How to Reprimand Your Rock Star (DommeNation #2) (13 page)

So I got an unexpected invitation from Scarlett today. This time she wasn’t cryptic like with her little Nico surprise, but I was equally stunned at her proposition.

My conversation last night with Keaton drew a bit of a line in the sand—he said I could do whatever I want, with whomever I want.

I could have easily told him I wanted only him. Keaton is the only man I want right now, and nearly all my extra attention on a daily basis went toward thoughts of him and fantasies of us. This arrangement allowed me to keep my power.

The fact that I had the upper hand in the relationship by choosing whether or not I could be with someone else was a card I needed to keep in my pocket.

But I still told him about the play party Scarlett was taking me to.

“Have fun, Mistress. Just don’t forget the other subs got nothin’ on me. Consider them practice.”

It was my eyebrows that were raised. “Oh
really
, Keaton. You
want
me to practice, or you’re just okay with it?”

“The better trained you are, the more fun we’ll have. Go. Enjoy yourself.”

I was floored and possibly a bit charmed by his honesty. “I’m not going to, like,
do anything
with anyone.”

I heard a faint snicker. “Goddess, you know the power you have over me. If you wish to avail yourself to others in my absence, I understand. And like I said, consider it training for this weekend. I know you already have lovely muscles from all that athletic activity, and with a little repetition you could become quite a whipmaster.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I replied with a wry smile. “I really wish you’d be there, but you’re right, I may as well get some experience and broaden my horizons if I am going to spend some time with a kinky guy like you.”

We exchanged a few more perverted pleasantries and I hung up.

Red nails and all.

THE STUNNED EXPRESSION ON THE
team captains’ faces as I approached the basketball house to see Scarlett made them look slightly like owls.

“The Red Devil?!” Donelle asked. “What does she want with you?”

I shrugged. “I told her I’d help out at her store.”

Callie shook her head. “If I knew you were hard up for money, I’d have lent you some. No cash is worth putting up with her.” I felt partially guilty that I hadn’t disclosed my relationship with Scarlett to Callie, who knew mostly everything about what was going on with Keaton. But a girl has to have some secrets, right?

“Is that so?” I heard from around the corner. Scarlett brushed past the team members with cool indifference. “Ready, Thea?”

I nodded. “You bet.”

She tossed a duffel bag into her car and I went around to the passenger side. The team still ogled. Reese bounced her basketball on the porch with an ominous thud, thud. They were scared for me, poor things.

“Don’t worry, I’ll have her back in one piece,” Scarlett said with a pretty scowl. I loved the way she could just put anyone in the palm of her hand. I hoped that in time I’d be able to do the same thing.

The girls waved good-bye weakly and we pulled away and headed to the party.

“Not at your store?” I commented as we drove past her business.

Scarlett shook her head. “The community holds play parties every once in a while. It’s a social for BDSM types, basically. You should join FetLife. If you want, I can introduce you to a lot of people on there.”

I nodded. “I’d like that.” The answer surprised me. I never thought I’d want to meet more people that were into this sort of thing, but the more I got to know Scarlett, the more normal I felt. She wanted the same things I wanted. Other people did, too. I wasn’t alone and I shouldn’t be scared of the things I did and did not want.

“Is, um, Nico going?” I asked. While I felt pretty open about what transpired between us, I couldn’t help but still be a little uncomfortable imagining him in class with me after I had seen him get fucked. I’d been so busy with study sessions and tests so I didn’t actually have to look him in the eyes. Or crotch.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she answered. “He said he had some studying to do, but still sounded kind of interested. Didn’t talk to him today.”

I was stunned. “Isn’t he your submissive? Wouldn’t he have to go?” I asked, not really knowing how a dynamic of this type worked.

“I have lots of men who submit to me, not just one collared submissive. Nico’s great, but I’m pretty much just training him until someone more suited to him comes along.”

I rolled down my window and felt the wind on my face. I felt very free here, chatting with Scarlett about things taboo. Since meeting Scarlett, it felt like years had gone by in my maturity, not weeks. “More suited to him?”

