Club Alpha: BDSM Romance Boxed Set

by Amy Valenti

  “We’ll see.” Watching Lena lean across the bar to order our drinks, I asked the only question that mattered. “There a reason why she’s loosened up tonight?”

  “This is just a guess, but partly because she’s got her Domme head on. And partly because you’re not charging in and trying to bend her to your will, I think. You didn’t go nuts when you saw her playing with someone else. A lot of guys would have.”

  It was something to mull over, and I fully intended to do just that.

  Lena returned, and I took the drink she slid over to me and sat back to watch the club go by. It was getting late, but there was still plenty to see.

  Beside me, Lena chipped into a conversation going on within earshot, simultaneously beginning to tie a simple rope gauntlet around her own wrist. She then extended it up her arm in an elaborate pattern, pulling the rope through loops with her teeth in place of a second hand.

  She fumbled the rope a couple of times, then glanced up and saw me watching her. “Feel like making yourself useful, Josh?”

  “You asking me to tie you up?” I let my gaze wander from her face down to her arm, then back up again, taking my time.

  Lena met my eyes with a look that was the perfect mix of innocence and heat. Then, attempting the knot for the third time, she pulled the rope through successfully, tightened it and tucked the ends away, neatening the makeshift garment. “Nope. Could you nudge Izzy for me? I wanna ask her if she’s got any more rope so I can do the other arm.”

  Yeah, that would have been too easy. With permission to touch her, even just her arm, I probably could have broken down at least some of her resolve.

  “Gonna say the magic word?” I ask.

  “Scarlet.”

  I raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation for her strange reply. After a couple of seconds, she relented. “It’s my safeword.”

  That was more than I’d thought I’d get, by a long way.

  “Hmm.” I leaned over to lay a hand on Izzy’s arm, then directed her attention to Lena. While I sipped my drink, Lena wound up with another coil of rope in her lap, and she unravelled it slowly, her focus on me even if her eyes weren’t.

  My poker face was pretty good, and I used it now, tuning into other conversations and contributing every now and then. Inwardly, though, I was mulling over my next step, and I got the distinct impression that Lena was doing exactly the same thing.

  Around an hour after she completed her second rope gauntlet, she sighed and rummaged in her purse, drawing out her cell phone. “I’m gonna call a cab.”

  “Live anywhere near Lincoln Park?” It was a long shot, but I had nothing to lose by asking.

  She stared me out for a long moment, trying to work out my motivation. “Not too far from there. Why?”

  I shrugged. “I can give you a ride, if you want.”

  Lena considered it, a little hesitant. It didn’t bother me; I’d have been worried if she hadn’t been cautious. Finally, she said, “I’m nowhere near drunk enough to invite you in, if that’s your angle.”

  Amused, I flung it straight back at her. “Yeah? That works out, since I’m nowhere near irresponsible enough to play a first scene with a sub when she’s drunk.”

  There was a flash of something in her expression, there and then gone again in the blink of an eye. It hadn’t been strong enough to interpret; it could have been anything from admiration to irritation. “Not to mention I don’t play with guys I haven’t negotiated with.”

  This was getting interesting. “Then I guess we’re just gonna have to talk some more.”

  Lena couldn’t hold back a smile. “Guess we are…but I’m calling a cab.”

  With a wink, she got up and headed off to find a quiet spot to make her call. I looked from her retreating back—and distractingly swaying hips—to Tamara, who was busy trying to look like she hadn’t been eavesdropping.

  “Think I’m outclassed?” I asked her, referring to our earlier discussion.

  Tamara pondered for a second, then shook her head. “She gave you her safeword without you even asking. I’d say you’re doing something right.”

  Scarlet. I was betting Lena could take quite a bit before she’d choose to safeword. Maybe one day I’d even find out.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Lena

  It was about a month after I gave him my safeword that I got to see Josh in action. Smurfette had been pretty vocal about missing the exhibitionism side of kink lately, not to mention flirting with Josh.

