Chapter 9

Easton

I don't remember when I've had this much fun with a woman. I even managed to keep our day together as vanilla as possible after the intense way I basically claimed Faye like some kind of wolf shifter against my car.

That's basically how I feel. Like an animal following some ritualistic pheromones or some shit. She's like a drug.

While we were at the Olympic Sculpture Park, she loosened up. I caught her smiling genuinely several times. She's a curious sponge and wanted to read about each sculpture as we passed them. I finally had to drag her back to the car with promises that we would come again soon and see more.

I think part of the reason she didn't want to leave was because she was nervous about my shopping plans—and rightfully so—because the next place we went was an upscale fetish shop called Kink Outfitters. I know the owner, Barbara, and I texted her ahead to let her know I was bringing in someone important to me, warning her that Faye was also as green as they come so she would be prepared.

Barbara understood perfectly and was very lowkey and helpful. I sat on the loveseat outside the fitting rooms and let Barbara do her thing. It was difficult because I really would have preferred dressing and undressing Faye myself, but we're not there yet by any stretch.

In addition, the two women ganged up on me and decided I wouldn't even get a single glimpse of what they chose. That frustrated me. I really, really wanted Faye to come out and let me see what she was trying on, but she refused, and Barbara supported her.

When we left the shop with a sealed black bag in the back seat of my car, we went to an early dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant. I gave Faye the name of the place when we got in the car. After listening to what she'd gone through last night deciding what to eat this morning at The Grind, I realized she would be more comfortable upon arrival if she made her selection while still in the car.

I enjoyed glancing at her while she perused the online menu, noting how she chewed on the bottom corner of her lip, contemplating what she would order as if she were choosing a tattoo that would be permanently inked on her skin.

My next thought was even more disturbing. My Dom decided there was no way I would ever permit Faye to get a tattoo. I haven't even seen most of her body yet, but I'm confident she doesn't have any tattoos, and she's never getting one.

I know I'm a strong Dom. I've known it for many years. I don't usually surprise myself, but the level of control I feel like I want to have over this woman is far beyond anything I've ever experienced with any prior submissive. I've never even had a long-term girlfriend I felt this possessive of.

It's scary as fuck because I don't have permission to dominate Faye like I crave. She isn't educated enough in the kink world to turn that kind of power over to me. And then there's the fact that I've been single for only three weeks. I have no business jumping into another relationship of any sort, let alone one that's as deep as this one is portending to be.

I did not take Faye back to her place after dinner, even though she made that request. I didn't tell her why because I didn't want to freak her out further, but the truth is I was afraid if we went into her apartment, we would not make it to the club.

I don't absolutely have to be at Edge tonight. I could have called Drake and told him I wouldn't be there. We have plenty of employees, and we sometimes manage without both of us there.

I've made a promise to myself, and I intend to keep it. I will keep my pants on tonight. Lord knows I want to be inside Faye more than I've ever wanted to be inside anyone. But it's too soon. I'm bombarding her with far too much. I won't also claim her virginity while she's dealing with understanding her submission.

I have no right to take that from her. It would be a bastard move. It's mindboggling that she's gone thirty-one years without having sex, and I will not be a cocky asshole about it. Faye deserves to be in a more committed relationship before she lets a man get that close to her pussy.

I'm not sure I have the willpower to never touch her, and I certainly don't have thoughts of entering a committed relationship with any woman. Nevertheless, it's likely I will eventually claim every inch of her, but not tonight.

We arrive at Edge at six-thirty, and Faye becomes quiet and fidgety as I help her out of the car. I grab the bag from the back seat and lead her inside. The first floor is silent at this time. Employees will start arriving at seven, but even Drake isn't here this early.

I lead Faye up to the second floor, hesitate, and then take her hand and turn toward the door leading to the third floor. I type my code into the keypad to disengage the lock and open the door on the landing before guiding her up another flight. We have an elevator, but I rarely use it. I'm glad we installed it, though, because it comes in handy when we need to move equipment to the third floor.

"What's on the third floor?" she asks.

"Our highest-tiered membership is for the third floor," I explain. "You'll see."

"There's another membership level above the one for five hundred dollars a month?"

"Yep." I don't elaborate. I would blow her mind.

I pause at the third-floor office I share with Drake. "Drake and I often sit in here when the club is open."