She turned the radio down so she wasn’t shouting, although she was always comfortable raising her voice. “He’s bisexual, and is really into the idea of threesomes with a man and a woman. I have a friend who’s moving to the area sometime next year and I think she’ll be perfect for him. She has a submissive who’s also bi and I think the three of them will get along swimmingly.”

“That’s . . . nice,” I replied, weighing the relationship in my mind against my preconceived notions about what a couple was. Weird, but nice, I decided. Breaking in a handsome young man for your friend, not exactly the kind of favor I’ve ever done anyone before. “So, what should I expect tonight?” I felt my nerves affect my breathing, which was hot and fast, and my skin, which prickled every time I thought about walking into a BDSM party. What kinds of things would I see? Would I like it or want to run home to my stuffed animals?

“Don’t have expectations, just experience. Open the duffel, I want you to see what I picked out.”

I reached behind me and grabbed Scarlett’s innocent-looking yellow and black gym bag and unzipped it. I pulled out something silver and vinyl. “Oh my goodness.”

“Hot, right?” Scarlett asked.

I examined the outfit. It was like a catsuit, but cut short, and had a broad vinyl belt across the middle. It looked like something a Bond girl would wear. She continued. “It’s dominant-looking, but also kind of fun and young. Like you.”

I chuckled. “Oh yeah, I’m just a barrel of laughs.” Nobody had ever called me fun and young. When I was on my old team, I was serious and wise, and on the UConn team, I was just fresh meat. And I couldn’t really say if Keaton would call me young and fun either.

Scarlett punched me playfully and I tried not to wince. “No, really. You’re brave, honey. Adventurous. Open-minded. You’re very fun to be with. Your guy is lucky.”

A grin spread across my face and I may have blushed. “Thanks. He’s pretty great, too.”

“Tell me about him.”

I paused and felt my gut clench. Shit, same dilemma as before. I can’t just tell Scarlett I’m dating the Heartbreaker of the Century, even though she and I had gained more trust in each other since she last asked. She’d probably lecture me about how he’ll use me and how I should just go use some men myself. “He’s a musician.” It was true, albeit an understatement.

“Ooooh.”

I nodded and leaned on my palm, thinking of Keaton. “He’s really funny, has gorgeous blue eyes and dark hair, and knows exactly what I need.”

Scarlett pulled down a side street and the houses began to get bigger and bigger. Homes turned to mansions. “Oh wow,” I remarked as we turned down a street that was lined with old-fashioned lanterns.

“Yup,” she said as we pulled into a spot on a long driveway and turned off the car. She whipped off her shirt and bra and I almost covered my eyes out of politeness. Nakedness already?

“Oh stop flinching around boobs,” she joked and pulled on a black leather triangle bra with pyramid studs over the nipples. “There are going to be lots of boobs here. And dicks. And butts. Get used to it.”

Removing my own shirt was the only appropriate response I could think of.

“Nice jugs.”

I glanced down. “I guess so,” I said, never really having thought about it much before, and pulled the silver suit over my head. We continued to giggle like girls at a sleepover as we dressed in our kinky finery. Scarlett lent me a pair of thigh-high boots that had buckles going all the way up. They took ten minutes to put on.

“Those are a bitch to put on but they’re so hot,” she remarked. “And you should start a collection of your own, so consider this outfit another gift.”

My eyes widened. “You are too good to me.” Initially I thought I should wear it to Miami, but I wondered if the boots would be too annoying to take off, since I’m fairly certain I was going to want to yank my clothes off as fast as humanly possible once Keaton and I finally decided to get to it.

She shrugged. “You’re like a mini-me. Only with crazy hair and better muscle tone.”

Scrunching my curls, I gave her a mock stink eye. “It’s not crazy, it’s untamed.”

“Rawr,” she replied, putting the finishing touches on her makeup.

We exited the car and walked toward the grand, Georgian-style mansion in our boots and looked damn fine in my opinion. The night was warm for March and I enjoyed the air on my body. Two massive statues of horses stood to the side of the home’s entrance like sentinels.

