“Okay, just lay back. We’ll take our time here,” The Mistress said as she sanitized her hands thoroughly. She raised the stirrups on the examining table and helped Chris get her feet into them. “I won’t touch you without warning you first. Cool?”

  “Cool.” Chris took a slow breath and stared up at the ceiling.

  “Cool. I’ll get the toys. Don’t be freaked out.” The Mistress pulled open a drawer and one by one removed six dildos of varying sizes and lined them up on the metal tray. Chris watched her the entire time, her eyes growing wider as dildos of impressive size appeared.

  “Holy shit,” Chris breathed as she took in the array. “That big?”

  “Never seen one before? I mean, an actual penis on a grown man?”

  “Not in person. Only pictures. I’m a gold-star lesbian,” she said with pride.

  “Gold star?” The Mistress pulled out some gauze pads and a small bullet vibrator.

  “That’s what you call someone gay or lesbian who’s never been with the opposite sex. I knew what I was in kindergarten. Never had any confusion about what I was, so never fooled around with a guy at all.”

  “Nice. I’m a gold-star kinkster then. Never had vanilla sex.”

  “Wow. I think that would be a lot harder than a gold-star lesbian. Kinky sex looks like a lot of work.” She glanced around the dungeon, at the various ropes, floggers, single-tails, and other implements of torture hanging on the walls.

  The Mistress sat back down on the stool and scooted in closer to Chris. “It’s probably more work than vanilla sex, but completely worth it. You take sex more seriously when you have to plan it in advance, do equipment checks, and have a medic on standby. It’s the price we pay if we want our gold stars.”

  “I guess I’m paying the price for being a gold star. This is probably the most embarrassing thing ever.”

  “Don’t be embarrassed. Not allowed around me. Unless it’s one of your kinks.”

  “I’m twenty-three, and I’m not a virgin,” Chris said. “I’ve been having sex with girls since I was sixteen.”

  “You don’t have to feel bad. An intact hymen isn’t a badge of shame.”

  “It’s a pain in the ass is what it is.”

  The Mistress looked at Chris over the sheet. “If your hymen is a pain in the ass, then we’re going to rethink our hymen-breaking strategy here. That’s okay. I have butt-plugs galore.”

  Chris covered her face with one hand and laughed ruefully. “Sorry,” she said, leaning up on her elbows. “Pain in the vadge? Is that better?”

  “I don’t know if it’s better, but it certainly makes more sense anatomically. You want to get started?”

  “Not really.” Chris lay flat on her back again. “But I’d rather get it over with as soon as possible.”

  The Mistress pulled her stool up even closer and adjusted the sheet and her light. “I’m going to touch you now. Just one finger inside. Want to see what you’ve got under the hood so to speak.”

  “Go for it,” Chris said with a heavy sigh.

  “You know, usually when I fingerbang girls, they sound a lot more happy about it.” The Mistress spread Chris’s folds open and slipped one finger into her. “Does that hurt?”

  Chris shook her head. “That’s fine. I use tampons so I’m used to something finger-sized.”

  “But not much more than that. Jesus, you are tight. I thought I had the hymen from hell. No wonder you’ve been putting this off.”

  “I’ve tried breaking it a few times myself, and I just can’t. Hurts too much.”

  The Mistress pressed down against the layers of tissue at the opening of Chris’s vagina. Breaking that killer hymen would take more than just a couple minutes with a vibrator.

  “I don’t blame you. In my world there’s good pain and bad pain. Getting your vagina ripped is of the ‘bad pain’ variety. Are you sure you want to do this? Sober, I mean? I can get some booze or drugs. God only knows what’s in King’s medicine cabinet right now.”

  “King gave me a Vicodin to take after if I needed it. I better not take anything else.”

  “You sure about doing this?”

  “I’m sure. I need to do it.”

  The Mistress heard a note of sadness in the girl’s voice. “Need to?”

  Chris nodded. “Need. My girlfriend—ex-girlfriend now—accused me of being ‘stone-cold.’”

