Chapter Three

“Holy shit. Please, tell me we’re going back there tonight?” Bradly twirled his large body around in a high-back, plush office chair to meet Mason’s gaze. The two of them had stayed behind in the boardroom after wrapping up a meeting with their office personnel.

“Be my guest, man. If you want to go back there and get your ass slapped a few times, don’t let me stop you.” Mason walked around the stretched conference table picking up packets of papers that were left scattered over the surface.

His assistants could clean up the room, but he wasn’t about to allow anyone back into the room with Bradly so set on having this conversation. No way he would let people know he’d gone to a damn sex club. Not that the idea embarrassed him, he just couldn’t risk putting himself out there for future clients not to take seriously. It being rumored that he visited a place such as that wouldn’t do him any favors.

“It’s not all about violence and getting your rocks off, man. I mean, maybe it is, I don’t know. But I want to give it a chance. I think I want to learn how to do all the disciplining shit myself. Maybe I’ll get my own little submissive. Someone I could hook a leash to and walk around the room like we watched that guy doing last night. You have to admit that looked pretty fucking hot.”

He’d seen the man Bradly had been referring to. Last night, before they left the club, they were watching the couple on the stage when a man walked past them holding the end of a leash attached to the collar a girl wore around her neck. Seeing that kind of kink didn’t work for him, but whoever it did work for, more power to them.

“If that’s your thing, man, I say go for it. It’s not for me.”

Bradly twirled in his chair again following his friend and colleague around the room with his gaze. “My thing? I think it’s every man’s thing. Hell, did you see those women? Tell me you weren’t sporting a hard on all damn night.”

Oh, he had one all right. Most of the night he nursed a painful ache in his groin for Mistress Stella.

“I think I’m going to take the Mistress up on her offer.”

Mason’s head popped up turning toward his friend. A feeling of nerves prickled through him. “Take her up on what offer?” Why did it bother him if Bradly wanted to take up anything she offered him?

Bradly’s smile spread wider. “She offered us a consultation today. She said if we liked what we saw we should talk to her about applying for membership. I liked what I saw. I think I’m going to see her for a consultation.”

“Come on. You sure you have time for that? With all the deals coming down right now and the merger between Bankman and Prat? These are million-dollar accounts. I need you here. We’re going to be spending long hours here in the office. Now is not the time to be running off to get our dicks played with. These are very important accounts.”

Bradly’s playful smile faded from his lips. “Lighten up. Maybe getting your dick played with is exactly what you’re in need of right now. I’m not asking you to quit your damn job or anything. I just want you to head over there tonight with me. Be my wingman so to speak, while I consider this membership thing.”

Mason dropped the stack of folders he’d been collecting on the table, letting the pile fall apart and spread over the polished surface. His hands settled on the edge of the table bracing his weight as he leaned forward. His head dropped to hang between his shoulders. Releasing a heavy sigh, he started in again. “Bradly, we don’t have time for this. This merger is taking up all the time we have as it is.” He could hear the frustration in his own voice.

“Come on. Help a friend out. Give me tonight. Just one night. I promise, I’ll give you all day Sunday to go over files. I’ve got to see what this place has to offer us.”

“Offer us? Or offer you?” Mason braced his hands on his hips pushing the sides of his suit jacket behind him.

“Give it a few hours. If it isn’t for you after a few hours you can leave. Come on, we’ll take separate cars so leaving won’t be a hassle.” Bradly pushed to get a tag along for the night. “Don’t be a pussy. Live a little.”

Mason’s eyes snapped back to his. Bradly knew how to get under his skin. Challenging him always did the trick.

“You have me for one night. I mean it, Bradly. One night, and you better get all this shit out of your system. For the next few weeks we’ll be buried up to our asses with accounts and clients. You feel me?”

“Yes, Mom. I’ll give you all day Sunday.” Bradly smiled, carrying on his smartass antics by crossing an X across his chest. As much as he didn’t want to go tonight, Bradly wasn’t going to let it rest until he got another look. “I’ll meet you there around eight. Don’t make me wait either because if you’re not there by eight-o-one, I’m out.”

