Finding Their Balance (24 page)

Flushing, Cal cradled his arm to his chest. Under her stare, he let it fall. His eyes gleamed with pale blue flame. Oh, he hated her. If he hadn’t hated her before, he sure as hell did now.

She tossed him a wide fuck-you-very-much smile. The quick rhythms in Henry and Will’s responses teased her imagination. Ten years gone, fifteen maybe, the two of them might’ve prowled the club with pleasurable intentions, stalking submissives and trading off control between them. Now she and Jay played those roles in turns, the stalking partner and the double-teamed submissive. Jay’d gotten his. She’d have her turn soon.

Cal lifted his chin. “You’ve wasted enough of my time, Henry. Play your word games and pretend they’re powerful. Hide behind your ape, parade your sluts—”

“I hope I’m not interrupting.” Slipping from the crowd, a slender man in formalwear cast an assessing glance at their standoff. “I wanted to thank the woman whose honesty inspired my kitten.”

Leah popped her head around the man’s arm and waved with childish enthusiasm.

The stranger extended his hand. “Andrew. If I may, miss?”

Henry brushed the makeshift yellow ribbon corsage on her chest. Her choice tonight. And what a sweet fuck-you.

“I’m always happy to meet a gentleman.” Accepting the newcomer’s handshake, she smiled for Leah. “Your girl served with distinction at tea. She has excellent attention to detail. Let me introduce you to these gentlemen—this is my master, Henry, and our good friend Master William.”

Cal slunk away without a word.

* * * *

The crush on the third floor beat out the salon. Snug between Henry and Will, with her overdress left at the second-floor desk, she thanked genetics for giving them broad shoulders. They funneled traffic the way a proper roofline shed water.

Hand-lettered signs swarmed near the ceiling.
Prepare to be shocked
.
We’ve got the key to satisfaction. Please hold applause until the performance is finished.

The first two rooms—electrical stimulation and chastity play—they bypassed. At the third, Henry checked his watch against the schedule. Inside, a modest audience attended a concert. Unclothed, the woman at the piano and her string players delivered a frenetic melody, judging from the fast bowing and the hints of sound escaping.

Will shadowed Alice. “Stopping for Clara’s Quintet?”

“Perhaps later.” Henry resettled his cuffs over his watchband. “My dear girl would hardly see the sights if I ensconced her in the music room.”

“That, and you’d hardly be seen yourself.” Will created a gap in the crowd, and they returned to the flow. “The low profile you love can only do so much in stirring up support. A leader has to be visible.”

“How odd.” Clasping her hand as he led them, Henry swirled his thumb in her palm. “I would have sworn my good friend Will was speaking, yet I hear Emma’s words in his mouth.”

Will chuckled. “Caught.” Turning, he nodded respectfully to a woman in full body paint with rippling tiger stripes as she passed. “But when she’s right, she’s right.”

A
thwack
resounded from the next room.
Get benched and drenched
graced the sign.

Henry shuffled her in front of the viewing window. A half-dozen spanking benches in different materials and configurations sat spaced around the room. Black-ribboned attendants demonstrated positioning and restraints on volunteers from the crowd.

The furniture saved the spankers’ knees, maybe. Put submissives in more vulnerable postures. Like being bent across a table and left to wonder what her dominant would do with her. As she shifted her weight, her bare thighs rubbed together. Without underwear, she was one slip-raise and a zipper pull away from taking him inside her.

Breathing across her neck, Henry sent a shudder coursing to her toes. “The more pleasurable sort of spankings you enjoy, are they not?”

Even the tear-streaked players wore smiles as they massaged reddened cheeks. Pressing into his embrace, she nudged. A gratifying bulge thumped her ass. “You too, sir.”

Nibbling her neckline, he hummed around his teeth. “I take pleasure in every activity guaranteed to make my sweet girl wet and ready for me.” With his hands at her hips, he teased her dress up an inch while she squirmed. “Tonight offers an excellent showcase of this club’s potential to do so. Most of the interest groups have practitioners giving demonstrations.”

“It’s not a party.” The room signs with attitude. The excess of play monitors. The enormous crowd and its surging sea of seduction with an educational bent. “It’s a career fair.”

Henry chuckled in her ear.

Beside them, Will joined in. “Another woman who knows when she’s right. Will you be putting her words in your mouth?”

