CHAPTER NINE
Ray watched Will shoulder into a cluster of approaching patrons until he no longer discerned the bright strawberry blond ponytail among heads crowned with darker and dyed shades.
Taking deep breaths, he counted in his head and fought the urge to follow Will into the parking lot.
He refused to exacerbate the situation by defying Will’s wishes.
He’d give Will the night to find solace, then reach out the next time Will reported to the agency for work. If he showed. Ray wouldn’t be surprised if Will ghosted the job because of this. He prayed for mercy if that happened, because he had no doubt of Gwen connecting those dots.
He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets and stormed for the nearest bar.
He barked out a request for ginger ale to the nearest server and slumped against the brass rail, defeated.
I knew it, I knew it. His mind reeled with self-loathing.
Despite his gut instinct telling him to hold out on coming to Velvet Sands until he solidified his relationship with Will, he risked a visit. The club’s appeal proved irresistible.
He’d been truthful about his presence; he wanted a visual refresher of the Lifestyle and nothing more.
His talks with Will stimulated his desire to feel an eager sub under his hand, and Ray pictured Will in that position.
Long out of practice, Ray wanted to recharge his confidence in order to proposition Will as a responsible Dominant.
Seeing Will in the club, harassed by that poor excuse of an Alpha, seemed surreal. In a perfect world, they’d have run into each other in a happy accident and enjoyed a good-natured laugh. Like in that song about pina coladas, but forget about making love on the beach after this.
Ray rubbed his neck near his gland, which itched like hell. What a perfect ending to a shitshow of an evening, he thought, to go into rut in a club full of people who didn’t interest him.
“Hey, Stretch. Buy a girl a drink?”
Ray blinked, jarred by the use of his scene name. Nobody beyond Velvet Sands or other BDSM spaces called him that.
He turned toward the woman standing beside him. Even in her heels, Mistress Eden missed equal height with him by a few inches. Regardless of her stature, the Domme commanded attention and Ray was happy to offer it.
“One for the lady,” Ray requested from the server, his voice polite yet still loud to be heard over the chatter and sounds of multiple demonstrations. Turning back to Eden, he smiled. “It’s been a while.”
“Indeed. I heard you have a new gig.”
“I’m working for a relationship agency, a newish concept in matching,” Ray said. “Last time we talked you were thinking of getting a new tat. Still thinking, or do you have it?”
Eden answered by releasing the first two buttons of her suit jacket.
She slid off the right shoulder to reveal part of her sleeveless top.
High on her bicep, the perky head of a parrot glowed with the same yellow-orange brilliance as the day she first showed it off to Ray.
The rest of the bird’s body, the addition, featured dark green wings and tiny talons clutching a brown twig.
Eden restored her jacket before he was able to inspect the rest of the tat.
“I do want to add more around Pepe,” she said, referring to her pet immortalized on her arm. “Leaves, flowers, and maybe expand on the tree design. Haven’t had the time to schedule an appointment, between work and…” She gestured toward the stations. “I’ve gotten more queries in the last month.”
“Awesome.” Ray sipped from his dewy soda can. “Are you in town long? I have a new idea myself. We could meet for coffee and catch up.”
“I’m leaving tomorrow morning for Charlotte,” Eden said. She flicked her gaze at the station she’d recently tended. “I have no commitments next month, so I can stay in town longer. I’ll text you, and maybe check out this matchmaking thing of yours.”
“Like you need help.” Ray laughed. “The Omegas love you.” The Betas, too. Submissives of all walks of life turned their heads at Mistress Eden’s approach.
“Be that as it may, not every sub under my hand is a potential forever person. They know it, too. One day I will settle down.” Eden rested back on the bar, propped on her elbows.
“Tell me about that beautiful young man you were talking to earlier,” she said.
“Uncollared, lovely hair. Friend of yours?”
Well, damn. Of course Eden noticed. How many other Doms felt their internal radar pinging when Will roamed the club? “I like to think yes.” Ray gazed at the floor. “With respect to his privacy, that’s all I can say.”
“You like him.”
“I like him,” Ray said. “I would like to be more than friends, and at one point we were headed in that direction but I fear we’ve hit a snag.”
Eden hummed, as though with sympathy. Bodies surrounded them, too close for Ray’s comfort. Eden’s, also, as he gathered by her next words.
“I could go for a smoke.”
“I’ll follow you.”
He waited while Eden collected her leather bag from the back of a nearby stool, and together they exited the club.
Ray took in a lungful of crisp night air and held in the breath until the dizzy sensation proved too distracting from his friend.
Exhaling, he waved a silent pass when Eden held out the wrinkled soft pack.
“I refuse to mess with those vape cartridges,” she said, and stuck a bent cigarette between her lips. “I heard they can actually explode while you’re using them.”
Ray nodded, though did not agree with the blanket statement. “It’s a battery issue, not necessarily the device itself. Don’t buy a cheap pen and check the batteries once in a while and you’ll be fine.”
“Eh, I’m old school.” Eden flashed her custom skinned lighter, emblazoned with the triskelion, before exhaling a long plume of gray smoke.
She pointed the lit end of her cigarette toward her face, inspecting it.
“Vapes lack the appeal of an old-fashioned, unfiltered ciggy. You watch all those old movies, with pinstriped gangsters and elegant femme fatales. Picture Bogart with a vape, and it doesn’t hit the same. ”
“He died of lung cancer, right?”
