Lesson In Honesty (Club Serenity #3)

Chapter Six

Sierra

T hey met Liam in the bar at just after eight p.m. after a long and… educational day. Her Daddy was freshly showered, leaning against the polished bar with a bottle of the local brew he liked, looking incredibly hot.

Black slacks and boots along with the thick flannel shirt in red and blue checks made him appear like a barely tamed lumberjack on the loose, and she couldn’t help licking her lips.

When Liam saw her, he stepped forward with his arms out; she ran straight into them, burrowing into him and breathing in his scent. “Had a good day with Mack, babygirl?”

She nodded, the soft material of his shirt brushing over her cheek. “We’ve been busy.”

“That’s my girl.” Chuckling, Liam tucked her into his side and studied Mack. “How about you? Ready for a nap yet?”

Mack scrubbed a hand over his face. “Don’t let her nap, ever. Her batteries recharge that fast, it’s like keeping track of a puppy when she wakes.” He politely signaled Jonah. “One of what Liam’s got, please. Pixie?”

“Soda, please.”

When Mack glanced at Liam for approval, she felt her Daddy relax and nod in approval. There was hope for the dynamic to work well; Mack was carefully avoiding stepping on Daddy’s toes even though he’d been in charge of her all day.

The drinks arrived and they moved over to the booth they’d used the night before. It felt like home, sliding over the seat to camouflage herself in the corner. It gave her the opportunity to watch the room, study the people, without being in the spotlight herself.

Mack sat opposite her as Liam hemmed her in.

“So tell me about today.” Liam linked fingers with her, and the almost discordant hum that had been plaguing her all day dissipated with the contact. “Has the minx been a good girl or a bad one?”

While Mack thought it over, she thought she was probably standing at a seventy-five to twenty-five ratio on the side of good. She’d done her best to be the good girl Liam was proud of, but her Little was prone to taking the reins and doing what the hell she pleased.

“Overall,” Mack said in a musing tone, “Sierra’s been very good.” Mercurial eyes met hers, and he winked. “A spanking wouldn’t go amiss for some of the bratty shit she’s pulled, but I figure she’s just on a learning curve and testing her boundaries—and my patience.”

Liam’s grin flashed. “Well then, we’ll add a spanking to tonight’s agenda.”

Midway through a sip of her drink, Sierra inhaled in shock and choked on the sweet, fizzy beverage. “Just like that? What happened to being presumed innocent until proved guilty?”

“Minx, you’re lighting up like the fairy lights on a Christmas tree. Either you’re a horny little girl desperate for a cock or two,” he said quietly, gray eyes gleaming with mirth when heat seemed to explode in her cheeks, “or you know you did something worthy of feeling a hard hand on your ass.”

Damn it. She was admitting to nothing, she decided, delicately pressing the side of her nose where bubbles tickled. Adopting a nonchalant expression, she murmured, “Two cocks sound delightful, thank you, Sir.”

Liam snorted and pulled her in for a brutal kiss that set her panties on fire. “God, I missed you today.”

“Me too, Sir.”

Giving the tip of her nose a quick brush with his own, he leaned back, then lifted his hand in a hail when Grit stepped through the doors. “Oh shit, Tabitha looks like she’s about to take him apart.”

Sierra switched her attention from her tingling lips and needy sex to the couple whose bond was visible straining between them. She frowned, studying them more carefully—Grit’s grip on Tabitha’s hand was firm but gentle, but the white-blonde sub was resisting every step, subtly at first.

At first were the operative words.

Something was wrong, Sierra thought. Really wrong. She knew how the two usually interacted, and though she had balls bigger than a stallion, Tabitha was normally in tune with her Dom. While violence shimmered around her on a regular basis—not surprisingly, given her choice of profession—now it was seething around her like a living blanket of snakes.

“I said I’m not doing it!” Tabitha’s voice snapped over the hum of conversation and music. There was a crack in it, not temper but something more… distraught. “Rory, you know what—”

The dirty blond Dom sighed and turned, releasing her hand to clasp both of his against her face. His thumbs stroked her cheekbones as he bent slightly to murmur something, and Sierra realized that whatever the problem stemmed from, it was Tabitha struggling.

Shaking her head, Tabitha yanked away from him, shoving her hands against his chest and sending him back a step. There was no color in her face, accentuating the pale blue of her eyes, and making a sound that was part fury, part something else, she stormed away toward the alcove where the bathrooms were located.

A few moments later, the sharp crack of a door meeting a wall echoed.

Liam winced. “Fuck, bet that left a mark.”

“That’s a firecracker and a half,” Mack commented.

“You have no idea. Shit, Grit’s going after her.” Liam rose and whistled sharply, cutting through the sudden rise of volume in the room. He gestured Grit over when he got his attention, then walked over to meet the other Dom halfway.

“Is there a problem?” Mack asked Sierra.

