Mercy (Salacious Players Club, #4)(74)

Mia nudges my shoulder. “Come on. Tell us about him.”

“Does he work at the club?” Emerson asks, and I meet his scrutinizing gaze.

“No,” I say, shaking my head.

“Does he go to the club?” Charlie asks with a wicked smile.

I shake my head again. “You don’t know him. It’s…nothing, really. It was…a fling.” I’m stammering uncomfortably, feeling all of their eyes on me.

“Hey,” Beau announces, drawing the attention of the table. I stare wide-eyed, expecting him to say something I’m not ready for. To my surprise, he loudly asks, “How can you tell the difference between a nerd and someone into BDSM?”

Wait…what?

My brow furrows as I stare at him. In fact, everyone is staring at him with the same look of confusion. The tension is growing uncomfortable as we collectively wait for him to explain what the hell he’s talking about.

Leaning one arm on the back of my chair, he looks up at the group with a proud smile as he says, “Ask them what a Dungeon Master is.”

A joke. He was telling a dirty joke…to take the attention off of me.

Garrett is the first to laugh. He claps hard as he howls in delight, the rest of the table following his lead. Everyone is cracking up and Beau looks pleased with himself as his left hand brushes my back casually before he pulls it back into his lap.

My heart is swelling as I bite my lip, wishing I could pull him into a kiss right now.

No one asks about my secret boyfriend again.





After dinner, I excuse myself to the bathroom. While I’m washing my hands, my phone buzzes on the counter with a text message.

Just a fling?





I smile, composing a response after drying my hands.

Dungeon Master?





Sophie told me that joke.





How is that cage feeling?





Uncomfortable as fuck. I’m ready to go home and take it off.





Okay. Leave before me. Go to the house and be naked by the time I get there.





Leave the cage on.





There’s a long silence before his response pops up.

Yes, ma’am.





When I get back to the table, Beau is already saying his goodbyes. I take my seat, resisting the urge to follow him, not wanting to attract suspicion. After Charlie asks me again to go out with them, and I decline, I spot Emerson watching me skeptically. My skin starts to crawl as I quickly look away to avoid his curious stare. There’s no way he would suspect the truth. It’s just my paranoia making me think he knows.

I’ve done nothing to make them suspect. While they all sat around the table in their happy little couples, I kept my hands to myself, even when it killed me. But in ten days I won’t have to worry about that anymore.





Thirty minutes later, I walk through the garage and into the house. The lights are off, but there is a trail of clothes from the door, and I shake my head as I pick them up, carrying them to the couch where I toss them. How many times have I told him to fold his clothes when he takes them off? For that, I’ll tease him a little extra tonight.

As I walk toward the living room, I find him kneeling on the pillow, completely naked as he stares at the floor. For a moment, I pause just to stare at him like this, appreciating the sight.

I tousle his hair as I pass by him headed to my office, pulling off my own clothes and draping them casually over the large armchair before flipping on the lamp. In nothing but my underwear, I sit on my office chair and call him over.

“Beau, come here.”

He crawls over, and when he does, I think again about the collar we saw at the club. Just thinking about how good it would look around his neck and how amazing it would feel to snap it on him has goosebumps erupting on my skin.

When he kneels in front of me, I wrap one hand around his neck, just imagining my collar there.

“Mine,” I whisper, and he leans into my touch.

Gripping him by the throat, I guide him to his feet, so he’s standing in front of me. His cock is straining against the cage, so I release his neck and move to unclasp it from his straining length.

“You were good tonight,” I say as I click the cage from the ring. He winces as I pull it free. “Should I let you come?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he rasps.

“Tell me why I should let you,” I ask, easing the ring over his scrotum and down the length of his cock. Without it constricting the blood flow, his erection starts growing even faster.

He swallows. “Because I behaved. I told that stupid joke to stop everyone from bothering you.”

“You did good,” I reply, making him grunt as I stroke him in my open fist.

“I don’t like the way they treat you,” he says, and my hand freezes.

“What do you mean by that?”

“They made you uncomfortable. You deserve respect.”

A smile creeps onto my face. Just those words coming out of his mouth have me feeling needy to touch him. My hand releases his cock and travels up his body. Pulling him down, I bring his mouth to mine. Pressing our lips together, I ease my tongue into his mouth, and he melts into the kiss. As our lips part, I whisper to him, “It means a lot to hear you say that, but they don’t mean any harm. They just don’t know me like you do.”