The Sub Who Switched [Doms and Acquaintances 3] (Siren Publishing Allure) (3 page)

As the visitor left, Rebecca swiftly returned, and Nick stood still, his body trembling from the force of keeping his erection down.

Taking a deep breath he queried huskily, “Okay, Rebecca, out with it. Why do you have photos of Ellie, not only in revealing clothes, but butt naked?”

She winced. “She is going to kill me if I tell you.”

“And I will kill you if you don’t.” Actually he wouldn’t. He was much too soft.

“All right! She had these photos done to treat herself for her thirtieth birthday.”

Nick frowned. There had to be more to it than that.
And anyway, why not come to me? I’m a photographer for Christ’s sake and, besides that, I’ve wanted to see her naked for years.
Any attempt at relationships with other women failed when matched against Ellie.

“Why?”

“Look, Nick. It’s a female thing.”

“I’m fine with that. So why didn’t she ask
me
?”

Rebecca groaned in exasperation. “You’ll have to talk to her yourself, and she will tell you why she had them done.” That was all Rebecca would say after that. So there was nothing more for it. He just had to confront Ellie.

* * * *

It was two days before he finally caught up with her. Rebecca had told her what had happened, and Ellie had subsequently avoided him. The first time he turned up at the gallery, she was out at a meeting. When this happened again, she laughed at Rebecca’s account of his ire. He nearly caught her the last time, but she managed to quickly exit by a back entrance. Her reasons were varied, but included embarrassment that someone other than her closest female friends had seen her photos.

Standing by a desk, Ellie was assessing a new piece of artwork from an artist whose work they had shown before. It showed two naked bodies lying on a beach entwined in a sixty-six formation. She was so entranced, she didn’t hear Nick as he sidled up behind her and whispered into her ear, “That could be you and me you know.”

She jumped and twirled around, a hand going to her chest. “Shit, Nick. I didn’t hear you come in. Don’t do that to a girl. You could have given me a heart attack.”

He held her lightly around the waist as she tried to pull away. “Uh uh. A heart attack is what I got when I saw your nude photos the other day.”

Feeling her face go bright red, Ellie pushed past him, saying as she went, “I heard about you seeing them. I’d rather not discuss them, if you don’t mind.” This was her attempt to brush him off, not that she was convinced it would work. Well, a girl could try.

Moving quickly to keep up with her, he grabbed an arm to swing her around to look at him. “Ellie, come on. Tell me. Why did have them done? I’m not letting you go until you do.”

She struggled, but he held tight. “
All right
. It’s very simple. I had them done for my thirtieth birthday. So now will you let me go?”

Letting go of her wrists, he moved her against the desk just behind her, trapping her against it and stated, “That is what Rebecca said. But what I want to know is
why
you felt the need to have them done.”

Ducking her head, she was unusually silent. He moved one arm to knuckle her chin so he could look at her. “
Ellie
.”

Her eyes welled with tears of frustration, and she wrapped her hands around her upper arms in a defensive pose. “I did it because all the other girls have got guys now and I have reached thirty without one. Well, without one for some time and no one I’d want on a permanent basis.”

Wincing at that, Nick responded, “Okay. I can see why you were frustrated, but if you had to do something, why not take up skydiving or trek the Himalayas or something. Why have those types of photos done?”

She swallowed nervously and refused to look at him, not wanting to see pity in his eyes. “Because the other girls are so much prettier than I am, with better bodies, and I needed to prove that I can still be as sexy and desirable as they are, now I am no longer a spring chicken.”

Finally looking at his face, she could see he was stunned by this. She knew he had a crush on her. But as sweetly handsome as he was with dark-blond hair and blue eyes, he just didn’t do it for her. For a start he was too short. Well, he was only a couple of inches shorter, but she wanted someone taller than her to make her feel dominated, although Nick was doing a good job holding her against the desk like this.

