She should have been more relaxed, or so she thought. Autumn jotted down notes as Shawn drove the cart around the complex. There were twelve units and, as she already knew, the resort stayed very busy.

“How can you afford to let me stay in one of your units?” she asked. “I know you’re fully booked.”

“We have cancellations from time to time,” he said. “We also have one unit that sits empty, in case of emergency, like needing Scarlet for you.”

“Where’s the thirteenth unit?” she asked.

“Behind the playhouse,” he said. “It’s called O.”

“Named after the famous book,” she said. “Aren’t you worried about having thirteen units, an unlucky number? Why is it not always rented out? Is there something special about it?

“First, we have sixteen if you count the three that me, Ethan and Randy use. Second, we like to have one empty in case of emergency, like now. And third, some things are best kept secret,” he said as he parked the cart in the playhouse parking lot.

“So, there is something different about it?” she asked. “How do you decide who can use the special unit? Do they have to pass some sort of test? Or do they have to have some sort of experience? If so, how do you know they do?”

“Now, she’s an investigative journalist,” he said as he got out of the cart.

Autumn scrambled to follow him as he climbed the stairs to the playhouse. It was starting to get dark. When he opened the door a blast of air conditioning hit her in the face and she was reminded she was in Nevada and it was warm, even though it was September.

He ushered her inside. The first thing she heard, other than the door shutting, was the sound of leather meeting flesh, and the sound of a woman crying out in pain.

“Wait, wait,” she said, even as she took a few steps backward, and ran right into his chest. Before she could turn around he wrapped his arms around her middle, right below her breasts.

“I thought you wanted to see it all,” he said.

“I do, I do,” she said. There was another crack of leather and another loud groan. She was going to say she wasn’t ready to watch someone get whipped. Spanking was one thing, whipping another. But then she realized she needed to keep to her word. If she backed out now she would always wonder what was happening that she didn’t see.

“The sound just caught me off guard,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting people to be here yet. You said ten, and it’s not ten.”

“I meant ten for us,” he said. “This room is used quite a bit for people who like the idea of someone coming along and watching them. There’s a large room in the center, and on the second floor there are rooms with windows for people who want to watch, but not be seen.”

“Can we use one of those?”

“Absolutely,” he said. He hadn’t released her, and she hadn’t pushed against him to try and force him to lower his arms. “Do you want to examine the main room, or just go upstairs?”

“Upstairs,” she said. “I would rather observe things unobserved, if you know what I mean.”

“I do,” he said. This time he stepped back, and she mourned the loss of the heat of his body. “There’s a door to your right that opens onto a set of stairs. We’ll use the second room.”

The stairway was circular, and at the top there was a narrow hallway. Autumn went to the second door and opened it. Another narrow hallway emptied into a larger room, which held a king-sized four-poster bed. The wall opposite it held a wide variety of floggers, whips, belts and riding crops.

“Do you have to reserve this room, or can anyone downstairs use it?” Autumn asked.

“There’s a light outside the door, almost like hanging a towel on the door in a frat house,” Shawn said. “Unoccupied rooms are available for anyone to use.”

Autumn stared at the bed, then turned to the wall. Shawn stood near the door, and she could feel him studying her. She figured he was gauging her reaction, maybe to see if he could get away with trying something tonight.

She put her notebook and pen on the bed and crossed to the window. Below them was a cavernous room, with a raised stage in the center. There were posts in the center; a curvy woman was bound between them, spread eagle and naked as the day she was born. Her ass and buttocks were bright red. She cried out as the man standing behind her, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, slammed a flogger against her skin.

Autumn swallowed her reaction, which was to scream, “Leave her alone!” The man continued to flog the woman. Autumn let her gaze drift to the chairs. There were about four couples, one of them she remembered from her first dinner here, watching the action.

The men were seated in chairs, the women kneeling next to them. All the women were naked, except for the collars they wore, and the chains attached to said collars.

As the action continued Paige came into the room. She, too, wore no clothes except for her collar. But, unlike the others, she had two leashes, one going to each of the men who accompanied her. Paige’s arms were bound together with some contraption that looked very uncomfortable. It held her shoulders back and pushed her breasts forward. She had manacles, attached by a short chain, on her ankles. She had on what Autumn thought were five-inch heels.

Autumn wondered how long it took Paige to learn to walk in those things, with her ankles bound as they were, without falling flat on her face. When Paige turned to face the center, Autumn saw her new friend had on other things, too. A fine chain ran between hoops attached to her nipples. A chain in the center of that ran down to her pussy. Autumn wondered if Paige was pierced in that area.

“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Shawn asked.

“Paige?” Autumn had to admit she was. But it was the woman’s confidence that Autumn admired right now. She wouldn’t want to be in Paige’s position right now, that didn’t interest her. But she wished that, if it did, she had the courage to do it, and own it, like Paige was doing right now. The woman obviously had confidence in everything she did. That’s why she owned a car dealership.

