Liability (Suncoast Society #33)(25)

“I’ll give the tour and the newbie talk, if that’s okay?” Mason asked the volunteer.

“Sure. Leah and Seth said they’d vouch for them, too.”

“Thanks,” Cole said. It was definitely not the experience he’d imagined in his head. This could be a gym, for all he knew.

Excluding the kinky paraphernalia hanging on the office walls.

Once they were finished with the paperwork, and he’d handed over a credit card for their membership fees, he took the vouchers and stuck them in his wallet. Then they signed in and they followed Mason through the door to the dungeon proper.

It was still early, another fifteen minutes before the class was due to start. They said a quick hello to Seth and Leah before Mason started showing them around. The two warehouse bays had a large door cut into one wall, connecting the two sections. Mason gave them a tour and explained all the rules, including pointing out the lists of “reminders” strategically placed all over. When he finished with the tour, he led them over to where Seth and Leah were setting up for the class.

They had a wide variety of floggers hanging from a small equipment rack, as well as laid out on a table they’d pulled over.

“You can touch them, if you want,” Leah said, picking one up from the table and passing it handle-first to Cole. “That’s one of my favorites.” It was long, the soft and supple falls feeling more like fine, expensive suede than an implement of torture.

Kim fingered a couple of the falls. “This…doesn’t look like it hurts.”

“It doesn’t,” Leah said, taking it back when Cole handed it over. “It’s a nice mop flogger. He uses it as a transition implement, either for warming me up or stepping me down.”

“Unless you snag a piercing with it, or hit someone in the eye,” Seth said.

“Or the balls,” Mason added.

Seth held up a fist and Mason bumped with him.

“Yikes,” Cole said, wincing at that mental image.

“The goal isn’t automatically to inflict as much pain as you can,” Seth said. “It varies by partner, how much the bottom wants to take, how much the sadist wants to give. Some people want a more sensual level of play, and some people just want the crap beaten out of them.”

“A masochist says, ‘Beat me!’ and a sadist says, ‘No,’” Mason joked.

Leah groaned, a smile on her face. “That one’s old.”

“But it’s still funny.”

Cole felt like his gaze locked with Mason’s for a moment, and he had to pull his focus away and back onto Leah and Seth. “That’s a heavy flogger, though,” Cole observed, pointing to the one they’d just fondled. “Weighs a lot.”

“Yeah,” Seth told him. “Kind of like giving a massage with it.”

Leah seemed to shiver with pleasure, based on her smile. “A sexy massage.”

Seth shook his head. “Hey, at least you’re able to take your time and learn this at your own speed,” he said, hooking an arm around Leah and pulling her in close. “Some of us got tossed head-first into the deep end of a very cold lake and had to start doggy paddling.”

The couple exchanged a glance Cole couldn’t interpret, but made him feel a little sad for them. When he looked at Mason again, that man had his gaze cast downward, a contemplative expression furrowing his features.

Then Cole remembered the story he’d heard at the munch about Leah’s first husband and Master, Kaden.

“I–I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“No,” Seth said. “It’s okay. We can all smile when we talk about him now. He lives on through all of us and this place. Through what we do here. That’s what he wanted. I can’t think of a better way to honor his memory.”





Chapter Eleven


Cole, Kim, and Mason settled into chairs as Seth and Leah got started. Cole watched, trying to focus on what Seth was staying, as Leah started stripping as if there wasn’t anyone else in the room with them. She ended up in a black thong and a black sports bra that almost looked like a bikini top.

Umm…

Mason softly snickered and leaned in. “I’m surprised he lets her strip down that much. Kaden used to let her do the classes naked. She spent most of her time at home naked. It’s been an adjustment for both of them. Leah told me Seth’s a little territorial but in the good ways.”

“Huh.”

Cole could have been sitting in a certification class for work instead of in the middle of a dungeon. Seth went over safety, differences in material, and demonstrated techniques on Leah.

The floggers ranged all the way from—literally—bunny fur to heavy, braided leather, to wicked-looking black PVC material with the falls cut into sharp points at each end. There were also a variety of floggers made from oddball things like knotted paracord and window screen spline. Seth taught the class how to evaluate a flogger’s material and how to approach testing it without harming the bottom you were flogging.

Cole also liked that Seth and Leah both emphasized things such as safe negotiation practices, how to recognize if someone you were playing with wasn’t being safe, and how to stand up for yourself as a bottom. Then there was giving valuable feedback to the Top so they’d know how the bottom was doing.