From Sanctum With Love (Masters and Mercenaries Book 10) (15 page)

If you keep up the smart remarks, this could go from a training exercise to serious punishment.

She was so tempted to push him. If she said or did the exact wrong things, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. He would follow his instincts and then she would get what she wanted. They would both get what they wanted.

And she would have stolen something from Kai. His control. He needed it, craved it.

Kori took a deep breath and relaxed. The brattery had to stop. This was a training exercise and that was all it was. This wasn’t even for her benefit.

“Do you usually draw a crowd?” Jared’s voice drew her out of her thoughts.

They were at the back of the dungeon in a scene space known for how small it was. She turned her head to the side and sure enough, there was a crowd waiting in the background for the scene to start. She couldn’t blame them. If Kai wanted privacy, he would have used one of the closed rooms. He’d likely selected this space because it was an easy entry into normal club scenes. The shallow end of the pool, so to speak.

You’ve splashed around in the kiddie pool. You’ve waded in to your ankles with your water wings on, little girl. If you scene with me you better know how to swim.

Those words from Kai had sent her right over the edge. They’d called to her inner alpha bitch, the one who submitted to none but the strongest, most worthy of Doms.

She had to bring this scene back to where it needed to be. Calm. Patient. A little boring.

“I suspect they’re here to see you,” Kori explained, giving Jared a smile. He was staring at her ass. Hottie McHollywood was standing there staring at her big old naked ass.

“We’re here to see the hardest bottom at Sanctum go up against the nastiest sadist,” a deep voice said.

She looked back at the crowd and recognized one of the Doms she’d played with before. Several of them were standing around along with Big Tag and his wife, Jake Dean, Case Taggart, and Alex and Eve McKay. Her friends had found their way here, too. Sarah, Vince, and Mia stood to the side with Jared’s friend, Squirrel.

“Hard bottom?” Kai asked.

Shit. She’d worked hard to keep that from him. She could take a lot of pain. Her threshold was legendary, but she didn’t do the types of scenes required to make her cry. She stayed in control. Hence the nickname Hard Bottom Girl.

“I can spank her for hours and she doesn’t even blink,” a Dom named Remy said. He was a bodyguard at McKay-Taggart and a very sweet man. He was easy to play with because he never got attached to any of the subs.

“I used a cane on her once and I stopped the scene because she was going to be too sore the next day,” Mistress Jackie said, her hand on Vince’s shoulder.

The Domme was also a fun partner. She never made it sexual in public, and Kori didn’t play in private so Mistress Jackie was a safe way to find the endorphin rush she got from scenes.

Or sometimes she and Sarah took turns playing with the equipment. That was when Big Tag shook his head and complained about the “free-range subs.”

Kai was suddenly beside her, dropping down on one knee. All that golden hair flowed around him, making him look like a gorgeous lion about to bare his teeth and take a chunk out of her. “Is this true? Because I was under the impression that you took things very lightly. I believe you’ve told me on several occasions that you never get serious in a scene.”

This was one of the many reasons she’d avoided him. Lying to him here meant something to her. It was one thing to omit a few truths but another to outright lie to a Dom. She had to be honest with him. “Those scenes weren’t serious to me.”

“What would your partners call them?”

“Kai, it’s not a big deal. I have a high tolerance for pain. That’s all. It takes more for me to find subspace.”

Maybe he would leave it at that.

“We’re going to have a long talk about this later. If I find out that you’ve had issues with not properly using your safe word…well, I suspect I’m about to find out myself. Don’t use that safe word unless you need it. I’ll know from your body language.”

“Are you threatening me? Are you telling me you’ll kick me out if I don’t behave the way you think I should?” Anger welled up and she was ready to get off the bench and walk the hell away from him.

Sanctum was her safe place. It was all she had some days. All she had except for him, and if he kicked her out, she wouldn’t have either. Kai couldn’t be the one who shoved her out and yet that was his job. He was the gatekeeper. He decided who belonged here and who wasn’t ready for it.

She wasn’t sure what she would do if Kai determined her unworthy. It would be worse than before. Worse than losing her script and her career. Worse than leaving California.

