by Jane Henry
“I’ve known Chandra longer than this store’s been around,” Axle says. Well, so much for keeping anything secret.
“Is that right?” she asks. “How do you know each other?” She shoots me a quizzical look, and I feel a little guilty. I should’ve maybe told her about last night.
“I… grew up in the neighborhood where he was… well…” My voice trails off and Axle laughs out loud, but the door to the shop opens at that moment and Marla gets busy handling her customer.
“What should I tell her?” I hiss to him.
Axle just wraps a hand around the back of my neck and gives me a firm but tender squeeze. “Babe, let me handle this.”
Well I like that. “Sure,” I say, as the customer leaves with his purchase and Marla turns back to us.
“Spill, girl,” she says. “I’ve known Axle for years, and it’s blowing my mind that you two know each other.”
What’s he going to tell her?
“She was a young girl, right out of high school, when we met,” he says. “I was a newly-ordained priest who lived on her street. We fell in love, had an illicit affair, then broke it off when things got too intense.”
Marla blinks. Her mouth hangs open, mirroring mine. He did not.
“Well,” I say with a sardonic laugh, “Maybe you should tell her the truth now? Stop hiding the facts?”
“And now,” he continues, as if there is nothing at all scandalous or wrong about this, “I found her again. As you’re well aware, I’m no longer a priest. She’s a full-grown woman. And here we are.” My heart’s doing strange, wonderful, fluttery things in my chest. Marla’s grinning. But soon, it fades, because he’s drawing closer to me, his hand on the back of my neck is pulling me to him. Then he’s kissing me, right here in the store, just a quick brush of lips.
I close my eyes when he comes back in for more. I can’t even care that Marla’s here, that anyone could walk in at any minute, that I’m a new person now that he doesn’t even know, and how can he make this claim on me?
Because this is right. Perfect.
Necessary.
I need more, which is exactly what he wants from me. I lean into the kiss while Marla whoops out loud. The door to the bookstore clangs again and I’m only mildly troubled, because he’s still kissing me and hell, I’m not stopping this.
“Books, and cake, and kisses?” The accent gets my attention, and Axle lets me go. Viktor stands the entryway.
“Honey, it’s ‘buy a book, get a kiss day,’” Marla says. “What book will you have?”
“Five of whatever he bought,” Viktor says.
“Limited edition,” Axle grits out, and I think he’s the only one not amused.
“We’re talking about books,” I whisper in his ear.
“You’re talking about books,” he amends.
Viktor walks to Axle and extends his hand. “Viktor,” he says. “Not sure we’ve had the pleasure of meeting.”
“Axle.” They shake so hard it looks painful, and I wince involuntarily. Well then. It looks like I just walked right into a pissing match.
Viktor finally lets go and turns to Marla, and they go back behind the desk and talk to one another. Axle helps me stock some shelves, place sale tags on new releases in the front, and fill some online orders we got overnight.
Axle picks up his order and takes the trash out. When he’s gone, Marla turns to me. “Girl, you know Axle’s a dom, right? And a damn good one. I’ve scened with him a few times.”
A flourish of jealousy hits my chest, but I tamp it down, and Viktor’s jaw tightens.
“I know,” I tell her. “I definitely know he’s a dom.”
A smile lights up her face. “Girl, we have some catching up to do.”
I grin. “Tonight at Verge?”
She nods. “It’s a date.”
Viktor frowns at Marla. “Are you planning on going this evening?”
She nods. “Well, yes. I go most evenings.”
He stands with arms folded on his chest. “Did I give you permission?”
Marla’s eyes widen, and she flushes pink. “Um, no,” she stammers, but thankfully Axle walks in at that moment. I’m not sure I like seeing my friend chastised by this guy, and the whole “permission” thing is still new to me.
“Chandra, I need to get going,” Axle says. Standing by the door, he beckons for me to come over to him. I gratefully leave Marla to deal with Viktor and walk to Axle.
