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Nic watched the other woman stride away and wondered whatkind of trouble she was going to cause.
* * * *
Grim’s whole body felt alive as Nic leaned backagainst him, but his mind wasn’t in synch. Something was going on in Nic’shead. She said all the right things, but there was a tension he couldn’t deny.They stood in front of the main stage, watching as Case Taggart sweetlytortured his wife with a flogger.
The good thing about Subversion was Josh hadn’t grown upwith Case Taggart or the Lawless clan. There was no one here who’d helped raisehim like there was at The Club or Sanctum.
Of course the same was true of The Hideout, but Josh was toofancy for that particular club. Grim kind of liked it. It was stripped down andraw. Kind of like himself.
But this was their home club, and he’d become comfortable init. Now he had to work to make Nicole see she belonged here, too.
“How are you feeling?” He whispered the question in her ear.
Her head turned slightly. “I’m okay.”
Josh was ensuring their semiprivate space was set upproperly because he was a heinous control freak. It was semiprivate becausethere was a two-way mirror. It was sort of the best of both worlds. His subcould pretend they were alone, and his perverted exhibitionist partner couldknow someone was probably watching their gorgeous sub.
He took her hand and led her away from the main stage.Perhaps they should start their first official scene with some talking. “You’restiff as a board, baby. You’re not okay, and you know lying to me in this spaceisn’t cool.”
She bit her bottom lip. “I’m not lying. At least I’m nottrying to. I don’t want to wreck this for you and Josh. I know it’s important.So I’m okay, and that’s all I want to say about it.”
“Not how this works.” He needed some backup. He did whatcame naturally. He leaned over and hauled her over his shoulder in a fireman’shold.
He glanced over and saw Harlow at the edge of the lounge, amartini in her hand. She sat alone with her cell phone on the table in front ofher. Which was odd because Harlow was usually surrounded by friends. And shewas usually in Dallas.
What was she doing here? He knew Josh had brought her in totry to figure out what was wrong with Nicole, but she could do theinvestigation from Dallas.
She tipped her drink his way and Grim acknowledged her witha wave before starting down the hallway leading to the semiprivate rooms. Therewas another floor with privacy rooms, but they wouldn’t need them tonight. Theywould be taking Nic back up to their suite when the scene was over. That waswhere they intended to take her together for the first time.
“You can’t pick me up and move me whenever you want, Grim,”Nic complained.
He brought the flat of his hand down on her ass. Hard. “Inthis club I can. Unless you want to safe word out, and then I should go and getJosh because he’s spent the last hour getting our rooms ready.”
Josh was the planner in this case. He’d tricked out thesuite with roses and champagne and the perfectly romantic plug they would useon her ass. Then he’d come down to ensure their scene space was ready.
“I’m not using my safe word,” Nic protested. She wasperfectly compliant as she lay over his shoulder. “I just…I just don’t feelcomfortable here.”
So he’d been right. He passed the big Dom who was acting asa monitor for the evening. The man waved him through, holding up three fingersto let him know what room they were in.
He stopped in front of the door marked three because he wasfairly certain this was a conversation Josh wouldn’t understand. He set her onher feet. “Why don’t you belong here?”
She steadied herself but her eyes remained on his chest.“Grim, you know why.”
“I might, but you need to say it. We can’t face somethingthat you won’t say out loud.” He needed to make a few things plain to her.“Nicole, I’m in deep with you. I know you’re planning to walk away…”
Her eyes came up and her hands found his chest, flatteningagainst him. “You’re making it hard.”
“I want to make it impossible,” he admitted. “But I can’t dothat if you’re unwilling to talk to me. Look, I’ll give you all the time in theworld to get to know and trust me about whatever happened in your past.”
Tears were suddenly in her eyes. “And if it’s bad?”
“Then we’ll face it. All three of us,” he said. “No matterwhat it is. But you take your time. However, you can’t lie to me in this club.”
She seemed to relax. “I wasn’t lying. Not exactly. I amokay.”
“You’re not. You’re uncomfortable, and I want to know why. Iwant you to admit it.”
Her jaw tightened. “Grim, I grew up in a rundownthree-bedroom that my dad and stepmom rented. They were always late on rent andpretty much everything else. The lights would go out for weeks at a timebecause they couldn’t pay the bill. I didn’t own a car until a few years ago. Itried this. My husband’s family had money, and they never let me forget it.”
