Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Avery
With all the drama that had almost erupted between Q and Sam, everything else was almost anticlimactic after that.
When Morgan and Connor introduced themselves, was it her imagination, or did Nick squeeze her hand a little tighter?
Maybe because she couldn’t stop staring at Connor.
She’d just never seen someone so tall and muscular in real life.
He was built like a linebacker or maybe a book cover model… for a really raunchy book.
They barely got introductions out of the way before Freddy returned with Master Law and Mistress Julie.
Avery sat up a little straighter in her seat as the teachers came in.
Yeah, technically, it wasn’t her class, but she still wanted to make a good impression, and both of them were intimidating as hell.
Avery had met them both Master before. Master Law’s real name was Lawrence, and he was a lawyer, which had led to the submissives dubbing him Master Law.
From what Domi and Rae told her, he’d tried to fight it but had eventually given in rather than attempting to punish every submissive in the club.
Actually, she was surprised he hadn’t been able to stamp it out.
Not that he wasn’t intimidating. He was.
A bit taller than her, Filipino, a little grizzled, even though she was pretty sure he was only in his early forties, when he scowled, it was enough to make her want to hit the floor with her knees.
There was just something too catchy about the nickname—and it fit him.
Domi and Rae had told her he had a bit of a reputation as a hardass.
Rather than leathers or fetwear, he was dressed in a dark blue suit with a striped blue-and-cream tie, which would fit right in at his office.
Mistress Julie was shorter than Avery by several inches, in her early thirties, and was as scary as Olivia.
Her Japanese ancestry was clear in her features and the incredible length of long, straight black hair that hung nearly to her waist. Rae had whispered that when Mistress Julie put her hair in a ponytail, smart submissives ran for cover.
When she patted Freddy’s cheek and smiled at him before he went to sit down in the last empty chair, he looked as though he might melt of happiness on the spot.
Unlike Master Law, she had chosen to go full fet-wear, dressed in a shiny and slick catsuit that gleamed under the lights.
Except for a large keyhole to show off a hint of cleavage, it covered her from her neck to her knee-high, laced-up boots with a spiked heel.
When the two Dominants got on the stage, looking over the semi-circle of students in front of them, Avery pressed her hands and legs together and sat very, very still, clutching Nick’s hand between hers.
If she had any doubts whether Nick was a Dom, it was cleared up when he glanced at her, clearly confused why she was freaking out. Obviously, they weren’t having the same reaction to the Dominants in front of them.
“Hello everyone, and welcome to the Introduction to Dominance course provided by Stronghold and Marquis.” Mistress Julie’s voice was cool and composed, but she smiled like a shark, her dark eyes glinting with sadistic anticipation.
Nick was stupid if he wasn’t at least a little scared.
Nick
“You have suspension down as a hard limit. Why is that?” Nick asked, trying to keep his eyes focused on the woman in front of him rather than where Avery was sitting with the massive Dom.
Even though she was his partner for the class, for today’s activity—practicing getting to know their partner and talking about limits—the submissives were rotating through each of the Dominants so they could have four chances to work on communication with different people.
Not that Iris seemed submissive to him.
She was sitting back in the chair, now facing him, arms crossed over her chest, one booted foot bouncing up and down where her ankle was resting on her knee.
Everything about her body language screamed, ‘I don’t want to be here.
’ Fair enough. Nick didn’t want to be here either—at least, not with her.
“I don’t like being tied up and hung out to dry,” she said sardonically. It took Nick’s brain a moment to register what she said, then he chuckled, yanking his gaze back to her. A tiny smile played on her lips. “Having trouble concentrating, Sir?”
“A little.” He wasn’t ashamed to admit it.
He was learning how to be a Dom for Avery and with Avery.
Not to have to watch her be interviewed and talk about her sexual likes and dislikes with three other Dominants, even if one of them was a hetero woman who would have no interest in her.
He was supposed to be giving this his all, and it wasn’t fair to Iris or the other submissives to let his attention be so easily swayed—especially if he was going to be the best student in the class.
