guy.
“Sounds as though you’re the one with the layers,” she said.
“We’re not here to discuss me.” He sat up straight and turned his body toward hers, creating the illusion of intimacy. “So you’ve had a few days at Benediction. Is there anything you’ve seen or heard about that you’d like to try?”
Suddenly feeling shy, she shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“You do know. You just don’t want to say. Communication is essential in BDSM, especially in the negotiating of a scene. You can’t be afraid to ask for what you want or to say no. We can go over your soft and hard limits, but that still leaves too many acts and items to discuss.”
How could she articulate what she wanted to try when she could barely admit it to herself? The checklist of items she’d completed for Cole when she’d arrived at Benediction had opened her eyes to a new world filled with sexual possibilities.
“Stand up,” Logan said, taking her hand and bringing them both to their feet. “I’m going to try a verbal exercise with you. Don’t speak until we’re all done or do any of the things I order, all right?”
She swallowed the knot of apprehension in her throat. What good was a verbal exercise if she couldn’t speak? “Okay.”
He moved closer. “You’re a dirty slut.”
Really? Was that supposed to turn her on? Because all it did was make her want to slap him.
“You’ve been bad and deserve to be punished.” After a beat, he continued, giving time for her mind to process the words before saying more. “I can’t wait to turn your ass red.”
He kept his gaze on her, the intensity of his stare burning into her. “Take my dick out right now, and with your mouth, show everyone how much you love it.” Her pulse skittered, but she didn’t move a muscle.
“I want to hurt you.” He didn’t pause and wait for a reaction. “Remove all your clothes, go to the stage, and make yourself come three times.” She bit her lip, and her pussy clenched, the image blossoming before her eyes.
His nostrils flared, and his voice dropped to a husky whisper. “I’d love to see my ropes decorating your naked body.” His throat worked over a swallow, and if her eyes didn’t deceive her, his words had affected him as well, judging by the outline of his erection through his jeans. “I’m going to tie you to my bed and do whatever I want to your body.”
He reached out his hand as if he was going to touch her. She held her breath. Did she want him to?
Before he made contact, he dropped his arm to his side. “I’m going to share you with my friend.” Her nipples hardened, rubbing painfully against her dress. “Crawl over to the stage.” She winced.
His sexy smile returned, and this time, he did touch her, taking her hand and returning them to the loveseat. “Good job. Do you want to know what I just learned from you?”
“Yes. Please do tell.” She folded her arms across her chest, although she had no doubt he saw her body’s reaction to his words. Still, he was a man, and men, in her opinion, weren’t usually that astute.
One by one, he ticked off his fingers. “You’re definitely not a masochist, although you wouldn’t mind the occasional spanking, especially if it was in front of a crowd. You’re not into humiliation. You’re interested in bondage and multiple partners. You’re submissive, but only for the right man, because that’s not your kink. Interestingly, you are an exhibitionist.”
Her jaw went slack. “Why is that interesting? I’m sure there are plenty of exhibitionists at Benediction.”
There was no way he got all that by her nipples. She didn’t know how he’d figured it all out simply by asking her those questions, but it was uncanny in its accuracy. Did they have a training program for the Doms where they taught them how to read body language, or was it something innate to people like Logan and Cole?
“True. But not one of them has held Cole’s attention as you have.”
And that’s why he left her in the dungeon while he went upstairs to his residence with his collared submissive. She turned away, catching Sedona by the stairs talking animatedly with a few of the trainees. “I don’t want to talk about him.”
“Look at me. Same exercise, only I want you to answer my questions.” He didn’t stand this time, but he held her hand and rested it on his thigh, his thumb brushing the inside of her wrist.
“Do you want to play with Adrian?”
She sighed, thinking about how Adrian had carried out Cole’s orders between her thighs. But would she have enjoyed it without Cole’s arms around her?
“Do you want to play with Gracie?” She pressed her lips together and held back a laugh. Thanks to Gracie’s kiss, she knew same-sex scenes were not for her.
