I could do this, though. I didn't need to defy everyone, did I? I didn't necessarily want to. I was just curious. I... I wanted Lucent to understand and accept me, and...
Slowly, I unbuttoned my coat and opened it. Cole ogled me openly, admiring my outfit.
I wore a fake leather skirt with fishnet stockings and black heels. Above that, barely covering my upper body, I had a sleeveless black top that exposed my stomach. More fake leather, or latex, or whatever it was. I didn't know. I asked the man at the store for the most inexpensive things, and he showed me them. They chafed and annoyed me, itching at my skin, but it was just for now, just this once, so it didn't matter.
Right?
Cole ordered me not to wear underwear, too, but I didn't do that. I wore a regular pair that looked nice and matched my black skirt. It shouldn't matter if I wore underwear, I thought, and I wasn't about to fully expose myself in front of an entire club full of people. The spanking was embarrassing enough as it was, and...
"Good," he said. "Stand. Cover yourself again. Let's go."
I didn't even know him. "Shouldn't we talk first?" I asked. "What do you like to do? Where do you work?"
He paused and stared at me. I liked when Lucent watched me, but I didn't like how Cole was looking at me right now.
"There's no need," he said. "Stop talking. You may speak to answer questions that I ask you, but that's it. You're submitting to me, remember? I am your master tonight."
"Oh," I said. This sounded... correct... but... "What about safewords?" I asked.
Cole let out a loud sigh. "Fine. Your safeword is logomachy. Understood?"
Was that a game of his? Logomachy was a dispute concerning words, and I'd requested a safeword, so it seemed kind of sarcastic and mean. He even said it meanly. Antagonistic. Logomachy was also a card game, sort of. Different from the ones Lucent and I played before, but the thought made me smile.
"No more," he said. "Understood? You shouldn't be smiling, either. You can smile when you've pleased me, and you definitely haven't done that yet. You've kind of pissed me off, actually."
Pissed him off? Well, he was pissing me off! I was the submissive, though. Was I allowed to get pissed off?
Lucent, I'd asked him. For that contract, would you ever tell me to do something you knew I'd hate?
Miss Tanner. His words sounded nice and pleasant and soft. The contract isn't about that. If you signed it--though I must make it rather clear, again, that you won’t. Ever--but if you did, I would definitely order you to do things that you hated.
I would never, he'd added, absolutely never, demand that you do something that would make you hate me, though. Do you understand the difference?
This was that, I thought. This was what Lucent meant when he said those things. I hated Cole ordering me to do things, but I needed to understand that he wouldn't do anything to make me hate him.
Right?
I didn't know for sure. I barely even knew Cole. I knew his name and what he looked like. Cole Dyerhaven, wearing gothic looking clothes with dark hair and sharp, glaring eyes.
...
Cole ordered me around, bringing me to a side entrance of the club. A man greeted us and eyed Cole curiously, but didn't say much. Cole informed him he'd talked with Samuel about a performance for tonight. The man nodded, but he still didn't ease up off of glancing at Cole oddly.
"Nothing like last time," the man said.
"Oh, no," Cole said, grinning. "She's perfectly content with doing this. Aren't you, slave?"
Was I? I didn't know for sure, but I nodded and quietly said yes.
The man shrugged as if that was it and there was nothing more he could do. It struck me as odd, but this whole club and BDSM things and Cole and all of it struck me as odd. Lucent wasn't odd, he was regular, and I didn't understand how he could be that way and this way at the same time.
We walked inside of the club, heading through quiet hallways to a room alongside a stage. I saw all of it through vague glimpses of clubbing scenery afforded to me while looking between the pillars and shimmering gauze curtains that hung between our passway and the main club floor.
Some people wore outfits like mine and like Cole's, while others wore casual, regular clothes. I probably could have shown up wearing the type of outfit I wore everyday, at least from the looks of it. I supposed that didn't make a good show, though. Also, maybe those people weren't submissives or slaves or anything like that? Maybe they were something else? Dominants, masters? Was there more, too?
Cole opened a door for me and guided me inside with a rough shove. I almost tripped, but caught myself on the door frame, then clambered inside.
"Our show is soon," Cole said. "Kneel."
I knelt, but I wasn't quite sure why.
Cole pulled a black collar from his coat and clipped it around my neck. In the front, on a ring jutting out from the too-tight collar, he attached the clip tie of a leash.
"I'll lead you out like this," he said. "You'll immediately bend over on the the table in the center of the stage. That's all you need to do. I'll handle the rest, of course."
The spanking, I thought. Yes. This all sounded correct so far.
I remembered something Lucent told me, though. "How many times will you spank me?" I asked.
Cole glowered at me and tugged hard on his end of the leash, pulling me forward by my neck. "I'll spank you as many times as I want," he growled. "Now shut up and stop asking so many questions."
My eyes glistened with tears and I wanted to cry. I didn't want to do this anymore. Lucent was right. This was so much different, and if Lucent wanted me to be like this, too, I couldn't. I understood now. I didn't like it. I wanted Lucent to be like he always was, and this faint glimpse of Cole, this knowledge of domination that I'd never known before... it wasn't what I wanted. I never wanted this.