“Axle,” I whisper in his ear. “Is it normal for a guy to demand someone to ask for permission when he’s only known her for twenty-four hours?”
Looking over my shoulder, Axle frowns, then he leans in to whisper in my ear. “Babe, it’s normal for a dom to demand his sub ask permission when he’s known her for minutes.”
“That’s when they’re scening,” I hiss.
He holds up a hand. “And you know they’re not?”
I look back over at them. Viktor’s got a grip on Marla’s elbow, and her head is down. I wonder if this is my writer’s imagination or if this is actually okay. I shrug at Axle.
“Keep an eye on things, but stay out of it,” Axle says, and there’s warning in his voice. “Things get complicated when people interfere in other people’s relationships, especially a dom/sub one like this when you definitely don’t know the whole picture.”
I frown at him, my pride prickling. “You were the one who told me to keep an eye on things,” I say, but he gives me a warning look.
“Chandra, enough.”
I close my mouth in surprise. He’s got that stern look in his eyes, and I didn’t expect it. When he has my attention, he raises a finger to me to catch my attention.
“Are you allowed to talk back?”
I don’t actually know what I’m allowed to do, so I answer him honestly. “I don’t know. I mean obviously you’re not a fan.”
He shakes his head, but his eyes are twinkling when he tugs a lock of my hair. “Meet me at Verge tonight, and I’ll clarify things for you. I’d pick you up, but I have to go a lot earlier and you’ll still be here.”
My heart beat thunders and my mouth goes dry. We’ve already talked about this, and still, my mouth goes dry. “Yes, sir,” I say. “I’ll be there. What time?”
“Seven o’clock, and I want you to bring a change of clothes.”
My skin is all prickly with excitement and nerves, my belly is doing crazy flip flops.
“Okay,” I whisper, then nod. I grin at him. “I mean yes, sir.”
The parting kiss he gives me takes my breath away, slow and languid and dominant, taking what’s his and leaving me hoping for more. His fingers tangle in my hair and I anchor my arms on his shoulders. I come up on my toes and lose myself to him, in strength and memories, a part of who I once was resurrecting when I’m in his arms. Too soon, he releases me and tugs a lock of my hair with a lopsided grin.
“Behave,” he says.
“What happened to we don’t kiss?” I ask. What are we doing here?
“That’s at the club,” he reminds me. “No kissing. No fucking.”
My pulse spikes. Then he’s gone.
One day ago, I was going about my life, making my way in this world. I was working and making friends and paying bills and buying groceries, washing my laundry and walking along never knowing how quickly that would all change. That a man would walk into my present straight from my past and bring me to my knees, leaving me longing for the man I loved then and love now. There’s a hole in my heart when he leaves, as if a part of my very self just walked away.
Tonight, then.
I turn back to the store, not entirely sure what’s going on here at all. Marla’s looking at me in stunned silence, her eyes wide and mouth slightly parted. Viktor’s just left, and she’s got the freshly-tousled, just-kissed look about her.
“Well, then,” she whispers. “Time for a coffee break?”
Chapter Eleven
Axle
Tobias takes a long pull from a travel mug
of coffee and leans back in his chair. Zack’s just arrived, and Tobias has locked and shut his door, an indication that something’s off, because I’ve never seen him do that. I stare at both of them, needing answers. Two days ago, this was a club filled with people I cared about, my friends, and I’d have done anything to be sure the members were safe.
Now, my girl’s coming here. So I won’t rest until I know I can bring here safely.
“Axle.” Zack greets me with a chin lift, pulls out a chair, and takes a seat and runs a hair through his longish, sandy-brown hair. Zack’s one of the more serious members here, a stickler for rules and safety, and even though we give him shit for being a stick-in-the-mud sometimes, he’s a good guy.
“Zack.”
Tobias puts his coffee down and leans over his desk, his fingertips pressed together. Tobias is a large man, with his broad shoulders and dark hair and eyes. His face is fuller since he married his wife Diana, and he’s got more laugh lines around his eyes than he used to. Marriage becomes him. Zack and Tobias are the two pillars of Club Verge, and over the years have become my closest friends.
