Saige stood inside the barn doors, her black leather pants creaking softly as she shifted her weight.
The place she had walked through empty looked different now.
The curtains across several bays were already open. The stockade sat inside one of them, angled so it could be seen from the aisle. The restraint chair occupied another. Farther down, the people wall stood exposed between Bays Eight and Nine. The stage remained clear beneath the lights, the cross waiting against it.
Elara came out from behind the bar carrying two glasses.
“You came.”
“I said I would.”
Elara handed her one.
Saige looked around. “Where am I supposed to be?”
“Wherever you can see without getting in anyone’s way.”
“That’s it?”
“You’re watching.”
Saige took a drink.
Bryce walked past carrying a box of restraints.
“No speech?”
“No.”
“No list of rules?”
He looked at her.
“I’m not doing anything.”
“Then you don’t need one.”
Headlights swept across the front curtains.
Saige’s stomach tightened.
Elara saw it. “Still want to be here?”
“Yes.”
The door opened before she could think about it any longer.
Holly came through first.
Her gaze went straight to Saige.
“Well. You got in.”
“Eventually.”
Holly grinned and hugged Elara on her way past.
Luke and Erin followed. Then Matt and Sophie. Liam came through arguing with Joel about something neither appeared remotely serious about.
Introductions were brief.
Nobody treated Saige as the reason they were there.
That helped.
Within minutes Holly was behind the bar, Erin had stolen Bryce’s drink, Liam was trying to convince Sophie of something that made her laugh, and Joel had taken one of the pews.
The room filled around Saige.
Not ceremonially.
Naturally.
Someone kissed somebody.
A curtain closed.
Another opened.
Clothes began disappearing.
Saige sat near the end of one pew and watched.
⸻
Holly was the easiest person to follow because Saige already knew her.
She kissed Erin against the bar while Luke stood beside them drinking, entirely unbothered by Holly’s hand sliding beneath Erin’s top.
Then Holly broke away and crossed directly to Elara.
Elara barely had time to put down her glass before Holly kissed her.
Saige stared.
She had known.
Knowing was different.
Holly’s hands settled around Elara’s waist. Elara caught her by the back of the neck and kissed her harder.
Bryce passed them on his way towards the stage.
Holly reached out blindly and caught the front of his jeans.
Bryce stopped.
Elara laughed against Holly’s mouth.
“Greedy.”
“Always.”
Holly released him and Bryce kept walking.
Nothing about it looked awkward.
Nobody checked anyone’s reaction.
Nobody needed to.
Across the aisle Matt had Sophie against one of the old half-walls, kissing her while her skirt rode higher beneath his hands.
Luke disappeared into the bay containing the stockade with Erin.
The curtain stayed open.
Saige looked.
Erin knelt into the padded rests while Luke secured her wrists forward. Her chest settled against the leather-covered support.
Then Saige saw the machine behind her.
“Oh.”
Holly heard her.
“Worked that bit out, did you?”
Saige looked at her.
Holly laughed and returned to kissing Elara.
From the bay came Erin’s sharp intake of breath.
Saige looked back.
Luke stood beside the stockade rather than behind it, watching Erin while the machine moved.
Erin pushed back into it.
The sound she made carried into the aisle.
Saige swallowed.
Nobody else even paused.
⸻
Farther down the barn, Liam had stripped.
Saige noticed because he walked past carrying his own clothes and dropped them beside Joel.
“What are you doing?”
Liam smiled at her.
“You’ll see.”
Joel shook his head. “He’s been looking forward to this all week.”
“That reassuring, is it?”
“No.”
Liam laughed and disappeared into the bay beside the people wall.
The curtain remained wide open.
When Saige looked again, Liam was restrained against it, legs apart, his body exposed.
Joel stood behind him.
Saige’s eyes widened.
Joel glanced towards her.
Not inviting.
Just noticing.
Saige stayed where she was.
Joel’s hand closed around Liam’s hip.
Liam pushed back.
Then Joel entered him.
Saige’s breath caught.
There was no attempt to hide what was happening.
Joel fucked him slowly at first, one hand still around his hip while Liam rested against the wall.
Liam turned his head enough to grin.
“Stop being nice.”
Joel laughed.
Then stopped being nice.
The wall took the movement of Liam’s body while Joel drove into him harder.
Saige stared.
Holly wandered past carrying a drink.
