“It’s a big favor,” Silk said as she slid half her omelet onto Gia’s plate with the bossy look that meant she wasn’t taking it back, no matter what Gia did.
“Okay,” Gia answered without hesitation as she sipped at her tea.
Her instant agreement caused Silk to stop and stare at her. “Don’t you want to know what it is first?”
Gia shrugged. “With all you’ve done for me over the last few weeks, I owe you more than I’ll ever be able to repay, so whatever you need, I’m in.”
“My brother, Dominic, needs a submissive to play with Friday night. He wants to visit Esoteria before he considers buying it, and I told him I’d line up someone for him to play with.”
Silk’s favor had Gia freezing with a piece of bacon halfway to her mouth. Slowly lowering it, she stared across the table at the woman who had claimed her as her sister from another mister at their first meeting. Ironically, it had been at the club when Silk had been assigned to give Gia a tour and help her find a dominant to play with.
They were actually two sides of the same coin instead of twins. Silk was headstrong, forceful, bold, and brash while Gia was less sure, more hesitant, but just as headstrong and forceful when there was something she wanted.
Unlike Silk, Gia needed Club Esoteria to stay open. As soon as she found a job, she would be back—spending her weekends getting her masochistic freak on, though, these days, there weren’t as many unattached dominant members to play with. Silk was a bondage submissive, needing to be overpowered and tied down to find her pleasure.
Both women were straight, and waiting none too patiently for the right man to find and claim them as his own. And though she was submissive, sometimes Gia liked to play on the other side of the flogger as a change of pace. Her prayer was to meet a man who would, on occasion, allow her to top him.
“Does your brother know what he’s getting into? Is he in the lifestyle?”
Silk laughed, the sound infectious, causing Gia to smile. She walked to the table where they had the computer set up, and booted it up. “Oh, he’s in the lifestyle all right. I’ve never seen him play, but I bet he’s a dominant most worthy of the title. He’s been going to the club in Raleigh to get his freak on. Lately, it’s been almost every weekend. He tells Mama there’s no one important in his life, so I don’t think he has a steady submissive there. Thing is, he comes home after those weekends stressed and grumpy. He needs Esoteria, and you, as much as we need him to buy the club.”
“And what makes you think his kink and my kink will match up?”
Silk waved a hand in a poo-poo manner. “He’s a man and you’re a woman. What more needs to match up? You need a man to take control, and beat you to stop you from overthinking everything. He needs something to focus on other than coming up with the next perfect tomato sauce, and making sure the family business interests are making money. You’re perfect for one another.”
Though she wanted to argue, Gia knew it was no use. Silk was determined. So, she would go to the club, meet this brother, and spend the evening playing with him. She only hoped that whatever Dominic’s kinks were, they would mesh with her masochistic need to be dominated, because she was going to need a good flogging to ease the stress that was growing with each day she remained unemployed.
“All right, I’ll do it.” She sighed.
She could not help but smile when Silk did a seated victory dance with her hands held at head level. “Yes, yes, yes! I thank you, Dominic thanks you, and all the members of Esoteria will thank you once they learn of your sacrifice.”
When Silk snatched up both meal tickets the waitress laid on the table, Gia swallowed down her argument. “If this blows up in our faces, you’ll owe me. Big time.”
“It won’t. Trust me.”
Chapter Two
Dominic frowned at his sister Friday evening as he drove them to the club she wanted him to check out. “Tell me again, why I’m doing this when I could be home watching football?”
“Because if you don’t come tonight, I’ll tell Mama what you have in that duffel bag sitting back there.” She pointed over her shoulder at the backseat of his SUV. “And then I’ll tell her what you do all those weekends you go out of town. You’ll be lucky if she only drags you to church to have you re-baptized before sending you to a monastery high in the mountains of Tibet for the rest of your life. Turn here and roll down your window.”