"Wow. That's a lot of monitors. How can you possibly watch them all at once?" she asks as she steps inside.

"We have another room with the same monitors downstairs and several employees who watch them closely."

She looks around at each of them. They're on, but there's no one in the building besides us, so nothing interesting is happening.

"Come." I give her hand a tug and nod over my shoulder. "Let me show you my private space."

She silently follows me out of the office and into my private play space.

I release her hand as she wanders in. As I shut and lock the door behind me, I realize bringing her here is not better than if I had brought her to her apartment. We're alone. Hell, we're alone no matter where we go in the club, but in this particular space, we're extremely alone.

Faye crosses her arms as she slowly moves around the room. "This is yours?"

"Yes. Each top-tiered member has their own little studio apartment like this on the third floor. They can bring a guest up here anytime they want. No one is permitted to live here, but they can stay overnight if they don't abuse the privilege. It's not meant to be a place to live. Each apartment has a mini fridge, a microwave, a bed, and an attached bathroom, but it's not meant to be someone's home. It's not an issue. No one who can afford the membership for this floor is hurting for rent money."

"I don't think I even want to know how much that membership is," she murmurs.

Probably not. So I don't tell her.

"You bring women here and dominate them?" She steps closer to my spanking bench, but as she trails her fingers over it, her gaze is on the king-sized bed that is covered with black satin sheets and a silky black comforter. It has four posts, and each post has various rings at different heights so I can restrain a submissive.

"Yes." I watch her draw in a breath. "Don't get me wrong. I don't bring women here every night or anything. The only person who's been in this room in almost a year was Bethany, my ex, and that didn't happen often as our relationship came to an end because we didn't see eye-to-eye with regard to her submission."

Faye turns toward me. "What does that mean?"

I clear my throat. Faye deserves to know the answer to anything she wants to ask. I need to be an open book. "Bethany wanted to submit to me on a deeper level than I was willing to give her. We couldn't agree. We argued about it often. I rarely brought her to this room as things went south between us. Hell, I rarely brought her to the club at all for the past two months. I didn't want to fight."

Faye stares at me. "She wanted to submit to you deeper than you were willing? I'm not following. You seem pretty Dominant to me."

"She wanted me to hurt her," I explain.

Faye blinks.

"I wouldn't do it. I've never hurt a submissive in my life. I won't even spank someone without their skin bare so I can monitor how the impact from my palm is affecting them."

"I can't grasp that," Faye whispers. "Someone wanting more than that, I mean."

"To be honest, I can't either. It's not entirely uncommon for people to do a scene on the second floor that involves breaking the skin. They have to request permission, and Drake and I are careful about who we grant that permission to, but sometimes people like to be struck so hard they bleed or end up with deep bruises. It's just not my kink."

Faye shudders before hugging herself. "Well, that's good to know."

I stay where I am near the door. I haven't moved since we entered the room. I don't want her to feel threatened. "Nothing will happen between us that we don't negotiate first, Faye. It will seem like all we ever do is negotiate for a while because every time we do something new, we'll discuss it ahead of time. Once we're in an active scene, I will never introduce something that we have not discussed. You have my word. Not even if you ask me. When you're submitting to me, it is not the time to change the rules. You can't consent while you're in that headspace."

"Okay."

I wander to the loveseat and sit on one end. "Will you sit with me?"

She joins me, unfolding her arms as she sits so she can rub her palms on her thighs.

Fuck, but she has me by the balls. I'm so out of my element I barely recognize myself. If any other woman on earth stepped into my line of sight with this much obvious innocence, I wouldn't even glance at them. What is it about this one?

I lean back and cross one leg over the other, trying to appear far more relaxed than I feel. It's not that I lack confidence. It's that I want to grab her, arrange her straddling my lap, and kiss her senseless while she rubs her pussy against my cock until she comes in her jeans.

I don't think Faye would appreciate that.

"What's in the bag?" I tease, nodding toward where I dropped our purchases from the fetish shop over by the door.

She shakes her head and giggles. "You'll have to wait and see."

"How long will I have to wait?"

She shrugs. "I don't know."

"Is it something you can comfortably wear on the second floor in front of other people tonight?"

She shrugs again. "I don't think Barbara had anything in stock I could comfortably wear even in private, but I'm going to do it anyway. It will be out of my comfort zone, but it covers all the important stuff. Plus, I've been out of my comfort zone from the moment I stepped into Edge for your class two weeks ago."

