Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Thayer
I don’t trust that things are going as planned.
Someone fucked up. Maybe even played me.
I didn’t call for a meeting. I have no guests arriving. I don’t forget things like that.
So I’m distracted when I lead Savannah to the private suite I’ve planned to take her to.
“Hey,” Savannah whispers.
I sigh. I will never bring this girl out in public again without a gag. She’s going to end up over my knee before she goes to bed tonight.
“What did I tell you about talking?” I say in a low voice. “Is this an emergency?”
“Does having to pee qualify as an emergency?” she asks, tipping her head adorably even while blindfolded.
I grit my teeth. “Do you have to use the bathroom?”
“Well, no, but I wondered.”
“Savannah.” She flinches as if I struck her.
“Why do you talk to me like that?” she hisses.
“Like what?”
“Like you’re scolding me as if I’m a child.”
“Because you’re acting like a child,” I hiss back.
Her jaw drops as if she’s shocked. “I am not! That isn’t true.”
I’m in a club that I own and manage. I’m a well-respected dominant and master, who’s just brought in a woman masquerading as my slave. If she makes anyone suspect that she isn’t truly my slave, she’ll put herself in danger. It’s a red flag.
I could punish her right here. I could take my belt to her ass and make her obey. I will, but now isn’t the time. Right now, I need her to stop talking. And if she won’t obey me on her own, I’ll have to make her.
I pause long enough to untie her hands, but only so I can remove her top.
“Hey!”
I flick it over her head, twist it into a rope, then loop it around her mouth. With her hands free, she slaps at my arms to stop me. I restrain her wrists and pull them behind her back. When they’re secured, I bend her over my knee and give her a handful of good, hard spanks.
“The next time you raise your hand to me, I’ll bare your ass before I punish you,” I say, nice and loud for anyone nearby to hear.
I stand her upright, fully aware of her protests mumbled under the gag as I drag her along.
We need privacy, and now. It’s been a long, long night and neither of us is in the mood to drag this out any longer than it needs to be.
The right thing to do would be to put her in a suite under high security, with monitors and a team of guards.
I don’t always do the right thing. Hell, I rarely do the right thing.
I open the door while she chatters on and on behind the gag. I shut and lock it. With decades of experience under my belt, I would’ve thought I could handle her protests better than I have.
I let her get under my skin.
I scan the room and make a call.
“I want six guards stationed outside my suite.”
“Yes, sir. Of course, sir.”
I hang up the phone. It’s not out of the ordinary that we have a high-profile guest. It’s one of the reasons why Le Luxe is so exclusive and profitable.
We charge a premium for security and anonymity, including having well-equipped guards available at a moment’s notice.
The public playrooms have guards in every corner, and we screen our clients so carefully, we’ve never had so much as a single incident of misconduct.
I let out a breath. Finally.
We’re alone.
I imagined this.
Savannah tied up and ready for my use. At my command. Ready to be mastered.
Only in my fantasy, she was here because she wanted to be, not spitting mad like a feral cat.
“We’re alone now. This room is soundproof and remote. We have guards stationed outside. You’re safe.”
Her shoulders relax a tiny bit.
“Now that we’re alone, we have to set a few things straight. I’m going to take off your blindfold, restraints, and gag.”
I don’t give her an ultimatum.
Yet.
First, the blindfold.
Light smolders in her beautiful eyes, even as they snap at me. Unfathomable beauty, intelligence, and brilliance all spark in her eyes. I long to soften her gaze. To soothe her anger. To bring out the submissive I know lurks inside her.
She’s still gagged and bound, so I take a minute to admire her.
“You look lovely as a brunette,” I murmur.
“Mmpph.”
I pretend I know exactly what she says. “Very clever. And you’re welcome.”
“Mmmph!”
I won’t waste any more of my time or hers. It's time to make this woman obey me. She needs to learn her place, for her own damn good.
I grab the knot at the back of her head so I can unfasten the gag.
“Now listen, Savannah,” I whisper in her ear, “I’m talking this gag off.
There will be plenty of time for you to ask me questions and for us to talk.
But it’s late, and we need to get to bed.
It’s best if we get some sleep and discuss this in the morning.
You need to understand, though. We’re here for your safety.
And to make this work, you need to be sure that you’re in your role.
Your role here is my slave. You’ll obey me. If you don’t, I’ll punish you.”
I whip off the gag.
“How many times are you going to say that?” she seethes.
I grab her chin in my hand and squeeze. Her eyes widen. “As many times as it fucking takes.”
“You are so full of yourself,” she says through clenched teeth.
“Your point?”
“Argh!”
“Now whether or not you go to bed with a sore ass is up to you. You’re not mine. We’ve covered what that means. But since you’re under my protection and in my care, I’ll hold you to certain standards.”
She nods with narrowed eyes.
“I’ll expect you to show respect to me. I’ll expect you to defer to my authority and do what I say. I’ll expect you to submit yourself to discipline, and for all intents and purposes, behave like my slave when we’re out in public.”
“And in private?”