His hand found her back, gently holding her down. He leaned in and she could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin. “I would never kick you out. Never, Kori. I couldn’t do that to you. But I have to make sure you’re safe. I have to make sure you’re not doing this for the wrong reasons. Tell me you get pleasure out of this.”

She was getting pleasure simply from being close to him. If she turned her head the right way, their mouths might meet and she would know what it felt like to kiss him. “I get some peace out of it.”

“So no one knows how to take care of you? Do you let them?”

He was making her emotional. She hated that, but she couldn’t hold back. Not with him. “No. I’m just looking for a little subspace, Sir. That’s all I need.”

“I doubt that very much.” His hand eased over her. “Remember what I said about the safe word. I want you to use it if you need to. If I give you too much, pull me back. I can be intense. I think I’ll be quite intense with you.”

A shiver went through her. “I’ll be fine. You’ll understand that I’m not here to hurt myself.”

“And you’ll understand what it can be like when you get what you need.”

She had to take a deep breath because that had sounded like a promise to her. Or a challenge. All she knew was she couldn’t fake her way through this. Now that Kai had questions, he would seek answers, and if he wasn’t satisfied, she would find herself on someone’s damn therapist couch revealing all her secrets.

Or she could give him this one.

She forced herself to remain still though her heart thudded in her chest.

“I’ll teach you the knots later,” Kai said. “Watch me now. It’s important to get them tight but not too tight. You want to make sure her circulation isn’t cut off. You also want to make sure that she feels bound, that she understands there’s nowhere to go. Tell him what you like about ropes.”

Kai used the word “him” referring to Jared, but she knew that man. He was asking the question for himself. Now that he had her here, he couldn’t help but poke and prod and try to figure out what made her tick. It was part of Kai’s nature. “I like the feel of them. I like the fact that they hold me here. Sometimes, when the play is good enough, I feel like I could float away, give myself up. The ropes hold me. Metaphorically, of course. I think in a lot of ways, they keep me in the moment. When I’m bound and trussed up, I’m not thinking about how crappy my day was or what I should worry about. I’m only thinking about how the rope feels against my skin, how it holds me in like arms hugging me close.”

Even as she spoke, Kai slid the length of jute over her skin, winding it around her wrist and binding her to the bench. He was a master at this. Kai didn’t do things by half measure. He mastered them as an art form or he didn’t practice it at all. He taught a Kinbaku class here at Sanctum so she was bound quickly, the tension perfect. She sighed, her body relaxing as he tied her other wrist and moved on to her ankles.

“May I touch the ropes?” Jared asked.

There was a slight hesitation before Kai answered. “Yes, but if Kori feels uncomfortable, she’ll tell you to stop.”

Jared dropped to one knee, his gorgeous face coming into view. He reached out and touched the knots Kai had tied. His fingertips played along the curve of the rope, but he seemed careful not to touch her skin. “He’s jealous.”

The words had been whispered and it seemed Kai hadn’t heard. Jared stood up again and stepped away.

Kai wasn’t jealous. Certainly not in the way Jared intimated.

“I’m going to start with a crop.”

With Kai’s words, she braced herself for what was to come. Would he turn out to be all talk and no pain? Sometimes Doms thought they were badass when they were actually softies. It all depended on the sub. So much was subjective. Sarah thought some Doms were too rough when Kori found them to be easy on a girl. She never told them. It would be rude to tear a man or woman down that way.

Kai could be like that. He could call himself a sadist, but pain was in the eye of the beholder. Or rather in the flesh of their ass.

He flicked the crop. The sound cracked through the air, but the pain flashed and then was gone.

Damn it. He was soft.

Another three flicks. She loved the sound of the smack and then the sting that came, but he was using the flat of the crop, the leather part. It made a nice sound, but the sting was fairly ho-hum. She was sure it made other subs cry and quake in fear of his awesome cropping abilities, but she would likely take a nice nap.

He continued, laying out a pattern across her backside and thighs. He did all the right things—avoided her spine and kidneys, stuck to the fleshy parts of her body.

He was like the others. He called himself a sadist, but there was no real torture to this. There was a level of comfort in that. Kai wasn’t really her dream Dom, and that was good news because she so loved having him as a friend. She could take a deep breath and know that they weren’t truly compatible. He wasn’t the man who could drag her into the life she’d sworn never to go back to.

