by Avery Gale
“Oh…nothing of any significance, really. You have an amazing club, you know? How you managed to incorporate elegance, and the natural feeling of a cave is pure genius.” She started to squirm when he didn’t respond, but continued to just watch her. She knew she hadn’t answered honestly, but she was so tired of being afraid, and she wanted to just enjoy the evening. She only had a month with Ian, and she didn’t want to waste any of that time thinking about what she had to return to in just a few weeks. Her hope that lying low until Grant Westmore’s career was secure would be enough to remove the target was probably pure folly, but it was really the only sliver of hope she had left.
* * * *
Ian had always been keenly attuned to any submissive he was training, but his connection to Callie was particularly powerful. He’d felt the anxiety wash through her as if it had been ice moving through her entire body. He knew she was trying to hide it and just enjoy her evening, and while he appreciated the effort on one level, as her Dom he had no intention of letting her conceal something that was obviously so troubling.
He hadn’t done a demonstration in the club in months for several reasons. As the owner of Club Isola, the pressure on him and the sub he used was always tremendous. And everything else in the club tended to come to a complete standstill because everyone crowded around to watch. He turned to Jace and simply nodded. Watching as Callie’s eyes became worried and watchful, he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead before saying, “Come,” and then grasping her tiny hand, he led her to the small stage.
He left her standing at the bottom of the stairs and moved to speak with Jace before returning for her. He wanted Jace to alert the rest of the security team that he wanted them watching the crowd, not the scene. His internal alarms were blaring that there was someone among tonight’s players who would be forwarding information to Senator Westmore. All electronic equipment was banned from inside the club, but it wasn’t inconceivable that someone would try to take a picture to send later. The rules of membership clearly stated that you were immediately banned for life if it became known that you had used any type of device while inside the club. But if anyone was caught trying to take a picture of Callie, he’d personally see to it that being banned from the most exclusive BDSM club on the east coast was the least of their worries.
He had planned to do a small demonstration tonight, but Callie had given him the perfect reason to step things up a bit. Returning to his very nervous sub, Ian lightly touched her check before speaking. “I had already planned to do a scene with you tonight, it isn’t something I do often, and you’ll quickly see why that is. But our focus is now changed a bit. I’m going to put on a mic so that I can also use this as a teaching tool because there are several new Doms here tonight. But remember, I will always protect your privacy and when the time comes, I’ll switch it off, because what you have to say belongs only to me.”
What Ian hadn’t told her was that it was the sadness he’d seen linger in her expression after he’d asked about her thoughts that had caused him to change the focus of his scene. Everyone in her life had betrayed her—well, everyone save one family in Kansas, so it was easy to see why trust was such an issue for her. He could have punished her for not answering honestly, but that wouldn’t have done anything to promote the trust he’d been talking to her about all day. Ian clipped the small mic to his shirt but didn’t activate it. “Are you ready, pet?”
“Yes, Master. Well, at least I think so.” She glanced nervously around her as people quickly began to gather.
“Callie, during this scene I want you to keep your eyes on me at all times. If you don’t think you can do that, just tell me and I’ll blindfold you. I won’t always give you an option, but because this is new to you I want you as comfortable as possible. Would this be easier for you if you were blindfolded?” He waited patiently as her eyes seemed to be searching the crowd that had gathered. He placed his hands along the sides of her face and used his thumbs to brush soothing strokes over her cheeks. “It’s okay, pet. You aren’t being punished, I’m just going to take this opportunity to help you break down some of your barriers and be completely open with me.” The relief that he saw in her eyes had been so complete he was grateful he’d taken the time to speak with her despite the fact their audience was waiting nearby.
“Oh yes, I think a blindfold would be a good idea…and…well, thank you…Master. I know I can get lost in your voice if I’m not worrying about what all those people are saying.”
“Very well.” Ian reached up and activated the mic and saw her wince as the speakers around the stage clicked on. “As most of you know, I don’t often do public scenes and rarely do training demos outside of a formal training setting. But tonight a situation has presented itself with my beautiful submissive, and I’m going to use it as an opportunity to show you how you can coax information from a reluctant submissive.” Turning to Callie, his words were softly spoken, but the command was unmistakable. “Strip, pet.” He watched as she slid the spaghetti straps of her dress off her dainty shoulders and then slowly lowered the dress so that she could step out of it, every bit the graceful lady she didn’t believe herself to be. When Jace stepped forward and held out his hand, she didn’t hesitate to hand him the beautiful dress Daph had sent for her.
He just stood and watched her for several seconds as her nipples drew up even tighter under his gaze, but she was obviously completely distracted by the crowd. Ian nodded to Jace again and his friend moved Callie to the box frame and began securing her ankles to the bottom corners and each of her wrists to the top.
Addressing the audience, Ian said, “As you can see, my beautiful pet has been secured to a box frame. What you may not realize is that this frame was made earlier today specifically for her. She is very petite, and our regular frame would have put unnecessary strain on her hips and shoulders. As her Dom, it is my responsibility to make sure the proper equipment is in place for any scene I have planned.” He moved to her and double-checked that the cuffs around her wrists were properly secured and then leaned down and double-checked each of the ankle bindings as well.