Nick moved away as he took this statement on board, and Ellie regretted the loss of his body. Running his hand through his hair, he replied almost sulkily, “Okay, but why not come to me to have your photos done? I am a photographer after all.”

Jerking forward, she cried, “What! I didn’t think you were into that sort of photography.” She didn’t want him, but she didn’t like to think of him taking photos of other naked women. Walking away from him toward the office, she started to regain her composure and shook off those unwanted thoughts, saying over her shoulder, “Anyhow, I couldn’t have anyone I know do them, it would be entirely too embarrassing.”

He chuckled at that, raising his voice to shout after her, “As if dropping your kit isn’t mortifying enough.” That made him pause. “Or was it? Did you enjoy undressing for a strange man?”

She stumbled in her walk and turned to face him, a bit stunned. That came out more forthright than he usually spoke to her. He was normally such a gentle, quiet person. This was all out of character for him. She wondered if he was jealous at the thought of her undressing for someone else, and even worse, possibly liking it.
Ah, that was it.
She relaxed and sauntered back toward him. “Oh, Nick, dear. It was a husband-and-wife team, and the wife was there throughout, so there is no need to get all jealous.”

His tense body clearly started to unwind as she said that, but then she hit him hard with her next statement.

“I know you are sweet on me, my lovely man, but really, enough is enough.
You
are not the one for me.” She had reached him again and raised a hand to pat his chest soothingly. “I like my men
dominant.
Very dominant. That is to say hard men, rough men, strong men, men who tell me what to do. Men who
tie me up
.” Stepping back to see how he was taking this declaration, she was a little surprised that he wasn’t more shocked by her words. In fact she couldn’t read his expression at all. Tightening her lips, she hit him with her final avowal. “I hate to say it, but that just isn’t you. You will never be my lover, Nick.”

Walking into a BDSM club wasn’t Nick’s idea of an ideal place to get advice on his problem with Ellie. For one thing it was too noisy, for another he was too distracted by what was happening around him. He had never actually been in there before, but he knew some of Ellie’s friends went to Domini’s. Rebecca had suggested that Nick talk to her husband, Jon, and Kat’s partner, Ben, both of whom were Doms, and she arranged for Nick to meet them there.

Glancing around, his first reaction was that it looked like any other normal club, with a bar serving drinks, people sitting around tables, drinking and chatting, but then he noticed that some of the people were dressed unusually, like sitting around in their underwear or had little on at all. For some reason the guy who was sitting there just wearing a thong was more disturbing than the girl in her basque and stockings. And both seemed incongruous next to those in full street clothes.

Tearing his eyes away, he searched the room, urgently looking for Jon and Ben. He had high hopes that they could tell him how to become more dominant, and so be more attractive to Ellie.

Leaving the front room, he moved into another section, not noticing what was happening in there at first. Immediately he spotted Jon on the other side, studying something taking place, and as he didn’t see Nick waving at him, Nick walked over to him.

Starting to say hi, Nick’s attention was caught by the thing Jon had been watching. It was a naked girl lying over something like a sawhorse, ankles and wrists tied to the legs of the horse, her ass up in the air, which was facing the audience who had gathered around.

That in itself was enough of a surprise, but she was being caned.
Shit!
He knew things like this took place in here, but it looked like the man was hitting her pretty hard. Nick stared in astonishment, firstly that anyone would actually do something like this in public in the first place, and secondly that anyone would hit a woman like that. He was patently aware of his inexperience and closed his gaping mouth with a clash of teeth.

Then he became aware of the moans coming from the girl. Nick frowned. They sounded suspiciously like groans of arousal.
Surely not
. He found he couldn’t stop watching as the girl’s butt got redder and redder, the hits being struck at different places on her backside until one red stripe blended into another.
How can she stand it?
Then he felt a flush going up his neck as he became aware of her cream which was trickling down her thigh.
Holy hell!