Following instructions, Dom wondered who the true dominant in the car was. Though normally submissive and easygoing, when there was something she wanted, Silk was a force to be reckoned with. Since she had talked of nothing for the past week except his coming to Club Esoteria before buying it next week, he knew his fate was set.
He only hoped this submissive she had arranged for him to play was everything Silk had said she was. He also hoped Club Esoteria lived up to all he had learned about it since Silk had started talking about buying it.
He had to admit, he could use a new challenge now that the restaurant no longer needed his constant attention. Like the other businesses the Zaccaro family owned, the right people were running it well. He spent time in the kitchen there because he didn’t have anything better to do, and he loved to cook.
Running a sex club might be just the thing to shake him out of the rut his life was becoming. Even his trips to the club in Raleigh had grown stale. He cycled through a group of sadistic submissives who understood he was there to dispense pain and fuck, not build a relationship. He needed something more, something different in his life. He just wasn’t sure exactly what that something might be.
Stopping at the gate, a man who looked like a Mr. Universe contestant stepped out of a small guardhouse and approached, clipboard in hand. Floodlights over the entrance provided more than enough light for the guard to see both occupants of the car.
“Good evening, Sir,” he said before looking across the front seat at his sister. “Hello, Silk.”
“Hi, Rafe. This is my brother, Dominic Zaccaro. He should be on the guest list.”
Rafe ran a finger down the list and checked off two names. Reaching up, he pushed a button on a small box on the lapel of his jacket. A moment later, the traffic arm blocking the driveway in front of them rose.
“Have a good evening,” Rafe said before stepping back so they could drive into the parking lot.
After parking, Dom climbed from his SUV and looked around, impressed with what he saw so far. The parking lot was fenced in, and well lit. Trees and bushes planted around the outside of the chain link fence provided an additional layer of privacy for those visiting the club. After pulling his toy bag from the back seat, he locked the doors. Then he turned his attention to the building that housed this place his sister loved.
It was a turn-of-the-century, four-story brick warehouse that looked much like any of the other, older warehouses around town. This one had new windows, and at some point over the years, the bricks had been painted a medium tan.
He was only mildly surprised there were no signs posted, either on the building or the fence, to let the world know what this building housed. The only sign he had seen at all was a small “Club Esoteria” and street number painted on the mailbox beside the security gatehouse.
“Come on.” Silk looped her arm through his and dragged him across the parking lot. “You can’t tell anything about the club from out here. All the action is inside.”
“Are you sure you’re a submissive?” he asked, only half-joking.
“Only with men who aren’t related to me,” she said with a grin. “Did you remember your paperwork?”
“Yes. All filled out and with a copy of my medical history,” he said, pulling the folded papers out of the side pocket of his bag.
Without discussing it, he had decided to wear his usual club clothes of black jeans and a long-sleeved black cotton shirt with his favorite black cowboy boots. Silk had nodded her approval when he had picked her up, though he refused to answer her question of what he wore under his jeans. That
was no one’s business but his, and possibly his play partner.
At the door, he took the opportunity to swat her ass as she passed him. She squeaked a protest as she leapt through the doorway. Once he followed her in, he smirked at her look of sisterly outrage.
“You have something to say to me, sister?”
He watched as Silk took a breath and held it for several seconds before releasing it again. “Only that you’ll have to sleep sometime, brother dear,” she answered, her tone full of snark, “and I know where you keep the spare key to your room.”
Dom couldn’t help the bark of laughter that escaped. “I’ll have to move it when I get home.”
Stepping up to the check-in desk, he handed his paperwork to the man standing there wearing a pair of blue camo boy shorts.
While he checked in, he kept one eye on Silk, who stepped over to a rack of good-sized baskets. After placing her shoes in one, she took off her coat and added that. When she turned around, Dom’s eyes went wide as he tried not to swallow his tongue.
Like the man behind the counter, his sister was wearing blue. Only her outfit consisted of a baby blue thong and a pair of pasties that were attached to one another by a very thin string that matched the thong.
