“That’s it for tonight, folks!” Tank’s jovial bass breaks through the sexy, warm little bubble in which I was happily basking. “Off the Cuff’s first monthly speed-dating night is done!”
And just like that, I fall back to earth with a thump.
CHAPTER SIX
Grant
THIS WAS A TERRIBLEidea.
It’s one thing to play with experienced subs, but fresh new kinksters like Sunny need lots and lots of attention.
And I’m absolutely not in a position to give that to anyone right now. Especially the kind that involves more than one session and hours of gentle aftercare. A bath, more back rubs, candles. Gentle punishment and sweet coercion.
“All done,” I say in a much louder voice than intended.
A few people glance at us before looking quickly back to where Lucas is reiterating the dungeon’s two-drink maximum rule, along with the club’s motto of risk-aware consensual kink, otherwise known as RACK.
“Alrighty then. Yep. Thanks.” She’s up and backing away in the direction of the door before it occurs to me that she’s trying to leave without aftercare. “That was great. I guess I’ll see you around. Bye!”
“Hey. Wait a minute.” I snag her BDSM checklist and move to intercept her. Just because I don’t have time to take on a new sub doesn’t mean I won’t provide her with adequate aftercare. We’re not done. “Don’t go. After a scene, we need to—”
“Oh, I’m good.” She snags the sheaf of papers from my hand. “Thank you.” Her smile is crisp and quick and the complete antithesis of the slow, sensual way she opened up to me just a minute ago. I don’t like it.
“Listen, you wanted to know how a scene goes. This is how it goes. Aftercare’s part of doing a scene. You can’t just take off like—”
“I’mfine.” Another of those too-sharp smiles. “Oh, I mean, I loved it. It was really great.” Her lips turn down a little at the edges, taking her smile from fake to downright condescending, which makes no sense at all. Is she patronizing me? “You arereallygood at that, sir. Great job. I mean it.” With a double thumbs-up, she takes off for the door.
I follow her. “Hey.”
“What’s up?” she says over her shoulder.
“You need to listen to me. I know about this stuff.”
She stops with a sigh and looks up at me, her once-sultry blue eyes clear. “Oh, I get that. I just need to get home. I’ve got things—people—waiting for me.” Then she pats my arm and says, “I’ll do aftercare there. That’s okay, right?”
“Aftercare at home,” I mumble.
“Exactly! Aftercare at my place.” Her nod tells me I got it in one. It’s the kind of nod a kindergarten teacher might give a kid who needs extra positive reinforcement. “Have a wonderful night!” And then, to really drive her point home, she makes a little gun with her hand and winks as she shoots it at me, saying, “You rock!” like I’ve just earned my first star in class, and she’s so very proud of me.
There’s not much I can do but watch as she bustles out the door, leaving me standing in the middle of the growing crowd like a moss-gathering stone in a river.
“I do believe you’ve found yourself a new sub. She leave behind a shoe?” Lucas walks up, wearing one of his evil grins.
“A shoe?”
“Like Cinder… Oh, never mind. That looked like fun.”
I ignore the urge to shoulder check him and say, “Absolutely not. No new subs for me.”
“But you like her.”
“She’s fine.” A rogue muscle flexes in my jaw. It’s been doing that a lot lately, what with the renovations upstairs and my neighbor’s troubles and the endless phone calls from my mother, inviting me to attend yet another wedding, bookending a marriage that’s bound to end in disaster. What number is this? Ten? Twelve?
Holy shit. Could this be her thirteenth?
Twelve botched marriages and she’s still trying. Got to give it to her. The woman has staying power. Or, I guess, trying power. Sadly, no matter what my extremely driven, intelligent mother says, when it comes to relationships, she is genetically inclined to fail. It’s written into her goddamn DNA, as surely as it is in mine. Except, unlike my literal genius dentist mother, I was smart enough to figure out the pattern after a single mistake instead of a baker’s dozen.
Thinking of my mother is what does the trick. Suddenly, all my tension eases. I go perfectly calm, as if this whole blip never took place.
