A Betty's Pledge: Volume One (9 page)

“Mady?” Mina’s sharp tone pulled me out of my reverie. “Are you listening to me?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Oh, Mady,” Mina chided lightly. “Come on. Let me introduce you to everyone!” Mina
took my hand and led me toward a large rounded table where a few people were gathered.

“Do they know about me?” I asked Mina in a low tone. She looked at me in question,
then realization dawned on her and she turned away.

“No,” she said quickly. “Only the owner is aware that I’m your sponsor, Mady. Everyone
else only knows the barest of details. And the movie deal is a secret.”

“Good,” I replied, nodding as I felt the heat of my embarrassment at my financial
limitations ebb slightly. Mina patted my hand understandingly as we approached the
others.

The Mated

~ Madeline Cain ~

My best friend had the worst possible timing. Of course, she thought it was necessary
to barge into my conversation with Isaac, obliterating any hope of breaking the rules
and finding a secluded corner somewhere. And I so wanted to find that hidden place
where only Isaac and I were admitted.

I could picture him in his costume, all bulging muscles and . . . appendages, ready
and willing to bring my body to heights I’d only dreamt of. In my mind, however, that
tight, white shirt would have been mysteriously absent, leaving me a better view of
his well-shaped arms.

I was practically salivating for him, a reaction that shocked me because I was never
the one to drool over a man. But I never got the opportunity to make my fantasy come
to fruition because the tropical storm called Mina came blazing in, destroying my
lust bubble.

She must have felt my hesitancy as she pulled me farther away from my dreamboat because
she leaned over and asked me what was wrong. I couldn’t help the tiny glance over
my shoulder as my eyes sought out his fascinating ones once more. There he was, still
leaning against the bar and giving me the most alluring bedroom eyes I’d ever seen.
They made me go weak inside, and if Mina hadn’t been holding onto me, I might have
just melted into a puddle on the ground.

Mina laughed, having seen where my gaze was pulled. “Don’t worry. You’ll see plenty
of him later.” Her words were drawn out and laced with hidden meaning, and I felt
my inner whore gleam in approval at her innuendo.

Having Mina at my side gave me a sense of familiarity and confidence that I’d been
lacking ever since I set foot in the limousine earlier that evening. We’d met freshman
year at UCLA. She was my partner for an entry level biology course and we became fast
friends. She was there for me through homesickness, my first heartbreak, and my extreme
sexual frustration stage. She never hinted to be from a family with a large estate;
she’d always acted as if she was like me: on a full-ride academic scholarship and
struggling to make ends meet with the bare income I had. In fact, it was only when
she’d offered to sponsor me for this program that I found out she was loaded.

Now, sitting here in the middle of it all, with sexuality oozing from every orifice,
I couldn’t be more thankful for my little friend. I loved her so much that I was willing
to go with her as she dragged me away from my wet dream.

Of course, I had known she’d be there; she was the one who hadn’t known I’d been accepted
into the program because I’d never had the chance to tell her before the party. Now
that I thought about it, however, I realized that she hadn’t seemed as surprised to
see me as she should have been. Perhaps she’d known more about my admittance status
than she’d let on, and I’d resolved to ask her about it once we were alone again.

In any case, we’d agreed not to acknowledge each other at the party until later in
the evening when all the formalities had been addressed, whatever that meant. I was
glad I hadn’t seen her up until that point because it would have been really hard
to act casual around my bestie. She’d told me she’d let me know when that point had
arrived. I guessed it had, for she led me arm in arm across the party, casually pointing
out the different Alums of recent classes and mated couples.

“Have you met Diane yet?” Mina asked casually, waving at the woman in question from
across the yard. She had Nate wrapped around her as she waved back, his lips playing
a sensuous dance across the skin of her bare shoulders.

“Yes, I have,” I answered her shyly. “She seems a little . . . abrupt.”

