RAFE'S LAIR

by Jessie Lynn

  Rafe walked the girls down to the main floor of Lair. He'd had their car moved to the private parking garage the League had built under the building when they'd bought it. Marie hadn't minded but Ava of course gave him shit for it. Big freakin surprise there. He started walking them through the back of the club. He could tell they were both really curious about what all was back here. Rafe looked over at Ava walking next to him and her head was doing a sprinkler imitation. He leaned down close to her and said.

  "Just ask me already."

  Ava practically jumped out of her skin when Rafe spoke to her. She gave a loud squeak and put her hand over her heart. She looked over at Rafe. He of course thought it was absolutely hilarious that she was so skittish and he'd just scared the shit out of her. So she smacked him on the arm, which only made him laugh harder.

  "That was so not funny asshole." She yelled at him. As he bent over grabbing his side laughing.

  "What? What'd I miss?" Marie asked looking between Rafe bent over laughing hysterically and Ava with her arms crossed tapping her foot and glaring at him.

  "Oh beautiful that was absolutely priceless. I swear I thought you were gonna claw the damn ceiling you jumped so high." He managed in between bouts of laughter. "Had I not have been watching you, I could have sworn I either stepped on a damn mouse or a squeaky toy." He said laughing again.

  "Kay now I'm really curious." Marie said. "What the hell did he do?"

  Ava pointed at Rafe. "Mister Giggles over there thought it would be fun to scare me by coming up behind me and whispering in my ear."

  "No that's not what I did." Rafe countered. "I simply leaned over and spoke to you normally while I was walking beside you. It's not my fault you’re a little scaredy cat that jumps when she sees her own shadow and squeaks like a mouse." Rafe said straightening back up, but continuing to laugh.

  "Oh whatever. You’re still a jerk wad." She said turning around to stomp off. Too bad she didn't make it very far before he grabbed her arm and spun her around so fast she had to brace herself on his chest.

  "Hey now no name calling you. I think squeaky little mice are cute. And where in the hell did you come up with jerk wad? What are you like ten?" Rafe said wrapping his arms around Ava.

  "If you’re acting like one then I'm not calling you names, I'm stating the obvious. There's nothing wrong with saying jerk wad. I unlike some people don't have to make every other word I say a cuss word, and I do not squeak like a mouse."

  Rafe laughed at her again. "Well la ti da little squeaky mouse." He said back to Ava in the same haughty tone. She then proceeded to stick her tongue out at him as her incredibly mature response.

  Marie rolled her eyes and sighed. "How bout both of you grow the hell up."

  Rafe looked at Ava and knew she was thinking the exact same thing as he was. She had a devilish little grin on her mouth and mischief sparkled in her baby blues. They both turned back to Marie and stuck their tongues out at her, then cracked up laughing.

  "Riiight. My point exactly. So what was so important to say that you had to scare Ava half to death?"

  "Well judging by the sprinkler impression her head was doing, I figured she was curious about everything she was seeing in this part of the club. So I told her to just ask me already." Rafe said never taking his eyes off Ava.

  Ava scowled at him. "Sprinkler impression?"

  Instead of telling her, he showed her and even added the sound effects of a rotating sprinkler. That made Marie laugh. Ava just glared at him again, acted like she was mad, and tried not to laugh as well.

  "I was not doing that." She said pouting.

  "Whatever helps you sleep at night there sugar britches." Rafe said patting her behind. "You both obviously want to know about the club, so I'll tell you. This hall has private rooms that members rent." Rafe said pointing to the doors on either side of them. "They have keys to the rooms and can pretty much put whatever they want in them. Within reason of course."

  "Oh of course. Cause whips and floggers and spanking benches are totally reasonable. I mean adding a rack to that assortment would be totally unreasonable." Ava said sarcastically.

  "No actually a rack can be very entertaining when used right. If you'd like I'd be more than happy to demonstrate with you." Rafe replied very seriously.

