The Exhibitionist (The Submissive #6) (10 page)

We stood quietly for a few minutes. Master Greene hurried past us with a brief “hello” and wave. He was the acting Dungeon Monitor and obviously on his way down to Daniel’s playroom. Several people followed in his wake. I thought again that the responsibility was too much for one person.

I scanned the room, looking for Abby, and found her at the living room’s entryway. We’d arrived together, but decided to split up for the first thirty minutes to observe separately. At her side was Sasha, looking paler than she had appeared days before. Papers were clutched in her hand.

“I hope it wasn’t a mistake letting her come tonight,” I said, inclining my head toward the pair.

“I wish you could have seen her before,” Jeff said. “She was always so full of life and, from what I’ve heard from those who played with her, borderline insolent.”

She certainly didn’t look insolent now. Her eyes were wide and she was nodding at whatever Abby was saying. Abby caught sight of me and, at the tilt of my head, crossed the room in our direction with Sasha following.

I slipped my hand up to the back of Abby’s neck when she made it to my side, fingering her collar. “Sasha, it’s good to see you.”

“Thank you, Master West.” She held out a wrinkled paper. “I filled out my checklist like you asked.”

I took the paper. “Very good. I’ll make sure it’s entered into the system.” Abby and I had talked when I got home from Daniel’s the day before and she’d suggested the idea of loading group member information into an electronic database. She’d mentioned it might be a good way to pair up unattached members based on interest. I wasn’t sure we wanted to do anything electronically, but she brought up listing everyone by a number instead of putting personal information in the computer. I told her I’d think about it. I did like the idea of matching people up.

Looking at Sasha at that moment, I found it hard to believe she’d want to be matched up any time soon. Just as well. Since tonight was her first party in a long time, it was best she took things slowly. Once she had a few meetings and parties under her belt, maybe we’d think about pairing her with a Dom, if that was what she wanted.

Jeff looked at his watch. “Cole’s demo is starting in about five minutes. Dena and I aren’t going to watch, but you and Abby might want to.”

I raised an eyebrow at Abby. “Let’s go see Cole. Sasha, you can come with us.”

Sasha’s mouth opened, as if she was going to say something, but she only nodded. Abby must have sensed something. She put a hand on Sasha’s upper arm and gently asked her, “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Sasha replied, and her voice shook a bit. “I’ll be fine.”

Abby would have picked up on the fact that I wanted Sasha with us. So her double check meant there was something going on with Sasha that I had missed.

We made our way down the stairs to Daniel’s playroom. I led the way and held the door open for the women. “Sasha,” I said when she walked by. “Is everything okay?”

She looked me in the eye. “Yes, Sir. I’m fine.”

There was a glimmer of something in her expression that hinted otherwise and she couldn’t hold my gaze for long. “If you don’t want to watch, Abby can sit with you upstairs.”

“I’m fine, Sir. Really.”

There wasn’t much else I could do. I’d asked if she was okay and I’d given her an out. If she wanted to stay in the playroom, I would let her. “Stay near Abby.”

She nodded and stood next to Abby. I kept my eyes on Sasha instead of paying attention to the setup for the demo. She spoke quietly to Abby, but when she turned to observe the middle of the room, she jerked in shock.

Curious, I followed her line of sight and saw Cole and the petite woman he’d brought to the guesthouse. She knelt at his feet while Cole waited for everyone to make it inside and close the door. Once the crowd settled down and he was satisfied, he began by introducing himself, the submissive, and what his plans were. I worried for just a bit when he told the crowd he’d be using a violet wand. While I knew Sasha had been hurt with a bullwhip, I wasn’t sure how she’d do watching an electrical scene. A quick glance showed her relaxed and calm, though.

Cole had the submissive move to the top of a table, and while she got into place, he went over safety information with the crowd. When he finished, he shifted so he faced both her and those of us watching. He looked over the people gathered, and it wasn’t my imagination when he did a brief double take at seeing Sasha.