This is a sparse but well-furnished office with large, comfortable leather chairs, a gleaming desk outfitted with a computer and office supplies, and monitors set up along the walls that show the vacant rooms of Verge. If I didn’t know those clipboards held BDSM contracts, I’d think this looked like any normal office. The cameras are on full display, as all of them monitor the public rooms.
“Axle wanted to talk to me about something he noticed the other night during the blizzard,” Tobias says, cutting right to the chase.
Zack, our friend and member here, a detective for the NYPD, is our go-to when anything arises. He raises his eyebrows to me and leans back in his chair.
“I don’t have much,” I tell him. There’s no way of telling him everything without mentioning Chandra. Hell, after kissing her at the bookstore, word’s gonna get out soon eventually. And I’m not turning back. So now’s as good a time as any.
Leaning back in the chair, I clasp my fingers behind my head. “When I closed the other night,” I tell them. “I thought we were totally vacant but neglected to check the women’s restroom. When I did, I found a young woman who was sick, and she hadn’t heard our announcement to evacuate.”
Zack nods. I can feel Tobias’ eyes on me, steady and certain. He’s seen more than anyone else has yet, though I like to believe the more intimate things were for my eyes only.
“She was a girl I knew back in the day,” I continue. I take in a breath and let it out on a sigh. These guys are my friends. There’s nothing to hide. “I knew her back when I lived another life. When I was a small-town priest.”
Zack’s eyes widen almost comically, and he sits up straight. “Axle,” he says. “Say that one more time?”
I laugh humorlessly, the memory still sad and painful. Tobias knows my past, but only the bare minimum. “I was a priest,” I repeat. “Newly ordained. I moved into the rectory on the same street where Chandra lived with her parents.”
Neither of them says anything, but I can feel the burning question.
“She was legal,” I say through clenched teeth. The thought of taking advantage of a minor makes acid churn in my stomach, but I plod on. They need to know that fact. “She was an adult, but still living with her parents. Came from a strict home, and actually had an arranged marriage set up.” I lift my chin, my voice rising in strength as I tell my story. “I loved her from the moment I first met her. She wasn’t mine to have, and I wasn’t hers, but we did it anyway. We fell in love. We had an affair. And when someone found out about it, they leaked our news to the local press with pictures of us together.” I swallow hard. “Condemning pictures.” The memory of those pictures plastered over the local paper are seared into my memory for life, a constant chastisement for the mistakes I’ve made. “We broke it off and went our separate ways.”
Zack asks the last thing I expect. “What priest has the name Axle? And the tats?” Tobias chuckles.
“My name was Noah,” I tell him. “Axle was a nickname I picked up at the shop, and it stuck. No one calls me Noah anymore, and the tats came after I was laicized.”
“Laicized?”
It all comes back with ease, all the trappings of the faith I left. Hell, I could recite the words of mass right now.
“It means to become a lay person. No longer a priest.”
“Stripped of his super powers,” Tobias says with a smirk.
Zack nods. “Got it. And so this girl shows up one night at your BDSM club?” he asks speculatively.
“Yeah,” I tell him. “It was an accident. If you knew her, you’d know she isn’t the type to play games. And night before last, I found her puking her guts out in the bathroom.”
Tobias snorts. “Romantic reunion.”
He has no idea. Good.
But Zack looks disbelieving, and his suspicion irritates me.
“Isn’t a little odd,” he says, “that she just shows up and sees you again? Do you believe she’s telling the truth? How do you know she didn’t stake you out?”
I can picture her innocent eyes looking at mine, and I know there’s no way she planned this. No way she lied.
“She didn’t stake me out,” I say through clenched teeth.
“Okay,” Zack says. “I’m happy for you, man, if you are. But how does this play into why we’re here today?”
I nod. “So she was totally fine while on the floor and guests were here, then became violently sick almost instantly. I wondered if someone had slipped something into her drink.”
