A Dom is Forever (Masters and Mercenaries #3)(78)

“Hey, word gets around that a hot scene is about to play out. People come out of the woodwork,” Lee explained. “I think they’ll call this particular scene ‘hot little virgin gets her ass spanked and more.’”

“I’m not a virgin, Lee,” she corrected.

“How little you know, baby. Your * isn’t the only place a cock can go. Are you telling me you’ve had anal sex?”

She shook her head. She should have known this was coming. His fingers had strayed there before, brushing across her * and pressing lightly in. It had been a dark, forbidden sensation. “No, I haven’t.”

“I’m going to claim it, Avery. Your * is going to be mine. I’m going to f*ck you every way I can and don’t think I won’t make you love it. Every inch of your body is going to belong to me.” His fingers came out to trace the line of her breastbone. “I can punish you in more pleasurable ways. Trust me, Avery. Let me show you off. Let me show them just how hot my sub is.”

She was standing in front of a roomful of strangers, and it didn’t matter because all that mattered was the pleasure they could find together. Maybe this was for him, too. Maybe he got hot at the thought of showing her off. “Yes, Sir.”

“That’s what I want to hear.” He helped her down again. This time she eased onto the bench, the leather soft on her skin. It wasn’t a shiny leather. It was buttery and comfortable, so much nicer than before. This was how it should have been the whole time.

“You don’t need these anymore,” Lee said, his fingers delving under her panties and pulling them taut.

She gasped a little as they came off. She turned and saw he’d cut them off her. He handed a small knife back to Alex, who seemed to be serving as his assistant torturer. Lee tossed her thong away. She wouldn’t be getting that back. She was naked and on stage, and there was a little part of her that was getting soft and wet and warm. No one had run screaming. No one was laughing. There was a sort of warm appreciation she felt, as though she was surrounded by people who wouldn’t judge her, wouldn’t toss her out because she wasn’t perfect.

She turned her cheek to rest on the bench and looked at them. Besides Lee’s friends, they were a rather motley group. Some were bigger than normal, others had somewhat plain faces. An older couple, the man balding with a little paunch to his belly, held the hand of a gray-haired sub. They smiled at her, approval on their faces.

This wasn’t about perfection. This was about acceptance. These people accepted themselves, and that seemed to make it easy to accept her.

A sense of peace came over her. Whatever happened, it would be all right because he was right here with her.

“What’s your safe word, Avery?” Lee asked. He looked down at her, but she couldn’t look beyond the enormous erection he was sporting. It tented his leathers and seemed to block out all the other sights. He chuckled. “Yeah, I’ve been that way since I first realized I was going to get to smack your ass, baby. Ignore him for now. He’ll come into play later. Now answer the question. What’s your safe word?”

A safe word, she’d learned, was a word that once uttered by a sub stopped all action. Whatever the Dom was doing, once that safe word was out, he would stop and help the sub. “Telephone.”

“Good.” He held a length of rope in his hand. “I’m tying you down, but I can have you out in ten seconds if it bothers you.”

She wasn’t worried. He’d played around with ropes the night before, lightly tying her to the bed before he’d put his mouth on her * and made her scream. He made short work of it, binding her hands and feet to the bench. She could wiggle her limbs, but she couldn’t escape. She was utterly helpless. He could do anything he wanted with her.

She should be afraid, but all she could think about was the fact that he had the filthiest mind, and she couldn’t wait to see what he did.

“It’s a count of thirty for talking bad about yourself,” Lee said.

She heard a murmur of disapproval go through the crowd. Yep, these were not people who wanted to listen to her complain about her cellulite. She would have to come up with better conversation starters than that.

And then she nearly screamed because his hand met the cheeks of her ass, and it wasn’t the little slap she’d gotten before. Fire flared across her skin because that smack had meant business.

“That’s one, baby,” Lee said, his hand holding the heat to her cheek. “And this is two.”

She gasped, the air threatening to leave her body as he smacked her again. Pain screamed along her system, but if he thought she was giving in over that pain, he was insane. She wasn’t a lightweight when it came to this. Ten years, seventeen surgeries, each one more painful than the last, and each of those horrible incidents had led to one thing.

Walking. Living. Surviving.

And there hadn’t even been a mega orgasm with the world’s hottest man at the end of those surgeries. She felt a smile cross her face. Yeah, she could handle him.

Three came like a crack of thunder, but she was more confident now. Her skin was singing, with ache and pain and a weird heat that was starting to build. Sure, some pain was just torture, but some pains, oh, some pains reminded her that she was alive.

Some pains took her away from herself. All the misery of the day slipped away. She didn’t have to think about what had happened with her in-laws here. It didn’t matter. Here she could be in the moment and not worry about the past or the future. She could be in the present, and the present was all about feeling. Tears slipped from her eyes, but they felt cleansing.