Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Nick
It had been one hell of a weekend with Avery.
They’d spent one night at her apartment, the other night at his house, and had amazing sex both nights, waking up in the morning next to each other.
Eventually, they had to separate to get fresh clothes and go to work.
She’d seemed a little nervous the first time Gareth came through the kitchen, but that hadn’t lasted long.
Now, it was Monday and time for his first class on how to be a kinky Dominant.
There was a part of him that wanted to ask if she still thought he needed it.
The sex was amazing. Did they really need the kinky stuff?
He also knew that was coming from a place of fear, so he kept his mouth shut.
Avery would be concerned about his wants over hers, and he didn’t want her to feel like her needs weren’t a priority for him.
He would get over his discomfort with the class.
Walking up the stairs and seeing Avery at the top, waiting for him next to the front desk, helped. She was chatting with Freddy, who was also standing in front of the desk rather than behind it.
Both of them saw him at the same time. Freddy grinned at him, but Avery went from looking nervous to even more anxious.
She clasped her hands in front of her, pressing them together as though she was trying not to squirm.
Going to her, Nick reached out his hand for her to hold instead and noticed she relaxed minutely when he wrapped his fingers around hers.
“Hey, Freddy, are you part of the class?” Gossip from upstairs took a little longer to reach downstairs, and he hadn’t heard that Freddy was seeing someone.
“I am. We have a hetero Domme in this class, so I volunteered as tribute.” Freddy chuckled, then corrected himself. “Well, technically, she’s a switch, but she’s already taken the submissive class, so she’s learning how to be a Domme.”
“Uh-huh,” Nick nodded his head, pretending he knew the terms. Domme was what Olivia called herself, so he knew that meant a female Dominant.
He hadn’t heard of a switch before, but from the context, he guessed it meant someone who could go back and forth between being submissive and dominant.
He wasn’t sure how that worked, but maybe he’d get a chance to see.
“Freddy was just telling me it’s a pretty small class,” Avery said with a smile, squeezing his fingers, trying to reassure him.
“Yup, three men and one woman.”
“Wait, does the woman mean that Olivia will come in to teach?” Nick asked, his stomach suddenly churning.
When he’d asked her, she’d told him she had mostly turned the classes over to others and wouldn’t be there for much more than the first class.
Definitely not for any of the experience classes where he’d been learning what certain things felt like for the submissive.
That had been before he’d known there would be a woman in the class.
“No.” Freddy chuckled. “Master Law and Mistress Julie will handle the classes. Though I’m sure we’ll see Olivia. She might make herself scarcer since you’re in this class. I know she won’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
He could only hope so because he was pretty sure Olivia delighted in making people uncomfortable sometimes.
Avery
The class comprised some people Avery recognized and some she didn’t.
She and Nick went in ahead of Freddy, who would be at the front desk until the last person arrived, so someone was there to welcome them.
They found a semi-circle of chairs set around the circular stage in the middle of the room.
All the lights were on and bright, very different from when she’d been here to watch the show.
A young woman sat on the far side of the semi-circle, in the very last chair, her head jerking up to look at them as they walked in.
Beautiful, probably in her mid-twenties, her tanned skin and dark hair and eyes made Avery think she was probably Latina.
That she was looking straight at Avery made her feel weird about sitting away from her, so Avery went to the chair next to her.
“Hi, mind if I sit here?” She gestured at the chair, aware of Nick hovering behind her. Given the choice, he probably would have sat on the other side of the circle, far away from the woman, but Avery felt rewarded when the woman smiled at her, relaxing a little.
“Sure. I’m Iris.” She held out her hand, and Avery took it.
“Avery, and this is Nick.” Avery shook Iris’ hand and sat down next to her, allowing Nick to shake her hand as well before she had a thought. “Are you paired with someone? Should I move over?”
Iris shook her head and sighed, rolling her eyes. It made her look younger than she had a moment ago, more like an unruly teenager than a grown woman, one with a chip on her shoulder and something to prove.
