Page 98 of Stripping the Sub
“Nice wedding,” he said, turning to the side so he was standing next to her rather than in front of her.
“It was,” Olivia said, her voice careful and low. “Rather small to be inviting acquaintances, I would have thought.”
She always managed to be so polite, even when she was insulting him.
“I would have too, but Adam said we’d be spending a fair amount of time together in the future, so he invited me anyway.”
Olivia’s lips tightened. “I see,” she said, her voice clipped. “I suppose that makes sense.”
But she didn’t like it at all. For some reason that just made Luke grin even more.
“I hear you’re going to be coming to the club soon,” she said, obviously referring to Stronghold since Marquis wouldn’t be open for another couple of months.
“As soon as I manage to make time in my schedule, yes.”
“You’re going to have to go through the newbie class first.” Satisfaction dripped from her voice.
Luke hid his own smile behind taking another sip of wine. Both Michael and Patrick had been surprised about his choice of which introductory class he wanted to pass through to gain access to the club. They’d then immediately insisted he not tell anyone until it was time to show up for class. When he found the time to. He’d agreed, and now he was especially glad to have done so.
He wanted Olivia, and Olivia didn’t want him. Which meant if he was going to get what he wanted, he needed every advantage he could muster. The element of surprise might help shake her up a little bit and give him the in he needed to crack through the armor she had around her. Or she might be pissed as hell, but he was pretty sure he could make that work for him too.Indifference or ignoring him were almost impossible to work with – anger or frustration was much better.She was attracted to him, he could tell, but she was pretending she wasn’t. Luke figured it was for all the reasons he felt he shouldn’t be attracted to her, but he didn’t think he was going to let that stop him.
Of course, he might change his mind once he actually got a feel for what BDSM was all about, but he didn’t really think so. At the very least, they should be able to indulge their mutual attraction, shouldn’t they?
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said, watching Adam and Angel make their way to the dance floor in the middle of the room for their first dance. “Will you save me a dance today?”
“No.” It was the rudest she’d ever been to him and yet didn’t put him off at all. He just admired her ass as she walked away, heels clacking on the floor.
******
“If he liked it then he should have put a ring on it!” Sharon waved her left hand in the air, bumping her hips with Kate - who actually did have a ring on her left hand, and her fiancé and Dom was watching from the sidelines with amusement on his face. A thread of envy slid through her and she took a swallow from the bourbon and ginger - okay, mostly bourbon - she was holding in her right hand. Drinking, dancing, and not spilling was a talent, and she had it.
Sadly, finding a man to put a ring on it was not one of her talents.
A year ago, a lack of a steady relationship hadn’t been depressing to her, but watching all of her friends hooking up and settling down… well that was definitely getting to her. She had a few friends back in California who were still single, but they didn’t do her much good when it came to having single friends to hang out with. Not that her coupled-up friends here left her out of things. They were really good about including her.
And thank goodness she wasn’t theonlysingle person in the group. They were definitely dwindling in numbers though.
Dwindling just like her drink.
She looked at it sadly.
“What’s wrong?” Kate asked, loud enough to be heard over the music.
“My drink is broken.” Sharon held up her empty glass. “I need to go fix it.”
The song was ending anyway. She bumped hips and shook her tits at Kate one last time, and then started heading for the bar - why was it so far away?! - as the song changed over to slower. Ugh. Definitely time to get off the dance floor. Although she did have to smile as she saw Michael pulling Ellie onto the dance floor.
Even better, Luke had just come up to where Olivia had been dancing and was now trying to get off, and Sharon was passing right by.
“Are you sure you don’t want to dance?” he asked, with a seriously charming smile which made Sharon swoon a little. The man was hot. Olivia needed a dance with a hot guy, even if he wasn’t her type. Plus, Sharon was pretty tipsy and wanted to cause some trouble.
“Oh you should definitely dance with him!” she said, ‘accidentally’ stumbling to push Olivia closer to Luke. The redhead practically fell into him, turning her head to give Sharon the look-of-death. Oopsie. Oh well.
Worth it.
Probably.
Olivia wouldn’t ever really be able to punish her anyway, since they were outside the club and what Olivia liked to do inside the club was waaaay past Sharon’s hard limits. She sighed inwardly at the thought. It was why she and Brian ultimately hadn’t worked out, which she’d known from the beginning they wouldn’t but she’d been tired of not having a steady play partner. She’d wanted some intimacy. Unfortunately, Brian wanted more than just rough sex and a little manhandling, something he’d figured out the more they’d played together. It wasn’t unusual for people new to the scene to figure themselves out as they played, but it kind of sucked when she already knew what she wanted, it just didn’t match up to anyone else. She was too kinky for vanilla men and too vanilla for kinky men. There had to be other people who fell somewhere in the middle, didn’t there?
