Page 100 of The Dom with a Safeword

“O-M-G! Q!” The riot of red curls and buxom figure made Ivy easy to pick out, even in the club’s gloom. “Honey, what did you do with your hair? New piercings too?”

She nodded to Ivy as she brushed past. Her friend followed. Even hammered, Q couldn’t bring herself to be rude. Ivy had helped her hold it together when Nico had disposed of her. At the time she hadn’t had anyone else in her life who would have understood it all. She turned, and concentrated on not slurring.

“Hey, Ivy. Yeah. Just the bridge of my nose, the bull ring and my tongue. I’m trying to decide what to do next. I’m looking to get a brand or some cutting done.”

Her friend smiled and squeezed her arm. The kindness set Q’s teeth on edge. “I love the blue hair. Where’d you get it done?”

“I did it myself.” She’d hacked it off with a knife about five minutes before she left the house, but that sounded crazy even to her drunk self so she didn’t add that bit. Was that enough? Was this little tete-a-tete done yet? Her body started to rock a little to the beat of the metal blasting from the sound system.

The aggressive feeling was coming back. She needed to get out of there. “I gotta go, Ivy. I’ve got a guy waiting.”

“Yeah, about that, Q...” She walked her to the change room and sat on a bench while Q found her clothes and struggled into them.

Tight leather pants were a bad idea when one was drunk. She hissed as she drew them up her thighs, feeling every welt individually.

“That Lee guy is new. You hadn’t met him before tonight, right?”

“You the morality police all of a sudden, Ivy? Don’t judge me. I have no intentions of fucking him yet. I just want to see what he can do.” Internally she was grumbling. This conversation and the entire situation was pissing her off and she was losing her endorphin buzz.

“Q. No, no,” she backpedaled. “Play with him if you want to. I just wanted to warn you that he’s getting a reputation for playing too hard. For pushing limits to scary places. A few subs I’ve talked to lately have said he ignored their safewords the first few times. Maybe leaving with him now isn’t the best idea?”

“Why is now an issue?”

“Just a friendly warning, Q. I’m worried about you. This isn’t the Q I know. The fact that he’s new to the scene here means there’s no one to vouch that he’s safe, and early reports about him aren’t good.”

She’d rattled that off fast, like she had to get it off her chest in case she was stopped. Ivy hated confrontation.

Q exchanged stares with her. “Thanks for the concern, Ivy, but I need this tonight. If he lands me in the hospital, feel free to tell me ‘I told you so.’”

Ivy bit her lip. The Rubanesque submissive looked disconcerted. “At least let me be your safe call, then.”

“Fuck! You just don’t give up, do you?” Q grumbled.

“Or call Sabrina if you don’t want to use me. Is she home?”

It was like being stabbed in the chest. She caught her breath. A string of profanity escaped, actually making Ivy recoil. “Leave Sabrina the fuck out of this.”

Big brown eyes came to mind – sad ones. Sabrina was always sad when she talked to Q lately, perhaps because Q had a hard time talking back to her. Her throat felt swollen and she fought down tears. She’d promised Sabrina that their experiment wouldn’t fuck up their friendship, but seeing her and not being able to hold her was hell on earth. Sabrina didn’t want her like that. She wanted a vague, happy, shopping-buddy love. The type of love Q felt was tearing her heart out.

It had been two months but, if anything, it was getting worse instead of better. At first, she thought living almost on top of each other in the small apartment would get them back together – that maybe Sabrina would come to her senses. But Sabrina didn’t want her. Eventually even Q had to admit all the things she’d thought she’d seen there, between them, had been pathetic delusions on her part. It was impossible to move on and forget her when they even shared toothpaste.

Lee didn’t look pleased about giving Ivy his full name and address, but her friend stood her ground under his intimidating glare. When the exchange was complete, he turned away from Ivy without wasting breath on pleasantries.

As Q grabbed her jacket at the coat check, she avoided making eye contact with several regulars she knew. She hoped no one else would talk to her. Cross walked in. He was so quiet, she always forgot how huge and dangerous he used to seem – like a Titan dropped into the mortal world.

Cross nodded at her, unsmiling.

She nodded back as he checked the coats of the two new girls he’d brought along. He was in the zone – which, for Cross, meant even less talking. Not that he was the type of guy to prattle. The girls were hot and cowered behind him a little. Fresh meat.

“Yours?” Q asked as she passed him.

“I wish,” Cross murmured back.

She stifled a laugh until she remembered that the last time they’d been talking about... She blocked memories of Sabrina and focused on the low level of pain her body was feeding her.

Lee gestured Q out the door ahead of him. It felt more like a prison guard keeping an eye on an inmate, rather than something gallant or gentlemanly. It was a continual struggle not to compare Lee to Jude. Jude would have opened the car door for her. Jude would have teased her, flirted, and made jokes on the ride. But Jude had cast her off. How had she ever believed that he’d had feelings for her? Easy. She’d wanted to be fooled. Happy in her own little delusion, she had probably missed any number of hints that she was temporary in his life. Like the fact that he’d actually said so.

By the time they pulled into the driveway of the farmhouse where Lee lived, it was starting to feel more like a business transaction than a date. She wanted pain – he wanted to hurt her. Q had negotiated there would be no touching and no sex, and he said he was fine with that, for now. He’d mentioned that he didn’t believe in fucking brats he hadn’t mastered – whatever the hell that meant. The flask he’d had in the glove compartment mellowed her out. He didn’t look at her much. Some Doms she’d played with were like that though. They thought paying too much attention to a sub gave them too much power. She missed the way Jude looked at her – like she was eye candy.