Master Class (6 page)

Lisette got out of the cab and entered the club. Going straight to the women’s locker room, she shed her coat and then went out to the main club. Ryan had said he’d try to be at the same couch they’d used last weekend, and as the crowd parted, she saw him there, dressed in faded blue jeans and a black T-shirt.

Put your tongue back in your mouth, girl.

Knowing there was an excellent chance he’d be making use of her tongue later made Lisette giggle, and she clamped her hand over her mouth at the same time Ryan looked up. One thick eyebrow rose, and she nearly fell to her knees right then and there. A Dom raising an eyebrow just
did
it for her; she had no idea why. He rose as she approached.

“You look lovely. Even better than I expected.”

For some reason his effusive compliment made her blush. “Thank you, sir. It was a nice surprise to come home to.”

“You’re welcome. I wanted to make you feel like the beautiful woman you are. Sit.” He pointed to the cushion in front of him. “I have something for you.” Ryan pulled a play collar out of his bag. “I’d like you to wear this whenever we’re here at the club playing. Then people will know you’re not available. I tend to be a little possessive.”

“Of course, sir.”

With a little self-satisfied smile, he buckled it around her neck. “Fuck, you look hot in that collar.” She blushed, and he leaned down to kiss the skin right above it. “Would you like a drink?”

“Water, please. I’m still dehydrated from traveling. I carry a water bottle when I’m on the road, but the constant changes in climate and being stuck indoors so much in those huge, musty convention centers does nothing for my health, I’m sure.”

Ryan motioned, and soon two bottles of water were deposited on the table in front of them. Reaching for one, he uncapped it and handed it to her before doing the same with his own.

“How was the trade show?”

“Pretty good. My job is to get the booths and other materials there and set up, make sure the staff has everything they need during the show itself. At the end of the show, I supervise everything being taken back down and get it shipped home. In some ways that’s the easy part. I don’t have to stand there looking friendly for three straight days. I’d lose it after about six hours.”

He laughed. “Not a people person?”

Lisette fidgeted but looked up when he placed a heavy hand on her thigh, his expression now dead serious.

“Stop.”

“Yes, sir. I’m sorry. I just don’t like to talk about myself.”

“If you don’t want to do that, there are plenty of other fun activities that’ll keep your mouth occupied.”

Ryan stared at her mouth, and she had to resist the temptation to lick her lips. That would be like waving a red cape in front of a bull.

“Uh, whatever you’d like, sir.”

“I’d like to talk about your week.”

She tried to control the sigh but wasn’t sure she’d been successful when he smirked. “It’s not that I hate people, sir, but there seems to be this pervasive air of desperation at trade shows.”

“Desperation?”

“Yeah, like if you don’t make sales, they’ll behead you at the exit.”

“Quite a gruesome picture you’ve painted. Should I thank my lucky stars I don’t have to do trade shows?”

Lisette grinned. “You might want to send up a little thanks, sir.”

“If you hate them so much, why did you make them your life’s work? I’m just curious; I’m not attacking you.”

“I started out doing market research, but as people got laid off all around me, they just kept piling more and more work on my lap. Then the company started doing better, so they hired a few people, but none of them had trade show experience. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can cost your company a ton of time and expense. So I passed off some of my other tasks and started focusing exclusively on trade shows. I guess you could say in a lot of ways, it wasn’t a conscious career decision on my part.”

Another full bottle of water was pressed into her hand, and she frowned down at the empty one Ryan removed.

“Yes, you drank the whole thing in minutes. It seems you weren’t kidding about being dehydrated.”

“Thanks. So how was your week, sir?”

“Good. I taught classes, graded papers, beheaded a couple of students with low grades…” He grinned, and she laughed. “Overall, not very exciting.”

There was a pause, and she lifted the second bottle of water to her lips, taking another small sip.

“By the way, we’re not moving until you finish that.” Ryan jerked his head toward her water. “So drink up.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We should talk about what we’re going to do tonight.”

Lisette nodded and took another drink.

“You look pretty stressed.”

