Finding Their Balance (2 page)

Emma made the schedules. Maybe different people staffed Wednesday afternoons than Friday nights anyway, but as a submissive herself, and Henry’s friend, she’d avoid traumatizing Jay.

“Indeed. Cait, isn’t it?”

“Caitlyn, yes, sir.” She blushed and ducked her chin, presenting Henry with a veil of lowered lashes.

As Alice turned to hide her smile against Jay, he tipped his forehead to hers. “Crush?” The question fluttered in his softest whisper.

“Oh yeah.” Mmm. The responses Henry inspired with voice alone. This poor young woman would never hear him direct those tones at her.

“Caitlyn.” Henry maintained a pleasant, cordial distance. “My apologies. You have an Alice and a Jay on your list?”

“Yes, sir. You’re dropping them off?” Caitlyn raised her chin. “Dominants aren’t allowed upstairs until after six today.”

“A wise decision.” Warmth flowed into Henry’s voice. The restriction had been Emma’s, presumably.

The girl tapped a keyboard, studied Alice and Jay for a long moment, and nodded. “Any electronic devices to check?”

Jay dug his phone from his pocket and laid it in Henry’s open palm. She swiped hers from her purse.

“Place them in my box, please, Caitlyn.”

He’d had them leave their phones at home last time. The club’s rules forbade camera-enabled gadgets beyond the lobby. Henry wouldn’t have forgotten.

“Yes, sir. Access?”

“Both of them, at any time, for any reason.”

“Yes, sir.” Behind the counter, Caitlyn locked the phones into Henry’s numbered box. Seventeen. “They’re all set. Tea will be served in the second-floor salon.”

“Thank you, Caitlyn. They know the way.”

Henry escorted them to the grand staircase, where the twisting climb loomed beyond an ornate banister. “Look after each other, please.” Rumbling and intimate, he quieted her distraction. “Be assured you are perfectly safe.” He kissed Jay’s cheek. “But if you need me, either of you, whether merely to hear my voice or to ask me to return early, simply come to the desk and ask for your phones.” He kissed her with equal gentleness. “You may call at any time.” Tight lines bracketed his eyes as he stepped back. “Otherwise, I’ll retrieve you when the gathering has concluded.” He waved toward the stairs. “Go on. Best not to be late.”

She clasped Jay’s hand. The faster they moved, the less time nerves would have to take up residence. “Hop to, loverboy. We can’t let everyone else eat all the fancy little cakes.”

She won a chuckle from Jay and what she resolved to call an amused grunt from Henry.

The stairs welcomed her first, but Jay followed with minimal tugging. If a benevolent god existed, tea would go perfectly, they’d make connections, and Jay would have a wonderful time.

Three-quarters of the way up, peeking over her shoulder, she warmed at Henry shadowing them with his protective gaze. The buzz of voices below heralded more arrivals. Hitting the second floor, she turned right and entered the salon.

She’d eyeballed the dimensions on her first tour. Almost forty feet square. Respectable, if not massive. The room could’ve accommodated seventy-five people for a sit-down meal. About twenty milled around now. All women.

“Alice.” Dragging her name out, Jay bounced from foot to foot.

“I know.” Goddamnit. She rubbed circles on his hand. “No worries.” Five tables set for six dotted the room’s left side. A lounging area with seating in a rough circle lay to the right. “Women love you.
I
love you.”

“Women love me for five minutes because I flirt.” Strong shoulders sinking, he curled into a compact shell. “I can’t flirt with these women.”

If Jay played the charmer at a safe, no-pressure gathering, he’d come off like an unscrupulous letch.

“Be yourself, sweetheart. We can handle this.” Most of the attendees clustered in twos and threes, chatting near the tables. “Look around. We’re perfectly dressed.”

His laugh topped an uncomfortable undertone. She’d have followed up with a tease about getting
un
dressed later, but he’d have died if he ended up noticeably aroused in a room full of women he intended to befriend.

Across the room, Emma emerged as the sole familiar face. Laughing, she left her conversation partners and strode toward them in a modestly cut sheath dress in cornflower blue.

“Alice. Jay. I’m pleased to see you both.” Greeting them with handclasps, Emma lingered on Jay. “I do apologize. I’d hoped to have more of the young men attending. We had a late cancellation, unfortunately.”

Alice pasted on a bright smile. In five minutes, her hopes for Jay had gone to hell.

