Chapter 39 Eight #2
“Yeah, it was a fiasco. But there was still no excuse for their passive-aggressive bullshit about not bringing those fucking meds when she was throwing up. I don’t regret getting loud about that. I’m not gonna sit there and watch her suffer. Fuck that, and fuck them.
“It tore me up to see Kate so sick, especially since it was partly my fault. That week, she’d been working nonstop to finish a school project and rushing to the club and over to my place at all hours.
Sex makes a woman more prone to get those infections, and I’d fucked her at least three times a day every day that week.
When her stomach started hurting, she thought she was gonna start her period.
The timing was right. I didn’t question it.
Wasn’t until she got the fever and all the other symptoms that I realized.
“If you could’ve seen what she went through, Shay,” Rory said, shaking his head.
“I told D when he got there, ‘I should’ve taken better care of her. I’m her Dom.
That’s my fucking responsibility. When she’s better, I’m gonna take my punishment for this.
You’re gonna use a real cat of nine tails on my back till I bleed. ’”
Shay’s brows rose. “What did D say?”
“You know D. And D knows me. He said he didn’t disagree that it was my job to see to my sub’s well-being and that if when I was less exhausted, I still wanted to assign myself that much blame and thought I deserved such a harsh punishment, he’d do it.”
“Did you?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Did you tell Kate you were going to do it?”
“Not before. It would’ve upset her. But it wasn’t like I could hide it from her afterward.
It took two weeks for my back to heal.” Rory finished his drink and rubbed his eyes.
“So yes, I know how I am about Kate. And maybe that’s part of the reason I didn’t cut Emma some slack.
Kate’s family’s not here in Connecticut and a lot of her college friendships have faded since she spends so much time at the club and at my place.
It would be fair to say that I don’t have to share her much with anyone.
And maybe sometimes I worry Kate doesn’t use her safeword as quick as she should and I still remember that time at the hospital when they said she could die.
So when her cute little friend comes to the club and interrupts my scene with Kate, implying I’m not taking care of her, it pushes my buttons.
And when the friend challenges me for control of Kate, well, my reaction was predictable. It’s not the first time.”
“You’ve got a right to shut down anyone who questions your authority over Kate. She’s collared.”
“Of course, but I need to watch my intensity level.”
“Why do you say that? The hospital scene was an extreme circumstance. And the punishment thing with Emma, you were right about that. Doug and J wouldn’t have expected less.”
“Yeah, but there’s becoming a pattern of me losing my temper, which I never used to do.
About three weeks ago, I took her to this nightclub, and she got really drunk.
She was playing around and pouring liquor from my glass into her Coke.
I knew she was doing it, and I let her. She’s not used to drinking, but I’m there. Nothing can happen to her.
“Then she’s washing her hands in the women’s bathroom, and she realizes she lost a little silver ring I bought her.
It was nothing. A couple hundred bucks. You know D’s thing about expensive gifts and young subs, sometimes spending too much is coercive and puts things at a level like prostitution.
I figure D’s right that we should watch ourselves, so I never get carried away that way.
But sure, I buy her things, the way a regular boyfriend would.
“Anyway, if she’d been sober, I don’t think it would’ve hit her the same way. But she got upset and started crying in the bathroom, saying how I’d be disappointed in her and she’d be punished. She overreacted so much the waitress thought I would beat her for losing her jewelry.”
“Which you would,” Shay said in a low voice.
“Asshole,” Rory said with a laugh. “Anyway, I’d had a few drinks, but nothing sloppy.
Still, you know what a good buzz will do when things get dicey.
The waitress tells the bouncer about the hysterical girl in the bathroom, and he decides that I’m going to leave and they’ll call a friend or a cab to pick her up. ”
Shay grimaced.
“I said, ‘No way. Bring her out to me, and I’ll leave.’ They couldn’t see doing it my way. So I told him, ‘I will get up and throw down with you right now. That girl is my property. If you think you’re going to take her away from me, get ready, ‘cause it’s on.’”
“I bet the word property didn’t go over that well.”
