Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Nick
When Avery suggested taking a tour of the rest of Stronghold, Nick agreed.
As friendly as everyone had been, and as much as he was enjoying their conversation, he could use a breather.
The main floor was not at all what he’d pictured, and knowing there were two more floors, he wanted to see what else the club offered.
“Up or down?” she asked. “Dungeon is downstairs, private rooms are upstairs.”
“Up,” he said. He’d seen the private rooms at Marquis, even though he hadn’t spent much time in them, so he figured the Dungeon would be the bigger novelty.
He was both right and wrong.
The private rooms were different from those at Marquis. For one, they had windows with blinds that could be closed but currently were open. They could see everything that was going on inside. The rooms also had different themes from those at Marquis.
There was one that looked like a school locker room, another like an actual schoolroom, a private office, and one with a huge bed where multiple people were frolicking. There was that orgy he’d been wondering about. Nick watched, fascinated, but was pretty sure he’d never use that room.
Being watched by the instructors and other students during class had been bad enough.
Total strangers? Not his thing. Although he had to admit, there was something stirring about watching.
It made him feel a little hypocritical that he was enjoying watching when he didn’t want to be watched but considering there was a movie theater where some people were watching a live feed of the orgy room, he couldn’t bring himself to feel all that bad.
“You know what they need? A kitchen setup,” he murmured to Avery as they headed back down the hallway.
Several people were standing at the windows, watching what was going on in the private rooms, but none of them looked up as he and Avery passed by.
“Some nice steel counters, spatulas, maybe some chocolate syrup…”
Avery giggled. “You should tell your brother that. Maybe he can set up something special for you.”
Hell, that wasn’t a bad idea, though he wasn’t sure how many other people would have kitchen fantasies. Food fantasies, maybe… though he wasn’t sure how they’d keep such a place hygienic. Maybe that was why they didn’t have it.
Sighing inwardly, he held Avery’s hand as they went down the stairs. Glancing toward the table where everyone had been, he could see Kincaid was still there, talking with Q, Angel, and Adam, but everyone else had scattered. He hadn’t seen them upstairs, which meant they were downstairs.
“Ready?” Avery asked him, noticing his distraction.
“Yup. Let’s go to the Dungeon.” Wow. That sounded far more ominous than he’d intended. On the other hand, he didn’t mind the effect it had on Avery. She tilted her head and gave him a sassy little look even better than her usual ‘thanks.’
He was getting used to the skintight latex, but that didn’t mean he’d stopped appreciating it.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs and looking around the Dungeon, it was more what he had in mind when he’d pictured Stronghold.
There were spanking benches throughout the middle of the floor, St. Andrew’s Crosses on the far side, and several alcoves where chains were hanging down.
Thursday night was supposed to be less busy, but there were quite a few people occupying all the spaces.
To their immediate right was a small space with lots of couches, love seats, and armchairs scattered around, with a mini-fridge and a small stacks of blankets.
He’d seen a similar space on the second floor, but it had been unoccupied.
There were several people in this one, including someone he recognized—Morgan was cuddled on a Dom’s lap, looking happily content.
She didn’t look up when he and Avery went by.
He didn’t look at her for long, though, far too interested in everything else that was going on.
Avery
The Dungeon wasn’t packed, but it had quite a few people in it.
Avery sucked in a breath when she saw Master Brian giving Morgan aftercare and Rae and Domi on the other side of the room.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t crowded enough to block out the sight between the two.
She could see Rae studiously had her head turned away from the aftercare area, but there was no way she’d missed Brian and Morgan’s cuddle session.
Hopefully, she hadn’t caught the end of their scene. Avery would have to catch up with her later.
“There are private rooms down here, too,” Nick said, walking over to peer into the windows.
For someone who didn’t want to be watched, he had no problem peeking in, which amused Avery.
She got it, though. Exhibitionism and voyeurism were two very different kinks, though some people had both, and they combined well for obvious reasons. “Oh, shit.”
He turned around fast, which made Avery peek in and then laugh.
Apparently, Mitch was running an interrogation on Domi—and it was going very well.
She was hanging by her wrists from a chain in the center of the ceiling, clamps on her nipples, while Mitch held her up with his hands under her bright red butt and her legs wrapped around his waist, thrusting into her with vigor.
They were so involved in what they were doing, they didn’t seem to notice or care whether anyone was watching.
“Not ready to see people you know doing that, huh?” she teased. Nick’s cheeks, already pink, reddened even more.
“Are you?”
Avery shrugged. “I’m not against it, but Mitch and Domi are a little hardcore for me. I like lighter play.”
“That’s good to know.” His thumb rubbed against the outside of the hand he was holding as he turned away, his attention drawn to people using the spanking benches. Avery leaned into him.
“Do you want to try?” It was the equipment he was most familiar with, but she wasn’t surprised when he hesitated, then shook his head. She hadn’t expected to play tonight, but she hadn’t wanted to make an assumption.
“For now, watching is good.” His hand slid over to her waist and then down to her ass as they watched one of the submissives being spanked. He squeezed her cheek, making her giggle and squirm. “When we get home, though…”
Nick
While Nick had no interest in doing a scene at Stronghold, seeing how many different people were there—on a slow night, no less—made him feel a lot better about his own proclivities.
Granted, he’d already made a huge step in accepting himself, but it was still good to see the many others involved in the lifestyle and know that he and Avery weren’t alone.
Not only that, they were barely dipping their toes in the waters of what was possible.
He’d learned needle play was definitely not for him or Avery. He’d watched, fascinated, but it hadn’t been arousing—more like something he couldn’t look away from because it was freaking him out.
