She's All In: Club 3, Book 1 (13 page)

Daisy smiled at her. “I’m good.”

“You look…different,” Carlie said, leaning her chin on her hand to frankly stare at Daisy. She wore a navy sundress, her hair held back with a red band, like a grownup version of Alice in Wonderland.

Sara tipped her head to one side. “You do look different. And I think I want some of whatever you had,” she added enviously.

And suddenly the three of them were laughing together. “You can have some of
what
ever,” Daisy said. “But not who. I have dibs.” Not for good, she wasn’t that naive, but just the thought of her friends with Dack made her hands clench on her little purse. She unclenched them, smoothing the embroidered fabric.

Carlie gasped, her eyes wide with delicious horror. “Did you do it with Dack?”

Daisy nodded smugly. “Uh-huh.”

“Good morning,” said a middle-aged waitress. “Are you ladies here for brunch? Coffee?” She held up a carafe.

“Yes to both,” Daisy said. She waited until the waitress was gone, having filled their coffee cups and left the carafe on their table. “Let’s go, girls. I’m starving.”

“And then you will talk while we eat,” Sara said sternly. “’Cause I want to know everything.”

They filled their plates and returned to their table. Daisy dove into the fresh fruit, baked ham, rolls and scalloped potatoes with relish.

Sara had a similar plate, while Carlie had a mound of green salad with a few bites of other foods on the side.

Daisy shuddered. “Ugh, green things for breakfast?”

Carlie sighed. “I know, but I’ve got to lose some weight.”

“No, you don’t,” Daisy said. “You’re beautiful. Isn’t she beautiful?” She nudged Sara’s foot under the table.

“Yes, and I tell her that every time we work out. Maybe one of these days it will sink in.”

Carlie flapped her hand at both of them. “Enough about me. I wanna hear about Daisy’s very big adventure.” She batted her eyes at Daisy. “With Da-ack.”

Daisy chewed and swallowed a mouthful of sweet, juicy strawberry. “All right. But I’m not telling you…everything. For that, you’ll have to come to the club.”

And how she felt about that, she wasn’t sure. If she was going through with Dack’s plan for public sex, did she really want anyone she knew there? Somehow it seemed easier with strangers. Which was weird, but it was how she felt.

“Is the club classy?” Carlie asked, taking a mouthful of salad and chewing with her gaze fastened on Daisy.

Daisy nodded. “Very classy. All wood and leather. Very retro, which is appropriate, because it’s in an old house.”

Carlie looked relieved. “Oh, good, no red satin and black glitter?” She shuddered.

“No, that would be awful. Club 3 kind of reminds me of those fancy clubs they have in the movies—you know, where the rich guys hang out while they plot the downfall of small nations.”

“Ooh, like a Bond movie,” Carlie approved.

“Where is it?” Sara asked.

Daisy snickered. “You’ve been driving by it every day without noticing. It’s behind Big Iron Fitness. There’s a little driveway around back, and a parking lot with trees all around. I’m guessing the house must have been on the property when they bought it, and they left it there when they built the gym.”

“Wow,” Sara breathed. “Right there? Sneaky. I wonder what the neighboring businesses would say if they knew there was a sex club in their backyard?”

Daisy shrugged. “Some of them probably know. Stuff like that is on plat maps. Anyway, you should come with me next time.” They’d party, and she’d talk Dack into taking her into one of those back bedrooms for their private fun.

Carlie peeped at her over her coffee cup. “So, did you do anything, um, kinky?”

Heat rolled over Daisy’s face and down her throat. “Heck, yeah,” she said breezily. “Got a spanking and did the wild thang.”

“Oh my God,” Carlie breathed, her blue eyes like saucers. She peered around to make sure no one at the neighboring tables was listening. “Dack spanked you? Was it because you, y’know…disobeyed?”

Sara shot her a look of surprise, and Carlie shifted, looking like a guilty little girl. “Well, if he’s a dom, that means he gets to make the rules, and his partner is supposed to obey.”

“His submissive,” Sara corrected her. She grinned as the other two turned to stare at her. “Hey, I’m a health teacher. I read a lot.”