“Club rules. No Doms in the women’s facilities; it’s a safe space. Only Dommes and subs allowed.” She huffed out a breath. Knowing what it felt like to be scared and overwhelmed, even if she didn’t have Tabitha’s balls to balance the scales, she couldn’t leave someone in distress. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Now’s probably not a good time, pixie.”

“Now’s the perfect time.” She stood, trying to summon some courage.

Tabitha was a scary bitch at the best of times; downright terrifying when she was in a rage. Her brother, Jasper, was more controlled with his emotions, but his temper burned like liquid nitrogen.

“Sierra, let a Domme handle it.”

She winced, imagining Ericka or Violet facing down the distressed submissive. From what she’d heard, Tabitha was not one for talking, and any display of authority that didn’t come from Grit was basically waving a red flag in her face.

Tabitha’s parents had been monsters.

Her father was the one who murdered Wyatt.

“I’ll be fine,” she told Mack, though her voice trembled slightly. There was zero guarantee that anything would be fine, but she knew without a doubt that a Domme would only make things worse. “Give me ten minutes before you send in the cavalry, okay?”

He hissed between his teeth. “I’m giving you thirty seconds before I tell Liam exactly what you’re doing.”

“I need to pee,” she said innocently, sliding across the seat.

“Bullshit.”

Because she didn’t trust him to count to thirty in three seconds, Sierra cut across behind Liam’s back and took the long way round to the alcove, trying to keep her head down and not look suspicious while doing so.

Damn it, her hands were shaking.

And her legs.

Everything, really.

She heard a short, furious scream, then something smashed as she approached the door to the women’s bathroom. Did she really want to go in there? Probably not, but her sensitivity to other people’s pain wouldn’t allow her to tuck tail and run.

Liam was going to kill her if Tabitha didn’t do it first.

Heart in her throat, palms sweating, Sierra eased open the door and squeezed through into the opulent bathroom. No money had been spared here, just like the rest of the club.

Marble sinks, four cubicles that were more like private bathrooms themselves. Soft pink, white, and yellow hand towels were tucked into holders next to each sink, although there was a blower on the wall near the door.

The wall length mirror in front of the sinks was intact, but the framed one beside the blower was in smithereens. Glass shards and blood sprinkled the pink marble floor like diamonds and rubies.

Tabitha kicked a stall door, again and again as it bounced back each time. The sharp smack of wood on wood was deafening, but Sierra heard her fighting for breath, for control, to hide the sobs strangling her.

“—I’ll kill him. I swear to God, I’ll kill him.”

Bang, bang, bang .

“He knows. The fucker knows and still , he wants to—” Bang, bang, bang .

The stall door swung back toward her, a huge crack running down the edge of the wood, and this time Tabitha used her fists instead of her feet to pummel it. Blood smeared over the light brown surface, dripping to the floor.

“T-Tabitha,” Sierra said softly.

The woman’s head snapped around, her teeth bared in a feral snarl. Eyes wild and so very blue locked on Sierra. “Get the fuck out.”

Lots of negative emotions, Sierra noted. The foremost being unmitigated fury. But underneath there was pain, too much to empathize with without losing herself in it, and the kind of fear only someone who’d been through a terrible, traumatic experience could hide.

Christ, how did Tabitha live with all that bubbling inside her?

“We both know I can’t. I’m pretty much the only thing that’s going to stop half a dozen Dommes storming in here to settle the situation down.” Sierra linked her fingers together across her stomach. “It’s me or them.”

The noise Tabitha made was wolflike. “Fucking Dominants.”

At least she wasn’t pounding the door anymore, Sierra thought. The loudness made her ears ring and her head hurt. “Look, I don’t know what’s happened between you and Grit. It’s nothing to do with me, but if you want to t-talk about it, I’m a pretty good listener.”

At the mention of her Dom, Tabitha’s back went rigid. “Do not mention that backstabbing, betraying, bullshitting fucker’s name in my presence again.”

Oh shit. Here she was tiptoeing around the pit full of vipers at her feet, and she’d just gone and headbutted a hornet’s nest. “Okay, okay. Let’s just avoid him for a few minutes. Do you think you can talk about what’s made you so afraid?”

“ Afraid? ” The word was deadly cold, just like the eyes now focused on hers. “I’m not afraid of anything. Fuck’s sake, I go up against some of the scariest motherfuckers on the planet and leave them in pieces. Why the fuck would… I mean, it’s not that I’m…”

Not daring to move closer, Sierra felt helpless. Much like Tabitha, she thought as the woman squeezed her fists so tightly, the wounded one spilled blood from her ripped knuckles in a steady stream. “Tabitha, we don’t really know each other. Most of what I know of you is from my friends at Avalon, but I’ve been the outcast for long enough that I can read people pretty accurately.”

“Oh, I know all about you, Sierra.”

“If that’s meant to be a threat…” It was a damned effective one, actually. “I’m not the enemy here, and I don’t believe you think Gr—the unnamed one is either. If you did, you wouldn’t have run in here; you’d be out the door and gone. You’re strong enough to walk away from him if that was the right thing to do.”

