Make Me (4 page)

“He mentioned penalties if I go for a membership and fail.”

She nods. “Yes. Time taken from his membership.”

“Is that a common punishment?” Is that what motivates these Doms?

“Both in The Games and out, yes. If their submissive is eliminated because they are ill-equipped to deal with The Games, or if a sub fails to pass the test to get in to the club? Then the Dom might lose a year or more. One year, a Dom lost his membership. Permanently,” Milena corroborates his words.

What did that Dom do to lose his membership? Was someone maimed? Breach of trust? Corruption? People are putting themselves in vulnerable positions here, and that information could be exploited. Is that what happened?

I chew my lip. This could be my last opportunity to get information from someone. “Who’s in charge here, the owner?”

Her eyebrow rises. “Reiley Gunn.” Her open expression shutters. She’s begun to see me as an outsider, and I’ll get nothing else unfiltered from her.

At least I know
his
name now. Christ, was the man I kissed Reiley? I kissed him without knowing his name. One time in a kink club and I’m shedding all kinds of self-imposed rules. “Thank you. You can send him back in.” But if he has that much of an effect on me, I need him to be the one teaching me for the article. He’s the real deal. It’s authenticity, not curiosity burning a hole of need through my core.

Entering alone, he shuts the door behind himself and picks up the drink he set on the table. A bead of condensation slides down the crystal and drips from the glass as he sits, disappearing between him and the edge of the table. Did it hit his lap?
Stop thinking about his crotch.

He looks at me expectantly. “Satisfied?”

Stop thinking about your crotch.
“I don’t know.”

He smiles. “You’re still going to pretend that we are all evil degenerates?” His hand snaps out and captures my hand, flips it over, and traces the lines of my wrist with an agonizingly gentle touch that burns me into stillness.

“I didn’t say that.”
‘I traveled all over the world searching for the feelings I find in that man’s arms. Extreme sports barely touch the rush his hands bring.’

“I believe you’re into it already. Do you like to be tied up? To have your hair pulled?” His voice drops an octave and thickens with heat. “I bet you love it when your boyfriend fucks you hard. Rough.”

Oh God. How can I want someone whose name I don’t even know this badly? How can he know so much about me based on nothing? “You don’t know anything about me.” Like how I don’t even have a boyfriend.

So there.

“Your heart races, Sloane, betraying your secrets. Admit it—you like those things and loved what I did to you. Grabbing your neck like I owned it. Wrapping my arms around you, pressing your body up against the glass with mine, letting you feel what your body, your breaths of anticipation were doing to my cock. You were into it, weren’t you?”

Yes.
The admission whispers through my body, silken, delicate, and every bit as disconcerting as a blanket made of spider webs.

I cross my legs and try to ignore the fact that’s been brutally apparent for the last twenty minutes.

I’m wetter, and more turned on, than I’ve ever been.

“What’s your name?”

“Darko.”

She laughs in my face, and I resist the urge to pin her to the bed and spank her naked ass until she apologizes. And then do things to her that make her smile and scream my name into the pillow.

“Your name is Darko? Wow, but don’t take yourself too seriously there, Mister Mysterious. I mean, I see what you were going for, but what vampire movie did you drag that one out of?”

“I’m Serbian. It’s a family name.”

“Oh.” Her laughter dies in her throat, and I’d like to follow her blush down her chest with my tongue, those dusky tones of mortification that keep on coming. She looks at the floor. “I’m sorry. I thought it was a name you chose, like a pretentious thing to try to seem all dark and mysterious. I didn’t mean to bring family into it.”

Family means something to her or she wouldn’t have apologized for insulting mine, even innocently. Of course it does—look how far she went to find her sister. Something we’ve got in common. Family means everything to me as well. The more I find out, the more I want to know about Sloane. “Apology accepted. No offense taken.” Her volatility and passion are appealing. I’m still half hard from the look in her eyes, the curl of her lips, the fists she doesn’t realize are clenched at her sides, and the memory of the heat of her pussy through her jeans. “Any other questions?” Why did I feel the need to prove myself to her with Milena?

“If you’re so good at the coaching, and you’re a man who likes winning, why isn’t that your preference?”

I brush the stubble of my jaw with the backs of my loosely clenched fingers. I hadn’t really thought about it before. “Being a participating Dominant gives me more.”

“Because you get to be the one with the subs?”

“Partially. But it’s more rewarding because of what it allows me to do.”

She swallows. “Which is?”

“Weed out the unworthy.”

