Venus rising boxset, p.43
Venus Rising Boxset, page 43
“Out on a date,” he responded easily. “If you don’t feel like company, you can kick me out. I just figured I’d come over and help you with dinner, be an eating companion if you were in the mood.” He winked at her flirtatiously without intent.
Hilary’s heart went out to him. He and Justin did this on a fairly regular basis. At first, she’d felt like they were taking pity on her, then she’d realized she was taking pity on them too. Although they didn’t get jealous when Jessica had one-on-one time with the other, it didn’t mean they particularly relished spending an evening alone. Both of them seemed to enjoy her company, although sometimes, they got together with their other friends too. Today, in particular, she appreciated Chris’ gesture, making her dinner and hanging out.
“No, please stay,” she said, sitting down at the table with a small groan, watching him cook. It wasn’t quite as much fun as watching Justin cook—he could probably get a job as a chef if he wanted—but it was still better than turning on the news, which was always depressing. She’d had enough of downers today. “I could use the company.”
“Rough day at work?”
“Sort of.” She studied Chris, taking small sips of her wine, thoughts swirling around her head—mostly about Stronghold and Liam, as usual. Questions floated through her mind. Chris was much safer to ask than Justin. Although they both seemed to respect her need to come to her own conclusions about what she wanted, she got the distinct feeling if Justin thought she was desiring but hesitant, rather than just unsure, he’d do whatever he thought was best for her—even if that meant dragging her to Stronghold. Which, she had to admit, might solve some of her problems. Part of her wanted someone to make her face up to what she wanted, but she was still too scared to even hint at that to Justin. Chris, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as pushy about taking care of people, tending to interfere only when asked.
“I’ve been thinking about Stronghold a lot lately.”
“Yeah?” He raised an eyebrow and grinned at her. “You hadn’t mentioned it since the first time. Justin and I thought you’d decided you weren’t interested.”
“I’m not sure I am,” she replied. “Don’t mention it to Justin, okay? I feel like his solution for helping me decide would be to bring me back there so I can make an informed decision on the spot.”
“Oh, absolutely.” Chris laughed, his darkly handsome face lit up with amusement.
Hilary grinned back at him. Although she’d developed friendships with both him and Justin, there was no doubt, in a lot of ways, she and Chris got along better. Justin found it harder to socialize, relying on Jessica and Chris to help provide a conduit to other people.
“Not only that, he’d probably assign one of our friends to give you an introduction scene, so you could get some hands-on experience to help you decide, rather than just observing. I can’t say he’d be wrong, though. Watching and doing are completely different experiences.”
Yeah, she’d already found that out for herself, with nothing more than a few orders to keep her hands around Liam’s neck and one incredible kiss that had her rubbing herself all over his thigh. Heat bloomed in her face at the memory, and she took another sip of the cool, crisp wine to help disperse the memory.
“You can’t really make an informed decision until you’ve tried something,” he continued, his eyes on the stir-fry, fortunately. “Unless you already know you have no interest in trying.”
Hilary sighed. “I’m not sure.”
“Then it sounds to me like you should try,” he said, grinning at her as he turned off the stove. “Because if you knew for sure you didn’t want to, you wouldn’t be so conflicted.”
“You make it sound so simple,” she complained, smiling at him as she got up and grabbed two plates from the cabinet, handing one to him so he could serve himself.
“Easier said than done, as they say.”
Chris stood aside like a gentleman and gestured for her to serve herself first. Thanking him, Hilary scooped up some of the piping hot food. She stopped suddenly as he cupped his hand under her chin, bringing her gaze up to meet his, his voice soft but firm.
“But I think you already know what you want. You just don’t want to admit it.”
He released her, and she went to the table, slightly shaken. Sometimes, it was easy to forget Chris had a dominant side too, so often overshadowed by Justin’s more obvious authority. Even though she wasn’t attracted to him, she couldn’t lie to herself that being pinioned under his gaze didn’t have an effect on her. Especially because he so rarely brought that side of himself out around her. He was right, though. She admitted to herself she was less comfortable around Justin because she responded to his unthinking authority. Since Chris didn’t exert his authority as often, she was more relaxed; he didn’t make her confront the other side of herself, not until just now, anyway.
