"Actually, yes, I have a pretty good idea," she answered with a self-deprecating grin.
"What happened?" Lucy's shout almost pierced her tympanum.
"Nothing serious, I swear, just met the usual trolls, that's all," she answered, not lying, just bending the truth a little.
"It's useless trying to make you be more sensible, right?" Lucy scolded her, and Katherine could imagine her friend shaking her head in despair.
"What can I say? You know me better than anyone," she admitted. "How are you feeling today?" Lucy hadn’t gone with her because she had had a terrible headache.
"I'm feeling just great. So do you want to go out tonight? We could go to that same club."
"I don’t think I should be going there for a while. Besides, I still feel a bit tired." Katherine explained looking at her sore feet. She was still wearing the gauze bandages Sir Alec had put on them.
"Well, maybe it's better then. I'm going out with the other girls. Let me know if you change your mind," Lucy offered.
"Thank you, I will. Have a great time."
She spent the rest of the morning trying to clean her place without making her feet even sorer. Around five o'clock in the afternoon she took a taxi and went back to the club area. She wanted to go first to his club and drop off his coat, to diminish the probabilities of running into him. She would have to figure out which of the several clubs around was the one he had taken her to.
When she reached the last street, she decided to ask the driver if he knew of a private club around those parts. Luckily, he did, and when he left her in front of a huge wooden door, she knew she was in the right place. She paid the driver and hopped out of the taxi.
Feeling a bit nervous, she walked towards the door and rang the bell. She knew he wouldn’t be around, but even so, she couldn’t help feeling a bit nervous.
The same security guard opened the door.
"Hi there, remember me? I came in last night with Sir Alec," she said, with a hesitant smile.
"Ah, yes, the lady he brought in, carried in his arms," the man answered with an amused smile.
"Yes, that was me," she answered, unable to stop the blush covering her cheeks.
"How are you feeling today, Miss? I'm John, by the way, the security guard, at your service."
"I'm fine, thank you. It's a pleasure meeting you officially, John," she answered with a friendly grin. "You see, John, he lent me his coat last night, and I wanted to return it to him. Do you think I could leave it here for him?" she asked, showing him the piece of clothing folded over her arm.
"I think you can do even better," the man answered, surprising her. "Why don’t you give it back to him yourself?" he asked.
Startled, she took a step back, shaking her head.
"No, there's no need for that. I would hate to bother him for such an insignificant thing," she answered, stretching the coat out to him.
"Oh, but I'm sure he would be bothered if you didn’t return it personally," the man insisted, picking up the internal phone and calling someone.
"Sue, dear, can you please tell Sir Alec someone is here at the door asking for him? Thank you, love." He said to whoever answered the phone on the other end.
"No… really, there is no need to bother him. I'm sure he must be very busy. I'll just leave the coat here and go home," she said trying to hand the damn coat to the man. She didn’t want to see the man again, she wasn’t that crazy.
But the guard ignored her efforts and didn’t take the coat.
A few minutes later, the door behind the guard opened, and he came out.
Chapter Five
She felt her breath getting caught in her lungs when she saw him. With black leather pants and a t-shirt that enhanced every single one of his muscles, he looked simply devastating. She took a deep breath and tried to get a hold of herself.
"Ah, here he is," the guard said, turning to look at him. "This young lady came by to return your coat, Sir Alec."
"I was just trying to leave it here at the reception," Katherine explained, frowning at his cold expression. The man was a real ice floe. She was sure if she could remember his expression while he was kissing her the night before, he would have had the same remote expression on his face. Nothing seemed to affect him. "I told him there was no need to bother you."
Alec looked at the little beast, and the appellative no longer sounded right. Her long, golden mane fell down her back, in soft threads of silk, and her white skin looked bright and smooth, and though she still had that look of a naughty elf, it sure was a beautiful one. He looked at John wishing he could strangle him for making him face this woman again, after spending the whole night with her on his mind.
"It's alright, but you didn’t have to bother bringing the coat. I have others," he said in the coldest tone he was able to produce.
"I'm sure you do, but I don’t like to keep things that don’t belong to me," she said, feeling the rage starting to boil inside her. "Here, take it," she handed him the coat and he grabbed it as someone would grab something infectious. "Now that you have it, you can burn it if you want. Have a good day," she added turning around and heading towards the door. 'Damn man.'
She never made it to the door. He threw the coat to the amused John and with two strides, he was next to her, grabbing her arm and stopping her from leaving.
"There's no need to be rude," he said.
"I'm the one being rude? Well, now, you sure have a funny perspective of reality," she said, shaking his hand off her arm. "Now, if you don't mind, I have another club to visit."
Alec looked at her puzzled for just a second until he figured she had to be talking about the club she had run away from the night before.
"Are you going back to the other club?" he asked, and his severe tone told her exactly what he thought about the idea.
"Yes, of course. I left my coat and my purse there, remember? Besides, that's none of your business." She answered, trying to mimic his coldness.
