To distract myself, I open the laptop and turn it on. Tonight will be another gauntlet to run, and knowledge is the only weapon available to me currently. It won’t pave the way for me to have the upper hand—I’m not delusional—but it might mean I don’t drown quite as quickly when faced with something outside my realm of experience.
The desktop is clear except for a line of six folders. I click through the first and find five more folders labeled Gaeton, Malone, Hook, Beast, the Man in Black. I blink. These must be pseudonyms. I click into the first one and find a list of Gaeton’s alliances and enemies—he answers to the Man in Black and has a note that he and Beast can’t be left alone together in the club without concern for damages to the property. There’s also a brief history and a list of kinks and favorite submissives. I click through more files, finding similar information compiled in each. Some of them are significantly longer than others, but it’s a lot of information to process.
I sit back. No wonder Hades is so formidable. He knows the secrets of all the major players in this city. Knowledge worth killing over and they had passed it along willingly because he’s allowing them to play out their deepest fantasies within these walls. It’s brilliant.
I manage a nap and wake up with plenty of time to shower again and grab something out of my closet for my shift tonight. All the work clothing is in line with the shorts from last night—light on fabric and tight enough to leave nothing to the imagination. I decide on a pair of black shorts that shine like leather but are made of some kind of stretchy fabric. There are little rhinestones in a row down each side and they wink every time I move.
It feels strange to walk mostly naked to the elevator and take it up to the club floor, but I suppose I’ll get used to it given enough time. I walk into the employee back room and the first person I see is Aurora. She’s wearing white again, an elaborate lingerie set that looks like something a bride would wear on her wedding night. She grins when she sees me. “Hey, Hercules.”
“Hey.”
“Since Tink isn’t here tonight, you’re with me for the first part of your shift. Then Meg will take over like last night.”
My stomach clenches at the thought of seeing her again after how things fell out earlier. I have an apology to give, and I’m not even sure how to make it right. I thought I was starting to understand the rules, but with Meg the edges blur. This morning, I didn’t want to stop until I had her bent over the desk and my cock sheathed to the hilt. I wanted to fuck her until she came, until we were so lost in each other that nothing else mattered. But it’s not just us engaged in this dance, and it doesn’t feel like something as simple as breaking the rules to go against Hades’s command.
I don’t know. I just don’t know.
“Hercules?” Aurora takes a step closer. She’s tiny in a way that makes me feel like one wrong move would break her. The look on her face is anything but meek, though. She frowns up at me. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t understand this.” I have to swallow the words before I blurt out everything. What’s going on between Hades and Meg and me is our business, but it feels like they’re playing on a different game board than I am. Like they’re playing an entirely different fucking game. I would ask Tink if she were here, but she’s not. I scrub my hands over my face. “We’re submissives, right?”
“Yes.”
“So a Dom gives you an order.”
Aurora holds up a finger. “A couple caveats before you keep going. We don’t answer to all Doms. We answer to ours and the ones we’re in a scene with. That’s it. It’s not a blanket rule.”
Am I Hades’s? It sure as fuck feels like it. But it feels like I’m Meg’s too, and that’s where things get confusing. “Okay. So your Dom gives you an order. Is breaking it really so bad?”
“Every relationship is different. Some subs—like Tink—are brats. They get off on pushing against the boundaries and breaking the rules and mouthing off. The Doms they partner with usually also get off on that sort of thing. That’s not how I operate. It makes me uncomfortable to act out like that.” She shrugs. “Your mileage may vary.”
“That…doesn’t really help.” The deeper I get into this world, the more I’m realizing that there aren’t any hard and fast rules beyond consent of all parties. That’s it. The scope it is staggering if I let myself think too hard about it.
Sympathy flashes in her dark eyes. “Look at it a different way. He gave you an order. You obviously thought about disobeying it, even if you didn’t. What would it feel like if you did go through with it?”
My stomach turns even as my skin heats. I regretted rejecting Meg the second I did it. If I could go back… “Conflicted.”
She smiles. “A lot of this stuff is feeling your way, especially if you’re in something more intense than a single scene. Talk to him about it. Or her. Or whoever. Communication is everything.”
“Thanks.” I manage a smile of my own. “How long have you been working in the Underworld?”
“A little over a year now.” Her expression dims. “Hades helped me out when I needed it the most.”
Another deal on his part, though at least this one appears to have benefited the person working here. I don’t ask her the details of it. Deals seem to be a private thing, and I’m not really willing to go into my reasons either. I take a deep breath. “Should we get out there?”
“Yeah.” She starts for the door. “The others will be along shortly, but we can make the rounds and get drinks started.”
Working with Aurora is as different from working with Tink as day from night. I enjoy her company quite a bit, but I find myself missing Tink’s snark. We fall into a comfortable rhythm of transporting drinks from Tis at the bar to the various customers who filter into the club as the night goes on. I recognize several of the people from the file Allecto delivered, and I try to pay closer attention to them, but before long, the room is packed and it’s everything I can do to keep up with the orders.
I’m firmly in my head as I move to clear a table that’s been abandoned by two women who have gone through the door that leads to the public playroom and the individual themed rooms. Tink dragged me through there on my first day when it was empty, so I’m a little blurry on the actual details, but if this room is where people come to socialize, those rooms are where they come to play.
I turn around and nearly run into a man standing there. For a second, I forget I’m supposed to keep my eyes down and look directly at him. Hook. One of the people Meg and Hades keep a file on. He looks like a fucking pirate. His medium brown skin is broken by a diamond nose piercing and a trio of golden rings circling his upper ears on each side. His long dark hair is pulled back from his face in some kind of ponytail thing and he’s got a perfectly groomed beard that parts as he gives me a wicked smile. I swear his dark eyes actually twinkle at me. “Look what we have here.”
I remember to drop my gaze, which gives me a good look at his tattooed bare chest and the leather pants that are tight enough to leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. “Would you like a drink?”
“Nothing for me.” He reaches out and gives the green ring attached to my collar a gentle tug. I feel it all the way down to my cock. Hook makes a humming noise. “How long until you’re up for grabs?”