Ret and I carried the bags in from the cars as the girls settled into the hotel rooms. The sun had just disappeared behind the Jacksonville skyline, casting shadows in the parking lot and giving us some relief from the heat.

“Women pack way too much shit,” Ret said, hoisting Alese’s duffle bag higher over his shoulder to free his hands for her other two suitcases.

Izzy wasn’t a lightweight when it came to packing either. This time, she helped me pick out her outfits because she said she wasn’t sexy enough last time. She’d spent a few hours researching Forbidden and found it to be a trendier club than the old shit-in-the-wall Taboo. She wanted to look every bit the part of a pampered submissive.

“Shit never changes as they age either.”

We should’ve grabbed a cart with the amount of luggage we’d packed, but it gave us a few minutes alone to talk about our plan of attack tomorrow at the club.

“We have to meet Connor at noon to learn the layout of Forbidden. I don’t want there to be an inch of the club you’re not familiar with when we’re there with the ladies. Matías is too dangerous for us not to be prepared.”

We strutted through the lobby, looking like every other man in the place, heading to our rooms, shouldering the brunt of the work.

I jabbed at the elevator button with my elbow, not willing to put anything down because it wasn’t easy to balance everything to begin with. “Agreed. We’ll do a late breakfast and take the women with us. It’s important that they’re filled in because I’m sure they’re already nervous.”

Luckily, our rooms were near the elevator, and we didn’t have far to travel when we made it to our floor. “Meet downstairs for dinner in ten?” I asked before kicking open the hotel room door that Izzy left ajar even though I told her never to do that.

“We’ll be ready,” Ret said before his door opened.

Alese stepped into the hallway and plucked the smallest bag from his hands. “Let me help you.”

Ret looked at me and shook his head. The last two feet wasn’t the time we needed help, but at least she offered. Izzy was nowhere to be found, which meant she was probably talking on the phone, checking on the boys.

I dropped the bags as soon as I made it through the door, and Izzy turned around, giving me her signature glower. I jumped on the bed, trying to lighten the mood and wanting to relax for ten minutes.

Izzy walked out on the balcony, resting against the railing as she chatted on the phone. Based on the way her arm was flailing about, it was a heated conversation too.

“Fuckin’ Mike,” she said, walking back into the room.

“What happened?”

“He told Mia that Kat wasn’t a lesbian.”

“Um,” I mumbled because clearly, I was missing an entire piece of the conversation. “And that’s a problem, why?”

She sat down next to me and started to stroke my leg. “The girls are mad we hired a woman, so I told the guys to lie.”

“A little higher.” I winked, wishing we had time for a quickie before we headed to dinner.

She slapped my leg and shook her head. “I’m sure I’ll be walking funny by the time the weekend is over.”

“We’ll have to see. If Matías shows his face tomorrow, the weekend may be over before we ever have a chance to play, doll.”

She pouted as her strokes grew longer, and her fingertips grazed my cock. “But I was looking forward to some more us time.”

I pulled her down on top of me, bringing her lips close to mine. “Baby, once we’re free and clear, you can have all the us time you want. We just have to be on our toes. I can’t be balls deep inside you and miss Matías. That would be hard to explain.”

“True.” She frowned and sat upright, escaping my kiss.

“So what’s this about Kat?”

“She’s hot. Like superhot and spunky. The girls are livid that we hired her, so the only thing I could figure out is to tell them she’s gay.”

“You knew that shit wouldn’t fly.”

She grunted. “Dumbass Mike and his big mouth. I swear I should knock some sense into that boy.”

“It won’t help.”

Izzy climbed on top of me, pressing her cunt against my cock, teasing me because she knew she could and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it now. “Maybe if you’re a good boy.” She was turning the tables on me, and I liked it. “I’ll suck your cock later.”

I grabbed her around the waist and undulated my hips. “Maybe if you’re a good girl, I’ll let you.”

I wanted to strip her naked and spend the night licking every inch of her skin, but the knock on the door ended that fantasy.

“Ready?” She pulled her shirt down far enough to show me her killer rack.

“Baby, I was born ready.”

She took her time climbing off me, making sure to make it as torturous as possible as she slid down and stood.

“If you don’t behave, you’re going to suck my cock until your jaw locks up.”

“You talk a big game,” she said over her shoulder as she turned the handle to a waiting Alese and Ret.

* * *

My head throbbed as we walked into Forbidden just after noon. Last night, we all had too much to drink and were moving slower than usual.

“Welcome.” Connor, the owner of the club, met us at the door to usher us inside. He was a stout man, standing about eight inches shorter than me, with a pot belly and a beard that touched his chest.

“Thanks for doing this.” Ret shook his hand, towering over the man.

Ret had filled me in on Forbidden and Connor’s background. He used to own a bar in town and was an active participant in the swinger’s scene in Jacksonville. When the BDSM explosion happened, he decided to open his own club and mix his two favorite activities—drinking and sex.

Connor had a partner in the business, a former Navy SEAL named Trent Newsome, who was interested in helping us nab Matías. He was waiting inside the main lobby as we entered. “Welcome,” Trent said with a curt head nod.

He sized me up, and I did him. The man looked like every other hard-core military special forces person I’d ever met. Strong jaw, big muscles, perfect posture, and lacked any type of emotional facial expression as he stared at Ret and me.

