Chapter 37
37
Amy
Saturday night and Amy was headed to Stronghold with her boyfriends.
Corsets weren’t as uncomfortable as movies sometimes made them out to be, but they weren’t exactly comfortable while sitting in a car, either. Cars were not made to accommodate women in corsets. The butt plug they’d inserted in her ass before leaving for the club also did not lend itself to comfort, which was why it was such a relief to arrive at Stronghold and be able to get out of the car.
Her boobs looked great, though, and she was finally going to get fully sandwiched between them, which made it all worth it.
“You look fantastic,” Zach said with a grin, opening her door. It was his turn to drive, so Kincaid had been in the back with her, teasing her with gentle touches, though they hadn’t gone for a full-on makeout session like she and Zach had the last time it had been Kincaid’s turn to drive. She was kinda hoping to get to be the chauffeur during backseat blowjob when it was her turn to drive and the guys were both in the backseat.
“Thank you. You’re looking pretty good yourself,” she replied, running her hand over his abs, which were showing through the opening in the leather vest he was wearing.
It was warm enough out that they hadn’t bothered to put anything on over their club wear. Since they were at Stronghold instead of Marquis, they didn’t have any restaurant patrons or even anyone on the street walking by and seeing them. The parking lot was pretty much members-only since it wasn’t in an area with other shops or restaurants, unlike Marquis.
“Hey, now, save that for the club,” Kincaid teased as he got out on the other side of the car, shaking his head. “Or I’ll have to punish you both.”
“Oh, no,” Amy sassed, sliding her fingers through Zach’s as they moved around the car to meet Kincaid on his side of it so they could head into the club together. “A punishment. Whatever will I do.”
“Try to earn one, apparently,” Kincaid responded, amused. He took her other hand, and she grinned up at him. She loved being able to walk around with the two of them like this.
As they walked toward the front entrance, a door to another car opened, and Noelle stepped out. Amy jerked to a halt, which pulled the guys to a stop as well. She was so used to familiar-looking cars in the parking lot that she hadn’t even registered that one as Noelle’s.
Her ex-friend looked exactly the same. Blonde. Pretty. And her eyes filled with tears the second they met Amy’s.
“I’m so sorry!” She practically yelled the words. “I messed up, Amy. I’m sorry.”
Beside Amy, Kincaid and Zach bristled, but this wasn’t their fight. She tightened her fingers around both of theirs.
“Yes… you did mess up,” she said slowly. She really had not expected to see Noelle here. Yes, she’d had to block the other woman’s number because she’d been calling, but she’d figured that would be the end of it. She sure as hell hadn’t expected Noelle to show up here, at Stronghold, where she’d already had her membership revoked. “Thank you for the apology.”
Zach snorted, but she ignored him. She wasn’t going to let Noelle back into her life, but she was owed that apology, dammit.
Sniffling, Noelle stepped forward, raising her arms and coming toward Amy as if she thought she was going to get a hug. Amy stepped back, shaking her head—not that she needed to go far to retreat because Kincaid and Zach practically jumped in front of her to keep Noelle from being able to reach her.
“Amy!” Noelle moved back and forth, trying to see Amy through the small space between Kincaid and Zach’s beefy arms. “I said I was sorry.”
“I heard you. I accept your apology,” Amy said stiltedly. This was… seriously? Beyond the broad shoulders in front of her, she could see the main door of Stronghold opening, and people started pouring out.
That’s right. There were cameras in the parking lot.
Great. Now, they had an audience.
“So, you’ll accept an apology but not a hug?”
“Um… no offense, but I really don’t want to hug you.” They were the first words that came to mind, and they popped out of Amy’s mouth before she could stop them, even though they were kind of mean. They were also true. “Accepting your apology does not mean we’re friends again.”
“Why not?” Noelle sounded sincerely shocked.
Amy shoved through her boyfriends, staring at Noelle. She wanted to be able to see Noelle’s full expression, wanted Noelle to be able to see hers. She didn’t need her boyfriends standing between them. She could handle Noelle on her own. Even if she wasn’t entirely on her own, with her boyfriends at her back and her friends standing in a semi-circle around the parking lot next to Stronghold, listening to the conversation. If she needed them, they were there. Every sub in Stronghold, it looked like.
“Are you high?” Had she somehow forgotten what she’d done to Amy? “You eloped with my groom. On my wedding day.”
“I did you a favor, showing you what an asshole he is!”
“ Now he’s an asshole? You married him!” Not that Amy wanted him, and she did agree that he was an asshole, but Noelle was attempting to rewrite history with pure fiction.
“And now we split up.” Noelle sniffled again, lifting her hand to wipe away a sudden tear. A very convenient tear, considering a second ago she hadn’t had any. Or maybe Amy was being too cynical, but she still felt unmoved, even if Noelle really was crying. “Why do you think I’ve been trying to call you? He fooled me. He fooled me, and he used me, and I’m so sorry I betrayed you that way… but he fooled and used us both.”
Two months. They’d lasted all of two months. Suddenly, Amy felt like laughing. God, Noelle really had done her a favor, showing her not just Jeremy’s true colors but her own. They had deserved each other for the short time that they’d made each other miserable.
“I think you’re forgetting that you also fooled and used me.” Amy shook her head. “You are not my friend. I’m not sure you ever were. I’m sorry if you got hurt, but that doesn’t change how you hurt me, and it doesn’t mean we can be friends again.”
