The conversation around the bar faded as Bryce and Elara moved toward the stage.
They opened the enclosed bay beside it together and disappeared inside. A moment later Elara backed out carrying one end of a chair while Bryce took the other. They lifted it onto the stage and set it down, then shifted it twice until Elara was happy with where it sat.
That was enough to bring the others closer.
“What’s going on now?” Liam asked.
Elara smiled. “Something new.”
Bryce returned to the bay and came back with a case. By the time he set it beside the chair, Holly and Erin had moved to the stage, Luke behind them. Matt and Sophie came closer together. Liam and Joel brought their drinks.
Bryce opened the case and lifted one of the needles.
“If you’re not comfortable with blood, you might not want to watch this.”
Nobody moved away.
Sophie took another step closer.
Elara settled onto the chair, facing into it, her chest supported against the padding and her arms resting forward. She shifted until she was comfortable, then gathered her hair clear of her back.
Bryce stood behind her with a marker.
The first touch was cool beside her shoulder blade.
He worked slowly, measuring the shape against her body rather than drawing two straight rows. Each piercing needed an entry and an exit, two small marks close together. Five down one side. Five down the other.
The rows sat wider apart across her upper back, narrowed as they followed her waist, then opened again below.
Twenty small dots by the time he finished.
Bryce stood back.
Elara felt him looking.
“Happy?”
“Yes.”
He put the marker down.
Elara slipped one hand between her thighs.
Bryce prepared the first piercing.
“Tell me when.”
Elara began slowly.
The anticipation sharpened as pleasure gathered beneath it. It didn’t take long before her breathing changed.
Bryce waited.
Elara let herself climb. Her thighs tightened around her hand.
Closer.
Closer again.
She stopped herself on the edge and held there, breathing hard against the padding.
“Ready.”
Bryce’s hand settled against her side.
The first needle went through.
Elara gasped.
The pain arrived bright and clean, cutting straight across the pleasure she had been holding.
Her fingers tightened between her thighs.
For one breath she didn’t move.
Then she exhaled.
“Fuck.”
Bryce waited.
Elara smiled against the padding.
“Do the other side.”
The second piercing answered the first.
This time she knew what was coming. The sharp pressure still pulled a sound from her, but it didn’t break the rhythm she had found.
Bryce fitted the jewellery and moved to the second pair.
Elara started touching herself again.
The third piercing made her hips jerk.
The fourth made her swear.
Somewhere behind Bryce, Holly laughed softly.
Elara heard Sophie whisper something she couldn’t make out.
Bryce’s palm settled briefly against her waist.
“Good?”
“Yes.”
He moved to the third pair.
The first four piercings were already throbbing when Elara brought herself back toward the edge.
The fifth went through and stole her breath.
The sixth followed on the other side.
Elara gripped the chair, breathing through the hot points now running down both sides of her back.
Bryce stopped.
“You’re shaking.”
“So?”
“Checking.”
“I’m good.”
Elara turned her head as far as the chair allowed. Tears stood in her eyes when she found him.
“Keep fucking going.”
That earned a laugh from the group.
Bryce held her gaze for another moment, then moved to the fourth pair.
Elara’s hand moved again.
When pleasure climbed too high, she slowed, holding herself close while Bryce lined up the next marks.
“Ready.”
The seventh piercing went through.
Elara cried out.
“Fuck.”
The eighth followed.
Elara immediately laughed into the padding.
“Arsehole.”
“You told me.”
“I know.”
By the time he reached the fifth and lowest pair, sweat had gathered along Elara’s hairline. Her back burned in two shaped rows. Pleasure sat low and heavy between her thighs, never quite allowed to finish.
“Last two.”
Elara drew a slow breath.
Her hand moved faster.
She brought herself close again, closer than before, until her whole body tightened against the chair.
“Ready.”
The ninth piercing went through.
Pain flashed across her lower back.
Elara groaned and held the edge.
Bryce moved to the matching side.
She didn’t let herself drop away from it.
“Now.”
The tenth piercing came.
Elara’s fingers stopped.
For several seconds there was nothing but her breathing.
“Done.”
She let her forehead sink into the padding.
“Thank fuck.”
Holly laughed.
“That looked considerably less fun from here.”
Elara lifted one finger without raising her head.
“Fuck off.”
Bryce was moving again behind her.
Elara felt the first movement through one of the upper rings.
Her breath caught.
