Camellia (5 page)

"Because Natasha takes responsibility for Lillian completely, she won't allow Lillian to be viewed in the manner that you will be tomorrow. Being exposed in such a way, on display for hundreds, if not thousands, of people is something that Lillian would never wish to experience, and that Natasha would never want her to," Lucy explained to her, hoping it would make sense to her now.

Danny shrugged. "All right. So I guess that makes sense. Kind of. Lillian is shy and Natasha wants to protect her. Right?"

"That's the simplest way to explain a complex relationship between two people, but if that's what that makes sense to you, then use it. As you'll meet both of them tomorrow, I believe that the dynamics in their relationship will make more sense to you once you see them in person," Lucy told her.

"Have you ever had a slave?" Danny asked after a long moment in which they both drank their tea. Lucy's was nearly cold and quite close to being empty, but she found that she didn't want to call for more and disturb the moment she was having with Danny.

Lucy shook her head and smiled at Danny over the rim of her teacup. "No. Far from it. I prefer to have the women in my bed, while being submissive to me, to still retain some level of autonomy that is not awarded to slaves and toys. In short, submissive sexual partners are enjoyable to me, and even taking care of their every need is sometimes pleasurable, but I don't want someone that I have to care for day in and day out. I consider myself a caring person, but I also fully accept my selfish tendencies. I believe wanting time for myself is human. Natasha and Lillian have found something deeper than I've ever experienced, or have wanted to. I don't question their love for each other or Natasha's devotion to caring for Lillian's every need."

Danny wore a soft blush on her cheeks, and Lucy wondered at its origin. "So … I guess a lot of guys are going to be staring at my ass in this outfit?"

Lucy smiled at the crudeness of Danny's words as well as the lightness in her tone. Danny wasn't as upset by Lucy's revelations as some people would be, even if she wasn't comfortable with them, and that was a good sign. "Oh, naturally. I'm sure there will be men, as well as women, that will be interested in you. But while we're there you will be under my protection. I have a ribbon that I'll tie loosely around your neck, and I will wear the same color on my wrist. Other people will use other means of communicating their statuses while we're there, but this is the simplest one. The ribbon will show that you aren't available to anyone while you are at the convention, and people will not test that. They can, and will, look. But they won't take things further than that unless you choose to give them permission. As you will be employed for the duration of the weekend, I don't see that being a problem. Do you?"

Danny quickly shook her head. "I've got no interest in hooking up at the conference."

Well, that was certainly decisive. "When I pick you up tomorrow morning at seven, please be ready to leave. You won't be wearing shoes for the most part tomorrow, but pack a pair of comfortable dark colored heels in case you want to walk around the conference at all during your breaks or lunch. If you want me to accompany you during these times I can, but I won't require you to be by my side the entire time if you wish to explore a bit on your own. Keep your hair natural and your makeup minimal, since it will have to be adjusted for every costume you wear."

Lucy got to her feet and motioned for Danny to follow her as she made her way to the front door of her shop. It had been dark for a while now, and the old-fashioned lamp posts outside glowed bright in the wintery gloom. "Thank you for coming tonight. It was good to speak with you again before the conference," Lucy said, her hand resting on the front door of her shop.

Danny gave her a little smile. "Yeah. You too. Big day tomorrow."

Lucy nodded. "Yes, it is. Oh, and one more thing, Danny."

"Yes?"

"While we are at the conference, please address me as 'mistress', as that is what will be expected at this convention, and in all honesty is something I prefer as well," Lucy asked of her, keeping her voice firm. It wasn't really a request, but Lucy wouldn't force the issue if Danny flatly refused to go for it either.

Danny gave her a little shrug. "Sure thing. Bring the crop?"

There was a lightness in her voice and a flare of a challenge in her gaze that made Lucy stop short. Danny gave her a little wave over her shoulder as she turned and walked out of the shop, leaving Lucy staring after her. Lucy wondered if Danny could have possibly meant what she hoped she was saying with her farewell.

Danny felt her face heat as she walked briskly to her car. What had she been thinking, bringing up the crop? Why had she mentioned it at all? It wasn't her place to dictate to her employer what could and couldn't be used in a, god, a kinky leather-and-lace Japanese tea ceremony demonstration. And wow, how was this her life? Danny was suddenly really glad that she hadn't gone into a lot of detail with her dad about this particular job.

She checked her mirrors, then pulled out into the slushy road. Danny drove carefully, trying not to think about why she was a little disappointed that she hadn't gotten to do an actual tea ceremony tonight. Dalton had sent her home with a simple tea set last week, and Danny had done at least one ceremony a day, usually after watching a new video so she could try to incorporate different things and see which ones felt right. She had been looking forward to showing Lucy how much she'd improved, that she could be counted on to take the job seriously after she almost screwed up the interview. She'd videotaped herself doing one that she thought was her best and emailed the short movie to Lucy to get her approval a few days before. She'd received a simple "Acceptable" in reply, which was less than she would have liked to get as far as praise went, but she guessed it was better than nothing.

And maybe … maybe she had also been looking forward to the correction, just a little bit. The memory of the soft tab of leather at the end of the crop trailing over her skin, smooth and promising, and the sudden, invigorating snap of the crop across the curve of her ass …

The car behind Danny honked insistently, snapping her out of her reverie. Danny pulled forward and resisted the urge to flip the bird at the SUV that pulled around her and roared past, still honking its horn. That fucker would be stuck in a ditch before the night was out if he kept up at that speed, and Danny felt absolutely okay with that.

She finally pulled in at her family's townhouse, just a couple blocks from the garage where most of them worked, with a sigh of relief. Danny didn't care for driving in the snow, not when she couldn't afford snow tires. Her dad had been on her to upgrade, but she just hadn't been able to yet, and she wasn't going to let him pay for anything else for her. He had enough to deal with.

