Heartless

by Sophie Stern

  Heath was nice and he was friendly enough, but I wasn’t really interested in him, like, at all. So, when he asked me whether I was seeing anyone, I was struck with the age-old problem of having to decide whether to be totally blunt or to completely lie.

  “That’s an interesting question,” I finally said. “What about you?” I reached for my wine glass. My brother and Lauren had both ordered water but nobody else had held back from drinking. I was going to need wine to get through the night, anyway. I might be a bridesmaid, but I was also a human being. I had no interest in dealing with these boring-ass conversations while sober.

  “I was seeing someone, but we broke it off recently,” Heath told me.

  “Ah, I’m sorry to hear that. Breakups are always tough.”

  I felt David’s hand squeeze my thigh. I tensed but didn’t look over at him. He was talking to Sally, Lauren’s married sister, who was on the other side of him. He didn’t let it show that he was touching me. In fact, there was no indication at all that his hand was on my thigh except for the fact that I could feel it sliding under my black lace skirt.

  I didn’t mind one bit. If anything, the fact that he was touching me seemed to calm me down. Maybe that was just the wine talking, but I liked this about David. I liked the fact that he was kind of a bad boy. He wasn’t afraid to be naughty or wild. He didn’t do what people expected. That was hot.

  “They really are,” Heath continued. I sipped my wine as he kept going on and on about his ex. I was tempted to tell him to just text her and get it over with, but I didn’t. Instead, I managed to stay polite and calm, and somehow, I managed to bullshit my way through the conversation.

  Finally, after what felt like an eternity, dinner ended. Lauren and Felix were ready to head back to their house. The wedding was in the early afternoon the next day, but the wedding party was supposed to meet earlier for pictures and that sort of thing. Lauren was feeling exhausted and ready for bed, and everyone else seemed to agree that it was a good choice to leave early.

  Heath hitched a ride home with Felix. The local auto body shops were already closed for the night when we’d met up for the rehearsal, so he’d have to call someone the next day for help getting a new tire. As it was, Felix was happy to drive him around.

  That left me with David.

  The two of us stood outside of the restaurant once everyone had left. It was chilly out, and I rubbed my shoulders. I was reminded of our date together and how I’d felt cold that night, too. That night seemed like a million years ago even though it had only been a few months.

  “Have you done a lot of dating since I saw you last?” David looked over at me and smiled. I leaned back against the side of the restaurant. I could feel the cold bricks against my shoulders. The sensation was rough, but not unpleasant.

  “A little,” I shrugged.

  “Me too.”

  “You’ve dated a little?”

  “Not Debra,” he said quickly. I laughed. So, he really was worried about me thinking that. Fair. I’d been a bit extreme in my reaction. That was putting it lightly. I’d been crappy to him in my reaction. There. That was a more accurate description.

  “Anyone memorable?”

  “There was a problem with each person I dated. None of them were you,” he told me carefully.

  I thought about that for a minute.

  “It sounds like you’re saying that I’m irreplaceable.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  “David,” I whispered. “Don’t tempt me. Don’t draw me in.”

  He reached for my shoulders and turned me, so we were facing each other. I couldn’t do this again. I couldn’t sleep with him and then walk away. I didn’t know much, but I knew I couldn’t handle it. Sleeping with him and calling it a one-time fling was going to kill me. I’d had my fair share of easy, casual sex. Sleeping with David had been anything but casual.

  “You’re incredible, Zoey,” he murmured.

  “David...”

  “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”

  “I feel the exact same way,” I blurted out. “It’s crazy, right? Tell me that it’s crazy. I mean, it’s all wrong. You’re Felix’s friend, and you’re a lawyer, and I’m just some digital tech girl, and we said it was just going to be a fun weekend together, but here it is, all this time later, and I-”

  He cut me off with a kiss. David pulled me close to himself, and he kissed me. He didn’t hold back, either. This wasn’t some soft, gentle, I’m-happy-to-see-you-again kiss. It wasn’t a polite kiss. It was hungry and dirty and raw, and it made my body feel like I was on fire.

  When he pulled back, he looked at me.

  “I want you,” he said.

  “I want you, too.”

  “I’m not ready for the night to end,” David told me. I knew what he meant. It was barely nine, and already, everyone else had gone home. We could do that, too, if we wanted to act like we were a million years old. We weren’t old, though, and we didn’t have anything we needed to rush home to.

  “There’s a club,” I offered.

  “A club?”

  “Yeah, a dirty one,” I chuckled. “It’s not far from here. We could go.”

  “What does Zoey Lane want to do at a dirty club?” David teased, stroking my cheek.

  “You could tie me up,” I offered. I shrugged like I was being casual, but I wasn’t being casual. It had been a damn long time since someone had pulled me over their knee, and I could use a spanking. If we went to a sex club, we could make that happen. Either he could spank me, or he could watch someone else spank me. It could be fun.

  “You don’t know what you’re saying, princess.”

  “I know exactly what I’m saying.”

  “Which club do you want to go to?” David asked carefully.

