Writes of Submission (17 page)

“I’ll just darken it up a little and unfocus your face,” he told Kane, coming forward to show them the last few. “That was really hot, guys.”

“It was,” Kane agreed, shifting the bulge in his pants. Nikki tried not to notice, but she couldn’t deny that she was dripping wet. Between the rope, which somehow raised her body temperature at least ten degrees, and the heat of Kane’s hands on her, she was sure she was about to pass out or maybe burst into flames.

“It’s probably about time for lunch,” Dante said as Kane began unwinding the rope from around Nikki.

“Already?” Nikki stared at him. She wouldn’t have thought more than ten minutes had passed.

Kane beckoned to Dante and showed him the correct way to bundle and tie the rope. Nikki tried to pick up a piece as well, but Kane waved her off. “You should sit down for a few minutes,” he said. “You never know how subspace is going to affect you.”

“I am cold,” Nikki agreed, suddenly aware that she was shivering. Kane put an arm around her shoulders and led her to the couch. There were blankets piled nearby and he covered her with one before bringing her a cup of water.

She sipped it, grateful for the warmth of the cover and the chance to relax. She hadn’t realized how much something like that could take out of her. “What’s subspace?”

Kane had gone back to winding his ropes. “Subspace is an altered state of mind that many submissives go into during scenes. It has been described as a floating feeling, tethered to or having a sense of a spiritual unity with the Dominant.”

“Cosmic,” Dante muttered.

Nikki watched Kane turn an amused glance on him. “Wow. Did you really just say that?”

She smiled to herself, leaning back and closing her eyes to rest them. Just for a minute.

* * * *

Dante put the last of the ropes back in Allie’s duffel bag and turned to see that Kane had picked Nikki up from the couch. She mumbled something, then jerked awake.

“What—Oh, sorry. Guess I fell asleep.” She reached up to rub her eyes. Kane grinned at Dante as he tossed over the blanket. “Could you refold that, please?”

“Sure.” Dante tamped down an irritated thought that Kane was getting to have all the fun. He made sure everything was back the way they’d found it, retrieved the lace dress and then followed Kane and Nikki to the barn door.

She seemed to be wiggling, trying to extricate herself from Kane’s embrace. “You can put me down.”

“I’m not sure I want to.” Kane shoved the door open with his foot and began carrying her up the gentle slope to the house.

“Really,” she protested, her voice getting stronger and her legs, at least, squirming harder. “You don’t have to carry me.”

“Ah, but now you could write more convincingly about the big, manly Dom picking up the heroine and carrying her off to ravage.” Kane’s voice was joking, but he stopped suddenly, waiting for Dante to catch up. “Sorry, dude. Did you want a turn with the ravaging?”

“Sure.” His irritation vanished immediately. Kane apparently had a sense of fair play. Dante stepped up and took the struggling woman into his embrace, passing over the camera and dress.

“Thank goodness.” Kane rubbed his shoulders and upper arms. “I think I did permanent damage during your fiendish persecution of us yesterday.”

Dante laughed and shifted Nikki, who was staring at Kane with a horrified expression. Suddenly she wrenched herself so hard she nearly ripped his arms off getting down.

“I’m sorry if I hurt you,” she said stiffly to Kane, dusting herself off.

Kane stared at her for a moment and then began laughing. “That’s not what I meant, you silly wench.”

“No? What did you mean?” She tilted her head up with what was apparently meant to be a haughty and dignified expression.

Dante decided that the big, bad Dom thing might be fun to experiment with. He scooped her up so that she was draped over his shoulder, a firm grip on her legs. “What he meant was that the yoga ‘that’s for girls’ was harder than he thought. He needs to be in better shape if he’s going to start carrying ladies off to be ravaged.”

He marched back to the house with Nikki sputtering in frustration and Kane chuckling behind them.

Lunch was waiting when they had all changed back into normal clothes. Allie was sitting at the dining room table, waiting as well. “I thought I’d have lunch with you and we can talk about tonight’s play party.”

