Chapter 15
15
Zach
Saturday night at Stronghold was crowded and full of predators. Zach scowled at yet another Dom, who looked as if he was headed toward Amy’s group of friends, who were hanging out in the Lounge area of the club. Not that the Dom was doing anything wrong. The Lounge area was where available submissives gathered.
But everyone knew who Amy was and what she’d recently gone through, and she didn’t need anyone taking advantage of her vulnerable position.
Even if she was considering rebound sex.
Maybe, especially because she was considering rebound sex.
She was in a bad place, and he didn’t want her making a decision she would regret later. Most of the Doms here were good people who wouldn’t deliberately hurt her. But Amy needed her confidence built back up and to be taken care of and for someone to take her through a scene where she could let her emotions go. So far, Zach hadn’t seen a single Dom looking at her that he would trust with such an important mission.
The Dom looked over at where he and Kincaid were in the bar area, where the Doms and couples tended to gather, then hastily changed course to another group of submissives. Amy and her friends kept chatting, blissfully unaware.
“Are you planning on scaring off every Dom who’s thinking about approaching Amy?” Asad asked, sounding amused. The other man was standing across from him at the bar table they were gathered around, so he could see everything Zach was doing.
“No,” Zach said at the exact same time as Kincaid. He looked at his boyfriend, who looked back at him with some consternation. Zach had assumed Asad was talking to him, but apparently, Kincaid had thought the same thing.
Had Kincaid been glaring at the other Doms as well?
“Yes, you’re both doing it,” Q said, chuckling from beside Asad.
As the two Doms in currently in committed relationships with Sam and Morgan, Q and Asad had joined Kincaid and Zach at their bar table. They all knew each other, of course, but they hadn’t really spent much time together before. Zach had known them more by reputation than anything else.
Q had joined Stronghold as a Dom before realizing he was a switch, and he’d eventually hooked up with Sam, who was also a switch. Club gossip also said they’d had a past, though Zach wasn’t sure of the details. The subs described Q as tall, dark, and nerdy. He was the only person Zach knew who occasionally wore a t-shirt with a funny saying on it to the club.
Everyone at Stronghold knew Asad as the Persian Excursion—a nickname he’d given himself—who had been the club player for a while before taking Morgan to his brother’s wedding as a fake date and somehow ending up with a real relationship out of it. Both of them normally hung out with Master Law and Connor, who had recently revealed himself to be a submissive, because they’d all come into the club around the same time. Kincaid and Zach tended to hang out with Mitch and Brian since they’d all been in the same introduction class when they’d first joined.
It didn’t help that Mitch’s wife, Domi, and Brian’s girlfriend, Rae, had been in the same submissives class as Morgan and Sam, and not everyone had gotten along at first. Then Rae and Domi had become friends with Law’s girlfriend, Iris, and Noelle had shown up and joined Amy’s group of friends and the rift had widened. Sam was the only go-between who regularly hung out with both groups. Amy got along with everyone, but she’d been as loyal to Noelle as she was to Jeremy, so while she was as friendly with Iris as she was with everyone else in the club, she’d also felt compelled to mostly stay away from her.
Zach didn’t intend to let her loyalty be given to someone who didn’t deserve it again. Not under his watch.
The other Doms knew she was under his and Kincaid’s protection, which was why they kept checking in before heading her way.
“She’s not ready to scene with anyone yet,” Zach said sternly, hoping he didn’t sound too defensive. “It’s only been a couple of weeks since the wedding didn’t happen.”
“True, but I’m pretty sure that’s her decision, not yours,” Asad pointed out. “Did she say she’s not ready to scene yet?”
“She said she wants to have a girls’ night with her friends tonight,” Kincaid came in smoothly to the rescue when Zach hesitated since Amy had sort of said she might want a rebound.
“Uh-huh.” Q and Asad exchanged a look.
“What?” Zach asked, trying not to be irritated.
“You know people are laying bets that y’all are going to end up hooking up with her, right?” Q asked. “Not by me, but there are some people.”
“Yeah, Q has learned his lesson about placing bets,” Asad smirked.
“I didn’t mind dressing up as Princess Leia for Halloween. I just mind that I missed out on Sam dressed up as Princess Leia for Halloween.” Q scowled at the other man. “And I mind that I still don’t know whether I actually lost the bet.”