Mina laughed. “Diane just knows what she wants. As you can see, she trained Nate well.”

“She trained Nate?” I asked, shocked.
Was he the Betty, then? What did they call him? A Bobby?

“He wasn’t the Pledge, Mady.” Mina chuckled, reading my confused thoughts correctly.
“The Grants don’t take male pledges.”

“Then where do the Consorts come from?” I asked. “Don’t they apply to the program
just like the women?”

Mina stopped in mid-step, turning to face me directly as she placed her tiny hands
on my shoulders. Her heels were taller than mine were, almost bringing us eye to eye.

“Listen, Mady. There are certain questions that only the Dame is supposed to address
with you. I’m sure you’ve set a meeting with Diane to go over the details of the move-in,
yes?” I nodded. “Good. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, but Diane and I have
talked. She agrees that when it comes to our friendship, there are certain things
I will not keep from you if asked.”

She was being so cryptic that I was starting to become concerned. She could only tell
me what Diane allowed? That sounded a little cultish to me.

“O-kaaay . . .” I replied slowly. Mina could tell that I wasn’t exactly thrilled with
what she was telling me, so she rushed to explain before undue panic set in.

“It’s not like we have anything to hide, Mady,” she explained. “The Grants have run
their program a certain way for decades and it works. We’ve learned not to stray from
the designated protocols by trial and error, no pun intended.”

“Hmm,” I said, not really knowing how to respond.

Mina began walking and talking again, her carefree nature from before returning. “Now,
most of the guests left are either in the program currently or running the mentorship.
Feel free to relax.”

Sure . . . relax among the swells of sexual tension and fornication.
Go ahead, Mady . . . let it all go!

Right
 . . .

“Some have stayed on for years; others leave when their designated time is served,”
Mina continued.

I wondered what kind of timeline she was talking about but I kept my mouth shut, hoping
I’d get more details in my meeting with Diane the next day.

“Some couples are more adventurous than others, but mostly we stick to each other.
Monogamy seems to be a theme here once we find someone who sparks our interest, but
there are those who don’t know the meaning of the word. Speaking of which . . .” She
stopped talking when the redheaded ‘Eve’ I’d seen earlier in the evening approached
us. She was still in her near-nude glory, her breasts and hoo-ha barely contained
by the leaf-shaped fabric. The strings that tied her . . .
ensemble . . .
together looked like they were biting into her skin, and I wondered how the one residing
right along her butt crack was feeling right about then.

Ouch!

She had a man dressed in a Hugh Hefner outfit, complete with red smoking jacket and
black silken pajama pants, holding her around the small of her waist; a couple of
his fingers were curved around the string on her hip, pulling it down slightly with
the weight of his grip. His looks were model-esque, a face with sharp features and
strong jaw line. His hair was in golden waves that reached the top of his ears, making
him look like the epitome of a California surfer. The body that peeked through the
generous opening in the front of the robe was a far stretch from Hef’s wrinkled skin.
He was trim and defined, much like the other men I’d seen that evening.

Are they all bred for perfection?

“Mina, nice to see you.” The naked girl purred my friend’s name in a seductive croon,
but her eyes fixed on me hungrily. She was quite fetching, with a subtle classic beauty
that reminded me of the Hollywood starlets in old black and white movies, except for
the whole lack of modesty thing. Her vivid red hair was in soft waves that hit her
upper back, full and thick. Her bright blue eyes were framed with heavy lashes, almond
shaped and very lovely. But it was the expression on her face that made my jaw clench—it
purred of seduction and dominance—and I wondered if what I observed reflected what
happened in her bedroom.

“Emily,” Mina replied flatly, not showing an ounce of the bubbly, friendly girl I’d
known for almost five years. I glanced at her, wondering what her issue could be.

