The familiar sounds and sights and even smells of a BDSM club floated around her. Lexi smiled at the thought. This time they did literally float around her since the Celestial was currently sailing off the eastern coast of Italy.

The sounds of whips and paddles striking flesh was like a second home to Lexi. The moans of both agony and ecstasy — usually by the same person — also well known. The sight of someone bound, helpless, or displayed in a manner that freed them from their minds was lovingly familiar to her now.

But no matter how the pleasure came — by receiving pain, causing pain, exposure, dominance or submission — the smell of a BDSM place was the same. A heady mix of passion and desire. Human nature being hurled towards its most basic demands was a scent more alluring than any man-made perfume.  

BDSM wasn't all about pain, of course. Some submissives would come here and never experience pain. Perhaps what they needed was found in the act of serving, or being dominated, or displayed, or bound, or just allowing someone else to make the decisions for them. 

Lexi had spent many an hour trying to figure out why the lifestyle appealed to her. Part of it was her Virgo Zodiac sign. Being submissive, pleasing a master sexually, was just in her nature. It definitely wasn't because any sort of abuse in her past or darkness in her life. It wasn't because she couldn't make her own decisions or wasn't strong on her own. 

The opposite, in fact. She knew her mind. Knew how strong it was. She was the intellectual driving-force behind a multi-million dollar software company. Alexandra Silver may be the face and name — and financial backing — behind SilverSystems, but Lexi was the brains.

She put out fires, nonstop, all day long — whether she was at the office or not — about the challenges, problems and goals of SilverSystems. How to make things better. How to fix things that were broken. Or, in the case of how she'd come to be on the Celestial, how to catch a possible saboteur. 

So for her, BDSM was all about escaping from her own head. Finding a man strong enough to demand, force, her to let go of her control, her overthinking, and submit to him. Sometimes that came from being displayed naked publicly for a master's pleasure. Sometimes it came from the pain of a flogger or belt or paddle striking her. Sometimes it came from being bound to the point where she couldn't move and was completely vulnerable to anything the master wanted.

When it was the right master. 

“I'm sorry, Sir, what were you saying? I got caught up in the atmosphere for a moment.” Lexi's tone was respectful, as all sub’s tones were to be when talking to a Dom. Good Doms didn't show their strength by enforcing verbal rules during regular conversation, although sometimes less-experienced or over-compensating ones did.

“So why just anal and oral for you?”

The man liked to be called Master Magic Mike and unfortunately Lexi knew him from Los Angeles. He had been trying to get Lexi to do a scene again with him for months. The one and only scene they'd done together, a flogging scene, hadn’t been something she cared to repeat. 

 First he'd been too soft with the flogger, then when he'd asked her if she liked it – never a great sign when a Dom couldn't figure out if his sub was enjoying something – she'd asked if he would go a little harder.

As if she’d criticized him for being too weak, he'd ratcheted up the pain level so high she almost had to safe-word out.

Jackson actually saved her by entering the dungeon just as the pain got too overwhelming. She’d focused on him, on trying to bear it. Then Jackson came over to talk to Magic Mike, stopped him from striking Lexi with the flogger and said something quietly. 

Whatever he'd said to Mike made a difference. Mike had blindfolded Lexi over her mask and then head proceeded to flog her with just the right amount of heat and strength until she was sobbing and sagging against the chains that held her arms against the wall, with passion this time, rather than agony. The final blows of the flogger came from an upwards direction rather than swinging down, and had struck her right on her pussy. It threw her over the edge and she came right there.

Lexi had been ready to thank Mike, and write off the early part of the scene as a learning experience. But when he'd taken the blindfold off and unchained her his eyes had been full of anger. She hadn't known why he was mad, all she'd known was that it had once again soured the scene for her. Made her feel dirty.

So she didn’t plan to scene with him again. But she couldn’t ignore him since he’d asked her a direct question about why she didn’t have vaginal sex.

“Anal and oral are just my personal preferences, Sir.” She wasn't about to tell him the real reason. Not to mention she really didn't want to talk to him at all.

“Why don't we try a scene together again, Alexandra,” Magic Mike said. “Not a flogging scene since Calder had to finish you off last time. But we could do something else.”

“What?” Jackson had been the one who flogged her and made her come so hard?

Magic Mike misunderstood her question. “Anything you want. I personally prefer the harder stuff, but I've done some candle wax scenes. Or electrical.”

“No, I meant I didn't know it was Jackson Calder who took over the flogging scene that night.”

