Chapter 1

1

Julie

It was a normal Friday night. At least, that's what she had to convince everyone around her. Her friend and co-teacher, Law. Freddy and Morgan, who were working at the front desk of Marquis this evening. Master Patrick and Lexie, who were performing a Shibari scene for the evening's entertainment.

One of the things she liked about Marquis was how theatrical everything was. She enjoyed watching a good, honest scene at Stronghold, but there was something beautiful about the way Marquis became a performance. It added an extra dollop of something to the voyeuristic experience.

And she did love a good Shibari scene. Master Patrick, who owned both the Stronghold and Marquis kink clubs, had been working on his technique over the past year, and he was enjoying making Lexie fly with more and more intricate knots and arrangements. Julie enjoyed watching it happen.

She'd always been more of a voyeur than an exhibitionist.

"Are you staying to watch the show?" Law asked as he got to his feet in the office they shared. He ran his hand over his bald head, the way he sometimes did when he was thinking. They co- taught the introduction classes for new members of the clubs, and they'd been doing it together for a while, so she knew him pretty well. She enjoyed teaching the classes with him, but when it came to the topic of the secret admirer who had been sending her gifts for months, he became a bit of an annoyance. She was glad he was headed home to his submissive and girlfriend, Iris, rather than staying for the evening.

"Yeah." She smiled at him as normally as she could. What does my normal smile look like? "You know I enjoy the Shibari shows."

He nodded, smiling back at her, tugging his dress shirt down to adjust it over his chest. Was he smiling normally? Had he noticed something was up?

The last thing she wanted was Law up her ass all evening when she was finally going to find out who her secret admirer was. For the longest time, she hadn't cared. It had almost been nice not to know, but now that they'd offered to reveal themselves, she had to know.

Her mother had always cautioned her about her curiosity when she was younger.

Curiosity killed the cat.

Julie still remembered the feeling when she was twelve years old and discovered the rest of the saying… but satisfaction brought it back. She'd taken great satisfaction in informing her mother, who had not enjoyed being corrected but had mostly taken it with good grace.

Her admirer had been sending her gifts for just over a year now. Always her favorite things. Always—until recently—delivered to Marquis when she was working. Which was what had set Law off in the first place. Some of those deliveries had happened when it wouldn't have been common knowledge she was present at Marquis. They never arrived during classes.

He'd been convinced she'd had a stalker, but as the months had gone on with no contact other than gifts and notes, always delivered by a third party, Julie had relaxed. Right up until she'd gotten a gift at her house because she hadn't been at Marquis on the ‘one-year anniversary' of when the gifts had first started. At least, that's what the note had said, explaining why it had been sent to her house.

Law had nearly hit the roof.

She'd been more disturbed than she'd let on to him, mostly because she hated admitting he might be right. But, again, nothing had happened after that. No one had appeared at her house or started calling her or doing anything that might be construed as escalation.

One might argue that coming to Marquis to reveal themselves was an escalation, but they were leaving it entirely up to her whether or not to join them. Julie couldn't make the decision until she knew who they were, and having Law breathing down her neck was going to be counterproductive to all that. Plus, she didn't want him barging in to scare them away or scold them. Then she'd have to kick his ass, which could damage their coworker relationship.

"Have a good night," he said, giving her a little wave before walking out the door.

Julie breathed a sigh of relief. He definitely didn't know something was up, or he'd never have left like that.

Glancing at the clock, she felt a flutter in her stomach. People would be starting to arrive, those who were eating before the show started. Would her secret admirer be one of them? Or would they just show up for the show?

Dinner would make sense if they wanted her to join them. On the other hand, maybe they wouldn't want to sit there eating alone if she didn't. Maybe they'd show up at the last minute, just in case she didn't come.

The phone in her office rang, and she picked it up.

"Are you going to come over to watch on the security cameras with me or not?" Olivia demanded as soon as Julie picked up, rather than greeting her. Another Domme, Olivia, was the manager of Marquis and the only one who knew about the secret admirer's latest note. Julie hadn't even told Camille, the third member of their little coterie. Not because she didn't trust Camille, but Camille's submissive was Freddy, who worked at Marquis, and although he could be tight-lipped, too…

The fewer people who knew, the better. If she didn't go to meet her secret admirer, she didn't want anyone to know she'd rejected them. They'd brought her a lot of joy over the past year, and she didn't want to hurt them, even if she decided not to accept their offer of service.

"I'm coming. I was just giving Law a minute to clear out."

"He's gone, now come over!"

Julie laughed softly as she put down the phone. There were very few people she allowed to boss her around anymore, but Olivia was one of them—sometimes. Mostly because she was technically Julie's boss. In this case, she'd allow it because Olivia was demanding something she wanted to do, anyway.

Getting to her feet, she smoothed her hands over the black skirt she was wearing, even though it didn't really need it. She'd dressed carefully today in a skirt she could easily move in and pull up if she wanted to and a button-down silky jewel-tone blue blouse. Just a little dressier than she might normally be. Nothing to set anyone's alarm bells ringing—as Law's evidently had not.

Lifting her chin, she stepped out into the lobby and gave Freddy and Morgan a little wave. They were preoccupied with talking intently about something, but they both waved back. She had to laugh at herself. This was what main character syndrome felt like—thinking everyone was paying attention to her when they were wrapped up in their own lives.

With her day job of being a therapist, she was pretty familiar with the symptoms, though she didn't often experience them herself. It was very interesting to realize she felt like everyone was looking at her and paying far more attention to her than they actually were. Law had gone about his day as usual and left to go home. Freddy and Morgan were having their own discussion.