  “I figure this way,” she’d told me a week ago, “if you get jealous enough you’ll stop playing this stupid game with him and just fuck him, already.”

  “I like the game,” I’d responded, but she’d just laughed and shrugged, telling me that until I claimed him, Josh wasn’t off-limits.

  Claim him? I wanted him to claim me. But he wouldn’t; I knew he wouldn’t… not until I went to him the way he’d asked the first night we met. When you get back, if you sit on the couch, we’ll get to know each other as friends. If you sit on the floor… The offer’s there.

  I was having fun resisting him, but part of me still wanted to rest my cheek against his knee and wait for his first instructions. A really big part of me.

  Sighing, I took my drink from the bartender and headed back to my seat—on a couch, though the spot at Josh’s feet was still free. It always was.

  Josh murmured something I couldn’t catch, and Smurfette stuck out her tongue at him. “Bet you wouldn’t.”

  He shrugged. “You can bet all you want, but you’ll lose. Question is, Alex…can you take it?”

  It annoyed me that he called her by her real name. And then it annoyed me that I was annoyed.

  Smurfette glanced from him to me, then back again. “You serious?”

  Josh didn’t speak, but his body language was expectant. She looked back at me again, reluctant to cross the line in case it damaged our friendship. “Lee?”

  On one hand, I wanted to get possessive, but on the other, I knew that it was unjustified of me to be jealous. If I’d sat at Josh’s feet right then, all negotiation with Smurfette would have stopped. It was my choice to stay where I was. “What are you asking me for?”

  Smurfette hesitated for a second longer, then nodded at Josh. “I can take it…Sir.”

  I watched his fingers, curled around the curved glass surface of his drink, and wondered what they’d feel like curled lightly around my throat. It helped distract me from the spike of illogical hurt that she got to call him—

  “Don’t call me ‘Sir’.” It was a casual command, but it was a command nonetheless, and her Smurf-blue ponytail wriggled against her shoulder as she nodded.

  “Sorry, Josh.”

  He tugged the ponytail gently. “I give you permission to speak, Alex?”

  She shut up fast, with a sidelong ‘oops’ look over at me. That was another foot she was putting wrong—she always had tried to gauge voyeurs’ reactions. I wasn’t surprised when he tilted up her chin with a finger, calling her attention back to him.

  What I hadn’t expected was for him to get within kissing distance of her before calling her on it. “Don’t look at Lena; look at me. She isn’t a part of this scene. She can watch if she likes, but you will not try to bring her into this again. Clear?”

  “Yes, Josh,” she whispered, and he sat back, satisfied.

  “Good girl.”

  I shifted position to allow them to move past me, and watched as he guided her toward the play area, a hand on the small of her back. And then I closed my eyes and let the memory of Josh’s Dom-voice take me to a very happy place.

  After a few moments, I headed to the spectators’ area of the play space and settled down to watch.

  Josh’s presence in the dungeon hadn’t gone unnoticed, and there was already a small crowd gathered around to enjoy the show. A few people shot sidelong glances my way, and I smiled back, letting them know that I wasn’t feeling slighted by Josh’s choice of play partner.

  H
e was in the process of tying Smurfette to one side of the double A-frame—facing inwards, so there was no doubt that he planned to give her hell with whatever his weapon of choice was. When he crouched to secure her ankles, I tilted my head slightly to admire the firm curve of his ass. If nothing else, that sight would stay with me tonight.

  “Like what you see?” Heidi’s voice was low and amused in my ear.

  “Yeah,” I told her. “It pisses me off when Doms won’t get down lower than their subs when they need to.”

  She laughed without restraint. “It’s certainly interesting watching the interplay between the two of you. You know, if you really wanted to get under his skin, you could take a sub of your own in and use the other side of the frame.”

  It was a cool idea, but as I watched Josh shrug out of his shirt—which was so done for my benefit; I just knew it—I shook my head. “I’d be too busy watching him to watch my sub. Way too dangerous.”

