Liam thrust out his hand. “Your reputation precedes you, Anthony. I hope you brought a few tools of your trade to share with us. Welcome to our home.” Alex watched them shake hands. She noticed Anthony’s fingers were especially long and slender, perfectly manicured nails at their tips. He wore a heavy rose gold ring on his right index finger with some kind of insignia engraved into it.
Maybe
, Alex thought fancifully,
he’s a Spanish duke or something
. His bearing was certainly aristocratic.
Something made her glance up at his face and she blushed hotly to realize he was watching her with dark, penetrating eyes. To her relief he turned from her back to Liam. She hoped no one had observed her blush. “I have a few things out in the car. I would be glad to demonstrate later. Perhaps on this slave? Is she yours?”
Liam put his arm around Alex and squeezed her shoulder. “Yes. She belongs to me and Daniel.” To Alex he added, “This is Matthew and his sub Phillip.”
Anthony interjected, “And Daniel is…?”
“My partner,” Liam supplied. “And my sub.”
Anthony raised his eyebrows. “You permit your sub to own another? Forgive me but isn’t that most unusual?”
Liam shrugged. “I don’t know. It works for us. Daniel has some dominant impulses of his own and Alex here meets our needs.”
Anthony’s mouth smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I would never permit a sub such license. My slaves belong to me—they give themselves one hundred percent to me, body, soul and heart. The very idea of allowing them such liberty is, forgive me, absurd.”
A tiny whisper of warning sounded in Alex’s head but she was too distracted by the men’s conversation to pay attention. One side of Liam’s mouth turned down and he shrugged. “For you, perhaps. Above all, Daniel and I are partners. We do what works for us.”
Matthew intervened with a nervous laugh. “Don’t mind Anthony, Liam. He’s a great whip maker but sometimes he takes himself a little too seriously.”
After a moment’s hesitation Anthony nodded and offered a thin smile. “Forgive me for imposing my views. I confess I’m a traditionalist in this regard. I take the gift of submission very seriously.”
“As do I,” Liam said. Alex could sense the tension beneath their interchange. She was relieved when Matthew said, “Hey. Let’s get this party started. Anthony, why don’t you go get some of those whips of yours and we can have a little demo? Phillip was uppity with me on the way here. I’m sure he’s ready to atone in front of Liam and all his guests, aren’t you, Phil?”
“Yes, Sir,” Phillip answered in a soft, feminine voice that belied his muscular build.
Alex noticed the crowd had thinned out some. She scanned the room for Daniel but didn’t see him. Apparently of the same mind, Liam said, “Go see if Daniel’s in the kitchen. He’s trying to stay out of it but he just can’t resist getting involved with the food.”
His tone was affectionate though he added, “I may just whip that out of him. He’s supposed to be on display, not working behind the scenes. When you find him come to the playroom. I think Matthew’s idea to get this party started is an excellent one.”
He pointed Alex toward the kitchen and patted her bottom. With a flurry of butterflies fluttering in her stomach she went in search of Daniel. Liam meanwhile went up the stairs with Matthew and Phillip behind him.
Liam was right—Alex found Daniel talking to one of the caterers, a tall man of about forty who was squirting whipped cream onto custard and fruit tarts artfully arranged on silver trays.
Alex’s heart caught in her throat as she looked at Daniel. He was so handsome with his tawny blond hair falling over his eyes and his tan, strong body offset by the white silk pants. She had a sudden fantasy of hurling herself into his arms and impaling herself on his perfect cock.
Instead she came to stand beside him. “Excuse me, Daniel. Liam wants us upstairs.”
“What? Oh right. Excuse me,” he said to the caterer, who nodded. Daniel grabbed two cold flutes of champagne from a passing waiter and handed one to Alex. She sipped it, enjoying the delicate flavor and the warmth it created in her blood. It was her third glass on an empty stomach—she’d been too nervous to eat—and she was feeling its effects.
They walked together up the stairs and down the hall to the playroom. Now Alex saw where the guests had disappeared to. The room was filled with people and mini-scenes were already going on all around the room.
A woman was strapped onto the medical exam table, her feet in the stirrups, her arms tied over her head. A man stood beside her dropping blobs of melted wax from a large candle onto her bare body. The droplets were bright and red as blood. The woman sighed and shuddered each time the burning wax made contact with her skin.
