Truly Helpless: A Nature of Desire Series Novel Read online

  “Yeah, I’m late,” Marius said abruptly. “But I’m here now. Ready to serve, Mistress.”

  She noted he’d barely looked at Rob. He seemed to be actively avoiding any acknowledgement of his existence. Interesting.

  “Do you have an excuse?” she asked.

  “Would it matter?”

  “No. Come now,” she said gently.

  His gaze snapped to her, Marius visibly caught off guard when he realized she wasn’t speaking to him. Rob jetted into the condom he was wearing, his body jerking, hair falling attractively over his brow and eye as he let the orgasm have him. Regina kneaded him with her toes, crooning, giving him her approval and encouragement. She ignored Marius. No matter that she’d chosen Rob to help her teach him a lesson, she wouldn’t deny the man her full focus as Mistress during his release.

  Regina had negotiated an orgasm from him, but before she cut him loose, she’d make sure he was sufficiently revived and hurting for pussy. He would be required to properly care for his wife after her “girl movie,” and Regina wouldn’t be the one causing him to fall down on the job, so to speak.

  When Rob finished, she eased him to his elbows and knees facing her, his forehead touching the ground, and let him get his breath back. She sat back, sliding her feet into her heels so she could brace those against Rob and let him feel the pleasurable dig into his shoulder and flank again. Marius remained motionless, one hand hooked in his pocket, the other loose, fingers curled in a half fist.

  “Take off the shirt,” she said, making eye contact so this time there was no doubt she was addressing him.

  He obeyed. As he stretched his upper torso, she saw the slide of one hip bone below firm flesh as he twisted and pulled the shirt loose. His bruises had healed some more, now yellowish and fading, rather than purple and dark.

  “Throw it over here,” she said, lifting her hand.

  “I can bring it.”

  “No. Rob has that spot right now. Toss it.”

  He balled it up and complied, probably with more force than required, but she caught it on her outstretched fingers. Spreading it out over both hands, she lifted it to her face, inhaling the scent. He might not have shaved, but he’d showered. His scent differed from encounter to encounter, as if he changed out soap brands often. Curious. Most men stuck with one preference. She had no objection to this one, a spicy citrus. She could feel the lingering heat of his body through the cloth.

  “This is the price of being late,” she said, settling the shirt on the chair arm. “How do you think I’ll look when I go to bed tonight, wearing just it and a pair of panties?” Lifting her hand, she caressed her breast and ran her thumb over the nipple, which grew more erect against the fabric of her button-down shirt as she stroked it. Rob’s performance had aroused her, and it didn’t take much to send a ripple of response arrowing between her legs. Marius’s hot gray gaze sped it along. His jaw was tight.

  Not sure how to respond to me, are you, angry boy? Not used to dealing with someone who not only doesn’t cater to your shit, but doesn’t get worked up over it.

  He stepped forward, so close the toes of his shoes pressed rudely against the side of Rob’s curved body. The man stiffened, but he kept his head down, in the position Regina had dictated. Yeah, he was going to test his testosterone against Rob’s, just as Regina had anticipated. She didn’t want to go too far down that road, though she wasn’t going to back away from it, either, if Marius pushed it. She trusted Rob to follow her direction.

  “I think it won’t fit over your tits,” Marius said, his eyes coursing over them in insolent appraisal.

  “Think not? Hmm.” She straightened and flicked open the buttons of her shirt before shrugging it off her shoulders. Her red lace bra had a front fastener that she handled just as easily, lifting away from the back of the throne chair enough to slide it off. Rob’s head lifted.

  In an instant, Marius had his thick tread shoe on the back of the man’s neck. “She didn’t say you could look at her,” he growled.

  “I didn’t say he couldn’t either,” she said coolly. “Step back, Marius.”

  His expressive lips were capable of a wide variety of snarls and grimaces. This one tried to convey a fuck it, who cares sneer, but it was closer to a predatory snarl. He did step back, however. Not far, one shoe tip still against Rob’s knee, the other under his body. She could tell Rob’s temper had sparked, but the man was holding, his body language still mostly relaxed.

