Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18
BECKETT
R uby’s eyes fluttered closed on a low moan as he pushed a bruschetta topped crostini past her parted lips. Shifting slightly in his seat to ease the pressure on his aching cock, he tapped her nose. “You’ve been such a good girl for me, Ruby. Don’t ruin it now.”
A blush stole across her cheeks as she opened her eyes, the brown full of unspoken apology.
“Oh, don’t be such a hardass, Beckett,” Frankie said with yet another roll of her eyes as she picked at the stuffed mushroom on her plate. “She hasn’t spoken a word in like half an hour. Hasn’t she been punished enough?”
Across the table, Lottie dug an elbow into Frankie’s side, earning her a glare from her friend. “What? What did I say?” Frankie asked, more annoyance than confusion in her tone.
“Stay out of it,” Lottie whispered. “He’s her Daddy, it’s none of our business how he punishes her, even if he’s being a dick about it.”
“All right.” Tossing his napkin down on the table, Braden rose from the chair he’d pulled up at the end of the booth and pinned Lottie with a stern look. “Apparently my naughty girl is in need of a lesson in manners. Say goodnight to your friends, Charlotte.”
“But I didn’t do anything!”
“If I have to tell you again, I will put you in the stocks and leave you there with your welted ass on display all night.”
Pouting openly now, Lottie slid from the bench. “Fine. But I still say I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Somehow, you never do.” Amusement wound around Braden’s words as he slipped an arm around Lottie’s waist, pulling her close. “And yet you’re always very sorry for it by the time we’re done.”
“Semantics.”
Chuckling and shaking his head at his babygirl’s sass, Braden waved to the group and led her away. Frankie, who was now full-on scowling, let out a heavy sigh. “Well, if Lottie’s going to be tied up all night I might as well go home. It’s not like anybody is going to scene with me anyway.”
They said their goodbyes to Frankie as she sauntered off, and Ice slid from the booth to join Silver on the opposite side. “Holden is going to have his hands full with that one,” he said with a grin.
“You don’t know the half of it,” Silver muttered, lifting her wine to her lips.
Ice met Beckett’s gaze across the table, a smile twitching at his lips. “What’s that mean, babygirl?”
As if she suddenly realized what she’d said, Silver froze, her eyes going wide. “Uh… nothing. Just, you know, I don’t think Holden actually realizes how much of a brat Frankie actually is.”
Two soft taps on Beckett’s thighs pulled his attention away from the scene unfolding across from him and down to where Ruby was sitting on the floor, watching him. “Do you need to ask me something, sweetheart?”
She nodded, her auburn hair bouncing with the movement, the red catching fire under the lights and his heart tripped in his chest.
“Tell Daddy what you need.”
Pleasure lit her eyes. “I need to use the bathroom. Please.”
“Thank you for asking so politely. But just to the bathroom and back again. If I catch you stopping to chat, there will be consequences.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Grabbing her chin between his fingers, he forced her head back, drinking in the little flash of fear in her eyes. “Who am I right now, Ruby?”
That blush he so adored slashed across her cheeks. “Daddy.”
“Good girl. So when I give you an order, what should your response be?”
“Yes… Daddy.”
“Much better. You may go to the bathroom now.”
Silver slid from the booth as Ruby rose to her feet with a wince, grabbing Ruby’s arm to help balance her. “I need the ladies’ room, too.”
Which likely meant they’d be talking the whole way. But Ruby really had taken her punishment so well, he was inclined to give her some leeway. “All right. But the same rules apply.”
“And Silver?” Ice arched a brow when the girls paused to look over at him. “If you help Ruby break the rules, you’ll be included in any punishments she earns. Understood?”
Silver wrinkled her nose, but in the end she nodded. “Yes, Daddy.”
“Good girl. Go on. And hurry back.” Now Ice’s lips curved up in a wicked grin. “I’ve been waiting all night to get my hands on you.”
With a pair of girlish giggles, the pair headed for the bathroom. When they were out of hearing distance, Ice fixed his too-knowing gaze on Beckett. “So… You’re Daddy now, huh?”
“Just at the club,” Beckett reminded him.
“Right, right. And in what universe, exactly, do you think that’s not going to lead to really messy fucking feelings? Because it sure as hell isn’t this one.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
Ice shook his head. “All right. But just know, if you hurt her, you’re going to have half the damn club to answer to.”
“It’s fine. I have it all under control.”
“Sure, you do. Because it’s not like she’s the first woman you’ve caught feelings for in… what? Several years?”
