Indebted Heart

by Measha Stone

  Kelly and Jessica greeted her as she spotted them in a corner booth. "Hey! Good! I was worried we missed you!" Kelly jumped up.

  "No, just finishing." Alyssa smiled, stuffing her hands in her apron pockets. "What brings you by?" she asked. The two of them had been trying to get her alone for over a week, but with her work schedule she didn't have time. Other than chatting at Friday night dinners, she really didn't know them very well at all.

  "You." Jessica smiled widely, she appeared genuinely cheerful. Alyssa wasn't really used to that, especially with women. Most of the women she'd known growing up were spiteful and jealous. "Alex said your shift ended at three, so we are here to kidnap you. Kelly made us reservations at Sepia, a really cool French restaurant, and then we are going to open a few bottles of Alex's wine and play a few dozen rounds of skeet ball."

  "Oh." Alyssa blew out a breath. It sounded wonderful, a nice dinner, and wine. She hadn't had a glass of wine in weeks, or any time to play in his arcade. She played a few rounds of other games in his bedroom which more than made up for it, but the idea of a game night sounded wonderful. "I can't. I have a shift at the club tonight."

  Kelly and Jessica exchanged a confused look. "Alex texted me this morning and said your night shift was cancelled."

  "What?" Alyssa dug out her cell phone from her back pocket. Four text messages. Three from Alex.

  10:00 am Overstaffed tonight, you're off.

  11:14 am Did you get that? You're off tonight. Go out and have fun.

  2:02 pm We really need to have a chat about your phone manners

  The fourth message was from Stephen.

  Hope to see you at the club this weekend. I have a surprise for you.

  She deleted the last message with a scowl.

  "Everything okay?" Jessica asked. Alyssa heard the genuine concern in her voice.

  "Yeah. Yeah. I just didn't get the message from my boss earlier. Looks like I'm off." The club was never overstaffed. Alex was playing with her schedule. He'd probably grown tired of arguing with her about her shifts and decided to take matters into his own hands. They could chat about her phone, and she'd have a chat about his micromanaging.

  "How did Alex know you were off before you did?" Kelly asked with obvious confusion.

  Alyssa felt herself blanche. That was an excellent question. "Let me just grab my purse and we can head out." She ditched the question entirely and left them, with their confused expressions, to grab her things.

  Kelly drove the threesome to Alex's apartment so Alyssa could shower and change. Alyssa worried they'd end up spending their evening in the ER instead of the arcade based on Kelly's driving. Jessica scolded her more than once to slow down and watch the alleyways. She hugged the curb too much on her turns, and Alyssa found herself bouncing in the back seat.

  The two women made themselves at home in Alex's kitchen while Alyssa showered. The idea of being jealous of them fluttered in her mind, but she quickly batted it away. Alex had explained his relationship with the two women. They had been like his little sisters, ever since meeting them in college. Alyssa got the very distinct impression he wasn't referring to Jessica in the sisterly light, but she seemed content with Royce, which made Alyssa feel a bit more at ease around her than originally.

  Her cell began to ring as she walked into her bedroom. She had been tempted to sleep in Alex's room while he'd been away, but she felt as though she were trespassing. When he was home she slept beside him every night, but it was at his discretion, his command. Without that directive, she didn't want to overstep her boundaries.

  "Hey!" She tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder.

  "Hey, to you, too." Alex's voice came over the phone. Just the sound of his voice soothed the tension from her shoulders. "Where are you?" he asked in a casual manner that kept her guard from flying up.

  "In my room." She answered while going to the suitcase that lay open on the desk.

  "Why are you there?" His tone told her he was frustrated.

  "Oh. No. Not my room at my apartment, my room at your apartment." She'd been having a hard time getting a hold of the rental office in order to terminate her lease, and Alex hadn't taken over the task —yet.

  "Why aren't you in my room?" he asked with less irritation.

  "I'm getting dressed." She sighed. "Jessica and Kelly are waiting for me. We're going out to dinner."

