A Price to Pay

by Alice Raine

  ‘A sex room?’ I squeaked, my cheeks heating at the images her statement brought rushing to my mind.

  Just at that exact moment, Oliver shocked the heck out of me by sauntering into the kitchen, and the flush on my cheeks erupted down my neck and heated my chest as we were caught talking about his bedroom tastes.

  ‘Ah, but Sasha, you haven’t seen the sex cellar yet…’ he commented mildly, prompting Sasha to choke out a stunned cough. He placed his car keys down on the table, then turned his eyes onto me and stalked towards me with a dark smile on his lips that instantly turned my legs to jelly.

  He didn’t seem bothered in the slightest that we’d been talking about him and his preference for a bit of dominance, but his words seemed to stop Sasha and me in our tracks as we both turned and gawked at him. ‘There’s a sex cellar?’ I squawked, my eyes opening so wide it felt like they might explode.

  Oliver reached my side and paused, dropping a kiss on my lips and then standing back and slipping his hands in his pockets as he continued to observe the two of us with an amused smirk.

  ‘No… Unfortunately not. But that look on your face is priceless. I really wish there was a door somewhere so I could at least pretend for a little longer.’

  Normality was returned. There wasn’t a sex room in the house. My God. My legs felt rubbery and my heart was pounding, but I couldn’t quite decide if it was from relief or disappointment.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Robyn

  I glanced around Club Twist and could only count about twenty people in total, and that included David and Natalia behind the bar. Taking a sip of my chilled white wine, I checked my watch, shook my head, and looked at Sasha.

  ‘I don’t know why you dragged us down here so early, Sash. I told you it would be dead at this time.’ I had my suspicions of why we were here so early on a Thursday night, and they involved Sasha’s long-standing crush on a certain blond-haired friend of Oliver’s. But, seeing as she wouldn’t openly admit it to me, I decided to do what any good mate would do and rib her about it instead.

  ‘You should just be upfront with Marcus, tell him you fancy him. You never know, he might like it if you took the lead.’

  ‘I don’t fancy him!’ she replied immediately. Denial had become her automatic response to any questions relating to Marcus, and it was starting to grow decidedly old with me. Raising my eyebrows, I gave her a stern “that won’t wash with me” look, and to my surprise Sasha’s shoulders sagged and she let out a sigh as if finally relenting.

  ‘There’s no point. He’d have to be blind not to see how I feel. I’ve approached him enough times.’ Sasha shrugged and chewed on her lip.

  ‘And he definitely knocks you back every time? You’re not just reading his signals wrong?’ Sasha was gorgeous, and Marcus would have to be nuts not to be interested in her.

  ‘Nooo. He is more than clear in his rejection. From what Oliver said, Marcus and I just aren’t going to be compatible. Marcus doesn’t do one-night stands, and that’s all that I do,’ she stated simply.

  ‘Hmmm.’ I was in mid ponder when Sasha gave me a slap on the arm that broke my concentration and caused my eyes to shoot to hers. ‘Besides, coming here tonight has nothing to do with Marcus bloody Price!’ She flashed me an outraged look as her custom denial surrounded her again and then averted her eyes in a tell-tale sign that she was indeed telling me a fib. I loved her so much, but her pride was going to drive me insane one day.

  ‘So, the fact that we’re here this early on a Thursday night has nothing at all to do with me telling you just days ago that he and Oliver play squash on a Thursday afternoon and head here for a quick beer afterwards?’

  ‘Nope.’ Her denial was adamant. ‘Although being my best mate you should have told me that months ago,’ she added, flashing me a mildly disapproving look.

  Giggling, I took a sip of my wine and shrugged. ‘Sorry. You’d been quiet on the Marcus subject recently, so I didn’t think it would be of interest to you.’

  ‘It isn’t.’ She flicked her hair from her shoulders and pretended to examine her nails while actually glancing at the entrance doors for what must have been the hundredth time since our arrival, presumably on the lookout for Marcus.

  I grinned and rolled my eyes. ‘Hmm. Sure it isn’t.’

