Page 1 of A Stable Daddy

Chapter One – Ryan

The club is packed. I’m not surprised, considering it’s a Saturday night and a themed event night to boot. I’ve been visiting The Vault for years, but every time I climb the stairs that lead up from the well-stocked adult store beneath it, I feel the same thrill of nervousness creep up my spine.

Putting myself out there has never been my forte.

It was easier when I was married. Maddox and I were a team. A united front. I wasn’t searching for a partner in the clubs, but rather celebrating and indulging my kinks with my husband in a safe, but still kind of public space. We’d come out to socialise with other kinky people and even if we’d sometimes play with others, I never felt the pressure to find other playmates because I had Maddy.

Then the bastard up and died on me, and I was suddenly a fifty-year-old widowed Sub with no clue how to proceed in life.

I’ll admit the life choices I made in that first year were questionable. I closed our (my) veterinary practice and sold our (my) house, unable to live with memories of Maddy etched into every nook and cranny. Then I moved back to Brisbane, where I’d grown up, and immediately missed the country.

But the one big thing Brisbane has that small rural towns don’t? A thriving kink community…if you know where to look.

So, after rambling around a shoebox apartment for a couple of months, I bit the bullet and started researching the best clubs to visit. It was hit and miss at first, and the first Dom I did ascene with used his safe-word when the grief of missing Maddy hit me out of nowhere, but I eventually found The Vault hidden in the seedier area of Fortitude Valley, and I’ve been coming here ever since.

Usually on a night like tonight, when the club has arranged a ticketed themed event, I try to make plans with a Dom ahead of time. But my choice to come here was very last minute, and that makes me even more anxious about being on my own.

The space at the top of the stairs is dimly lit. It’s a much larger area than the shop downstairs would have you believe. There’s a large central room, with a projector screen showing porn on the right-hand wall, and a queen-sized bed right in front of it. White leather couches line the other walls, well placed to watch either the porn or any couples willing to play in front of an audience. There are a couple of stripper poles between the bed and the couches, too.

Beyond this room lies a catacomb of smaller rooms: some for playtime, some for more intimate porn viewing sessions. There’s also an alcove containing a sex swing and a St Andrews cross, and at the very end of one of the hallways, a room for age play enthusiasts, complete with an adult sized crib and change table.

All in all, even though The Vault isn’t the fanciest or largest club I’ve ever been to, it is well-appointed and the clientele are usually respectful of the club’s rules.

However, tonight there’s a strange vibe in the air. I don’t know if I’m just projecting my anxiety, or whether it’s the sheer number of bodies writhing under the dim lighting, but I feel on edge as I enter the main space.

I can feel eyes trailing over me, taking in my gold lamé shorts and white mesh tank top. Around my neck, I wear a collar of fluorescent blue glow sticks, and I have a matching bracelet on either wrist. I look like the 90s chewed me up and spat meback out, but that was tonight’s theme, so I’m happy with my ensemble.

Well, Iwas. Now that I’m here, I’m second guessing all of my life choices.

Not many other people appear to have gone as gung-ho on matching the event theme. A few are wearing similar glow stick combinations to me, some wearing glow stick crowns or necklaces, but most people are in “normal” club clothes. Not booty shorts that were essentially stolen from a Kylie Minogue video.

“Oh, honey,” a young, flamboyant Asian guy approaches me, his lip curled in amusement, “you went all out, didn’t you?”

I sigh and accept his hug when he opens his arms wide, exchanging kisses to each other’s cheeks. “Hey, Jake. What gives? I thought everyone was dressing up tonight?”

He snorts and points at his ripped jeans and black t-shirt combination. “I went nineties grunge, darling.”

It takes every ounce of control I possess not to close my eyes and groan. “Of course you did.”

He tosses his head back and laughs, making his Adam’s apple bob. “You’re adorable, Rye.”

I screw my nose up. I might be submissive by nature, but I don’t think I’m comfortable with my young friend calling me adorable. I’m twice his age, for one thing, and more silver fox than cutesy club bunny. Jake takes one look at my expression and snorts.

“You’re really haggling for a paddling tonight, huh?” he asks.

“That’s not a saying.”

“Next you’ll be telling me to stop trying to make fetch happen,” he winks.

“God save me from ridiculous young brats,” I roll my eyes towards the ceiling, but I’m unable to prevent the upwards twitch of my lips behind my salt and pepper goatee.

Jake hip checks me and I follow him through the crowd of people, nodding at a few I recognise, but realising that the majority are new faces. It’s strange, considering the community itself is somewhat underground, and The Vault is one of the smaller clubs in the vicinity of the city.

“Frank advertised tonight’s event on Red Hot Pie,” Jake rises up on his toes so he can speak the words directly into my ear. The fact that his warm breath ghosting over my skin makes me shudder is a sign that it’s been way too long since I last played with anyone. “The store’s been struggling. He thought getting fresh blood in might help revive it a bit.”

Nodding in understanding, my heart goes out to Frank and Antonia. They own the adult store downstairs as well as the club itself, and they’ve become good friends over the past year or so. It sucks to hear that the business isn’t doing well.

“Hopefully the plan pays off for them,” I muse, allowing my eyes to drift past the bed, where two men are worshipping a curvaceous brunette between them, to the wall where the porn is playing. It’s het porn tonight, which doesn’t surprise me. One of the smaller, private viewing rooms will be showing gay porn.

---