"Do you think that's a good idea? What if the guys are still around?" he asked, obviously mad at her.
"I doubt they even remember my face. I have to go now; your chit chat is delaying me," she pointed out and opened the door.
Alec went back to where John was avidly watching the whole scene, still holding Alec's coat in his arms. Alec grabbed it, rudely, putting it on and stomped out of the club behind the stubborn woman, yelling back at John:
"I won't be long."
When he reached the street, she was a few steps away, waiting for a taxi.
"If you insist in going back there, I will take you," he announced as soon as he reached her.
"Please don’t bother. This is none of your business," she insisted without even looking at him.
"Well, I’m making it my business. Come, I have my car just around the corner," he demanded, taking her by an elbow.
Katherine tried to release herself from his grip, and though the grip wasn’t tight, it was impossible for her to free herself.
She sighed, defeated.
"If I let you go with me, will you promise I'll never have to see your bitter face again in my life?" she asked, furious.
"Believe me, I'll do all in my power to see to it," he answered with a grimace.
"Good!" she replied, letting him drag her to his car, a black European car that looked very expensive. He asked her for the club's address and in less than five minutes he was parking his car in front of the BDSM club. She hopped out of the car and headed to the place's door. A security guard let them in as soon as she explained the purpose of their visit.
Alec, behind her, looked at the place with a horrified expression. The place looked really cheap and was decorated as a very low budget dungeon. The BDSM devices looked like props and not something you could actually use. What in hell had she been doing there in the first place?
The guard retrieved her coat and purse, and they were able to leave the dreadful place.
He helped her in the car and took his seat behind th
e wheel, but he didn’t start the car. He sat there looking ahead.
Katherine cleared her throat loudly, looking at him.
"Is there a problem? Now that you have done your daily good deed, I can grab a taxi home from here," she said, getting a bit nervous from his expression.
"What were you looking for in a place like that? Do you know what kind of club that is?" he asked in a very upset tone.
"I fail to see what any of that has to do with you. I'm over eighteen you know, and I don’t need another father figure in my life, believe me, so drop it," she ranted, not willing to accept more scolding from the man.
"That's a lousy sex club, where people go to get laid, under the poor excuse they're into BDSM!" he almost shouted.
"So what? It's my life! I can do with it whatever I feel like doing," she shouted back. "Do you know what? Thank you for your help," she added and put her hand on the door handle to open the door.
In that precise moment, a click was heard inside the car, as he pressed a button, and all the doors locked.
"Not yet, I'm not done with you," he told her, looking at her.
"What's the matter with you?" she asked, furious. "Why do you care? You're just a stranger, damn it."
He looked at her with no expression on his face.
"Let's say I feel responsible for the life I saved last night," he said, but it was obvious he didn’t feel it at all.
Katherine crossed her arms over her chest, frustrated. She sighed and decided that the fastest way to get rid of him was to satisfy his curiosity.
"What do you want know?" she said, looking straight ahead through the car's windshield.
"Why did you come to this club?"
The man went straight to the jugular, right to the killing zone.
"Well, it's a BDSM club, what do you think I was looking for?" she answered, sarcastically.
"Don’t beat around the bush," he warned her.
"Very well, my last boyfriend was into BDSM, he used to tie me in bed, and play rough, and I had to admit it excited me a lot, so I read a couple of books and saw some movies about it and I felt I should investigate this BDSM thing a bit more. And I have been doing so, for the past year. I've been to several munches, I've met a lot of people that actually live in the lifestyle, and I've been looking around," she admitted to him, more than she had ever done to anyone else. Even Lucy thought she was just curious.
"What happened to your boyfriend?" he asked.
"Well, he told me he was a switch, but he met a woman that convinced him that being her submissive was his goal in life, so we went different directions," she explained. There hadn’t been any broken hearts there. She’d had a lot of fun with him, but her heart had never been involved, not deeply anyway.
"And on what side of the slash do you think you are?" he asked in a very derogatory tone.
"Really? Why the hell should I answer that? You're already judging me without knowing me or knowing my interests," she answered, sarcastically, "I have nothing more to say to you, so you either open the door for me or drive me back to your club."
Alec looked at her, sitting next to him, her little body stiffened, her eyes locked on some invisible point. The truth was he couldn’t explain to himself why he wanted to know everything about her. He turned the car on and drove back to the club with a decided expression on his face. So she wanted to experience BDSM? He was going to give her the experience of her life.
He arrived at the club, parked in his usual place, and helped her out of the car.
"Thank you for your help," she said, as soon as she stepped on the sidewalk.
"I have a proposal for you," he said, betting on her curious, almost reckless side. "I'm sure you'll find it very alluring."
Katherine looked at him, astonished. The man was a big box of surprises. Every time she thought she had seen everything, he came out with something else. A proposal? What could he possibly have to propose to her?
Chapter Six
"Let's hear it." Her curiosity wouldn’t allow anything else.
Alec almost sighed with relief. He had her.
"You said you have been investigating the lifestyle, right?" he asked, looking her, straight in the face, attentive to any expression, any subtle change that would let him know what way to proceed.
