by Aidy Award
“Dirt, Mistress?”
“Anything I can use to get him to leave us alone.” I’d be pursuing my own plans to end Foster’s reign of terror, but any info Ilario could get me would help.
“Do you want me to return this dirt to you or Mr. Grayson?”
This was the tricky part. “Tell Gray as little as you can get away with.”
“That won’t be easy. He will know. It’s like he can read my mind.”
I laughed. “I know the feeling. Do your best.”
Gray wanted to protect me. I needed to be able to protect him too.
If I ever got in the same room with that pendejo Foster again, he was getting a damn fine dressing down for being such an unbelievable pollas en vinegre.
Holding Gray responsible, making him feel like shit for years, for something that was not his fault in the slightest, and then doing his best to make our lives miserable. Chingada Madre.
If I had my way, Foster Bennett wouldn’t be pushing responsibility for his mistakes onto anyone else. He’d be owning them himself.
With a little help from my friends.
Paperwork is not a Safeword
Lilly looked tired, but healthier than ever. She had a bit of a glow about her that only Hawk seemed to bring out in her. “Hello, Lilly. Hawk.”
“Hey, Doll. Gray here’s been filling us in on your coup d'etat over the bureaucrats,” Hawk said.
Remember how wound up that pendejo had been still made me smile. “Yeah, that was good times. I hope to get our permits on Monday, but if not, I know whose balls to go stand on.”
Hawk rubbed his hands together. “We can start kicking recruitment into high gear now then.”
The two of them together made the perfect enticement to join the club. Hawk loved to use his charms and all Lilly had to do was bat her eyelashes and people would sign on the dotted line. The twenty-five thousand dollar VIP membership line if we were lucky.
“Yes. Start with Danica Chamonix.”
“The model?” Lilly asked.
“Yeah. I met her at a great coffee bar and gave her one of the pamphlets you made up. She’s not only interested, she’s excited and not shy about it. I think if you got her on board early she’d bring in some other new members.” Exactly the kind of people I wanted in my club. Curvy, sassy and a little badassy.
“Well, amazeballs.”
“Mistress Angelina.” Dominic’s voice rang through the door.
“Dominic,” Gray answered the door and welcomed Dom and his gorgeous curvy goth girl in tow.
“Angelina, I’d like to introduce you to Addison, also known as Mistress Addiction. Addy, this is Angelina.”
She reached out her hand to me. “Hi. It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too. This is Hawk and Lilly.” I introduced the rest of the room while I tried to figure out what to say next. “Hawk and Lilly are managing membership.”
And Gray is…what? I’ll never say the words silent partner out loud. I awkwardly left him out and turned back to Addison.
“Nice to meet you too. Mr. Baker, nice to see you again. Dominic’s told me all about everyone.”
“Addison. Glad you could come this morning.”
I guess I didn’t need to introduce her to Gray. They were apparently already buddy buddy. Hmm.
I glanced over to Dominic, but he didn’t see me as his eyes burned only for this dark beauty. “I have the feeling Addison isn’t here simply for introductions.”
“Addy has experience as a floor monitor at several other kink clubs and she’s damn smart. I want to hire her away and have her run our orientation classes, even train up our other floor monitors.” Wow. I’d never heard Dominic this excited about anything before.
Addison looked down at her feet, some sort of embarrassment coloring her stance. Interesting.
“That sounds promising. Why don’t you two put together a proposal for the orientation? Addison, the most important tenet I want new members to understand is safety.”
She glanced up at me. “Oh, yes, of course. Safe, sane, and consensual is always the key.”
She understood the lifestyle, but would she understand what I wanted? “More than that, the club has to be a safe place for people to come and be themselves. I’ve got a very tall order on hand for you, if you join our team.”
Addison glanced from Dominic and back to me. “I’ll do my best, if you’ll have me.”
She seemed quite sweet to me, and I wouldn’t have pegged her as dominant, or even a top.
Curiouser and curiouser.
“Great, then think about this. I want to imbue the club with the value that all people are accepted and even celebrated no matter their shape, size, skin, disabilities, abilities, and kinks. It’s too easy for people coming into this lifestyle to get taken advantage of instead of getting their needs fulfilled.”
Dominic grinned at Addison. “I told you she was building something special.”
I had the distinct feeling she wanted to stick her tongue out at him. But she held it. Control? Or submission?
I’d like to see where this relationship went. They were a good match if they could figure themselves out. Dominic could switch, but what did Addison need?
I saw a little bit of myself in her. Look how long had it taken me to figure out what I needed.
“Come on back to my home office, and we’ll do some paperwork.”
“I’m hired?” The surprise was cute on her.
“I know what I like, and I like you. The job is yours for the taking, mija.”
As was Dominic.
She looked at Dominic who was grinning his face off, then back to me. She had a new fire there. It looked good on her.