  "Yes, I know that, but why aren't you changing in my room? Haven't you moved your things over there?"

  "Uh. No." She looked around for her hairbrush. "I didn't want to intrude."

  "Intrude?" He said the word as though it were repugnant. "Alyssa, move your things into my room. You won't be sleeping in the guest room anymore." His firm dictate made her smile. "If I have to tell you once more that what's mine is yours, you'll be feeling my hand on your ass."

  "Do you promise? It's been ages since you've given me a good girl spanking." Was she teasing him? She couldn't seem to help herself when he wasn't there with his eyes on her.

  He sighed. "I gave you a really good spanking the morning I left." He reminded her. "And it wasn't the good girl kind I had in mind, if I find even one sock left in your room when I get back."

  It was her turn to sigh. "Okay. Okay. I was only teasing."

  "Good." The lightness crept back into his voice. "Where are the girls taking you?"

  "We are going to Sepia, I think. It's a French restaurant. Is there an ATM in the lobby? I don't remember seeing one, and I need to get to one before we go out." She dug through her suitcase in search of a pair of jeans that didn't have a hole in the knee and wouldn't make her sweat bullets on the way to the restaurant.

  "No, there isn't. I left you money, remember." Ice clinked on his end of the phone.

  "I don't—"

  "Alyssa." His patience was thin tonight. She plunked down on the bed and unraveled her hair from the twisted towel perched on her head.

  "Okay." She conceded. "By the way, Kelly wanted to know how you knew my shift was canceled before I did. I ignored the question, but you need to be more careful if you don't want them knowing about the club."

  "If you had checked your phone you wouldn't have been the last to know."

  "Are you mad at me?" Her lack of phone etiquette annoyed him, she knew that, but she'd never been tied to her phone before. There hadn't been anyone she expected to hear from so often that she needed to check her phone more than once or twice a day. Just having it in her pocket was a drastic change.

  A heavy sigh. "No, I'm sorry, baby. It's just this client is being a real ass. He loves the campaign but wants subtle changes that will cost more than he wants to spend. It's a numbers thing right now, which is why I'm here."

  "I know you're worried about your friends and your dad finding out about your lifestyle, but I think you should give them more credit. What are you going to do, live a double life the rest of your days? They might surprise you." She'd heard enough conversations between the girls and their boyfriends to know that they weren't too far off the map of the D/s lifestyle either. If her suspicions were correct, they each had a very deep relationship that involved more than a little slap and tickle. "And besides you can't have two full time careers." She realized her blunder as soon as the words left her lips.

  "Why not? You have no trouble with it." The irritation was back.

  "That brings me to another point. You can't take my shifts away like that."

  "I didn't. Brandon didn't need five waitresses tonight. There's a large private party that is using their own subs for most of the service." She winced. She had booked that party.

  "I booked it. Why did Brandon cut me?" It was her turn to be irritated

  "Because he didn't need five of you, and you've had double shifts the past two weekends. If you would take the manager position, you wouldn't be asking me these questions, and you wouldn't have to work at the damn diner." His voice rose steadily with each sentence. He'd never yelled at her before.

  "Maybe we should talk about
this later," she whispered into the phone.

  "That's probably a good idea."

  Silence stretched on.

  "I'm sorry," she finally said softly. "You're having a bad day, and my bitching isn't making it better."

  "No. I'm sorry. I hate being away from you. I miss you."

  A flush took over her cheeks at his words. She missed him, too. More than she had thought she would when he originally told her about the trip. "I miss you, too," she confessed. "When do you think you'll be back, so I can collect on that good girl spanking?"

  A gentle laugh came through the phone. "I should be home Friday. It's my turn to pick the restaurant. How about Thai food?"

  "Sounds wonderfully new." He enjoyed watching her experience new things. He'd been damn near giddy when she told him she'd never tried sushi. Before she could blink, he'd hailed a cab and hauled her to his favorite sushi place.

  "Then I better pick the right place." His voice was back to being light again. "Have fun with the girls tonight. Don't listen to Kelly. She'll talk you into doing something stupid. The cash is in the bedroom. I'll talk with you in the morning."