Both of them seemed to know more about BDSM than Daisy had to start with. And if she couldn’t be honest with these two, who could she share with?

“Dack is a dom, all right. And I kind of screwed up.” Daisy told them about her mishap with the keys. “But I think it was really just because he likes spanking women. I mean, that’s why he and his buds are there and not down at Bingo’s.”

“Maybe they should’ve called this place Spanky’s,” Sara muttered.

Carlie giggled, shooting Daisy a look. “That’s better than Daisy’s idea.” She looked around before relating Daisy’s alternative names for the club. Sara snickered delightedly.

But Sara soon sobered. “Gosh, Daise, you are so…brave. You just waltzed right in and asked for what you wanted.”

“Yeah, good for you,” Carlie said wistfully. “I want to give it a try, but…I need to work up to it, I guess.”

Daisy looked at them. “Thanks,” she said, blinking back tears. God, she was so emotional. “I mean, for not judging me. ’Cause part of me feels so…bent.”

“Judge you?” Sara’s auburn brows shot up. “Daisy, after all you’ve been through, neither of us is going to judge you for having sex—any way you want it.”

“Unless you have it with Jake,” Carlie added. She immediately blushed, waving her hands in negation. “Sorry, sorry.”

Daisy shook her head in understanding. “Carlie, if you have your eye on him, girlfriend, there’s no way I’d go near him. It’s not like I want to nail every guy in the club.” Of course, Carlie didn’t need to hear about Jake ogling her bare ass, either. That was TMI.

“But if the guys are running this club,” Sara said slowly, “and it’s so they can act out their kink, or whatever you want to call it, doesn’t that mean that they’re all…with other women?”

Daisy drained her coffee cup and reached for the carafe. “Yup, probably does,” she agreed briskly as she poured. “But that’s okay with me, because you know what? I’m just looking for a good time.”

She was not going to fall for Dack or anything stupid like that. She’d let him introduce her to the joys of her kind of kink, and then she’d wave good-bye, and be moving on to some other lucky guy.

The other guy would have to have some nicely trimmed facial hair, because that was her new favorite thing, and of course he’d have to be a weight lifter, because big muscles were
le sigh
. And his voice had to be so deep and rough it sent shivers through her and made her want to melt at his feet.

Just a few simple requirements. Another guy like that shouldn’t be too hard to find, should he?

She looked up to see an elderly woman glaring at her disapprovingly as she passed the table. Daisy smiled sweetly. “Sex,” she said. “That’s what I want. Lots of great sex.”

Carlie and Sara managed to hold on to their snickers until the woman stalked away, her face mottled with outrage. Daisy’s cheeks were hot again, but she laughed with her friends. Life was too short to worry about what some prudish stranger thought.

“Oh God,” gulped Carlie when she could talk. “I love you, Daise.”

Sara held her hand out to Daisy, palm up. Daisy slapped it.

“So did you go upstairs?” Carlie asked when she finally managed to stop giggling.

Daisy shook her head. “No. I don’t even… What’s upstairs?”

Carlie’s eyes widened with pleasurable horror. “That’s where they have the, um…the kinky stuff.”

“Like what?”

“You know, places where doms can tie their subs up and do…stuff to them. Like spanking benches and things like that.”

Daisy shook her head adamantly. “No way. I’m not going up there. I just want…sex.”

Carlie nodded. “You’d have to really trust a guy to let him do that stuff. Or be into pain.” She shuddered. “Which I am not.”

“Me either.”

“You know what?” Sara set her jaw, looking determined. “I want good sex too. Why worry about an exclusive relationship? I had one, and look what that got me. Nothing but a blood test to make sure he hadn’t brought any STIs home.”

Daisy nodded. She knew from margarita night at their favorite Mexican restaurant that the jerk Sara had divorced the year before had denigrated her sexual attractiveness while he slept with every other woman he could. Now that was bent, and not in a good way.

“That reminds me.” Carlie looked worried. “How do we know we won’t catch something at the club? I mean, I’m sure they hand out condoms, but…”

“Like party favors,” Daisy said wryly, remembering the bowls. “But you also have to be tested before you can join. I went to the Riverside Clinic. They’re fast.”

