Page 8 of Betrayed

A shaft of envy stabbed at him, both for the rousing scene and for the obvious connection between the couple. His schedule hadn’t allowed time to establish any sort of relationship beyond a night or two here or there. He was up front with his partners, believing it unfair to leave a woman waiting and wondering while he went off on missions at the drop of the hat, unable to leave word of where he’d be, how to be reached, or when he’d be back. That made for a lonely bachelor life.

Since coming to Club Decadence and witnessing the satisfaction to be had from such a connection, by men who once had careers similar to his own, made him wonder if it wasn’t time to make a few changes in his life. His forty-second birthday was rapidly approaching, and he didn’t relish spending his later years living out of a duffel bag and a hotel room. Not to mention being alone.

Turning from the concluded scene, a flash of milky-white skin caught his eye in the station immediately to the right. Instant recognition had him leaning forward as he observed the submissive who paced the confines of the velvet ropes.

She was a beauty. Thick black gleaming hair in long loose curls fell to the middle of her back. The darkness was a dramatic contrast to her creamy complexion and berry-red lips. She was a palette of vivid colors and had drawn his avid attention the moment he’d first seen her the week prior.

His gaze scanned the rest of her as she turned to pace back the other way, taking in the mounds of her full breasts barely contained within the cups of her sapphire-blue-and-black trimmed corset. Her short black ruffled skirt kicked out as she whipped around again, revealing the tops of her thighs, and her shapely legs encased in sheer black garters and stockings.

“Someone doesn’t appear to be having as good a night as Angie.”

At his comment, Dex redirected his focus to where Arturo nodded. “Ah, yes, Marilee,” the master dom murmured, his tone becoming pensive. “The lovely widow is indeed a problem.”

“Pardon?”he asked, after observing her for another moment. She was impatiently searching the crowd, glanced down at her wrist as if to check the time, but upon finding it bare, she shook her head and resumed her pacing. She was clearly waiting for someone, her dom perhaps, who was late in arriving to strap the beauty to the traditional spanking bench in the background.

Putain de con!Or, as his brusque American friends would put, fucking dumbass. To keep such a morsel waiting, the man, or woman, as the case may be, had to be a fool.

As a dungeon monitor approached to speak with her, Arturo questioned Dex’s comment. “She appears to be lacking partner selection skills, but I don’t understand how that makes her the problem.Elle est très belle,very beautiful, n’est-ce pas?”

Dex shifted his regard, eyeing Arturo with quirked brows and a half smile, intrigued by his interest. “I agree, my friend. She is lovely, but the problem lies in that I can’t quite figure her out. A full member, she comes only once a month, plays with a different dom each time, but leaves frustrated and unfulfilled. She isn’t getting what she needs out of her membership with us. A widow of some years—”

“Three years, master.”

He looked down at the sleepy-eyed woman who stretched in his lap, like a kitten waking from a nap. “Coming back to me,chiquita? Take another sip of water and tell us what you know.”

After dutifully finishing her drink, she frowned up at him. “I know very little about her, although it’s not from lack of trying.”

Her speaking voice was soft and melodic, though still husky from her play it was as beautifully seductive as when he’d heard her perform before the standing-room-only crowds in the lounge. He eyed the pair, another happy couple, which seemed to be a trend amongst the owners of the club. She brushed her dark bangs out of her eyes as she sat up straighter to answer her husband’s question in greater detail.

“Several of us have tried to bring her into the fold, so to speak, but she comes so infrequently and, when she does, goes directly to the dungeon when she arrives. After a scene, she’s out the front door in a flash, without lingering over a drink in the lounge, or to chat with friends, or find another conquest as our other single members do.”

“Family obligations, perhaps?” Arturo suggested.

“No,” Dex replied. “I pulled her membership application recently. She owns her own business, but it doesn’t operate evening hours. As for family, as I mentioned, she’s a widow and her two children are both away at college.”

“Hm...shy, then?”

“Maybe, except the other strange thing I’ve noticed is that she doesn’t select the right type of play partners, the polar opposite, as a matter of fact.”

“I’m assuming you don’t mean inexcusably tardy.”

“No. It goes much deeper than that. She chooses doms who aren’t interested in permanence. She plays with them once then moves on, signaling she wants nothing more than a fleeting moment.”

“She’s not ready to move on, evidently, which isn’t unusual for a widow.”

“Yes, but she stays away from the pain players and sadists, choosing instead partners who prefer bondage, mild play, and low-key domination. I’ve never seen her take part in more than a light flogging or spanking.”

“Also, not unusual.”

“It is for a masochist.”

Arturo’s head snapped around, meeting Dex’s gaze directly. As a sadist who lived on the extremes himself, it went against the grain to see someone denying their true nature. He raised his brow in question. “Are you certain?”

“She wrote it on her application then crossed it out. I’ve found that the first response is usually the most honest. Maybe you can find out for certain. Perhaps get her to open up about the type of relationship she had with her late husband. It lasted for almost two decades.”

“She must be lonely,” Elena interjected, her empathetic tone turning the course of the conversation. She snuggled closer to her master, her hand coming up to stroke his jaw. A shadow crossed her face. “I can’t imagine what I’d do if... It’s too awful to think, much less say out loud. I feel sad for her, Dex. Megan and I approached her in the locker room once and invited her to LBD night—”

“LBD?” Arturo interrupted to inquire.

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