Thankfully, he didn’t seem to be interested in pressing the issue. Dinner conversation was about work and friends, a little about Jessica and Justin, and after dinner, they watched a movie. The other two joined them about three quarters of the way through the film, and it turned into a pretty good, friendly night.
But she couldn’t get Chris’ words out of her head… darn him. Now that the truth had been said out loud, she was having a lot more trouble avoiding it. She knew what she wanted. She wanted to go back to Stronghold and explore these desires, find out what it was she was missing. What it was she was yearning for. If the reality would live up to the fantasy. If she couldn’t handle it.
And maybe, a little part of her wanted to see Liam again… but just a little part.
The bar at Stronghold was particularly empty tonight, Liam mused. Rick hadn’t felt like making the two-hour drive, which wasn’t uncommon. Adam was introducing a newbie sub to the club and doing an Introduction scene with her, Patrick was in his office catching up on work, and Olivia had found a sub to scene with. Here he sat, alone at the bar, feeling sorry for himself because he hadn’t been able to find a single sub he was interesting playing with tonight. He chatted with a couple of other Doms who were around, but the truth was, he had been hoping one of his other friends would be around for more meaningful conversation. Topics he could focus on and which would distract himself.
Inspecting the lounge area where the available subs congregated, he tried to work up interest in asking one of them to play. He wondered if any of them would be more interested in holding herself in place at his command, rather than wanting ropes or restraints to do it for her. The last time he’d found a sub to play with more than once, she’d been new to the scene and had ended up deciding he wasn’t enough for her. The more she’d found out about BDSM and the more comfortable she’d gotten with the club and submitting, the more bondage and pain she’d wanted. He’d ended up suggesting she play with some other Doms and to come back to him if she wanted to. Hadn’t seen her in the club for a while, and the last he’d heard she was in a relationship with someone else, a Dom she’d met here.
If they’d been more compatible, maybe he would have been sad about that, but mostly, it made him feel tired. No more newbies for him. No more women who hadn’t explored enough about the scene to know what they want, ended up deciding to try things out with other Doms, and ultimately leave him because they wanted more than what he could give. No honey-blondes he couldn’t stop thinking about just because he’d liked the way she’d felt in his arms and the way she’d so easily and sweetly done exactly what he told her to on the dance floor, ended up climaxing in his arms.
“Do you want a drink, man?” Andrew’s voice cut through Liam’s reverie about Hilary. About time too. He shouldn’t have been thinking about her at all. “Or are you going to go play?”
“Play, I’m going to go play,” Liam said, resolving himself as he glanced back over at the chattering and laughing submissives in the lounge area.
“You sound more like you’re going to a funeral,” his friend said, grinning. “Want to trade places? You can stand back here, and I’ll go play.”
Liam stared at Andrew, trying to figure out how to formulate his question in a way that wouldn’t upset him.
“What?”
“I’ve been thinking maybe I should try to find a vanilla girl and introduce her to what I like,” he said and watched as Andrew’s face hardened. Quickly, he continued before Andrew could think too much about his own situation, which had sent him running to New York and back, but he knew that out of all of their friends Andrew would have the most insight. “I just keep... I can’t find someone here who’s compatible with what I want. Their needs don’t match mine, and we both end up unsatisfied.”
“You might have better luck with it than I did, considering your preferences,” he said gruffly, rubbing a cloth on the wooden bar top over and over even though the surface was gleaming. “But I think you’d still end up unhappy. You’d end up being the one wanting more from her than the other way around. Eventually, that want gets just as bad as the need to give her what she wants and needs. You can’t shut off this part of yourself and be happy, but women who aren’t into the scene... she might like it a little rough. She might like it when you take charge some of the time, but not all the time, and you’ll end up in the position of pushing for more.”
