Hips swaying, head up, arms gracefully flowing with her body's movement, Madison walked forward without any hesitation. The group on the perimeter of the stage closed in on her direction silently, but a foot away from that edge, Logan spoke.
"Stop."
Madison came to a halt, lips parted, fingers slightly curled.
"Turn around and walk toward my voice."
She did. As he began to move around the stage, he spoke to her, one-word commands he would repeat if she got disoriented. She followed, at one point walking so close to the perimeter that even Sam was holding her breath. Someone else brought a chair to the middle of the platform then, and Logan brought her back toward him, bringing her to a halt when she stood before it. He took her hand. "Step up."
She stood on the chair, her back to the audience. Slipping a strap of the chemise off her left shoulder, he adjusted the garment so it was obvious he'd exposed her breast. Logan leaned forward, his hand coming up to curve around Madison's flesh. The act wasn't visible to the audience, but Sam felt a twinge through her own nipple, knowing he was giving Madison's a sweet, easy suckle that had her swaying. He gripped her hip to hold her. When he lifted his head, he slipped the strap back onto her shoulder, covering her again.
As he did that, Troy hoisted himself lithely onstage. He moved around to the other side of the chair, facing Logan. Logan met his gaze.
"Fall backward, baby," he said to Madison.
The crowd let out a collective gasp as she did so without hesitation, a slender tree falling in the forest. Logan caught her, Troy ready on the other side if needed, but she'd fallen directly into his grasp. Troy left the stage again. The performers on the perimeter of the stage left their posts, melting back into the shadows, leaving the audience an unimpeded view of Logan holding Madison in his arms. He shifted her and spoke low, a private communication between Master and sub. Maybe he was wearing a mic, though, because Sam was able to hear the throaty question.
"Are you still with me?"
She nodded, her head against his shoulder. He lowered her to the stage, this time putting her on her hands and knees facing the audience. "Head up," he instructed her. "Tell them why I want you to do that."
"Because I'm always proud to serve my Master. To be seen as yours." Her body shivered then, a hard jerk of reaction, as if she wasn't expecting words like that to come out of her mouth, especially right now, in front of this many people.
The other performances had been by turns arousing, intriguing . . . emotional. But this did as Logan had stated. It showed them what it all truly meant. What was really happening in the Dom's soul, in the sub's heart, through the touch of fire, drip of wax, or sting of the lash. It all connected to this. It was the essence of Geoff and Chris's connection to her, what all the Dom/sub stuff, every touch and word they exchanged, meant. Sam was still perched on her chair like a bird about to take flight. The press of their bodies, the welcome, unrelenting contact of their hands upon her, told her Chris and Geoff felt what Sam was feeling.
Logan dropped to a knee by Madison's head and leaned down. This time whatever he said was muted, perhaps because he put his hand up to his collar and covered the mic, making it just between them. Madison nodded, lips pressing together at the obvious personal reassurance, but it was clear Logan wasn't content to leave it at that. Whatever they were about to do was disrupting her focus, making her a little nervous.
He eased her back on her heels, gripping her wrist to guide her hand to his chest. Threading her fingers inside his open shirt so her palm could rest fully over his heart, he gave her skin-to-skin contact. Though Logan's broad chest, covered with a light mat of gleaming brown hair, was certainly worth an ogle, Sam realized the partly unbuttoned shirt hadn't been an act of vanity, but a vital preparation for this specific moment. He shifted his grip so his hand pressed over Madison's. When she bowed her head, he bent his over it. They held that way for a minute, and Sam could feel her own heartbeat. Thump-thump, thump-thump.
"You're doing so well, baby," he said. Though Sam wasn't sure if he'd intended that to carry, it had, and heated her from head to toe.
Yes, what was happening onstage was the epitome of all she felt and knew about herself, about the relationship between her, Geoff and Chris. But they weren't an exact copy of Madison and Logan, or any of the other Dom/sub relationships here. They were their own unique world, with a language that was different, tailored to their experiences together. She needed an expression of that here and now, her body and soul hungry for it.
