compared to him. “Probably. It never seems serious. No one ever punished me for it.”
“Because you keep everything light. Because you never select a Dom who wants more out of you than a little fun. I need more tonight.” He needed everything. “Jared can’t learn if he doesn’t see something real.”
She was silent for a moment and that electricity was still there between them, though it had quieted to a low simmer. “All right. For Jared’s sake.” Her eyes held his for a second too long before turning to his brother. “There are a million different ways to play. There are as many ways to practice BDSM as there are people who practice it. I wouldn’t be this serious with a Dom usually. My play is typically more about fun than pushing boundaries.”
“Why do you do it?” Jared asked.
The real value in this impromptu scene hit him and rather forcefully. Jared would ask the questions, but Kai could hear her answers. He’d never talked to her about this, not about the lifestyle because it seemed far too intimate. She hadn’t wanted to play with him so he’d dodged the topic. They talked about everything else—well with the singular exception of his brother it seemed—but in this she was a mystery to him.
“I need you to treat him as you would any other Dom in this club,” Kai ordered when she didn’t answer.
Her lips curled up in an impish grin. “Are you sure about that?”
She was the beloved brat of the club. “How about I amend that to asking you to be on your best behavior?”
“I do it because a long time ago I found out I enjoyed it. There’s no deep childhood trauma, no horrible incident from my past. I like the feel of a paddle against my ass. I enjoy not knowing what will come next, but trusting that my partner won’t hurt me. I like the rules and regulations of the lifestyle. It brings me peace and comfort and I never feel more alive than when I submit to a good Dom.”
Every word that came from her mouth sent a shock of recognition through him. He could have said the very same things. He wasn’t sure why he needed this, the control yes, that was obvious. He’d spent much of his childhood having to be the man of the house when he wasn’t ready for it. It created a chaotic childhood. But the pain? The sadism that ran through him? It was hard to explain since he didn’t feel it in his regular, everyday life. He spent his career trying to pull people from their pain.
Somehow inflicting the right pain did it for him. He had zero desire to randomly harm people, but with the right sub, one who needed what he had to give them, oh, that was like finding heaven.
“So you’re saying the idea that everyone in the lifestyle is damaged and in need of therapy is wrong,” Jared stated succinctly.
He wasn’t sure his brother could understand but at least he wasn’t turning his nose up. “Everyone’s damaged, Jared. You don’t live life and not have scars. Occasionally I turn down people for memberships based on psychological evaluations. Either the Dom or Domme is more interested in hurting a sub than they are in helping them, or a sub is looking for someone to hurt her or him to the exclusion of all other aid. Submission can be a form of therapy, as can Dominance, but the person has to be open to healing. I would never allow someone a membership if they weren’t here for the right reasons.”
“Except me, of course,” Jared said, his voice going flat.
“I didn’t say that.” He likely should have softened his tone, but Jared needed to understand that he wasn’t here to make friends. He was here for a very specific purpose. “If you were to apply for membership through regular channels, you would have to go through a psychological evaluation.”
Kori looked up at Jared. “Not through him, though. He’s not allowed to evaluate his own family members. You would go through Eve McKay. She’s smart and fair at the same time.”
He drew his hand back and smacked her ass hard without even thinking about it.
He expected her to frown his way and complain. Instead her eyes closed briefly and when she looked back at him, her pupils were slightly dilated.
“I apologize, Sir. Though I could have been making a simple statement.”
“Were you?” He knew the answer to that.
She shook