Bob hung back, hands clasped, giving smiles and head nods, but not speaking or shaking hands or hugging anyone.
After the greeting, she waited for Axel to give some indication of where he wanted them to sit. It was actually Tilly who decided that for them, picking the end of the tables, on Loren’s left. Tilly sat next to Loren, putting Axel at the end of the table, and Skye on his left and facing Tilly, with Bob sitting to her left.
Axel did hold her chair for Skye.
While Skye would have preferred to be seated on Axel’s right, she took the win and didn’t say anything about that.
The next hurdle would be ordering. Unless he specifically told her to order for herself—not her preference—she wasn’t sure how to proceed.
Tilly for the save. Before the waitress could reach them to take their drink order, Tilly leaned in and whispered something in Axel’s ear. Skye watched him process it for a second, his expression going blank before changing back. He leaned over toward Skye.
“What do you want to drink, sweetie?”
More relief flowed. “Water and sweet iced tea, please, Sir,” she quietly said.
He nodded, and when the waitress reached them, Axel responded. “I’ll have Coke or Pepsi, whichever, and she’ll have sweet tea and a glass of water.”
“Lemon?”
“Yes,” Axel said without looking toward Skye.
A small thrill shivered through her. From across the table, Tilly’s gaze met hers.
After Tilly ordered for herself and Bob, she winked at Skye.
Skye winked back.
I can do this. He can do this.
* * * *
Axel struggled to pay attention to Tilly and Skye. To listen for the obvious instruction from the first, and to watch for cues from the second.
When their salads arrived, Skye sat there quietly, her hands in her lap, waiting.
This time he didn’t need to ask Tilly.
He looked to Skye and nodded.
The brilliant, beaming smile on her face hardened his cock and made him rethink the talk he’d been considering having with her that night once they got back to his place.
He’d started planning how to tell her that she didn’t have to ask for permission to eat, or let him order for her. That he didn’t want to be that controlling. That he didn’t need that kind of power or control over her.
But…her smile. The beaming, easy way her laughter flowed from her as they listened to Tilly regale them with stories from work.
He wanted to make her keep smiling like that.
Wanted to be the reason she smiled like that.
If all it took was something as simple as giving her some structure like that when they were together, predictable, easy-to-remember structure…was there really anything wrong with doing that?
He couldn’t roll a set of dice and come up with an easy-to-decipher chart.
This was real life—their life.
She was giving him a chance to have her.
He finally grew used to Bob’s silent presence on Skye’s far side, and when Axel wasn’t paying attention to Skye, he realized Bob basically took the same cues from Tilly about when to eat. He didn’t ignore people, but everyone seemed to take it as a matter of fact that all they’d get out of Bob was smiles and head nods.
It almost shocked him at one point when Bob spoke.
“Ma’am?”
Tilly tipped her chin as she stared across the table at him. “Yes, boy?”
He tipped his head to the side, toward where Axel knew the restrooms were.
She nodded.
He stood, then rounded the table to stand beside her for a moment, head bowed.
“Good boy,” she softly said.
He turned and, sure enough, headed to the bathrooms.
Tilly waited until he was away from the table to speak in a voice low enough only Axel could hear. “He needed some slave time tonight. I haven’t been around much lately to play with him, so Landry gave him permission to come with me tonight.”
“What’s Landry up to tonight?”
She smiled. “I have a feeling he’ll have received a makeover from KC. She’s going through a nail polish phase.”
“Huh?”
“Our daughter. Last night, I got off a conference call and found she had sat Daddy and Uncle Bob down at the kitchen table and painted their fingers and toes in about ten different colors. Landry might be a sadist, but KC is definitely Daddy’s little princess, and she’s got him wrapped around her tiny fingers.”
Bob hadn’t been wearing polish, he’d swear to it.
Tilly seemed to read Axel’s thoughts. “Oh, we stopped at a drugstore on the way over and I bought cotton balls and nail polish remover. I’m a sadist, but…yeah. Even I have my limits.”
Chapter Fifteen
Once dinner ended, they emerged from the restaurant, Bob again following Tilly a step behind and to her right.
“See you over there,” Tilly said.
Axel held up a hand for a parting wave and walked Skye to his car. He opened the passenger door for her and noted Bob doing the same for Tilly.
When he slid behind the wheel, he couldn’t hold back the question. “Why do you want me to get the car door for you?”
Skye looked at him. “You don’t have to, Sir. I’m sorry. That’s how I was trained.” She snorted. “One of the few damn nice things the jerk used to do. His parents practically beat that kind of stuff into their sons. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”
“Oh. I just wondered, because Bob holds Tilly’s door for her.”
“That’s not a Dominant or submissive thing. I’m okay if you don’t want to do that.”
“No, I do. I was just…confused.”
She smiled. “If I nudge you into doing things that you don’t want to do, you have every right to safeword, seriously. Just say red and we’ll talk. I kind of…default to things.”
“If he was an asshole, why do you still want to do them?”
