The question brought her out of her thoughts and back into the moment. She stood in The Reef with two women she’d only recently met.
Madeline glanced at Jane Adams and wondered what it was about the woman that felt wrong to her. It wasn’t fair or nice because she’d just met her, but Maddie couldn’t help but feel like she was missing something. Nothing scary. Jane had been lovely since the moment they’d been introduced, but there was something oddly familiar about her.
“It’s everything I thought it would be,” Jane was saying, looking around the main dungeon. She gave Kayla Summers-Hunt a wide smile. “Thank you so much for making this dream come true for me.”
“I’ve got to ask why coming to The Reef was a dream for you.” Kayla looked spectacular in a peacock blue corset and thong. Her legs appeared long and sleek in a pair of Louboutin stilettos. “I mean, we love it here, but not many people know about it. I’ve been trying to make the connection.”
“Oh, more people know about it than you think. The Reef is considered the best club in California by many in the lifestyle.” Jane wore a corset of her own. It was black, and so were the boy shorts and the heels on her feet. Her hair was deep purple and in a bob that brushed her jawline and was almost certainly a wig. By the time Maddie had made it into the locker room, Jane had changed and had an elaborate mask that covered much of her face. “I’ve visited a couple of the clubs in the valley and one downtown, but I’ve never been a regular. The Reef is all anyone talks about. It’s the pinnacle of where the lifestylers I used to hang around with wanted to be.”
“And you?” Kayla asked.
“I wanted to see it. I suppose it’s a little bit of revenge because I’m here and he doesn’t even know it,” Jane replied, touching one of the pillars and running her fingers down it. She seemed completely fascinated with everything around her. Her enthusiasm might have been catching if Maddie wasn’t still thinking about how hard life had been on Deke.
The club was starting to hum, the lights low and music beginning to pulse through the building.
“I would ask who your ex is, but I have to be honest, I haven’t played outside this club in…well, since I came to LA,” Kayla said.
“Malibu, you mean,” Jane corrected, her lips curling up in an impish grin. “You, milady, live in Malibu. It’s very different from the LA I live in.”
“Probably,” Kayla admitted. “But it’s not like I haven’t seen a rougher part of the world. You travel a lot, don’t you?”
Jane nodded. “Quite a bit, but it’s mostly places like Cleveland or the Atlanta suburbs. Most of the companies I work for are located in boring places. I work from home a lot, too. It can be lonely. I had a bad breakup and I needed to do some healing, so I suppose I hid away for a while and licked my wounds. Tonight is special for me because it feels like I’m taking the first steps to get my life back. I thank you for helping with that, Kayla. And you, Madeline. You have no idea how much you’ve helped me.”
She wasn’t sure why Deke was so suspicious of this woman. There was something oddly familiar about her, but she was quite charming. “I’m happy to do it. I know how much D/s has helped me.”
It had. She was surprised that something she’d gone into simply thinking it was nothing but a tool had actually transformed the way she thought about sex and her own body. It gave her confidence and made her take her own needs seriously.
Was that why it might be able to work with Deke this time?
Jane smiled. The mask was in the shape of a butterfly on her face, the wings spreading over her cheeks but not covering her mouth. Her lips were generous and perfectly sculpted. “I’m glad to hear that. I’m trying to take back that part of my life.” She glanced around. “Where did the other girl go? The one with the cutest name?”
“MaeBe?” Maddie asked.
Jane nodded. “Yes, that was it. She was adorable.” She touched the deep purple hair that caressed her cheeks. “Obviously I love her hair, but she just seems like a really fun chick. I don’t have many girlfriends. I’m afraid all the women I work with are highly competitive.”
“Yes, I saw you specialize in corporate restructuring,” Maddie said. “That’s got to be stressful. Are there a lot of women in that business?”
“Oh, I’ve found women are absolutely the best at walking into a situation and realizing who needs to go,” Jane murmured. “There she is. I was asking about you. I was just telling them how much I love your hair.”
MaeBe lit up as she approached the group. “Oh, thanks. I just had it done. My roots grow so fast I sometimes think I should give it up. It’s been so long since I saw my natural color, I wouldn’t recognize it. I like yours, too.”
Jane reached out, brushing her fingers over MaeBe’s pink locks. “I think this looks oddly natural on you. And mine’s a wig. I like to be versatile when it comes to how I look.”
“Well, this is the place to do it.” MaeBe wore a tiny miniskirt and a PVC longline bra along with fishnet socks that came up to her knees and a pair of Mary Janes. Her hair was in pigtails like a naughty schoolgirl. “This is a place to be whoever you want to be.”
“I like that,” Jane replied. “Though I can’t imagine the wife of Joshua Hunt wanting to be anyone else.”
Kayla snorted, a sound she managed to make elegant. “Oh, I love that man, but he’s human like the rest of us. I wouldn’t be anyone but me, however, I do like to play out some fantasies. Let me show you around. We’ve got some rooms that are specifically for fantasy play. You indicated you enjoy role-playing.”
Kayla started to move down the stairs that led into the largest of the dungeons at The Reef. Maddie glanced around, looking for any glimpse of Deke. She hadn’t seen him since they’d gone into separate locker rooms and wouldn’t until this “girl” time was over.
Kayla started to give Jane some information about the club and Maddie wondered if Nolan was needling Deke again.
The fact that her boss had tried to make her boyfriend feel small pissed her off.
Deke said he was working through his insecurities, but what if he couldn’t?
“Hey, are you okay?” MaeBe moved in beside her, her voice going low. “I can handle this if you need to head back to the locker room. Is it something Deke did?”
Kayla had stopped, showing Jane the hallway that led to the offices.
Maddie hung back. “He finally talked about what happened to him during his military days. It was awful, but he seems okay with it. He was calm the whole time he told me the story.”
“Well, he’s had a lot of therapy,” MaeBe replied. “And he took it seriously. He’s worked on himself for years. I’m glad he talked to you. He was a little confused about why it was important to share that part of his life with you.”
“He told you he was confused?”
“He brought it up to the group,” MaeBe acknowledged. “I think the fact that the only person who agreed with him was Kyle made him rethink. My guy isn’t the right person to give anyone advice about being open and honest in a relationship, though he’s working on it.”