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“Don’t worry, that’s Lloyd and he loves it,” Rick said, watching impassively. Obviously, unlike the other scene at the end of the hall, this one didn’t interest him as much. “If he didn’t, he would say his safe word. Most people have their own personal safe word, but the club safe word is ‘Red.’ Say the safe word and everything stops. See him?” He pointed at a man in a vest coming up the stairs and looking into the windows, slowly walking down the hallway toward them. There was a bright red badge pinned to his vest in the shape of a keyhole. “He’s a Dungeon Monitor, they come around on a regular basis listening for safe words which aren’t being honored, although Patrick works hard to keep out the assholes who would do that. If someone ignores a safe word, their membership is immediately revoked. Period.”
“Okay.” She blew out a long breath, still slightly horrified by what looked like abuse. This had better not be what Rick meant by spanking her. The man in the office was jerking forward with every loud THWAP of the vicious paddle, she could hear the sob in his voice as he yelled out. The amount of trust involved in something like that was almost astounding, it suddenly occurred to her.
Not only would the person taking the punishment have to trust that their safe word would be honored, that the blows would stop when it was said, but the person giving the punishment would have to trust the word would be said when it was needed. That there wouldn’t be any vacillating or putting up a front, while resentment simmered beneath. Especially in the case of when a man was on the receiving end. The woman was incredibly intimidating, Maria didn’t doubt Lloyd would be a match for her if he wanted to. But she trusted him to take the paddling, to tell her when it was too much, and not to try and retaliate. And in turn, he trusted her with his ass.
The Domme stopped swinging the paddle, letting it drop to her side and putting her free hand on Lloyd’s bottom and rubbing it roughly over his abused skin. And his moan was nearly as loud as his yells had been. Maria gasped as he turned slightly to respond to something the woman said and his rigidly hard cock, leaking fluid from the tip, came into view for a few moments. Beside her Rick chuckled. “I told you he likes it. He’s in here almost every week. The Dommes love him because he’s both eager to please and wants to be punished every time he comes here.”
“What’s he being punished for?” Maria asked a little faintly.
Rick just shrugged, tugging on her hand to pull her away from the window as Lloyd got back into place and the blonde lifted the paddle again. She didn’t try to resist. She didn’t really want to watch any more of that. “For a lot of the submissives and dominants who aren’t in a relationship, the ‘punishments’ are usually more of a fantasy scenario than anything else. Like role-playing.”
“And for couples?”
“A lot of the real punishments are handled in private, but sometimes a dominant will handle a minor transgression with a less severe punishment scene at the club. That’s what we call funishment, because it’s more about pleasure than anything else. Sometimes, if someone breaks the rules here, they’ll be punished publicly.”
“Remind me not to break any of the rules,” Maria muttered, shivering a little as Rick led her back down the stairs.
He just laughed. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you.”
The confident arrogance in his voice should have made her laugh, but she just found it reassuring. There was something very protective about his stance next to her, that made her feel safe. As they walked, he put his hand in the center of her lower back, sending a shiver up her spine. All night he’d been touching her in one way or another. Nothing overtly sexual or flirtatious, but just as if it was something unthinking and natural. It made her feel a lot more secure, walking around a sex club filled with people who liked to paddle each other’s asses.
“So are you taking me to the Dungeon now?” she asked, teasing, as they made it back to the main floor and turned the corner to go down another set of stairs. Out of the corner of her eye she saw his group of friends, who were watching them go. Jessica raised her hand and waved, and Maria smiled at her before the pressure of Rick’s hand had her heading down the next set of stairs. She was slightly in front of him, but the connection of his touch made her feel like she wasn’t alone.
And then they walked into hell.
Fuck.
He should have asked Patrick what was going on in the Dungeon tonight. Or gone down to check it out for himself before taking Maria down.
The second he saw Christina, trussed up to a frame, with her Dom, Paul, standing in front of her, he knew he was fucked. Christina and Paul didn’t come into Stronghold often, but when they did everyone stopped to watch. They enjoyed some of the more extreme aspects of BDSM play. Paul was a sadist and Christina was a masochist, and even more than that, Christina tended to be noisy and she liked to beg–beg and be ignored.
The scene was obviously just beginning. Christina was trussed up to a large frame in the center of the room, more than half of the occupants of the Dungeon were watching rather than engaging in their own scenes, as Paul stalked around her, scowling. Although her expression was fearful, Rick could also see the anticipation and excitement in the lines of her body and the hardness of her nipples.
“Please Master!” she called out, in a high shrill voice as he walked around behind her. “I’m sorry! Don’t hurt me!”
The only response was the sound of a cane slicing through the air and then Christina’s body jerked as it landed on her rounded ass, and she screamed, high and shrill.
“Master, I’m sorry!” Another scream. “Please, stop!”
Although they were standing at the bottom of the steps, and had a fairly obstructed view of the proceedings, it was obvious enough even to a complete newbie like Maria what was going on. He felt her gasp, tense, and turn to flee up the stairs.
“Maria, wait!”
Even in heels she could move fast, and he cursed himself for not being quicker to turn her around on the stairs once he’d realized what was going on in the Dungeon. Once he realized what a scene like this must look like to someone like Maria.
Chasing her up the stairs, he cursed under his breath, hesitating to reach out and grab her once he was close enough—not sure how she would react. And then she was slipping through the people on the dance floor, headed for the far wall were the locker rooms were. He followed, close enough to touch her, but ambivalent about whether or not to actually do so.
She plowed right through the door of the ladies’ room, leaving him standing on the other side, basically wringing his hands like the idiot he was.
“Dammit...” he muttered, shifting back and forth on his feet. The locker rooms were considered sanctuaries for each gender. Following her in there wouldn’t just get him into trouble with Patrick, but with all the Dommes and probably all the other submissives too. But the urge to get to her, to comfort her, to explain to her was overwhelming. Panic was welling up inside of him, along with his self-flagellation for idiocy.
Then, suddenly, he was surrounded by women, who had come at him from behind. A hand gently patted his shoulder, as Angel, Jessica, and Hilary all looked up at him, big eyes and creased brows.
“Don’t worry, we got this,” Angel said as she pushed past him. “Go sit down.”
Bossy little thing. She was lucky Adam hadn’t heard her talking like that. Using that kind of tone in Stronghold would get her ass beat. Immediately Rick tensed, reminded of the scene downstairs and why he was standing outside the ladies’ room, helpless.
“What happened?” Hilary asked, pausing with her hand on the door, keeping it from closing all the way after Angel had gone through it.
