Page 23 of Under Their Watch

“You aren’t going to tie me up, are you?” I ask.

“Do you want me to?” he asks with a smirk.

“Not right now,” I laugh.

“Deal. Talk now, restraints later,” he says with a sweet smile. When I get closer, he picks me up and sets me on the table. “Okay. I’m going to show you a few items that we all frequently use. I want you to tell me the difference between what he used and what we use.”

“Okay,” I say.

Theo walks to the wall and grab something off of the shelf before laying it in my lap. “What is this?”

“A flogger,” I say.

“What’s the difference?” he asks.

“This one looks much nicer,” I say. “Marvin has the metal one and this is just leather.”

“Right,” he says. “What about this?” he takes the flogger from me and lays another item in my lap.

“It’s a whip. This is leather. Marvin used metal,” I say.

“Exactly. Do you understand what I’m getting at?”

“Impact play with you guys doesn’t hurt,” I say.

“No, it does. It just doesn’t make anyone bleed, Rhea,” he says. “That might be a kink for others, but I’m inclined to think that it’s not yours. Did you enjoy when he would make you bleed?”

“No,” I say. “When he switched to metal a few years ago, I stopped enjoying it all together. I used to be able to escape my mind, but he's just gotten more and more violent as the years went on.”

“Rhea, what he did was not impact play. It was not kink. It was torture,” he says. “He got off on hurting you. Sometimes just making you bleed was not good enough, and there’s a good likelihood that he went after other women.”

“Why not just kill me, if that’s what he wanted to do?” I ask.

“To put it bluntly,” he says. “He already had you trained. If he killed you, he would have to start over with someone else. Peoplelike him need that constant stimulation. Having you around allowed him to suffice those urges.”

“What is it supposed to feel like then?” I ask.

“After we talk to Casey, I’d like for Quinn and Jace to show you just the flogger,” he says. “There isn’t anyone here, so we can go to the main room so everyone can do their own thing.”

“Okay,” I say.

“After, we need to talk as a group,” he says.

“About what?” I ask.

“About how involved you’d like to be with everyone,” he says.

“Oh,” I say. “No one has to include me out of pity.”

“What? That isn’t it at all,” Theo says. “We want to include you in this dynamic because you are sweet, beautiful, and smart. You get along well with everyone. Quinn and Jace love you. We do not include people out of pity. In fact, we’ve never included anyone else. Quinn and Jace would occasionally play here in the club, but even that was rare. They are incredibly selective about who they involve themselves with.”

“I don’t understand why anybody would want to include me,” I say quietly. “I want to understand… I just don’t get it. I’m not used to this much kindness without there being a catch.”

“Casey is here,” Quinn says from the doorway.

“Come on,” Theo says, patting my thigh. He pulls me off the table and puts the items away before we all go to the seating area with couches. Jace pulls me into his lap and Casey sits across from us on the other couch.

“Okay. I’m going to record this, but only I will ever hear this recording. Even if this goes to court, no one else will ever hear it,” she says.

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