“Is something wrong?”

“No,” Autumn said. “I just don’t understand how someone could enjoy something like that.”

She turned her attention to the woman in the center. Several people, a mixture of men and women, were releasing her from her bonds. The columns started to lower into the ground.

“Is there a basement under here?”

“Well, more like the first floor,” Shawn said. “Remember we climbed stairs to get to the top here.”

“It’s the same way in my cabin,” Autumn said. “Are there items like that in every cabin, I mean the columns that can come and go?”

“Yes,” Shawn said.

Two men carried a bench into the center of the stage where the woman stood, supported by two other women. When the bench was in place, the woman was placed over it. The workers secured her to the floor, so she was once again spread eagle, her ass high in the air.

“It looks so painful,” Autumn said. “I mean her ass. It’s so red, and those welts. I can practically feel them myself.”

“She loves it,” Shawn said. “You don’t hear her screaming to be let go, do you?”

“What if she’s doing it against her wishes?”

“I can assure you that everyone who comes to Silver Creek does it because they want to,” Shawn said. “If you went to the website you know we interview everyone.”

“And you’re able to tell the difference between someone doing it for fun, or doing it because they’re being forced,” Autumn said. She glared at him, then turned her attention back down to the stage. The man who had whipped the woman was now working an enormous plug into her ass. The woman groaned and moaned, and Autumn had to admit that her cries of “More, more, give me all of it, Sir, I beg you,” sounded like she was enjoying the insertion.

Autumn couldn’t look away now. When the plug was fully inserted, the man picked up a riding crop. “Beg for it, whore.”

“Master, Master, I implore you, punish me for being a bad girl.” Her voice was breathy, and though she didn’t understand what was happening, or rather the why of it, Autumn did not mistake the desire in the woman’s voice.

The man lined himself up next to the woman, lifted the crop and brought it down hard on her thighs.

Autumn gasped.

“Master, my Master, thank for you the first cut.” The woman paused, and Autumn could hear her gathering her breath. “More, please, my Master, more.”

The man didn’t respond with words. Instead he lifted the crop and brought it down again, and again.

“Master, my Master, thank you for the second and third cut.” The woman paused again. Then she begged for more.

The man delivered ten hard swats in all. Autumn couldn’t help but watch. She could practically feel the intensity invading the space where she stood. The man put down the crop. He removed the plug from the woman’s behind, and seconds later replaced it with a dildo. He fucked her with it, moving it in and out as the woman cried and begged for more.

In and out, in and out. Autumn licked her lips. She was aware that Shawn was standing next to her, but neither of them spoke. She wasn’t sure how long the fucking lasted, but the plug was soon back in place, and the man started to crop her thighs again.

“How long will this go on?” Autumn asked.

“Until he thinks she’s had enough,” Shawn said. “When she’s close to subspace, he’ll take her just a little higher, and then she’ll explode. Once that happens he takes her to their cabin where he cares for her.”

“Cares for her?” Autumn shook her head. “After he’s beat the shit out of her.”

“If we didn’t have to leave tomorrow I would say you should talk to Carol, see how she feels.”

“Is that her name, Carol?”

“Yes, and that’s her husband, Kurt.”

“I think I’ve seen enough,” Autumn said. But she didn’t move. She continued to watch. She was so confused by what she was watching. The woman obviously enjoyed it, although Autumn didn’t know how.

“Can we leave later in the day?” she asked. “I want to talk to her tomorrow. Do you think she will? Talk to me, I mean?”

“I’m sure she will,” Shawn said. “I’ll have the two of them meet us for breakfast at your cabin around nine. We’ll get a late start, but I hope it will make you feel better about things.”

“Thank you,” Autumn said. “I’m going back to my cabin, now.”

“I’ll take you,” he said.

“No.” She turned and backed away from him. “I’ll take the cart, if that’s okay with you.”

“Sure.” He didn’t try to stop her, or convince her of the normality of what she’d just witnessed, and she appreciated that.

“Is the key in the cart?” she asked.

“It is,” he said. “I’ll see you around nine tomorrow. We’ll leave about ten.”

“Okay,” Autumn said. She took measured steps as she left the room, careful not to run. She had a great deal to think about, the first being whether or not she wanted to be alone with a man who thought the scene that had just played out was something normal.

Suddenly, she was sick that she’d won the storage unit, and contacted Shawn Hollis. It had taken her down a path she’d never expected to follow.

The lights from her cabin were in view when Autumn decided that waiting until morning was not a good idea. She pulled the cart into her parking area, then quickly turned it back around and headed toward the playhouse.

In the short time she’d been gone most of the carts had disappeared from the parking lot. There were two left, and Autumn wondered whose they were.

