Freeing Rowan (Masters Club 3)

Michael, always an excellent listener, would be a good sounding board for Eric’s concerns. As long as he didn’t discuss the club directly, he wouldn’t be violating any confidences. If nothing else, it might help him clarify his own thoughts on the matter.

“You’re right,” he admitted. “I am a little out of sorts. I got this new trainee today. Not a private trainee, but one of my contract gigs from that club I sometimes work for. She’s in a Master/slave relationship. The Dom apparently wants to bring a new woman into the picture and she’s resistant.”

Michael snorted. “Can you blame her?”

“Me? Hell, no. But I’m a one-woman man, just like you. Still, different strokes, right?”

“I suppose,” Michael agreed with a noncommittal shrug. Then he laughed. “Can you imagine Olivia’s shit fit if I even brought up that idea?”

Eric laughed along with him. “Uh, that would be a definite no.”

“Good thing, too,” Michael added, still grinning. “Because that woman is all I can handle.”

Eric nodded. He loved Olivia almost as much as he loved Michael, but she was definitely a handful.

“So, go on,” Michael prompted, sobering. “What happened that’s got you out of sorts?”

“The first problem was I didn’t get to meet with the Dom first because of scheduling issues or whatever. He’s coming back from some business trip in a day or so, but didn’t want to ‘leave her home alone to brood,’ his words. Anyway, I planned out an initial session for her with a focus on working well with another sub. She was clearly nervous, but then came this total meltdown.”

As he described the scene and his later interactions with Rowan, Eric found himself getting agitated all over again. He took a long swig of his beer as he forced himself to calm down.

“Sounds complicated,” Michael eventually said. “And I agree—you need to meet with that dude sooner than later to get a clearer picture of what’s going on.”

“Yeah,” Eric agreed. “From what I’ve seen so far, I’m not sure this girl is even slave material. Submissive, yes. But, as we both know, there’s a huge leap from erotic submission to a full-out 24/7 total power exchange. I’ve met very few people who are actually cut out for that kind of lifestyle. And that includes Doms as well as the subs.”

He sighed. “I can’t help wondering if maybe Rowan’s in over her head. What happens when this training is over? I hate the idea of her being hurt because she’s in something she isn’t ready or able to handle on her own.”

“Whoa,” Michael said, “I’ve never seen you this worked up about a new trainee before.” Leaning back, he grinned conspiratorially. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were breaking that sacrosanct rule of yours never to get emotionally involved during training. So much for objectivity, huh?”

Eric shrugged, not bothering to deny it.

~*~

Rowan was grateful for the downtime before dinner. Once back in her room, she took a long, hot shower. As she stood beneath the spray, her thoughts ran free. A morning that had started out with disastrous results had somehow segued into a very fulfilling, if exhausting day.

She had thought, based on Master John’s warnings about the Masters Club being a highly intensive and rigorous training facility, that she would be soundly punished and humiliated for her failure during that first terrifying session.

But the trainer, and indeed everyone she’d encountered, had been so kind every step of the way. And that flogging session! As disloyal as it was to admit, Eric was even better than Master John with a flogger.

She’d experienced submissive highs from endorphin releases, and also the subsequent drop that sometimes followed, but nothing like what had happened today. She’d been nearing that panic point when the erotic pain got the better of her. But, instead of ordering her to give in and obey or be soundly punished, Eric had actually stopped to calm her.

He hadn’t been angry at what Master John would have termed her willful resistance. Instead, he’d led her carefully back into that sweet space, somehow intuiting just how much she could handle.

While she was aware of the concept of flying, until that day she had never personally experienced it for herself. Now that she’d done it once, would she be able to do it again? Maybe it was a onetime fluke, never to be repeated. No matter what, it had been an experience she would treasure, and take out when she was alone to examine again and again.

She’d been riding so high afterward that she’d even managed to make herself come in front of the trainer, something she’d never been especially comfortable with, even with Master John.

She was actually looking forward to working with Eric again in the morning. Maybe, with his tutelage and patience, she would finally manage to become the slave that Master John wanted.