Tabitha growled and ran her hand through her hair. Luckily, not the one bleeding everywhere. “I should. I should tell him to go fuck himself with his big cock and leave his backstabbing ass in the dust.”

“That’s not why you’re in here.” Braver than she imagined she could ever be, Sierra took a step forward. When the woman didn’t leap on her and rip her throat out with her teeth, she took another and another until there was an arm’s length between them. “Let me help, Tabitha. The Dommes might understand that you’re scared and upset, but they’ll still be dutybound to restrain you if they come in here and you’re smashing the bathroom up.”

“Like they could,” she sneered, then seemed to deflate as she glanced around the room. “Fuck, I really went to town this time, didn’t I?”

Blood everywhere, dents in the walls, the broken mirror and door… “Yeah.”

“I ruin everything. I try so hard to be his good girl, but then he throws a wrench in the works and I just fall apart. Turn feral. Become this.” She studied the gnarly gashes on her hand. “You know, I can’t even feel this. That’s how accustomed I am to pain. How effective my training is.”

“What is learned can be unlearned. If you don’t like this part of you, find a way to live with it in a way that doesn’t hurt you, or work with Gr—the unnamed one to make it different.” God, when did she go to psychology school? For all she knew, she was spouting crap to the poor woman. “If I get a towel to wrap around your hand, are you going to murder me?”

Tabitha laughed, but it was haunted. “I wish you were joking.”

“I am.” Hand far from steady, Sierra reached out and gingerly laid it on Tabitha’s tense forearm. “If you know all about me, you understand what shouting and violence does to me psychologically. I think you’re enough of a victim yourself not to punish someone by deliberately antagonizing their triggers.”

“You sound like my brother.”

“That’s not an insult; I like your brother.”

Tabitha snorted. “He’s an asshole, like the rest of the Doms.”

“They just think they’re the big, bad bosses—which they are, technically—but just remember we’re the ones who can stop them in their tracks with a word.” Moving to the sink, Sierra snatched a pretty yellow towel from the holder and dampened it under the faucet. “Why has yours set you off so badly?”

She watched Tabitha’s face crumple in the mirror, her shoulders slumping. Whatever Grit had said or done must’ve been really bad. When she sank to the floor, sitting hopelessly amongst shards of broken mirror and her own blood, Sierra’s heart cried for her. “I-I can’t even say it.”

Crouching, Sierra reached for Tabitha’s bloody hand, touching palm to palm to hold it steady as she laid the cool, wet towel over the damaged knuckles. “I won’t judge, Tabitha. You or him.”

“You should judge him, the lying fuckwit.” She sniffled, inhaling quickly as though that might hide the fact she wanted to cry. “I trust one person in this world. There’s one person on this entire rotten planet who went out of his way to earn that trust, and now… he’s a bastard. I hate him.”

“No, you don’t. I’m going to hazard a guess here; he’s pushing your limits?”

“Pushing them? Hah. He’s breaking them.”

Sierra frowned. A sub’s limits were in place for a reason. Part of being involved in this lifestyle was that golden rule of abiding by the safeword. For a Dom to ignore or disrespect that rule… it wasn’t unthinkable, it happened more often than the community liked, and was so out of character for Grit, she had difficulty believing it of him.

“Did a scene get out of hand?” Sierra asked gently, cleaning away some of the blood.

“It’s not what he’s done, it’s what he…” Shuddering, Tabitha pinched the bridge of her nose until her fingertips turned white. “He wants all of me.”

“Is that a bad thing? Dominic messed you up, just like Jasper, right?” The name of Wyatt’s murderer tasted foul, but she pushed past it. “It makes sense Grit wants to reclaim what your father stole, or as much of it as he can. Liam does the same with me—not because he wants it for himself, but because he has a need to give it back to me . Wyatt did some horrible things; Liam’s never stopped trying to make it right, even though he wasn’t responsible for any of it.”

“I don’t see how fucking my ass—” Tabitha paused, her skin taking on a slightly green cast before she doubled over on a retch. She reacted violently to the gentle hand Sierra set on her back, making a terrible noise that conveyed just how much she was suffering.

The door swung open; Mistress Felicity stepped inside, stopping dead as she assessed the situation. Horror dawned in her eyes. “Sierra, your Dom needs to see you outside, please.”

Tabitha’s head jerked up. Faster than Sierra could blink, she was on her feet, on the defensive, and the soft moment they’d been sharing was ready to shatter.

Moving slower, Sierra rose gracefully, putting herself between the two women, shielding Tabitha. “Please tell Liam I’m busy, Mistress Felicity. He can punish me later if necessary, but right now I’m having girl time with my friend. We’d appreciate some privacy.”

“Your friend needs medical attention,” Felicity said bluntly.

For God’s sake, could the woman not read between the lines? Sierra narrowed her eyes, feeling Tabitha vibrating behind her. The tension in the room amplified at the mention of medical intervention, and she wasn’t sure how much pressure it would take to blow the situation sky high.

“I’m taking care of it. Everything’s okay here.”