“Do I?” The words squeaked out, and he nodded.

“You do. I’ve heard a good spanking is remarkably cathartic for stress relief.”

Ryan tossed the statement out there so offhandedly, she wasn’t sure how to react. Did he want her to ask for a spanking? Did she
want
a spanking?

He tapped her nose. “You’re overthinking. That’s not going to help the stress level.”

“I’m—”

“And stop apologizing.”

“Reflex, sir.” Ryan studied her, and Lisette did her best not to squirm more.

“Is that because you’re submissive?” She bit her lip. “Lisette?” His tone hardened in warning.

The next words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. “Just because someone is submissive doesn’t mean they’re weak. So many people think that.”

He straightened, his expression going cold.

Shit, shit, shit.

When he spoke, it was clear he was trying to hold his annoyance in. “I’m well aware submissives aren’t weak. I wouldn’t play with someone I thought was weak. Submissives give up so much to their Doms; there’s no way a submissive could be weak and make it in this lifestyle, in my opinion.” He turned up her chin to face him and then released her. “I may be new at this, but I’ve done a lot of reading and talked to Jack and Callie for hours. I will ask a question if I’m not sure about something, but I don’t expect any sub I’m playing with to talk down to me. Now would be a good time to give one of those apologies seemingly always on the tip of your tongue.”

“I’m so sorry, sir. I didn’t mean—” She stopped and took a deep breath. “I know you’re knowledgeable. I think you just inadvertently hit a nerve.”

“Tell me about that.”

Instinctively she knew he wouldn’t let the subject drop. She took another deep breath as well as a swig of water before explaining. “An old Dom I was involved with was kind of…controlling.” Ryan remained quiet, and she went on. “I mean, I know Doms are, by their nature, controlling, but he took it overboard. And anything and everything would set him off. It was a few years ago, and I was younger. I thought that’s how D/s relationships were supposed to be—he made the rules, and I was supposed to obey them or be punished.”

Lisette took another gulp of her water, and Ryan once again waited her out. “He never abused me, but his list of punishable offensives started to get ridiculous. Pretty much the only time I had relief from the constant possibility of a punishment was at work, and then he’d call me there during the day to make sure I was still following the rules. Finally a friend in the lifestyle took me aside after he’d welted me black and blue with his belt in the club for some imagined slight, and told me he wasn’t treating me right.”

Ryan cupped her face, and she noticed his long, thick fingers were trembling. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. And I’m sorry if something I said reminded you of him.” He stared into her eyes. “You’re not still in contact with him, are you?”

“No, he got banned a few months later. The owners here put out a warning to the other BDSM clubs about him. That’s one thing about this community. If you mess up, the clubs will take the time to do what they can to ensure you can’t just go somewhere else and do the same thing.”

“That’s a good safety measure. There’s so much opportunity for people to get hurt or taken advantage of.” He cleared his throat. “You finished with your water? Then let’s go watch some scenes.”

She rose and followed him. When they got closer to the public play area, he spread his legs and slotted her between them, her back to his chest. His arms came around her, and she started to lean her head on his shoulder, but he gently pushed it forward again.

“Sir?”

“I said watch the scenes, not take a nap.”

She turned to look into his face. This time he was grinning. Lisette had never met a Dom who could keep her on her toes like Ryan did. He dropped a quick kiss on her forehead.

“Eyes front.”

Lisette returned her attention to the various scenes playing out in front of her. One of Ryan’s hands crept down to the hem of her skirt, bunching it until he could steal underneath. She shifted as he leaned down close to her.

“Spread your legs, girl,” he commanded.

As soon as she did, his hand pushed inside the waistband of her panties.

“If this isn’t okay, tell me. Use your safe word.”

“I-it’s good, sir.”

“Excellent. I’ve been dreaming about your pussy. I want to taste it tonight.”

“Oh God, sir, yes. Please.”

“The image of it, all pink and wet and puffy while you played with yourself in the hotel, has been haunting me. I’ve been at least half-hard since that night.” Plunging his middle finger into her, he whispered in her ear, “I think since you’re the one responsible for this discomfort, you should do something about it.”

