“How cozy is this?” a purely feminine voice filtered into her peaceful state a while later.
When she recognized her newest friend’s voice, Joy forced her eyes open. She had to blink a few times to register what she was seeing.
Nickie stood there dressed in a skin tight, black pleather suit. The zippered front covered her breasts, but barely. Her red, painted lips smiled wide, and her hair was twisted into a severe knot. In one hand, she held a long, red bullwhip, in the other, a leash. Attached to it was the same man who had been getting whipped when they had first come out. He knelt at her feet, red stripes crisscrossing his torso.
“Have you enjoyed the night’s festivities, Joy?” Nickie asked her with a wicked grin.
“Yes, Mistress,” she responded.
Nickie raised an eyebrow and smiled wider. “Perhaps your sub could show mine a thing or two about the proper way to address a Domme,” she suggested to Warren. “Then again, I think he enjoys the business end of my whip too much for it to make a difference. Isn’t that right, Robert?”
“Yes, Mistress,” the man said but didn’t lift his gaze from Nickie’s shoes.
Warren kept stroking Joy’s back but didn’t interrupt the exchange.
“I’m not done with Robert yet. Would you mind bringing Joy home tonight?” She addressed Warren again.
“I’d love to. Enjoy the rest of your evening,” he said, effectively dismissing the Domme, who seemed more than happy to be on her way.
“Take as long as you need. When you’re ready, we can get dressed and go home.”
Joy stretched a little. “I’m ready, Sir.” Her whole body pulsed with life, and although it was only a short drive to their apartment complex, she looked forward to spending a little bit of extra time with him. Joy didn’t know how long it would be before she had a chance to be with him again, so she would take what she could get. For now.
He wrapped the blanket around her so only her feet and her head stuck out, then scooped her up and carried her back to their private room. Warren retrieved her dress and thong from the floor and gave them to her. “Go ahead and get dressed,” he told her before he picked up his shirt and slipped it on.
By the time she had her thong back in place and had slipped her dress over her head, he was leaning against the table, watching her. He had left his sleeves rolled up, and tucked his tie into his pocket.
“May I?” he asked as she struggled with the zipper at the back.
She pulled her lip between her teeth, but then released it right away. As much as she wanted a taste of his cock, she doubted the punishment for the offense would be the same if she were to do it now. Instead, she nodded and turned, presenting him with her back. He caressed the skin all the way down her spine before tugging the zipper gently into place.
“I enjoyed our time together, Joy. Very much,” he said as he put her shoes on the floor at her feet, then reached for her hand to steady her as she stepped into them.
They hadn’t signed the official contracts yet, but already she was looking forward to submitting to him again. “I did too, Sir. Thank you.”
Delicious aches and pains had Joy smiling from the moment she woke. If it weren’t for the sore muscles she had from her workout, compounded by the tenderness in her no longer neglected girly parts, she would have convinced herself the entire previous day hadn’t happened, but it had. She took a bit more care getting ready. Nothing over the top, shimmering gloss for her lips, and a touch of mascara to make her eyes pop, but it was more than she had done in the last few months. Whether they liked it or not, she wasn’t going to be invisible to her pack anymore.
The full moon was two nights away, and she wasn’t missing the run. Not this month. Holding her head high, she rode the elevator down. When the doors opened two floors below hers, and the man standing there glanced at his feet, she stuck her hand out, preventing them from closing again. “I won’t bite,” she said.
He didn’t move for a moment, then sighed. “It’s okay, Miss. I’ll wait for the next one.”
“Nope, if you don’t want to get on, you can take the stairs. I’ll wait. All. Day.” She plastered a smile on her lips and waited him out.
She heard his soft growl, but she didn’t care. She’d taken on bigger and meaner males and defeated them. She could take him. She could almost see the internal struggle happening. Taking the stairs meant admitting defeat, something as a wolf male, he would find unacceptable. He sighed but finally stepped in.
“I’m Joy,” she said. She didn’t bother extending her hand. He wouldn’t take it, but the fact that he was in there with her was a victory.
“Martin,” he responded, but he stood as far away from her as he could, his gaze glued to the flashing numbers above the shiny metal doors.
When the elevator came to a stop, and Nickie stepped in, Joy didn’t have to fake her smile. “Hey, Nickie,” she said.
“Hey yourself,” she came to stand right next to her. “Martin.”
“Hi, Nickie. Are you going to run this week?” The man had no issues looking Nickie in the eye, but he still didn’t look at Joy.
“Of course, I am. Joy and I both are, aren’t we, Joy?”
“I was planning on it.” Joy made a point of moving closer to Nickie, so he’d have to either avert his eyes or look at her.
He swallowed hard, and finally, met her gaze, his discomfort clear. “Well, I’ll be darned, you looked at me, and didn’t get struck down by lightening,” she teased and gave Martin a smile.
He shook his head and grinned, his cheeks flushing a little. “It’s not a lightning strike I’m afraid of.”
At this, she laughed. “Surely you aren’t saying you’re scared of me?” Okay, so she was a strong female, but to fear her?
“It’s not you he’s afraid of, doll,” Nickie piped in as the elevator door opened on the ground level. “Speak of the devil. There he is.”
Joy’s heart leaped at the sight of Warren coming through the lobby in a pair of jogging pants and a T-shirt clinging to his sweaty torso.
Warren smiled when he saw her, but it faded when he spotted Martin hurrying out of the elevator. Only once Nickie had stepped off did he walk in, crowding her to the back. “Would you ride up with me? There’s a matter I need to discuss with you, Joy.” He reached over and pushed the button for the top floor, and the doors closed behind him.
“It’s you,” she said, realization finally dawning on her.
