Chapter 2

Listening to Patrick and Michael had been a bad idea.

Luke couldn’t blame them entirely though; he’d also wanted to see Olivia’s face when he’d joined in the submissives class. Ultimately, it hadn’t been quite as much fun as he’d thought it would be. Her jaw had almost dropped, her expression had been full of shock and—he thought—a bit of desire, but then she’d gotten pissed.

Not in the way that turned him on either.

There was a difference between when he was annoying her and when she was actually angry, and he’d just felt it. He hadn’t known before. Ignorance didn’t stop him from feeling both guilty and a bit miserable about upsetting her. Patrick and Michael hadn’t seemed too bothered by it, but then neither of them would be. 

Internally sighing as he headed over to the table of rather attractive women, all looking to be in their late twenties, Luke decided he was going to find a way to make it up to her.

“Hello,” said the blonde as he approached. She eyed him speculatively. All of the women looked a little confused, and he wondered how much they’d been able to hear of the conversation across the room and how much they understood of it. “So, you’re the last submissive?”

“Yes,” he said, sliding into the booth on the end. The women had all huddled together enough that there was plenty of space on both ends. The woman to his left was very slight and petite, reminding him of Lexie’s build, but where he would call Lexie an imp or a pixie, this woman looked more like a little fairy. Give her a pair of wings and he could see her fluttering around pollinating flowers or something. Her riot of short blondish brown curls shook as she tilted her head to study him with gray-blue eyes. He smiled at her. “I’m Luke.”

“Samantha,” said the blonde, with a warm smile. Luke did his best to hide his reaction to her name. At least she didn’t look anything like his dark-haired ex. Fortunately, the redhead next to her was already speaking up, so he didn’t think Samantha saw him cringe.

“You don’t look like a submissive,” said the redhead, who was stunning but didn’t appeal to him in the same way Olivia did. She eyed him speculatively, blatantly checking him out.

“Um…” he didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Ignore her,” said the black girl between the redhead and the curly haired fairy. She was gorgeous, with dark brown eyes, an almost challenging stare, and long black braids to nearly her waist. The tightly fitted red t-shirt she was wearing made the most of her firm curves and slim waist. “She seems to have some very specific, very wrong, ideas about what submissives are and aren’t.” Leaning over the table she stretched out her hand to shake. “I’m Rae and this is my friend Domi.”

Domi, the curly-haired fairy girl, grinned. “It’s Dominique, actually, but everyone calls me Domi. And yes, I’m aware of the irony.”

A submissive named Domi. Luke grinned as he shook both of their hands, some of his misery dissipating in anticipation of how the dominants would react to her. On the other side of Rae, the redhead was slouching back against the booth pouting with her arms crossed over her chest. The blonde ignored her, so he assumed the two of them weren’t friends like Rae and Domi.

“They’re coming,” whispered Rae, looking nervous. She and Domi reached under the table to grab hands for moral support.

Luke wished he had someone to grab hands with for moral support. Even though he was a fairly confident, self-assured man who had no trouble holding his own against Doms like Michael and Patrick when it came to making business decisions, this was an entirely different kind of situation. The pack of approaching Doms made him nervous too, just because he wasn’t entirely sure what he was getting into—and with Olivia at the head of the pack he was probably in some real trouble. The sadistic little smile curving her lips when she caught his eye was not reassuring.

“Hello everyone,” Olivia said smoothly, coming to a halt in front of the table with the men arrayed behind her. All but the blond were looking at Luke now, studying him, and it took every ounce of willpower he possessed not to shift uncomfortably in his seat under the weight of their combined stares. The others might call them ‘Baby Doms’ but as far as he could tell they had all the same confidence and authority as a regular dominant, and he’d never been subjected to this kind of scrutiny by a pack of them before.

“I’m Mistress Olivia, manager of Marquis when it opens, and also the overall instructor for this course. These gentlemen standing behind me are going to be mentoring you throughout the classes. Today we’ll just be getting to know each other, going over hard and soft limits, doing some small demonstrations over your clothing, and giving you a taste of what the class will consist of. For Thursday’s class, you will need to come in, or change into, club appropriate attire and everything is going to become a lot more hands on from there. If you don’t have any and won’t be able to procure some by then, you can come and speak with me. Any questions so far?”

Despite the blunt way she spoke, Olivia’s tone was warm, welcoming, and encouraging. One of the many facets of her personality which so fascinated Luke. He’d thought she’d come in playing hardball, establishing her dominance over the submissives—which she definitely had, but in a very different way than he’d imagined. Rather than pushing, she was almost coaxing.

Samantha raised her hand and Olivia nodded at her, with another encouraging smile.

“How much touching is there going to be during these classes, exactly?” she asked nervously. 

