BDSM Checklist: A, B, C

“No, no.” Panic was clawing at her throat.

“Are you using your safe word?” Someone in the crowd called out the question, clearly concerned for her.

Mae opened her mouth. Banana. All she had to do was say it.

Instead she looked at Xavier. “This is on your checklist?”

He nodded. “I can see the beauty in marking a submissive in this way, if she chooses to bear her submission like this.”

“Is this…like collaring?” It would make sense if this were about permanently showing ownership.

“No, Mae. We are not bound. This branding would mean that you submitted fully to me in this moment. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

Her heart was breaking and she couldn’t breathe. Mae folded her arms against her chest, only to cry out when her breasts throbbed.

“On your checklist, did you say you wanted to be branded?” His tone was firm.

“Yes, Master.”

“And now you are presented with that opportunity.”

She whimpered and dropped her head.

Xavier touched her cheek. “This is what safe words were made for.”

Though she heard him, all she could think about was his touch. It was nothing more than his knuckles stroking her face, but it made all the difference. Mae exhaled, a trance-like calm settling over her. He’d warned her both about himself and about her own desires.

This was the turning point. She could walk away, or she could embrace this.

And then, when her time with him was over, Mae would have his mark. She’d have a way to remember what it had felt like to dance in the dark. Even if no one else ever touched her the way he had, she’d remember these feelings—the pride and desire of walking through the club wearing the marks of a flogger, the delicious helplessness of being mastered by a man who found release by marking her flesh, and above all the way he’d looked at her.

“No, Master.”

to say your

She raised her voice and heard

deliberate step back. Doubt bit at her once his touch was gone, but she clenched

No one here doubts your

“Thank you, Master.”

chest muscles flexing. “Use your safe

her head. “No,

right to safeword out of this item.” Though

and in his eyes

brand her. I want to mark her.” Master Xavier’s deep voice made the words poetry. “I want to taste her pain

she didn’t care. Her whole world had narrowed, until all that mattered was his green eyes, staring at her from behind the mask

T-shaped wood structure. “If you want this, attach your cuffs to the chains. I will not bind

A D ring near the closure was the only hardware that distinguished them from a cuff bracelet. It seemed odd that these simple things would be what

with a carabiner clip dangled from each end. Using two hands she got her left wrist clip in with no problem. The right took her longer, and she had to stretch and wedge the clip

wrapped her fingers around the chains,

thumped on the wooden

up a branding iron, the tip glowing red. He pushed it down on

felt nauseous. The idea of that heat searing against her skin was too much. She shook her head, raising her gaze to Master Xavier’s. There was fire in his gaze, a fierce desire to master her body in this way. The desire to submit warred with fear

she wanted it because he wanted to do it to her. Wanted what would come after—the permanent record of

sound of water hissing as he dunked the brand into the bucket, though she couldn’t see it happening. When he touched her ass Mae screamed, then shuddered when she realized it was just

“Spread your legs, Mae.”

He forced them open, then pressed two fingers into her pussy. The penetration sent spikes of pleasure

I want to feel you shaking with pleasure.” He brushed her hair aside and

her clit and Mae screamed, her whole body bowed back. Knowing that there was a crowd looking on only spurred her arousal. She shamelessly pumped her hips on his hand, grateful to have this to focus on—the kinky pleasure that she understood so much better than the dark needs he

her when he pulled back. Mae had a moment to focus, to remember where

hard pressed against her

screamed. She screamed in terror and in satisfaction. She screamed as the heat penetrated her.

…But it didn’t burn.