  The Mistress looked up over the sheet at Chris. “You’re going to have to explain that one to me. I can barely keep up with all the different permutations of kinky people. I’ll need the CliffsNotes on the lesbians.” The Mistress moved her finger gently in and out of Chris simply to get her accustomed to being touched so intimately.

  “Stone-cold? It’s, um...” Chris paused to think. “There are some of us who are really masculine. So a stone-cold lesbian, she doesn’t want her body treated like, you know, a man would treat a woman.”

  “So no penetration?”

  “Right. Exactly. It’s not a bad thing, usually.”

  “So your ex-girlfriend called you stone-cold because you don’t like being penetrated?”

  “It was more than that. I never even let her try. Being twenty-three and sexually active and having the hymen of a ten-year-old girl is humiliating. I didn’t want to deal with her having to deal with me. More than one finger hurts, so what’s the point? Anyway, Theresa said she couldn’t be with someone so closed-off. We started fighting a lot. I thought everything was great between us...except in bed. Apparently sex mattered more than everything else to her.”

  “Sex does matter in a relationship. If Theresa had needs you couldn’t meet—”

  “I know, I know. But I didn’t think it was the be-all, end-all of our relationship.”

  “Do you want to be penetrated, or are you happy being—”

  “I want it. I do. I just…can’t.”

  The Mistress pulled her hand out and held up two fingers. Chris nodded her agreement, and The Mistress pushed into her again gently. Chris winced only once.

  “Sex in a relationship is a partnership,” The Mistress said. “One person can’t do all the work. And you’re being fingered by a woman who used to submit to the most dominant of all dominant men. He’s not an alpha male—he’s the alpha and omega male. He met the president once and the president called him ‘Sir.’ Even in that relationship with Captain Über-Dom, we both did the work in the bedroom. Or the kitchen. Or the living room. Or the dungeon. Or under the piano...”

  “Under?”

  “He wouldn’t do me on top of the piano. He didn’t want me scratching the finish.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “The point is, I told him things I enjoyed, and we did them. He told me things he wanted to try and we did them. I loved his body, so he let me touch him any way I wanted. He loved mine. No part of me was off-limits to him. I’m sure Theresa wanted to give you the sort of pleasure you gave her. One partner doing all the work while the other one lays there is nice…for a night or two. After that, it gets old. And you start to feel like, ‘What’s wrong with me? Why doesn’t he/she/they want me to touch her?’ Any chance Theresa felt like you didn’t want her touching you?”

  “Um...maybe?”

  “More than maybe?”

  “I did sort of say something to the effect of, ‘I don’t want you in me.’”

  “I’m in you. Is it really that awful?” The Mistress raised her eyebrow at Chris.

  “No. Not awful. A little weird. Not used to it. But it’s not bad.”

  “Not bad? All I get is a ‘not bad’? I better kick this orgy up a notch or two.” She stood up between Chris’s legs and reached for the smallest of her vibrators, the one that fit over the end of her finger.

  “What is that?” Chris eyed The Mistress’s hand warily.

  “Tiny vibrator. Don’t worry. It’s not going in you. A little clitoral stimulation helps the dildo go down. Try to relax. You’ll enjoy this.”

  Chris laid back on the table again and gazed up at the ceiling. “I hadn’t planned on enjoying this experience.”

  “If you didn’t want pleasure with your pain, you should have gone to a doctor, not a dominatrix.” The Mistress turned the vibrator on and started to massage near Chris’s clitoris.

  “I went to a doctor. Want to know what she told me?”

  The Mistress winced. “From the tone of your voice I’m guessing I don’t. But tell me anyway.”

  “She told me to break my hymen the old-fashioned way, by having sex with a man. She said I only needed to do it once. Close my eyes and think of England, she said.”

  “What a homophobic bitch. I hope you reported her to the medical board.”

  “Kingsley did when I told him. He’s determined to get her censured or whatever they do.”

  “Good for King. I’m not at all surprised you decided to go a different route after that run-in. Yeah, doctors don’t know what to do with people like us sometimes. I used to sub a lot and would get minor injuries every now and then. Kingsley always sent me to a kinky doctor so I wouldn’t have to deal with the inevitable phone calls to the police and psych evaluations.”

