After he was done, she slipped her phone number into his pocket.
Jesus. She was young enough to have been his daughter if he’d ever had one.
He spanked a trans woman, then a gay lad, and two more women. The next—a masochist—asked about joining. Ghost pointed her toward the table set up near the front and then frowned.
Wrecker should have been there to handle applications and answer questions. Instead, there were a few scattered forms on a table. And no manager.
Lazy bastard.
Ghost rubbed his chin, realizing he hadn’t been contacted last month to teach classes or do demonstrations. Who was doing the educational work Z considered so important?
Which made him wonder… If Z hadn’t arranged this event last fall with the Masters to staff it, would the open house have even happened?
As the masochist left, Ghost noticed a couple of women who looked familiar, one with eye-catching red and purple hair? Was her name Queenie? He’d seen her at the few faculty receptions he’d been unable to avoid.
The other woman was a lush blonde around his age—the same one he’d saved from a fall the other day.
She’d been so appealingly soft.
She had a fascinating face—pointed chin, laugh lines on each side of her mouth, and a slightly upturned nose. Her blue eyes were a shade lighter than true navy and gorgeous.
He wouldn’t remind her of their meeting, though. BDSM courtesy meant the vanilla world remained outside the club—and what happened inside stayed inside. So, he simply asked, “Who’s next?”
Standing beside Queenie, Valerie still couldn’t get over the shock. It was the professor—the man she’d bumped into at the Vietnamese restaurant.
And he was administering the spankings.
She and Queenie had been moving around the room. They’d experienced hot wax on their forearms, a lightweight flogging, much like a tapping massage, a scratchy vampire glove, a stinging cane. They’d been headed for the cropping demo when Queenie spotted the professor.
A chime rang through the room and a voice announced, “The club will close to visitors in twenty minutes.”
“Oh no. I wanted to try being a puppy.” Queenie gazed yearningly toward the back.
“We can always come back some other time on the guest pass.” The guard had handed them each a FREE NIGHT ticket for use in the future.
“I don’t know if I’d ever come back, so I need to try this now.” Queenie patted Valerie’s arm. “Meet you at the front in twenty minutes.”
“B-but…” Valerie’s mouth dropped open as Queenie hurried toward the smaller rooms. “Well, honestly.”
With a sinking feeling, she turned toward the scene area.
Yes, the professor was watching, a smile quirked on his firm lips. “Abandoned?”
“So, it seems.” She took a step back.
He studied her for a moment. “You were in the line. Did you not want to be spanked?”
“I…uh…” She could feel telltale heat rise into her face.
Because the professor was a hot guy, Queenie had decided they’d join this line.
Valerie hadn’t protested too much, because the two times Barry had spanked her, she’d loved it. The thought of getting that pain again, of feeling those sensations was…
But how could she get a spanking from someone who was basically a colleague? And now, Queenie had left.
Gods help her, she really did want to try it again.
The professor’s sharp gaze caught hers. A blind man would have been able to read her desire, and this man, no, this Dom, was far from blind.
His lips curved. “Well then. Come here.”
Her whole body yearned to do just that.
Her head said, no, absolutely not.
And her feet moved her forward.
“Brave lass.” He took her hand, pulling her down and over his knees, and she didn’t try to resist.
“Ah, you’re a comfortable size for me, aren’t you?” he murmured, the gruff rasp of his voice almost palpable against her skin.
His muscular thighs were under her belly—and a second later, his hands closed around her waist, and he shifted her, so her butt tilted up.
Fingers spread, she braced her hands on the floor with her feet on the other side of his legs.
His hand caressed her denim-clad bottom, and she tensed. “Easy, lass. I simply need to ensure I won’t hit a cell phone or wallet and to see how much padding you have over those bones.”
“More than enough,” she said under her breath. She’d seen the young things he’d had in his line earlier. What must he—
“Just the right amount in my opinion. It’s no fun when a good smack might fracture a bone.”
Oh…to think a big ass had advantages. The approval in his voice was obvious, and she relaxed.
He liked her butt.
He slapped her bottom lightly several times as he talked. “Since there’s no one waiting, I’m going to take my time. Do you have a name you like to be called?”
“Valerie is fine.”
“Valerie, it is. Now, tell me on a scale of 1-to-10, where ten is excruciating and one is barely there, how much does this hurt?” He slapped her harder.
A bare sting. “Two.”
“Mmm, you’re going to be delightful.” He delivered three more powerful spanks.
Her blood started to hum.
“Number?”
“Five.”
“Very good, we’ll stay with this for a while and see how you like the burn.” He started smacking her, strong, even blows, one cheek, then the other, then several in one spot.
The sting of each radiated out, through her whole body. Rousing everything inside her and heating her blood.
Unlike the flogging, this wasn’t impersonal; in fact, when he stopped and rubbed her bottom, it was the furthest thing from impersonal. She was lying across his legs; his bare hand was on her ass.
And she was growing aroused.
Could he tell? Face flaming, she tried to push up.
“No, pet. There’s no shame here in the Shadowlands,” he said. “Actually, we’re much alike. Giving pain to a willing recipient makes me hard—and receiving pain excites you.”
His hand in the center of her back held her down. “You’re in a place that celebrates this kind of kink, so you’re going to relax and enjoy it.”
At the firm command, everything inside her melted into a total puddle of goo.
“Very good.” His chuckle was low and deep. “Say ‘stop’ if you truly want to quit; otherwise, I’m going to hold you here and give us both what we want.”
His left hand kept her still against his legs as he increased the impact of his right, although the blows stayed even. He paused long enough for each burst of pain to transform to simmering need.
Pleasure took her over, roaring through her, filling all the pockets of need that had existed for so, so long.
He halted. “Number, Valerie?”
“Seven, a marvelous seven.”
His laugh was deep and wonderful. “I’d have to agree. Hang on, then, pet.”
As if she could go anywhere.
The firm control he had over her body, the authority in his voice was like turning up the heat under a pot of water. Her blood was starting to boil…with need.