by J. R. Gray
Stark was lost for words as her coat came away, giving him a view of her backside. Her rounded ass was barely split by an inch of fabric and he was painful hard now. All the dirty thoughts he’d had about fucking her there were flooding back into her mind. He wanted his face and his fingers and his cock shoved inside her.
He got himself under control. If he didn’t stop that line of thinking, he was going to be bending her over the desk and giving the gagged submissive a show. He wanted to build up to it. Make sure she was needful and begging to be fucked by the time he took her.
“Funny seeing you here.” A voice said from behind them.
They both turned, and a smile pulled at Scotty’s red lips.
“I’m Cheri.” She stepped forward and held out her hand. She was a curvy dream. A purple corset accentuated her hourglass form and her large breasts. She had perfect dark skin.
“You didn’t tell me your best friend was so lovely.”
“She’s lovely, but she’s only into women.”
Stark faked disappointment. Cheri was lovely, but he only had eyes for Scotty.
“And I’d kick your ass.” She handed over her coat, and then twirled the crop in her fingers.
“An even bigger shame. I’m utterly disappointed.”
“Oh no.” Scotty got out before Cheri stood up straighter.
“Do you have a problem with Dommes?” Cheri looked like she going in for the kill.
“No, not at all.” Stark backtracked.
“So it’s lesbians you hate then?”
Stark looked a little bit like a deer in the headlights. “No! My best friend is bi.”
“Don’t give me that excuse. You don’t get away with all of your behavior because you happened to have one bi friend.”
Stark took in a breath. He chose his words carefully. “I was only pointing out that you’re lovely, and it’s a shame I have no chance.”
“Less than no chance,” Cheri added. “But you better not be looking at anyone else while you have my best friend on a leash.” She pointed the crop at him.
Stark held his ground. “No one else exists. You can be sure.”
“They better not. I don’t even want to hear you complimenting other women in front of her. She deserves better.”
“I was merely being polite…” Stark felt like an ass.
She put the crop under his chin. “I’m letting you off because I’ve been told you’re a good Dominant, but mark my words, you do one thing like her last did and I’m going to take your balls.” She paused. “Do you understand?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Good.” Cheri turned and sauntered off.
“I walked right into her trap, didn’t I?”
Scotty was trying not to giggle. “Maybe a little.”
He yanked the chain attached to her collar bringing Scotty’s face to his. “Next time a little warning would be nice.”
“There is no warning to prepare for Cheri, Master.”
“So it seems.” He pressed his lips to her nose. “Let’s go. I have plans for you.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Scotty was floating. The night had been blur, but the best kind. She was currently wrapped up in Stark’s arms and she didn’t want to move. He untangled himself from her after a while and she rolled to her stomach, holding onto the subspace she’d missed for years.
The bed depressed next to her and she felt his hands on her again. This time he was gentle, rubbing something into her raw skin. It stung, but in the good way, and Scotty started to moan, lifting her ass toward him.
“Stop that, or you’re going to get fucked again.”
She picked her head up and peeked over at him. “I don’t see the problem.” And she didn’t. She was almost purring at him. She was a bit smitten.
He pushed his fingers into her hair. “Kitten.”
“Yes?” She lifted her ass and arched her back.
He tightened his hand in his hair. “I have someone I want you to meet. Stop teasing me.”
She lifted up, presenting her ass. “Oh, I’m not playing, Master.”
He smacked her already sore ass. “Put those panties back on and come with me.”
Ten minutes later Scotty was dressed, rather reluctantly, and being led back down into the club. She was led to a small alcove in the back. One of the VIP rooms she’d never set foot in. Stark acted like he owed the place, slipping behind the rope and not getting a second look from anyone. Set back in the curved recess was a man, but not just any man, it was the drag queen. It took Scotty a second, but she recognized him without the makeup on. She was about to ask him if it was him when she remembered her place. She stayed a step behind Stark and waited.
“Matt, this is Scotty.”
She kept her head down and did a half curtsy. “It’s a pleasure.”
He took one of her hands between his large ones and brought it to his lips. “The pleasure is mine, I assure you.”
Stark took the seat next to him and beckoned for her to sit at his feet. She gladly took the place and zoned out, laying her head on Stark’s thigh. She people watched and slipped back into a floating head space.
That was, until Tanya walked by. She had her hand in some blonde girl’s hair and was yanking her around the club. The girl looked positively wet. Scotty felt like she was going to vomit. She turned her face into Stark’s leg, but it was too late, she could feel Tanya’s eyes on her.
Stark stiffened. She wrapped her arms around his leg and clung to him. What if he left? What if he just left her there. What was she going to do? Bile rose in her throat, and her hands started to shake. Not here. Please not here.
“Look who the cat dragged in,” Tanya said in a sardonic voice.
Stark started to stand, and Scotty clung to him. He put a hand on top of her head, and she expected to be shoved aside. Left there to suffer Tanya alone. Where was Cheri? Scotty frantically scanned the club. She had to find her. Cheri was the only one who would stand up to Tanya for her.
