Camp Paramore

by Wendy Lea Thomas

  “Have you seen this yet?” Avery asked. I stopped mid-pelvic thrust and looked up to see his frigorific gaze.

  Dorian non-chalantly reached around me and took the folded newspaper from Avery. I tried to move off his lap, and sit in the seat next to him but Dorian stopped me then continued to peer over my shoulder.

  “The press out at the gate have become a national story by figuring out the camp’s location,” Dorian read. “Now the small town of Paradise Lake is up in arms and demand the sex camp’s closing. My…my, this is unfortunate,” Dorian said.

  “Continue, Aria, I never told you to stop dancing,” Dorian demanded. Seriously…now? Dorian was completely unaffected by Avery’s presence.

  I inhaled slowly and began to move once again. I felt both Avery’s and Pierce’s eyes bearing down on me as I swiveled my hips and slowly ground into Dorian. My heart was not in it, though, and all three of them could see it. I was only with Dorian for Avery, but that was a hard argument to make with him staring at me with a forlorn gaze.

  My heart was in my throat and my movements became so slow that they were almost non-existent. I was trying. My mind was telling my body to move but my legs weren’t having any of it. I was frozen.

  Finally, when Dorian saw that it was useless, he allowed me to stop and take a seat next to him at the table. I glanced up at Avery and I could see that he was disappointed that I didn’t sit nearer to him. I quickly swallowed my wine and held my glass up towards Jezebel who was serving at the next table. She frowned, and then went to retrieve another bottle of wine.

  As she headed back to our table, I changed my mind and held up two fingers. Jezebel rolled her eyes, turned around, and stomped off to get a second bottle. Dorian rolled his eyes to Avery.

  “I want you two to join Aria and me for dinner,” he said. “We have nothing to hide here.”

  “Why the fuck would I want to do that?” Avery answered in an acrimonious laugh.

  “Because we have business to discuss, and since it’s before midnight, Aria is required to go where I go. So again, I ask you. Please join us for dinner.”

  Avery’s face looked strained and Pierce averted his eyes, trying his best to find some way to get out of here. There was no way he wanted any part of this pissing contest but Dorian’s demand included him, too, so he was stuck like a Cadillac in a Carolina clay field.

  Finally, Avery nodded to Pierce and they both hesitantly took their seats at our table and awkwardly smiled.

  “Now then, how are you fine gentlemen this evening?” Dorian asked.

  “Seriously?” Avery snarled. “Why do you want us here Dorian? Is it just to flaunt Aria in front of me?”

  “I’m just trying a bit of small talk to cut the tension, my good man.”

  Jezebel brought out our bottles of wine and filled our glasses then took our dinner orders. She was remarkably courteous now that Avery was sitting with us at the table.

  I went first and ordered my usual, while both Dorian and Pierce chose the filet. Avery decided to join me by also having a cheeseburger and fries.

  The tension was extremely thick at the table but I was sure Avery’s dinner choice was his way of saying he loved me without Dorian noticing.

  We each downed several glasses of wine as we danced around any touchy subjects and kept it mostly to questions about the current blizzard and the scene decorations for the party tonight.

  I could see Avery was getting flustered as he kept answering Dorian’s seemingly nonsensical questions about the suspension rigging and where he came up with the idea for the structural cages that encompassed the harnesses.

  He kept up the facade of small talk but Dorian insisted on holding my hand and resting it on top of the table so it was clearly visible for Avery. I will give Avery all the credit in the world because he just kept sipping his wine and answering Dorian’s questions instead of staring at my hand being held. Avery wasn’t about to let Dorian see that it bothered him.

  Finally, Dorian started to focus in on more questions that were poignant.

  “I see business is slowing a bit,” Dorian said.

  “It will pick up,” Avery said.

  Pierce kept his eyes mostly lowered to the table just like me. Eye contact with Dorian or Avery was not something either of us relished at that moment.