  “Kingsley’s cool. You know, for a man. I almost...well, not almost. But it crossed my mind.” Chris blushed bright red and The Mistress bit back a smile.

  “It’s a good thing you didn’t. He’d probably say no. He’s not in the habit of having sex with anyone who isn’t one-hundred percent into it. And even if he did agree….”

  The Mistress paused and picked up the second largest of the dildos on her tray. She held it up for Chris to see.

  “Oh my God. Are you serious?” Chris looked like she’d pass out from the sight of it.

  “Serious.” She put the dildo back on the tray. “The man’s cock is as big as his ego.”

  “That’s huge.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “I can’t believe straight women can take something like that.”

  The Mistress laughed. “Don’t get all prudish on me. You aren’t my first lady who loves the ladies I’ve had in here. Some of the sisterhood can take an arm up to the elbow. I know this from personal experience.”

  “You’re bi?” Chris sounded dubious.

  “Let’s just say the Hard Rock Cafe and I have one thing in common. We love all and serve all.”

  “Nice.”

  “But to answer your question, yes. I sleep with men and women. Was in a fairly long-term relationship with a woman a few years ago. We broke up.”

  “What happened?”

  “She decided to stay a nun. I have got to stop dating people in religious orders.”

  Chris laughed again, and The Mistress let her laugh even though she hadn’t been joking. Instead, she silenced Chris’s laughter by pressing the fingertip vibrator to her clitoris.

  Chris gasped a little and balled her fingers tight into a fist. “Oh, wow.”

  “Fun, right?”

  “Kind of fun. Definitely.”

  “Good. When you start to feel pain, just focus your attention on your clitoris and all the fun in that area, okay?”

  Chris nodded and closed her eyes.

  “So...” The Mistress asked as she pushed down on the back of Chris’s vagina again, pressing against the hymen. “Are you doing this for your ex-girlfriend or for you?”

  “I’m doing this for me. I’ve wanted to do it a long time. I had a girlfriend before Theresa, but she didn’t complain about me not wanting any penetration. But she was kind of selfish. Very selfish in bed and out. It wasn’t until Theresa that I started to think about it. She was okay with our sex life at first, but it really hurt her that I wouldn’t let her inside me. Hurt her enough that she dumped me. The break-up was the final straw. That and Kingsley catching me sobbing in my rum and Coke after closing bell three nights ago.”

  “Kingsley cannot resist a woman in distress. Especially his New Sam.”

  “Okay, you have to tell me who the fuck this Sam person is and why everyone talks about her like she’s some kind of dearly-departed saint.”

  The Mistress laughed so hard it seemed to startle Chris. Somewhere Sam’s ears were burning at the combination of her name and “saint” in the same sentence.

  “Sam was the first head bartender at the Möbius. The old owner had the brilliant idea that he needed lesbian bartenders. Straight male bartenders would hit on the strippers. Gay male bartenders would hit on the customers. Girlie women bartenders would get hit on by the customers...”

  “So a butchy looking lesbian was his bright idea?”

  “Exactly,” The Mistress said as she slowly pulled her two fingers out of Chris.

  “That’s actually pretty brilliant.”

  “It was. Sam kept everybody in line.”

  “I do the same thing. At least I try to. Just because they’re strippers doesn’t mean anyone gets to disrespect them. I have a zero-tolerance policy for bad behavior.”

  “Good girl. Sam instituted the same policy. Nobody crossed Sam. Not even Kingsley after he bought the place and changed the name.”

  “I like this Sam person.”

  “You would like her. Wish she still lived here. Sam looked a little like you—skinny twerp, very pretty in a ‘I want to be mistaken for a fourteen-year-old boy’ way.”

  “That’s so not true. I look nothing like a fourteen-year-old boy. Just so happens a lot of fourteen-year-old boys look like me.”

  “At least Sam didn’t dress like any fourteen-year-old boy I’d seen. I was just a teenager when Sam ran the Möbius. But every time I saw her she had on a suit—an old-fashioned one, with a vest and suspenders. No jackets though. It killed me when I saw her. Wanted to snap those sexy suspenders of hers.”

