Chapter 4
Four
Laci had shaved her legs, rubbed lotion on her skin, and dabbed perfume on her wrists.
She’d smoothed her hair with a straightening wand and made up her eyes with thick strokes of liquid liner, giving herself cat’s eyes.
She put on a slinky gold dress with spaghetti straps so thin they threatened to snap under the dress’s weight.
“Interesting choice,” Eric said.
She fought not to roll her eyes. Colin would have called her his beautiful doll. How could he have put her financial future in Eric Renard’s hands? The guy had about as much passion as a white Crayola crayon.
“Colin brought it back for me from a business trip. I wore it the last New Year’s Eve.”
“The last New Year’s Eve with him, you mean?”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“Listen, I appreciate your trying to help, but, as much as I hate to say it, I should probably be punished by John or Stu. I’ve wronged both of them.
Plus, they’re a lot older. Honestly, I don’t know why Colin picked you to help with the money.
He had to know you weren’t the right person to keep me in line.
You’re way too young. I can’t take you seriously,” she lied.
Eric was young and that did make it more annoying when he acted like he was in charge, but he was definitely good at imposing his will.
Eric smiled. “Too young? I’m seven years older than you.”
“Colin was three times that older than me.”
“I know. It was perverse, in a lot of great ways I’d imagine.”
Her gaze slid to him. Was that a compliment or a dig? It had better not have been a negative comment. Not only had Colin been her husband, but he’d also been this jerk’s mentor for a lot of years.
Laci said nothing, but the gears in her head were turning furiously. She had to get control of herself, so she could get out from under this man’s thumb.
The clubhouse was similar to that enjoyed by many neighborhood associations and apartment complexes.
It had a recreation room with stacks of board games, a card table, a 72-inch flatscreen, and a bar.
There was a kitchen, a meeting room, and a library.
There was also a second bar with a lounge that opened to the courtyard and swimming pool.
The difference was that scattered throughout this clubhouse were hooks for restraints and cabinets filled with punishment tools.
Laci knew that once per month, several of the powerful men in the group brought their wives for a night of group punishment.
Colin who’d never been particularly voyeuristic and who had had some unusual kinks even by the community’s standards had preferred to keep their life fairly private.
With the exception of some kinky visits to the onsite clinic and two house parties where he’d spanked her in front of others while she laid across his lap in a cami and thong panties, Laci had never really been on display.
She had often wondered about the clubhouse activities and had hinted several times that she’d like to check them out, but Colin had never taken the bait.
Now she really wished he had. It was a lot worse going into this situation blind.
She wanted to mentally prepare herself, but it was hard to do that when she didn’t know what she’d be facing.
Laci stopped short a few feet before the entrance. “Safewords still apply, right?”
“Of course,” Eric said. “Yellow and Red for simplicity during group play. You won’t need them, though. If you can’t withstand a hard bare-bottomed spanking, Colin wasn’t the man I thought he was.”
Laci glared at him. “Colin never spanked me with my ass naked in public.”
“I know. That’s why this is a good gesture of submission on your part. And why the assembled group is especially looking forward to it.”
“So you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to do this to me, huh?”
“Yes.”
It startled her that he’d admitted it so baldly. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected him to say, but a simple yes hadn’t been it.
“You’re a jerk.”
“You continue to display poor judgement.”
“What? You think it makes you a nice guy that you’ve been looking forward to spanking your dead friend’s wife?”
“No, I think it shows poor judgement on your part to disrespect a man right before you’re about to be draped over his lap for punishment. Not much of a chess player, are you, Lace?”
God, he infuriated her. “I’m not afraid of you, Eric. You can spank me, it’ll hurt, and I might even cry a little, but it won’t break me. You don’t have the juice to make me really submit.”
There was a flash of darkness and danger in his eyes, and for the first time she wondered whether there might be something animal lurking beneath his cool facade. It should have made her regret taunting him, but somehow it raised her anticipation.