Looking away from Liam, Andrew cut off anything more than he might have said, sitting in silence for a minute. He knew they were thinking the same thing, about the same woman. The one who had taught Andrew not to get emotionally involved with women who weren’t into kink. Liam might be fairly easy going in a lot of ways compared to his friend, but he could see what Andrew was saying. Although his own preferences weren’t likely to upset a vanilla girl as much as Andrew’s more sadistic tendencies.
“Or maybe I’ll accidentally end up with a closet dominatrix,” Liam joked, trying to lighten the mood a little. “That’d go over well.”
The small smile Andrew gave him said he was forgiven for bringing up the subject. For a moment, Liam wondered if he should take him up on his offer and stay behind the bar tonight. But after talking to Andrew, he wasn’t sure he was ready to give up on the available submissives tonight.
“Go play,” Andrew urged. “You never know, maybe tonight will be your lucky night.”
“Alright,” said Liam, holding out his hand. Their palms slapped together, then he turned and headed over to the lounge area.
Seeing an approaching Dom, the submissives perked up, some of them giving him flirtatious looks, some of them lowering their heads and peeking at him from the corners of their eyes. A few who didn’t look interested at all. Surprisingly, the ones he’d played with before were mixed between being interested and ignoring him, but he wasn’t interested in playing with any of the ones he’d already scened with. Zara liked to top from the bottom to earn punishments, Lori craved the whip more than a light spanking, and Erin couldn’t—or wouldn’t, it was sometimes hard to tell which—hold herself in place without restraints.
None of the subs he’d played with before appealed to him. Actually, none of them really appealed to him much at all, but he was determined to get Hilary out of his head. She was way too conflicted for him, no matter how attracted they were to each other. Chances were, she wouldn’t come back to Stronghold, anyway. Or be interested in talking to him if she did.
It took one of the shyer subs wincing when she looked up at him for him to realize he had a snarl on his face. Smoothing away the expression, Liam looked around at the subs, choosing to approach one who was sitting quietly on her knees, peeking at him.
She was pretty, with short dark hair, cut in a bob, wearing a short skirt and loose t-shirt top which had been cut just under her breasts to show off the smooth skin of her stomach.
“Hey. there,” he said, sitting down in the armchair next to where she was kneeling. Patrick made sure to keep the carpet in the lounge area clean and soft for the subs, so she was probably pretty comfortable.
“Hello, Sir,” she replied, giving him a pleased smile. Eager to play—he liked that, at least. The fact she was the complete opposite in looks from Hilary didn’t mean he was trying to prove anything to himself—definitely not.
“I’m Liam.”
“I know,” she said with a small smile, looking a little more directly at him flirtatiously. He raised his eyebrow at her, and she blinked innocently. “Sir. I’m Gina.”
His instincts said she was going to try to top from the bottom or push him to punish her if they played. On the other hand, his instincts and body kept drawing him to Hilary, who was all sorts of wrong for him, so why should he listen to them, anyway?
Still. He chatted with her for a few minutes, asking questions about her experience and how often she came to Stronghold. Who she had played with before ended up being more revealing, especially when she shot a wistful look in Andrew’s direction after saying his name. Then she blushed when she glanced up at Liam and realized he’d seen where she was looking.
Sighing, Liam drummed his fingers against his knee. “I don’t think we’d suit each other, even for a scene, Gina. If you enjoyed being with Andrew, I’m going to be too tame for you.”
“I’d like to try, Sir,” she said, but her eyes flicked in Andrew’s direction again.
“Are you hoping he’ll be jealous if he sees you scening with another Dom?”
The deep flush and expression of mortification before she blanked her face said yes. His mouth quirked as he tried not to frown at her. Manipulation like that from a sub was not attractive to him, although some Doms would have been intrigued—Doms who liked to punish naughty slaves and enjoyed a struggle to obtain dominance.