“Unworthy?” The word clearly rubs her the wrong way.

“Would ‘unsuitable’ better stroke your sensibilities? The lifestyle isn’t for everyone. True kink isn’t for hobbyists, regardless of what the books would have people believe.”

She pulls the hat off again and runs her fingers through her hair. “I’d have thought you’d want as many people as possible in it. More people to play with.”

Irritation slithers through me at her arrogant misunderstanding of who and what we are. “This isn’t play. It’s not something we do; it’s who we are. It can’t be torn out, shamed out, or denied. Not without significantly harming us.”

She senses the truth I hadn’t meant to speak. “I’m sorry.”

“I do not play with people as though they are my toys and mean nothing. Do you think us so cold?”

“When could we start the training?”

Is she so eager to train or trying to appease me for her giant faux pas by rushing in? I push back in a colder tone than I’ve used with her. “What makes you think I want to train you?” My sudden authoritative tone widens her eyes and she looks at the floor.

“If you weren’t the tiniest bit interested, you’d have already thrown me out.”

Maybe she is a submissive after all. My hands ache to touch her again. “You’re so very expressive. It’s your best feature and your worst enemy.” Time for the real test. “I would very much like to see you on your knees. Now.”

She stands and jams the hat back on. “On the bed?”

“Where you stand.”

She lowers herself to her knees. Her unquestioning obedience is a good sign. I want her ass in my hands and her screams of pleasure in the air. Clearly, she’s used to being unflappable, contained. Recollection of her profession eludes me; I’ll have to look into that as well. What will she be like when she feels safe enough to really let go and give in to the deep release I could give her?

Kneeling with her head slightly lowered, she causes a rush of interest to my groin. I walk around her in a small circle, inspecting her face and body from every angle. She and Tessa really are identical, but it’s fascinating how, while Tessa does nothing for me, I ache to dominate Sloane in every way possible. Twice.

I like the choppy layers of her hair. They make her seem modern and strong, though it’s just a hairstyle. Sloane is spunky, but how far is she willing to go? Am I right thinking she’s a natural submissive?

“From this point on, you will address me only as Sir, and only when I ask you a direct question. You will not move unless I tell you to. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Sir.”

My god, I want to fuck her voice. Unable to look away, I walk to the foot of the bed. “Crawl to me.”

The angle makes her breasts spill over the top of the corset as she crawls toward my feet, hips undulating.

“Stop.”

She does.

Sitting on the bed, I hold my arms out. “Roll up my sleeves.”

Still kneeling, her fingers fumble to comply; nails gently scratch my forearms in her haste.

“Good. Now lie across my lap.”

Her eyes widen. “What?”

Standing to tower over her, I clench my jaw. “I’ll let that one slide, but if you speak out of turn again, there will be consequences. Now. Let’s try this again, Sloane. Face down on the bed, feet on the floor.” At first I do nothing, just move and stand behind her, letting her body heat mingle with mine, allowing the anticipation to build. And when vertebra by vertebra her spine relaxes, I quickly move aside and slap her ass with a stinging blow that makes her jump. She doesn’t make a sound.

Pride uncurls in my chest and spreads through my arms, down the hand I rub in slow circles over the place on her ass I just hit. Again and again I alternate spanks and caresses, spreading her legs, squeezing them tightly together. Her body responded to the flogging Tanner organized, but nothing like the way she responds now that it’s her ass being hit. Being caressed. Squeezed.

Soon her thighs clench on their own and the bed dips with her subtle hip thrusts as she pushes her crotch against the corner of the mattress. She hasn’t made a sound of pain or pleasure even while carried away by the scene.

“Stand and face me.” The depth of possessiveness that revs through my blood rocks me and I should take a step back.

Instead, I step closer.

Because I want to discover her body as much as her limits, I reach around and tug on the zipper of her corset.

The slip of skin between the top and her jeans is unbearably smooth, and with a fingertip, I follow the path of bare skin to her hip, waiting for the corset to slide down her breasts and hit the floor. Her sharp inhale dislodges the corset, but she clutches it to herself just as it falls, denying me the sight I wanted.

She gnaws her lip. “That’s enough. Can we continue next time?”

She can submit but is scared of showing me her nipples? “This is a bad idea. There isn’t enough time to train you properly.”

“Why, because you want to see me naked?”

Annoyance ripples through me. “Kink isn’t about seeing and grabbing like a savage. It’s about coming together with someone, laying everything between you bare, committing fully to the scene, to the other person with you. If you’re scared to be seen, how can you throw yourself into the experience? Are you that ashamed of your body?”

