Chapter Ten

What the hell was she doing? Stella watched Mason disappear over the sand dune before turning her back to the house and the man who walked away. She wrapped her arms around her chest rubbing the tiny shivers away from her skin that threatened to rule her body.

She didn’t know what she was doing with Mason besides playing with fire she had no business toying with. She panicked when he hugged her to him a few minutes ago. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She wasn’t supposed to like him further than their contract took them. Their closeness felt too personal and unprofessional.

This wasn’t a movie where the girl gets the guy at the end. She didn’t want to be that girl. The guy in question was way too wrapped up in his own world of greed. There was no way he could live in the normal world. Although she heard about a few BDSM relationships turning out to be long-term marriages, she’d never actually seen it happen to anyone she knew. She didn’t open Sublime in the hopes of finding a husband.

She opened the club because people in the lifestyle needed a safe place to play and to release the growing hunger that lived inside them. She couldn’t let herself get emotionally attached to any of her subs. She couldn’t allow herself to feel anything for him.

Turning back to the house, Stella closed the distance and as she drew closer to the house and to him, the more nervous she became. Her, nervous? That had never happened before with any of her subs. Not even when she was new to this life. Entering the house, she moved into the living room where all the bags had been neatly set after they first arrived. Grabbing up the black duffle bag that held her play gear, she wandered into the bathroom at the end of the hall to change.

A few minutes later, dressed in the leathers that fed into her confidence, Stella felt better about facing Mason again. It took her getting back into her fetwear for her to remember her place in their relationship. She wanted to help him find relief through sexual fulfillment. She wanted to help him learn to be who he needed to be. She wasn’t here to have sex and develop feelings for the man.

Walking into the bedroom she knew as his, Stella had to bite back a hushed gasp that tried to escape her. Mason surprised her as he sat on the edge of the bed, naked, with his head bowed to his chest as if waiting in a submissive pose for her to give him demands. The sight before her took her breath away seeing a man of his status hand his body and mind over to her.

The trust they were building felt like nothing she even had with a submissive before. His eyes were open but focused on the floor at his feet. The long strands of hair on top of his head, fell to the front of his face to hang over his eyes. Her gaze skimmed the shaved sides of his scalp. Remembering the familiar feeling the tiny stubbles gave her as she ran her fingers across it. Her hands flexed and twitched at her side with the thought. Looking at the camera, she held in her hand, she pointed it toward him and pressed the shutter multiple times.

Walking farther into the room, she shut and locked the door before dropping her camera on the dresser next to her. They were the only two in the house. But even alone, she had an extra sense of security being behind a lock that allows a person to abandon their fears and open themselves more freely.

Mason turned his head at the sound of the door closing. A lock of hair fell to the center of his forehead as his gaze locked with hers. They stayed that way for a moment that seemed to drag on too long just drinking each other in.

She watched him raise a hand to push the fallen hair from his face but he never looked away from her. She needed to breathe. She needed to remind herself of the reason she was here and her purpose.

Stepping to the foot of the bed, she set her bag on top of the comforter and opening the zipper, she peered inside trying to wrap her mind around what she intended to do with him. She promised to get him out of his head and that’s what she planned to do.

Opening the duffle bag wider, she rummaged through until she found the few items she needed. Taking a step closer to him while holding the blindfold in her hands, she gently tugged it over his head placing it snug over his eyes.

“Lay on your back across the bed with your feet flat on the ground.” She waited and watched him shift his body until he stretched across the width of the mattress.

“Is this okay? Are you comfortable?”

He began to shake his head but stopped short remembering to use vocal communication. “Yes, Mistress.”

“Good. Arms over your head. Palms together. Interlock your fingers.” She grabbed another needed item from the bag before walking to the far side of the bed where his head rested. Dropping the items on the mattress next to him, she placed her hands on his bare arms. Her fingers slid over the tender skin on the underside of his biceps. Her nails leaving faint white trails behind that would slowly turn the softest shade of red. Marking his body.

Once his fingers and palms were interlocked, she lifted them above his head looping a silk rope over one of his hands to rest on his wrists. Wrapping them in the manner she’d been taught during her years of training. After his wrists were secured, Stella looped the rope between his wrists twice before knotting it off. She laid his bound hands back on the bed before picking up the next item.

She eyed him stretched out in front of her. He looked, simply gorgeous. The man was close to flawless. The chiseled muscles under his pecks heaved up and down with his rugged breathing as his lungs filled with air. His brownish-pink, perfectly rounded nipples beaded in the air telling her he was more than turned on by their play. The small indents in his chest that ran down to the center of his stomach showcased the most perfect set of chiseled abs.