  Letting out a heavy sigh, Sasha looked up and threw her arms into the air. ‘OK! OK! Fine. I admit it. I do still have a crush on him, but it seems that neither of us will give in and change our outlook, so it’s never going to go anywhere. It’s driving me bloody nuts!’

  Both Oliver and I had noticed the way our two mates always gazed at each other, but to our continued surprise, nothing had ever happened between them. ‘It’s such a shame. It seems pretty obvious to me that he likes you. He certainly looks at you a lot.’

  ‘I know, right? We have some seriously hot chemistry going on, but every time I try and initiate anything he finds a reason to leave or move away. I’ve never met a man who’d turn down sex,’ she mused, as if this made him an alien species of some kind. ‘I have no idea why he’s a member of a sex club if he doesn’t actually want to have sex!’ Sasha held her hands up in an “I give up” gesture.

  It was quite an amusing observation, but from what Oliver had told me, Marcus did want to have sex, just not casual sex. It did seem that perhaps Sasha was right, though; if he wanted a relationship then maybe Club Twist wasn’t the best place to be pursuing it. He’d probably have more luck on an online dating site.

  ‘He’s definitely single. I asked Oliver.’

  Sasha nodded. ‘You know me, Rob, I don’t date, but the fact that Marcus won’t give it up for a night of passion with me is driving me crazy. I’m not used to being rejected!’ Her statement wasn’t said in a big-headed way, it was just the truth. Sasha had never had an issue picking up a guy; they seemed to practically fall at her feet on a weekly basis. Laughing at her own statement, she shrugged. ‘I think that’s why I’m still lusting after him. He’s turned himself into the fucking forbidden fruit. I can’t have it, so I want it even more!’

  Nodding sagely, I wondered how I could help my friend, but drew a blank. If Sasha and her supreme seduction skills hadn’t worked on Marcus so far, then I had no idea how she could make a breakthrough.

  ‘Are you sure you couldn’t consider trying more with him? I think you’d make a great couple,’ I ventured carefully, well aware of why Sasha didn’t date, but wondering if Marcus could possibly be the man to persuade her otherwise. Unfortunately, Sasha was already shaking her head before I’d even finished my sentence.

  ‘You know my rules, Robyn. No relationship means no emotion which means no pain.’

  I’d known Sasha since school, and I was well aware she had some pretty major emotional issues left over from the early deaths of both her parents. Being a young teenaged orphan had broken her for a while, and unfortunately, she’d somehow concluded that if she never got attached to anyone emotionally she’d never have to go through the heartbreak of losing someone again. Hence her “no relationship, no emotion, no pain” rules.

  Sasha downed the last dregs of her drink and then slammed the tumbler down on the bar with such force that I was surprised it didn’t break. ‘Bloody man. He’s thrown my mojo right off. I’ve been off my game for months now. Did you know I’ve only slept with two guys in the last twelve weeks? Two! And they were both lousy,’ she added, her lip curling in irritation.

  Jeez. Two men in twelve weeks might not sound a particularly low figure to someone like me, who had only had six lovers in my entire life, but for Sasha, who usually warmed her bed with a different guy every weekend, it counted as a significantly dry spell.

  ‘Anyway, that’s enough about me. What’s it been like living your first two weeks in the Wolfe’s Lair?’

  I chuckled at her joke and grinned broadly. I was so happy at the moment that it was difficult not to look really smug about it. It might only have been a fortnight so far, but I was loving every second of be
ing with Oliver.

  ‘It’s been amazing.’ I hadn’t thought I could love Oliver any more than I already did, but sharing his private space had allowed me to get to know him on a whole other level. I’d known he was a romantic deep down, but I’d now discovered his sweet, thoughtful side, too. He did little things on a daily basis to make me smile; things like bringing me a coffee to the bedroom if he was up before me, sticking little notes around the house in places he knew I’d see them, or leaving single flowers in vases for me to find.

  ‘I bet he still looks hot in the morning though, huh? He seems like one of those guys who never has a hair out of place, regardless of what time of day it is.’