“Just go, Sierra. No point you getting into shit with your Dom just because mine’s a fucking asshole.” Knuckles cracked behind her. “The Domme isn’t taking me without a fight, so don’t get in the way.”

All right, enough was enough. This was worse than being stuck between two guys squabbling over who had the bigger dick, she thought in disgust. Trying to channel some of Liam’s dominant energy, she jabbed a finger at the door.

“Mistress Felicity, please, let me handle this. Liam’s already pissed, he can just seethe for a while longer. I’m asking you not to put me in a position of authority I’m not comfortable with,” Sierra added, pointedly. “I’m not dominant, I’ll probably cave if you make it an order, but we all know if I leave, this is going to escalate. Tabitha needs a few minutes to calm down.”

“It’s my responsibility—”

“With all due respect, Mistress, I am not a child. I’m a grown woman fully capable of helping a friend in distress.” Fuck, where had this backbone come from? “If you want to help, a first aid kit would go a long way.”

Felicity scowled. “You have five minutes, girl. Any longer and both your Doms will end up breaking club rules.”

“Thank you.” Sierra maintained her position until the Domme left, then sagged as her legs went numb from the knees down. “Well fuck, that just earned me the spanking of a lifetime.”

“Why did you do that?”

“Do what?”

Tabitha’s voice quivered. “Stand up for me that way. Defend me.”

Slowly, certain her legs would crumple if she moved too fast, Sierra turned to face her. “I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I didn’t. You don’t need to be manhandled and humiliated. Being scared shouldn’t be a punishable offence, even if you have smashed up the bathroom. We can fix this, but only if things stay calm.”

Tabitha contemplated that for a minute, then nodded in agreement.

“Okay. Calm is good. Not killing the Doms is also good.” Sierra saw a glint of humor spark through the haunted eyes and smiled. “Lay it out for me, Tabitha. I’ll help however I can, but you need to be honest with me and yourself. Anal sex is the issue?”

She gagged in confirmation.

“Maybe you should sit down.” Realizing Tabitha didn’t like being touched, Sierra used her fingertips only to guide her new friend over to the counter. “Hop up here and I’ll take a better look at your hand.”

“Don’t say those words.”

Knowing exactly which words Tabitha meant, Sierra snapped her fingers and pointed at the counter. God only knew how much longer her newfound spine would hold up under pressure, so she was going to utilize it to its fullest extent. “Words have power. Power controls fear. Control the words and fear has no power.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Sure it does.” Sierra waited until Tabitha perched herself on the edge of the marble top, then grasped the towel-draped hand. “Wyatt tried to fuck my ass once, before Liam came into my life. It was almost as bad as when he took my virginity.”

“He hurt you?” A dangerous edge in a cold voice.

“Wyatt hurt me a lot. Emotionally more than anything, although sex with him was… I was a pity fuck, mainly. A hole to stick his dick in when other avenues were unavailable. He saved me from bullies in college and I saw him as a savior, fell in love with him, while being so stupidly na?ve I couldn’t see he didn’t have the same feelings. The night he took my virginity, he treated me like a two-dollar whore.” Sierra rubbed her fist over her heart absently as pain from the memory throbbed. “Most of the time, intimacy with him was painful. Liam was the first man to fuck me when I was wet.”

Tabitha’s eyes darkened. “You grieved for that fucker?”

“I did, because I still loved him to some degree at the end. For all his faults throughout our relationship, he’d been trying to be a better man, with Liam as an example. It wasn’t until Liam came along that I understood how much of a disservice I’d been doing to myself by allowing Wyatt’s behavior.”

Tabitha snorted. “He was an asshole.”

“He was, sadly.” Sierra inhaled slowly, preparing to divulge more of herself to encourage Tabitha to open up. “Liam took my anal virginity while I pegged Wyatt. It was a lesson, you see—Liam wanted me to know I had power over Wyatt, in a way that wasn’t cruel, while taking something Wyatt craved.”

“You were okay with that?”

“It was insane, but it really opened my eyes to how good anal sex could be.”

Shaking her head, Tabitha’s face twisted into a mask of disgust and panic. “No, it’s not. There’s blood and pain.” Her shoulders hunched up around her ears. “So much pain. Grit knows… he knows and he still wants to put me t-through that again.”

There it was, Sierra thought with relief. Now they were getting somewhere. She gave Tabitha’s arm a quick stroke, then resumed tending to the nasty gashes in her hand. “Someone did a very bad thing to you. Dominic?”

“Dominic and… others.”

“Hmm. Do you believe Grit would treat you the same way they did?”

“No! No, but—”

“Don’t qualify it. No, he won’t. That’s what you have to focus on. Doms are big, bossy, primal creatures but when you find the right one, there’s nothing they won’t do to protect their submissive, Tabitha. Unfortunately, that includes making us face things we really don’t want to, things we think don’t have any effect on other elements in our life.”

“Like sticking his cock in my ass is going to affect anything?”

Sierra shrugged. “That’s a masculine way of phrasing it. Hear it? That dominance, the forceful undertone. Negative connotations, which given your history are perfectly understandable.”