  She put on the T-shirt. It was snug over her D-cup breasts, but the effect was everything she wanted. Her taut nipples strained against the fabric so that the areolas were visible dark smudges. “Looks like a perfect fit to me,” she observed, sitting back. “Go get me a Coke Zero with lemon. And a bottle of water for Rob. Tell the bartender to run a tab for me.”

  She cupped both her breasts, pleasing herself with the way they looked in Marius’s T-shirt. She’d enjoy using a vibrator on herself tonight when she was home in bed. She’d inhale his scent, look down at her body and imagine his eyes flashing with the fire she saw when she gave him the drink order. He seemed caught between murder and lust…and stark need. The last could derail her, so she set that aside. She couldn’t give him what they both wanted until he knew how to ask for it the right way.

  She heard Rob mutter a soft curse, telling her he was seeing enough in his peripheral vision that his engines were re-starting. Good. She was a generous Mistress that way. On other things, she was a hardass bitch.

  Marius returned with the drinks. He set the bottled water next to Rob when she pointed, and offered her the Coke Zero.

  “Rob, drink some of the water. I’ll need your mouth wet shortly.” Rising as the sub moved to do her bidding, she took her drink from Marius’s hand, limiting the contact between their fingers. As she sipped, she studied his face, not bothering to hide her frank assessment. His bored expression said he thought he knew the game she was playing, and he wasn’t impressed with her attempt to punish him for his attitude and lateness. Yet when she handed the drink back to him, she felt tension in his fingers.

  “I changed my mind. I want a Diet Coke instead. Over ice, no lemon.”

  Marius stared at her, but she turned away from him. Taking off the leggings beneath her micro skirt meant she gave both men a brief glimpse of red satin creasing over her ass before she readjusted the micro skirt and settled back on the throne. Hooking one of the stools with her shoe, she drew it close so that she could prop one foot on it, tilting her other knee back against the arm of the throne to spread her thighs.

  “You pleased me, Rob. Come closer to get your reward.”

  The man immediately moved into a kneeling position where he’d be able to put his mouth on her cunt over the panties. Being the good sub he was, he didn’t make contact. He stopped close enough his breath touched her through the fabric, but his mouth didn’t.

  If it had been Marius between her legs, he would have taken Come closer as the starting gun. He would devour, bite and demand. He’d grip her thighs, shoving them wider. There would be growling.

  She suppressed a hard shiver of lust. If only she could achieve the connection they needed with a snap of her fingers, where she could unleash his animal instincts for their mutual pleasure without worry that he would twist it to fuck with both their heads. But he’d shown up late and his attitude so far sucked. She couldn’t let any of that go.

  She could have allowed Marius to see that shiver of reaction but let him think she was responding to Rob. It wouldn’t be difficult, since she’d had Rob’s mouth between her legs before and he gave damn good oral. But while jealousy and competition would add a kick to the mix, it wasn’t the right bait for Marius. Plus, dishonest manipulation wasn’t her style.

  “Get my drink or take off, Marius. You’re either here to be a sub or you’re not.” She stroked her long fingers through Rob’s hair as he remained still, waiting on her, his gaze focused on her cunt with the gratifying eagerness of a quivering Labrador ready to l
unge into action. Slipping off her shoe, she placed her bare foot on his shoulder, curling her toes into the muscle. “Or maybe we’re approaching this all wrong.”

  She tilted her head, ignoring the flash of puzzled surprise in Marius’s gaze. “Are you sure you’re not a top playing the wrong side of the fence? You seem to fight this pretty hard. If you think that’s the case, we can knock off the Mistress and sub shit between us right now. Grab yourself a drink, pull up a chair and we’ll talk about it. There are some good topping opportunities here tonight.”

  She nodded toward a trio of female subs. They were sitting on the floor, playing jacks. All three were dressed in ruffles, simple cotton panties under the short skirts, their hair done in pigtails. “Daddy’s girls are always fun and playful, a good way to start. A little slap and tickle, some spanking. But Liza over there is a jack-of-all-kink. Likes bondage, impact play, electrical…”

  “Not interested.” His expression had gone cold.

