She shook her head. “It was just a rough day, Lee. The price of grain is up, and that has everyone scrambling. I’m sorry I’m being distant. I don’t mean to be, and I don’t want you to think I’m not interested in exploring the club. I want to. I’m rapidly discovering that really nasty sex can be a great stress reliever.”
Years he’d used subs for stress relief, but hearing Avery describe it like that cut him to the quick. She wasn’t telling him something. She was holding something in, and he hated it. A nasty little suspicion was thrumming through his veins. She’d thought he was a hustler before. What if the perfect little princess was just using him for sex? Had he really thought she was interested in him for anything beyond a little stress relief? She was smart. She’d grown up privileged. Yes, she’d lost her parents and that lifestyle, but did those beliefs ever really go away? She’d married a boy from a good family.
His family was all dead, and he’d had a hand in killing his brother. He’d been born in a slum and still drank cheap beer.
Her hand went to his chest. “Lee? Are you all right?”
He forced his face to go blank. She was his fucking kryptonite. He’d been trained, worked for years, and it all fell away because one passably pretty girl said something to hurt him.
That was the problem. He knew she wasn’t beautiful. On an intellectual level, he knew she was rather plain. But when he looked at her all he saw was the sun in the sky, and she was never going to love him. She deserved better.
“Hey, maybe I could use a little stress relief, too.” He was well aware the words came out with a nasty little bite. He’d spent all day thinking about her, waiting for her, and she wanted to use him as stress relief. Two could play at that game, and he was the Dom in this situation. She was here for his use. “You’ll go into the club, and I have a friend waiting for you. Her name is Eve, and she’ll take you back to the dressing rooms.”
“You’re not going with me?” For the first time in hours, she really looked up at him.
He couldn’t help but soften slightly. “You have to change. It’s fet wear only once you get beyond the lobby, and men and women have separate locker rooms.”
“That sounds oddly normal for a place like this.”
“Only because you don’t understand a place like this. There are rules to the floor. I can walk you around naked on the floor of the club and everyone understands how to behave. And if they don’t they can get their asses handed to them. It’s not going to be a sexual free-for-all in there. It’s very disciplined.”
“You use that word a lot.” She started to follow him across the street, her eyes still on the building in front of her as though she was trying to see past the blandness of the outside.
“Discipline is important.” He’d been undisciplined for a good portion of his life. It was only when he’d gone into the Army and the SAS that he’d found it. His discipline had been blown away when his brother died, but Ian Taggart had given it back to him. Now the only question Liam had was why.
While Avery changed, he intended to get a few answers from his boss.
“How do you know this Eve person?” Avery asked, a hint of rebuke in her tone.
So she wanted to be a little jealous of her boy toy, did she? It was there on the tip of his tongue to mislead her, to let her think Eve was a lover. Eve was a gorgeous woman. Avery would compare herself and likely find herself lacking and then she would be out of the power position. And he just couldn’t do it. He took her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. “She’s just a friend. She’s Ian’s sister, so she’s a little like my sister. But she’s a perfectly experienced submissive.”
She was a whacked-out sub since she would take all the pain and refused any pleasure, but no one seemed to be able to crack Eve’s shell on that one. She allowed Alex to scene with her, but pulled away at the thought of aftercare.
“She’s Ian’s sister? And they play at the same club?”
Yeah, maybe they hadn’t thought this part of the cover through. “Oh, I think they try to avoid each other as much as possible, but it wouldn’t be safe for her to play anywhere else. Now stop procrastinating. Are you in or out?”
She nodded toward the door. “I’m in. I want to see what’s inside.”
Ah, sweet curiosity. It had killed many a cat, though this time it might kill him instead.
He opened the doors and escorted Avery into the very posh-looking lobby. Eve was waiting at the desk looking like a woman who often worked the front desk of a sex club.