Danny opened the front door and was immediately met with calls of, "Jesus, shut that, it's fuckin' freezing out there, are you crazy?" Danny was the second of her dad's four kids, the only girl in a house full of boys, and they were all living with him, now that Zach was back from his second tour overseas. His leave was over in a week, but with him here now, and Neil's live-in fiancée all crammed into the three-bedroom house, it was a very tight fit.

"Hey, honey," Danny's dad called from his recliner. His cane was propped against the wall, and he had a can of Bud Light in his hand. "How was your meeting?"

"Good," Danny replied. "All set for tomorrow."

"Great, that's great."

"You're blocking the TV," Danny's youngest brother Clint said irritably. "If I wanted to see your ass, I'd go look you up online."

"Gross," Zach said.

"Jesus, Clint, the hell is wrong with you?" Neil added. "You don't look up your own sister's porn, that's disgusting."

"I don't do porn," Danny said for the thousandth time. "And, oh, is my ass in your way? Sorry, how about now?" She backed up toward Clint. "Can you see the screen now? How about now?"

"Get that out of my face!" Clint shrieked.

"Kids!" her dad snapped. "Knock it off. Jesus. You need dinner, honey?"

"She doesn't need dinner, look at the size of her ass," Clint muttered. Neil threw an empty beer can at his head. "Ouch!"

"I already ate," Danny said. "Thanks, though." She went over to her dad and kissed his whiskery cheek, then glared over at her brothers. "Neil, tell me your pregnant fiancée isn't doing dishes in the kitchen by herself right now. Tell me you guys aren't an enormous bag of dicks, letting the one woman in the house do all your goddamn dishes by herself."

"Language; don't call your brothers dicks," her dad warned.

"She offered," Neil said weakly.

"Jackasses," Danny snapped, and headed for the kitchen. Sure enough, there was Lauren, up to her elbows in suds, her T-shirt wet where her round belly was pressed against the edge of the sink. She looked over at Danny and smiled.

"I did offer," Lauren said mildly.

"Yeah, well, they should have offered to let you sit down and put your feet up instead of making you stand here like this," Danny said, slipping off her leather jacket and pushing up her sleeves. She started rinsing the dishes that had been scrubbed and laying them in the rack to dry. "I'll take care of this. Go sit down."

"I really don't mind. Besides, Neil and I are moving into our own apartment this weekend, so after this I'll have a lot less to do."

Danny blinked with surprise. "You guys found a place?"

"Just today," Lauren said happily. "It's not far from here, still close to the garage, but it'll be a good place for us to spread out a little when the baby comes."

"Congratulations," Danny said, really meaning it. Neil and Lauren had been living with them for almost six months, ever since Neil lost his job. Dad had been able to give him work, but it hadn't paid enough for them to afford an apartment on their own until the bad-weather rush brought the garage more business than they could handle.

"Thanks, Danny."

"Now seriously, go sit down. I've got this."

"If you're sure …"

"Totally sure. Go make those jackasses scoot over for you on the couch."

"
You're
a jackass!" Clint called out.

"Language, you two!" her dad yelled.

Lauren rolled her eyes and headed into the living room, where Zach gave up his spot for her so she could settle in against Neil. Danny turned back to the dishes and started scrubbing with a vengeance. She must have done this hundreds of times over the past few years after their dishwasher had given out and Dad had never bothered to get it fixed. Someday Danny would be successful enough to move the hell out of here, and that would be a beautiful day.

The dishes didn't take long, although she had to let the lasagna pan soak for a while. Danny dried the plates and put them away methodically, feeling a little pang in her heart when she realized that there was only one of her mother's pretty blue china plates left in the cabinet. There used to be a dozen, part of the set that Grandma had bought Mom and Dad for their wedding, but after almost thirty years of abuse and breakage, they were down to the last one. The teacups and saucers had been the first things to go. Danny had squirreled a set away once she'd seen Zach take out three of them at once with a badly aimed football back when she was fifteen. The last little hints of her mother's delicate, feminine touches in this house full of testosterone were almost gone.

"You going out tonight?"

Danny started and looked up, seeing Zach standing in the door. She and Zach were the closest in age, with Danny just eleven months older than he was. They'd been inseparable as kids, and Zach was the only one in her family who hadn't given her a ton of shit when Danny came out. They'd just gone girl-watching together. It was hard having him stationed so far away.

"Nah, not in this weather," Danny said, although she was still buzzing with energy from her meeting with Lucy earlier. "Think I'll just go downstairs. I've got a few things left to do to get ready for tomorrow."

"Yeah?" Zach sat down at the kitchen table. "This job is a pretty big deal, then?"

Oh, you don't even know.
"Yeah," Danny said. "Pretty big. I want it to go well."

"I get that." He looked at her for a long moment. "You okay?" he asked finally, his voice low enough that it couldn't be heard over the television. "You've been a little jumpy all week."

"I know," Danny admitted. "Sorry if it's been annoying."

"I'm not annoyed, I'm just wondering if I've gotta go beat someone up for you."

The thought of her brother going and confronting Lucy, prim and proper and gorgeous Lucy with her accent and those heels and the crop in her hand … it made Danny smile. "Nah, it's nothing bad. I'm just—actually, I'm kind of excited. I feel like I've got …"
a chance at something I didn't even know I wanted
, "… a real opportunity here, and I don't want to blow it."

"You won't blow it," Zach said confidently. "You're great at this stuff. All the guys in my unit bought your car calendar, and trust me, they agree."

"Oh my god,
what
?"