She's All In: Club 3, Book 1 (6 page)

“Oh, too bad.” Brittany made a sympathetic face.

Daisy glanced around, but no other gym members were lined up behind her, and none of the Big Three, as she’d taken to calling Dack, Jake and Trace, were anywhere in sight. “So, I hear there’s a fun club near here,” she said casually. “You know anything about it?”

Brittany blinked and then looked down, shuffling papers. “Can’t help you, sorry. I’m not really into the club scene, you know?”

“Oh, no problem,” Daisy said. “Just thought I’d ask.” She turned away.

“Have a great workout,” Brittany chirped.

Daisy walked through the club to the locker room. Brittany knew something. Her body language had mirrored classic avoidance, with her refusal to make eye contact and touching the nearest object. The gym employees must have been told not to talk.

Damn it. Looked like she was going to have to pull up her big-girl panties and ask the big guy himself for information. Maybe after a nice hard workout, she’d actually have the courage.

Of course, she could just ask him out on a date. See if he was interested in getting to know her. That would be safe, and then maybe they could segue into the sexual stuff. After spending time with him, she’d know if she was going to freak when he touched her breasts.

Much better idea. She wasn’t really in the habit of asking guys out, but she could do it, for him.

But, on the one night she was actually looking for Dack, although the gym filled up with lots of people like her, stopping by after work, none of the three owners were around. Instead an older man with a silver ponytail and the physique of a serious bicyclist seemed to be managing the place. He strolled around the club, stopping to speak to members and giving pointers to some of the lifters.

Daisy was nearly through her workout before Dack strode into the gym. Her heart sped up even more. From her vantage point on one of the treadmills on the balcony overlooking the main gym floor, she watched him stop at the front desk. He wore a baseball cap, T-shirt and jeans. Every part of him was liberally covered in some kind of pale dust. Didn’t hurt his looks, though. He could strip that tight, faded T-shirt off and pose for a Working Man calendar.

He talked with Brittany for a few moments, scanning the gym and nodding. Then he looked up, his sunglasses-shuttered gaze locking on Daisy with a click so solid she felt it in her chest. He didn’t smile or wave, but somehow, she knew he was staring straight at her. Finally he tipped his head down, the bill of his dusty cap hiding his upper face, and walked back through the gym, passing under the balcony and out of sight.

Daisy looked around. Really, he could have been looking at anyone up here. There were women on treadmills on either side of her, most of them young and attractive. Two of them were women Carlie had dubbed “fitness Barbies”, lean and fit with perfect tans, hair and makeup. She sighed to herself. Dack may have flirted with her, but who the hell knew what his type was?

Well, whatever. It was nearly seven o’clock, and she was starving. She had to shower, get home and eat. Luckily, her mother had sent leftover scalloped potatoes and barbecued salmon home with her, so she wouldn’t have to cook.

She showered, slipped back into the black capris, sandals and sleeveless white-and-black polka-dot blouse she’d worn to work. She loved the blouse because it was like a dressy tank with a cute tie around the waist. She fixed her eye makeup, put on some fresh lip gloss and took a deep breath. Now or never.

Of course Dack was nowhere to be seen. Daisy wanted to kick the reception desk on her way out. Instead, she stalked out of the gym into the hot, hushed evening.

“Daisy!” Just as she reached her car, his deep voice called her name. The trunk lid opened, and she dropped her gym bag in and turned.

Dack jogged across the parking lot toward her. He’d showered. His wet hair was pulled back severely from his face, and he wore a low-cut white tank and gray shorts, soft workout shoes on his feet. The heavy muscles of his legs worked like pistons, his stride smooth and easy.

He stopped, looking down at her. Mmm, there was that smell of clean, warm male. He should not be allowed within ten feet of any female after a shower, for her safety.

“Hi.” His voice was low, intimate. “Almost missed you.”

“Here I am,” she said, spreading her arms.

“Yeah.” His slow smile was appreciative. “Here you are.”