“Caring about her isn’t the same thing as catching feelings.”
Reaching for another stuffed mushroom, Ice rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. “Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt, you know.”
“Whatever. Neither of us is looking for anything serious, and we’ve set very clear boundaries. No muss, no fuss, as they say.”
A smirk tugged at the corner of Ice’s mouth. “I’ve got a thousand bucks that says you go crashing through those boundaries in under a week.”
It was a paltry sum of money for either of them, but the thrill of the challenge still ran hot in Beckett’s veins. “You’re on.”
Ruby
“Okay, spill .”
The second they stepped inside the ladies’ room, Silver pounced, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
Which was nearly enough to send Ruby into a full-blown panic attack. Not only did she have girlfriends for the first time as an adult, one of those girlfriends was apparently Amanda Sterling.
What the hell was her life?
“There’s not much to spill,” she said with a shrug as she made her way to a stall, praying silently she came off as breezy nonchalant instead of the nervous mess she was inside. “He took me home, we fucked, we talked, and here we are.”
“That feels like you’re leaving a lot of important shit out,” Silver said from the other side of the door. “Like how he went from ‘Sir’ to ‘Daddy’ overnight.”
“I think that was my fault. I said it as kind of a joke last night and he just sort of… snapped.”
“Snapped? How so?”
“I jokingly called him Daddy and the next thing I know I’m pinned to the bed getting fucked until I can barely walk straight. And while he was fucking me he kept saying things like ‘Tell Daddy what you need’.”
Silver let out a low groan. “God, that’s hot. I love that for you.”
Thankfully she was sitting down, or else she wasn’t sure her legs would have held her up right at that moment. “You do?”
“I do. I love Beckett and it’s about time he found someone to be happy with.”
Shit. Allowing the toilet to flush behind her, Ruby opened the stall door and bypassed Silver to walk straight to the sink so she didn’t have to meet the other woman’s eyes. “It’s not like that. He’s not like… Daddy all the time. Just at the club.”
Seemingly unconcerned, Silver joined her at the sinks, a wide grin stretched across her face. “Hey, it’s a step in the right direction as far as I’m concerned.”
Ruby gave a noncommittal hum as she lathered her hands, and apparently her non-answer didn’t go unnoticed. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Silver’s smile fading into a frown.
“You do like him, right? You two have so much chemistry I swear it was a wonder you didn’t cause an explosion down in the pit the other night.”
“I mean, yeah, I like him. But I’m not looking for a Daddy. Especially not one like Beckett.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Double shit. Silver was the last person Ruby wanted to piss off, and it was clear from the snap in her tone that she was very close to doing exactly that. “I’m not looking for someone who needs so much… control. Especially outside of the club. In here, I’m more than willing to get on my knees for him and let him call the shots. But out there, in the real world? I can’t give him the control he needs. I did that once and it nearly killed me.”
Triple shit. She hadn’t meant to say that part out loud. She seemed to be having that problem a lot lately.
“Oh, honey.” Wrapping her arms around Ruby, Silver pulled her in for a tight embrace. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
Torn between gratitude for the comfort being offered and freaking the fuck out over who was doing the comforting, Ruby gave the other woman an awkward pat on the back. “It’s okay. It’s done. In the past.”
Pulling back slightly, Silver smiled, though the gesture was tinged with sadness. “It’s not in the past if you’re letting it have this much control over your future. Just something to keep in mind.”
“Yeah. Maybe.” Or maybe she’d just learned from her mistakes.
“We should probably get back.” Looping an arm through Ruby’s, Silver rolled her eyes. “The last thing we need to do is leave those two sadists alone to plot against us.”
Tossing her head back, Ruby let out a loud laugh. But deep in the pit of her stomach, she couldn’t shake the feeling that Silver had made some very good points about her and Beckett’s… relationship.
With those points, and her own more-complicated-than-she-would-like feelings rolling around inside her, they made their way back to the table. Where she was surprised to find that Beckett had shifted over to the right, leaving a space for her beside him.
Not wanting to assume and get herself in trouble, she paused beside the bench and waited, silently, for instructions.
Like a good girl.
God, she was so fucked-up.
But then Beckett looked up at her and smiled, and everything inside her simply shifted back into place. Maybe it was wrong, maybe there was something incredibly broken inside her that she craved his approval the way she did, but was it really hurting anything to indulge those desires in the safety of the club? After all, that’s what places like Club BDE had been built for.
As long as it didn’t spill out into the real world, in here she could be as submissive—or not, depending on her mood—as she wanted.
