10 Nights (2 page)

The new arrival, who
Leah immediately surmised was Janie's date, was handsome, she couldn't deny
that.

"And this must be
the elusive Leah," he said, holding out his hand and smiling, though only
after lifting Janie into his arms and twirling her around, before setting her
down with a kiss.

"Leah, this big
hunk is David, David, my best friend Leah." Wrapping her hand in his Janie
looked up at him adoringly.

Leah was stunned by the
depth of feeling in her friend's eyes; she'd never seen Janie look that way at
a man before. "It's nice to meet you, David."

"And you, Leah, I
feel like I know you personally, even though we've just met; Janie speaks about
you all the time." As if it wasn't something he did usually he laughed
when he shook her hand.

"Thanks, I
think," Leah said, raising an eyebrow in her friend's direction, wondering
what Janie had said about her, in her opinion she wasn't interesting enough to
talk about.

"Everyone else is
already down in the basement, but if you would like to eat first I'll stay with
you," David told Janie, the look on his face suggesting that she was the
most important thing in the world to him.

"Um, Leah, would
you mind if we grab something to eat after I introduce you?" Janie asked
nervously. That night amounted to a coming out party for her and she was more
than a little concerned. No one outside of those involved in it knew about her
secret life, not even her best friend, and she wasn't sure how Leah was going
to take what she had to say.

Seeing Janie so
nervous, and obviously embarrassed, was a first for Leah; her friend had never
been anything but confident and in control before, no matter where they had
been or what they were doing. "I'm really not that hungry," she said
finally. She had no idea what was going on, but it was clear that it was
something out of the ordinary.

"Okay, well what
I'm about to share with you is something I've been hiding for a long time."
Janie hesitated, biting her lip anxiously. "This is a big step for me,
letting you into this part of my life, but if you can't handle it, I'll
understand. Just say the word and I'll drive you straight home; I just hope
that it won't change our friendship."

Leah could see the
desperation in her friend's eyes and felt a moment's panic. What could be so
bad that Janie would worry about their friendship, she wondered. "Janie, I
love you, but I have to be honest, you're scaring the shit out of me right
now."

"I think you're
making things worse than they need to be, babe. Just take her downstairs; if
she freaks out, we'll take her home." David winked at Leah before turning
and holding out his hand to his date. Janie took his hand and David smiled.
"Just stay close behind us until we introduce you, Leah." With those
words he led off with Janie at his side, while Leah followed behind them, her
stomach tying itself in knots.

2

Open eyes

David opened the
basement door and ushered Janie inside, "Close the door behind you,
Leah." He smiled at her before wrapping his arm in Janie's and leading her
down the carpeted stairs. 

Leah nodded and walked
through the door, closing it behind her nervously.  As she descended the stairs
into the huge basement her eyes widened in surprise and trepidation; never in
her life had she seen anything like what was before her eyes.  She held her
breath as she took in everything.

There were close to
fifty people filling the huge space, all of them in a series of unimaginable
positions.  The furniture that graced the room was completely foreign to her,
as was the sight of people being whipped, or bound to strange objects.  She
felt her head grow light as she looked around at the sensual chaos, and had to
remind herself to take a breath.

"You okay,
Leah," Janie bit her lip, fearful that her friend was going to completely
freak out and run back up the stairs.

Nodding her head, Leah
took a few more deep breaths and tried to calm her racing heart.  It was pretty
obvious to her that Janie was involved in some really strange shit since she
brought her here, and she was trying to keep an open mind because she was her
friend.  Her mind was in shock, but what surprised her the most was the fact
that she wasn't completely repulsed by the sight before her.

Her hazel eyes turned
to a pair of women, one of whom was bound; her hands stretched high above her
head, while the other flogged her. The sounds of pleasure escaping the lips of
the woman being flogged sent a strange wave of heat through her body. That
surprised her more than the act she was witnessing.

"I told you you
were making more of this than you needed to." David smiled as he watched
Leah’s face, and the expressions that crossed it.  It was apparent to him that
she was enjoying the show. "Leah I'm going to ask you to wear this while
you're down here, so no one mistakes you for a submissive." He pulled a
sterling silver bracelet from his pocket and waited for her to give her
consent.

Reluctantly, Leah tore
her eyes from the couple and nodded, still too shocked to speak. She held her
hand out to David and he slid the cool metal onto her wrist. 

"If you feel like
joining in," he grinned widely, showing a perfect smile, "just take
it off."

"Um no, I think
I'll just watch," she whispered as her face flushed bright red.

David laughed deeply.
"Shame." He pulled Janie into his arms and whispered into her ear,
when he finished she walked away.

