Chapter Five #2
worn her mask and hadn’t promised the man anything beyond a hot night. She
wasn’t Daisy O’Donnell here. She was Dee, and Dee was going to find a new club.
Daisy and Dee would both think about Nate Carter for the
rest of her life.
“Here. Let me get you out of those and we can talk,” he
said, his lips curled up in a grin. “Although I have to tell you, you look like
heaven, love. I kind of wish I could wrap you up in my ropes and drag you home
with me.”
Home would be lovely, but she wasn’t allowed to go home
tonight. Tonight, if she took him with her, Nate would be surprised when she
gave him his own address. She had to hope he was an early riser. “I think it
might be hard for me to get to my new job with my hands tied like this.”
He helped her sit up, and it was weirdly not awkward as he
started to untie her.
She didn’t want this to end. She also wasn’t sure he would
simply let her walk away. Her night wasn’t over. The only person who’d seen her
walk in here with Nate was Hunter, and she had to make sure he understood it
was in his best interest to keep his mouth shut. She had to get away without
anyone else seeing her with Nate or there would be talk she didn’t want to deal
with.
She didn’t want to leave him.
“Still not ready to take the mask off, eh?” Nate was staring
down at her.
“The party’s not over.” She hoped she sounded way sexier
than she felt. “Why don’t you settle in and I’ll go clean up?”
A big hand came out to smooth back her hair. “All right,
love. You can hide for a little while longer. You sure you want to stay here
with me? We could go out to the dungeon for a bit if you like. I’m…I don’t want
to hurt you. If you’re sore…”
She could so fall in love with this man. She tilted her head
up. “I’m fine. Someone made sure I was ready for him. But, Sir, I don’t think I
can handle more hours of torture. Maybe we can cuddle and see where the night
takes us. I have no desire to leave this room.”
Ever. They could lock themselves away, and she wouldn’t have
to worry about anything but taking care of him. The world wouldn’t matter. Only
Nathan Carter.
It wasn’t going to happen, but they could hide away for now.
“I’m glad.” He helped her to her wobbly feet. “I don’t want
to go anywhere either, love.”
He lowered his head and kissed her. Every muscle felt well
used and satisfied. Her head felt like she’d had too much champagne.
“Be quick.” He laid his gorgeous body out on the bed,
turning to his side to watch her as she walked across the room to the bathroom.
He yawned like a lazy lion.
Daisy shut the door between them and turned on the shower.
“I’m only going to get you dirty again,” he said from the
bedroom.
“Then I’ll make you clean me up.” She found a towel and
slipped out of the mask.
What the hell was she doing?
She heard him chuckle as she refixed her hair, ensuring it
wouldn’t get wet. Her brain was buzzing as she took her shower and dried off,
looking for any way out of this trap. She wasn’t sure she had the strength to
walk out the door and tell Nate she needed to go.
But she needed to go. Aidan would be looking for her, and
the last thing she needed was a big reveal “hey, you slept with my baby sister”
scene.
Of course, if she stayed in the bathroom much longer, Nate
himself would come looking for her.
She settled the mask on her face and wrapped the towel
around her.
When she walked back into the room, she realized she didn’t
have to fight at all.
He was asleep on the bed, his whole body relaxed. He looked
younger, carefree.
The idea she would never see him like this again made her
heart ache, but she knew what she had to do.
She quickly dressed and forced herself to slip outside. The
minute she left the room, the world came back into focus.
She didn’t really belong here, and he did. He was starting a
new life, and all she would do was complicate it. He was looking for something
and it certainly wasn’t her. All she would bring the man was trouble, and he’d
given her so much.
“Dais?” Hunter had moved from his desk. “You okay? Are you
here with the new guy? Dad told me they hired on the dude who used to hang out
with you and Aidan. Nate? Nick?”
There was only one way to handle Hunter McKay. Shock and
awe. He was a great guy, but he would talk if she didn’t scare him out of it.
“Aidan doesn’t know and neither does Nate. It’s masquerade night. You remember
what that means?”
“It means Seth might have a shot at getting in Chloe’s
thong. It means all the subs who wouldn’t touch Lucas because he’s a manwhore
can pretend they don’t know what they’re doing. I call it delusion night. It’s
precisely why I’m working the desk,” Hunter shot back. “I know the rules,
Dais.”
She stared him down. He was a year older than she was, but
she knew how to handle him. He was a rules guy. “Are you going to follow them?”
His eyes closed and he sighed. “Do you know what you’re
doing?”
