Brat and Master (2 page)

Gray let go. “She’s mine, so it’s okay.”

Elizabeth grinned. “That goes for toys like floggers, and it goes for human toys too. Ask first. Get consent. Now, since Gray can’t seem to negotiate with me, we’re going to bring in Amanda and Vincent to demonstrate negotiation.”

A tall man in a dark velvet frock coat standing not too far from Gray kissed the blonde Amazon of a woman he was with and walked forward. The woman, Jeremy noticed, had a lovely leather collar on. Submissives came in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

The woman he was joined by up front, though, immediately grabbed Jeremy’s attention. She was brunette, her hair done up in pigtails, and wore a white blouse and a short plaid skirt. For a moment, Jeremy inwardly chided himself for lusting after a woman so young, but as he looked at her further, he realized that she wasn’t. He’d been fooled by the outfit. She was at least thirty-five, he guessed, and she carried herself with confidence. It was that, more than anything, that attracted him to her. As wonderful as his relationship with Cheri had been, she had always been insecure. She’d pushed him to take control over things he didn’t even want control over, because his orders gave her comfort. He was happy to give that to her, but he didn’t want to do it all over again.

“So, hi, stranger,” said Amanda.

“Hi, yourself,” said Vincent. “I noticed you from across the room and thought you were hot. Want to play?”

“Sure. If we can find something we both like doing. How about wax play?”

“No, I don’t like wax. It gets all messy on my nice velvet coat. How about we play with a violet wand?”

“Oh!” said Amanda, making a face. “I hate that! Um, how about flogging?”

“I like flogging. But that covers a lot of ground.”

Amanda grinned. “Yep. I was thinking maybe we’d start with a nice soft flogger and work our way up to a riding crop. How do you feel about marks?”

“Marks are awesome!” said Vincent.

“Great!” Amanda turned to the audience. “We’re nowhere near done here, but we’ve agreed on an activity we both enjoy. Notice we did not say ‘I’ll do whatever you want.’ Those are hot words, but they aren’t realistic. Instead, we’re asking straight out for what we want. And saying no. If necessary, a lot. But we’ve left out something really important.”

She turned back to Vincent. “So, you don’t mind if I leave some marks? Because I saw that you were with a woman back there, and I don’t want her to get mad at me when I leave your butt black-and-blue.”

“Wait, you’re flogging me?” Vincent asked. “Um, no, you aren’t.” He laughed and turned. “So, yeah, it’s easy to make assumptions. My slave is over there. Wave, please, Susan.”

The tall woman waved shyly.

“Guys are always thinking she’s a domme simply because she’s tall. Someone might think Amanda here is going to sub just because she’s dressed as a slutty schoolgirl, but…speaking only to the submissives in the audience, who here would like to be flogged by Amanda?”

A bunch of hands went up.

“Yeah. Subverting an expected role is hot. Lots of people play games in one of our theme rooms over there, with teachers spanking students or whatever. But doing it the other way around is sexy too. But”—he turned to Amanda—“the rest of the script kinda depends on you being on the receiving end, and I don’t want to ad-lib all of this.”

“Oh, is that why?” asked Amanda archly. “Okay. So, what do you want to be called in a scene?”

“Sir is good.”

“That girl calls you Master. I’ve heard her.” Amanda gestured a thumb toward Susan.

“That girl is my slave. She’s special.”

Amanda smiled. “Okay, Sir. So, if you do leave marks, they have to be on my ass. Nothing that wouldn’t be covered by a swimsuit.”

“Fair enough,” said Vincent. “What do you sound like when you’re having a good time?”

“Oh, I purr like a kitty. Or I babble.”

“And what do you do when you’re not having a good time?”

“I get all tense. My hands ball into fists. You’ll know.”

“Do you have a safe word you like to use?”

“Yes.”

“Everyone know what a safe word is?” asked Vincent, and after a moment’s pause, he explained. “A safe word is a word that brings the scene to a stop. Doms can use them; subs can use them. It means don’t do any more without renegotiating consent. It should be clear and must
always
be honored. In a club like this, there’s a club safe word, namely ‘mayday
,
’ and if you as a dom don’t honor it, we will come honor it for you. Gray and I and a few others will come and take you physically away from the scene if we have to, and we will not be in a good mood. A lot of places use the word ‘red,’ and if you shout that out, we’ll be watching closely in case you need more help, but we won’t intervene. And saying
safe word
works here and will work almost anyplace, as a call for immediate attention when used with urgency. So, Amanda, what’s your safe word?”

