Tied With Me (With Me In Seattle)(2)

“To who?” I ask with a laugh. “My clients want cupcakes, not my boobs in their face.”

“Depends on the client,” she replies with a laugh just as the lights fall and loud, thirties swing music erupts into a seductive pounding rhythm and a young blond woman saunters out onto the stage in a sailor’s uniform, dancing about vigorously.

Within thirty seconds, she’s left wearing pasties and a G-string.

I’m not even sure what happened to her clothes, they came off so quickly.

I tilt my head and watch her move effortlessly across the stage, smiling, biting her lip, flirting with the guys—and girls—in the audience.

Four more girls perform, much to the crowd’s delight, before they take a break, rearranging props and giving the crowd a chance to refresh their drinks or go explore other parts of the event.

“Okay, let’s grab another drink and go check out the exhibits.” Bailey claps her hands and pulls me to my feet.

“Do we have to?”

“Yes!” She rolls her eyes again and drags me behind her. “You don’t have to participate. Just watch. It’s fun, Nic.”

“If you say so,” I murmur and greedily sip my fresh drink as we walk through the dance room to the fetish exhibits, where the music is gone and instead there is laughter and moans of pleasure.

“You didn’t say that people participate.” My voice is three octaves higher than normal, and I don’t care.

“Of course they participate. But you don’t have to.”

The first demonstration we come across has me sucking down my drink in one long sip of the straw and pulling Bailey’s drink out of her hand to suck hers down, too.

A woman is lying on a massage table, face up, with a blue satin sash over her naked breasts and pelvis. A large, shirtless, gorgeous man is standing over her with a metal wand in his hand. It’s attached to a machine, and when he touches her skin, it shocks her.

“Electro play,” Bailey informs me.

My eyes can’t move away from the woman as she writhes and moans on the table. The man leans down and murmurs in her ear, but she smiles and shakes her head. “He’s checking in with her, to make sure she’s okay.”

“Kind of him,” I reply sarcastically.

He resumes pulling the wand over her breasts, making her nipples pucker even more than they were, which didn’t look possible, down her stomach and finally between her legs, sending her into a screaming orgasm.

“Dear God.”

Bailey laughs at me. I didn’t even realize I’d spoken the words aloud.

“You’re into that?” I ask her.

“No, it’s not for everyone, and it takes a lot of trust and someone very practiced to dive into that world.” She smiles as she watches the couple on the small stage.

The man has turned the machine off and pulled the woman into his arms, soothing and petting her as she shakes and pants. He kisses her cheek and whispers lovingly in her ear. Watching them together, so intimate, so loving, makes my chest hurt.

It’s beautiful.

“Those two are married. She’s been his submissive for about three years.”

“Submissive?” I ask.

“Are you really that na?ve?” Bailey asks with a shake of her head.

“I had no idea that stuff happened in real life. I thought it just made for a fun romance novel.”

“It happens.”

“Are you submissive?”

She smiles at me then shrugs her slim shoulder. “Unfortunately, no. I tried, but my mouth kept getting me in trouble. My ass was sore for a month.”

I swallow hard as we move along to the next demonstration.

I jump when I hear the crack of a whip. “Holy shit!”

Bailey laughs and tucks her arm through mine as we watch another tall, lean, shirtless man wield a bullwhip. A woman is suspended by the wrists to a chain in the ceiling, her arms pulled high over her head. She’s wearing black panties and a bra.

The man circles the whip over his head and cracks it in front of him, leaving just a tiny red mark on the woman’s shoulder blade. She moans, as though it’s the sexiest thing she’s ever felt.

The man circles her, his focus completely on her, and when he gets to her back, he repeats the motion, leaving another, identical mark on the other shoulder blade.

He approaches her, grips her red hair in his fist and pulls her head back so he can whisper in her ear.