Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Audrey
Oh God.
Mason was walking her out to her car. Just the two of them.
What do I do?
Act normal.
How do I normally act?
I don’t know.
Why don’t I know?
This was so much more stressful than it should have been.
But… Yasmine was doing—something—with someone else. Master Cole. Whoever that was. Did that make it okay for Mason to walk Audrey out?
Well, of course, it’s okay. It’s not like he’s doing anything other than walking.
The only reason it didn’t feel okay was because of her feelings about him. But if Yasmine was already moving on, why couldn’t Mason?
Audrey cursed the cowardice that had kept her from asking Yasmine point-blank if she had been hinting that she saw Audrey’s crush and was fine with it.
But the thought of doing so and being wrong made her stomach curdle.
Or what if Yasmine was fine with Audrey’s crush, but only if she didn’t act on it?
“So, is the bakery still buzzing from the video?” Mason asked as they walked out the door into the cold night.
Audrey automatically hunched her shoulders in her coat, shoving her hands in her pockets, thankful she was wearing her long winter coat that covered her nearly to her ankles.
Even without pants, as long as the wind didn’t whip up, she was pretty warm all over.
“Yeah. It’s died down a little, but there are still more people than usual coming in. All of them with their phones out and hopeful expressions on their faces.” Thank goodness, she actually sounded normal when she was answering him instead of like the Hot Mess Express she was inside.
“Gotcha. So, are you leaving early because you’re tired?
” Mason glanced down at her, and she looked up at him in surprise.
The dark shadows of the streetlamps made him look particularly dangerously handsome, especially with the sharp line of his black coat collar against his jaw, where he’d turned it up to keep his neck warm.
She looked away, focusing on the sidewalk they were walking down. Her car wasn’t that far away, which she was both grateful for and suddenly wished it was a little farther.
“That’s definitely part of it,” she admitted, and then hesitated. “The other part is that I don’t really know what I’m doing there. I don’t know what to do.”
Why she had chosen him to admit that to, she didn’t know.
Maybe because she felt comfortable with him after he’d come running to the rescue at the bakery.
Maybe because she had a crush on him and felt a connection, and she was worried he felt it too, and if anything did ever happen between them, she didn’t want him expecting some kind of experienced, perfect submissive.
She bet Yasmine was a perfect submissive.
“You know you don’t have to do anything, right? There are plenty of people who come for the community but don’t scene.”
“I’m not against scening.” Heat filled her cheeks.
It was dark enough that he wouldn’t be able to see her blush for once.
“But I wouldn’t know how to get into one.
Even if someone wanted to scene with me, I wouldn’t know what to tell them I like or don’t like because I don’t have any experience. I don’t know. I don’t know anything.”
The frustration bubbling up inside her wasn’t just at her lack of knowledge; it was at herself.
In the few months she’d had away from her parents, she’d learned more about herself than she had in the years of living her life up to this point.
Realizing how much about herself she didn’t know, how much about life she didn’t know, was frustrating.
Especially because the opportunity had been there, but she’d never been willing to defy her parents, not even to read the kind of books they might disapprove of.
What kind of adult let their parents run their life to that degree? It was embarrassing.
They’d reached her car. The blush was still hot in her cheeks as she let out a long breath, the white cloud puffing out from her lips and dissipating into the darkness.
“Anyway. That’s not your problem. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Did you tell the others about how you feel?
Any of them, especially Claudia, would be happy to set you up with someone to walk you through different aspects of kink.
” His voice sounded rougher than it had before.
Tinged with some kind of emotion. Jealousy?
Or was she projecting because that’s what part of her wanted to hear?
“Heck, Claudia might offer to do it herself. You could try things out with one of them.”
“I guess. I would be a lot more comfortable with someone I know and trust, like Claudia. I can’t imagine trying anything with someone I just met.
I don’t know if I’d want to do it at the club, though…
what if I did something wrong? What if I don’t like it?
I don’t even know if I would like being spanked…
what if I hate it?” The words were tumbling out of her now, and she found herself looking up at him as if he had the answers.
His face was mostly shadowed, but she could feel the light on hers and knew he could see her expression clearly, even if the reverse wasn’t true. Maybe that’s what made it easy to talk to him about this.
It wasn’t like she could see his reaction.
“Do you want to try a spanking to see if you like it?” he asked.
That was the last thing she ever expected him to say to her. Audrey stared at him because her brain had just come to a screeching halt, trying to figure out if he meant what she thought he meant.
“Platonically, of course. Nothing sexual involved. If you’re leaving because you’re worried, we could go to your place or my place right now, and I could demonstrate, and then you’d know. For next time.”
