Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
August and I were sharing the club area. He had one half reserved for the bake-off, and I had the stage area dedicated to ceremonial poses. Poses with a twist. Jack, ever the humiliator, had put his creativity to work.
The poses were meant to look hysterical—at least some of them—but the sub wasn’t allowed to laugh.
“Can someone help me grab the antique-looking chairs from the supply room next to the dojo?” Jack called, jumping up onto the deck.
“Sure thing.” Santiago and Lucas trailed after him.
“Here are the silver trays, Ma’am.” Ivy came out from the club with a stack of trays.
“Thank you, pet.” I met her halfway and accepted them. “Go have a seat for a moment.”
“I just rested!” she protested.
“I wasn’t asking,” I sang. “Do you want me to call your Owners?”
She retracted her claws damn quick.
Attagirl.
But now I kinda wanted to see my own hothead. It was bizarre, wasn’t it? We’d had breakfast together three hours ago, and I already missed her. Every now and then, I heard her laughter from the other side of the house, and I just wanted to run to her.
CHAPTER SIX
Nora Lilja
“Ican do this, I can do this, I can do this,” I chanted, doing my best to shake off all the excess energy. “I can be a slave, I can be obedient…and all that crap.”
I’d never seen the front lawn so packed with people before. I estimated some sixty, maybe seventy people had shown up. I knew twenty-two couples were participating, and then the rest were here to enjoy the show.
Everyone had shown up in the last hour. Before then, we’d been a chill group of Sadists and brats. Now, the serious people were here. Many Masters and Mistresses were dressed up, acting like it was a dog show. Some of them had their slaves in leashes.
Whatever floated their boats!
I snuck closer to Ty and Lane. Like me, they didn’t feel like they fit in. They glanced at some of the guests like they were aliens.
I’d changed into a short, spaghetti-strap dress; that was as close to slavery clothing I’d go. Many others had, like…loincloths and little scraps of fabric.
“Jag är lite nervös.” I told Lane I was a little nervous.
He smiled, confused, and asked why. “Hvorfor?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I wanna make a good impression. Penelope likes this stuff.” Thankfully, only now and then, not as a twenty-four-seven thing. And I kinda loved it too, but I didn’t have much experience with TPE.
“You’ll be fine,” Ty said, folding his arms over his chest. “Colt was gossipin’ earlier about how hooked Penelope is on you, so…”
Oh. Yeah, I beamed like the freaking sun.
And then a whole lot of amusement trickled in, because Colt was coming up behind Ty, still a few feet away, but there was a chance he’d heard Ty.
“I thought Sadists didn’t gossip,” Lane teased. “It’s what all of you keep saying. Brats gossip, and Sadists merely inform one another.”
Ty smirked to himself and scratched his eyebrow. “There’s an exception for fighter pilots, darlin’. Damn gossip queens. But to be fair, there isn’t much else for them to do while the rest of us work on their multimillion-dollar toys.”
I spluttered and laughed, and I slapped a hand over my mouth. That, Colt had definitely heard. He cocked a brow and swiftly made his presence known by throwing an arm around Ty’s shoulder, almost in a headlock-kind of way.
“What was that, buddy?” Colt asked. “Did I hear an Air Force engineer run his mouth again? Why don’t you document it? ’Cause that’s all you fuckin’ do.”
Ty rumbled a laugh and playfully punched Colt in the side. “Don’t even try. My list of pilot jokes is far longer than anythin’ you can come up with about engineers.”
“Like I said, y’all document everythin’. I keep my shit up here.” He tapped his temple. Then he turned to me and Lane. “Here’s a sayin’ for ya. A jet is flight ready when the engineers have made so many doodles that the weight of the documentation exceeds the weight of the jet.”
“Doodles?” Ty retorted incredulously. “I’ll show you fuckin’ doodles!”
And they were off…
It was like high school here sometimes.
Lane and I shook our heads at the children.
“Jag är inte nervös längre om man säger så,” I said dryly, telling him I was no longer nervous.
Lane laughed.
“Nora!” I heard Ash shout.
I spun around, trying to spot him. I’d been waiting for him to get here! There. He emerged between two groups of serious people, and I was so relieved to see he’d shown up in jeans and a tee. No uptight clothes for us.
I jogged over to him. “Hi!”
“Hey, you. Sorry I’m late.” He draped an arm around me and ushered me toward the porch steps. They’d be opening the doors any moment now. “My youngest called and asked why she can’t eat nail polish to see if it tastes pretty, so that turned into a whole thing. I had to Google the damn ingredients and explain toxicity.”