Dom Wars Round Two (9 page)

I gave him my best smug look.
"Yes, it is, Mr. Bane."

Danielle giggled then went on,
"And she is correct. Okay. Labrador retrievers were originally bred to retrieve fishing nets."

"
True." Again we both blurted.

"
I think Lucian got that one. And he is correct." She put the card behind the deck. "Ancient Olympic athletes competed nude."

"
True," he blurted faster than I could.

"
Very good. Lucian has tied the challenge. The 'dark side of the Moon' is the same as the 'far side of the Moon'."

"
False!" I yelled first. "The dark side is the side not currently lit and the far side never faces Earth."

Danielle whistled then gave one of her astonished laughs.
"That is correct! Tara is one up. Okay number eight. Franklin Roosevelt is one of the presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore."

"
False," I blurted.  "The four presidents are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt."

"
And Tara leads by two. The Red Sea gets its name from a slaughter that occurred there during Biblical times."

"
False!" Lucian managed a split second ahead of me. "The water is normally an intense blue-green, but occasionally turns reddish brown due to dying algae."

"
Tara, if he gets this last one, he'll tie the score. Horses have three gaits, walk, trot and gallop."

"
False." He gave a broad grin and without skipping a beat, followed with the correct answer. "They also lope or canter, and have various versions of a jog, running walk, pace and several others"

Danielle clapped
like a bratty child. "You both did great! Now with a tied score, we move into a bonus round. If you answer correctly, you receive the point, but if you give the wrong answer, your opponent gets the point for that question. Ready?"

We both nodded.

"Tara, what are Lucian's religious beliefs?"

Ugh. Shit.
I sidled a glance his way, trying to think of a catchall kind of religion. "I'd have to guess… Catholic."

"
That's correct!" Giggle, giggle. "And Lucian? What are Tara's religious beliefs?"

Lucian assessed me like the answer might be written in my posture.
"I'd have to go with… Amish."

The joy
I should have been experiencing with his wrong answer never came. I was too busy being pissed that he'd say something so ridiculous, no, that he would act as though I displayed traits anything remotely close to
Amish
. "You're full of shit."

He grinned.
"You were pretty frigid when I met you, love."

I turned to him and placed my elbow on the table and twirled my hair.
"Because I didn't bend over and let you lick my ass in the first five minutes? I should have said fundamentalist Mormon for you, Mr. Sub addict."

Laughter erupted and the reminder that we had an audience burned my cheeks.
"Tara won by two points," Danielle sang. "And the right to Dom in the next segment."

Danielle
's tone made me nervous about the next challenge. I hated Tara Domming in these stupid things. She'd never believe it, but it had nothing to do with wanting to control her. I just wanted to control her environment to keep her safe. And if that meant controlling her as well, then whatever. Especially since she was so fucking intent on proving herself capable in areas she had no clue about.

I followed Danielle and the ever-rigid Grimes. Every time I saw him, he reminded me more of a secret agent wannabe. The pair emphasized my sense of being trapped in a cheesy seventies porn flick.
And every pitifully contrived scenario, a.k.a. challenge, made the feeling worse. It was hard to believe the company couldn't afford a better, at least believable, presentation for this gig. Combining anything BDSM with real life was a bad enough challenge, but their efforts reminded me of dry fucking. Careless preparation.

On the other hand, their public face was opulence overload.

We entered a dank room where the next challenge loomed. My heart jumped into overdrive. A huge glass rectangle filled with water sat on end. The oversized version of a child's swing seat suspended over the tank with chains had a major bad effect on me. Water and chains didn't go together in my mind. Not at all. Not. At. All. And a poorly lit, damp-smelling room didn't help.

My body began to panic ahead of me, pacing me back and forth
. I held my head in both hands and Tara intercepted my pacing. "You okay?" 

"
No, I'm not. I don't want to do this."

"
They haven't even said—"

I shot my hand toward the tank.
"It's kind of fucking obvious."

She put her hand on my shoulder and rubbed.
"Stop freaking out. Calm down."

"
Okay," Danielle interrupted. "This phase of today's challenge is all about reading and trusting your partner's body language. In any meaningful interaction, we must be aware, not only of our partner's words, but of what they say with their body. In a romantic relationship, this is doubly important, but it's especially vital in the BDSM world. Your knowledge of, and your ability to accurately interpret your partner's non-verbal communications can be the key to incomparable pleasure. Or it can help you take the next step in becoming fully committed to one another. And the lack can lead directly to failure."