She parked and went inside the building. The sounds she’d heard before didn’t greet her this time. In fact, the place seemed eerily silent, given what she’d witnessed earlier in the evening.

Instead of mounting the stairs to the right, she went straight ahead, only to find everyone gone except for the couple that had been performing earlier, Carol and her husband, whose name Autumn couldn’t remember. She was still bound to the bench, but he was behind her, rubbing lotion into her behind. Carol moaned softly as he worked, and Autumn could hear the man’s voice, he was speaking softly to his wife as he ran his hand over her abused bottom. She searched her mind and his name came to her—Kurt.

Now was the best time, she thought. Autumn started into the room, but a hand came across her mouth at the same time an arm went around her waist.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Shawn asked.

She thought it was strange that he asked her a question since he’d blocked her means of communication. He lifted her as if she were nothing and walked her into a room off to the right. He released her and turned around and closed the door softly.

“I decided I didn’t want to wait and give you time to talk to her,” she said. “I want to talk to her now.”

“You’ll ruin things,” he said, his voice heavy with anger. “After care is as important as the things that take place in a scene. If you go barging in there now, you’ll break the connection they have. You don’t have the right to do that.”

“You said I could talk to her,” she said. “What are you trying to hide?”

“You can’t barge into a situation you know nothing about,” he said. “If you want to talk to her tonight, you can do it, after they are done with things.”

“All he’s doing is rubbing lotion into her ass. An ass, I might add, that he abused.”

His face darkened, and for a moment, Autumn worried about his reaction. Was he going to hit her? Something told her no, but she didn’t really know him. “I don’t like to be rude, but you’re making assumptions about something you know nothing about. I understand that you don’t want to wait until tomorrow, but you have to wait for the right moment. I’ll talk to them and set it up.”

“Oh no, I’ll go with you,” she said. “I want to hear what you say to them.”

“You’re not very trusting, are you?” he asked.

“No,” she said. She should have added especially after what she’d just witnessed, but she didn’t.

“There’s no windows in this room,” she said. As a matter of fact, there was nothing. It was a small, cell-sized room with no chairs, furniture, or anything else.

“This is a holding area, before ceremonies and such,” he said.

“In other words, you use it to keep women off guard,” she said.

“Or men, depending on who the sub is,” he countered. “Ceremonies bring couples closer together. You really need to do research before you stick your uneducated nose into things you know nothing about.”

Now she was pissed. “That’s what I’m trying to do,” she said. “If we stay in here we will miss them. I want to go into the other room, so I can talk to her.”

“Trust me to know how long to wait,” he said. “I have a bit of experience in this situation. You on the other hand, have none.”

“You’re trying to keep me from her,” Autumn said. She had felt so good about things this afternoon. She would be making a little money, and she wouldn’t have to be here where women were treated like, well, like whipping posts.

“I’m trying to keep you from ruining what has been a good night for them,” Shawn said. “You need to learn about things before you jump into something that could have repercussions.”

“You mean like telling her she doesn’t have to put up with it?” Her voice was much louder than she’d intended.

“I’ve changed my mind,” he said. “You can’t talk to her.” His voice was rising, and she knew he was as angry as she was.

“Why? Afraid she’ll know I’m telling the truth and it will hurt your business?”

A knock at the door made them both jerk their heads in that direction.

“Everything all right in there?” Autumn recognized Ethan’s voice.

“We’re just having a discussion,” Shawn said.

Ethan opened the door and came inside. Carol and Kurt were standing behind him. He was cradling her in his arms, and the look on her face was one of pure bliss. Autumn was shocked to see her looking so satisfied, her head leaning against her husband’s chest.

“Kurt pinged me to say he thought there was trouble,” Ethan said. “I didn’t know it was you in here.” Ethan glared at Autumn.

“Everything’s fine,” Shawn said. He turned to Autumn. “Do you want to talk to her now?”

“No,” Autumn said. She wasn’t sure if it was Ethan’s glare, or the woman’s look of pure satisfaction that changed her mind. She just knew she wasn’t willing to let things go in the same direction they were heading right now.

“Kurt, can you and Carol meet us at Scarlet about nine tomorrow morning for breakfast,” Shawn asked.

“Sure.”

Autumn was surprised he didn’t ask why. She found that rather odd, but she wasn’t willing to rock the boat any further than she already had tonight.

“See you then,” Shawn said. The couple left the building. Ethan looked between Shawn and Autumn, shook his head and left the room, closing the door behind him.

“You don’t have to understand what happened tonight,” Shawn said. “Hopefully after you’ve talked with Carol you’ll see things in a different light. But something tells me you won’t. You’re too closed minded for BDSM. It’s a shame, too, because I really think if you’d just let yourself experience it you might learn a lot about yourself.”