“You’re going to hurt your neck trying to watch everything.”
“There’s a lot happening.”
“That’s generally the idea.”
Holly kept walking.
By the time Saige looked back towards the wall, Sophie had joined them.
Matt stood behind her.
Sophie had changed since Saige last looked. Her skirt was gone.
So were her underwear.
A harness sat around her hips.
Saige recognised what was attached to it immediately.
Liam looked over his shoulder.
“Oh, fuck yes.”
Joel withdrew.
Sophie stepped into his place.
Matt kissed the side of her neck while she pressed the strap-on against Liam.
Then pushed inside him.
Saige felt heat climb her throat.
Sophie gripped Liam’s hips and began fucking him while Matt’s hand moved between her legs from behind.
Liam’s head dropped forward.
“Harder.”
Sophie obliged.
Saige looked away.
Then looked back almost immediately.
⸻
The stage drew her attention next.
Bryce had Elara against the cross.
Not because anyone announced it.
Saige simply realised they were there.
Elara was naked now.
Her wrists were restrained overhead, her body facing the timber, Bryce standing behind her.
Saige had seen him touch Elara a thousand times.
A hand at her waist.
A kiss while passing in the kitchen.
Fingers brushing her back.
This was the same familiarity stripped of everything ordinary.
Bryce ran his hands down Elara’s sides.
She pushed her arse back against him.
He smiled.
Saige knew that smile too.
Elara turned her head.
“Are you going to stand there all night?”
Bryce stepped closer.
His hand slid between her thighs.
Elara’s breath changed immediately.
Saige sat straighter.
Bryce knew exactly what he was doing to her.
There was no searching.
No hesitation.
His fingers worked between Elara’s legs while his other hand held her hip.
Elara pulled against the restraints.
“Bryce.”
He kissed her shoulder.
Saige looked at his face.
That unsettled her more than Elara’s naked body.
The concentration.
The attention.
She remembered having all of it aimed at her.
Bryce lowered his jeans.
Elara looked back over her shoulder.
Then he pushed into her.
Her head dropped forward.
Saige’s fingers tightened around her glass.
Bryce fucked her against the cross with the same deliberate rhythm she remembered from another life, one hand gripping Elara’s hip while the other disappeared around the front of her body.
Elara’s breathing became broken.
Then louder.
Saige looked away towards the bays.
Erin was still in the stockade.
Sophie was still fucking Liam.
Joel now stood beside them with one hand wrapped around Liam’s cock.
Matt had Sophie bent slightly forward while he fucked her from behind as she continued driving the strap-on into Liam.
Saige stared for several seconds.
There was nowhere uncomplicated to look.
She turned back to the stage.
Elara came hard enough to pull against the restraints.
Bryce kept her against the cross until the movement passed through her.
Then he kissed the back of her neck.
Quietly.
Almost tenderly.
That was worse.
⸻
Later Saige found herself at the bar.
She wasn’t sure exactly when she had moved.
Holly came beside her, naked except for boots, and poured herself water.
“You alright?”
“Yes.”
Holly drank.
“That’s all you’re going to ask?”
“You’re watching. I’m not your tour guide.”
Saige laughed despite herself.
Across the barn Luke was releasing Erin from the stockade.
Erin stepped out on unsteady legs and immediately kissed him.
Sophie had removed the harness and was sitting on the floor against Matt’s legs.
Liam remained at the wall.
Joel was on his knees in front of him now.
Saige watched Joel take Liam into his mouth.
Holly followed her gaze.
“He’ll stay there all bloody night if people let him.”
“Liam?”
“Yep.”
As though proving her right, Erin walked past, saw Liam still restrained and smiled.
“Oh, you’re still available.”
Liam lifted his head.
“For you?”
“Apparently.”
She disappeared briefly behind a curtain and returned fastening a harness around her hips.
Saige stared at Holly.
Holly shrugged.
“Told you.”
Saige laughed.
She watched Erin take Joel’s place behind Liam.
Then Bryce came to the bar.
Shirt open.
Jeans fastened again.
He reached for a bottle of water.
For a second his eyes met Saige’s.
The old familiarity hit harder than anything she had watched.
He didn’t ask what she thought.
Didn’t check whether she was shocked.
Didn’t explain.
He simply opened the bottle.
“You alright?”
“Yes.”
Bryce nodded.
And walked back to Elara.
Saige watched him go.