Continuing, her gaze ate up the toned muscles of his thighs and the weeping cock that thrusted out from the nest of dark hair between his legs. Watching his hardness jerk and twitch with her touch on his body made her burn with the need to take him in her mouth.

Although an act so intimate was a treat. A treat he would have to work for and was nowhere near to earning yet. Grabbing the leather and fur paddle in her hand, she glided the paddle, furry side down over his naked skin. Starting just below the rope at his wrists and working her way down and over his chest. The soft black fur skimmed his body creating goose bumps to rise in a trail behind the paddle. She smiled to herself, loving the control she held over his body.

Bending forward, she leaned her body into him. Pressing the fabric of her corset into his face as she laid her cheek flat against his firm stomach. Being this close to him, she inhaled the scent of his fading cologne on his body. She breathed it in as if preparing to lock the scent away for memory.

His mouth opened and closed softly over the fabric at her breast. As much as she would love to feel his mouth on her naked skin, she pulled away. He didn’t have permission to kiss or enjoy her body.

“Did you ask permission to kiss your Mistress?” She couldn’t see his face but she knew she had shocked him with her question. They weren’t on some lovers’ get away. They were on a getaway for him to de-stress and learn to be a good submissive. Nothing more.

“No, Mistress”

She pushed herself away from his body to stand at the side of the bed once again. Taking the paddle in her hand, she ran the leather side along the tender skin at the top of his exposed thighs. Pulling back until she hovered a few inches above him, Stella flicked her wrist letting the leather side kiss his flesh.

He let out a groan as she watched a red stain brighten his skin.

“Did that hurt?” She knew it couldn’t possibly have hurt him but she wanted to give him a chance to get out of their play if he felt uncomfortable.

“No, Mistress.” His voice breathy as if he just ran a mile. She ran the fur along the side of his stretched-out chest and abs, trailing along the tight muscle that bordered his pubic bone. Her gaze darted to the growing muscle between his legs. There was no question in her mind whether he enjoyed himself or not.

Careful not to touch his cock while using the soft fur side, she roamed the paddle around the inside of his thighs and across his pubic line sending his entire body into fits and jerks.

“Mistress…please?”

She paused her play and looked into his face. “Is there something wrong? Are you in pain?”

His tongue slipped from his mouth to roll over and wet his bottom lip.

“N-No.” A moan slipped out of him as his hips pulsed and bucked into the air. Judging by the state he was in and the quickening of his breath, he searched for his orgasm. His hips bucked forward again in the hopes they might connect with anything that could bring him pleasure.

“You have a need to come. Is that it?”

His tongue dragged across his lower lip again pulling it between his teeth in response. If she were ever going to help him out of his shell, he was going to have to play by her rules. She needed to get him comfortable with letting her know his needs and how to help him meet them. It was human nature to want your needs be met by others. He was no different from the rest of the human population.

“Yes…Mistress.” His words sounded forced as he tried to lower his bound wrists back over his head. She stopped him by placing her hand against his skin.

“We’re going to try something new. You want a release and I want to hear more about you.” She lowered her other hand to the rock-hard cock that wept for attention. Rolling her fingers around him, she began to slowly stroke his need.

“How fast we go is entirely up to you.” Her hand made a slow descend to the base of him. He groaned at the contact.

Questioning him wasn’t her place, but if she wanted to ever help him relax then she would have to get inside his mind and to the root of the problem. Get him to let his guard down and open up to her. “Do you enjoy your work?”

His head quickly nodded.

“I need your words”

“I enjoy the money.”

Again with the money. It wasn’t her place to judge, but it annoyed her that everything kept coming back to money with him. “What is it about the money you enjoy?”

His body stilled for a second as if he were shocked she asked him. “Money is the key to everything in life.” His hips surged forward against her palm causing a growl to escape his throat.

She had to keep up her end of the bargain by taking on a little more speed. “Money is what brings you happiness?”

“Money is what brings me security.”

She couldn’t argue with him on that. Money brought her security as well. “But there’s more to life than just money, don’t you think?”

“Not in my world.”

Anger rose inside her. Here he was being a hundred percent honest with her as she asked him to, and she was getting upset with him. He had no obligation to change for her. Their relationship was a business transaction. Nothing more.

“I have a hard time believing you don’t feel the same way.” His words made her freeze. “What do you mean?”