“Yes, sir, whatever you want.”

“What an offer. We’ll talk more about that later.” Another finger pushed in, and he began to thrust them in and out. “You’ll ask permission to come. Otherwise, watch the scenes and tell me what turns you on.”

He expected her to be articulate enough to speak in complete sentences when he was torturing her like this? She’d been on edge all week, and even her vibrator and the Skype chat they’d done hadn’t begun to take the edge off.

“Talk, or I stop.”

He said it in a silky whisper, his hot breath fanning out over her ear and neck. His hard cock was nestled into the crack of her ass as he very, very slowly rolled his hips. Lisette moaned.

“Talk. I’m not telling you again. If you want to come tonight, talk.”

Lisette looked wildly around her. She spied the swing in the corner. “I like the swing.”

“Why?”

“Um, because you could really pound into me. I like rough sex. Not all the time, but especially here… Anyway, the swing is kind of cool because it’s so sturdy you can go to town. In some ways it feels like the swing is fucking me too.” Lisette shook her head. “I’m not explaining this well.”

“You’re doing fine.” He swiped over her clit. “Let’s get these panties out of the way. Pull them down to midthigh, but leave them on.”

She moaned again, and as she bent over to do his bidding, he moved with her, keeping his fingers buried in her and pushing his erection into the cleft of her ass.

“Is this far enough?”

Her voice was low and husky, and she prayed for control. It had been a while since she’d played with a Dom, and she was out of practice. Coming to the club last weekend had been her attempt to put that asshole Master Taz behind her and try BDSM again, and she was glad she’d forced herself to get out of the house rather than eating Twizzlers in the dark all night.

Chapter Four

“We’ll see what we can do about the swing. What else do you like here?”

While he was using all his energy to drive her to distraction, her muddled brain was trying to figure out what he’d feel comfortable doing, so she didn’t answer right away. His hand stopped. “No, please, sir.”

“You’re thinking again. Why is this hard?”

“I’m not sure what you know how to do, sir.”

“Why does that matter?”

Lisette chanced another look at him. “I don’t want to make you feel like you need to do or be something you’re not.”

Ryan stared down at her. “I don’t. I’m trying to get a read on you. Don’t worry about what I like or want. I’m asking about you, not me.”

“Yes, sir. I understand.”

“Good.”

The marauding fingers resumed, and Lisette fought through the mire of lust to give him an answer. “I like the stocks. I can’t be in them for a long time; probably no more than half an hour, maybe forty-five minutes, but for some reason, I like them.”

“Why do you think that is?”

What was he, a damn psychologist? She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, figuring he’d see it and stop touching her again. His thumb swiped over her clit once, then again. “I like how exposed I feel. Like you can do whatever you want. The spanking bench and several of the other pieces of furniture provide the same ability for you, I guess, but it turns me on to be shackled in the stocks for your pleasure.”

“Jack has a set of stocks and a fucking machine. He punishes Callie by putting her in the stocks and then using the machine in her ass with a big dildo. He said it’s a completely impersonal way of punishing her, and she hates it. I imagine it’s very effective, though.”

“It sounds like it would be, sir. Most subs hate impersonal forms of punishment.”

“By the way, Jack gave me leave to tell you about anything he and Callie do, just so you’re aware that I’m not divulging private information without permission. He thought it might pave the way for some discussions between us.”

“I think you’re doing fine on your own, sir.”

He chuckled. “Why, thank you.”

Ryan shifted and, with his other hand, tapped on her pucker. Lisette figured this was the most intimate hug she’d ever had, as he’d trapped her in the circle of his arms, just like last week.

“Do you like that?”

“The tapping, sir?”

“The tapping, being played with there, being fucked there…”

“Yes, sir. I actually really like it.” Lisette ducked her head.

“Hey, there’s no shame in telling me what you want. Whether or not I’ll give it to you is another matter, but I need you to be completely honest with me. Much as I’d like to be, I’m not a mind reader.”

“I’ll try. It’s been a while, sir.”