by Khloe Wren
“Natalie, the captain of Her Royal Hellions, owns the club. It’s all very high class and not sleazy at all. After my Grandma died and my Aunt Skye took over Retro Funk, she cut my hours back, and I needed another job. When I asked my derby family about it, Natalie said she needed a good bartender at Titanium. She did say I could play at the club too, around my work hours of course, but I never have. I couldn’t risk it with, well, you know. And I know at this point I’m rambling but your strong and silent routine is starting to freak me the fuck out. Please, tell me what you’re thinking.”
He reached out and grabbed my hands in his.
“I’ve got no fucking clue what to say to that, Cin. I’ve never been in a club like that to know what goes on inside one. So, it’s some kind of sex club? Is that what you’re saying?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not like that. I mean, sure, sex happens but it’s not orgies and stuff. And there’s privacy rooms where people go to have sex. That doesn’t happen out on the floor. It’s not allowed. There are lots of rules that everyone has to follow, it’s very safe. To be honest, I doubt my stalker has been able to gain access. I probably could have played there without—”
I stopped talking when he growled at me.
“Gah, stop doing that! You’re not a damn dog! Use your words. If you start talking, I’ll stop rambling. You know how I get when I’m nervous.”
He tugged my hands until I shifted so I was sitting across his lap.
“I don’t like the idea of you playing with other men, Cin. That shit’ll have me growling at you every damn time. Am I allowed in this place? To see what really fucking goes on in there?”
I lifted my palm to his face where I ran my short nails through his scruff, trying to calm the beast.
“I’ll need to double check with Natalie, but I’m pretty sure you will be. Normally new members have to fill out forms and stuff before they’re allowed in. But since I need to go in a little early to set up, we might be able to get you to fill everything out while I’m doing that.”
Johnny reached over me to grab his coffee while I pulled my phone out and shot a text off to Natalie.
“Since I’m working tonight, you can sit at the bar and keep me company while you watch what goes on. Wednesday nights aren’t as busy as later in the week.”
“How many nights do you work?”
“Normally four nights a week. Wednesday through Saturday, then on Sunday afternoon I go in for a few hours. Natalie holds training sessions on Sundays and there’s food and drinks available for attendees. But I don’t have to work that much, it’s only because I want to that I do. Now that you’re back in my life, I’ll see about cutting back my nights. If you want?”
Although less work would be less pay, I’d managed to put a little away over the years so I could survive working a little less for a while.
“Let’s see how tonight goes, I don’t want to upend your entire life, babe. But once we get this stalker situation dealt with, we’ll need to decide what we’re going to do. I run the club’s bar back in Bridgewater. The others are taking care of it while I take care of you, but I’ll need to get back to it at some point. You have a job there too, if you want it. I’d also fucking love it if you’d move back to Bridgewater with me. How many times a week do you train for derby?”
My breath stuttered in my chest. This was all getting very heavy, extremely quickly. Move back to Bridgewater? To live with Nitro? After a couple deep breaths, I pushed that side of what he said away and focused on derby.
“Personally, I train every day. We have to go to two training sessions each week. One with the league and one with the team. The other nights it’s low key and is just whoever turns up that skates and trains.”
“So, if I found somewhere in Bridgewater where you could safely skate, and gave you a few nights of work at the club’s bar, you’d be able to live with me?”
My heart ached at the hope in his voice. I wasn’t that I didn’t want to be with Nitro as much as possible, I did. But I didn’t want to be one of those girls who lost the rest of her life when she settled on a man. He was being supportive of my roller derby commitment, which was good, but I didn’t want to lose my friends at Titanium either. Although, the drive between Bridgewater and Houston wouldn’t be so bad if it was only a few nights a week.
“Would you let me still work at least a night or two per week at Titanium? I’d miss my friends there if I left completely.”
“I don’t see why you couldn’t. But I’d like to see this place before I go agreeing to anything to do with it. What about Retro Funk? Would you want to keep working there?”
My stomach clenched as I thought about not working there anymore.
“That shop was my Grandma’s pride and joy. I loved working in there with her and had hoped to keep running the store after she passed. But that didn’t happen. Mom told me that Grandma wanted me to live my life with no pressure from her to continue her dreams. So Aunt Skye took the store. And my aunt is a grade-A bitch. She resents the hell out of me and the fact she has to keep me employed there as long as I want to be. Honestly? I don’t love it like I used to. And I get the feeling Aunt Skye wants to overhaul the store and sell different stuff. Higher end clothing and that kind of thing. Grandma was a hippy to her very soul, but somehow that gene skipped right over Aunt Skye. The high end stuff will be much more to her taste and style. But she can’t do that while I’m still working there. I’m not sure of all the legalities, but from my aunt’s rants, it was part of the agreement of her getting the store that as long as I was there, she had to keep it as it is. So, yeah, I’ll be sad to leave it, but I’ve known for a while now that I was going to have to go soon.”
“If you wanted, you could open your own store in Bridgewater. I’ve probably got enough cash stashed away for you to make a go of it.”
