by Harper West
Her being upset didn't bother me. I was coming to know her well enough to know she was more upset with herself than anything. Ash didn't want to care so much, which was how I knew she did. It could definitely work in my favor.
There were things I wanted to do with her--to her--that I knew she'd take issue with, but if she saw it as some kind of challenge, then that could be very interesting.
And very fun. For both of us, if she just let herself enjoy something every once in a while.
I had plans, and it required some shopping, so I got dressed and bundled up, heading out into the bright, cold day.
There were plenty of people out and about on the first day of the year, and traffic was a nightmare. By the time I got to where I was going, my mood had sunk a little, and I'd flipped off more than a couple of drivers for being fucking incompetent on the road.
I made it to the Maison without too much extra time and strode in, happy to see that it seemed to be mostly quiet.
Diana was behind the counter as always, and she looked tired, but pleased.
"Happy New Year, Killian," she said, giving me a smile. "How was the ball?"
I shrugged a shoulder. "Same old. I did a flogging demo that went over well."
"Of course it did," Diana said, rolling her eyes. "You're Killian Abernathy and you can do no wrong when it comes to using a flogger."
"What does that have to do with me being Killian Abernathy?" I asked her. "I'm pretty sure that just comes down to skill and nothing else. Maybe some practice, but not my name."
"You know what I mean," she said. "People who know you would line up around the block to have you demonstrate on them."
"Would you?" I waggled my eyebrows at her. I already knew the answer to that, so it was mostly just teasing. There were very few people Diana would submit to, and I was for sure not one of them.
"Fuck off, Killian," she said, but she was still grinning.
"Oh my god," came a voice from behind us, and I turned, surprised to see a woman standing there with her hands over her mouth and wide eyes. I'd never seen her before, but she was looking at me like she knew me, and Diana looked amused.
"Can I help you with something, love?" she asked.
The woman shook her head. "No, I was just... I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I was standing right there, and you're Killian Abernathy."
I lifted an eyebrow and gave her a look over. She was pretty enough, and I really didn't recognize her at all. I couldn't tell if she was someone who knew me through kink stuff or if she knew my family name and was about to have a very interesting story about how the son of the Abernathy fortune spent New Years Day in a sex shop.
I wasn't ashamed of that part of my life by any means, and I didn't go to great lengths to hide it from the rest of the world. It just happened naturally that the sort of people who knew my parents and my family didn't travel in the same circles as the people who I knew from the club or the fetish ball.
But there was always a chance of overlap, and if this was it, I was interested to see how it would go.
"Do I know you?" I asked her, head tipped to one side.
She shook her head quickly. "No, no. I'm just... a fan, I guess you could say. I've been at the club, and I was at the ball last night. I saw your demo, and it was amazing."
"Oh," I said, smiling now. "Well, thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it."
"I also met your partner," she said, and there was a lilt of confusion at the end of the word, which was what we wanted, I suppose. "I was telling her she's a stronger woman than I am because if you were mine, I wouldn't be sharing with the public." She blushed and slapped her hands over her mouth again. "I'm sorry, I just can't keep my mouth shut today, I guess. I didn't mean any disrespect, of course. I'm sure whatever arrangement you two have works very well for you. I wasn't casting any judgements."
I laughed, hoping it would set her at ease. "Don't worry about it," I said. "Ash and I have an unorthodox relationship. It works for us. I'm sorry, you have me at a disadvantage here. I don't know your name."
She blushed again, and it was a good look for her. Her skin was that creamy pale that blushed well, and she had dark hair tied up in a bun. I couldn't remember seeing her the night before, but she'd probably been standing with Ash at the demo. I could only imagine how that had gone over.
"I'm so sorry. I'm a mess today. My name is Eve. Eve Merran."
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Eve," I said. "Do you go to the club often?"
She nodded. "Whenever I can. I don't have a partner or anything, so I mostly go to watch. Sometimes I volunteer for demos when they're having them."
I nodded in return. "It's a good way to start out. If you want, I can recommend some people who are looking for new subs. I assume that's the way you lean?"
Eve blushed again. "Is it that obvious?"
"I wouldn't say it's obvious, I just have a nose for these kinds of things. You seem like the type who is most at home in a collar, on her knees." I purposefully lowered my voice at that, just to test something.
And like I'd thought, Eve's face flushed beautifully. I knew her type well. Eager, bright, ready to serve, but not quite brave enough to get out there yet.
"Oh," she said. "I... that would be great. I've sort of... I don't know. I've heard horror stories about meeting the wrong people and getting hurt. I'd really like to experience someone who was trustworthy and who knows what they're doing."
"Of course," I said. "That's what anyone wants. And I can make sure we get you someone like that. Let me give you my contact info." I pulled out my wallet and handed her one of my personal cards. "Next time you're heading to the club, give me a call. If I'm down there, I'll make some introductions."
Her eyes were wide, and she looked at me like I'd just handed her the secrets to life. Or a million dollars. "Oh my god," she said. "Thank you so much. This is so kind of you."