“No.”
“Was there a fight?”
“There definitely was.”
“Did she leave with you?”
“Sure. There was just the one bouncer and the bartender upstairs where we were. The bouncer was big, but not nearly tough enough. The bartender,” Rory said, rolling his eyes.
“He shouldn’t have bothered coming out from behind the bar.
Anyway, I stalked into the bathroom and picked her up.
I’d already texted the driver when the wind started blowing that way.
By the time the waitress rallied reinforcements, we were in the car.
Anyway, my point is things have been more intense around us lately than they should be.
So if you say it’s my fault that Emma ran tonight, call me on it. I’ll make it right. Was it my fault?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. You pushed her buttons, but she’s gonna run up against that if she smarts off to a Dom.
That’s life inside the club. And in terms of her worrying about Kate, anyone would’ve talked to her about how you treat Kate, especially Kate herself.
Emma could’ve asked her whether everything you order her to do feels degrading to her in a way that crushes her spirit or if that particular cocktail of submissive behaviors makes her feel like a good pet.
Kate would’ve set the record straight. I reminded Emma all night to come to me about anything that concerned her.
And I was standing right there when she jumped to her conclusions.
She completely misinterpreted your relationship with Kate. ”
“Why didn’t you set her straight?”
“There was no point trying. Emma was in the grips of trying to escape what she wants. And she told herself we can’t be trusted.
Obviously we can’t prey on pretty coeds unless we convince them it’s for their own good and that deep down they want it, so that’s what we were trying to do.
Sure, I’d tell Emma my friend wasn’t abusing hers.
And if Kate’s in love with you, she would say she’s happy, even if her spirit was being crushed.
There’s no winning that argument. Emma can’t stop fighting everyone else until she stops fighting with herself. ”
“Do you want Kate and me to talk to her outside the club? If she saw us somewhere more casual where Katie’s not in full-on pet and I’m not full-on master, it might help.”
“No, leave it for now. Emma wants to be half in. If she gets to see any of us outside the club, it’ll be a taste of what she wants, and it’ll be harder to get her back to the club.
I want to force her to go all in.” Shay ran a hand through his hair.
“And now that I’ve said it out loud, this is a conspiracy.
Just like she thought,” Shay said with a smirk.
Rory laughed. “What if she slips away? It happens. She might try another club. They’d eat her alive at Harlow’s. That would probably spook her, and you might never get a chance at her again.”
“I doubt it. It might take longer, but I can be patient.”
“What makes you think she’ll be back? We stripped her down and punished her on her first night.
D might say that was pushing a sub with insecurities about her body too far.
Which I assume she has since you let her walk around in a dress like she was going to a church social and didn’t want to strip her on her first night. ”
“Yeah, it was risky, but it was the best thing for her. She wasn’t self-conscious at all afterward. She might be shaky tonight and for a couple days, but she took to this place. I had my hands on her. I’ve been inside her.”
“What? When? Where was I when that scene went down?”
“Fucked her in here. Had to.”
“Oh, you had to,” Rory said, roaring with laughter. “I bet that was a hardship. On the couch? Like a couple of teenagers on a first date?”
Shay shrugged. “Date night put her at ease. I wouldn’t have hooked her otherwise.
Too skittish. But now her body will be pulling her back to the club and to me.
So will her mind, for that matter, because we liked each other.
She’s got some resistance left, but she’s hanging from a half-broken branch. She can’t dangle there forever.”
“And here I thought you were being soft on her. You’re fucking Machiavelli over there.”
Shay shrugged. “You saw her ass. And when I tied her up, she trembled like a frightened kitten. You know the kind of fire that lights in a Dom.”
“Oh, I know, brother,” Rory said with a grin. “So I know you want her for the club because she’s a good fit, but you also have to admit you want her for yourself to use at the club.”
“I admit that.”
“You want her a lot? The way I wanted Kate?”
“I can’t say that. You were obsessed with Kate. Telling the board you were ready to train a sub after being here six months.”