  “Classified,” I said easily. It was the best sex club in the area. It was private, it was clean, and you had to be a member to get in. Luckily, I’d gotten my membership the previous weekend. I’d even met up with an old friend who lived in the area. We’d played together a few times in the past, and even though she was in a relationship and wildly monogamous now, it was still good to get to catch up with her.

  “You need a membership,” he pointed out.

  “I have one,” I told David. “And I can bring a guest. You just can’t, you know, fuck anyone there until you’ve gotten tested and all that sort of thing.” It was a reputable place with reputable people. You could have as much sex as you wanted at the club, but only if you had the go-ahead.

  David looked at me for a minute. I wondered what he was going to say. I didn’t think the idea of going to a place like Classified was going to freak him out, but he didn’t say anything for a long time. Finally, he nodded.

  “I’m a member, too,” he said finally.

  “What?!”

  “You seem surprised.”

  “I am, a little. I mean, you are friends with my straightlaced brother.”

  “Your brother and I very different people, princess.”

  “Apparently,” I said, smiling. “So, it’s settled then?”

  “Classified,” he agreed, and we got in his car. David put on some music and I sang along as he drove. They were good tunes, and I was in good company, and I felt more at ease than I had since I’d moved in.

  “So, I work downtown now,” I told David.

  “That’s what I heard.”

  “Maybe we could have lunch sometime.”

  “Are you asking me on a date?”

  I blushed. I kind of was, wasn’t I? I wanted that. I wanted a date with David. I’d been scared to see him tonight. I’d been nervous that it was going to be weird. I’d been such a dick to him. I knew that. I never should have ghosted him or blown him off.

  I’d had three months to think about my behavior, though, and I’d spent plenty of time yanked over different laps at different sex clubs and having my ass beat. It was a therapeutic sort of experience, being spanked. It was like
being put in my place and punished, but it was also a total turn-on. I hadn’t had sex with anyone since I’d slept with David, but I’d been spanked. In some ways, it was like I was paying penance. I knew that wasn’t the way it worked, though. He wasn’t the one who had spanked me, so I still felt like I owed him.

  “Yeah, I’m asking you on a date.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I like you.”

  “You don’t owe me anything, Zoey. I like you, too. That’s not a secret. You don’t have to go out with me, though. It’s okay for us to just hang out tonight. Nothing has to happen.”

  “I want something to happen.”

  “Is that so?”

  “It’s so. David, I shouldn’t have run off before. I’m sorry. It wasn’t very mature. It certainly wasn’t very kind.”

  “That’s nice of you to say,” he said. He turned down a side road. We were getting close the club. He hadn’t asked for the address, so I knew he was telling the truth when he’d said he was a member. “I don’t hold any ill will toward you, Zoey.”

  “I know. You aren’t the type to hold grudges.”

  “If you and I want to try having a relationship, though, we’ll need to set some ground rules.”

  “Let me guess, no running away?”

  “No running away,” he agreed. That was a good rule to have. If you ran away every time that things got tough, you’d spend all of your time running and none of it being together.

  “What else?”

  “Honesty.”

  “Honesty?”

  “That’s very important to me.”

  “I haven’t lied to you,” I pointed out.

  “No, you haven’t. You stayed away for a long time, though. If we date, I’m going to need to know that you’ll be honest when I upset you. Zoey, I’m 30. I’m not perfect. I’m old enough to know that even the best couples have fights from time to time. What I need to know is that if we do embark on some sort of relationship journey together, that you’re going to tough it out with me when things get hard.”

  There it was.

  That word again.

  Relationship.

  I could do that, I thought. I could have a relationship with David. That was what I wanted, and it seemed like he wanted that, too. It seemed like we both wanted that. A relationship could be an incredible thing. We could do couple-y things like double dates and cookouts. We could do dirty things like tying each other up, like having sex at Classified.

  A relationship would be hard, though, and neither one of us had the best track record with each other. Still, I didn’t want to throw away what would probably be my last chance with someone like David. My brother hadn’t panicked or freaked out when I’d told him that we’d slept together. He’d seemed wildly calm about the entire thing, in fact. I didn’t need to worry about him, I knew.

  I didn’t need to worry about anything.

  “Yeah,” I finally told David. “Yeah, you’re right.”

  He pulled into the parking lot and turned to me.

  “We don’t have to make any choices right now,” he said.

  “I don’t want you to think that I’m pressuring you. When I saw you tonight, I honestly didn’t think anything was going to happen between us.”

  “So, what changed?”

  “I saw you, and I realized that I’d been an idiot,” I whispered. There it was. “I shouldn’t have walked away from you. Not before. Not ever.”

  “We all screw up,” David said. “I’m sorry that I didn’t boot Debra out of the legal firm. I think about that moment a lot.”

  “To second chances?” I asked, raising my pinky.

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s my pinky.”

  “Why are you holding it up?”

  “So, we can make a pinky promise,” I said solemnly.

  David burst out laughing and shook his head.

  “I’ve seen a lot of weird things, Zoey, but a pinky promise?”

  “Yeah, it means that we’re both going to give this thing a go. We’re going to try dating each other. I mean, we’ll have to figure it out as we go, but we could do it. We could date.”

