Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Avery
Not sure what to expect, Avery walked up the stairs to the second floor of Marquis.
For the first time, she didn’t hurry, didn’t feel like she was sneaking around…
yet it didn’t matter. No one saw her, which made her wonder if the previous times she’d been anxious about going up to the second floor had been a wasted effort.
No. Chad found out somehow. For all I know, he saw me headed upstairs.
She’d probably never know, and right now, she didn’t have the energy to hide.
Besides, in the middle of a Sunday afternoon, everything was pretty slow. There were only a few front-of-house people still on, and most of them were hanging out in the kitchen. By now, Avery had no doubt literally everyone in the restaurant knew she and Nick were a couple.
A freaky couple.
Stop it.
If you won’t let anyone call Domi, Rae, or Iris freaky, don’t do it to yourself.
Yeah, easier said than done. Why was it so much easier to stand up for her friends than for herself? If someone had said something like that to one of them, Avery would have been shrieking with rage, not running in fear.
Talk about frustrating.
When she reached the top of the stairs, no one was there. It was weird walking through the door into the club part when there was no one behind the front desk, but Nick’s text had said to meet him inside.
Since she had a shift after this, and he hadn’t told her what to wear, she’d gone with her chef pants, a tank top, and a light hoodie.
Her chef coat was in her car, waiting for her to be done.
Walking into Marquis wearing that was even weirder, but she hadn’t wanted to come prepared for kink when she didn’t know what she would get.
Maybe she should have asked, but she couldn’t get rid of the niggling worry he was calling her in to break up with her, end their classes, or something like that.
Iris had pointed out it would have made more sense to tell her to go to Olivia’s office in that case, and it would have, but Avery was still worried.
She didn’t want to lose Nick.
She didn’t want to lose her job.
While she still wished Chad had kept his mouth shut and Nick had given her a heads up, when it came down to it, it didn’t change what she wanted. Even if everyone in the restaurant knew. Even if they all judged her.
Okay, in that last scenario, she might end up wanting to eventually leave her job, but she wanted to stick it out for now.
She loved working in the restaurant and with Nick.
Heck, even though this might have been the perfect nudge to go out on her own and start her own catering business, that hadn’t been a consideration.
She wanted to keep working at Marquis… with Nick. Hoping she hadn’t lost her chance to do so, she lifted her chin, walked over to the door, and opened it.
The room was dark except for the lights in the middle of the stage, which were on. In the center of the stage was a spanking bench, Nick standing next to it, arms crossed, wearing leather pants and nothing else, looking every inch the hot Dom.
Dammit.
Avery wished she’d worn something other than her work clothes.
“Avery.” He nodded his head, and Avery’s palms went clammy. Rae might have been right about her needing to worry about her ass.
“Nick.”
Instead of answering, he lifted one eyebrow. Shit. That wasn’t what she was supposed to call him in the club, even if she was dressed for work right now.
“Sir.” She blushed as heat filled her cheeks.
“Better.”
Better? What else was she supposed to call him? Master Nick? Master Chef?
Probably not that last one. She didn’t think he’d appreciate the pun, and she didn’t want him to think she wasn’t taking this seriously. She was, but she was really nervous, and her brain went to humor to alleviate the tension. The room setup was not helping.
Wiping her hands on her pants, she stared back at him, waiting for him to tell her what to do.
Nick
The theatricality of this moment wasn’t something Nick had been sure of, but he had to admit it was effective.
Avery certainly seemed to think so. Her hazel eyes were huge in her pale face, and she was gripping the sides of her chef pants, watching him warily, like prey eyeing a predator they weren’t sure was hungry.
“Come up here, naughty girl.” The effect of those last two words on Avery was immediate and visible. Her already wide eyes got even bigger, which he hadn’t thought was possible, and she shivered.
A moment later, biting her lip, she took a step forward. The wariness in her expression had increased tenfold. Part of him felt guilty, but mostly it was guilt about how much he enjoyed seeing the trepidation and fear in her expression.
Yesterday, along with her suggestions, Olivia had pushed the point that Avery would need several things—punishment to help her clear away her guilt and reassurance she was forgiven.
She said it was up to him whether that reassurance became sexual and hammered home.
The only reason he might not want to was some Doms saw pleasure after punishment as rewarding bad behavior.
What he did was up to him.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about spanking her without it being sexual but also saw Olivia’s point.
Right now, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do after he was done spanking her. He’d wing that part, see what felt right.
Avery’s little pink tongue flicked over her bottom lip as she stepped onto the stage. She was still pale and wide-eyed, but now that she was closer, he could also see the excitement in her expression. The anticipation.
When she was only a few feet away from him, he gave her another order, not moving from his wide-legged stance with his arms across his chest.
“Strip.”
Coming to an abrupt halt, she stared at him for a long moment, then nodded.
“Yes, Sir.”
A thrill went through him at the honorific and the way she immediately complied.
The hoodie came off first, revealing the blue tank top beneath it, then she kicked off her shoes and let her pants drop.