Bradly clapped his hands together like an excited school boy in the girl’s locker room and gave the chair another full spin as Mason shook his head. He hoped this didn’t turn out to be the worst promise he ever agreed to. But he had a sickening fear it would be.

****

The main lounge in Sublime wasn’t as full as Mason feared it might be for a Friday night. He followed Bradly into the room taking a seat at the bar where he sat last night. The same cute little blonde bounced around behind the bar, once again offering a smile to them as they took their seats.

“You’re back. Liked what you saw yesterday, huh?” she asked grinning at him. The young bartender couldn’t have been older than twenty-two or three at the most, but she oozed self-confidence

“Guess you could say that. Can I get a rum and coke?” Bradly slapped him on the back as he turned his attention to the rest of the room. “It feels like Christmas morning, and I’m not sure what I want to open first.”

“Here you go, sweetie. Got a card or cash?” The bartender placed a highball glass on the bar top next to him. Mason pulled a credit card from his wallet and handed it over to her. He needed the drinks to keep flowing if Bradly expected him to spend his night in this place. Not that he needed the liquid courage, but it helped.

“We came back for a consultation with one of your Mistresses.”

“Mistress Stella said you might be back. Hang on a minute.” She turned away and headed over to a phone on the back bar.

Ten minutes later, Stella entered the room. Tonight’s attire appeared much like what she wore last night except tonight she wore pants instead of shorts. A leather corset wrapped around her chest showcasing her body’s proud inked artwork.

Her long red hair hung straight down her back. Her red lipstick stood out like a shiny new apple as her lips curled at the sides. “Gentlemen, I’m pleased you decided to come back and join us tonight. Let me formally introduce myself. I’m Mistress Stella. I’m one of the head Domme’s here at Sublime.” Her gaze skimmed over them before she continued.

“I hope Bridgette has been taking good care of you so far. Don’t let the looks fool you, she can be a little fireball when she wants to be, so make sure you watch out for her.”

He couldn’t take his eyes off the leather-clad woman. She looked more stunning tonight than she did last night. If that were even possible. It took him a long moment before he remembered his words and opened his mouth to speak. Sticking his hand out to offer her a hand shake he remembered his own name. “Mason Whitman. This is Bradly Fox.”

“Mr. Whitman. Mr. Fox.” She nodded her head to both men.

“Well, gentlemen, let’s get right to the point, shall we? I hope you’re interested in applying for a membership to our club. You both seem like men who could fit right in and be happy here. Just in case you’re still on the fence about us, I took the time to arrange a tour for you both. To have an inside look at what Sublime has to offer.”

“I know I’ll be happy here. It’s this guy who’s a little unsure of…things.”

Stella moved her smooth caramel gaze between the two of them. “Why don’t you follow me into my office? I’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have about the club and what we do here.” Her soft voice held a touch of authority.

Bradly agreed letting a wide grin spread across his face. The damn bastard loved every minute of this. He thought about flipping his friend the finger. Mason wasn’t interest in asking for a membership, but that didn’t stop him from following the leather-wearing Domme across the lounge, down a hallway and into an office door.

The spacious room held a table-size, solid-wood desk in the center with two chairs on the opposite side of the large, black-velvet chair facing them. A throne behind her desk fit for a queen. The walls were painted in a dark, velvet red with all the room’s furniture trim matching in color.

“Have a seat, Gentlemen.” She motioned toward the chairs as she walked past them and to her throne on the other side. Picking up a phone that sat on top, her voice lowered to a soft whisper as she spoke for a minute into the hand-set before hanging up and turning her attention back to them.

“Let’s start by getting to know you guys. Have either of you ever been to or been a member of a club such as this before?” Her gaze lingered a second too long on Mason. Both men shook their heads.

“Are you two a couple or are you looking for…?”

