His Absolute Domination: The Billionaire's Paradigm (#5) (A BDSM Erotic Romance) (The Billionaire's Ultimatum, Book Two) (11 page)

"Mocking me, are you? You know your
safeword, bitch. Don't pretend you've forgotten it."

He lifted his hand to strike me once
more, but he hesitated. A commotion from within the crowd caught my
attention. It was Lucent.

He wore a business suit, dark and
formal, with a shimmering silver tie. The lights in the club made
him glow like some shadowy angel. I was fairly certain angels never
looked as absolutely livid as Lucent did, though.

I wanted to cry and go to him, but
Lucent was busy at the moment. He stomped up onto the stage and
glared at Cole with ashen eyes of pure hatred. Moving past me,
beside me, near me, he stood between Cole and I. He stood this way
for a fraction of a second, barely longer than it took me to
breathe in my panic-induced state, and then he slammed his fist
into Cole's jaw.

Cole slumped to the floor of the stage
and screamed out his agony. Lucent ignored him in favor of paying
full attention to me. Typically, I might've enjoyed this, but he
didn't look especially friendly at the moment. In fact, he still
looked extremely cross.

"Miss Tanner," he said, his voice
calmer than his expression. "Come."

I nodded. Lucent helped me up off the
table and wrapped an arm around me, squeezing me tight to his side.
I glanced towards my coat for a second, wanting to grab it, but
before I could he pulled me off of the stage. We reached the steps,
and I stumbled on them, but Lucent caught me.

Lifting me up, carrying me in his
arms, he walked down the steps with me. I lay cradled against him,
my cheek on his shoulder, my arms wrapped around his neck. I
nuzzled against him, trying to ease away his anger and my fear, but
neither of those happened. Lucent's jaw clenched, then loosened,
and clenched, but he held me tight and safe regardless.

Carrying me the entire way, he walked
towards a door near one of the walls.

"If you will?" he asked, nodding
towards the doorknob.

I reached out and turned it and pulled
it open. We stepped through and the door shut behind us
automatically.

I hadn't realized how loud the club
was until we escaped in here. Granted, Lucent's outburst had caused
more than a bit of an uproar, and Cole's frantic screams of pain
after Lucent cracked his fist into the man's jaw didn't help. In
here it was peaceful, though. Quiet. Gentle, instrumental music
played through a speaker system in the soundproofed room. One of
the walls was shaded glass; impossible to see through from the
other side, but giving an open view of the club from our
position.

Lucent brought me to a leather couch
and placed me gingerly atop it. For someone who insisted he enjoyed
dominating women in relationships, he was remarkably
gentle.

He didn't look very gentle, though. He
glared down at me, face tight, jaw tighter, and breathed in deeply
through his nose. His nostrils flared like some matador's bull. I
cowered beneath his gaze, curling up in a ball and hiding against
the back of the couch.

"Lucent," I whimpered. "Please don't
hurt me. I'm so sorry."

"What?" He sounded shocked, taken
aback. "Miss Tanner, I definitely won't hurt you. Come here. Are
you alright?"

He sat next to me and pulled me into
his lap. I crawled into him and against him, huddling close to
him.

"My butt hurts," I said.

"As well it should, that madman's
abusive. Sam should have banned him from the club long ago. I don't
even know how you came to make his acquaintance, and I'm extremely
annoyed with it."

"I..." I didn't even know what to say
now. My entire plan, in hindsight, was absurdly stupid.

Lucent touched my chin and urged me to
look at him. I did, but with the faintest beginnings of tears in my
eyes.

"What is it, Miss Tanner?"

"Can you please call me Elise?" I
asked. "I need you to call me Elise for just right now.
Please?"

He smiled and bent his head low and
kissed me. Not some chaste kiss on the forehead like the other day,
but a soft, loving kiss on the lips. I melted and kissed him back
and languished in the caressing heat of his breath dancing across
my lips and into my mouth.

