The one thing they all had in common was a vulnerability that was entirely nonthreatening. They would do her bidding without hesitation, while a man who was any gentleman would hesitate to do anything to thwart them.

She nodded to Janet. “Take him into the bath chamber. I want all his clothes removed. Chain him there and oil his body. I'll handle any other preparations.”

From the wry resignation laced with a tad of desperation in his face, she saw he understood how well she'd outplayed him. So she spoke in a quiet, almost gentle tone. “They'll obey me without question, Gideon, so don't resist. I'm trusting you not to harm them. Is my trust misplaced?” He shook his head, a sigh lifting and dropping his wide shoulders. She nodded. “Then I'll join you shortly.”

When Janet took one of his hands, Ella the other, he stared down at their fingers, holding his scarred, strong ones. The women, irresistible nymphs, smiled at him. Janet emitted a sudden, playful trill of laughter, a girl's giggle, and then they were tugging him along, headed for the bath.

When he was out of view, Anwyn's own shoulders drew back at last, trying to relieve her discomfort.

Pressing another button, she moved stiffly through the narrow staff exit and into an antechamber that paid staff could use to give themselves a break, while allowing them to still view the room, unseen. Madelyn was already there with the first aid kit.

“Well, that was exciting,” she said dryly. “You've lost your mind, haven't you?” Anwyn grimaced, pulled her long hair forward and presented her back to the other Domme so she could examine the glass shard lodged in the tender flesh inside her shoulder blade. “Damn, I loved that angel,” she grumbled. “It was an original, too. Don't fuss, Maddie. It hasn't hit anything vital. Just pull it out straight, clean the wound, put some adhesive over it and I'm good to go. I'll change tops so it won't distract him. I'm lucky he was too worked up to notice it. He has a protective streak.”

“Yeah, I noticed how he carried you over to the chair like you were a porcelain doll. After he nearly impaled you.” Maddie shook her head, withdrew the shard with a firm but constant pressure that gave her the minimum amount of pain, though Anwyn still sucked in a breath. “You amaze me, how you figure out the tough ones like that. Be careful, though. You're nowhere near home free with that monster. You wouldn't have caught me giving him free sessions. I'd charge him double.”

“Sometimes it's about more than that.”

Being a Mistress had long ago become an art form to her, but as the club's owner, she picked up the brush only if she felt the canvas was specifically for her, too intriguing to pass up. This underground level was as much an extension of her nature as it was to cater to the hard-core needs of others. It was successful because she understood the need to reach that savage cutting edge, where civility and rules didn't apply.

When she was in this kind of mind zone, her staff knew she didn't have patience for explaining what she was doing or why, so Maddie had subsided. While she worked, Anwyn tilted her head to watch the monitor, which showed the fully tiled bath chamber. Eye bolts for chains or ropes were embedded in a variety of positions, some on tracks that could be locked or adjusted. Jets activated from all angles, and there were multiple detachable showerheads. Next to it was a deep hot tub that could be used as a dunking area, if sensory deprivation was preferred.

Ella had guided him to sit on the wall of the tub so Janet could remove his boots. She straddled his legs one at a time, her ample rear within touching distance, the pink, glistening folds of an aroused and lubricated pussy visible, an additional aesthetic pleasure as her buttocks tightened to remove the boot.

When she shifted to remove the other, Gideon's fingers brushed her backside. Anwyn suppressed a smile as he snatched his fingers back. She knew better than to assume he'd realized he hadn't been given permission to touch. Instead, like a stubborn child, he refused to let her see he was getting unwilling pleasure out of his surroundings. Of course, a man's cock didn't know how to lie.

Janet chose that moment to pull a little harder, so that the boot came off fast. She tumbled back. When he caught her on his lap, she smiled impishly into his bemused face before she slipped off, giving him a provocative little wiggle. It almost made him smile back, an automatic reaction, though he was too worked up to relax that much.

The hint of that smile disappeared when Charlene had him stand. She had a silver manacle and chain, which made Gideon stiffen when he saw it.

All three women were trained to handle a client who became violent, knowing when to back off, how to protect themselves for the key few seconds before security could enter. It had always been sufficient, because she did vet the applicants so thoroughly. When a client was stripped down to raw emotions, most would still hold on to impulse control, even if it was by their fingernails.

But Anwyn was keenly aware of Madelyn's attention, her doubts, and she cursed herself for letting them infect her. When she'd asked, “Is my trust misplaced?” and Gideon had shaken his head, she'd known for certain that they would be fine. No, she hadn't expected the reaction that had put glass in her shoulder, but this was different. There was nothing threatening to him about these three women. He wouldn't hurt them.

