4. Chapter Four
CHAPTER FOUR
MAYLEE
M aylee looked over to where Ezra was standing in the corner. She had been near the front door for several minutes now, waiting and feeling unsure. Everything was so new to her.
Was she making a mistake? Why had she decided to come? She should never have let Liv talk her into it. She should have gone with her gut and told Ezra no.
Maylee turned to go back outside. Coming here was a mistake. Why had she thought it was a good idea? She didn’t belong there. There was no way she was Little.
“Maylee!” Ezra called after her.
She didn’t stop. If anything, his call prompted her to walk away faster. She had come to the club because Ezra and Liv had asked her to. They had said it was an open night for people who weren’t members, and she should come. Or that was what Liv had told her. Ezra had said she could come on his guest pass after she told him yes.
But she really shouldn’t have. It was a mistake .
A big mistake.
“Maylee!” Ezra called.
She was so close to the door. So close to freedom and away from all of this. She didn’t know why she had let them talk her into coming, for her to consider that she could be a Little.
Sure, she had fantasized about it, felt drawn toward it when she read, but that didn’t mean she was one. She did have a stuffed animal, Nila, but many grown adults had stuffed animals. It didn’t make her a Little.
“Maylee! You stop right this instant, or you’ll land yourself over my knee with a hot bottom.” Ezra raised his voice.
She stilled. He had not say that so loudly. So many people were around—people she knew from town.
“Ooh, someone is in trouble,” Leif said as he walked in her way.
“Move,” she said, panic in her voice.
Leif was the owner of Black Vault. He was also a Deadwood local who had grown up with all of them but had attended a college out of state before returning to open the club. Why he had come back, she didn’t know. She would have stayed far away from this town if she’d left for college.
Well, she would have, if Ezra wasn’t still living in the town. But she couldn’t bring herself to leave while Ezra was still here. She was torturing herself every day seeing him but not being able to have him as hers. It sucked, but she would be near her best friend.
“I’m not moving. Your Daddy is obviously trying to get to you, and you’re leaving. What did you do to get him to raise his voice?” Leif asked .
“Nothing, and he isn’t my Daddy,” she said through her clenched jaw.
“I don’t know about that, but whatever you want to believe right now.”
“Move.”
Maylee tried to step to the side, but Leif moved in her way. She stomped her foot and glared at him.
“Someone is throwing a temper tantrum. Do you need some sleep?” Leif asked.
“No, I do not!” she snapped.
“Thank you for keeping her here,” Ezra said.
“Any time,” Leif replied. “Just wanted to let you know in case you didn’t see. She stomped her foot and glared at me.”
“She’s really nervous tonight. Not going to go easy on her, but not going to go super hard on her either. First night in a club.”
Leif looked at her with a shocked expression. “Ah. Well, in that case. I hope you enjoy. If you two need anything, let me know. And my monitors will be keeping an eye on you. Red means stop, Maylee. Yellow is you’re getting overwhelmed and probably need to take a step back and talk things through before it gets to red. Green is you’re okay with everything and feel fine. Do you understand?”
She didn’t know why he was telling her all of this.
“Do you understand?” Leif asked. “I need real words.”
“Yes, I do,” she replied. It was a simple concept, and she had read about it in her books. Well, not with the Little being at the club but just when she was Little with her Daddy.
“We probably won’t be playing. Just looking around tonight,” Ezra said .
“Still. My monitors will be keeping a close eye. If you need anything, let me know. And Maylee?” Leif said.
“Yes?” she replied.
“The monitors will come help you if Ezra doesn’t stop. If you say red, and he doesn’t, say it super loud so a monitor will hear and can step in.”
She nodded, starting to feel nervous about everything. What had she just stepped into?
“He’s not trying to scare you, Lee,” Ezra said, gently, as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “He just wants to let you know you’re safe in his club.”
“Exactly. I tell this to every new person who walks into my club,” Leif said. “Now, I’m going to go back to my office.”
She watched as he left, and she was alone with Ezra. Well, there were other people in the little main lobby, but still. She wasn’t paying attention to them. She hadn’t been this whole time.
“Maylee. Can you look at me?” Ezra asked.
She turned around and looked at him.
“Can you tell me why you decided to walk away? Even after I called out to you?”
Maylee looked away for a few. “It was a mistake,” she whispered.