“I’d been at other clubs,” Rory said with a smirk.
“You know the club rules. At least a year at the Marquis, and then D’s gotta make the recommendation. The board’s got to vote. You were so pissed when they wouldn’t make an exception.”
“The rules usually work,” Rory said. “They just weren’t right for our situation. I had to have her. And she couldn’t have settled in as a club submissive if she’d been trained by someone else.”
“J thought you stole her phone number.”
Rory looked up at the ceiling and smiled sheepishly.
“Shit, really? Man, you completely lost it.”
Nodding, Rory takes a swig. “But I take care of her. Always. When she missed getting the internship she wanted, she was so upset. And I knew she’d rushed through her application because I’d kept her too much at my place that week. So, something had to be done.”
“I thought she missed getting the first internship, but ended up with a different one that was better?”
“She did, but it was a last-minute addition.”
Shay narrowed his eyes. “And did Daddy Dom have anything to do with the sudden addition of a prime internship that was perfect for a brilliant young graphic artist?”
“I do a lot of business with a lot of people.” A slow smile curved Rory’s mouth.
“Christ, Shay, when she called her parents to tell them she didn’t get her internship, she was so solemn and tearful.
They asked her all these questions about whether she’d put in the time on her application and she’d said no, she’d been distracted and how sorry she was for letting everyone down.
I couldn’t let that stand. But all I did was get her the job.
None of her direct supervisors knew she was connected to anyone with pull.
She did everything else on her own. They loved her work.
They wanted to hire her after the summer to work on more projects. ”
“Did you tell her where the internship came from?”
“No. If she’d suspected and asked me, I would’ve said. But she was all excited when she told me about it. I didn’t want anything to get in the way of her happiness.”
Shay hadn’t realized how enmeshed Rory and Kate had been from the beginning.
It seemed to Shay that they were in a love affair that happened to have started at a sex club.
That wasn’t typical. Many of the club members just used the club for their kink and had romantic relationships outside the club, but even the ones who didn’t, rarely took their subs as real-life girlfriends in the beginning.
Shay could see how a relationship outside the club could be appealing, especially for the women. An intense sexual relationship and the bonds of trust that formed between master and sub could feel like love.
So far, Shay had never wanted that outside-the-club connection with anyone.
He’d tried it a couple of times, but found he liked the structure of the club.
He liked being able to go home alone, so he could concentrate on work and catch up with the world.
Being responsible for a sub twenty-four-seven wasn’t something he wanted.
Rory didn’t seem to mind, but Rory was completely consumed by his feelings for Kate and vice versa.
Everything else for them was a lower priority.
He thought about Rory’s night at the hospital.
For a Dom with so much control to be concerned he might destroy property or get physical with someone because he was frustrated was counter to the way they trained themselves to be.
It surprised him that Rory hadn’t cut the relationship off when things seemed to be getting out of hand, but Rory certainly showed no signs of backtracking or even slowing down where his relationship with Kate was concerned.
Would Emma think that was romantic? Would she expect not just to be cared for as a sub, but to be loved as a woman, too?
If she came back, it wasn’t a good idea to let her spend too much time with Kate in the beginning.
The lines between Rory’s role as master and boyfriend were blurred. That would be confusing for a new sub.
Shay ran a hand through his hair again. “Jesus I’m tired. I’ve got a conference call at nine. I’m glad they’re on Pacific Time.”
“Gonna sell out again?”
Shay smiled. “Yeah, once I get everything exactly the way I want it and I blow all the competition away with a new design, I lose interest.”
“That seems to be the story of your life, man. When’s the last time you collared a sub?”
Shay shrugged. “Two years maybe.”
“When’s the last time you went on a regular date with a woman?”
“Four, maybe five years. The club’s all the social life I need.”
“You do like the variety pack,” Rory said. “Doesn’t bode well for the lovely Emma. She looked at you like you were a knight in tarnished armor.”
“Emma needs a master. I’ll be that for her. If she’s looking for a love affair, she’d be better off looking elsewhere, outside the club, for that.”