“Something like that.” Henry enveloped her in a full-body press. “If my girl sees a vocation that arouses her interest”—his twitching cock exposed his own—“I’m certain I’ll have a position to offer her.”

She sweltered in thin silk chiffon. Any and every position. If he invented new positions, she’d grab with both hands.

Will leaned on the glass. “A man could feast on her moans.”

Oh God. Had she lost control of her throat? She snapped her lips together.

“Delicious.” He kissed his fingertips and spread his hand in a starburst. “Is that how you spent your day?”

Nudging her to his shoulder, Henry nuzzled. “We played a game of spades this morning.”

Pride spurred her to playfulness. “I thought we were playing hearts, sir.”

“So we were, my sweet girl.” He tapped his thumbs against the top of her ass. “So we were.”

Eyeing them, Will laughed. “I bet both of you won that game.”

“Always,” Henry murmured.

The men escorted her at her pace, pausing when she paused, Henry quick with questions and encouragement, Will with supportive but unobtrusive interest.

At the flogging demonstration, wielders asked rapid-fire questions of everyone seeking a session. Soft slaps crossed palms as the supplicants chose materials. Agreement on both sides, and a wielder went to work. Flexing muscles, he flowed controlled power as an extension of his arms to a chorus of yelps and moans. A series of brief snaps grew into a gorgeous rhythm until he swung in a continuous figure eight.

Echoes of last night caressed her back. Fucking amazing. Did Henry wear this determined, focused face when he flogged her? With godlike power and precision coursing through him? She’d never know, not unless Jay wanted to experience the thudding sting.

“Henry, tell me you’ve invested in a mirrored wall.” A growling edge sharpened Will’s voice. “She’s shaking with the need to watch.”

As her slip dress swished at her thighs, a current of air tickled the flesh beneath.

“My Alice has an exquisite eye for beauty.” Henry wrapped his arm tight across her chest. “Inner workings arouse her interest.” He pinched.

Fuck, the pleasure-pain in her nipple replicated in her clit with his squeeze. “Please.”

Prompted by her hoarse whisper or his own pleasure, he delved between her legs. “She delights in the function underlying the form. The rhythm of a runner’s steps.” Her dress, draping across his wrist, shrouded his actions. “The arms pumping in counterpoint. The lungs filling to capacity.” With thudding strikes, he churned a two-fingered footrace propelling her toward the finish line. “As each element’s purpose is fulfilled, so she is as well.”

She ground against his hand, thick and solid and forcing her focus inward.

He drove his fingers inside her, stroking hard. “Show us what victory looks like, Alice.”

Breathing deep, she arched forward. The tape broke across her breasts. Her feet slapped the far side of the line with an adrenal rush courtesy of generous, commanding Henry. In an indistinguishable wave of noise, the hall buzzed as blackness stole her vision. She sagged on wobbly legs.

Henry held her secure, one arm a band of iron around her chest and other terminating between her legs.

She caught her breath in slow gulps. “Thank you, sir.”

He kissed the back of her neck like he meant to brand her. As he eased his fingers free, he left her dress cascading down her thighs.

Shivering from the ticklish touch and the loss of him, she opened her eyes.

“Welcome back.” One shoulder resting against the glass, Will greeted her soft and low, with uncharacteristic seriousness in his eyes. “A woman unbound, unashamed, and undone is a beautiful sight.”

“A joy beyond measure.” Henry sampled her on his fingers and claimed her mouth after.

Unashamed. The word lingered as she recovered her balance. Greedy and tender, Henry stole her soul and gave it back in a stronger frame with unexpected flourishes. The heat in her cheeks grew out of excitement and pleasure. Embarrassment no longer registered, not in his arms. Whoever she became, whatever she needed, Henry would never disparage her for being herself.

She wriggled and twisted, breaking his hold only to throw her arms around his neck and hang on tight. “I love you, Henry.” Breaching protocol, but she’d whispered, and aftercare came in all forms. Including the scent of him, his solid base and floaty zest, steady and whimsical and so strong when she buried her face at his throat.

“My love for you is boundless, dearest.” He spoke as if they stood alone, not near elbow to elbow with strangers. The polite bubble they’d gained while mini-sceneing in the hall had popped. “You surprise, delight, and challenge me daily. What is a life well-lived if not that?”

In the last year, she’d approached well-lived. The last two months redefined life with a blueprint unlike any she’d drawn in girlish fantasies. Somehow, the future promised even better.

