The Keyholder (16 page)

The doors to the elevator slid open, and they stepped out on Nora’s floor and headed toward her apartment down the hall. “Your feelings are terribly hurt. You’re afraid the man you’re falling in love with isn’t going to return your feelings, and might even be incapable of doing so, given his misguided understanding of how he thinks he’s supposed to act.”

“That about sums it up,” Eva said bitterly.

“Here’s the good news,” Nora continued. “Feelings aren’t facts. What I mean is, you feel shitty, but that doesn’t have to dictate how you behave. Have you ever heard that saying, ‘Move a muscle, change a thought?’”

Eva shook her head. The door to the apartment was ajar, and Nora pushed it all the way open, gesturing Eva inside. “Hi, honey,” she called out to Charles. “We’re here.”

“Be right there,” Charles replied from the kitchen.

Nora led Eva to the couch and sat, patting the cushion beside her. “It means when you’re feeling stuck inside your own head, sometimes getting out and doing something can change the way you’re feeling. I have just the thing to help you move into a different headspace.”

“I’m listening,” Eva said.

“You’re ready to return to what brought you to the city in the first place, which is an honest, open exploration of your submissive impulses, am I right?”

“Perfectly put,” Eva agreed, a ghost of a smile appearing on her tearstained face.

“Whatever damage you sustained, and I don’t mean to minimize it by any means, it’s something that happened to you. It’s not who you are. You’re like a bird that broke its wing, but now it’s mended. Just because Jack is too clueless, or too scared, to recognize you’re ready to fly, that doesn’t mean you curl back up in the nest and hide your head, does it?”

Eva sat up straighter. “Yeah, how he reacts or doesn’t react doesn’t have to define me,” she said, spirit returning to both her voice and her demeanor.

“That’s right,” Nora said encouragingly. “You give
yourself
the push and you go! You soar, not because a man gave you permission, but because this is what you want, what you
need
.”

Charles entered the room carrying a bottle of champagne and three crystal flutes. “Hey there, Eva,” he said with a warm smile. He handed each woman a glass and sat in the chair caddy-corner from the couch. “We were going to enjoy some of this champagne a client gave me before we head out to the club. I hope you’ll join us as our guest at Club Decadence tonight?”

“I love champagne,” Eva said, watching as Charles expertly popped the cork and filled the glasses. “But going out to a club?” She bit her lip, and Nora felt the fire of Eva’s spirit sputtering a little. “I’m not sure I’m in the mood.”

“You know,” Nora said thoughtfully, trying to hide her smile, “we could let Charles go to the club on his own. You and I could stay here and finish this bottle of champagne, break out the ice cream and potato chips, and commiserate about what idiots men are.” She took a sip of her champagne. “Or”—she paused purposefully and flashed a grin—“we could put on something super-sexy and head out to meet likeminded folk who share our passion for BDSM and sensual submission. Within the hour, if it’s what you want, you could be enjoying the hot, stinging kiss of leather across your ass. You could feel the snug embrace of rope wrapped securely around your wrists and ankles, or the delicious confines of cuffs and chains holding you against a cross while a handsome, sexy Dom who appreciates the gift of your submission gives you a full body flogging.”

“Let me see if I’ve got this straight,” Charles added with a mock frown, entering into the game. “You can either have a great time at one of the hottest BDSM clubs in Manhattan, or you can let me go alone while you two girls sit home and eat junk food and get drunk and wail about what assholes men are?”

Nora nodded emphatically. “Yep. That sums it up pretty well.” She turned to Eva. “So? Which is it? Pity party or reentry into the BDSM community? I know a super, single Dom who’s going to be there tonight. I’m sure an introduction is all it would take, if you find him to your liking. It’s up to you.”

“You guys are too much.” Eva laughed. “The thought of playing with a Dom, even if it’s a controlled scene with a stranger, is very appealing to me. I wish it were Jack, but…” She glanced down at her jeans and hastily buttoned blouse and sighed. “I’m not really dressed to go out to a fetish club.”

