Page 21 of Hushed

He would check up on her of course, and make sure she had everything she needed, but it would have to be from afar. Because if he ever came back to see her, he might never fucking leave.

Chapter 5

Kenzie

Five years later

What the hell is this guy doing?Kenzie shifted on the mattress and tried to focus on… whatever was happening between her thighs. His tongue was in exactly the wrong spot, and he was using one finger to massage her labia. It didn’t feel good at all. Maybe it was better not to focus on what he was doing. She looked around the messy bedroom and thought about what a disappointment this night was turning out to be.

She met Chad at a party she’d DJ’d. He’d bought her a drink, and the conversation was enjoyable enough that she had high hopes when he invited her back to his place.

So far, his clumsy attempts at getting her off did little to impress her, and she’d given him a solid ten minutes to figure things out, even going so far as to redirect his hand or urge him to shift his head up so his tongue would actually touch her clit. But he wasn’t taking any of her hints. She hadn’t expected miracles, but this? This was pitiful. Then again, his name was Chad, so she should have lowered her expectations.

Unable to take it anymore, she sat up and pushed his head away, looking around the room.

“What is it, baby? You need my dick in that pussy?”

She wrinkled her nose and tried not to laugh at the absurdity of his question. “No. I want to leave. You clearly don’t have the skills to take care of me.”

Chad blinked at her, his mouth hanging open in stunned silence. The facial expression alone was almost worth the shitty night. Society said it was rude to tell him he lacked skill, but she was tired of faking it with men who didn’t put in effort for her. And too many men were walking around thinking they were God’s gift to women, when they didn’t have a clue how a vagina worked, let alone how to treat one.

“You’re a bitch,” Chad said when he recovered from the shock. “I’ll call you a cab.”

Kenzie put a hand on her heart and tilted her head to one side. “Aww, thanks, Chad. That’s the nicest thing anyone has said about me all year. I can call my own cab, though.”

She stormed out of the tiny apartment and used her phone to call a rideshare.

As she came out of the building, a man in a thick but worn-out hoodie, dirty pants, and boots bumped her shoulder.

“Sorry,” he muttered gruffly.

She blinked at the sound of his voice. There was something familiar about the gravelly tone, but she shook it off since shecouldn’t place it. It was nothing more than her paranoia creeping in.

He stared at her for a minute, but she moved down the sidewalk to put some distance between them, and he got the hint and kept walking.

Kenzie was starting to think there were no decent men left in this city. The biggest city in the country and she couldn’t find anyone to date. All she seemed to find were assholes and creepers. Chad was the latest in a long line of disappointing nights.

Or perhaps her standards were too high. But after that night with Gage Allard all those years ago, she couldn’t bring herself to accept anyone who wasn’t willing to try. She’d explored and had a few fun adventures, but nothing lived up to that night.

He may have left, but he convinced her she deserved the best before he did. And she would always be grateful for that. Their night together had prompted her to not only explore her sexuality and figure out what kinks she liked, but she talked to her therapist about an ADHD diagnosis, and she was now medicated and working on better coping skills.

But she was growing weary of the current dating scene. It wasn’t fulfilling, and she felt stagnant. She needed to try something new.

Thoughts of Gage had her pulling up the website for the club he ran in D.C. It was a slick website that really made her want to visit. But he would probably turn her away if she showed up at his door. He’d balked at the idea of showing her around the one time she’d brought it up. That didn’t stop her from scrolling the page to see what the club offered. By the time she got to the bottom, she was convinced she needed to make a trip to D.C.

Before she closed the tab, a link at the bottom of the page caught her eye. It was a big red button labeled “sister clubs.”

She clicked it, and held her breath, praying there was a New York option.

Sure enough, there in all caps was a button that read, ‘NEW YORK CITY’. Again, she clicked and waited for the page to load. The club was called Midnight Tower, and she was instantly intrigued.

Unfortunately, the club wasn’t taking any new members at the moment, but they had a waiting list she could sign up for. After filling out the short form, she wondered if they had partnerships with other clubs.

They didn’t, but she figured the biggest city in the country had to have more than one BDSM club. It took some digging, but she found one called The Cage that looked like she would be able to get in if she walked up to the door.

The sound of the cab driver clearing his throat made her jump, and she pulled the phone to her chest, afraid he could somehow see what she was looking at. But he was merely waiting for her to get out of the car. Had she really spent thirty minutes browsing BDSM clubs online? It barely seemed like she was in the cab for five.

She swiped her card to pay the driver and headed for her apartment door. Thanks to Reggie and the money he left her, she now lived in a nicer apartment that had a doorman. She was renting for now, but the option to buy was going to be available soon and she was seriously considering it.

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