To Say I Love You (Another Way Book 3)

by Anna Martin

  I copied the link and sent it to Will’s phone. He texted me back a few moments later with a “do it” message. I couldn’t help but chuckle and started composing a message to the men who ran the club night, telling them about Will and me, hoping they’d just let us show up. I knew I could get references from friends of ours pretty quickly if the organizers wanted them, although at a glance it didn’t look like it was that sort of club.

  Will called me straight back.

  “I just took a closer look,” he said. “That place looks amazing.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  I cradled the phone between my ear and shoulder as I fixed a sandwich and spoke to him at the same time.

  “The first night we could get to is next weekend. That’s the night they hold for gay men specifically, but if we become members of the club, they’re happy for same-sex couples to go at any time.”

  “I know. It’s cool, right? And practically on our doorstep.”

  “Good job, baby. This is going to be fun.”

  “I’m never sure if that tone of voice is a good thing or not,” I said, teasing him as I grabbed a bag of chips and wandered to his seat in the living room.

  “Are you healed up from last time?”

  “Pretty much. Yeah.”

  “Excellent. Then it’s probably a bad thing as far as your ass is concerned.”

  I snorted and rolled my eyes, knowing I was safe since he couldn’t see me.

  “I need you to do something for me,” Will said.

  “Go on.”

  “Can you call Laura, please, and tell her there’s a sealed box just inside the front door of our place? If you give her the address, she’ll ship it to us.”

  “Okay. What’s in it?”

  “When I was home last, I put some of our play kit together,” he said. I could hear him moving through the building he worked in, the noise of coworkers and office gossip mingling in the background. He was clearly watching his words. “If we’re going out, it’s got some useful things in there.”

  I didn’t dare ask for more, just agreed and said goodbye. When I’d finished lunch, I phoned Laura, satisfied she wouldn’t mind me calling. There was no such thing as a quick catch-up with Laura, and it took an hour of conversation before I finally got round to asking her to ship Will’s secret box.

  “Oh, yeah, I’d been wondering when he’d ask for that. Did he tell you what’s in it?”

  “No. Just some stuff. We found a BDSM club in Atlanta, and we’re going next weekend. I’m getting the impression it’s got some of his core gear in there.”

  “Do you have your collar and cuffs there with you?”

  “No. I don’t think so, anyway.”

  “Ooh. You need to tell me what’s in there when you open it up.”

  “I will,” I laughed.

  Laura promised to send it express shipping since Will had already left the money to cover the cost, so it would be with us in time for the club night. With Will due home the next day, I wanted to make sure the house was fairly tidy, not because I was anally house-proud, but he would get cranky if he was tired and there were half-empty pots of paint all over the place.

  My dad had spent the day with some of his fishing buddies out at the lake, leaving me alone to paint the house. Apparently that was something he trusted me to do without supervision, which was funny, considering it was my fucking house. In between bouts of painting, which was just dull however you jazzed it up, I worked on cleaning up the porch.

  Having a front porch was nice. It felt a particularly Southern thing to do, sitting at the front of the house with a pitcher of tea, watching the neighborhood go past. Except it was the middle of summer and steaming hot, so Will moved quickly between the air-conditioned car and the air-conditioned house until the dark moved in and dissipated the humidity. By then we couldn’t see a flea go past, let alone the neighborhood.

  When I got around to the backyard, there were still a dozen or so peach trees that needed tending to, and an incredibly overgrown deck which had to be ripped up and replaced. I was very tempted to get someone in to do that for me.

  The peach trees needed tending to or they’d attract wasps when the fruit came, and the smell of rotting fruit was disgusting no matter what it was. That was another job for my list.

  It was still light out when Will arrived home with dinner. He said he didn’t mind eating in since I’d been working hard all day and the last thing he wanted to do was get home and cook. I didn’t mind either, especially when he stopped at the barbeque place I loved.

  He greeted me with kisses at the front door even though both hands were full of bags. I took the food from him to start serving up while he showered quickly and changed. When he came through to the kitchen, damp from the shower, he backed me up against the fridge and pinned my wrists to my sides.

  “I missed you,” he said in a low voice.

  “I missed you too.”

  “I spent the whole drive home thinking about what I get to do to you next weekend. I know what’s in that box, Jesse, and I can’t fucking wait.”

  I tilted my neck to the side for him, and he attached his lips to that space, nipping and licking until I was rocking my hips against his, silently begging for more.

  He only released my wrist to pull me away from the fridge, then slapped my ass over my jeans.

  “Later,” Will said with a laugh, his dark and sexy mood suddenly gone. “You distract me.”

  I started to protest, then saw the glint in his eye that told me he was teasing. That I didn’t mind so much.

  We didn’t have a kitchen table yet, just the breakfast bar, which wasn’t that comfortable, so we took the plates into the living room and sat on the couch to watch a movie. I wondered if we were getting old. The idea of staying in on a Friday night, eating good food and chilling out with my partner was far more appealing than anything else I could think of.