Gina looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry, Sir. It’s not just that, though, I swear. I was hoping playing with someone who did things differently might help me.”
Well, that he could understand. Isn’t that what he was looking to do himself? He was surprised Andrew had hooked this sub so strongly; normally, he didn’t play with subs for more than a scene or two, and he always told them it wouldn’t be more than that.
“How many scenes did you do with Master Andrew?”
“Master Andrew has honored me three times, Sir.” Her eyes gleamed, and he could tell she was aroused just at the memory. Knowing the kinds of scenes Andrew preferred—heavy on bondage and punishment because he was more than a bit of a sadist—Liam knew he wouldn’t come close to providing Gina with what she needed.
“I prefer to use honor bondage, Gina,” he told her baldly. “I’ll want you to spread yourself open and hold on to the headboard with no help, submitting to my words, hands, and mouth. I’ll want you to follow whatever orders I give you. I prefer fewer physical punishments when you don’t meet my standards. Does any of that appeal to you?”
He could already see it didn’t. Although she looked intrigued and responded to him as a dominant, she wasn’t at all aroused by his words. Her curiosity seemed almost clinical.
Gina bit her lip, looking very pretty, yet somehow even less appealing than he’d found her before. Not because she was interested in Andrew but because he could tell that scening with her would be unsatisfactory for both of them.
“I could try,” she offered.
“Good little sub,” he murmured and enjoyed her flush of pleasure. He did like to see a pretty sub glow with a compliment. “But you’ll be better off with someone whose needs match yours, and so will I. Trying out new things with someone who won’t be able to fulfill your needs isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
“You’re probably right, Sir,” she said with a wistful little sigh. “Thank you for considering me.”
“I wish we were more complementary,” he said honestly. “You’ll find someone to play with tonight, don’t worry.”
“I’m not, Sir,” she said with an impish grin. He liked her little flash of confidence. He stroked her hair as a reward before getting up and moving around to talk to some of the other subs. After chatting with three of them, none of who appealed, Liam gave up and headed back to the bar. Someone might as well have fun tonight. Andrew shook his head at him, but headed over to the lounge cheerfully enough, quickly choosing a sub and heading down to the Dungeon. Not Gina, Liam noted, as she looked wistfully after the couple. He talked to William, one of the unattached Doms sitting at the bar who had been eyeing the subs in the Lounge, and suggested he consider Gina for a scene. Will was a very talented sadist, and if she wanted to try to find someone who fit her, matching her with another sadist seemed like a good bet.
Taking care of the bar was good, helping him keep his mind off the fact he’d originally come here tonight to play. Patrick swung by for a chat and get Liam’s opinion on how to handle Lexie, who had been hinting she’d like to spend more time inside the club rather than just the lobby. Not something any of her pseudo-big brothers wanted to see happen, and not just because they’d promised her real big brother to look out for her. Liam wasn’t sure he could handle the idea of seeing someone beating her cute little butt, much less anything more extreme, without wanting to take the guy down, even if it was what she wanted. Patrick looked ready to tear his hair out—well, if he had any—trying to figure out ways to put her off. Hiring her as a receptionist helped but apparently, not enough, even if there was always someone out there acting as bouncer, whose new duties included scaring any interested Doms off Lexie.
Eventually, that situation was going to come to a head, and he was so glad he wasn’t the one who was going to have to deal with it.
He saw William and Gina chatting before they eventually headed down to the Dungeon, so at least he could feel like he’d done a good deed for the day.
Chapter 2
Sitting on a mat in the exact center of the Kung-Fu school he’d founded, Liam breathed in a steady meditation pattern, all of his senses calm but alert as the slight ripples of air caused by the vents passed over his skin. He liked to meditate before any of the brown or black sash classes, but especially before the class with all of his friends. They were all proficient in the solo forms but tended to prefer having classes in the sparring forms. There was something to be said for the release of sparring with each other, completely different from the release they found at Stronghold, but just as important in its own way.
