Ay, Dios Mio. Why in the hell is Hudson here at Asylum? Obviously because he was a fucking member, and it sure as hell looked like he had a sub of his own, too. Kneeling at his feet, ready to blow him while his stupid friends watched.
Damn, damn, damn. I had to quit. Right now.
Sure, I’d just asked Mr. Savage if I could have more shifts to try to earn some money to put toward the purchase of the cupcakery. I’d go get a job at a strip club. There were men who liked extra curvy girls taking their clothes off. Right?
“Mila, stop.”
No way, no how. I trucked across the floor toward the bar. I would hide behind Jim, the big scary teddy bear of a bartender. He would make Hudson go away.
I pushed my way through the crowd and ignored every person who tried to flag me down for a drink.
I’d have made it, too, if two great big football players hadn’t stepped in front of me like a wall of muscle and blocked my way. “Get out of my way, Nick. Let me through.” I appealed to him because Bryan had a fierce twinkle in his eye that said he would do everything possible to be Hudson’s wingman. Nick was bigger, but reminded me of a giant Maori teddy bear.
That was my second mistake.
Nick picked me up like I was a toy and threw me over his shoulder. Me. The size eighteen girl, who hadn’t been picked up by anyone in my entire life.
My ass was sticking straight up in the air, my uniform skirt riding up so I was flashing the entire club with my black and white polka-dot panties.
I smacked him on the back. “Nick, put me down right now.”
He didn’t even reply, but in another ten feet, he did put me down. Right in front of Hudson.
I spun to get away again, but found myself trapped by giant football players on all sides. Screw him and his teammates.
“Mila, why didn’t you tell me you worked here?”
“If you all don’t let me go right now, I’ll scream and bring every floor monitor and staff member down on your asses. You’ll lose your memberships and get blackballed from every decent kink community in the city.”
I might only work at Asylum, but I’d been through the orientation with Mistress Addiction and I’d taken notes. A threat like that would stop any decent Dom in his tracks. I had no intention of screaming and drawing more attention to myself. I was already mortified, but Hudson didn’t need to know that.
“I’m just trying to talk to you, babe. Find out why you lied to me.” Oh, he was pulling the Dom voice on me? I don’t think so.
“I’m not your babe and I didn’t lie. Now let me go.” I stomped my foot and shoved at his chest. Of course, I didn’t move him even a centimeter.
“Everything okay here, Camila, gentlemen?” Dunnn-duh-duh-daahh. Tonight’s floor monitor to the rescue.
All eyes turned to me and I shrank. Being the center of attention led to more trouble than it was worth. I talked a big game inside my head, but when push came to shove, I wanted to hide. This whole situation was way out of my comfort zone.
“It’s fine,” I said to my shoes.
“Everything is not fine, Camila. But if you want to lie to the floor monitor as well as me, carry on.”
I jerked my gaze up to Hudson’s. The power and ultimate control of a Dom dripped off him, swirling around me, knocking on the door of my innermost fantasies. He raised an eyebrow challenging me.
“What’s going on here? Are you subbing for this gentleman?”
Gulp. If I said no, I would be lying because oh, how I’d submitted to him the night before last. All the excited sexual parts of my being wanted me to say yes, yes, oh yes.
But if I said yes, I’d also be lying. We weren’t a couple. We had no agreement or arrangements to play. I was working. This was my place of employment. I wasn’t even sure I was allowed to get involved with the members in the first place.
“Camila?” The floor monitor stepped between me and Hudson. Hud made space, but not much. “You know we don’t want any members or staff to be in a situation that isn’t safe, sane, and consensual. Have these gentlemen crossed those lines?”
Gulp. Lines were being crossed, but by me, because I wasn’t being open with the floor monitor, Hudson, or myself. Every second I let that continue put my job in jeopardy.
“No. Everything really is fine here. I need to work some things out with Hudson, but I’m safe and everything is consensual.” I wasn’t feeling particularly sane at the moment.