“Oh, great. Then I’ll take it.”
“Good, follow me.”
I took Addison back to my desk and pulled out the same kind of contract I’d done with Dominic, Hawk, and Lilly. I filled in a generous salary and slid it across the table to her.
She slid it back.
“I’m not for sale like that.”
I’d hit some sort of nerve. “Like what?”
“That amount of money is way beyond the scope of the job I was thinking you were hiring me for. So, the rest must be for something else you want to buy from me. Dominic assured me you weren’t opening that kind of club.”
Ah. “You mean prostitution?”
She nodded curtly. “I don’t sell myself.”
Good girl. “I promise that I’m not asking you to. What I am asking is a lot though. The task I’ve set for making my club a place where anyone can feel comfortable playing in, isn’t an easy one. This isn’t a simple floor monitor and orientation job. You’ll be an integral part of my club.”
Damn. I meant our club. Mine and Gray’s.
She looked at the paper again and narrowed her eyes at the page. “It’s still too generous and that makes me wary.”
“I understand, but I believe in paying people what they're worth. If you don’t think you’re worth this much, then I’ll expect you to work on that.”
Addison stared at the paper and blinked more times than I could count. A firestorm of decisions were happening inside her head. I waited to see what would burn out first.
She grabbed the paper and pen and signed.
“Excellent.” I gave her some of the other basic employee documents to fill out too. “Can I ask you a question while you do that paperwork?”
I might as well do some multi-tasking. I grabbed my stack of mail and opened the first envelope. A bill for the sex toys we’d be stocking in the club.
“Maybe. Like what?”
“We haven’t been here that long and I’m looking for some, uh, suppliers for the club.” Some things, like toys, could be ordered online. I also wanted a boutique with fetish clothes and jewelry. I didn’t want junk either. I sliced through several more envelopes and stacked them according to what I needed to do with them.
Addy continued to fill in all the boxes on the employment forms. �
�Oh sure.”
“Dominic implied you’ve been in the scene here a while. I thought you might know of some kink friendly clothing and jewelry designers.” The only piece of mail left was the mystery package. I pulled off the brown paper and found a tufted linen box inside with an intricate mandala logo imprinted in gold on the lid. It was the same as the necklace Gray had given me the other day.
Addy and I both stared at the box.
“I can point you to a couple of people. Like Serenity Designs.” She pointed to the lid. “What are you looking for?”
Huh. Either Serenity Designs had heard we were opening a club and were soliciting for our business already, or I’d gotten another present.
“A collar.”
Addison stopped filling out the page and looked at me, questions all over her face. “A collar?”
“Yes, for a man, but I don’t want anything traditional, and it’s got to be something I can actually get him to wear.”
“Are you collaring Dominic?” She tried to sound nonchalant about her question, but she said his name a couple of notes higher than the rest of her words.
I wanted my guys to find the right one, and if I could help that along, I would. “No. He’s been with me for a while, but he’s free to be with anyone he wants now. Like you, for example.”
That flustered her. “But Gray, I mean Mr. Baker—”
“You can call him Gray or Grayson, we don’t stand on too much formality here. Unless of course it’s part of a protocol you’ve agreed to?”
I didn’t think for a second Gray was messing around with anyone, but maybe Addison and Dominic had done some negotiations. This girl had lots of potential.
“No, it’s just, Gray asked me—”
The way she stopped mid-sentence for the second time had my spidey senses on alert. “Go on.”
She nodded toward the box again. “Umm, about those kinds of vendors too.”
I pushed the box aside and steepled my fingers. “Did he?”
“I think I don’t understand your relationship.” She glanced at the box, over at me, and narrowed one eye asking a question with her expression.
I didn’t know the answer to the enigma that was Gray and I either. “Join the club, mija.”
“Isn’t he your Dom?”
“Most of the time.”
“But you’re a Dominatrix?”
“Most of the time.”
“You’re going to collar him?” As many times as she glanced at the box when she asked that, I wondered if Gray hadn’t sent me a collar and pretended to not know what the delivery man had brought.
I had my own surprise coming his way. “I’m also looking for wedding bands.”
“Oh you are? Wow. Okay.”
Gray popped his head into the office. “Cade called. Our permits came in this morning.”
Hay, Dios Mio – I sure as hell hoped he hadn’t heard any of the rest of our conversation.
“About time.” Someone, and I knew exactly who, because he had texted me on the number I’d written down for him on my card, had walked them through, office by office, stamp by stamp, sign off by sign off.
He wouldn’t tell me who was paying him to hold them back in the first place. But Foster couldn’t hide very long from me.
Gray chuckled. “I can’t say I’m surprised. Put on your Dominatrix persona for the construction crew and you’ll have the whole place built by next week.”
“I just might do that.”
“Naughty minx. You do and I’ll have you over my knee.” He kissed me quick and hard and then walked back out of the office.
