Chapter 5
GRAYSON
Again, he gave her credit for guts. She’d called him out. He smiled.
“Mama Deli. She sold me out.”
Grayson was relieved when Lexi smiled. At least she wasn’t mad at him for being a creeper. He would have understood if she’d decided not to show at all.
“Troisi. We call her Mama Troisi, and she liked you enough, she said you’re even allowed back for her espresso.”
Sitting next to her, he laughed out loud and shook his head.
He checked her out while she was glancing around the room.
She looked a little tired, but not too rough.
Her gaze wandered across the bar and back again.
To anyone who came to the club during the day, he knew it looked starkly different than it did at night.
“Can I get you something to drink?” he asked.
“Just water, please.”
Gray nodded and walked behind a small bar, grabbing a bottle for each of them.
“How are you?” Gray asked as he handed her the bottle.
Lexi turned to look at him, a confused expression on her face.
“Fine, why? she asked.
He looked at her critically. She wilted back against the chair.
“What?”
“I meant from last night.”
“Oh! Fine. I’m not the one who got knocked out,” she said with a shrug.
He wondered if it was that easy for her to brush it off.
“I certainly had a better time than Lord Byron did.”
Gray had been about to take a large swig of water, but stopped, sloshing a bit of water over the edge of the bottle.
“Excuse me?”
He couldn’t have heard her right. Lexi smirked.
“Yup. He told me I would call him Lord Byron in the bedroom.”
Gray was glad he hadn’t already taken the sip, or he might have choked. Their laughter reverberated off the empty room for a moment before she looked at him with curiosity.
“So, what’s this project? Why am I here?”
Grayson set his water bottle aside and leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
“I’m starting a Reverse Gladiator ring. I want you to fight for me.”
He could tell he’d surprised her. Her brows were lowered and her mouth was drawn together in a small moue, distracting him for a moment.
“Can you explain the Reverse part?”
“So the Gladiator is set up in essence for men to fight, right? It’s over ninety percent Doms.”
Lexi nodded.
“The Reverse is going to be for women, and at least to start off, the model is submissives, fighting on behalf of their Doms. Doms will sign them up, they fight, winner is either with a pin or two rounds out of three. Winner gets a cash prize, and the Doms might have the option of the losing party’s company for the rest of the evening. ”
His gaze got stuck at the base of her neck. It looked so delicate.
“That part isn’t clear yet.”
Lexi frowned. “How will you know if the subs legitimately want to fight?”
Grayson spread his hands.
“Technically, that’s between the sub and their Dom.
However, each sub is going to be interviewed when they sign up, before their fights are scheduled.
They’ll be asked about their skill level, and their genuine interest in fighting.
If at any point we feel a Dom is putting a sub in who doesn’t want to fight, we’ll pull the fighter. “
Lexi seemed to absorb that and sat back.
“Okay, so you’re trying to set up a fight room for female -?”
She hesitated and raised her eyebrows, asking if female was correct. Gray nodded.
“Female subs, fighting for their Doms. Why would I want to fight when I fight and work out all day at work?”
“Well, I can promise you’ll be making more money fighting here, Miss. Lexi-”
“Why do you keep calling me that?” she interrupted.
He paused, and clearly remembered her correcting him on her name.
“Lexi?”
“No, the ‘Miss’.”
Grayson smiled at her wrinkled nose.
“Your Doms never used that? It’s a respect thing for me. I refer to female submissives as Miss. Do you not like it?”
He watched as she digested that for a moment.
“I guess it’s fine. But what about male submissives?” she asked.
Grayson’s mind blanked, and whatever he’d been about to say was forgotten.
“Excuse me?”
“Well, you can’t use Mr., can you? I feel like that would put them above you all the time. Miss can still be used by someone superior, or speaking down to someone, especially coming from a man, right? So how do you do that and still respectfully refer to male submissives without using Mr.?”
He wasn’t sure how the conversation had derailed to get here. At least he had an easy out.
“Well, I’ve never had to worry about that. I don’t have male submissives.”
“Huh.”
Lexi seemed to be deep in thought about that, and he had to redirect this conversation.
“Anyway Miss Lexi” he said, emphasizing the Miss. “You’d certainly be making more money fighting for me, and for reasons I have yet to discover, you love the fight.”
Lexi averted her eyes and drank from her water.
“So you want me to fight.”
“Fighting is only part of it. The Reverse Gladiator is designed for Doms and their submissives who are fighting for them.”
He caught her eye.
“To make this work, I would need you to be my submissive.”