  "No thanks. I don't think I'd be very interested in seeing someone stretched out on one thank you very much." Ava replied.

  Rafe stepped right up behind her so he could whisper in her ear. He put his hand on her hip and slid it around so it pressed against her lower belly. He held her in place as he stepped flush against her.

  "I didn't say demonstrate for you beautiful, I said with you, as in you stretched out beautifully on mine. I could show you personally all the wonderful things that can be done to you while you’re on it."

  Having Rafe whisper right in her ear and feeling him press against her back made a shiver work through her body. He nipped her ear and quickly stepped back, taking his body heat with him. She swayed slightly and he had to grab her arm again to steady her.

  Rafe reached out and grabbed onto Ava's arm just long enough to make sure she was steady enough not to fall. He was teasing both of them and he damn well knew it. He was going to be hating life for the rest of the damn day after she left, but he knew she would be going home needing as well. So that made his impending misery easier to bare. Hopefully he would get her wound up enough that she couldn't wait too long to call him. He gestured for them to start walking again and he continued explaining the club to them.

  "We have guards that monitor the rooms to make sure no one gets hurt or is forced to do anything they don't want to do. But the fact that their members means we don't have to worry too much about them going overboard. We do extensive background checks to make sure all our members haven't been charged with any crimes involving abuse or rape of any kind. Those sort of things will ensure we won't ever allow them membership. In fact that will get them banned period from our club and many others."

  Rafe had started them walking again while he was explaining until he saw that Ava was still skeptical. He could tell that Marie knew most of this by the way she was acting. He stopped her and had her look at him.

  "Everything that takes place within these walls is consensual, Ava. I can tell you haven't been exposed to the lifestyle very much, so you don't know much about what exactly goes on. Yes, there are those that take things too far, but that's abuse and not what our lifestyle is about. Those people are not true Doms; they use the lifestyle as an excuse to get off on hurting someone. For most of the people in the lifestyle it isn't about that and they look out for the people that do abuse so they can make sure they're stopped." He started them walking again.

  "I don't get off on hurting women just to hurt them, or by degrading them for that matter. I do however know there is a very fine line between pleasure and pain. There comes a point where both merge and the pain you think you should feel becomes pure pleasure unlike anything you've ever felt. When you have a power exchange between two consenting adults, which is all this lifestyle really is, there is a heightened experience of pleasure between both parties. It's not something you can totally explain, it's something you have to experience to fully understand."

  Ava was hanging on Rafe's every word. She knew some of this from talking with Sass, but just because they'd talked about it didn't mean she actually knew what it was really like. She'd always thought she'd like to just hand over the reins and let a guy take control of her body. Problem was she hadn't been able to find a guy she could trust enough to be able to do that.

  "Ava, I know that look baby." Rafe said stopping them again. He came closer to her reaching up to stroke her cheek. "You want to know what it's like to surrender to your Dom don't you beautiful. You want to give up all control and have a man take you so completely that the only thing you can do is feel. Tell me baby. Have you ever been spanked?"

  Ava just shook her head instead of answering him. That was unacceptable, verba
lly expressing how you feel and that you understand completely what your Dom is trying to convey was one of the most important things. Not only did the sub have to trust the Dom not to go too far, but the Dom had to trust that the sub would always be completely honest and open with him about everything as well. So Rafe gave Ava a little tap on her ass to get her attention. She jumped, startled by it and fell into him again.

  "Answer me beautiful; don't just shake your head at me."

  "No I haven't." Ava said in a small voice not looking him in the eye.

  "Very good. You've never had a man bend you over his lap and spank your ass till it's the prettiest shade of pink?" Rafe said dropping his hand to pull his shirt up so he could caress the spot he'd tapped on her ass.

  "No I haven't" Ava replied breathlessly trying to move closer to him.

  "But you've thought about it haven't you beautiful." Rafe wasn't asking he already knew the answer. He could tell by the look in her eyes and the way her body was responding to him that she'd thought about it a lot.