"Hey, we were all new once," I said. "Someone took me under their wing and got me started, so the least I can do is pay it forward."
She looked like she was going to cry or try to hug me, so I nodded once more and made my way deeper into the shop so I could look for what I'd come there for in the first place.
I could hear Eve chattering away with Diana at the front, and then the chimes over the door, indicating that she'd left.
I hefted a spool of rope, testing the feel of it against my hand. I had plenty of rope already, but could you ever really have enough?
Diana found me a few minutes later, and she had her hands on her hips, looking at me with a look I could only qualify as 'disapproving mother'.
"What?" I asked, frowning at her.
"You're married," she said.
I gave her a bewildered expression. Ash had met Diana once, and before we had a story in place, I had told her we were married. But what did that have to do with anything? "And?" I asked her.
"And you were practically about to make that poor girl come in her pants in the middle of my store."
I laughed at that, amused. "That's hardly my fault. She was just excitable."
"She was into you. She was practically begging you to bend her over and spank her right then and there, and you weren't doing anything to shut it down."
I sighed and put the rope back. "Diana, I wasn't coming onto Eve. I don't even know Eve. And even if I was, that's between me and my wife, don't you think?"
"You're telling me she knows you're out here flirting with other subs?"
"I wasn't flirting, and yes, actually. There's no exclusivity when it comes to playing between us."
Diana looked skeptical for a second, her innate need to protect subs and vulnerable women clashing with the fact that she was my friend and she knew me better than that.
"I didn't know you two had an open marriage," she said finally.
"Diana, with all due respect, you don't know anything about our marriage."
She made a face but had to concede the point. "Fine, that's fair. Tell me this, though. If Ash had som
e man sniffing around her, wanting to play, would you be alright with it?"
It was hard not to laugh at that. If some other man wanted to play with Ash, he'd get the sharp side of Ash's tongue and maybe a kick in the balls for good measure. She had to put up with me if she wanted the money we'd agreed on, but that didn't extend to anyone else.
I shrugged because I knew what Diana was getting at. "Sure," I said. "If she wanted that, then I would be fine with it. It's all equal and fair, Diana, I promise you. We even have it in writing."
She finally relented at that, and it was funny because she had no idea how literal I was being.
I made my purchases and headed back to my car, but my mind was on Eve and her eagerness. If she wanted a night with me, I could arrange for that. I could show her a thing or two.
And she'd already met Ash, which was an opportunity in disguise. Ash didn't want to admit she was jealous of the little one offs I had done with other women, but what if it was more consistent? Would that make it better or worse?
How would she react to finding out about Eve?
I had to admit I was curious, and it made me eager to find out.
Hopefully Eve would contact me and we could set something up. Maybe, if I was lucky and played my cards right, I could do something with both of them.
My cock twitched in my pants at the thought of having two gorgeous women at my disposal, helpless and eager for me, and I had to take a second to grip the steering wheel and get a hold of myself so I didn't crash the damned car because I was horny.
A trip to the club was definitely in order, and soon.
Chapter 10
Ash
With the holiday season behind us, things started to slow down and pick back up at the same time. People were back to school and back to work, and the coffee shop was still slammed from morning until lunch with people who needed their caffeine fix before they headed off to start their days.
Taking orders was automatic, and I made drinks and fake smiled for hours, wishing I was anywhere but there. I supposed I could have quit if I wanted to.
Killian was always telling me I could quit if I wanted to. He was paying my bills and once the year of our arrangement was over, I could get away with never working again if I wanted to.
Every time I had a rough shift full of entitled asshole customers who treated me like dirt, I thought about quitting, but it was something like pride that made me stay. I needed to know I wasn’t just freeloading off of Killian. I needed to know I was still doing something to contribute to my own upkeep. Otherwise I would just feel shitty.
So I stayed, and I put up with the rude people and the ridiculous requests and the amount of times I had to tell people we weren’t a corporate owned shop and didn’t take gift cards from other places went up.
I missed Laura, who was always a ray of sunshine and could make even the worst shift go by faster with her bright outlook, but she was off on maternity leave, and I was there with the rest of my co-workers who were just as done with the bullshit of other people as I was.
It didn’t help when towards the end of the first week of the year, Killian came strolling in.
He looked effortlessly good, as always, with his scarf around his neck and snow flurries in his hair.
Two women who were sitting by the door stopped, mid-conversation, to stare at him, and I fought hard not to roll my eyes and make a disgusted face at their blatant ogling.
Killian, of course, didn’t even seem to notice. He walked right past them and up to the counter, flashing his usual charming smile at Kevin and then looking right at me. “Before you start to fuss, you should know that me being here wasn’t my idea.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Why would I fuss?”
“Because you get testy when I come to your workplace, and you know it. But I’m here to meet someone, so if I could get a caramel latte, that would be great.”
I rang him up, and Kevin went to make the drink, leaving the two of us standing there. “Who are you meeting?” I asked, more to make conversation than because I really wanted to know.
Killian’s lips twitched in a smile. “Someone I just met recently, actually. An Eve Merran.”
