Nicole Edwards - Perception

He fully intended to clamp her nipples as punishment for putting him through this. He remembered how much she’d enjoyed both the pleasure and the pain the last time he’d done it.

His dick throbbed at the memory.

Fuck, could they just get on with this?

He wanted out of these fucking restraints. Out of this fucking room. He’d much prefer somewhere that they could be alone, and he could get Mercedes naked and beneath him.

Going forward, he was not going to take his eyes off of her. He couldn’t. And if he couldn’t admire her naked, he’d soothe himself with an eyeful of her glorious ass encased in that sinfully short leather mini-skirt. If she bent just right, he’d get a nice glimpse of her smooth cunt because he knew she wasn’t wearing panties either.

“Show us, Clarissa.” Mercedes’s tone sharpened as she took a step closer to Clarissa, who was kneeling on the floor at Xander’s feet.

Xander forced his eyes to Clarissa, wondering if this was the moment she would safe word out. For the first time in his life, he wished like hell a sub would use their safe word.

Please use your fucking safe word.

But no, that’s not what happened because life was just that cruel sometimes. Rather than calling out whatever goddamn flower she had used as her safe word, Clarissa dipped her hand down between her legs and pulled back two fingers glistening with her juices.

“Lick your fingers clean.”

Xander glanced out into the club, watching Trent. The man was watching Clarissa, his tongue damn near hanging out of his mouth.

Fuck, maybe Trent would interrupt the scene. The man seemed to have a hard on for Clarissa. If they were all lucky, maybe the arrogant actor would waltz right in and claim the damsel in distress as his own, just like they did in the movies. If he didn’t, Xander wasn’t sure he was going to survive this scene.

In all honesty, it wasn’t going anything like he expected. Well, aside from him being tied up and naked. That was something he would expect from Mercedes. But she wasn’t focused on him. Somewhere along the way, she’d made this about Clarissa.

Was she scared?

Knowing she would never admit to it, Xander forced the question away, looking back down at Clarissa kneeling in front of him. She was using her tongue to clean her fingers had Xander looked up at Shane, noticing the man was on the verge of swallowing his own tongue.

Oh, fuck. That wasn’t going to end well. Trent, Clarissa and Shane.

Right.

“Very nice.” Mercedes’s voice echoed in the small room. “Now I want to watch you suck X’s big, beautiful cock,” Mercedes told Clarissa.

Fuck no. No, no, no. This was not going to happen.

Mercedes turned away and retrieved something from the counter behind her. When she came back, she handed a foil packet to Clarissa.

“Put this on him,” she instructed. “I think you’ll like this one. It tastes like grapes.”

At least Mercedes had the good sense to remember protection.

Oh, fuck. Please let her use her safe word.

Clarissa reached for the condom, but her hands were no longer trembling, they were shaking like a leaf in hurricane force winds. As soon as she plucked the condom from Mercedes’s long, slender fingers, Clarissa dropped it on the floor.

Clarissa reached for it, her eyes darting up to Xander and then Mercedes and back once again. He wanted to shake his head, to encourage her not to go through with it. Before he had the option, the end of the riding crop came up to rest beneath his chin, and Xander lifted his eyes to meet Mercedes’s glowing gray gaze.

“I want you to watch the pretty little sub’s mouth wrapped around your cock.”

The only sound that could be heard was Clarissa’s rapid gasps and the rustle of Shane’s clothing as he moved somewhere in the background.

Xander stared back at Mercedes, praying like hell she’d realize just what was going on here, stop before the damage could be undone. Or maybe that’s what she wanted. Maybe she wanted Xander to be with Clarissa so that she could use it against him.

He saw the battle in her eyes, saw that she was just as tormented as he felt, but she wasn’t going to cave. She was trying to prove something here, but fuck it all. He didn’t give a good goddamn about proving anything.

Not when it came to his love for Mercedes.

The instant she looked away, Xander said, “Red.”

Her eyes darted up to meet his.

“What did you say?”

“Red.” There was absolutely no mistaking the fact that he was using his safe word.

He saw the relief that flooded her face before she quickly masked it, doing her best to cover it up with something else. But no matter what she wanted him to believe, Xander knew the truth.

Xander didn’t see Shane move, but he noticed Clarissa getting to her feet. He looked up at his friend just in time to see the realization on Shane’s face.

Yeah, I went there , he thought to himself. I fucking love her.

Xander was pretty sure Shane knew everything he was feeling.

Without a sound, Shane helped Clarissa slip back into her dress, and the two of them disappeared out of the room.

When the door closed behind them, Mercedes moved over to the wall. She hit a button that released the chains and then another that flipped the glass from clear to opaque, sealing them somewhat from prying eyes. It wasn’t until she hit the button to turn off the microphones that she finally spoke.

“Why?”

“Why what?” he asked, pretending to be oblivious to what she was referring to.

“Why did you use your safe word?”

Xander didn’t answer immediately. He waited for her to come over to release him from the chains that still restrained his arms and legs.

He wasn’t about to make the biggest admission of his life while he was in a fucking playroom at the club, chained to the wall. Knowing that Mercedes would likely flee the room and leave him there, he decided to wait.

She must’ve realized it too.

~~**~~**~~

Mercedes was barely breathing. There was a roaring in her ears that had nothing to do with anger and everything to do with relief.

Xander had used his safe word.

Because of her.

For the last few minutes, Mercedes had been praying Clarissa would safe word. Wishing like hell the nervous little sub would save them all from themselves.

But she hadn’t, and Mercedes had been terrified of going any further. She didn’t want Clarissa touching Xander. Didn’t want to watch anyone touching him.

For some unknown reason, her scene had taken a drastic turn somewhere along the way, and it had been all her fault. But right then and there, the scene was the last thing she worried about. She didn’t care that Clarissa and Shane would likely think of her as a failure. She didn’t care that half of the club would think that either.

At this point, the only thing she wanted to do was to come with Xander’s cock lodged deep inside of her. To feel him against her. Anything to get Xander’s hands on her, even if it meant handing over the control to him. He had effectively destroyed her defenses, making her lose her touch, but she really didn’t care. Not right then at least.

Unable to hold back any longer, Mercedes moved to release Xander from his restraints. Neither of them said a word, but the nonverbal communication between them was loud and clear.

The look in Xander’s eyes stole the oxygen from her lungs.

For the last half hour, she’d wanted nothing more than to abandon the scene. It was selfish to put her own needs above everyone else’s, but for the life of her, she couldn’t go through with it.

Even now, she knew Xander would be more than happy to take over from there because he was a Dom, and she was… an imposter.