Yes. No. Maybe. Playing in the Shadowlands felt so much safer. This dungeon was too much like the room Kyler had set up. Too private, too dark. What if Sir kept her here after the others left? Everything inside of her shook. A frightening sound caught her attention, and she stared as Cullen slapped a paddle across Deborah’s thighs.

Sir followed her gaze, snorted, and grabbed a blindfold from the wall. “I know you’ve seen that at the Shadowlands, even had it done to you, Beth. But today, you might do better not watching everything.”

The blindfold wiped out the room. Now she heard even more clearly the smack of the paddle hitting flesh and the tiny grunts accompanying it, the creak of chains, a bitten-off cry from Kari and her Dom’s deep laugh. She could smell lingering disinfectant, and then Sir’s scent of leather and man and soap. No fancy colognes for him, he—

Something soft touched her left arm, and she jerked then relaxed at the fluffy feel. Fur. It moved down her arm, over her breasts, and zigzagged across her stomach to her bare mound. She held her breath as the fur stroked her, circling some areas quickly, then moving in gentle strokes across her buttocks. The touches were never where she anticipated, and slowly her skin roused.

She gasped as something cold circled her breast. Freezing water trickled between her breasts and down until her stomach muscles flinched from the icy feel. Her lips were wetted before the cold moved down her neck and across her collarbone.

Master Nolan’s mouth closed around her nipple. He sucked briefly, leaving the skin tight and wet. A hand squeezed her bottom and released. She received a nip on her other breast. Each brief touch left her more sensitive. When he patted her bare pussy, need shot through her in a massive wave. He sucked her other nipple, his mouth hot and wet. When he puffed air on the wet skin, her nipple peaked almost painfully. Her breasts felt swollen.

He touched her pussy again, and this time slid his fingers through her fold. “You’re wet, sugar,” he whispered. With one hand gripping her bottom, he slid a finger up into her, holding in place as she jerked at the sudden intrusion. Two thrusts and then he spread the wetness over her clit, rubbing the nub slickly with a firm finger until it hardened. Until her hips tilted into his hand.

And then Sir moved away, leaving her pussy burning. Where had he gone? She listened anxiously. What was he planning now? Her heart rate climbed.

Something hit her legs, a spatter of sensation, too soft to be painful. Another and another, moving across her body slowly, each stroke like a heartbeat with only the location changing. The tiny flicks over her breasts were erotic; more teased her pussy until her clit ached with need. The blows increased, stinging now, tiny nips that hovered on the edge of pain, transforming to carnal pleasure.

Suddenly, from the right, Deborah screamed, a high shrill cry that echoed in the room.

Beth jumped at the sound, the chains clinking above her. She tried to inhale… No air came. Her lungs pumped, but she felt like someone was squeezing her chest, keeping her from getting a breath.

She heard a thump of something. “Yellow,” she gasped through numb lips. “Yellow.”

Sir yanked the blindfold off, and the room appeared, wavering around the edge. His fingers closed around her arms.

“Easy, sugar. Look at me,” he snapped, and his unwavering gaze filled her vision. “Breathe with me. Exactly with me.” A Dom’s command. When he inhaled, his big chest expanded, and her own followed… In. Out. In. Out. Not enough air. Her breathing sped up. He growled, and she focused again. Breath by breath. The tightness in her chest eased, and her heart rate slowed. The room came into focus.

He cupped her face. “Better?”

She nodded. “I got scared.”

He snorted. “You had a panic attack, sugar. I think I’ll leave the blindfold off so you remember who your Dom is today.”

“You’re going to continue?” Her breathing faltered.

His hand was still on her face, keeping her gaze on his. “Were you in pain…or were you scared? Think for a minute.” And he waited.

She frowned. The flogger hadn’t been striking that hard and actually had been rather exciting. But the scream, the sounds around her, especially Cullen and the sound of the cane he was using, had revived old memories. Sir hadn’t hurt her. “Scared, Sir. I was just scared.”

His smile was slow, waking something inside her that glowed with his approval. “Honest sub.” He looked around and picked up the flogger from the floor.