“Lovebirds. Can’t take you anywhere.” Loosing an explosive sigh, Will patted her head and Henry’s cheek. “We haven’t covered half the circuit yet, and you’ve mired your feet in canoodling.” With his broad back, Will acted as a boulder in a stream, sending passing players to either side. “You promised the girl adventure, Henry.”

“So I did.” Chuckling, he pulled her into the flow of traffic. “And I keep my promises.”

They passed nurses with medical implements, police with handcuffs, and a demonstration of gags from cute and squishy to metallic and alien. One boisterous group governed a game with a spinning wheel of so-called punishments. The latest victim played catcher for the ring toss, a fake cock strapped on like a miner’s headlamp. Either he had terrible depth perception, or the crowd had awful aim. Or they liked watching him bend over and retrieve dropped rings. Decent ass. Not so cute as Jay’s or sexy as Henry’s.

“Master Henry, isn’t it?” A woman interrupted the teasing as Henry and Will debated the merits of various games for a dinner party. “I was hoping I’d run in to you.”

Swiveling, Alice stumbled back a step. The woman had dogs.

Henry caught her with his arm around her back. “I don’t believe we’ve met, Mistress…”

Not dog-dogs, but men in tight-laced hoods with ears and snouts. Two nearly nude men wearing black leather shorts, harnesses, and collars.

“Summer.” The woman’s hand emerged from flowing dress folds of lush grass green. Foot-long leashes dangled from shiny D-rings at her dogs’ necks.

“William.” Blowing in like a blond snowdrift eager to mix the seasons, Santa Will stole the handshake heading Henry’s way.

One of the dog-men growled, and Summer thunked the leash’s solid handle against his chest. “Castor, heel. You, too, Pol.”

The men dropped to padded knees and planted their hands in front. Not hands, not really. They wore booties like miniature black boxing gloves. The growler held his head high and his back at a stiff slant while the other man nuzzled his mistress’ skirts.

“Sorry about that.” As Summer dropped her hand between the growler’s pointed ears, he quieted. “Castor’s overprotective.”

“Understandable.” Henry nodded rather than offer his hand. His right hand, where her scent and taste had dried. No wonder Will had nabbed the handshake. Given the growling, Henry’s refusal wouldn’t look like a snub. “A good dog minds his mistress’ safety in all situations until told otherwise.”

Her possessiveness no longer struck her as wrong. Henry belonged to her as much as she did him. As a master claimed obedience and service, a pet had as much right to claim protection and attention. A one-sided claim was no claim at all.

“I’m no threat. I’m downright jolly.” Will backed off a step. “But you said you’ve been looking for Henry?”

“I wanted to thank him.” Summer turned toward Henry. “Thank you, I mean, for starting up those classes. The opening’s been great for niche groups. Emma confirmed for me tonight that she swayed the board into a monthly munch and intro class for pup play.”

Okay, an intro class probably taught them how to get those booties and masks on. Did a munch teach them how to eat Scooby snacks in them?

Henry squeezed her hip. “A munch like Emma’s recent tea or something more casual?”

Christ, he knew her inside and out. Knew she’d stand here puzzling until she understood every rotating gear in the conversation.

“We’ll do a Super Bowl chow spread. Most of the pups are guys. But it’ll be open to novices and curious onlookers. Does your pet like puppies, Henry?”

Alice wrenched her uninvited stare from the dog-men. Too late to play it cool.

“My Alice has something of a puppy at home.” Soft-lipped, he kissed her cheek. “But he’s away for the weekend.”

“Oh, poor thing.” Summer made a sympathetic face, all drooping lips and pinched brows. “Would she like to pet Pol?” She patted the dog-man rubbing his face against her leg. “He’s a good boy, and socialization is always helpful.”

Stepping forward on a goodwill mission, Alice held out her hand, palm flat. Dad’s lessons had stuck. His brother’d been bit by a neighbor’s dog. She and Ollie’d heard the speech a hundred times.

“So you’ll be socializing them in the classes, then?” Will raised his voice over laughter leaking from the game room. “Stellar notion. Start everyone off on the same page.”

As the dog-man sniffed her fingers, he nudged with his sleek leather nose.

“Mm-hmm.” Skirt swishing, Summer rocked on sandaled feet. “We’ll go over safety with props and positioning, basic commands, that sort of thing. We’ll have a playroom for the pups. No marking or mounting, but some fun romping.”