Page 16 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

“Seems so simple when you say it like that.”

“Yes, well, it is simple, if you follow the rules. Patience always pays off.” Mister Weston nodded proudly. “Careful vetting, communication, talking through each scene before you do it... it always results in a well-balanced relationship. Everyone is satisfied, nobody is surprised, and nobody gets hurt. It’s the only safe way to participate in the lifestyle.”

“You talked througheveryscene,” Cat asked.

“In the beginning, yes. Until we had established ourselves and figured out the lines of what our dynamic looked like. And before Megan became my slave, I negotiated almost everything with her in extreme detail. I didn’t stop until she signed her contract.”

“Contracts,” I scoffed quietly.Absolute bullshit.A piece of paper with agreements and signatures that had absolutely no weight in the eyes of the law, but that some lifestylers seemed to value more than the law itself. Contracts were used to brainwash submissives into letting themselves be used like objects, gaslighted into doing things they weren’t okay with, and then protecting the dominants from any repercussions.

We are not doing that again. We are not doing any of this again.

Something nudged my foot and I jumped, shouting in surprise.

“Hey,” Cat said, catching my hand as I jumped up. “You okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah of course.” I pulled my hand away from her and backed up, not meeting her eyes. I didn’t want to sit here and listen to Reuben and Cat talk about ideals. Not when we all knew that relationships like that didn’t actually exist.

On my way in, I almost ran over Scott Murphy, who caught me by the shoulders before I fell, and grinned down at me with a sweet and pleasantly surprised look on his face.

“Hey guys,” he said, looking right at my boobs. “We... uh...” He forced himself to look up at the other people sitting behind me. “We’re playing truth bomb. Come play.”

“Oh my God I hate that game,” Cat said. Mister Weston didn’t say anything, but he sighed and his shoulders shrugged slightly.

“Perfect,” I said. “You grab her, I’ll grab him, and together we’ll take over the world.”

Scott laughed and let go of me. He held out a hand to Cat and she glared at him for a moment before accepting it. She stood and ruffled his hair like a puppy and trudged into the house, and he trotted happily after her.

Reuben was a little harder to get in the house. I reached for his hand, but he lifted it out of my way. Even sitting down, when he raised his hand above me, I couldn’t reach it.

“Come on,” I whined.

“I think I’ll head home.”

“Please?” I said, shifting my shoulders and giving him my best, sweetest princess smile.

“No.” His voice was harsh and he stood up suddenly, towering over me. My eyes widened as I remembered how much taller he was than me.

As he walked away, I shouted, “You’re just scared you’re going to have to answer a personal question and then everyone will know you’re a human not arobot!”

He didn’t stop.

“I’ll sit on your lap!” I added. No response.

Then I saw my ticket. I grabbed the bottle of Rye whiskey he’d left behind, and clutched it to my chest, walking quickly towards the clubhouse door.

“Guess Cat and I will share the rest of this whiskey then! Goodnight, Ben!”

That got his attention. He turned around and glared at me, and then hurried my way. I ducked into the clubhouse and ran towards the stairwell to the game room, thinking he was still a fair distance behind me, but he was faster than he looked. He caught me by the elbow, spinning me around. It was so unexpected that I dropped the bottle. He caught it before it hit the ground, his eyes boring into mine with ferocity.

“First of all, you littlebrat,” he growled, his voice harsh and low. “You don’t get to steal what belongs to me. Second, there are exactly three people in the world who can call me Ben, and you are not one of them–”

“Ben.”

“Stop it.”

“Make me.”

He clenched his jaw shut, his eyes flashing. His pupils dilated and a low, rumbling growl started in his throat. My mouth popped open at the sound.

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