“How much time did you spend with Constance?” Tabitha demanded.

A smile touched her mouth. God, she missed the Mistress at Avalon, the sweet Domme who was a psychologist by day and Switch by night for her husband, Thane. “Enough to understand you’re hurting and afraid. Deny it all you like, but it’s okay to hurt, it’s not a sin to be scared. Even for kickass assassins,” she added in a low, low voice. “Don’t break my neck for saying this, but I think you need to be a woman for a night. A submissive who trusts her Dom to lead her on a terrifying path.”

Tabitha swallowed sickly. “I-I’m afraid I’ll do something bad. Memories… sometimes I blank out and lose myself.” She stared down at her mangled hand, her lip trembling. “I wouldn’t forgive myself if I…”

Sympathy bloomed like a rose in her chest, sad and helpless. What must it feel like to be trapped by all that shit—half of which Sierra didn’t really understand. “What if I helped?”

“You’d let Grit fuck you?” Tabitha didn’t look pleased by the idea.

“Well, that really wouldn’t solve your problem, would it?” Where was the first aid kit she’d asked for? “I’m willing to be there with you, Tabitha. For moral support or a hand to hold.”

“No. No, I don’t want a witness to…”

“Okay. How about if we did a scene together, both of us and our Doms? Not witnesses, but participants. Liam won’t judge, and Mack is a laidback kind of guy.” Her stomach fluttered with butterflies at the idea of her first scene with Mack being of the backdoor variety; she didn’t even know what he was packing. “This is a community, Tabitha. Even better, a family . You don’t have to deal with the scary stuff on your own anymore.”

The green color was creeping back into Tabitha’s pale face, her unease clear. “T-They wouldn’t touch me?”

“No. They’d be there for me, as moral support and security for you. Nobody wants to see you suffer or fail; that’s not what we’re about here.”

Tabitha began to drag her nails down her thigh, scoring lines in the black stockings she wore beneath her sexy, red leather skirt. Head nodding nervously, something she probably wasn’t even aware of, she gnawed on her bottom lip. “A-All right.”

“We’ve got you, sweetie.” The endearment tripped off Sierra’s tongue. Setting her hands lightly on Tabitha’s wrists, she gave them a quick, gentle squeeze. “Let me go see where that first aid kit got to, okay? I’ll talk with Liam and Grit. Can you sit here and breathe? Just try to relax. Nothing bad is going to happen.”

She snorted morosely. “Bad shit always happens to me.”

“Not tonight.”

Walking to the door, Sierra slipped out and exhaled as it closed behind her. Some of the tension torturing her shoulders eased; she was still alive, so that was good.

The number of eyes on her, however, wasn’t.

Surrounded by a wall of dominance, she cowered back slightly at the show of force, but when Felicity moved to push past her into the bathroom, Sierra slammed her hands against the doorjambs and blocked her way. “No. No one goes in there, Mistress.”

“Step aside.”

“I said no. Tabitha is calm. The situation is under control. It won’t be if you go in.” Sierra searched the people behind the Domme, catching her Daddy’s heated gaze. She winced, but jerked her head for him to come, then found Grit and did the same.

They approached, and she swore she saw all manner of implements swirling in Liam’s gray eyes. He was likely weighing up what her disobedience and impulsiveness required in terms of punishment. “I need to speak with both of you, please.”

“Is she okay?” Grit asked immediately.

“No. Yes. Sort of.” Flustered, she scowled at Felicity. “We need to talk in private, but all hell will break loose if someone goes in to tackle her.”

“Felicity, darling, Ericka’s asked for your presence in the medplay room.” Cheerfully, Violet strolled over, as though she had all the time in the world. “Why don’t you let me handle this? My shift is over.”

“Oh, whatever,” the other Domme muttered, rolling her eyes. She stalked off across the room, snagging a long furry jacket from the rack by the main doors before disappearing out into the night.

“Fun and games,” Violet said with a beaming smile. “Go have a chat with the Doms, sweetheart. I’ll stand guard for your friend.”

Yes, that was an acceptable compromise, Sierra decided. Violet was trustworthy and had considerably more spine than she did; no one would bully their way past her. Stepping aside, she was relieved when the Mistress immediately took her place, folding her arms over her chest and planting her feet hip-width apart like an intimidating bouncer.

That relief died when Liam and Grit flanked her, worry pumping off one side of her, a less violent shade of temper throbbing on the other. It dawned on her just how much trouble she was in when Liam’s big hand covered one butt cheek and squeezed, his fingers biting into her flesh until she was walking on her tiptoes.

The silent threat was worse than anything he might whisper in her ear.

It meant he was too mad to talk.

They escorted her out of the bar into the quiet area between there and the restaurant. Away from the line of women needing the bathroom and the nosy busybodies who just wanted firsthand gossip about the lunatic who’d shoved her Dom.

“We’re going to have a serious chat about how you show respect to the staff here, minx.” Darker than she’d ever heard it, Liam’s voice echoed in the space. “Mistress Felicity is not impressed with you.”