Leah was about to
follow, until David's voice stopped her. "Give her a few minutes, Leah,
she's going to change." He smiled at her again and held out his arm.

She took his arm,
feeling a little uncomfortable not having Janie with her, and he led her over
to a long leather couch. He motioned for her to sit and then joined her.
"Listen, Leah, this was a huge step for Janie, so I hope you're okay with
this."

"I love Janie like
a sister; I'm not sure about all this," she whispered softly, not wanting
to be heard by the other guests, "but if this is what she wants, I'll
support her."

"I'm glad she has
a friend like you then. Just one more thing; we don't talk about this
room."  His voice turned stern.  "I'm sure you understand that we all
have lives outside of what you see here. Janie assured me we could trust you,
and I trust her completely."

For reasons she didn't
understand, his change in tone made her nervous and she nodded quickly. 
"I promise I won't speak about it." She hated how the intensity in
his eyes made her voice shake.

"Good." He
smiled warmly, the earlier demanding tone gone from his voice. "Who knows,
maybe you'll discover it's something you'd like to try."

Leah’s eyes widened at
his comment and she shook her head quickly. The response made him laugh and she
blushed deeply again.  She clenched her hands tight in her lap and lowered her
eyes; she was in so far over her head she couldn’t see the surface anymore and
her heart was pounding painfully in her chest.

Janie returned then and
Leah was startled to see she was completely nude, except for a slim black
leather collar. Strangely enough, Leah had to admit her friend had never looked
more beautiful. Janie had always been gorgeous, with her long legs, beautiful
face and long, silky blonde, hair, but she appeared almost humble this way,
with a slight flush to her porcelain skin.  It suited her, Leah thought to
herself.

Janie knelt at David’s
feet, thrusting her breasts up proudly, a content smile on her face. "May
I speak, Master?" she whispered the question respectfully.

"Yes you can,
babe." David reached out a hand and lightly caressed her hair.

"Are we okay,
Leah?" Her eyes lifted to her friend’s, desperate for her to understand
that this what she needed.

"Janie, I could
never not love you." She smiled, fighting the blush that rose to her
cheeks at her friend’s position. "If this is what you truly want, then you
have my blessing."  She meant it, she thought to herself as she kept her
eyes on her friend’s face, not wanting to look at the body on display.

"This really means
a lot to me, Leah, I would never want to jeopardize our friendship, but it's
been very hard hiding the truth from you."  A relieved sigh left her lips;
it had taken her two years to get up the nerve to share her secret lifestyle
with her friend.

"Leah, I'd like to
play with my pet, if you're comfortable being here." David smiled and
glanced down at Janie with a heated glance.

"I'm fine."
Though she wouldn’t have admitted it if she had been asked, she was curious to
know what her friend did.

"Thank you."
David smiled and stood up. "If you get too overwhelmed, please feel free
to return to the buffet upstairs." He held out his hand to Janie and she stood
to follow him across the room.

Left to her own
devices, Leah glanced around the room through lowered lashes.  She had to bite
back a gasp as she noticed a couple on a strange looking bench.  The male
partner had the female bound by her hands and legs and was taking her
forcefully from behind.  She turned her eyes away quickly, feeling as if she
were invading their privacy.

All around her people
were engaged in sensual acts of pleasure and pain; the smells of sex and
leather were inescapable. She had no idea why, but she found herself getting
excited, and had to cross her legs to stop the strange feelings between her
thighs. Her eyes found David and Janie and she thought her heart would stop.

Janie was tied to what
looked like a cross, her beautiful body stretched taut as David lashed her back
forcefully with a strange whip made from dozens of thick leather straps. Leah couldn’t
take her eyes from the sight; her friend’s moans of pleasure had her body
tingling in ways she'd never known before. 

She'd always thought
Janie was beautiful, and even wondered about her own sexuality because of it,
since men didn’t turn her on. She and Janie had talked about it and she had
discovered her friend enjoyed both sexes. They’d never done anything but talk however;
Leah had been too scared of risking her friendship.

Feeling the strange
wetness between her legs she stood quickly and hurried for the stairs, needing
to get out of the room for a moment. She was in such a hurry she almost slammed
into the tall man walking down the stairs. "I'm sorry," she whispered
in embarrassment, raising her eyes to find herself looking into one of the most
beautiful faces she’d ever encountered.

"Leaving so soon,
princess." His dark blue eyes were filled with humor as he reached his
arms down to steady the slight girl before him. She looked barely old enough to
drink, much less be playing in his dungeon.

