Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Austin
Six years had passed since that fateful night at IHOP when Dawn uttered the words that had proven to be prophetic. If we included the right environment for all those who preferred their lives a very different flavor than vanilla, we would find members eager to play at Gem.
On opening night, the three of us stood in the foyer as Dawn bowed low and then opened Gem’s doors.
I watched Leo’s jaw hit the floor one moment and the next, I was pretty sure he watched mine do the same when an auburn-haired beauty timidly joined her friend.
The pair had just stepped into the club we’d given blood, sweat, tears, and a whole lot of our individual savings to build.
While the dark-haired woman was tall and willowy, her companion wasn’t likely to top five-five without donning a pair of heels, and by heels, I meant ones that measured at least five inches.
The first sound out of my mouth wasn’t some suave welcome, but a grunt.
“Told you so,” Dawn said digging her elbow into my side.
“Huh?” I hadn’t even noticed she’d returned.
She laughed and kissed Tilda’s cheek before twirling around and moving toward the pair.
“Do you see what I see?” Leo muttered.
“If you mean my future, then, yes,” I answered, never taking my eyes off what had become a trio.
“That closes the book on that question,” Tilda said as she stepped between us and slipped an arm around each of our waists. When neither of us so much as glanced at her, she laughed and squeezed. “Now I know why I’ve always believed you two were just playing at being Doms.”
That got our attention, though it came in the form of an offended, “Hey,” from Leo and a, “That’s bullshit,” from me.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you aren’t very good at what you do. You’re respectful to a fault to whomever you partner with. But if either of you try to convince me that a single one of those playmates has meant more than a night or two of pleasure and fun, then you’re lying.”
“Is that any way to talk on the night of our opening?” I growled.
“Consider it a club-warming gift,” Tilda said, not the least bit bothered by my question, nor the tone in which it had been delivered.
“Some gift,” Leo groused.
“Seriously, stop gawking for a second and give me your full attention, please.”
The fact she’d added a “please” had us both looking at her.
“Thank you. I am thrilled for the both of you. Not because it seems Gem is going to be a success, but because unless I am seriously off my game, which I’m not, you two have just discovered the one thing you’ve both been searching for ever since you hit puberty, just walked through that door.
” When we just continued to stare, she shook her head and smiled.
“What I’m saying is that while you are experts at dominating a woman, you aren’t just Dominants.
Just like those two sweethearts are not just my Dawn’s friends, they are Littles.
And if you lugheads haven’t connected the dots yet, what are Littles looking for?
Daddy Doms that’s what. Well, Mommy Dommes as well, but we’re talking about your future, not mine. ”
“I’m a Daddy Dom,” I said and wasn’t sure what shocked me more. The fact that the moment I uttered the words, they felt exactly right or the fact it had taken me close to a quarter of a century to figure that out.
“Well, hell, I do believe you’re right, Tildy,” Leo said.
Tilda rolled her eyes. “Of course I am, and it’s Mistress Tildy to you! Now, unless you want to risk losing this chance, I suggest you move your asses and go welcome our newest guests.”
Tonight’s piece of the list was meant to commemorate a specific moment in the past that never would have come to be if Marcie hadn’t walked through Gem’s doors.
Neither would every day of my life since then have been as incredible as they’d been if I’d failed to take a chance by walking toward that auburn-haired beauty.
But she had, as had I, and that is what had brought us to the here and now.
I set the pot I’d filled on the burner but left the flame unlit. If things went as I hoped, I’d not need its contents until later. Glancing at my watch, I figured the time I’d spent finishing my part of the preparations should have allowed Marcie to complete hers as well.
“Ho, ho, ho,” I called loudly as I walked down the hall.
I paused at the door, knowing my elf wouldn’t be greeting me from the center of the bed.
In fact, if she’d remembered the same as I, she wouldn’t be near the bed.
The memory the poem referred to hadn’t taken place that night five years ago.
