He pulled back rather more quickly than I’d have thought he would, sending me a partly amused, partly chastising look that had my brows drawing together in a question.
Estella was facing mostly away from me, and he turned her very gently with the hand still buried in her wavy hair. His other hand came up and his index finger wiped her cheek. He held it up, as though to show me something, pushing Estella’s other cheek softly against his chest.
I stepped forward to look. It took me a moment to realize he’d wiped a tear from her cheek.
“I don’t know what kind of things you think I’m into nowadays, Frankie,” he told me, sounding exasperated, even while his hand stroked over Estella’s hair comfortingly. “But traumatizing your date is not one of them. I think you hurt her feelings. This one likes you.”
My mind reeled. Almost reluctantly, I reached out a hand, grabbed her arm, and tugged her out of his arms and to me. I pulled her into my side, closing my eyes as her soft, full breasts pressed into mine.
Without asking, she buried her face in my neck, kissing the pulse there, her wet face touching against my skin, as though to illustrate her tears, and inadvertently reprimanding me.
James sighed, shaking his head, the faintest smile still touching his mouth. “This looks like a private moment to me. We’ll leave you to it.”
“You don’t have to,” I protested.
“It’s all right. I need to prepare for our demonstration. We’ll talk later.” He walked away, Jolene following in his wake.
Estella’s arms latched around my waist, her breath gasping out of her. Not sobs exactly, more the thing you would do to keep from sobbing.
She was in a state.
“Estella,” I said quietly. Besides my arm thrown over her shoulder, I didn’t touch her. I wasn’t sure what to do with her. “You don’t need to be scared. I won’t tell you to kiss anyone else. You don’t have to touch anyone you don’t want to, okay? I just thought you wanted this whole experience, so I was providing it for you. Most subs take a kiss from Mr. Cavendish as a real honor, and you certainly seemed to be interested in him.” I tried not to make the last bit an accusation, and didn’t know if I succeeded.
She sniffled a bit, pulling back to look at me, her big dark eyes wet and shiny. “I didn’t just want the experience, Frankie. I wanted the experience with you. I’m fascinated by this lifestyle, but more than that, I wanted to see what you were looking for, what you needed me to be for you. I have no desire to be passed around.”
That had me feeling like a real piece of shit, because she wasn’t that far off.
We’d been seeing each other, in a friendly kind of way, for just a few weeks. We’d kissed, and touched, and I’d gotten her off countless times, but I hadn’t thought it meant anything.
In fact, I was half convinced she was a bored little bi girl looking for a walk on the wild side. She wouldn’t be the first.
I’d just kind of assumed, as much as I hated the thought, that she’d want to be passed around at this thing, especially if I was passing her to someone like James, who could questionably make anyone’s sexuality flexible.
“I’m sorry,” I told her quietly, something I’d likely never said to a sub, though she wasn’t quite that. Not yet. Perhaps not ever. I wasn’t going to let myself invest in the idea either way. “We can just observe, and later, you can tell me what you liked, what fascinated you.”
“I want to know what you like. I need to learn how to please you.”
I kissed her, a deep kiss, a distracting kiss, where I tried not to notice that I could taste another woman’s lipstick on her mouth.
We’d basically stuck to vanilla so far. It was not my preference, but I liked her company, and I wasn’t ready to give it up just yet. Breaking her in ran the risk of losing her.
I pulled back, breathing hard, feeling way too much for this woman I barely knew. The look in her eyes had me wanting to kiss her again, but I restrained myself, instead pulling her back into my side, and pointing at a small platform that had been erected in the corner of the room. Our entertainment was about to begin.
“If you want to know what I like, you should watch this. No one can put on a show like James. This is a real treat right here.”
He strode onto the well-lit makeshift stage, shirtless now, his deeply tanned skin, his sleek muscles, set off to perfection under a spotlight.
“Wow,” Estella breathed.
I didn’t blame her. At least, not too much. James was a sight, hard even for me to look away from when he was putting on a show like this.
His dark gold hair was tied back, setting off his perfect face. He was a combination of utter masculinity and enough stark beauty to make anyone stare. And those eyes of his burned through a person, even at a distance.
Jolene followed him up onto the platform, wearing nothing but a corset that cinched her waist in but left her, aside from some piercings, completely bare above and below.
They were striking together, but I always thought to myself that he could do so much better. He wasn’t only a beautiful shell, like her. With James, there was just as much to admire on the inside.
He used a firm hand on her neck to lead her to the St. Andrew’s cross that had been erected at the back of the stage. It said a lot about his presence that Estella only seemed to notice it then.
“What is that thing?”
“A St. Andrew’s cross.”
“What is it for?”
“You’ll see.”
It was shaped like an X, and slightly tilted back, so when he pushed Jolene against it, face first, she was leaning far forward, showing us everything we needed to see of her privates. She was pierced there, too.
“She’s very beautiful,” Estella told me quietly. I didn’t particularly want to hear that from her, but I kept that to myself.