  “I hope it picks up soon, Avery. Otherwise, you could lose your business and the contract we’re about to embark into will not be worth anything and my whole visit here, and everything I’ve experienced here, will have been for nothing. It would have all been a complete waste. Well…not everything would have been a waste,” Dorian said, as he lifted my hand to his lips. Avery’s eyes flashed white as alabaster. Have you ever seen the 1970’s Incredible Hulk TV show? His eyes glowed just like that.

  “How is your search for the mole coming?” Dorian continued.

  “It’s being handled,” Avery said. “I can’t really comment on it yet.”

  “No word on who this Tor fellow might be…or why he likes to write such interesting articles exposing my fun?”

  “Not yet,” Avery answered.

  “Well, I’m sure you and your security have it all under control,” he said sarcastically. It was now Avery’s turn to roll his eyes.

  “Is this the business you wanted to discuss with me?” Avery asked.

  Jezebel returned quickly with our food. As she handed out our plates, Avery’s eyes kept wandering over to me but Dorian’s gaze also kept focused on me so I didn’t dare return Avery’s stare. As Jezebel was serving me, I asked for a bottle of ketchup. Her glare was incredulous as she reached into the apron that she put on to serve dinner, and pulled out a bottle like she knew the poor little hillbilly girl was going to ask for it.

  Avery was only lightly picking at his fries while Dorian was slicing into his filet with abandon. Then, just as I flipped open the ketchup, Dorian finally addressed Avery’s main question.

  “I would like Aria to accompany me to a red carpet charity event in Vancouver in December,” he said.

  In nightmarish shock, I squeezed the ketchup bottle with herculean strength and it shot right over my plate and all over Jezebels white logo sweater.

  Black daggers shot out of her eyes, as I froze in mid-squeeze. She stood there looking from her sweater, to my eyes, and back.

  I sat there petrified staring back at her, and for one unbelievable marathon second, Dorian, Avery, and Pierce all fixated on me ignoring Jezebel until she broke the silence by saying through her gnashed teeth. “Take a picture it will last longer.” Then she twirled and stomped off, muttering expletives under her breath like a hobo waiting in line for some free cheese.

  “If you’d excuse me, I think I’d better go and make sure she doesn’t kill somebody,” Pierce said as he slithered out of his chair and darted off after her. That’s twice you left me, you coward. But I secretly wished I could have followed him.

  Avery finally shook his head and uttered his response to Dorian. “No fucking way. She’s still my girlfriend, and there’s no god-damned way I’m going to let her go off with you, clear across the country, just so you can sex her up in another state. Uh-huh. It’s never going to happen. And the next time you ask me such a stupid question, I’m going to knock your teeth out. Now pass me the god-damn ketchup because my fries are getting cold.”

  My eyes were as white as the fine china we were using. Avery took the bottle I handed him and squeezed a generous amount on his plate then dipped his fries heatedly in the ketchup one at a time like they were daggers thrusting into Dorian’s chest. I had never seen someone eat fries so angrily before. It actually took Dorian a moment to recover from Avery’s outburst. I was sure he didn’t believe Avery had it in him.

  “Well if that’s how you feel about it. I’ll find another date.” Dorian answered him so politely that it could’ve made a billy goat puke.

  Avery sat, tapping his fingers on the table for a few seconds, and then slid his chair back.

  “I have to go
. I need to check in with security. Please enjoy the rest of the evening.” He tossed his napkin on his plate and nodded to me.

  “Aria, I’d like to meet you here in the ballroom at midnight…please.” Then he headed out of the hall. Pierce was headed back to our table and when Avery passed by him, he comically u-turned and followed Avery right out of the room.

  “Well, that was interesting,” Dorian said, as he eyed me cautiously through the reflection of his wine glass, before reaching down and lifting it to his lips. Then he paused.

  “You will eventually have to pick one of us…and someone is going to most likely get hurt.”

  I blinked in surprise. I really didn’t need Dorian to be this big of a dick right now, not when I wanted to chase after Avery.

  “He’s not the guy you think he is,” Dorian said softly, like I was a scared child. “Like any important man, he has his secrets. I can’t tell you anymore than that, but if I were you, I would find out what they are. It might make your decision easier.”