  Heidi looked at me with new respect. “I see your point. The other alternative would be to go in there as a sub yourself…”

  I was shaking my head before she’d finished her sentence. “And give up my front row seat, here? No way!”

  “Well, if you change your mind, come and see me.” We both watched him move over to his toy bag—did he bring it every time, just in case I caved in?—and pull out a riding crop. From the looks of it, it was meant for use on actual horses, not just standard sex-shop fare. And it looked so natural in his grip.

  He leaned in close to Smurfette, asking a question, then responded to her answer with a slow smile and a comment of his own. Her reply must have been out of line, because he grabbed the top of her ponytail and yanked her head firmly back, shaking his head as he frowned down at her.

  “She’s feisty,” Heidi murmured in approval. I hadn’t seen her with Tim since a couple of weeks after the club had opened, but I didn’t want to ask what had gone on between them.

  “Want me to let her know you’re interested?” I asked, watching the muscles moving subtly in Josh’s arms and shoulders. It should be illegal for him to wear shirts.

  “I think I can take care of it.”

  My response flew straight out of my head as Josh unzipped Smurfette’s skirt, letting it drop as far as her spread legs would allow. He then stroked the crop up her calf, then her thigh, then over her ass…

  He started off fast and light, warming her up gradually, and each tap was confident and well-aimed. He knew what he was doing—not that I’d had any doubts—and as Smurfette’s skin began to show signs of rosiness, he took a few moments to check in with her.

  After he’d gotten her reassurance, the fun started. Josh slowed down the frequency of his strokes, but made every one count, until her ass was practically glowing pink. His focus on her was absolute, yet his posture was casual, leaving no doubt that he was enjoying himself. Just imagining being subjected to that distinctive gaze got me hot.

  He rubbed away Smurfette’s pain after each set of blows, but his touch was never overtly sexual. I wondered if he were saving that for me, or if that was just the way he played in public.

  Once she was barely flinching at the crop’s impact, anaesthetised by endorphins, he set the instrument aside and checked in with her again. She was flying high by now—I could tell by the way she was lounging against the frame.

  I must be crazy for keeping Josh from doing this to me. I wanted to be in her position so much that I could almost taste it, but it was my own fault that I wasn’t.

  Josh held a paddle up in her line of sight, and I remembered his words a few weeks ago. Was this one of the paddles he’d made himself, in his garage? It was beautiful—some kind of dark wood, sleek and shiny and unyielding.

  When Smurfette nodded, he took up his position behind her, ready to bring the paddle down. And when he let her have it, I winced in sympathy as she began to react to the pain again. She flinched and tensed and finally yelled out in pain, loud enough to be heard over the background music in the dungeon.

  He rubbed the pain away, and his touch was more tender now—not intimate, but concerned. She trembled at it—she hadn’t given her safeword, but it was clear that she was almost at her limit—and he carefully pulled her skirt back up over her hips, then untied her, limb by limb.

  The whole scene had lasted around forty minutes, and at some point Heidi had left me to watch alone. I watched Josh lead Smurfette to the recovery area, where she curled up with a bottle of water. He remained standing for a moment longer, shrugging on his shirt with a glance my way.

  With a tiny wave and a grin, I headed back through to the social area, almost running into Mel and Ben on the way. “Hey, guys. Playing a scene?”

  “Hoping to catch the end of Josh’s, first,” Mel said. “We too late?”

  “He put his shirt back on and everything,” I told her, trying to keep a straight face.

  She sighed. “Damn. Guess I’m just gonna have to wait until you two go for it.”

  Ben cut in, “Any idea when that’s gonna be, by the way?”

  Mel rolled her eyes. “Tactful, honey. We were thinking of going to Spain for a couple of weeks in the summer, but we don’t wanna miss the Scene of the Century.”

  “Like I have it scheduled on the calendar?” I shrugged. “If you’re gonna play, you better get started. Not long until closing.”

  They continued on their way, and I danced a couple of songs with Danny and Izzy, pushing thoughts of Josh away for the moment. After a while, I saw Smurfette’s blue hair out of the corner of my eye, and headed over to join her.

