She looked to him again; the angry glare was gone. His cock twitched as he listened to her deepening breaths. Slowly, he lifted his hand, giving her the chance to move away, but again she stayed put. He gripped her arm, pressed his body against hers, and she leaned in to him, probably not even realizing she’d done so.
Held captive by her mouth, he traced a thumb over her cheek. Yeah, darlin’, a kiss would be nice, wouldn’t it? “Now tell me again what you just said when I asked why you don’t play.”
Silence greeted him.
Her eyes were dark, deliciously aroused. He would bet money her lower lips were as puffy, red, and wet as the ones on her face. Leaning down, he brought his mouth close to hers, letting her feel the touch of a Dominant, and allowing her to experience the nearness of a commanding man.
“You lie to yourself, beautiful.” He dragged his finger over her bottom lip, hearing the hitching of her breath. “I smell your need. I feel that your lush body is ready and willing.” Dropping his hand from her chin, he stepped back, and watched her brace her hands on the island.
Intrigue and burning attraction had him reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a card from his wallet. “I hold a BDSM play party every two weeks at Dmitri’s casino.” Which was a gathering of kinky people who didn’t want to attend clubs, public or otherwise. “We have one scheduled for tomorrow night at eight o’clock. This card will give you access.”
He offered her the card, but she didn’t accept it, so he placed it on the counter. “I promise that you would be comfortable there. Everyone is around our age, and all are looking for exactly what we want. A fun, private party to explore our sexual lifestyle.” Pulled by the electricity between them, he moved closer. “I want to play with you, Mary.” He brushed his lips across her cheek, relishing
her shiver while he whispered in her ear, “Stop lying to yourself, so that I can.”
Chapter Two
A little after eight o’clock the following night, Mary’s gaze scanned over the living room, admiring the grand piano in Aces casino’s presidential suite. All day she contemplated attending Elliott’s BDSM play party. It was during her long after-dinner walk last night that she decided Elliott had freed a dormant side of her. His offer was too tempting to ignore.
The submissive within yearned for one night of blistering-hot sex under the hands of a Dominant. Though when she had arrived in the suite, Elliott was nowhere in sight and disappointment had slid through her. Last night, he made her feel alive with sensation. He reminded her of the woman she once was—sexual, sensual, and seductive. Maybe she had forgotten how good it felt to be touched and commanded by a Dominant. She hungered to remember.
Mary observed the French doors, with views of the north and south side of the Las Vegas strip. The luxurious atmosphere provided the ideal, impressive location for the private play party, she thought.
Wearing a corset and lacy underwear, she sipped her wine, swallowing the woodsy taste. She liked the Victorian furniture Aces had used to decorate the room, even though now it was intermingled with BDSM stations set up throughout. Under the assault of the images filling her gaze, her knees weakened and her skin flushed.
The sounds of floggers slapping against skin and bodies rubbing together in sexual embrace made her stomach clench. This she had missed. And her body simmered in the hottest desire as she was being pulled back into a lifestyle she had loved. She took another sip of wine, and as the cool liquid touched her tongue, she embraced the memory of her introduction to BDSM.
In the dark BDSM club with the hard-rock music blasting through the speakers, Charles ran a finger down Mary’s arm, whispering in her ear, “Does it arouse you to know I could do any of this to you? Put you on any of this equipment.” He pressed his warm, masculine body against her back. “Bind you. Swat your sexy ass.” His voice lowered as he squeezed her bottom. “Fuck you like the woman you are watching now.”
Mary stared at the spanking bench with a woman bound to it, receiving an intense moment of lovemaking. The man behind her pounded into the woman with hard, unforgiving thrusts. She shivered. “Yes, it all turns me on.”
Charles’s low chuckle brushed across her ear. “Welcome to BDSM, sweetheart.”
Mary blinked out of the memory, wishing she was back in that time when Charles first took her to his old BDSM club, Chains. A public club that still existed in Vegas, but one Mary would never dare step foot into—not without Charles.
She’d driven by the club every once in a while and it still looked the same, except for a new sign that glowed in the night. Though even if the building hadn’t changed much, she had. She wasn’t the same daring, sexually charged woman she’d once been.
Last night, with Elliott, something had changed inside of her. Almost as if she was a newbie entering the lifestyle all over again. Feeling exactly what she had when she met Charles—a little lost and searching for something, even if she didn’t know exactly what that something was.
All she knew was that she was pulled to Elliott in a way that she couldn’t disregard. He had taken her craving to play again, a desire that was just simple thoughts, and turned it into yearnings. How he touched her, and saw the submissive within, left Mary wanting to be freed again.
Since the age of twenty, she’d lived the BDSM lifestyle with Charles, knowing that being a submissive was what made her happy. When Charles died, she went a hundred percent vanilla, even completely abstinent, becoming a different person.
When they had their children, their playtime at the club had taken a backseat until the kids were a little older and more independent. They mostly played at home in the privacy of their bedroom, until the kids were old enough for a babysitter, which allowed them to play for an evening out on the weekends. Returning to Chains was like they were starting all over again. It was fresh, new, and exciting. Those first few years back into the scene had been thrilling. While her desire to love someone again did not exist, she craved the excitement of sex.
With the kids older now and living on their own, she knew she needed to find a life without them. Her daughter, Cassie, was in New York, acting in a Broadway show. Her youngest son, Christian, was traveling the world with his girlfriend, and her oldest son, Calvin, was at Harvard, studying business.
Of course, she had her sister, Jennifer, who lived ten minutes away, and her friends she met for dinner every month, though none of them knew her true self: the submissive that lay within. They’d never met the woman that Elliott had seen last night. One whom Mary wanted to remember herself.
Those reasons brought her to the party tonight.
She moved away from the door and walked toward a flogging scene and then leaned against the wall, trying to focus on the evening ahead, not on her past and Charles. Missing him never stopped, never got easier, but it was time to see to her needs.
The blond woman in the scene was restrained to the chair. Her chest rested against the back as she knelt on the seat. Ropes were wrapped around her wrists and ankles. Her upper back and bottom were perfectly positioned for her Dom’s flogging, and he was coloring them a bright shade of red. The Dom’s physique appeared to be that of a much younger man; he wore black dress pants and nothing else. Obviously he was very studied in his craft as he professionally worked his sub’s body.
The man’s body was a bit too skinny for Mary’s liking, and to her surprise as he turned, she could see that his chest hair was salt-and-pepper, which was oddly comforting. She was beginning to feel a little more relaxed among the crowd—nothing turned off her libido more quickly than being in a club surrounded by people young enough to be her children.
She glanced around at the group of people also watching the scene. A nude woman was on her knees, sucking and playing with the cock of her Dom as he watched the flogging. Another woman sat on her Dom’s lap, leaning back as she rode him with her bare breasts bouncing wildly, as they, too, watched the couple onstage.