“Looking good, girlfriend,” the young man behind the counter said.
“Thanks, Ryan.” Silk twirled, proving that her back was covered only by the waistband of her thong, the string across the middle of her chest connecting her pasties, and one around the back of neck.
“Oh. My. God,” Dom said, spinning so she was out of his sight. “And you talk about Mama sending me to a monastery? You’d better get ready for the convent. How did you get out of the house wearing that?”
“Hey, there’s a prize for the best shades of blue costume tonight, and I plan on winning,” Silk said from behind him. “Besides, Mama went out to dinner with Aunt Tina.”
“From what I’ve seen come in so far, you’re in the running,” the boy said with a grin.
Dom could not help the growl that rumbled through him as he glared at Ryan. “You do realize that’s my sister you’re talking to, don’t you?”
“Yes, Sir, but it’s true. Silk always has the best costumes. Some of the other single submissives wish she would find a man so they would have a chance at the title.”
“Uh-huh,” Dom said, not sure what title he was talking about. He was more curious as to whether or not it would be inappropriate if he tied Silk to a post and beat on her until she promised to wear more clothes, even if they were in a sex club. He sighed as he decided he would have to find someone else to do it for him. “All right, Silk. Let’s go inside before you catch a cold out here.”
“Yes, Sir,” she said with enough snark that his eyes narrowed as his fingers itched to swat her.
* * * *
Gia stepped into the lobby with a shiver. The temperature was dropping like a rock, and wearing so little clothes under her floor-length midnight blue velvet cloak didn’t help. Going to the corner, she placed her shoes and clutch purse in a basket, and hung her cloak on the last empty peg on the wall. With another shiver, she turned toward the check-in desk.
“Hey, Ryan,” she greeted the man behind the desk checking people in.
“Good evening, milady. How are you this fine eve?” Ryan greeted her with a half bow. She stopped and looked around to confirm she was the only one in the lobby.
“Why so formal?”
“That cloak always makes me think of Shakespeare, ladies, and knights on horseback. Then you take it off, and look like you belong in a cowboy saloon in your corset and half skirt.”
Gia’s cheeks heated as she signed in. “You are such the charmer. If I didn’t already have plans for the evening, I would take you inside and reward you for such kind words.”
“Maybe next time,” Ryan said with a grin.
His offer made Gia remember there might not be a next time. Even if she got a refund on the eight months she had left in her membership, she would not have enough to pay her rent and utilities and eat for another month. She also had nowhere to go unless she broke her long-held rule about not leaning on others for support.
“Has Silk shown up yet?”
Ryan nodded. “About five minutes ago. She’s with a tall, dark, yummy man I would give my left nut to play with, if only he were gay. Is he yours for the evening?”
Gia shrugged. “We’ll have to see if our kinks match up, but yeah, she asked me to meet him.”
“Good luck, milady,” he said as she pushed her way through the curtains that separated the lobby from the main room of the club.
Gia took several steps before stopping. Club Esoteria was a different world and it always took a few seconds for her eyes and mind to adjust to this new place.
The club was already hopping, which was surprising since it was still early. But with a snowstorm predicted to arrive before morning, everyone probably wanted to get their play in and call it an early night. Gia would be at home herself, taking a long hot bath while she tried to figure out what her next move should be. She had been turned down for jobs as waitresses, store clerks, and secretaries this week. She had managed a dance club at the beach until the owner decided to run away with his girlfriend to Mexico. She would join the military, except, according to the recruiter she had half-seriously talked to this afternoon, there was a nine-month wait list for openings.
Looking around the room, she did not see her beautiful friend, or a man who fit Ryan’s description of the man who had arrived with her. Moving further into the room, she decided to go to the bar. After all, the club was only so big. Eventually Gia and her brother would arrive at the bar.