  “Not interested in either preference? Or topping?”

  If Marius had a drop of topping blood in him, she’d go jump in the bay in the dead of winter, but maybe it wasn’t her who needed to be convinced. Trying to figure out where one fit in the BDSM world wasn’t unusual. Some men came into it trying to be Masters, not realizing that what had drawn them to it was the desire to submit. It took time to set aside societal expectations and tap into a soul’s true needs.

  Once most people were in it long enough, they felt more comfortable trying on the different roles until they found the one that fit the best. Maybe he hadn’t found that comfort zone, for whatever reason. Did he need a reset, to remind him where he really wanted to be?

  “Have you ever done it before?” she asked. “Topping?”

  His steel gaze was on Rob’s head, particularly her fingers, stroking the submissive’s hair. Was he thinking of how her fingers had stroked him last night, when he’d become her mount?

  She expected his palm was starting to ache from gripping the ice-cold glass of her first drink order.

  “I’ll come back when you’re done with him and we’ll talk.” His voice was wooden.

  “Okay.” She spoke to him as an equal, as if it was already a done deal, any pressure on him to behave as a submissive removed. “Feel free to wander around. As my guest, you’re not authorized to play with anyone but me, but if you see something you want to do, come back and hang out at the bar until I’m done and we’ll figure it out. This won’t take long.”

  She said the last four words in a sultry tease to Rob, letting him know how fine a job he’d done prior to this, pleasing and arousing her. She settled back and cupped the back of his head, a mute command to proceed. A smile curved her mouth at the first touch of his lips against the crotch of her panties. This was going to be relaxing and therapeutic, easing the burn higher in her gut the proximity to Marius was causing. So what if Rob wasn’t the demanding beast she wanted between her legs? She’d never been one to trade out Mr. Right Now for the elusive Mr. Right.

  Even if the sullen cloud four feet away from her was Mr. Right, he wasn’t offering to be Mr. Right Now, and her pussy wanted a release.

  Marius stepped forward and threw the drink in her face.

  She’d told Rob things might get ugly. She’d known there was a lot brewing under the surface, but she’d underestimated how close to that point Marius had been. But that didn’t piss her off nearly as much as him ruining the olfactory pleasure of the shirt she’d wanted to take home with his scent firmly imprinted upon it.

  Rob leaped to his feet. Anger suffused his features as he planted himself between Regina and Marius. To an honorable male like him, this was probably equivalent to Marius punching her. She gave him credit for self-control, however, because he limited himself to providing a human barricade between Marius and his Mistress.

  She’d never had anyone dash a drink full of ice in her face before. It had stung and was cold, but it was hardly catastrophic. He’d soaked the front of the T-shirt, so her nipples were even more noticeable dark points against the translucent fabric. Rob had been splattered, because the drops ran down his back and his hair was sprayed with a light dew. She laid a hand on his tense shoulder, the pressure of her grip a mute command to move to her right and clear the field between her and Marius. While he was initially unresponsive, his desire to protect her struggling with the promise he’d made, eventually he complied. He remained close, a vibrating current of electricity at her elbow.

  She wasn’t surprised that Marius hadn’t moved an inch. Until Rob shifted, Marius had been almost eye to eye with him. His fists were clenched, his gaze pinned on her chosen sub for the evening, but she reached out and tapped Marius’s jaw, making his eyes snap to her.

  “Your fight begins and ends with me, not him,” she said coolly. “And that’s not because he wouldn’t like to deck you. It’s because he knows how to respect a Mistress.”

  Energy rippled through Marius. “He respects her by being a pussy and letting her be attacked?” he spat.

  Rob made an aggressive noise. When Regina shot him a quelling glance, he subsided with effort, but she kept her pointed gaze on him until he backed up another couple of steps, giving them all more breathing room. Regina brought her attention back to Marius.

  “He’s not the bastard who attacked me,” she said mildly.