  I’d bought a six-pack of beer, thinking that getting a little drunk and handsy with each other wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. Not that I’d get drunk on a few bottles of beer, but it was enough to take the edge off.

  Despite the fact that Will had pounced on me the moment his hands were free, I forced some normalcy back into our time together. There was yet another project Will was heading up at work, this one combining the input of people from all around the country. That was better for him in some ways—it meant conference calls were more regular than big, team meetings, and his role became that of organizer as much as leader. He was good at keeping lots of balls in the air. Telling him that earned me a snort of laughter.

  “Have you been keeping yourself busy, then? Out of trouble?”

  “Yes, and no,” I said, answering his questions in order.

  “Jesse,” he groaned.

  “I’m joking. I’ve been helping my dad around the house, actually. Jennifer is doing a lot of the housework and stuff, but she’s working a lot more at the moment, so he needs help. I’m not sure he ever had to do laundry by himself before.”

  “That reminds me,” he said, tapping lightly against my wrist absentmindedly. “Can you make sure to change the sheets on the bed, please?”

  I clenched my teeth and ignored the temptation to tell him to do it himself. I’d only just got him home—I didn’t want to pick a fight already, especially not about household chores.

  “Sure,” I said.

  “So, have you got your dad cooking yet?”

  “No,” I said with a laugh. “You met my mama. She coddled us. All of us. I only learned how to do anything when I started college.”

  “You’re a good cook now,” Will told me with a grin.

  I leaned into his side. “Thanks, darlin’.”

  My dad let me borrow his truck to drive up to Atlanta for a couple of days. Will and I had a different plan for our weekend than usual—I’d join him so we could go to the club night, then I would head home while he worked the beginning part of the next week.

  “Our
lives are so complicated,” I grouched on the phone as I packed up the truck.

  “Oh, take that stick out of your ass, Jesse,” Will said. I could hear the teasing in his voice. “What else would you be doing this weekend?”

  “Missing you.”

  “Exactly. We can have hotel sex, and someone else will make the bed and cook us breakfast.”

  “Are you taking me to breakfast?”

  “If you’re a good boy, I will,” he said, laughing. “I can’t wait to see you again.”

  “I know. Me too.”

  “Hurry up.”

  “I’ll be there in a couple of hours, depending on the traffic.”

  “Okay. Drive safe.”

  He’d fallen into the habit of telling me to drive safe a few years ago, after the car accident that nearly ended our relationship. It wasn’t just a mindless thing—he meant it.

  We’d put our applications in online to join the club, and I’d left my phone number asking the organizer to get back to me so we could have a conversation. The man who called me back, Aiden, was a sub too and had talked me through what membership meant, what the perks were, and how often they held events.

  Will and I had been active in the Seattle kink community for a while, and the Atlanta club seemed to be run in a similar way to the places we went to back home. I liked the idea that it was controlled environment designed for men only. The gay club we visited from time to time was more rough and dirty. That had its place, of course, and I was definitely a fan of rough and dirty in context.

  I liked being able to talk to another sub, especially one who had been an active participant in the club nights since their inception. He’d been fairly open about being involved in demonstrations, too, public displays, and even a group session. Getting involved in a new community was slightly intimidating, though, despite his reassurances.

  Traffic was, as I’d expected, completely awful, and it took closer to three hours than two to get into the city. Will had already arranged for me to park the truck in the hotel’s parking lot, so I didn’t have to worry about finding somewhere in the city to leave it for the weekend. Pulling into my assigned space and turning off the engine was a sigh of relief in itself.

  I already knew what room we were staying in, so I just hopped on the elevator with my bags and went up to the eighth floor. My heart was almost going double time when I reached the door.

  I’d barely knocked when it was flung open.

  “Hey,” I said, trying not to sound too tired.

  “Hi.”

  Then he dragged me into the room by a fistful of T-shirt and attached his lips to mine.

  I let the bags fall from my hands as Will kissed me and pushed the door closed behind us. I heard it click about the same time I tugged at the hem of his shirt and insinuated my hands up to the smooth skin of his lower back.

  Even when he cupped my face, I wanted to give back as good as I got and took a few steps forward, pinning him to the wall as our tongues got in on the action, and we let the kiss grow deeper and more intimate.

  Will broke away first and peppered kisses over my jaw, down my neck to the collar of my shirt. He growled in frustration at the barrier, then pulled at the T-shirt until it was off and thrown carelessly over his shoulder.

  “Are we really doing this now?” I asked on a breathless laugh.

  He chuckled softly and pressed his forehead to my shoulder. “Shit.”

  After grabbing my hand, he pulled me farther into the room and down on to the nice, soft couch that overlooked the balcony. It didn’t take much rearranging for us to be sprawled practically on top of one another—this was our default way of chilling out together.

  It was nice to catch up for a while. Will put the TV on low in the background on a news channel while I told him what my dad and I had been up to, about Jennifer, who had just aced one of her exams, and Baby, who was no longer chewing anyone’s shoes.

