Page 14 of A Lesson In Beginning

“Take me back out on the floor.” I turned back to the doors, shoulders back and ready to face it.

“If you’re sure.” She hesitantly led me back to the main play space of the club. This time, the shock of it was gone. It was still a borderline assault to the senses, but I knew what to expect.

“There is a scene happening over here to your left. I thought it would be a safe one for you to watch.” Leviticus leaned down close to explain his plan. I nodded my head, following him to the small space where people gathered, watching a man and a woman.

Leviticus led me to a place where I could easily see what was happening. The man led the woman to the center of the wooden floor while those gathered watched. With a snap of his fingers, he pointed to the floor. I watched as the woman dropped to her knees, her hands lifting and clasping behind her head as her knees spread against the floor, kneeling for him. It was almost identical to what I had witnessed Leviticus and Ruth do the week prior.

The man spoke loudly, so that the entire crowd could hear, as he commanded her.

“Forehead to the floor, my pet.” The woman complied, lowering herself down until her forehead touched the floor, her hands moving behind her back.

“That’s my dirty little slut.” The man spat the words out, degrading her as he began to circle her form. “Look at how open and exposed you are. Such a dirty slut, letting all of these people see your body.”

He stopped his circling in front of her, facing her once more before he spoke again.

“Kiss my boots, dirty whore.” The woman lifted her head, placing her hands on the floor before kissing each of his boots in turn, as though they were her most prized possession. My stomach turned, but unlike when Joel had kissed the back of my hand, this was entirely unpleasant.

“Roll over on your back, stretch out and spread those legs.” Again, the woman obeyed without a thought. “Touch yourself for all these people to see.”

The woman’s hands moved down her body to her nipples, teasing them into stiff peaks before moving lower to the apex of her sex, her fingers dipping into her most hidden place. She writhed beneath her own touch, legs never closing as she allowed every onlooker to have their fill of her most sinful act.

My hands clenched at my sides as panic set in once more. The man walked away from the woman, stopping several paces away and simply watching her humiliate herself, all for his benefit. He even had the audacity to laugh.

“Now crawl to me.” The woman flipped over onto her stomach, lifting onto all fours as she began to crawl towards him. “Head down, ass up. Just like a little bitch in heat.”

And once again, he laughed.

My ears roared as the sound of laughter overwhelmed my senses, taking me right back to my wedding night. To that room in the church where I had been laughed at as I was exposed to the men of our church.

“I… I can’t.” I barely uttered the words before my feet sprang into action without conscious thought. I was running through the hoards of people, shoulders bumping into me as I pushed past them, trying to find an exit.

I turned this way and that, and then I saw the door to the kitchen. I pushed through it without looking at where I was going until I collided with a muscular chest.

“Oof! Whoa there.” I looked up to see the man from the kitchen. Joel. “Hey, are you —”

“Get me out of here.” My eyes peered into his, pleading with him for the one thing I needed most. I didn’t care who he was. I didn’t care that he was a stranger. All I could think of was getting out of this room, away from those people, out of this entire building.

He said nothing, simply wrapped his arm around me and led me out of the kitchen and down the hallway that was vaguely familiar. We ran through another door at the end and up a staircase. My hands lifted, covering my ears as the sound threatened to overwhelm me, making me wish to the Lord above I was deaf, just to get away from it for a moment.

At the top of the staircase, he led me down a hallway and into a room. It was a simple room with a large, oval-shaped desk in the middle. But I didn’t care. I could still hear it. I could hear that man’s voice berating and belittling the woman he was with. The woman who, according to Ruth and to Leviticus, he was in charge of.

“Hey, look at me. You’re safe.”

My eyes blinked rapidly, and I realized I was sitting in a chair with this man I had only just met crouched down in front of me.

A complete stranger.

I certainly did not feel safe.

What had I done?

CHAPTER 6

“Oh, my word.” I breathed the words out in a shuddered breath.

“Are you alright?” Joel’s voice, while kind, did very little to soothe the nerves still bouncing around inside of me. My fear had shifted from being afraid of the scene I had witnessed to now being afraid of being alone with a perfect stranger. A perfect stranger with the most deep blue eyes I had ever seen. “Here, have some water.”

He handed me a water bottle, the top already unscrewed for me. I took a slow sip.

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