  “You know what you were doing,” Marius gritted out. “Fucking with my head.”

  “A thief always thinks he’s being robbed,” she observed. Schooling her expression to dispassion, a far cry from how she was feeling, she turned her back to him and faced Rob. "Get me a towel to dry off. Then you can finish what you started."

  "With pleasure, Mistress."

  No more scathing looks were sent toward Marius, though from his expression, Rob vehemently disapproved of Marius's behavior. But he’d picked up on her dismissive cues, proceeding as if the drink had appeared upon her magically, as if Marius didn't exist. As if his act was as insignificant to adult matters as a naughty child's.

  Rob retrieved a towel from the bar, speaking a low word to Leonard that she knew would assure the staff member everything was under control. It wasn’t a lie, though she didn’t exactly know how this was going to go.

  Marius was standing behind her still. As she turned, she saw his fists remained half curled. But he wasn’t moving. Was he waiting to see what she would do next, what switch she would flip, what string she’d pull? Or was he uncertain what to do next, caught in some kind of stasis, an internal loop?

  The scene with Siren had built into a disaster. This time he’d taken it to DEFCON level with almost no build up at all, which confirmed what she already knew. He’d been on slow burn ever since their pony play scene, and come spoiling for a fight.

  Rob returned with two towels and offered one to her. As she patted her face and throat, ignoring the tower of quivering heat that was Marius, Rob dried the throne and the floor around it. He gestured her politely back toward her seat, though she saw the spark as he anticipated getting his mouth between her legs again. And this time there would be a component of fuck you to Marius as he did it. She’d let that pass, since a man had to be a man, after all. Keep a stranglehold on a male sub and he became too much of a pet for her liking.

  The important part was that he could follow her direction and take care of her. As she took the throne once more, she lifted her chin. “I have some soda here. On my throat. I’d like you to use your mouth to handle that, Rob.”

  She had enough multi-tasking ability to anticipate the pleasurable sensation of Rob's mouth and keep Marius on her radar. Rob put his heated lips to her throat, sucking off beads of moisture. As she made a noise of encouragement, he moved down toward the rise of her breasts, a man’s literal wet dream under the cling of the soaked T-shirt.

  Marius still hadn’t moved. It was unsettling, if she allowed herself to feel that way, which she didn’t. He put off vibrations like a ticking time bomb, but he’d be reviewing his options in h
is mind, stewing in the vacuum where she’d left him, because she’d provided him no further direction.

  He wasn’t a newbie sub. She didn’t need to handhold him through the different options to resolve a self-inflicted fuck-up. She projected nothing but indifference to his presence. However, since inside she was far too curious about what he’d attempt next, Rob provided a very pleasant and creative distraction with his lips and tongue.

  He’d only reached her cleavage, his tongue sliding in to enjoy the deep valley the damp T-shirt molded, when she heard something very much like a snarl come from the densely-packed zone of heat and muscle to her left.

  "I still have some water on my arms,” she said casually. “Dry that with the towel, Rob.”

  As he straightened to do so, Marius at last moved. He muscled in, hauling Rob to his feet and putting a palm on his chest to press him back. One step, two step, taking him out of her personal space and putting Marius squarely before her. He did it with such brutal efficiency, Rob had no time to resist until the second step. He bristled and pushed forward against Marius’s straight arm, but he fortunately shot her a glance at the same time. She shook her head, quelling the spike of alarm. Rob was capable enough, but she’d seen firsthand that Marius was a street fighter, a violent brute.

  A good club was worth its membership fee. She noticed Leonard was bussing a nearby table, a strategic decision that put him closer to the situation. The Dungeon Master that patrolled the several public spaces of the club also had his eye upon them.

  She wasn’t going to let this get any further, but she appreciated the backup. She didn’t usually bring problems into her chosen clubs, so she’d have some latitude in this situation.

  She’d noted something else important. The moves Marius had used were not what he’d employ in the ring, but the quelling, neutralizing moves she’d use as a C.O. Or that he used as Zone security.