  When I’d first glimpsed Oliver in Club Twist his seemingly flawless appearance had made him look dauntingly unapproachable. Not that I had approached him, I thought with a smirk – in the end, Oliver had done all the chasing – but I still laughed at her description of his hair, and I could see why she’d think it; he did look immaculate most of the time. More than immaculate. His hair was always wild, but in an “I styled it to look like this” kind of way. However, in the last two weeks I’d discovered that his hair took on a complete life of its own after a night’s sleep – it literally stuck out everywhere with none of its usual sleekness or intentional tousle.

  ‘Oh no, he gets bed head just like the rest of us,’ I confided with a smile. Oliver had been surprisingly self-conscious about his morning hair until I had declared how cute I thought it was, and now he knew I liked it he seemed to keep it deliberately ruffled until he had to leave the house.

  ‘And he’s still kissing you breathless and shagging you senseless on every available occasion and surface?’

  Her words made me laugh so hard that my recent sip of wine stung at the back of my nose and threatened to spray out of my nostrils. Swallowing with difficulty, I chuckled again and nodded. ‘He is. But you already know that, Sasha, because you demand inappropriately explicit details of my love life practically every time I see you.’

  ‘I do, but I haven’t seen you all week and so I have yet to hear if you’ve christened all the rooms in his house. I bet you have, haven’t you?’ she declared with a wicked leer and an expectant wiggle of her eyebrows.

  We had, on multiple occasions, and some more than others – Oliver’s favourite locations seemed to be the kitchen and the hallway – but instead of answering I just rolled my eyes and grinned at Sasha’s keen expression.

  ‘Seeing as my own sex life is in the shitter at the moment, I’m living vicariously through you, Robyn. Hearing details of all the kinky things you do with Oliver is better than watching porn.’

  I recoiled in my seat with a grimace and waved a hand at her to stop. ‘Ugh, God, Sasha!’ Before I could moan at her any further, the music in the club changed and I heard the familiar strains of Better Together starting up. It was one of my favourite songs, and I grinned. ‘Ah! Jack Johnson! I love this song!’

  ‘It’s a bit unusual for the club, though, isn’t it?’ Sasha commented with a peculiar smile, and I realised she’d made a good point – Club Twist constantly played upbeat dance music, never acoustic tracks like this one. I had no idea what her grin was about, but I ignored it for now and focused on listening to the music.

  This particular tune had leaped to the top of my all-time favourites when Oliver had included it on the playlist that he’d made for me a while back, and I still loved it. The lyrics were just so perfect.

  As if Oliver knew I was thinking about him, he chose that very moment to sweep through the entrance doors of the club with Marcus by his side. Instead of looking flushed from their recent squash game, they were both impeccably suited and booted. Oliver’s wild hair looked a little more tamed than usual as if he’d put even more effort into neatening it up. Ignoring everyone else, he strode straight up to me, and then, without saying a word, took my hand and pulled me in the direction of the dance floor so swiftly that I only just managed to hand my sloshing glass of wine to Sasha as he dragged me away.

  ‘Oliver! The dance floor’s empty!’ I protested desperately, wondering what on earth had got into him. I wasn’t exactly a huge fan of dancing at the best of times, and seeing that not a soul was so much as tapping a foot, every single person here was probably now watching us, which just made me feel even more uncomfortable.

  He lowered his lips to my mouth and placed a brief kiss there before speaking. ‘But it’s our song, cariño. Humour me.’

  It was kind of our song, I suppose, and his kiss had softened my nerves, so with a nod I relented and let Oliver wrap me in his arms and sway us to the music.

  Halfway through the track he kissed me again, but this time it was soft and lingering and had me just starting to pant when he broke our lips and took a small step back.

  ‘It’s not often you’ll see me on my knees, so make the most of this.’ After this cryptic comment, he reached into his jacket pocket and then dropped to one knee before me.

  My eyes widened and my mouth went instantly dry as I looked down at him. He opened a small velvet box and gazed up at me with hopeful eyes.

  Oh my God.

  I might be slightly naïve when it came to relationships, but even I couldn’t misunderstand what was going on right before my eyes. My heart was pounding in my chest and my legs were distinctly rubbery below me as I continued to stare down at him with bated breath as I waited for him to speak.

  ‘Robyn, you are my lover, my submissive, and my best friend. You have made my life complete. Would you make me the proudest man alive by agreeing to marry me?’

