For the Night, page 15
As if on cue, Camden and Noa let out soft giggles, and Noa even pretended to have wings.
“Ca-caw!” he squeaked. “Ooh, I want a bird Squishmallow!”
I grinned and shook my head.
Lucas chuckled under his breath.
KC scrubbed his hands over his face, and I could tell he was trying not to laugh.
“Meep-meep!” Camden burst out.
I’d timed my break perfectly for when Nora’s group was off to Reese’s station on the other side of the pool. They’d just spent fifteen or twenty minutes drawing mascots, and now was the time for pain.
Suffer for Your Owner.
Jack was having fun at his station on the deck, where slaves were running around to create a snack for their Owner before they turned into human furniture.
I grabbed an iced tea and trailed behind the group, not wanting Nora to see me. She was so focused and soft-spoken all of a sudden that I could no longer place her in the brat category. If anything, she was fitting in seamlessly with Tate and Archie.
Poor Ash. This was really not his thing—but he was making Nora’s day. That much was clear.
The sun shone down on us, and it would shine a bit more on Ash now. He’d get to participate doing something he loved. Giving beatings!
Reese stood ready, arms folded over his chest, with three sawhorses, one pillory, and two X-crosses—for the groups that included six slaves. A table was set up with multiple implements too, from floggers and whips to canes and paddles.
Santiago was spotting Reese, and they had quite the audience down here. I counted some fifteen members who were here to watch on the sidelines.
“Howdy, slaves!” Reese was clearly enjoying himself. “It’s time to suffer for your Owner. Yay, you shout internally. I know. So, Santiago and I have prepared a table of goodies here for the Owners, but the rules are for the slaves. Pay attention, you hear?” He paused briefly. “You accept the amount of pain it takes to make your Owner proud. If pain is a big part of your dynamic and you’re Sadists and masos, you’re likely to take more of it. If it’s not a part of your dynamic, maybe you quit after three or four lashes. It’s up to you, as slaves, to showcase that you know your Owner, that you know the dynamic you share, and that you keep in mind it’s them you wanna please. You’re not doin’ this to show off to friends or prove yourself—you’re sufferin’ just enough to please your Owner.”
I walked closer to the founders’ cabins so I could get a read on Nora’s expression. I wasn’t worried one bit here. She was a masochist, and Ash was a Sadist. She’d take a solid beating for him, and I trusted her to know when to stop.
Santiago delivered the safeword speech. “Because we don’t know the weight our regular safeword carries in your dynamic, we’re replacing red with blue for this station. So the moment you, the slave, decide that this is it, your Owner is pleased now, you safeword blue out loud. If you understand, say yes, Sir.”
“Yes, Sir!” the subs replied together.
Then Camden raised his hand.
Reese inclined his head. “You may speak, pet.”
“Thank you kindly! So, um, I love spankings sometimes, okay?” Camden said. “Like, a sexy spanking. I love those. But that’s not suffering, you know? So am I suffering or not?”
I smiled.
“What’s the name of the station?” Reese asked patiently.
Camden scrunched his nose. “Suffer for Your Owner.”
Reese nodded. “Then I don’t think your Owner will spank you.”
Anthony smirked and hugged his boy from behind, and he whispered something in Camden’s ear.
Whatever it was made the boy recoil and glare up at Anthony. “My feet, Daddy?! Why would you flog my feet?! That sounds horrible!”
“You mean it sounds like you’ll be suffering?” Santiago drawled. “I reckon a sawhorse will be good for little Camden.”
“I should not have opened my mouth,” Camden whispered to himself.
Ah, the lesson a brat never learned.
“On that note,” Reese went on, “the Owners can choose their furniture now.”
Ash immediately ushered Nora over to the pillory, the only piece of equipment we’d once had at the front of the house. I knew Nora wasn’t a fan of that, and I was sure Ash knew it too.
Greer guided Archie to a cross, so did KC with Noa, and Kingsley wanted Tate on one of the other sawhorses.
