From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10) - Lexi Blake Page 0,48

others. He called himself a sadist, but there was no real torture to this. There was a level of comfort in that. Kai wasn’t really her dream Dom, and that was good news because she so loved having him as a friend. She could take a deep breath and know that they weren’t truly compatible. He wasn’t the man who could drag her into the life she’d sworn never to go back to.

He continued to warm her backside as she went over all the ways finding out Kai was fooling himself about his predilections worked in her favor. She wouldn’t be so tempted by him now. She could truly find a pure, platonic friendship with her boss. After this, she wouldn’t have to avoid him and hey, if it made him feel better, she would play with him from time to time. Because this was no big deal at all.

She tried to cover her yawn and heard the whispers going on a few feet away.

Maybe she should try to eek out a couple of tears to preserve his reputation. She didn’t like the thought of all those other Doms talking about him. He wouldn’t like it either.

“So this is a nice warm-up,” Kai said behind her. “I like to use this crop because it’s not particularly stingy. When I say that what I mean is I would have to use a great deal of force to provoke a pain response.”

“I thought you were trying to provoke a pain response,” Jared replied.

Like two professors. She had to stay awake. He would be humiliated if he was the Dom who put her to sleep. Not that it hadn’t happened before. Sometimes the rhythm and the sound of flogging had been known to send her right into nappy time. It was like rain on a tin roof, the sound soothing to her soul. Not doing as much for her libido, but hey, that was okay, too.

“It is the object, but with a sub I’ve never played with before, I have to gauge her reactions. Some subs have a very low tolerance for pain. Some a very high one. If I use this crop and this force and I get a reaction, I know a little more about the submissive’s limits. Do you see how her skin is already getting pink?” Kai’s hand ran over her ass.

That felt nice, but she had to admit some of his power over her was gone. His hand felt warm on her skin, but there wasn’t the edge that had been there before, the tiny hint that any moment that hand could slap at her, come down on her flesh with power.

“Yes, but she didn’t have a reaction to it,” Jared replied. “I don’t think she found it painful at all.”

“No, I suspect she found it very frustrating. Or boring. Did you find my crop boring, Kori?” He asked the question in that oh-so-deep voice he used when he was playing or someone had seriously pissed him off.

“It was very nice, Sir.” She didn’t want to piss him off. Politeness was the way to go.

A horrible crack split the air and she had to bite back a groan because that hadn’t been a boring, sedate crop. He’d brought his hand down and smacked the shit out of her bottom. It stung and then burned, sinking into her and speeding up her blood.

“I’m going to ask you again and you should note that I have eyes and saw you yawn. Did you find my crop boring?” He enunciated each word, biting them off.

“Yes.” She wasn’t afraid of him hitting her again. There were other punishments she wouldn’t enjoy and he damn well knew it. He could untie her and make her sit for the night, watching what went on around her and forced to be silent. He could put her on the damn hamster wheel and make her run all night. There were plenty of punishments even a masochist could hate.

He smacked her again, right in the same spot, the pain shooting through her like a drug. “Yes, what?”

“Sir,” she replied, breathless. “It was boring, Master Kai.”

“Better.” His hand left her. “So now we understand that what we have is an obnoxious brat who’s lied to me in the past and very likely to all of the Doms she’s played with.”

“Hey, that’s not true.” She didn’t mean to lie. She meant to spare their feelings. Wasn’t that a good thing? Even as she thought the words she realized she