Tears pricked my eyes and tracked down my cheeks as my heart burst with happiness. I wrapped my arms around his neck and feathered kisses over his face. I couldn’t believe he’d do that for me. Spend his life savings so I could have my own store! Even if it never happened, the fact he’d even thought of doing it was enough.
He was chuckling by the time I pulled back to look him in the eye, but before I could speak, to tell him how wonderful he was, my phone dinged with a new message and wiping my tears aside, I unlocked the screen.
“Natalie says you’re fine to come along tonight. She’ll get you to fill out the paperwork while I’m setting up.”
“Excellent. Can’t wait to see what this place is all about.”
Taking his now empty coffee mug, I set it on the table along with my phone, then straddling his lap, I cupped his face in my palms and proceeded to kiss the hell out of my man. Hoping with everything in me that he would like what he saw tonight, that he would be willing to try out at least some of it with me. I started squirming on his lap as I imagined what it would be like to be tied up by him.
Chapter 7
Nitro
After Cindy’s explanation earlier today, I was a little worried about what I was going to find at Titanium. Especially after she told me she wanted to keep working there so she could see her friends even if she did move back to Bridgewater. On the plus side, she’d seemed okay with the idea of moving in with me—at least she hadn’t flatly refused and told me to fuck off. I was calling that a win.
Since Cin seemed as nervous as I was about tonight, I’d suggested she drive us there in her car, leaving my bike safely in her apartment building’s parking garage. She’d been more than happy to drive, and got us there in record time. From the outside it didn’t look like much, but obviously it was a private club that you wouldn’t be able to find by just wandering down the street. Before I could get too good a look at the exterior, Cin was grabbing my hand and dragging me over toward the door. After passing a badge over a security panel, the large metal door swung open and I found myself standing in the entrance of a sex club. Sorry, not a sex club, a BDSM club.
I’d
met Natalie at the derby practice I’d gone to the night before so I recognized her waiting for us when we came in. She strode over and I was a little taken back at what she was wearing. It was completely different from the leggings and t-shirt she’d worn at derby practice, that’s for sure. A red leather corset with a matching mini skirt that laced up either side. She had thigh-high black leather boots on and her long, dark hair was down around her shoulders. She looked like a woman in full control of everything around her. It was a little daunting, even to me, a Charon who was used to commanding respect everywhere I went.
“Nitro, it’s wonderful to see you here! I hope you like my club. Maybe you can convince our girl here to leave the bar and play a little. I think every Dom we have has tried at some point over the years but she’s shut them all down. Myself included.”
“Mistress Natalie, your offer to train me was most generous but I just couldn’t bring myself to accept it at the time.”
She gently cupped my girl’s face in her palm as she smiled at her. “And now I’ve met your man, I know why.”
I wasn’t sure what the hell to think, let alone say, so I kept my hand on Cin’s waist as I stood there silently.
“Right, well, normally I get newbies to go over all the paperwork here before they’re allowed in the club, but since you’re here so early and Cindy needs to get changed, then set up, you can come on through to the bar and I’ll sit with you there and go over everything. You don’t need to change, unless you want to, but you do need to take off your club colors. We don’t allow them inside. I can arrange for you to have a locker in the men’s change room, or if you want to keep things simpler for tonight, Cindy can put it in her locker?”
“I trust Cin to look after it for me.”
I shrugged out of my cut and put it over my girl’s shoulders. She slipped her arms through the holes and I didn’t miss the way she pressed her nose to the shoulder to inhale against the leather. Thing looked huge on her small frame but fuck, it looked right.
“Excellent. You can head off, Cindy. I’ll take care of your man until you get back.”
Before she could run off, I grabbed her for a fast kiss and gave her a tap on the ass as she moved away from me. Fuck, she looked good wearing my colors. I definitely needed to check with Scout that he’d ordered her property patch.
“Oh, you’ll fit right in here, Nitro. Or do you prefer Johnny? Cindy told me she thought you’d prefer Nitro.”
“Nitro is what everyone, except for Cin, calls me.”
“Excellent. Nitro it is. Please follow me.” She began walking in the direction Cin had gone earlier. “Normally there’s a pair of greeters in this first room when you arrive, but as I said, since you’re early, things aren’t rolling just yet. Part of the greeters’ job is to make sure no one gets in who shouldn’t. I would hope that whoever it is that is stalking our girl hasn’t been able to get into the club.”
“Do you run checks on everyone who wants to join?”
“That’s just not possible. This is a private club, Nitro. No one would want to join if we ran invasive checks on everyone. Not to mention the cost of such a thing. But that’s not to say we let just anyone in. Most new members are people like yourself, a partner of a current member. Also, we get friends and sometimes family of members who want to join.” She smirked at me. “That one can be fun on the floor when someone is trying to avoid seeing the bare ass of their sibling who’s a shameless exhibitionist.” She chuckled like she was remembering that very thing happening. Made me glad to be an only child. “Back to your question—every new member has to have a current member nominate them. It’s the only way in.”
“So, that type of system would make it hard for Cin’s stalker to find a way around it?”
We arrived at another door but she didn’t move to go through it yet.
