Chapter 7

Even though he had absolutely no reason to be there early on a Sunday, Luke found himself unable to stay away from Marquis. He’d texted a bit with Patrick and Michael first thing that morning, so he knew all the ladies had gotten home safely, but he still just felt the need to see Olivia. He didn’t know if she’d be at Marquis, but since it was the only chance he had of seeing her—unless he wanted to go full on stalker—he’d found himself showing up after eating lunch. Just in hopes she’d be there.

Just in case she wasn’t, he’d brought another present to leave on her desk. So either way he could justify his visit to himself. 

When he saw the light shining from under her door, his face split into a grin and he practically jumped forward. Then he paused, looking at the offering in his hand… did he want to just give it to her or save it for later?

Ah, fuck it. If he saved it for later he’d have to wait to see her and he was too impatient for that. Which was kind of funny because he was usually considered the patient brother. If only Nick could see him now.

He rapped his knuckles against her door.

“Come in.” Her voice sounded just a little confused—which wasn’t surprising, there was no reason for anyone else to be in the club right now. When he opened the door, she blinked in surprise and then gave him a look. The look that said ‘you really shouldn’t be here’ but also ‘I’m kind of happy to see you’ all at the same time. She had her hair pulled back in a ponytail and was wearing one of her usual business-y button-down shirts, this one a dark purple that made her hair look brilliantly red. Stunningly gorgeous, as always, even with her expression turning stern. Of course, when she looked stern it just made her hotter as far as he was concerned.

“I brought you a present,” he said, before she could decide whether or not she should scold him for showing up at her office door. He strode across the office quickly, holding it out in front of him like a shield, as an expression of bemusement cross her face.

Placing it on the desk in front of her, he grinned. Olivia’s lips pursed.

“This is not as cute as you think it is,” she said, but her tone of voice wasn’t entirely convincing as she reached out to stroke the soft leather of the flogger’s strands. 

Luke thought it was pretty cute. A little flogger bouquet with a crop centerpiece. It almost looked like a floral arrangement. He’d found it at the same kink store he’d bought his pants from. They had some interesting stuff there.

“Sure it is,” he said cheerfully, sitting down in what he was starting to think of as ‘his’ chair. Olivia eyed him, her lips still pursed, but she didn’t tell him to get out. “Besides, after last night I figured you could use a couple extra implements on hand. One of those floggers is pocket sized.”

“Men’s pockets maybe,” she said, a reluctant smile sliding across her lips. “Women’s pockets suck.”

“Purse sized, then,” he said, refusing to be defeated. Especially when she was smiling for him. 

“So, heard about last night already?” she asked, a little ruefully. “Gossip is getting even faster around here.”

“Actually, I was at Stronghold with the guys when Hilary texted Liam,” he explained, not liking the idea that she would think he was part of the gossip chain. He didn’t mind when gossip benefited him, but he didn’t want to really be a part of it. Olivia was definitely more close-mouthed than the rest of her friends. 

She snorted. “I bet that was fun to watch them panic. I told her she should just wait until he got home to tell him. They all freak out when they can’t be there immediately.”

“They were definitely doing that,” he said with a grin, leaning back in his chair. “Even Jake got caught up in it a bit.” And himself, but he wasn’t going to admit that right now. Olivia had obviously taken care of herself and wasn’t feeling any lingering upset or anything. 

One thing led to another, and he and Olivia ended up talking—about the night before, the guys, the girls, Stronghold, Marquis… She slowly relaxed, seeming to forget that he was her ‘boss’ and just treated him like she would anyone else. Luke would have liked a little more flirting, but he could also deal with just getting to know her a little better for now. 

