Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
Nick
Avery was acting weird. They hadn’t had much of a chance to talk this morning before leaving for work. Both of them had slept in pretty late.
Shit.
Had he really thrown her that much, asking about the holidays?
He’d tried to keep it casual with his phrasing, alert for any indication she thought he was pushing things too fast. It didn’t feel fast to him, though.
It felt right. They’d known each other for a lot longer than they’d been dating, and they were good together.
They fit together in every way, the way he hadn’t with anyone else.
He could imagine spending the rest of his life with her. The thought didn’t scare him at all.
“What’d you do?” George muttered under his breath to Nick, though his eyes were on Avery.
“I didn’t think I did anything,” he muttered back, passing a plate to George to garnish.
They were shorthanded in the kitchen because he still hadn’t found someone to replace Chad’s, which meant occasionally, he and Avery had to step in for the fry station.
They’d have someone soon. There had been a few promising interviews. “I told her my mom wants to meet her.”
“And you think you didn’t do anything.” George snorted. “Meeting your ma is the scariest thing you could ask her to do.”
Nick almost muttered that George didn’t know what he asked Avery to do, but since he was pretty sure everyone had a fair idea of what they got up to at Marquis, it might not be entirely true. His ass still felt a bit odd today, although he was walking and sitting normally.
Besides, George had a point. Meeting the family was a big deal, which was probably why he’d instinctively tried to make it not a big deal when he’d mentioned it to Avery. Maybe he should have made a big deal out of it?
He was distracted from his thoughts when he noticed George had suddenly disappeared from his side.
Turning around to look for him, he saw the man standing by a certain redheaded server he’d been pining after.
Nick raised his eyebrows at their flirtatious stances.
When Alanna hurried back into the dining room, she glanced back at George, who was grinning like a fool when he got back in his expo position.
“You and Alanna, huh?” Nick murmured, keeping his voice down. Not that they were discreet, but he didn’t want to be the one to draw attention to them. “Kind of soon, isn’t it? Aren’t you worried about being a rebound?”
“It might be soon, but I’m the right guy.” George grinned, brimming with confidence. “Alanna would be worth waiting for, but when you know it’s right, why wait?”
When you know it’s right, why wait?
“That’s a very good point.” Nick’s eyes darted to Avery, who was still oblivious to everything happening behind her, her focus entirely on the food she was making.
Avery
Nick was acting weird. Maybe because it was the final day of class, but more than that, he seemed almost jittery. Far more nervous than she would have thought the last day of class would make him feel.
All the submissives were standing by the side of the person they were working with that evening.
Avery was with Nick, of course, and Freddy was standing beside Sam.
Morgan had taken a place next to Connor and had a hand on his back as though she was encouraging him, which was a funny visual—she was tall, but next to Connor, she looked tiny.
Iris and Q were standing beside each other, clearly friendly, but Avery didn’t see a romantic spark between them or even the deeper friendship Morgan and Connor seemed to have formed.
Definitely not Iris’ ideal man, but maybe she’d find someone when she was serving at Stronghold.
That was a pretty devious maneuver on Master Patrick’s part.
Not only would he get free labor, but it would be a good way for Iris to meet a lot of the club members.
For all her bravado and the many people she knew, Iris didn’t go out of her way to meet anyone new. She was happy in her comfort zone.
Shifting by her side, Nick drew her attention back to him, where he was practically jigging in place. Normally, he had no problem standing still in one place, so his constant movement made her even more nervous. Did he know something that she didn’t about tonight?
“Alright, everyone, now that you’re all here…
submissives, we have a surprise for you!
” At Mistress Julie’s words, it was Avery’s turn to tense up.
A surprise? That rarely boded well for subbies in a kink club.
What didn’t surprise her was Morgan and Iris tensed as well.
Freddy didn’t show any reaction, so either he was hiding it really well or already knew. She would bet on the latter.
Nick had finally calmed, which meant he probably knew what was coming and hadn’t warned her. The big jerk.
“The Dominants arrived about an hour before you and have already completed their class.” Mistress Julie grinned widely as Morgan made a confused noise.
Avery’s eyelashes fluttered in surprise, her brain working to catch up and figure out what was going on.
“The rest of the evening will be yours with your Doms. They’ve each signed up for a private room at Marquis. ”
“All previously established hard limits will be observed,” Master Law chimed in.
“If you want to change any of them, you may talk to us beforehand, but otherwise, the same rules apply as usual, including sexual boundaries.” He cast his gaze to Iris and Q, neither of whom seemed bothered.
Iris had sex listed as a hard limit for the class, although she’d told Avery it wasn’t one when she scened in the club.
