Red Handed by Shelly Bell

hair, Gracie leaped to stand in front of her, swiping Danielle’s makeup bag off the bed. She pulled out some eye shadow and tipped Danielle’s head up toward the light. Danielle shut her eyes, and Gracie swept the makeup across her lids. “Fantasy rooms. We have some downstairs in the dungeon, but those are mainly used for fire play, electrical play, and piercings. That’s also where we do our demonstrations, like the Shibari Sir Logan did with Cassandra. Upstairs you’ll find your fully equipped bedrooms, complete with built-in restraints and other amenities. Several of the rooms have themes. Medical, medieval, mirrors, and then of course, my favorite—the freeway.”
    Medical? Note to self: Stay out of the dungeon’s fantasy rooms. “Why do you refer to Logan as ‘Sir’ and Cole as ‘Master’?”
    â€œDifferent clubs may have different rules, but in Benediction, while both refer to Dominants, the title of Master is earned after a certain amount of experience. Logan’s fairly new to BDSM, which is why he’s a ‘Sir.’ To make things even more confusing, a Dominant may prefer his submissive or slave to call him ‘Master.’ However, the rest of us would address him as ‘Sir.’ And of course if it’s a woman, we’d use ‘Ma’am’ and ‘Mistress.’ ”
    â€œMy head hurts from all these rules. What if I screw up and call someone the wrong name?” After Gracie applied mascara to Danielle’s lashes, Danielle opened her eyes for the liner.
    â€œIt’s understood you’ll mess up protocol at first, and you may receive small punishments for correction, but nothing too severe. As long as you follow the ‘Safe, Sane, Consensual’ credo and don’t interfere with a scene, you’ll be fine.” She rifled through the makeup bag.
    â€œYou mentioned the freeway earlier. What is it?”
    Gracie puckered her lips, silently instructing Danielle to do the same, and she smoothed lipstick across Danielle’s lips. “Simply put . . . it’s an orgy in the dark. Well, not complete darkness, but dark enough that you can’t make out a person’s features. It’s all about using your other senses and ridding yourself of societal constraints on sexual expression. For example, when I kissed you earlier, you knew it was me. But in the dark, a touch is a touch.” Gracie stood to Danielle’s side, allowing her to see the final results. “Ta-da!”
    Gracie had worked magic, transforming Danielle’s look from a bright-eyed innocent to a sultry siren, lining her eyes with black kohl and thickening and lengthening her lashes. She’d swept up Danielle’s black hair into a high ponytail, curling a couple of tendrils to frame her face.
    For the first time in years, Danielle actually liked her reflection. Her eyes misted, but she blinked back the tears of gratitude, no way willing to ruin all of Gracie’s hard work. She grabbed Gracie’s wrist. “Thank you.”
    Gracie smiled. “Anytime.”
    Arm in arm, they left the comfort of the bedroom and made their way through the house to the dungeon. Unlike earlier, the lights had been dimmed, sconces glowing on the walls and lighting their path. In only a couple of hours, the energy of the home had changed from innocent to sensual.
    Danielle decided to take advantage of Gracie’s eagerness to share her behind-the-scene knowledge of Benediction. “How many trainees are currently living here?”
    Gracie stopped at the bottom of the kitchen stairs and nibbled on her lower lip. “Normally he only trains a dozen at a time.”
    â€œNormally?”
    â€œWell, with you here, it’s thirteen.”
    Why did the unlucky number feel like an omen? Cole had obviously made concessions to bring her into the trainee program. Was he telling the truth that it was because of her father? Or was