Chapter 1
Chapter One
Naomi
“It is time to stop moping and go get laid.” Claudia made the announcement as she planted herself between Naomi and the television, cutting off her view of Viola Davis in all her glory. Naomi scowled, scrambling for the remote so she could hit the pause button while simultaneously glaring at her friend.
“I’m starting to regret letting you stay here between deployments,” she whined. It wasn’t supposed to come out whiny—it was supposed to come out firm—but… well, she was whiny lately. She had good reason. “I thought friends were supposed to let friends wallow.”
“You’ve been wallowing for two weeks over a shithead who doesn’t deserve two hours,” Claudia said, shaking her head. The high ponytail she’d put her long dark hair in bounced around with the movement. “He knew what kind of job you had when you got together. He just didn’t like that you didn’t make him the center of your world.”
“I’m not ready to date again.” Naomi crossed her arms over her chest, still clutching the remote in one hand. She’d planned a nice night of watching television. Just like she had for the past two weeks.
Claudia rolled her eyes, which were so dark, they were almost black. Her stance shifted subtly. Ah, crap. She was going into Domme mode.
“No one said anything about dating, chiquita.” Despite the endearment, Claudia’s tone was firm. She was kind of scary when she got into her dominant headspace.
When Claudia got bossy, it was hard to resist following her orders. When she went into Domme mode, it was damn near impossible. Naomi couldn’t even find it in her to brat the way she normally would. It was a Claudia-specific reaction, completely nonsexual, and she’d never quite figured out why Claudia was an exception to so many of her reactions.
She huffed, knowing this was a losing battle, yet still feeling the need to attempt a fight.
“So, you think I should just go slut it up?”
Claudia raised one elegant eyebrow at her. “If that’s what it takes. What I do know is that you need to get out of this house. I do know you need an orgasm. I do know that my team of very hot men is going to be at the Outlands tonight, looking for hook-ups.” Lifting one hand in the air, fingers curled into a loose half fist, Claudia nonchalantly inspected her nails. “I also know that a certain Master James is going to be there tonight as well.”
“You’re going to let me meet your team?” Naomi perked up. She and Claudia had been friends since high school, and Claudia had joined the army almost immediately after. Eventually, she’d been shifted into special forces. Despite their long years of friendship, Claudia had been determined to keep her two worlds separate, and Naomi had respected that.
She hadn’t even known the rest of Claudia’s team was kinky. It was something Naomi had discovered about herself in college, and she’d brought Claudia to a club with her between deployments. Protective and suspicious at first, it had not taken Claudia long to realize she was not only into the scene but that she was a dominant.
“Not all of them,” Claudia admitted, dropping her hand down now that she was sure she had Naomi’s attention and didn’t need to pretend to be nonchalant. “About half of them. The kinky ones.”
“And they’re all hot?”
“They’re all hot.”
“And James is going to be there?” Douchebag James, who couldn’t handle being dropped for an actual fucking emergency. It burned that he’d dumped her over her job when she should have been the one to dump him. Sure, he’d been an amazing boyfriend in a lot of ways, spoiling the crap out of her, an absolute beast in bed, and a total caretaker… but he couldn’t handle it on the occasions when her job came first.
Flirting with a bunch of hot Doms while he sat there and thought about everything he was missing out on by dumping her would feel good. Even better than a television binge with ice cream.
Claudia smiled, a wicked gleam in her eye. “James is definitely going to be there.”
Pressing her lips together, Naomi only needed half a second to think about it. She tossed the remote down on the couch cushion beside her.
“Son of a bitch, I’m in.”
Drew
The Outlands wasn’t too crowded for a Friday night. On the other hand, they were there fairly early. Despite the varied age range of the members, kink clubs seemed to have the same hours as night clubs—and Outlands was both.
Here on the lower floor, he could hear the throbbing bass from the dance club above them. By day, the main floor of the Outlands was a bar and restaurant. By night, it turned into a dance club. He’d only been able to visit a couple times before, but he liked the place.