Nora popped up from the couch. “That’s what girlfriends are for. I have a whole wardrobe of sexy outfits. Let’s go try some stuff on.”

~*~

Have you or Nora heard from Eva? We kind of had a fight and she left the loft nearly an hour ago. She isn’t responding to my texts. I’m worried.

Jack hit send on his phone and waited for Charles to respond. He could have called, but he wasn’t in the mood to speak directly to anyone. The jumble of emotions assailing him had left him disoriented. He felt like he’d been rear-ended in a car accident, his head slamming against the steering wheel and scrambling his brains. He didn’t know what he felt, or what he should be feeling. He just knew he wanted Eva back. He wanted another chance.

Eva is with us. We’re headed to Club Decadence. Join us there!

Did she tell you what happened?

In general terms, yes. Listen, Jack. She’s ready for more. She’s stronger than you think. If you want her, she’s yours. Don’t shut her out.

Jack stared at the text for several moments.
If you want her, she’s yours
.

Jack stared at the spot where Eva had been kneeling earlier that evening, her slender arms gracefully lifted behind her head, her small, proud breasts, barely covered in sheer black lace, beckoning to him, her knees spread in submissive invitation.

His phone dinged again. An address not too far from his loft flashed across the screen and then:
Dude! You coming? Get your ass down here. Nora’s already got a guy lined up for Eva to scene with. If you hurry, you can take his place, but you gotta move that ass of yours.

“McQuade, you idiot!” Jack shouted into the empty room. “You’re going to lose that girl!” He leaped from the couch and raced to his bedroom, tearing off his T-shirt as he ran. He replaced it with a black silk button-down shirt. Stripping off his jeans, he pulled on black leather pants and his favorite boots. He grabbed his leather bomber jacket from the hook by the front door and headed out.

Once outside, he punched in the address of the club on his phone’s GPS, using the pedestrian mode and tapping into the subway routes. The estimated time was twenty minutes by subway, and fifteen if he walked.
Only in New York
, he thought as he headed down the block with long, determined strides.

Jack had never been to this particular club, though he knew it was a favorite of Charles and Nora. The place had been closed for renovations for a while, and had only recently reopened. It took him a minute or two to pin down the exact location, though his phone insisted he had arrived at his destination.

Finally he saw the small placard with the street number and the words
Club Decadence
painted in raised gold letters against a black background. He headed down a narrow flight of concrete steps to a solid-looking door painted a shiny lacquered red, a large peephole at its center. There was a buzzer beside the door, and he pressed it. A moment later, the door swung inward.

A tall man in his thirties with a shaved head and multiple piercings in his face looked Jack up and down. “You have a reservation?”

“Uh, no,” Jack said, then added, “I’m with Charles and Nora Finch.”

The man smiled. “Ah,” he said, a metal ball glinting at the center of his tongue, “you must be Jack. Charles asked me to look out for you.” He stepped back, gesturing Jack inside. “Cover is forty bucks for non-members.”

Jack reached for his wallet and extracted two twenties, which he handed to the guy. “Want me to stamp your hand so you can come and go tonight?”

Jack shook his head. “No, that’s okay.” He wondered then what he was even doing there. He’d been on autopilot since Charles’ text that Eva was going to scene with someone else. The thought propelled him forward once more.

He moved past the greeter into the club, which opened onto what looked like any bar, except for how the people were dressed. There were a couple of dozen people milling around the room. Most were in some combination of leather and bare skin, many of the women in stiletto heels, some people entirely naked, save for chains and collars. Through an arch toward the back of the room, Jack could see the play area, which contained the usual play stations set up with BDSM equipment and gear. Several scenes appeared to be in progress, though from where he stood, he didn’t see his friends.

A waitress in a tight black bustier, fishnet stockings, and not much else, approached him. “Can I get you a drink? We have a variety of fresh juices, soda and tonic water.”