  "Okay." She sighed. The desire to feel his touch weighed on her. It would be another two days before she felt his fingers on her skin, his mouth on her lips, or his whip on her flesh. She was becoming intoxicated with him, to the point of near addiction.

  He possessed the ability to wipe all of the unpleasant memories of her past from her mind with a simple smile or caress. She'd worked hard growing up to keep from becoming jaded against men, and she owed that mainly to Paul. He kept her focused on the good in men, the good in life. Alex seemed to be carrying on with the lessons as he gently coaxed her from her protective shell. The one area she remained hardened in was her need to be independent, to provide for herself. She would not accept any more charity. She witnessed her mother use men and anyone else for a free meal, and she vowed to have more pride in herself. She may not be as intelligent as most, but she was a hard worker and would always provide for her own well being.

  Alyssa found the girls siting around the kitchen island with a full glass of wine in front of themselves and a third waiting for her. "Hey, I thought we were going to dinner?" She picked up her glass of red wine.

  "Yeah. There's a reason Kelly doesn't plan events. She made the reservation for the wrong night!" Jessica grinned. "I called to confirm, cause it's Kelly, and turns out she made the reservation for tomorrow night. So, we've ordered pizza."

  "You make it sound like I'm a dingbat." Kelly gave Jessica a playful swat to her arm, almost spilling her wine in the process. "I was finishing up some work this morning while I made the call. I just got the dates messed up."

  "Well, let's hope you can keep the dates straight when you order your wedding invitations." Jessica laughed and Alyssa joined her. The two had such a casual banter, a true friendship that she envied.

  "Whatever." Kelly gave an exaggerated eye roll and picked up her glass.

  "Oh, keep that up, and I'm telling Kendrick." Jessica laughed again.

  Kelly gave Alyssa a quick glance before throwing a retort at Jessica who also gave Alyssa a side look before changing the subject.

  "Here, let me move my purse out of the way." Alyssa grabbed her bag from the middle of the table. An envelope slipped out as she did so, and Kelly picked it up.

  "Top Floor?" Kelly turned the envelope in her hand. "Is this where you work?" She asked with a gleam in her eyes, handing the envelope back over to Alyssa. Kelly's knowing grin sent another twist to Alyssa's stomach.

  She decided to go for the truth. Just because she worked there didn't automatically mean Alex owned the place or that he had any interest in the place at all. "Yeah." She threw the envelope that contained her pay stub into her purse and tossed the bag onto the counter.

  "What's Top Floor? A dance club?"

  "It's a BDSM club." Kelly grinned widely at Alyssa. She held no judgment in her expression or her eyes.

  Jessica sat straighter in her chair. "How do you know that?" she demanded of Kelly.

  "I found an invoice for it in Kendrick's office. I was using his computer, and he had the invoices on the desk. I hadn't heard of that account before so I googled." Kelly shrugged.

  "Kendrick's company does the security?" Alyssa asked quietly. She hadn't seen him any of the times she'd worked, but she usually didn't talk with the guys doing security. They all looked so serious and focused.

  "Yes. But I'm not supposed to know. Or rather I'm not supposed to tell." She at least had the decency to look slightly guilty. Jessica squirmed in her seat, and Alyssa chewed on her inner lip. If Kendrick did the security then he had to know that Alex owned the club, and if he knew Alex owned the club, then he had to know about his interests outside of the vanilla realm where he pretended to live.

  "But you did anyway." Jessica supplied to break the silence that had fallen over the kitchen.

  "This is ridiculous!" Alyssa took a long drink of her wine. "What else do you know, Kelly?" She pulled a stool out from the island and sat across from the wild-haired redhead.