  He stroked my back through my shirt and occasionally interrupted me with slow, sweet kisses that sent shivers down my spine. It was unlikely I’d ever get used to being apart from him for any length of time; we’d been spoiled up to this point in our relationship, that we got to be together more than we were apart.

  The club opened its doors at eight, so around seven, Will asked me to kneel and start getting into the right headspace. Being in a place that was unfamiliar made it difficult to get into that meditative mindset, and I forced myself to take deep breaths, concentrating on all the little things that made up the whole.

  The carpet was on the thin side and I could feel the hard floorboards under my knees. My shoulders were a little sore from all the lifting and painting I’d been doing. The room smelled… not bad, a little like Will’s aftershave. He was moving around behind me, packing, I guessed, and I wondered what he had in store for me.

  It had been months since we’d played seriously in a dungeon-like setting, so he’d had plenty of time to come up with something interesting. I shivered at the thought.

  He left me like that for a while, and with every exhalation, I got a little more prepared for the evening ahead. When he finally asked me “Are you ready?”, I was, and rolled smoothly to my feet.

  Will twisted the braided collar around my wrist until it bit into my skin.

  “Good,” he said. “Me too. The taxi’s outside.”

  Chapter 8

  We were met at the door to the club by a guy wearing a very sharp suit. When he smiled, a gold tooth glinted in place of an incisor.

  “Hey, guys,” he said. “I’m Jason.”

  He seemed nice and took us through the registration process to join the main club. We could be part of the gay-men-only night with that membership too, meaning we didn’t have to register twice to enjoy the full range of events the club had to offer.

  There were a couple forms to fill in asking us for basic things like important medical details. Then more stuff to read with the house rules, and another confidentiality agreement.

  “Sorry to ask,” Jason said as we handed the forms back, “but you two have got me curious as hell. Is one of you the top in your relationship, or do you switch?”

  I laughed, and Will wrinkled his nose. “I’m Jesse’s Dom.”

  “I was leaning that way!” Jason exclaimed. “Sorry if that was rude. Obviously it’s different when you’re out of character, so to speak, but I really couldn’t figure you out.”

  “We’ve been together for a long time,” I offered. “So we’re quite comfortable in each other’s presence. He’ll get super toppy later, I’m sure.”

  I got a whack on the ass for that, and it was worth it.

  When we went out in Seattle, we often got dressed at home and just threw on a T-shirt or jacket to wear from the car to the club. Since we didn’t know this area well, I’d been wary of walking through the streets wearing leather pants—tight leather pants—and we’d packed a bag with Will’s kit plus our clothes for the night to get changed here.

  It was like a gym locker room, and looking around, I thought the club had maybe been something like a health club in a previous life. There was a sauna and Jacuzzi room next to the locker rooms, which would have made sense.

  Squeezing into leather pants took time, even if they were good quality, well-made leather pants. Black was too ostentatious, according to Will, so we both had brown leather, his a slightly darker shade than mine.

  “Collar now or later?” he asked, holding out the sheepskin-lined, tan leather collar he’d bought for me a long time ago.

  “Now, please.”

  I wanted to walk out there and have everyone know I was a collared sub and owned. In a new environment, it was better to err on the side of caution and I preferred it this way. It meant I was less likely to be approached by another Dom.

  Will smiled and beckoned me forward so he could attach the collar around my neck. It was a familiar feeling now, and a welcome one. I had matching cuffs too, and those were fixed around my wrists before we left the changing rooms
, Master wearing heavy boots, me barefoot.

  There was a small bar area where people were congregating, although we knew in advance the club didn’t sell alcohol. That was fine, it kept people safe, and Master ordered two bottles of water.

  The party had been officially going for nearly an hour, and I guessed there were between twenty and forty guys here, depending on how many were already hidden away in rooms. The club was nice. Really nice. There were a few public play areas: stocks set up in a corner, and another lovely, long display cabinet that could take about five subs, all shackled up in a row.

  A shorter guy approached us as I was still looking around. He had a nice scruff of beard, thick muscles in his arms, and was wearing a leather chest harness.

  “Jesse?” he asked with a smile.

  I nodded.

  “So you must be Will,” he said, addressing my Dom. “I’m Aiden. I spoke with Jesse earlier in the week.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Master said, taking Aiden’s hand and shaking it firmly. “You’re part of the organizing team here?”

  Aiden nodded. “Yeah. I’ve been Jason’s sub for a while now, so he gets me helping out as one of the house boys.” He said it with a broad grin. “Can I show you around?”

  “That would be great. Thanks.”

  Master kept hold of his water bottle and let his other hand rest lightly on my lower back, guiding me around the building. I wanted to smile; if the collar and cuffs weren’t enough, he always had a way of showing who was in charge.

  The club was huge. Bigger than it looked from the pictures on the website, better equipped than the club we went to regularly in Seattle. I was more than a little surprised. The Seattle scene was fairly well-known around the country. True, this was the only BDSM club in Atlanta, but they were more than making up for the fact that they had no competition.