The room was so quiet, nothing like the room in which she saw Ezra in earlier. It was loud with so many people talking and the music.
“Why do you say that?” he asked.
“What if you’re wrong?”
“Then I’m wrong, but we won’t know until we try it out. ”
She groaned. Why did he have to be so logical? Why couldn’t he have said he was so she could go home?
But she didn’t want that. She wanted to try this, and here she was. So why was she hesitating so much?
“We’ll take it one step at a time. We can walk around first and just look and observe. Then if you really want to, we can try something.”
Maylee didn’t know if she would be ready to try something on the first night.
“But you don’t have to try anything. We can just sit and watch people. You can feel the things they feel and see how people interact.”
Sitting and watching people didn’t sound so bad.
“Just the Littles and their Daddies?” she whispered.
“Caregivers. There can be Mommies, as well,” Ezra said.
“Right. Sorry. I’ve read books about Mommies before. I just forgot.”
Ezra cupped her face. “No worries. But yes, we can just watch the Littles and their caregivers. Are you interested in anything else?”
She shrugged. Maylee had done some research on BDSM but not much. It was mostly age play from her books and a little research.
“I don’t know,” she whispered, starting to feel overwhelmed with everything going on.
“That’s okay. Hey, take a deep breath in for me. Good girl,” he said, calmly. “Such a good girl. Another deep breath in for me and slowly let it out.”
She started to calm as she took those deep breaths. She couldn’t help but also feel turned on. Being called a good girl did things to her, especially when Ezra was saying it.
“You don’t need to know now. If you ever find yourself interested in something, we can go watch and explore,” Ezra said. “How are you feeling about everything?”
She opened her mouth but quickly closed it.
“No lying. I need you to be completely honest tonight. I want to help you out, and I don’t want you to get so overwhelmed you aren’t having fun.”
“I’m super nervous, and I don’t know if I can do this,” she whispered.
Ezra got down on one knee and cupped her face with his hands. “I think you can. If anything gets to become too much, grab my hand and say red just like Leif said. I’ll take you to a quiet room where we both can sit and talk about things. Do you understand?”
She nodded.
“Words.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“While we’re here, I would like for you to say ‘yes, Sir’ so it helps you get into the submissive Little space better. I know we aren’t participating, but it’ll help you feel what they are feeling even more. Can you do that?”
She nodded.
“Maylee. What did I just say?”
“Sorry. Yes, Sir.”
Calling him Sir didn’t feel right. Every part of her wanted to call him Daddy, but she couldn’t. For one, he wasn’t her Daddy. Second, from the books and her little research, a person couldn’t just call anyone Daddy. It was an honorific, and it wasn’t her place to call him Daddy, since they weren’t in a relationship.
“Good girl,” he praised.
She smiled at him. Ezra leaned forward and kissed her forehead. She melted into his embrace. Every time he kissed her forehead, she never wanted it to end. Maylee wanted him to do it all the time, but that would be weird, right?
“Let me hold you for a second,” Ezra gently said. “I think you need an extra-long hug.”
Maylee wasn’t going to say no to a hug. Ezra gave the best hugs, with his muscular arms wrapped around her making her feel all safe and warm.
“There’s my girl,” he whispered. “You’re okay. You are doing amazing. Anytime you need or want a hug, you let me know. I’ll always give you hugs, no matter where we are or what we’re doing.”
He had been telling her those same words her whole life. Ezra always made sure she got as many hugs as she needed. Her parents were amazing and gave her hugs all the time, but there was just something special about Ezra’s.
“While we’re hugging, I want to let you know some things,” Ezra said. “People know not to bother us unless we talk to them first. They know you’re new, and the first time can be really overwhelming. If you want to interact with anyone, let me know, and we can see if I can make it happen.”
She would have never guessed to do that on her own. What if she had come on her own and everyone bombarded her with questions and requests to play? Maylee would have left and never returned. She wasn’t shy, but she did get easily overwhelmed .
“I know,” he said. “I can just feel the shock in your body. I wanted to make you feel comfortable and not be scared or overwhelmed any more than you had to be.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I— I really appreciate you doing that for me.”
“Any time, Lee.” Ezra pulled back and gave her a big smile. “Now, are you ready to go in and watch?”
“Yes.”