Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
“No need to borrow. Please accept this as a gift with my sincere best wishes for you and your Felicia,” he’d said.
It was the same shade as her eyes. I opened the box and lifted it out for her.
“It’s formal. Choose something formal that goes with this, if you can,” I said.
She looked at the collar for two beats and then shook herself free of what looked like a trance. She lifted her hair and tilted her throat and turned her back on me. I took a deep breath and then I fastened it around her slender and beautiful neck, resisting the odd urge to put my lips to her throat. She let her hair drop and then turned and looked at me, tears shining in her eyes. The dainty collar made her eyes stand out in a way that took my breath away for a second.
Seeing it on her neck stirred up emotions in me that I couldn’t describe even if I wanted to. It was a beautiful piece of jewelry, but what it stood for? Not beautiful. There was a sour taste in my mouth. As I backed away from her to head to the balcony for a smoke, her expression and posture both dropped.
In the banquet room I’d been invited to that night there was a table for twelve that was up on a platform three steps up. I didn’t know what sordid events were to take place but the whole thing set my teeth on edge. Felicia was on my arm in a little black strapless short cocktail dress and blue strapped high heels, toes and fingernails painted metallic blue with and her hair pinned up with curly tendrils cascading down. When we arrived, I saw that we were the last to arrive and that between each chair was a cushion. Most of the guests had a woman on her knees on the cushion beside them. One had a man as his slave. I fought back the rising rancid disgust in my gut at the entire scene.
Their cushions matched their collar colors. Some had leashes attached to their collars. Every one of them wore a collar of some sort. As I approached it, Felicia let go of my arm and let me step ahead and she went right to her knees on the satin royal blue pillow beside my chair, which was at the foot of the table. It was going to take a lot to hold my attitude in check tonight.
Gan Chen rose from the head of the table. “Welcome guests. Everyone, this is Dario, son of Tom, our dear departed friend and partner. This dinner is in honor of the loss of Tom.”
I clenched my teeth.
Everyone expressed welcomes and I got introductions. A few that sat close by offered their condolences for my loss. I hadn’t known the tone of the evening when invited to this dinner but what Chen said next gave me a sense of relief.
“In light of the occasion this will be a standard meal. We’re serving all of Tom’s favorites. For anyone looking for play, there will be play in the Townsend room after dessert, also in honor of Tom.”
I looked down at Felicia. She was kneeling on the cushion, face pure and sweet like an angel, her expression blank, revealing nothing about what she was thinking.
Thankfully, the meal was fairly uneventful. I had no idea if sex would happen in the room, if the servers would be nude. I had no clue at all what to expect but it was a lot like a formal business dinner like dozens I’d sat through at tables with people I didn’t like but with a big exception; slaves at the feet of the businessmen.
Two of the men at the table were partners, then there was Gan Chen, Rafe Ruiz, and several other club members. I had to follow suit and feed her from my fingers like the others. She accepted food graciously from my fingers without looking up at me. I made sure she ate more than I did. I noticed the other “masters” were not nearly as generous with their slaves.
I tolerated the meal as best as I could, trying to be cordial, but there were conversations that took place in there that had turned my brain upside down. And a few stories were told about my pop and things that had gone on while he was here that made me feel absolute disgust.
One older guy, probably around sixty, who was seated to my left, had looked down at Felicia with lust in his eyes and said, loud enough for the entire room to hear, “Sad to see her go. You’ll be very happy, son. Very.” He’d licked his lips but I cocked a brow at him in challenge and then he went red-faced. He’d had her. He’d fucked her and he was staring at what he wouldn’t have again with lust in his eyes. All of it was a true test of self-control for me.