Page 28 of For the Night

I made a whipping sound in Reese’s direction, to which he scowled.

But Jack was right. We needed to get this done. In order to host the Game next weekend, all the information had to go online by tomorrow.

“All right.” I opened a notebook and got ready to jot things down. “As fun as it would be to completely ignore requests from Greer and Lucian, they’ve had some good ideas since we decided the theme. The first one being—we’ll do an event with stations.”

Reese inclined his head and handed out drinks from the cooler. “Greer suggested a bake-off of some sort.”

I remembered that, and I glanced at August. “Can we trust the chef with that?”

“A fine idea, indeed. I’m in.” He nodded. “I take it the four of us will be judges?”

“I reckon three’s fine,” Reese said. “Y’all can judge, and I’ll run the commentary and whatever else might need attention at the same time.”

I wrote that down. “On that note, we have some volunteers already. Sloan, Lucas, and Santiago signed up to be monitors.”

“You can add Franklin to the list,” Jack supplied.

Excellent. We’d only need one or two more, depending on how many stations we ended up with. And participants. Judging by the talk online, it was going to be a popular event.

“Considering it’s TPE we’re dealing with, I wanna propose fewer stations that might require more time, rather than several that get brats buzzing,” I added. “That on its own will be a test for the energizer bunnies who can’t spell patience.”

“Should we cater to the brats and Littles at all?” Reese wondered. “Even though they might get excited by the challenge of it all, I can picture Kit and Noa subdued as fuck by kneeling, competing in grace, and actin’ like human furniture.”

“Certainly Camden too,” August chuckled. “I suppose it’s a question of whether we cater to everyone or just focus on one kink. Your previous Games didn’t include multiple kinks in the same way, did they? I read about your Hunt and the Cage event, for instance.”

That was true. All Games weren’t for everyone. Everyone was free to join, but we chose different themes. We’d focused heavily on sadomasochism, primal play, and brats so far.

“Fair enough,” Reese conceded. “I do have one idea I wanna run with, but I can announce it after the event.”

“Care to share?” I asked.

He smiled faintly. “A mascot challenge. Let the members compete to illustrate a mascot for us, and maybe it’ll put out the fire of our Mclean House versus House Mclean bullshit debate.”

I laughed. I loved the idea, but I wasn’t sure shifting that focus was going to work long-term.

“I bet the Littles will love that,” August said.

I nodded and made a note. “I’m adding it to your list,” I told Reese. “For the event itself, I think we should focus solely on TPE. As mentioned, we didn’t consider consensual slaves or non-masos for the boot camp or the takedown, and so on. This will be the slaves’ moment in the sun.”

We were in agreement. And we were thirsty in this damn heat. While August grabbed one of the other notebooks, I guzzled my iced tea, and Jack popped open a ginger ale.

“Since there are four of us, four stations would give us the opportunity to have a host at each one,” Jack mentioned. “It’ll make it easier for us to judge the other challenges too. I’m assuming there will be judging anyway.”

Definitely. I nodded and made more notes. “Off the top of my head…I say we judge on performance, grace, obedience, and…” I pursed my lips, thinking.

“How they please their Owner,” Reese said quietly. Then he sat forward a bit. “One station could be called Serve Your Owner or somethin’, and the subs will have to put together a tray with—fuck, I don’t know—a hot beverage, a snack, shit like that. In which case, they gotta show they know their Owner and their preferences.”

I liked that a lot. Plus, it would pose a great challenge for Tops and bottoms who attended as friends, new to each other, or outside any regular dynamic. We often had plenty of those. Ash and Nora, for example.

Jack’s eyes lit up with interest. “If we let that challenge end with the subs acting like a footstool or another type of human furniture, I’d like to be in charge of that station.”

Reese snapped his fingers. “That’s it. Yeah. Perfect. And obviously, I wanna run a station that includes pain.”

“Suffer For Your Owner?” August suggested.

Oh, this was great. The creativity ball was rolling now. I made a quick note that we had to discuss our budget later, and we needed to meet up again, at least twice before the Game.

We declared ourselves done for the day shortly before noon, when Jack had to leave. He and Franklin were taking their daughter to an early movie, and August and his two took the opportunity to go buy furniture for their condo in Alexandria. They’d been so busy with work, he said, they hadn’t had the time to move in yet.

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