Nicole Edwards - Perception

Shane laughed, nodding his head as he peered over his shoulder to the glass room where Xander and Clarissa now stood talking. Neither of them turned to look their way and Mercedes could only guess that Xander was offering Clarissa some guidance of his own. Smart boy.

“Consider this an experiment, if you will. I’d like to see how she responds to him, as well as to me” Mercedes said seriously as she looked directly at Shane. “I think it might be just what we all need.”

What she needed was to put some space between her and Xander, but Mercedes didn’t add that part.

Shane nodded as though he understood, but his eyes didn’t reflect even a hint of concern.

“Does she have any issues with doing things in public?”

Shane laughed. “No, no issues. Sometimes I wonder whether all of her inhibitions have been destroyed.”

Mercedes laughed, thinking about Clarissa and all of the ways she would be able to push the other woman’s boundaries. “All right, then I say we give them a few minutes to think this over. You’re welcome to join me, but I need to talk to someone for a few minutes.”

“Go ahead. I’ve got someone to catch up with and then I’ll meet you back in the room,” Shane said with a grin.

Mercedes walked away with a smile on her face that matched Shane’s. This was definitely going to get very, very interesting before the night was over.

“What is she going to do?” Clarissa asked Xander as they stood patiently – ok, not so patiently – in the room while Mercedes and Shane talked on the other side of the club. Clarissa tried to keep her eyes from roaming over there, but she was having a hard time.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Xander replied, looking calm and cool and completely unconcerned.

The exact opposite of what she was feeling at the moment.

“Not worry about it?” Was this guy serious? Clarissa watched Xander as he stood rigidly straight in front of her, his enormous chest rising and falling steadily as he peered down at her.

This man intimidated her. He always had. He was a Dom, one all of the submissives admired, but few had the gall to interact with.

Next to Shane, Clarissa always felt small, but next to Xander she felt like a mouse beside an elephant. He was massive. Like a Mack truck. Or a freight train.

“Exactly what I said.”

Ok, so he wasn’t going to be much help. Clarissa suddenly wished Shane was there. Just his presence would give her more courage.

“This is part of the plan, you know that right?” Xander asked as he stepped to the other side of the room, his hulking shoulders and chest blocking her view of where Shane had disappeared.

“What plan?” Clarissa asked, not really hearing the question because she was suddenly feeling a little intimidated. No. No, she was feeling a lot intimidated.

“The plan for you to sit here and fret over what’s about to happen. It’s as much mental as it is physical.”

Clarissa jerked her eyes to meet his, her mouth hanging open. “She’s not going to do something to me, is she?”

Clarissa had been friends with Mercedes for a long time. But they were just that – friends. Outside of the club, they rarely talked about things that happened at the club. Probably because Mercedes was a Domme and Clarissa was a submissive. Instead, they usually talked about work and shopping. Girl things.

Certainly not about Mercedes dominating her.

Holy crap. Had she really agreed to this?

Xander’s grin was quite sexy, but Clarissa’s nerves were on edge and she couldn’t find it in herself to admire him for long.

“Probably not, little girl.”

“Little girl?” Clarissa retorted, her hands flying to her hips as she faced off with the behemoth. Her inner bitch was making its presence known.

“You’re pretty fucking hot when you’re pissed, you know that?”

He was doing this on purpose. Clarissa took a deep breath, exhaled. Another. She continued the pattern until she regained some of her composure. He was purposely riling her up.

“Don’t worry, little girl. I’m sure all of the aggression will be directed at me tonight.”

The words didn’t make her feel any better. Part of her hoped she’d get to be a participant in this, the other part of her was scared senseless.

“And I’m not little,” she murmured under her breath. And damn sure not a girl, she thought to herself.

The enormous laugh that erupted from Xander reverberated through the room, his deep, dark voice shook her to her core. Clarissa stared at him, his well sculpted back to her as he paced across the small space.

“Little girl, compared to me, you’re tiny.”

Ok, so he had her there.

When he turned to face her again, his face was serious, and Clarissa found herself holding her breath.

