Page 45 of Wanted
Rolling his shoulders, Marcus cracked his knuckles and forced himself to calm back down. This was ridiculous. Having people look at her, admire her—want her—that was exactly what she needed. It was what he’d come here tonight with every intention of giving her. It was a shot of much needed confidence. A return to normal for her, the validation all submissives craved and proof that they were beautiful in the eyes of someone. Wanted, by someone.
She needs this. Sit here and take it.
Jesus, the man just touched her wrist, a slight tap of the finger to get her attention but which anyone who knew anything about consent in places like this ought to know was forbidden as hell. Look all you want, you don’t touch without permission. Ever.
He almost came up off the couch again, but too late. Anna glanced at him. In her heels, she was slightly taller than he was, but only just. The guy was smiling, introducing himself. Anna’s face was a mask, but he could tell by the way her fingers tightened where she was holding onto the edge of the bar and the soft flush that stole up into her cheeks, that he’d just paid her a compliment.
Where was the pride that he was supposed to be feeling for her, right now? Marcus forced himself to relax, forced his fists to unclench and was almost too late in donning his own neutral mask before she glanced uncertainly in his direction.
I’m right here, he let his stare assure her. Go ahead. Talk to him. You’re doing good, honey.
She was doing everything right, everything he’d hoped would happen her first time back into the scene. What the hell was wrong with him? There was little in this interaction that should be making him this upset. Yes, that unwanted touch was out of line, but depending on how long the man had been in the scene, it might have been nothing more than a minor mistake. One easily corrected by just informing him of the rules he should have read and signed acknowledgement of when he first became a member.
“You look ready to kill.”
Startled, Marcus glanced right just as Spencer dropped to sit on the couch beside him. Crossing his ankle over his knee, Black Light’s manager made himself comfortable, a tumbler of whiskey in his hand which he rested lightly on his thigh.
“I’m fine,” Marcus dismissed, his attention returning to the bar.
“She looks different,” Spencer said after a moment.
It shouldn’t have rankled that his old friend had noticed, but it did. What the hell was wrong with him? She was naked, she was gorgeous, she was a single submissive in a den full of solitary doms—if people weren’t looking, she’d have been justifiably crushed.
Struggling to quash this unfamiliar jealousy, Marcus rolled his shoulders again. “She’s making good progress.”
“Then why do you look pissed?”
“I’m not pissed. I’m proud.”
“That’s your proud look?”
“This is my waiting for a god-damn drink look. Son of a b—” Too late Marcus clamped his mouth shut, but the damage was already done and Spencer was also now taking note of another dom, making his move across the crowded bar toward Anna. Watching his approach was like having sharpened razors scraping up his spine. Every single cut was painfully slow and sinking in deep. “She’s just getting a god damn drink,” he growled under his breath.
“She’s naked, in a dungeon, and without a collar.”
Siddling up to the bar on her other side, the older man now introduced himself, ignoring the look the first dom shot him as he smiled at Anna.
Her grip on the bar got a little tighter, but otherwise Anna didn’t move. When he said something to her, she replied.
Look at me, Marcus willed her. Give me a sign of distress.
She was aggravatingly uncooperative in that regard.
At last Klara worked her way down the bar to where she’d been waiting. Both doms jumped to get her a drink, but Klara’s nod was for Anna and the drink when she returned a short few minutes later was obviously his.
“Good girl,” Spencer said under his breath, startling Marcus just before he embarrassed himself further by echoing the same.
The younger man tried to touch her arm again, an attempt to reclaim her attention from the other man who was speaking to her. It was the older dom who immediately squashed that attempt, blocking that touch with a point of his hand. Chastened, the younger man retreated.
His drink cupped in her hands, Anna paused long enough for the older dom to finish what he was saying. Whatever she said in return was brief and then she left him there, watching hungrily after her as she walked directly back to him. As she knelt on the floor directly in front of his feet, the older dom looked directly at Marcus for the first time.
“Please stop stabbing him with your eyes,” Spencer chuckled under his breath.
“I’m not.” Taking his drink from her offering hand, Marcus held the other man’s assessing stare without blinking. “I’m simply letting him know I won’t take his bullshit.”
The club manager laughed again, no longer bothering to keep it under his breath this time. “What makes you think—”
“Because he’s a guy,” Marcus cut him off, not at all comfortable with how irritated this whole process was making him. “Men are naturally full of bullshit, especially where women are involved.”
