“Clever little submissive.” He rose and stepped to the table that held all his treasures. He picked up a package of…was that…?

“These are hair clips,” he said, holding the package up to the audience. “They’re small, and as you can probably guess by the pink sparkles and unicorn shape, designed for children. They’re not meant to hold a lot of hair, so they’re not strong enough to work as, say, a nipple clamp. But there are other areas where I find them to be charmingly useful.”

He pulled the hair clips off the cardboard placard holding them, one by one, until he held all eight of the glittery pink clamshell clips in one hand. Then he got on his knees in front of her again.

“Oh, balls,” she said, and his delighted laughter rang out.

“Deep breath, now,” he advised, and without giving her any time to obey, attached a clip to her labia.

The small plastic teeth bit into the tender flesh, and she flinched at the sharp discomfort. But the spring on the clip wasn’t strong enough for it to clamp down very hard, and after a moment that first pinching sting faded. She sighed with relief, then realized what she’d done.

“Oh, shit,” she said, and looked down into Jack’s laughing eyes.

“Well, I think that means we can do the rest,” he enthused, and picked up another clip.

He put three on one side and three on the other, watching her face carefully. Sadie concentrated on breathing through the initial pinch of pain and riding the wave of arousal as it faded into a spreading warmth. The first hadn’t hurt too much, but the cumulative effect of five more clips was more intense than she’d expected, and more arousing. Eyes watering and heart pounding, she tilted her head back and tried to ride it out.

When she looked down again, Jack was watching. He searched her face for a moment, and whatever he found must have pleased him. He relaxed, some of the intensity fading from his expression, and a glimmer of a smile reappeared. He shifted, angling his body to half face the audience.

“Two left,” he said, and holding her gaze, arched an eyebrow. “I wonder where they should go?”

“Oh, no.” She shook her head, the ends of her braids bouncing across her chest.

“No? Are you sure?”

“Very sure,” she said firmly, scowling at the audience when they erupted into a chorus of disagreement. “Hey, whose side are you all on?”

Jeers and cheers erupted, and Jack’s eyebrows went up. “I think they’re on my side.”

“Don’t do it,” she warned, swallowing the laugh. She wiggled to try to get away, but the spreader bar kept her from being able to move her feet, and the wiggling made the clips already attached to her pussy shift and pinch, and with her hands cuffed she couldn’t push him away. All she could do was watch with increasing trepidation and rising excitement as he picked up a clip, pinched it open, and aimed it at her clit.

“No, no, don’t you dare, don’t you—” The rest of her words died in a yelp when he let the clip go, the sharp little prongs digging in on either side of her clit, trapping the engorged nub in a tiny plastic cage.

“Fucking sadist,” she managed between pants, not caring that she was cussing him out in front of a full house.

“True,” he said cheerfully and rose to his feet. “But you knew that.”

She didn’t bother to respond, the pressure on her clit taking all her focus. Then he held up the last clip, angling it so the light bounced off the glittery unicorn horn.

“Duct tape is one of my favorite things to use as a gag,” he said, keeping his eyes on hers. “But it has drawbacks. Skin damage is the main one, and you can work around that by adding a thin layer of lotion or Vaseline to your partner’s skin to protect it. It won’t stick as well, of course, but that’s the trade off.”

Distracted by what was happening between her legs—the sharpness had faded to a throb, accompanied by a wonderful pressure and a spreading heat—she wondered dimly why he was talking about duct tape when he was holding a hair clip.

“Now, I’m a sadist, so I don’t normally mind taking a bit of skin off,” he went on. “But sometimes it’s just not practical. So if you want to gag your submissive without leaving marks—or removing a layer or two of skin—there are other options. A scarf, a bandana. Using a piece of your or your submissive’s clothing, like a necktie or a pair of stockings, can be especially erotic. Or even…”

He paused, and the smile that curved his lips was so joyfully sadistic it had warning bells clanging in Sadie’s head. “A hair clip. Open wide.”

Her mouth had gone bone-dry. “You are kidding.”

“’Fraid not.” He tapped her chin with the clip. “I’m only going to ask one more time. Open up, please.”

In spite of the please—or maybe because of it—the warning came through loud and clear. She’d either open her mouth, or he’d open it for her. With no other choice, and with her throbbing clit reminding her just how precarious her position was, she parted her lips.

“Good girl. Now, stick out your tongue.”

Eyes narrowed, and muttering curses under her breath, she obeyed, and he slipped the last clip onto the tip of her tongue.

It didn’t hurt, at least not much, but to keep from knocking it off, she had to keep her tongue out, and that was both awkward and annoying. The clip wasn’t strong—a sharp flick of her tongue would send it flying, and she was tempted to do just that. But she knew if she knocked it off, he’d just put something else there.