"What's wrong, Elise?" he said, his
lips brushing against mine as he spoke. "Tell me?"

"I thought if I came here," I said,
choking on the words. "I thought if you saw me being spanked, you'd
realize that I wanted to do it and it wasn't because you wanted me
to, but I can't. I can't do that, Lucent. Do you like being mean
like that? I don't want this. Please... Lucent, please, the leash,
please?"

I begged and pleaded with him and
clawed at the collar around my neck. I knew what I wanted, but my
words made no sense. It didn't matter, though; Lucent understood
me. With precision and care, he removed the collar from around my
neck in a matter of seconds, then tossed the unwanted accessory to
the floor.

"You should never be collared, Elise,"
he said. "I would never collar you. You're so much more beautiful
when you're free."

"I don't understand any of this," I
said. "Is this how it is?"

"No." He shook his head. "That... that
wasn't anything like my 'BDSM things,' Elise. Nothing like them at
all. I swear to you, that's nothing like almost anyone's BDSM
things. Some people don't understand, or they think that BDSM is an
excuse for abuse, but it's not."

"What is it to you?" I
asked.

He grinned a little, charming and
boyish. He looked nothing like the angry Lucent from mere minutes
before. He looked nice now. Handsome and amazing.

"Honestly?" he said. "I don't think I
know anymore. I used to think one thing, but I've recently had a
possible change of mind."

"Why?"

"You," he said, matter-of-factly. "I
used to think I wanted someone to submit to me completely, but I
find myself utterly intrigued by your curiosity and willingness to
question everything. Unfortunately, it seems your curious nature is
also dangerous and reckless. I'm unsure what to do about
that."

"Do you really think I'm beautiful?" I
asked. "What did you mean?"

Lucent teased back my hair, running
his fingers alongside my ear. "There's different types of slaves,
Miss Tanner. The awful, historical kind are what people tend to
think of first, but the standard BDSM kind are different. That's
more consensual, where the submissive consents to becoming a slave.
Even then, master and slave relationships differ drastically, too.
It's not always hard work and scrubbing floors like Cinderella,
though it might sound it and some might prefer that. It's about the
submissive constantly attempting to fully please her dominant
master."

"I'm not very good at that," I
mumbled.

"On the contrary," he said. "I'm
finding I adore exactly every part of you, and I believe you're the
most pleasing person I've met in a long time. Probably, if you
don't mind me being forthright, ever."

"What, really?" No... that couldn't be
right. I was kind of stupid. I made stupid plans. I wasn't
inherently submissive, either. In fact, I was a rather poor
submissive most likely. I didn't even know what I was doing or what
I was supposed to do.

"Mhm," he growled, leaning down to
steal a kiss.

I didn't want him to steal just one
kiss, though. I wanted him to steal more. Latching my hands around
his neck, I pulled him down again, and he stole and stole and
stole.

The door to Lucent's private room
opened, and I scrambled to get up, but Lucent calmed me with a
shush and held me tight in his lap.

It was Sam. He stood in the doorway,
frowning, then invited himself in and sat on another couch opposite
the one where Lucent and I were.

"I'm sorry about that, Lucent. I don't
know exactly what happened. I didn't know it was her. Cole
contacted me about doing a show, saying he had a submissive now,
and... well, you basically know the rest."

"I require no apology," Lucent said.
"I believe Miss Tanner should be the focus of those
attentions."

I blushed and fidgeted with my
fingers. If anything, I thought I should be the one
apologizing.

"I'm really sorry," Sam said.
"Seriously, I hope this hasn't ruined your opinion of my club, Miss
Tanner. This doesn't usually happen. Cole's been banned now and
won't be allowed to return. I'd like to offer you free food and
refreshments if you're willing to stay."

I frowned. "I'm sorry, too. It was
dumb of me. I don't know what I was thinking. I was kind of being
foolish."

