Slice of Desire

1 Serenity

I’ve worked with this asshole for three months now, and he still refuses to trust my judgment. My brow twitches as we glare at the same application, standing on opposite sides of a decision.

“He’s not a bad candidate,” Emeric groans, throwing up his hands as he walks to the other side of the room. My cousin only ever planned to have one desk upstairs in the office, so we’ve been making it work up here until a few weeks ago when he decided he needed a desk too.

Things are going… not so well. I thought we could make things work but to be honest, I’ve never wanted to buzz off someone’s hair so badly while they are sleeping. Emeric has chin length hair he’s constantly messing with, giving off a very Keanu Reeves vibe, and I think it might help with his ego if he was a little less… beautiful.

It’s the dark, wavy, run-your-fingers-through-it kind of hair. He also has the penetrating green eyes used to distract and seduce. He’s ripped too, which is never a bad thing. Maybe I’m the only one who thinks so.

Who am I kidding? Women flock to the club whenever he’s doing a training class, and the few shows he puts on are always packed. No one’s looking at that handsome face when he’s busy grinding -

“Serenity, try and focus.”

Lucky for me, we don’t get along, so his charming good looks and powerful hips don’t affect me as much as most of the other women around here. Emeric, when it comes to others, is likable, with a quick tongue. Whenever his tongue darts out to lick his lips, usually before we get into a verbal sparring match, I’m greeted to the sight of his tongue piercing.

“I am focused,” I huff, crossing my arms. He leans back in his chair across the room, mocking my body language when he does the same thing. “I’m just saying the guy sounds shady.”

“Because of the multiple partners kink?”

My cheeks color at that detail, and I clear my throat to distract. “No, because of the latex kink.”

“That wouldn’t be allowed at the club,” he replies, brows furrowing. There’s too much intensity in his gaze and I cave, sitting forward again as I drop my arms. “We can’t have something that members could be allergic to so easily accessible, and if he’s a dumbass, he could kill someone. The club doesn’t allow kinks like that.”

My hands tighten on the desk, and I realize I never should’ve agreed to this. Maybe I should’ve left Jo to sink her own ship, but I felt kind of bad not helping out my cousin when she finally reached out and asked. “Same could be said for blood play, couldn’t it? Cut too deeply or in the wrong place and someone could bleed out.”

“Again,” he emphasizes, “controlled environment.”

I press a finger to the top of the desk, leaning forward. “Safety hazard.”

“Expressive kink.”

“Disease cesspool.”

Emeric snorts. “You did not just say that. You know the toys and tools in the chambers are cleaned or charged to members accounts when they use them. We don’t just let people throw things around anywhere in the club. You would know that if you ever came out of the office.”

“No need to,” I chirp, propping my chin on my folded hands. He sits forward and lifts a challenging brow. “You’re the favorite now, the new face of the club until Jo and Vinny come home.”

He blows out a breath, and I almost ask if he’s heard from my cousin. Jo might be related to me, but she’s married to Vinny, and both of them are friends with Emeric. Good enough friends that they reached out to him to come back and help cover in their absence.

“I’m the face because you’re always hiding.”

“Ha!” I shake my head, unable to fight off the laughter. “As if. Why would anyone bother with the rich tightass when they can talk to you, the stripper extraordinaire?”

He leans back in the chair again, cool confidence returning. “You know you could be a stripper extraordinaire too if you ever came down to one of my classes.”

My blush returns, and I have to look down at the desk for a moment. I’m getting way too far ahead of myself.

Covering for my cousin at her club, Sins and Secrets BDSM Club, is a favor. My father got accepted to a hospital out here in Denver, so I recently decided to move in with him and my younger sister. I mainly went through with the move because Jo reached out as soon as she knew she needed to leave.

I swear, she’s got a lot of shit going on, but going back to where it all started sounds like a bad idea to me. But, then again, who am I to judge? She got me this amazing position managing a sex club and partnered me with the nicest guy in the world.

I nearly gag on the lie.

Truth be told, I’m out of my depth here. Sex isn’t something I’m familiar with, and going to a BDSM club seemed so far out of my potential options until now, I never even humored the idea.

Until recently, I didn’t know the club catered to the kink lifestyle. Now I’m supposed to be managing it when I don’t know the first thing about kink play.

Or BDSM.

Or sex.

I chose to ignore the slightly stunned look on Jo’s face when I admitted to being a virgin. I needed her to know the truth in case I started sending her ridiculous questions. She was nice enough to ask if I could handle the job, and regrettably I said yes.

“Don’t you think it sets a bad example if we’re both down there on a pole?” I ask, but there’s a squeak to my voice. “I mean, you do it fantastically and all but, no one’s going to take me seriously if they think I’m having a seizure on the stage.”

He chuckles. Chuckles. “It can’t be that bad, Doe Eyes. Might help you be less of a killjoy if you let loose every once in a while.”

I hate that nickname. Emeric graced me with that within fifteen minutes of meeting me. At the time I was too annoyed to even humor the idea he might’ve picked up on the fact that I’m a virgin. There’s no way he’d know unless someone told him. It can’t be that obvious can it?

