The Marine's Pet by Loki Renard

account by more than one person is exciting to you.”
    He said it as a statement, apparently knowing it was true.
    “Well, maybe,” she admitted. “But that’s not fair, is it.”
    “Life is never fair,” Austin said, cuddling her close. “Besides, I have my hands full with you. I have no need to be disciplining others. Whereas you…”
    “Me what?”
    “You might very well benefit from a community-based approach.”
    Sarah laughed. “I am not that bad.”
    “No,” he said. “You’re not bad at all. You’re new, and you’re curious and I can already see those thoughts of yours taking you down a road where you’re going to find trouble.”
    “That’s not true,” Sarah lied, cuddling close to him in an effort to hide her feelings in their proximity.
    “Mhm.” He held her close and their conversation faded a little as they took in the goings-on in the room. Anastasia had gravitated back to Robert. Rebecca and her partner Chase were cuddling together and Sybil and Hannah were draped over Earnest looking as happy and smug as two cats bathing in cream.
    “Would Sarah like the special tour?” Anastasia and Robert were suddenly in front of them, looking somewhat smug and inviting, as if they had a surprise in store. Sarah looked at Austin, who nodded.
    “Oh, I think she’d very much enjoy that,” Austin said.
    Sarah was not looking forward to hearing about where they got their faucets from and who did the floors, but it turned out that the special tour was not so much a tour of the house as it was a direct route to the kitchen, where a door led to steps, which led to a basement, which in most people’s homes would have held some forgotten hobby supplies and maybe a boiler, but which under Anastasia and Robert’s home housed a full-fledged dungeon. Purple carpet covered the floor, and atop it were arranged some of the most lavish and complex pieces of equipment Sarah had ever laid eyes on in her life. There were tables with stirrups and padded horses and whips and crops and paddles galore on the walls.
    “What do you think, Sarah?” Robert asked the question.
    “I think this is where you got your judging skills from,” she said. “It’s practically medieval.”
    Robert chuckled softly. “You got no more than you deserved back then, though I admit, if I could have sentenced you to a good swift caning instead of three days in jail, I would have.”
    Sarah gulped as she tried to digest that information and failed. In the meantime, Robert had escorted them all to a big St. Andrew’s cross, which was essentially a large elongated X-shaped piece of wood complete with shackles at the ends of each of its arms.
    “Would you like to try it, Sarah?”
    “Me?” Sarah squeaked. “Oh, no, I couldn’t…”
    Austin ran his hand down her back and murmured a word or two of encouragement in her ear, which made Sarah bite her lower lip and eye the cross up curiously. It was not in her nature to say no to new experiences, but this one really did seem to be out of her depth.
    “Okay,” she said finally. “I will try it, but I don’t want any pain.”
    That statement made a ripple of amusement pass through the group.
    “Step up to the cross,” Austin said, guiding her forward. She found herself standing up against it, raising her arms toward the shackles. The whole affair was tilted slightly back, so she could lean some of her weight against it, which made things a little more comfortable as Austin’s capable hands fastened the leather cuffs about her wrists.
    She gave an experimental tug, and discovered that she was indeed stuck. The revelation made a little jolt of adrenaline flow through her, but she was quickly distracted by Austin’s fingers at the hem of her skirt, hiking it up over her bottom so her heated cheeks were exposed to Robert and Anastasia as well.
    “Hey!”
    “Shhh,” Austin said, leaning forward to press a kiss to the back of her neck. “You’re among friends, remember?”
    “Oh,