******

Olivia felt strangely nervous walking into Stronghold that evening. Somehow she’d managed to spend most of the afternoon with Luke before she’d realized how long they’d sat there just talking. She still wasn’t quite sure how she’d managed to relax so much or lose track of time. He’d been so easy to talk to. Engaging. Funny. Easy on the eyes too. Making him laugh was dangerous, because she really liked to see the sparkle in his eyes. He also had some witty observations about their friends. When he described Patrick as a rooster, Olivia had cracked up. That was exactly how Patrick acted, and Stronghold was his barnyard.

Eventually she’d realized they both had to get going so she could go home and changed before heading over to Stronghold. Patrick had wanted the submissives to get a feel for both clubs and Sundays were the only nights Stronghold was reliably completely empty.

Tonight Olivia had chosen to wear black leather leggings rather than a skirt. Possibly as an attempt to keep her head out of the gutter. After all, she couldn’t exactly straddle Luke’s face to good effect while she was wearing pants, so hopefully her attire would prevent any fantasies. She hoped.

She hadn’t been able to resist carrying the crop he’d bought her though. The kinky little bouquet was definitely as cute as he thought it was, even if she wouldn’t admit to it. Part of her had wanted to burst out laughing when she first saw it, another part of her wanted to test out every implement on him. There was the crop, a couple different floggers, and a nice little leather hand paddle that fit her grip very well.

Walking into the main room, she ignored the little twinge of jealousy she got when she saw Lisa already there, Karen by her side, talking with Luke in the lounge area. Both Domme and submissive were dressed in fetwear, although Karen was wearing more than she usually did at Stronghold. The other submissives and Baby Doms were already there as well. Domi and Rae were huddled together in the lounge area, not surprisingly. While Morgan was hanging out near the Doms at the bar tables, also not surprisingly. What did surprise Olivia was to see Samantha and Mitch off to the side of everyone else, talking to each other rather than the others. 

“Hello everyone,” Olivia said, smiling broadly at her class. She gave Lisa a nod of greeting. “As you can see, we have two new faces here this evening. This is Mistress Lisa and her submissive Karen. Mistress Lisa is going to be taking charge of Luke’s instruction and Karen will be on hand to assist wherever help is needed, and she’ll also be a good resource for any submissives with questions or concerns.” Karen smiled and waved cheerfully as Lisa looked over the submissives with a measuring glance, although she did give the Baby Doms a small smile. Since she spent some time working behind Stronghold’s bar, she was already familiar with all of them.

It definitely did not tickle Olivia’s jealous bone to think about how familiar Lisa was going to get with Luke. 

The woman had a collared sub, for crying out loud, and Lisa was devoted to Karen. She wasn’t the type who wanted a harem. 

Thank goodness Lisa had been available to come in for the classes. If Olivia was struggling this much with passing Luke off to her, she hated to think of how she’d deal with passing him off to an unattached Domme.

“We’ll start off by doing our negotiations up here, in the lounge area,” she said, gesturing to the low seats. “While there are no official areas for submissives or dominants, unofficially submissives who want to play usually spend their time in the lounge and dominants make use of the bar tables. If you are approached by a dominant you don’t wish to play with, that’s fine, you are always allowed to refuse a play partner. However, if you do wish to play, you should always negotiate beforehand up here.”

Submissives could feel pressured to go through with more than they might necessarily be comfortable with once they were in different surroundings where they were expected to be submissive. Up in the lounge, surrounded by other submissives, Olivia had noticed they tended to be more confident discussing what their own needs and wants were. So now she always encouraged negotiations to happen there.

“Tonight we’ll be scening on the St. Andrew’s crosses in the dungeon,” she said, grinning widely at the little stir her announcement caused among the subbies. Her Baby Doms also looked properly appreciative of the subbies’ excited and nervous reactions. “Make sure you talk over the state of undress you’re comfortable with, whether you’d prefer to be facing towards or away from the cross, and any hard or soft limits you’ll have for the scene and your partner. Luke, you’re with Mistress Lisa, Rae with Zach, Samantha with Brian, Morgan with Kincaid, and Domi with Mitch.”

