Page 60 of At Her Will

A look of surprise, followed by relief, for the familiar. It told her she’d made the right call. “I’ll do anything you like, Mistress.”

“Good. Go to it. They’re going to handle the music.” She tipped her head toward Sy and Trey.

Rev rose, moving toward the stage as if drawn there by a magnet. Something in him recognized the need for grounding, but it was a comfort zone he hadn’t requested; he’d waited until she’d offered it to him.

Sy raised a brow. “He any good, Mistress? I’m not questioning the request. Just want to do what we can to make him look good.”

She bounced her eyebrows at him. “That’s not going to be a problem.”

“C’mon, Sy,” Trey said. “She’s got a surprise for us.”

“Okay, but if he asks us to play Air Supply, I’m out.”

“Don’t worry, honey.” Trey patted his head and fended off the expected punch. “We all know your hard limits.”

Trey shot Vera his trademark panty-wetting smile as Sy snorted. The two men went off to join Rev.

Rev was already looking more in his element. Vera caught snippets between the three men about keys, pacing, tone. Things musicians talked about. She watched their doubting expressions become more relaxed, but they shifted back to surprise when Rev shut off his microphone. She suspected Rev had noted the room was half the size of the church. She could tell Trey and Sy thought they’d have to adjust their own sound so as not to drown him out.

Boys, you have no idea, she thought.

She noticed Ros, Skye and Cyn coming in. Lawrence and Tiger, Skye’s man, were with them. They grabbed a nearby table, Ros nodding to Vera.

Rev picked up the tambourine and started working it to a beat. As he did, he hummed a few bars of the song he wanted. Trey and Sy picked up on it, then they were ready. Vera felt her heart accelerate as they launched into Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher.”

The music had the power to make toes tap, turn heads from the bar, and get people to their feet to dance. But then Rev started singing.

“Your love…lifted me higher…than I’ve ever been lifted before…”

Sy visibly started and exchanged a look with Trey, who gave him a mouthedwhat the fuck. When the men grinned in her direction, Sy shook a finger at her.

“I’ll be at your side forever more…”

Vera had her hands in a knot under the table, her body canted forward as she met Ros’s blue gaze. Cyn looked thrown, and Skye surprised, in a delighted way. Tiger and Lawrence exchanged a look like Trey and Sy’s, the one people had when they discovered a “normal” person could sing like a Motown great.

But Rev had more than that. She’d wondered if it could only be felt in a church space, but as what she’d experienced that day began to build in his voice, it spread out and gripped the room. This wasn’t a worship audience, but it made no difference to him. As the power in his voice expanded, the energy behind it made itself known. It brought people to their feet, swaying or dancing, singing the words with him. As he put one hand in the air, they followed suit, celebrating the joy Rev was putting in the music.

“Higher than I’ve ever been lifted before…”

When the song started to reach its conclusion, Rev, double tapping the tambourine, leaned in and said something to Sy.

Sy’s response was loud enough that Vera caught it. “Yeah, man. Get it. We’re with you.”

“Bold choice,” Trey added. “Let’s rock it.”

The music bounced out of the ending of Jackie Wilson’s classic, and Sy used the metal brush on the drums to preface Kiki Dee’s “I’ve Got the Music in Me.”

“Ain’t got no troubles in my life…”

Trey did the flourish, his hips moving to the beat as he worked the keyboard, and Sy switched out to the sticks again.

Rev didn’t overpower a song to impress. He sang it the way it was supposed to be sung, with the right emotions. Joy, reflection, hope, they were all there, along with that other thing. Something like when she channeled Mistress energy and connected with a sub. In that moment, they were in touch with something bigger, even as it didn’t change his earthly needs. And her own.

She was glad her friends were here to see it, feel it, because even those words didn’t capture it adequately. Sy’s amazed look made her laugh out loud, her heart full. And close her eyes to feel it inside her, all the way to the soul.

When she opened them, Cyn was standing beside her. The woman’s gaze was fastened on Rev with curiosity, but also a wariness that was second nature to her. Power like this could crack open the toughest person.

But Vera had no fear of Rev. Hurt might come from missteps as he found his way. Once he found it, she might have to accept the likelihood she would be his “gateway” Domme. A first Domme was rarely the last one, especially for a sub who’d held the need in him all his life.

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