Zack furrows his brow, giving me a look that says he’s not sure I’ve got a valid point, but he’s too polite to criticize.
“Listen,” I tell him. “She hadn’t had anything to eat. And after she got it all out of her system, she was fine. No residual side effects like a virus or anything like that.”
“Was she drinking on an empty stomach?” Tobias asks. “If she was, she could’ve just been vomiting because she was drunk?”
I shake my head. “She wasn’t drunk. Believe me. Buzzing, maybe, but this was different.”
“Got it,” Zack says. “Fair enough. So what else did you see?”
“Well, I went back to the bar and found the surveillance cameras over the bar were covered with fabric, as if someone wanted to temporarily mask the feed.”
Now Zack looks stern, his lips set in a thin line. “No wires cut?”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
“And Tobias, you’ve gone over the feed?”
Tobias nods. “Yeah. Nothing amiss. One minute, the feed is coming through as usual, the next, things are wobbly then it’s black.”
“Interesting. But the only guy who would have access to the surveillance cameras by the bar would be Travis, and we all know how much we can trust him.”
We do.
Zack looks to Tobias. “Any new members lately?’
Tobias nods. “Lots,” he says.
“Guy named Viktor?” I ask. I feel kinda like a douche for bringing him up, and throwing Marla’s new man under the bus, but I don’t want to leave any evidence behind and I’ve learned to listen to my gut.
Tobias nods. “Him, and a few of his cousins,” he says. “They all come up squeaky-clean, though. Ties to the Russian military, but nothing more. No records. Not even so much as a parking ticket.”
“Got it.”
“Okay,” Zack says. “Tobias, do I have permission to investigate further?”
Tobias nods. “Listen, man, our members’ safety is important. You’re on my payroll, and they submitted applications, so have at it.” He turns back to me. “Literally all we have for information is that Chandra was throwing up, and someone blocked the bar feed?”
I nod, suddenly feeling foolish. I wish I had more, and it was enough that I didn’t want to neglect mentioning it, but hell I’m not about to let this slide. My girl’s safety is on the line, and if anyone threatened that…
“Absolutely.”
“I’ll give Travis a call and check in with him,” Zack says.
“Right,” Tobias says. “Check back in tomorrow, everyone’s on alert tonight. I’ll fill in Braxton and Chloe, too. Definitely helps having a private investigator and cop on the lookout.”
“Good call,” I say, getting to my feet.
“Chandra coming here tonight?” Tobias asks.
I nod. “Yeah.”
He smiles at me. “Good.”
I leave the office unsettled. I don’t want to talk to them about Chandra and whatever is going on with us now. Hell, she’s coming here tonight. They’ll see her soon enough. And I’m not even sure what I’ll tell them even if I did talk about her. When I get to my private room, I don’t know if it’s my imagination or that I just want her here, because I imagine her still in my bed, the room illuminated with her light and permeated with her lingering, intoxicating scent. My cock throbs at the memory of her naked and stripped, and hell I want her back here.
Next, I check the linens to be sure I’m well stocked. Towels and washcloths, blankets and clean sheets line the small utility closet in the bathroom. The plastic grocery bag I brought with me contains a whole variety of feminine things I imagine she needs. I went to the “travel size” section of the store and bought anything that looked pink and lavender and feminine. I wasn’t even really sure what I was buying. I should maybe up my girly toiletry game. I’ll have to pay closer attention.
Next, I make sure the small, dorm-sized fridge I have here has water and fresh fruit, a few sandwiches, and a variety of snacks.
Then, the toy table.
Anticipation curls in my belly when I make my way to the implements. I’ll outfit this section. Soon. But not tonight. For some reason, the idea of wielding anything on her doesn’t appeal to me like it has in the past, and it’s a little disconcerting. I’ve always loved gripping the handle of a paddle or crop or my sturdy leather belt. But when I think about it, I make up my mind. With Chandra, I want nothing between us but the intimacy of skin to skin contact.
