Those two simple words hit me like a gut punch, evoking a mind-blowing image of standing beside her at an altar someday.

Clover gazed into my eyes, not knowing how sensuous her voice sounded. “I’m just not used to having these conversations with you, with anyone, so openly. But I want to try. I’d like to please you.”

Suddenly, my thoughts were all about her body and what was beneath that skimpy little number she was wearing. All the things I could do with it. My cock was hard.

“I’ve booked us a reservation at a sex club tomorrow night. Make no mistake, I’m not sharing you. But it will be an opportunity for you to learn more about the lifestyle.” My dom showed up unwelcome, refusing to take no for an answer. It came across in my tone.

She took a moment to catch her breath. I could practically see her head swirling with doubts. She wavered as if trying to comprehend what she was hearing, and I reassured her, “Your daddy will be with you the entire time, keeping you safe.”

“And I always have my verbal cattle prod,” she said. A new, faintly eager look flashed in her eyes. “I know you’ll protect me. I’ll go.”

“That’s right,” I said, unable to prevent the swell of pride I felt when she was brave.

Clover eyed me with a mischievous expression. “Are you ever going to ask about the surprise I have for you?”

“Please. Tell me.” The underlying sexiness of her words captivated me.

She leaned closer so only I could hear. “There’s something else besides going to a sex club that I did this week for the very first time.”

My pulse pounded. “If you don’t tell me this instant, I think I’ll self-combust from lust,” I said, taking a huge swallow of water to lessen the way my body had just turned into a furnace.

She straightened herself with dignity and said with a significant lifting of her brows, “Let’s just say, I’m completely bare...” She paused meaningfully. “Down there.”

You couldn’t have gotten me out of that restaurant and back into our room faster if you had held me at knifepoint.

12

CLOVER

Before I even knew what happened, our weekend was nearly over. It was the evening of the second day at The Sea Ranch, and already I mourned having to go back to Briarville to stay with my family. Not that I didn’t love them to pieces, but I only wanted to be with Duke.

Two days to ourselves wasn’t enough.

I loved everything about him: the way he smelled. The sound of his laugh. God, his voice—deep, crisp, and clear—with the capacity to make me wet just by saying my name. He was still a mystery I wanted to unravel. I could spend hours staring at his hands as he turned a screwdriver or opened up his pocket knife, watching the way he scrolled the news feed on his phone, and don’t get me started about his commanding caresses, kisses to the top of my head, and how he smothered my lips with his to ignite a heat more intense than the inside of the steam sterilizer we used at the farm.

Our trip made me sad and happy at the same time. What would it be like to have him as mine all the time? Would it always be this way? Would he fascinate me forever? And what about him? Did he feel the same way I did?

We’d agreed to keep things between us, and now I felt like shouting to the entire world that his kisses made me dizzy and confused.

That night, after dinner, we drove to the club, Liberté. The air was balmy; the stars scattered in the sky. The neon sign of Liberté glowed, beckoning us inside. When we stepped through the doors, darkness shrouded us like velvet. The place was low-lit, with neon art and carefully placed wall sconces, which gave off a purple light. My heart raced as he took my hand and led me past the bar, his presence a shield against my fear.

I felt an adrenaline-pumping thrill as we strolled through the place. Duke had his arm around me, leading me through the crowd. Everywhere I looked, there were people dressed in fetish outfits. The fact there was no one on the main floor having sex relieved me.

A sweet, sensual fragrance lingered in the air, and I wondered if the owners had incense custom-made in the aroma of lust and desire.

Duke stopped and pointed to the back of the club. “That’s the play area.”

I had read stories of these kinds of places, but this was my first time actually being in one. Duke’s muscular arm encircled my waist as we navigated through the crowd to look at what went on there. We paused here and there to take in the various sights. In one corner, a woman was suspended upside down from an elaborately knotted rope while a man whipped her naked body. In another, an onlooker was making notes in a journal while watching a woman wearing a collar and leash part the wet lips of another woman’s pussy and sheath her tongue inside. The sight nearly made my mouth drop open.

With every step we took through the club, I grew more aroused, my skin tingling where Duke touched me. But it wasn’t until we came to a room off of the main area, where a man had another’s cock in his mouth, that my desire grew frantic.

The dominatrix orchestrating the scene, dressed in a black leather, tailored, laced corset. “Let me hear you groan around that dick,” she hissed with a curl to her lips.

A woman dominating two men? I’d never read this exact scene in my romances, but the way she was bossing them around made me fidgety between the legs.

“That’s right, suck his cock. You look so sexy with that monster in your mouth.”

The man pulled away to respond, “Yes, Mistress.” The sub on all fours rasped in a way that made it clear he was enjoying this, if the small pool of pre-cum on the floor beneath where his cock thrust up rigidly against his stomach weren’t sign enough.