“I’m not impressed with her,” Sierra fired right back, her shoulders straightening in indignation. “She’s heavy-handed, arrogant, and would’ve just made the whole debacle worse.”

“Can you reprimand your sub later, Liam? Mine’s currently holding herself hostage in a woman’s restroom, and Sierra has blood on her hands.” Grit’s gaze locked on the smears of red on Sierra’s skin. “What the hell has she done?”

She almost quailed under the intense stares, then remembered she held the power here. She’d found her spine and she liked how it made her feel. Being rude and disrespectful wasn’t on her list of acceptable behavior, but by God, she could learn to speak her mind instead of fading into the background to hide.

Setting her hands on her hips, she ignored Liam for the moment. Shooting Grit a pointed glare, she shook her head. “Turn that around, Master Grit. If terrifying Tabitha into a devastated wreck was your intention, you succeeded.”

“Sierra,” Liam snapped.

“No, let her speak. I probably deserve this,” Grit admitted. Folding his arms over his chest, mimicking Violet’s position by the door, he nodded once. “Go ahead, rip me a new one.”

“I wish I could. Unfortunately, I don’t think you do deserve it. Tabitha’s a little battered. Her hand’s going to be sore; she ripped it up smashing a mirror, then added some damage using a door as a punching bag.” She slid her gaze over to Liam, taking note of the warning darkness growing in his eyes. “She really is frightened about doing an anal scene.”

Grit’s jaw tensed. “Fucking hell. I mentioned it, that’s all.”

“Yes, well, that’s the root cause of tonight’s drama.” Huffing out a breath, she centered herself, ready to get slapped down if either of the guys thought her idea was stupid or inappropriate. “I suggested a joint scene. All of us, Mack included, working together as a team. Liam and Mack dominating me; you seeing to your sub.”

There, that was tactful.

“Tabitha is… happy isn’t the word, but she’s agreed as long as your hands are the only ones touching her. However, I’d get your thinking caps on and set up an area before she freaks out again. You know her better than I do, Grit. It won’t take much to change her mind.”

“Wait a minute, wait a fucking minute.” The Dom seemed to grow, looming over her as his stance altered. “Are you seriously telling me you convinced Tabby to attempt anal when it’s her number one despised sexual act?”

Sierra blinked. “Yes.”

“In ten minutes?”

She frowned. “I believe it was more than ten minutes, but yes.”

Bewilderment flashed over his face. He stepped forward, reaching for her, then paused and asked, “Permission to kiss your goddamn submissive, Liam?”

Her Daddy heaved a sigh. “Validating poor behavior, whatever next. Yeah, go ahead. She’s obviously done something good even if she went the wrong way about it.”

Strong arms scooped her up, pressing her against a firm chest. Her squeal of surprise was muffled by the hard, hot, decidedly lusty kiss Grit assaulted her mouth with; no tongues, thankfully, but the emotion behind the kiss was powerful.

“Thank you,” he said earnestly as he returned her feet to the floor. “It’s the one phobia we’ve struggled with for months. The mere mention of it sends her into a tailspin; I was starting to believe Dominic might actually win that battle.”

“You have one chance,” she warned.

“I understand. I won’t let her down.” Pressing a kiss to her forehead, Grit stepped back and regarded Liam. “I need your help, brother.”

Liam nodded, snaking his arm around her waist and tugging her into him. Staring down at her, brows furrowed, he growled softly under his breath. “Don’t think your ass won’t be red for this, minx. Good intentions or not, you disobeyed Mack and put yourself in danger, among other things.”

“I’m not apologizing.” She stood firm on that; she’d done what was necessary. As far as she was concerned, doing the right thing regardless of her personal safety merited no apology. “She needed help, not a dogpile of Dommes coming down on her.”

Liam’s lips twitched. “A dogpile of Dommes?”

“You know what I mean, Sir.”

“Adding Sir won’t save you, minx, but our current time constraints might spare you for half an hour. Go to the bar and ask Jonah for the first aid kit if no one’s brought one over yet. Ask Mack to come join Grit and me out here. If you’re sure you want him to be part of this?”

She tilted her head. “We invited him into us , Liam. Excluding him when we feel like it doesn’t really make him feel welcome. Besides, knowing you as well as I do, there’ll undoubtedly be more complex scenes in our future.”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “Always a smart answer. Go do as you’re told this time. Oh, and Sierra?” When she stepped back, patiently waiting, he tacked on, “For God’s sake, do not let Tabitha out of that bathroom until Grit is standing outside the door.”

“Of course, wise and all-commanding Master.”

She barely ducked her butt in time to miss the swipe of his hand; she felt the brush of his fingers as they skimmed her flank. Spinning to blow him a sassy kiss, feeling lighter than she had in a long time, she pushed through the doors and headed for the bar.

Liam

“Tabitha destroyed a bathroom because you suggested anal?”

