Nicole Edwards - Perception

Close, yet very platonic, friends.

When they weren’t dealing with the ins and outs of the real estate market, they would often spend time together outside of work, as well. A lot of that time was spent at one of Dallas’ most exclusive BDSM clubs – appropriately named Kink – where they were both now members.

Their friendship had started almost instantly, and they had grown close through the years. It didn’t hurt that they had several things in common which had strengthened their friendship from the start: they both believed that business was business, play was play, and when it came to the latter they were both looking for something, and nothing, at the same time.

Namely, fun with no strings attached.

Simple.

Uncomplicated.

Just the way Mercedes preferred everything in her life to be.

Only there was one problem… Xander had recently presented her with a proposition that was neither simple nor easy.

Their lives consisted of both work and play, and they went to the extreme on both counts. It’s just who they were. Within the category of play, they were both intimately familiar with domination and submission. However, if she didn’t know better, she’d have thought Xander had recently received a blow to the head that had clearly warped his good sense.

If Mercedes weren’t mistaken, Xander Boone wanted her submission.

And that was where the problem lay. Mercedes couldn’t give him that because she was not a submissive. Key word being not.

She was a Domme, and her reputation was well established and highly respected in their circles and he knew it. So how the hell he’d talked her into this said a lot about his powers of persuasion.

His request had come one night, about two weeks ago, when they had met for dinner after work. Prefaced with, “Because neither of us has a pet (as Xander liked to refer to his submissives), I’d like to call in a favor.”

A freaking favor.

First of all, for the record, Xander never asked for favors. Hell, he didn’t usually ask for anything. So, not only was he low maintenance as far as friends went, it was hard to refuse to help a friend when they looked at her the way Xander had.

That was when things started to go downhill.

Based on his explanation at the time, and his rebuttal to every one of her suggestions – What about finding a sub or a trainee from Kink? What about that one woman… yeah, he hadn’t even let her finish that sentence – Mercedes was under the distinct impression that Xander was playing a dangerous game with her, trying to get her to submit when there was no way in hell it was going to happen.

Except for tonight.

Somehow he had convinced her to come here, and she had no choice but to deal with it – because a promise was a promise and Mercedes didn’t go back on her word.

Now, as she fought the urge to sneak out when he wasn’t looking, Mercedes divided her attention between the power couple and the sexy as sin man who was waiting for her to do as he instructed.

It was apparent that Xander’s request had something to do with the beautiful couple who had made their way into the room. From what Xander had told her, Logan had been the one to approach him in the beginning. Logan and Samantha weren’t vanilla by any means, but according to Logan, they had never experimented with BDSM. Xander came up with the idea for giving them a little taste of his lifestyle.

Strange request, huh? Actually, it wasn’t all that uncommon.

Only, somewhere along the way, Xander had turned the tables on her. Something she would certainly pay him back for at a later date.

It was just a shame that she considered Xander so damned attractive, and strangely irresistible – in a very platonic sort of way – because she certainly wouldn’t have hesitated to tell him to fuck off with his invitation. But, in her defense, she wasn’t the only one who found Xander physically appealing. Most women did, and just like them, she wasn’t immune to his charm. Unfortunately.

At the moment, Mercedes could think of a more apt word to express what she thought about him: Incorrigible. Yes, that certainly described him nicely.

Even though she had some reservations about his intentions, or whether or not he had the potential to be reformed, Mercedes had to admit that there was one positive in this entirely screwed up situation: Looking at Xander was a treat for the eyes.

She got the feeling that if you looked up sexy, or sophisticated, or relentless, or alpha male, and let’s not forget incorrigible, in the dictionary, there beside the definition would be Xander’s picture.

At six-foot-six-inches, two hundred seventy plus pounds, he was an exquisite male specimen. His body was honed to perfection, from his chiseled jaw to his sculpted muscles down to his routinely pedicured feet. His perfectly styled dark hair was an intriguing contrast to his light green eyes, and it was no wonder he’d been repeatedly categorized as one of Dallas’ most sought after bachelors.

Not only was Xander intimidating in a very physically provocative way, he was also ridiculously successful and insanely wealthy.

Oh, and he was Trouble with a capital T.

Ok, so yes, saying a man was beautiful, especially a man like Xander, would probably be an odd way to describe him, but in Xander’s case it was true. Beauty, at least in his case, wasn’t just skin deep, and because of Xander’s strength of character, his charm, and his sophistication, he wasn’t just the perfect package on the outside. The man was so much more than that.

For the record, no, she did not have a crush on her friend.

Ok, maybe a little one.

Not that she would ever even allude to it.

Fearful that she was ogling him a little too much, Mercedes forced her attention away from Xander and glanced over to Samantha and Logan, noticing they were both watching her intently.

That raised the question of what had Xander told them about her?

As much as she wanted to ask, she was well aware that she wasn’t going to get that answer tonight, so she opted to greet them rather than dwell on what he’d said to entice them to join them tonight.