“Before you strap your subs down, make sure they’re only wearin’ underwear,” Reese instructed.
That meant Nora had to shed her tight little dress, revealing a thong and a sports bra underneath. And Tate removed his beater that matched his black boxer briefs. Property of Master Kingsley, as they read.
Nora spotted me right before Ash helped her get in position, and I blew her a quick kiss.
She pursed her lips to hide a smile, then put her head and hands through the holes. Lastly, Ash closed the heavy wooden top so she couldn’t get out.
I took a swig of my drink before setting the bottle down in the grass. This was going to be fun, and I didn’t wanna miss a second. It was literally the only reason I’d suggested each organizer would have a break during a relatively short event. The participants got to draw mascots and eat fruit; we got a break.
Greer opted for a cane, which I thought was interesting. While Archie loved to suffer for Greer, pain wasn’t a spice they added for the sake of it. I’d witnessed way more discomfort coming from him. Like being a human table or footstool.
Poor Tate had to suffer with a whip made of coconut fibers and leather.
Not much would make Noa suffer in the pain department, though being restrained did it for him. He hated being strapped to that cross, and he was struggling to hide it.
“Slaves, get ready,” Reese declared. “You may make sounds—scream or moan, I don’t care—but you are not allowed to curse your Owner out or use foul language.”
I bet that was the first time Reese had used the term foul language.
Ash was the first to strike—literally. He’d picked a spiked paddle, a tool Nora didn’t necessarily hate, but she didn’t like the spikes. More than that, Ash was going to town on the backs of her thighs, so it was going to hurt to sit later.
As predicted, my girl gritted her teeth and screwed her eyes shut.
Camden yelped as Anthony began flogging the boy’s feet.
Greer’s cane came down hard across Archie’s back, with the boy’s muscles contracting. I couldn’t see his face, just his body and how much he tensed up.
Tate, though. Amazing. He had his cheek on this side of the sawhorse, and he didn’t make a single face. Yet. He took his Master’s whip with practiced ease and breathed through the initial onslaught.
“Blue!” Archie gritted out.
Greer stopped immediately, and he looked to be fighting a smile.
Reese stepped up behind the cross so he could look Archie in the eye. “And why did you safeword? Is your Owner satisfied?”
Archie unclenched a little. “Yes, Sir. He doesn’t want marks on his property’s body.”
Reese flicked Greer a look, silently asking for confirmation.
“Spot-on.” Greer nodded. “Whole other game if it’s my frog boy.”
I chuckled softly. Wasn’t that the truth? He could unleash the Sadist on Corey instead, who craved pain.
“Fair enough,” Reese replied. “Good job.” He turned back to Santiago. “Five points for Greer’s slave.”
While Greer walked up to tend to his boy and release him from the cross, it was Camden’s turn to safeword, and he howled out, “Bluuuuuuuue!” in a mix of laughter and screaming.
Fun mindfuck to be tickled and hurt at the same time.
Camden received five points too, and then it was our three masochists left.
Kingsley, Ash, and KC were relentless, and I had no idea who would be the next to safeword. Maybe Nora or Noa? I doubted it was Tate.
Nora should hold on for a while longer, no matter what. She’d taken far worse, and she was nowhere near her breaking point.
“Ouch, motherfudging punt fitstain!” Noa sucked in a breath and scrunched his face together.
I grinned.
Reese chuckled under his breath.
The pain was getting to Tate too. He flinched with each impact, and his jaw ticked with tension.
Over and over, the implements cracked through the air—or at least Kingsley’s whip did. Ash’s paddle made a sound once it smacked against Nora’s skin, and KC’s cat-o’-nine tails came down with a short, contained smatter on Noa’s bottom. We weren’t talking thuddy pain here. They were straight-up fiery stings.
Greer walked closer to where I was standing, and he held Archie in front of him, never letting him go. “I reckon you’ll need to rub Sloan’s arm later,” he murmured with a kiss to Archie’s neck. “It’s gonna be sore after Corey’s beatin’.”