  “Hey,” she said, moving over with a slight wince so I could sit down. “Enjoy the show?”

  Josh arrived with drinks for all three of us as I replied. “I’ve seen worse. Did you enjoy being the show?”

  “Seen worse?” She pouted. “I’m offended. Josh, are you offended?”

  He regarded me steadily, the slightest curve to his lips. “Not really. But then, I could see her out of the corner of my eye while we were playing. She looked pretty impressed, to me.”

  Ooooh… Touché. I hadn’t known he’d been watching. Hoping I wasn’t blushing, I told him, “I was thinking you’d look great with a tattoo on your left shoulder-blade. Maybe a dolphin or a rose…”

  There was a sharp glint of a warning in his answering smile, residual Dom instinct from the scene he’d just played, and it made my head spin just a little. “Already got plenty of thorns.”

  “I noticed,” I said, glancing over at Smurfette, who was watching us like a tennis match, one to the other and back again. “What was that paddle like?”

  She smiled dreamily. “Hard.”

  * * * *

  Josh

  Alex declined my offer of a ride home, telling me she had a kink-friendly roommate on the way to pick her up. Then, slyly, she suggested that Lena might be in greater need of a ride.

  “That was really subtle,” Lena said, shaking her head and draining her drink.

  “I try.” With a bright smile, Alex pecked me on the cheek, then waved goodbye as she headed toward the exit.

  Lena and I exchanged a glance. “Going my way?” she asked.

  Nodding, I got to my feet. “Need to go tell people that it’s just a ride home, with no kink attached?”

  She laughed. “Let them wonder.”

  I grabbed my toy bag while she shrugged on her jacket, and together we made our way out into the night air. My car wasn’t far, and Lena kept pace with me easily, her rubber-soled platform boots making almost no noise against the pavement.

  She slipped into the passenger seat before I could even think of opening the door for her. I suppressed a smile as I placed my toy bag into the trunk of the car, unzipped it and pulled out the paddle I’d used earlier.

  Lena could play all the games she wanted, but I had a few aces up my sleeve.

  After I slid behind the wheel, I held up the paddle. “You wanted to look at this?”

  For a second she blinked at me, those
striking green eyes widening a little. Then she took the paddle with a smile. “If you wanted me to paddle you, Josh, you shoulda said so back at the club…”

  I ignored her bait, starting the engine and buckling up while she ran admiring fingers across the varnished wood. “This is beautiful.”

  I didn’t know if it was the sincerity in her voice or the way she caressed the paddle, or the fact that this was the first time we’d been truly alone since we first met. Whatever the reason, the urge to press her back against her seat and kiss her until she was breathless was overwhelming.

  Only, I couldn’t. It was her move; I’d made that clear from the start. So I concentrated on driving. On not noticing exactly where the lace hem of her mini-dress became a pale, soft stretch of skin, or the way she let the paddle rest against her inner thigh.

  “You gonna play with Smurfette again?” she asked after a couple of minutes.

  “Jealous?”

  Her voice thick with amusement at the notion, she said, “Nah. I could just get used to seeing you shirtless.”

  She was good.

  I was better.

  “You know exactly how to get me out of my shirt, little tease. You’re just too stubborn to give in and admit how much you want it.”

  The pet name had come to me as I was showering a few nights ago, and this was the first time I’d used it. It definitely had the desired effect; she shifted in her seat, pressing her thighs together in that subtle way women do when they’re too turned on to resist it.

  Her next words were directions—we were getting close to her apartment—and she waited until I pulled over outside her building before speaking.

  “I’m not in denial, Josh. I know exactly how much I want you, because I can feel it.” Her fingers slid an inch up her thigh, pulling her dress up with them, and it was a damn good thing I wasn’t driving right then, ‘cause I’d probably have run the car off the road.

  My cock stirred, reminding me I hadn’t been laid in months, and that I was alone with the woman I’d been fantasising about for most of that time.