Finally turning away from the disturbing sight, he suddenly noticed the man who was hitting the girl. It was Ben! Astonished, Nick wrenched his head around again to look at the girl, and when he saw the copper-colored hair that had fallen around her head, he became aware of who it was, and his mouth went dry.

“Um, isn’t that Kat?” he whispered urgently to Jon.

Jon simply turned his head and smiled at his obvious naivety. “Oh hi, Nick. Yeah, that’s Kat.” He chuckled at the look on Nick’s face. “All four of us, including Rebecca, are into the BDSM scene, so you will frequently find us here and, nine times out of ten, the girls will be naked or semi naked and involved in a scene with us. Well, Rebecca did before she got pregnant.” That didn’t seem to bother him. The grin on his face indicated his pride in his wife’s condition.

“She’s here?” Nick glanced around in worry, expecting to see her suddenly appear. He had thought it would just be him and the guys.

Chuckling, Jon explained, “No, she’s visiting Jessie to see her baby girl tonight.”

Nick swallowed back a sigh of relief. The thought of coming into the club and seeing his boss stark naked, and at any other time of the year, when not pregnant, bent over a piece of furniture, being hit with a cane or other implement, was alarming. Somehow he didn’t regard Ellie as his employer in the same way.

Then he came to the realization that this is the sort of life that she wanted. That made him start. Was she already into this? “Oh God please tell me Ellie isn’t here.”

“Christ no, I won’t let her in here. She’d get up to all sorts of mischief.” Nick breathed a sigh of relief at Jon’s response. “However I understand you want to ask me about her, so let’s go over to that table where it is quieter,” he said, leading Nick away from the scene with Kat and Ben.

When they were seated after having grabbed a couple of beers, Nick shuffled nervously, not knowing how to begin.

“Come on, out with it man.” Jon laughed. “What do you want to know? Will she go out with you? The question is ‘have you asked her?’ If you have and she said no—and judging by the look on your face, you have—then I’d say you were out of luck.”

“Actually, she said I wasn’t dominant enough for her, and I knew you and Ben were Doms, so I wanted some advice about how to become more dominant.”

Jon was silent for a moment, and then he burst out laughing. He laughed so much, he couldn’t stop.

Nick felt himself go bright red at the attention they were suddenly getting and wished Jon would stop.

The laughing brought Ben over, thankfully without Kat, who Ben indicated was getting dressed.

“All right, old man, you’d better stop before your false teeth fall out.” That insult brought Jon to a stop, as it was intended. But when Jon told him what Nick had just said, Ben then joined him laughing. Nick stared. He wasn’t used to Ben laughing. He was normally such a sober guy.

Kat then came over and asked what the hilarity was all about. Nick studied her. Amazingly, she didn’t seem to be suffering any injury from the caning. He stood up, but felt a bit out of place when the guys failed to give the same courtesy. As he falteringly sat down again, Ben took Kat’s hand to kiss it.

“My love, we have a guy issue here. If I call a cab for you, are you okay going home alone?”

She looked at them in bemusement but let Ben arrange for a ride home as he suggested.

Sitting down again a few minutes later after seeing Kat off, Ben asked, “Okay, let me get this straight. You want some advice on how to become more dominant even though you are the least dominant person we know.”

Wincing at the brusque, but accurate, assessment, Nick responded, “Yes, that’s it in a nutshell. Can you help?”

Ben looked at Jon who shrugged his shoulders, and the latter replied to Ben, “You’re the trainer. I’ll leave it with you to give him some hints. Besides which, Ellie is my sister. I’m not going to tell any guy how to get off with her.” He then turned to take a swig of his beer.

Giving his friend a look of exasperation, Ben turned back to Nick who waited hopefully throughout this little interchange. “Um, all right. Rule one, if you are in a club like this, don’t stand up. It might be the gentlemanly thing to do—and in other circumstances, like in a restaurant, we’d do that.” He gestured at himself and Jon. “But here we have to show
we
are in control and not the lady.”