Writes of Submission (18 page)

He looked down at it as if he hadn’t seen it before either. “Thanks. I had it done years ago when I was in Scotland by this old guy who did it all freehand. He was amazing.”

Kane’s voice interrupted them. “If you’re done petting him, perhaps we can get inside?”

Dante jumped. “Oh, yeah. But I need a few shots of you two first. I was thinking of one from behind with ‘The Keep’ sign visible on the other side of you, maybe one of you holding the door open for Nikki, but both of your faces in shadowed profile. That kind of thing.”

Nikki was suddenly nervous. She glanced around, brushing her hand down the sapphire-blue corset Allie had convinced her to wear. “With how tight this thing is laced I must look like a tube of toothpaste squeezed from the middle with goo shooting out both ends. I can’t be photographed like this.”

There was a sudden loud cracking noise like a gunshot as Kane’s hand struck her ass sharply. The sound reverberated across the parking lot, causing her to jump. She would have fallen if Dante hadn’t grabbed her arm. The burn radiated throughout her entire ass and she rubbed the spot where his hand had connected, cursing the five-inch heels she had been talked into wearing. She glared at Kane. “What the fuck! Why did you hit me?”

His voice boomed out angrily, making her shrink back in surprise. “For starters, I didn’t hit you. I gave you the swat on the ass that comment deserved. I told you, you will not be allowed to cut yourself down like that in our presence. Do you believe now that I’m serious?”

He had a point. “Yes, but you had no right to hit me, swat me, whatever. I’m an adult, damn it, not some child to be corrected.”

He stepped nearer and put a hand on her shoulder, drawing her closer as his voice dropped into the Dom tones that she was always unable to resist. “Then don’t act like one. You are a gorgeous, sexy woman desired by both myself and Dante. Get that through your pretty little head.”

His tone slid right to her center, stoking the fire that his swat had started. Her anger melted away as the heat from his hand and his eyes went right to her pussy. She didn’t want to admit it, but after the initial shock had worn off, the warmth in her ass had made her panties wet. She almost wanted him to swat her again. His hand on her shoulder was firm and there was a strength in his voice that was both silky and strong. She stood staring at him for a moment until his words finally sank in. They thought she was sexy and they both wanted her—was that what he had said? Her head reeled and for the first time she really looked in his eyes. She saw the truth of his words reflected there before her vision started to fill with tears. She turned and found Dante’s eyes. The same truth was in them. They really meant it. She clutched at Dante’s chest for support and suddenly felt herself sandwiched between the two men as they moved closer, holding her upright. She realized she loved the feeling of security their bodies gave her, pressed against her as they were.

“Are you okay?” Dante murmured in her ear.

“I’ve never been better.” Her voice was low but definite. It was as if a switch had flipped in her brain. She felt reborn. She suddenly understood and wanted to please these two men with every fiber of her body. With a shock she realized that she had broken through her self-imposed barrier to the things she had been craving and had at last given herself the permission to explore what these men offered. She was free, finally understanding what Allie had been talking about while she helped her get into the corset earlier in the evening. She had said that submission was a gift. It could only be given by someone who had something worth giving. There was no power exchange unless both people had power to exchange. She wanted to give her submission to these men, to show them she wanted them as much as they apparently wanted her.

Kane took a half step back. “What just happened?”

She smiled at him. “An epiphany, Sir. I think I finally get it.”

“Get what?” Dante asked. From the look on his face she guessed he was completely confused.

Kane leaned in, studying her face as his thumb wiped away a tear that was threatening to spill over. His lips met hers and his tongue brushed across her trembling lips. She let them open and accepted his questing tongue as hers began to glide over and around it. She felt as if they were becoming one. She lost track of where he ended and she began. Dante’s arms tightened around her waist and she remembered that she was still clutching the other man while kissing Kane. She turned and began kissing Dante with the continuing heat she had begun with Kane. A new, wonderful connection flowed between all three of them, making her lose track of where she was and what she was doing there.