Olivia’s smile widened a little, and now a bit of the predatory Domme showed through. “That’s up to you and your partner of the evening. All hard limits will be honored in the club, always, but everything else can be negotiated. In fact, negotiations are one of the things you’re going to be practicing this evening once we get started. But yes, anything not barred by a soft or hard limit will be something you eventually experience in this class. I’m of the opinion that trying things in class so you can define more of your limits will be very helpful to you in the future. Before we started doing these classes, new submissives would go through an Introduction Scene with a dominant she never would have met before. Here, you’ll actually have the opportunity to build up to a full-on scene, so I think this is actually better.”

Pausing, Olivia waited to see if anyone else raised their hands.

“Let me introduce the gentlemen standing behind me, who have graciously volunteered to be the mentor-dominants for the class.”

Graciously. Ha! The wide, predatory grins on all their faces indicated their anticipation of their new duties. Luke already knew their names, even though he hadn’t officially met any of them. Visiting Stronghold several times since he started to get involved with the group of friends, Olivia’s ‘Baby Doms’ had all been pointed out to him. He also knew Olivia had more volun-told them what they’d be doing than actually asked for volunteers, not that any of them had objected. More experience and practice with submissives less experienced than themselves had apparently sounded pretty appealing.

As the biggest one, Kincaid, looked at Luke and grinned, a dark feeling of foreboding and suspicion started to rise in Luke’s chest.

******

“This is Master Brian,” said Olivia, stepping back and introducing the tall, leanly muscled man. He smiled at the subbies, looking almost non-threatening for the moment, which made her lips twitch. They’d be in for a surprise if they made the same mistake Sharon had in thinking he was easy going.

“Master Mitch.” Grinning, Mitch winked at the women, his gaze lingering on Rae, causing a little round of giggles. Interestingly enough, Rae wouldn’t meet his eyes and she was the only one who didn’t giggle at his wink. That pairing should be fun to watch this evening.

“Master Zach.” Zach gave them a little hello wave of his hand, although his expression remained sternly composed. The small group of submissive women had definitely brought out his more dominant side. Olivia gave him a small smile of approval.

“And Master Kincaid.” With his arms crossed over his chest, Kincaid was definitely the most imposing of the dominants, and the smiles faded as all the women shifted nervously. Olivia definitely approved.

Stepping forward again, Olivia gestured at the table of women. “I know all of your names already, but let’s go ahead and have introductions for the class at large. Tell us your name, or what you would like to be called, and any experience you have or where you heard about BDSM and Stronghold if you don’t have any hands-on experience. We’ll start with you.”

Under Olivia’s eye the curvy blonde, Samantha, sat a little straighter, rubbing her hands on her thighs. “My name is Samantha. I went to a club in LA when I was visiting a friend last year and… um, after that I haven’t been back but I, um, experimented with my boyfriend at the time. After we broke up I started looking around online and I found Stronghold and put in an application.”

She looked unsure if she should say more, but Olivia just nodded and turned her gaze to the redhead, Morgan. Morgan’s hair was a deep rich red, even darker red than Olivia’s, and hung in waves nearly to her waist. She straightened up, her shoulders going back and thrusting her breasts forward, emphasizing the creamy cleavage revealed by her v-neck sweater.

“Morgan Turner,” she said in a lilting voice, looking past Olivia to the men behind her. Olivia tried not to be too judgmental. All of the women had indicated they were straight on their paperwork so it wasn’t totally unnatural for them to focus more on them even if Olivia had been asking the question. Still, she had a feeling that if there was going to be a problem student in this class, it was going to be Morgan. “My last relationship was with a Dom. We never attended any clubs, although he took me to a few parties. I tried the regular dating scene these past few months but I was frustrated when I couldn’t find what I was looking for. I wanted to get into Stronghold as a regular submissive, but they said I had to take this class first.” 

Depending on what her relationship with her previous Dom had been like, that small bit of experience could help or hinder her. 

Olivia made a small note in her mind before turning to the black woman Mitch had focused on. 

“I’m Rae,” she said, pronouncing it as ‘ray’. She looked directly at Olivia—not in a challenging manner, more like she was focusing on Olivia as the titular leader and also a way to ignore the men standing behind her. “I’m here because of Domi.”

“That would be me,” said the curly haired waif sitting next to Rae, raising her hand. Olivia’s lips twitched at Dominique’s nickname, feeling the men stirring behind her in reaction. “I’ve been doing a lot of research online and reading books, and all the chat boards said Stronghold is the best in the area, plus it’s the closest to my apartment, so that’s where I applied.”

“Good,” Olivia said to her, and immediately saw her greenish eyes brighten at the approval. She turned her attention back to Rae. “If you’re only here for Domi”—she would not laugh, she would not laugh—“you may want to rethink taking this class. It’s not going to be fun for someone who isn’t actually interested in BDSM.”