I frowned because I didn’t know who that was, but of course there had to be a reason why he was telling me her name. He didn’t do things for no reason. Eve Merran. The name Eve stuck out in my brain, and I remembered the woman from the ball. She’d been basically fangirling over Killian and his flogging skills, and I’d been standing next to her, wishing I could have someone less excitable near me.
Surely, he didn’t mean her. There were probably hundreds of Eves in the city, and Killian didn’t even know I’d talked to her. He’d been busy on the stage with the unnamed beautiful submissive woman he was flogging.
“Caramel latte?” Kevin said, holding the drink out at the pick-up side of the counter, and Killian winked at me before going to collect his drink and find a seat.
Whether or not Eve Merran was someone I was supposed to know slipped my mind pretty quickly as a wave of customers entered the store and started a new rush. We made drinks and took money as quickly as we could, and I ducked into the back to get more cups before we ran out.
When I came back out, the crowd had died down a bit, and there was someone witting with Killian at his little round table. It was in fact, the same woman from the ball, and I stood there for a second, wondering if my life was some kind of cosmic joke.
Of course it was the same woman from the ball. Of course she’d managed to talk to Killian at some point, and of course she wanted to meet at the coffee shop I worked at. Of course Killian couldn’t have suggested somewhere else, because he wanted to rub my face in it.
He wanted me to be jealous. He wanted me to make a scene so it would stroke his ego, and I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.
He could have coffee with whoever he wanted to have coffee with. If Eve had got her hooks in him and wanted to flirt and tease and whatever the fuck else she wanted to do, that was fine. I didn’t care.
Killian wasn’t mine. I wasn’t his. We could do whatever we wanted. It was in the contract.
So I went about my work, forcing myself not to look over at them at all. I cleaned the counters and made a fresh pot of dark roast. I pulled out more muffins and cake pops and erased the sign for hazelnut creamer when we ran out.
I put my head down and kept my focus on my job for so long that when I finally looked up, Killian and Eve were gone.
On Saturday I was at Killian's apartment, and I sat on his couch, trying to think of the best way to bring up his meeting with Eve without sounding like a jealous crazy person. He hadn't brought it up at all, instead asking me about my week and how the year was going for me so far.
I didn't trust it. He was doing it on purpose, I was sure, waiting for me to bring it up or trying to drive me nuts with the wondering and enjoying watching me squirm. That was just the kind of sadist he was.
No matter how much I told myself I didn't care what Killian did with other women, I had to admit the curiosity was driving me mad.
"So," I said finally, putting down my bowl of soup and looking at him. "How was your meeting the other day. With Eve, was it?"
He smiled like I had just played right into his hands, and I wanted to kick myself, but it was already out there, so I couldn't take it back.
"It was Eve, yes," he said. "You've met her, I heard."
I made a face. "Yeah, she was at the ball. She's a fan of you."
"So I've learned. She wants someone to help her learn the ropes, to turn a phrase, and I offered my services."
Something felt sour in my stomach, and I didn't need to be genius to guess what it was. And of course, Killian was just sitting there, smug and annoying, trying to make me take his bait.
He wanted me to be jealous for some reason. Probably because it would stroke his stupid ego. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction, but I didn't feel great about what I was hearing.
If he had
agreed to help Eve, that meant it would be more than just a one-night thing, more than likely. They would be playing together often.
I knew from listening to Killian talk about it that he preferred to get to know the people he played with to build trust and a rapport that would keep things safe and enjoyable for everyone involved.
That meant Eve would be in his life for a while, which meant she would be in my life.
"You know," Killian continued. "She wanted to make sure you were okay with it all. She seemed to get the feeling that you would be because you were, how did she put it, oh yes 'not very impressed with me overall.’" He gave me a look, and I shrugged.
"I told her the truth," I said. "I'm not one of your fangirls, you know. I see you for what you really are."
"Which is?"
"An egotistical pervert."
He laughed at that, and I knew my opinion didn't really matter to him all that much. He was an egotist who was full of himself. He only cared about opinions that lifted up his ego.
"Well, she doesn't seem to think so. We're going to meet up on Wednesday. I just wanted to run it by you and make sure you were really alright with it."
I huffed and rolled my eyes, folding my arms across my chest. "Why wouldn't I be alright with it? You can do whatever you want. It's in the contract."
"It is in the contract," he agreed. "But you haven't exactly been making use of it, so I wanted to check and make sure you haven't fallen madly in love with me or something."
It was laughable that he would even think something like that was possible. "You're absurd," I told him. "And you're just proving my point about you being obsessed with yourself even more. I was never looking for a partner. I have things to do. I only have to put up with you because you're making me do it."
"Well, I'm sorry to put you out, but it's not like you aren't getting anything out of it in return."
And that was the crux of the contract. We both got something from this marriage and that was the end of it. It was all monetary or physical, so there was no need for emotions to get involved. That would just make things messy and complicated, which no one needed because in a few months when the whole thing was said and done, we would both be going back to our lives and forgetting this had ever happened to the best of our abilities.