Maybe Geoff wasn't as experienced a Dom as Logan, but he picked up on her desires as if they were his own, and maybe they were. He lifted her arm at last, transferring her wrist to the hold of his other hand, which stretched her arm out over his thighs. Sliding beneath her elbow, he reached between her legs. Sam drew in a breath as he pressed a finger under the elastic edge of the silky thong. He dipped and played, making her thighs tremble in their locked-and-spread condition. He pressed in deeper, and she swallowed a noise of pure carnal need. As he withdrew, he gave her inner thigh a brief stroke.
Chris had been watching, so Geoff didn't have to command his attention beyond the lifting of his fingers, glistening with her response. An offer to taste.
He'd left his fingers low enough that when Chris leaned over her, his shoulder and mostly bare side pressed against her arm, his hair brushing her breasts, pillowed high over the corset's hold. It kept their activities from disrupting the view of those behind them, but it also put Chris in a deferential pose toward Geoff. She wasn't sure if he registered that, not until he put his mouth fully over Geoff's two fingers, taking them deep in his mouth. Sam could feel the desire to take over push hard against the wall of Geoff's self-control. Chris's brown eyes gleamed with a feral look that said he relished the challenge.
Sam thought she might forget how to breathe entirely. Especially when Chris took his time licking her taste off Geoff's fingers. The shift of his body rubbed the harness and muscled flesh against her arm, the straps and metal rings cool against her in contrast. As Chris sucked on Geoff's fingers, her Master traced Chris's lips with his thumb, moving outward along his jaw. When he freed his hand and Chris started to lift his head, Geoff dropped down to capture him with a brief, hard clasp of Chris's throat that had her heart stuttering. Her Master held them in momentary stasis, his gaze lit with gold-and-green fire. She remembered what he'd said to her when Chris was changing, about wanting to take, to possess, to have them both on their knees. She saw all of that in his face, and so many other emotions, many of which spilled out of her own heart when Chris, picking up on what Geoff was emoting, turned his head to press a single, hard kiss against Geoff's forearm.
He shifted his gaze back to Geoff's face. Chris's expression was unreadable, but he didn't draw away until Geoff opened his hand. Before sitting back, Chris kissed her, letting her smell herself on his lips. She made a tiny, plaintive noise against him, and he dropped his hand back to her wrist, sliding it to the arm of the chair and holding it there once again as Geoff did the same on the opposite end. A reminder of restraint, of their ownership of her heart, mind and soul. And a way to connect them all once more.
Sam's gaze reluctantly turned back to the stage, only because Geoff directed her attention that way with an imperious nod and a squeeze of his hand. Logan had put Madison back on her hands and knees facing the audience and was rising, obviously more assured now of his sub's state of mind.
"Right now, she's at perfect rest," Logan said, low, not disrupting the hushed suspense of those watching. "She's attentive to my voice, to my desires, because they are aligned with her own. It takes time to get here. This was a simple exercise. There are far more complicated ones. As each of us explore relationships as Doms and subs, there are plenty of times it doesn't go this smoothly. It could have gone that way tonight. She could have taken one extra step and needed the human net I provided to keep her safe. But that wouldn't have ruined anything. It's a chance to adjust, to learn, to becom
e closer." He lifted a brow, his lip quirking. "And an opportunity for me to impose direction or correction."
A small wave of laughter came from the Dominants in the audience. Geoff squeezed Sam's hand, and she remembered that night when he and Chris had punished her to bring her back on course again. It had been painful, her emotions so scattered, but she knew she'd want something like it to happen again. Maybe not for the reasons it had happened that night, but for the thrill of taking punishment, what it would give Geoff and her both. And Chris was definitely getting into it. Good thing she did relish punishment.
Logan stepped behind Madison and dropped to one knee again. Curling a restraining hand on her shoulder, he stretched his other arm out behind her, bringing it forward in an upward sweep. Sam jumped in her seat as he gave Madison's backside a resounding blow. Her generous breasts, partly revealed by the chemise top, quivered. Madison let out a small noise.
