Chapter Two
Keane Rollins was having the weirdest day. He did not
fit into this glamourous world. He’d been to exactly two weddings before this
one. One had been in his mom’s backyard where she married the man who murdered
her. The second was a courthouse wedding between friends who got divorced and
no longer spoke to any of their circle.
He didn’t have good luck with weddings.
He was worried his luck was going to hold.
“Are you nervous?” Garrett sat across the booth from him
with the gorgeous girl in the middle. It was one of those round booths that
made everything feel close and intimate.
It was awkward.
“A little, I suppose,” she replied. “Not because of you. You
seem nice. Bobby told me you belong to a club.”
Garrett nodded. “There’s one in…”
She held up a hand. “I don’t need to know specifics. If
Bobby is satisfied, then so am I.”
It had been roughly an hour since they had been introduced
to the woman they were calling Red for now. She was every bit as gorgeous up
close, and there was a sweetness to her that belied her obvious independent
nature. They had each danced with her and made some small talk that meant
nothing because she didn’t want names. Or real jobs. Apparently now no club
names.
Garrett had proposed hitting the hotel bar since all eyes
were on them in the ballroom. Red had hugged Nicole and the two grooms and then
joined him and Garrett.
Now she had a glass of Cab in her hand and looked like she
wanted to be anywhere else. If he hadn’t seen the way her eyes went from
Garrett to him like she was a kid in a candy store, he would have found a way
to gracefully let her go. But it was so clear she wanted them.
So why wasn’t it easy to simply go upstairs and get things
started?
“I’m going to assume you belong to a club, too.” Garrett
seemed determined to completely ignore the vibe, but that was kind of how he
handled things. He was a great believer in faking it until making it.
“I do. I have for a long time. I came to the lifestyle
honestly. My parents are in it.” She sighed. “I don’t seem to be good with my
own rules.”
Because it wasn’t natural to avoid all real connections. He
needed to figure out how to make it more comfortable for her.
“Do you always drink red?” Garrett asked with his usual
charm.
She smiled, though it was a tight thing. “Not at all. I like
most wines, though I tend to gravitate toward dry and not too sweet. I’m from
Texas, though, so I love margaritas.” She flushed. “Again, I wasn’t supposed to
say that.”
“Oh, the accent gives you away,” Garrett replied. “It’s a
pretty accent, don’t you think, Ke….?”
And there it was. It was hard to not use names at all, and
it was super weird to call each other Sir since they would not be topping each
other.
“Let’s go with Master K and Master G when referring to each
other,” Keane offered.
“I don’t know that this is going to work,” she said
suddenly. “This is not something I normally do. I’m not the crazy sex girl. I
was feeling down tonight, and I should go to bed and hope I do better in the
morning.”
“You don’t have to do that.” Garrett’s tone was still
smooth, but Keane had been with him long enough to hear the panic underneath.
“You sent your friend over for a reason.”
“I didn’t send him over at all. Bobby did that on his own. I
swear if I didn’t know better, I would think he got rid of me so he could find
his own hot guy.” She frowned and sighed. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair. That
makes it sound like I wasn’t involved. I absolutely think you’re hot and I
wondered if a fun night might make me feel better, but this isn’t going how I
thought it would. Somehow I thought it would be easier.”
The problem was they weren’t giving her what she truly
wanted.
The fantasy.
Garrett didn’t know what it meant to want to be someone
else, anyone else. But Keane did, and for whatever reason so did Red tonight.
“Well, we should give it more of a chance.” Garrett was
always the optimist. He thought if he argued long enough, he would win.
Keane thought they needed a different approach. It was time
to take control.
He sat up straighter, letting his jaw go straight and eyes
focus on her.
“You said you didn’t want names, but you need something to
call us. You may call us Sir.” He used his hardest tone, the one that usually
sent all the subs to their knees. “We will call you Red.”
She stared at him for a moment. “I don’t know…”
He had one shot at this. He ignored her and started to take
on a role. Dom. “Now I do have some questions, Red. I would like to know why
you decided to enter the program.”
That seemed to stop her. “The program?”
He was excellent at role play. It was one of the things he
loved most about the lifestyle. For a few hours he could sink into a different
role, one where he was in control, one where he was enough. He had spent the
last hour studying her. Garrett wasn’t the only one who was good at reading a
person, though it took Keane more time. He would bet she worked in a
professional field, maybe even in a male-dominated one where she had to fight
for her place. She was smart and quick-witted, and likely felt the need to be
in control most of the time.