“I like to use ‘Is that the best you can do, sissy boy?’”

From the look on Vincent’s face, Amanda had once again departed the script. But she’d also grabbed her audience’s attention. Negotiation was, for most people, the boring part. And Amanda and Vincent were turning it into something that everyone was paying rapt attention to.

“Why is that not a good choice?” asked Vincent of the audience.

“Because it’s going to piss you off,” said the young lady sitting next to Tom.

“Good. Yeah, it’s not a neutral phrase. Anything else?”

“It’s too long to say if something is a problem,” offered an older man off to the left.

“Good. Anyone else?”

Amanda raised her hand. Vincent glared at her and then nodded. “Yes, Amanda?”

“It’s something I might want to actually say and mean during our scene!”

She said it with perky enthusiasm, and everyone laughed.

“I think that’s rather unlikely,” said Vincent drily. “But yeah, that’s a good point about safe words in general. Don’t use a sexy scene word that you might want to say for some other reason. Use something that’s completely unrelated. The name of a fruit. A brand name. Make it something that if you have to say it, there will be absolutely no doubt in your partner’s mind that you intended to stop the scene. Amanda, may I restrain you while I’m flogging you?”

“Oh, yeah, if you don’t tie me down, I’ll probably kick.”

“Thanks for the tip. Do you have any medical problems I need to know about?”

“Asthma. But it doesn’t happen often, and my inhaler is in my bra, so just reach in and give it to me if I need it.”

“Um, nice placement. And what do you need for aftercare?”

“I like to be cuddled, but nothing sexual please, unless we negotiate it some other time. Sometimes I can get kinda all melty after a flogging, and I don’t want to be taken advantage of, so just hold me and maybe put a blanket on me.”

“Do you like to have something to drink?”

“Yes, just water, though.”

“I can do that. I’ve got a blanket and bottled water in my bag.”

“Great, sounds like we’ll have a good scene! But what do
you
like for aftercare, Sir?”

Vincent turned again. “See how this is a give-and-take? We both ask questions. We both give answers about what we want. We need to make sure we understand each other’s limits. We’ve mostly done that by expressly negotiating what we can do—this is just a simple flogging, with restraint, and I’m not going to assume I can do anything else. But in other scenes, you’ll want to negotiate what you
won’t
do. Just be aware that no one can ever list every single thing they won’t do. Also, Amanda made an excellent point. Sometimes in midscene, someone wants to do things they didn’t want to do at the beginning. That’s hot! But if they’ve placed that activity specifically off limits, then don’t push it, even if you get consent during the scene. Hopefully the person will want to play with you again, and this time you might negotiate other limits. And there is nothing wrong with leaving your partner wanting more, especially if you want to play with them again.”

“Always leave your sub wanting more. Unless it’s me,” said Amanda.

“Thanks everyone for listening!” said Vincent.

People started clapping, and Amanda bowed deeply. Her shirt was loose in the front, and while she didn’t have large breasts, the motion exposed a generous amount of attractive cleavage, and sure enough, poking out between the two lovely mounds of exposed flesh was an asthma inhaler. Jeremy was intrigued. Clearly, she was hamming it up, but he wondered how much of what he saw was the real person and how much was put on. Was she really that much of a brat? It was certainly a far cry from what he was used to with Cheri—and from what he’d always assumed a submissive should be. Hell, he wasn’t sure Amanda was a sub at all. But she was certainly entertaining.

She slipped away up the stairs on the far side of the room and into one of the little rooms. He hadn’t meant to follow her with his gaze. The way her skirt fluttered against her legs as she walked was enticing, and as she mounted the stairs, he caught a glimpse of the undercurve of her ass. It wasn’t quite enough to be sure whether or not she was wearing panties.
Why do I care?
But somehow, he did.
“Is that the best you can do, sissy boy?”
It was the very epitome of a smart-assed masochist remark, but there was no doubt it was the sort of remark that deserved a spanking. His bare hand, her butt—she’d only say that to him the once. He also knew he was getting a hard-on at the sight of her legs and the idea of having her over his knee. He couldn’t stop looking until she disappeared from view.