Mason let out a heavy breath. “It’s just— It’s just in your profession, I think you can see where I’m coming from. If the money wasn’t right, would you be in the sex business? You sell sex because of the money you make doing it.”

She froze completely. In other words, he was calling her a whore. Her hand dropped away from his body and she quickly moved away from the bed. As she left his side, Mason sat up pulling the blindfold off his eyes with his bound hands. “That came out wrong. I’m sorry.”

She was speechless.

It took her a minute before she could shake herself out of the state of shock. “In seven years, I have never had anyone say anything like that to me. I need a minute.” She couldn’t get out of the room fast enough. She didn’t stop in the hallway or the kitchen but exited the house and headed toward the beach.

It had been a mistake coming here. She was out of her element and completely alone. At the club, she could let things like that slide because she felt like a different person within those walls.

What the hell had she been thinking taking off with a man she hardly knew? How did she expect him to think of her? In his eyes, she did look like a prostitute. Selling herself for the exchange of money. In all her years, she never confused the lifestyle with prostitution, but she could honestly see how some small-minded people could.

Taking a seat on the blanket of sand they had occupied an hour ago, she watched as the sun slipped away leaving only the moon’s light to cast a shine over the white water. She was relieved she hadn’t removed her clothes yet. It would be awkward if she had to get dressed before leaving the house.

A few minutes later, she sensed his presence behind her before she heard him approach. She didn’t turn to look at him when she felt him move up beside her. He had put on a pair of sweat pants but still sported his naked chest. Moving her gaze up to his, she also noticed he had taken the ropes off his wrists.

“Can I join you?”

Her shoulders jolted up in a shrug. “Go ahead. It’s your beach.”

She watched from the corner of her eye as he stretched his long, lean body out next to hers on the sand.

“I apologize for that back there. I was way out of line.”

She raised her hand to stop him. “I asked, and you told me the truth. I don’t like it, but you are right. I’m in a career where people may think I sell myself for money but…they couldn’t be more wrong. I don’t see how what I do is any different from a psychologist. I allow people to open up with their deepest darkest desires. You know there are people in this world who don’t or can’t understand what their own bodies are craving.

“They don’t know why certain things turn them on. There are people who hate the things that turn them on but it’s what makes them who they are. They can’t change it any more than a gay man can stop liking men or two women could bring a man into their lesbian relationship.”

She let herself pause for a breath. “I help those people realize that, as long as they’re not hurting anyone, it’s okay to embrace what makes them happy. I help people realize it’s okay to like being disciplined, or spanked, or even treated like a personal slave. There’re a lot of people out there who are afraid of themselves because they don’t understand their need. If that makes me a whore…then I’m a whore. But I’ve never had sex with someone for money.”

“I understand what you do for others. I didn’t mean to insult you. I just wanted to point out that you do your job for money as I do mine.”

She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “Answer me this, Mason, no bullshit. What is with you and money? The real reason. Because I have to say, it really pisses me off this obsession you have.”

She watched him pull away slightly. He was closing himself off again. Letting the wall around him get higher and higher, but he didn’t move away. Instead he turned his head to look out over the white capped water.

“When I was little, my mother was the only parent in my life. My dad left town with his newest girlfriend leaving my mom and me alone with not a cent to our names. I used to think she did the best she could with what she had to work with. Working with the hand she had been dealt in life. I thought she tried the best she could to raise a kid on next to nothing. But as I grew older I began to realize that the truth was, she didn’t even try. There were many times when we had very little food in the house, if any at all. I remember our power being shut off for days at a time.”

Stella turned to gaze to his face. “I’m sorry. A childhood like that must have been rough.”

“I didn’t think anything about how tough it was because I didn’t know what a normal family should look like. How was a young kid to know that not everyone’s power got shut off because they had no money to pay the bills?” He took a breath.

He continued to struggle but he was finally opening up. “My mother made what living she did on her back in the room next to mine in our singlewide trailer. I’d love to say that even though we had it rough she had been the best mom. That she made our horrible situation as fun for me as she could and that she took me to parks and played with me…but she never did any of it. Not after I learned the reason we didn’t have food or power was because she snorted what money she did make.” His voice stilled, then coughed to clear his throat.