“Scotty.”
Blood was thundering in her ears, and she wasn’t quite sure where the voice was coming from. She was hauled to her feet by strong hands and then enveloped.
“Scotty.”
She looked up to find Stark’s eyes.
“I’m not going anywhere.” He pressed his forehead into hers. “Understand?”
She nodded.
“You have to breathe.”
She took a small breath.
“Do I need to take you to the hospital?” She was aware he was pressing two fingers into her neck and looking at his watch.
“No,” she managed.
“Can you sit with Matt while I go handle her?”
Again she nodded, not sure she trusted her own voice. He set her down in the chair he had been sitting in and instructed Matt to work his magic. Whatever that meant.
Stark stalked off, and Scotty put her face in her hands.
She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up. “Hey there.”
“Hi.”
“He’s pretty good at the bad assery when it’s needed,” Matt said.
“Oh?”
“I watched him defend my sister a time or two.” Matt scooted closer.
“Wait…” She paused, putting the pieces together.
“Yes, I’m Stark’s brother-in-law.”
“I’m so glad he has you as a friend.”
“Come on now, what do you think he’d do without me?” Matt laughed. “Who do you think got him to leave his house for the auction in the first place?”
“Did you and Cheri?” She narrowed her eyes.
“Cheri said you would put it together.” There was a twinkle in his eyes. “She said you were a lawyer.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t until now.”
“You didn’t have all the information.”
The distraction of talking to Matt was helping. Scotty was almost breathing normally. But she didn’t dare look up at Stark. What if Tanya fed him lie
s? Made him believe things. She pulled herself back. She had to have faith. Without it she might as well be alone again. She couldn’t let her mistrust for someone taint every relationship.
“Do me a favor, will you?”
Matt was doing a good job of drawing her back out of her head, and she really needed it.
“Yes?”
“Don’t let him stay at home all the time. Make sure he gets out. This,” Matt gestured toward Stark. “Is getting worse by the year.”
“I’ll do my best.” Scotty said with a pang of guilt. She wasn’t sure she knew how. But she couldn’t tell Matt so, because Stark chose that moment to stroll back over.
“Are you okay?” He looked between her and Matt. “Is she okay?”
“I’m fine.” She offered him as much of a smile as she could muster.
“Let me get you a drink.”
Matt stood and put a hand on Stark’s shoulder. “You sit with her, I’ll get drinks.”
“What did she say?” Scotty asked before she could stop herself.
“I told her she isn’t allowed to speak to you anymore. Then she asked if I was your new Dominant, and she scoffed and told me I was a shut in.” He looked a little wounded.
Scotty frowned. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”
“She was right.”
Both Scotty’s brows rose.
“Don’t look at me like that. I know what I am. I’m comfortable with it.”
“Are you, though?” she asked.
“I am. But are you? We can come here on occasion, but for the most part I would like to stay at my place.” He seemed so set on the decision. Scotty wasn’t what she used to be by any means. She had a job now, she couldn’t spend night after night in a club, but there would be things she’d want to do, trips she’d want to take.
“Scotty?” he prompted.
“You know you have a problem, but you have no intention to fix it?”
“I am who I am.” His brows pressed together, and he was starting to look upset.
“So you worked with me to break free from my past, but you don’t want to do the same yourself?”
“Scotty.”
She held up a hand. “I nearly had a panic attack, but I bore it for you. I am here for you, but I recognized I needed the help. You’re a shrink, and you can’t even see you need the help.” She got to her feet and he tried to stop her. “No. Let me go.” She stepped past him.
“Don’t go. Please.”
She stood for a moment and pressed her eyes closed. The next two steps were the hardest of her life, but she had to leave. She had to do this for him, because if she stayed, she’d be enabling him, and she couldn’t do that to him any more than he could have done it to her.
She walked out of the club and didn’t look back.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Two weeks. It had been two weeks since Scotty stormed out of the club. She was feeling better about herself, trying to date, although it wasn’t going well. Not many people lived up. The truth was, she was still stuck on Stark. Not the unhealthy way she had been on Tanya, but a longing for what could have been. She was over it. He clearly had his own issues to work on, and if he wasn’t willing like she was, he wasn’t the right guy for her.
She checked her watch. It was almost noon, and if she wanted to escape the office for a few minutes to grab lunch she needed to finish up what she was working on. Grabbing a fresh cup of coffee, she took a seat back at her desk and went back to her reading. There had to be a precedent to go with here somewhere.
Her phone clicked on and her secretary’s voice came over. “Your lunch appointment is here.”
She didn’t have a lunch appointment. She flipped open her schedule. There was nothing there until two o’clock.
“I don’t have a lunch today…” she said. Her secretary did move things around, but he usually told her.
“You’re going to want to take this one.”
A tiny crease formed in her brow. He wasn’t often wrong, but this didn’t sound good. “Send them in.”