“No, I’m here because Master Patrick thinks I need some more experience being submissive, and assisting with the newbie Doms will help me get a better perspective.
” She shrugged a shoulder, her body language screaming ‘casual and indifferent’ so hard, it was obvious she cared a lot more about what Master Patrick thought than she wanted anyone to know.
Avery was pretty sure she must be talking about Patrick Murphy, the owner of Stronghold and one of the three owners of Marquis.
From what Avery knew, he was pretty hands-on in the club, but she’d only met him once or twice and had been intimidated as hell by the sheer aura of confidence and power that surrounded him; she’d barely been able to talk.
The familiar way Iris spoke of him had her blinking in surprise, especially since she was pretty sure Iris wasn’t the switch Freddy had mentioned.
“Do you know him?” she couldn’t help asking.
On her other side, Nick slid his fingers through hers, probably wondering why she was talking to this woman they didn’t know, but Avery couldn’t help it.
As soon as their eyes had met, she’d felt how alone Iris was, and she hadn’t wanted her to keep feeling that way.
“Yeah. He’s friends with my brother, Andrew, who is also kinky and belongs to the club.
It’s one massively awkward situation,” Iris smirked.
Clearly, she was unbothered, but Avery bet it was awkward for both Iris’ sibling and Master Patrick if they were friends.
Master Patrick was in his thirties, so she was guessing Iris was a younger sister.
Yeah, she could only imagine how awkward that would be.
Her own sister didn’t know that she was into kink, and Avery was happy to keep it that way.
Telling the one friend at home had been more than enough.
Even when she’d lived in Atlanta, she’d kept her kink acquaintances separate from her friends, and she’d never been in a serious enough relationship that she would have to introduce them.
“Ha, sounds like my situation,” Nick said, finally leaning forward to engage with Iris. “My brother belongs to the clubs, too, with his girlfriend.”
“Yeah, but that’s not the same as knowing your little sister likes to be tied up and spanked,” Iris smirked. Avery got the feeling Iris was putting up a bit of a front, but she still liked her.
“No, instead, it’s my older brother who likes to be tied up and spanked,” Nick said, correcting Iris’ obvious assumption that Luke was the Dom.
Iris’ eyes widened in surprise, mouth popping open. Before she could respond, the door opened behind them, and the three of them turned to look.
A very handsome black man sauntered in. Shaved head, tall, thin but muscular, he was wearing a t-shirt that said, ‘One Lab Accident Away from Being a Supervillain.’ His gaze swept over all three of them, and he smiled, his expression barely faltering.
“Hey, everyone.”
Nick
Feeling a little weird just sitting there as the other man approached, Nick got to his feet and held out his hand.
“Hi, I’m Nick.”
“I’m Q. Nice to meet you.” He moved in front of the seat next to Nick. Sitting down, Q followed before leaning forward to look at the women.
“This is my girlfriend Avery, and that’s Iris.”
Next to him, Avery jumped in her seat, startled. Amused, Nick shot her a look, and she gave him a wide-eyed stare before waving at Q. Chuckling at her reaction—what else was he supposed to call her—he took her hand in his.
“Hi, nice to meet you.” As Avery greeted him, Iris murmured her own hello. “We’re talking about how we knew about the class. Nick and Iris both have brothers who are part of the club. What about you?”
If Q was perturbed by the get-to-know-you jump into conversation, he didn’t show it. Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his knees so he could easily see both Avery and Iris.
“I have a friend who goes to Stronghold, and eventually, she convinced me I should check it out.”
“Just a friend?” Nick asked, a little curious.
“Just a friend.” Q grinned. There might have been a flash of something in his expression, but if there was, he suppressed it quickly. “She’s married and has a kid with a guy she met at Stronghold.”
They weren’t able to talk much more when the door behind them opened again.
Nick got to his feet, Q only half a second behind him.