“I’m sorry for my distraction. So, you don’t like being tied up at all or only if you’re going to be suspended.”
The way Iris’ lips pressed together made him think it was more the former, but he wasn’t sure she would admit it. Bondage was not listed as a hard limit on her sheet. She shrugged her shoulder as if she didn’t care.
“It’s not a huge turn-on for me, but it’s fine if that’s what you want to do.”
Hmmm, definitely something there she didn’t want to talk about.
For the first time, Nick understood some of the reading material that had been sent home with him.
His instincts were telling him there was something Iris was hiding, and even though she wasn’t his submissive, and he had his own submissive, he wanted to get to the bottom of it.
It also made him wonder if there were things Avery had on her list that she wasn’t talking about.
She would be the last interview he did. Master Law and Mistress Julie had explained they wanted everyone to talk last to the partner they’d be working with the most, so they had some practice beforehand.
Inwardly, Nick had scoffed at the idea. He knew Avery so well at this point, he wasn’t worried about interviewing her. Now, he was wondering if maybe he’d made that judgment a little too soon.
Part of him wanted to keep questioning Iris, but he wasn’t going to be her Dom, and it wasn’t his place.
That was something else Master Law and Mistress Julie had made clear.
Issues were for long-term partners to work on together, not short-term play partners.
If you started working on an issue with a submissive, you needed to see it through.
That would not be Nick with Iris, but he hoped she’d find someone because there was definitely something going on there.
“Okay.” He looked down at the list again. “You’ve marked figging as a soft limit. Any reason? Do you have something against ginger?”
Iris groaned, her head falling back. “This is so fucking awkward.”
As if by magic, Master Law appeared beside them. Iris’ head snapped back up, and she straightened in her seat, her jiggling boot coming to an abrupt halt. Damn. Nick wanted to learn how to do that.
“Is there a problem here, Miss Baez?” Master Law’s deep voice was silky smooth and lethally controlled. Nick imagined that was how he sounded in the courtroom.
“Yes, talking about all this stuff with a stranger is really awkward.” Iris lifted her chin defiantly, but Nick noticed she only met Master Law’s gaze for a moment before her eyes dropped to the top of his tie.
“It is.” Master Law nodded. “It’s also necessary if you plan on participating in scenes with strangers. Don’t you think so?” There was something in his voice that made Nick think there was a hidden meaning behind the question.
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Surprisingly, Iris looked at Nick apologetically, sitting up even straighter, her hands dropping into her lap, already appearing more engaged.
Dammit. Why hadn’t he been able to do that?
Had he even been trying? He needed to get his shit together before Avery made her way back around to him. “Sorry, Master Nick. You were saying?”
Nick coughed.
“Uh, is there a reason you have figging as a soft limit?”
This time when Iris shrugged with one shoulder, the attitude behind it was entirely different from previously.
“It sounds really painful?” The lilt in her voice made it sound like she wasn’t actually sure of what she was saying.
“Is that a question or a statement?” Nick’s lips twitched, and he swore he heard Master Law chuckle before the other man turned away.
Iris scowled at him again, but her posture didn’t change, even as Master Law moved back toward where Mistress Julie was standing on the stage.
“I hope you didn’t list figging as a limit, so you can find out for yourself,” she muttered.
That wiped the urge to smile right out of Nick.
Avery
Finally settling down across from Nick again, Avery tried not to feel too nervous, but it was hard. Talking to the other Dominants had been playacting. It had also been kind of fun, getting to know them a little and helping them when they stumbled over questions.
Samantha had had the easiest time of it, probably because she’d already been through the submissive training class.
Q had stumbled over a few things, and she was pretty sure he’d blushed a few times, but he’d gotten through it.
The massive Dom, Connor, was the one who had struggled the most. Avery had wanted to hug him when he’d sagged at the end of their turn, blushing a furious red and rubbing his face like he couldn’t believe some words that had just come out of his mouth.
He was like a massive, muscly teddy bear, and it was so freaking adorable.
She wouldn’t be surprised if he turned out to be a Daddy Dom, service Dom, or something along those lines.
