definitely hadn’t felt the need to trash talk her.
So why was she being such a catty bitch tonight?
I’m jealous.
The realization hit her like a freight train.
After months of being Mitch’s first dibs, months where she’d scened with other people, months where she’d been totally fine knowing he was scening with other people, she simply wasn’t anymore. When was the last time she’d even scened with someone else? A month and a half ago, or about that, with a new Dom to the club, Master Law. Lawrence was his real name, but one of the subs had called him Master Law when she found out he was a lawyer, and it had stuck. Since Domi hadn’t scened with him before, they’d agreed to no sex. She’d been relieved he hadn’t expected or wanted that from her.
She hadn’t wanted to have sex with anyone but Mitch. She just hadn’t known it at the time or hadn’t been willing to admit to it—even to herself.
Fuck.
Years of not wanting a relationship, of not finding a single guy she was interested in having a relationship with, and now she had to go and develop feelings? And for Master Mitch, the playboy Dom, of all the Doms she could have gotten a crush on.
“What’s going on over here?” The sound of Master Mitch’s deep voice made her want to bang her head against the wall.
Not right now! She was still dealing with the whole “I think I’ve developed feelings” thing. It was like her thoughts had summoned him before she was ready to actually face him. Crap, crap, crapola on toast!
“Is everything okay?”
Oh, good, not just Master Mitch. They’d also attracted Master Brian’s attention. Rae must be dying.
Neither she nor Rae apparently felt up to answering, so there was a long beat of silence before Freddy finally spoke up.
“The ladies have an issue with… another member and were expressing their opinion about that member.” Freddy’s voice was clipped, although not disapproving as it had been when he’d first rounded on them. In his own way, despite what he’d overheard, he was still trying to follow the unspoken subbie rule of Stronghold and Marquis—look out for each other—a rule Rae and Domi had just broken.
That made her feel even worse.
She peeked up to see Mitch and Brian exchange looks. Yeah, they weren’t fooled. In fact, Domi wouldn’t be surprised if everyone was looking at them now—hopefully not knowing exactly what was going on.
Voices coming in made her glance over her shoulder. Tracey was leading three other women into the room. Domi was relieved to see no one in the booths on that side of the room was looking over at her and Rae, so maybe they hadn’t drawn as much attention as she’d thought. She felt even worse when Tracey led the three women over to Morgan’s table, and Morgan greeted them with complete delight.
She hadn’t been here with Mitch at all. Or Brian. Or any of the Doms. She was here to meet friends. Domi recognized two of them—Caroline, who had a reputation for being mean but who didn’t come to Stronghold very often, and Amy, who was a total sweetheart. Which meant she and Rae had been completely off base.
Although she didn’t think Freddy would have excused their words, even if they hadn’t been—and he shouldn’t—but Domi felt even worse if that was possible.
“Why don’t we go have a chat?” Master Mitch suggested, his voice deceptively mild, the kind of voice he used in a scene right before he got all bossy.
Shit.
“How bout we don’t?” Rae muttered under her breath, and Domi stifled a groan. She knew better than to sass Mitch when he used that voice, but Rae obviously had missed the threat in his tone.
“No one asked you, little girl.” Brian stepped up next to Rae, his voice harder than usual, as Mitch’s fingers wrapped around Domi’s arm. “Freddy, are any of the rooms open?”
“Everyone’s here for the show, so you have your pick for the next two hours,” Freddy said.
Fuck.
Chapter Three
Domi
“What? No, why can’t we talk together?” Rae’s voice was half angry, half horrified, and Domi started to turn to look behind her, but Mitch’s grip on her arm kept her from being able to spin all the way around.
Master Brian had the door to the Little Girls’ room—the youngest age-playroom in Marquis—open, and Rae was obviously balking.
“You and Domi feed off of each other. I think Master Mitch and I will have better luck getting to the bottom of this if