“I’m trying to keep things running for Jo and Vinny.”

He raises a brow. “By denying every person that applies?”

“By only letting the safe ones in!”

He blows out a breath, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “That’s why there’s a trial period, Serenity. So we can vet new members just like they vet the club. If they don’t fit here or they’re dangerous we sever contact.”

Yes, I’ve seen that done once so far. Emeric handled it, and the guy snuck a pint inside his coat and didn’t understand why we have a drink limit at a sex club. I stayed upstairs like usual and only heard about it after. The guy whined but there was no altercation.

Emeric stands, shattering my train of thought. “I get that you want to be cautious while the owners are out of state, but we have no idea how much longer this is going to go on. Memberships are down since last month, and that’s pretty strange with summer coming.”

“It’s not my fault.”

“Well you aren’t helping,” he barks, his smartwatch lighting up. He eyes it before shaking his head. “I’ve got to get ready for class.”

“The pole dance class,” I verify, and it sounds pretty damn rude even to my ears. I can’t help myself, this man brings it out in me.

“Yes, Serenity, the stripping class,” he practically growls at me. “Since you like to make everyone feel disgusting for their kinks, it’s about the only thing that’s bringing in real money this week.”

I wince, but that might be true. There’s no shortage of applications to join this high end club. Unfortunately, our lack of communication and the disagreements we get into can be felt throughout the club. New members don’t really want to wait on the two of us to figure our shit out and get along during this interim management change. Jo and Vinny run a tight ship, but we’re just two strangers forced to work together to keep the place going for an unknown amount of time.

It’s slightly unfair on my cousin”s part, but then, she had no idea this was going to happen.

Straightening my back, I meet his green eyes. “Fine, I’ll approve…” my gaze drifts to the screen to check his name and I almost snort, “Bucky’s application.”

Emeric rolls his eyes. “Christ.”

“Should I go ahead and approve some others for the trial period?” I go on, tapping my chin. “You know, the other ones we went over that I thought were no’s but you said maybe?”

“If you think it won’t fucking kill you, yes,” he snaps with wave of his hand. “As long as they pass the background checks, they’re good to go.”

“Fine. I’ll go back through.” It annoys me to no end that we’re approving people who might be sketchy to come play in a very sex-positive and open environment, but Emeric said that’s the reason there’s security here. I stare down at the desk, toying with the ends of my blonde hair in one hand and eyeing a scribbled list with the other, pulling the sticky note off of the surface. “And I’ll order the supplies too.”

“Great.”

I scrunch up my face as I eye the list. I’ve spent a lot of personal time looking into BDSM kinks, trying to figure out where I fit in, how and if I can handle what’s next. Some of the stuff on the list makes me wonder what I’m doing here.

“I need to order kits?” I ask, unable to make sense of that. “For sensory play?”

Emeric stares at me, adjusting the cuffs of the shirt he’s just going to rip off in a few minutes. “No. Buy the supplies and divvy them up. I think Jo would have the wait staff put them together if she needed help. Just order what’s supposed to be in the bag and have it cover each of the five senses.”

That sounds… traumatizing. But I nod and give him a wave, hoping he takes my attitude as false confidence. The second he’s out that door I’m gonna Google that.

Rolling his eyes, he throws a wave over his head and leaves, the office door clicking shut. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding, eyeing the computer again.

Sensory play… approving members. It’s a far cry from living under my father’s thumb, promoting his work and even moving states to keep his live streams going. I have responsibilities here, whereas there was very little expected at me when I was employed by my Dad.

I click through the list of applicants first, just the most recent ones and start cutting down on the rejects. Some might call that bending the rules, but I think it’s just because we’re having a hard time agreeing on who exactly is too much for the club. Jo and Vinny have a honed system on how they cut out people who would make the club unsafe, however it’s something Emeric and I have yet to finesse. They know how to vibe and read each other, whereas we just argue. He thinks I’m too stingy, I think he’s too lax.

The names stare back at me from the screen, and I slowly go back through to recheck why we planned to send denial emails. Chad Donelson. Skai Hamilton. Chester Alvez. The list goes on and on until everything blurs together.

Pushing the paperwork aside, I rest my arms on the desk before dropping my head down onto them. I knew this would be challenging, given my aversion to everything, but now it’s reaching new heights. Emeric and I can’t agree on anything, and the more I push the harder he pushes back.

We don’t get along, that much is clear. Not just to us, but to the regulars here too. He has friends here, Nate, Callie and a bunch of others, but I really only know one couple outside of my cousin. People trust him and question me. The power balance is constantly thrown into question, and everyone would rather hear him out than hear me.

I don’t know how we’re going to keep the place going at this rate, but something has to give. Before I can question myself further, I click on the generic welcome email everyone receives, letting the applicants know what day they can come by for a visit to try out the club.

Maybe it’ll be one of the days I’m not here. I only overlap Emeric’s shifts on the weekends. So if all goes to plan, we won’t even have to do much together until next week.