He made a motion with his fingers to allie and helped her to her feet. Then he signaled to liege to stand as well and led them both to what looked like a padded saw horse. It had a board on either side mounted parallel to the top of the piece. All three surfaces were covered in what appeared to be red leather. Karl unhooked the leash and handed it to liege, who coiled it and placed it on the floor inside the legs of the furniture.
Karl looked once more into allie’s face. His voice was gentle but firm. “Get on, pet.”
She climbed onto the piece of furniture, placing one leg on each of the lower boards with her torso flat on the top. In this position she reminded Kane of a jockey on a race horse, with her ass up in the air, her legs slightly spread and her pussy accessible.
“This is a spanking bench,” Karl explained to the group. “It can be used with the bottom either secured to the piece or not. She could also just lean over it, depending on the angle the top wants.”
He rubbed a hand over allie’s ass, then without warning, he lifted it and gave her a sound slap. She jumped a little, but immediately he began caressing again and she relaxed with a sigh.
After a few seconds, he slapped again, on the other side this time. Nikki, who had crept nearer and was now standing fairly close and taking notes, jumped violently and hastily retreated.
“Questions?” Karl gave one more strike, then smiled at Nikki as he stroked the reddening area.
Nikki looked around at the other two as if she was going to demand why they weren’t helping allie. Then she seemed to gulp. “Does she—enjoy that?”
Karl chuckled. “Why don’t you answer that question, pet?”
allie didn’t raise her head. Her voice came to them a little muffled. “Not at first, no. It hurts. But then the pain turns into a very pleasant warm sensation that’s worth all the discomfort.”
Nikki took a half step closer but didn’t say anything else.
“There are different ways to administer a spanking,” Karl told them with the air of a college professor. Kane wanted to ask why he’d never seen this class offered when he was at school, but he stopped at the concerned look on Nikki’s face. Probably better not to distract her with smartass comments right now. “If it’s meant as a punishment, you don’t want the sub to enjoy it, so you don’t give them time to turn the pain into pleasure. You hit hard and fast, and mostly in one or two locations. If you want them to enjoy it—which should be your intent the majority of the time—then you move around your strikes, giving them a few seconds in between so they can process it.”
Nikki held up a timid hand. “Process it?”
“Yes. Many submissives are masochists, which means they have the ability to turn pain into sexual pleasure. In most cases, BDSM scenes are not done for the benefit of the top, or Dominant. If we just enjoyed hitting people, we wouldn’t go to the trouble of learning how to do all these things properly. We might enjoy it, but only if our partners are getting what they need from the experience.”
Karl let that sink in for a minute. Nikki made some more notes, frowning in concentration.
While he was lecturing them, Karl’s hands never stopped moving across allie’s skin. He stroked her back, ass, and legs, allowing his fingers to graze her most intimate lips from time to time. Kane watched allie’s hips push back at his hand each time, obviously trying to get more contact. Karl just smiled and gave her a light swat, instructing her to get off the bench.
They moved to a St. Andrew’s Cross against the wall, and Karl demonstrated how he would attach allie’s hands to the top half and her feet to the bottom with ropes or cuffs. allie stood in position, even though she wasn’t actually fastened to it.
“You need to pay special attention in a dungeon to these stations.” Karl held out his hand and liege put a long, heavy-looking flogger into it.
Karl stepped back and began swinging the flogger, showing them how far back it went and how it could hit bystanders if they weren’t careful.
“Whose fault would that be?” Nikki asked from a position almost behind Dante. Kane ground his teeth a little. She was going to have to get over this fear.
Karl landed a stroke on allie’s back and Nikki jumped even farther away with a little squeak. “It depends. If you walk into my play space, it’s basically your fault, even though I should be aware as well of what’s going on in the area I’ve claimed.”
He turned, holding out the flogger so they could all feel it. “This is actually softer than it looks. It’s big and heavy, but delivers mostly a thumping sensation. As a general rule, the thinner the falls, the stingier they feel.”