  “Damn. I gotta hunt up a pic of her.”

  “She even wore spats on her dress shoes. Actual spats. She said it wasn’t a fashion statement, but a necessity for anyone who worked at a strip club.” The Mistress moved the vibrator over Chris’s clitoris as she started to push the smallest of the dildos into her.

  “Smart woman.”

  “She was. Still is. I mean, she’s not dead.”

  “That’s comforting. The way people talk about her...”

  “I know. She kind of still haunts the place. Sam started as a bartender at the Möbius when she was about your age. After buying the Möbius, Kingsley started putting together a new club. An underground S&M club. The underground S&M club to end all S&M clubs. This S&M club that we’re in, as a matter of fact. And it took a lot of work. He decided he needed an assistant. He’d lost his five previous assistants in as many months.”

  “Why? Kingsley’s the best boss I’ve ever had. Pays double what I’d make bartending anywhere else. Good benefits. And he’s nice to me—weirdly nice to me—and stays out of my way. He trusts my decisions. Plus, he’s the one who sent me to you and is picking up the tab for this session.”

  The Mistress pushed the small dildo all the way into Chris. She winced again and breathed but seemed to be taking it in stride.

  “Well, you have to understand the situation here. You are a gold star lesbian. Kingsley’s a gold star seducer. Male assistant, female assistant. Didn’t matter. He slept with them all. Lots of drama with him in his household in the early days. Love, lust, fighting, jealously. He’d sleep with his secretary, and then the next day she’d find him making out with some hot guy in the hallway. Big blow-up. She’d quit. He’d start assistant-hunting again. The cycle would start over.”

  “So a lesbian was his only option?” Chris seemed amused by the idea.

  “Well, he knew she was the one woman on his payroll who wouldn’t try to seduce him and he wouldn’t try to seduce. He stole her from the Möbius and made her his second-in-command. Match made in heaven. Those two were inseparable—best friends, although sometimes it was hard to tell that. Sam wasn’t just a bartender, she was a genius. Kingsley didn’t scare her, so she stood up to him. She worked her ass off and earned the respect of everyone in The Underground. If Sam spoke, you did what she said as if Kingsley himself had given the order.”

  “No wonder everyone does what I tell them to. They think it’s coming from Kingsley.”

  “If you work for Kingsley and he respects you, he’ll back you up all the way to the edge of the world. Even if you’re wrong, he’ll still take your side. He’s really loyal to his employees. And now that he’s stopped fucking them left and right, they’re loyal back.”

  “So me being ‘The New Sam’ is a good thing?”

  “It’s a very good thing. Kingsley...he loved Sam. Wasn’t in love with her, but she was probably the first and only woman he’d never slept with that he truly loved. They were a perfect team.”

  “What happened to her? To them?”

  “Only good things, I promise. But even good things sometimes mean sacrifices, giving up the good for the better. Kingsley has Juliette as his second-in-command now, so he leaves the New Sams in charge at the Möbius. Juliette’s even scarier than a lesbian.” The Mistress gave Chris a smile so she would know she was joking. But Chris seemed entirely lost in what was happening under the sheet. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

  Chris smiled. “A little. It hurt some at first but it’s...yeah, that’s pretty enjoyable.”

  “Enjoyable? Okay, well, that’s a start. I’m trying to remember if a guy ever told me ‘that’s enjoyable’ during a blow-job. Give me a minute because that’s a considerable mental Rolodex I’m flipping through.”

  When Chris laughed, the dildo nearly came out of her.

  “Shit,” The Mistress said, pushing it back in. “Nice PC muscles.”

  “You know, that might be the first time anyone’s complimented my PC muscles before.”

  “The stronger the PC muscles, the stronger the orgasms. I do Kegels all the time.”

  “Do they work?” Chris asked.

  “I could crack a walnut.”

  Chris burst into laughter again, and The Mistress took advantage of that momentary distraction to push a larger dildo into her. The laughter stopped as Chris closed her eyes tight.

  “I know it hurts. Just try to focus on the pleasure, okay?” The Mistress turned the fingertip vibrator onto a higher setting.

  “Now you know why I’ve been putting this off.”