She was jolted back to reality by Kane stepping away from their combined embrace. It occurred to her that she might have done something wrong, but his smile and words reassured her. “Welcome home, beautiful.”

“What the hell did I miss? I’m completely lost. Can you help me out here? What just happened?” Dante’s face was a mask of bewilderment.

Kane beamed. “My good man, Nikki has finally accepted us. She is ours.”

It didn’t seem to help Dante much. “Okay, if you say so.”

“I do,” Kane assured him. “Now, let’s not waste this gorgeous expression. Get your camera and let’s take your shots so we can get inside.”

Nikki floated along, allowing Kane to pose them as Dante instructed. He took photo after photo—by the car, by the sign, by the door, and in Kane’s arms. She didn’t care what the two of them were doing as long as she was with them. She was in a haze of joy. When Kane looked into her eyes, she felt beautiful, desired, protected, and complete.

Dante stashed his camera in Kane’s car since he had ridden in with Allie earlier in the afternoon. Then he joined them and the men put out elbows so Nikki could take an arm on each side as they made their way into the club. The entryway was dim. Kane went up to a window on their left and Nikki heard a woman’s voice saying, “You’re Allie’s special guests, aren’t you?”

She peered around his shoulder and saw bright purple hair surrounding a friendly, smiling face. The woman appeared to be in her fifties. She grinned at them from the middle of piles of paperwork.

“Yes, we are, thanks,” Kane said. “I’m Kane. You’ve already met Dante, and this beautiful lady is Nikki. But I have to say, you look very familiar. Have we met before?”

“I was just thinking the same thing,” she said. “Did you do a presentation on percussion play last year at a conference in LA?”

Kane laughed. He stuck out his hand and said, “I did, actually. You sat in the front row. I’m terrible with names, but I could never forget that hair.”

“Yep, that was me.” She took his outstretched hand. “I’m sky and this is my club. Welcome.”

Once they had completed the disclaimer and release forms, shown their driver’s licenses, and paid their door fees, she buzzed them into the club and wished them a good time.

Inside the door they were greeted with a visual display that surprised Nikki. On tables lining three of the walls were naked people covered in food and masks. The first table held a young woman lying facedown with what appeared to be a mosaic picture on her back. A closer inspection showed that the picture was in fact created using variously colored vegetables. They were sliced and ready to be added to a plate, but she was afraid of damaging the art. Turning to Dante, she said, “You got pictures of this? It’s amazing.”

He winked at her. “Take a look at that one.”

She followed his gaze and saw another naked woman. This one lay faceup on the next table covered in what appeared to be sushi roles. Nikki stared in fascination, jumping a little when Kane’s hand landed on her shoulder.

“Is this the first time you’ve seen sushi in the raw?”

“Yes,” Nikki whispered. “But it feels so rude to stare at them.”

He laughed. “Believe me, they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t willing to be looked at. It can be a lot of fun when done with the right people.”

“I’ll just bet it is.” Dante stepped forward and enthusiastically plucked one from the girl’s upper breast. Then he stopped and gave Nikki a guilty look. “Sorry. Do you mind?”

“Um, no.” She wondered if she should mind. He was now officially—sort of—her boyfriend. But he didn’t mind that she was also with Kane, so it seemed rude to object to him taking food off strange naked women. As odd as it was, she couldn’t see anything harmful in it.

She walked over to get a better look at the third table. The nude woman there had also been placed facedown. On her upper and lower back and on each thigh various crackers, pita chips, and vegetables had been artistically placed to form rings, which were filled with a variety of dips. She saw what she assumed was ranch dressing in the vegetable ring on the back of each thigh, hummus of some sort in the one made by the pita chips on her upper back and what could only be salsa in the chip ring on her lower back. The woman lay perfectly still as a few people came up and scooped some of the food onto their plates. They acted as though there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary with this arrangement.