Then his eyes wandered to Izzy and Alese, and he finally cracked a smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, ladies.”

“I’m Alese.” She almost curtsied as she bowed her head and stared down at the floor.

“Izzy,” my girl said, holding out her hand and looking him straight in the eye.

Attagirl. I didn’t like the way he looked at Alese and Izzy, but I knew one thing for sure…Izzy wasn’t going to take any of his shit if he tried anything. Her brothers taught her well, and I was lucky I had come out unscathed when we first met.

He extended his arms, flexing to show off his power. “Welcome to Forbidden.”

But men like Trent pissed me off. If you were powerful, good for you. But there was more to power than strength and bulk. To influence someone with words was the biggest high, not by physical force. I liked to think men like Trent never came out on top.

“Thanks for helping us, Trent.” Ret pulled Alese close to his side, staking his claim, and I did the same with Izzy because I didn’t play games when it came to my wife.

“The last thing we need is a human trafficker lurking around our club. I’ll do anything to help put his ass behind bars.”

Connor stepped in front of Trent, maybe as annoyed as I was with his display of bullshit. “Let’s get inside, and I’ll give you a tour before you can spend a few hours wandering around on your own.”

“Sounds great,” Ret told him.

Connor opened the door, and we walked inside the common area with Trent close behind us.

“Matías spends about an hour in this part of the club until he convinces someone to join him in a private room,” Connor said as soon as the door closed behind us.

Forbidden was an upscale club with modern touches and one of the nicest I’d been inside of in Florida. The black marble floor and blood-red walls matched the leather furniture that was in the center of the room. On the far right was a viewing platform with a St. Andrew’s Cross and shackles hanging from the ceiling just a few feet away.

“We have a lot of members who are into voyeurism. We make sure to have plenty of areas for them to live out that fantasy.”

To the left was the bar, lining the entire wall of the club, with built-in stools and a sleek cement top. Behind the bar was a wall-to-wall mirror that could give any drinker the full view of the action going on behind them.

Straight in front of us was an area with cages and stockades.

“Ah, our area for public humiliation.” Connor came to stand next to me. “It’s become quite popular lately.”

It was one thing I could never get into. I wanted to fuck and control, not humiliate the person I was with. But there were plenty of submissives and slaves that were into that kind of thing.

Izzy gripped my arm tightly, pressing her body flush against me. “Um, fuck that.”

“Let me show you the private rooms, and then we’ll let you be to do whatever you want.”

From the outside, the club didn’t look large. But it extended into an endless maze of private rooms and smaller public play areas. Each spot had its own theme or purpose, and everything was top-notch. No cheap, shitty BDSM furniture that looked overused. The amount of furniture and apparatus in the club was mind-boggling. Cages, benches, vacbeds, and bondage chairs were everywhere, along with beds and exam tables in too many rooms to count. This was a playland for anyone in the lifestyle.

So far, the operation at Forbidden was impressive.

“Any questions?” Connor asked after we walked into the last small play area tucked away at the end of the hallway.

We stood around the circular bed that could probably fit ten people easily and must have made for quite a scene.

I pulled Izzy close, not wanting Trent to be anywhere near her. “How do you monitor everything?”

Connor crossed his arms in front of his chest and glanced upward. “All public areas have closed-circuit television monitoring, and the private rooms have cameras on the doorways with a two-way intercom in case there’s an emergency. We have designated Masters who walk the hallways and public areas at all times to stop anything from getting out of hand.”

Ret stared up at the camera as if he’d never noticed them before. “Can you show us the surveillance room?”

“Sure. We don’t keep tapes of anything to protect the security and anonymity of our members, but they’re monitored every moment the club is open for business,” Connor said, motioning for us to follow him back toward the public area where we’d started our tour.

“You like it here?” I whispered in Izzy’s ear as we walked.

“It’s amazing,” she said, looking up at me with a wicked smile. “I want to use more than a few of these rooms.”

“Maybe we’ll come back if we don’t get any time to experiment.”

“Let’s hope we catch the bastard tonight, and then we can have one day to play,” she told me as we stood outside the nondescript door.

“In here is where we have twenty monitors, along with the intercom system. It’s really an amazing thing, and I don’t know of a club within three hundred miles that has this kind of setup.”

I glanced around the room, taking in the sleek flat-screen televisions lining the one wall. “You’ve done an amazing job with the club, Connor.”

“It’s my pride and joy.” He smiled brightly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Trent and I have a few things to discuss. We’ll let you be, and feel free to holler if you have any questions.”

“Thank you,” Ret said, looking between the two men before they walked out.

“Should we set up camp in here?”

I rubbed my face. “I think it’s best if one of us is on the floor while someone is in here surveying the entire club.”

“We’ll be in the club,” Izzy said quickly, a little too overeager but completely in step with her personality.

“Works for me. Let’s walk through it a few more times until we have the layout memorized, and then we can leave for a few hours. They don’t open until eight.”

“Just enough time to get ready.” Izzy laughed.

I peered down at her and gripped her ass roughly in my hand. “Woman, it better not take you seven hours to prepare.”

“Baby,” she said, running her fingernail down my bicep. “Not all prep is bad.”

If prep meant my cock inside of her, I was all about her taking her time. “Whatever you want, doll.”

“Let’s do this,” she said, walking out of the room before the rest of us and leading the way like she always tried to do.