I smile. "You seem more relaxed with me after spending the day with me."

"I am." And yet, she's sitting rigidly on the edge of the cushion, spine straight, hands rubbing her thighs. She looks like she's about to have a tooth extracted, but it's an improvement over looking like she's about to have all her teeth removed.

I'm going to get right to the point. "Asher said he thought you would enjoy being exposed to other people."

She swallows. "He said that to me, too. I had trouble sleeping last night because I couldn't get his words out of my head."

"And here I thought you had trouble sleeping because you were nervous about our date this morning."

"That, too."

"I only watched you observe one scene, but if you reacted to all of the scenes that way, he might be right. What comes to mind when you think of other people seeing you naked?"

"It's the craziest notion. The only person who isn't a doctor who has ever seen any part of me naked is Barbara a few hours ago."

My cock stiffens at the reminder. "And yet, the idea is titillating."

She licks those pretty lips. I love it when she does that. "I don't know. I think it's maybe in combination with the submission. It's not that I want to take my clothes off while people watch, it's that…" She chews on her lip, thinking or unwilling to continue because the next words freak her out.

I fill in the blank for her. "It's the idea of being forced to do so. Having a Dom order you to strip or taking away your ability to protest because you're hands aren't even free."

She shudders and looks away.

I uncross my leg and drop it to the floor before leaning forward. "Look at me, baby."

She shifts her gaze to mine, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth.

"It's not uncommon. There's no reason to be embarrassed. Lots of people like to be dominated in that way."

"I'm not lots of people," she murmurs.

You certainly are not. "You're human. Most people would find themselves somewhere on the kink spectrum if they would loosen up, educate themselves, and open their minds. It's invigorating imagining yourself letting me be in control."

"What if I see one of the members at my grocery store or, God forbid, my office? I would die."

"What happens inside a kink club stays inside a kink club. It's a cardinal rule. If you see someone you know from Edge out in vanilla society, you walk right on by and pretend you don't know them. They will, too. It's common courtesy. If you want to discuss it with them later, do so when you see them again here. Establish a firm boundary."

"I don't know if I'm ready for people to see me naked. It's so farfetched I can't believe we're discussing it."

"Then we won't take that step tonight. It's off the table. How about if you put that outfit on, and we'll do a practice scene right here." I nod toward the bench in the middle of the room.

She glances toward the corners of the room. "Are there cameras?"

"No. There are no cameras on this floor, nor in any of the private rooms on the second floor, the bathrooms, or the locker rooms—just the main play area."

"Are you going to strap me down?" she asks, her voice shaking.

"If that's what you want. We're negotiating every detail now. There will be no surprises when we start the scene."

"It seems like it would be boring if I knew everything you were going to do."

I chuckle. "In the future, not anytime soon, mind you, but when you're more established, that can be something we negotiate—whether you want me to surprise you or shock you. I can't know what would cross the line for you yet, and neither can you."

She nods. "So I change into that outfit, and then what?"

"Then we take things slow. I'll restrain you and see how you feel. I'll bare your bottom and see how you feel. I'll swat you and check in again. One step at a time. You have to communicate with me, and you have to be truthful always. If I ever find out you lied to me or said what you thought I wanted to hear, I will discipline you in a way you will not enjoy."

She flinches. "What way is that?"

"Orgasm denial is always an excellent punishment."

Her eyes go wide. "I don't understand."

"You will if you lie to me." I lift a brow.

She shivers. It's so fucking sexy.

"Are you ready?"

"I guess."

I rise and head for the door to grab the bag. When I return, before handing it to her, I say, "You need a safeword. Have you thought about one?"

"Liver." She makes a gagging face.

I smile. "I take it you don't like liver."

"It's gross."

"You thought this through, didn't you?"

"Yes. I think everything through," she admits proudly.

I'm sure she does. I've seen evidence of it many times today. She wouldn't be here with me now if she hadn't already decided she would accept this invitation long before I offered.

I like knowing she thought about me dominating her and was hoping I would ask. "Go change, baby." I hand her the bag and point toward the bathroom.

She stands, but she looks more pale than usual as she takes the shopping bag from me and heads for the bathroom.

I drop back onto the loveseat and run my hands through my hair. I can't believe I've spent the day with Faye. It's even harder to believe we've ended up here in my club, and she's about to submit to me.