  “What the hell? Can you just not be an asshole for five seconds,” I snapped, and threw a quick glare at Dorian, letting him know that it was not okay to bash Avery in front of me. He ignored my remark, stood up, reached down and grabbed several restraints off the table, and reached his hand out to me.

  “Come with me. It’s time for me to show you why it’s called the Fire and Ice Party.”

  My head was spinning from all of this drama. I didn’t know if I could handle this right now.

  Dorian filled our wine glasses then he took my hand and we made our way over to the largest crystal iceberg. He had to duck his head slightly as we walked up its frosted steps and entered.

  When we got inside, standing there next to a massage table waiting to greet us was a beautiful girl in her late twenties. She was taller than me with long black walnut hair. She wore a black sheer mini skirt and short sleeved black sheer top with hot pink panties and bra, black knee-highs, and very chunky black shoes. She had a beautiful body, and was heavily tattooed on her arms and legs with two large vampire portraits on the front of each thigh. She loved Dracula. Her nose and lip were pierced and she had what looked like devil horns implanted into her forehead.

  “Aria, I’d like you to meet Mistress Quinn McKenna, she’s a dominatrix that specializes in the niche fetish called Fire-play. We call her the Fire-fairy.”

  “Hello, Aria. It is a pleasure to meet you,” she said. Her voice had a velvety calming feeling, although that might have been the wine.

  I felt like I was in the garage of an experienced mechanic. She had an assortment of tools and canisters neatly hung on a rack behind the table and a smaller tray with a few selected tools next to the table. She could see the bewilderment in my eyes as she greeted me, then she continued.

  “Dorian has asked me to explain a little of what I do here. It’s his hope, and mine, that you will keep an open mind and allow me to educate you in a beautiful and emerging form of pleasure play.”

  “Umm…okay,” I answered hesitantly, and then she guided me up on the table and began undressing me. I was wide-eyed and nervous as to what Dorian had gotten me into. While she helped me undress, she explained what I was here for.

  “Fire-play is part of a larger BDSM fetish called temperature play. It’s anything that stimulates the neuroreceptors of the skin. Fire-play itself is the application of fire to the skin to bring someone else pleasure. It’s quite kinky. Fire-play is not for pyromaniacs; it’s for people who wish to discover the ultimate form of pleasure. Fire is such a destructive element you have to know what you’re doing to keep it under control. This is basically raw chemistry in action. Just imagine I’m a little fire-fairy conducting a symphony orchestra of flame around your body. Now lay back on the table with your arms at your sides.” I did as she instructed then she continued my lesson.

  “There are two different types of fire-play enthusiasts, fire-tops and fire-bottoms. The fire-top is the one who enjoys making the fire and the fire-bottom is the one who enjoys its sensations. The top likes to take the bottom on a journey that can encompass an experience of fear and wonder while the top savors the delivering of that experience.”

  “Who came up with this kind of thing?” I asked while she made her final preparations. I was trying not to seem nervous, but secretly I wanted to get the hell out of here.

  “Fire-play started in the 1990s in a Seattle BDSM group. What makes fire-play so exciting is that there is always a chance you might get hurt. However, that’s what increases the satisfaction.” She picked up a large cotton roll and held it up for me to examine.

  “This is called flash cotton. I am going to lay this specially treated cotton across your breast, tummy, and legs. Then I will stick these sparklers into your arms and allow you to move your arms over the cotton to ignite it. Then it will produce intense flash sensations across your skin.”

  “You’re going to stick the sparklers in my arm? Can’t I just hold them?” I asked, not sure if I was ready to be stabbed by a sparkler. She just laughed.

  “It will only feel like a tiny pin prick. It increases the sensation. I think you’ll love it. It’s all over in a flash. It may leave you a little shaken but you’ll be unharmed except for being a bit reddened.”

  She carefully laid the cotton across my breasts, chest, and down my legs. She was careful to avoid my vagina.

  “The cotton flashes up away from your body at a temperature of four hundred and thirty degrees, which is enough to cause serious burns, but next to your skin it will only be forty-three degrees.” I blinked in disbelief.

