How Cassie Got Her Grind Back (34 page)

She reached out, and Samson settled her onto his large frame with surprising ease. She didn’t feel as though she dwarfed him, which was comforting.

As the men continued conversing, she shifted her hip and noticed the hard bulge at his groin and tried to move carefully so as not to make him uncomfortable. He put his arm around her, and a rumble vibrated through his solid chest as he moved beneath her in response, definitely rubbing his erection against her.

She cast a glance around them and then looked up at him, and he chuckled. “No one would fault me for enjoying your closeness more openly in here,
chiquita
. You look beautiful tonight in your black dress with your hair down around your shoulders.” He took in her appearance and stroked a lock of hair back from her cheek.

“Thank you. I know it was silly to worry.”
Heck, I’d need a whole new wardrobe just to wear at this club.
Looking around when she’d arrived, she’d noticed most of the women were much more scantily dressed than she. Even though the dress she had on had a deep V-neck that revealed most of her cleavage, it was long, completely shielding her legs.

“We’ll take one step at a time,” he murmured before threading his fingers through the hair at the back of her head and drawing her closer for a kiss. “When I arrived, Joseph was explaining the different reasons and motivations for spanking a submissive. Joseph left it to me to tell you about therapeutic spanking.”

“Therapeutic for who—the one wielding the paddle?”

“No, the receiver.”

Samson played with her fingers, stroking each of them between his, sending pleasant shivers along her spine. “I have a friend who is a surgeon. She’s highly trained in a medical sub-specialty and is in constant demand, so she has little time for a personal life and internalizes a lot of her stress. When she comes in, it’s usually for my whip, but the principle is the same, as with any kind of impact play. She needs the pain in order to achieve a release from all the stress.”

“Ivan said you’d told him about one person in particular who called on you for that purpose. So…it somehow wipes the slate clean for your friend?”

Samson nodded, obviously pleased at her understanding. “Exactly. She usually lets me know in advance when she needs to come in, and we work it out around her schedule. It’s a therapeutic thing.”

“But you’re a sadist, so you enjoy it?”

After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. “I do. She has a high pain threshold, and she appreciates what I can do for her, and in return, I find satisfaction in providing what she needs.”

“Can I ask you to elaborate? What sort of…satisfaction do you get?”

Samson took his time responding. “I respect and admire what she does and understand the strain that could build up. She trusts me to help alleviate the stress, and I’m honored that she gives me the opportunity to drain that stress off. If she didn’t have an outlet it would build up and create problems for her. I get a great deal of personal fulfillment and satisfaction out of our exchanges. Is it sexual satisfaction? No, not with her, but I won’t lie and say that sex has never played a role in scenes with other subs in the past.”

“You don’t hold my past against me and I wouldn’t hold yours against you. I just needed to know how you benefit.”

Samson stroked her chin and smiled at her. “
Chiquita
, you’re torturing yourself imagining me doing fiendish things to you and taking delight like a satyr or something. I’m the same Samson you knew before. I’m just more self-aware than I was at eighteen…and not quite as oversexed.”

I don’t know how I feel about all of this.
And then another thought occurred to her. A question she wasn’t sure she wanted an answer to. “Is the person you told me about naked when you do the things…whip her?”

He didn’t hesitate to nod, not trying to equivocate. “Clothing would interfere with the lashes. Sorry,” he added when she flinched at that word. “Up until now that’s how it’s worked.” Was he implying he’d be willing to make a change?

She couldn’t fault him for an arrangement that sounded as though it’d been in progress for a long time. “What about after care? Joseph mentioned that earlier.”

Samson chuckled and said, “After care depends on the scene, but typically, the Dom talks to the sub to determine how they’re feeling after a scene. If they reached subspace—a heavy, endorphin-laced haze—then they’d wrap the sub in a warm blanket, make sure they get something to drink and to eat if they need it. The Dom would apply soothing ointment or cream to any welts needing attention. And if they felt it was a good idea, they’d hold the sub for a time until they were sufficiently recovered to move on with the rest of their evening.”

Cassie had noticed the impersonal language he’d used to describe the scenario. “And what about the person you told me about? She’s naked, and so you’d wrap her up since I imagine you shoot her
straight
into subspace.” He chuckled as she continued. “What else?”

“She’s always been one to bounce back pretty rapidly. She’s usually very thirsty, likes a little chocolate, and mainly needs to catch her breath.”

“You don’t cuddle afterward with her?” The cuddling seemed so personal.
I don’t want to know, but I need to know
.

“She’s let me hold her, but honestly, I think she does that more for my benefit than for hers. There’s no physical attraction there, Cassie.” He looked across at Joseph, who was conversing quietly with Bunny while teasing her with the toy, and then Samson turned back to her. “I could offer to set her up with another sadist from now on, but I’d need to talk to her first and arrange the transition carefully. She has a high degree of trust in me, and I wouldn’t cut her off abruptly. What she does is a tremendous service to others, and I feel gratified in returning the favor when I help her out.”

“Can you tell me more about her? I mean I’d meet her if she ever came here, wouldn’t I?”

Attentive as always, Joseph glanced up at Samson and gave a slight nod and said, “Victoria wouldn’t want you to do anything that might put a potential full-time relationship in jeopardy.”

Samson said, “She’s a perinatologist. She saves babies who otherwise might be lost before they’re even born and mothers who have life-threatening complications during pregnancy. You could meet her the next time she comes in if you’d like.”

Cassie mulled over what he’d said and tried to hide a reaction to Bunny’s very surreptitious thumbs-up gesture and nod. She didn’t want her friend to get in trouble with her Dom or extend her clitoral torture. Finally she patted Samson’s chest and laid her cheek against his shoulder. “It seems as though you’re willing to make quite a few concessions for me in this world of yours.”