Eden aimed a quick puff in his direction. So much for his lungs. “Entertain me, Stretch. Do you intend to untangle this snag, or cut your losses and find another sub?”
“Will’s not a sub,” Ray said, and cringed. Damn it. He wanted to keep Will anonymous. “He was curious about the Lifestyle after talking about it with me, and he came here tonight on his own. He must have finagled a guest pass from somebody, because he didn’t tell me anything.”
“You want him to be your sub, though.” Not a question.
“I want a friendship with Will to lead to something stronger,” he said. “I like him, and I’ll accept being his boyfriend even if he prefers to keep it all vanilla.” His mood soured as he spoke. “Who knows if he’ll offer me that much now. He wasn’t happy when we left.”
“Ah.” Eden paced the sidewalk leading toward the road, each step sounding in a light crunch as she touched her spiked heels to the gritty concrete.
“The Lifestyle is too overwhelming for him because of this experience. He should have received a gradual introduction. You told him what to expect here, right?”
“I said nothing about Velvet Sands,” Ray told her. “I wouldn’t dream of bringing anyone unfamiliar with the Lifestyle to a club without educating them first.” He couldn’t fault Will for online research, if that led to his discovery of the club. When he said as much to Eden, she huffed.
“I get why the website is minimalist, but Ange and Walt need to do better. Velvet Sands used to require tours off-hours for newbies. They were important, and I understand it’s a challenge to staff people lately, but it would be better for growing clientele,” she said.
“They got this boy’s information tonight, but scare him away and he won’t buy a membership. ”
“Ange and Walt didn’t scare him away. That was some Alpha a-hole.”
Eden shrugged, puffing on her cig. “I’ve talked to Ange about tightening up security. Instead of hiring more people they set up cameras. Yeah, they preserve evidence, but you’re left getting involved after somebody gets hurt. People need to step in at the first hint of danger, like you did.”
Ray glanced behind them to make sure nobody was listening. Some people frowned on criticism of the house rules, thinking the community ought to be thankful the club existed at all. He wasn’t a high-tier member anymore, but he liked the option to come here if he chose, and to feel welcome.
“I wasn’t enough, though,” Ray said after a long beat. “Not that I’d have encouraged him to stay.”
“Why didn’t you leave when he did?”
“I wanted him to have time to calm down and find a safe place. Who knows if I made the right decision. Damned if I do, et cetera.” He considered the possibility that Will suffered embarrassment on being recognized.
Ray understood, having nursed a few mental wounds in his days as a baby sub.
Working in education, he’d taken great risks showing up in clubs, never mind that he wasn’t doing anything illegal.
Eden flicked her ash away from them. “Don’t beat yourself up, Stretch. He checked out the club because he was curious, and he wanted to get to know you better through your interests.”
The idea of Will researching the Lifestyle on his own to connect with Ray inflated his ego a bit.
That euphoria was short-lived, however, given the way Will left.
“It’s possible he wanted an unbiased view,” he said, nodding.
“If I glamorized BDSM, it wasn’t intentional.
I wanted to be honest with him about who I was. ”
Eden crushed her cigarette under her shoe and patted his shoulder.
“I hope you and your… whatever he is to you work out your differences,” she said, and glided back a step.
Her discerning glare put Ray on alert. He was used to scrutiny in kink clubs, especially when he dommed before a crowd.
Everybody offered an opinion on the proper way to spank, restrain, speak or console during aftercare.
Eden, at least, came to the table with decades of experience.
He waited, patient and quiet, for her unsolicited advice. Eden did not disappoint.
“You’re an exceptional Dom, Stretch. You’ve talked about your day job, and I believe the counseling background helps.
” She laughed, short. “I also know that you can take the Dom out of the Lifestyle but you can’t take the Lifestyle out of the Dom.
It’s hard to walk away, else you wouldn’t have stopped by, right? ”
When Ray nodded, she said, “It’s in your blood.
If this boy isn’t cut out to sub, then you might last a few months with him.
You’ll have pleasant, vanilla sex and a few laughs, but after a while you’ll miss the old life.
You’ll want to come back here and turn some unmated Omega’s pale ass a bright pink with your bare hand.
” Eden gestured for Ray to lift this and she wrapped her fingers around his palm.
“Look at this paw. The prints you’d leave would last for weeks. ”
“You had your chance,” Ray said, teasing her.
“Cute.” Eden dropped his hand. “I’m going back inside for a sawhorse demo. I’ll see you here again, with or without that young man.” She leaned close and whispered in his ear. “It’s in your blood. Type A-Positive Alpha Dom.”
Ray smiled his goodbyes and turned away, waiting for the sharp clicks of Eden’s heels to fade as she reentered the club.
Much as he wanted to contradict the Domme, deep down she was right.
Discipline wasn’t an addiction but a vocation to him.
He could walk away from the Lifestyle for indefinite periods, but the pull to call a willing submissive to heel tugged strong at his heart.
He lived for the power exchange, and thrilled at the ecstasy rippling over the features of a pretty little Omega floating in subspace.
He imagined Will there, bound for him in thick, soft ropes or suspended from a leather-seated swing. The idea of Will surrendering all control of his sexual pleasure had Ray hardening in his pants right there in the parking lot. Let his imagination run wild, and he’d pop a knot.
It wasn’t enough for Ray, though. Will had to want it, too. As Ray shuffled to his car the thought of him and Will remaining just friends, shy of touching distance, covered him like a mourning veil.