She pointed to the rectangular nightmare.
"One of you will be chained to that seat and submerged into the water. The other person will try to decipher the code to the combination that will un-lock the chains in the tank." She walked over to the platform that held the tank of death and pointed to a red button next to the lock. "This is a panic button. There's one on both sides. Either of you can hit it at any time and it will release the partner in the water, but doing so will forfeit your points for this segment. You will complete this challenge three times, and each time, we will add a handicap to make it more difficult. This challenge is worth a whopping one thousand possible points. Two hundred for the first, three hundred for the second and five hundred for the final. However… if the Dom doesn't go in the tank, only half of the points are available to be awarded." She clasped her hands together and looked at both of us. "So. Who's going into the water?"

"
I am."

We
'd answered at the same time and I whirled to face Tara. "Not you! No fucking way. I can hold my breath longer. And I thought you were scared of small spaces?"

"
That's
not
small. And you're afraid of water."

"
Was. Not anymore. I overcame."

"
Did you?"

"
Yes. I did. Aqua-man?"

She pursed her lips and looked to the right
at that little invisible man over my shoulder.

"
Look." I decided to try common sense. "You can't hold your breath as long as I can. Plus you're good with puzzles." I grabbed her shoulders and made her look at me. "You said you'd let me Dom next time."

She stared back at me but I didn
't get the look in her eyes. Was that pity? For fucking what? "I know I did." She crossed her arms. "But…I can hold my breath long enough for you to do this. And we need the points."

Fucking points. Of course. Anything for that.
"Fine. Go in the fucking tank. First sign of struggle and I'm hitting the panic button."

"
It's a deal." She turn and raised her hand. "I'm going in the tank."

"
Fuck," I whispered, pacing again.

Five minutes later, I watched them lower her into the water, chained to the seat. I took several deep breaths, calming myself, waiting for the
go,
praying I didn't vomit. God, I hated this. Anything but this.

"
Go!"

I ran to the tank and started deciphering the clues. Six plus three
:
nine.
Minus two:
seven.
Times four:
twenty-eight.
Divided by four:
seven
. Turn right.

I turned the combination then read the next. Sixteen minus five
:
eleven.
Plus ten:
twenty-one.
Times two:
forty-two.
Divided by seven:
six.
Turn left.

My hands trembled as I turned it then glanced at Tara. She nodded to me and I hurried t
hrough the last math puzzle then quickly turned it right.

T
he lock disengaged and a siren blared that nearly stopped my fucking heart while Tara swam to the top. Her gasp told me she was out of fucking air. Danielle whooped like a hyena on a fresh carcass and I fought the urge to let her see just how badly I craved to kill her.

"
Round one accomplished! Award America's favorite couple two hundred points! Now, for the three hundred."

"
Doesn't she get a ten minute break?" I spun to Danielle, pissed. Tara needed to recover.

"
Five, actually." She winced, doing a piss poor job of looking sympathetic. More like ecstatic.

"
I'm fine, Lucian. I had air left." Tara barely managed the gaspy words.

"
Two seconds' worth? If you struggle, I'm hitting that button."

"
Just…" she fought to catch her breath, "focus on the lock."

"
I'll focus on what's important!" Like you goddamn should.

"
Okay, fine. Do what you have to. But don't panic on me. I need these points!"

"
You need the points." I nodded, pacing again. "Trust me I know how much you
need
the points." Goddamn points. I wished all over again I'd been able to convince her to walk away that day while we waited for auditions. But that wish was a double-edged sword. If she had left, I wouldn't have had the chance to get to know her, wouldn't have fallen in love with her.
That
made it all worthwhile. I hoped!

"
Are we ready?"

"
I'm ready," Tara said.

"
They're raising the seat, just fasten yourself in again the way you did the first time."

"
Got it."

"
Now this time, we're going to handicap both of you. Tara will be blindfolded. She will be forced to blindly trust in Lucian's competence, both in reading her and in deciphering the puzzle. Lucian you will have to write the problem out as you work it. Eye-hand coordination and speed. This adds another dimension to the body language puzzle, makes it more difficult to interpret, and forces you to rely more heavily on intuition and your prior knowledge of your partner." Grimes handed a small pad of paper and a pencil to me. "Okay, are you ready?"