She realized the thump she’d heard had been him tossing it aside…even before she’d said yellow. He’d been watching her that closely. And then he’d talked to her and listened to her. He would stop if she couldn’t take it. The knowledge felt good. Freeing.

Stepping back, Master Nolan shook out the flogger. When her breathing increased, he caught her gaze again. “Watch me, Beth, not your memories. I want your eyes on me at all times.”

He waited until she managed to lift her gaze away from the instrument of pain and up to his eyes. His smile at her was like a warm hug.

He started slow and gentle again, the leather strands more of a caress than a blow with the same rhythm as her heart, brushing against her skin until she began to anticipate each blow. When he moved up her body, over her buttocks, and around to her breasts, her breathing was fast, not from fear, but excitement. Featherlight touches on her pussy, the new bareness adding to the sensation. The force increased, reaching the tiny stings where she’d panicked before, but she watched Master now.

His eyes were hot and intense, his face hard as he concentrated, not on her pain, but on her arousal. He saw her every response, and everything he did drew her higher and higher, and her response in turn carried him along. Nothing else existed except the two of them.

As if he could hear her, his smile flickered, his gaze burning over her as the strokes lightened again into teasing flicks across her mound. Her clit started to ache, and she grew so wet that it trickled down her leg.

The flogger moved up, and the strands hit her breasts with more force. She jerked in the chains as fire streaked down to her clit. Her nipples constricted into peaks just in time for the next blow. And the flogger moved away, circled around her back, lashing her bottom. Her excitement increased, her clit throbbing.

The blows became harder, hurting, and she yelped, only each strike slid from pain to pleasure so quickly that her cry turned to a moan. Two blows onto her pussy, and she rocked back at the pain, yet she was so close to a climax that her hips pushed forward to meet the next blow.

It never landed. He tossed the flogger on the ground and cupped her face between his hands. His eyes were molten darkness. “I’m regretting the game,” he murmured, “because I’d really like to bury myself deep inside you.” He tangled his hand in her hair, his grip pulling her head back as he took her mouth. His tongue plunged into her over and over until her breath turned ragged.

“You cheating over there, Nolan?” Cullen’s rough voice had amusement in it.

With a low groan, Sir drew back. He unfastened her from the chains and lifted her into his arms so quickly her head spun. As he carried her out to the pool, her skin was so acutely sensitive she could feel even the tiny hairs on his arms.

Beth quivered in his arms as Nolan led the others to the pool area, and he stopped long enough to nuzzle her cheek. She’d done well in accepting the flogging despite her past and that she’d been aroused by it was more than he’d expected. Her courage in admitting her fear, and moving past it touched his heart. She was a tough little woman, and she felt good—right—in his arms.

Well, hell. He’d gotten sucked right into caring for this little bundle of troubles.

Putting that worry aside, he glanced around the pool area, checking the position of the chairs and tables. Nothing missing. His gaze snagged on the weedy yard outside the patio, and he winced. If Beth didn’t take on the job, he’d have to search for someone, and God knew what kind of an idiot landscaper he’d get. Probably end up with squared-off gardens in pink and white. Beth better step up to the plate, or he was going to be pissed off. He glanced down at her, smiled at the way she’d snuggled against his chest. Be brave, little rabbit. Take a chance.

He set her on her feet then took a towel from the stack on a table and dropped it onto the concrete beside the middle patio chair. “Sit there, sugar. I have to get something from the kitchen.”

When he returned with a tray of small paper cups and drinks, the others had settled in with Doms in the chairs, subs at their feet. At the far end of the pool, Nolan filled the cups to the brim and set them in a single line across a big table. After grabbing the water, he returned to the others and handed each sub a bottle. All three had the flushed look of interrupted passion, and he smothered a grin. “Drink up.”

He turned to Dan and Cullen. “Here’s the rules for the second half of the game.” He pointed to the baskets beside each chair. “You each have a basket of toys. We’ll start with the vibrator.” He reached into his basket and pulled out the garish purple and green bullet, trying not to smile at Beth’s worried look. She definitely hadn’t been to a play party before. “Lay back, sugar.”

He could see her desire to say no, even though her nipples tightened. Slowly she lay back on the beach towel. In the sunlight, her blue-green eyes were clear as glass as she watched him warily.