Then he turned his attention to the woman before him, and I thought we all held our breath as he spoke quietly to her and turned the wand on. The lights were dim in the room, which served to showcase the bluish purple light of the wand and tiny spark of electricity that licked the submissive’s skin.

Cole’s face was a mask of concentration. He’d told us before he started he would only use a low setting tonight, but it was enough. The submissive he worked with held perfectly still, letting out only the slightest moans in pleasure.

He stopped for a second to check in with her after she’d been quiet for a few minutes, and it wasn’t until she nodded and he started again that it hit me how loud the room had been with the combination of wand and submissive. I shot a quick glance to Sasha, hoping she didn’t feel overwhelmed, but she appeared transfixed by the scene before her.

Her cheeks were flushed and her breathing rapid, but her lips parted in what looked like desire. I imagined she must be picturing herself in the submissive’s place, yet when I followed her line of sight, she wasn’t captivated by the submissive, but Cole. At the same moment I realized where her attention was, Cole did as well. He looked up briefly and caught Sasha’s gaze. The corner of his mouth uplifted just a bit in a smug half smile.

Sasha gasped and I braced myself, waiting to see if she’d turn and leave the room. But she stood where she was, simply dropping her eyes to the glowing wand.

I looked over at Abby and saw she’d picked up on Sasha’s reaction, too.

Definitely a discussion for later.

ABBY

W
e had a leisurely breakfast the next morning, thanks to Linda taking the kids for the weekend. She’d picked them up yesterday before the play party, saying she’d missed them horribly since we moved.

Nathaniel had us sit at the kitchen table. Whenever I had his collar on and he wanted me to speak freely, we’d sit there. I made him bananas Foster French toast. It was a recipe I’d created while I was still single and he loved it. I didn’t often have time to cook it, though. One look at Nathaniel’s expression when I set his plate down made me vow to do it more often.

“This looks great,” he said.

“Thank you, Master. I’m sorry it’s been so long, I’ll have to make it more often.”

“Maybe once we hire a nanny, things will settle down a bit.” He took a bite and closed his eyes in bliss.

I sat down, smiling inwardly as I typically did whenever I saw his joy at my cooking. He was an outstanding cook as well, so it really stoked my ego for him to like something I made.

“Tomorrow morning I’m cooking breakfast for you,” he said.

I still had his collar on and it wasn’t typical of him to cook when I did. “That’s unexpected, Sir.” I ate a bit of toast, making sure I got a piece of banana.

“I’m fairly certain you’ll be otherwise occupied.”

I couldn’t even start to imagine what he meant by that, so I just nodded. “I look forward to it, Sir. I’ll welcome whatever you have me do.”

“Mmm.”

I didn’t think he believed me. I wasn’t sure I blamed him.

“Would you like some orange juice, Sir?” I asked.

“No, the coffee’s fine. But thank you.” He took a bite of banana. “Any thoughts about the meeting last night?”

“Yes, I really want to tell you what I’ve been thinking. I didn’t see anything inherently wrong with their setup. They just seem like a normal group, and in fact I think they have more fun and interesting members than most groups. I like a lot of them, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them better and becoming friends. If you think about the two men who were problems, one was an experienced Dom. The other was a newbie. So I don’t think the problems are related.”

“Right, and I know Jeff ran background checks. Nothing turned up on either man. I looked over them myself. There’s nothing that would have raised a flag for me.”

I tapped my fingers on the tabletop. “I wonder if either man would have been invited to join if we’d asked for references.”

“The problem with references, though, is you can pick who provides them for you and you obviously won’t pick someone who might say something negative.”

“What if you had to get a reference from someone already in the group?”

The corner of his mouth lifted and he jotted a note down on the pad at his side. “I like that.”

“At least that way, a new member wouldn’t be a complete unknown. And since everyone is having to resubmit their paperwork, we’d trust them.”

“I wonder if we should go a step further and, even after a group recommendation, there should be a provisional period.”

“Like a test?”