“Ribbon now.”
She smiled.
The black ribbon began at the top.
Bryce threaded it through the paired rings, crossing from one side of her back to the other, then back again.
The first slow pull of satin shifted the fresh jewellery in her skin.
Elara shuddered.
Another pass moved through the opposite rings, and the sensation ran through her back in a bright rush, softer than the needle but somehow more intimate.
“Fuck.”
Bryce paused.
“No. Keep going.”
He did.
She could follow every movement without seeing him. Left to right. Right to left. Each pass woke another pair, the satin sliding through the rings while the jewellery moved fractionally in her skin.
The crossings narrowed as they moved down toward her waist.
By the third, Elara’s fingers had tightened around the armrests.
Another slow pull.
Her thighs pressed together.
The sensation was becoming almost orgasmic, every movement of the ribbon building on the pleasure she had spent the entire piercing sequence holding back.
Sophie ended up nearest.
“Oh, wow.”
Elara smiled into the chair, breath already uneven.
“That good?”
“It looks like it’s pulling you in.”
Bryce continued downward.
Cross.
Cross.
Cross.
The black satin stood stark against Elara’s skin, the silver rings catching the barn lights between each pass.
As the pattern widened again below her waist, every change in direction shifted the fresh jewellery differently. Elara moaned at the next pull, her hips moving involuntarily against the chair.
Holly laughed softly.
“I think she likes the ribbon.”
“Shut up.”
By the time Bryce reached the bottom, Elara was breathing almost as hard as she had before the final piercing.
He drew the last length through and tied the ribbon.
The movement travelled through the whole pattern.
Elara’s eyes closed.
“Jesus Christ.”
For a moment nobody said anything.
Then Liam gave a low whistle.
Holly said, “That is fucking beautiful.”
Elara stayed where she was, feeling the faint movement of the ribbon through the rings with every breath.
Sophie came closer.
“Can I?”
“Not the piercings.”
“I know.”
Sophie placed her fingertips against Elara’s side, well clear of the lowest ring.
Her hand moved slowly upward beside the ribbon.
The touch was barely there.
“You like it.”
Sophie nodded.
“A lot.”
Holly appeared beside her.
“I’m suddenly reconsidering several life choices.”
“You’re not getting mine.”
“I didn’t ask for yours.”
“Yet.”
Holly grinned.
The adrenaline was beginning to drain now, leaving the heat across Elara’s back much more noticeable.
Bryce came around beside the chair.
“How bad?”
“Not bad.”
“Liar.”
“Enough.”
Elara shifted slightly.
“You want the reward?”
“Yes.”
Sophie laughed quietly somewhere behind him.
Elara smiled.
Bryce’s hand moved higher.
Her back remained completely untouched, open to the room, the ribbon shifting faintly with each breath.
His fingers found her between the thighs.
Elara exhaled hard.
All the pleasure she had held through the piercing sequence was still there. The ribbon had brought it dangerously close again.
His fingers moved slowly at first, easing her back toward the edge without rushing her. Elara pressed her forehead into the face cradle and let the chair carry her weight.
The burn down her back remained.
So did the movement of the ribbon through the rings.
Her hips began to move.
“More.”
He gave her more.
The room disappeared by degrees.
Not completely.
She could still hear them.
Someone shifting near the stage.
A glass being put down.
Sophie’s breathing closer than the others.
Bryce’s fingers changed rhythm.
Elara gasped.
Her hands closed around the ends of the armrests.
“Bryce.”
“I know.”
Another few strokes.
The pleasure broke through everything else.
Elara came hard against his hand, body locking into the chair, a cry tearing out of her before she could swallow it. Every muscle across her back tightened at once and the fresh piercings answered, the ribbon shifting through them in a sharp rush that only pushed the orgasm higher.
Bryce kept his hand exactly where she needed it.
Elara trembled through the last of it.
Then slowly went heavy against the padding.
Bryce’s other hand settled against her hip.
No one spoke for a moment.
Elara finally lifted her head. Tears had spilled down her cheeks.
“Fuck.”
Holly laughed.
“That looked considerably more fun.”
Elara managed to turn enough to find her.
“That part was.”
Bryce kissed Elara’s temple.
Sophie stood near the edge of the stage, still staring at the black ribbon crossing Elara’s flushed back.
Elara smiled.
“Worth watching?”
Sophie nodded.
“Definitely.”