Stern but with a super squishy center. Once he got past his embarrassment, that was.
She was looking forward to watching it happen.
This class was going to be more enjoyable than she’d thought. Though, sitting with Nick, she remembered it was also going to be enjoyable for an entirely different reason.
Sitting in the chair across from him was completely different from the others. He was just as new, but she’d been playacting with them, knowing the questions would lead nowhere, not really caring what they thought of her. None of that applied to how she felt about Nick.
“Hello.” The half-smile on his lips was both welcoming and full of amusement. “Enjoying your evening so far?”
“It’s been pretty good. I think it might have just gotten even better,” she said flirtatiously, handing over her list of limits.
His smile changed from half to a full as he took it from her, glancing at it.
Avery had already shown it to him, but they hadn’t really talked about it.
Not the way she had discussed her limits with the other Doms tonight.
She wasn’t sure what to expect.
Clearing his throat, Nick straightened in his seat.
“For the most part, we have a lot of our limits in common, but I want to make sure I understand why you have the limits you have so I don’t accidentally trigger anything.
” He glanced up at her to check to see what she thought, and Avery agreed, silently impressed.
She was pretty sure before tonight’s class, he wouldn’t have brought it up.
“You have verbal humiliation marked as a hard limit—what does that mean to you?”
“Oh… uh…” Avery blinked. That was something the others hadn’t asked. They’d verified she didn’t want to do name-calling, but they hadn’t asked what she meant by it. “No name-calling. Um, things like that.”
“Can you be more specific?” Nick’s dark eyebrows raised slightly. “‘Things like that’ isn’t very specific. When I talked to some of the other submissives, the examples they gave me weren’t only name-calling. Would you object to being publicly called a naughty girl? Or a bad girl?”
“That’s fine.” Heat flushed through her from top to bottom.
“I guess it’s more like… anything designed to make me feel bad…
well, except…” She stumbled over her words, realizing that wasn’t specific enough either.
Crap. She hadn’t realized until this moment that she’d never tried to explain it to anyone.
“I know that ‘naughty girl’ and ‘bad girl’ seem like they might be that way but… anything that’s truly insulting.
Like telling me, I’m naughty or bad in a scene doesn’t feel like an insult.
It feels like part of the scene. Telling me I’m bad for liking what I like or anything like that… ”
She stared down at her hands, her fingers twisting in her lap.
Everything inside her felt tight and unhappy at even saying it out loud.
The voice in her head sounded exactly like Shannon when Avery had tried to talk to her friend about kink.
It cramped her stomach and made her feel like crying and running.
Ugh. She hadn’t even realized the reason she didn’t like verbal humiliation was it was too close to the things Shannon had actually said to her.
A large, warm hand covered hers and squeezed.
“It’s okay, Avery. I think I understand the difference now. If I’m not sure about something I want to say in a scene, I’ll check with you first.”
“Thank you.” She shook off the heavy emotions pushing at her and refocused on Nick.
“We’ll talk about why you had that reaction eventually, though.”
“It’s because of some things a friend said to me when I told her about being into kink,” Avery said hurriedly.
She did not want him to think it was something bigger than it was.
Not liking verbal humiliation wasn’t uncommon, though she was aware she was a little more sensitive than some subs. “There’s no big secret.”
Nick eyed her for a moment, trying to decide whether or not she was telling the truth, then nodded.
“Okay, let’s continue.”
Later that night, Avery curled up against Nick’s solid body, half-asleep but wanting to be as close to him as possible. He seemed to have the same thought, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. Sleeping, she nuzzled his chest.
After the first class at Marquis, they’d both been turned on, barely making it through her door before they’d torn each other’s clothes off and headed for the bedroom.
It had been vanilla sex, but she knew they’d both been thinking about all the things they’d talked through, all those ‘yes’ checked boxes on their limits list. A lot of her fears about Nick not actually being kinky had been soothed tonight.
He might not be hands-on yet, but he was definitely into it, and she couldn’t wait until they started actually doing.