“Do you want to play with Master Cole?” Her body instantly heated. The few days with Cole had already trained her body to respond to the thought of how easily he could bring it pleasure. But her body needed to catch up with her brain. It didn’t matter how he’d made her body come alive. Because all of it meant nothing. She was just another slave to him. And once she seduced him and drugged him to get access to the account information, he’d likely hate her.
“Danielle, do you want to play with me?” Her gaze dropped to his lips. They were definitely kissable. In fact, there wasn’t a single part of him she found unattractive. But no, she didn’t want to scene with him. At least not without Cole.
“I think we have the answer.” He kept her hand in his but removed his thumb from her wrist making her suspect he’d used her pulse to derive his conclusions. “Regardless of what brought you here, you’ve got feelings for Master Cole, and from what I can tell, he’s got feelings for you as well.”
She huffed. “You’re wrong. He doesn’t feel anything more for me than any of his other trainees. We don’t have a future.”
“You can’t know that. The future’s irrelevant if you don’t live in the present.”
“Attorney, software designer, and philosopher, huh?”
He laughed. “I’m well-rounded, what can I say?” He squeezed her hand, then released it, standing. “If you decide Cole doesn’t do it for you, come find me. I’d love to see you in my ropes.” He winked at her before he picked up his rope off the floor and trekked toward the back rooms.
A larger crowd had congregated by the stairs, a mix of trainees and members. Curious, she went over and cut through the gathering to tap Sedona on the back of her shoulder. “Sedona, what’s going on?”
Sedona twirled around, her eyes wide. “Apparently, Master Cole has decided to redecorate the gallery with a baseball bat.”
Chapter Seventeen
DANIELLE ELBOWED HER way through the cluster of people, not caring whom she had to mow down to get to Cole. From the corner of her eye, she caught Cassandra with Anthony Rinaldi. She ran up the stairs to the main floor, and as she neared the gallery, she heard crashing and the shattering of glass.
What would’ve caused Cole to lose his control? Had the woman broken up with him? Had he loved her? Her chest burned at the thought of Cole in a rage over the loss of another woman.
Several members stood outside the door, watching
the commotion. Cole would hate that. She made her way through the group to the inside of the gallery and shut the door behind her, cutting off their ringside view of Cole’s breakdown.
Master Michael and Gracie each had a hand on Cole’s arm, obviously attempting to stop him from creating further damage. With eyes as black as the night without the moon, a struggling Cole clutched a baseball bat in one hand and a photograph in the other.
“Let me go,” he demanded in a voice similar to the one he used on his slaves, only laced with desperation. “If I want to destroy my artwork, it’s my right.”
“Well as your friend,” Gracie said, “I forbid you.”
Cole raised a brow. “How are you going to stop me?”
“Like this.” In a blur, Gracie swept out her leg, hooking it around Cole’s ankle and knocking him off his feet on to his back. Then, before he had the opportunity to recover, she jumped on his chest, seized the bat out of his hands, and threw it to the side.
Michael swore under his breath and rubbed his hand over his face. “How the hell do you know how to do that?”
“Oh, did I forget to mention I’m a third-degree black belt in karate?” Gracie asked nonchalantly.
Cole’s eyes were closed, and his breathing was slow, but Danielle still sensed his distress. It hurt her too, unshed tears clogging her throat and stinging her eyes.
She kneeled beside him and caressed his cheek. “Gracie. Master Michael. I’d like to be alone with Master Cole.”
Master Michael’s jaw twitched. Gracie slapped her hands together, lifted herself off Cole, and turned to Michael. “Come on. Let’s go do some damage control out in the club. I’m sure the gossip has already made its rounds.”
Master Michael rocked on his heels as he considered the situation. “If you’d like me to stay, Cole, just say the word.”
Sitting up, Cole shook his head. “No. Go with Gracie. Danielle will be safe with me. I promise my theatrics are over.” As Gracie and Master Michael headed toward the door, Cole called out, “Make sure you lock it.”