"What do you say, Madison?"
"Thank you, sir."
"More?"
"If it pleases my Master."
"I could spank your beautiful ass all day. Nothing would please me more."
The bells on her ankles were making that lovely, shivering music once more as her legs quivered. He gave her three more strikes, and she was taking little nervous licks of her lips by the end. He slid the leggings down, but since she was facing the audience, her nudity was implied rather than revealed. He gave her five more and, when she was curling her fingers into the wood of the stage, he dropped his hand lower behind her.
From the writhing of her hips, the sudden gasp, her moan of response, he was playing with her cunt. Geoff's hand slid back between Sam's legs again, and Chris's left the seat to drape over her shoulder, caress the top of her breast. Sam bit back a moan just like Madison's. If others in the audience were reacting the same way, it would explain the density of sexual energy closing in around all of them. It saturated the air.
"Nice and wet. When we talked about this, you thought you couldn't do it onstage, but I knew you could. Do you know why, Madison?"
"Because . . . we're alone."
"That's right. Just as I told you. Doesn't matter if we're in front of a thousand people, in front of a small group like this or at home. It's always just you and me. It's only about what I demand of you and what you surrender to me. Isn't it?"
"Yes, Master."
"Good. Because I want to hear you. No shyness now, baby. You're going to come . . . right . . . now."
Sam shuddered as Madison climaxed. Her own pussy pulsed frantically against Geoff's hand, her back arching, lifting her breast into Chris's touch. She whispered his name as he bent and pressed a kiss to her throat. When he sat back, she saw Logan had an arm around Madison's waist, his shirt pulling over his broad shoulders, his haunches and thighs tight under the hold of the jeans as he gave her stability, worked her to completion.
After she was done, her head dropped down, shoulders rising and falling to catch her breath. Logan pulled her leggings back in place, then lowered her into a fetal position onstage. Troy brought him a blanket, which Logan wrapped around her tenderly. Watching the large man curl over her, bend down on his elbows to kiss her temple, her lips, made Sam's heart melt. He put a hand on his sub, then rose, standing over her so she was curled around his feet.
He spoke with a quiet authority that reached every corner. "And that's what it's all about, isn't it?"
Single-word responses rose from the audience like random notes on a piano that connected to create a song. All in the same low tones, all fervent agreement. She even heard a couple of Amens.
Logan waited until it was quiet again. Then his gaze swept the audience, his expression changing. Sam thought he looked momentarily almost hesitant, then a rueful smile crossed his handsome features, as if he'd admonished himself. He straightened, his natural confidence gripping him once more.
"Whether you realize it or not, many of you have been instrumental in helping Madison and me find our way together. Once she trusts a Master, a submissive who dreams of being collared trusts him with that dream, those hopes for a permanent bond and connection. We Masters may not be as open about our hopes and dreams, but I can tell you that finding the submissive we want to collar completes our hearts just as much."
Sam looked toward Geoff, finding his expression open to her and Chris, his heart in his eyes, a full agreement. She mouthed the words I love you. When Chris reached behind her and gripped Geoff's shoulder hard, tears pricked her eyes. But it was Logan who pressed the trigger that had them overflowing.
"As such, I would like the privilege and honor of announcing that Miss Madison Fine, your hostess for the night, this beautiful woman at my feet, has recently agreed to become my permanent submissive, my lifelong partner. My wife."
He quickly put his fingers to his lips, raising his hand in gentle admonishment before any applause or cheers could start. He inclined his head, glancing meaningfully at his feet. "Baby's resting. Let's not disturb her. She might change her mind."
Quiet chuckles went through the audience, and he gave them all a warm smile. "We both thank you, from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you for coming tonight."
The crowd honored his request as he bent, scooped Madison off the floor and carried her offstage, cradling her in her arms. But once he did that, applause began, and built to a congratulatory cheer. Sam saw Troy whooping by the side of the stage, and he grabbed his Mistress for a kiss, who likewise looked delighted by the announcement.
