The lion tugged on the cuffs, as if to check they would hold no matter how much someone struggled.Franklin swallowed.His palms turned slick with sweat.
“You’re sure this is what you want?”Cameron suddenly asked, turning back to face him.
Franklin met Cameron’s eyes for a second.There was at least part of Cameron that wanted it, too.He could see it in his expression—at least part of Cameron knew he deserved it.
“Yes.”
Cameron nodded.
Franklin couldn’t claim to be any sort of expert on being whipped, but he was pretty sure the punishment was generally conducted on bare skin.He reached for the hem of his T-shirt and pulled it up over his head.
If he had his way, that would have been enough.Being naked for a pride meeting where everyone else was naked was one thing.Being stripped down for a punishment would be nothing short of humiliating.But, Franklin reminded himself again, he wasn’t supposed to enjoy it.
He reached for the buckle on his belt.
“No.”
Franklin hesitated.
“It’s your back he’ll be whipping.That’s the only part of you he needs to see.”
All Franklin could do then was try not to look too relieved, or too flattered by the spike of jealousy in Cameron’s voice, as he stepped forward and offered his wrists up to the cuffs with all the confidence he could muster.
Cameron buckled them in place.A moment later, he stroked his fingertips down Franklin’s back very gently, inspecting the skin that was about to feel the full force of the punishment.
Franklin dragged a deep breath into his lungs as he looked up at his bound wrists.The only important thing now was for him not to screw this up.He just had to stand there and take his punishment.He just had to accept a little bit of the pain he’d been so quick to dish out to others without a thought.
He might never have picked up a whip in his life, but he’d still hurt people; he couldn’t ignore that fact any longer.He closed his eyes, and the memory of the pain in Cameron’s eyes came flooding back to him.
He sensed Cameron move to stand behind him, then step closer.Cameron’s hair trailed against the side of Franklin’s face, his shirt brushed across his back, and all Franklin wanted, more than anything in the world, was to turn around, to offer his mouth up to his master, and to feel his kiss against his lips.
Keeping his head bowed, Franklin stayed perfectly still.He had no right to ask for something like that.
A creak of the door hinges soon informed him that he and his master were no longer alone.Franklin swallowed down any inclination to protest at anyone else being present for this.
Cameron stepped away from him, and Franklin closed his eyes tighter than ever.He never remembered feeling so alone in his life, and the more footsteps he heard bringing other men into the room only made him feel more lost, more isolated than ever.
He felt…probably much the same as Cameron had up on that stage.
Words were spoken behind him, but he couldn’t focus on them.In his mind, he was back at the club, but he wasn’t staring up at the stage, his attention was on the audience, watching them as they all stared up at Cameron.
His stomach turned over as he tried to switch his point of focus, to imagine instead what it was like to be the man who was up there on the stage, knowing that at the end of the dance, one of the men watching him would want to—
“Franklin?”
Jerked out of his thoughts, Franklin opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on the dustsheets covering the bed.“Yes?”
“Are you ready for the punishment?”Cameron’s tone made it obvious that it wasn’t the first time he’d had to ask the question.
“Yes.”It was the only word it felt safe for him to say any more.
The room fell silent.
Franklin continued to stare fixedly at the dustsheet on the bed, not even allowing himself to glance over his shoulder.He received no further warning before the whip struck his back for the first time.The air rushed out of his lungs.A cry escaped with it as his body jerked and he pulled at the cuffs binding him to the bed frame.
Pain flared all the way across his back, harsher and more intense than anything he’d ever known.The strength rushed from Franklin’s legs, and suddenly, he knew why he’d had to be bound.It wasn’t about control.There was simply no way in hell he’d have stayed on his feet if he hadn’t been.
Franklin’s mind was still reeling from the first blow when the whip came down on him again.Sweat broke out on his skin.Franklin ground his teeth together to keep back a cry.The only sound that left him was a pain-filled groan.
