Chapter 20

The conversation cheered me up drastically with the suggestion that there might be more to come, especially that he didn’t consider my little fantasy a hard limit. But the lull we hit made me remember that we still hadn’t heard from Max yet. Rick got up to get a fresh beer for himself after glancing at my own half-finished bottle resting almost forgotten on the coffee table. When he got back he relaxed into the sofa, his head tilted back.

His lids lowered and he seemed like he was recalling a favorite memory. “You should’ve seen yourself all spread open.” He opened his eyes and their blazing blue stare hit me hard. All the moments of his attention the day before came rushing back while he kept talking. “You were so perfectly comfortable with the situation, too. Christ, Casey, that sheer enjoyment of the moment is ideal in a sub. I’d have hated to see you go down the wrong path and wind up unhappy. Ever since you’ve grown up, it’s been tough not to notice you.”

I could barely breathe at this little revelation. “Do you think Max thought about me that way, too?” I asked, hopeful.

“If he did, he never said so to me. That’s not something we’d have shared, either way. How do you tell your best friend you have the hots for this eighteen-year-old stepdaughter? We’re not a couple old pedophiles. We like women, not little girls, and you sure came into your own over the last year.”

I turned and rested my back against the arm of the sofa, pulling my legs up and tucking them beneath me. I wished I could touch him again, and not in a sexual way. I’d had sex for the first time, been spanked, tied up, had two different cocks in my mouth and two different tongues in my pussy, all within the last forty-eight hours. I was overwhelmed by the realization of how much I’d loved it, but right now I just wanted a hug.

“Hey, hey, come here,” he said, his expression growing concerned at my darkening mood. He tugged at my hand and I fell against him, trying to ignore the fresh tears that rolled down my cheeks.

“I don’t feel like I’m grown up, Rick. I feel ~stupid~. Like I’ve made a mistake, even though I loved every single second.”

He wrapped an arm around me and squeezed tightly while I buried my face in his shoulder, inhaling the spicy scent of his deodorant. He and Max used the same brand, I realized, but Rick’s scent was somehow still distinct. Like fresh-cut wood and varnish. It was the way his house always smelled, probably wafting in from his workshop. It had always been a comforting scent to me, and worked wonders now to calm me. It helped that he just sat quietly holding me and rubbing my back.

“Everyone feels that way at the beginning. You’re learning what makes you tick. What your body wants when it comes to pleasure, and it just happens to be a little different than what the average eighteen-year-old wants. Let me show you something…”

He shifted and gently sat me back up before standing and digging through a cabinet beneath the wall-mounted television. He pulled out a small, square jewel case and popped a mini-DVD into his player, then returned to the sofa and sat, pulling me back against him.

“What is it?” I asked, my curiosity overtaking my emotions as I snuggled against him, comforted by his closeness.

“It’s an old video Max and I made before we met our wives. Before it starts, just know that the girl you’re going to see was only a couple years older than you are now and it wasn’t her first session, but this is how Max and I like to work. It shows a bit of how tailored a scene can be to the participants, too. She’s the last sub we were with.”

My pulse raced in anticipation of what I’d see. Was this the Aurora they’d talked about? The screen flickered as the picture appeared, grainy at first before it cleared and focused on a king-sized bed that looked like it was in a swank hotel room—if the beds in swank hotel rooms had red satin sheets and steel rings attached to tall, iron bedposts. The sound kicked on with a blaring beat of music and Rick hurriedly lowered the volume.

“Sorry about that. This is the raw footage of a rehearsal, no post production, but everything that happens is real.”

The lighting shifted around the empty bed, making me think someone was adjusting it for maximum effect, as though it were a stage.

~“Strobe on,”~ a voice off-camera said. My skin prickled when I recognized Max’s familiar inflection and deep tone. The scene darkened and flickered in the disconcerting rhythm of a strobe light, with a black light underneath, highlighting hidden imagery with every flash. It was mesmerizing.

Someone laughed off-screen. ~“I think that’s gonna knock their socks off.”~

An accented female voice replied adamantly. ~“Fuck that. I hate strobes. Get rid of it.”~

~“Chloe wants it for the show, Aurora.” ~Max again. ~“What if we blindfold you?”~

Rick let out a low laugh next to me. “Fucking Aurora. Some performers take themselves way too seriously.”

~“Fine. Blindfold me, but you two owe me a favor after hours if I do this.”~

~“Anything for you, Aurora.”~ A different male voice, just as familiar, answered her. I glanced at Rick, but he seemed too enthralled to notice me, his eyes fixed on the scene like we were watching his own wedding video. I almost felt like I was intruding, but the prospect of seeing the two of them in action from a distance was too enticing to abandon.

The strobe stopped and a figure stepped into the frame. I recognized Rick by his swagger and the dark tattoos on his upper arms. The scruffy cheeks, faint laugh lines and curly blond hair I knew and loved didn’t exist on the version of him that I watched on the screen, however. Instead he was a smooth-faced young man with a buzzed head and deep tan, wearing a pair of leathers like a second skin. He was still well-muscled and toned, but not as bulky as the guy sitting next to me. I let out a low whistle of appreciation at the younger version of him.

Rick chuckled beside me and tilted his chin toward the screen. “Wait ’til you see my partner.”

“How old were you?” I asked.

“It’s coming on thirteen years ago, so…twenty-eight when we made this. About twenty-six when we started trying the lifestyle. Anytime we weren’t deployed, we’d spend weekends with a Dominatrix in the city. That would be Chloe. She isn’t in this, though.”

“You said you were her sub. Did you get tied up, too?”

“The best way to learn how to be a Dom is to submit to one. She did everything to me before I was allowed to do it to anyone else.”

“But you weren’t the…subs…in this, um…” I bit my lip wishing I knew how to speak his language. I wondered if he had a video of that, but didn’t dare ask.

“Scene,” he finished for me. “No, this was Chloe’s first public test for the three of us. Max and I had worked together for about a year already. Jesus, Chloe was more trying than our drill sergeant during boot camp at times. Every recruit should go through her for training, if you ask me. We’d learn a lot more sensitivity that way.”

I snickered at his comment, but quieted when his jaw clenched. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

He let out a snort and shook his head. “After the shit I’ve seen during service, I know a lot of it could have been avoided if we’d had her brand of discipline ahead of the military. She’s the one who taught us how to be men. All the military teaches us is how to be overgrown boys with guns.”

He took a swig of his beer and glanced at me. His expression softened.

“I don’t regret any of it, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he said. “Want another?” He pointed at the empty bottle that rested in my fist. I’d forgotten finishing it.

“Sure,” I said, and released the empty. I watched him leave, too fascinated by the fully grown man now to turn back to the video. The sounds drew my attention, though, and it wasn’t sex that I heard.

It was laughter.