  She took two sparklers off of the side tray and carefully stuck them into each of my arms just above the elbow. The pricking sparkler hurt just a tiny bit but I held a straight face for Dorian, who was sitting in a lush easy chair off to my left. He was partially obscured by shadows as he sat with his legs crossed and sipped his wine. I was nervous as hell. I wasn’t into being burned. It wasn’t my idea of a fun Saturday night but I lay there quietly watching Mistress Quinn prepare me for a test of fire.

  When she was all set, she lit a long match. “Are you ready?” she asked. I nodded. Then she brought the flame down over the two sparklers stuck in my arms.

  Once the sparks started flying off of the sparklers, she took a few steps back and looked over to Dorian, who was now sitting up on the edge of his chair. I turned my head to him and he nodded at both of us. Then, I slowly moved my arms to the cotton on my chest and it ignited. WHOOOOOSH.

  It flashed up into the air, stunning me. I could feel the intense heat almost, but not quite, burning me. My God, the sensations that flooded over me. It was like nothing I have ever felt before. There were sharp shreds of stabbing pain mixed with pleasure all at the same time, then as intense and quickly as it started, it was over.

  “How was that?” Mistress Quinn asked.

  “I felt a lot of fear but a lot of excitement, too. Wow, I just did that. That was amazing,” I said to Dorian. He smiled and sipped his wine and nodded again for Mistress Quinn to continue.

  “Next, we’re going to try something called fire-cupping. Please roll over.”

  I complied as she stepped to the back of the room, opened a small freezer chest, and pulled out seven cylindrical ice blocks known as fire cups and put them on my back. As she laid each one down, she lit a tiny match to quickly suck the air out of the ice cup.

  “Once the air inside the cup is burned out, the cup sticks, creating a vacuum under the skin on your back,” she said, pulling a small torch off of the wall and moving towards me. She held her arm out and added small bursts of flame to the other end of the cup causing intense sensations on my skin as it melted the ice. I moaned. It was unbelievable.

  Mistress Quinn then continued her teaching. “What this is doing is overloading the thermoreceptors in your skin, causing intense sensations,” she said, bringing my attention back to her.

  I squealed in delight and turned my head to Dorian who had his hand resting in his lap
. He was gently squeezing his shaft. I could see its thickness even from over here. His eyes were deeply focused on my burning nakedness.

  “Sometimes during fire-cupping I like to use the fireball method of flame instead of a torch. This is a variant purely for the fire-top.” She moved over me, holding a small wand with a large flaming cotton swab in one hand and a spray bottle of accelerant in the other. She leaned in and misted the flame on the tip of the wand, causing outbursts of flame to lightly kiss the tops of the ice cups glazing my skin with small droplets of fire.

  It struck a perfect balance of hot and cold when it melted the ice onto me at the same time as the fire droplets landed. Once the ice fully melted, she prepared another surprise. I didn’t know there were so many ways to almost burn somebody.

  “Now, this way of cooking you is simply called wildfire,” she said. She pulled back on the trigger, sending out more tiny droplets of accelerant, which caught fire as it passed over her fire wand. The flame expanded over the entire area of my back.

  The heat on my skin was outrageous but it didn’t burn me, however, when the flame burst into the air, the droplets of accelerant continued to drift downward and that did burn. My eyes rolled back into my head. It was very intense.

  When my eyes opened again, I could see the tension in Dorian’s face watching us. I slid my hand lower, lifting my body slightly and passed it beneath me until it found my sweet spot. I was very aroused. I let my fingers tease my clit as the heat of the flames danced above me barely four inches away.

  “Now we’re going to try some foam play,” she said. “How are you doing so far, Aria?”

  “I’m good,” I quietly moaned as I rubbed my clit a little faster, bringing me closer to the edge. Then she continued the next lesson.

  “This foam is made from a secret ingredient similar to acetone but, it burns faster and hotter but is much easier to put out, so no damage happens to your skin. This has to be done with an experienced fire-play specialist because the difference between one second and two seconds can result in someone being badly burned,” she said. So, kids don’t try this at home, I thought.