Granted, a factor of the timing had been that she was almost a decade younger than I.
While it wasn’t as big a deal now, I’d definitely considered it more of a challenge at the time.
She might not have been a total newbie to kink, but being barely twenty-one, I knew she couldn’t have much experience.
So, for the first time in my life, I’d taken my time to actually woo a woman.
We’d played at the club, but never outside of it for the first two years.
It had been a challenge but watching her grow and still not give another man a glance had convinced me to take the chance.
Tonight was all about the first time we’d taken our scenes out of Gem’s doors to play here, at my house.
The move hadn’t just meant a change of location.
It had been a major shift in intimacy. Though it really didn’t matter if it had been three years or thirty.
Everything I’d felt that night was exactly what I was feeling at this very moment.
This time when I pushed the door open, it wasn’t the flicker of flames that bathed Marcie in light, it was moonbeams that came through the floor-to-ceiling windows she stood before.
Ethereal was the word that instantly came to mind.
Her smile not only lit her face but shone in the golden flecks of her forest-green eyes.
How in the hell had I been blessed with this woman?
Time ceased to exist as I raked my gaze over her, taking in every inch of her appearance.
The lighting wasn’t the only difference from the time she’d decoded my first poem.
Though she wore four ribbons, they weren’t red nor were they wrapped around her ankles and wrists.
Instead, they were tied into bows adorning the pair of braids high on either side of her head.
Pink on top and black to secure the ends.
Rather than a view of bare, porcelain skin, I was treated to the sight of a white blouse that screamed innocence with its puffed sleeves, Peter-pan collar and buttons to her throat.
It also flirted with naughtiness as its hem left a sexy three inches of bare skin at her midriff.
The pink opal nestled in her belly button drew my gaze and I could feel my lips curl.
It was the birthstone for October and was often referred to as the “peppermint candy stone” as it resembled the treat.
I knew that from this moment forward, it would also bring to mind that of the little candy pigs that had been the catalyst for creating Santa’s List. My gaze’s journey continued as it dropped to the waistband of her pink-and-black-plaid mini skirt.
Its pleats had the power to hold a man mesmerized as they flared with her every step.
The fabric skimmed over an ass that had me wanting to fondle, kiss, spank, and fuck it all at the same time.
The hem wasn’t quite long enough to conceal the pink and black checkered garters that secured her thigh-high white stockings.
My eyes slid over the snowy expanse that hugged the curves of legs only broken by the pink and black striped socks.
My smile widened at her attention to detail.
Instead of both socks pulled to her knees, one was bunched around her ankle as it had been that night.
A pair of black and white saddle-shoes covered the toes I’d played with not long ago.
My gaze reversed until I was once again viewing her smile.
As I moved toward her, she pulled her hands, hidden behind her back, to the front.
I paused when she lifted her arms, gave her hands a vigorous shake, and then slowly opened them.
On her palms sat a globe and inside, flakes of snow were swirling as if in a blizzard.
“You remembered the weather?” I asked, my eyes flicking over her shoulder to the night beyond the glass.
“I did,” she confirmed. “The snow was almost as magical as what happened that night.”
“And what was more magical than that?”
“You became my Daddy Dom.”
My heart clutched at the memory of the gift she’d offered me that night when she’d said yes to my request she allow me the honor of being her Daddy.
“And you became my beloved Little girl.”
“And the luckiest Little girl in the entire world,” she said.
As I began to move again, I watched her catch her breath, the same way she had that night.
Reaching her, I took the globe from her and shook it again.
We both watched in silence as the snowflakes fell.
She’d bought me the globe on the first anniversary of that night.
My eyes often sought it when sitting behind my desk, and I loved the fact she’d brought it from my office to share it tonight.
Once the last flake settled, I set the globe aside and cupped her face between my palms, bending my head to press my lips to hers.
Before I could, she whispered, “Did I remember right, Daddy?”
“You remembered perfectly, little girl.”