“Why isn’t anyone outside? Such a nice evening,” I noted.

“That would be a bit more public indecency than Nathan would like. Neighbors have called the cops on him before when he was a bit wilder and lived back in California. Nathan’s parties now are slightly tamer.”

“Nathan?”

“Nathan Ruske,” she said and I must have made a shocked expression. “Yeah, him.”

My feet wobbled as I approached the house. “Should I, um, not be here? I’m just a kid and he’s the guy who owns the whole town.”

Scarlett waved her hand dismissively. “Puh-lease. He loves fresh blood, and he’s been doing this for years. He’s discreet.”

Don’t lose your shit if you see him in assless chaps
, I lectured myself. Nathan Ruske was fiftyish, well-groomed, and the man who owned pretty much every business and every street in this part of Connecticut. And now I was walking into his house dressed in vinyl.

The double doors opened to a foyer with a double staircase and a chandelier that looked like the Milky Way. A dozen young women in sheer white slips walked around with silver trays loaded with sparkling water. A few equally slim young men brought around trays of puffed pastries and canapés.

Scarlett whispered in my ear. “You look surprised. Gonna swallow your tongue?”

“The food . . .” I trailed off. “It’s so fancy. And delicate.” And totally incongruous with what I thought I was going to see, but I didn’t say that.

“So, because we wear leather, all we eat is rare steak, right?” she laughed. “We’re kinky, not vampires for Christ’s sake.”

I paused for a moment, wondering what a kinky vampire would be like, then grabbed a water. “No booze?” Not that I was some sort of lush, but a little bubbly would definitely take the edge off right about now.

She looked moderately scandalized, and for Scarlett, that’s rare. “Safe, sane, and consensual is the BDSM community’s motto. If you’re drunk, the lines between those things blur. We need to have our wits about us or someone can get used badly.” She paused and noticed that I looked startled by her quick response. “It should have been the first thing I taught you. I’m sorry that I didn’t prepare you.”

I nodded. “Those rules make sense, and don’t worry, it’s not like you’re my coach or anything.”

“Not a coach,” she mused, stroking the flogger at her hip. “More like a mentor. A kinky Obi-Wan, if you will.”

“May the tawse be with you.”

She smiled, a touch of sadness in her eyes. “I wish I had a mentor. Maybe things would have turned out differently.” Scarlett shook her head and moved on, letting the ominous comment hang in the air.

Among the servers, guests mingled. Some kissed openly, some were naked from the waist up or down, and what actually shocked me was that it didn’t shock me. I didn’t linger on their bodies, nor did I look away and blush.

I felt comfortable.

Scarlett offered to take me around to meet a few people then maybe play a bit. My throat dried at the notion, but I sipped my Perrier and reminded myself that I needed practice.

The first man she introduced me to was at the end of a leash. I wondered if Keaton would be interested in one of those.

“I’m Vanessa,” said the woman holding the leash, “and this is my pet, Sonny.”

Sonny’s eyes remained downcast. He nodded in my direction but did not look up.

Vanessa was dark-skinned with platinum-dyed hair cropped short. She was very striking to look at, especially wearing a blood-red corset and matching lace-up pants. Sonny was wearing nothing but the collar.

“Nice to see you, Scarlett. A protégée?” Vanessa asked.

Scarlett pat me on the back. “And a fast learner to boot.”

“Let me know if you need to borrow Sonny,” she said, grabbing a pastry and taking a nibble. “He’s been with a lot of newcomers and can really be a fantastic first for anything.”

So casual. You know, just borrow my submissive. No biggie. After she left, I leaned in and whispered to Scarlett. “Is everyone else as . . . generous?” I wouldn’t want to share Keaton.

“Some. There are couples here who have been monogamous for decades and there are others who are in polyamorous relationships. There are singles, too. You never know someone’s backstory. But, yes, Vanessa meant what she said. If we don’t meet anyone single whom you’d like to play with, Sonny is an option.”

