At His Mercy (Masters Club 1)

“I’m just lucky it’s not humid out right now. When that happens, and I have my hair down, it looks like I stuck my finger in an electrical socket,” Jess said with a laugh. “I wish I had straight hair like yours.”

Cleo smiled, though her eyes looked suddenly sad. “We always want what we can’t have, I suppose.”

“Yeah, I know, right?” Jess agreed, running her fingers through her curls one last time.

Turning back to Cleo, she asked, “What happens now?”

“I’ll take you back to the audition room. The judges will let you know if you passed or not.” She patted Jess’s arm. “It’s a very good sign that they want you to come back,” she added, her voice kind. “If you’d blown it, they’d have told me to provide aftercare and then send you home.”

“Gosh. That’s a relief, then. I have no idea how I did with all that positions stuff. I got thrown out of ballet in fifth grade because of my lack of coordination,” she added with a rueful laugh. “I nearly fell over trying to do that last one. The wheel, I think it was called.”

“Well, clearly you did well enough to keep moving forward. You’re strong and fit, and that’s definitely a plus when it comes to holding some of those positions. And don’t worry—if you get offered a spot, you’ll learn the positions quick enough. There’s a training video you’ll have access to. The woman who made the video is this awesome sub from Paris by the name of Corrine.”

“That’s good to know. Thanks,” Jess replied. “So, you’re a 24/7 slave to every Dom here? How does that work, exactly?”

“Well, as you noted, I’m a slave to all the members, at least technically. Brandon and I are both service slaves and pleasure slaves. We work here at the club in various capacities, and we also have carte blanche to scene in the dungeons with whoever may request our services. But, in actual practice, Brandon and I primarily serve the managers of the New York branch of the Masters Club, Master Grayson and Mistress Dominique. They’re married, which is unusual for two Doms, but it works for them. Brandon and I serve as their submissive partners when it pleases them to use us, either together or separately. They’re both incredibly skilled sadists who demand a lot, but give back in spades.”

“Wow, that sounds really intense,” Jess replied. “I have a demanding job in the vanilla world. No way could I sign up to be a full-time slave, even if I wanted to.”

“No,” Cleo agreed. “Full-time erotic slavery is definitely not for most people. For me, though,” she said with a happy sigh, “who lives both to serve and to submit, it’s heaven on earth.”

“So,” Jess persisted, still curious, “There are all these service and pleasure subs, but only two full-time slaves?”

“Only two who live on the premises. Some of our Doms have their own slaves, of course. Our London location is larger, and there are four full-time slaves there. We also have trainers on staff. In fact, Master Grayson does a lot of the training himself. He’s very exacting. Doms sometimes bring in their subs on a short-term basis to be formally trained as full-fledged slaves. It might be for a particular Master, or they might be sold to the highest bidder at one of our periodic slave auctions.”

“Whoa. Are you kidding?” Jess demanded. “A real slave auction?”

Cleo shrugged, grinning broadly. “It’s real insofar as money actually changes hands, a fair portion of it going to the slave. Obviously, the arrangement is totally consensual.”

A shivery thrill moved through Jess as she tried to imagine herself standing before a group of Masters, all vying to “own” her. Despite how genuinely happy Cleo appeared, it wasn’t a lifestyle Jess could envision for herself.

As if reading her mind, Cleo added, “Pleasure subs, like you’re going for, have a lot more leeway, since you only commit to ten hours of dungeon play per month.”

“I can’t imagine I’ll have any trouble meeting the monthly commitment,” Jess replied. “From what I’ve seen so far, I’ll have a hard time staying away.”

“You can come here as often as you like. While there’s a minimum, there’s no maximum,” Cleo said with a laugh.

“So how does this all work? I gather pleasure subs don’t get formalized training?”

“You get some, though not to the degree slaves receive. But I don’t mean to minimize pleasure subs. Far from it. Your role is just as important as any full-time slave. And, as such, you’re still the property of the Masters Club when you’re here.”

Property. It sounded terrifying.

And sexy as hell.

“Right?” Cleo grinned, correctly intuiting Jess’s reaction. “You’ll never feel so alive as when you’re serving here. I can promise you that.” She paused again, that dreamy expression once more on her face. She shook it away with a toss of her head. “Sorry. I distract myself,” she said with a self-deprecating grin. “Back to the topic at hand. You’ll be assigned a mentor initially. He or she will show you around and work with you at first to determine your skill levels and limits. And they’ll be your go-to person if you’re having any issues or problems with other members or whatever.”