Rae’s lips pressed together, her shoulders hunching slightly in. Very different from the more confident woman she’d appeared to be when she’d introduced herself.

“I’m interested,” she muttered. Quietly. Almost resentfully.

Interested, but not particularly happy about her interest or having to admit to it. Olivia felt for her. Submissives tended to struggle with their own desires, especially at first. Domi leaned her shoulder into Rae’s, giving her some unspoken support, and the two of them exchanged a quick glance before Rae sat up again. 

Since she’d gotten the answer she wanted from Rae, Olivia steeled herself and turned to her last submissive, who was watching her with a kind of quiet patience she found far too appealing. She raised her eyebrow at him.

“Luke Davis,” he said, looking her directly in the eye. There was something almost apologetic in his tone, even though he’d only said his name, as if he was hoping to make up for the way he’d entered the class. “I’ve always liked bossy women and one of my ex’s friends pointed out to me that I obviously wanted one in the bedroom as well. I did some research, but didn’t know how to go about getting involved with BDSM in real life until I heard about Stronghold.”

Caught in the sincerity of his gaze, Olivia couldn’t help but note he didn’t say exactly how he heard about Stronghold. Her Baby Doms would have seen him at the club the past few weeks, but no one outside of Patrick’s immediate group of friends knew Luke was the third, silent partner in Marquis. Patrick probably would have tried to keep the information even more contained, but keeping secrets within their group was nearly impossible. Obviously Luke was just as determined to truly stay silent. 

And she knew she was focusing on that instead of the rest of it because part of her was still struggling with the idea of him as a submissive.

As a man she could actually become involved with.

Since she definitely couldn’t become involved with him since he was part-owner of the club she was now managing and she therefore reported to him. There weren’t any actual rules about fraternization, but Olivia couldn’t even begin to imagine how the dynamics of such a relationship—even a strictly sexual one—would work.

She needed to remember he was still off limits.

Which sucked a lot more now that she had a feeling he might turn out to actually be sexually submissive.

Good thing she already had her plan on how to keep her distance tonight.

“All right, so that’s everyone,” she said, her tone a little more clipped than she’d intended. Looking away from Luke, she did her best to soften her voice a little as she started to give her usual spiel about the general information they needed to know.

******

He had definitely not imagined the flare of attraction between himself and Olivia, especially when he’d stated his lack of experience but the reason why he thought Stronghold could be a good fit for him. The look in her gray eyes was one he’d never seen directed at him before, and his body had responded immediately.

Which was truly unfortunate since he should definitely be paying attention to everything she was saying about limits, being safe, sane, and consensual, and safewords. Michael and Patrick had gone over the initial survey with him, explaining what everything was and answering any questions he had so that he could decide on his limits. He still needed to listen, though, just in case they’d missed anything.

Hard limits would never be pushed, but soft limits could be. Since Luke had no idea what he liked, he’d had a lot of soft limits. Things he was willing to try. Granted, he’d had Olivia in his mind the entire time he’d been thinking about trying them, which may have affected how open-minded he’d been while filling it out.

“That’s it for now,” Olivia said, stepping back from the table again as she lifted her hands up in front of her, gesturing for them to stand. “Everyone up now, we’re going to pair off and you’re going to practice negotiations for an above-clothing spanking scene. Be thorough, because once we go upstairs, I’m going to be showing you some of the equipment and if you’re picked to demonstrate, you’ll be doing so under the terms you negotiated.”

Next to him, Domi made a slight squeaking noise as Olivia turned and walked back to the bar counter while the dominants stared at the table like slavering wolves. Luke led the way to standing, Samantha not far behind him, and the others moving more slowly. He was kind of fascinated by the way they all differed as they lined up facing the dominants.

Samantha’s chin was up in determined bravery, her hands clenched into fists by her side as if daring one of the dominants to say something to her. Beside her, Morgan was posed flirtatiously, one finger winding a long curl around and around as she eyed each of the dominants in turn. To Luke’s amusement, she even gave him a little look before turning back to the other men. Rae and Domi had released their hand hold but were still standing rather closely together, Rae doing her best to look unaffected while Domi appeared excited but nervous.

Coming back to the two groups facing off, Olivia had a small pile of papers in her hand. Luke assumed it was everyone’s limits and survey, since Patrick had handed Luke’s off to her when they’d come in.

“Rae, you’re with Master Mitch,” Olivia said, giving the young woman a look as she handed Mitch the paper. Mitch grinned widely, taking the paper with one hand and waving his hand out toward one of the other booths. Giving Domi a last look, Rae stepped forward and let Mitch lead her away.

“Morgan, with Master Brian. Samantha with Master Zach. Luke with Master Kincaid. And Domi you’re with me.”

Both Domi and Luke jerked in surprise.