Jack shook his head. “No thanks.” He moved through the bar toward the play area. Once inside, he scanned the room for Eva. He didn’t see her, but he did see Nora and Charles. They were taking part in a scene at a station with another couple. Both women were bare-breasted, their arms suspended overhead by cuffs. They were positioned face-to-face, each perched on a kind of bench, which as Jack got closer, he realized were horse vaults, like the kind used in gymnastics. Charles stood behind Nora and the other Dom behind his sub, each holding a short-handled single tail whip.

Jack joined the small crowd watching the scene. Nora’s eyes were closed. She was biting her lower lip and breathing hard through her nostrils. The other woman, who had dark, short hair, olive-toned skin and heavy breasts, had her eyes open, and she squealed each time the whip met its mark.

Charles noticed Jack and jerked his chin toward him in recognition. Jack nodded back. He understood Charles was focused on the scene, and he bit back his desire to blurt out the question foremost in his mind:
Where the hell is Eva?

He became aware of an electric humming sound and realized it was coming from the horse vaults. Both women were wearing skirts, so he couldn’t see what precisely was causing the hum, but he could guess.

A man standing beside him murmured, “She’s about to come. Mandy is going to lose it in a second. Look at her face.”

Jack looked more closely at the other woman. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes squeezed shut, her hands clenched into fists above the cuffs. “Oh, oh, oh, oh!” she cried. “I can’t hold it. I can’t help it!” She began to jerk convulsively on the horse.

Her partner looked at Charles and shook his head, though he was grinning. “Damn. We lost again.” He lowered his whip and wrapped his arms around his partner from behind as she continued to shudder and moan. After a moment, he reached down and flicked a switch on the side of the horse Jack hadn’t noticed until then. Mandy slumped back, a limp rag doll in her Master’s embrace.

Charles, too, lowered his whip. He reached around Nora, finding and cupping her pert, lovely breasts. The hum from Nora’s perch continued. Leaning down, Charles murmured something in her ear as he rolled her erect nipples between his fingers. Nora sighed and leaned back against him. All eyes were on her now, though she seemed blissfully unaware of the attention.

It only took another thirty seconds or so, and then a tremor moved through her body, as if a small earthquake had shaken her from within. “Please, Sir,” she said breathily, “may I come?”

“Yes, my darling, you may,” Charles replied. Everyone, Jack included, watched enthralled as the lovely sub girl orgasmed in her Dom’s arms.

When the tremors had subsided, Nora opened her eyes and sighed happily. As the crowd melted away, Charles and the other Dom released the women’s cuffs and lifted their partners from the horse vaults. The phalluses sticking up in the center of each horse glistened with the women’s juices. Another young woman dressed in a bustier and fishnets appeared with a cloth and a spray bottle to clean the station for the next scene.

Charles draped a robe over his wife’s shoulders and put his arm around her. Nora, her expression still softened with submissive bliss, smiled dreamily at Jack. “You came. I’m so glad.”

“Where is she?” Jack blurted, unable to wait another second.

“She’s in the back dungeon with Sir Gordon,” Nora said, emerging more fully from her trance. “I’m not sure if they’ve started their scene yet.”

“Sir Gordon?” Jack said, trying to control the overspill of emotions that seeped nonetheless into his tone. “You’re letting her scene with some stranger? Does this guy know what she’s been through?”

“Letting her?” Nora began, lifting her eyebrows.

“I got this,” Charles said with a smile to his wife. “I’ll join you in a minute back at the juice bar, okay, baby?”

Nora started to say something, apparently thought better of it, and just nodded. She walked away with Mandy and Mandy’s Dom. Jack turned to Charles. “Where is this back dungeon? I can’t believe you guys are just letting this happen.”

Charles faced Jack. “Eva is a grown woman, Jack. She doesn’t belong to me. I don’t tell her when or where or how to scene. That’s up to her.”

“But,” Jack sputtered, stunned his old friend could be so cavalier, “she’s too fragile for this! He can’t possibly know how damaged she is!”

Charles put his hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Jack, Eva is much stronger than you think she is. She’s done really good work with her therapist. Nora says she’s ready for this. And if anything was wrong, Nora would feel it, and she’d tell me right away.”