“Good evening, Gia,” Sinclair Matthews said from behind the bar. “Are you Mistressing or subbing tonight?”
“Silk asked if I would play sub for her brother tonight. She’s trying to convince him to buy the club,” Gia said as she slid up onto a barstool.
“Taurus and Jenna took them into the office a minute ago.” Sinclair placed a glass full of ginger ale in front of her. “Silk said you should wait for them here.”
Gia couldn’t help but grin at the order. “Can you believe she’s a submissive? She’s the bossiest, most determined woman I’ve ever met.”
“She needs a strong man to beat her on a regular basis,” a deep male voice said from behind her.
Gia huffed a laugh without looking to the speaker. “Yeah, like that’s going to happen.”
Turning on the stool, Gia found herself looking at a man’s chest. A broad, muscular chest covered in a black shirt. Tilting her head back, she looked up, up, up into the strong, masculine face of a bronze-toned angel. Black hair clipped short matched the close-trimmed mustache and goatee that surrounded a pair of full lips and emphasized a strong jawline. His smile set off gleaming white teeth that she swore glinted in the available light. Lifting her gaze further, she took in his strong, Roman nose that had a bump where it had been broken at some point in the past.
Looking up further, she fell into eyes so dark brown, they appeared black. Eyes that studied her as closely as she was him. Dropping her gaze for a quick look, she saw his black jeans, and black cowboy boots. He was dressed as a dominant. Returning her gaze to his, she saw a need for more than just a submissive to play with for the evening.
“Gia Rogers, I presume?” he asked after nearly a minute, during which, she felt his gaze travel from the top of her head to her bare, unpainted toenails. His deep voice wrapped around her like a warm blanket, giving her goosebumps even as her pussy clenched, and her nipples sprang to attention.
The urge to fall to her knees and beg the man to do with her as he would was strong, but she fought it back. Instead, Gia shifted back to the bar and winked at Sinclair with a smirk. “The men who wish to play under me call me Lady Gia.”
“Uh, Gia.” Silk stepped up beside the big man. “This is my brother, Master Dominic. Dom, this is Gia Rogers.”
* * * *
Dom could not he
lp but raise an eyebrow at the woman’s statement. Gia Rogers was the woman Silk had been trying to introduce him to for months, but he had always found an excuse to avoid it. Now he wondered why. The woman was as round and full-bodied as his sister, with full breasts and hips that had his cock popping up with interest. Just the kind of figure a woman should have, with curves to hold onto and a lushness that made a man want to snuggle.
Her chestnut brown hair hat curled in riotous profusion to her shoulders, making his fingers itch to play in them. Her bare shoulders covered with freckled ivory skin that continued down to the top of her corset. The pale blue corset ended at her waist. With it, she wore a cutaway skirt made from see-through netting with a pair of panties covering her goodies.
And though she spoke as a Domme would, her feet were bare, indicating she was, in actuality, submissive. She sat perfectly straight, her head up and shoulders back, radiating an aura of royalty. She looked like an incognito princess who was trying to hide who she was, but instinct gave her away. Once they got to know one another better, he might be willing to kneel at her feet, but for tonight, he was in charge, and planned to enjoy every luscious inch of her.
Stepping close enough that his belly pressed against the side of her upper arm, he slid his hand under her hair. He did not stop until his palm cupped the back of her neck. It was a perfect fit. He felt a shiver run through her at his touch.
Leaning in until his lips were barely an inch from her ear, he whispered, “You are mistaken, princessa. I am in charge tonight and you will kneel before me. Then, while I spank your ass, you will beg for my forgiveness and favor. Afterward, we’ll talk before moving on to the good stuff.”
The thumb resting atop her carotid artery picked up the increase in her heartbeat. At the same time, he watched her breathing stop for a few seconds before starting once more. His sister’s little friend wasn’t nearly as dominant as she wanted him to believe.
Blackmailing Dom [Club Esoteria 17] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 2