It took her a moment to answer. “Because in the beginning, it was great. He did a lot of stuff I saw other Doms and Masters do with their subs. It was a comfort. As much as I hated him for cheating on me and lying to me, I think I hated him most of all for breaking my trust to the point that I uncollared myself. I don’t have the words to express to you how shattering that is to a slave. I love the structure and the protocols. It’s a comfort to me, because I trust you.”
He reached in, cupping her cheek. “Can you be patient with me?”
Her bright smile lifted his spirits. “Of course I can, Sir.”
“Don’t I have to do something to earn that title?”
“You already have.”
That didn’t make sense. “What’d I do?”
She leaned in, feathering her lips over his. “You gave me a second chance after I was an idiot so many years ago.”
* * * *
Walt seemed as pleasant a guy in person as he was on the phone. He wanted to go over some things with Axel before scening with Skye. Holly, his fiancée, talked to them for a moment before retreating to watch from one of the couches along the wall. With her pain issues, it made it difficult for her to stand for a long time.
Bob and Tilly also watched as Walt hung his implements on a stand so Axel could see them, touch them. There was a leather strap, doubled over and attached to a handle, but when he smacked it against his own arm, he realized it was louder than it was painful.
The floggers made him nervous, though.
Walt picked them up and handed them to him. “These floggers are more for sensation. It’s a thuddy sensation. Would you like to feel?”
He glanced at Skye, who was smiling.
Tilly snorted. “Dude, try them. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.”
Axel shucked his shirt and turned. He flinched when Walt brushed one up his back. Then Walt started to swing it harder, harder still, adding the second one in.
“This is pretty hard,” Walt said.
> “That doesn’t hurt. It feels kind of good.”
“Exactly. Other kinds of floggers can hurt, but the average flogger made like these doesn’t.” He stopped. “Unless you hit a guy in the balls, or someone’s eye, or snag a piercing.”
Tilly snorted again. “True story. They look a lot worse than they are. Never forget that, at any time, Skye can always say red and everything stops. If it’s happening, it’s because she’s letting it happen and wants it to happen.”
Axel put his shirt back on, relieved and thankful he’d done that. “Okay.”
* * * *
Skye kept a close eye on Axel as Walt talked with him. She was worried he might freak out, but Tilly had made a good point to her that Axel had to learn this sometime if they were going to succeed long-term as a couple. Walt preferred using one of the trapeze bar setups at one end of the room that she now knew was called the new side.
Finally, once Axel seemed satisfied, and Walt was ready, he turned to Skye. “Ready?”
She smiled, nervous, anxious, and eager. “Ready.”
“Go ahead and use the bathroom. Put your collar on. I have suspension cuffs. I’m not going to use a spreader bar, so you don’t need ankle cuffs unless you want them.”
She used the bathroom, then returned to where they were congregated and started stripping. She tucked her clothes into her backpack, trying not to absorb how shocked Axel looked that she was stripping right there in front of everyone.
Then again, there were plenty of other naked people already there and playing, so she didn’t really stand out.
She handed Axel her backpack and then rose up on her toes for a kiss. “Thank you for this, Sir.”
He nodded, but it looked like he was speechless now.
He held her bag for her, including the fleece throw she’d dug out of it that she’d need for aftercare. Tilly whispered something to Bob, who nodded and left the room.
Now naked and with only her leather collar on, she handed Walt her ball gag and blindfold. He hung them on the implement stand and buckled the suspension cuffs onto her, checking the fit before hooking them to the bar.
She sensed movement and noticed Bob had returned.
The song currently playing faded out, in the middle of it, and “Voodoo” by Godsmack started playing.
Walt smiled. “I guess Tilly had Bob ask them to start my playlist.”
Skye smiled back. “Oh, lucky me.” She’d looked at his playlist the last time she’d volunteered at the club.
She was in for a wild ride.
She hoped.
One eyebrow slid up. “Yep, definitely lucky you.” He buckled the blindfold onto her. “If you safeword and I don’t seem to stop, lift one leg and hold it off the ground, okay?”
She nodded.
He buckled the ball gag loosely enough she could still spit it out. With her world now focused on Walt and the music and what was happening to her, she felt subspace already teasing, taunting.
She hoped Tilly could handle Axel and talk him through it.
She didn’t want to think about the alternative.
* * * *
Tilly moved them back, out of Walt’s space.
“Remember,” Tilly said, “if you ever get hit on a backswing, it’s probably your fault for walking into the Top’s space.”
Axel nodded, his eyes focused on Skye. She was already swaying in time to the music, tapping the toes of her right foot in time to the beat. This wasn’t his kind of music, but he could understand why Walt would want to play to it. Percussive beats, throbbing bass, it was made for this.
Walt removed his shirt and hung it off the end of the implement stand. Then he circled Skye, eyeing her not unlike Axel imagined a lion would eye a wounded antelope as it tried to decide how to launch its final attack.
He stepped behind her and ran his fingers up and down her spine, along her shoulders.
“Looking for her bones,” Tilly said. “So he knows where he can and can’t hit.”
Axel nodded but didn’t trust his voice.