  Oh! My! God!

  I’d known the words were coming, but they still shocked the hell out of me. I also understood the enormity of this moment, but I was so overwhelmed that for several seconds I stared at him as if he’d just sprouted a second head.

  When I did try to answer, I found my throat was so swelled from emotion that I couldn’t actually speak, and my reply of “yes” came out as a high-pitched squeak. Oliver’s eyebrows quirked in amusement, so I nodded my head frantically and watched in fascinated shock as he pulled a beautiful diamond ring from the box and carefully slid it on my ring finger before placing a lingering kiss on top of it.

  I was vaguely aware of the sound of Sasha screaming excitedly somewhere behind me, but right at this moment all my focus was on the beautiful man kneeling before me.

  Swallowing hard, I finally managed to find my voice. ‘I love you so much, Oliver.’ He gazed up at me with a broad grin and eyes twinkling with delight, but when he made no attempt to move I gave a tug on his hand. ‘Stand up, it’s weird seeing you on your knees. That’s supposed to be my spot.’

  Flashing me a wink, he obeyed and stood up. He encircled me in his arms and laid a kiss on me that was at once both so tender and deep that happy tears leaked from my eyes as I clung to him.

  ‘I’ll warn you now, Robyn, that I don’t want to wait long…’

  I didn’t either. Now that he’d proposed I realised just how much I wanted to marry him. I could barely believe this was all happening, but before I could say anything else, we were hit from the side by Sasha as she came charging over to us and smacked straight into us with a congratulatory hug.

  This was followed by firm slaps on the back from Marcus, David, and Nathan and a tray of champagne which appeared from nowhere shortly before a glass found its way into my hand.

  ‘That was just as perfect as I’d hoped,’ Sasha gushed, giving Oliver a playful punch on the arm. ‘Well done!’

  Ah, so that was why Sasha had been grinning at me earlier – she’d been in on it all along. It must also be why she’d dragged me here so early, and nothing to do with Marcus as I had assumed.

  Looking down at my ring finger again, I shook my head in amazement as the diamonds sparkled up at me. My God, I was engaged! Talk about a whirlwind. Oliver Wolfe, the enigmatic man who had captured my attention all those months ago in this very bar, was now my fiancé.

  CHAPTER FIVE

&nb
sp; Sasha

  Robyn was busy with Oliver tonight – no doubt doing sickeningly-romantic-recently-engaged-couple shit – but I’d thought that I’d be fine coming down to Club Twist without her as my sidekick. I was confident being here on my own, and I now knew quite a few of the regulars to chat to, but it wasn’t turning out to be as much fun as I’d thought.

  All I’d wanted to do was have a few drinks and dance my arse off, but none of the girls I was friends with were here tonight, not even Natalia, and I wasn’t in the mood for chatting up a random guy, even though I’d already had to knock back three who had tried.

  Dancing on my own like a loser was a step too far even for me, so I’d found myself sitting in a booth fiddling with my phone and messaging Chloe to see if I could persuade her to join me.

  ‘Hey. You want some company?’

  A deep voice mingled with the bass of the music and interrupted me, and I sighed heavily, irritated that yet another bloke was clearly set on trying his luck. I might be a single girl spending the evening in a sex club, but that didn’t necessarily mean I wanted to be hassled. Pasting a defensive scowl on my face, I prepared to give the guy the same dismissive brush-off as I had his predecessors, but when I looked up my eyes nearly boggled out of my head.

  It wasn’t just a random guy, it was Marcus.

  Marcus Price, my long-running crush, the man I’d been aiming flirtatious glances at for weeks with no luck whatsoever, and suddenly wham, here he was, standing right beside me, looking gorgeous in a black polo shirt and grey jeans and asking if I wanted company.

  I definitely wanted his company.

  Marcus gave me a wary look and took a step back. ‘Actually, that scowl says you want to be left alone… I’ll go.’

  Quickly wiping the bitchy expression from my brow, I held up a hand. ‘No! Wait! That was just because I thought you were another random bloke trying his luck. I’ve had to knock a few back tonight, and my scowl usually works a treat.’