The next piece of furniture was a table approximately eight feet long and four feet wide with a thick blue leather pad covering the top. As Kane expected, along the sides were cleats like ones used to tie up a boat. He knew from his own experience how effective those tie points could be in securing a writhing, naked sub to the table. An image of Nikki up there floated into his mind and took control of him for a minute, and he couldn’t help glancing at her. She seemed relieved to be away from the flogging station, but still a little dubious. She would look so gorgeous lying there, completely open and submissive, waiting for him to bring her to the heights of ecstasy. Shaking his head, he fought to drag his attention back to what Karl was doing rather than his mental image of Nikki and the effect it was having on his body.
He shifted and tried adjusting his pants as discreetly as he could to accommodate his sudden hard-on. He was embarrassed to see that liege was watching him with a slight smile. He must be assuming that Kane’s reaction was to seeing allie on the table. There was no doubt that allie was beautiful, but in Kane’s mind she didn’t hold a candle to his new writing partner, squeamish as she might be.
“Since this is just too good to pass up, we will hold off on the rest of the furniture for now and have some fun.” Karl walked to the far side of the table while liege retrieved a large foam wedge and duffle bag from the floor against the near wall. They assisted allie in arranging herself on the wedge so that her groin lay at the apex with her legs extended beyond, bent at the knee. They began securing her ankles to opposite sides of the table, leaving her pussy fully exposed to the room and everyone in it. They did the same with her arms, securing each wrist to a corner.
A vision of Nikki flashed through Kane’s mind again, requiring another shift. He should have worn the baggy shorts instead of the tight jeans, he thought, turning slightly so that he could watch Nikki without being obvious about it. She seemed to be sketching the table and its occupant, a soft, sweet blush on her face as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was doing. On her other side stood Dante. As he watched, Dante glanced at Nikki and shifted himself, too. It should have been distracting to see Dante there, but surprisingly it wasn’t. There was even some relief in the fact that Kane wasn’t alone in getting turned on, but he wasn’t sure if it bothered him how close to Nikki the other man was standing.
Trying to focus on the action on the table without losing sight of Nikki was tougher for Kane than he would have expected. He kept getting lost in his own fantasies of getting her into that position, of seeing her naked flesh before his eyes and knowing what he wanted to do with her. He had to catch himself as he started to reach out to touch her, snatching his hand back before she noticed.
On the table, Karl had secured a blindfold on allie. liege climbed up and began alternating between what looked like pretty heated French kisses and sucking on her nipples, which were standing at rigid attention. Kane’s vision narrowed to just her breasts, noting the pebbled skin of her areola and the tower her nipple made jutting up from her flesh. He watched as liege flicked it back and forth with his tongue, eliciting gasps and moans from her throat as she tried to get it into his mouth without success. He mentally started to wonder about the size, shape, and coloring of Nikki’s nipples.
allie suddenly jerked on the wedge and Kane shook his head to clear his imagination. Looking down the length of her body he saw that Kar
l had leaned over onto the table and was licking the smooth skin surrounding the lips of her shaved pussy, causing allie to begin writhing and making pleasurable sounds in her throat.
Kane glanced at Nikki again. She looked as mesmerized as he felt by the scene before them. Even though he had seen similar scenes in dungeons across the country, it never failed to stimulate him. The sight of a beautiful woman naked and being taken care of was as exciting now as it had been the first time he had seen it, many years ago. He wondered briefly if Nikki shaved her pussy and his eyes dropped to her crotch, his imagination going wild again. In his fantasy she was shaved completely smooth, which was how he preferred it. He loved the feel of his tongue gliding between the folds of a woman’s soft, silky flesh in his quest for her hidden pearl. He would tease it into full bloom, alternating the lashing of his tongue on and around that sensitive nub to stabbing and licking her cunt. He closed his eyes, imagining the wonderful sounds of Nikki coming over and over again, begging him for more. There was absolutely nothing more beautiful in his opinion than seeing a woman in the throes of an orgasm.
