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“Oh, gee. I can’t imagine,” I scoffed, drawing a frown from the big Dom.
“I know you’ve been in the lifestyle before, and obviously, Kerr was as inept then as he is now. But surely, you remember disrespecting a Dom can get you into serious trouble.”
Drake’s disapproval saturated me like cold winter rain. My snarky comeback wasn’t earning me any submissive brownie points. They simply made me look like an unmanaged brat.
“I’m sorry, Sir.” The apology rolled off my tongue without an inkling of thought.
A knowing smile curled on Drake’s lips as he nodded in forgiveness.
“Whatever they’re cooking up isn’t important,” Nick noted with concern. “The lesson attached to it is.”
“It might be the push you need, sis.” Sanna grinned.
“What’s wrong about going at my own pace?”
Drake chuckled. “Because setting your own speed means you’re only submitting to yourself, sweetheart. If you’d been trained properly, you’d know that.”
I wanted to argue with him, but I couldn’t. It made sense. I didn’t solve my dilemma, though. Meshing the two opposing sides seemed a daunting task in my mind. I knew there was a submissive side of me. I simply didn’t know if I could give her free rein and not lose part of me in the process. Before I could dissect my feelings further, Ian and Joshua strolled back in the room. Their serious Dom expressions worried me.
Oh shit, this isn’t going to be good.
Joshua didn’t smile as he stopped and bent, cupping my chin in his warm palm. Focusing on his tender touch, I tried to calm the dread crawling under my skin.
“We’re going to try a little experiment, a test, if you will,” Joshua began to explain. His expression softened slightly, but expectation pinged off him like a live wire, charged and hissing. “Ian and I are going to prove to you that your inner sub will respond to the Dom and not the man.”
“Are you up for a challenge, Mellie?” Ian didn’t bother disguising his dare. If he was blindly pushing buttons, he’d hit a winner on the first try, thus tossing down the gauntlet. I couldn’t just let it lay there. Squaring my shoulders, I stuck out my chin.
“I never turn down a challenge,” I replied with a tight, combative sneer.
“Mellie,” Joshua warned. He had to have felt the tension spike within me. “Put your hackles down, girl. This is an exercise to help enlighten you. No one is backing you into a corner. Understood?”
He and Ian wanted to open the doorways of my submission, but why? Joshua had already seen it numerous times. Darting a quick gaze around the room, I was met with a myriad of expressions. Drake looked intrigued, Nick curious, Sanna concerned, Dylan suspicious, Ian expectant, and Joshua hopeful.
“Yes,” I responded hesitantly.
Lifting his hand from my chin, he stood. “Good. Now stand and strip.”
“Excuse me?” I choked.
Sanna’s gasp of surprise barely registered in my brain, I was so stunned. “Master Stephen, I don’t think—”
“Kitten, you will remain quiet, or we’ll take you upstairs,” Nick warned with a scowl.
Sanna pinched her lips together in a tight, angry line. Anger flashed in her dark eyes before she cast them toward the floor. The room was totally silent. Anticipation, razor sharp, sang in the air.
“I won’t repeat myself. Do it,” Joshua demanded in an unusually harsh tone. And dammit, why did it turn me on so much?
He wanted me to strip. Okay. No big deal, or at least, I wanted to convince myself it wasn’t. Lots of men had seen me naked—so had my sister, that didn’t bother me. Hanging out in my birthday suit in front of her Masters? That wasn’t what skeeved me out either. They’d seen my bare ass cheeks at Genesis. Pondering the real reason I balked at Joshua’s request, I realized it was the unknown. The lack of control over what he intended to do was what kept me resting on my heels and refusing to follow his command.
Coward. Sanna went to bat for you and got duly chastised for it, too. You owe her the satisfaction of not backing down.
“Fine,” I countered with a huff. Scrambling off the floor, I stripped, quickly, hoping no one noticed my trembling fingers. But as Joshua danced his gaze over my nude and trembling body, I knew I’d outed myself.
Smiling, he brushed his hands over my shoulders and down my arms. “The other part of this exercise involves the realization that you can be both strong and submissive. It takes strength and courage to be vulnerable. Let’s see how strong you really are, little one. Do as Ian tells you. Make me proud.”
My heart felt as if might explode from my chest. He was passing me off to another Dom. A Dom he’d shared women with no less. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let Ian touch or fondle me, not with Joshua right there watching, as well as the other Doms and my sister. Panic paraded through me. My cheeks blazed in embarrassment. I had to put a stop to this awkward and embarrassing little test.
“Her safeword is ‘fantasy,’” Joshua casually offered up, as if divulging my favorite color or flavor of ice cream.
