Page 75 of At Her Pleasure

He’d heard that part of her conversation. His solicitousness, his attention, how he handled his customers, made him an excellent shopkeeper, but those qualities also made her want to test a theory. She met his eyes with a direct message in her own.

After a few beats, color stained his high cheekbones. He smoothly shifted into a downward gaze and a subtle dip of his head, telling her what she needed to know.

With the right Dominant, he was a switch.

“You should have tea with my friend after you finish for the night.” She tilted her head toward Vera, watching them with interest. “You might enjoy one another’s company.”

“More valuable advice.” The Tailor gave her a small smile. “Thank you, Mistress.”

Cyn returned her attention to Mick. Putting her hand on his chest, she looked up into his face. It had become oddly pensive. “How does that feel?”

“Does it matter?”

Her short nails could pull out a chest hair. She had plenty to choose from in the open collar of his shirt, so by the time he’d blinked, she’d taken one. He winced.

“I don’t respond well to being answered with a question,” she said. “It’s a deflection.”

The pensiveness disappeared. What she saw instead invited her into flame-licking heat. “It feels like the first step toward our session. Where I won’t be able to do a damn thing to stop whatever you want to do to me.”

If she had any doubt how he felt about that, leaning against him told her. As he spoke, his erection convulsed, substantial as a brick. She rubbed against it again. “You’re right about that. But it’s not ten o’clock yet, and I have things to do. So I’ll see you then.”

She began to move past him, but stopped shoulder to shoulder, facing in opposite directions. Ros and Vera were checking him out with undisguised appreciation, either because of the corset or the noticeable hard-on. Lawrence looked a little annoyed, but accepting. Ros was devoted to him alone, and the stimulation here would drive the creativity of her demands from him later.

“Mick?”

“Yeah?”

“Tonight, keep your hands to yourself. Don’t let me see them on any more of your little subs.”

His head turned toward her, but she didn’t look his way. “Or it’ll go worse for me later tonight?” he asked.

“Yes. Because there won’t be a session at all.”

It was a new feeling for her. The session was the session; everything outside of it wasn’t her concern. It was why Sy could watch her do this with no issues. But it had bothered Mick, seeing him there. Something similar drove her now, thinking of how Mick had touched Jillie. How easily he touched and stroked the submissives, protected them. He didn’t want to top them, but they fulfilled a need. Tonight she’d deny him anything he needed that wasn’t her.

She didn’t normally care when she was being a selfish bitch, but she was irritated with herself. As she began to stride away, Mick grasped her arm. She turned on him, but before she could snarl, he touched her face, met her eyes. “Understood, Mistress.”

Deeper things in his gaze made her demand okay, though she had the uneasy feeling she’d stepped hip deep into a trap she’d set for herself.

As she moved away, his grip slipped free, but with enough lingering pressure to tell her he’d been tempted to hold onto her.

She didn’t rejoin the others. Instead she visited the stations, where the first scheduled sessions were in progress. Skye and Tiger were at the rope one, Skye watching a Domme suspend a male submissive roughly Tiger’s size. Skye’s loft apartment had steel ceiling beams.

There were plenty of things Cyn intended to see, absorb and experience, to put her in the right state of mind by ten o’clock. But first she needed time to herself.

When she stepped onto one of the smaller back patios, she was alone. The bigger patios in front were more popular. She heard the faint sounds of the city, as well as a boat horn going off, nighttime traffic on the nearby river.

She wasn’t afraid of change, of facing challenges. But those challenges had never penetrated the areas inside her she protected and kept locked down.

You left one vital organ out…

Babysitting…

Doing a CNC event could take her down roads she no longer traveled. She’d known that. But she’d told herself it would be fine.

It would be fine. Because not only was she a different person than she’d been when she’d been on those roads, Mick was an experienced player who knew this world, the boundaries and rules.

“Okay, I’m where I can talk. What the fuck were you thinking?”