The instant Sierra was out of earshot, Liam pounced on Grit like a tiger taking down a gazelle. He’d seen what the woman was capable of during the mission to save Archie, Caera, and Myna after Dominic kidnapped them; Tabitha, in a nutshell, was fucking insane.

Not her fault. He’d never lay blame for who or what she was at her feet. How could he when years of training and torture was responsible? But she was strong, slightly sociopathic, an exceptional killer for hire, and several wires were loose in that pretty head.

Grit grimaced and ran a hand over the back of his neck. “ Destroy might be an overstatement.”

Liam raised an eyebrow. “Your girl doesn’t do things by halves. If she lost her shit, she lost her shit good and proper. She’s just lucky she didn’t hurt anyone. Fuck’s sake, Grit, it’s the main women’s restroom. There’s normally half a dozen subs in there at any given time.”

“She won’t hurt an innocent.” The steel in his friend’s voice was solid with conviction. “I promise you, Liam, that girl will cut off her own hands before she spills unintended blood. Unless it’s her own,” he muttered bitterly, “then she just slaps a Band Aid on a severed artery and carries on her merry way.”

“I can’t have her tearing the place up whenever you hit a trigger.”

“I’ll pay for the damages. Hell, I’ll give the crew a hand fixing whatever she’s broken. We need Serenity, Liam. That’s the truth; she relaxes here, feels safe enough to open herself to the past. She can’t do that in Phoenix. There’s that little rift still lingering between her and Jasper.”

Liam sighed, wondering how the hell he was supposed to balance the health and wellbeing of one traumatized sub against that of the whole damn club. “In future, you tell her if she needs to vent her shit, she goes to the staff gym. There’re enough toys in there for her to annihilate without exposing her to the public.”

“It’s not going to happen again. We’ve been making steady progress with her triggers—I just caught her unawares tonight. Made a stupid fucking comment about broaching anal because it’s one of the things she can’t get past.”

“All right. I’ll get a crew out first thing in the morning to assess the damage. You’ll have to sort reparation with Elias, but as long as everything can be fixed, we’ll just chalk this up to a traumatic misunderstanding.”

They shook hands on it, and the gratitude on Grit’s face assured Liam he’d made the right choice. Booting Tabitha from the club would cost the club more than a few thousand dollars in repairs; security experts of Grit’s caliber, with his experience and qualifications, didn’t come along often.

Besides, Elias and Evander were adamant they wanted Serenity to be a safe haven for everyone. Not just the regular kinksters and members, but all the misfits and the poor souls who—like Sierra and Tabitha—were the victims of the story.

“Now, we need to figure out how the hell we’re pulling off this scene without your woman decapitating us all.” Liam flicked his gaze to the door when it swung inward, smiling when Mack poked his head through the small gap. “Just in time, Mack. Maverick Morehead, meet Grit. Grit, Mack.”

He stepped through, shaking hands with Grit. “The pixie said you wanted to see me.”

“Yeah. We have a dilemma of sorts.” Liam stroked his beard thoughtfully, working out how to sum up the entire mess without betraying Tabitha’s privacy. “Grit is Tabitha’s Dom. He managed to flip one of her triggers, hence the current disaster unfolding in the restroom. She spent a lifetime being mentally, emotionally, sexually abused.”

Pity and fury warred in those fluid eyes, the blue fighting with the gray even as they darkened in unison. “ I’m sorry doesn’t cut it. How can we help?”

“Our intrepid sub has kindly volunteered you and me to scene with Grit and Tabitha. Sierra wants to include you, as do I, but I should warn you that Tabitha can be…” Liam glanced apologetically at Grit. “Volatile.”

“Especially when she’s scared,” Grit murmured.

“Okay.” Mack’s eyes flicked between them. “What scene?”

“Anal.”

An eyebrow quirked up. “Mmm-hmm. I think I’m smart enough to put the pieces together. Your girl was sodomized against her will, which is now a huge trigger for her, and desensitizing her is the next step. Will this be the first attempt?”

Grit nodded. “Tabby misconstrued something I said earlier, had a small mental breakdown over it, and led us here. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t push it, but Sierra somehow got Tabby to agree to doing a scene, so…”

“You’re not sure you’ll get the opportunity again.”

“Exactly. Liam was right to warn you, though. She was brutalized for a long time; I’m still stepping on landmines. Touching is a sensitive subject and sex… sex is a battlefield.”

“Keep my hands to myself, got it.”

Liam’s brow arched. Mack really was a level above any Dom he’d ever known in terms of acceptance and understanding—and considering who Liam had spent years living, working, and playing with in Phoenix, that was saying something. “All right, so Mack’s on board. We need to limit Tabby’s opportunities to harm anyone, including herself. Can you restrain her, Grit?”

“She’s comfortable with cuffs now as long as I’m in sight.”

Okay, they could work with that. As an idea formed, Liam dragged his bottom lip between his teeth, biting slightly as he shifted thoughts around in his head. “Have you tried any anal play at all? Fingers, toys?”

“A finger to the first knuckle. Anything else and she panics.”