I nodded, looking up at Tara.
"How are you feeling?"

S
he smiled. "I'm good, I'm fine. Perfectly fine. We've got this." The way she whisked the words wasn't very convincing.

It suddenly occurred to me that maybe the blindfold gave her a small space feeling.
"What about the blindfold?"

"
It's fine. I'm fine."

She was so fucking lying. I could hear it, see it in the tension that held every line of her body rigid.

"And go!"

She took a huge breath and t
hey lowered her into the water. I decided to work all the numbers first on the paper then turn the combination last. I glanced at Tara between every problem and finally got to the last fucking one then hurried and turned the combination. My peripheral vision caught the bubbles escaping her as I spun it to the final number and jumped back when the siren erupted and the lock released.

Tara swam to the top and the sound of her desperately sucking down air infuriated me. She was seconds away from no air. From drowning.

I grabbed my head and clenched my eyes. So fucking stupid. All of it. I didn't want to do it again.

"
I'm fine," she kept saying not long after she surfaced. No big deal.

Lies, lies, lies. So obvious in her trembling voice.

"You get a seven minute break. Then the final challenge." Danielle strutted near the tank, looking up. "One final handicap will be added. In addition to being blindfolded, you'll have your hands bound behind your back. You'll have to be ready to use your foot to press the panic button. It may not seem like much of an added handicap, but according to the panel of professionals that helped devise these challenges, having the hands bound is a psychological challenge that puts a strain on the physical. You'll have to trust Lucian and his abilities far more deeply than before."

H
er high heels
thunk
ed hollowly on the plywood platform under the tank as she stepped down and approached me with a voracious smile. "As for Lucian, he'll once again write his problems out, but he'll do it with his left hand. The seconds that will add should be just enough to make it… well, challenging." She sang the last words reminding me of a demonic Barbie.

"
Okay, are we ready? This last segment is worth up to five hundred points." She glanced over her shoulder and called out, "Tara, can you handle this one?"

"
I can. I can do this." It was a psych speech and she'd likely been having it since we'd begun. And the tone in her voice said quite the opposite. She couldn't, she couldn't do this. But of course she fucking would anyway.

I shook my head, needing air
, needing a break.

"
Okay, break time is up," Danielle said.

The assistant came up to me and tied my right arm to my body. I
'd never wanted to deck someone so badly. The second assistant tied Tara's hands behind her back and put her blindfold back in place.

Danielle raised her hand.
"On your mark. Get set. Go."

Ten seconds in and I saw that w
riting with my left hand while having a fucking panic attack wasn't working out. By the time I got to the second number, bubbles were escaping her mouth. I couldn't stop looking at her while trying to write. Then five plus three times two minus seven was suddenly rocket science and my mind drew a blank. More bubbles escaped and I slammed my hand on the panic button and the chair she was on raced upward out of the water.

She came out sputtering and coughing and I ran up the ladder nearly knocking the assistant off.
"I got you. Unlock this," I yelled.

"
Why'd you press it? I was fine!" she wheezed.

"
I fucked up one of the problems, I had no choice."

"
Goddammit," she cried then coughed some more.

"
Get the fuck over it."

"
What?" She blinked water out of her eyes, looking half drowned. "Is that all you have to say? Get the fuck over it?" She let the assistant help her out of the tank, sounding like she'd never get enough air in her lungs. "That's real helpful. Real helpful."

I made my way down the steps.
"You're welcome, love."

"
Awww, well, you did score five hundred points." Danielle patted my shoulder then looked at Tara who made her way over, swim shoes sloshing wet on the floor, hair sticking up on the right like a bird wing. "Don't hold it against him love," Danielle cooed, "you have tonight to make it up. You get to Dom. Let's hope you know what to do with this." She cupped my cock in her hand and I froze. 

Tara reminded me of a little locomotive with no brakes as she approached and ran into
Danielle with both her palms. "How about you quit fondling the game pieces, bitch."

Dear God. Her jealousy acted like a mega blowjob and hardened my cock instantly. Of course
she would see that and attribute my hard-on to me being hot for Danielle. Just what I needed, another confrontation to shoot down. Seemed they were cropping up faster than ever. Was it me, or did it seem the harder I tried with her, the harder she became to convince?