And here he was, all six feet plus of male-liscious real estate. His tight tank top was somehow naughtier than any garment she’d ever seen on a guy. It bared the broad, hair-dusted cushions of his pectoral muscles, and one of his small brown nipples peeked at her, the other hidden by thin white knit. And his biceps? Works of freakin’ art. She wanted to pet them and then just have him curl some weights while she touched him, felt the flex and bulge of those powerful muscles. The tank hid his six-pack, which was a crying shame. And the baggy shorts obscured his groin, but she bet the fabric would feel soft and slick if she cupped him with her hand.

Oh God, she was getting hot just looking at him. In a parking lot.

He shifted nearer, and she swore heat arced between them. She locked her knees to keep from swaying forward to lean against him. Or melting in a puddle at his feet. The currents tugging at her were so powerful she was vaguely surprised they weren’t visible.

“I heard you asked about Club 3,” he said, his voice a low, sexy rumble.

“Huh? Oh, well…not really,” Daisy mumbled, her gaze skittering up to his and then away. Oh, why had she said that? She did want to ask about the club. She desperately wanted to know everything about it.

“Where’d you hear about it?” he asked. His tone held only friendly curiosity.

She shrugged. “Oh, just some girls in the locker room.”

He nodded. Lifting one hand to the edge of her open trunk, he enclosed her loosely in the vee of his body and the car. She wanted to kiss the smooth skin on the underside of his arm. Even the dark hair curling in his armpit was sexy.

“It’s a little more than just a dance club,” he drawled.

She blushed. “Um…I kind of got that.”

He nodded. With the evening sun shining through his sunglasses, she could see his eyes. They were gorgeous, a light color with thick, dark lashes, narrowed with sensual intent. All for her. Was it possible to combust from a guy looking at her? If the heat curling inside her burned any hotter, she was going to find out.

“I’d love to see you there,” he told her. “Anytime you want to come, just tell them who you are at the front desk.”

“Really?” Crap, her voice was all soft and breathy. She stared up at him.

“Oh, yeah.” He nodded slowly. “I’d like you to be my special guest. Would you wanna do that?”

Mesmerized by the intensity of his focus on her, Daisy nodded. Oh my God, he was asking her to have sex with him. And she was agreeing. Her head spun, and she sucked in warm, Dack-scented air.
Breathe, Daise. Breathe.
Swooning at his feet, not cool.

He smiled, one side of his mustache pulling into the crease of his cheek. “Good. Oh, you’ll have to read and sign some papers—in the club or online. Make some choices. You okay with that?”

She nodded again. He was going to kiss her with that mustachioed mouth. She was going to feel that beard against her face, and hopefully other places.

No, wait. Geez, where had her brain gone? She wanted to get to know him first.

She jerked her gaze away from his mouth. “Um, I was thinking maybe we could…” She looked up at him, and he raised his eyebrows quizzically.

“We could…?” he prompted.

“Go on a date first,” she blurted. “You know, get to know each other. Find out if you like to bowl, or shoot pool, or swim or…whatever. Have dinner.”

His smile faded, and her heart sank into a chilly pit in her middle. Oh God, he didn’t want to spend time with her, just have sex. He cocked his head and regarded her.

“Well, you see,” he said gravely, “I think you’re really hot, Daisy, and I’d love to do other stuff with you, but…I gotta tell you, if it’s not gonna go where I need it to, then it’d be kind of a waste of your time. And you are much too fine to waste.”

She frowned up at him, knowing her hurt was evident in her pink cheeks and set jaw, but unable to hide that. “So you want to have sex first, and then date,
maybe
?”

He cocked his head. “Daisy. Why are you interested in the club?”

She shifted, cocking her hip and planting her hand on it, pursing her lips in irritation. “Because…I want to explore.”

He smiled at her as if they had a naughty secret. “I’d love to help you out with that. And if it works for you, then hell yeah, we’ll go on a date.”