He opened his mouth to protest, caught the look in Olivia’s wickedly sparkling gray eyes, and snapped his mouth back shut.

“But…” Domi’s voice trailed off as she looked a little forlornly at Kincaid, whose expression hadn’t changed a hair.

“Don’t worry, Domi, I know you’re straight,” Olivia said cheerfully, stepping forward to take the shorter, slighter woman by the arm. The aura of indomitable authority around her made it impossible for the more submissive woman to protest. “This is just for tonight and we’ll be switching around each class.”

She led the other woman away without a backward glance, apparently fulfilled just from having seen Luke’s face when she’d made her little announcement.

Luke looked at Kincaid. Kincaid looked at Luke. 

“I’m guessing you’re not straight,” Luke said. “Otherwise she wouldn’t be looking so pleased with herself.”

“Bisexual,” Kincaid said cheerfully. “I’m kind of surprised she didn’t announce that when she paired us, actually. Just to enjoy the look on your face. You really pissed her off.” He gestured towards the booth Luke had just gotten up from and the two men sat down on opposite sides of the table, studying each other. Kincaid leaned back. “So, not going to run screaming?”

“We’re going to negotiate, right?” Luke asked. “You won’t do anything I don’t want you to?”

“That’s right.”

“Then I’m good. She’s not going to chase me off that easily.”

A slow smile, a sincerely pleased smile, not one of the wicked or predatory smiles he’d been using on the female submissives, spread across Kincaid’s face. “Oh, you’ll do just fine.”

Luke grinned back. “I hope so. Now let’s negotiate.”

******

Although Luke’s expression when she’d paired him and Kincaid together had certainly been gratifying, Olivia still couldn’t help herself once the class was upstairs and looking at the spanking bench which was set up in the middle of the stage. She’d already had Mitch and Rae demonstrate the leather wrist restraints and the various positions a subbie could be put in using them. Brian and Morgan had done the ankle restraints and spreader bar. She’d wound a length of rope around Domi herself, demonstrating a bit of Shibari rope tying. And Zach and Samantha had done the thigh and wrist restraints, the statuesque blonde blushing the entire time.

It was Luke and Kincaid’s turn. 

And if someone were to accuse her of purposefully not calling on them till last, well… there was no way to prove that.

“Master Kincaid, why don’t you use your submissive to show us how the spanking bench works.”

To her surprise, Luke didn’t protest. He didn’t even hesitate. Instead, he immediately jumped up onto the stage with Kincaid and, as Kincaid began to lecture the female submissives, followed all of the Doms instructions on how to place himself.

Obediently.

Immediately.

Olivia found herself in the odd position of feeling both out of control and completely aroused. Two emotions which normally didn’t go together for her.

Even fully clothed, Luke bent over a spanking bench, submitting to another person’s will, was hot. His muscular frame made the sturdy piece of equipment look almost delicate, and the position showed off the curve of his well-formed buttocks. In fact, she was definitely not the only one checking out his ass. Kincaid gave it an appreciative glance, and all four of the women were definitely paying more attention to Luke’s back pockets than to where his hands and knees were being placed.

She gritted her teeth, telling herself she wasn’t feeling jealous or possessive, because that would just be silly. Even sillier would be feeling jealous that it was Kincaid’s orders Luke was so obediently following.

Crossing her arms over her chest, as if to help hold in her emotions, Olivia swallowed hard. She wasn’t jealous and her breasts and nipples definitely didn’t feel swollen, and she was not at all wet and aroused. 

She was also not very good at lying to herself. Dammit.

Okay, so she was attracted to Luke. Not a big deal. She’d already known that. Luke being submissive… well it just upped the ante. But Olivia was in control of herself, even if she couldn’t remember ever having been tempted like this before. Had she ever been in a similar situation before? So attracted to a man in a position of power over her?

Nothing in her past sprang to mind. 

“And that’s it,” Kincaid said, finishing up his explanation and looking up at her expectantly. Letting her control what happened next. Olivia had no doubts that if Luke had been gay or bi or a straight woman, Kincaid would have given the other man’s ass a couple of demonstrative swats.

She was dying to do so herself.

Instead, she cleared her throat. “Thank you, Master Kincaid and Luke. Luke, you may get up.”

Even seeing him following that simple order had her pussy clenching. This was so not good. Olivia didn’t want to be even more attracted to him than she already was, but seeing him behave as a submissive… fuck her, it was hot. The calm way he looked at her, like he was studying every inch of her in turn, didn’t help either. She already knew he was way too observant for her good. The last thing she needed was him knowing he was getting under her skin.

“That’s it for today,” she said, turning away from him and addressing the class at large. “Go home. Think about what you want and what you saw here. On Thursday, things are going to get real.”

Possibly in more ways than she wanted them to.

Her head hurt.