“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

my safe word.” She raised her voice and heard the crowd mutter.

once his touch was gone, but she

challenge. No one here doubts your submission.

“Thank you, Master.”

snarled, chest muscles flexing. “Use your safe word, damn

shook her

changed your mind, you too have the right to safeword out of this item.” Though Mae

met, and in his eyes Mae saw

Master Xavier’s deep voice made the words poetry. “I want to taste her pain and submission

care. Her whole world had narrowed, until all that mattered was his green eyes, staring at her from behind

attach your cuffs to the

put on. They were one thin piece of leather, held closed by a buckle. 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

came to just below her breasts. A short chain 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 against the wood in order to press the latch and

wrapped her fingers around the chains,

thumped on the wooden stage. “Look at

a branding iron, the tip glowing red. He pushed it down on the stage and the wood hissed and sizzled. When he lifted the brand, an “X” was burned into the

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 and she dropped her

he wanted to do it to her. Wanted what would come

the 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

“Spread your legs, Mae.”

fingers into her pussy. The penetration sent spikes of pleasure

shaking with pleasure.” He brushed her

shamelessly pumped her hips on his hand, grateful to have this to

had a moment to focus, to

before something hard pressed against her right butt cheek near her

screamed in terror and in satisfaction. She screamed as

…But it didn’t burn.

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

Comments ()

0/255