That only took a moment before Walt started using his hands on Skye, first slapping and hitting with the heel and side of his hands, up and down her back, followed by smacks on her ass, fists to her thighs.
Axel swallowed hard, feeling the cold knife settling in the base of his stomach. Skye moved with the impacts, still bobbing her head in time with the music.
When he glanced at Tilly, she was watching him, not what was going on. “What?”
“That’s just the warm-up,” she said. “Are you okay?”
“I’m…fine.”
Every impact sent shock waves through his own body, fighting the urge to jump in and stop the scene, but both Tilly and, more importantly, Skye, had told him not to.
The only one who got safeword privileges in their scene was Skye.
Over the next fifteen minutes, Walt attacked and beat and paddled and whipped and did a lot of things to her.
She didn’t safeword.
And it would only get worse.
Finally, when Walt switched to using a rattan cane, the first stroke set her on her toes but after she was flat-footed he hit her again. That’s when Axel felt the surge. He dropped her backpack and the blanket, turned, and bolted for the office, barely making it out into the parking lot where he leaned against an oak tree and started puking in the grass.
Tears fell, and he rested his head against the rough bark and cried, knowing he was fucked.
Knowing he’d have to let her go.
No way in hell could he do this for, to, or with her.
He couldn’t.
Fuck.
He didn’t know how long he stood there when he heard someone approach. Something cold touched the back of his hand, and there stood Tilly, holding two bottles of water.
“Thanks,” he hoarsely said. He spit again, then rinsed his mouth out before taking a long swallow.
She wasn’t smiling.
In fact…the look on her face kinda scared him.
She leaned against the tree, avoiding his puke puddle, and stared at him for a long moment. When she finally spoke, her voice sounded low, deadly, full of venom.
“Either let her go, now, before she falls harder for you than she already has, or sac the fuck up. She wants to be yours. Hell, she’s already yours. Do you not understand what a big fucking deal that is? All you have to do is let her be yours. Stop holding on to fear. You won’t break her unless you lead her on and drop her because you’re too chickenshit to see what’s right in front of you.
“Listen to your heart instead of your guilt. You have to let the fear of her walking out of your life have the upper hand over the fear of what you think is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ about what you’re doing to her. When you do that, you’ll finally start learning how to keep her happy, and you’ll be happy in the process.”
“I can’t do that to her.”
“Fuck, dude, there are plenty of guys who will. Either let her find one, or be prepared to give her standing permission to play with others. Hell, Landry had a blast topping her. There aren’t many bottoms who can play with him full-bore, let me tell you what. Damn sure not me. She can get her fix, you get a happy girl, my fucking sadist of a hubby gets a new victim to maul, everyone’s a winner.”
“Isn’t that unfair to her?”
“How? Unless you’re so selfish you can’t make an allowance for her to play with someone else. In that case, I default back to let her go.”
“But I love her,” he hoarsely whispered.
Tilly tipped her head as she stared at him. “I don’t usually make this offer to people, but if your only concern is you can’t do impact play with her, then fine. Landry, Cris, and I will be happy to take care of that, long-term. She can come over to our house for training and play like Bob does, except without sexy aspects. That shit can happen away from your sensitive special snowflake eyes, and you can still have your girl. I trust my husbands, and I trust Bob. Who, by the fucking way, is insid
e giving aftercare to your goddamned girl because you’re out here throwing a puking pity party for yourself instead of responsibly adulting.”
She stormed off after shoving the other bottle of water at him.
Fuck.
She was right, and he knew it. Because Tilly’s opinion wasn’t the outlier. Eliza and others had told him the same thing. Skye had never lied or hid who she was or what she needed when it came to BDSM.
And for some stupid reason, she wanted him, too.
This wasn’t like she’d concealed this part of herself and then suddenly sprung it on him out of nowhere.
After finishing the first bottle of water, he followed Tilly back inside.
Chapter Sixteen
Skye had known—and agreed—that the contingency plan, just in case, was that Bob would step in for her aftercare if something happened and Axel couldn’t.
She wasn’t even thinking about that when Walt built to a big finish with a heavy cane before unclipping her hands from the bar.
All she’d thought about was how good it’d felt, how it took her out of her head.
How she wasn’t beating herself up for overlooking what’d probably been even more years of infidelity on Kelly’s part before she actually suspected him and caught him. About how he’d likely been trying to set her up so he could claim to have caught her cheating to help him out with the pre-nup.
About how stupid she’d been for a long time.
And how it’d left her longing and needing something that might possibly destroy the first really good relationship she had a chance to have as an adult.
Someone draped the fleece throw around her, but when they started leading her to one of the couches, she knew it wasn’t Axel. He wasn’t tall enough, and he didn’t smell like Axel.
Bob.
Struggling not to think about what this meant, or letting it crash her, she focused on the music, on the pain, on anything except what her brain was trying to do.
Why isn’t Axel doing this?
She sensed someone approaching, from the way sound changed around them, and then felt their ball of heat as they leaned in to speak to Bob.