She turned and strode to the door of the clubhouse, opened it, and entered.
Eric’s heart thudded heavily with a hunger he hadn’t felt in a long time.
Laci had always tempted him. She was a fascinating dichotomy of darkness and light.
When Colin had met her she’d just aged out of foster care and was crashing on the couches of friends.
She’d had cropped dark hair and darker makeup, and if it hadn’t been for a sponsorship to art school, she’d probably have been panhandling.
But for as much as she was rough-edged and knowing, she’d still been really young.
Colin had made her over, including having her hair lightened and tossing all the kohl makeup.
He’d dressed her in baby doll dresses, ribbons, and knee socks with almost no makeup, she had been a perfect little girl for his age play.
Eric had suspected she played the role to placate Colin, so she could transition from emo urchin to the princess of a very large castle.
Eric didn’t blame her. People did difficult things to survive.
But there had also been moments when Colin would mention things about Laci’s responsiveness to certain kinks that made Eric think it couldn’t be all acting on her part.
He’d always wanted to find out for himself whether she really craved the life he and the others did.
Eric was sure Colin had known he was attracted to Laci.
Colin had even flaunted her a little to tease him.
But while alive, Colin hadn’t been interested in sharing Laci with anyone. In death, though, he’d been generous.
Of course, Eric knew the financial guardianship wasn’t just in place as an opportunity for Eric to interact with her.
If there’d ever been a woman who needed a protector of her finances, it was Laci.
At first, Eric had doled out the large sums of money she’d demanded, but it quickly became evident that she was blowing cash on things she didn’t need or even want.
There was a room full of unopened boxes from online vendors ranging from REI to Nordstrom’s.
As soon as he’d understood that she was shopping compulsively, out of grief and unhappiness, he’d cut her off.
He’d have been lying to himself though if he didn’t admit that it turned him on to have power—any power—over her.
He knew it was good for her, too. Not just because it would keep her from mindlessly burning through everything she’d inherited.
It was good for her because the tug of war over the money put color in her cheeks and made her furious instead of overwhelmingly sad.
When she challenged him and tried to get around the financial restrictions, it was the first time since Colin’s death that she didn’t seem lost. Eric was thinking of shutting down the direct transfers that put her allowance into her account.
How furious would she be if he made her come to him in person for the money?
He nearly smiled. She didn’t know him. Like Colin, he played his cards close to the vest where she was concerned.
He watched situations and assessed them before he acted.
But unlike Colin, he didn’t see Laci as a doll to be dressed up and played with like a precious toy. She was about to find that out.
There was a group of eight community members gathered in the study. Laci didn’t know them well, but she knew of them from Colin. He may not have indulged in group play, but he was a shameless gossip.
Stuart and Allison were in their late thirties and elegantly dressed like they were headed to dinner at a fancy restaurant.
They were the community’s biggest exhibitionists.
George “Pepper” Collins was nearing seventy, but daily workouts and Viagra apparently kept him very relevant during play.
Laci played tennis with Pepper, and he nearly always won.
He also nearly always managed to give her bottom a swat or two or to give her nipple a pinch when she got frustrated over missing a ball.
Pepper had not been very subtle about his interest in her after Colin died.
Jim Ochoa, who was a real estate developer, and his wife Elena, a chief financial officer of a large corporation, were in their late forties.
They were both really attractive and sat on the Haywood Hills community council together.
They’d also done so many kind things for her and Colin when he was sick that Laci couldn’t even remember them all.
Dr. Glaser was wearing scrubs, and she wondered if he’d just arrived home from the hospital or if he had been doing the community “clinic” hours. Colin had had certain kinks that involved medical play, so she knew Dr. Glaser from going into the clinic play space.
Finally there was John, who was nearing fifty and very fit to the point of bulging biceps, and his wife Melody who was dressed only in a demi bra and panties and who was sitting on her heels on a small pillow in the corner.