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And he opened his mouth.

I felt like I was putting my hand into the mouth of a predator as I set the ball in place and fastened the gag behind his head. He held my gaze the entire time, expression perfectly calm — which I knew was entirely for show.

I finished. I looked at him, still shaking. Then I turned to Henry, who had watched the whole thing from the audience.

"You are going to regret this."

"JJ," said one of Daddy's Dom friends, Jeffrey, "still blaming other people? That's not going to help with your punishment."

"JJ," Henry added, visibly delighted with himself, "own your actions."

I wanted to throw something at both of them.

I scanned the crowd and found my collar brothers. Mikey was watching with the expression of someone who could not believe what he was seeing — absolutely stunned. He was a twink like me, lean, with black hair and green eyes, genuinely beautiful — but a good boy, an obedient boy, nothing like me. He only ever got into trouble when I talked him into it.

My other brother was Sawyer, a Middle — which meant that within the dynamic, he was the oldest of us, even though in real life I was the oldest at twenty-eight, Mikey was twenty-four, and Sawyer was twenty-five. In the dynamic, though, Sawyer held the big brother role. Short brown hair, brown eyes, the most built of all of us because he lived at the gym. He loved giving me lectures and even spankings when Daddy let him, and honestly, he was stricter than Daddy sometimes — but I loved him anyway.

Right now both of them were staring at me, mouths open, wearing matching expressions of total disbelief. Mikey looked adorable, honestly.

"You know what?" I announced, loud enough for the whole club to hear. "I think this is a great time for me to go hide. Bye."

"Hiding won't do you any good, JJ," said a Domme from the crowd. Her name was Elizabeth. Long black hair, blue eyes, an absolute goddess.

"I'm going to try anyway," I told her, and walked away while half the room watched me go, some of them laughing, some of them shaking their heads.

Chapter 2. Sullivan

Something about the chair was more comfortable than it had any right to be, which was its own kind of amusement. I’d sat straighter, let the ropes do their work, and watched the room with patience. I knew exactly how this evening was going to end. Now Mel’s fingers were at my wrists, untying the restraints she’d helped JJ secure earlier in the evening, and the crowd around us was still humming. Everybody was delighted when someone had made a decision they were going to regret.

I rose to my full height and rolled one shoulder, working out the slight stiffness that had settled there. My shirt had creased a little at the back from the chair; I smoothed it with one hand and scanned the room. The amber sconces and low-hung fixtures cast the same warm glow they always did, the stone fireplace crackling steadily at the center, and somewhere in all that light was a blond math teacher who thought he’d found a hiding place.

Mikey appeared at my elbow before I’d finished the thought. His green eyes were wide. Mikey had an excellent poker face, and the fact that he was deploying it now, standing so close I could see the corner of his mouth twitching, meant he was absolutely delighted.

“He’s behind the bar,” Mikey said. “Far end, crouched down.”

I handed him my drink without looking at him. “Thank you, baby boy.”

The crowd parted for me. The room had been watching this unfold since the moment Mel had wrapped her hand around my wrist and led me to the stage. People stepped aside with grins. I moved through the gaps between tables, unhurried.

Behind the far end of the bar, tucked into the narrow space between the ice well and the service shelf, JJ was crouched with his knees drawn up to his chest, blond hair falling across his forehead.

I reached down and took him by the ear.

He came up with a sharp yelp and a string of half-formed protests.

“Daddy, wait — I was going to come back, I swear — Henry started it — Mel said —”

I kept walking. His heels skidded slightly against the floor as he scrambled to keep pace with me, one hand reaching up to where my fingers held his ear. The crowd around us had gone quiet with delight. Jeffrey was standing near his usual table, arms crossed. Elizabeth was a few feet away, her blue eyes amused, one eyebrow raised.

“He's going to get it good. Teach that naughty little bottom a lesson,” she said.

JJ’s face went a shade pinker. “Elizabeth, come on —”

“Keep talking,” I told him, “and see what happens.”

He closed his mouth. For about three seconds.

“But Daddy—”