“We’ll sit down to tea in a few moments. We’re shy a few guests yet.” Emma gestured toward the clusters of chatty submissive socialites. “But this is an excellent opportunity to mingle.”

“We’re happy to help any way we can.” Mingle made for a nerve-wrackingly vague instruction. She analyzed and Jay socialized, but he relied on his charm to lead. This tea party cried out for design specs. “Are there specific people we should talk to, or lines of conversation—”

“I expect certain things will arise naturally.” Emma brushed her arm below the shoulder. “You’ll find us a talkative bunch. Henry mentioned once that you’re an engineer?”

“Mechanical. Design for now, not implementation. Metals and plastics, mostly.” Someone needed a tray of fancy little cakes to cram in her mouth before she babbled to death.

“Alice is science smart.” In one solid, lanky press, Jay stoppered her discomfort. “Henry calls her his brilliant problem-solver. He’s so proud of the way she figures stuff out.”

Henry called her his what? Why didn’t she know that?

Jay quirked his lips. Surprising her made him damn happy and less hoppy. Either she’d calmed him or Emma had.

She shared his smile. “Thanks, Jay.”

“Then teatime is just another design challenge, Alice.” Pouring out brisk warmth, Emma brought her hands together in a done-deal clap. “Start with questions.”

“You sound like Henry.” Two pages of questions in her contract proposal. A four-hour interrogation afterward. “He always starts with questions.” Asked them in the middle and after, too. An art, the way Henry operated, but not an unscientific one. She’d ferret out the most suitable conversational curves so the guests delivered meaningful data without prodding.

Emma chuckled. “That’s all him. Victor and I had nothing to do with it. He was already determined to tease every drop of information from his playmates when we met.”

The difference between pride, bragging, or attempted reassurance eluded her. Emma kept her crunching limited data sets, scrounging for any return.

Gazing past them, Emma waved. “But here, let me introduce you to someone.”

She handed them off to a brunette in a lavender sundress, prompting the conversation by asking about the woman’s new job. When Emma left to circulate, Alice took over the questioning. Another woman joined their knot, and then another. The chatter encompassed work, summer vacation wishes, and obnoxious rent increases—and not at all the club or the activities they engaged in here.

Hovering at her shoulder, Jay kept his head bowed and his tongue mute. She edged closer, brushing his chest, and he gradually joined the conversation until Emma’s voice rose over the crowd. Tight knots broke up in search of seats.

Jay’s name filled a place card at the second table they circled. Alice’s did not.

“We’re not together?” Leg twitching, Jay zoned out beside the table of unfamiliar names. Not Emma’s. Not the women they’d met so far. Jay and five strangers.

Alice swallowed a curse. “Help me find my spot?”

Two tables away, her name rested alongside five more unknowns. She studied angles. “I’ll be facing you, and you’ll be facing me.” Henry wouldn’t have asked Emma to split them up. The placements had to be her idea. “So if we need something….”

“Tip of the head and a dash out the door?” As women took seats nearby, Jay raised his comedic defenses. “I can toss you over my shoulder.”

“Try it and you’ll be apologizing all night, goof.” Her soft elbow in his ribs produced a teasing
oof
.

“You know a threat’s supposed to be something I don’t want, right?” With a charming smile, he erased the tension in his face.

“I’d never threaten you, sweetheart.” She graced his cheek with a friend-kiss and injected cheer in her whispered undertone. “I don’t think Emma meant to make us feel threatened, either. I’d rather have you at my side, but this makes logistical sense.” Her table started filling up. “We’ll interact more, make more friends.”

“Right.” Scanning the room with murky brown eyes, he lost his smile. “Women friends.”

The women here presumably preferred dominant men in their lives. But they’d banned dominance today, and Jay stood out as a curious anomaly. “Henry’s proud of you for trying. You heard him say so.”

Pulling out her chair, he touched his lips to her head. “Thanks, Alice.” He hustled to his table without waiting for another of her lackluster pep talks.

She sat across from a woman of Emma’s generation, poised and polished. Women somewhere in-between—younger than Emma, but older than Alice—occupied three seats. A younger girl dashed into the last.

As Emma stood at the neighboring table, the room quieted.

“Thank you all for joining me.” Her light tone carried through the sunny space. “It’s been a long while since our social sphere has held a regular gathering for submissive partners.” Clenching her chair back, Emma surveyed the attendees in a slow turn. “We’re going to correct this regrettable lapse. We are none of us alone, ladies and gentleman. We are each other’s support system.”

