Chapter 10

Walking into Marquis to start her day of work Monday morning, Olivia tried to shake the feeling of unhappiness hanging over her. She’d had to drive a rental car in this morning after dropping her car off to have the paint fixed. Seeing the car door again this morning, in the sunlight, had gotten her all ticked off again. Ticked off and a little disturbed. Not knowing for sure whether or not it was Roland who had carved the insult onto her door was uncomfortable. 

She hadn’t really thought he’d be the type, but at the same time she definitely couldn’t imagine anyone else doing it. Or maybe she just didn’t want to be able to imagine anyone else? 

Ugh. She didn’t know.

It made for an unsettling morning. Which was really too bad after all the effort she and Luke had gone through to get her relaxed. Although, she wasn’t completely comfortable thinking about that either.

After morning regret wasn’t quite the right word… after morning anxiety maybe? After morning concerns? 

He’d been a bit overwhelmed, which was understandable. She had been too. But he’d also been very quiet, just holding tightly onto her and letting her stroke his hair without talking for close to an hour before she’d finally made them get up so they could both get some sleep. Olivia had asked him a few questions, but mostly he’d seemed to just want to cuddle up to her and think. So she’d let him. She did kind of wonder if he was going to show up to class tomorrow. 

This morning he’d been thoughtful but subdued. He’d taken her to the shop and then to the car rental place, but he hadn’t tried to press for more from her like he often did. Although he’d wanted to, she could tell, but this time there had been no need to quell him. He’d held himself back.

“Morning Olivia,” said Michael as she stepped into Marquis’ dining room. He was sitting at one of the booths on his laptop. Olivia raised her eyebrows at him. 

“Don’t you have an office?” she asked, somewhat amused. 

“Yeah, but the light is better out here.”

Well that was true enough. The large windows at the front of Marquis were one way glass, which meant as long as both the restaurant and the outside were bright, they let in a lot more light than the rather small windows in the offices upstairs. Especially in the morning, since their offices faced the west. 

She still preferred to be in her office though. She needed quiet and her own space to think. Michael seemed to thrive on having noise all around him that he had to tune out.

“Anything going on I should know about?” she asked.

“Just looking over Lexie’s plans for the New Year’s Eve decorations,” he said with a grin. Glancing up at her, he cocked his head to the side. “Want to come look?”

“I looked at them yesterday,” she said, smiling, although truthfully she hadn’t looked very hard. Lexie liked to decorate and she was good at it. She wasn’t going to do anything crazy or that didn’t fit in with the club’s general feel. Olivia trusted her. 

This week Lexie was going to be working on getting the Christmas decorations for Stronghold up, something Olivia was happy to be excused from helping with this year since she’d be spending most of her time at Marquis. She liked looking at decorations, but she didn’t particularly enjoy being the one to do the decorating. Plus, there were plenty of subbies willing to help; even more than there had been last year with all the membership growth the club had gone through. 

“They look good,” he said almost absentmindedly, his attention back on his computer screen.

“Yeah. I’ll be upstairs, let me know if you need anything,” she said, heading to the back of the restaurant where the stairs were.

“Oh hey, how’s your car?” he asked, calling out to her before she reached the stairs. Turning, she could see the look of concern on his face. The gossip chain. She should have known. Actually, she was kind of surprised her phone hadn’t blown up yet. Then again, it was pretty early in the morning for Lexie to be awake, and if Patrick had kept her busy before bed last night… “Nothing weird when you got home?”

“Car’s in the shop getting the paint fixed, and my apartment and building were completely untouched,” she said, tapping her finger on the doorway to the stairs, hiding the unease she still felt over the entire situation.

“How late did Luke stay?” Michael asked, his voice deceptively casual. Olivia shot him a repressive look, which did absolutely nothing to deter the mischievous look on his face. 

“If I were you, I wouldn’t remind me that I still owe you one,” she said silkily.

That made the expression on his face drop into worry, which was more than a little gratifying. Hiding her snicker, Olivia turned and headed up the stairs to her office.

******

“You okay there, boss?” 

The concerned voice of his foreman had Luke jerking out of the daze he was in. Being distracted on an active construction site was not good.

