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Brian
What a freaking night. Brian leaned back in the chair he’d made his own for the evening. He didn’t feel any desire to try to find a play partner from the submissives in the Lounge, though some of them were shooting him inviting looks. He didn’t feel even remotely tempted.
He felt drained.
Not just from taking care of Amy—in some ways, that had made him feel a little better to be able to help someone who needed him—but he hadn’t been able to fix everything. And he’d spent a lot of the night with one eye on Rae.
After the showdown with Noelle, she seemed quieter than usual. Had something about it bothered her? Had she been bothered that he was consoling Amy?
If it was the latter, he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Because while part of him liked the idea that she felt possessive of him, he knew he would be better off if he didn’t like that idea. He shouldn’t want her to feel possessive. He needed to get past her. Get over her. Stop thinking about her. Stop thinking about their week together.
“Hey, are you okay?” Connor, one of Law’s good friends who had eventually shown up with Q, clapped him on the shoulder, peering at him with concern. They’d been focused on Sam and Amy after they’d arrived, but when Brian glanced over now, it looked like the other three had disappeared somewhere. Connor was a mountain of a man, looming over him with a frown that wrinkled his brow. A lot of the same subs who liked being coddled by Brian also flocked to Connor. At first, Brian had thought he might be a Daddy Dom, too, but he didn’t seem to be drawn that way.
There were a few people in the club who still seemed like they were looking for what they really wanted, and Connor was one of them. But he was a good guy, and Brian appreciated the lookout.
“Yeah, I’m good. Just tired.” As he said the words, he found himself yawning and quickly covered his mouth with his hand while his jaw cracked. Ouch. Damn.
Maybe he needed more sleep than he’d thought.
Connor gave him a crooked smile as Brian held out his hand in a request for help to his feet. The big man pulled him up like he weighed nothing. Connor was a wall of muscle, yet he never seemed bulky or like he was going for a bodybuilder physique. He was just strong.
No wonder the subs liked him.
“Where’d Amy go?”
“Sam and Q are walking her out. She’s gonna head home for tonight.”
So, she wasn’t getting her scene. Poor thing. Though he had a feeling what she’d needed the most was a good cry, and at least she’d gotten that. Still, eventually, she would probably need a scene. Maybe he’d mention it to Zach when he got home. It wasn’t like Kincaid had shown up tonight, and helping out Amy might give Zach some sense of normalcy.
“I think I might be headed that way, too,” he admitted. “I wish I’d realized. I could have walked her out.”
“You were off in your own little world.” Connor chuckled. He turned, his eyes tracking someone across the room, but when Brian turned to look, he couldn’t figure out who Connor might be watching. The club had gotten crowded while he’d been tending to Amy.
“Are you going to scene tonight?” Brian asked curiously. He couldn’t remember the last time Connor had done a scene with someone. He wasn’t surprised Connor hadn’t offered to do one with Amy—or if he had, she must have refused.
The two of them would be incredibly mismatched. Amy needed pain, and Connor tended to more sensual scenes and pleasure Dom scenarios. He could administer a spanking or flogging when he had to, but he rarely did, even though he watched them almost religiously. Brian sometimes wondered if he was just too afraid of hurting someone with his strength. Connor was definitely not a sadist.
He'd figure it out eventually, though. Maybe Brian could offer to mentor him. On another night, when he wasn’t already feeling so tired.
“No, I don’t think I’m scening tonight. Mistress Julie is supposed to do a demonstration on using Florentine flogging. I was going to go watch that.” Connor’s eyes lit up, the way they always did when there was a flogging demonstration. No wonder he was interested in the two-handed technique.
Yeah, Brian was going to have to work on confidence with the big man. He was sure there were any number of submissives who would happily offer to be his test subject to try out flogging techniques.
Things for Brian to think about later.
Things to distract yourself from Rae, you mean. While still having an excuse to show up at the club regularly to see her.
Brian ignored the thoughts that kept bubbling up, mocking him. Fake it till you make it, right? If he kept making himself come to the club and act like it didn’t matter she was here, eventually it wouldn’t.
That was how he’d gotten himself through a lot of his childhood. He’d kept pretending he didn’t care that his parents had both abandoned him until he really didn’t anymore. Well, unless he got a better suggestion from his therapist this week. He was self-aware enough to realize this was probably not the best coping method.
Time for him to get going. He looked around and didn’t see Rae and had to resist the impulse to go looking for her. Was she somewhere in the club, scening with someone else?
It doesn’t matter. You’re not supposed to care.
“I’m heading out,” he announced with enough firm fervor that Connor gave him a startled look. Thankfully, the other man didn’t ask.
“Hope you get some sleep.” Giving him a little nod that Brian returned, Connor headed off toward the Dungeon. Which meant Brian definitely couldn’t go down there to see if Rae was there. Which was good.