And she was a well-trained submissive, which meant she also
wanted time where she wasn’t in control. She likely craved it, but she needed…a
little intimacy before her intimacy. Even if it was fake.
“Yes, the program,” he restated, sinking into his role. He
liked this role. Asshole at first. Indulgent asshole later. Garrett would do
what he did best and smooth out all Keane’s rough edges. “The one in which we
purchase a submissive for the night. Your paperwork looks fine, but it seems
you might have changed your mind.”
“Hey, dude,” Garrett whispered. “What are you doing?”
But Red sat back, and her lips curled up. She took a sip of
her wine and then bit her bottom lip. “I didn’t have much of a choice, Sir. My
grandmother needs surgery. I can’t find a job. It’s been hard lately. I
thought… I thought I could make some money this way, but I’m nervous.”
“I…your grandma is sick?” Garrett asked. “I’m so sorry. And
there is no money involved. He’s being a weirdo.”
For a dude who passed his LSATs in the top five percent, he
could be slow in some cases.
She was not. Her gorgeous green eyes went wide, and he would
have sworn she managed a sheen of tears. “But then how will I pay for the
surgery? And food. I have four brothers and sisters who depend on me. Momma
died a while back, and Daddy, well, Daddy never took much to family life. When
Momma died he left us all with grandma, and now that she’s sick…”
“Uhm, we’re doing some kind of role play, right?” Garrett
seemed to finally catch on.
Keane stared at her, ignoring his friend because they were
finally making a real connection. Oh, all the information was fake, but there
was an odd truth in how a person role-played. It was all there in the choices
they made. Red felt like everyone depended on her. Like she was held to a
certain standard. “You’ll have to forgive my partner. It’s his first time.”
“It is not my first time,” Garrett argued.
That made Red laugh and put a hand over Garrett’s. “I’m sure
you’re very experienced.”
So she was compassionate. He wanted to know her name, but he
was a man who had learned a long time ago to take what he could get because it
could all turn on him. “It’s your experience we should talk about.”
This was such a better way to get to hard and soft limits.
It wasn’t clinical this way because it made the negotiations part of the play
itself.
She put a hand to her chest and managed to flush prettily.
“I… Sir, my virginity is part of the cost.”
Oh, she was good. Though he didn’t prize virginity in any
way and would bet his damn life she wasn’t one, his cock tightened because she
was getting invested in the play. The awkwardness was still there, but this way
it was woven into the fabric of the night. It was helpful instead of a hurdle
to jump over. “I did want a virgin.”
“But you should understand that we have certain tastes.”
Garrett finally settled back into his role.
Garrett was a good Dom, but he could take it or leave it.
Keane could not. He needed to be in control. In a different lifetime he thought
Garrett would have been happy being a switch. He loved taking care of their
lovers in all the little ways.
“What kind of tastes?” She asked the question with a
breathless puff.
“How much training did the academy give you in the D/s
lifestyle?” Keane asked.
For a moment she broke character, and there was such joy on
her face it made him smile, too. “There’s an academy?”
He nodded. “For wayward young women who need to find their
place in the world.”
She clapped her hands. “I love it so much.” Then she was
back to being the down-on-her-luck sub who needed to spread her legs so grandma
got well again. “I took all the classes, Sir. I know what you will want from me
and I’m ready.”
“Oh, I doubt you’re ready. You see they can tell you
everything, have you study different methods and disciplines, and it won’t
prepare you for what it will really feel like to be dominated.”
Her breath caught, chest swelling slightly. Yes, this was
what she needed. It was absolutely what he needed.
Her eyes caught his briefly before sliding away in a
submissive fashion that made his groin ache. “I know you’ll touch me.”
Garrett slid over, moving in closer to her, and he let his
hand find her arm, fingertips sliding over in a way guaranteed to make her
shiver. “The question is where we’ll touch you, and the answer is everywhere.
All those soft places you think are private will become ours.”
Keane moved as well, so they were surrounding her, and they
gave her no way to escape. Another illusion, but one that seemed to do
something for her. Her cheeks flushed and eyes went soft and submissive. “He’s
talking about your pussy, sweetheart. Tell me something. Do you ever touch
yourself?”
She shook her head. “We’re not allowed. The academy tells us
it’s a sin since our bodies should belong to our Masters.”
He put a hand on the nape of her neck. Her hair was in an