"I, I just need a
drink." Forcing her eyes away from his gorgeous face, Leah tried to catch
her breath. Holy sin, he was beautiful she thought, her eyes resting on his chest,
which was covered by a gray shirt that looked ready to burst at the seams.

A slight smirk appeared
on his face as he noticed her staring at his chest, and then his eyes lowered
to the bracelet on her wrist in disappointment. "You must be Janie's
friend." Too bad he thought, she would have been a nice diversion to a
stressful week.

Forcing her eyes back
to his face, she couldn't stop the shiver of awareness that moved through her.
The man was absolute perfection.  His dark wavy hair had her longing to run her
fingers through it; the impulse startled her. What she had witnessed was
screwing with her mind, she thought, surprised by the desire that struck her.
"Yes I am, and I really need to get out of here for a few minutes." 
Not meaning to be rude she swept by him and quickly walked up the stairs,
pushing through the door.

She couldn't breathe,
and the last thing she wanted was to hurt Janie's feelings. Her heart was
racing and her body was feeling things that made no sense to her; for reasons
she couldn’t explain she felt like crying. Finding her way to the buffet she
opened one of the bottles of champagne and filled a glass to the rim; she
wasn’t normally a drinker, but just then she felt a powerful need for alcohol.
She hoped it would calm her down and help her to make sense of things.

She took a deep gulp of
the bubbly liquid and coughed as it went down too quickly, choking her. What
was wrong with her, she wondered miserably. It wasn’t exactly a normal day for
her, but she was a sensible woman, not a child, and there was no reason for her
to freak out because she got turned on watching people being beaten. Fighting
mentally with herself, she took another big gulp of the champagne.

"Are you
okay?" The girl wasn't part of his world, and it was clear she had been
upset by what she'd seen. He had warned David that bringing someone like her
into their world was not a good idea.

Leah jumped and spilled
the glass of champagne down the front of her dress. Grabbing a cloth napkin,
she blotted away the dampness as tears fell from her eyes.  "I'm
fine." Now she was acting like a blubbering idiot, on top of obviously
being a sex fiend who was turned on by the scenes downstairs.

“Calm down, sweetheart."
Without even knowing why he did it, he walked over and pulled the girl's small
form into his arms. She stiffened and he was about to let her go when she
wrapped her arms around him and held on tight, sobbing.

For the first time in
his life, Rhett was at a loss as to what to do. The only thing he could think
of was to hold her against his chest until her sobs subsided. 

What was she doing? She
felt horrified with her actions as she pushed out of the stranger's arms. 
"I'm s-sorry," she whimpered pitifully, having no idea what had come
over her. He smelled so good and she was surprised to find she wanted to throw
herself back into his arms, even as her face burned in embarrassment. 

Looking down at her
petite form he found himself thinking she looked like a doll, despite the tears
that filled her beautiful eyes. She was definitely a beauty he thought. 
"Mind telling me what's wrong? Maybe I can help."  He smiled in an
effort to lighten her mood; a crying woman that wasn't kneeling at his feet was
something he had little experience with.

When he smiled, she
felt as though the breath had been knocked from her body and she trembled in
awareness.  "I, um, well." She was so embarrassed that she couldn't
form a coherent thought, let alone express it. It didn't help that he was
drop-dead gorgeous. She parted her lips to try and speak, but all that escaped
was a sigh of longing.

He chuckled deeply,
surprised to feel his cock twitch as she stared at him like something she
wanted to devour. He was a man, but women didn’t normally turn him on unless
they were kneeling and calling him master. "Sweetheart, if you keep
looking at me like that, this conversation is going to take place in my
bedroom."

"I, I was- wasn't
looking at…" Her cheeks burned even hotter, if that was possible, and she
covered her face with her hands. Could the humiliation get any worse, she
thought to herself? After twenty-four years she had finally found a man
desirable, and she was making a complete idiot of herself. 

"Hey, none of
that." With another chuckle he reached up and pulled her hands from her
face. "I'm flattered, sweetheart." She stared up at him, and it was
easy for him to see that he made her nervous. That was a big turn on, but he
knew from David that this girl was pretty vanilla, unless she'd been hiding
secrets of her own from her friend; he hoped like hell that was the case.

"So what did you
think of my dungeon?" He had to know the answer. As sexy as she was, if
she neither played in his world nor had any interest in it he wouldn't pursue
things any further.

"You're
Rh-Rhett." Leah groaned softly, realizing she had not only made a fool of
herself, but she had done so in front of the house's owner. She was out of her
element with a man in the first place, but a man like him, there was no way she
could even think about him in a romantic way.