Page 134 of Masters of Pleasure
From the reactions of everyone else in the kitchen, they hadn’t known.She didn’t know what had tipped Chad off.
Even if Nick had told her about Miles and Gareth, she would have still been blindsided by Chad tonight.
“Earth to Avery, Earth to Avery… you’ve totally zoned out.”Iris jostled her with her elbow.
“Sorry.”Avery sighed.“I can’t stop thinking about what Nick said on the phone.”Explaining, she was amused by the difference in their reactions.Iris appeared incensed on her behalf, Rae looked more worried than anything else, and Domi’s expression was thoughtful.
“He should have told you.”Iris crossed her arms over her chest.“He has no right to be mad at you.”
“Well, that’s not true.”Rae shook her head.“He still has good reason, and you should definitely blame us for keeping you out of work.”
“I’m not going to do that.”
“But yes, he should have still told you.Trust me.Save your own butt.Put as much of the blame on us as you can.”
“I… Oh.”Avery’s eyes widened.She hadn’t thought about that aspect of the evening.“Oh.”She shook her head, misery welling.“I’m honestly not sure he’ll think of that.”
Which kinda sucked because a good, hard punishment would help relieve her of her guilt and would make her feel a lot better.It was what she would expect from her Dom, even if he wasn’t her boss.She wasn’t sure Nick was up to that or if he would consider it mixing business with pleasure.
“You’d better hope he doesn’t,” Rae muttered darkly.“Punishment spankings suck.”
“She’s not wrong.Makeup sex can be fun, though,” Domi pointed out.She tugged on one of her curls, pulling it straight and letting it spring back into place.“I think you and Nick are going to have to talk things out.”
Avery shuddered internally.Why did that sound so hard?BDSM was all about communication, but the very thought made her want to run.Like she had earlier tonight.
You’ve got issues, girl.
ChapterTwenty-Four
Nick
Scrubbingdown the expo station until the steel surfaces gleamed and his arm ached didn’t make Nick feel any better.
He was torn between feeling guilty he hadn’t told Avery about Miles and Gareth, angry she’d walked out on the shift, and pure fury at Chad.Where the hell did that guy get off?
“Hey, Nick.”Luke sauntered into the kitchen, though now he was wearing leather pants with his shirt, indicating he’d been upstairs at Marquis—where he likely hadn’t been wearing a shirt at all.He kept his voice low, not that the others were listening.Sandra was busy cleaning her station, Darnell was already done and gone, and Alice and Ravi had their heads bent together, whispering.Probably Alice updating him on everything that had gone down tonight.
“When you’re done, Olivia wants to see you upstairs.”
Nick bit back a retort that he didn’t need Olivia interfering in his relationship, but she had a right, at least when it came to Avery’s employment.She was also a meddling busybody when it came to the submissives.He’d heard it enough times to have that fact drummed into his head.
“I’ll be up in a minute,” he said shortly.
Rather than respond, Luke patted his back and walked away, probably realizing Nick wasn’t in the mood to talk.
Running the cloth he’d been using to clean an area already spotless, Nick scowled.He could have gone straight upstairs, but he wasn’t in the mood to jump because someone else told him to.Not the headspace when going into a meeting.He needed to get a better semblance of control over himself.
Finally giving up on cleaning an already clean surface, Nick straightened up.
“I’m headed upstairs.Anyone need anything before I go?”
Sandra glanced up, shook her head, and immediately dropped her gaze again.Out of all the rest of the staff, she seemed the most disturbed by tonight’s revelations.She said nothing, but that was how he knew.Normally, she was pretty chatty with whoever was working next to her, and she and Ravi got along well.She hadn’t talked all night.
“We’re good.One sec, though, Chef,” Alice said, moving away from Ravi to the other side of the line, so only the expo window was between them.Unlike Luke, she didn’t bother to lower her voice.“Don’t be too hard on Avery, okay?She was in a rough spot and didn’t know what to do.Chad was always a dick about a woman being in charge of him, and nothing anyone could say was gonna make that better.”
“Oh?”Nick raised his eyebrow at her.“Would you have run?”Considering Alice was one of the few on the line who had the guts to yell back at him, he seriously doubted it.Then again, Avery did, too, and she still ran.
Alice snorted.
