“You’re full of surprises,” Jenna declared. She stood with a bit more spine than she had when they’d first entered. “Are you going to show me around?”
Mason was stunned enough to pause, speechless. He gazed into her eyes hard, making sure she was as right as rain as she professed verbally. Finally, he decided to take her lead. “Yep.” He laced his fingers with hers and led them away from the bar. He didn’t normally hold hands with his submissives, but Jenna was anything but subdued right now. She had no idea of the role of a sub. And besides, he liked holding her hand.
Mason meandered through the crowded club slowly, not releasing Jenna for a second. Somehow he felt like he had a line to her soul if he could keep a hold on her hand. He leaned in to whisper in her ear as they walked. “Look around. Ask me if you have any questions.”
Jenna’s eyes remained wide open, but she didn’t say a word.
He paused at several scenes, taking cues from her stance. At a St. Andrew’s cross, she stood frozen for several minutes, nibbling on her lower lip but otherwise giving nothing away about her reaction. At least no one around them could know for sure. Mason could feel her heart beating rapidly when he leaned into her back.
A woman was roped to the cross, her back facing the spectators. She was naked, and long red welts lined her back and buttocks. She moaned, her head ducked, her chin resting on the smooth wood of the center of the cross. Her Dom stroked her skin, tracing the pink lines.
Jenna twisted her gaze to Mason and lifted on tiptoes to reach his ear. “She enjoys this?”
“Very much. The release is amazing.” Mason kissed her ear after he spoke, sending a shiver down her body, which he felt clear to her hand.
They moved on to another alcove where two men were acting out a scene. One was trussed to chains hanging from the ceiling. He wore only a G-string, and his toes barely reached the floor. His partner was teasing him with several different lengths of floggers, switching from one to another without pausing. He hadn’t been swatting the man very hard yet. There was no evidence in the way of marks. The man attached to the ceiling was slipping into sub space.
Jenna inhaled a sharp breath, but she didn’t comment.
Mason was shocked. He couldn’t believe her compliance. Perhaps curiosity had its grip on her. It means nothing, Mason. She could still run screaming at any moment.
The scene was going to last a long time. Mason gave Jenna a gentle tug and lured her forward. They passed numerous members of the club in all manner of attire. Several Doms nodded at Mason, but none interrupted him. He knew most of the regulars at Extreme. He’d been a member for several years. It was common practice to greet one another early in the evening. But later, as the evening wore into night, people generally entered into their own mindset and focused on themselves and their subs.
Most of his buddies from the gym had arrived by midnight also. He nodded at Rider and Gage as he passed them.
Jenna whispered in his ear. “Didn’t I see those guys at the wedding?”
Mason nodded. He didn’t elaborate. He spotted Zane across the room. He hadn’t seen Conner yet. And then there was Rafe. He knew Rafe wouldn’t be there. He’d taken Katy to a movie. No way was Jenna ready to face that little fact.
Mason tried to imagine the club through Jenna’s eyes. Women dressed in very little, leaving nothing to the imagination. Men leading their subs around by leashes. In some cases this was the other way around. Every sort of relationship could be seen from female Dommes with male submissives to multiple female submissives under a single Dom or Domme.
The majority of the women in sub mode wore corsets or thongs, and in some cases nothing at all. Jenna was overdressed, but there were others who were new to the scene who had on clothing also. And some Dommes preferred to remain relatively covered to antagonize their submissives by not allowing contact with their bodies.
Jenna stopped walking. She sucked in a deep breath and held it. Her hand squeezed Mason’s tight and then went limp.
He followed the line of her sight and then stopped in his tracks also. Shit.
Katy and Rafe. Not only were they at the club tonight when Mason had thought them to have other plans, but they were in the middle of a scene.
Mason nudged Jenna, but she wasn’t interested in moving from her spot. She stood there, transfixed while Mason wanted to punch a hole in the wall.
This isn’t what he had in mind when he brought her here. He’d wanted to share this side of himself in order to solidify the fact she didn’t belong in this world and get her out of his system. Not this.
He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as though perhaps Rafe and Katy wouldn’t still be there when he looked again. No such luck.