“Sorry Bill,” he said, turning to face the other man. Bill had about twenty years and forty pounds on Luke, and he was one of Luke’s most invaluable employees. His grizzled face was screwed up in worry as he studied Luke, brow deeply furrowed. “Just lost in thought.”

Bill’s lips twisted. “Maybe this isn’t the best spot for that?”

It was the closest Bill would come to chiding him.

“Maybe not,” Luke said, sighing as he stepped back from the wall frame he’d been standing next to. Staring at without seeing it. 

His mind had been on the night before with Olivia. This morning he’d felt the familiar call to go to Marquis but… he’d made himself go to work. Not just because he was still processing everything from the scene she’d done with him, but because he needed to check out the on-going jobs anyway. He normally didn’t get super involved with any of the businesses he invested in, only checking in on them on an irregular basis. Helping out with the construction jobs for his company was what he preferred to do with his time.

At least, it had been what he preferred to do. 

Now he wanted to go by Marquis. See Olivia. Probe his feelings.

“I’m going to head out,” he told Bill, who nodded and did his best not to look relieved. Which made Luke’s lips twitch with amusement. Bill would never tell Luke to leave, of course, but it was obvious he’d been worried Luke’s current head-in-the-clouds distraction was going to get him hurt, which wouldn’t look good for Bill. No one wanted the owner hurt at their work site.

Sighing, Luke headed out to his car. He might as well go to Marquis.

Check in on what was happening. See if anyone was there.

See how Olivia was doing this morning. Make sure nothing had disturbed the club.

Really just whatever excuse he could make up to go by there, he thought with a sigh. He might be a little weirded out by exactly how much he’d submitted to her last night. How much he’d let go of his control and what he’d enjoyed her doing to him, but he still wanted to see her. Felt almost compelled to seek her out in fact.

Too bad there weren’t any other male submissives in the class. He would have liked someone to talk to. The women were all nice and he was sure they’d be willing to listen, but would they understand? How could they? Especially when he couldn’t quite explain even to himself exactly what he was struggling with in his own head.

******

The knock on her door had Olivia’s heart jumping for a moment before she reminded herself it was probably just Michael, maybe someone else from down in the restaurant if they needed her for something. They were testing out recipes over the next few weeks, getting ready for both the New Year’s Eve opening party and the actual opening of the restaurant. Club members were being encouraged to start coming by for dinners as a kind of a test run—a soft open—before the official opening in a few weeks.

“Come in,” she said, keeping her eyes on her computer screen and steeling herself, telling herself she was not going to be disappointed that her visitor was not Luke. 

Except apparently she didn’t need to convince herself of that at all. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked before thinking, almost shocked to see him striding into her doorway the same way he had yesterday afternoon. 

“Just dropping by to see what’s going on,” he said, coming in. He was wearing his jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt with his company’s logo on the left side of the chest, his hair looking shaggy and a little unkempt as if he’d had it under a hat. Sauntering to the chair he seemed to have claimed for his own, he sat down and leaned back, looking at her almost contemplatively.

Something about him seemed nervous. Less self-assured than yesterday when he’d come in. She still enjoyed seeing him, even if it was harder for her to forget he actually partially owned the building. 

Then again, maybe that was part of the fun? There was some small part of her that wanted to dominate him in his own space. If this space wasn’t also her job, she wouldn’t have hesitated to make that particular fantasy come true.

“How are you feeling today?” she asked, studying him back just as intently as he was her. The little break in his usual confident personality had her a bit concerned. While she liked making him a little uneasy, she didn’t want him to actually be uncomfortable with her… although, if he was, better to find out now rather than later. 

He only hesitated a moment before answering, but she still saw it. “Fine.”

Olivia raised her eyebrow at him.

Shrugging uncomfortably, he leaned back against his seat. “Still processing a little.”

“That’s pretty normal,” she said sympathetically. As attracted as she was to Luke, that didn’t mean he was going to be the right kind of submissive for her and she had to do what was best for him. All of her usual teaching instincts kicked right. “You’re completely new to all of this and it’s going to take some time to learn what you do and don’t like. The important thing is you feel comfortable telling the dominant you’re working with if they’re pushing you too far or you don’t like something they’re doing and that you take the time to learn your boundaries.”