“Most of you know Jace Garrett and know that he is a skilled Dominant. So my double checking the cuffs is not a reflection of him, it is simply something each Dom should always do regularly throughout a scene. You need to also remind your sub that if at any time they feel tingling or numbness of any kind, they need to alert you immediately.” Standing in front of Callie, Ian kissed each of her eyelids and then began securing the blindfold so that she was quickly shrouded in darkness.
“Since my beautiful pet is so new to this lifestyle, you’ll notice that I will not ever be more than one step from her and most of the time I will make sure I’m touching her so that she remains grounded in the security of my care. Callie was briefed on the club safe words this afternoon, but I’m going to double-check now to make sure she remembers what she learned.” Leaning close to her, he licked up the side of her neck and then kissed the tender spot behind her ear. “Tell me what your safe word is, pet, and when you are supposed to use it.”
“I’m using the club’s safe word which is red, Master. And I am supposed to use it when I can no longer endure whatever is happening. I can also use yellow if I need things to slow down or I have a question.” Ian was so pleased, her answer had been textbook perfect and the airy quality of her voice had gone straight to his cock.
Using the backs of his fingers, he stroked the side of her face and then trailed his hand slowly down until he could gently pinch her nipples, bringing them back to hard points immediately. “Your answer pleased me very much, pet. You are so very responsive, and your breasts peak to my touch beautifully.” He let his fingers slide slowly down until he was moving them back and forth through her slick sex. “Are you wet for me, pet?”
“Yes, Master.” He knew she was already starting to zero her focus entirely on his voice, and he wished that they were in his playroom at home so he could just sink into her slick heat.
He wouldn’t fuck her in public yet, she wasn’t ready for that. But he was planning to send her directly in to orgasmic orbit—several times if everything went according to plan.
“You are lovely all spread out for your Master to view. Your body is open and welcomes my touch. Your mind may resist, but your body recognizes its Master and prepares itself for my possession.” All the time he’d been speaking he’d continued touching her with soft strokes to the areas he’d noted were particularly sensitive for her.
Ian turned to address the audience again. “You see that Jace has handed me a flogger. Note that this particular instrument has fairly short strips of an extremely soft leather. I’ll be using this to sensitize my lovely submissive’s skin. I want bring the blood closer to the surface so that she’ll feel every touch with a heightened sense of awareness.” He used the flogger to tickle her with small flicks of his wrist before actually setting a slow pace of strokes that would be warming without feeling painful. Ian had often heard submissives describe this phase of flogging as “setting the mood” or teasing, so he knew Callie would be falling quickly under the spell of the endorphins that were no doubt flooding her bloodstream.
“How does it feel, pet? Your skin is turning a lovely shade of pink and is warming up nicely.” He ran his fingers between her legs, and she coated them with her sweet syrup.
“Oh…it stings, but it turns warm and wonderful. I don’t really have words to describe it, Master.” Ian listened to the need in her voice and resumed the slow but steady slaps of the leather over her skin.
Pausing in front of her, Ian slid his fingers around each nipple before letting them move down her trembling torso. At her slit, he circled her swollen clit and then slid two fingers into her core and began pressing on the spongy spot. Just as he knew she was about to climax, he pulled his fingers out just far enough that she was moaning at the loss. “My precious pet, I asked you a question earlier this evening and you were less than forthright in your response, do you remember this?”
Ian was standing directly in front of Callie, leaning down so that his lips were brushing against her ear as he spoke. Glancing up, he noticed a woman at the back of the room holding something up to her face. Even though he couldn’t see what it was, there was something odd about her body language that set off his internal alarms. His problem was going to be alerting his staff without also alerting the woman or frightening Callie. Ian signaled Jace to approach and clicked off his mic as he circled Callie’s ear with his tongue. He had always prided himself on focusing all of his attention on the woman he was playing with so dividing his attention between Callie, Jace, and watching the woman at the back of the room felt wrong and he didn’t like it.
As Jace approached, Ian turned his head slightly and nipped the tender spot where Callie’s neck met her shoulder and pushed his fingers deep into her channel, hoping to distract her. He turned his face and whispered to Jace. “Back of the room, brunette, two o’clock.” Jace was the consummate professional, he smiled and nodded and then headed back to the cabinet where they kept supplies as if he’d been sent to bring another instrument of pleasure to Ian. Ian saw him key his mic and relay the information. It didn’t seem that their target had been alerted, but Callie sure as hell had been.
