******
Iris
Hello again, consequences of my own actions… how I loathe thee.
Slumped
in the chair in front of Master Patrick’s desk, arms crossed over her
chest, Iris felt like she was in high school, sitting in the principal’s
office all over again. She’d spent an awful lot of time there as a
teenager, and she didn’t like it any better now that she was an adult.
Schoolgirl role play was probably never going to be her fantasy for that
reason alone.
Though,
the fact that she had absolutely no attraction to Master Patrick might
have something to do with it. But she did have an absolutely unwanted
attraction for the man standing next to him, scowling like he was her
11th grade history teacher and she’d just thrown a spitball at him. Why
she found Master Law so hot when he could be such an uptight prick, she
had no idea, but he made her tingle in all the right places even when he
was lecturing her.
And man, did he lecture her a lot.
Which
was also her own fault, since she’d been volun-told to be a submissive
for the Dominance 101 class. It was supposed to remind her of all the
things she’d learned in her Subbie 101 class. The upside was she’d met
some new friends. The downside was that she’d been reminded on a weekly
basis just how attracted she was to Master Law, who only noticed her
when she was acting up. Though, that did seem to be her lot in life… men
who only cared about her behavior when she wasn’t behaving.
“Iris,
I thought we talked about this.” Master Patrick – she made the point of
thinking about him with his honorific when she was at Stronghold, and
not as her big brother’s friend Patrick – ran his hand over his bald
head, rubbing the back the way he did when he was extra annoyed but
trying to be calm. “You cannot interrupt people’s scenes, even if you
don’t like what’s going on in them.”
“I’m
sorry,” she muttered. She really was sorry, this time. The Dom hadn’t
deserved the way she’d yelled at him. Humiliation kink was not her
thing, but she shouldn’t have interrupted the scene. She got it. And she
really hated having to have it rubbed in her face that she’d done the
wrong thing with the best of intentions.
Again.
She
was never going to like humiliation kink, but next time she’d remember
to look and make sure the submissive really wasn’t okay with it before
she jumped in. Probably.
“If
you were anyone else, we’d be having a discussion about kicking you out
right now.” Master Patrick’s gaze met hers and Iris sat up straight in
her chair. He wouldn’t… would he? “The fact is, I have been far too
lenient with you because you’re Andrew’s little sister.”
“You aren’t going to actually kick me out, are you?” she asked worriedly, and she saw his gaze soften.
Others
might look at the kink club owner and find him intimidating –
considering he was well over six feet tall and built like a linebacker,
plus the scar that ran down his face thanks to a childhood incident
involving his best friend and some swords – but Iris knew he was a teddy
bear. It didn’t hurt that his submissive, Lexie, had a soft spot for
Iris, but Lexie wasn’t here right now and she couldn’t help but wonder
if that was deliberate.
Behind
Patrick’s chair, Master Law shifted his stance slightly, but she didn’t
look at him. If she saw hope on his face it was going to crush her. It
wasn’t that Iris wanted to be bad or that she didn’t want to be liked,
it was just something that kept happening. And Mr. Burly, Brooding, and
Hot really got under her skin.
“I’m
not kicking you out,” Patrick said, and Iris sagged back down with
relief. Patrick raised his eyebrow at her. “But you’re running close to
your last chance, no matter who your brother is.”
Yeah,
that was bullshit and they both knew it. Andrew would throw a fit if
she was kicked out and ended up going to some of the other local clubs,
where he wouldn’t know whether or not she was safe. For that matter, she
was pretty sure Lexie would throw a fit.
But
the fact that he was willing to say it meant he was down to his last
nerve with her, and the last thing she wanted to do was cause an issue
between her brother and one of his friends. Andrew already thought she
was a fuckup of massive proportions, no matter how hard she’d tried to
clean up her act, she didn’t need to give him more ammunition.
“Okay, so what now?” she asked, pressing her fingers together nervously in her lap.
Master
Patrick leaned forward, holding eye contact with her. His dark face was
serious, without a hint of humor or his hidden teddy bear interior. If
he wanted to make her nervous, he was doing a good job.
“You’re
going to spend the next month as a server at Stronghold. For free. You
will not be allowed to scene. While you are there, you will spend one
hour of every shift watching scenes in the Dungeon and taking notes on
what is happening in the scene and how the submissive is reacting. Not
how you are reacting, how the submissive is.” Master Patrick’s lip quirked slightly when she made a face, but she didn’t protest.
The ‘punishment’ was more than fair, and it fit the crime, as it was.
If
Iris had paid more attention to how the submissive was reacting to the
name calling from her Dom, rather than just hearing the words and seeing
tears, she might not have jumped in. Because the submissive had been
way more embarrassed by Iris interrupting the scene than she had been by
being insulted.
“Yes, Sir,” she said, nodding.
“You
will not interrupt any more scenes. If you do see a submissive in
distress, you will get a Dungeon Monitor. And you will listen to and
respect all of the dominants in the club.” There wasn’t any discernible
change in Master Patrick’s voice or his demeanor, but suddenly he was
very much Master Patrick and Iris felt herself sitting up straighter without thinking about it. Some Doms could have that effect.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Now
get out while I have a discussion with Master Law.” Patrick waved his
hand at her, the switch flipping back off again as soon as it had
flipped on.
“Thank
you, Sir.” Iris bounced to her feet and booked it to the door before he
could change his mind. Unfortunately, she wasn’t fast enough to outrun
the sound of Master Law’s furious exclamation as the door to Patrick’s
office started to swing shut.
“Are you serious, Patrick? That girl is nothing but trouble.”
Iris
winced, pressing her lips together against the emotion that suddenly
welled in her chest. It wasn’t like the first time she’d heard someone
say that. It wasn’t even the hundredth.
So why did it hurt so much more to hear Master Law say it?
Her mood, which had been a lot lighter after she realized Patrick wasn’t going to kick her out or go to her brother, plummeted.
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