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Adam sighed. That was the fourth time in the past hour Stephanie had yelled out her safe word. Immediately he let the paddle drop to his side and knelt by her head where it was resting on the spanking bench, cupping her face in his hand and lifting it slightly to look at him. Her eyes were wide and horrified, not at all turned on.
“Stephanie, I don’t think you’re a masochist,” he said in the most patient tone he could, considering it was the sixth time he’d made the statement since they’d started playing with equipment.
The initial meeting had gone well enough. The pretty blonde was attractive and obviously eager to try things out, but almost as soon as they’d gotten to the Dungeon it had gone downhill from there. She spent as much time trying to top from the bottom and control the scene as she did trying something out. At first she’d wanted to try some bondage, so he’d used a Saint Andrew’s cross to string her up, but then she’d wanted to be let out of the bondage before trying anything else. Frowning, Adam had told her she needed to let go and submit if she was going to be a submissive and gave her bottom a sharp slap.
Which had initiated the first time she’d said the safe word. Apparently, she hadn’t been ready to be spanked.
It was quite possibly the most frustrating Introduction Scene he’d ever done in his life because she kept insisting on trying painful things and yet she couldn’t take the slightest amount of pain. Eventually he’d taken complete control of the scene, put her down on the spanking bench—although they’d compromised and he had only bound her legs to it and not her arms—and smacked her with the paddle. About as hard as he’d done the first spank. This time she’d gotten through three sharp smacks before saying her safe word, but he could see the disappointment in her eyes that her fantasy wasn’t living up to reality.
“But... I like it so much when I read about it,” she said, looking completely confused. “That’s what gets me the hottest. But this doesn’t feel like pleasure-pain, it feels like pain pain.”
Adam couldn’t help but chuckle. Though she seemed submissive and she’d responded very well when he’d stopped letting her top from the bottom, she was also very sensitive and barely had a medium tolerance for pain. Not the qualities a masochist was made of. Real pain didn’t turn her on at all.
“We’re not all made the same,” he said. “ I can give you a spanking that will feel like pleasure pain, but I have to recommend you absolutely not advertise to any Doms that you’re a masochist. We have several Sadists here at Stronghold who are looking for partners and would probably love to try you out, but I can guarantee you wouldn’t enjoy it.” He pressed his thumb against her lip as she opened her mouth to give another protest. “That doesn’t mean you won’t continue to enjoy your fantasies, but I think you’ll find a lot more pleasure in submission than in attempting to force your fantasies onto yourself.”
The woman made a face which said she didn’t want to give up yet, but she was reluctant to let him near her tender backside with another implement of pain. “Can we try the spanking you think I’ll enjoy?”
“Absolutely,” Adam said, grinning wickedly at her. He ran his hand over her hair approvingly, watching her face light up and her pupils dilate. Clearly submissive. Not for him, but he could already think of several Doms around the club who would be interested in her. She was adventurous and eager to please, not everyone wanted a brat. He certainly didn’t. If he was looking for a play partner instead of a real connection he might have suggested to Stephanie they do a few more scenes together, but he could tell she was the kind of woman who would want a deeper connection pretty quickly and he already knew she wasn’t quite a match for what he wanted.
Angela’s wide-eyed excitement after she’d toured Chained popped into his head before he forced it back down. Dammit. Why was the best chemistry he’d had in years with a Domme? It made absolutely no sense and yet there it was. Which pretty much explained his preoccupation with her and his very deeply hidden hope that maybe she had her inclinations wrong. That did happen, especially with people who were new to the scene. Just look at Stephanie and her insistence she was a masochist when she was the farthest thing from.
Trying to overcome his distraction, he finished out the Introduction scene with a light spanking for Stephanie and giving her an orgasm with a vibrator. He was somewhat aroused, but more because he kept fantasizing rather than focusing on the woman at hand. They didn’t have the kind of connection he wanted, even when it came to a play partner for more than one night.
So when she tried to flirt with him before leaving, he gently but firmly let her know while he was happy to be a Dominant for her as she explored her boundaries, he’d be introducing her to other Doms who would suit her. The disappointment on her face wasn’t very deep, but he still made a mental note to make sure to introduce her around the club before she could get too attached to him. There was always the risk of inexperienced players misinterpreting the intensity of the scene for intensity of emotion.
As he was seeing Stephanie out he saw Olivia at the bar and motioned to her that he’d be there to talk in a moment.
“Tough night?” The sultry redhead asked when he sat down on the barstool next to her with a heavy sigh.
For a moment he looked his friend over. She was gorgeous, with her flaming red hair and eyes which shifted from grey to blue, flawless skin a Dom who didn’t know better might dream about whipping, and had all the requirements he’d want in a woman (other than being submissive in the bedroom) and yet he’d never had a lick of attraction to her. Because they didn’t mesh that way, so the issue of sexual attraction never came up. So why with Mistress Angela?
“That bad?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head and pushing his recent obsession away. He needed to get a grip on himself. “It wasn’t terrible, but she didn’t want to admit she wasn’t a masochist.”
Olivia snorted, glaring at him as she grabbed for napkins. “Don’t say things like that while I’m drinking. What finally convinced her?”
He smiled. “I gave her a bit of a ‘come to Jesus’ lecture, she was pretty determined.”
“Lucky she didn’t end up with Andrew or me then.” Amusement quirked Olivia’s full lips. Andrew might have taken Stephanie at her word and gone right into something painful before realizing his mistake, Olivia would have done something similar to Adam but without the lecture. She was a big believer in letting people come to their own conclusions and considering how stubborn Stephanie had been…
Ouch.
“Is Jared still here?” he asked. The big Dom had been replaced at his post at the door by Patrick, who had looked so surly that Adam had bothered to do more than nod at him while he’d sent Stephanie on her way.
“No.” Olivia’s voice was sour as she took another sip of her drink. “Truckstop decided to tell him she’s going on yet another whirl-wind adventure to find herself, which resulted in them having an argument, which resulted in Patrick sending Jared home so they could ‘work things out.’”
“Ah.”
Not much to work out there. Marissa didn’t seem to like staying in one place and was constantly taking short-term out of state and out of country jobs to try and ‘find herself.’ A task which apparently usually involved having an open relationship with Jared so she could try to ‘make sure’ he was the right man for her—which obviously she couldn’t do unless she tested out other men.
A little smile played on Olivia’s face, surprising Adam. He raised his eyebrow at her.
“That’s not why Patrick’s so grumpy though.”
“It’s not?” He was surprised, the circumstances surrounding Jared and Marissa’s relationship (if it could even be called that) was normally more than enough to make any of their group pissy. Olivia’s statement and amusement intrigued him.
Her smile broadened, her eyes sparkling blue with good humor. “Nope. Lexie called in to get Amy’s number to see if she could cover for Lexie this Saturday.”
