Page 164 of Masters of Pleasure
“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 would not kick her out or go to her brother, plummeted.
Law
Normally, Law would never even think about addressing the owner of an establishment in such a tone, but he was at the end of his rope.Iris Baez was practically the poster child of special treatment at Stronghold.In any other kink club, she would have already been spanked to true regret and turned into a very sorry submissive.One that was intent on behaving.
Everyone was hands-off merely because she was the sister of one of the owner’s friends, which grated on his last nerve.
Any other submissive interrupting a public scene would have received a public punishment.Though he supposed Patrick would argue that her punishment would be public, it was lenient.All three of them knew it, and so would everyone else.Granted, Law understood how hard it could be to subvert expectations in the club—hell, he’d started thinking of himself as “Law” rather than Lawrence, thanks to the submissives who had given the nickname and made it stick.
Swiveling around in his chair, Patrick leveled a stern look at Law, who refused to be intimidated, even though Patrick was practically a head taller than him.Law was of perfectly average height, just below six feet, which made him the tallest person in his family, but size wasn’t everything.He’d never allowed himself to feel smaller because of someone else’s height.
“She’s not trouble.She’s just constantlyintrouble because she acts before she thinks.”
“That amounts to the same thing.”Law felt a muscle in his jaw tick.Iris was the epitome of the phrase ‘Ready, fire, aim.’Sure, she might feel bad for going off early afterward, but by then, it was too late.The damage had already been done.From the way things were going at Stronghold, apparently, she would never be held to a standard that required her to learn to think before acting.
Yet again, she was getting off easy.
“She’ll learn.But I agree that I’m too soft with her.Most of the Doms that I would normally assign to her are going to be.”Patrick leaned back in his chair, elbows resting on the arms, fingers steepled in front of him.
Crap.
Law sensed the danger too late.He’d walked into an ambush.Sighing, he reached up to rub his hand along the scruff on his jaw, knowing it was already too late.
“I think, as someone who is friendly but not friends with Andrew and does not have a personal history with him or Iris, that you will be the perfect person to oversee her.”Patrick grinned wide, white teeth flashing in his dark face like a shark’s grin.Chomp, chomp.
“Why not Julie?”Both he and Julie, who was a Domme, had run the recent class, and he hadn’t noticed Julie taking any shit from Iris.
“Because Iris doesn’t have any trouble with any of the dominants who don’t identify as male.Besides, Julie definitely has a soft spot for Iris, even if she doesn’t allow it to show.You, on the other hand, will have no problem spanking her ass if she deserves it.”Patrick pointed at him, still grinning, clearly pleased with himself.“That makes you the perfect man for the job.”
He opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Patrick was right, although Law hadn’t really thought about it before.
Iris behaved for Julie in a way that she hadn’t for him.She’d even behaved for Samantha, a switch exploring her Domme side in the class, in a way she hadn’t for him.
“You think she has a problem with men, and you want me to figure it out for you?”he stated flatly.It didn’t take a genius to read between the lines, especially when Patrick was half spelling it out for him.
“That’s part of being a Dom sometimes.”Patrick flashed him another grin and turned back toward his desk.
Exasperated, Law moved around to the front of it so he was still facing the other man.
“She’s not my submissive.”
“Nope, but she’s a club submissive, and you’re one of my Dungeon Monitors, which means you get the extra duties.”Patrick gave him a thumbs up.“By the way, thanks for agreeing to take that on.It’s appreciated.And hey, if you can help her find a Dom, you can pass along that responsibility to him instead.”
Dammit.
Law didn’t have a good argument against that.Helping the club submissiveswasone of the duties he’d agreed to take on.Normally, it was the exact thing he loved to do and gave him some fulfillment and some peace.