  Ava nodded her head and then remembered he wanted her to actually speak to him after he gave her behind another tap, this one a little harder than the last. She squeaked with that one. She looked at Rafe to see him smiling mischievously at her. He arched a brow and pet her ass where he had delivered the last tap. She couldn't really call what he'd done spanks they were just very firm taps. Yet he didn't deliver them both in the same spot. She didn't know if that as intentional or not.

  "Yes I've thought about it," She told him quickly.

  Rafe leaned down close to her and whispered "That's my good girl." He pet her rear a little more to ease the sting of his hand. Playfully tapping her other ass cheek with the tips of his fingers this time, he told her. "Come on let's get you ladies to your car."

  Ava shook herself out of the daze Rafe had put her in, turned, and started heading down the hall again. This time she kept her head down not daring to look at anything. Her emotions and thoughts were all over the place now. She couldn't seem to process them all and she didn't like that one bit. Actually paying attention and learning more about this place, about him would only make everything worse. Rafe kept his hand resting possessively on her lower back. And as they walked, he continued to tell them about the club.

  "You've seen the main room. Obviously, there's a lot that goes on out there, but it's all fairly tame. The main room is mostly for the general public to come and pretend their apart of the scene. Or for those like you two who are interested, but don't exactly know how to get involved safely. We have many members who like to spend some time out there interacting with everyone though. The second floor is where the themed rooms are. You can basically find every scene you can imagine. Pretty much all the props most people would associate with BDSM."

  Rafe pointed to another hall and started them down it. "The second floor is for our experienced members. There are rooms for them to rent up there as well. Their rooms are bigger and more elaborate. Most of them have more furniture such as racks." Rafe said teasing Ava.

  Rafe had been watching Ava very closely ever since their little spanking incident. She'd practically closed herself off. She wasn't looking around anymore and her movements were very stiff. Rafe knew he had taken her a little farther out of her comfort zone, but he knew he hadn't pushed her too hard. He knew he couldn't yet. She was still so skittish about him becoming real and not just her dream lover. He couldn't let her retreat so soon though. The more she kept herself closed off, the harder it would be to reach her.

  They reached the door that led into the parking garage. He entered in the code and opened the door. He motioned for both girls to go before him. Marie went through first, thankfully. It gave him the opportunity to pull Ava close to him as she started to pass.

  "Ava don't run away from me baby. I know this is all very unnerving and a lot to process. But are you going to spend the rest of your life always wondering, wishing you could finally be completely fulfilled?" Rafe brushed her hair away from her face. "I promise you can trust me. Be brave my beautiful Ava and take a chance to finally have what you've been searching for.”

  Rafe pressed his hand against Ava's back and started them walking to the car. Marie was already inside and had the engine on. Rafe opened the passenger side door and Marie leaned over.

  "Thanks again for last night and breakfast, we definitely had fun." Marie said.

  "Anytime. You’re always welcome. You ladies have my number, let me know a head of time the next time you want to come and I'll arrange for you to see the rest of the club safely. I promise it'll be way better than last night."

  "That's awesome thanks." Marie said.

  "I'm curious though. How did you know about coming here on a Sunday?"

  "My mom and used to be members here."

  "Really! Who's your mom?" He asked Marie. That explained why she was way more comfortable in the club than Ava was.

  "Sass. She used to bring her clients here until she met my dad."

  Rafe knew the name immediately. "I know your mom and your dad. How are they doing?"

  "Good. She isn't taking clients anymore."

  "Well I should hope not with your dad being her Dom now." Rafe replied.

  "Yeah they've been together a while and live out in Arlington now."

  Rafe nodded. "Tell them I said hi. They should come in one night to see what we've done with the place. I'd be happy to see them again." He told her. "Drive safe and like I said anytime you want to come back, just give me a call."

  "Awesome thanks, I'll let them know." Marie said waving.