I was about to say that, to try and stop all of this, maybe mention my safeword, but someone came to the door before I could. They knocked and Cole opened it. Both men whispered something back and forth, and Cole nodded.
He tugged on my leash, lighter now, goading me on. "We're up," he said. "Do as I said and everything will go perfectly."
I barely had time to nod or shake my head, no, or anything before he started pulling me along. Struggling to keep my balance, I stumbled forward, brought forth like some animal. We walked alongside the stage, then up a set of steps, and Cole marched me to the small table in the center. Ignoring my fear, maybe not even realizing how scared I was, he jerked my coat off my shoulders and flung it to the ground.
I bent over across the table, humiliated and scared. Was this what Lucent liked? I couldn't do it and I needed to stop it, but I didn't know how. I glanced to the side and saw a throng of people watching me. Someone at the head of the stage spoke into a microphone and his words bounced through the club, introducing Cole and I.
I didn't have a name. I barely heard any of what the man said, but he didn't name me. I was Cole's submissive, and that was it. I did have a name, though; I wanted my name. I loved my name.
God is my oath. Lucent knew, too. He said it was a powerful name. A special name, I thought. I always felt like someone was watching over me, protecting me.
I paused, dumbstruck. Bent over the table, staring at the wood, my eyes following a path in the grain, I realized something both horrifying and beautiful.
Someone had been watching over me.
Truth be told, Lucent wasn't God, and I didn't expect him to be, but he did watch me. He worried, too. He came to the library to protect me. He was special to me. He would never do this. Never. I didn't even care if this is what he said he liked, because I knew it was impossible for him to act like this. I didn't know how I knew this, and maybe I was wrong, but I felt very strongly about my idea.
The announcer ended his introduction soon after my sudden brilliant epiphany. Cole wrenched my skirt up, revealing my panty-clad ass. I wore panties and he'd ordered me not to, which pissed him off. He seethed behind me, gritting his teeth.
Harsh words spewed from his mouth, strong, yet barely more than a whisper. "Defying me again? You really don't understand what this is about, do you? It's a good thing you're bent over this table already, because I'm about to teach you a lesson."
No. I moved to get up, to go away, but he grabbed the back of my head and pushed me into the table. With his other hand, he smacked my ass hard.
It stung and I shrieked, writhing on the table. This wasn't like Lucent's hand at all. This wasn't anything like any part of Lucent. Cole was mean, angry, and abusive.
He hit me again and I panicked and tried to remember my safeword. What was it? Logo...
"Stop," I screamed while I tried to remember. "No. Logarithm. Log..."
"Mocking me, are you? You know your safeword, bitch. Don't pretend you've forgotten it."
He lifted his hand to strike me once more, but he hesitated. A commotion from within the crowd caught my attention. It was Lucent.
He wore a business suit, dark and formal, with a shimmering silver tie. The lights in the club made him glow like some shadowy angel. I was fairly certain angels never looked as absolutely livid as Lucent did, though.
I wanted to cry and go to him, but Lucent was busy at the moment. He stomped up onto the stage and glared at Cole with ashen eyes of pure hatred. Moving past me, beside me, near me, he stood between Cole and I. He stood this way for a fraction of a second, barely longer than it took me to breathe in my panic-induced state, and then he slammed his fist into Cole's jaw.
Cole slumped to the floor of the stage and screamed out his agony. Lucent ignored him in favor of paying full attention to me. Typically, I might've enjoyed this, but he didn't look especially friendly at the moment. In fact, he still looked extremely cross.
"Miss Tanner," he said, his voice calmer than his expression. "Come."
I nodded. Lucent helped me up off the table and wrapped an arm around me, squeezing me tight to his side. I glanced towards my coat for a second, wanting to grab it, but before I could he pulled me off of the stage. We reached the steps, and I stumbled on them, but Lucent caught me.
Lifting me up, carrying me in his arms, he walked down the steps with me. I lay cradled against him, my cheek on his shoulder, my arms wrapped around his neck. I nuzzled against him, trying to ease away his anger and my fear, but neither of those happened. Lucent's jaw clenched, then loosened, and clenched, but he held me tight and safe regardless.
Carrying me the entire way, he walked towards a door near one of the walls.
"If you will?" he asked, nodding towards the doorknob.
I reached out and turned it and pulled it open. We stepped through and the door shut behind us automatically.
I hadn't realized how loud the club was until we escaped in here. Granted, Lucent's outburst had caused more than a bit of an uproar, and Cole's frantic screams of pain after Lucent cracked his fist into the man's jaw didn't help. In here it was peaceful, though. Quiet. Gentle, instrumental music played through a speaker system in the soundproofed room. One of the walls was shaded glass; impossible to see through from the other side, but giving an open view of the club from our position.
Lucent brought me to a leather couch and placed me gingerly atop it. For someone who insisted he enjoyed dominating women in relationships, he was remarkably gentle.