Right. Luke was officially in Mistress Lisa’s care now. That hadn’t been so hard right? And if her chest felt a little tight, it wasn’t because she was feeling possessive.

Yup, that’s right Olivia, just keep on swimming up De-Nile.

******

Submitting to Mistress Lisa was very different from submitting to Olivia.

Not because Mistress Lisa was a bad Domme or because she did things all that differently from Olivia… but Luke just couldn’t focus on her the way he knew he should. He struggled to give in. Even something as simple as being restrained to the cross didn’t feel easy or right. He’d asked to be on the cross facing towards it, hoping that not being able to see the woman behind him would help, but he didn’t feel as comfortable in the bondage as he had last class. 

At least, not until Olivia walked by, checked on his cuffs, and then patted his shoulder before walking away. Only then had he really been able to relax into it.

Mistress Lisa was a good Domme. 

The flogging she gave him felt surprisingly good. More like a massage than anything else. But when she was finished, he didn’t feel the same kind of satisfaction or fulfillment he had with Olivia. Was he accidentally working against himself? Not wanting to give in just because Mistress Lisa wasn’t the woman he had chosen to give in to?

He didn’t know. 

But he didn’t like it. 

If he couldn’t cut it in this class, he wouldn’t be able to prove to Olivia that he could be what she was looking for. He already had enough working against him, he didn’t need to do badly here as well.

He felt more anxious than anything else by the end of his time with Mistress Lisa and he couldn’t seem to shake it.

******

“You know you aren’t doing that boy any favors by putting him with me.” Lisa’s amused tones interrupted Olivia’s own ruminations as she stared across the room where Patrick and Luke were chatting. The club owner had come out after class was over to talk to Luke about Marquis business; the rest of the class had already left a few minutes ago.

Behind Lisa, Karen tried to appear innocent, like she wasn’t listening to every word being said. Olivia shot her a warning look before turning her attention to Lisa. If she heard any gossip in the club about this among the subbies…

Ugh. She wouldn’t even know if it had been Karen who spilled, to be honest. Her own subbie friends weren’t exactly close-mouthed.

“He seemed to do all right,” Olivia said defensively, crossing her arms over her chest.

“He managed, but he wasn’t enjoying himself the way he could have.” Lisa gave Olivia one of her own Domme looks, all the more effective because deep down Olivia knew the other woman was right. Dammit. “Whenever you came around he found it easier to relax and submit, and even start to like it, but when you weren’t right there he was struggling with me and not in the good way.”

“He just doesn’t know you yet,” Olivia argued, even though she’d noticed the same thing. It was why she’d made so many stops at his scene. That and her own inability to stay away, which was becoming harder and harder to resist, especially after having to watch him with Lisa. They hadn’t done anything more than a light flogging but… 

Olivia had wanted to be the one holding the flogger. To see his skin turning pink and rub her hand over the sensitized surface. To pull a groan from his lips. To make his cock hard. 

She didn’t know if Lisa had aroused him. She hadn’t wanted to know.

This whole situation sucked monkey butt, as Sharon would say. The whole, ‘he’s technically my boss’ thing was getting harder to justify.

Luke didn’t act like her boss. He didn’t seem to want to act like her boss in any way. Even when Marquis had come up during their conversation this afternoon, he hadn’t talked about it like a business investor, he’d talked about it like an excited patron or just someone with a personal interest in its success. An excitement and interest Olivia shared.

The man was working his way under her skin and into her head and it was getting harder to justify resisting just giving in and seeing what happened. Luke didn’t seem like the kind of guy to turn into a douche at the club if things didn’t work out between them. Then again, some men could hide that kind of thing pretty well, but from everything she’d seen Luke was a bit of a brat but also a pleaser. Her favorite kind of submissive, of course. He wanted to give, but he also wanted to make his dominant work for his submission.

Lisa’s amused expression didn’t help either. Olivia knew that expression. She’d used it on all of her friends when they were making their own lives needlessly complicated.