It was kind of curious Avery and Iris didn’t feel the need to stand, but for him, it was both ingrained manners and wanting to see who was coming in to assess them.
If he’d been sitting down, he would have felt like he was at a disadvantage.
A blonde woman walked in. Statuesque and curvy, she was dressed in a form-fitting blue dress, with a wide red belt that cinched in her waist and red pumps on her feet, giving her another couple inches of height.
She was vaguely familiar, and Nick realized she’d been around Marquis before it opened when the first submissive class was held here—which meant she was probably the switch Freddy had told him and Avery about.
Nick couldn’t remember her name, but before he could say anything, she came to a grinding halt, her eyes narrowing. Next to him, Q stiffened.
“You! What are you doing here?” Q barked out the question in a completely different tone than he’d been using. His relaxed demeanor had disappeared, and he had straightened to his full height.
The woman glared at him.
“Excuse me, Quinton? I’m a member. What are you doing here?”
“Quinton?” Iris murmured behind Nick, sounding amused.
“Don’t call me that, Samwise,” Q snapped. If anything, the blonde glared harder, putting her hands on her hips.
“Then don’t call me that stupid nickname. We’re not in high school anymore. Grow up.” She muttered something under her breath that suspiciously sounded like ‘ass.’
“I take it you two know each other,” Nick interjected. Beside him, he could feel Avery growing agitated. Conflict didn’t bother him the same way it did her, but he wanted her to be comfortable. Seeing Q and… whatever her name was, going at it the moment she came in the door would distress Avery.
As if remembering he wasn’t alone, Q abruptly turned around and sat down, putting his back to the blonde.
“Hi, I’m Nick.” He waved since the blonde didn’t look like she was coming any closer. “This is my girlfriend Avery, and that’s Iris.”
“I’m single and ready to mingle,” Iris quipped, getting a smile from both Avery and the blonde, though the blonde’s seemed a little forced.
“I’m Samantha, but I go by Sam,” the blonde replied, giving herself a little shake. She walked over to the other side of the circle to the last chair on that side, as far away from Q as she could get, then sat down primly on the seat, crossing her legs.
From his vantage point, Nick could see Q blatantly checking out her legs before averting his gaze. Whatever was going on between them, he was pretty sure it was more than just friction.
“Welcome to the party.” Happily grinning in her seat, Iris seemed the only one unbothered by the odd little showdown between Q and Sam. Leaning back, she crossed her legs crossed like Sam, but her boot heel was bouncing up and down, jiggling as if she had too much energy to hold inside.
Thankfully, before they had to find something to say, the door behind them opened again.
This time, Nick didn’t bother to jump up. He turned in his seat… and immediately wished he had gotten to his feet.
“Okay, everybody’s here!” Freddy’s cheerful voice preceded him and the last two arrivals, a stunningly beautiful redhead named Morgan.
Nick recognized her because she’d recently started working at the front desk of Marquis’ second floor.
An absolute giant of a man, who he’d never seen, followed her.
Nick fought back the urge to jump to his feet, so he didn’t feel as if he was being loomed over, but it probably wouldn’t have helped, anyway.
Nick was six feet and one inch and knew Freddy was only an inch or two shorter than him. Freddy only came up to the man’s shoulder, so the guy had to be at least six-four, maybe more, and he was beefy as hell. There was no other word for it. He looked like the Mountain from Game of Thrones.
“Go sit down,” Freddy said cheerfully, pointing to the three empty seats between Q and Sam.
A frown flitted over his face for a moment before it disappeared, probably because it was clear Sam was on the outside of the group.
They hadn’t meant for it to be that way, but it looked bad.
Nick winced inwardly, though he wasn’t sure what he could have done.
“I’ll be right back with Master Law and Mistress Julie.
” Freddy waved at them, then disappeared through the door.
Sudden tightness clenched Nick’s chest as Morgan and the massive Dom went to take their seats.
Not because of them, but because he still didn’t know what to expect once the class started.
He hated not knowing what to expect.