“Hi there, Ruby Red. Would you like to join us now?”
“Yes, Daddy.” Her tongue still tripped on the honorific a bit, earning her an even wider smile from the impossibly handsome man in front of her.
“Do you think you’ve learned your lesson about responding to people in an appropriate and timely manner?”
Oh, man, where was a random hole in the floor when she needed one? Being punished in front of Ice and Silver had been bad enough, but being lectured like this made her want to crawl under the table rather than sit at it. “Yes, Daddy.”
“Good girl. Sit.”
Ignoring the embarrassment churning in her gut, she slid onto the bench beside him. But when she reached for a mushroom, he laid a hand on her arm, giving her a subtle shake of his head when she looked over at him.
Beckett leaned over and picked up the mushroom she’d been reaching for, and when he brought it to her lips, he dropped his voice low for only her to hear. “That’s still Daddy’s job, little girl. Hands in your lap.”
Across the table, Silver’s eyes were round with excitement. Clearly she was reading something into Beckett choosing to hand feed her even after her punishment had ended.
Truth be told, Ruby was struggling not to read anything into it, herself.
It was… sweet, she decided as she chewed. Sweet and erotic, for reasons she couldn’t quite name. And so like Beckett, to want such a deep level of control that he wouldn’t even allow her to feed herself.
Which is exactly why you two don’t work outside the club .
“So, Ruby, tell me about yourself.” Silver’s smoky voice cut through Ruby’s chaotic inner thoughts. “I feel like everyone else knows you so much better because you all work together but we hardly ever get a chance to talk. Do you just work here at the club?”
“God no,” Ruby said with a laugh. “I wish. I work pretty much full time at Charleston Brews, the coffee shop downtown? Usually I open, work until around lunch time and then I run deliveries for one of those food delivery services. And some nights I work here, which is great because everyone is super generous with tips and I pay almost nothing for my membership.”
Beside her, Beckett stiffened, but didn’t say anything as he brought another bite of pork belly to her lips.
Silver let out a low whistle. “I’m exhausted just listening to you and I’ve been on multiple world tours.”
“It’s not so bad.” Ruby shrugged. “Today kinda sucked because it was supposed to be my one day off this month, but I have a friend who manages a temp agency and she asked me to sub in for them at the last minute.”
“Did you say your one day off a month?” Beckett’s voice had dropped to a low growl that, under any other circumstances would have been hot as fuck, even if it did tie her stomach into knots to hear it.
But this wasn’t some sexy rule she’d broken. This was her real life, and she’d been very clear about their dynamic not affecting their real lives. Turning her head, she raised what she hoped managed to be a haughty brow. “Yes. Do you have a problem with that?”
Beckett’s gaze flicked toward Ice, then back to her face. And she watched as he deliberately shifted his features, an easy smile stretching his lips. “Nope. No problem. What you do outside the club isn’t any of my business.”
Okay, that was weird. But in the end she’d gotten the answer she wanted, so she wasn’t going to question it. “Good.”
An awkward silence fell over the table, and Ruby was just beginning to worry she’d ruined the whole evening when Silver smiled. “So, when do you want to start those drumming lessons, Ruby?”
“Lessons?” The corners of Ice’s mouth turned down in a frown. “Since when are you giving lessons?”
“It just came up in conversation the other day.” The lie slipped easily from Silver’s tongue, and Ruby briefly wondered how much trouble she’d be in if her Daddy ever found out exactly how it had come up in conversation. “You know Ruby wanted to be a drummer and, well, I’ve got lots of free time these days. Figured it might be fun to pass along some knowledge.”
Excitement raced along Ruby’s veins. Technically, she hadn’t fulfilled her end of the bargain yet, but if Silver wanted to go ahead and reward her, who was she to argue? “I’m free tomorrow night.”
“Perfect. I’ll text you our address. Wanna meet me there around five? We can order a pizza and have a lesson.”
The teenage girl inside Ruby was screaming so loudly she wondered if everyone around her could hear her. “Sounds good.”
“Great.” Silver grinned, and Ruby nearly melted into the floor. “It’s a date.”
After that, the conversation shifted. And as she listened to Ice’s stories about their tours and Silver’s anecdotes about their high school years—carefully leaving Ace out of the picture, Ruby noticed—Ruby tried to convince herself she’d imagined whatever weird reaction she’d thought Beckett had earlier.
Daddy in the club. Nowhere else. That was what they’d both agreed. No reason for her to think he wanted anything more.
Right?