AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Paige’s drink came out first. Rhea wrapped her hand around it, sheltering the glass from whatever might be in the air. “Are you employed by the club?”
“No, honey, I’m a free agent. Pay my taxes myself and everything.” A wink flew in Rhea’s direction while the bartender made her drink. “The club hires me to put on shows once in a while. Sometimes I have someone I can bring, other times I rely on them to set me up with a submissive partner.”
“Doesn’t that take the romance out of it?”
“Sweetheart!” The dominatrix clasped her hands together as if Rhea had said the most precious thing. “It’s not always aboutromance.It’s a show! We’re here to have a good time, but part of my job as a professional performer is to, ah… inspire people. As long as I have decent chemistry with a person, I don’t need to know their real name or what they want to achieve by the time they die. I just need to know their safe word.”
Rhea laughed, another glass appearing before her. “Maybe we’ll catch your show. My wife is expecting me.”
“Is she the one in the pink dress?”
Rhea shot another look in the dominatrix’s direction. “She is. Have you seen her?”
The woman jerked her thumb toward the other side of the lounge. “Looks like you’re married to a wild one.”
Sure enough, Paige had left the couch and was already engaged in a conversation with a couple, the man barely able to take his eyes off Paige’s cleavage and the woman stealing touches to the pink fabric and the rhinestones adorning it. “She hasn’t even had a drink yet,” Rhea said.
That garnered a chuckle. “I’d ask if she’s available for a show tonight, but I have a feeling you’ve got your stamp on that one.”
Rhea almost couldn’t fathom it.Paige? In a BDSM show?She would have laughed if the image didn’t titillate her so quickly.God, I wish.Rhea didn’t particularly share in the fetish, but she loved the idea of Paige participating in anything raunchy or sexually scandalous. Things that she had eschewed since graduating college and claiming Rhea as her one and only. Things that Rhea would love to see again.
I still can’t believe we’re here.
Rhea left the bar behind and approached Paige, who caught her gaze shortly before her wife arrived. The woman in the couple acknowledged Rhea with a slight nod. The man, presumably her husband based on the wedding rings, was still staring at Paige.
“Made new friends already, honey?”
Paige accepted her Bacardi and Coke with a twist of her hand. “This is Irene and her husband Josh. Irene and I had the misfortune of bumping into each other when both of our high heels started giving out on us.” She sipped her drink. “Luckily, Josh was here to save us before we went down in a blaze of embarrassing glory.” She took another sip. “I’ve only been here for ten minutes – I can’t kill all the funyet.”
“You must be Paige’s wife.” Irene extended a hand bedecked in two colorful rings. “We’ve already heard so much about you. I believe my husband has a vest like that.”
Even after so many years on that earth, Rhea still wasn’t sure when someone was offering a backhanded compliment. It didn’t help that she could be self-conscious about her masculine style when out for a nice night on the town.Or wearing baggy clothes at a concert. Or wearing gym shorts to the pool. Or…Rhea always liked her style until she was out in public, surrounded by hyper-feminine women and their male counterparts.Don’t ask me where the no-fucks twenty-something went.Rhea was convinced she woke up at thirty-two hating everything about herself… no wonder her writing career took off around that time!
“Pleasure.” Josh shook Rhea’s hand next. “Do you two come here often? It’s our first time.”
Rhea was too shocked to answer that question. She knew men would be at the club that night but didn’t think for two seconds she’d have a conversation with one. “Uh…”
Paige coolly answered in her wife’s stead. “It’s not our first time, but it’s been a long while. We’re not usually into the scene. Where are you from? Or did you recently move to LA?”
“We’re originally from the east coast. New England, thereabouts,” Josh continued. “We were in town for a wedding and decided to do a little something for ourselves. Are you locals?”
“Our whole lives,” Paige said. “I grew up in Anaheim, she grew up in Malibu… we live in Santa Monica now. I have a place in West Hollywood. We get around.”
Why are you telling them all the details?Rhea didn’t know these people, and neither did Paige, who was already more communicable than she usually was at these parties.Did someone slip her something before we left home?
“We’d invite you to join us over in our corner,” Rhea curtly said, “but it’s sort of a girl’s night.”
Josh nudged his wife. Irene giggled. “Oh, we understand. Don’t worry about us. We’ve got plans of our own tonight. Have a lovely evening.”
Rhea took her wife by the arm and escorted her back to where Jocie and Maya waited. “New friends of yours already?”
Paige clutched her hand to her chest. “Hardly. I just don’t want to be a bitch when I’m wearing something that catches attention.”
“Youdolook phenomenal. Have I told you that already?”
A slight, smug smile teased Paige’s face. “Maybe. You could always tell me again.”
Rhea squeezed her wife by the waist before they sat back down. “You look as good as you did on our first date.”
