I raised an eyebrow at Abby. “Let’s go see Cole. Sasha, you can come with us.”
Sasha’s mouth opened, as if she was going to say something, but she only nodded. Abby must have sensed something. She put a hand on Sasha’s upper arm and gently asked her, “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Sasha replied, and her voice shook a bit. “I’ll be fine.”
Abby would have picked up on the fact that I wanted Sasha with us. So her double check meant there was something going on with Sasha that I had missed.
We made our way down the stairs to Daniel’s playroom. I led the way and held the door open for the women. “Sasha,” I said when she walked by. “Is everything okay?”
She looked me in the eye. “Yes, Sir. I’m fine.”
There was a glimmer of something in her expression that hinted otherwise and she couldn’t hold my gaze for long. “If you don’t want to watch, Abby can sit with you upstairs.”
“I’m fine, Sir. Really.”
There wasn’t much else I could do. I’d asked if she was okay and I’d given her an out. If she wanted to stay in the playroom, I would let her. “Stay near Abby.”
She nodded and stood next to Abby. I kept my eyes on Sasha instead of paying attention to the setup for the demo. She spoke quietly to Abby, but when she turned to observe the middle of the room, she jerked in shock.
Curious, I followed her line of sight and saw Cole and the petite woman he’d brought to the guesthouse. She knelt at his feet while Cole waited for everyone to make it inside and close the door. Once the crowd settled down and he was satisfied, he began by introducing himself, the submissive, and what his plans were. I worried for just a bit when he told the crowd he’d be using a violet wand. While I knew Sasha had been hurt with a bullwhip, I wasn’t sure how she’d do watching an electrical scene. A quick glance showed her relaxed and calm, though.
Cole had the submissive move to the top of a table, and while she got into place, he went over safety information with the crowd. When he finished, he shifted so he faced both her and those of us watching. He looked over the people gathered, and it wasn’t my imagination when he did a brief double take at seeing Sasha.
Then he turned his attention to the woman before him, and I thought we all held our breath as he spoke quietly to her and turned the wand on. The lights were dim in the room, which served to showcase the bluish purple light of the wand and tiny spark of electricity that licked the submissive’s skin.
Cole’s face was a mask of concentration. He’d told us before he started he would only use a low setting tonight, but it was enough. The submissive he worked with held perfectly still, letting out only the slightest moans in pleasure.
He stopped for a second to check in with her after she’d been quiet for a few minutes, and it wasn’t until she nodded and he started again that it hit me how loud the room had been with the combination of wand and submissive. I shot a quick glance to Sasha, hoping she didn’t feel overwhelmed, but she appeared transfixed by the scene before her.
Her cheeks were flushed and her breathing rapid, but her lips parted in what looked like desire. I imagined she must be picturing herself in the submissive’s place, yet when I followed her line of sight, she wasn’t captivated by the submissive, but Cole. At the same moment I realized where her attention was, Cole did as well. He looked up briefly and caught Sasha’s gaze. The corner of his mouth uplifted just a bit in a smug half smile.
Sasha gasped and I braced myself, waiting to see if she’d turn and leave the room. But she stood where she was, simply dropping her eyes to the glowing wand.
I looked over at Abby and saw she’d picked up on Sasha’s reaction, too.
Definitely a discussion for later.
Chapter Seven
ABBY
We had a leisurely breakfast the next morning, thanks to Linda taking the kids for the weekend. She’d picked them up yesterday before the play party, saying she’d missed them horribly since we moved.
Nathaniel had us sit at the kitchen table. Whenever I had his collar on and he wanted me to speak freely, we’d sit there. I made him bananas Foster French toast. It was a recipe I’d created while I was still single and he loved it. I didn’t often have time to cook it, though. One look at Nathaniel’s expression when I set his plate down made me vow to do it more often.
“This looks great,” he said.
“Thank you, Master. I’m sorry it’s been so long, I’ll have to make it more often.”
“Maybe once we hire a nanny, things will settle down a bit.” He took a bite and closed his eyes in bliss.
I sat down, smiling inwardly as I typically did whenever I saw his joy at my cooking. He was an outstanding cook as well, so it really stoked my ego for him to like something I made.
“Tomorrow morning I’m cooking breakfast for you,” he said.
I still had his collar on and it wasn’t typical of him to cook when I did. “That’s unexpected, Sir.” I ate a bit of toast, making sure I got a piece of banana.
“I’m fairly certain you’ll be otherwise occupied.”
I couldn’t even start to imagine what he meant by that, so I just nodded. “I look forward to it, Sir. I’ll welcome whatever you have me do.”
“Mmm.”
I didn’t think he believed me. I wasn’t sure I blamed him.
“Would you like some orange juice, Sir?” I asked.
“No, the coffee’s fine. But thank you.” He took a bite of banana. “Any thoughts about the meeting last night?”
“Yes, I really want to tell you what I’ve been thinking. I didn’t see anything inherently wrong with their setup. They just seem like a normal group, and in fact I think they have more fun and interesting members than most groups. I like a lot of them, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them better and becoming friends. If you think about the two men who were problems, one was an experienced Dom. The other was a newbie. So I don’t think the problems are related.”
“Right, and I know Jeff ran background checks. Nothing turned up on either man. I looked over them myself. There’s nothing that would have raised a flag for me.”
I tapped my fingers on the tabletop. “I wonder if either man would have been invited to join if we’d asked for references.”
“The problem with references, though, is you can pick who provides them for you and you obviously won’t pick someone who might say something negative.”