Liability (Suncoast Society #33)(27)

“I don’t want to hit you in the face.”





Holy…f*ck!

Now she wasn’t just wet, she was afraid she might end up with a wet spot on her jeans at this rate. Her heart thundered.

Good girl.

Yes, Cole had said those same words to her out in the office, but…

There was something way different in how Mason said it and the way Cole had said it.

Like he meant it.

Like unless she was certain he was harming her, no way in hell would she even think about disobeying Mason.

It was like he’d drilled right through her brain into some place she didn’t even know existed and flipped a switch that lit up previously unknown parts of her nervous system.

When he spoke again, it sounded like he was standing a few feet behind her. “Red means stop. Yellow means ease up. Green is good. When I ask you for a color, you say a color, or everything stops. Okay?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good girl.” This time when he said it, it was more conversational, automatic, even. But now that the way he’d said it a moment earlier was imprinted on her soul, no way in hell could she forget it.

“I’m going to start with this flogger, very lightly at first. If at any time it hurts, or you need me to stop, say red and I’ll stop.”

“Yes, sir.”

She flinched a little when she felt him drape the falls over her flesh. It was a very soft suede flogger, one he admitted he didn’t use a whole lot but had wanted in his inventory.

He swished it back and forth across her skin, up and down her back and shoulders, before she felt him start to swing it. Lightly at first, pretty soon he was picking up force and speed.

But it still felt good. In fact, it felt great. Almost like a massage. Her pulse slowed as her eyes closed and she savored the sensations, the feel of it, the smell of the suede carried on the breeze from each impact.

“Color.”

“Green, sir.” She didn’t even stop to think if that was an etiquette breach. They could sort that out later. She suspected if she wasn’t supposed to call him that he would have said so immediately.

He stepped up the intensity even more, now each impact feeling kind of thuddy. Her stress and tension had completely melted away as she relaxed into the flogging and his rhythm.

It actually startled her when he stopped. Then he touched the back of her right shoulder. “Color.”

“Green, sir. We’re not done, are we?”

He chuckled and stroked her hair, tucking some stray strands back over her shoulder. “Not yet, pet.”





Mason froze as he realized what he said.

It’d been an automatic response.

The last woman he’d played with, they’d been play partners for a couple of years. The agreed-upon nickname for her had been “pet,” since that’s what her husband and Master called her. Her husband had suggested it, to keep from jarring her out of her headspace with two separate terms when Mason finished playing with her and handed her back off to him for aftercare, which the man enjoyed doing before he started his sensual sadistic play with her.

“I’m sorry,” Mason said, jarred out of his own headspace now. “I shouldn’t have—”

“What?” Cole asked, frowning. “I thought she liked what you were doing.”

Kim lifted her head and looked over her shoulder at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Sorry, force of habit. Calling you ‘pet.’ I—”

“What’s wrong with that?” Cole asked. He looked genuinely confused.

“I shouldn’t have presumed to—”

“I don’t mind,” Kim chirped. “I kind of liked it.”

Mason looked at her and arched the eyebrow again, silencing her.

Focus back on Cole.

Cole shrugged, those blue eyes of his boring into Mason’s soul. “I don’t have a problem with it if she doesn’t.” He grinned. “If I get her a collar she’ll sort of be a pet anyway, right? I think it fits. Besides, it’s what’s on her FetLife profile. I figured it was just that.”

Relief flowed through Mason. “If you’re both sure?”

“Yeah,” Cole said. “She can make the call. Doesn’t bother me.”

Mason turned back to her. Those big, brown eyes of hers, so eager, so willing.

“I’m fine with it, Mason. Are you okay with me calling you ‘sir’?”

He pointed at Cole, and they both looked at him.

Cole shrugged again. “Unless you want her to call you ‘ma’am’ or something, I’m fine with it.” He smiled.

Okay, so they’re both snarky smart-asses.

And Mason loved it. They both had great senses of humor.

“Okay. So pet and Sir it is.” He walked back to her and grabbed her hair again, making her tip her head back to stare up at him. “Make sure that’s ‘Sir’ with a capital S when you say it.”

She grinned, catching her lower lip under her teeth for a moment. “Yesssss, Ssssir.” Another wide smile.

He couldn’t help laughing. He gently pushed her head forward and once again adjusted her hair. “That’s it. Poke the sadist. Go right ahead, pet. Next thing you know, you’ll be telling me I hit like a girl.”