“If you’d told me a month ago that I would be at a public dungeon, with my two boyfriends—Dominants, I mean—eating snacks off naked women, I would have thought you were crazy,” she said to Dante, who had joined her. Kane seemed to be chatting with Brad near the door.

The next table was almost hidden by a group of people standing around it, laughing. As they approached, three men moved to give them space to join. The woman was lying faceup, holding a large bowl of strawberries on her chest. At her groin was another bowl full of chocolate syrup. The group around her seemed to be playing a version of Scrabble by writing dirty words in syrup over her breasts, stomach and thighs.

Most of the words were too smudged to be legible, but they all took a strawberry and bent over, trying to decipher what they could.

“I think that says ‘cunt,’” pointed out a husky middle-aged man wearing a leather Master’s cap. The two younger men on each side of him leaned in, peering down.

“Yup. And now I’m going to make ‘puppy,’” said one of his friends, dipping into the chocolate and creating a mess as he tried to write with his strawberry.

“Not that anyone would ever guess that,” said the other young man, winking at Nikki. “Hi there. I’m Chuck. This is Daddy Dave, and our semi-illiterate friend there is Tony.” Tony looked up and grinned, giving a quick “woof” as he popped the fruit into his mouth.

“Nice to meet you.” She nodded shyly at them. “I’m Nikki, and these are—” She stopped and gestured helplessly toward Dante and Kane, remembering something about not using real names in the dungeon.

Kane came to her rescue, holding out his hand over the girl on the table as if it were something he saw every day. “Kane.”

Dante introduced himself as well, and all of them walked away from the table, allowing more people to come and add words to the human Scrabble board. Dante had seemed pleased that Allie had used his suggestion about the chocolate after all.

“Are you the writers?” Daddy Dave nodded at Tony, who went off to get sodas out of the fridge, and sat down on the couch. Nikki was interested to see that the other—Chuck?—gathered two pillows and put them on the floor at his feet before going off to get snacks.

“They are,” Dante informed him, helping Nikki to the couch. She debated trying to get down to the floor but decided that the corset wouldn’t be conducive to such a position. The guys didn’t seem to mind. Kane leaned on the arm of the chair while Dante sank next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “I’m helping Allie market her cookbook.”

Daddy Dave nodded. “Welcome to our community. I’m glad to see that the publisher is willing to put some effort into promoting it. Her cooking is a little unusual but generally quite tasty.”

“So we’ve found,” Kane agreed. “Nikki, would you like a snack?”

“Just a drink, please.” Nikki put a hand on her stomach, wondering if it would ever recover enough to want food again. She felt as if putting anything in her mouth might trigger some kind of explosion.

Kane stood and went to the last table, which held only an assortment of hot and cold dishes, a selection of cheese cubes and candies and a tub of ice with soda cans embedded in it. Nikki felt strangely relieved that there were no girls encased in ice with the drinks.

Daddy Dave’s boys had rejoined them and taken their positions at his feet. One opened a soda and handed it to him as the other held a full plate of food up for them all to eat from.

Kane returned with snacks and they chatted with Dave and his boys for a few minutes.

Nikki remembered something and turned to Kane. “Did the lady at the front desk say she saw you presenting a class of some sort?”

“Yes, I teach a number of forms of play at some of the kink conventions around the country. They don’t know that I write as Candee Appelbaum—yet, that is.” He grinned at Dante.

Daddy Dave chuckled. “How does that work, pretending to be a woman?”

“Surprisingly well,” Kane told him. “I just can’t do book signings, live interviews, or romance conventions. It took a while to build a following because of that, but we eventually got there. I think that’s going to change soon, though.”

“So I hear.” They smiled and nodded at groups of people going past. Nikki noted that, though everyone seemed friendly and talkative, no one asked them who they were or anything about themselves. It might have been a little creepy if everyone didn’t seem so normal—if you disregarded their odd clothing and the fact that there were naked women covered in food around the room.