Asad shrugged, lifting his beer to his lips to take a sip, smirk still in place.
Zach shook his head. He tried to stay out of the betting pool stuff, but even he’d heard about how Law and Q had made a bet over whether or not Asad would join the “pegging pack,” as some of the male submissives called themselves.
Somehow, Asad had found out about the bet and convinced both of them that they’d lost. Q had shown up to Halloween as Princess Leia to his girlfriend’s Han Solo, whereas Law… well, he must have done whatever he’d agreed to because he was even more irritated at Asad than Q was. It must have been something private because Zach hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary. Or possibly he’d missed it.
“If anyone mentions a bet to you about us, you can tell them to fuck off and mind their own business,” Kincaid said irritably, causing Zach to look at him with curiosity. Protectiveness he would have expected, but irritated? That was out of left field.
“Ah, yes, because that will definitely work,” Asad commented dryly.
“It’ll work about as well as telling someone to calm down in the middle of an argument,” Q agreed, chuckling.
Privately, Zach thought they were right. He glanced at Kincaid again, watching his boyfriend watch Amy.
Maybe there was something to the betting pool. If Amy wanted a rebound, and he and Kincaid wanted to make sure that whoever she chose didn’t hurt her…
If you want a job done right, do it yourself.
Amy
“So, no STDs, thankfully. Also, not pregnant, though that would have needed a minor miracle.” Amy made a face. She’d chalked her lack of libido up to wedding planning stress, but looking back, not wanting to have sex with her fiancé in the weeks before their wedding looked like just another red flag. How many of them had she blatantly ignored because she’d felt like she was already in too deep?
Once the deposits were down, everything had felt… inevitable. Which was not actually a good reason to get married. She couldn’t help but wonder how long she and Jeremy would have lasted, even if he hadn’t been cheating on her with Noelle.
Would she have finally seen the light—realized he didn’t love her the way he should if he was going to be a life partner—and ended things?
Or would she have stuck around, tolerating his indifference the way he tolerated her love until he left her? Cheated on her with someone else?
Maybe she should thank Noelle for saving her because she had the awful suspicion that the latter was the more likely scenario. God, she was so pathetic. Needy. Clingy. All the things Jeremy had accused her of being over the years. Because what kind of sad sack of a person clung to a relationship like that if they weren’t clingy? What kind of person put up with so little if they weren’t so needy?
Sam poked her in the boob, making Amy jump and cover the top of the soft mound. She’d dressed for Stronghold in a corset and short skirt, even though she didn’t feel sexy. It was what was expected. Plus, it helped her fit in better.
“Stop thinking about him. Or her. Or them.” Sam wagged her finger at Amy. “They don’t deserve another second of your time or energy.”
“I was just thinking maybe I should be grateful to Noelle for saving me from marrying him,” Amy replied, rubbing the spot where Sam had poked her before dropping her hand. “Like, I could be married to him right now. ”
Sam and Morgan’s expressions turned to pure disgust. Yeah. Amy felt that disgust, too; she was just also disgusted with herself because she would have married him.
Pathetic.
“Hey, can we join you?” The question came from behind Amy, and she jumped in surprise, twisting around to see who had spoken. Domi, Rae, Avery, and Iris stood behind her. It was Domi who had asked the question. Rae and Avery stood beside her while Iris hung back a little.
Poor Iris, who had been Noelle’s friend before she’d joined Stronghold and she and Noelle had their falling out. Iris, who was the reason Noelle had come to Stronghold in the first place. Iris, who looked at Amy with pure guilt on her face.
Amy glanced over her shoulder to make sure Sam and Morgan were okay with it—really, Morgan, since Rae and Domi hadn’t always been nice to her. They’d been more indifferent to Sam than anything else, but they’d had an actual problem with Morgan for a while. It seemed to have resolved, but… as much as she wanted to reassure Iris, she wasn’t going to make Morgan uncomfortable to do so.
The redhead nodded serenely. Morgan wasn’t the type to hold a grudge. Sam was. She nodded, too, though.
