less reassuring than his wink, but it seemed to ease her tension as
well.
Patrick
ground his teeth, positioning himself about ten feet away from them along the
wall in between the doors to the private rooms. Close enough to see and
hear everything, but also remain outside of the scene. As Michael pulled
some cuffs from his bag, Lexie fidgeted and glanced at Patrick. Something
about the way she looked at him made him think that she wanted him to come
barreling into the scene.
Was that what this was about? Making him jealous? If
so, it was working, but he had more self-control than to ever hijack someone
else's scene. Especially if he kept reminding himself about all the
reasons it was better to let Michael continue to handle this. Patrick
honestly wasn't sure if Lexie would safe word if he’d been the one in charge of
her first scene. She had a crush on him, and she wanted to prove herself
to him. Not exactly the best combination for introducing her to
BDSM. Maybe it would be better if he retreated to his office, and watched
from a true distance, but he just couldn't convince himself to move that far
away from them.
In case something went wrong, in case she was frightened by
something, he needed to be right there to take care of her.
"Okay, honey, hold out your wrists." Michael held
up the leather cuffs, lined with fur. Patrick's spine stiffened.
******
"Did you go over limits?" The harshness in
Patrick's voice made Lexie look at him, even though she was a bit insulted by
the question.
She wasn't an idiot, of course she and Master Michael had gone
over limits for the scene before they'd come to Stronghold. They'd talked
extensively in fact. Restraints, erotic pain, exhibitionism, and some
contact were all okay. Real pain, edge play, humiliation, and sex were
not. Dammit, Patrick thought she was a total noob, didn't he?
Which, okay, yeah, she was when it came to actually doing things, but she
wasn't entirely new to the dynamics of a scene.
"Yes," Master Michael said, giving Patrick that same
bland look that he had upstairs. It made Patrick scowl even more fiercely,
and Lexie had to stop herself from giggling. Michael's indifference to
Patrick's growling was pissing him off more than anything Lexie could have
said. The Dom’s dark eyes returned to her, assessing and authoritative,
but also with a little twinkle of amusement at Patrick’s expense.
"Hold out your wrists, honey."
Lexie held out her wrists. Even if she didn't have feelings
for Michael, she found him attractive, and having him wrap the leather
restraints around her wrists made her breathless. Especially since
Patrick was watching. Up until now, she had thought that being on display
in the Dungeon was something she would have to tolerate, not enjoy... but
feeling Patrick's eyes on her was turning her on. Maybe she had a bit of
exhibitionist in her after all.
Or maybe it was just because it was Patrick.
The restraints on her wrists were warm, snug. Michael
tightened the buckles, checking the entire time to make sure that they weren't
too tight. She smiled at him when he looked at her questioningly, taking
the nonverbal cue that she was still doing good. Sure, she had her safe
words of yellow and red, but she'd told him beforehand that she really didn't
want to use them during her first ever scene, and he'd reassured her that he'd
check in constantly with her throughout the scene.
Safe words meant different things to different couples.
Sometimes it meant the end of the scene. It could also mean the end of a
relationship. Or some Doms liked to push their subs into safe
wording. As long as both parties were on the same page, that was all well
and good, but Lexie didn't want Patrick to think that she couldn't handle
something. It was as much about that as it was her pride.
Putting a chain through the D-rings on the wrist cuffs, Michael
pulled her arms up above her head to