  “I’m not making you a pinky promise,” he growled. Then he did what I wanted more than anything else in that moment. He reached for my hair, tugging it, and he used it as a handle to pull me close to him. David took charge of the moment, and he claimed my mouth with his own. He kissed me ruthlessly, relentlessly, and he didn’t stop until I felt dizzy. Everything was spinning when he pulled back, but I knew what that kiss had meant.

  “Now that,” he said. “That’s a promise, Zoey.”

  “What’s the promise?”

  “I will be honest with you, and I will be fair with you, and I will adore you.”

  “That sounds more like a vow than a promise,” I whispered.

  David just pressed a kiss to my forehead, but he didn’t say anything else.

  11

  David

  Classified was already crowded when we arrived. That wasn’t uncommon for a Friday night at clubs like this. What was uncommon was me showing up with a date instead of claiming one after I arrived. This was going to be an interesting change to a normal experience. Zoey and I each checked in with the front desk. We didn’t need membership cards to access the club. Everything was done by fingerprints. This meant that you didn’t have to carry a wallet into the club if you didn’t want to. Phones and bags weren’t allowed.

  The thing I liked most about Classified compared to other clubs I’d played at was that there was a zero-tolerance policy. If someone broke a rule, such as bringing in a phone, they were out. Done. There were no second chances. There was no, “I forgot.” It was just over. If you wanted to play, you played by the rules.

  End of story.

  We left all of our stuff inside of the car except for my key fob. That fit perfectly in my pocket. Once we were inside of the club, I was glad I had my hands free. I was also glad that Zoey and I had dressed nicely enough to go to the club directly after the rehearsal dinner. That dinner had been the most boring experience of my life. I was more than a little happy Zoey wanted to keep partying once our responsibilities as best man and maid of honor had been completed.

  “Excuse me for a minute,” she said, squeezing my hand. She slipped to the girl’s locker room to ditch her shoes. The rule at Classified was that you couldn’t wear street shoes. It was dress shoes, stilettos, or nothing, and although Zoey’s Converse looked cute with her outfit, they weren’t really appropriate for the club. I waited for her nearby, watching the scenes unfolding near me.

  A couple of women were on a stage nearby. One of them was spanking the other, which was always fun to see. They were doing a full-on teacher-student role play. The student had been naughty, apparently. There was something for everyone at Classified, and judging by the crowd that had gathered around the stage, people were solidly enjoying what they were seeing.

  There were a couple of other scenes unfolding nearby, as well. I spotted a couple flogging a shared submissive. One Domme had her submissive tied up, and was tickling him with a feather. There was even a scene where someone was being tied up slowly, carefully, with intricate ropework that would probably take hours to finish.

  “What did I miss?” Zoey asked when she returned. I looked over to see her looking cute as hell in that damn corset top and skirt. Then I realized that she hadn’t just ditched her shoes.

  “Did you take off your bra?” I asked, curious. Many corset tops were just that: corsets. Hers was more of a shirt with tight laces on the front and back. While many girls wouldn’t have opted for a bra with it, I’d spotted her bra strap earlier. Now it was mysteriously gone.

  “What?” Zoey blushed, but looked away. “Why would you ask me that?”

  I reached for her chin and turned it toward me. I’d developed a bad habit of doing that with her, but we both enjoyed it. Zoey was a good person. She was fun and cute and sexy and playful. I liked teasing her just as mu
ch as she liked teasing me.

  “Oh, princess,” I growled. “We both know I’m the top tonight.”

  “I didn’t agree to that,” she said, but her voice had changed. She was aroused. She was excited. She liked having me take control like this, and to be honest, I liked it, too. I’d always been dominant in my relationships, but being with Zoey, who was so feisty and untamable, was its own magic.

  “Darling, you agreed to it the moment you climbed into my car,” I told her.

  “I’m not wearing a bra,” she whispered.

  “Anything else I should know?”

  “I took off my panties, too.”

  “Why did you take off your panties, sweet Zoey?”

  “Because,” she said.

  “Because?”

  She took a deep breath. Communication. There it was. I could see the understanding pulsing inside of her. She knew that we needed to talk to each other this time around. Zoey and I played before. We’d even played in public, I thought with a smile. Her brother’s birthday party had been wonderful and intense and wild, and the memory of her coming apart in the hallway wasn’t something I would ever forget.

  “Because I had fun playing with you the last time that I saw you,” she told me. Zoey crossed her arms over her chest. I was still holding her chin, but I released her, giving her space to think and to feel. I wanted her, but I also knew she had to ready for this.

  “I had fun with you, too.”

  “When you got me off in the hallway,” she whispered...

  “That was incredible.” She had looked lovely. She had been perfect. It had been dirty and risky and fun. Sometimes it was nice to just let go in a safe way, and that’s what we’d done. Then again, that was the entire point of visiting Classified, wasn’t it? People here could unwind and play in safe ways. They could express themselves sexually without the fear of retribution. Every member had signed about 30 nondisclosure agreements, which meant that if you saw someone you knew at the club, or someone you recognized as a public figure, you didn’t talk about it.