Carlie nodded, stirring her spoon absently in her coffee. “That’s good.”

Daisy took another drink of her own coffee, watching her friends over her cup. She’d opened up, but what would they decide? That she’d gone too far for them to follow, or that Club 3 might be the place for each of them to find their own sexual freedom?

She wasn’t even sure what she’d found herself. She’d had great sex and let Dack and Mason—she wasn’t counting Kevin, because that jerk was never coming near her again—roll out their dom moves on her. But would she have the courage to go further?

Sara drained her cup and slammed it down on the tablecloth as if it were a shot glass on a bar. “I’m coming to Club 3,” she told Daisy, her brown eyes narrowed, her lips set firmly. “If you can do it, so can I. I’m breaking out of my good-girl cocoon, and I’m going to…to…” She wrinkled her nose. “Um, I have no idea what I’m going to do. How do I start?”

Daisy reached over and patted her slender arm. “It’s okay, little teacher. I’ll lead the way.”

She wriggled in her seat with excitement. “Oh, we’re gonna have so much fun.”

“Yeah,” Carlie said softly. “You are.” She smiled at them, but her lovely blue eyes held a look of frustrated longing.

“Come with us,” Daisy pleaded. “This Saturday is Western Night. Cowboys?”

Carlie shook her head. “I…I just don’t think I can. Not yet.” She looked down, rubbing a pattern on the white tablecloth. “There’s that guy I’m interested in and… I’ll see if that goes anywhere.”

“What about Jake?” Daisy asked, then winced as Carlie’s full lips tightened. “I’m sorry, sweetie. You have to make your own decision. Not my business.”

Sara was watching Carlie too. “Except we all know you think Jake is mega-hot.”

Carlie blew out a breath. “Yeah, but I also think he’s…out of my league. I mean, if he has hot-and-cold-running women at Club 3, why would he want me?”

She pushed her chair back and stood up, brushing her hands down over her prim navy dress. She smiled at them. “Well, ladies, this has been great, but I really have to run.”

“Well…okay.” Daisy nodded, when what she really wanted to do was leap out of her chair and hug the tall blonde. “Thanks.”

Carlie dropped a bill on the table and gave them both a little wave.

“See you at the gym?” Sara asked, twisting in her chair as Carlie stepped past her.

“Sure. Bye.” She walked away, her blonde hair swaying down her back, her full hips swinging gracefully

Daisy frowned after her. “How can any woman be that beautiful and not see it?”

Sara turned back to the table with a sigh. “I don’t know. We’ll just keep working on her, right?”

“Right. Now, missy, how about Saturday? You gonna come with me?”

Sara nodded. “I’m in. So…what does one wear to Western Night?”

Daisy grinned. “I have no idea. But we’ll figure something out.”

Dack opened the front door of his parents’ small, ranch-style home and stepped inside.

“Hi, Mom,” he called. “I’m here.”

The living room was tidy as usual, the beige carpets and peach-flowered furniture immaculate. He glanced warily at the carpeted scratching post as he walked by. He didn’t relax until he found a slim Siamese perched on the back of a corner chair, hidden in the shadows of a luxuriant hanging plant.

As their eyes met, the cat hissed at Dack, and he curled his lip in answer. “Yeah, the lashing tail gave you away there, Sheba. Better luck next time.”

The damn cat liked to lie in wait for him and slash playfully at his ankles as he walked by. His mother frowned on his kicking her cat, so he stayed out of its way.

Dack walked around the partition that divided the galley kitchen from the living and dining room and set his six-pack of Widmer Drop Top on the island next to a big bowl.

He eyed the contents with interest. His mom made great salads, with everything in them from baby greens to different kinds of nuts. This one was chock-full of interesting bits, with a bowl of homemade ranch-style dressing sitting next to it. His favorite.

And the smell wafting in through the open windows was another of his favorites—barbecued pork ribs. He peered out through her fluffy curtains and saw his mother standing on the spacious back deck he’d built her. She was not alone.