Ah yes, the burden every Sadist had to carry. Soreness.
Poor Sloan.
The teasing glint in Archie’s eyes let me know he wanted to say something along those lines—that it would be Corey who needed the rubdown—but, of course, he didn’t say that.
“Whatever you wish, Master,” he said instead. Too quiet for Reese and Santiago to hear. I heard it, but I let it slide.
As mentioned, I was great at TPE.
Noa started screaming, growing increasingly creative with the curses, though at least one or two—make that three—fucks slipped out. And shortly after that, he safeworded blue, and KC ceased the beating.
“Your turn, little one.” Reese walked over to him. “Why did you safeword?”
“Because my limit is D-Daddy’s limit, and also, his l-legs are tired.” Noa panted through gnashed teeth. He sniffled too, and I noticed KC leaning heavily on his cane.
Reese shifted his attention to KC. “Are you satisfied, buddy?”
“Very much. He’s a good boy.” KC smacked Noa’s butt, much to the boy’s annoyance.
“Four points to Noa,” Reese declared. “That mouth gets you into trouble, boy.”
“I’ll show you trouble!” Noa snapped.
I coughed through a laugh.
Then there were two.
Nora was still not making a single sound. Her pain was more visible in how she tensed up, how hard she clenched her jaw, and the sweat and tears dampening her face. Tate wasn’t far off either. A light sheen of sweat glistened across his body, and every now and then, we could hear gritty sounds he was trying to push back.
I caught movement in the corner of my eye, and I saw one of the members walking toward me. I didn’t recognize him; he could be new. Midforties, suited up.
He stopped next to me and spoke for only me to hear. “The girl’s in pain.”
I felt my forehead crease. “Of course she is.”
“No, I mean—it’s not safe,” he told me. “I overheard them earlier, and apparently she and her Top recently met? He can’t possibly know her threshold.”
What the fuck?
This really fucking irritated me, because every now and then, some holier-than-thou person proclaimed they knew more than the parties involved in a scene. Not only did they shit on the sub’s ability to communicate, but they assumed the Dom or Domme hadn’t done their homework.
I reined it in, though. In the end, this guy meant well.
“I can assure you, Nora’s fine,” I said. “She will safeword when she’s ready, and Ash has covered all the ground to ensure her safety.”
The man shook his head. “No. No, I’ve been doing this for fifteen years, and it’s just not safe.” He took a step toward Reese, and I couldn’t fucking believe him.
I grabbed his arm, ready to play the DM card, the founder card, and any other fucking card.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I snapped, making sure to keep my voice down. “You’re not interrupting their scene. I trust you’ve read our community policy?”
He glared at me. “It clearly states you’re allowed to interrupt if you fear for someone’s safety.”
“It also states that you’re supposed to locate a DM or one of the founders unless it’s an emergency, and—”
“Listen here, lady. That girl—”
Lady?
“Is everythin’ okay?” Greer came over and folded his arms over his chest.
The man huffed impatiently and turned to him instead, and he pointed toward Nora. “She’s holding back. She and her Top just met, and there’s no way he knows what she can handle.”
Greer lifted his brows, and he eyed me. “He for real?”
Despite that Tate had started getting louder, we’d caught Reese’s attention, and he told Santiago to cover for him. Then Reese walked over to us too.
“Keep your voices down,” he warned.
The nameless idiot didn’t give up. “Don’t any of you see that the girl has had enough? I have fifteen years of experience with this. I see it clear as day.” He raised his voice enough for all of us to react. Like a flip of a switch, Reese became someone else, someone who was ready to throw another out on his ass, and Greer and I exchanged a quick look.
“You make sure Ash and Kingsley keep the pets distracted,” I ordered under my breath. My main concern was Nora, who was facing this way. If she opened her eyes, she’d see us.
Greer nodded and brought Archie with him.
Meanwhile, Reese and I directed our attention to the fuckwit, and Reese grabbed on to the man’s arm, instantly ushering him away from the area.