No one was as interested in her life as she was.

Which really helped her relax as she crossed over to Olivia's door. She knocked at the same time she turned the handle, opening the door to cross the threshold. Olivia looked up as Julie came in, grinning widely. She loved being in the know, and she'd promised not to even tell her fiancé about the admirer being revealed.

"You look nice," Olivia said, casting a scrutinizing eye over Julie.

"Thanks." Julie automatically reached up to smooth her hair back, even though it didn't need it. She'd put the long, silky mass back into a bun and added two decorative chopsticks to it. They were pretty and good for sensation play.

She'd also found they were good for stabbing impertinent Doms, who assumed she was submissive just because she was Asian. Painful but not harmful, as long as she wasn't wielding them with too much force. Thankfully, not something she'd had to worry about since coming to Stronghold and Marquis. The vast majority of members knew better than to stereotype, and the ones who didn't quickly learned their lesson. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry, and since she didn't know what to expect from her secret admirer, having some kind of self-defense weapon on hand seemed smart.

At just barely five feet tall and petite in every way, she was used to everyone being bigger than her and, therefore, assuming they were stronger. Sometimes, they were even right, though many underestimated her. The first time she'd met Olivia had been at a Jujitsu class, and she'd rocked the other woman's world, despite Olivia's experience with other martial arts. That was how they'd become friends.

Walking around the desk, she sat down in the chair Olivia had obviously pulled up for her. Olivia didn't even glance at her—the redhead was practically sitting on the edge of her seat, her eyes glued to the screens, watching everyone who was approaching the building from the members' entrance.

Marquis was set up as a restaurant in front, with the kink club on the second floor. Members came through a separate, hidden entrance. Some of them dined in the regular restaurant beforehand, though most preferred to come to the second floor's more private surrounds for their meal. Groups were the most likely to eat downstairs, then split up once they reached the second floor, though the booths upstairs would also accommodate parties up to six or eight.

"Anyone with roses so far?" Julie asked, even though she already knew the answer was no. Otherwise, Olivia would have called to tell her, even if Law had been in the office.

"Nope." Olivia didn't look surprised or offended Julie had asked. She knew Julie was nervous. "No one with flowers at all. So far, I've seen Master Eric and Steve and Master Roman and Glory."

No one unexpected, then. There were no solo reservations for the evening, which was what made everything more curious. Several reservations had been made under assumed names, which wasn't unusual. Some of the members were more secretive than others. As long as they showed up with their Member ID, they were allowed in, even if they'd made the reservation under a different name.

There were also a few reservations for groups that had been made under a single name. So, it was hard to tell just from the reservations who her admirer might be, unfortunately.

"Oh, isn't that Noelle… and she's alone and carrying flowers?" Olivia's shocked and slightly panicked tone matched Julie's reaction as her jaw dropped open.

If it was Noelle, that would explain the reticence to come forward, but… Julie would not have pegged the woman for a secret admirer type. Everything she'd seen Noelle do, from very early on since she joined the club, was followed by a wake of noise and drama. She was very good at getting others on her side, very good at playing the victim, and very good at knowing exactly what to say and how to twist words and actions to her own advantage. Julie didn't feel comfortable diagnosing her, but there were a lot of narcissistic markers in her behavior.

She also hadn't presented as anything other than straight in the club. Most recently, she'd been dating a Dom named Damian, though she had heard they'd broken up, which was why Julie had assumed Noelle hadn't been around as much. Things had been significantly less dramatic with her absence.

On the other hand, if she had been hiding part of her sexuality—if she'd been in love with her old roommate Iris—that would explain so much of her?—

"Oh! She just stopped. Carolyn and Amy are coming up behind her. She's giving the flowers to… Oh, that's right, it's Amy's birthday." Olivia flopped back in her chair, putting her hand on her heart. "Okay, that was way more stressful than I thought it would be. I'm not sure I can take this."

Relief poured through Julie as well. She hadn't needed Olivia's play-by-play since her eyes had been glued to the screen, but in some ways, it had been nice to have someone else panicking over it, too. She couldn't imagine rejecting Noelle going well. It also helped build some of her own confidence back —if Noelle had been her secret admirer, that would have been an entire facet of her personality Julie had completely missed.

"Wait, why is Amy here for her birthday? Where's her fiancé?" Although she tried not to get involved unless asked, she'd been keeping her eye on Amy for a while now. The fact that her partner had never come to Stronghold or Marquis and had never shown any interest in that side of Amy's life had both surprised and worried her.

"Hmm." Olivia leaned forward, frowning at the screen as they watched the three women go inside. "I don't know."

And if Olivia didn't know, chances were that no one around the club knew. Julie huffed. It wasn't her business to get involved in. She should stay out of it. She had enough going on. But it made her feel itchy.

"Oh! Oh!" Olivia bounced in her seat again, pointing at the screen.

Julie stared at where she was pointing, the man looking much smaller on the screen than he did in real life. He was dressed in his usual leather pants and vest, but it looked like his short hair had been gelled and styled. He was holding a large bouquet of what were clearly roses… and even over the security camera feed, she could tell how nervous he felt.

She also immediately understood why he'd been hesitant to approach her before.

"Oh, my…" Olivia murmured, all the ramifications apparently hitting her at the same time. She turned her head to look at Julie. "What are you going to do?"

Still staring at the screen, Julie slowly shook her head.

"I don't know."