But this was different dammit. It actually was complicated.

Wasn’t it?

At least a little?

“You keep telling yourself that, hun,” Lisa said, patting Olivia’s shoulder in a way that made her want to huff. “I’ll see you on Tuesday where you can spend more time pretending you don’t care I’m the one scening with Mr. Evans.”

******

Whatever Olivia was talking to Mistress Lisa about, she didn’t look too happy as the other Domme walked away with her submissive. Luke didn’t quite know what to think. Had they been talking about him? His lesson? Had it not gone well?

“And I’ve lost you.” Patrick’s deep voice was filled with amusement and Luke jerked his head around, flushing a little.

He’d pretty much accepted the whole being sexually submissive thing. Even if tonight he’d struggled a bit more with it than last lesson, but outside of the bedroom he was definitely not comfortable being anything but confident and in charge of himself. Feeling off kilter was not something he enjoyed when it wasn’t linked to being turned on.

“Sorry,” he said. 

“Not a problem,” Patrick reassured him, clapping him on the shoulder in a friendly manner so Luke didn’t feel judged or like Patrick thought less of him for losing his train of thought over a woman. “I’ve been there.”

Well that was definitely encouraging. Maybe it wasn’t just being a submissive that threw a man off balance. Maybe it was just this whole scene. Luke had to admit he was still feeling his way around the whole power exchange thing. He didn’t understand how Patrick could want the level of control he had over his own girlfriend or why she would want him to, but he could see how happy and satisfied it made both of them. While it might not be for him, he still wanted that same level of fulfillment in a relationship. 

“Any advice?” he asked, a little ruefully as Olivia started heading for the front door. 

“Just keep doing what you’re doing,” Patrick replied with a broad grin. “She’s bending. It might not seem like it to you, but from someone who’s known her for years… trust me. She’s more interested in you than she’s been in any man I’ve ever seen and she’s putting up with a lot more from you than she normally would because of that. Just don’t ever pull the boss card on her and you’ll be just fine. Go get her, cupcake.”

Luke groaned as he turned away from the other man. That nickname probably wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. On the other hand, a little bit of warmth still bloomed in his chest, now that he knew there might actually be some significance to it—at least when Olivia called him that. 

He quickened his stride, timing his steps so he met her right as she reached the door to the lobby. 

“May I walk you to your car, ma’am?” he asked, being as polite and respectful as he could since they were still in the club.

As usual, he was rewarded with the little flash of pleasure in her gray eyes when he called her ma’am. Her lips pursed in the way they often did when she was around him, although he was starting to realize it was an expression almost unique to his presence. One which meant she was trying to hide what she was really feeling—possibly a smile? Arousal? He couldn’t be entirely positive but he was pretty sure it was a good thing.

“All right,” she said, pushing through the door ahead of him, which meant he was able to let out his feelings of triumph with a wide grin she couldn’t see.

Lexie was behind the desk, already waiting with both of their coats and a smile on her face. She was wearing one of Patrick’s t-shirts as usual—while she was often completely naked in the club, in the lobby everyone was required to wear clothes. Just in case any unsuspecting vanillas accidentally wandered in.

“Here you go, have a good night,” Lexie chirped as she handed over their coats, her blue eyes sparkling with a kind of mischievous glee that had Olivia raising her eyebrow. Lexie didn’t say anything though, just smiled innocently. As soon as Olivia’s back was turned, she winked at Luke. Smothering a chuckle, he winked back. Having the support of Olivia’s friends definitely made him feel better about all of this. They wouldn’t be so outspoken if they thought Olivia and Luke were a bad idea, he was sure of it. He might not have known them for very long but it was pretty clear they were high on getting in each other’s business and low on tact.

If they thought it was a bad idea, he would have heard about it. From multiple sources.

Winning over the friends—check.

Now to continue his quest to win over his chosen lady. Stay on target.

