“I already reserved a private room for us, but we have a minute to say hi to everyone, if you’d like.”If she didn’t, he would count his blessings; it would be a lot easier to ignore his reaction to Audrey if he didn’t have to stand very close to her, but he also wasn’t going to keep Yasmine from her friends.
She hesitated for a moment, then nodded.“Let’s go say hi, real quick.”
Great.
He led her over, giving everyone a genial smile while the women greeted each other with hugs and compliments.He and David did the manly nod thing, jerking their chins up at each other.
The fact that Jensen wasn’t here didn’t entirely surprise Mason.He didn’t think that going to the bakery together meant that Jennifer and Jensen were suddenly an exclusive item, but he couldn’t see the other man showing up at the club tonight after having a date with her.It did surprise, and worry him, that Drew wasn’t here but Naomi was.
They were definitely going to need to have that talk soon.
“How’s your day going?”Mason asked David, who was doing everything he could to avoid looking in his sister’s direction.
“Terrible.First, my grandma shows up at the bakery with Mick as her date, and now I have to see my sister like this.”
Mason almost choked.
“Your grandmother and Mick?”Geezus, the age gap on that was worse than Lincoln and Ashley.
“I don’t think they’re actuallydoinganything other than annoying me, but I’m not sure they’renotdoing anything either.Grandma told me it was none of my business and started threatening to take my butt stick out herself so she could whack me with it.”David’s tone and expression were so direly grim, Mason could hardly contain his amusement.
“What did Audrey think?”he couldn’t help but ask.It was only natural to ask since she was Brenda’s other grandchild.
“I don’t think she realized they were on a ‘date’,” David said, using his fingers to make air quotes around the word ‘date.’“She was busy because that was around the time Harris and his team came in, just after you left.”
“Ah, gotcha.Well, the more Brenda knows it bothers you, the more she’s going to do it.”
“What if I manage to make it stop bothering me, and it turns out she wasn’t doing it just to bother me?”The pained expression on David’s face made Mason press his lips together.
It wasn’t nice to laugh at a friend’s pain, but the situation was genuinely hilarious.Especially the way David was reacting to it.Mason was ninety-nine percent sure Brenda and Mick were just messing with him.That was exactly the kind of thing they would both do.
There was that other one percent, though…
“Mason, should we go?”Yasmine asked, turning toward him.
He glanced over at the clock on the wall.
“Yeah, our room should be ready.”He swept his gaze across everyone with a small smile as he held out his arm for her to take again, deliberately not letting himself focus on or linger on any singular person.“Have a good night, everyone.”
Leading Yasmine away to the sounds of everyone else wishing them a good night, they headed over to the opening at the back of the bar, which looked over the lower floor.That’s where both the Dungeon and the private rooms were.When they reached the lower floor, something made Mason look up.Audrey was there, flanked by Ashley and Naomi, with Claudia hovering protectively just behind them.
So, she was well taken care of.
Still, his stomach twisted at knowing there were probably any number of Doms who would jump at a chance to introduce her to the scene, even with her brother around.
It would be a good thing if one did.Maybe then my brain would get on board with reality.
Thankfully, because of the overhang, he couldn’t keep looking up at her without being obvious.A few moments later, he and Yasmine were walking out of view of the balcony and to the side, where the private rooms were, his name on the board outside the second one.
“Here we go,” he said with forced cheerfulness as he escorted her into the room.His club bag had already been brought down and was waiting for him on one of the chairs.The room was richly furnished and decorated.There was a bed as well as a St.Andrew’s Cross, a spanking bench, and an assortment of implements in case he didn’t have something he wanted to use.Gavin, the owner of the club, made sure the rooms were always fully stocked.“Everything is already set up.Do you need to use the bathroom or anything before we get started?”
Rather than answering right away, Yasmine walked over to the bed.Mason frowned as he watched her, wondering what she was doing.Sitting down on the edge, she rested her elbows on her knees, hands clasped in front of her.
With a sigh, she looked up to meet his gaze.
“We need to talk.”
Audrey