Well, he had a point. She could date anyone she wanted, pretty much, but she wanted to explore with him. No, with someone like him. Obviously he wasn’t the only dom at the club.

Fine, she decided. She’d go to his club. And she’d try it out. And who knew, maybe she’d find another guy who wanted to spend quality time with her, as well as have sex. Dack wasn’t the only big, hot guy in Portland.

Shoving the hurt and embarrassment away for later, Daisy nodded breezily. She just needed Dack to get in the place.

His brows drew together, but he nodded back. “Good. Got your keys?”

Keys? What keys? She had keys? Daisy blinked and then looked down at her hands. She held her key chain with the blue dolphin bottle opener she’d gotten in Maui. “Got ’em.” Shit, was he laughing at her?

“Good. Keys are important.” Smiling as if at a private joke, he stepped around her car and opened her door for her. She stepped in, and he closed the door on her, then leaned down, one hand on the open window. “Drive safe, you hear?”

Then he patted his hand gently on the window frame and stepped back.

He was still standing in the parking lot as she drove away.

She didn’t hit any other vehicles on her way out onto the street, although she had a close call with the guy in the old black pickup truck who turned right in front of her and then laid on his horn. Jackass. Couldn’t he see she had things on her mind?

It wasn’t until Daisy’s cute little brown car had rolled out onto the street that Dack remembered she hadn’t asked and he hadn’t told her exactly what they did at the club. Oh, he’d said it was more than a dance club, but she might be thinking it was like Bingo’s downtown, where people could just watch or do group scenes if they wanted.

Of course that pretty much described Club 3’s main floor. The back bedrooms had a few restraints, but upstairs was a different matter. That’s where the fetish equipment was, and the playrooms. He thought about the new spanking bench he was working on and imagined Daisy bending over it obediently for a spanking for some transgression or just because he felt like getting his hands on her pretty ass.

He had to stop between two SUVs to adjust himself in his athletic cup. He shook his head as he turned to walk back into the club. There was something about that pretty little blonde that just turned his cock to iron and his brain to steam.

Hell, he’d barely escaped her sweet request for a date. Yeah, he wanted to date her and do all the everyday vanilla stuff people did. But though he’d bruised her feelings, he’d needed even more to be up front with her.

She would be wasting her time with him unless she craved the same kink he did. Because he wasn’t going to spend time with a woman he wanted this much, not unless he knew that at the end of a date, he’d get to have her…his way.

Although he had a bad feeling about that little smile she’d given him there at the end of their conversation. He rolled his head to loosen his tight neck and shoulders as he threaded his way through the parked cars to the main doors of the gym. If she was thinking she’d breeze into Club 3 and find another guy to play with, that was going to be a problem. Because he wanted her all for himself.

Outside the club, she could date as many other guys as she wanted, because he didn’t do relationships. Shit, that was another talk he was going to have to have with her. No relationship, no demanding to know where he was all the time. What the hell had he been thinking agreeing to date her, anyway?

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he palmed it and checked the display irritably. His gut tightened even further. His mother. He could let it go to message, but then he’d just have to call her later. And she might need help with something. He was an only child, so she was his responsibility.

He stopped under the shade of the roof overhang to lift his phone to his ear. “Hi, Mom. What’s up?”

She made him wait, the way she always did, so that he gritted his teeth to keep from telling her he was kinda busy if she didn’t really have something to say.

“Nothing’s up,” she said finally. “Can’t I just call to hear your voice, sonny?”

He leaned back against the front wall of the gym, willing himself to relax. To be polite. She was his mom, and she loved him. “Sure you can. Anytime.”

“So how was work?” she asked brightly.

He thought back to the day he’d spent sweltering in the sun at the building site, cussing the substandard trusses he’d received from a company that had been reliable in the past, and working without his best truss man, who’d been home sick from the bender he’d gone on after his girlfriend left him—again. “It was, uh, hot.”