Elizabeth was talking about the rules of the club. He hadn’t missed anything too important since they were available online, and he’d read and memorized them, but he knew that some wouldn’t. Then Gray talked about how to get a club membership. He paid attention, wondering if he was going to come to the place again and whether it would be worth it. It was all so strange, and so many of the people here were so young—about the age he’d been when he first started exploring with Cheri, he supposed. He belonged, and he didn’t. Even Gray and Elizabeth were younger than he was, although he suspected not by more than a decade. Still, there were some more mature faces in the crowd.

The biggest strangeness wasn’t being older. It was not having Cheri at his side. He could come and watch and be with other kinky people, but he didn’t think he could just watch other people play very many nights and be happy about it. Eventually, he’d stop or have to find someone to play with. He wasn’t sure he even remembered how to do that.
It’s been a few years since Cheri and I played. But it’s been forever since I asked someone out on a date who might say no.
He knew the answer to that, however. He’d have to collect a few rejections, and they’d not sting too much.

“Demo stations have been set in each of the side rooms,” Elizabeth said, “and we’ll put up a few down here too. Feel free to go from room to room. Look at what interests you. Look at some of what doesn’t interest you too, so you see what’s out there. Ask questions. Have fun.”

* * * *

“Are you a dom?” The girl asking looked young enough to be his daughter, and Jeremy was tempted to lie. He had seen her earlier, during the presentation. She was clearly new. They had both been watching a waxing demonstration when she had turned to face him.

“Yes,” he said.

“Oh.” She knelt suddenly, surprising him. “I’m sorry, Sir.”

“Get up,” he said. “You don’t have to kneel to every dom you see.”

“But I want to serve. Um, you, Sir.”

Touching. Was it really this easy? But the hard part was connecting with people that you wanted to play with. And while the girl was cute and he had to admit the view down her shirt was nice, she was way too young.

“On your feet,” he repeated. He was tempted to drag her up and assert his control. But that would send the wrong message.

She pouted and got to her feet.

“I’m flattered,” he said. “But didn’t you hear what they were saying about negotiation? Talk to people. Find out what they want, and if it’s what you want, by all means, serve. But you can’t go kneeling in front of people who look right, for whatever reason. You’ll end up with the wrong kind of person.”

“But I don’t know how to talk to doms.”

He chuckled. After all these years, he wasn’t sure he knew how to talk to subs, other than his own. “Start out by talking to
people
,” he suggested.

She shrugged and turned back to watch the wax.

He’d seen enough. He was tempted to go home. It wasn’t that he knew all the techniques being demonstrated, although he certainly knew most of it. But he still wasn’t sure what he hoped to find.

I’ll try one more demo.

He passed a station where Gray was demonstrating flogging. There was no shortage of men and women lined up hoping to be the next person he would demonstrate on. His technique was excellent but nothing new to Jeremy, and the crowd was thick. He moved on to peek into one of the side rooms.

In the next room, standing with a deerskin flogger in each hand, was Amanda. There were a few people gathered around, and the room was bare except for a St. Andrew’s cross. The sign in front of the station said Flogging #2, for dominants. There had been two people demonstrating rope techniques too. It made sense. Gray was showing subs how it felt. Apparently, Amanda was showing the would-be doms how to do it.

“So,” said one of the guys, “are we going to get to see what it’s like to flog
you
?”

“No,” said Amanda. “I may not be Master Gray, but I’m here to demonstrate some alternative flogging techniques. I will need someone to demonstrate on, though. Any volunteers?”

Jeremy stepped into the room, interested to see how this would play out. The red-and-blue leather floggers in Amanda’s hands interested him too. Rather than having conventional handles like the ones Gray was using, these had two little loops for Amanda’s fingers, and the tails were connected to those loops with a couple of links of chain, similar to the hinge of a pair of nunchaku.

No one raised their hand. As Amanda’s gaze swept the room, a woman dressed in a pencil skirt and a leather jacket said, “Don’t look at me.”