“I get it, I’m new. But I don’t need to be an expert, I just need to submit, correct?”

I scoff. She doesn’t even understand the concept of submission. And, yet, her body responded to it naturally, openly. Even whilst she fought it. I shake my head despite the appeal. This was still a bad idea. There are some doors even I can’t open. “You can’t handle this.”

“You’re wrong.” Her eyes glint with determination. “I can. I
will
. I need you to teach me.” As though words are not enough, she throws her corset to the floor, baring herself to me, taking a step forward with her arms at her sides, hiding nothing. “I have seen things, experienced things more fucked up and twisted than you can imagine and I didn’t break then. You think this even touches what I’ve seen in my life? A spanking is nothing. I can take a beating that would make a man cry like a child.”

“It’s not just about being beaten. That you think it is proves how little you know.” I turn to walk away, disgusted by her ignorance.

“Teach me. Please.” She drops to her knees in front of me, hands fluttering over my feet, not daring to touch them. The last thing I expected was for this proud, fierce woman to beg.

I suspected she was a submissive before, but I am certain now. She’s fighting for it, but where does the arrogance come from?

Unshed tears swim in her eyes. “Please. I’m not just doing this for me. It’s for my sister. I need this, need you. I need you, Darko. I’ll do anything.”

I get it.

She’s not arrogant because she’s judging us. She’s arrogant because she’s judging herself—for liking this world. It clearly turns her on, yet for some reason she thinks we’re bad for Tessa.

“It means this much to you?”

She nods.

I’m drawn to her so strongly the sensation tugs me into a squat to wipe away the tears on her cheeks. The way she cares about her family, that protectiveness snuggling the line of stupidity, reminds me of myself. I would do anything to keep my family safe as well. She’s wrong about us, but if she knows nothing, that’s to be expected. She could be amazing with the right training.

I want to train her.

But she’s so new. Am I insane to take on a sub with no experience? Her body responds beautifully, but if she tries to get a membership and fails, I’ll lose time on mine—anywhere from two weeks to six months. I could lose months from my membership, but the time spent teaching her might be worth it. Her strength shines from her eyes, even while humbled before me. How many years have I longed for someone like her to walk into my life? Passionate, fiery, strong in her own right. Someone who understands doing whatever it takes when it comes to family.

Something about her sparks a feeling in me I haven’t felt before, an undeniable interest that makes me want to teach her despite it all. And yet, a moment ago the thought of me seeing her breasts nearly made her run away.

“Stand at the foot of the bed with your hands flat on the mattress.”

This time, her ass is in the air with no questions asked. Her nature enables her to submit like an experienced sub. But my touch and her own nudity nearly undid her. At least two Dominants will be touching her to test her for a membership, possibly when she’s naked. If she fails this test, I will not coach her.

“Do not move.” She presses her ass against my cock when I grind against her, gripping her hips, reaching around and lightly tracing the teeth of the zipper on her jeans but not undoing it. Her breath hitches when I move her legs farther apart and explore her inner thighs all the way up to her pussy. She makes no sound when I pinch her ass, so I spread my fingers and slide my palm from her lower back up to grasp the nape of her neck and push her down a little lower. “Do not make a sound.”

Bare hands on her skin tenses her legs. I push my cock harder against her and explore the sensitive skin of her ribs, varying my touch from soft to firm and demanding. She accepts both extremes, adjusting to give me better access without me having to speak.

“Stand up.”

She shivers when I wrap my arms around her, molding our flesh together. Shallow gusts of breath leave her body, and her nipples turn to stiff peaks against my forearms.

“Lift your arms and clasp your hands behind my neck.”

She moves into the embrace, exposing the softness of her stomach—something most women have trouble with—and she doesn’t move or say a word when my hands run up and down her belly. But she holds her breath when I palm her small, perfect breasts and work the nipples between my fingertips, squeezing and tugging a little harder than I normally would, trying to provoke a response.

Continuing with that, I nuzzle her neck, losing myself in the smooth warmth, in her sharp inhalations. She’s passed so far, but what if something unexpected and a little more invasive was thrown into the mix?

Her lips are petal soft and I slide my finger between them. “Suck.”

Her tongue swirls around the tip before her lips seal around my index finger and gentle suction floods my cock with blood. Closing my eyes, I can’t help but picture her latched onto my cock doing those same things with her mouth.