It had made him feel a lot better about what he and Avery did. He got why she’d said Mitch and Domi were too hardcore for her. Nick knew he liked to cause her a little bit of pain, but he was getting a full demonstration of the different levels on display throughout the club.
Now he understood why Olivia had said it was important to visit Stronghold, not just rely on everything they learned in class, which were the things they wanted to do, not everything that was possible.
He also found out that the wax play looked a lot more interesting than he’d thought.
“Thinking about taking that off your soft limits?” Avery asked as they walked away from the table where a Domme was making art by dripping various colors of wax over her very happy submissive.
“Yes.” He wasn’t too proud to admit it. With his arm curved around her waist, he tilted his head toward her, lifting his eyebrows. “Any objections?”
“Nope. I like wax. Well, as long as I’m already shaved, I like wax.”
Nick chuckled, but they weren’t able to continue the conversation. Avery suddenly straightened, her head whipping around. Alerted, Nick’s gaze followed to where Iris was facing off with a man nearly a head taller than her next to one of the St. Andrew’s Crosses.
“Shit.” Avery didn’t wait for him, darting toward Iris.
Alarmed, Nick was on her heels. From everything he’d seen with Iris, she was mouthy, irreverent, and pretty hilarious most of the time, but right now, she looked pissed.
“You need to back off,” the Dom said, his voice deep with threat as he loomed over Iris.
“You need to watch your mouth,” Iris retorted. Despite being half-naked in a corset that pushed up her breasts and a short skirt that barely covered her ass, she didn’t look at all submissive as she glared up at the bigger man. “You don’t call people fat!”
The Dom’s lips twisted in a sneer. “It’s called humiliation play—”
Before he could finish his sentence, Avery was at Iris’ side, tugging at her arm and trying to pull her away.
“Iris, come on. You’re interrupting his scene.
” Avery’s whisper was loud enough Nick could hear it as he came up alongside her.
The Dom crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Nick as if this was all his fault, which he didn’t appreciate.
He scowled back. He didn’t know what was going on and wouldn’t speak up unless he knew.
One thing he did know was interrupting someone else’s scene was not okay.
“But he called her—”
“Did she say her safeword?”
“No…” Iris’ expression turned mulish. “But he called her fat and a piggie! And she’s crying!”
Glancing at the submissive in question, whose very curvy body was on display, thanks to the St. Andrew’s cross, Nick pressed his lips together.
The Dom had said it was humiliation play, which was something Nick had put on his hard limits when Avery explained it.
He had no interest in calling her names or making her grovel.
Seeing his look, the Dom scowled harder.
“I called her my fat little slut and my sweet piggie, both of which she likes.” With more witnesses, his tone had turned defensive and louder, and more and more people around them were taking notice of the interrupted scene.
Shit. Nick hesitated. He didn’t know what to do in this situation. The submissive on the cross didn’t look as though she was in distress, despite her tears, and it sounded as if the words had been agreed on. She also wasn’t speaking up either way, and Iris was clearly upset.
“What’s going on here?” Master Law’s familiar voice cut through the rising chatter around them, and Nick’s shoulders relaxed in relief.
He might technically be a Dom, but he didn’t feel equipped to handle Iris all puffed up with self-righteous anger in defense of another woman and a Dom who probably had every right to be upset that his scene had been interrupted.
Iris and the Dom started talking, then stopped as soon as Master Law put his hand up. Wearing leather pants and a leather vest, with what looked like a badge on the left side of his chest, it took Nick a moment to realize it was the Dungeon Monitor outfit that had been described to him.
“Iris, you do not interrupt someone else’s scene. Even if you hear the submissive use a safeword, you come and get one of us.” He tapped the badge on his vest. “I know you know that. Come on. We’re going to go talk to Patrick.”
Crossing her arms, Iris didn’t look as though she was going to do any such thing, but Master Law didn’t give her a choice. Moving to her side, he wrapped his fingers around the back of her neck, marching her toward the steps. Only then did her posture slump.
Nick shot a look of apology at the Dom whose scene Iris had interrupted, but he wasn’t looking at them anymore—he was already by his submissive’s side, whispering something in her ear.
From the way she was looking up at him, Nick didn’t think they would have any problems getting back into their scene.
“Ah, crap.” Avery deflated next to him, more so than he thought reasonable.
Yes, Iris was probably in trouble, but she’d been trying to help, though she should have known better than to interfere with a scene.
She was one of the submissives in the new Doms class because she was supposed to have experience.
“What’s wrong? How much trouble is she in?”
“Probably a lot.” Avery’s worried hazel eyes turned up toward him. “She told us she was volun-told to be a submissive for the Dom class because she kept getting into trouble here. It was supposed to be a refresher for her on how things work in the club.”
“That girl, man.” Rae appeared beside Avery, shaking her head. “Did you see what happened?”
As Avery updated Rae, Nick looked around the room.
Pretty much everyone had gone back to what they were doing, including the Dom and sub whose scene had been interrupted.
He felt for Iris. Some of the stuff that happened here was outside of his comfort level, too.
He didn’t think he’d feel good hearing someone being verbally humiliated, but that was what they liked, and this was supposed to be a safe place for them to indulge.
Stroking his fingers down Avery’s back, he couldn’t help but think Master Law was right to come down hard on Iris.
It was difficult enough to admit to wanting to do some of these things.
Being interrupted because someone thought you were abusing your partner’s trust instead of giving them what they wanted?
Nick’s insides shriveled.
It looked like the couple had made a good recovery—in fact, the Dom was already taking off his pants. Nick had to give them massive credit. He wasn’t sure he’d have been able to get right back into things so easily. It was a measure of how secure they were in their kinks and connection.
Even though he didn’t share their kink, it felt like something to aspire to.