"Yes, I believe we've established that," she said impatiently.
"This club is one of the best BDSM clubs in the country. Here you won't find fake Dom’s or fake submissives," he said, making a larger pause between sentences, which allowed him to see the sudden shine in her eyes when he mentioned Dom’s. If you added that to the way she had reacted last night to his touch, he was quite sure she was a submissive, even with the enormous brat attitude she had. She longed for a Dom in her life, and he intended to give her one--him.
"So? I don’t think all the Dom’s and subs I've met are fakes," she replied, suspiciously.
"Of course not, but here you'll see the real thing. Remember how much you liked that spanking bench you saw last night in the bedroom?" he asked, playing carefully with his cards. Sometimes he felt he was dealing with a time bomb. Any false move and everything simply blew up.
"Yes, I remember," she conceded.
"Well, we have all kinds of devices inside. And who knows, you might get the chance of using them as you best see fit. I would take you under my protective wing and show you everything."
"Let's say I agree to this. What exactly would that imply?" she asked, still not convinced.
"I would become your tutor, I would show you around, and show you whatever you might want to try. I'm a hard player, but I'm sure you would be just fine with it."
"I can get out any minute I want?" she asked, feeling more compelled to accept than she thought possible.
"Just say your safe word and you'll be out." And that did it, he could tell, so he lost no time. Holding her by her elbow, he gently led her back to the club's entrance. He invited her in and took her to a small table in a corner.
"You need to fill out a few forms before you're authorized to enter as my guest," he explained, handing her a few sheets. "One is a Non-Disclosure Agreement everybody has to sign in order to get in."
"Very well." She grabbed the papers and started to read. Like he said, one was a basic NDA and she signed it with no problem. The other sheets, on the other hand, were a complete inquiry into a person's kinks, limits, and experience. No wonder he hadn’t insisted on asking more. She filled it in the best she could, fighting the desire to complete some of the questions with something scandalous. After all, it could actually be the guy's favorite kink. She wasn’t that insane… well, most of the time. She was there, wasn’t she? With him, the man she had no intention of seeing, ever again.
Alec looked at her filling out the forms. Those inquiries were the best thing they had implemented. It gave them a pretty good idea of what their members and guests might be looking for, and when it came to a new submissive, it would tell the Dom just how far they could go, which limits he could push and which he should never consider.
The woman finally finished the forms, signed them and handed them to Alec. He checked her signature and a grimace of acceptance curved his lips.
"Katherine… how appropriate," he said.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" she asked, getting up, resting her hands on her hips, in a defiant position.
"You’ve reminded me of the main character of The Taming of the Shrew, Katherine, ever since I saw you for the first time," he explained, answering her defiance.
"No kidding? And I still wonder why I find you so obnoxious," she mumbled, loud enough for him to hear her.
He chuckled and continued reading her forms. She didn’t have much experience, other than the one she had with guy she had already mentioned. She had tried some bondage workshops, directed by known riggers, but that was basically all she had tried.
He looked her over, head to toe, and noticed the gauze on her feet.
"How are your blisters?" he asked
.
"Much better, thank you," she answered, blushing a bit, remembering what happened just after that.
"Good, I guess you're ready to get in. We'll start by taking a walk around the place for you to take a look and decide if you want to try anything," he said, taking her by her elbow and leading her to a coat room. "Leave your coat and purse here. Make sure you leave the club with them," he advised, unable to make his tongue refrain.
She showed her tongue to his back, but in that precise moment he turned to look at her and caught a glimpse of it. He closed his expression even more, and she was sure, right then and there, he was dying to lay his hands on her, preferably on her tender buttocks.
She giggled and followed him out of the coat room after leaving her belongings there.
Her first step into the club's main room was quite similar to entering another dimension. The place was nothing like any of the clubs she had ever been in before. The décor was sober, elegant and luxurious with couches of burgundy velvet, small round tables of dark wood, a bar in a corner and a big stage in the middle. Here and there, you could see small areas for those more exhibitionist, with all kinds of benches, and even a couple of Saint Andrew's cross.
"The good stuff is downstairs in the dungeons, and we also have several semi-private dungeons and private rooms as well, like the one I took you to last night," he informed her, whispering in her ear, to make himself heard over the music and the people talking. His breath on her ear was enough to send shudders down her spine, and she had to make a huge effort to control her body and not let him know just how much he affected her.
"Can you take me there?" she asked him, and he nodded, resting his big hand on the middle of her back, guiding her in the right direction. She was able to feel the heat from his hand going through the thin fabric of her top. She couldn’t quite understand why a simple brush from him was enough to set her on fire.
He took her downstairs and there they found a lot of people engaged in all kinds of play.
"Isn't it a bit early for this number of people?" she asked, curious. It still wasn’t seven o'clock at night and the place was crowded.
Dark Romance Novel - Submission + Taken + 1 Mystery books Bundle Set (A Dark Romance Series Novel) Page 102