The floor of the library was one of the least comfortable places to be kneeling for long periods of time, but that was where Madame Cat had decided to have her dinner. Almost everyone else in the library was also eating, and Beth’s stomach growled in reaction to the delicious food smells. People went quiet and Beth lifted her head just enough to look around. Master Xavier, recognizable from the mask he wore, was leading a lovely red-haired sub through the room.
They must have been paired up as part of the checklist game. Beth had played with Master Xavier once, over a year ago. He’d complimented her on her ability to obey and her responsiveness to pain, but Beth had been able to tell that he’d never ask for her again.
That was the story of her life. She was good, but forgettable…as forgettable as a piece of furniture, which she was now serving as.
Beth bit the inside of her lip, reminding herself that anything was better than nothing. Being collared by Madame Cat was an honor and a gift.
She watched out of the corner of her eye as the lovely red-headed sub was draped backward over a wine barrel and then pleasured by nearly everyone in the room. Beth was transfixed by the sight—though the sub had been ordered not to come, she’d clearly had orgasm after orgasm from mouths and hands dancing over her body.
Beth had been kneeling here, completely naked, for what felt like days, and the only physical contact she’d had were her owner’s feet on her back and the occasional strike of the crop when she moved too much.
“I need her.” Master Xavier’s voice only a few feet away shocked Beth, but she held still.
“Of course.” Madame Cat took her feet off Beth. “Go with Master Xavier.”
Beth’s heart was in her throat as she pushed herself up into a kneeling position. Keeping her head down, she waited for her orders, hoping, praying that it would be something dirty and sexy. Clearly Master Xavier remembered her from their one session. Maybe she wasn’t as forgettable as she felt.
“Stand up. Come with me.”
Ten minutes later Beth was positioned behind the barrel. Xavier had raised his sub’s head and shoulders so they were no longer lower than her heart. Beth was serving as a support—the other woman’s shoulders against her breasts, her bound arms looped around Beth’s neck.
It seemed that her destiny was to be either furniture or a prop. Biting hard on the inside of her lip, she was able to hold in the murky feelings bubbling inside her. With nothing better to do, she analyzed, finally deciding that the predominant emotion she had at the moment was frustration, followed shortly by boredom.
Being part of the scene, even tangentially, was certainly better than being a footrest. She now had a perfect view of the woman’s spread legs and the Dom who was currently licking her. Beth’s own body throbbed in response. For one insane moment she considered running her hand over the smooth white skin bound and displayed before her.
But she knew better. That wasn’t why Master Xavier had asked for her. Turning her gaze away to avoid temptation and stupid fantasies, her gaze landed on Master James.
Beth sucked in air. Master James looked like a movie star—not a grungy action star, but a classic clean-cut hero. Though he was wearing slacks and a simple button down shirt, he looked as elegant as other men looked in three-piece suits.
Master James was on the top of her wish list of play partners. She’d seen him sitting with subs on his lap, his style of domination a kind of causal yet intimate mastery—as if he had no doubt that he was in control and felt no need to make a show of it. She’d watched him kiss and pet his subs while in the common spaces, touches that seemed more like those of a lover than a Master.
And oh, she wanted that.
He smiled slightly and Beth blinked, then checked behind her, but there was no one there. Was he smiling at her?
His gaze dropped to her neck and the padlocked collar she wore. Golden-brown brows drew together and Master James looked away.
Beth lowered her gaze, her face warm—embarrassment the main cause, but there was another feeling in the mix, which she identified as shame. Luckily a moment later Master Xavier freed his sub’s legs and helped her off the barrel. Beth waited to see if she was still needed. When everyone turned away, focusing on other things now that Master Xavier’s scene was done, Beth dropped to her hands and knees and crawled back to her owner, wincing as Madame Cat plopped her feet into place.
Only five feet from where Beth knelt, a pretty blonde submissive was urged up onto a low ottoman. The girl had an open-style gag in her mouth, drool making her lower lip glisten. The Dom, who Beth recognized but whose name she couldn’t remember, had her lie on her side. Smooth black rope was wound around the sub’s limbs, creating wide cuffs that bound each wrist to the corresponding ankle, and knees to elbows. With her legs tucked up against her chest her ass and p*ssy