“Sure, come sit,” Amy said. As the other women moved to take seats around them, Amy glanced over to where Kincaid and Zach had been hanging out with Sam and Morgan’s Doms. They were now joined by Mitch, Brian, and Law, who were Domi’s, Rae’s, and Iris’ partners. Avery’s Dom was also her boss, and they both worked in the kitchen at Marquis, Stronghold’s sister club, so on weekend nights, they almost never were both able to get a night off.
Actually, she was surprised Avery was able to get a Saturday night off period.
Sam obviously had the same thought.
“I didn’t realize you’d have off tonight,” she said to Avery as the pretty brunette sat down next to her.
“Nick is training a new sous chef, so I get a night off,” Avery replied cheerfully, settling into her seat. The blue dress she was wearing would have fit in at a dance club, though it still worked for Stronghold.
The other group was far more diverse than Amy’s group of friends. Avery was white with light brown hair and hazel eyes, a smattering of freckles across her face. Domi was Puerto Rican, while Iris identified herself as Latina, and Rae was Black. Amy had always been jealous of Domi’s tightly wound curls—and her confidence.
Domi was petite in every way, but she was fierce. Rae was taller than her and just as confident, but her personality always seemed somehow softer than Domi’s. Maybe it was just because Domi was a masochist with an edge while Rae was more of a babygirl—though she never called Brian “Daddy,” even though he was a Daddy Dom. Amy had internally cheered when they’d managed to work things out despite that; anyone could see they’d belonged together from the way they’d circled around each other for months.
True to their dynamics, Rae dressed more like a babygirl. Tonight, she was wearing a pink tutu skirt with a white corset that had little pink bows at the top. Matching pink braids were threaded through the dark brown ones and tied into pigtails with more pink bows. Beside her, Domi was wearing a black leather skirt, a dark purple corset, and her collar had spikes on it. The fact that she’d hooked up with sunny, laughing Master Mitch had always amused Amy. They were the definition of opposites attract.
“We just wanted to come say we’re sorry about your wedding and see if there’s anything we can do for you,” Domi said forthrightly, which was her way. She was definitely not the type to beat around the bush.
“Like bury a body or two,” Rae muttered, which made Amy smile. Rae might look like a fluffy princess babygirl, but she could be just as ruthless as Domi. Maybe more so.
“Thank you, I appreciate that. I mostly just want to never see them again, and if I can make it so I never think about them again, that’ll be even better,” Amy joked. Except she wasn’t really joking, but no one needed to know that.
“I know how that feels.” Iris was seated in one of the chairs across from Amy. The PVC dress she was wearing clung to her body, and her legs were pressed tightly together to keep the material of the short skirt from riding up. Her hands were clasped on her lap, guilt practically shimmering from every line in her body. “I’m so sorry. I… should have said something to you when she started making friends with all of you, but I didn’t know if you’d believe it, and I kept thinking maybe she’d changed… maybe she deserved another chance…”
“Hey, her shitty behavior is not your fault,” Sam said, using her Domme voice and reaching over from her own seat to put her hand on Iris’. “You are not responsible for someone else’s actions.”
“I know but… I’ve always been the kind of person who says something. Does something.” Iris took a deep breath with a little huff. “I don’t know why, but she’s always the exception. She just gets me so twisted up…”
“We probably wouldn’t have listened anyway,” Amy admitted. “Even if I’d believed you, I would have also agreed that she deserved another chance. And Carolyn and Marissa would have probably made friends with her just to be contrary.” Because they could be like that. They weren’t always easy people to love, but she’d always been willing to forgive them their faults.
In some ways, they were very similar to Noelle, which was probably why they’d been drawn to her in the first place, but they would never have crossed the lines she did.
“Yeah, but you would have at least had some warning.” Iris reached up, running her fingers through her hair, shaking the silky black strands away from her face.
“Trust me, she was very convincing about how you’d wronged her.” Amy smiled apologetically. “I didn’t believe everything she said, but even taking it with a grain of salt, I was gonna be sympathetic. If anything, I’m sorry I didn’t come to ask you your side of the story. I was trying to be a loyal friend, but…” She sighed. Well, now she knew better.
“Trust me, I don’t blame you for that,” Iris reassured her. “I know how it is.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Amy saw Domi and Rae quietly talking with Morgan, who was smiling happily, so whatever they were saying couldn’t be bad.
Look at that. Somehow, now that Noelle was gone, she was bringing people together.
Go figure.