“Oh, they could if they wanted to. But it would take some planning. First, he’d have to work out we’re a BDSM club, then he’d need to learn at least a little about the basics. He would then have to seduce one of our sweet little subbies until they brought him in with them. So, it could happen. I doubt it has, but Cindy is right to still play things safe even when she’s in here. The fact she hasn’t received anything from her stalker about working here has me thinking he doesn’t know what this place even is. If he, or she, is that possessive of her that they don’t even like her talking to other men, I can’t see them being happy with her working at a club like mine.”
“Cin thinks her stalker is a male, you don’t?”
Natalie gave me a broad smile that, to be honest, was more than a touch scary. “I’ve been here at Titanium for a long time and I’ve seen just about every type of love, lust and obsession there is. Women can love just as fiercely and possessively as men do. Honestly? Cindy’s stalker most likely is male, but it could be a woman. I can tell you she’s had just as many female Dommes drool over her here as male Doms.
“Now, through this door is the main floor of Titanium. There’s several smaller themed rooms, along with a series of privacy rooms. But this main area is where most of the action takes place, and this is where Cin stays. The main floor is broken up into two areas, the first is the bar area where people sit and mingle until they decide to go play. There’s a drink limit, of course. For each alcoholic drink people get a stamp on their hand. After one, they can’t do any hardcore scenes, after three, they can’t play at all.”
“And how in the hell do you monitor that?”
She cocked her brow at my outburst and I cleared my throat before mumbling a quick apology.
“We have Dungeon Monitors who keep an eye on all the scenes that are being run. And if Cindy happens to see someone she knows has three stamps wander into the scening area, she’ll alert one of the monitors to the situation.”
We were through the door and halfway across the bar area when I stopped short.
What the fuck?
Natalie chuckled. “I gather you’ve never been into a club like mine before, Nitro?”
“That would be a hell no. And Cin didn’t explain this nearly well enough.”
A little more warning would have been nice. And I would have greatly preferred Cin here with me right now rather than Natalie. Just glancing at the large crosses on the walls, and the benches and tables, all of which had some type of cuffs or shackles hanging from them had me mentally putting Cin on them. Bound and helpless while I buried myself deep inside her body over and over. Fuck, could Natalie see my hard-on? It was a little dim in here. Hopefully she’d missed it.
“Come and have a seat, I’ll give you a little crash course in BDSM.”
With my interest piqued, I followed the woman and sat in the seat next to her.
“Now, to start with, I want to make it clear that everything that happens here is consensual and safe. The Doms are monitored closely, and the subs all have a safeword. They say the word ‘red’ and the scene stops and a DM, Dungeon Monitor, takes them back to a privacy room where they can sort out what happened in private. Most of the time the DM leaves the Dom to take care of the sub, but there’s been a time or two where a sub has requested otherwise.”
“Natalie, I’m sorry, but I only understood about half of what you just said.”
She gave me a gentle smile, like one you’d give to a toddler you were trying to teach. It grated on my nerves but I held myself together. This shit was apparently important to my girl, so I needed to at least try to understand it. And it was also more than just spanking her ass and tying her up, which was where my brain had gone the moment I saw all those crosses and shit.
“Please, call me Mistress Natalie inside the club. Okay, let’s start with the basics. BDSM is all about dominance and submission. It can be between two, three or any number of people, but for my explanation, I’ll use a male/female couple as an example. One person is the dominant and the other is the submissive, or one is the top while the other is the bottom. The difference between those two is whether there is a power exchange in the
mix. You see, a submissive chooses to give their power over to their Dom, they submit to them and the Dom takes and cherishes that gift offered to them. Power is exchanged between the two. With a Top/bottom, it’s more about sensation. There’s no prior agreement to exchange power between them. You’ll see plenty of examples once our guests start coming in and scening. And you can always come find me to ask questions if you have them later.” She paused and pointed a finger toward me. “And no thinking that it’s always the male that is the dominant or top, although we do have a number of male Doms here, we also have plenty of female Dommes, like myself. The Dom or Top isn’t always the physically stronger of the pair. A sub submits to their Dom because they choose to, not because they are forced to. I’ve Dommed a number of men who would have easily been able to overpower me, but because they chose to submit, to give me that power over them, they didn’t even try to. My club is open to all, Doms, subs, Tops, bottoms, switches... my door is open to everyone. Does that all make sense?”
“Switches?”
“Switches are people who switch between being a Dom or a sub, or a Top or a bottom, depending on who they’re playing with, but I won’t confuse you with that one tonight.”
Cindy came through the doorway and after a concerned glance in my direction, headed behind the bar to start the process of getting everything set up for the night.
“Cin is definitely a submissive. And now she’s confided to me about her stalker, I can see all that she’d gone through on her own. Well, I can see why she would want this type of relationship with her man. And I’ve seen it in her gaze many times over the years. She craves having a Dom to take care of her. For so long she’s been forced to take control of everything in her world, to be so very careful of every step she takes, of who she talks to. A good Dom would be able to give her a break from that, a place where she could let go of all her fears and worries and just be in the moment.”