“Because I want you in it with me more than anything else related to the lifestyle.”

“I’d like to meet her, I think. You’ve given me a lot to think about. Would you mind if I excused myself to the ladies’ room?”

“No problem. It’s through that archway.” He pointed the way and said, “When you return, I’ll tell you about fantasy role play spankings.” Her expression must’ve been comical, and his laughter lightened her mood as he helped her from his lap. “Don’t be long, and no stopping to talk with strangers.”

“I’ll be fine, honey. Judging by how many people have been sneaking looks in our direction while we’ve been talking, they all know I’m here to be with you.”

“To be with me.” His eyebrows waggled, and he kissed her hand as she stood beside his chair and rubbed the top of her hand against his raspy cheek. “I like the sound of that.”

Several others entered and exited in the bathroom, but it was blessedly quite when she left her stall and stopped in front of one of the sinks. She studied her reflection in the vanity mirror and wished she were the type brave enough to wear a tiny dress like the kind Bunny was wearing. Above the waist, she could probably get away with such revealing garb. Below the waist…well, she could try, but it wouldn’t be a comfortable evening.

A woman half her age breezed in behind her, bliss on her tear-stained face as she met her gaze in the mirror, smiled, and passed by, softly saying, “Your dress is pretty.”

“Thank you,” Cassie replied. She looked over her shoulder and noticed several long stripes showing above the low back of the woman’s dress. She didn’t look as though she felt any pain, and Cassie already knew drug use was forbidden and Joseph had mentioned there was a two-drink limit.
Must be the endorphins
.

She turned back to her mirror, not desiring to be caught staring at anyone, when the pad of footsteps came up behind her.

“You’re in over your head,” a sultry voice said.

She glanced in the mirror next to hers and made eye contact with Jillian. “Am I?”

“Mmm-hmm,” Jillian murmured as she lifted her long, slim arms over her head in a languid stretch. She was stark naked and practically purring as she turned and arched this way and that, taking in what she could of the masses of red streaks covering parts of her back from shoulders to thighs. She turned the other direction to look over her shoulder, in the process showing off her perfectly formed willowy body.

“What do you mean?”

Taking in a leisurely breath and then letting it out as if she felt utterly replete, Jillian turned her gaze and tilted her head, taking in Cassie’s appearance very slowly from head to toe. “Don’t get me wrong. For a woman your age, you’re quite lovely. But you’re in over your head with Samson.” With a sweeping caress of her hand down the back side of her body, which made her hiss and gasp with pleasure, she added, “If you think this is something, you should’ve seen me after Samson had his way with me last fall. It was utterly…divine. But then again, I’m built for his world. You, with your mommy-body in a camouflaging maxi-dress…I just don’t see you lasting long on your knees or in wrist cuffs. His attentions would likely put someone soft and vanilla like you in the ER.”

The other submissive finished her business in her bathroom stall and came out quietly, glancing at Cassie and giving Jillian a wide berth as she chose a sink, washed her hands, fluffed her hair, and walked out.

Cassie had grown up in an extended family with more than its fair share of manipulative and territorial members, both men
and
women. Sometimes the women were the worst, and she recognized Jillian’s ploy for what it was, an attempt to get the competition out of the way.

“Samson is here now, and he mentioned you.”
Not a lie.

“Did he?” Jillian asked, the hint of interest carefully veiled in her husky voice as she inspected her eyeliner.

“You should definitely come and greet him…and his twin brother when he gets here.”
Also not a lie. It’s a free country.

Jillian smiled at her reflection. “Samson has a twin? How
delicious
.”

Cassie mastered the shudder that threatened at Jillian’s rapacious tone. “I’m sure Samson would be pleased to speak with you.”
Also not a lie because when I tell him what you told me he’s going to have plenty to say, you viper.

Jillian turned to look directly in her eyes, gave a playful smile, and reached out to pat her arm as if in consolation. “I’m so glad you understand. I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings. I just don’t want to see you get hurt. Samson is famous for his…horrifically
rough
edges,” she added, sliding her hands down her abdomen and over her thighs, perhaps hinting that she had knowledge of his carnal appetites as well as his sadistic ones. He would’ve told Cassie if there had ever been anything between the two of them. She knew Jillian was lying. She’d wanted to send Cassie running for the exit in tears.

I’ve been around the block a time or two, Cruella. That’s the benefit of age and perspective. Only he can make me leave.

Satisfied, Cassie nodded and looked away from the riot of stripes on Jillian’s back. Samson had told her he gave those to masochists who desired it. Maybe she could give him something he desired even more.

When Cassie exited into the hallway, Bunny came skidding around the corner on her socked feet, running to the bathroom.

“Are you all right? Shae, one of my friends here, told us that bitch was in there talking to you. What did she say?” Bunny asked in a stage whisper at Cassie tugged her down the hallway so they couldn’t be overheard.

“
Shhh
, and I’ll tell you,” Cassie replied in a whisper. “I hope I haven’t royally fucked up.”

A minute later, after Cassie had explained what she’d told Jillian, Bunny was gaping at her with merriment dancing in her bright turquoise-blue eyes. “You are the
shit
, Cassie! You’d better go and tell Samson everything. Ivan texted to let Samson know he’s on his way over right now. This is gonna be epic!”

Either that or my ass is going to be in a sling.

Cassie touched Bunny’s arm and said, “Did you have permission to come and check on me? I don’t want you to get in more trouble.”

Bunny snorted with laughter. “Trouble?”

“Joseph was torturing you earlier. I didn’t want to make the torture worse or for you to be in trouble. I mean I assume you had to have permission to come and check on me and tell me Ivan was coming since he’d made you be quiet.”