“Doubtful,” Autumn said.

She should have stayed in her cabin tonight, curled up with one of the books he’d given her to read. Maybe the written word, which she’d always relied on, would help her to put all this into perspective.

Autumn spent most of the night on the back porch, staring out into the dark. How in the world could a woman who was flogged, and then caned, have such a contented expression on her face afterward? It just didn’t make any sense.

She tried to tell herself not to worry about it, that the BDSM aspect of Silver Creek was not why she was here. The money—the buried bank robbery loot—that’s why she was here. That’s the only thing she should be worried about.

But she couldn’t get it out of her mind. The image of the crop, and of Carol’s bright red ass and thighs, was front and center in Autumn’s mind.

It was around three before she finally went inside and tried to sleep. She figured she’d had about two hours, off and on, before she took a shower and made a pot of coffee.

She was on her third cup when Carol climbed the steps of Autumn’s cabin.

“Where are the men?” Autumn asked.

Carol sat down, gingerly, and winked at her. “They thought things would go better if it was just the two of us. I understand you were upset by what you saw last night.”

Before Autumn could answer, X came up the stairs, carrying a large tray. She took it into the house and then left with a soft wave of her hand.

“Let’s get food,” Carol said. “Food makes everything better.”

They set their plates at the dining room table, and Autumn watched as Carol started to eat.

“Let me guess, you’re a lawyer, or a car dealership owner, or something else powerful,” Autumn said.

“Nope, I’m a housewife,” Carol said between bites. “Kurt and I have been married for twenty-two years and have three children between the ages of twelve and seventeen.”

That shocked Autumn. “How do you keep this from your kids?”

Carol ate a few more bites, and then said, “Did your parents talk about their sex life with you?”

Autumn laughed. “I suppose not. May I ask how you got into this, and why you like it?”

“I guess you’re not here to play,” Carol said. It was a statement, but it came out as a question. Carol was curious. Autumn needed to be careful about what she said. They didn’t want word getting out there might be money hidden on this land.

“I’m—intrigued,” Autumn said. There, that was the truth, well mostly. Intrigued indicated she was interested in taking part in the events that took place at the Silver Creek. She supposed she was, but not for the reasons that Carol would be thinking right now.

“We didn’t start out as Dom/sub,” Carol said. “We started off as just plain vanilla husband and wife.”

“What changed?” Autumn asked. “And why?”

Carol put down her fork. There was a smile on her face that made Autumn a little jealous.

“After about ten years things got stale,” Carol said. “We fell into a routine with his job, our house, our kids. I started reading romance novels that featured spankings, not full-blown BDSM, just spankings. It made me hot. I’d masturbate afterward. One day, Kurt came home from work early, thinking he would take some time off and go play golf with friends. He found me in our bedroom, fucking myself with a dildo I’d bought without him knowing about it.”

“Oh my,” Autumn said. “What happened?”

“We had a huge fight,” she said. “It lasted for days. He slept in the spare room, the kids were freaked, and finally we talked. I told him about my books. He said it was sick and he wouldn’t try it. But, eventually, we found a club where we could watch, like you did last night. We found that it was something we enjoyed together.”

“Just like that?” Autumn asked.

“Oh no,” Carol said. “We both took classes, we started slow and worked our way up. We made sure we never did anything while the kids were in the house. Then we discovered Silver Creek. Once a month we come out here and indulge ourselves.”

“It can’t feel good, having someone beat you like that,” Autumn said. She had been toying with her food. Now, she put down her fork.

“You wouldn’t think so, but it does,” Carol said. “I can’t begin to tell you how good it feels. And it’s beating. Beating is smacking someone around. This is flogging, or caning, or whipping. Kurt took classes, so he knows how to do things. He takes me to levels that are unbelievable. Subspace is incredible.

“Subspace? What is that?”

Carol took a bite of food. “When you have an orgasm, do you feel good? Your body tingles and you’re smiling, right?”

“Yeah,” Autumn said. She didn’t want to admit she’d only had a few in her life, and all of those had been self-produced.

“This is higher than an orgasm,” she said. “It’s like you’re floating on the clouds. That’s where I was last night, drifting through the air while my husband gave me exactly what I wanted.”

Carol reached across the table and squeezed Autumn’s hand. “My husband and I are closer than we’ve ever been before. We’ve always been close, but now we’re the best of the best. Trust is so important in this type of relationship. We know everything about each other now.”

Autumn nodded.

“Let Shawn guide you,” Carol said. “He taught Kurt most of what he knows. He’s an excellent teacher. He’s flogged me a few times. He’s really good at it.”

Autumn nodded. She would let Carol think that was going to happen, but in reality, there was no way Shawn was getting next to Autumn with a flogger or a crop. All she wanted out of him was money.