Chapter 13
Callie had been lost in the pleasure and floating toward release when she had felt Ian go rigid against her. The tension literally radiated from him like heat waves off Kansas sidewalks in the summertime. But when he hadn’t said anything, she had started to relax again. When he nipped at her shoulder, she’d felt her body release a flood of moisture to coat the fingers he’d pushed inside her. She’s been right on the cusp of falling into orgasm when she’d heard Ian whisper to Jace about someone at the back of the room and known instantly that her earlier gut feeling had been right. There was obviously someone in the room working for Senator Westmore. And she’d just handed the most evil man she’d ever known the perfect ammunition to finish her off. His efforts to destroy her had been systematic over the years, but she had always managed to stay true to herself and not give him anything factual to use against her. She’d always played by the rules and behaved in public…but this? This was going to be just what he had always needed to completely discredit her.
The only thing she could think of was getting out of the restraints holding her naked in front of so many people. The sudden humiliation of her position was making her almost sick to her stomach. “Let me go…please.” She knew she sounded like a frightened child, and right at this moment she didn’t care.
“Hang on, pet. I promise to get you where you need to go. Just let me—” Ian’s words were cut off by Callie’s softly whispered words.
“Red, Sir.” She knew her body had completely shut out all of the sexual stimulation that he had so carefully built, and she felt cold all over. She started shivering from her very core and felt the nearly convulsive shaking as it made its way to the surface. She felt Ian quickly unbuckling the restraints and knew she had collapsed into his arms, but then she felt herself slide effortlessly into the void again…just like that awful night so many years ago.
* * * *
Sitting in the corner of the master suite watching Callie sleep, Ian was lost in thought when he saw Jace step into the open door. The look on Jace’s face spoke volumes—they hadn’t caught the woman, and it didn’t look like they were going to learn anything from the security tapes either. Sighing heavily he stood and walked to the door. “Tell me you have something. A name, a picture, a description, fuck—anything I can tell her when she wakes up.”
Jace just shook his head. “I wish I could. God, you have no idea how much I wish I had something we could use. Whoever she was she made a getaway with nearly military precision. She was a guest of Dean White from the State Department. He said he met her yesterday, and since she said she was a member of several of the more popular clubs along the eastern seaboard, he invited her to play with him tonight. We have interviewed him at length, and I get the idea he is telling the truth.”
“Until this is resolved, no one brings a guest onto the island for any reason without your or my personal stamp of approval. Check in with Mitch, see if he has anything and ask the Lamonts if their parents are by any chance in the DC area. We could use Daniel’s connections, and Catherine has a lot of experience counseling victims with post-traumatic stress disorder, and from what I saw this evening, Callie hit a wall.” Ian had caught Callie just before she’d hit the floor at the club and had gotten the soft blanket they kept for aftercare wrapped around her before he felt her muscles go limp, and he knew she had passed out. One of the members in attendance this evening was an emergency room physician, and he’d followed Ian to the club’s infirmary and checked Callie for any injuries. Even though her vital signs were fine, the fact that she had awakened only to stare blankly off in to space had been a huge concern. She’d been nearly catatonic for so long it had become frightening.
When he had first decided to start a BDSM club, he’d spent a lot of time at ShadowDance, and one of the things Zach Lamont had been adamant about was that all of his security staff be trained as paramedics and that they have a well-stocked infirmary. Ian was never so grateful for advice as he had been when they’d had plenty of qualified help and all the equipment they had needed close at hand.
Running his hand through his hair in frustration, Ian looked over at the woman sleeping in his bed and said, “I don’t know what it is about her, I really don’t. But she has gotten to me in a way no one else ever has. Christ, I’ve had sub’s safe word out on me before, but I’ve never felt as responsible as I did tonight. I tore the blindfold from her eyes the minute I heard the word and ‘shattered’ is the only word I can use to describe what I saw in her eyes. I don’t know what went through her mind so I don’t have any clue how to fix it.” He looked up at his best friend, and for the first time in years remembered what feeling helpless was like—and he fucking hated it.
“Get our legal team
on this right away. And if that rag Callie was working for even thinks about taking this up—dismantle it. And find that bitch.” Ian was too frustrated to make decisions, and he knew Jace would pick up the ball and run with it. Ian’s focus was going to be on healing the lovely sub who had just started to trust him when she’d had the rug yanked out from under her. He didn’t know how he could ever undo the damage that had been done tonight unless she would open up to him. He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead and spoke to her in an emotion-filled whisper. “I’ll destroy anyone who hurts you, my pet.”
Making his way down the hall toward his office, Ian felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He smiled when he saw Alex Lamont’s name on the ID. Flipping open his phone, he laughed. “That didn’t take long.”
“Talk to me,” was all his friend said. Ian had known Alex and Zach Lamont for most of his life. Their families had gone on vacations together when they were kids. And they had been the only ones he’d confided in when his father had remarried after his mother had died. He’d told them about his new stepmother’s attraction to him and all the things she was teaching him. His friends had spent hours trying to get him to see her for what she was, but he’d been so sure it was true love. God, what a fool he’d been.
Their father had also been a great mentor when he had first taken over McGregor Holdings. Ian knew he would have struggled and possibly failed if not for Daniel Lamont’s skilled business guidance. Both Daniel and Catherine had made numerous trips back east to spend time with him as he struggled those first few years, and he would be forever in their debt.