The handle twisted and Scotty sat back in her chair and crossed her legs. She gasped and nearly dropped her mug of coffee all over the cream colored dress she wore. She set down the cup, her hands were shaking too badly to even pretend to be normal. She dug in a drawer for a napkin to wipe up her desk, and when she looked up he was standing there with a dozen stargazer lilies. So much more romantic than roses.
“Can I help you?” She didn’t look up at him. She couldn’t. If she did she’d be gone. It was time to be firm. If he could go two weeks without talking to her, well, then she didn’t need to help him along.
“I can’t even begin to say I’m sorry, as you probably know.”
She scoffed.
“Hear me out, please.” He reached out but didn’t touch her, dropping his hand back to his side before he made contact.
“Okay.”
“I wanted to call you, to email…”
“Then why didn’t you?” she cut him off.
“Because I knew it wasn’t enough.” This time he did touch her. He came around her desk and cupped the side of her face. “I know I’m right.”
She nodded, wanting to pull away from his touch, but she couldn’t.
“I had to be here myself, and well, that took time and a lot of effort.” He looked at her pointedly and she couldn’t look away.
“Effort?” She didn’t know what to say. She wanted to believe him, but after giving Tanya so many chances it was hard to do the same for anyone else.
“Yes, I’m seeing someone now. It doesn’t take one session to break one’s habits. As it is, I had to have Matt drive me over here.”
She smiled in spite of herself. “Why’d he drive you?”
“I’m working on it.” He slipped his hand down to her throat. “Can we please go back to my place before I have a panic attack?”
Scotty raised one of her perfectly manicured brows.
“I came here and stood waiting until your secretary said I could come in. It gets me at least enough points for another date.”
“I did the relationship thing where she kept making promises. I can’t do that again.”
“This isn’t that.” He pulled out a piece of paper folded in threes. “Here is a letter from my therapist saying I’m in his care. If you call him, he’ll give you basic information. If I stop seeing him, he’s instructed to call you.”
She took the note but didn’t unfold it.
“Don’t make me have you strip and walk out of here naked.”
Scotty tried not to squirm. “I’m at work.”
“I know, but it got you thinking.” He offered his arm. “Come on, your secretary said you only have an hour.”
She took his hand and followed him out.
Epilogue
Scotty was running late. She knew how much Stark hated it when she was late, but she wasn’t finished. Not even close. This was going to be an all-nighter. Their relationship was still so new, she didn’t want to shatter it by blowing up the first big scene Stark had planned for them at the club. She was going back to her roots. Heels and a collar and nothing else. The look on Stark’s face when she’d agreed. It was everything. She squirmed thinking about it. She wanted to please him.
And yet… here she was still at the office thirty minutes before she was set to get to the club, working on a motion they needed for tomorrow. Scotty dropped her head to the desk and banged it a few times. She wasn’t going to get the marks she wanted, so she might as well give herself a forehead bruise. Although it was going to be a little hard to explain to her bosses. She picked up her head and took her phone out of the drawer. She’d put it away hours ago so she could focus, hoping to get everything done in time. It was time to be honest with Stark.
But when she saw the mixture of messages from him, conveying his excitement for tonight. Tears started to form at the corners of her eyes. What if she fucked this up? Her chest started to get tight. Another few years like
the last few would kill her. She was sure of it. Scotty wanted to pull back, to close off. Not let anyone get close again.
“Stop,” she told herself. “Fucking stop it.” He wasn’t Tanya. He was infinitely better. She had to face him. She had to do this. “I can do this.”
The clock was against her. Her freakout had taken another five minutes from her.
She picked up her phone again.
Scotty: I am buried at work. I’m so sorry, but I don’t think I can even make it late at this point.
She sent the message and waited. But before he could reply she had to say more.
Scotty: This is not me blowing you off. Please believe me. I’m not chickening out. We have a huge case tomorrow and everyone is still here. I can’t just leave.
She sent it and went back to work because it was the only thing she could do.
There was a knock at her office a little while later. She looked up to find Stark’s father, one of the partners, standing in her door way.
“I’m almost done with this, what else do you need?”
“Apparently my son showed up here, which has me aghast in the first place, but he would like you to join us for a drink, which has me extremely puzzled.”
Scotty’s eyes grew to the size of saucers, and she was sure her cheeks were red. Had Stark told him? They were still so new, it wasn’t the time to meet family or—
“Are you just going to sit there, or are you going to come and enlighten me?”
She cleared her throat. “Sure eh… let me just finish this and I’ll come to your office.”
He looked at her over his glasses and nodded.
Cue up a panic attack. What the hell was Stark thinking? Even as she typed and rechecked every last word of the motion she could not stop thinking about him. She didn’t want to go up there. What was she going to look like on the partners’ floor? It was virtually unheard of unless you were being reprimanded, or were running, which she hadn’t had to do since she was a first year. Since email and phones, no one went to another floor. If a partner needed something, they’d email her and she’d send the work back. She double, then triple saved all her work and forwarded it to be reviewed and then just stared at her computer.