He continued to warm her backside as she went over all the ways finding out Kai was fooling himself about his predilections worked in her favor. She wouldn’t be so tempted by him now. She could truly find a pure, platonic friendship with her boss. After this, she wouldn’t have to avoid him and hey, if it made him feel better, she would play with him from time to time. Because this was no big deal at all.

She tried to cover her yawn and heard the whispers going on a few feet away.

Maybe she should try to eek out a couple of tears to preserve his reputation. She didn’t like the thought of all those other Doms talking about him. He wouldn’t like it either.

“So this is a nice warm-up,” Kai said behind her. “I like to use this crop because it’s not particularly stingy. When I say that what I mean is I would have to use a great deal of force to provoke a pain response.”

“I thought you were trying to provoke a pain response,” Jared replied.

Like two professors. She had to stay awake. He would be humiliated if he was the Dom who put her to sleep. Not that it hadn’t happened before. Sometimes the rhythm and the sound of flogging had been known to send her right into nappy time. It was like rain on a tin roof, the sound soothing to her soul. Not doing as much for her libido, but hey, that was okay, too.

“It is the object, but with a sub I’ve never played with before, I have to gauge her reactions. Some subs have a very low tolerance for pain. Some a very high one. If I use this crop and this force and I get a reaction, I know a little more about the submissive’s limits. Do you see how her skin is already getting pink?” Kai’s hand ran over her ass.

That felt nice, but she had to admit some of his power over her was gone. His hand felt warm on her skin, but there wasn’t the edge that had been there before, the tiny hint that any moment that hand could slap at her, come down on her flesh with power.

“Yes, but she didn’t have a reaction to it,” Jared replied. “I don’t think she found it painful at all.”

“No, I suspect she found it very frustrating. Or boring. Did you find my crop boring, Kori?” He asked the question in that oh-so-deep voice he used when he was playing or someone had seriously pissed him off.

“It was very nice, Sir.” She didn’t want to piss him off. Politeness was the way to go.

A horrible crack split the air and she had to bite back a groan because that hadn’t been a boring, sedate crop. He’d brought his hand down and smacked the shit out of her bottom. It stung and then burned, sinking into her and speeding up her blood.

“I’m going to ask you again and you should note that I have eyes and saw you yawn. Did you find my crop boring?” He enunciated each word, biting them off.

“Yes.” She wasn’t afraid of him hitting her again. There were other punishments she wouldn’t enjoy and he damn well knew it. He could untie her and make her sit for the night, watching what went on around her and forced to be silent. He could put her on the damn hamster wheel and make her run all night. There were plenty of punishments even a masochist could hate.

He smacked her again, right in the same spot, the pain shooting through her like a drug. “Yes, what?”

“Sir,” she replied, breathless. “It was boring, Master Kai.”

“Better.” His hand left her. “So now we understand that what we have is an obnoxious brat who’s lied to me in the past and very likely to all of the Doms she’s played with.”

“Hey, that’s not true.” She didn’t mean to lie. She meant to spare their feelings. Wasn’t that a good thing? Even as she thought the words she realized she might be in serious trouble because the Doms of Sanctum wouldn’t view it that way. They would view her lying as a punishable offense because by lying she’d kept them from doing their jobs, from giving her what she needed.

That was a grave offense indeed.

“She totally lied to me,” a masculine voice with a thick Cajun accent replied. “I thought she was helping me learn. Guess I was the fool there.”

Shit. Remy was a friend. She hadn’t meant to make him feel bad. She’d simply wanted to hide for a bit longer. She couldn’t have what she needed. If she found that again, everything she’d worked so hard for would be threatened. Her independence. Her self-worth. She could fall right back into those old patterns of giving in simply to keep the peace. “I didn’t mean to lie.”

She felt a hand sink into her hair but it wasn’t soothing. He twisted his fingers and she felt the burn along her scalp. She hissed at the pain and felt her whole body respond to him. This was how she was wired. She knew some people would think she was a pervert, a complete freak, but god, this did it for her.