Once she was willing to extricate herself from that enthusiastic embrace, she moved to the steps and mounted the stage, lifting her hands to quiet everyone down before she spoke. Troy followed her, taking up a position behind her and to the left.
"I'm Mistress Shale, for those who don't know me," she said. "And I know everyone here knows Troy. My boy is a big flirt, which is why I have to beat his ass all the damn time."
Laughter and catcalls answered that, and she grinned as Troy dropped to a knee in courtly apology. The handsomeness of the gesture so underscored Shale's point it incited another wave of mirth. Rolling her eyes at him, she turned back to the audience.
"Logan and Madison provided a very fitting end to tonight's performances," she said. "When this becomes an erotic performance theater, it will continually reinforce how we integrate erotic expression into our relationships with one another, whether it's kink, vanilla, Tantra or Baptist." She grinned at the laughter. "Yep, thought our Baptists would appreciate that. You guys know how to get your freak on like nobody's business. Now, even though the performances are over, feel free to socialize and mingle. And please, give yourself a treat and visit our sponsoring vendors for the evening. They've brought a lot of lovely things for sale and will be doing demos with any willing Doms or subs. No hard pressure tactics. They're just as happy to give you their business cards so you can consider future purchases as they are to get a sale tonight. Of course, knowing some of you as I do, I'm sure many of you will find things you can't resist."
She winked, concluding her speech with a short bow. Troy jumped offstage and put his hands up to grasp her waist and lift her down. They exchanged another heated kiss that captivated Sam, watching the formidable Mistress melt in his arms. Troy obviously had the same knee-weakening powers in his lips that Chris and Geoff did.
Glancing at Chris under her lashes, Sam saw he was studying them with a curious expression. Was it intriguing to him that while Troy was a sub who enjoyed restraint and punishment from his Mistress's hand, it didn't stop him from lifting her down from a stage or capturing her mouth with possessive demand? Much as Chris did with her, even as Geoff was deep inside his ass, demanding the same kind of surrender from him.
"It never has to be one thing," Sam said. "Does it?"
When she looked toward Geoff, his hazel eyes were approving. People were making their way out of the theater, but as she started to get up, Geoff kept her in her seat by closing his hand on her thigh, holding her in place.
"Chris ha
s more he wants to say to you," he advised.
She turned toward him and her vision was filled with Chris's brown eyes as he put his mouth on hers. While she made a little mewling sound of surprise against his lips, he ravished her mouth, eclipsing the heat of the kiss she'd just witnessed with Troy and Shale. Chris was kissing her in a way that told her how he was going to have her tonight. Hard, often and thoroughly.
She let out another whimper as Geoff occupied himself between her legs again, so that her thighs trembled and her toes pressed hard into the concrete floor beneath her. Waves of response rippled up her body. She was going to climax right here. Knowing the house lights were up and anyone was able to see them doing this to her just made it all the more certain. She gasped against Chris's lips, a warning, and Geoff eased up, though it immediately made her wish she'd kept quiet.
As Chris drew back, her head was lying on the back of the seat, and she was fully in surrender mode, her body open to them in all ways. Geoff threaded his hand into Chris's hair, tugging at the thick locks. Chris glanced at him, then back at her. "I get it now," he said. "I've wanted to hold you like a bird in my hand from the first day, Sam." His gaze slid over the mask, lips quirking. "I thought that was just about being protective, in love with you. It was, but these other feelings . . . aren't gentle in the least."
She didn't know where she found the ability to speak, but she did. "I'm glad. But I'm okay with however, whatever you need to be with me, with us. You loving me, that's what matters."
Chris shifted his attention back to Geoff, and she witnessed that fierce exchange of thoughts. While she still couldn't always discern what was being communicated, she picked up the feelings well enough. And she'd have time to learn their special language, as much as they were learning hers. They already answered her different needs and desires, picking up on them so easily. Evidenced now by Geoff grasping her wrist, rubbing his fingers on her pulse, a Master's demand, while Chris played with her fingertips like he was gliding his touch along meadow grass.