“You’re going to push things too far. You’ve been hanging out with the Kings more than us lately.”
Rolling my eyes, I turned to face him. “And I’ve been hanging out with the Kings since before you were out of law school.”
Madden planted his feet on the sidewalk, and I rubbed my temples. He leaned toward me. “You said you wanted to stop drinking so much. You said that. To me.”
“Goddamn it, Madden, I’m not going drinking. I’m going to get fucked by a stranger in a neighborhood neither one of us would be caught dead, or otherwise, in during the daylight. No alcohol required. Sober as a fucking coffin nail.”
He blinked at me and then smirked.
“No,” I said as he opened his mouth.
“Is it someone you’re going to callsir?”
Sighing, I hung my head in defeat, and he laughed his way along the street to the parking lot beside our building, while I stood there and waited for my Uber. I hadn’t been kidding; I didn’t want my car spotted where I was going. I stood there and stared up at the night sky, and a light rain dotted dampness onto my face that didn’t quite do anything to cool the prickly heat rampaging in my body. I couldn’t decide if I was embarrassed or turned on that Madden knew I was off to get fucked. Maybe both. I blew out a long breath as my belly warmed and the feeling tingled its way down to my dick. Did I really want to do this?
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and debated messaging to tell the Dom, Xander, that I wasn’t coming—right up until the Uber stopped in front of me, and then I almost didn’t get in. The car was a Kia, which was fine, but it was camouflage pink. There was no way I wouldn’t be noticed getting out of this thing. I stared at the monstrosity and nearly went back into the building when the driver put down the front passenger window and called, “Mister, you order an Uber?”
Bending down, I eyed up the girl behind the steering wheel. Her afro was a fluffy halo around her head, and she snapped her gum. Her lips were a shocking neon pastel purple, but her smile was friendly, and she seemed so excited with life. Sighing, I tipped her extra before I even got in, since there was no way I should have had a woman driving me to the docks on the lower east side. Hell, I might have worried taking King himself with me.
“You saw where I wanted to go?” I asked as I opened the back door. She tapped her phone where it was anchored to her dashboard and turned to nod at me with an unimpressed stare.
“I’ll drive you to the moon if you’re gonna drop bills that way.”
“Just keep your doors locked.”
She laughed as I got settled into the back seat and buckled, but she did, in fact, lock the doors. New Gothenburg flashed by outside, downtown a brilliant collection of neon lights. Above the ground floor businesses, the buildings were a patchwork quilt of warm, homey lights—quiet lives going on inside each illuminated block. Happy people doing normal, everyday things. I sighed and leaned back on the headrest, closing my eyes.
“Hey, mister,” a quiet voice said, and I snapped my eyes open, startling upright. I hadn’t been asleep, but I was nearly there. Shivering, I had my hand on the door handle when the woman said, kinder than I deserved, “You absolutely sure about this? I’ll take you back for nothin’. This place gives me the creeps.”
She leaned forward to stare out the windshield and I did the same, resting my chin on the seat in front of me. The massive, gloomy—fuck it, okay, scary-looking—steel-and-block building that belonged to the address I’d given her was used to dry dock boats from the marina during the winter. The Dom I’d been talking to said he owned it, and kept his playroom set up here to stash it away from his day-to-day life, which I assumed meant he was married or something, but since I was no longer looking for relationships, I didn’t fucking care.
“You’re right,” I agreed with her. “It is creepy.”
She gave me a quiet little “Mm-hmm” and put her hand on the shifter, notching it into Reverse.
“Wait, I’m going.”
She shook her head at me as I climbed out. I figured that would be the end of things, but she put down her window. “No one else will come get you here in this neighborhood. I see you pop up on the map, I’ll be back, okay?” She gave me the same eyes Madden had earlier, and I had to wonder what the hell kind of vibe I was giving off that everyone was doing that to me lately.
“I’m fine,” I snapped and then felt like a huge asshole. “But thanks.”
She nodded once, and I stepped away through the misty rain to stand in front of the gloomy four-story place. There were busted-out windows at the very top that were maybe skylights, but they might lead into the inside area where they pulled in the boats, so maybe it didn’t matter because the rest of the space underneath was more or less outside too.
The lake sloshed against the pier that spread along to the right of the building, and I took a second to stare at the lights on the water. Farther out a boat drifted by; maybe it was the coast guard. I shivered and started for the only visible door, which also happened to have a light burning over it, one of those blue LEDs that were almost too bright. I’d nearly reached the entrance when I thought I saw a shadow way off to my right dart around the edge of the building, out of sight. I stopped and stared for a second and then shrugged, deciding it didn’t matter. I knocked lightly on the door and was surprised when it was pulled open by a man, probably younger than Madden, wearing nothing but a pair of pink silk shorts.
“Hello,” I said, blinking at him. “You’re cute, but you’re definitely not who I thought I was meeting.”
“Master waits,” he said in a heavy accent, Russian if I had to guess, but maybe Polish, and he blinked at me with brown eyes that could stop the whole world, they were that deep and pretty. Okay, I understood why he was here now, especially when I took another gaze down his body. His abs were fantastic, too. His legs were the kind you’d definitely want wrapped around you.
“And you are?”
He puckered his lips in thought and then smiled at me. “Dima.”
“Let him in,” someone barked from farther inside, and Dima ducked his head, stepping aside to let me pass. Asshole Doms were sometimes okay, but the bite of the man’s words already had me on edge, and I didn’t like the way Dima seemed to tremble but wasn’t popping wood. To me, that lack of excitement meant he was only scared.
Stepping inside, I wasn’t entirely disappointed, however. There were several stations set up around the industrial space sporting dirty beige walls and filthy cement-pad floors that looked like they might be for mild suspension—wrist bars, cuffs set into the floor. My footsteps echoed as I paced forward. Anticipation shivered through me when I caught sight of a wickedly long and thin paddle leaning against a spanking bench. Along the right-hand wall was a bed with what seemed from here to be comfortable black blankets and a mound of pillows, and the room was warmed by space heaters blazing cheerfully in the corners. I began to relax until I realized there were too many people here. Yeah, Xander hadn’t mentioned our friend Dima, the door boy, which was okay, but there was another guy… kid… who immediately had me composing my exit strategy.
He was blond and blue-eyed and sat in black leather pants at a small table eating Chinese food with chopsticks, but if he was eighteen, then I was Cher. I did not play that way. He didn’t seem upset, though, so I wasn’t too worried about him. Finally, two men in the far corner moving a sawhorse caught my eye. They were huge guys, exactly the type of men who starred in my wet dreams. One was tall and fit with close-cropped gray hair, large muscles, in brown leather pants and nothing else. The other was in a black harness and had a sleek, muscled look. He had dark curls, and when he glanced across the room at me, it was that same heartbreaker face that had snagged me when I’d seen it online. He was the one I’d been talking to all week, and I raised a hand toward him, all at once not able to speak even though I’d planned on leaving.