“In private, you’ll treat me like the fucking man who’s going to save your life. Got it?”
Though she still fumes, she knows there’s no way she can get away with anything now. We’re in my home. We’re on my terms. She’s under my protection. And Savannah’s a smart girl.
She heaves out a sigh. “Got it.”
I wonder if she’s as innocent and pure as I suspect.
Is she a virgin?
I can’t help but wonder if a part of her, deep down, wants this. Does she know how intensely erotic it can be?
I wonder if she can feel the way I’m mentally undressing her. Dominating her. Envisioning her parted lips and tortured plea, begging for me to allow her to come as lust trumps her protests and she grows desperate—
I can’t do this.
Fuck all.
She’s Nicolette’s sister.
My own angry gaze meets hers as I reach for the restraints at her wrists.
“Behave yourself when I unfasten these. They were for show at first, but now I want to be completely sure you don’t do anything that will jeopardize us.”
“Fine,” she grates out. “I won’t.”
I want to tease her a little more while she’s still under my control.
“Ask me nicely.”
“You son of a bitch—”
“Savannah.” She clamps her lips shut at the warning in my tone.
I hold her hands in mine. “I said,” I repeat, holding her gaze. “Ask me nicely.”
“Or you’ll just leave me bound like this?”
“Yes.”
“Ha!” she says humorlessly, despite the look of triumph in her eyes. “You know you can’t.” She thrusts her chin in the air, as if to defy me. “How will I wipe my ass?”
I thread my fingers through her hair and cup the back of her head in my palm. “I’ve had slaves cuffed and bound for days,” I say in a low voice. “Trust me. You find a way to do what you have to. It’s nowhere near out of the question.”
I watch as the glint of victory in her eyes fades. When she licks her lips, I find myself staring, enraptured. Her mouth is perfect, so fucking perfect.
Begging to be defiled.
I tighten my grip on her hair until she hisses in a breath and tips her head back. She stifles a little cry.
“You don’t know what you’re playing with, Savannah,” I whisper.
I kiss her cheek, her nose, her temple. When her eyes flutter closed, I kiss her lids, then tip her head down so I can kiss her forehead.
With a finger under her chin, I lift her face to meet mine and brush my lips across each cheek before I move my mouth to the side of her jaw.
I kiss my way down her neck to where her pulse quickens, then lick my way from her neck to her collarbone, to the valley between her breasts.
I reach for her wrists and tug them backward. Her perfect, round breasts heave when she tightens her shoulder blades. I bend down and kiss the hardened buds of her nipples through her top.
With every taste of her, the part of my conscience that tells me to stop grows harder and harder to hear.
Fabien will kill me.
I push the thought away as quickly as it comes.
Fabien who?
I tug the restraints at her wrists and pull them off in one firm motion.
I expect her to shove me away, but she doesn’t. Hesitating at first, she finally wraps her arms around my neck. I groan in her ear before I can stop myself. The way she feels is perfection, like she was meant to be here.
“How much of this do you want to try, Thayer?” she whispers in my ear.
She doesn’t want this. She doesn’t even know what it means to submit to me. Savannah’s innocent and na?ve, and only a bastard would take advantage of her.
I never said I was a good man.
I suspect that her curiosity is what makes her say this, and that if she really knew what she was asking she would run.
Savannah’s under my protection.
She’s in my club.
"Try?" I reply, my voice thick with lust. My need for her overrides everything. “This isn’t a game. We’re not playing, Savannah.” I spread my hands across her thighs, pulling her to me.
She makes a low sound of approval that only spurs me on.
“While you’re here, you're mine. I won't risk anyone finding out who you are or putting you in danger because they suspect who you really are.
" I pull back just enough that I can look in her eyes.
"What does it mean to be a slave?” she whispers.
"It depends on who’s the master.”
Her beautiful eyes stare at me. She licks her lips.
"What does it mean to be your slave?" she amends.
I cup the back of her head and hold her gaze.
I want her to know this. To feel this. “It means that I take care of you. It means that you do everything I say, not just because I like control but because I take care of your every need. It means you embrace serving me, and I serve you by taking control.” I run my thumb along her lower lip, memorizing the soft, warm feel of her skin.
I want to taste her so badly my mouth waters.
“It means that I expect complete obedience.
That you are subject to my discipline if you disobey. "
She doesn't speak. I take her wrists in my hands to massage where the restraints bit into her until her flesh is warm to the touch.
She licks her lips and swallows. Fear? Apprehension?
Desire?
“If I don’t pretend to be your slave, people will know I don’t belong here.”
I nod. “Yes.” Even though I want her, even though I crave her, this much is true.
“They know what you do in private?”
I pause so I think before I give her my honest answer. I won’t lie to her. “They don’t. But submission isn’t something you can just put on and take off, Savannah. The more you practice, the better you’ll get. If you’re only obedient to me in public, the ruse will be up.”
One of us will slip.
She quirks an eyebrow up at me. “Are you sure you’re not just saying that so you can do whatever the fuck you want with me?”
I feel a slow smile spread across my face. “Not at all.”