"We all do foolish things," Sam said
with a shrug. "It's just that they can be especially harsh with
this kind of thing. From what Lucent's mentioned, you're
inexperienced, but I want you to know that this isn't regular. It
shouldn't happen, and I promise to do my best to make sure it
doesn't happen again. It's not your fault, but just be more careful
in the future, too, alright? I can only control what goes on in my
club, and I'd hate for something to happen to you."

Lucent nodded and smiled. Whispering
into my ear, he asked, "Do you want some food?"

I looked up at him, basking in his
kindness. "Can we have those sandwiches like the other morning?" I
wanted everything to be like that morning in Sam's Delicatessen. I
wanted it all to be happy and I wanted to forget the bad things
that had happened after, the things that must have been less than
half an hour ago, but seemed so far away now.

"Would you mind bringing Miss Tanner a
pancake sandwich, Sam?" To me, Lucent added, "The same as what you
had for breakfast?"

I nodded fast. "You, too. You get one,
too. The same as you had."

Lucent grinned. "We'll have two," he
said. "An apple cinnamon pineapple one, plus one with eggs and
sausage. Some soothing balm if you don't mind, also."

"Drinks?" Sam asked.

"What do you want to drink?" Lucent
asked me.

"What do you like to drink?" I asked
him.

"A pitcher of water. Two Lugene
Chocolate Milk Stouts too, preferably from the tap if you have it,
but bottles will suffice otherwise."

Sam nodded. "I'll rush your order.
Thanks again for your patronage, Lucent. I apologize for the
incident with Cole, Miss Tanner. Everything's on the house tonight,
so if you need something else, just ask. Lucent knows
how."

"You can call me Elise," I said. "If
you want."

Sam smiled. "I'll be back in a jiff,
Elise. Just sit tight. You're in good hands here. I'm sure of
that."

...

I cuddled in Lucent's lap and he
brushed my hair with his fingers. We both stayed silent mostly,
looking at everything and nothing. I liked this. Lucent had a very
comfortable and warm lap and his pants were soft like a silken
pillow.

I watched the club through the one-way
shaded mirror wall. No more shows for tonight, apparently. Good, I
thought. I didn't think I could handle seeing anything like that.
My butt still hurt, too.

The BDSM club didn't look too bad,
though. A little weird, but lots of things were weird, right? Some
people walked around, chatting, while others sat at booths, and a
few gathered on a floor for dancing and showed off their moves.
Everything outside was dark, and darker still because of the shaded
glass between here and there, but it almost looked like any other
regular club. I never really went to clubs, but if I did, I might
like it here.

On the contrary, in Lucent's private
room, I liked it very much. It was brighter in here, and less
enclosed. That seemed a weird thing to think, since obviously the
main floor of the club had a lot more space, but it also had a lot
more people. In here, it was just Lucent and I.

"Where did you get these clothes?"
Lucent asked, his tone guarded. "Do you like them?"

He ran his fingers along my top,
teasing at the cheap fabric at my sides.

"They itch," I said. "I think they're
too tight. I didn't want to buy them, but he said I needed
to."

He
. I didn't want to say Cole's name. I didn't want to think
about him at all.

"They're poorly made," Lucent said.
"Good for a costume if you plan to wear them once, but not suitable
for continued use. Also, none of this is fitted, is it? It must
have come off a general use rack, I assume."

I giggled.

"Do I amuse you, Miss Tanner?" Lucent
asked, offering me a sly smirk.

"I'm not sure about you," I said, "but
very few of my clothes are fitted. Almost everything is from the
'general use rack', as you put it."

He widened his eyes and opened his
mouth, aghast; he had a silly glimmer, just so, in his pupils,
though, teasing me. "Unacceptable!" he stated, both serious and
exaggerated all at once. "We'll have to rectify this
immediately."

"We?" I asked.

"Yes. I'll accompany you."

"You're going to go clothes shopping
with me?"