“Hell no, we aren’t together,” Bradly’s rough voice just about bit her head off.

“If I were going to be gay, I would pick someone hotter than this,” Mason said, jabbing his thumb in the air toward Bradly making his friend smile.

“Blow me, big boy.” Bradly puckered his lips tossing a wink his way.

“Now, boys, play nice. At least until we sign contracts. On a serious note, we’ll need to know what your individual needs are. What sort of relationships you’re looking for?”

“I’m not looking for a relationship,” Mason told her. He wanted to get the facts out in the open right away.

She nodded her head and turned her gaze toward Bradly. “What about you? What are you looking for?”

He gave her his best client pleasing smile. “I would like to explore more of what I saw here last night.”

“Up on the stage?”

He nodded “…and by the bar.”

When she raised a brow in question to him, it became clear she had no idea what he was talking about.

“He saw a man leading a woman around by a leash and it tickled his kinky side. He wants to see more of that.”

She wrote something down on the paper in front of her.

A soft knock came to the office door before it swung open. “You called, love.” The woman from last night’s stage performance walked in.

“Mistress Angel. Would you be willing to take Mr. Fox on a tour of the club? He’s thinking about applying for membership with us.”

Angel turned a gorgeous smile toward Bradly. As soon as the raven-haired beauty turned her gaze to his, Mason knew his friend was a goner. Bradly didn’t possess the proper backbone to say no to a hot woman. Especially one who lived Bradly’s hottest everyday fantasies.

“Right this way, sir,” Angel stepped out of the way as she curled a hooked finger at him and motioned for him to follow her. Mason waited for the two to leave the room before his attention fell back to the fiery redhead behind the desk.

“I might as well tell you now that this isn’t for me. I mean, I only came here because my friend is a grown child and wanted me to hold his hand. I’m—” His phone rang from inside his pocket cutting off his words.

Seeing the call from his office, he needed to take it. He had too many irons in the fire to ignore any phone calls. He eyed the name on the screen showing a text from his assistant.

Need the Bankman paper. The lawyers are waiting.

Hell, yeah. This is what he’d been waiting for. Clients only got lawyers involved when they were ready to hand over money. He needed to get out of here and back to his office. Wingman or not, Bradly was in capable hands now. Tucking his phone back into the silk lining of his suit jacket, he turned his gaze back to Stella’s.

“You seem to be a very busy man, Mr. Whitman. How often would you say you take a break from your work? Take time out just for you? Just for pleasure?”

He wouldn’t know where to start. He might be able to count on one hand all the times he took a vacation. Which in truth turned out to be more like a three-day weekend. He didn’t mind being the man at the office when no one else wanted to be.

Having no family waiting at home for him, he didn’t mind spending his holidays at the office. Everyone else had family to visit with and didn’t want to be stuck pushing papers when they could be carving turkeys or kissing under the mistletoe, so he might as well be.

“Time for me? Time for me doesn’t make me money. I have time for my clients and my job. Not for me.”

Her red hair swished across her shoulders as she shook her head. “Busy men need time to unwind.”

He leaned back against the chair stretching his legs out in front of him. Intertwining his fingers, he rested them in the middle of his stomach. His gaze skimmed over her face. He shouldn’t be wasting time sitting here thinking about taking her up on her offer. What he needed to do involved leaving this room and heading back downtown to his office.

Watching her brown eyes size him up as if he were meat in the butcher’s display case, he couldn’t stop his body from jolting alive. Everything this woman offered, he wanted. Time and lawyers be damned. “Are you offering to help me unwind, Mistress Stella?”

His voice dropped a tone deeper. He wasn’t sure how far he wanted to go with this, but if the little sex kitten behind the desk wanted to help him release some built up stress, who was he to tell her no?

Her gorgeous smile lit up her face as she bowed her head a little before looking back at him. “We can arrange to have you de-stressed. I think I have just the person in mind…”

Someone in mind? As in someone else? He just about jumped out of his chair to stop her. No way. He wasn’t going to let her pawn him off on someone else. She’d started this little field experiment and she would be the one to finish it.

