“Lilli,” he called softly, using her submissive name. He leaned over to kiss her shoulder. Something was wrong. She didn’t smell right. “Lilli?” He asked again.
The bedroom door opened right as Lillian turned in the bed to face him.
“Ty?” Lillian asked, but it wasn’t the woman in his arms.
His heart pounded, and he looked over his shoulder to see his name had been spoken by the Lillian at the door.
What?
He looked down to the woman in bed with him. She wasn’t Lillian. She wasn’t even close.
“Your new PA, Ty?” Lillian asked, slamming the door behind her. “Seriously? Couldn’t you be a little more original and fuck the mail clerk?”
What the hell was going on?
He sat up. “I don’t know what you think happened, but—”
Lillian held her hand up. “Don’t even.”
“Is this your wife, Ty?” The girl in the bed had dropped the sheet, exposing her perky nipples. “Do you think she’ll join us?”
Now
Lillian had never thought of herself as lacking common sense. In fact, she’d always thought the exact opposite. Which explained her shock upon realizing that people with common sense rarely hung out at BDSM clubs waiting for their ex-husbands to show up.
It had never been her intention to act so out of character. Her friend, Jaci, had called yesterday and whispered excitedly that Lillian’s ex-husband, Ty, had called to indicate his intent to reactive his membership at The Club where Jaci worked the following evening. Lillian’s response should have been that Ty could go fuck himself and the plane that brought him back to the States. Lillian hadn’t stepped a foot inside The Club since their divorce, and had never planned to again. That’s what she should have said, but she didn’t.
No, instead, she decided to visit again. One last time.
Nothing could happen because she visited the place once more. In two days she’d be on her way to the Florida Keys for two weeks. Not for a vacation, but because two hurricanes had battered the islands, leaving devastation everywhere. Lillian had volunteered to help, thinking it would help keep her mind off Ty.
She should be at her apartment, packing, rather than standing in the large room separating The Club’s check-in room and the play areas. Nothing to do about it now, though, she was already here.
The much-too-white room was filling up with people. Most only walked through because no play was allowed, but several members sat chatting on one of the many curved loveseats.Ty was nowhere to be seen. She decided to grab a drink from the bar tucked away in far corner. Just as she turned to head in that direction, Ty appeared.
He’d been in London for two years, so it’d been at least that long since she’d laid eyes on him. How was it possible he’d grown even more handsome? His dark blond hair held a bit of gray, but it didn’t make him look old. Rather, he looked more distinguished. The laugh lines around his mouth spoke of his laid-back demeanor.
After everything they’d been through, his betrayal, the divorce he didn’t fight her on, being separated by the Atlantic Ocean, and finding their way back to a cordial relationship, the sight of him should not make her body react the way it did. The visceral yearning threatened to pull her across the room to where he stood. She thought about letting it take her. Until she dropped her eyes to the person who’d entered with him.
A woman.
Short with a headful of unruly curls, her eyes flickered from one thing or person to another in unmasked interest and with a hint of trepidation.
A newbie? What the hell?
Just that quickly, she remembered opening her bedroom door and finding Ty in bed with his recently hired PA. Since their divorce, she had tried to date, but had been unable to build up any interest, much less excitement, about doing so. It went without saying, she hadn’t found the first person she wanted to sleep with. Of course, the same couldn’t be said of Ty.
Not that she cared. She'd divorced him, he could play and sleep with anyone he wanted. It wasn’t her business anymore.
Still, she had to get out of the room before he saw her and, even worse, noticed she was alone.
He called her name the second she turned away, but she continued through the doors leading to the public play space as if she didn’t hear. He wouldn’t follow because he was much too good of a Dom, and the tiny little thing he brought with him looked scared half to death. No way would he bring her back here or leave her alone while he followed by himself.
She stopped walking for a minute. Hell, did she think he cared enough to follow her? He brought someone with him for crying out loud. His plan for the night probably involved the newbie sub and a private room.
She snorted, causing several people to look her way, though most went on with whatever it was they were doing before. Except, of course, for one guy who must have decided he enjoyed snorting submissives because he changed course and headed in her direction.
Damn it all to hell.
He was attractive enough, but after seeing Ty in person, there wasn’t a man on the planet who could tempt her at the moment. God, she’d forgotten how devilishly handsome her ex was.
“Hello,” the Dom said, coming to a stop right in front of her. “I’m Eric. I don’t recall ever seeing you here before.”
His smile and demeanor were charming, but they were lost on her. “Lillian. I’m an old member,” she told him. “Just haven’t been part of the scene lately.”
“Any reason?” he asked.
She shrugged, not wanting to explain the entire situation to a stranger. “Yes, but nothing I’d bore you with.”
“Why do you think I’d be bored?” He was pushing, as one would expect from a Dom, but she wasn’t in the mood for anything he had in mind.
“Trust me,” she said. “You would be. But it doesn’t matter, because I only came to observe tonight. I have no intentions of playing.”
“I can take a hint,” he said, with a grin. “It’s nice to have met you, Lillian. If you decide you’d like to do more than observe the next time you’re here, feel free to find me.”
“Thank you, Eric,” she said, relieved he didn’t attempt to change her mind. He gave her a wink before turning and walking away.
She sighed, watching his tight backside as he made his way across the room. Another time, another place, another lifetime, Eric would have turned her head. For the briefest of seconds, she contemplated calling him back. What would be the harm in blowing off some steam for an hour or two? Or blowing him off?
But she’d never been one to play casually.
“Thank goodness you turned him away.”
She knew the voice, knew it at the most intimate of levels. Lillian closed her eyes and let the sound wash over her. Enjoying the way it made her skin tingle and her insides grow warm and needy. Then, as sudden as she’d let it wash over her, she shut it off, and turned to face the owner of the voice.
“Ty,” she said, looking him in the eyes, determined not to give into or show any of the emotions running through her body. Not the jealousy, or the anger, and for sure as hell not the desire being around him unwillingly brought out. “How did you think you’d have stopped me if I’d welcomed his advances?”