Oh my God.
He was actually saying what she thought he was saying.
He was asking if she wanted him to spank her.
In private.
Platonically.
“Sorry, I hope I didn’t just make things uncomfortable—”
“Yes,” she interrupted him, feeling suddenly breathless; what if he was about to take the offer away?
Hadn’t she just been thinking about how her parents had stifled her? How she hadn’t done what she wanted to do, even when they wouldn’t know about it, because she’d known they wouldn’t approve?
Was she turning into a horribly selfish person?
No. He was making an offer—a non-sexual one—and she was not betraying girl code by taking him up on it. He’d just said, Claudia could do the same thing. But Audrey wanted to try it. Now.
Then at least she’d know if she was into it or not, and Mason had just offered, so…
And if she was being really honest with herself, she wanted her first spanking to be done by the man she kept picturing in her head when she was reading her books.
“Yes?” His voice had roughened again, deepened, and her stomach did a little flip-flop.
“Yes. Uh, please.” She cleared her throat. “Um, at my place, I guess?”
Before she chickened out.
“Okay.” He nodded. Audrey had already given him her address for his contact information, just in case anything from the bakery followed her home. It hadn’t so far, to her relief, and now it was coming in handy for an entirely different reason. “I’ll see you there in a few minutes.”
“Great,” she squeaked out, before turning and getting into her car, trying not to feel like she was fleeing.
Oh God, what am I doing?
Mason
Fuck.
What was he doing?
Thinking with his dick and not with his head.
No. Not with his dick.
Platonic. He’d promised her a non-sexual spanking.
There were plenty of people who scened without bringing sex into the equation. He was doing a spanking demo, nothing more, and he’d done plenty of those over the years.
This was the same thing.
Except that he’d never felt the kind of attraction for any of the demo participants he did for Audrey.
Getting into his car, he shook his head to clear it and pulled out behind her. Why had he made the offer?
Because the idea of someone else putting their hands on her was already driving you nuts.
Because she wanted privacy rather than doing it at a public place like a club, where there will be people to help if it doesn’t go well… and you know she’ll be safe with you.
And the privacy was actually why he could do it.
Because Yasmine hadn’t wanted to see him with anyone for a month.
It had only been a week, but she wasn’t going to see either of them because they weren’t going to be at the club. They were going to be at Audrey’s house.
No one had to know. How would they know?
They’d just assume that both he and Audrey had gone home.
Which they were.
They were just both going to Audrey’s home.
He followed her car, even though he had her address since he was keeping an eye on her.
That was the most important reason he had offered to demo a spanking for her, of course.
He wanted to make sure she stayed safe. He was already protecting the bakery; it made sense he would extend that protection to all aspects of her life.
The jealousy… that was an aberration, and it was controllable.
He was just doing the right thing.
By going to Audrey’s house and spanking her.
Mason winced.
Even he couldn’t quite spin that as fully altruistic as he wanted to. At some point, he was going to need to do a deeper examination of his feelings and figure out why the hell Audrey was so different and had been from the moment he’d met her.
But not tonight.
Tonight, he was finally going to get his hands on her delectable ass, and maybe if he just truly let himself go and fully enjoy the moment, she would no longer be such forbidden fruit. Maybe he’d finally get control over himself again.
Her apartment building had a front desk, where they signed him in.
The bored woman behind the counter barely looked at them.
They were barely looking at each other. Even though they’d agreed for this to be non-sexual, sexual tension was thrumming through the air, and he didn’t think it was just coming from him.
He was going to have to be very, very careful to stick to their agreement and not confuse things for either of them.
“This way,” Audrey said, smiling, then ducking her head, gesturing to the right and scurrying ahead of him.
Damn, she was cute. Mason followed more slowly, turning over in his head where the boundaries for tonight should be.
He’d offered to show her a spanking.
And he didn’t have any of his implements.
She was wearing a skirt.
That was easy enough to flip up, and a bare bottom spanking didn’t necessarily have to be sexual, but it would be a hell of a lot easier for him if she kept her underwear on. So, underwear on, dress on, but skirt up. That sounded reasonable.
No kissing. Obviously.
No fondling.
Of course.
Rubbing her bottom would be fine, as long as he was doing it to help soothe the burn and sting of the spanking and not for either of their pleasure. That was reasonable.
Even if his dick was already hardening just thinking about it.
But it didn’t matter what his dick wanted as long as the rest of him understood that this was going to be strictly platonic.
Audrey pushed the button for the elevator, and the doors opened immediately. Stepping inside, she turned and looked up at him, and smiled nervously, all her fear, trepidation, and anticipation filling her wide eyes.
Fuck.