Though his body was abruptly as tense as if a vampire had sprung up in front of him, he let Charlene raise his wrist, fit the manacle around it. What probably helped was that the chains appeared thin. He'd believe he could break them, if needed. But the chains were titanium. The bolts to which they would be attached were embedded into a concrete and steel rebar block behind the tile. Even Daegan might need a few moments to get loose. For a mortal, it wasn't going to happen. She held her breath as Charlene ducked under his arm to lift his wrist and cuff the other arm. She did her job well, brushing intimately against him on one side as Ella moved in front of him to unfasten his jeans. As her fingers played over the button, slipped it free, Charlene turned the control so the chains tightened and his arms were drawn out to his sides and up, muscles stretched out in his upper body, a mouth-watering display of male flesh.

However, the show was far from over. When Ella brought the zipper down carefully, they discovered the pleasing fact that he wore no underwear.

Madelyn's hands slowed in their ministrations on Anwyn's back. Whatever else she thought, she and Anwyn were in perfect agreement right then, watching the girl push the snug denim down his hips, revealing the long, thick cock that practically breathed a sigh of relief as it stretched out, hard and erect.

The tip was glistening, and Anwyn could see where the inside of his jeans had gotten damp from his arousal. As Janet took over, taking the pants down his long legs, she let her full breasts drag over them.

He drew in a breath, his hands tightening in the cuffs. Ella moved behind him, taking a pitcher from Charlene. Gideon shifted his attention to her, and then his cock jumped, his chest expanding as she poured the warm oil over his shoulders, letting it run forward and back.

“He's beautiful,” Madelyn said. “In a hard, painful way.” Anwyn nodded. He needed to eat more. The man had no body fat she could see, and while he was all striped muscle, food and less physical deprivation would give those muscles a smooth, sexy appeal, rather than the dangerous, lean appearance they had now. However, his eyes were his sucker punch. The burning gaze promised he could fuck a woman to death and leave her moaning for more, even if it was her last breath.

As Anwyn's thighs strummed in response to a surge of moisture between her own legs, Madelyn put pressure over the wound, taping it down. Anwyn kept her eyes on the screen as three sets of female hands began to rub the oil over him. Shoulders, arms, back and then chest, down to his cock. Janet got that pleasure, her hands slick as she ran them up the impressive stalk, back down over his balls. While he tried to stay still, he of course couldn't, twitching under her hands, letting out a groan as Charlene rubbed herself against his back, spreading the oil with her body as well as her hands. Ella knelt to do his legs. As she reached his ankles, she efficiently locked a manacle around each of them. Though that discomfited him, Char snapped his attention up when she pressed the switch to drop the chain with its collar cuff from the ceiling. Leaning against his back, letting him feel the press of her small tits, her pubic mound against his ass, she caressed his throat, then locked the collar around it. His quivering increased, such that even from her distant position, Anwyn could feel the effort it was taking him not to resist. He would keep his promise to her, but it was costing him. The overwhelming need to resist, that unreasoning rage, was building. She needed to get back in there.

Next time she wouldn't deny herself the pleasure of putting on his restraints. It was one of the most arousing parts of breaking in a new slave. Being close enough to see and feel the body's tremors as the male mind fought to obey the Mistress, capitulate to being rendered absolutely helpless. Next time, she decided she'd also have Janet remove the hair in his pubic region with a straight razor, something that never failed to simultaneously arouse and terrify a male.

As she'd foreseen, he was getting way more agitated now, his fingers flexing in his bonds, his body twitching as Janet locked the stainless steel three-ring harness over his cock. Her fingers stroked his turgid length before she gave him a naughty kiss on the end of the broad head, her tongue flicking out to take away the salty moisture. Then she attached another chain embedded into the floor to the ring underneath that harness, significantly inhibiting his movements.

“Wait,” he said, but Ella was already going up on her toes to kiss his mouth. It distracted him enough that she used that moment to take the ball gag from behind her back. In a deft movement, she slid it in, replacing her tongue. He thrashed, but it was already buckled around his head. Charlene, behind him, cinched it tight so it dug into the corners of his mouth, a relentless bit for a headstrong stallion.

“Taking care of that troublesome mouth of yours, Gideon,” Anwyn murmured.

“Didn't seem to bother you much earlier,” Madelyn commented.