Aching to Submit Read Free Page B

tried?
    “Why are you here? Do you know what you’re looking for?” he asked.
    She searched his face, feeling her own crumple, wishing she was better at hiding her emotions. She picked up her glass and looked at her bare ring finger. She touched the place with her thumb, losing that little bit of confidence she’d mustered up to walk in the door in the first place.
    “I’ve never done anything like this and…” Her eyes filled with tears, but she forced them back. What was she doing? How far was she willing to go? “I’m sorry, I don’t know how to answer you.”
    He put a hand on hers and squeezed for a moment. “Look at me,” he said.
    She smiled a nervous smile, but it faded quickly when she looked at him.
    “No shame. I won’t judge you and I’ve stood in your shoes once,” he said. “You don’t have to do or say anything you’re not comfortable with and you don’t have to feel any obligation to me.” He stopped after that point.
    She understood and nodded, grateful.
    “Would you like a tour of the place?” he asked.
    “Yes, please,” she answered, relieved.
    He stood and she followed. “L’Opera has been here for three years,” he began. “It’s my baby, I suppose. I wanted a safe place that offered something different, something more specific than many other clubs in Amsterdam at least. This is the main area. It’s open, as you can see, so any play that’s done here is public.”
    “What do you mean by specific?” she asked, although she had an idea. Her eyes scanned the scene around her: some people sitting at tables talking, some wrapped in soft blankets drinking from bottles of water as they were held, others in the middle of play. As she took it all in, she thought she might understand what he meant by specific.
    “L’Opera is what I’d call a boutique BDSM club. It’s small, first of all, and it will remain small. Most of the members are more like family to each other and that’s my goal, to create a community—an accepting, open community. As you probably know, everyone’s kink is unique. L’Opera caters to couples mostly. Couples where the male is the dominant partner and the female, the submissive.”
    “Which explains the dress, or lack thereof, of the female half of your… guests.”
    “Exactly.”
    “But if you allow only couples in, committed couples, why did you let me in?”
    “People who end up here have been around the scene for some time and they’re searching for a safe place to play and meet others without the… random taste-tester off the street who has read Fifty Shades of Grey and thinks this is it.”
    Her eyes once again scanned the room.
    “Everything that’s done here is done with consent,” he said, watching her.
    “I understand that. It’s just so… unreal.”
    “Here it’s very real. But to finish answering your question as to why we let you in, you apparently didn’t strike John, the man at the door, as random.”
    “Oh,” was all she could say. So maybe he’d noticed her circling the block after all; she’d just been unaware of it.
    “A submissive who is as new to this, as you obviously are, and is searching. I would not leave her to navigate this road alone. You have to take care, always, Sophie. You’re a beautiful woman. You have to find your right partner—if you decide that is truly what you’re looking for.”
    She had no words, once again feeling duplicitous.
    “Let’s go upstairs,” he said, again guiding her with a hand at her back. “The private rooms are there.”
    “What happens in the private rooms?”
    “Anything the participants want.” He unlocked a door that opened to a staircase. “Only my security guards and I have a key to this floor. You’ll see why in a minute.”
    Sophie climbed the steep, circling iron stairs with Kyan close at her back. She stepped onto the landing to find the corridor completely silent and she turned to Kyan, unsure what to do. There were six doors that led off the