“Does that hurt?”I asked in a low voice.
We were standing a distance away from a couple who were conducting a scene on a stage in front of us. He was strapped down over a thing I had since learned was a pommel horse, and she stalked around, beautiful, masked, flicking a short whip. He flinched at every snap, then more than flinched as she lashed the backs of his thighs and arse with it.
“It hurts,” Scarlet confirmed. “And that disturbs you.”
One thing I was noticing was Doms? They seemed awfully intuitive. At least the good ones were.
“So boyfriend is enjoying being beaten like a red-headed stepchild?” Nikki asked, peering over the rim of her glass.
“He might. Pain releases masses of endorphins, and for a lot of people, that’s an incredible rush. It takes you out of your body, out of your mind, to a place that’s…transcendent,” Scarlet replied, then shrugged. “For others, it hurts the whole way through.”
“But why…?” Nikki and I swallowed back our questions, feeling like we were being intrusive.
“Why would someone do that? Because for them, it’s about a spiritual surrender. They hold nothing back from their Dom, gifting them even their pain. The rush for them comes from that submission. In their minds, they think there’s nothing they wouldn’t give their dominant, though any responsible Dom would work out limits beforehand to stop things going somewhere that it shouldn’t. We require that all participants submit a contract before they use any of our spaces, and we have experts that look them over before anyone raises even a hand to another person.”
“So you’ll do that?” All of the cheeky energy was gone out of Nikki. She was just wide-eyed and curious now. “You’ll sit down and work out what you agree or don’t agree to and—”
“Um…”
I wanted to stop her words, stop her questions. Actually, I just wanted things to stop. My brain raced now, following the woman’s gloved hand as it was raised, then jumping when it flicked and the leather cracked across the man’s skin. Was this what Tobias would want? He would never try and force me, but… Would he be longing for this the whole time? A perfect little omega strapped down before him, surrendering to his vicious alpha will as he—
“Take a breath.” Scarlet’s eyes swam into focus, staring into mine. “That’s it. Now another, and another. Now try and slow them down a bit.” My drink was plucked from my fingers, and I made a little sound of distress at that, but she just shook her head. “You don’t need something clouding your mind right now. You need a clear head. What are you worried about?”
“I…”
“You can tell me. We’ll never play together. I’ll never be your Dom. Tobias made that very clear in a phone call after you left, that no one would touch you but him and his brothers. So tell me what’s worrying you.”
“I…” The woman’s hand rose and fell, over and over, long red marks forming all across his butt, and at the sight of them, Scarlet grabbed my shoulders and turned me around, blocking the sight of them.
“You don’t want someone hurting you.”
“No, but what if—”
“No,” Scarlet said much more firmly. “You don’t want anyone hurting you, end of story. No ifs, no buts, no coconuts. That’s why it’s so important you educate yourself and hammer out a properly negotiated contract. You want to give Tobias whatever makes him happy, don’t you?”
I nodded, unable to give voice to anything, because it seemed so fucking childish to want that.
“You want to be the perfect little omega for him.”
Another nod, much slower now. She smiled then, but it was a gentle one. Well, as gentle as a six-foot amazon wearing leather could be. She shook her head slowly.
“You’ll be perfect for him, when you’ve had the time and space to work out what you want. That’s what a true Dom does—he or she provides all of the experiences their sub needs, not just indulgences for themselves in violent acts on an unsuspecting partner.”
As if summoned, Tobias appeared by our sides.
“I think you can trust me to take over the tour from here, Scarlet.”
51
“Tell me what you’re thinking.”
Not a request, not an order, his voice sounded like velvet covered steel in my ears.
“I…” I stopped where I was, not letting his hand steer me deeper into the club. I looked over my shoulder and saw that Nikki was talking with the rest of my mates and Scarlet had returned to the bar, even if she had her eyes on us. “I don’t want you to hit me.”
“Then I won’t.”
“I don’t want to be bruised or battered.”