What stuck with her the most, though, was how aware he’d been of her needs. Something in the ballroom would catch her eye, and he would explain who or what it was before she even had a chance to ask. That care extended to her physical comfort as well. He’d noticed she didn’t like cauliflower, and had fed her only the vegetables she seemed to like, to the point where he’d taken food from his own plate and given it to her.
Across the hall, floor-to-ceiling windows looked out into a pleasant outdoor sitting area, protected from the outside world by tall adobe walls festooned with flowering vines. Spotlights illuminated carefully manicured trees and shrubs, and the wrought-iron tables had white pillar candles in tall glass jars. A small crowd gathered out there, some sitting at the tables and talking while others stood in small clusters. The groups were made up mostly of people she could only assume were part of the BDSM gathering by their risqué clothing.
At the back wall, an elaborate display of ice carvings set on long tables piled with artful arrangements of desserts caught her attention. Her father used to carve ice sculptures in the winter and would enter them into local holiday festivals. She could remember pressing her face against the kitchen window looking out over the backyard and watching her father carve, first with a chainsaw, then with a variety of tools as he coaxed an image out of the unforgiving ice. One wrong move and the sculpture would shatter, but her father had been very careful, and it never failed to make her shiver in delight once the carving was complete.
She wanted to go take a closer look at the carvings illuminated by a shifting series of rainbow lights, but she didn’t know anyone out there. Well, it wasn’t like she planned on talking to anyone while she looked at the sculptures; she’d just get a closer look at them and maybe grab some fruit or something chocolate and head back to her room. After all, it wasn’t like they were going to spare her any glances when they had half-naked submissives, who looked like they spent all their free time at the gym, vying for attention.
The warm night air caressed her skin as she pushed open the glass door and stepped onto the outdoor patio with a smart click of her heels against the concrete. When no one stared at her or made any snide remarks as she wound her way through the people and tables, she lost some of the stoop to her shoulders and walked straighter. Instead of smirks, the few people who did look at her as she passed either smiled or just examined her with an interest that was flattering.
She reached the first sculpture and tilted her head to the side as she examined the slowly melting statue. Two men embraced in a tight clasp, with one of the men on his knees and the other bent over him, making the man at his feet arch his back. At first it looked as if the man on the ground was being forced, but the more she looked at it, the more she could see how the artist had made the man on his knees strain toward the man towering over him, not away. Each shift of the lights brought out new expressions in the slowly melting faces, and she had to tear her gaze away to move on to the next sculpture.
A pretty Asian woman in a red and black latex kimono said, “Pardon me.” She reached past Tanwen to grab some type of decadent dessert from the mound of confections arranged around the sculpture.
Tanwen flushed and stepped back. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was blocking you.”
The woman laughed and continued to select desserts for her plate. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve been staring at that image all night and wondering if I’d get in trouble for licking it.”
Tanwen laughed and tapped her lips with her finger. “I wonder if my tongue would get stuck to it like licking a flagpole in the winter.”
“Wouldn’t that be a bitch.” The woman held out her free hand. “My name is Annie.”
“Tanwen, nice to meet you.”
“So you come here often, Tanwen?” Annie gave a leering wiggle of her eyebrows.
“No. I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb.”
Annie gave her a long up-and-down appraisal from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. There was no mistaking the heat in her eyes when her gaze returned to Tanwen’s face. “You don’t stick out like a sore thumb. More like a beautiful blush pink rose on a bed of black leather. I wonder if your whole body turns pink when you’re aroused.”
“Oh my. That is—Um, thank you. You look very nice too,” Tanwen babbled and winced at how awkward that sounded. “I mean, you’re lovely.”
Annie grinned, and some of the heat went out of her gaze. “Forgive me for being so forward. I’m afraid Sodom brings out my raging nymphomaniac side, and I forget not everyone is as…in the mood as I am. I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable; it truly wasn’t my intention.”
“No, not at all.” Annie arched her eyebrows, and Tanwen grimaced. “Well, maybe I was a bit surprised. This is the first time I’ve ever been anywhere like this. I’m afraid I don’t know how to act or what to do. It’s like being a teenager but worse.”
Annie glanced over Tanwen’s shoulder and grimaced. “I don’t know much about it either. I’m here to visit a friend, but I’ve been having a great time people watching tonight. If you want to see how you shouldn’t behave, watch that redheaded Amazon bitch over in the corner. She’s been messing around with other people’s subs all night, and I’m trying to guess which dom is going to go over there first to beat the crap out of her.”
Tanwen turned, and she recognized the tall redhead with her hair held back in some kind of elaborate black and green latex bow that matched her latex dress. Her breasts were pushed up practically to her chin, and a very young and muscular man knelt at her feet in what Tanwen could only think of as a leather gladiator outfit. The redhead had her foot playing beneath the hem of his leather skirt. By the look on his face, he was enjoying it. The latex gloves that encased her hands gleamed in the subdued lighting as she gripped the man’s hair in her fist.
Annie walked over so they were standing shoulder to shoulder and watching the redhead. “She came in with some sweet little geeky guy, but she’s been ignoring him all night while she plays with the more picture-perfect subs. Now I know it’s none of my business, and she could be doing some kind of BDSM thing with him, but that’s not the feeling I’m getting.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, look over there at that blond sub in the blue leather sailor outfit and his master. See how he’s bound to the table behind his master, out of the line of sight while his master plays with that hunky sub in the chaps with no underwear?”
Tanwen swallowed hard and couldn’t help but stare. The master was a big man with bulging biceps and graying hair. He ran his hands up and down the body of the submissive squirming on his lap, pausing to give his ass a firm squeeze before continuing to pet him. The sub on his lap writhed beneath his touch and made little pleading noises deep in his throat. Behind them, the sub in the sailor outfit sported a massive erection that strained against his leather pants as he watched his master with lust-glazed eyes. He too made noises of need, but his were much more vocal and sent a shiver down Tanwen’s spine that settled between her legs in a low pulse of arousal.
Annie took a bite of her dessert and continued. “Now at first it kinda looks like the master is just having his fun and forgot about his other sub. But if you watch, you’ll see how every move he does is based on how the sub behind him is reacting. He touches, waits for the sub’s response, and continues. Obviously this is something that arouses both of them, and even though it appears as if he’s ignoring his slave, the master is as focused on him as he is the sub on his lap.”