Chapter Four

You Want to Know What?

 

Melody took her time getting to Tino’s, stopping to reread her list. It should be perfect for setting boundaries. Much more confident than she had been when Curtis called, she stepped out of her car and crossed the lot to the burger bar.

Tino’s was known for gourmet, build-your-own burgers. Popular with almost everyone, it was packed. Melody waved away a waitress, winding through the bodies to find Curtis. Instead more than one idle hand goosed her until her temper simmered. When the next guy made a grab for her, she turned on him.

“Keep your hands off me!” she shouted.

A large man with a beard that reached his chest grinned. He was missing several teeth. “Sorry sweetie-pie, but that ass is too hot not to try.”

The man to his left, farther from Melody, grabbed the hairy man by the scruff of his neck. “You might find trying a very bad prospect, pal.” With a shove, he slammed the man’s head to the bar. Without the big one in the way, Melody could see him clearly. He wore a bright yellow shirt that contrasted with his dark curly hair. Short sleeves revealed clearly defined biceps and triceps. His forearms were thick too, ending in long, slender fingers.

“Little Song?” He drew her attention from his hand on the bar back to his face. “Here. Take this stool.” Curtis stepped to the right. Once she sat in his seat, he would be between her and the large man that had tried to grab her.

“Thanks,” she murmured. “I was thinking we’d be somewhere a bit quieter. Where we could talk.” Already her throat was straining, yelling for him to hear.

“Oh, right. Follow me.” He held her hand and led her away from the lounge to the restaurant side of the establishment. It wasn’t much quieter. Children’s laughter and screams mixed with the music pumped out of the speakers to try to rush everyone through their meal. Curtis flagged a waitress. “How long until we can get a booth in the corner?” he nodded and passed her a five.

She rounded the hostess pedestal and looked over the information there. “Probably fifteen minutes.”

“Thanks. We’ll be just outside.” His hand fell on the small of Melody’s back, guiding her out the door. One of the staff puffed her cigarette a few feet away. Melody stepped to the other side of the entrance.

She looked him over from tight fitting blue jeans to the shirt she had already grown to like. His hair was different from that night. The curls were slicker, shinier, and less wild. His stubbly shadow was gone too. “Curtis. I didn’t recognize you right away.”

He laughed. “No kidding? You look different without blood matting your hair, but I still spotted you.”

Heat burned in her cheeks. What a terrible first impression.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I meet lots of people under similar circumstances. It’s nice to get to see them in the light of a normal day.”

Her embarrassment eased, but she knew she was still blushing. Curtis focused on her nose. Still self-conscious from his last comment, she covered it. “What? Is something stuck to it?”

“No. Your freckles, they look different when you blush.”

That brought back the flush with a vengeance. The tips of her ears pricked and burned. “Stop staring,” she complained, wrapping her arms around herself.

Curtis slipped an arm around her and held her closer. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. You’re really cute. You know that, right?”

She looked away but smiled. “Yeah, I’ve been told.”

“So, what sort of questions did you have?” he asked, dropping his hold. He spoke quietly without whispering and the employee didn’t seem to pay any attention to what he had said. Even so, Melody wasn’t sure she could talk with the woman standing there.

Curtis turned and looked in the smoker’s direction as well. “Don’t worry about her. She’ll be gone in a minute.” The cigarette she held was short and would burn away entirely soon.

“Okay. You talked about what makes a good Master.”

“Dom,” he corrected.

“What’s the difference?”

“One you need to learn. A Master implies a total power exchange. You would object to nothing demanded by your Master throughout the day. Safe words still apply, of course. A Dominant is more situational. You give him power for a time, to do a limited scene. It is expected you will compromise with one another. That doesn’t happen with a Master.”

“Oh.” She looked at her feet. How much didn’t she know? She thought her reading had prepared her, and certainly Damon hadn’t made her feel inadequate like this. “Are you a Master?” Her voice squeaked at the end.

“No. My schedule and lifestyle don’t suit it.” He shrugged. “I don’t mind. I get to play with a lot of different people this way.”