Warm fingers wrapped around Avery’s, and she snuck a peek at Nick. He was grinning, but she still thought he seemed a little nervous. Maybe because they were about to do a private scene in one of the clubs for the first time.
“Alright, off you go.” Mistress Julie shooed them with her hands. “Congratulations, new Doms!”
Chuckling, Nick broke off first, tugging Avery by the hand. The others were right behind them, spilling into the hallway. Laughter bounced off the walls, and the Doms were grinning, jubilant. Avery glanced over her shoulder to where the submissives were, happy for them.
“Let’s go,” Nick said, tugging her along. “We’re in the Dungeon.”
She wasn’t sure where the others ended up, except Morgan and Connor disappeared into the pink Littles’ room. Nick was pulling her along too quickly for her to get a good look at where everyone else was going.
The Dungeon was exactly as advertised—decorated like a medieval Dungeon but filled with modern BDSM equipment.
Pretty much everything that would be found in Stronghold’s lower floor, but this was private, which she knew would make Nick a lot happier.
It was like getting a do-over for their visit to Stronghold—she was even wearing the same latex dress she’d worn there—but now, they’d get to play.
In some ways, she still couldn’t believe it. This was not how she saw her life going when she’d started working at Marquis. It was so much better.
Swinging her around, Nick pulled her into his arms, his hands sliding down over her back.
His expression was tender as he stared down into her eyes, and a shiver went down Avery’s spine.
There was something in his eyes she hadn’t seen before, and it stirred her emotions unexpectedly, as though he was looking at her as if she was the most amazing thing on the planet. Her heart beat faster.
“Avery, I wanted to say thank you—”
“Um, you’re welcome?” she interrupted, partly because she was feeling oddly vulnerable with him looking at her like that. The intensity of his gaze was unnerving.
Nick grinned at her response but didn’t stop. It felt like her blood was heating from the inside out.
“Thank you for introducing me to kink. I know I was a bit of a pain in the ass at first and didn’t really understand it, but I feel as though I’ve connected with a part of myself that had never been acknowledged.”
Relaxing slightly in his arms, Avery rubbed her hands against his chest hair. She knew exactly how that felt.
“I started out telling myself I was taking this class for you, but the truth is, it ended up being for me.”
“I’m glad,” she said softly, still rubbing his chest. Nick wasn’t the most verbal of people. She could tell this was hard for him, so it meant the world to her that he was doing it, anyway.
“I’ll admit, at first,”—his smile turned a little crooked—“I thought we’d be perfect together because you understood my love for the job, and we’d have plenty of time together because we worked together, but I’ve realized it’s more than that.
I love spending time with you, and I’m happy to make time for you, which is something I’ve never done in any of my past relationships.
I know that working together isn’t always great for relationships, but we make it work. ”
“Yeah, we do.” She grinned back at him. It sounded as if he was working himself up to saying something. Her heart was beating faster and faster. She wasn’t entirely sure where he was going—or maybe she was and was afraid to hope—but knew she wanted to hear all of it.
Nick took a deep breath.
“Anyway… what I’m trying to say is, I love you.”
The poor, adorable man looked a little terrified as the words left his lips, his gaze boring into hers as if he was afraid she wouldn’t say it back. Feeling his heart pounding under her hand, Avery had to laugh.
“I love you, too.”
It was the kiss to end all kisses. Nick claimed her lips, conquering her mouth and devouring her with a desperation she matched. She felt giddy as if she could walk on water or dance on air. When he pulled away, his eyes were glinting.
“Let’s celebrate.”
“With a spanking?” she teased, still laughing.
“Eventually.”
Nick
Was there anything better than a blow job celebration from the woman he loved?
Well, he could think of one thing, but they’d get to that soon enough.
Avery was on her knees before him, totally naked—peeling the dress off had been more work than he’d expected, but it had been fun—with pretty silver clamps on her nipples and her lips wrapped around his cock.
The part he couldn’t see was the plug in her bottom, which he’d inserted before putting her on her knees.
Wrapping her blonde hair around his hand, he used it to move her head up and down his cock, her pink lips sliding easily along the shaft. Every humming noise she made sent vibrations shuddering through him, and he groaned with pleasure.
“Fuck.”
Dammit, he really needed a mirror. He’d love to see the back view with the base of the pink plug nestled between her cheeks. Of course, if he’d done that, he would have wanted to take the time to spank her, and he’d wanted to enjoy his blow job before they got to the really kinky stuff.
Right, because the clamps and plug aren’t really kinky.
Not compared to some of the stuff he’d seen.
His barometer for kink had really changed.