“Let’s take a walk,” Reese said.
The man tried to wrench free, but that didn’t work. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m escortin’ you off the fuckin’ premises,” Reese replied. “What’s your name?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” the man scoffed. “You’re kicking me out because I show concern for a vulnerable sub?”
“Showing concern isn’t the issue,” I told him, my heart hammering faster. Anger flowed freely in my bloodstream, and I needed the guy gone. “I told you Nora’s okay, and Ash is a great Top for her.”
“How would you know?” he pressed.
I stared up at him, part in disbelief. “Because she’s mine, you fucking asshole. But that’s not the point. If a DM or a founder—on, in this case, both—tells you we have the situation under control, you back the fuck off and trust us.”
He clenched his jaw and didn’t say another word while we ushered him alongside the house and toward the front of the property.
“Your name, dude,” Reese repeated. He let the man break free from the hold this time, and he made a show of rubbing the spot Reese had had in his grip.
“You won’t need it,” he said angrily. “I’m not coming back. But I will warn others about this place.”
I snorted.
“You wouldn’t be the first to try, buddy.” Reese smiled thinly and scratched his eyebrow. “Maybe you can help us cut the line down some. We’re becomin’ too popular.”
The man glared and took a couple steps back, and he righted his suit. “I can’t imagine why. A community where abuse is okay—”
I stiffened.
“Say that one more fucking time,” Reese growled and flinched forward. “You wanna learn the difference between consensual pain and abuse? Take a step closer—I’ll be happy to show you.”
Fuck. I drew in an unsteady breath and put a hand on Reese’s back. He needed to cool it before the motherfucker decided to press charges. It was better to just get him out of here. His membership could be canceled without a name. We’d find him somehow.
Thankfully for all our sakes, the man threw us another glare before he stalked off toward the carport.
“Take a breath, hon.” I rubbed Reese’s back, and he relaxed some and scrubbed a hand over his face. “You know this is part of it.” It wasn’t the first time this had happened, and it wouldn’t be the last. A couple times a year, at least, someone pulled a similar stunt. Though, usually not this dramatically.
Reese sighed and shook his head, then draped an arm around my shoulders. “Motherfucker.”
“Amen.”
I nudged him in the direction of the back, because I wanted to return to Nora. Hopefully, she and Tate hadn’t noticed the commotion.
“You know what bothers me?” he asked. “When these asshats use their years of experience as a weapon. When Riv and I got involved—ten years later, we’d taken so many breaks in kink that we knew the basics. But once we bought this place and made it our life, we learned more in a year than in all the previous years combined.”
That was so true. We’d met people who burned for BDSM and learned a lot in a shorter period of time than some who’d been in and out of the lifestyle for decades. A blanket statement of how long you’d been around didn’t say much in the end.
“Anyway. Good riddance,” he finished.
I nodded once, and we passed the deck, where Colt nodded at us.
“Everythin’ all right?” he asked. “I heard someone was bein’ a tool.”
“We took care of it,” Reese replied. “All good now.”
“Glad to hear it.” Colt returned to Kit and Jack’s station.
Reese glanced down at me with a smirk. “So she’s yours, huh?”
Aw, crap. Of course he’d picked up on that.
I looked down the lawn, where Ash was still beating Nora. And Kingsley was still beating Tate.
And yeah. She was.
That girl belonged to me.
“I’m falling for her,” I admitted.
“No shit.” He pressed a kiss to my temple and flashed his signature grin. “Enjoy it, hon. I think she’ll be good for you. She’s feisty as fuck.”
I smiled, unable to control it. She sure was.
Nora Lilja
“Let it all out, kiddo.” Ash held me tightly, and I sobbed my ass off. “You made both me and Pen so proud.”
Oh my fucking God, it hurt so much. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to sit down anytime soon. But at the same time, I was freaking flying. My brain was at peace; there was no noise, just emotions fleeing the scene.
“Five points for Nora,” Reese declared. “Excellent job.”