I nodded. An option. I didn’t feel any kind of attraction to him, but I wouldn’t mind practicing knots or maybe even using that suede flogger that Scarlett had fastened to her hip. Who knew what the night would bring?

We ascended the stairs and took a left down the grand hallway. In each bedroom, there were people and canes and ropes and all sorts of contraptions.

“Go wherever you like,” Scarlett said. “Nothing is off-limits here.”

“As evidenced by the blow job that’s happening in the bathroom there,” I noted, cocking my head to the right.

“Keep up the good work!” Scarlett called to the two lovers.

I wandered into a room with lots of interesting-looking furniture and wanted to explore there. It was all made of beautiful mahogany, and I had always thought bondage furniture would be cold and metal. This was warm and inviting, and that surprised and encouraged me.

“What’s this?” I asked walking up to a large, wooden X that was polished to a high gloss.

“Saint Andrew’s Cross,” she answered. “There’s Nico—want to see if he wants to hop on?” She waved to Nico, who was shirtless and looking decidedly hot with his floppy hair and careless smile. He approached and I squirmed, flashes of the two of them returning to my mind.

Were there unused vibrators around here?

“Nico, interested in getting your ass kicked on the cross?” she asked, patting the wood with her hand.
Such a way with words, Scarlett.

He walked up to the cross without a word, facing it. Even though he was turned around, I could see his smile. Being a top or a bottom was truly a sexual preference, I realized, since I would never want to be on his end. Scarlett placed his wrists and ankles into the contraption’s cuffs and soon he was bound.

And my hormones were bouncing around, ricocheting inside my body. I needed to release this pent-up energy.

Using the momentum from the chemicals in my body, I grabbed a paddle off the wall and brought it down on Nico’s ass. He flinched and Scarlett nodded. She turned my wrist a bit, showing me how to make the most of the broad side of it, spreading the impact better. I hit again,
thwack
. I kept in mind that Nico was kinky but not a masochist, so I wasn’t as hard on him as I could have been. Between whacks, Scarlett rubbed his cheeks and whispered in his ear. I imagined he was getting very turned on.

“May I?” a low voice behind me asked.

I turned and was face-to-face with Nathan Ruske himself. “Of course,” I said, shoving the paddle at him.

He chuckled and took it without looking me in the eye.

Thank goodness.

He was really gorgeous and completely intimidating. Why was everyone in this world so damn beautiful and intriguing?

He brought the paddle down on Nico’s ass so hard I thought he was going to break the wood in half. I jumped up but Scarlett put her hand on my shoulder.

“He’s the host,” she said softly.

“But” I whispered, “that was so
hard
.”

She ran her hand across Nico’s shoulders and tousled his hair. “He knows the safe words. If it’s too much, they’ll stop.”

I felt my eyes water as I watched my new friend get more than just some light spanks from a few cute girls. “I never wanted to hurt him, though,” I said. It took every ounce of restraint in me to not flinch every time Nathan cracked the paddle across Nico’s ass.

“You’re not a sadist,” Scarlett replied. “Clearly. And that’s okay. We accept all kinds.”

I bit my lip and breathed a sigh of relief when Nathan took Nico off the cross.

“Scarlett, are you going to introduce me to your friends?” Nathan asked, finally looking me in the eye.

Once he had looked me up and down, he held up his hand. “I know her, since I love college hoops,” he said with a smirk. “Hello, Thea.”

I gulped. “Hello.” I straightened, remembering I was a dominant woman and not a sub. Just because he was super rich and powerful, didn’t mean I’d cower before him.

“This is Nico,” Scarlett said, presenting a flushed-faced Nico to Nathan.

“Very impressive,” he growled, eyeing Nico. “Both of your young friends are very impressive.”

Scarlett nodded. “I know how to pick ‘em.”

Nathan ran his hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. “Indeed. If you’ll excuse me, I must attend to some guests from out of town. They drove all the way from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, tonight and I’d hate for them to leave without a parting gift.”

