Page 30 of S is for…

“Oh, did you want me to pussyfoot around it?Phrase it in a way that didn’t assign blame?Too bad.”

Peter had been looking at Laney, but shifted his attention to Joni, staring at her with a sort of horrified admiration.

“Whose idea was it to let Peter top Diann?”Joni demanded.

Now Peter’s jaw worked, and he looked down at his hands before speaking.“A big chunk of the S checklist is stuff Diann likes and needs.”

“Ah yes, because people are plug-and-play.She needs X, give her X with no trappings, thought, or care,” Diann said coolly.“Context, attitude, and feelings have absolutely no impact.”

Peter’s jaw worked.“I’m sorry, Diann.”

“Sorry I called you on your bullshit?”

“No, I’m sorry for what I did.”

“Say it.”Diann leaned forward.“Say you’re sorry for using the game as an excuse to get in some payback, to hurt me and make me feel bad about my kinks because you’re still pissed I ended it.”

Peter’s gaze widened, then narrowed.“It wasn’t payback.I wouldn’t do that to you.To anyone.”

“Bullshit.”

“Don’t presume to know why I do things,” Peter snarled, unexpectedly vehement.“You don’t know me anymore.”

Diann sneered, but didn’t reply.

“I honestly thought you were smarter than that,” Joni said.“Smart enough to stop the car crash you could see coming.”

It took Lihn a minute to realize she was speaking to him, not Peter.Lihn opened his mouth to protest that he actually had said he thought this was a bad idea.That he’d had reservations about Peter and Diann.Worried about Julen and Laney, given how focused Julen was on the joint rope scene.

He could add that he’d imagined it as more of a train derailment than a car crash.

Instead Lihn nodded, because at the end of the day he’d seen the disaster coming, and hadn’t tried hard enough to stop it.

“I’m sorry,” Julen said to Laney.“I should have paid more attention to you.”

“I’m easy to ignore,” she said softly, then jerked to the side when Joni went in for another kick.“Kick me again and I’m going to smack you.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” Joni said with a smile before turning serious.“Make him grovel.”She pointed at Julen while still speaking to Laney.“That was not only a dick move, but makes him a bad Dom.Withholding attention is unacceptable.”

“I wasn’t withholding attention to punish her,” Julen said in a measured voice.“But the other Doms were doing complicated rope scenes, and I let the fact that I felt it was my responsibility to watch out for those other subs take away from Laney, and that’s unacceptable.”

“If the oxygen masks drop, put your own mask on first,” Joni said.“Or in this case, watch out for and pay attention to your sub first.”

“I didn’t know you were in distress,” Julen said softly.

Laney had been looking at her hands, but now her head jerked up.“What was I supposed to do?”Flags of color rose on her cheeks, splotchy pink with her pale complexion.Gone was the meek, apologetic woman.“Was I supposed to throw a tantrum so you’d have to pay attention to me?I shouldn’t have to do that.The fact that I was a perfect, obedient sub should have been enough to get me a Dom who cared about me.”The words were tight and hard; she sucked in air as if she regretted the very end of her statement.“I mean…not care about me, but…”

Peter was leaning forward, studying her the way a predator watched prey.

Laney seemed to deflate, her head bowing, attention going back to her hands, folded together on her lap.

The silence that followed was painful, and the compassionate look on Joni’s face as she looked at Laney and Diann in turn made Lihn want to hug her.Aggressively caring people were some of Lihn’s favorites.

“Your turn,” Lihn said, when he couldn’t stand the silence anymore.

“Whose turn?”Diann asked.

“Joni’s turn.To yell at me for what I did.”

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