Page 65 of The Dom with a Safeword

The other two walked off through the parking lot arm-in-arm, then paused as they realized that Q was lagging behind.

“Coming?” With the sun having sunken below the building already, Jude’s face was partially in shadow.

She stayed where she was, by the side of the car. Dressed like this, she felt like a complete idiot. She scratched at the gravel with the pointy toe of her knee-high boots. “I think I’ll stay out here for a while. I’ve always wanted to take up smoking. It seems like a good time to start.”

“Come on! It’ll be fun,” Sabrina encouraged.

“Remind me why we have to go out again?”

Jude walked to her and looked down with his blue, blue eyes. “I thought it would be fun for all of us to go out somewhere together.”

“To avoid the inevitable likelihood of having to fuck us all evening?” she asked, arching a brow.

“Take pity on me, Q. I’m only one man.”

“I’m sure we’d have no problem finding volunteers to stand in for you,” Q quipped. She turned to look self-consciously at her reflection in the car window. How did she manage to attract men anyway? Nico used to say it was because she oozed sexuality, even though she wasn’t feminine enough to be beautiful. Other people had told her she was gorgeous, but Nico had heartily disagreed. He believed in Painful Truths, but only as they pertained to other people.

A tight fist in her hair startled her. Jude pressed her forehead to the car and leaned in close to her ear. She gasped and mewled as a hard throbbing began in her groin. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“You plan on replacing me, do you?” he growled. “Do other men give you what you need?”

“No!” she squeaked. Her voice had gone up several octaves.

“No what, little brat?”

“No, your Majesty?” The words were out of her mouth before she could swallow them. She had only just managed not to add “purple” before “majesty”.

He shook her a little by the back of the hair. She thought of him yanking down her panties and fucking her against the car and she squirmed.

“Do you seriously think I’d be that easy to replace?” He didn’t sound like he was playing anymore.

“No, Sir,” she whispered. “Sorry, Sir.”

“Good girl,” he rumbled, kissing the top of her head. He released her and looked down into her eyes when she turned to face him.

The sight of his satisfied smirk made Q squirm inside. Ever since they’d gone to Jude’s to paint, it was hard for her not to kneel at his feet whenever he walked into a room. The protocols she’d learned with Nico were far more ingrained than she’d thought. Jude had dommed her ass good, and now she couldn’t help acting all goofy schoolgirl around him. Temporary. Temporary. She had to keep reminding herself. She was going to be crushed when he left, no matter how hard she tried to stay emotionally distant. They clicked way too well for comfort.

He walked away and rejoined Sabrina. Q looked back at her reflection in the car window, trying to regain her composure. She smoothed her hair and walked after them, worried that at some point this evening – before they got somewhere private – he was going to magically transform her skirt into a belt.

The unpromising exterior of The Rig was nondescript stucco that was looking the worse for wear. As they rounded the corner, they saw that, despite the building’s disrepair, a crowd had formed itself into a line. Trance music drifted out the door and the heavy bass throbbing through Q’s body made her think of fucking even more.

“Why would someone drive all the way outside of town to go to a dive bar?” Q whispered, hoping that no one overheard.

She held her arms at her sides, hoping a stray breeze wouldn’t flip her skirt. Jude had insisted they wear sexy panties. Hers and Sabrina’s matched – wispy blue thongs that were more mockery than undergarment. Tonight, when he’d picked clothes for them out of Sabrina’s closet, it felt like he was dressing up his new toys. He hadn’t complained about them swapping shirts in the car. Hopefully he didn’t mind.

Sabrina grinned. “They didn’t use to card girls that were a little underage so I used to party here a lot.”

The idea of Sabrina in a dive bar seemed incongruous to Q. “I’ve never been. I did most of my underage drinking at pit parties.”

Jude shook his head at them in mock exasperation. “Underage drinking? I hope you both got spanked for being so naughty.”

They glared at him. He hadn’t been whispering and two guys in line turned to check them out with appreciative leers. Q reddened.

Jude cleared his throat. “Anyway, the new owners have rebranded the place and it’s kind of artsy and edgy now.”

When they reached the door, Jude was allowed in directly, but the girls both got carded. “I guess you look like you’re robbing the cradle,” Sabrina said. He swatted her ass and she squeaked.

After settling them on a funky, zebra-print couch, the padded back of which extended several feet up the wall, Jude went off in search of drinks. The room was cavernous and dark. The trance music and throbbing lights made the figures on the dance floor sinuous and erotic. Q shifted in discomfort, trying to get enough skirt under her to shield her bare ass from the couch. She reassured herself that even if there were people in the room that she and Sabrina knew, they’d never recognize them. Although she felt like she was dressed like a whore, most of the young women dancing wore even less.