“So, Claudia is bringing her friend tonight?” Posh asked. Posh’s real name was Mason. The first time the five of them had come to the Outlands, some naughty sub had nicknamed them the Spice Doms for some reason, and it had stuck once they’d gotten back out in the field and sorted out who was who.
Posh was posh. Posh charm, posh manners, posh clothes. He was wearing a suit, though he had taken the tie off and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt. Whenever they were on leave, he dressed up as if he was taking advantage of missed opportunities. Pushing his glasses up his nose, Posh wasn’t paying attention to the rest of them. He was looking around the club as if he was trying to spot his next target. You could take the spotter out of the field, but you couldn’t take the field out of the spotter.
Drew doubted he’d be sharing his target with Scary tonight, though. Not that she’d be interested in whatever lady he was after. Scary would occasionally scene with a woman, platonically, but she preferred men.
“She is bringing her friend, and you can flirt, but touch at your own risk,” Ginger replied. Their captain’s red hair had meant he’d automatically been assigned the name Ginger when they’d been called the Spice Doms. “Claudia said she’s still tender from her recent breakup.”
“Well, I don’t plan on dating her,” Posh murmured in reply, bringing his beer to his lips to take a sip. His gaze was still scanning the club, taking in everything and everyone, cataloging them.
“I could,” chimed in Baby. He was the youngest on the team and the greenest, still all bright and shiny and new. At least in comparison to the rest of them. He was also new to the club, this being his first time visiting. “I’m not scared of Scary.”
“You will be after you see what she does to the men here,” Drew said. Poor Baby was in for a shock tonight. Scary had taken him under her wing when he’d joined the team. Once he saw what she liked to do to a man’s cock and balls, he was probably never going to be able to get that image out of his head.
Drew sure as hell couldn’t.
Even the thought made him want to shudder and cup himself protectively.
Though he had to admit, his reaction only partially stemmed from what Scary liked to do—the other part was due to how damn gleeful she was about it.
“There she is,” Posh said, sitting up. “And damn. Look at that cutie.”
Something tingled along the back of Drew’s neck, a little frisson of awareness before he even turned around. It was like the universe was whispering in his ear— pay attention, this is important .
Twisting around in his seat, when he found Scary coming through the crowd and saw the woman just behind her, he froze.
She was gorgeous.
Rich, tawny skin and dark brown hair she’d left natural and piled on top of her head so that her neck and shoulders were left bare. The sage green corset she was wearing pushed her breasts up high, the flesh jiggling as she sashayed after Scary, a short, flirty skirt of darker green swaying around her thighs with each step. The little beige sandals she had strapped onto her feet were decorated with green bows that matched the corset.
Her chin was up, her gaze darting around the club. Looking for them? Or watching out for her ex?
And what kind of dumbass was stupid enough to let a woman like her go?
“Damn,” Baby said with a low, admiring whistle. “I could definitely date her.”
“You wish,” Drew said, elbowing him in the side. “That is way too much submissive for you. Leave her to the experienced.”
Baby scowled, but he didn’t get a chance to respond before Scary saw them and waved, reaching behind her to grab her friend’s hand and begin pulling her over. He was pretty sure the beauty had been looking for her ex, just from the way she jumped in surprise when Scary took her hand, then how she squared her shoulders and put a smile on her lips as she was led to them like a little submissive lamb to the slaughter.
Brave girl.
Damn. He wanted her.
The immediate attraction he felt to her was unusual. Yes, he’d seen a woman and found her attractive before, but not like this. The moment he’d laid eyes on her, he’d known he wasn’t going to want to just look—he wanted to touch… and so much more. Scary’s possible wrath be damned. It would be worth it.
She would be worth it.
There was one thing that might work against him, though. He hoped she wasn’t averse to calling him Daddy.