“And who is this tasty morsel you have? Your new Betty?” Emily reached her hand out
to pet my hair like I was some Persian cat or something. The way she was looking at
me like I was something she’d like to take back home to her bedroom made me slightly
uncomfortable. I was used to enduring the prowling looks from men. In fact, I quite
enjoyed them, especially from aqua-eyed gods that made my loins melt.

“This is Mady,” Mina said, keeping her tone mild. It was the same one she’d use when
she would try to covertly warn me against a shithead who’d try to pick me up at a
club we were at while in college. I recognized it immediately, sensing my guards rising
as I met Emily’s stare with a challenging one of my own.

“I like her. She’d go nicely with my Pledge, Sonia. I bet they’d play well together,
too. Care to share?”

I felt the bile rise up my throat at her words. Yes, Sonia was a very attractive woman.
And I had always been curious about some same-sex experimentation—a desire I planned
to quench while at the Grants. But the idea of having anything to do with Sonia made
me nauseous. She was a stuck-up bitch, flat out. And I was in no way attracted to
that aspect of a woman. Give me a soft, supple goddess with enough assertiveness in
the bedroom, and I was all over it. But
that
bitch . . . well, I might just vomit.

“She’s not
my
Betty,” Mina replied through clenched teeth. I’d rarely seen Mina that defensive
before, and I started to wonder exactly what the woman had done to make Mina react
that way. “She’s Diane’s.”

I watched the skin around Emily’s eyes tighten slightly at Mina’s words. She turned
toward her man, the pair of them exchanging some silent communication that made me
feel nervous for some strange reason. I watched as the man shook his head minutely,
causing Emily to break her stare with him and return it to me.

“I see,” she said after a pregnant pause. “Well, I guess I will have to bide my time.”

“Good luck with that,” Mina retorted, not really giving me any clue as to what her
issue with Emily was. Based on what Mina had said earlier, I assumed that Emily was
part of one of the mated couples but a bit more adventurous in her relationship. I
didn’t think there was anything wrong with that, considering the environment and all.
But something must have happened between Mina and Emily to make Mina seem so closed
off and defensive, and I resolved to ask her about that later. For now, I figured
the best course of action was to follow her lead. She’d been my friend for many years
and she’d never steered me wrong.

“This is my fiancé, Keith,” Emily said, nodding toward Hef without taking her eyes
off me. I heard Mina scoff at the term
fiancé
, but I didn’t acknowledge her outburst because I wanted to keep things as civil as
possible.

Keith reached out his hand, taking mine after I proffered it. He raised it to his
lips to place a kiss atop it like many of the men I’d met that night had done. But
when his mouth touched my skin, I felt the faintest hint of his tongue peeking out
between his lips to taste my flesh. He covertly massaged his tongue across my hand
in a fast percussion, like butterfly wings. The sensation was creepy.

I gasped in surprise. Keith backed away slowly, a sly smirk placed firmly on his handsome
face as he reluctantly released my hand.

“I’m glad we understand each other,” he said in a deep timbre. I stood there stunned,
completely grossed out. It was clear these two were interested in spending some quality
time with me, and not because they thought I had a cool personality. I never thought
I’d be the one to enjoy any kind of threesome, especially in a situation where I wouldn’t
be the focal point. I mean, come on—would it even be worth it if I wasn’t? But there
was something intriguing about the idea.

These two, I had mixed emotions about. Maybe I was so riled up, sexually tense from
my previous interactions with the Consorts I was ready and eager to get things started,
it didn’t take much to push me over the edge. Perhaps I was desperate enough at that
point I’d climb into bed with two people who Mina clearly indicated had no respect
for people’s limits.

Maybe I should go hump that tree to make it clearer to those around me: Mady Cain
is ready to play!

I needed to calm down.

“Have a good night, gorgeous,” Keith said, taking a moment to look at my body. He
fisted his hand around the juncture of string that sat right above Emily’s ass and
led her away as if her costume was part of a short leash. She melted into him, taking
that small amount of dominance he showed her in public, and made it heavily personal
and suggestive.