Melody put her hands in her pockets and felt the printed list. “Would you play with me?” she asked, pulling the page out. “I made a list.”

Curtis frowned and took the paper. His eyebrows went up. “Interesting.” He folded it again and tucked it into his jeans. “How about we talk about your history instead of your future? What was your last relationship?”

“What about it?” Her stomach turned a bit. Guys didn’t like hearing about your exploits with other men, did they?

“How many times did you hook up with the guy that couldn’t restrain you properly?”

“Damon.”

“Yeah, him. What was it? Six, seven?”

“One.” Melody swallowed against the lump of fear in her throat. “It was our first time…playing.”

“Cool. How did you find him?”

Melody stared at the toes of her black heels. “A friend.”

“She’s in the scene?” Curtis turned to face her and blocked her view of the only observer outside with them.

“No, he isn’t. He just knew a friend that was willing to…to show me what it was like.”

“Yeah? So what did you do together? Before the whole falling down and not getting up.” He leaned toward Melody, which made her more uneasy instead of less.

“He…” She shook her hair and grabbed for any scrap of courage she could muster. “He tied me to the bed and made me come.”

“Yeah? How?”

“What do you mean how?”

“Did he put his cock in your pussy?”

“No.”

“In your mouth?”

“No.”

“Toys in your pussy?”

“Yes, but first he used his fingers. Geez.” Melody was starting to regret calling Curtis. “What about you? What was your last date?”

“Last night, actually. I like to take back control after a series of long shifts by making a sub dance to my tune. This time it was Alexa. We’ve played, oh, seven or eight times before, I guess. This was the first time I’d gone over to her place, though. Normally I like to have all my toys, but she was convincing, so I packed up my toolbox and headed over there.

“It was really weird, at first. The whole place was dark except for a candle in her bedroom. When I got there, she was sitting cross-legged on floor, meditating y’know? I thought maybe someone had robbed her because the room was empty. Mattress on the floor, candle and almost nothing else. Could have been what she really wanted was someone to make her feel safe.

“Just then she opens her eyes and they were dark. I mean, she has mellow brown eyes normally, but they were black. That was when I figured out what she’d been doing.”

“What was that?” Melody hadn’t noticed them coming closer together, but now her breasts were touching his chest and his hand rested on her hip. It was warm and his long fingers curved down over her ass.

“Getting into deep subspace. She had put herself so far down that she didn’t even answer me when I asked if she was ready. In her mind, she was a piece of meat, so I set about tenderizing her.”

Melody shivered. “Beating her?”

Curtis nodded. “Yep. It was more abrupt than we usually play. Normally, I work up to the real pain. It’s nice to alternate, right. Pain, get the nerves on fire, pleasure. Then back to pain, but something about her seemed to ask for the beating now. I got her belly down on the floor and sat astride her lower back, using my hands until they stung.” He held his palms up, brushing her breasts to do so. “By that point her butt was bright pink and even a little purple, but she wasn’t crying, barely even wincing. If she had been, we’d go with Plan A, like I said, switch to the vibrator. No go, so I moved on to my paddle. It’s my go-to when a sub really wants breaking. Plastic with the wicked little studs on it. I cracked it on the back of her thighs.” He made a chopping motion, one hand into the other.

Melody had gotten so wrapped up in the story that she jumped when a woman tapped Curtis on the shoulder.

“Sir? Your table is ready.”

“Oh, great, thanks.” He held the door for the hostess and Melody, following the ladies to the booth in the corner.

“Can I get you something to drink?”

“Yeah, the red on tap. Where was I?”

“Miss?”

Melody shook her head. “Uh, white wine. You had taken the paddle.”

“Yeah, right. So that thing leaves beautiful bruises—waffle things that last for days. I lay a nice track of them down the back of her thighs. By the time I get to her knees, she’s sweating. She may not be crying out, but her body is definitely feeling pain. Checking her face, though, I know she’s waiting for more. I don’t have a lot more that isn’t really hardcore—blood and needle play. I did have a Wartenberg wheel, but after the licking I’ve given her, I’m wondering if that’s just going to tickle. Still, it doesn’t penetrate the skin, so I grab it.”

