CHAPTER 29
Zeke
Halloween was always interesting when it came to kink clubs, and Dichotomy was no exception.
This year, since Trent was in town, it appeared the man was going all out with the theme.
Thankfully, he hadn’t insisted on costumes, but he did enforce a strict dress code.
Masters and Mistresses were to wear black slacks or a skirt and a white button-down dress shirt.
Submissives were to wear black or white lingerie only.
Of course, masks were provided, and no matter how much I argued, I was told I had to wear one just like everyone else who was permitted to enter.
When I arrived and noticed all the black lights, the dress code made sense. While the Doms’ masks were black, the submissives’ masks were white, which glowed beneath the purple light, easily showing who was who.
My fuck toys were wearing leather thongs, leather harnesses, their collars, and the mask.
Nothing else. Of course, they were drawing all sorts of attention because men and women both were checking them out.
Honestly, I was proud to have them with me and not merely because they were hot enough to draw all eyes to them.
The cowboy and the pretty boy had been inching their way deeper beneath my skin with every passing day.
At this point, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel if I had to sleep without them in my bedroom.
“Nice party,” Mistress Jane said when she approached me outside the main-floor Doms’ lounge. “I have to say, your arm candy is rather delicious.”
“Good thing for me they’re not into females.”
She smiled, her eyes and her mouth the only parts of her face visible because of the mask. “Yes, that is good for you.”
“Did you bring any pets tonight?” I inquired, simply to make conversation.
“No. I’m here solo this evening.” Her head turned as she surveyed the room. “However, I’m fairly certain I’ll find one or two I can play with.”
“I doubt that’ll be difficult for you.”
“Especially since Trent opened the club tonight to a few extra submissives.”
I frowned. “Really? Why’s that?”
“Edge approved some of the backlog. And he couldn’t have done it at a better time either. The options were slimming.”
“I didn’t realize there was a backlog.”
“Yep. Apparently quite a bit. My understanding is he’s added almost two dozen fresh faces. Mostly submissives.”
Great. Just what we needed. An overabundance of newbies slinking through the building. I hated when Edge did that because it took time to train them to do as they were supposed to. And to think, I had pretty much punished nearly all of them at this point. Who would do that now that I had my own—
Nope. Not going there. The fuck toys did not belong to me. They were temporary, and I had to remember that. It was getting harder to do the more time I spent with them. However, I couldn’t let myself get carried away.
“Well, I’ll let you get back to it,” Jane said as one of the male submissives caught her attention.
I chuckled. “Have fun.”
“Oh, I fully intend to.”
Those five-inch heels of hers carried her away from me as she stalked the submissive heading for the dungeon. Without the lights on, it was a wonder she could tell one from another. I certainly couldn’t.
Then again, there were only two I cared about, and I knew exactly where they were.
“I figured for sure you would skip tonight when Ramsey said a dress code was required,” Ransom said as he approached.
“And why would I do that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Because you’ve done it before.”
True. I had.
“Did you hear there’s fresh meat here tonight?” I prompted in an effort to change the subject.
“What? Where?” His head snapped around in all directions as though he would be able to tell.
“No idea, but they’re supposedly here. Jane said Edge approved a new batch of submissives.”
“Finally.”
Well, apparently, everyone seemed pleased with this new turn of events.
“Now that I know that, perhaps I’ll see what I can scrounge up.” Ransom’s head turned my way. “Are you planning a scene tonight?”
“Nope. Not tonight.” I figured I could let my fuck toys wander around for the evening. A little free time since they’d done so well lately.
“Hmm.” Ransom’s head cocked to the side, the whites of his eyes glowing in the black light.
“What the hell does hmm mean?”
Ransom held up his hands. “Nothing. I’m just surprised. I figured you’d be getting the miles out of those toys while you had them.” He put his hands on his hips. “Unless, of course, you’re planning to keep them. In that case, there’s no rush to wear them out.”
“I’m not gonna keep them,” I countered, although the words were bitter in my mouth.
“Right. Okay. Well, I guess if you’re not going to entertain the masses tonight, perhaps I should.” He scanned the area. “In order to do that, I’m gonna have to find some tough hide I can beat on. I’ll check in with you later.”
“Yeah. Later.”
I watched as Ransom headed over to the section where he would be able to see the submissive selection for the evening. From my vantage point, I could see at least a dozen scantily clad submissives kneeling on pillows, waiting patiently for someone to acknowledge them.
Rarely did I ever have to seek out the kneeling population for entertainment purposes, but I certainly didn’t miss having to find someone who might hold my interest for even a few minutes.
My gaze swung over to the pretty boy and the cowboy. They were standing by the bar talking to two other male submissives. I didn’t recognize them, so I figured they were new. Not that I would be able to tell either way because the masks were obscuring everyone’s faces.
No, now that I’d found exactly what I’d been missing, I wondered if it was possible they’d be willing to keep me if I did decide to make this more than temporary. Could I? Would they want me for more than some interesting scenes?
That empty space in my chest ached at the thought. The last thing I wanted was to go through the hell of watching them walk away when they found out I was merely human.
Making that known seemed to be the fastest way for me to let someone down.
Brax (the cowboy)
I had no idea who this one guy was—aside from his name being Matt—or why he was following me and Case around like a lost puppy, but no matter how hard we tried to shake him, he wasn’t getting the hint.
The other submissive with him—Gary—was a regular here. He seemed quite content to give Matt the lowdown on what was going on.
“That girl over there, she’s a masochist,” Gary explained. “Not hard-core like Case, though.”
