Page 46 of Wanted
And Anna was beautiful. The bullshit around her was bound to be deeper than most.
This was ridiculous. He’d been a protector before. He’d supervised at least half a dozen scene negotiations between newbie submissives and their potential play partners. Why was this different? It annoyed him that he couldn’t put his finger on a solid reason.
It really annoyed him that this all was amusing Spencer as much as it seemed to be and now—shit—shoving off the bar, the other dom was heading his way.
Fuck.
Tossing the drink back, Marcus drained his glass and hoped like hell it would settle his nerves.
“Excuse me.” There was challenge in the other dom’s eyes when he paused in front of Marcus, his foot bare inches from Anna’s hip. He stuck his hand out in greet. “Name’s Anders. Pony says you’re her protector and any requests for a scene need to go through you.”
Fuck, piss, bugger… Marcus fought not to glare until the man retracted his unaccepted handshake. Frozen at his feet, there were goosebumps on Anna’s skin. She was excited. He did his best not to grit his teeth and gestured to a nearby empty chair instead. “What kind of scene?”
“What kind of scenes does she enjoy?” was the other man’s affable response. Pulling a chair up to the couch, he made himself comfortable. “I’m pretty open. I enjoy impact, mild breast and pussy torture—”
Those prickles of irritation had turned into razor blades, cutting sharply into him. “Not a chance,” he cut in.
Anders held up non-threatening hands. “I also enjoy violet wands, orgasm control—”
“Not a chance there, either.” The blades cut mercilessly deeper.
“Sensory play,” Anders continued. He paused to study him. “I confess, protocol and service subs have been an infatuation of mine for years. I’d just like to get to know her better.”
Marcus didn’t take his gaze off the other man, but Anna was still kneeling beside him, her head still bowed, her nipples still peaked with interest. She hadn’t moved, but he knew she was interested. More than that, he knew she was excited. Someone wanted to play with her, and she hadn’t had this in such a long time.
He should be letting her do it, but instead, he couldn’t seem to stop himself from sniping at the man. “You can’t come up with a more definitive scene than that?”
He hadn’t meant to do that. His tone dripped with disapproval, and he had no reason for it. But try telling that to the pulsing heat of possessiveness building inside his chest, crushing his lungs, until every breath he took felt weighted with jealousy. He wasn’t even a jealous man, or at least he never had been before.
The other dom arched a surprised brow. He blinked, sitting back in his chair as he studied Marcus. His eyes narrowed slightly, but his hands remained loosely folded and relaxed in his lap. “Perhaps I misunderstood the situation? Is she not available to scene?”
“She is, and she can scene with whomever she wants,” he corrected, wishing he could silence the knives digging in deep between his shoulder blades, but it was only getting worse. Stronger, and more irrational. He knew better than this, and yet he couldn’t stop himself. “But I’m her protector. It’s my job to make sure the person she scenes with knows what he’s doing, so she doesn’t get hurt. I don’t know you.”
“Fair enough, let me tell you more about me.” His expression made that concession both look and sound like a challenge. “I’ve been a dom for about seven years. I’ve had—”
“When was your first scene?” Marcus cut in.
“I just told you, I started getting into this about seven years ago.”
“No, you said you’d been a dom that long. This might come as a shock but there’s a difference between knowing how you identify and actually having the experience to back it up. You don’t magically become a dom just because you read Fifty Shades or got hard on during the movie. You’ve got the terminology down, I’ll give you that. But while that might impress the other newbies, I’m a whole different animal.”
“I’m not a newbie,” Anders said stiffly.
“I value my submissive too much to take that chance. Fuck off,” Marcus told him bluntly. He deliberately did not look at Anna. He didn’t want the guilt cutting into him now too as tiny hints of unhidden disappointment tipped her head or dipped her shoulders.
“Fair enough,” Anders said again, but his darkening face was anything but accepting. He glanced at her once, which sent a whole new wave of possessiveness prickling up Marcus’s spine, and then he got up and stalked away. Much to the delight of the dom he himself had slighted, watching all this from a distance at the bar.
“Well,” Spencer said, hiding his smile behind his almost empty glass. “At least you let him sit down.”
“Fuck off,” Marcus told him too, albeit without the same degree of rancor that Anders’s proximity had inspired.
Chuckling, the club manager heaved himself up off the couch. He followed after Anders, patting the man once on the back as he passed on his way back to Klara at the bar. No doubt to spread the ‘delightful’ news of Marcus’s unseemly behavior.
Gritting his teeth, Marcus shifted, but there was no comfort to be found on this chair or relief from the razors scraping him raw inside. “Did you like that guy?” he asked, forcibly keeping his tone and his expression as neutral as he could manage. “Do you want to try doing something with him?”
She didn’t look up, but her hands on her knees tightened. He saw the twitch in her fingers before she made herself relax again. “I... not if you don’t like him.”
He wasn’t entirely sure there was anyone he would like in this place. He cast irritably around him, looking from man to man. Trying to spot someone—anyone—who didn’t make the knots in his gut tighten or the razors sharpening themselves on his nerves worse. Jamie was setting up the spanking bench. Marcus might let him play with her, but then Jamie was a submissive and completely out of the question.
