Madame (Salacious Players' Club, #6)

by Sara Cate

“And you’re right. I should stop seeing you.” “Jade,” she snaps in desperation.

It hurts to fight with her, be scorned by her, and be mad at her. For reasons I don’t understand, she’s the last person on earth I want to be mad at.

And if she won’t do it for me, then maybe she’ll do it for him.

I might as well hand her my credit card and the keys to my Audi with how much I’ve spent just needing to see her.

And maybe I’m a masochist who loves to torture himself. It doesn’t matter.

she’s angry with me. I hate that.

Before my eyes meet hers, I jerk my face from her touch. My heartbeat becomes rapid,

“Yellow,” I mumble as I feel my temper rise. She immediately backs away, and I hear the hitch in her breath. I just used the safe word, and we haven’t even done anything.

“I’m feeling…” I grit my teeth. “Like none of this is real. Like it’s all a bunch of bullshit.”

“I’m just a client, right? This is your job. I pay you to be here, don’t I? So why does the sight of you with someone else drive me insane?”

“It’s all gone to my head, Eden. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t stand the thought of feeling something for you if you don’t feel it for me.”

“Yes,” I snap. “I didn’t mean to use a safe word. You can touch me.” “But you did use a safe word.”

“When you’re in this room, there’s nothing else that matters. You are mine. You are perfect. You are everything to me. And I don’t want to hear another word of insecurity from your mouth.”

Trying to understand what someone else needs when they so explicitly try to hide it from me is exactly why I hate relationships. This cryptic, emotionally charged roller coaster is exhausting, and it has me feeling irritable.

When she notices my demeanor change from patient and worried to frustrated and tempered, she changes her argument. “Okay, fine. This is about…her,”

Instead, in typical Jade fashion, she keeps spiraling.

“Stop it. I’m sorry I told you about that. I’m sorry you think I have some ex that you need to live up to. Baby, it was never meant to be anything more than what it was.”

Because my first result was submissive. And my second…was switch.

“Because I’ve closed the door on that life. I don’t want to go back. Yes, it was fun, but what you and I have is better.”

Before I know it, we’re on the bed, and his mouth is leaving marks all over my neck and chest. He wants to claim me, and I’m letting him. In some strange way, I want him to.

It’s wrong of me to fuck him without a condom. Even knowing everyone is regularly tested and I take my pill without fail, this is just how out of control I feel with him. But I have no regrets or fears. I trust him.

My personal rules are being broken, not to mention I’ve turned down clients for him. If only he knew that man he saw me talking to before was a man I had to refer to another Domme.

Every time I tell myself I need to stop this with Clay, I look into his eyes, feel the way he looks right through the facade I’ve built and into my soul, and I know I’m fucked.

Jade is my mentee, and Clay is an ex-client.

“Come on, Eden. I’ve seen the way that girl follows you around. If she’s not your protégé, then she obviously wants to be.”

“You know…on the opening night of this club, when Emerson brought me here, I felt so out of place. Salacious might as well have been another planet with how foreign it was to me.

But on that night, I met you. And it was you who made me believe that this club was built for me as much as anyone else. You were the one to make me feel welcome. You make everyone feel welcome.”

“I guess I’m just saying…you inspire people, even if you don’t mean to.”

“Did your husband put you up to this?”

She bites her bottom lip and rests her chin in her hands, giving me an innocent expression—a fake innocent expression.

“No…” she replies, batting her lashes. “B...

“I knew it. He sent you here to talk me into taking t...

“Traitor,”...

“You should have been running this place all along.”

“I’m going to tell Emerson you said that,”

Eden. Emerson is just offering you proper compensation and recognition for the job you’re already doing.”

“Emerson Grant always has to be the hero, doesn’t he?” I mutter loud enough for her to hear.

“He’s already created the position. We met with the accountant this morning, and everything is in place.”

“He did?”

“Yes, but it’s only for you. He won’t hir...

“You’re manipulating me into taking this job. You rea...

“So that’s a yes?” she asks with a beaming smile. “It’s a maybe.” “Good enough for me.” “I hope ...

Again, she bats her eyes at me. “I’m nothing if n...

Daddy Emerson says all the time? Maybe a little punishment would do you good. If he’s not up for the task, I’d be happy to do it.”

she leans in, popping a kiss on my cheek before whispering, “Never.” I laugh as she bounces away.

Charlotte returns, her excitable voice in my ear.

“Oh, by the way, you have a friend at the bar downstairs.”

How the fuck did I get so entangled in this couple’s relationship?

When they land on a muted blue suit and long brown locks, my breath hitches in my chest. I watch his hand lift the glass with his usual gin and tonic toward his lips, and I’m shaken by his presence as if it’s the first time I’ve seen him in six months. Even though it’s not.

But sex club Clay and real-life Clay are two different people, and seeing him here is like having the air punched out of my lungs.