“Nice to see you again,” Mercedes called from her spot several feet away. “If you need me, I’ll be…” She turned to look at the St. Andrew’s cross, for the millionth time wondering what the hell she was doing. Looking back at Samantha and Logan, she followed up with, “Uh… yeah. I’ll just be… over here.”

Not surprising, no one said a word in response. Mercedes could tell by the look on Samantha’s lovely face that the woman was both confused and nervous. Definitely an interesting combination of emotions.

If she had no idea what to expect, exactly what was she nervous about? That was a question Mercedes routinely asked of new subs who approached her with the same trepidation in their eyes.

On the other hand, Mercedes knew why she was nervous and confused. Unlike Samantha, she did know what was about to happen. It had everything to do with the damn “X” that was looming before her.

Both the St. Andrew’s cross and the man.

“Have a seat,” Xander instructed Samantha and Logan from behind her.

Mercedes glanced over her shoulder to look at Samantha once more, offering her a tentative smile which was returned. And yes, maybe it was just confirmation that she was a little sadistic because Mercedes was enjoying the hell out of the bewildered expression on the pretty woman’s face.

Being a Domme, long past her rookie stage, Mercedes was familiar with what was about to take place. There was just one slight problem: she was on the wrong end of the domination which wasn’t something she was at all comfortable with.

While this particular situation was one she was familiar with, despite the fact that she was on the receiving end, Mercedes was welcoming the twist in her very mundane routine that she called life.

And this was a three hundred sixty degree turn from what she was used to.

Being a member of one of the most successful BDSM clubs in the Dallas area, Mercedes was familiar with this scene as well as many others. Demonstrations were a regular thing within the club she attended. No matter how skilled a Dominant thought they were, the mindset in their club was that there was always room for continuing education.

She could easily say that being part of a demonstration wasn’t the issue. Nor did she have a problem with an audience. It was a nightly occurrence for her when she opted to play at Kink.

So when Xander informed her of his master plan to introduce Logan and Samantha to a little bondage and submission, Mercedes hadn’t thought anything of it. BDSM wasn’t for the faint of heart, but she didn’t have to explain that to Xander. When he’d invited her to the opening of Devotion, the new club that happened to be in the exact same warehouse that had provided her original introduction to Xander, she hadn’t questioned him either.

Nor did she think to tie the two together and come up with her somehow becoming the night’s attraction.

Shame on her.

His last and final request had been what sent her over the edge. Tonight, right here in this very room, Xander Boone wanted to give Samantha a lesson in bondage and submission. The kicker of it all was that he wanted to use Mercedes in his demonstration.

“Why me?” she had asked him that night at dinner, but he’d easily avoided her question, in lieu of continuing to explain his reasons.

According to Xander, Samantha was interested in threesomes, or so he’d been told by Logan. And based on Samantha’s explanation as to why she enjoyed them, Xander felt as though she was more turned on by Logan’s natural domination of the situation than the actual inclusion of another man.

Made sense. Sort of.

Her understanding of the situation was that Xander had come to the conclusion that Logan got off by watching Samantha pleasured. By another man. Mercedes understood that.

And Samantha had enjoyed being with two men at one time. No questions there either.

However, Samantha was apparently hesitant because of her past experience and the attachment she’d made with the two men who had been involved in her relationship in the past. That part Mercedes understood, as well.

In order to help them out, Xander had the brilliant idea to introduce them to BDSM because it could provide the domination that Samantha seemed so fond of. Rather than having to introduce a third person for her to get her fix.

Xander had gone on to explain that, since Samantha obviously became attached, it made sense that they might need to shy away from the threesomes and look at another way to get her what she needed.

“Why me?” Mercedes had asked him again after his lengthy explanation, still not understanding why she had to be the one on the chopping block. There were a number of subs who would graciously accept his invitation.

“Because I don’t want to use anyone else,” he had told her.

Simple. Straight forward. No, it still didn’t make sense, yet here she was, agreeing to Xander’s plan to act out a scene.

With her as his submissive.

Sometimes she was just too damned nice.

Xander had assured her that she would merely be there as an accessory for the evening, so Mercedes had reluctantly agreed. He was her friend after all. She could help him this one time. Or so she’d tried to convince herself.

She wasn’t in an intimate relationship; therefore, she wasn’t stepping out on anyone. Her time was her own. How she decided to spend it was up to her as well.

Not that this would’ve been her first choice.

The sharp gasp from Samantha had Mercedes turning to look in her direction again. Her gaze stopped midway across the room where she noticed Xander absently caressing the flogger in his hands.

Of course he would pick that one.

Mercedes had requested him to use a low-intensity flogger for tonight, and he had laughed at her, then he’d followed his chuckle with, “What’s that?”

Ok, fine. He didn’t use low-intensity floggers. Then again, neither did she. Most of the time.

But looking at the high-intensity, latigo flogger in his hand didn’t have her ass singing a happy tune at the moment.

Not that she would let him know that.

Mercedes looked up to meet his intense, light green gaze and found her heart rate kicking up another notch. His mouth was a straight line, but his eyes were laughing at her.