I watch as they pick at the glass, marvel at his profile. He’s striking even from the side, all angular cheekbones, square jawline, and a curl in his dark overlong hair. The lights are too low to make out much more and I feel myself step closer, just a little, and sense the bartender pause as he realises I’m no longer following him.
‘What’s...’ His voice trails off as he follows my line of sight and nods. ‘Ah, I see. I can invite him to watch if you like. The viewing gallery is quite the experience and I’m sure he’ll appreciate the time to dry off.’
My eyes snap to him, a quick shake of the head. Good God, no.
He gives a low chuckle. ‘If you should change your mind...’
‘Keep walking.’
I follow his chuckling form up the stairs and have the oddest feeling the stranger’s eyes are back on me, making me regret my impulsive no. But can you imagine?
It’s taken me three weeks just to get to this point, to have the courage to fill out the form, both asking for and consenting to what is to come, and I’m dizzy with it. To add him to the mix...
The heat blooms in my lower belly. I wet my lips.
‘This is where I leave you. Second door on your left. Have fun.’
He’s already heading back down the stairs.
‘Ask him...’ I blurt out before nerves get the better of me ‘...the guy downstairs.’
He smiles, gives a nod. ‘Sure thing.’
And then he’s gone and I take a breath, look to the door he pointed out. It’s deep red and ornate, furnished with a knocker of a lion’s head that would look more at home on the external door to a grand residence. I walk towards it, my heels too loud on the stone floor in spite of the music and chatter from below, and remind myself this is what I want.
This is what I came for. That after years of being the one to dominate in the bedroom, I get to experience the other side...
I rap the knocker once—too hesitant. Twice—more determined.
The voice of a woman on the other side reaches me, clipped, authoritarian. ‘Come.’
Another breath and I push the door open, walk inside.
The walls of the room are much like the rest of the building: bare stone, raw, exposed. The earthy undertones adding to the primal energy that pumps through the heart of the club.
I scan the contraptions that line the walls, the shelves and hooks adorned with implements in all shapes and sizes. Some I can identify; some I can’t even begin to label let alone imagine their usage.
I catch my gaping reflection in one of the many two-way mirrors separating the room from the viewing gallery and snap my mouth shut. Is someone watching me right now? Will he be there soon?
‘Close the door.’
I jolt, squinting into the shadows as I seek her out even though I sense I’m alone, the tinny quality to her voice telling me it’s being piped in.
Is she beyond one of the many mirrors, witnessing my hesitation?
My cheeks flush all over again—a great start!
I straighten my spine, lift my chin and close the door with far more confidence than I feel.
‘Walk into the middle.’
The lighting changes, a soft spotlight illuminates a circle in the centre of the room and I walk towards it, stop when my feet are exactly central.
‘Good, Little Kitten.’
A spike of something bolts through me. Little Kitten? Is that what I am to be called? Nathan and I never went as far as names in our bedroom games...
‘You don’t like it?’
I open my mouth, close it again.
‘Well?’
‘It’s...it’s not...’ I suck in a breath for courage, let it leave with my verdict. ‘It’s unexpected.’
‘I have a feeling there’s much about tonight you will deem unexpected, Little Kitten, but from now on, when you speak, you will address me as Mistress. Is that understood?’
My body pulses with a frenetic kind of energy. I’ve never been spoken to like this. With Nathan I was the one with all the power, sexually; it was the one place I could take charge and I needed it. It gave our relationship balance in some twisted way.
But now he’s gone I don’t have that need. In fact, I’m craving the complete opposite.
I close my eyes, push him from my mind and the confusing spiral that was our life together. ‘Yes.’
‘Yes, what?’
‘Yes. Mistress.’
‘Better.’ A mirror shifts in the wall, opening inwards, and she appears through it. The clip of her thigh-high boots as loud as the drum of my heart in my ears. Her hair, tied in a high ponytail, is as dark and as sleek as her zipped-up bodysuit. Her eye mask is studded and curves to a point either side of her jaw, leaving the bronzed skin of her chin and blood-red lips exposed.
She smiles, catlike, her eyes glittering in the low light as she takes me in. ‘Now, undress, Little Kitten.’
What? No preamble? Just get naked...?
‘I...’
My voice fails me as she walks towards an arrangement of whips, her fingers brushing slowly over them.
‘I’m waiting, Kitten.’ She doesn’t even turn as she continues her perusal. ‘And you really don’t want to keep me waiting.’
She selects a riding crop and slowly turns to my immobile form.
I swallow. I know what I signed up for, but to strip, just like that...
‘Disobedient Kittens will be punished.’ She stalks towards me, circles me, a low undercurrent of warning in the soft purr of her voice. ‘Especially when they have invited a guest to watch...and they are keeping him waiting too.’
My head whips around. He’s here!
She laughs. ‘You did invite him, did you not?’
‘Yes.’
‘Yes?’
‘Yes.’ Swallow. ‘Mistress.’
‘Well, be a good Little Kitten and do as you are told, let him see what you invited him to see.’
She glances towards a large mirror, its ornate gold-gilded edge at odds with the austere room, and smiles. That’s where he is. There.
My body gives an excited shiver, my clit pulsing as I nervously