Mike's eyes narrowed. “Yeah. Hmmm. He said he was in the mood for a beating on a little ass and didn't want to go through all the rest of scene involvement. Asked if he could take over.” Mike shrugged. “Hey, it got me an invitation to his private poker game I've been trying to get into for a year. And got you off screaming.”

“I had no idea.” It was always part of the excitement of a blindfold, not knowing exactly who was doing what to you. But she'd never dreamed it was Jackson who had brought her such a high. Although it made much more sense than it being Magic Mike.

“Anyway why don't we try again? Here we are on this beautiful ship, both of us looking for a little fun.”

She wanted to say no outright, but knew she should consider it. Jackson was nowhere to be found. He was somewhere on the ship but maybe he wasn't planning on attending the masked party tonight. They had no agreements between them, spoken or unspoken. Yeah, things had been building between them, but that didn’t necessarily mean it would come to a head here.

There were a number of other Doms checking her out from where she sat at the bar, still dressed in her short black overcoat. Once she took that off, being dressed in just the harness would gather even more attention.

Most of the Doms would not know anything about her, they would only be able to tell her hard and soft limits by the beaded bracelet she, and other submissives, wore. It allowed subs and Doms to know basic compatibility right off the bat.

With one look at her wrist, an interested Dom would be able to see she liked bondage, moderate pain, and anal and oral sex. The green vaginal sex bead, possibly the most common bead on the submissive bracelet, was missing. 

Lack of traditional sex hadn't stopped her from having a good time for the past year at BDSM clubs. But it had made her sort of a rarity. Piqued a lot of interest.

And after her time on this ship she planned to add the bead to her bracelet. Although honestly she hoped she wasn’t wearing one any more after this cruise. She hoped she’d just have one Dom. Especially since he already owned her heart anyway.

But not if he wasn’t here.

Lexi looked over at Magic Mike who was staring at her expectantly. She couldn’t do it. He wasn’t what she wanted. He ran too hot and cold for her.

“Think you, Sir, for the offer, but I’m afraid I have to pass.”

Mikes eyes grew harder, and he grabbed her arm. “I'm not good enough for you to play with, Alexandra?”

“No, names, please. Not here.” He should know better than to use names on Mask Night, even if he was wrong about who she was anyway. He was a jerk.

“I know who you are.” Mike didn't let go of her arm. “I know about SilverSystems. So what if you're not behind the programming itself? You're still important.”

“You've been checking up on me?” She pulled her arm away and he let her.

He shrugged. “I do a little research about everybody. Like I said, I know you're the beauty, not the brains, and I think that's great. Do a scene with me. Let me make you feel good. Make us both feel good.” He put his arm on the back of her barstool. “Don't force me to make it an order.”

Lexi could feel tension rising through her body. A scene — any scene — with Master Mike was not what she wanted. Despite his statement, he couldn't force her to do anything with him. But as an unattached submissive who'd been talking to him, he could make it awkward and difficult for her to get away from him without drawing a lot of unwanted attention. 

“Master Magic, I appreciate the offer, but—”

His eyes narrowed to slits. “On your knees right now.”

Damn it. Lexi slid off the barstool. All she had to do was refuse, get the attention of one of the bartenders or roaming monitors and they would make sure Mike didn't bother her. But what could she really say he was doing wrong? Discussing scening with a potentially interested party? That's what they were all here for. 

If a sub was frightened or uncomfortable, they always had the option of calling for a monitor. Consent and safety was the number one priority in any good BDSM club. It was the reason that many people chose to play publicly: knowing there were stop-gap measures in place to keep things from getting out of hand.

But what would she say about Mike if she called a club monitor over? He hadn't done anything against the rules or inappropriate. Somehow she didn't think calling for help just because Mike wasn't Jackson Calder wasn't going to go over very well. 

She slid onto her knees on the floor. Could see Mike's shoes as he got off his barstool to stand in front of her. She had no doubt he was going to force her to remove her thigh-length shiny vinyl coat so that she'd be reduced to only her harness. Fine. There had been plenty of times when she'd had on less in front of a lot more people. And she'd planned to eventually be dressed in just the harness anyway.

She'd just hoped it would be for Jackson.

“Strip,” Mike said. “You don't want to do a scene, that's fine. But that coat is covering too much for an available submissive.”

Lexi unbelted the lightweight coat and shrugged it from her shoulders, so it fell to the ground. She heard a voice from behind her.

“Now there's a sight to behold.”

Jackson.