Page 124 of Masters of Pleasure
“What?!No.”Avery glanced at Domi, who thankfully appeared to be fascinated rather than upset.Her makeup and clothes were toned down from her usual ‘look’ for brunch, though she and Iris looked as if they were cut from the same cloth.Both Latina, both wearing all black, both wearing more makeup than Avery or Rae.
In contrast, Rae was wearing a pink-and-orange flowered long-sleeved dress that matched the pink braids she had woven throughout her hair, and Avery was in a nice blue shirt and jeans.Domi and Iris looked ready to kick ass and take names, whereas Rae and Avery were more along the lines of ‘ladies who brunch.’
“Yup.Kate told me.For Jessica, the one who has two husbands, Chris and Justin.They’re both friends with Andrew.Her best friend knew none of the Doms would want a regular stripper there, so she asked Mitch to help them out.”
“Oh my God…” Domi cracked up.“I am so making him show me his stripper moves.”
“He’ll enjoy that.”Rae shook her head, but her eyes were dancing with glee as she nudged Domi with her elbow.“Think you can arrange a private showing for us.”
“Absolutely not.He’s all mine now.”Domi stuck her tongue out at Rae.“Find your own stripper Dom.”
“I can’t imagine most of the other Doms doing that, even for a friend.”Avery laughed.“Especially not for a friend.”Mitch, she could absolutely see.He was a goofball of the highest order, despite being a sadist, and thrived as the center of attention.Plus, she would bet he was a good dancer.
Was Nick a good dancer?She wondered if she’d ever find out.Running a restaurant wasn’t conducive to going out to dance clubs.Most places were still going by the time they left work, but usually, she was way too tired to enjoy it, and the idea of going straight from work rather than being able to go home, take a shower, and collapse, didn’t appeal.
Ugh.She was getting old.
Stronghold had a dance floor.Maybe she could convince Nick to go with her sometime on a Thursday.It would be good for him to be in the club when other people were playing.She wasn’t sure he’d watched a scene in person outside of what they were doing in class.Going to a show at Marquis might be good as well.He would probably feel more comfortable in a booth than where people could watch him.
A hand waved in front of her face.Avery blinked, and Domi’s tanned palm came into focus.
“Earth to Avery, Earth to Avery, come in Avery.”Domi grinned, taking her hand back when she saw she had Avery’s attention.“How’s it going with you and Nick?We need an update!”
She couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face.Nick was becoming a regular spanko.He’d even agreed to try out the flogger on her last night, despite the fact he hadn’t practiced on her in class and wouldn’t do so until Monday.Avery thought adding spanking to their private activities had given him confidence, and the particular flogger she had was very light.
“Good, it’s going really well.”
“Oooh, look at that smile,” Iris teased.“I guess that means you two have been practicing at home?”She looked at Domi and Rae.“You wouldn’t believe how hesitant the Doms were to spank us.Tiny slap, then ‘oh, I’m sorry, was that too much?’Um… no, I would have made a noise if I’d felt it at all.”She rolled her eyes as Domi and Rae cracked up.Even Avery couldn’t stop herself from laughing.It might be disrespectful, but so true.
“Yes, we’ve been practicing at home, and Nick is much more comfortable without an audience.”Avery shook her head.“He’s such a perfectionist.I don’t think he likes anyone to see him do anything other than his best.Add that to the worry he was actually going to hurt me… the class wasn’t his best effort.”
Iris snorted.“Yeah, they all thought they were going to hurt us.Talk about overestimating themselves.”Her expression turned thoughtful.“Connor might have reason to worry.Hopefully, I’ll get paired with him next time.I bet he spanks a lot harder than Q just because of physics.”
“Or Samantha… she was doing a pretty decent job with Freddy.”
“Yeah, but I think Olivia is trying to matchmake there.”They sat straight in surprise, focusing on Iris, who snickered.“That’s what Andrew said, though I’m not sure how well it will work since Sam is a switch and not a Domme.”
“He’s bi, right?Maybe they’ll end up in a throuple.Or they could be a couple, and Sam could find a Dom to platonically top her.Sorta like what Kincaid and Zach have going on.”
“Kink is so weird sometimes,” Rae said, propping her elbows on the table so she could rest her chin on her hands.There was no judgment in her voice, more like she was adding commentary.“No one talks about vanilla relationships like this.”
“We have different needs than the vanillas.”Avery sighed ruefully.“I figured that out when my body lit up like a Christmas tree getting back into the kink stuff.I’ve gone without it for so long, I thought maybe I didn’t need it, but I do.”She sighed again.
“Is that a bad thing?”Domi asked, tilting her head at Avery.
“Not in and of itself,” Avery replied after a moment.A small pit opened in the bottom of her stomach, and she recognized the fear but knew it wasn’t necessary here.None of the women at this table were going to judge her.“I told one of my friends back home about me and kink, and she didn’t take it very well.I didn’t bother telling the rest of them.They’re all very like-minded.”
“Didn’t take it very well?”Rae scowled.“Like it had anything to do with her.”
“Forget her,” Iris said, slinging an arm around Avery’s shoulders on their side of the booth.“You’re with us now.We’re way better.”
“Cheers to that.”Domi lifted her glass, and everyone followed suit.At that moment, Avery knew she’d been right to leave home, no matter how much it bugged her parents.She was so happy she’d found these women.She couldn’t ask for better friends.
Nick
The lunch rush was over, thankfully.Nick glanced at the clock on the wall.Only another couple hours before Avery arrived for the dinner shift.Working with his girlfriend was even better than he’d thought it would be.Sure, they stayed professional while they were in the restaurant, but he still got to see her a hell of a lot more than he would if they weren’t working together.She made every shift they shared even better.
“Chef Nick!Your brother is at the bar and wants to know if you have a minute,” Alanna informed him as she hurried past, flashing him a quick smile.From what Nick knew, she and Jonathan had a date tonight, both of them free for a Saturday night for once, and were rushing to get out of the restaurant.He didn’t blame them.
