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“No, I guess I don’t.”

“But you trust her. Value her.”

“Absolutely.”

“And you don’t want to see her naked.”

Nathan hesitated, only a fraction of a moment, before saying, “No, I don’t.”

Mistress Faith caught the pause, her brow arching.

“Nathan.”

“What?” he snapped. Great, now he sounded like a sulky teenager.

“If this is something you truly refuse to do, we provided options for you.”

Anyone who didn’t play the game had to give up their membership. He opened his mouth to do exactly that. He’d walk away rather than risk the friendship with Tara.

“But I want you to imagine what Tara will say?—”

She’d say she was glad their twenty-year friendship hadn’t exploded because the Las Palmas overseers were on a kink power trip.

“—when you tell her that you gave up your membership to the club without even talking to her about why. How will she feel? Relieved? Or insulted that you made a decision without consulting her?”

Nathan’s stomach knotted.

“Upset that you didn’t talk to her? Or maybe guilty because she’ll know you gave up something you need for her? Without talking to her.”

Nathan blinked, then scrubbed his face with his hand. “Shit.”

“You might,” she agreed mildly.

Nathan snarled at her, anger and panic still swirling through him. Tara mattered to him. He’d protect their friendship in any way he could.

But Mistress Faith was right. Tara wouldn’t want him to make any decision that involved her—even tangentially—without first consulting her.

“Enjoy, Nathan.” With that, Mistress Faith exited, leaving Nathan alone in a room full of bondage and impact equipment, as a sense of dread slowly settled over him.

Chapter 2

Tara broke the unspoken rule of the Subs’ Garden and pulled out her tablet. She shoved a chair into a dark corner of the elegant locker room and sat, shoulders hunching as she furtively tapped the screen. Something Nathan had said gave her an idea and she wanted to take notes before she forgot.

There were no formal rules preventing her from treating the subs-only space as a coffee joint and settling in to do some work. Still, she was breaking a social norm, and even knowing that, she didn’t stop until she’d taken her notes. Normally she was all for the unspoken rule. Disconnecting from the rest of the world was a huge part of why she spent an almost obscene amount of money every month to be a member.

But talking to Nathan always sparked ideas.

She was tempted to keep her work tablet and sneak in some reading—she always had a list of journal articles on her to-read list. Instead, she put the work tablet away, pulling out the small e-reader she kept in her locker. Journal articles wouldn’t hold her attention in this environment. They were always dry and technical, and tonight odd snippets of conversation about what the “game” and what was on the club’s checklist would easily distract her.

Tara hesitated, e-reader in hand.

Normally, reading “smut” was part of her scene prep. She’d sit in the Subs’s Garden and read, her body warming, skin starting to tingle as she enjoyed unrealistic but wonderful stories about people falling into bed, then into lust, and sometimes into love. All while having incredible, kinky sex.

Tara almost never left the Subs’s Garden without priming her own pump. Even if she knew—thanks to pre-scene negotiations—that there wasn’t going to be a sexual element to her submission, she made sure she was aroused.

Arousal made submission easier, so she got herself hot and bothered even if she knew her scene for the night wasn’t going to have a sexual element, resulting in self-inflicted orgasm denial.

Leaving a scene frustrated and needy rather that blissed out from orgasms was disappointing, but she had a system in place to deal with it—a wearable G-spot and clit vibrator she’d insert before getting dressed in her street clothes. Controlled from her phone, she’d turn it on in the car and enjoy the drive home. Once in the safety of her apartment, she’d touch herself as she replayed the weekend’s activity, and finally have the massive orgasm that would hold her for the next two weeks until it was her turn at Las Palmas again.

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