In just the tank top and panties, she seemed to relax, as though she was dropping more into the submissive mindset with every piece of clothing she removed.
Though she hadn’t lost either the anticipation or trepidation, there was now a peacefulness to her expression as though she had accepted what was about to happen and felt good about it.
Yanking her tank top off, her breasts bounced free, and Nick’s slowly growing erection pressed against the front of his pants. It was a lot more uncomfortable in tight leather than it had been in his loose chef pants.
Whatever you do, do it with confidence.
Reaching down, he blatantly adjusted himself and had to hide his grin when he realized Avery was watching him. She stared before giving herself a shake and moving to take off her underwear.
Avery
Holy crap.
Nick was a Dom.
Like a Dom Dom. The hesitation that had been present before was gone. So was any uncertainty. She’d gone from feeling as though she was the one who knew what was going on to feeling as though she was floundering, and Nick was the confident, knowledgeable one.
This was not what she’d been expecting when she walked in.
It was so far from it, she felt even more off balance.
Nick had been working up to this point, but until this moment, she felt as if she was more in control than he was when it came to kink and sex.
Now, she not only felt out of control but as though she didn’t know what was coming next.
Even with the spanking bench there, which would seem to indicate a punishment, but what kind? How hard?
How far was this new Nick willing to go?
Completely naked, she straightened to look at him, hands hanging loosely at her sides. Chewing the inside of her cheek, she knew she was doing a terrible job of hiding her nerves, but did it really matter at this point? Probably not.
“On the bench, Avery.”
For the first time, she hesitated.
“Aren’t we going to talk about… everything?” Her voice only faltered a little, but it was enough to undermine the firm tone she’d been trying to adopt.
“Oh, we are.” The smile that curved his lips was more unsettling than reassuring. “As soon as you’re on the spanking bench.”
Evil, mean, bad Dom. What had she done?
On the other hand, what had she expected when she’d taken an already bossy, domineering Alpha male and introduced him to kink?
Yeah, but he didn’t have to take to it so well or so fast.
Pressing her lips together, Avery knelt, her knees pressing against the leather pads, and draped herself over the bench.
The last time she’d been in this position, in this room with Nick, she hadn’t been intimidated, hadn’t felt squirmy, nervous, or worried about what her ass was going to look like at the end.
She was now.
Gripping the handholds, she kept herself from wiggling around too much as Nick walked behind her. One callused palm caressed her upturned ass, which felt very, very vulnerable indeed.
“Okay, Avery. Let’s talk. Would you like to start by explaining why you left the restaurant last night and didn’t return?”
With the lights shining down on them, heating her skin, it should haven’t been possible to feel cold, but she did. Cold, then hot, then cold again, goosebumps breaking out over her skin. The whole time, Nick’s hand kept rubbing over her ass, getting it ready for her punishment.
The bastard.
Thankfully, after talking out everything with her friends last night, she had a semi-decent answer.
Nick
He had to admit, while incredibly unprofessional, there was definitely something to be said for having this kind of discussion over a spanking bench.
For one, it was hard to hold on to anger with Avery’s beautiful ass and pussy tipped up for his perusal.
Even harder after she’d put herself in this position, all the while not knowing what to expect from him.
“I freaked out and didn’t know what to do.
I felt like everyone was judging me or would because of what Chad said, and I couldn’t make myself come back to face that.
I was ashamed about not being able to come back, but not as ashamed as I felt about what he revealed.
” Avery’s words came out in a rush, with an odd cadence, as if she’d practiced saying it.
Taking a long moment, Nick caressed her assed as he turned her words over in his head. They were an echo of what Alice and Olivia had said, all in different ways.
“And the longer I stayed away, the more ashamed I felt, and the more I was sure everyone would judge me for running, which made it worse, then I couldn’t make myself come back at all.”
“But today, you showed up here, ready for your shift?” It wasn’t an idle question. He’d wondered when she walked in, clearly dressed for work.
“If I’m not fired.”
“You’re not fired.” He gave her ass a little swat, enough that she wiggled, though she didn’t shriek or even gasp. It should have been hard enough to sting with warning. “It’s not even going on your official employee record. Olivia insisted, and I agreed.”
From his vantage point, it was easy to see the relief that slumped her shoulders, the tension draining out of her body, relaxing her muscles. Satisfaction slid through him.
“Okay, so now that’s out of the way—”
“You’re not going to punish me? Sir?” she interrupted him.
Nick smacked her ass a little harder, enough to make her gasp and her fingers tighten on the grips.
“For interrupting me? Yes. For work-related issues? No. Not here. That would be incredibly inappropriate of me as your boss. However, I felt compelled to ask because it leads to my next question—why didn’t you answer your phone when I called? Or text me back? Or any kind of communication?”
The muscles that had relaxed tightened again, but Nick’s satisfaction didn’t diminish.
That’s right, sweetheart. I might not spank the hell out of you as your boss, but I sure can as the boyfriend you ghosted last night.