  Rafe turned to Ava. "Come back tonight Ava. Let me actually show you around and explain more. I promise you won't have to do anything you don't want to do. Take a chance and trust me. Get to know me. I promise you won't regret it."

  Ava looked down at the ground. "I don't know. I have to work in the morning and..."

  Rafe cut her off. "Ava we'll just start out simple, dinner, then afterwards a few drinks while I show you around a little more. That's all beautiful, nothing more until you say or until you put on the brakes and call it done. The second you tell me you want nothing more to do with any of this, I'll back off. I'll walk you back to your car and tell you to drive safe and won't ever bother you again."

  Rafe knew in his heart he could never really let her go that easily, but he had to make her feel there was no pressure. He had to get her back here where he could slowly show her how bad they needed each other. Rafe held his breath waiting for his mate's answer. He felt like he was turning blue and about to pass out from the lack of oxygen she took so damn long. She finally squared her shoulders and looked him in the eye.

  "Okay I'll come by for a little bit, but I'm only going to stay for dinner then leave." Ava said to him.

  "Dinner it is beautiful." Rafe said nodding. He was going to make damn sure it was more than just dinner though. "How does seven thirty sound?" He asked.

  Ava told him fine and he lifted her hands to his mouth and kissed the inside of each of her wrists.

  "Until tonight." Rafe said helping her into the car and shutting the door. Then all too quickly, his mate was being taken away from him for the second time in only a week. It took all his will power to stay standing where he was and not go after her to bring her back to bed.

  "Well lover boy I have to say I'm proud of you." Ed said appearing next to Rafe.

  "Shut the hell up Ed. How long have you been following us around anyway? And I suggest you not fuck with me by telling me how you watched my mate sleep and change earlier." Rafe said still looking in the direction Marie's car had gone. He couldn't look at the demon right now; he just might have to kill the son of a bitch if he did. Beside him Ed just laughed.

  "I wouldn't dare do such a horrible, insensitive thing to you good buddy, old pal." Ed said dramatically slapping Rafe on the back. "I've actually been keeping an eye on just you cause I knew even when you were asleep, all your senses were focused on your mate."

  Rafe dared a
look at the demon standing next to him. For the most part Ed was his usual obnoxious self, but he did believe Ed had been just watching Rafe in whatever realm he went to knowing Rafe's entire being was focused on Ava. Rafe truly had known every time Ava turned over, every sound she made in her sleep.

  Rafe was wide awake the instant Ava got out of his bed this morning, even before she tried to sneak out. He'd stayed put hoping if she thought he was asleep, she would venture out and he could talk to her. He hadn't gotten any sleep really. Ava was right, that damn couch was probably the most uncomfortable thing he'd slept on in probably fifty years. After having spent last night on that damn couch, he'd decided he had to get a new one that would fit him better. He knew he would spend many a night on it when Ava wanted Marie to stay with them, so he had better like sleeping on it. Ed pulled Rafe out of his head again talking to him.

  "So what's the plan now chief?" Ed asked.

  Ed knew the only way Rafe had so calmly let Ava go was because he had some sort of plan. He already knew that involved her coming back to the club again tonight. Which Ed was actually really freaking surprised she actually agreed to. Now the question was. What did Rafe plan to do after he got her here?

  “Well?" Ed prompted waving his hands.

  Rafe turned and started heading back to his loft. He had a lot to do before Ava got here tonight, the most important thing being he had to feed. He'd done it last night and really didn't need to, but after his first meeting with Ava, he wasn't taking any chances period. He needed to get that done an over with so he could go take a shower and still get a romantic dinner set for her well before seven thirty. He felt, rather than heard Ed following him.

  "Hey speedy Gonzales. You gonna answer me?"

  Rafe didn't stop. "I'm going to make sure that she's enjoying herself so much that she doesn't want to leave again. So I need to feed first so there's no chance I slip again, then I need to get a romantic dinner ready for her, and after that I'm just gonna wing it. Is that enough of a plan for you Ed?" He said glancing over his shoulder.