  Kelly eyed both women and grinned widely. "I know everything." She winked. "I know that Royce and Kendrick used to belong to the same clubs when Royce lived here years ago. I know that Kendrick and Royce both employ a strong hand when they think they've been crossed or one of their many rules have been broken. I also know that Jessica loves the riding crop as much as I love Kendrick's belt." Jessica's face quickly changed from a natural tan to crimson red, but Kelly didn't stop. "And. I know. That. Alex. Hired Kendrick's company for Top Floor. And that you work there. So there you go."

  "Kelly." Jessica groaned.

  “What? Don’t glare at me like that, Jessica. Now we all know about each other being kinky and don’t have to hide it anymore.” Kelly shrugged as she drank her wine, emptying her glass. “Someone needed to come clean about it all. What were we going to do tip toe around the subject the rest of our lives? Alex owns a BDSM club, Jess. How much longer was he going to hide that from us?”

  “Alex is going to die.” Alyssa mumbled. “So, Alex told Kendrick about the club but no one else?”

  “He didn’t really tell Kendrick anything. He hired him for the club’s security during construction before we met. And as far as Kendrick is concerned, I didn’t tell any of you anything. He only told me because Alex’s name was on the invoice I saw. He swore me to secrecy.”

  "A lot of good that did." Jessica shook her head.

  "Does Royce know about this?" Alyssa inquired.

  "He knows about Kendrick, but not Alex. At least he never mentioned it, but we don't talk about Alex very much."

  "I bet," Kelly muttered. "Now all we have to do is talk to Erin, and we can stop tip toeing around these things."

  "Aw gawd, Erin!" Jessica laughed. "The last person in the world that I want to have this conversation with is Erin. She'd never understand. She's way too 'I am woman hear me roar' to get this. Besides, something's going on with her. Every time I text her I get a one or two-word reply. She's cancelled out on dinner two weeks in a row, and when I asked if she'd be there this week she never answered."

  "Yeah. I got that impression too." Kelly nodded pouring another glass of wine. "Hey, now that we are officially out of the closet. I saw a flier at the club we went to last week for a slave auction at Top Floor. I know it's an exclusive club, but they've extended an invite to the members of Deviant Gallant. I think we should all go!"

  "Wait a minute." Alyssa put a hand in the air. She could already feel the heat of Alex's belt on her ass for the mess currently being made in his kitchen. He would blame her for certain. "Alex doesn't know you know. And he doesn't want you to know. And, I don't want him to know that I know you guys know."

  "Come again?" Kelly asked with a grin. The mischief in her gaze held promises of regret for Alex.

  "You know what I mean. He doesn't want anyone to know about this side of him." Alyssa pointed at Kelly. "Please. He's really weird about i
t, and I don't want him to know I spilled his secret."

  "Don't worry." Jessica laid a calming hand on Alyssa's forearm. Her comforting voice was backed up by the compassion lingering in her eyes. "We won't tell him, or the guys. Although I'm pretty sure the guys know. They seem to know these things about each other. But we won't tell them that we know."

  "Thank you." Alyssa let out a long breath. "He's been working so much with the club and the firm, I think he's going to implode soon, and I don't want to be the cause of it." Alyssa reached for the wine bottle and poured another glass for herself.

  "Funny." Jessica smirked. "He says the same about you."

  Alyssa let out an aggravated sigh. She knew he spoke to Jessica with regularity, and although it had worried her, she'd grown to see that his attentions were completely platonic. "Don't you start, too." She groaned.

  Jessica laughed. "I won't. I'm sure you have your reasons for wanting to keep up with both jobs. I hated depending on Royce—I still do. It's something we are working on together. I think Alex could help you in the same way. He's a great a guy."

  "Now you notice." Kelly muttered as she put her glass to her lips.

  "I always noticed. But he's, well… Alex." Jessica scrunched up her face. "He's like a brother."

  "I don't think he saw you in the sisterly light." Kelly gave twisted grin. "He does now, Alyssa," she rushed to say.

  "I'm aware that Alex had a crush, big crush, on Jessica. I could tell the first night we went out, but it was odd. I felt tension between the two of you, like he was drawn to you, but not at the same time. Very weird."

  "I think he really loves you." Jessica said with sincerity.