More than a Dare (Masters Club 4)
Cleo looked thoughtful. “You know, I’ve been so fully immersed in the lifestyle for so long that I forget what it must be like for someone new to the scene. Just speaking for myself, I don’t think in terms of what’s okay or what isn’t. My joy comes from submitting fully to my Master. Whether or not he scenes with other women doesn’t really matter—not to me. I belong to him, not the other way around, so it’s not even something I consider. Of course, the fact that he loves me like crazy doesn’t hurt,” she added, beaming.
“For me, it’s a little different, though maybe it’s just a matter of degree,” Jess added. “I don’t define myself as Cameron’s 24/7 slave. But I’m definitely sexually submissive to him, both at home and when we’re scening with others.” She shrugged. “Before I knew Cameron, I thought all I needed was the public club scene to scratch my masochistic itch. Becoming a pleasure sub at the Masters Club really educated me about true erotic submission, but, like with Cleo, being in love adds a whole new dimension.”
“But Hayden,” Dahlia persisted. “When he’s being a Head Master and part of that recruitment process, what does it entail exactly?”
“Head Masters are kind of like the equivalent of a board of directors,” Cleo offered. “They direct the overall vision of the club and interview prospective Dominant members. They coordinate with other branches of the Masters Club. We have several locations throughout the world.”
She flashed a dimpled grin. “Then there’s the fun part—the audition process for the pleasure subs and service slaves who serve the Doms. When I belonged to Master Grayson and Mistress Dominique, I never participated directly in the process, but I did offer grooming services before their auditions, and some aftercare as needed.” She turned her grin in Jess’s direction. “You want to take this one?”
Jess regarded Dahlia thoughtfully for a moment, as if trying to decide how much she would divulge. “You signed an NDA before you came to the party, right?”
“An NDA?” Dahlia repeated, her doctor’s brain immediately supplying the words New Drug Application, the vehicle through which drug sponsors seek approval through the FDA.
“Non-disclosure agreement,” Jess clarified.
“Oh, right. Yes. Yes, I did,” Dahlia confirmed.
“Okay then.” Jess fidgeted a little. “Are you sure you want to know? I mean, what Master Hayden does at the club stays at the club. It doesn’t mean he feels any less for you.”
“So you say,” Dahlia said, determined now to hear the full story. “So, okay. Putting Hayden aside for the moment, what was it like for you? The audition process and the exam?”
“Oh, man,” Jess said, hugging herself. “It was both one of the scariest and the most exciting experiences of my life. They had this panel of judges, and I had to perform for them in various ways. I was required to submit to both erotic stimulation and impact play with as much grace as I could muster while having no real idea if I was making the grade. Then that physical with Master Hayden—”
“So he was the one doing your exam?” Dahlia interrupted.
Jess looked startled. “Well, yeah. He’s the resident physician at the Masters Club. Mistress Olivia is a registered nurse, and she was there too.”
Dahlia tried not to visualize Hayden doing who knew what to Jess.
It was before you even knew him, she reminded herself.
Jess looked up at the ceiling as she gathered her thoughts. “Think of a gynecological exam on BDSM steroids. Lots of physical arousal and forced pleasure mixed in with a healthy dollop of erotic pain. Very intense. In a way, it was harder than the straight-up audition, because I totally didn’t know what to expect. Master Hayden can really channel the sexy evil doctor thing like nobody’s business. He scared me to death. But in a good way,” she added with a laugh.
Dahlia suddenly envisioned herself strapped down on an exam table, legs spread wide. While medical BDSM had never been her kink of choice when she chose her romance novels, suddenly it seemed a lot sexier with Hayden inserted into the fantasy. She could imagine him standing before her, naked beneath his lab coat, his cock in one hand, a whip in the other. The hint of a sardonic smile would lift his lips as he informed her the exam would now begin. Dahlia shivered pleasurably at the erotic image, while at the same time realizing it wasn’t just a fantasy for him, but something he engaged in often at the Masters Club.
Jess’s brief but graphic description of what she’d endured at the hands of the “sexy, evil doctor” brought that home with painful clarity. This woman beside her, and who knew how many others, had been the recipient of Hayden’s masterful, sadistic attention.
While she understood the exchange between Jess and Hayden hadn’t been “personal” in the sense that they weren’t lovers, a barb of jealousy still pierced her psyche. At this point in their relationship, she didn’t feel she had the right to ask that he curtail his activities at the Masters Club. But if things were going to get more serious between them, she had to figure out what she could tolerate—and what she couldn’t.