A man with his cock and balls cruelly bound with thin white rope was on his knees in front of two men in black leather chaps. They were both thrusting their erect shafts into his mouth at the same time while a third man stood behind him with a flogger, striking him as he did his best to suck both cocks at once.
A man with a black leather hood over his head was bound to the St. Andrew’s Cross, a woman in front of him hanging heavy lead weights from clamps that gripped his cock and balls. The head of his cock was pierced with a large silver ring that entered at the slit and emerged at the base of the crown.
Alex had been to BDSM clubs before and these sorts of scenes weren’t new to her, but something about them taking place in their playroom made them at once more intimate and more alien to her. It didn’t seem right somehow. It was like coming into her bedroom and finding strangers having sex in her bed.
She saw Liam standing beneath the huge eye hooks embedded in a thick beam in the ceiling. Chains were hanging from the hooks, two pairs of leather cuffs dangling and open at their ends. Matthew and Phillip were with him, Phillip on his knees with his head respectfully bowed.
Anthony came into the room, carrying a long dark green canvas bag. “Who is that?” Daniel murmured appreciatively as Anthony headed toward Liam.
“His name is Anthony Campos. He’s a friend of Matthew and Phillip’s. He’s a whip maker from Spain.” Alex was pleased to know something Daniel didn’t. “He’s going to give a demonstration of one of his new whips, apparently.”
“I’ve heard of him. His stuff is very expensive. I wonder who the lucky sub will be?” Alex’s felt her bottom tingle at the question. She watched as Anthony unzipped the large bag and removed a flogger with tightly braided strands of soft-looking leather dyed a deep crimson. Daniel was watching too, his strapped cock jutting provocatively against the white silk of his pants.
Liam looked over at them and gestured for them to come to him. As they headed over, Daniel whispered, “Kneel next to Phillip.” She lowered herself as he did in front of the three Doms and kept her eyes on the floor.
Matthew and Liam took turns holding the beautiful flogger, commenting on its weighted handle and the skilled craftsmanship of the supple leather. “Don’t let the softness of the leather fool you. What makes this flogger special,” Anthony said, “are these knots at intervals along the braids. If wielded properly they leave lovely marks and sting every bit as a much as the cruelest whip.”
“Let’s try it.” Matthew was clearly eager. “Get up, slave. We’ll show the fine gentleman how well you take your punishment. Then you can suck my cock for your reward.”
“Why don’t we make it a little more interesting?” Anthony suggested. “I find subs perform better when they’ve got a little competition. We’ll string up two of them and see who breaks first. The first one to cry out or beg is the loser and will be punished according to their Master’s whim for the amusement of us all.”
Alex’s heart began to pound. She knew she was expected to submit to any Dom who wanted her, but she hadn’t expected a competition between subs. Shit, there was no way she could take a whipping better than that muscle-bound guy. She would be squirming and squealing in no time, embarrassing herself and both her Masters in the process.
Despite her trepidation, she couldn’t deny the hot, sweet heat throbbing between her legs at the thought of being flogged with that beautiful instrument. Why was she so sure Phillip would do better than she? Liam and Daniel had been working hard with her these past two weeks.
Though not yet as accomplished as Daniel, she was learning how to move into the pain instead of trying to avoid it. She was developing the ability to embrace it, to become it, to transcend it. This was her chance to show Liam and Daniel she could take a whipping with grace even with the added stress of performing for and in front of strangers.
Maybe it was the champagne, maybe it was the novelty of all these people around her, maybe it was the sex-drenched atmosphere of the play party now in full swing. Probably it was all of these things and more, but despite her trepidation she found herself ready, even eager to begin the scene.
Who would do the flogging? Matthew? Liam? Anthony? She realized with a small shock she wanted it to be Anthony. She wanted him to admire her as he struck her flesh, to smooth her heated skin with those long, slender fingers, to cup her breasts and whisper to her she was lovely.
Though she kept her eyes demurely on the ground as she knew was expected of her, she was aware they were cuffing Phillip into position. She felt Liam’s warm, comforting hand on the top of her head. “Which of my subs would you like to flog, Anthony?”
A spurt of adrenaline shot through her and her muscles tensed as she girded herself to rise.