Addison shook her head. “I definitely don’t understand your relationship.”
I wasn’t even sure I understood what was going on between Gray and me these days. Which was why I had to figure out how to convince him to marry me.
“Let me know if you do figure it out, because I’d like to know too.” I pointed to the papers. “All finished?”
Addison slid the documents across the desk to me. “When do you want me to start?”
“We don’t exactly have set schedules and probably won’t until the club opens. For now, we all have projects. You and Dominic can work together.”
The sparkle in her eyes gave away her excitement, and I didn’t think it was simply for the job.
“Sounds great. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Feel free to go back and join him with the others. I’ll be along in a minute.”
She didn’t waste any time getting back to Dominic’s side.
I waited until she was in the hall before I pulled the box in front of me and lifted the lid.
Inside, on a cushion of fluffy cotton, sat another necklace. I lifted it from the box. A curvy angel wrapped in a dark grey chain dangled from a leather cord.
Beautiful, and interestingly twisted. The perfect description of the connection Gray and I had. This time his gift came with a note.
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Serenity;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Serenity—
With a love that the wingèd Angel of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
A love poem from Gray was absolutely the sweetest thing I’d ever seen. I had no idea he even read poetry, much less thought about it or wrote it.
I put the necklace on and nestled the charm next to my heart. It felt heavy and cold there.
Nothing like the love I had for Gray.
What a strange thought to have about a piece of jewelry.
Breakable
When I got back to the living room, the mood had decidedly changed, and no one was saying a word.
Addison looked stricken with a plague that had her white made-up face looking incredibly paler, and Dominic was standing on the other side of the room.
Gray paced back and forth across the room talking on his phone.
“Ilario, dammit. This is what you’re there for. I can’t keep her safe if you don’t get me up to date intelligence.”
Gray talked to Ilario like he was a CIA agent or something. My poor sweet Ilario.
“Gray, I’m fine.”
He ignored me all together. I looked to the rest of the Scooby gang for answers.
I had to stare them all down with my evil eye before anyone said anything. Hawk finally caved.
“Addison here has admitted to Grayson that Foster Bennett hired her to spy on you.”
My head whipped around to the ashen Addison. “What?”
“I’m sorry, Angelina. Now that I’ve gotten to know Dominic and met you, I couldn’t do it. I needed the money, but it’s not worth it.”
“Dominic?” My voice had gone up an octave.
“Mistress. She fooled me.”
Esta jodido.
This was not happening. Not on my watch. Gray was going to go all commando on me, turning back into my bodyguard. Which was hot and all, but I certainly didn’t want it landing us back at the beginning of our relationship.
No. If I didn’t take control of this situation here and now, it was all going to hell. Coño, un desmadre.
“Everyone, sit down. You too, Addison.”
She turned toward the door “I should go.”
“Sit.” All that Domme training paid off right then and there. Everyone except Gray sat, almost where they stood.
I stared Addison down. “How do you know Foster?”
“I…I don’t. I just met him once. He came to the club I was working for and approached me. Told me he’d pay me ten grand if I’d try to get a job working for you.”
What an act this girl had put on for all of us. “I thought you didn’t sell yourse
lf.”
She sank into herself and deep into the chair. “The money isn’t for me and that’s all I’m going to say about it, except that I can’t give it back as much as I wish I could now.”
She glanced over at Dominic and misery flashed through her. Addison had blown it big time.
Gray hung up and joined the pow-wow. “Ilario’s trying to find out now how long Foster has been here.”
Gray had his means of finding out what Foster was up to, I had mine. “Do we even know for sure it was Foster? Addison, what did he look like?”
Addison shrugged. “He’s tall, and built like Grayson, but he had those arm walking canes.”
Gray stood behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. “He wasn’t in a wheelchair?”
“No.”
Gray swore under his breath, but the fact that Foster was walking didn’t matter much to me. I wanted to know what was going on inside the guy’s head. “What did he say to you?”
Addison looked around at the people in the room and I could practically hear her swallowing down her nervousness. “He said you were opening a new club in town and that because I was, uh, big and beautiful, I’d be perfect for his mission.”
“He used the word mission?” Gray asked.
“Yes. He said I should try to get a job working for you and then report back to him about what you and Grayson were doing. He specifically asked that I get close to the guys from your harem and try to get the drawings for the club to send to him.”
“You targeted me, didn’t you?” Dominic stood up, all six foot something of his dark godlike stature hovering over Addison.
“Dominic, sit.”
He glared at me but when I gave him an understanding look, he sat back down.
“Why did you tell Grayson about this now?”
“I told you, it’s not worth it.”
“Why?”
“Dominic is right. You are building something special here. You are special. I’ve been in and around kink since I was eighteen, and no one, no club, wants to build a community like you do. Everyone is out for themselves, for their own pleasure.”