Dante grinned as he plopped himself down and began scooping casserole onto his plate. “Fantastic. What are we doing?”

“I was hoping you would tell me that.” Allie looked a little embarrassed. “We talked about doing a kinky food party, and we’ve got some subs lined up who are willing to be used for it—”

“Wait, what?” Nikki stared. “Be used how?”

“Naked subs lie down on the table and food is served on them,” Allie told her as she passed the rolls around. “We need to go early, though, and do the pictures as everything is being set up. We can’t take pictures in the dungeon once people start arriving.”

“I’ve been to one of those,” Kane said. “It can be really artistic. How are you going to use it, Dante?”

Dante thought about it. “I’m not really sure. Could one of you do a blog post tomorrow on the party? Then we’ll have the fact that there was a kinky food party, the fact that Candee Appelbaum was there with her mystery lover-partner, and her take on it.”

“So you’re doing the reveal of Candee’s new partner?” Allie asked.

“I thought I’d do that as a big Pinterest and blog thing tomorrow,” Dante said. “If you want to write a little article about sexy food, I can probably get it out there separately. That wouldn’t hurt, and would be a great way to start tying the two audiences together. We want to start getting Allie’s fans and Candee’s fans to be looking at both blogs. This is really good, by the way.”

“Thanks.” Allie nodded thoughtfully. “I could do that. But not today. Today I’ve got to get the food ready. Did you have anything special in mind?”

“There’s the usual chocolate and whipped cream kind of thing,” Dante said slowly.

Allie nodded. “I was thinking of having one ‘station’ where people could write on the submissive’s body with strawberries and melted chocolate, and then either lick or wipe it off.”

Kane filled his plate. “Of course there’s sushi. That’s always a nice decorative addition.”

Allie took a notebook out of her pocket and began scribbling. “Sushi, of course. That goes well with the vegetable theme, too.”

“What about insertibles?” Kane said. “You could use all kinds of things for insertions. Grapes, bananas, cucumbers…”

Dante nodded. “That would be kinky all right, but we really couldn’t post pictures of it.”

Nikki spoke up, in an excited but timid voice. “What about some kind of dip in the shape of a penis?”

They all stared at her. “That’s a great idea,” Allie said slowly, tapping the pen against her chin and thinking. “It could be on a small plate on someone’s stomach or back with crackers around it for people to dip into.”

“Sure.” Dante nodded enthusiastically. “That would be both suggestive and photographable, without being too explicit. That’s the exact kind of thing we need.”

“See, we’ll make a pervert of you yet,” Kane said, grinning as Nikki blushed.

“It is kind of fun,” she admitted, looking embarrassed but pleased with herself.

“I do like the idea of spreads and dips,” Allie said, finishing her casserole and getting up. “It’s the perfect venue for vegetables and not the same old thing like the chocolate and whipped cream would be. I’m going to go make a grocery list. Thanks, guys.”

Nikki grinned happily as Allie disappeared into the kitchen. “You know, I think I could get into this stuff. I’m too old to really participate, but—”

Dante was about to protest when Kane suddenly cleared his throat loudly, cutting off what Nikki was saying. “For the record,” he said, leveling a Dom-like gaze on her, “if we’re going to… work together, you are not allowed to make those kinds of comments.”

She looked genuinely confused. “But I only said I was too—”

“Stop.” He slapped the table. “I heard what you said and it is not acceptable. Are you breathing?”

“Yes.” Her eyebrows furrowed.

“Then you are not too old to go to the dungeon and have fun. If I—If you want to do things like get naked and have people scrape salmon dip off your body with pita chips, or whatever Allie has in mind, then we—you will do it. Nobody there will pass any kind of judgments on you and you are not allowed to pass them on yourself. Do you understand?”

She glanced at Dante. He lifted his shoulders a little.

“Nobody wants to see me do that.” Nikki gave a little laugh.

