BDSM Checklist: A, B, C

The sound of a spanking woke her.

Mae blinked, trying to orient herself. She was lying on a narrow bed in a small room with walls whose upper halves were vertical bars. In a second it all came rushing back—the branding, the talk, and most of all Xavier’s face.

She checked all around the bed, but there was no note from him. No sign of him at all, except for one of her shoes from last night, sitting on the ledge of the stall door.

The sound of a beating—the distinct thwack, thwack, thwack of leather hitting flesh—echoed through the main part of the Conclave. Mae grabbed the sheet of the bed, folding and wrapping it around herself. Her body and emotions were both raw after the last few days, and if she was going to slink back to the Subs’ Garden, she’d rather not do it naked. Her fellow members had seen more than enough of her yesterday.

She opened the stall door and peeked out. It was mid-morning judging by the light that spilled in through the windows in the end wall. To her left, a half-naked male sub was chained up, his arms stretched above his head, his lower body partially covered by silky boxers. Mistress Faith stood beside him, crop in hand. When she snapped the tool against the sub’s ass, Mae winced. She did not want to interrupt one of the overseers at play.

“Aren’t you going to thank me, boy?”

“Thank you, Mistress.”

Mae gasped. That was Xavier.

Mistress Faith’s attention whipped to her. “Good morning, Mae. Join me.”

Feeling like Alice down the rabbit hole, Mae padded over to where Xavier was chained up, circling around so she could see him. He raised his head and a rueful smile twitched the corners of his mouth.

Faith struck his ass again and Xavier snarled, chain rattling. The change from hello smile to

changed. A pity. You

more shocked. Staggering over to a bench, she took

the first stirrings of jealousy. “This boy used to be one of my favorite subs. He started out as a rich kid playing games,

ear was mangled as was the flesh all down the side of his face. In the morning light she could see the twisted ridges of the scar tissues, the skin both paler than the rest of his face and darker in places where it seemed a permanent red-wine

with stress, before. For a while I was

the whip under her arm. “When he did come back he was a much darker person. Before, he was smart, sweet, and a bit sassy. Does that sound

Mae nodded slowly.

comparison, but that didn’t stop him from continuing the tale. “I couldn’t submit anymore. Any loss of control was horrifying, yet I wanted

be a

touched his cheek. “You

nodded, but

someone?” Mae asked. “Because you might go back to being a

growled and tried to reach for her, but the chains brought him up short. “I’m not a switch,” he

raised one eyebrow. “Weren’t you just getting

glowered. “Oh yes, I knew you two would

but the need to understand was choking her. “Why?” she asked