“Can you do this, Rissa?” His voice was much lower than before, and his bright green eyes were so intently focused on her, Clarissa shuddered.

“Can you?” she countered. “I thought you were a big, bad Dom. How the hell does that happen? Are you a switch or something?”

Xander laughed again. “Been reading up on terminology, I see.”

Clarissa smiled at him then. Yes, during her time as a trainee – which hadn’t been all that long – she had been doing her homework, thank you very much.

“And no, I’m not a switch. In fact, if you want the honest truth, this is making me fucking insane.”

Clarissa was startled by his candidness. She didn’t know him well and yet here he was, letting her know that he wasn’t all that fond of this situation.

“I can do this,” she finally told him, adding as much steel into her tone as she could muster. She figured if he could do this, be in a position that he clearly wasn’t all that comfortable with, then she could too.

“Good,” he said with a small smile. “I’m looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.”

Well that made two of them.

Clarissa forced a smile, mentally asking the butterflies in her tummy to quiet down a bit. She could feel the echo of her nerves deep in her chest, and she wasn’t all that fond of the feeling.

Xander moved past her again, this time going toward the wall that looked out over the club and Clarissa followed the path of his gaze. She saw Mercedes talking to a man, a very attractive man. He looked really familiar, but she knew she had never met him before.

“Who is that?” The question came out, sounding every bit as nosy as it was. She’d have to learn to keep her mouth shut.

“Trent Ramsey,” Xander answered, clearly amused.

Trent Ramsey. Trent Ramsey. Why did she know that name?

“Oh, my God! The Trent Ramsey? Like from the Dillon Chronicles?” Trent Ramsey, the famous, and incredibly handsome actor of one of the most popular movie series of her generation.

“That’d be him,” Xander confirmed with a rumbling chuckle.

Clarissa was grateful that Xander didn’t explain more. She had enough going on in her brain to even worry about having a famous actor in the same building she was in. No, she was more worried about what Mercedes had in store for her. And how in the world she was going to remember to refer to the woman as Mistress M or Ma’am. Holy crap. This wasn’t going to be easy.

Not that Clarissa needed easy, but she felt like a jumbled mess when she was around the woman. There was definitely something very intimidating about her.

And to think Clarissa had been completely convinced that Xander was a Dom. Before tonight anyway. Yet here he was, about to be dominated by Mercedes Bryant. Good grief, this was confusing.

Needless to say, since the very first time she’d met Mercedes years ago, Clarissa found herself both in awe of her and terrified of her at the same time. And now this. If she could dominate a man like Xander, there was no way she’d stand a chance against the woman. But, deep down, she knew without a doubt that Mercedes wouldn’t hurt her. At least not on purpose.

She didn’t know Xander as well as she knew Shane and Mercedes, mainly because she hadn’t had the opportunity to see him on a more casual level, outside of the club very often. However, she did know that Mercedes was incredibly good friends with both Xander and Shane. Always had been. She could sense there was a level of trust between the three of them.

And she knew without a doubt that Mercedes trusted Xander. She had always suspected the two of them had a thing for one another, even if they wanted to pretend that their dominant natures would be in direct opposition – yes, Clarissa had called Mercedes on it once, and that was the answer she received.

All in all, it shouldn’t matter who was the Dom and who was the sub, or if they were interested in switching. They still trusted one another. That was all that mattered.

But she could definitely tell something was up with Xander. His usual easy going air seemed to be disturbed, something more turbulent in his eyes. Based on the way he was staring at Mercedes, Clarissa knew it had to be because of the situation.

“Is it really that hard for you to give up control?” she asked when the silence and her own thoughts got to be too much.

Xander peered over at her, a sinister grin on his face that made her body tremble strangely. “I don’t know. I’ve never done it before.”

Oh. Well. Clarissa had no idea what to say to that.

And then coming up with a response was the last thing on her mind because Shane stepped through the door, a smile on his handsome face as he glanced back and forth between Clarissa and Xander. She had the urge to run into his arms, but she didn’t want to give him the impression that she was scared. She wasn’t.