“I choose Daniel,” Anthony said.
Daniel and Phillip were cuffed facing each other, so close they were nearly touching. Daniel’s silk pants had been pulled down and the strap unwound from his cock and balls. Phillip had been stripped as well, though the tattoos covering his back and chest made it appear as if he wore a shirt. A small crowd of appreciative men and women were eyeing them both with hungry glances.
A tall, voluptuous woman in a flowing black satin evening gown approached and pushed through the group. Ignoring the naked bound men, she pointed a long red-lacquered fingernail toward the still-kneeling Alex.
“Liam, I’ve been told this beautiful slave belongs to you.”
To us
, Daniel thought, though he said nothing. Marianne Scott was a professional Dominatrix who ran a BDSM dungeon in the city. She was known for being especially brutal with the men who paid very good money for the service. In private, however, she favored girls.
Liam replied, “That’s right. To Daniel and me. This is her first party.”
“Stand up, girl,” Marianne ordered. Alex obeyed, casting a beseeching look at Liam, who gave her a slight nod. Marianne gripped one of Alex’s pert nipples through the silk of her camisole and twisted it until Alex winced.
“Sensitive thing, isn’t she? How does she handle a bare-handed spanking? Do you spank her at all?”
“Of course. Alex is still training but she can take quite a bit.”
“Can I have her? Just for a while?”
“You are our guest. Our property is at your disposal within the limits of safe, sane and consensual. Alex knows she is to obey every Dom at this party as if they were Daniel or me.”
“Yummy.” Marianne rubbed her hands together with undisguised glee. She looked around the playroom, tossing her thick mane of long, wavy red hair. “I want a nice quiet place to handle this lovely specimen. It’s too crowded in here. All right if I take her to one of the bedrooms?”
Alex cast a frightened look Daniel’s way. Tethered and in his role as a submissive, Daniel couldn’t very well intercede. Liam was standing close enough for him to say quietly, “Sir. She needs you.”
Liam stroked Daniel’s bare chest. He spoke in an undertone. “I want to stay with you but I think you’re right. She looks like a deer caught in the headlights. Will you be okay here? Matthew seems to have things pretty well under control.”
“Yes, Sir.” Being cuffed and stripped had thrown Daniel pretty quickly into a submissive state of mind. He would have liked to have Liam with him but even more so he wanted Alex’s party experience to be a positive one. While he knew Marianne wouldn’t harm her, Alex would feel more comfortable with Liam on the scene. He himself was used to handling himself without Liam and enjoyed a good flogging.
Liam kissed Daniel’s cheek and turned to Matthew. “Take care of my sub.” He nodded toward Anthony, who bowed like some kind of courtier. Marianne was already leading Alex from the room. Liam cast one last lingering look on Daniel, who nodded and mouthed, “Go,” and he was gone.
~*~
Mistress Marianne led Alex along the hallway. Alex contemplated jerking her arm away and refusing to go along. But her Masters’ directive had been very clear—she was to obey every Dom at the party as if she belonged to them. By the same token they’d told her she wasn’t expected to submit to something harmful or dangerous. She had the right to say no.
What a relief when Liam caught up with them, though she could tell Marianne was less than pleased. Liam suggested they use Alex’s bedroom. Marianne sat on Alex’s bed and pointed to her lap.
“Get over here. My palms are itching to turn that soft white skin a nice cherry red.” Alex glanced at Liam who nodded, a ghost of a smile crossing his lips. He pulled out her desk chair and turned it toward the bed, sitting down and stretching his long, sexy legs in front of him. He looked so good in his black leather pants and boots.
Alex would have rather climbed onto his lap but she didn’t dare disobey Mistress Marianne, especially with Liam watching. She was determined to make him proud.
She positioned herself over Marianne’s ample satin-clad thighs and rested her head on the bed. Marianne pushed her forward until Alex’s ass was directly over her lap. Marianne’s fingers were cool. She stroked Alex’s bare ass, ignoring the lacy thong. After a moment the pads of her fingers were replaced with the sharp but not unpleasant draw of her long nails over Alex’s bare skin.
“You’ll count for me, girl,” Marianne informed her. “One hundred. If you mess up we start over.” Alex’s heart was already beating fast. Those words had the effect of a shot of pure caffeine.