Her beautiful eyes narrowed. “You trust me?”
“I trust you’re a woman of your word.”
She nodded and put the card in her pocket before heading over to Griffin, who was at the bar—settling the tab, I supposed.
The other damnable thing was how I felt about Griffin leaving with my prize. I was still hard from getting a peek of the small mounds under her shirt every time she’d taken a shot while playing with Griff. I needed to work off the tension, so though I hadn’t planned it, I paid my tab and got on my bike, heading to the club.
As I walked in, music poured through the speaker. I headed straight for my office to change. All black was the costume of the ring master, so I put on black leather pants, no shirt, and prowled the floors of my club. Everything about the place had made me happy until recently. I couldn’t pinpoint when things had changed. I felt restless and out of sorts for reasons unknown to me.
“Boss.”
I turned to see Lana, a short brunette with curves for days. She was my type in every way. But nothing. I felt nothing, only numb.
“Yeah, love?”
Her eyes were too bright and glassy, which meant a conversation before the end of the day. I didn’t allow my employees to be under any influences while on the job. It was too dangerous. Something could get out of control. My members had iron-clad contracts of confidentiality and I couldn’t allow anyone with a loose tongue to be in my employ.
Plus, even though I ran a sex club, no one was an actual sex worker. Sex was freely given here by a consensual partner. Someone on drugs couldn’t consent or be trusted to approve the consent of the members.
“Our newest member wants a scene with you,” she said.
It wasn’t hard to spot the beauty across the way. I didn’t let in newbies often. Her father was some big shot in the Middle East, according to the background checks and long conversations I’d had with Griffin. Despite our mutual hate for each other, he headed my security. Although we didn’t get on, I trusted him. He had warned me it might be a bad fucking idea to approve this woman’s application, since it could backfire if her father found out and didn’t like that his daughter had kinks.
I didn’t often do a scene with someone. A seductive song came on with a beat and a melody that fit my dark mood yet sparked something in me, so I asked, “What does she want?”
“To be spanked,” Lana said with the shy baby voice she used when she was turned on.
“Fine,” I said a little sharply, annoyed that I also had a personnel problem to deal with at closing and made my way to the center platform.
Normally a scene played out organically, without calling attention to it. But I knew this member wanted a show.
“How’s everybody’s night?” I said in the mic that had been discreetly handed to me by one of my staff. And with those words, I felt that familiar cockiness that always turned heads come out of me. “Who feels bad tonight?”
All the women, and some men, in the audience raised their arms, hooting and hollering like I was some rock star, fueling that showman in me.
I made eye contact with our newest member. “Come here, love. Tell me just how bad you’ve been.”
My team worked as efficiently as a theatrical group, because in a way, that was exactly what the various stages around the vast room were meant to be. They were platforms for live performances for all the voyeurs. Dressed all in black to blend in, one of my staff helped her up the few steps to reach me. At the same time, I handed one of them the mic. I would need my hands for what came next.
Her shy smile should have given me a semi. When my traitorous dick didn’t respond, I continued with the script I’d written in my head when Lana told me about her request.
I bent my head and said in her ear, “Just how bad have you been?”
From there, everything went on autopilot as I played my role, the one I’d been born into. A chair appeared without me asking. After I sat, I laid her across my lap and lifted the little skirt she wore. I directed her to count out the punishment she’d requested. There was a fine line between pain and pleasure.
Though she may like pain, as some did, by the time I was done, I’d also made her come. I soothed the reddened skin with rubs before flipping her over and cradling her in my arms. She was spent.
I stood with her in my arms because I couldn’t just leave her. Even though she’d wanted this, it was still my responsibility to take care of her all the way until the end.