“The closest thing she even did as a real mom was when she had to come pick me up from school for fighting. I remember the principal saying I wasn’t allowed to leave until he spoke to my mother. After she brought her drug-filled mind into the school reeking of booze and sex, it was the last time the school ever asked to speak with her. By the time I was a freshman in high school, I’d been in juvenile detention three times. All for fighting. Teenagers can be dicks, especially when they have someone less fortunate to bully and push around. Those who are tormented at a young age either stay the victim or they learn to stand on their own two feet. Having to learn to fight to defend themselves.”

“Mason, that’s awful. I’m so sorry. What made you want to turn things around?”

“A teacher I had my sophomore year saw I was extremely good when it came to numbers. Right away he started talking about different careers someone with my talents could explore. So, I began researching, and by the time I was a senior, the same teacher helped me fill out paperwork for a free government ride through college, and I never looked back. That same teacher was the first and only person who ever told me they were proud of me. My own mother was too busy scrambling to make a dollar for blow she never noticed her son had grown up.”

She felt bad for the little boy he once was. “So now you think…”

“Now I know what money can buy you. You asked me if I thought money could buy happiness and my answer is, yes. Money could have saved me a lot of pain and heartache when I was younger. Money could have given me a normal childhood. Hell, it might have saved my mom. It was having to turn to prostitution that led her to the drugs. Her way of dulling the pain of selling her body. I worked my ass off to get out of the life that continued to kick me while I was at my lowest. I will be damned if I ever let the world kick dirt in my face again.”

Stella moved an arm wrapping it around his back, the warmth from his body a welcome surprise even though she didn’t feel cold. She wanted to comfort him in any way she could. It wasn’t right for such a young kid to go through that much heartache.

“So you went to college and became who you are today, refusing to repeat your mom’s mistakes?”

His face turned toward her. “Something like that.”

Once again her heart went out to the young boy he had been. His mom’s poor choices had impacted him so hard, he had no choice but to grow a dedication to work.

A soft smile touched his lips as they curled up over the corners. “I told you my story, so let’s hear yours.”

“Mine is nowhere near as dramatic as yours. First off, I never knew my parents. They both died when I was around two. Car accident. My grandmother on my mother’s side raised me. She’s a real Georgia Peach. When she was younger, before she met my grandfather, she used to compete in beauty pageants and all that girly stuff. She won Miss Georgia twice and went to compete for Miss America in the seventies but lost her chance in the final rounds.

“My grandma could have been the poster child for a true southern woman. She’s all spit and fire. But other than my grandma raising me, I had a pretty normal home life. She filled in all the roles. I mean, besides having a dad around. My grandpa died a few years after my parents. So, I guess I was about six. I don’t really remember him either.”

“How does a girl of a normal background and childhood end up working in a sex club?” He asked as he moved his hand to the side of her face cupping her cheek against the hollow of his palm. His gaze cut into hers and for a moment; she felt the heat in his eyes even through the darkness of night.

“I don’t just work in one. I’m partial owner of Sublime. There isn’t a reason behind why I got into the lifestyle besides what I already told you. I liked the idea of helping people discover and be comfortable with who they are. I’m not a shy person when it comes to sex. I was raised to hold my head up high and never be ashamed of what and who I am.” She paused a moment before she continued.

“And to be honest, the money is great. I mean we’ve already made back all the startup money we dropped into buying the building and paying for the remodel of the interior. Running Sublime has never been a lifelong dream of mine like it has been for Piper and Cara. Those two will be old and gray sitting out front on rockers together.”

Mason leaned closer to her and his fingertips made their way into her hairline. “What do you see yourself doing when you’re all Mistressed out?” He lowered his lips to place a light kiss on the apple of her cheek. Her eyes drifted closed, knowing she should stop him. It wasn’t right for her to let him top her like this. In the moment, she didn’t have the will power to turn him away.

“I-I want to open a studio. For photography. I majored in it in college before I went into business with the girls. I’ve put it on hold to make money, but it’s my real dream job. It’s what I’ve been working toward since I was eight and my grandma bought me my first camera.”

His mouth moved from her cheek over to the other side, placing a peck on the bridge of her nose and one on her forehead before dropping one on her closed mouth. It took her only a few seconds to surrender her kiss to his. He pulled away just far enough to get his next words out.

“Just this once, just for tonight. Let me show you that I can take care of you and make you feel good?”

She knew better than to let a new sub top her. By allowing him to hold the upper hand, she was taking his training in reverse. There was nothing more she wanted at that moment than to surrender to him. Her gaze drifted from his lips to his eyes. She didn’t think herself capable of words when he started kissing her again. By the time she had her mind set on her answer, there was no need for words anyway.