“Trust me, Scarlet, not liking it is not the problem,” he said with a wry grin.

Ah. So they were at that point in the process. Olivia kept her amusement under wraps. Luke was so cocky, so self-assured, she’d wondered when—and if—he’d even hit this point. Even with his struggle to submit his will to hers, it would have been entirely possible for him to never feel any doubt about his desires.

“Also very normal,” she reassured him, and didn’t miss the quick expression of relief that flitted across his face. Satisfaction curled through her. If liking it wasn’t the problem, that meant he just needed to get his head around it. Which meant she’d done a damn good job. Still, she hoped he’d be able to work through it mentally. Not everyone could.

******

“Really?” Luke asked, unable to keep his relief out of his voice. 

“Oh yes, entering into the lifestyle is something that causes a lot of people to question themselves, who they are as a person. Male, female, dominant, submissive, switch. Dominants and sadists struggle with the idea that they aren’t supposed to enjoy bossing someone around or hurting them. Submissives struggle with giving up their autonomy, their self-control, to someone else. Honestly, I’m not sure which gender has it harder. Men are taught to be in control most of their lives or they’re not a man, but for women they’re taught that if they give up control to a man they’re supporting the patriarchy and a lot of them worry they’re betraying all women by doing so.”

Luke blinked. 

He honestly hadn’t really thought about it that way. In fact, he’d kind of assumed the female subs in the class had it a little easier. No one would see them as less feminine for wanting to be spanked or having their asses played with. Granted, there would be the prudes who would judge them for other reasons, but he hadn’t thought their struggle would really be similar to his.

It sounded like their own anxieties about submitting might be not quite the same, but close. Just sitting here talking to Olivia he could feel his own anxieties easing. Or maybe that was just his attraction to her talking.

“If you have any questions, there are several male submissives at Stronghold who would be happy to talk to you,” Olivia said. The smile on her face was purely professional, rather than intimate, which Luke wasn’t a fan of but some part of him still kind of liked it… this was the mother hen side of her that came out when she was dealing with any of the submissives in Stronghold. He’d seen it. Which meant she now considered him one of hers too. Just maybe not in the special way he was aiming for.

“I’ve already talked with some of them.” Which was true. He just hadn’t talked to them about this, because he hadn’t known at the time… But that didn’t mean he couldn’t now.

“Good. I’ve also got a list of good websites you can visit,” she said, standing and walking over to the filing cabinet along the wall. Luke stood as well, too well-mannered to continue sitting while a lady was standing, enjoying the way her gray slacks outlined the curve of her ass as she moved. “I printed out some lists a few days ago, just to have on hand.”

“Smart,” he said, smiling at her as she turned around. “Ma’am.”

Her mouth twisted in the way it did around him, hiding the smile she didn’t want him to see. Her eyes swept down his body and then back up to his face.

Striding forward, she tilted her head back as she came closer, invading his personal space. Not that he minded. His heart was already starting to race, his cock swelling slightly as she halted a few inches away from him, head tilting back slightly to keep her silver gaze locked with his. 

“Don’t start something you’re already not sure you can finish,” she murmured, placing the sheet of paper against his chest. Luke snaked his hand up, covering the back of hers with his palm and holding her there. 

“I might not be entirely ready, but I won’t know if I can finish until we get there. I know I want to. My end goal is still the same.”

Her. He wanted her.

He wanted to learn how to submit, wanted a bossy woman in the bedroom… but now he also wanted so much more. The heights of ecstasy she’d brought him to last night. The shocking intimacy. The way she’d played with him, teased him, and made him hyper aware of every inch of his body.

The opportunity to be with her again sent his doubts, his insecurities crawling away. Who cared if he enjoyed having his ass played with? She liked that he liked it. She wanted to do it some more. He wanted her to. 

So fuck it, right? 

When her hand snaked up around his neck, pulling him down for a kiss, saying ‘fuck it’ to the niggling, insecure thoughts in his head definitely seemed like the right move. He knew they might return once he left her presence again, the way they had before, but right now he didn’t care.

He wanted her.

He could search his feelings later.

******

Playing with fire. 

That’s what this was.