“It certainly is. And you look ravishing this morning.” He placed his hands on the wall on either side of her head and leaned in until his mouth hovered over hers.
“Thank you, but don’t think flattery will get you off the hook,” she said, anger making the words sharper than she’d ever consider using at any other time.
“I didn’t know I was
on
the hook. Tell me, what do you think is a fitting punishment for using that tone of voice with your Dom?” he asked before he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.
She wanted his kiss, but held herself stiff. “That’s not going to work. You can’t kiss your way out of this,” she hissed at him.
“Oh, I may not be able to kiss my way out of whatever it is I’m supposedly guilty of, but I can kiss you, Joy. We may not have gotten the contracts signed last night, but you did agree to be my sub. Have you changed your mind?”
“No, I haven’t. Nor do I want to annul the contract, but we’re not at the club. And we’re not in your apartment, or mine either for that matter.”
He stepped deeper into her personal space. “You’re right, we’re not, but we are in a place where there is little, to no chance of discovery. If I recall our verbal agreement from last night, and I do, this means you are to assume your submissive role.”
She held his gaze for a half-second, before lowering it to his chest. “Yes, Sir.”
“That’s better. Now, since we’re already at my apartment, let’s go inside. I want to hear what has upset you this morning.” He stepped away as the doors whooshed open, and guided her out with his hand at the base of her spine.
“Make yourself at home. I need to freshen up.”
Warren disappeared down the hallway. A moment later, she heard the sound of a shower being turned on. What was he doing? She had to get to work. Her receptionist job at the optometrist’s office wasn’t lucrative, but she prided herself on her work ethics, which included getting there and being ready for work on time.
She should have waited to confront him. Or maybe not do it at all. He liked a submissive woman, and even though she certainly was in the bedroom, in her everyday life, she wasn’t close. Maybe if she pushed too hard, she’d drive him away, and that was the last thing she wanted.
Joy sat on the couch and looked around. His place was gorgeous. A beautiful watercolor painting sat above a stone fireplace. On the mantle, a couple of framed pictures gave his living room a warm, lived-in feel. He even had a book lying open on the coffee table. She was about to turn it over to see what he’d been reading when he cleared his throat from the hallway.
How was she supposed to think when he came in wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, undone, no less? He had a towel in his hand and was rubbing at his wet hair, making it stick out in all directions. Defined muscles in his chest and arms moved as he performed the mundane task that had her drooling for a taste.
“Now that I don’t stink anymore tell me, what I did to have you glaring at me after we had such a great time last night?” He stepped into the room and came to sit with her on the couch.
She opened her mouth to speak, but then huffed and shut it again. She would just get into trouble.
“Come on, it can’t be that bad. I’ll tell you what, for the time being, you can speak freely. Unless you are blatantly disrespectful, there will be no punishment.”
She turned so she could face him. “The months I’ve spent since my arrival in Timmins have been the loneliest of my life. After having been accepted as a member, I had thought I would make friends, but that hasn’t happened. No one will look at me, much less speak to me. And I’ve finally figured out why.”
Warren sighed. “Yeah, I may have had a small part to play in that,” he admitted.
“Why? Why would you alienate me from the rest of the pack?” Her chest tightened, and she had to take a deep breath to steady herself. Some wolves lived solitary lives, but she couldn’t. The last seven months, surrounded by pack mates, but being so alone had been pure hell.
Warren stood and paced to the fireplace and back. He ran his fingers through his damp hair. “It wasn’t intentional. I’ll admit I warned some of the males away from you. I wanted you to have the time you needed to mourn your pack, and your mate before anyone tried to stake a claim. I had hoped you would come to me for comfort as your Alpha, but you never did. Instead, you hid in your apartment and cried by yourself. But by the time you started coming out more, the damage had already been done. The males had figured out I was interested in you for myself and started averting their gazes in deference to me. Of course, the omegas and weaker males followed suit.”
Her heart beat a little faster. He was interested in her? “And the gym?”
“I’m not going to lie, Joy. I didn’t want the men looking at you in those sexy clothes you wear. Having unmated males around you drives my wolf mad. For their safety’s sake, I ordered the gym cleared when we work out together.”
She should have been more upset, but she couldn’t blame him. When the blonde woman had tried to sneak her way back into Warren’s life at the club, she’d wanted to growl and tackle the woman to the floor, then rip the bloody collar off her neck. Only the fact that Warren had taken the situation in hand and dealt with it had allowed her to keep her furious she-wolf at bay.
He glanced up, drawing her attention to the clock on the wall.
“Crap, I’m late for work,” she said as she jumped to her feet.
“You’re not. I called Mr. Wilson from the bedroom. He’s not expecting you today,” he said as though it was perfectly all right for him to cancel a shift for her.
“What? Why? You can’t do that.”
“It’s time you started integrating with the pack. Having you with me will help. They won’t accept you just like that, but it’ll be a start. I’m going to get dressed, and then we can go. I have a meeting in twenty minutes, and we can’t be late. You can keep working if it’s important to you, but for today, I wanted to have you with me.”
Joy sat there not saying a word. By the time they had reached the ground level all the pins she’d carefully placed in her hair to make it look fashionably professional were lying on the elevator floor. It had taken Warren all of five seconds to pull each one out. The last one had plinked on the commercial tile before the doors had closed. By the time they had started going down, his hands were buried in her hair, and his tongue was doing delicious things to her mouth, leaving her whole body shaking and her panties more than a little wet. He hadn’t released her until the door opened and they had to get out or risk going back up again.
At first, she’d been miffed that he’d called Mr. Wilson without discussing it with her, but now that she was sitting there, waiting for the meeting to start, she was glad to be taking part in it. It was important pack business, and if she were to become Alpha female, she would need to be involved in those meetings.