“Stress or no stress, I want you.”

Her gaze darted up to his as if his request surprised her. He could bet a woman like Mistress Stella didn’t get embarrassed or shocked that easy. Or at least, not often.

“Excuse me?”

“If I’m going to do this, then I want to do it right. I want you to show me around. If I’m going to even think about reconsidering a membership here, then I want the best of the best. I want the right person to give me a guided tour into the lifestyle.” He watched her shift in her seat. The black leather corset barely covered her and rode lower down the front of her chest giving him a preview of the firm breasts underneath.

“Why do you think I’m that person, Mr. Whitman?”

He arched a brow at her. “Aren’t you?” he asked, daring her to deny it.

Her mouth slipped into a grin. “I could schedule a time after the weekend that I could…”

His sharp words cut her off. “Sorry, sweetheart, but tonight is the only time I have. Like I said, I’m a busy man all the time. I’m a busy man now. All I can offer is tonight.” He was supposed to be busy tonight. What the hell was he thinking? His gaze slipped over the front of her body once again. He was thinking the damn lawyers could wait one more day.

He watched her closely. Watched her back stiffen and her chin shift an inch as she held it high. He noticed she didn’t like having someone telling her what to do. Or maybe, she didn’t like a man telling her what to do? It shocked him enough that her strength and confidence turned him on. Seeing that he had affected her just as much as she did him lit a new desire inside him to see more.

The soft ache in the front of his pants jumped into a heated throb at the thought of this female holding power over him. She looked like a woman who enjoyed having control over another. Would he enjoy letting her have control over him?

The thought of Mistress Stella above him, riding his cock while she demanded more of him caused him to mutter a soft moan under his breath. His cock hardened and pressed firmly against his zipper forcing him to sit up straighter in the hope he could readjust without notice.

The thought of turning his body over to her had his heart pounding rhythmically in his ear. He needed to control everything in his life. He knew all too well it took a hell of a lot of determination to hold all the power in the environment around him. He’d been the only one in the driver seat of his life for years.

At a young age, he admired people who took over their own lives to form their outcomes. He later found out that even though living that life could be very rewarding, it could be just as lonely.

He watched as her gaze roamed over his body, sizing him up. Her soft breath grew heavy and less leisured telling him she liked what she saw.

“I can give you a tour tonight. You’ll have to come along with me to check on a few scenes, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. Unless you have a weakness for sexual tension. In which case, I will understand if you want to reconsider.”

It sounded as if she dared him to back out. To turn tail and run? He didn’t want to disappoint her, but hell would freeze over before he would back out of a challenge. “I’m sure I can handle it. I would love to tour with you.”

A genuine smile crept across her lush lips, and she pushed away from her desk. “Then please, follow me to the dressing room. I’ll have another male member bring you a change of clothes. The locker rooms are the only rooms in the building that aren’t co-ed.”

“Why do I need to change my clothes? What’s wrong with the clothes I’m wearing?”

“Even though you aren’t a member yet, you want a personal tour with me. I’m a Domme here and when I step onto the floor, I am Mistress Stella. I uphold the rules around here, and I’ve never allowed street clothes on my floor.”

“I wore street clothes last night.”

Her smile turned ever sexier sending hot flashes down his spine to tighten in his groin. “I’m taking you beyond the public floor tonight. If you want to know what this lifestyle is all about, you need to see it up close and personal. What I’m about to show you, you can’t learn from others, or read about it in books. It’s something you have to see, hear, and smell for yourself. I’m going to take you by the hand and show you in person just how good we could make this body of yours feel.”

She moved around the desk and for a brief second he thought she would move up next to his body, but she stopped. She lingered at the desk a second longer before turning toward the door. Reaching for the knob she looked over her shoulder at him, catching his gaze. “Follow me please. Let’s go get you suited up.”