“God, what is with this place?” Noelle stomped her foot. She actually stomped her foot as she flung her arm at Stronghold—the building, though the gesture encompassed all the people now coming out of it. None of whom were looking at her with anything in the way of welcome or friendship, though she didn’t seem to care. “You come here, get dickmatized by a pervert, and then bam, you think you’re too good to be friends with me, just like Iris.”
“Everyone here is too good to be friends with you,” Rae yelled out.
Noelle jerked in surprise, as if she really hadn’t realized that the whole club had come out to listen to her. Maybe she hadn’t. They were all behind her.
Noelle spun and turned in a slow circle, taking in all the people glaring at her.
“Screw all of you,” she yelled. “You think you’re so much better than everyone else just because you do weird shit during sex.”
“Don’t be bitter about losing your membership or anything,” Lexie, the club owner’s wife, retorted with a snort. “You freaking begged us not to kick you out, or did you forget that, too?”
“You’re all a bunch of awful bullies!” Noelle shrieked. She spun around to face Amy. “Fine, you don’t want to be my friend? Fuck you then. You can go whore around with two men all you want. They’ll leave you in the end, too.”
“Shut up, Noelle,” called out Jessica, who Amy hadn’t ever really interacted with. She was standing there with her husbands, Justin and Chris. “You’re just mad Amy’s got two hotties, and you couldn’t even hold on to her leftovers.”
Everyone’s jaw dropped at that one. Jessica winked at Amy.
Noelle sputtered. Actually sputtered, her lips coming together and vibrating, little droplets of spit popping off of them. It was the most amazing thing Amy had ever seen.
“Fuck all of you!” Noelle finally came up with, yanking her car door open. “You can all go to hell.”
She pulled out of the parking lot with the window down so she could hold her middle finger high in the air, flicking them all off—but it also meant she’d be able to hear all the cheering as she went.
Amy pressed her hand to her stomach, which felt a little queasy after the confrontation. That had been… bad. Bad enough that she almost felt sorry for Noelle. It couldn’t be easy seeing an entire club of people cheering your departure.
“Stop it,” Kincaid said in her ear.
“Stop what?” She turned her head to look up at him.
“Stop feeling bad. She doesn’t deserve your pity. Literally, everything that’s happened to her, she’s brought on herself.”
“Damn right,” Zach agreed. Despite the cheering around them, he’d obviously heard what Kincaid had said.
Amy huffed, but she couldn’t argue. She still felt a little bad. Noelle was going to go through life in perpetual victimhood and probably never find happiness, whereas she, Amy, was blissfully happy. In some ways, her happiness was because of Noelle and the shitty way she had treated Amy. She wished Noelle was able to also find happiness, but Kincaid was right. She kept bringing things on herself and blaming everyone else, and as long as she couldn’t see what she was doing to others and herself, she was never going to be happy.
None of which was Amy’s problem. Not my circus, not my angry monkey .
It seemed like everyone wanted to come by and tell Amy that they all supported her and thought Noelle was awful. Everyone was happy for her that she’d gotten together with Zach and Kincaid.
The last to come say hi were Jessica, Justin, and Chris.
“Thank you, seriously, for getting Noelle to back off,” Amy said to Jessica. The way the other woman had come to her defense, even though they didn’t really know each other, had helped her feel a lot better. They weren’t the only poly group at Stronghold, but as far as she knew, they were the only two groups of three that were all in a relationship together rather than having separate relationships.
“Hell, yeah,” Jessica said, her hazel eyes twinkling as she grinned at Amy. “We’ve gotta stick together. I don’t often get hassled about having two boyfriends anymore, but you get pretty quick on your feet with the comebacks after a while.”
Amy wasn’t sure she’d ever be that quick, but who knew? “If you want to share any of your comebacks, I’ll be happy to steal them from you.”
Jessica laughed. “We can definitely do that.” She reached out and hugged Amy, and Amy hugged her back hard.
It didn’t matter that they’d never really interacted with each other; there was a sisterhood among the subbies at Stronghold. Something Noelle had really never understood. And, again, Amy ended up feeling sad for her, because she probably never would. Only Noelle could change her future, though, and she didn’t seem to want to.
Justin and Chris were talking to Zach and Kincaid, but they wrapped things up so they could give Amy hugs and a few words of support, too. Then they went back into the club, leaving Amy in the parking lot with her boyfriends again, so they could have a private moment.
“How are you feeling?” Kincaid asked sympathetically. “Do you still want to scene tonight?”
“Oh, yes.” Amy narrowed her eyes at him. “You guys aren’t getting out of finally sandwiching me.”
“Trust me, we don’t want out of it,” Zach said, slipping his hand down her back to her butt to give it a little pat. “But we can wait if we need to. That was not exactly how we expected tonight to go.”
“Life is full of the unexpected. And some of the unexpected things unexpectedly turned into the best things. Like being left at the altar for my bridesmaid.” She wrapped her arms around her men as they stepped into her, tilting her head back to look up at them. “Noelle really did do me a favor, saving me from marrying Jeremy. If it wasn’t for her, I would have married him that day and would probably be completely miserable right now. Instead, I’m about to be the middle of a hottie sandwich, and I’ve never been happier.”
It was about time.