******

The night air was a cold blast to Olivia’s face, making her feel more awake as she stepped outside, Luke right behind her. The sky was clear and cloudless, the moon shining brightly and adding extra light to Stronghold’s already well-lit parking lot. There were only three cars left, Luke’s, Patrick’s, and hers. Not her van, but the little red compact she usually drove. 

“Nice night,” Luke said, coming up beside her, his hands shoved into the pockets of his large gray coat.

“Nice and cold,” she countered, smiling. Her own fluffy red coat was nice and warm, and fortunately it wasn’t a bitterly cold night yet, but she wouldn’t call it comfortable either.

“I like the cold. Gives people an excuse to snuggle up.” He eyed her flirtatiously and Olivia pressed her lips together, trying to hide her smile. 

“Haven’t you ever heard the phrase ‘don’t shit where you eat’?” she admonished as they walked toward her car, rather than admitting she definitely wanted to lean closer and snuggle into him a little. Olivia hadn’t forgotten the way he’d cuddled up to her during aftercare. Something he hadn’t done with Lisa.

Coming to a halt in front of the driver’s side door, she turned toward him, facing him. Looking up at him and waiting for an answer.

His expression was serious now, blue eyes almost somber rather than mischievous or teasing, and she felt her chest tighten a little in response. 

“I don’t think of it that way,” he said solemnly, his head bowing down slightly to look her directly in the eye, so she could see his sincerity. “I’m at Marquis because I want to be, not because I need to be for business. You and Michael could probably run the whole place without me or Patrick. I’m never going to intervene in your job, no matter what happens between us, even if I keep flirting and you keep putting me off forever. That’s not who I am.”

She stared up at him, into his earnest eyes, her heart thumping oddly loudly in her chest.

“I think I’m starting to see that,” she said softly. They stared at each other for another long moment. Ah, fuck it. Olivia pulled her right hand out of her pocket and reached up to grasp the front of his coat, just underneath his chin. Those blue eyes started to dance as he looked down at her, a slow grin beginning to spread on his lips. “Just so we’re clear, I still think this is a potentially shitastic idea.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he murmured as she pulled him down for a kiss.

Damn the man knew how to kiss.

Their lips were cold but heated up quickly as she leaned back against the door of her car, pulling him against her. Her lips parted, her tongue seeking his, and he gave as good as he got, letting out a slight moan as she took control over the kiss. A passerby might see a woman pressed up against her car and assume the man had control, but with her hand grasping his jacket, his in his pockets, and Olivia’s natural inclinations she led every taste, every glide of their tongues, every nip of his lower lip. And when he pressed against her a little more, she smiled against his lips, enjoying the need she felt in his body.

When she ended the kiss he was breathing hard, practically panting… and she wasn’t far behind.

As first kisses went, it had been a damn good one. 

“So does this mean I can take you out on a date?” he asked, giving his head a little shake as if to clear it, the dark strands of his hair fluttering slightly from the movement.

“I’ll think about it,” she said with a grin, which turned slightly sadistic as he let out a sigh of disappointment. She was going to let him, of course, but she was also going to make him sweat a little before she said yes.

Because that was who she was. 

Pressing against him, she moved him back so she could turn around, reaching in her purse for her keys when she saw it. Scratched into the pretty red paint of her car right underneath the door handle in three inch high letters where it wasn’t immediately obvious but it couldn’t be missed when opening the door either.

CUNT

Fury shook her. “What the fuck?”

“What?… What the—” Luke’s voice cut off and she felt him practically go rigid with anger against her back.

Whirling, Olivia started stomping back towards the club.

“Where are you going?” Luke asked, his voice tight with repressed emotion as he hurried to catch up with her.

“Patrick has video cameras on the lot,” she said, practically shaking with rage and upset. Her poor little car! Dammit! “I’m going to look at the video, find out who did that, and then cut him or her a new asshole.”