But when Luke threw down the challenge, she’d met it. Wanted to meet it.

Very likely she was making poor choices but… 

Damn the man could kiss. And taking control of him, kissing him here in the middle of her office, her space that was really his space… yeah there was something about that which got her motor running. Maybe because she still didn’t like that he was technically her boss, and exerting some dominance over him right here and now gave her a little thrill. After all, this was a place of his business and yet here he was letting her take control.

Olivia moved into him, their bodies pressing together, his hand still covering hers on his chest while the other moved around her waist. He groaned into the kiss, sending her own arousal soaring. Last night had not been enough. Not nearly enough.

The knock on the door made both of them jump, but when Michael opened it a second later—without waiting for her to say come in—it was pretty obvious what had been going on.

“Oops,” said Michael, a wide grin spreading over his face as his eyes darted between the two of them. They’d both dropped their hands down but were standing far too close together. And she was pretty sure he’d seen a little bit of what they were doing before she and Luke had separated.

Olivia narrowed her eyes at him.

“Yes? Can I help you?” Her voice was like ice. Beside her, Luke shifted uncomfortably at her best unhappy Domme voice. 

Looking sheepish, Michael glanced down at the laptop he’d carried upstairs. “I can come back later…”

“No, not if this is business related,” Olivia said, tugging on the bottom of her shirt and re-exerting her professional persona. The humming arousal in her blood didn’t go away, but she ignored it. She was at work. This wasn’t the play office at Stronghold. And Luke still had some thinking to do. “Luke was just on his way out… unless you think he needs to see this too?”

“If you want to,” Michael said, looking at Luke as he took a hesitant step into the room.

“No, it’s fine, like Olivia said, I was just leaving.” The blank expression on Luke’s face said he was unhappy.

She wasn’t feeling too thrilled herself, but she was at work and that was going to come first. Putting off actual work just to flirt and play around with Luke was not a priority. Especially when she really should give him time to think before playing with him again anyway.

An hour later, Michael left her office and she checked her phone. It had been blowing up that morning as word about her car got around to her friends, and she’d ended up putting it on mute so she still checked it every once in a while, and send out responses in a burst rather than being constantly interrupted. She didn’t worry about anyone thinking she wasn’t okay—tell one and the rest of them would know within minutes since they were all talking to each other too.

To no one’s surprise, the group chat with the other Stronghold ladies was going strong.

Angel: We need to have a girls’ night everyone can come to! Come visit me in my prison?

Leigh: Could you be any more dramatic?

Angel: Challenge Accepted.

Leigh: That wasn’t a challenge!!!!

Angel: NO ONE LOVES ME! YOU ALL WENT OUT WITHOUT MEEEEEEE!!!!! I’M SO DEPRIVED!!!!!

Jessica: So girls’ night at Angel’s on Saturday?

Angel: See, Jessica loves me. Why don’t you love me Leigh?

Sharon: I’ll bring the booze.

Maria: I can come this time, I’ve got snacks.

Hilary: I’m in! I think Liam’s going to organize a guys’ night for them.

Lexie: Just as long as they don’t crash our party at Adam and Angel’s. Patrick says I can come.

Leigh: I’ll bring some snacks too, Maria, so you don’t have to cover everything.

Angel: Leigh, why don’t you love me?

Kate: Sweet! I can make it too!

Ellie: Me too! Can I bring anything?

Sharon: Woo-hoo! The subbies are all in! Is Olivia still not answering her texts?

Maria: Bring anything you want Ellie! There can never be too much food or booze for a girl’s night.

Angel: LEIGH! ANSWER ME! WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME?!

Leigh: OMG, I LOVE YOU OKAY?!

Angel: I know.

Lexie: LMAO. This is going to be fun. I can tell. 

Angel: Oliiiiiiiiiivia. Are you coming? If you don’t come I’m going to feel unloved.

Leigh: And Lord knows you don’t want that.

Jessica: Do you two need to get laid or something?

Maria: Shh. No more talking until Olivia replies.

Chuckling, Olivia tapped her reply into her phone and hit send.

Olivia: I’m in.

She set her phone down on her desk. Face down, to cover the screen as it immediately started lighting up with replies. 

Crazy bitches.