He walked away toward a couple that had caught my eye earlier. The blond woman was very petite but had an amazingly commanding presence. She was wearing red vinyl and a necklace with ornaments of cherries on it. The man she was with was positively mouthwatering. Blue-black hair, purplish eyes, and the way he looked at the woman made me melt into a puddle. They were happy, it was clear.

“I bet those two are monogamous,” I said to Scarlett.

Scarlett’s face dropped a fraction. “They’re not our type,” she said, voice tight. “I’ve heard weird things about that guy. Let’s get Nico some aftercare. Don’t want him to turn into a dinosaur.”

Nico’s eyes bugged. “What?”

“A mega-sore-ass,” Scarlett quipped then snorted, laughing at her own joke as she led us away through the impressive, nautical-themed home.

I felt a brush near my ear. Nico had pushed aside my hair to lean in and whisper. “You look nice,” he said. Turning toward him, I noted his cowed posture and the way he kept his eyes downcast as he spoke to me. Perhaps I would play with him some. You know, for practice.

“Scarlett,” I said, noticing an interesting-looking room, “can we go in here?”

She nodded and we walked in.

And looked up.

This was a suspension room, rigged with all sorts of hooks and carabiners on the high ceiling. From each hook was a rope—some thin, some thick, some chain and others hemp, but all looked enticing.

“Please teach me this,” I groaned, watching the couples and threesomes and groups work the ropes. Some were intricate, laced around bodies and knotted in gorgeous asymmetrical designs. Others were more utilitarian, meant simply for keeping the limbs immobile. I watched as the subs were lifted into the air. Erotic living art.

“You’re going to want to learn shibari,” Scarlett said, watching my rapt expression. “I think you could be very good at this, what with the rope work I saw you do in the back room of the store.”

I didn’t tell her I had been watching some shibari videos at home for fun.

I glanced at Nico, who was staring upward with anticipation. “You in?” I asked him.

He nodded so fast I thought he’d get a case of whiplash.

One of the guests approached us with some rope. It was soft but had no give, which is good for shibari, Scarlett explained, so that it didn’t tighten upon lifting. I noticed that all the couples had scissors on hand, just in case.

I pointed for Nico to kneel on the floor. Within a second, he was on his knees and looking upward. My breath caught.

“Good boy,” Scarlett purred. I could tell she was turned on, but she wanted me to take the lead so she hung back a bit and crossed her arms, watching.

I decided to let my instincts take over. I took myself out of the situation, the way I did sometimes when I was playing basketball, and just started doing other things with my mind. I scrutinized the rope work around me, thought about how the ropes and levers system worked above my head, and I felt my fingers start to work on the rope. I didn’t look down. I turned toward Scarlett to make some idle conversation and she just stared at me, jaw unhinged.
Don’t look down, Thea
. Finally, I just started reciting the Gettysburg Address a few times and then, when my hands stopped moving, I looked down.

Nico was positively a masterpiece of shibari. It looked as if a professional had done it. His arms were pinned behind him and upward, in a reverse prayer pose. His legs were bent backward, almost like a hogtie, but one leg was higher than the other, like a dancer leaping through the air.

“My God,” someone said, walking over. “That is gorgeous.”

The couple from Portsmouth had wandered into the room. “This is the kind of thing I want to do on our trip,” the woman noted, and then they exited the room.

Scarlett put her hand on my shoulder. “You’ve outdone yourself, lady.”

I smiled. It was pretty damn spectacular. “Thanks.”

Nico also grinned. I could tell he liked being the center of attention. One of the partygoers who had been working the suspension system rigged Nico to the rope work and pulled him into the air. The room applauded.

The party wound down after the fanfare in the shibari room, and while I did get my fair share of whacks in during a demo of a new line of environmentally friendly recycled paddles, I left the party without a whole lot of practice.

I did, however, make forward progress in many ways. Acknowledging myself as a member of the BDSM community was a big step, discovering my affinity for kinbaku and shibari was something I knew Keaton would be interested in, and I felt so much closer to Scarlett and even Nico. I wasn’t alone in this; I had friends who understood me and my needs.