Page 95 of Masters of Secrets

As much as she liked making plans, sometimes she couldn’t jump ahead too far into the future.

One step at a time.

That meant offering to give him a chance to try things tonight, then seeing where that led. Maybe nowhere. Maybe somewhere interesting. She needed to squash the impulse to try to travel all the paths before she even knew which way he would leap.

He might not even take her up on this offer.

In fact, for a moment, she thought he wouldn’t. He hesitated, unsure, despite the hunger in his eyes… then he nodded.

“Good.” Julie scooted a little closer to him, her voice going a little lower. This time, rather than putting her hand in his, she put her hand on his thigh. Felt his tension ratchet up as he sucked in a breath, as if he hadn’t been expecting it.

Rather than trying to jump into the future, attempting to figure out what could happen after tonight, her brain finally got into gear, trying to decide exactly how she wanted this evening to go.

Connor

Would he like to try?

Yes. Absolutely. That was what he’d really wanted to ask for but hadn’t been able to bring himself to. He hadn’t wanted her to feel pressured. Or obligated. Though so far, she seemed like she was… interested? Maybe not as interested in him as he was in her. After all, he’d been sending her gifts for the past year.

Maybe she felt like she owed him for that.

He was struggling with her easy acceptance that he wanted to submit. Shouldn’t she be… angry? Disappointed?

He didn’t know.

Her acceptance left him breathless and feeling vulnerable, as well as excited. His cock was definitely excited. The second she touched him, all the blood in his body rushed straight to his groin and made his pants extremely uncomfortable. Yet he liked it. That was one of the things he’d liked the most about watching her scenes—the hard-on that he would get that he couldn’t do anything about while he watched.

Then he’d do a little self-torture by not getting off until he got home and could close his eyes, imagining himself as her sub, with her low, sultry voice telling him to cum for her.

Yeah, he fucking wanted to try.

When Annette appeared at the other side of the table with their cake, he also felt like scrunching down and hiding. Not that he could. He’d always been too big for that, no matter how hard he’d tried. He’d had horrible back pain in high school from making the attempt to be smaller. Now, he always stood tall for the sake of his spine and muscles, but right now, he wished he could.

She didn’t seem to see anything wrong, though, which set him at some ease. Julie’s hand still felt like a brand on his thigh, but if Annette realized Julie was touching him, she didn’t show any sign of it.

“Here you go, enjoy! You’ve got about five minutes before the show starts.” She smiled serenely. “Do you want to leave the curtains open?”

“Draw the sheers, please,” Julie said. It was a request, but it was also an order, and it made both his heart and his cock jump.

Once all the lights went down for the show, the sheers would make it nearly impossible to see into the booth. It could mean nothing other than they didn’t want to be seen by those on stage or that they wanted a little extra privacy to be unobserved. A lot of people used the sheers without doing anything extracurricular behind them.

It also opened up a lot of opportunities, especially for someone who was feeling uncertain. Someone who was going against everything everyone thought of him and trying something new. Someone who didn’t want to be observed while they explored the other side of kink.

“Sure thing.” Annette was cheerful as she drew the sheers and moved on to the next table.

Once the curtains dropped, their view of the stage became a little fuzzier, but they could still see clearly through them, at least that far. The booths on the other side of the room were almost completely obscured, though. Julie gave his thigh another little squeeze when he started to reach for the fork.

“Stop. Put your hands on the table, palms down flat.” Her voice was still low, meant for his ears only, but the short order made his pulse race. His cock pushed against the front of his leathers, as if it was trying to break free.

Connor put his hands on the table, spreading his fingers out, his breath coming a little faster as he obeyed. Knowing exactly where to put his hands, knowing exactly what she wanted him to do… it felt like relief.

“Good boy,” she murmured, reaching out with her other hand to pick up the fork. His balls tightened.

Fuck, he liked that. Almost too much. He’d fantasized about her calling him ‘good boy,’ but it was so much better in reality.

Scooping up a forkful of chocolate cake, she lifted it to his lips, and Connor froze, nearly going cross-eyed as he tried to stare at it.

“Open,” she ordered, and he did, even though it felt weird. Not wrong, just… weird. He’d always imagined him serving her, not the other way around, but if this was what she wanted…