We’re not dating. We’re not even regular scene partners. He’s not my Dom or my Daddy. He’s just a really amazing guy who gave me an absolutely mind-blowing experience on a porn set, of all places.
I barely spent two hours with him, so there’s no reason I should feel so attached.
But the heart wants what it wants.
So, to try and wean myself out of theway too strongfeelings I developed during our scenes together, I’ve been staying away from The Grove.
Until tonight.
Meg waved me on through to the main club space and I skirted around the edges, aiming for the side hallway that leads to the elevators and grand staircase at the back of the building. On the outside, this whole place just looks like one giant industrial shed. But on the inside, it’s damn near magical.
Split into two stories, downstairs is a huge nightclub, with parallel hallways bracketing the club space, each with their own locker rooms and bathrooms. They meet around the back of the club area in a U shape, where two elevators frame a lush, red carpeted staircase.
Like the security system, the soundproofing in this place is next level, because when you make it upstairs to the hallways that look like something out of a swanky hotel, you can’t hear the music from downstairs at all. It’s a different world up here.
Each hallway has half a dozen doors, which lead to themed rooms for hire. There’s everything from upscale offices, a classroom, and even a well-stocked dungeon along here. At the far end of the hallway, a massive age regression playroom takes up at least a third of the upstairs space, running from one sideof the building to the other. I don’t partake in age play, but even I get excited any time I’m in that big room…mostly because of the inviting bouncy castle nestled at the far end of the space. It’s hard not to see the appeal in that.
But tonight I’m headed for one of the rooms designed to resemble the inside of a rustic log cabin, and I fish the key from my back pocket when I get there. Andthat’swhen I clock movement out of the corner of my eye. My breath catches when I register who is walking towards me.
“I’m not stalking you,” Dmitri jokes, smiling that same damn smile that makes my stomach flip. Then he sees the keycard in my hand —outstretched towards the reader above the handle— and I take an unreasonable amount of pleasure out of the way his expression briefly flickers into disappointment before it smooths into an approximation of apology. “Sorry, you’re meeting someone?”
It sounds like he’s fishing for information and, damn it, but I love that. I want to believe that he was just as affected by our short time together as I was.
“No,” I shake my head, “I’m working, actually.” I gesture to my shirt in response to the adorable crinkle in his brow. “My day job. I’m an electrician. They’ve reported a fault in this room and it’s not safe for anyone to use the lights or sockets in here until I’ve fixed it.”
And it is super awesome that the club sprung to have every room on its own little circuit, too, though I think they realized that it’s easier to shut down one room than an entire building if anything goes wrong. Like tonight, for example.
“Oh!” All right, that isdefinitelyrelief I hear in his voice, and I can see it in the way his shoulders loosen and his smile seems less forced and more…well,Dmitri.“That’s cool. I bet you have heaps of buddies asking you to come help around their places, huh?”
“I get bribed with pizza and beer occasionally, yeah,” I chuckle, and finally lift the card to the reader on the door. It beeps and a little green light above the handle lets me know I’ve successfully unlocked it, so I press the handle down and push the door open.
Dmitri reaches towards the switch on the wall.
“Don’t!” I grab his wrist. Jolts of electricity which havenothingto do with the faulty circuit in the room skitter up my arm. “Faulty wiring, remember?”
His eyes widen. “Shit, sorry. Force of habit.”
I nod. “I get it.” Really, I should be insisting that he waits outside, but I’m too selfish and I’ve been missing him too much to do that. I gesture to the couch, a plush black leather monstrosity set in front of a fake fireplace, with a large faux fur rug on the floor between them. “Go sit. This won’t take me too long.”
He does as he’s told while I locate the room’s electrical panel, stealthily concealed behind a framed tapestry of a forest scene. He’s quiet while I do my thing, trying to see if the issue is just a blown circuit or whether there’s any faulty wiring at play. The spark might also have been caused by a buildup of carbon in the switch, but my money is on a bad wire, given that it happened a couple of times before they called us.
For a handful of minutes, he’s quiet, letting me concentrate on my job. I find the bad wire easily enough, and start my mental checklist on repairing it.
“I should have asked for your number.” Dmitri’s voice cuts into my thoughts, and my brain grinds to a halt.
Turning to face him, I find him leaning against the armrest of the leather lounge, his gaze sharp and pinned on me. My heart skips a beat. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he agrees. “I thought we had chemistry, and I had a lot of fun doing those scenes with you.”
I’m barely able to process what he’s saying, too distracted by how good he looks in his molded-on jeans and a black t-shirt that clings to his biceps then drapes over his soft belly in the most delicious way possible.
I’d thought he was hot dressed as Sexy Santa, but this casual Daddy energy is something else entirely. I want to throw myself over his lap and accept my punishment for avoiding him…not that he knows that I was.
“Is that okay?” he asks when I’m quiet for too long.
“Hmm?”
“That I enjoyed our scenes and was hoping to connect outside of work.”