“I don’t know.” Kane’s voice went down a notch. “I’m tempted to order you to do it tonight so you can write later about how it felt.”

The fork she’d been raising to her mouth fell, clattering on her plate. She stared at Kane, her eyes wide with what looked like horror. “You wouldn’t!”

He gave her a mischievous smile. “I might. How badly do you want to write?”

“Oh, no. That’s not fair. Have you done it?”

“I’ve spent my time bottoming for scenes,” he said. “Any good Dom will have experienced the kinds of play he likes to dish out, if you’ll pardon the expression. I may not have lain on a table spread with food—which wouldn’t be nearly as appetizing on me as it would on you, believe me—but I’ve been naked in a dungeon a few times.”

Dante watched Nikki’s face. She seemed to be weighing Kane’s words and deciding how offended she was by the idea that he might order her to do something like that. He decided to jump in. “Besides, I think you’d look really hot,” he said, trying to sound flirtatious but not creepy. “I’d go back for seconds. You’re not too old to play. You’re beautiful.”

“Don’t be silly.” Her lips twitched as if she wanted to smile, but she ducked her head over her plate as if she were concentrating on the food she’d almost spilled. “I’m at least ten years older than you two, and not exactly the type to go strutting around naked.”

“You’re not older than me,” Dante told her. “I’m thirty-two.”

“I’m thirty-eight.” Nikki said it without looking up, as if she was admitting to something incredibly shameful.

“Since we’ve got true confessions going on here, I’m thirty-three,” Kane said. “But it doesn’t make any difference at all. Why should it? There’s no reason you shouldn’t go strutting around the club naked if you want to. Everybody would appreciate you for what you are, a strong, attractive woman who is willing to share her beauty with her friends. Even the ones who are, shall we say, not top model potential have their own beauty and we all appreciate the fact that they’re brave enough to put themselves out there. In a lot of ways I have more respect for the women who aren’t perfect but are willing to please their partners by showing their bodies anyway. It shows a lot of acceptance and trust for their Doms and their community. If you know everyone’s going to be lusting after you, it’s one thing to take off your clothes. It’s a completely different prospect when you know you’re not the sexiest one in the room.”

“I can see that,” Dante said. “But I still say you
would
be the sexiest one in the room, Nikki.”

He still couldn’t completely see her expression, but Dante could have sworn that Nikki’s face broke into a smile.

Chapter 15

Nikki climbed out of Kane’s car and turned to look at it. “What kind of car is this again?”

“This, my dear, is a 2012 Audi S5 convertible. Have you ever seen a sexier car that still sits four?”

“It looks expensive.” She ran a finger along the hood.

“It is. About sixty thousand. It was my reward when my latest book hit the top ten on Amazon’s movers and shakers list. It was the twelfth one to do that and I felt I deserved a present. I had to wait an extra month for them to find one in this shade of green, but it was worth it.”

“You could have gotten ten of my car for that.”

“True. But come on, look at this one. It looks more than ten times better than most cars on the road.”

“I guess. Just seems kind of wasteful to me.”

Kane shook his head. “Whatever. Looks like he’s ready for us. We’d best get over there.”

Nikki followed his gaze toward the entrance of the club. Dante was coming out the door holding a camera. Her breath caught. He was wearing a dark kilt with black leather boots. A skin-tight sleeveless black T-shirt molded to his broad chest. When she finally dragged her eyes back to his face, she could see that he had his long blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. It reminded her of the pictures of the old Viking warriors. The only thing out of place was the camera in his hands instead of an oversized axe.

He came to a stop just in front of her, frowning at her expression. “Are you okay? Do I look that bad? Allie helped me pick these out, but if you don’t like them…”

“Oh, uh, yeah. I’m fine,” she stammered. “Don’t you dare change a thing. You’re gorgeous.” For the first time she noticed that his upper right arm, the part normally hidden by his sleeve, was covered in the intricate pattern of a Celtic knotwork tribal tattoo. She ran a hand over the art, murmuring, “It’s beautiful.”