Around the room, women nodded, including four of the five others at Alice’s table. The shy girl beside her kept her gaze trained on her plate. Her youth and demeanor stuck out among the smiling women in their mid-thirties or so, the ones comfortable in their skins.

“Those of you with masters may have your own rules to follow, but let me remind all of you that tea is our chance to share and learn without strict supervision—no prying eyes or twitching ears.” Emma delivered her message in crisp, distinct syllables, the measured voice of a teacher or frequent lecturer. “Speak freely, and know everyone here is a friend eager to understand and willing to advise on any difficulties, whether accepting our own newfound desires, adjusting to a new dom’s methods, or hoping to return a spark to a longstanding relationship.”

Women traded smiles and glances as Emma raised her name card. “Some of your dominants requested the opportunity for you to practice poise and service, so if your place card displays a teapot”—she tapped the one beside her own name—“please come with me now. You’ll be responsible for serving your tablemates.”

Shy Girl sucked in a breath and scurried toward Emma. The teapot design tagged her as Leah. Others rose and followed. Jay lodged himself at the back of the pack, his athletic grace hobbled with short steps and hesitance.

Silence reigned across the tables. A feather falling would’ve constituted a ruckus.

“You know why a gathering of subs is so quiet, don’t you?” Joan, by the name on her place card, had been in Emma’s sphere earlier. Slim, stern, and matronly, she likely matched Emma in age. Despite her dry tone, her mouth twitched.

“No one’s given them permission to talk.” The short-haired brunette to Joan’s left jumped in with a teasing singsong. Kelly, by her place card. “We all know that one, Joanie.”

“Wrong.” Julie. Another brunette, much longer and a shade darker than Kelly. Hanging on to half these women’s names would be a feat. “It’s because bound hands can’t reach the straps on ball gags.”

Kelly and Julie laughed like old friends, and the last unknown joined them. Giggling once, Alice locked amusement down as guilt hit. A submissive tied up and vulnerable hadn’t been a laughing matter for Jay.

Crow’s feet lengthening, Joan smiled straight at her. “This is all new for you, isn’t it?”

“A bit, yeah. I mean, yes.” She resisted the unladylike urge to shrug. “Did Emma tell you?”

“She did, but that’s not how I know.” Joan shook out her napkin and laid it across her lap in time for Leah’s return with a two-tiered round platter of fancy little cakes.

“Oh?” Catching Jay’s eye, she tossed him a smile over Joan’s shoulder as he carried a tray to his table. Henry might’ve suggested having submissives act as servers. Tasks calmed Jay like nothing else. “Then how?”

“The lifestyle seems intense and serious when you’re starting out. You weren’t sure if laughter was acceptable.” Joan lifted a cake from the platter. A diamond-studded wedding band gleamed on her ring finger. “When you’re new, you don’t know what to say. How to act. What’s proper and what’s taboo.”

Raw exposure grated. The rest of the women at the table knew each other. Tea gave them a chance to reestablish existing friendships. Every judgment Alice made about Leah’s naïve youth, these women thought about
her
.

“You watch what everyone else does, and you tell yourself you’re your own woman and what they’re doing doesn’t matter, but the truth is it does, and that bothers you.” With admirable precision, Joan centered her cake on her plate. “I’m not so old I don’t remember.”

“Yeah, but you’ve been with Leo forever.” Kelly nudged the older woman with a friendly shoulder-bump. “You’ve never jumped from dom to dom learning new rules every time.” The chair thumped and dragged as Kelly shuffled forward and glanced around the towering centerpiece of cakes. “How long have you been playing, umm, Alice?”

“Just under a year.” August might win favorite month for the rest of her life.

Julie whistled. “You’re practically a baby.”

“I’m an adult.” Hell yes she was. Not like Leah, who poured tea at Alice’s elbow with a trembling hand. “Being new doesn’t make me infantile.”

“Still sensitive about dependency and belonging.” Pursed lips failed to hide Joan’s smile. “It’s all right.”

Alice bit back a snippy response and thanked Leah for her service.

Coloring in a pale pink blush, Leah moved on.

“She’ll get over that soon enough.” Kelly held out her teacup. “Alice, Julie didn’t mean to sound gauche. This place attracts an established crowd. You must have had a submissive friend? Or met a great guy and discovered his unusual hobbies?”