I stare at the bathroom door. I'm certain she will be a while. She likes to think things through. If she's not feeling it, she will come back out in her street clothes. And I have to be okay with that.

What if she can't let herself relax and submit to me? Dominating her is my life force now. On the other hand, we had an amazing day together, and I only dominated her in subtle ways. I didn't want to scare her.

All I could think about was the fact that no one has touched her. I'm the first man to kiss her. That should freak me the fuck out, but it doesn't. It makes me want to wrap her up, take her home, and make her mine in every imaginable way.

I have to make sure my head is on straight. I'm not in the habit of training a submissive. I need to take things slowly and watch closely for signs of distress.

I pull out my phone and shoot off a quick text to Drake, letting him know I'm on the third floor with Faye and that I'm not certain when we will be done.

His response is quick—a thumbs-up emoji and then a laughing emoji. He's going to say, "I told you so," for the next ten years, and I'm oddly okay with that.

When the bathroom door opens, I snap my attention in that direction. Faye steps into the room, and I stop breathing.

She's wearing a slinky black negligée. I can tell from here that the material drapes around her body perfectly. Her full pert breasts are hugged by two triangles that cover them demurely while leaving nothing to the imagination. Tiny, delicate spaghetti straps hold the lingerie in place. A lace edge runs down her cleavage. The material gathers under her breasts, leaving the rest of the silk to fall down loosely below her bottom. The same lace that's between her breasts edges the bottom hem.

Faye has pulled her hair up. She had a clip in it all day, but she has gathered most of it in that clip now so that it hangs in long ringlets down her back. I love that she's barefoot. I know she isn't a fan of heels. I don't care that much about heels. I'd rather my submissive be comfortable.

"Come here, baby." My voice is off. It's low and cracks with every word.

She shuffles toward me.

"You're stunning, Faye. You take my breath away."

Her cheeks are pink, and she's biting the corner of her lower lip in that way that makes my cock harder than a rock.

"Turn around, baby."

She spins away from me, letting me see her backside. Fuck she's spectacular. Every inch of her. Her skin is creamy white with a smattering of freckles. This is the first time I'm seeing her thighs, and I desperately want to spread them and lick a line up to her pussy.

"You have no idea how gorgeous you are, Faye. Turn back around, baby."

Her hands are fisted at her sides. I'm sure she doesn't know what to do with them.

I grab two pillows from the loveseat and drop them next to each other on the floor in front of me. "Kneel for me, Faye. One knee in the center of each pillow."

I watch her closer than I've ever watched another sub in my life. I want to be absolutely certain I don't push her to do something that doesn't turn her on.

She awkwardly kneels before me just as I instructed, which leaves her knees parted wide.

"Good girl. You can sit back on your heels if it's more comfortable for you."

I wait for her to try that position, relieved when she draws in a deep breath. Her gaze is lowered. She probably learned to look down in a video, but I want her to look up. I want to see her eyes.

I've situated her close enough that I can lean my elbows on my knees and reach out and touch her if I want. I don't touch her yet. I thread my fingers together between my knees. "Clasp your hands behind your back, Faye, and lift your head. I want your eyes."

She does as she's told. She's trembling, but I'm confident she's pleased with her reaction so far.

"Good girl." I reach out and gently stroke her cheek, nearly coming in my jeans when she tips her head toward my hand.

I'm still wearing what I wore all day. In a minute, I will change so that she sees me in a different role.

"How do you feel, Faye?"

She swallows. "Good."

"When we're playing, I want you to call me Sir."

Her pretty cheeks pinken.

"Try it. How do you feel, baby?"

"Fine, Sir." She shivers.

I want to look down at the rest of her body, but I hold her gaze instead. I'll get a better look at the rest of her soon. "What are you wearing under the negligée, Faye?"

"A G-string, Sir."

"Do you like it?"

She scrunches up her nose. "I'm not sure yet, Sir. I've never worn one before. It's strange having a strap between my cheeks. Feels weird."

"Sometimes, I'll want you to wear something over your pussy. If you don't like the G-string, I'll buy you some other panties that are more comfortable, okay?"

"Yes, Sir."

"I'm going to go change now. I want you to stay in this position while I'm gone. Think about your submission and how it makes you feel."

"Yes, Sir."

When I rise, I lean over and kiss her forehead. "Good girl."