“It doesn’t matter. For now, I’m a member of this club, and
you owe me discretion,” she insisted.
“I know, but Aidan…”
She was sick of this. “Is my brother, not my father. And
honestly, even if my father was here, I’m an adult. I have every right to do
what I want in this club. Tell me something, if it was Devi or Bri coming out
of a privacy room, would you be clutching your pearls and wondering how fast
you can bring the patriarchy down on their heads?”
Hunter’s hands came up. “I’m so fucking glad my sister is in
London. Go on. I was only trying to look out for you.”
It was the whole problem with the club. The problem wasn’t
that someone cared about her, but sometimes their caring became questioning her
choices. If she had one more intervention…
“I’m great. Used a condom and everything.” She’d one hundred
percent protected her body. She wasn’t so sure about her heart.
Daisy strode away and didn’t look back.
* * * *
“Hey, how’d your night go, big guy? I asked around and no
one said they saw you, but I noticed you weren’t home when we got here.” Aidan
sat at the breakfast table, a mug of coffee in front of him.
Nate needed way more than coffee. He needed to find Dee and
take his hand to her backside. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep. He’d meant to
get inside her again. As many times as it took to get her to take the mask off
and get real with him.
That was the problem. It had all felt so real. He’d spent
one night with the woman, and he was fairly certain he would never forget her.
The good news was Aidan had been a member of The Hideout
since its inception, and he tended to be pretty observant. When the dungeon
monitor had woken him up, the club had been closing and his Cinderella hadn’t
even left behind one of her high heels. No clues to track her by except her
name. Well, and a couple of facts.
“I met a sub. We decided to play in private. Look, mate, I
need to find her. You know a sub named Dee?” Nate got right to the point. He’d
driven himself home and the house had been quiet, though he’d seen a light on
in the room normally used by Cooper McKay.
Daisy O’Donnell was staying the night. Just yesterday
meeting Daisy again after almost twelve years had seemed like it would be the
highlight of his week. Now he could barely work up the will to say hi.
Because all he fucking wanted in the world was Dee.
In the course of a few short hours, he’d become obsessed
with a woman for the first time in his life.
Aidan sat up. He was in sweats and a T-shirt, his hair still
damp from a morning shower, and his gym bag was slung over his chair. “Dee? We
have a couple of members with first names that start with D.”
“She said her name was Dee.”
Carys walked in from the kitchen. She was dressed far more
formally than her fiancé. She was in slacks and a pretty shirt, her hair up in
a neat bun. “Who said her name was Dee? We don’t have a Dee. We have a Daisy
and a Devon and Denise. But honestly, it was masquerade night so we had some
newbies, and almost no one goes by real names.”
“It’s kind of a free-for-all,” Aidan admitted. “The only
rule is what happens at masquerade stays at masquerade. It’s a decadent,
make-bad-choices kind of night.”
“It’s supposed to be fun.” Carys placed a plate of toast
down on the table. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been because I’ve pretty much
been engaged since I was five.”
Aidan’s lips kicked up in a grin. “She’s right. Tris and I
made this ring in art class…” He sobered as though remembering his partner
wasn’t here and wouldn’t be coming home any time soon. “Well, I’ve never
understood the appeal. I did hear Chloe dumped a beer on Seth’s head when he
tried to hit on her. I kind of wished I’d seen that.”
Carys sat down beside her fiancé and put a hand over his.
“You were far too busy playing doctor.”
“Damn straight I was.” Aidan gave her hand a squeeze before
turning back to Nate. “So you got lucky last night? Good for you, man.”
Had he listened to a word he’d said? “That’s where you’re
wrong. I’m not lucky because I’m the arsehole who fell asleep on the hottest
woman I’ve ever seen, and now I don’t know how to get in touch with her.”
Aidan chuckled. “Dude, you fell asleep on her? Seriously? So
you want to find her again because you didn’t get a chance to play with her?”
“Oh, we played. We played for hours, and when we were done
she went to clean up, and I was out like a bloody light,” he admitted. “When
the monitor woke me up, she was gone. Everyone was, actually. I managed to
sleep until the club closed.”
“Damn, man. I wish I could help you. What did she look
like?” Aidan asked.
“She was fucking gorgeous. I mean that woman was sex walking
on two legs. Long, dark hair, gorgeous eyes.” The sight of her spread out for
his pleasure would haunt him until the day he died. Dee was… She was everything
he wanted in a woman, in a sub. “I took one look at her and no one else
mattered.”
Aidan glanced Carys’s way. “There are a lot of pretty subs,