“Wonderful.” He could only thank God that it wasn’t his dick in the firing line. “Mack, can you go across to the Zoo and see how many ponies are playing in the stable area? We need somewhere quiet, away from prying eyes, and some kind of raised area big enough for two subs.” To his knowledge, there weren’t many members signed in with a preference for pony play, and the barn was warm, private. “Grit, you and I are making a stop at the gift store for some supplies, then we’ll collect the girls and meet up with Mack.”

“That was fast,” Grit said, concern marring his brow and forming lines around his mouth.

“I’m good at planning. Does she have a safeword of her own or will red suffice?”

“Rory. Her safeword is Rory.”

“Who’s Rory?” Mack asked.

“I am, it’s my real name. Everyone calls me Grit, but when she says Rory, I know she’s done for the night.”

“Okay then. Is there a secret handshake or all hands in the middle deal?”

Liam snorted, imaging finishing the planning stage of the night from hell with a locker room sign-off. “None of us are teenagers, Mack.”

“Speak for yourself,” he shot back with a grin and made for the door. Two steps later, he stopped and glanced back. “Um… where’s the Zoo?”

After giving him directions and sending him on his way, Liam shook his head. He really did like that guy. Everything about him was a calm, soothing balm on open wounds Liam didn’t realize were still festering from Wyatt.

“Seems a dependable kind of guy,” Grit commented. “Are you sure he can handle whatever happens tonight?”

That remained to be seen. “We only met yesterday, so I can’t guarantee it. He spent all day with Sierra in the Nursery, so he’s obviously got patience, and he doesn’t appear to get riled easily. I think if we want a calming influence, he’s our best shot.”

“I’ll take all the calm we can get. Am I making a huge fucking mistake, Liam?”

Regardless of what anyone thought about Doms, they were only human at the core. They had their doubts and insecurities as much as anyone, especially when it came down to the wellbeing of their subs. For Doms who found themselves with troubled, reactive submissives, those negativities doubled because the stakes were so much higher.

They stood to lose a hell of a lot more.

Any sub’s trust was hard earned; a damaged sub’s trust was akin to finding evidence of the Loch Ness monster.

“That’s your decision to make, Grit. You know your woman better than anyone here. Only you know how far to push her, how far her trust in you goes, but if she’s agreed to do this, I’d say she’s counting on you to have your head in the game. No doubts, no fear, no fluttering.” Liam patted his tense shoulder. “Be the Dom who won her heart. Be assertive without cruelty. Be a fucking Master.”

“You’re right. I’m not disagreeing with anything you just said, but fuck, Liam, this is Tabitha . The woman who was raped at ten years old, brutalized by her father and strange men when she should’ve been a kid. I understand your opinion of her—hell, even Jasper has the same outlook—but there are places inside her that aren’t half as strong as she tries to make them appear.”

This was what his friend needed, Liam thought. A chance to vent, to blow those doubts from his system without risking them coming down on Tabitha. “Go on, get all that shit out.”

Grit lowered his voice until Liam had to bend forward to hear him. “The Irish prick we killed right through those doors? He almost bought her from Dominic when she was a kid. Would have if he’d had enough cash. Her fucking father gave him a free test ride on her, and the motherfucker sodomized her.”

It struck Liam in the chest. He’d seen enough death and destruction in the Dominic days of Avalon that nothing really surprised him anymore—the dead guys littered around the club not so long ago had been an annoyance more than traumatic. “She didn’t remember him?”

“Not until he slapped her in the face with it, bringing all those buried memories to the surface. My little tiger is damn strong, Liam. She’s a goddamn pro at repressing bad shit, but he flayed her wide open with that.”

The level of swearing should’ve been excessive, but Liam understood how impotent a man could feel when the woman he loved was suffering. Sometimes fists and violence didn’t make a mark in the depth of that helplessness, but a litany of profanity purged some of it.

“He sucker punched her. Do you think she’d be less terrified if he hadn’t raised all those memories?”

“No. He wasn’t the only one who abused her, and not all those memories were repressed. If they were, she wouldn’t be half the killer she is now. They fuel her purpose, drive her to make a difference for other victims. She’d be scared of this regardless.”

Wonderful, just wonderful. Even as sarcasm rolled through his head, Liam didn’t mean it. Sure, there was trepidation in his gut, simply because he was aware of how dangerous Tabitha was just by existing. But none of this was her fault, and what came next would hurt her.

A fighter didn’t back down, and she was top of her field.

“We’ll start slow, build the scene bit by bit. If she panics, if she fights, we’ll follow your lead on how to deal with her.” Liam walked to the door leading to the bar and poked his head through; Violet was still on duty, redirecting the women who truly needed the restroom, blocking anyone from going around her.

She spotted him, inclining her head slightly in acknowledgement.

Satisfied she was holding down the fort, he closed the door and jerked his head toward the one behind Grit. “That way’s easier. Mack has a headstart, so we better catch up.”

“What do you need from the store?”

Liam grinned. “A special kind of lube.”