“No, I was just thinking more like a probationary period before they are fully accepted as members. It’s important we get to know new people before we trust them, isn’t it? In fact, maybe something else we should do is have new members meet the senior Dominants. We could stipulate that they meet together over dinner or something. So we can get to know potential members personally.”

“That might be a good thing to put in place before they even attend a group meeting,” I suggested.

He wrote that down. “I think it’d be good for experienced players if their first play scene or two were observed by a senior member.”

“Would senior submissives be allowed to observe the newcomers?”

“Yes, even the submissives.”

“Do you think a potential Dom member would take issue with being observed by one of the submissive senior members?” I asked.

“If they did, I think that would give us all the insight into their character we needed, don’t you?”

I smiled. “Yes, Sir. Very much so.”

“In fact, it might be a good idea to get a sub’s thoughts on a potential Dominant.”

“Do you think you’d work it the other way? Have a senior Dom observe a sub?”

“Fair is fair, right?” he asked through a chuckle.

“That would only be for experienced people. What are your thoughts for the new ones?”

“I think new members should be made to go through a mandatory mentor training with a senior member.”

“You’re putting a lot of responsibility on the senior members. It’s going to take a lot of time to clear a new member.”

“But if it works, the tradeoff would be worth it because we’ll know we can trust that person.”

“True, but all this will make it harder to join the group, so it won’t get much bigger.”

“I’d thought about that,” he said. “But again, isn’t it worth it if it keeps everyone safe?”

I watched him for a minute. He was wearing jeans and a soft T-shirt in a green hue that matched his eyes. It was one of those everyday moments that took my breath away. Just the joy of a simple moment, sharing a meal and talking. The way his smile danced across lips.

The smile deepened. “What?” he asked.

“You.” I reached across the table and took his hand. “How everything comes back to safety. How you won’t put up with attitude from a Dom.” I dropped my voice. “How damn hot you look in that T-shirt, how it pulls across your chest, and how your face is all scruffy because you haven’t shaved yet.”

He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. “You’re making it very hard for me to concentrate on the group when you say things like that.”

“Good, because we’ve already made a really good start and I think we should put it aside for now and continue with our weekend, Sir.”

He tilted his head.

“I did say
Sir
,” I reminded him. “And we’re at the kitchen table.”

“I wasn’t going to reprimand you.”

I let out a breath. “Oh.”

“I was going to say, look at how damn hot
you
are in that T-shirt.”

His words were so unexpected, I laughed. “With all due respect, Sir, I find that hard to believe.”

“You’re right. I was going to agree with you. It
is
time to continue our weekend.”

Something about his expression made desire swell low in my belly.

But he was full of surprises. “First thing is a jog.”

A jog? Was he serious?

My disappointment must have been obvious. He laughed. “There’ll be plenty of time later in the day for what you’re thinking. It’s been a while since we’ve jogged together and I know I need a good workout.”

I nearly huffed. Sex. Sex was a workout.

“Later, Abigail.”

T
wo weeks later, I stood in front of the large gathering of people for the tri-state conference. Nathaniel and I had driven up for the evening, since it was being held in Philadelphia at a private club. There were easily one hundred people present, and only a handful of them were from our Partners in Play group.

The St. Andrew’s cross Nathaniel requested stood behind me. He’d told me he wanted me nude, and though there were parts of my body I didn’t like, at the moment I felt sexy and sultry. Being in a BDSM demo, having the opportunity to play in front of people never made me feel self-conscious. When we were in a scene and Nathaniel was controlling me, it was as if I saw myself through his eyes. Even when he didn’t say anything, I could see how he felt just by looking in his eyes.

I doubted anyone other than Nathaniel noticed my nervousness. Or at least, I hoped they didn’t. They had all smiled warmly and welcomed us when we arrived earlier. I felt the urge to fidget, but forced myself to remain still. Nathaniel placed a hand at the small of my back and I took a deep breath.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes, Master. Just a few butterflies at being in front of a new group. But overall I’m excited.” Sometimes I wondered if it was the excitement that helped turn me on.

“Kneel for me,” he said, and I dropped to my knees.

He called the group to order and introduced us.