He looked up to see that Karl and liege had both removed their pants. Karl had climbed completely onto the table and was sliding his engorged cock into allie’s pussy while liege positioned himself over her to feed his stiff dick into her eager lips. She moaned louder, sucking at liege’s prick as she rocked back and forth, taking it almost impossibly far into her mouth. Karl had a firm grip on her hips and was thrusting into her with abandon.
Nikki had flushed bright red at this, but she didn’t appear to want to leave. She seemed to be trying but unable to look away from the scene in front of her. Kane felt a strong physical urge to put a hand on her shoulder, maybe whisper in her ear that it was okay for her to be here. It wasn’t like they were spying on anyone. allie had offered to do this for them. But he suspected she wouldn’t appreciate his reassurance. It would probably seem like he was coming on to her.
Not that he didn’t want to come on to her. She was beautiful, with the kind of looks and demeanor that suggested she would be a sweet and passionate lover. He had a good feeling about her, even though so far she’d seemed more repulsed by than attracted to him. That was just something that would have to come in time.
Suddenly allie screamed and bucked her hips into Karl. The sound of slapping flesh intensified until it echoed throughout the room. Kane could see her juices coating the other man’s cock as he fucked her hard and fast. Just as she had started to slow her moans he began to add a twist to his hips at the end of each thrust and she was once more thrown off the cliff of orgasm. Her sounds were muffled by liege’s dick filling her eager mouth when his cries joined hers. He pulled out of her mouth and began pumping white ropey strands of cum across her lips, chin, and cheeks. Her tongue reached, trying to catch as much as she could, but he seemed determined to paint her face with his seed.
Just as his last stream splashed against her skin, Karl stiffened and thrust his cock forcefully into allie’s cunt. They watched as his ass muscles clenched and released and filled her with his cum just as liege had just done with her face. Kane stole a look at Nikki, who was even redder. The notebook was clutched in one hand while the other rubbed up and down the outside of her hip. It looked as if she was unsure what to do and was fighting for control just as he was.
Karl and Brad untied allie and carried her to a couch. As they wrapped her in a blanket and sat next to her, she cuddled closely against them. Kane turned to the others to suggest that they go back to the house and found that Nikki had already slipped away. He and Dante followed her example in a companionable silence.
Chapter 7
Nikki tiptoed down the stairs, listening carefully to see if anyone was around. The house was silent, which was good. Allie had said that breakfast would be available from eight until nine, so Nikki was counting on the fact that Allie would be alone in the kitchen at seven-thirty, getting prepared.
That was exactly the case. Allie looked up from something she was mixing to give Nikki a friendly smile. “Morning. Coffee?”
“Yes, please.” Nikki felt her face going hot at the sight of Allie, even though what had happened the night before didn’t seem to be bothering her at all. These people were even stranger than she’d thought.
“Can I help with anything?” Nikki’s first impulse was to take the coffee and scurry back up to her room, but she knew it would be rude of her. She was here to learn about this stuff, and Allie had very graciously offered herself as the—what did they call it? A demo bottom? She had to keep in mind that if it weren’t for Allie, she would probably have been the one expected to get naked and let herself be tied up on a table.
“No, thanks.” Allie handed her a mug of coffee and pointed to a tray of condiments on the table. “But you’re welcome to sit and chat while I cook.”
“Okay.” Nikki took a seat and reached for the cream and sugar.
“What did you think about last night?”
Nikki jumped a little. It seemed almost crude to be talking about sex in a kitchen first thing in the morning, but she supposed that wasn’t something that would bother Allie. Or Kane. If she was going to be a romance writer, she’d probably better get used to it.
“It wasn’t quite what I was expecting,” she admitted finally, staring into her coffee mug.
Allie laughed. “I imagine not. You haven’t been to any dungeon parties or anything like that, right?”
“No.”
Allie poured her concoction into a baking pan and popped it into the oven. Then she picked up her own coffee and came over to sit across from Nikki. “Let’s talk a little bit about dungeons, then. Am I right in thinking you’d be more comfortable discussing this with me to start with?”
