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That was that. The switch flipped, male conflict resolution accomplished in that simple way that always mystified women. He and Alex were good again. Nothing else necessary but male razzing.
"I know a Mistress or two who'd be willing to don an elephant dick strap-on and stretch yours out some."
Alex chuckled. "Yeah, that's never happening. You sub boys have bigger balls than I do."
"Don't you forget it. Pussy." Grinning, Marius gave him a nod and headed toward the exit to the public play area. He paused at the door, though, doing Alex the professional courtesy of keeping an eye on the other sessions as he moved to talk to Master Todd. When the Dom nodded agreeably and put down the whip to pick up a soft flogger instead, Alex came back to the post where he had a full view of all scenes and gave Marius a thumbs-up. He was clear.
Management had hired Marius back, but he wasn't a full member again. And he wouldn't be, by his own choice. He was part of Regina's family membership, a membership dependent on her being his Mistress and him always being in her company when at The Zone on his leisure time. He had no interest in playing with anyone but her, unless it was under her direction and driven by her desire.
That had been part of what the counselor had helped him understand. He needed the structure of that one-on-one relationship, the safety of it. Learning how to handle one very important relationship a
nd all its many variables was plenty to manage. Except for that afterparty Alex had mentioned, Regina rarely invited another Mistress into their play. When she did, she remained in control. As long as that constant never changed, he was good with that. He'd learned it was okay to put his hard limits out there. His Mistress encouraged him in that, made him feel proud of himself for doing so, for not risking his soul to prove he could be more badass than was good for their relationship, or himself.
Marius had advocated for Siren as he had for Alex. While Tyler had heard him out and thanked him, she'd still been expelled. It had bugged Marius deeply enough that Regina had made a point of helping him understand why Tyler and the other owners had made the decision. And that had led to the things Alex had just mentioned. The apology, tea party...the after party.
As he moved through the club now, Marius remembered that conversation. They'd been out on Regina's sunporch on a Sunday morning, shortly after the ruling about Siren had been made. Regina had made him breakfast and then ordered him to strip out of everything but his collar and bracelet. Following her commands, he'd lain on the cushions of the chaise lounge on his stomach, soaking up the sun on his backside. She'd said him being naked enhanced her view of the canal, as she propped her feet on his bare ass and read a book. But at length, she'd realized he was stewing about The Zone decision, and had set the book aside...
"I'm not going to ask why it bothers you so much," she said quietly, fixing her gaze upon his brooding face. "Because I do understand that. But maybe you're too focused on your own need to make reparations, and missing that the decision was a necessary one."
He had his arm over the side of the lounge to play with Dot, moving his finger in circles around the tile floor while she batted at it. "But Alex didn't lose his job."
"No, he didn't. He should have, and probably would have, if not for you, and a couple other factors Tyler took into consideration." His Mistress's lips pursed, her eyes flashing.
He rocked his hips, moving his ass under the soles of her feet to tease her. "He's a good guy. You really should forgive him, Mistress."
She would in time, he knew. She was a hardass, yeah, but she also had a good heart. She was as protective as a mother bear, which gave him some mixed feelings, knowing it was on his behalf she still held a grudge.
She sniffed. "I told him if he'd let Mistress Helen do electric play on his testicles, he would earn my forgiveness. He's still deciding if my forgiveness is worth that. That's neither here nor there. Alex made a stupid, terrible judgment call, but he was misled as to Siren's intent. She told him she wanted you in the cell to make you listen, and that they were simply going to talk about the way you'd treated them. Like an intervention. Still inexcusable, since he didn't clear it with me and I was supposedly the arbiter of the whole thing, but intent was the key difference."
She took a breath. "Siren lied to Alex and forced you into something against your will. That made her infractions worse than Alex's, but it wasn't that which prompted her expulsion. Tyler said he banned her for essentially the same reason he banned you. She needs help to work through what happened and get her head straight about it. Yes, you broke something inside her, but something in her let it escalate to where she took it. It's up to her to address that in the right way, with counseling, like you're doing."
He frowned. Even if he'd found a weak spot in her behavior as a Mistress, he'd exploited it, stuck a knife into it and twisted, making the wound bigger.
"If I apologized to her, really apologized, do you think that would help her get back to a better place?" Maybe he could find out where she lived and go mow her lawn for about five years. Take out her trash, do things to make her life easier. A spurt of frustration told him that wouldn't work. Rumor had it she was extremely wealthy, so she'd have landscapers and other people to do those things for her.
Regina tilted her head. "Turn on your back and start stroking your cock," she said with gentle firmness. "What's the rule?"
As she adjusted her feet to the edge of the lounge's long seat cushion, he complied, his hand gripping his shaft. His cock was already starting to come to life. All it took was his Mistress's command. "I don't come until you say. If you take me all the way to the edge, but pull me back, over and over, I still don't come. Because it's your cock, your ass, your body, to do with whatever you want."
Her lips curved. "Yes. Good. And every time I order you to say that, you get harder, even if you're not touching yourself."
"Yes, Mistress." He looked at her as he stroked, because she hadn't said he couldn't. He stifled a groan as she slid the loose neck of her bathrobe to the side, exposing one full breast. She began to play with the nipple and the full curve.
He was trying not to be a selfish bastard, but when she answered his question, he had to remind his lust-fogged brain what the question had been.
"Yes. If done right, a sincere apology would help." She leaned forward and met his gaze. "Stop. I want you to hear this."
His hand stilled. He wanted to fire off more ideas, ways to convince Siren of his intentions, yet with the one word and her direct look, his Mistress stopped the words from leaving his lips. "Sometimes penance is as much about having to carry guilt and regret, as it is about fixing what created the guilt," she said. "Those feelings can serve more than one purpose. They help drive the type of person you truly want to be."
She sat back, tapping her long fingers on the table. "Later down the road, once she's at a different place in her head, you might have the opportunity to do more for her. For now, you'll prepare an apology and I'll deliver it to Tyler to pass on to her. That will be the end of it, for the time being. Do you understand?"
She didn't usually pull the Mistress card on something like that, but her tone of voice said she meant it. And forced him to face the truth.
She was right. His desire to fix it was as much because the gnawing ache in his gut about it woke him in the middle of the night, or hit him when he thought he was doing better, knocking him down again with self-incrimination. Learning to live with that, manage it, was part of getting better. While that seemed counterintuitive to his male need to fix, he was also learning to trust her when he couldn't make sense of things on his own.
Trust was the key. His heart and soul struggled with it, but when he met her gaze once more, and connected to all the emotions he saw there--her care for him, her understanding of what was inside him in ways even better than he sometimes comprehended them himself--he capitulated.
"Yes, Mistress."