The floor monitor searched my eyes and must have been satisfied with my answer because he stepped back. “Then I suggest you take a break and take care of your negotiations. Jim has been trying to get your attention for the last ten minutes, and he’s having a conniption fit over there.”
Crap. Jim had hired me in the first place, this could only get worse if Mr. Savage, the billionaire owner saw me screwing around on shift too.
“So, Mr. Savage sent me over to check on you.”
Double crap. I couldn’t lose my job now, just when I needed extra shifts. “Thank you for checking on me. I think I will take my break. Would you mind letting Jim know for me?”
The guy saluted me, waved two fingers between his eyes and Hudson’s in that I’m-watching-you way, and headed back to the bar.
I let the monitor get out of earshot and poked Hudson in the chest. “Call off your teammates. I’ve got fifteen minutes, and we are not talking about anything in front of tall, dark, and mean, and taller, darker, and meaner.”
He jerked his chin. “Beat it, guys.”
Nick and Bryan walked away, no doubt to find their own trouble.
I pointed at Hudson’s face and shook my finger. “You could have cost me my job.”
Hud grabbed my finger and sucked it into his mouth. If I wasn’t still mad, I would have liked that, a lot.
“Stop it. We might have had some fun the other night, but this is where I work, and you can’t just come here and think you can make all that magic happen again.”
“Magic, huh?” He looked entirely too smug and satisfied with himself.
“Yes, and shut up. So, we had great sex. One time. It’s not going to happen again, and it certainly isn’t going to happen here. You have to swear you won’t tell anyone you even saw me.”
He took a step back, pulling me along with him and leaned against the back of a large leather couch. “Who am I going to tell? All my friends are here, aren’t yours?”
“Uh, no. Nobody knows I work here, and it’s going to stay that way.”
He tried to pull me in between his legs, into his web. “Mila, why are you hiding this part of yourself from the world?”
I stood my ground. “Because my friends aren’t kinky like yours, and this is a BDSM club if you hadn’t noticed.”
He pointed to himself. “Hello, member.”
Duh. “Then you understand how important privacy is. The staff doesn’t blab about membership, and you don’t go running your mouth off about the staff.”
“I get that part. But that doesn’t answer my question, flower. Why are you hiding behind that innocent, good girl façade when you’re a smoking hot little sub. You should be a member, not serving members.” He grabbed my wrist and tugged me closer.
I wasn’t going to get away from him until he understood. Maybe he would listen if I quit fighting his need to touch. I let him wrap his arms around me. I didn’t want to admit how much I liked being there. “I don’t have time for nor am I interested in this kind of fun. I’m here to work and that’s it.”
“Your body said otherwise the other night.” He slid his arms around my waist, down over my hips and dug his fingers in right where they’d held me so tight less than forty-eight hours ago.
I had to put my hands on his chest to keep from leaning in, to hold myself back from giving in. “I told you that was a one-time thing.”
Why didn’t my voice have the same oomph as before? Even I didn’t believe me.
Hudson’s eyes flitted from mine down to my lips and back. “You think if I kissed you right now, you wouldn’t be putty in my hands.”
“Nope.” My pants were going to burst into flames at any moment.
“I dare you to kiss me.”
“We are not twelve. I’m not falling for a dare.” Give me a better excuse. Please.
“Then I’ll bet you. If you don’t react when we kiss, then I’ll leave you alone the rest of the night. But if you melt into me like I know you will, when you get off, you’re mine.”
This was my chance to push Hudson away. I didn’t have time for the chaos his brand of control brought to my life, even if it melted my panties. Even if I fantasized about all the dirty, dirty things he could do to me.
I could take a stupid kiss from him. All I’d have to do to keep from reacting was think of how I was going to come up with twenty grand to buy the bakery. That was both a giant ball of stress and a conundrum. A kiss would be no match. “Bring it on.”