Case didn’t look at either of them, but his eyes cut to me briefly. I knew he was getting tired of having an entourage.
“Hard-core, huh?” Matt prompted.
Case didn’t respond.
“So, how long have you been members here?” Matt asked.
“I’ve been here a year,” Gary informed him. “But I just recently was collared by my Mistress.”
Matt nodded, then cast a quick look my way.
“A while,” I replied, aiming for casual, uninterested. I was hoping he would take the hint.
“Interesting.”
Why? Why was that interesting? He’d said that after nearly every answer we’d given him. If I didn’t know better, I would think this was some sort of interrogation. And it was getting old quickly.
Unfortunately, Gary took that opportunity to excuse himself. That left me and Case with Matt, and I knew the questions were going to keep coming.
Matt touched his neck. “I see you’re both collared. By the same Dom? Male or female?”
“Yeah. And he’s a Sadist,” I answered, leaving the what’s it to you? unspoken.
Matt turned his attention to Case. “So, you’re a masochist, huh?”
Case didn’t respond, simply glared back at the man through his mask. It was clear he was as sick of playing this game as I was.
“I think Zeke’s tryin’ to get our attention,” I told Case. “It was nice to meet you, Matt.”
“Zeke?” he asked, the whites of his eyes glowing through the mask. “Zeke Lautner? I’d heard a rumor he was a member here, but I didn’t believe it.”
Okay, this was going too far. I nudged Case away before Matt could launch another question at us. I knew Zeke wasn’t trying to get our attention, but the least we could do was seek him out. It seemed a logical way to get away from the guy who had latched himself to our sides.
Zeke must’ve seen something that bothered him, because as soon as we approached, his mouth turned down in a grimace. “Something wrong?”
“No,” I said quickly. “Just thought we’d check in. See if you needed anything.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
Son of a bitch. I spun around to see that Matt had followed us. “Look, man, I—”
“Long time no see, Zeke,” Matt said, his voice deeper than before, his tone holding a condescending edge to it.
Zeke didn’t say a word, and I turned back to see him staring. In an instant, his mask was off, and he was glaring at Matt.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Matt?”
Holy shit.
That wasn’t a hi, how are ya? greeting. In fact, I was pretty sure there was steam coming out of Zeke’s ears.
Apparently, they knew each other, and if that was the case, I didn’t think it had ended well.
And I suspected this wasn’t one of those one-and-done scenarios where Zeke had beat on him, then dismissed him for someone else to take care of.
“Of all the kink clubs in all the world…” Matt stared at Zeke, leaving the sentence hanging.
I couldn’t breathe for the amount of animosity pouring off Zeke. His back was rigid, his hands fisted at his sides.
Matt glanced over at Case. “For a masochist, you sure don’t have high standards, do you?”
Case spun to face Matt, his chest puffing up as he took a step closer to Matt. “Excuse me?”
I put my hand on Case’s arm to hold him back. The last thing we needed was to throw down in the middle of Dichotomy. That was the fastest way to get booted out of the club. Forever.
Matt glared back at Case, going toe to toe with him. “With a reputation as a hard-core masochist, I’m surprised. That’s all.”
Case’s mask came off, and he inched closer to Matt. “Choose your words carefully,” Case warned. “Because offending my—Zeke—is not somethin’ I’ll tolerate.”
“Your Zeke?” Matt laughed. “Sounds about right. You seem more of the alpha in this relationship. Makes sense considering your Zeke loses that hard outer layer when he falls in love. Has he done that yet? Told you he loves you? Asked you to sleep in his bed? Because that’s where I ended up.
All I wanted was a Dom who could stay the course and be true to himself.
Turns out, Zeke wasn’t capable of that.” Matt laughed and it had a sickening tone to it.
“He ended up wanting more. Love and shit. I mean, come on. What real Sadist says I love you? That shit’s for pussies. ”
Holy shit. This dude was delusional. What the fuck was he even talking about?
I turned to ask Zeke that very question, only he wasn’t there. I glanced around the crowded room, but I didn’t see him.
Suddenly, Trent appeared, and Case backed up.
“What’s going on here?” the famous Dom asked. “Why aren’t you wearing a mask?”
Case didn’t respond, simply continued shooting daggers at Matt with his eyes.
“We’re sorry, Master Ramsey,” I said politely. “Case and I were just … going to the locker room.”
Without waiting for Case to argue, I shoved him forward away from Matt.
“Don’t you dare turn around,” I hissed. “Keep moving.”
“Who the fuck does he think he is?” Case snapped. “And who the hell let him in here?”
Those were good questions. Questions I didn’t have answers for.
“Where’s Zeke?” Case asked when we were heading up the stairs.
“When I turned around, he was gone.”
“What the fuck? Did he leave?”
I didn’t know for sure, but I suspected that to be the case. Whoever Matt was, he had a history with Zeke. And based on Matt’s patronizing attitude, it hadn’t ended on a good note.
Case stopped on the stairs as though he was going to turn back around.
“Come on, Case. Let’s get changed. No way can we stay here and let that asshole start shit. I am not losin’ my membership to this club.”
Although that was the least of my worries at the moment.
Case and I had to go to Zeke. We had to figure out what was going on and why he had bolted. That was very unlike him, and I didn’t like the thought of him being by himself.
Especially if he was hurting.
The man might’ve been hard-core and standoffish in most things he did, but he was as human as the rest of us. It was possible he didn’t want people to know they had the power to hurt him, but he wasn’t a superhero.
And Matt was a fucking moron if he seriously believed there was a single person out there who could shut himself down indefinitely.
Certainly not Zeke.