Melody was leaning across the table. Honestly, his story was as fascinating to her as anything she’d read, mainly because, this wasn’t a story. He’d done this the night before!

“Now, I can’t work her ass or thighs. Those are too badly bruised. So instead I put it on the small of her back and roll up her spine. Holy shit, that did what an hour of beating couldn’t. She screams out and arches her back, driving the pins in. I grab hold of her hair and plant my knee on her ass, holding her in an arc like that.” He sets his elbow on the table and bends his arm back. “Then I run that fucker over her nipples. Now we're getting somewhere. Thanks.” He took the mug the waitress set on the table and slugged back a gulp.

Melody perched on the end of her seat and had to focus a moment to comprehend that the waitress was asking a question.

“Little Song? Ready to order?”

“Uh, I’ll have a mushroom swiss burger.”

“Bun?”

“Uh…” She searched for a menu, but Curtis put his hand over hers.

“Pretzel,” he ordered for her. “With ketchup, pickle, and mustard.”

“Yeah, what he said.” Dropping her shoulders, Melody relaxed as the waitress left. “Then what happened?”

Curtis swallowed another mouthful of beer before continuing. Melody took a gulp of her wine before remembering what it was and spluttered, grabbing the napkin holding her cutlery.

“Then I rolled that wheel down her sides. She nearly bucked me off and some of her hair got torn out. Not like chunks, just a bunch of strands. So I let her go and got the pillow from her mattress. Wedging that under her hips, I keep her face to the floor but use a strap on to plug her up. You ever put one of those on backwards?” His hands made a motion to mime the dildo going into her.

“You can do that?”

“Of course, you can do that. I don’t do it often. I like to have the option of popping myself in there.” His cocky smile broke the spell enough for Melody to come back to her senses. He was just a guy after all. “Then I broke out the vibrator and used the wheel on the inside of her thighs. She was practically thrashing when I finally backed off. Thrashing and sweat slicked from her scalp to her toes. She was also done. She didn’t use a safe word, but when she hadn’t spoken through all of that, all she had to do was whisper, ‘stop’ to get me off her.”

“So when did you come?” Melody asked, confused.

Curtis grinned so broadly that Melody could count his pearly white teeth. “I didn’t. Fuck that was a good night.” He leaned back and drained his mug. “Where are those burgers? I’m starving.”

“Me too.”

“So, Little Song, tell me about what’s-his-name.”

She shook her head.

“What? You don’t trust me?” he asked. “That doesn’t bode well for us playing together.”

“I trust you, but…it’s nothing like what you just described.”

“Yeah? Neither was my first scene with Alexa. You work up to these things. So tell me what he did. Or even better, tell me what he didn’t do that you wish he had.” He leaned across the table until their noses almost touched.

“I-I don’t know. He made me come so hard, teasing me with his fingers until I was clawing to keep him from my clit.” She frowned into her wine. “It sounds dumb next to your story.”

“Hey, now. Don’t judge. He get you squirting?”

“No.”

“Too bad. I bet you were close to it, though. Am I right?” He sat back, which helped Melody think more clearly.

“I don’t know. I’ve never squirted before.”

His mug hit the table with a thump. “Are you shitting me? Never?”

She shook her head.

“Excuse me. That was rude. I mean, I don’t know what your experience is or anything. Which is why I asked the question earlier.” He pulled her list out of his back pocket and Melody’s fingers itched to have it back. It seemed stupid now. “This will be very enlightening, but what I really want to know is where’ve you been, how you got there, and what worked for you. Tell me about your past, Little Song, and I’ll script you a fucktastic future.”

Melody licked her lips and started at the beginning. “I lost my virginity on prom night.”

Curtis sat back and nibbled on a french fry. Despite her stories and experiences being so much smaller, shorter and lackluster, he hung on her words and she could swear she saw ideas flickering behind his eyes. Any regret she may have felt earlier evaporated completely.