Nikki’s head jerked up. She hadn’t quite considered that. “Yes, please,” she said. The more Allie explained to her, the less she’d have to ask Kane. She wasn’t at all sure about sitting down with Kane and talking about sex. How had she not thought about all this before?
Because, of course, she’d been expecting Candee Appelbaum to be a comfortable, middle-aged woman who used her imagination for the hot, spicy scenes she wrote. Not a gorgeous hunk of a guy who would expect her to go to public dungeons and watch people having sex. Or worse.
“All right, then.” Allie reached over and patted her hand. “You really need to relax, okay? I know this stuff is a bit of an acquired taste, but if you’re going to write about it, you should know how it’s really practiced. Misconceptions about our lifestyle can really hurt the people who actually live it.”
Nikki’s coffee cup paused halfway to her mouth. “Really? How?”
“Well, for one thing, people who don’t know better tend to assume that polyamory is no different than cheating, that BDSM is just abuse, and that power exchange is manipulative and preys on weak people. So if a single mother is ‘outed’ as being kinky, poly and in, for example, a ‘slave’ role, then it’s very easy to take away her children on the grounds that she’s an unfit mother who engages in dangerous practices, promiscuous sex, and an abusive relationship. In reality, that’s most likely very far from the truth. Of course there are all kinds of people in the leather lifestyle, just like any other community, and some are no doubt unfit parents. But most kinky people are very smart, strong, and capable who just happen to have a non-traditional relationship style.”
“But—a slave?” Nikki couldn’t help but ask.
Allie nodded. “It’s not quite how it sounds. Someone who identifies as a slave is usually a very strong person who wants to harness their energies in the pursuit of a common goal with their partner. The Master takes on the responsibility of helping the slave develop discipline, keep on track, and achieve their goals. It’s not a job for a weak person with no will of their own. There’s a lot of work—on both sides—but also a lot of potential for each person to grow and become more than they would be on their own.”
“I see.” Nikki took a sip of coffee, digesting this.
“But we need to talk about dungeon etiquette, especially if you decide you want to go to The Keep, our club here in town, this weekend.”
“Oh?” Nikki had the sudden feeling she’d done something very ignorant and rude last night. What a strange thought. They’d had sex in public, but she was the one who needed to be taught etiquette?
Allie gave her a reassuring smile as she got up to bring over the coffeepot and refill their mugs. “It’s not a big deal, and remember that we are doing these scenes for your benefit, so it was perfectly okay last night. But at the club, you would never want to ask questions during a scene, or disrupt it in any way.”
“Really? What if the bottom—is that right?—is in trouble?”
“That is the right term, yes. But you have to be aware of how some scenes are set up. People like to roleplay, and sometimes that involves what we call ‘resistance’ play. A bottom might be yelling ‘no’ or ‘stop,’ but that doesn’t give anyone else the right to interfere. They might be screaming their heads off, but there’s only one time you should be concerned enough to try to stop a scene, and that’s if they’re using the safeword ‘red.’ It’s pretty much universally accepted that if someone is calling ‘red,’ they really do want the scene to stop.”
“I’ve heard of safewords, but I wasn’t completely sure what they were,” Nikki admitted. “I always wondered why they didn’t just say ‘stop.’”
“Because it can be good to beg someone to stop, knowing that they won’t. If you really need them to stop, you have a safeword, but it can release some tension, or build tension, to yell ‘stop’ knowing that it won’t do anything.”
Nikki wordlessly added more cream to her coffee. She was beginning to see how much she had to learn.
“Now, we showed you some of the different stations last night, but we didn’t get into the toys too much,” Allie went on. “There are lots of other things that you’ll see at the club, like electrical play, fire play, wax, knives. Of course never talk to someone in a scene, except here, where it’s more of a lesson, really, than a scene. Never criticize someone’s technique, at least not unless they’re doing something in an unsafe manner. Don’t talk to someone who’s acting very submissive, like being led on a leash or serving their Dominant in some way, without asking the Dominant first.”
Writes of Submission Page 6
