He was hard thinking about it. He remembered the way Mary had taken him into her mouth as her mistress—Beth, if he remembered correctly—had spanked her ass. He remembered the way each time he heard that slap of skin on skin, she’d taken him deeper and deeper.
He closed his eyes. “I remember, it just took me a minute.” Suddenly needing a drink, he pulled a bottle of Jack from the minibar. Ah, you knew you were successful when the minibar was stocked with full-sized bottles of booze.
He poured a shot into a tumbler. “How could I forget Detroit’s kinkiest couple? But you didn’t answer my question. How did you get into my room?”
Beth smiled sweetly. “Don’t you remember? You told your manager to let us in anytime you were in town. We wanted to surprise you.”
He laughed, the sound rough and cracked. “Yeah. You did.”
Beth raised a brow at him. “So why are you still dressed?” Bending, she reached beside the bed and picked up a long-handled rubber paddle.
Setting his glass down, he took the paddle and drew the wide end across his hand. He looked at Mary, tied and naked before him. Her pussy was glistening, waiting. Her eyes were dilated and expectant. She was a professional, this one. A true pain slut, exactly how he liked them. He could really let go with her. He could turn her over and paddle her shoulders, her ass, her upper thighs. He could take a flogger and drag the long, leather strands across her open pussy until she cried out for him to smack her clit. And he knew from experience that was exactly what she’d do.
He slapped his palm with the paddle, and the girls both jumped at the sound. He grinned. “Now, ladies. Who wants a drink?”
It was 1:30 a.m., and Ruby couldn’t sleep. Her head hurt, her heart hurt. She was a mess.
She was sitting at the kitchen table staring at her cell phone. She hadn’t heard his voice since she’d called to make sure the Riders would be playing for the Spring Fling. She’d had an excuse to call him then, but now she just had a need. A need to hear his voice. Unfortunately, she’d gotten his voice mail and she hadn’t left a message.
The need to see him burned inside her gut, and she was having a hell of a time putting that fire out.
He was just across the city. She didn’t know for how much longer, but he was there now, and she wanted to see him.
She picked up the phone and dialed.
“Ruby?” He sounded breathless.
His voice was such a comforting relief that she started to cry when she heard it. Pausing, she waited for her throat to relax enough to speak.
“Ruby. What’s wrong?”
“Oh, God.” She started babbling because she had to talk about her experience at the sex club with someone who would understand. She told him everything, from the bouncer to the candle wax to the man who’d invited her to join him at the spanking bench.
“Oh, God. Mark, it was just so…” She trailed off when she heard noise behind him. Voices. She held her breath, filled with an odd premonition. “Am I calling at a bad time?”
“Oh, baby.” There was something in his voice, a haggard strain she’d never heard before. “It’s fine. Talk to me, Ruby.”
“Where are you?”
“Detroit, actually. We got called in as a replacement band at the last minute.”
“Oh.” A chill went through her. “Detroit.” He’d flown across the country and she hadn’t even known. “Okay. So, are you at a party now?”
“Um, not really. No.” She’d never heard him sound so tense, and her stomach lurched with a sickening wave of nausea. The voices were murmuring in the background. Female voices.
She swallowed down her queasiness. “You… you’re busy. It’s fine.”
“Ruby,” he strained out in the slow, measured way one would use when speaking to a person on the edge. “Give me two minutes. Two minutes, and I’ll call you right back.”
“You’re with someone, aren’t you?”
A long pause and then, “Yes.”
A singsong voice came through the phone. “Mark. Are you coming back to us?”
Ruby couldn’t think or breathe or speak. There was a vise clamped around her throat. Even as she told herself she had absolutely no right to be jealous or angry, her words came out in a tight screech. “Us? Us? As in two?”
His voice came at her in a low and intense hiss. “Didn’t you just go to a fetish party, Ruby? Didn’t you just call me because you had to tell me all about your experience and how hot you are now because some guy invited you to join him in a little play session?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “It wasn’t like that.”