Ashley’s face flushed with embarrassment. She looked into Ben’s eyes nervously and saw he was watching her lovingly. “You are such a tease!” she huffed in relief. Then she sighed as he kissed her sweetly, holding her against his chest. She felt her breasts squish against his hard muscles, and a rush went through her as her mind returned to the chain.
Ben stepped back and gave her a smile as he joined the others outside.
She bit her lip as she closed the door and leaned against it. She vowed that she would ask that man for some alone time after they took the kids out. The bold thought sent sparks through her body.
Outside, Ben climbed into the front passenger seat of his truck as Evelyn was behind the wheel once more. He gave her the directions to the club, and she got them moving.
Shortly before nine, they pulled up to the building.
“I’m going to stay in the truck,” Evelyn said. “Liliya and Tatiana will send me reports from inside.”
Ben looked at her in surprise. “You could be out here for hours!”
Evelyn smiled at Ben. “That’s what a security detail is.”
He frowned, but he couldn’t argue with her. Instead, he joined the others on the sidewalk before the doors of the hotel/club. He spotted the twins rushing to join him, with Rain following. They were all dressed to dance, and he took a moment to appreciate their beauty as they got close.
When the twins saw Tina and Lucy had chokers on, they grinned and pulled theirs out of their tiny clutch purses. They helped each other fasten them onto their graceful throats. The red bands made their creamy skin look that much paler.
Rain was watching this with fascination. She was wearing a slinky green dress which showed off a lot of skin and her tattoos. Several gold chains rested upon her chest, and bangles adorned both wrists. She smiled at Ben’s admiring gaze.
“Shall we?” Ben said, gesturing to the door.
Tatiana went first and scanned the lobby as she entered, nodding to Ben. He followed with Tina, Lucy, Lisa, Lori, and Rain following him in. Liliya was last as she watched Evelyn drive off to find a secure spot to watch the entrance.
Ben approached the counter, and the night manager quickly stepped out of his office to greet him.
“Mr. Shepherd! It’s wonderful to see you again.
“Good evening… Henry,” Ben replied, pulling the man’s name out of a vague memory and hoping he got it right. From the burst of joy on the man’s face, he had.
“W-will you be staying with us tonight? I didn’t see a reservation,” he added quickly.
Ben shook his head. “Not this time. I’ve just come to enjoy your club with my ladies.”
The man’s eyes widened as he took in the number of beauties at Ben’s back. “C-certainly!” He gestured toward the doors leading to the club, and the two large doormen in leather straps opened them for the group.
With a smile at the excited looks on Tina and Lucy’s faces, he led them into the small antechamber and up to the hostess’ desk. It was the same woman as before, wearing her leather straps and knotted ropes.
She looked at Ben with a wide smile. “So good to see you return, Mr. Shepherd.”
“Thank you. Please call me Ben.”
Her eyes were taking in the large group of women behind him, and she struggled to keep her surprise from showing. “How many this evening?”
He gestured to the women as he named them. “I’ll wear blue and white. Tina, Lucy, Lisa, and Lori will wear red and white.” The hostess prepared the rings as Ben spoke.
Ben looked to Rain. “Will you wear the yellow tonight?”
She smiled at him. “I don’t know what the colors signify.”
The hostess smiled at her and pointed to a wall display with the rings in a row. “Blue means Dom. Red means Sub. Orange is both. The intent rings are green for inviting new partners, white for not open for new partners, and yellow for tourists, who observe only.”
“The white ring means people won’t try to approach me?” she asked.
The woman nodded. “If they do and are not civil about accepting a no, we have security people to make them leave the club.”
Rain grinned as she looked at Ben. “I’ll wear the orange and white, please.” He nodded to her with a smile.
“And these lovely women?” the hostess said, gesturing to Liliya and Tatiana.
“Blue and green,” Tatiana insisted.
“You are working tonight. Blue and white,” Liliya insisted.
Tatiana curled a lip at her partner. “The green lets me crush their souls with rejection. They will enjoy.”
The hostess was going to protest, but she stopped. Many subs in the club would enjoy such treatment.
“I was going to suggest the purple as they’re my personal security and are working,” Ben suggested.
“I’m sorry, Ben. The purple rings are for staff only,” the Hostess said politely.
“Orange and white,” Liliya said.
“Blue and white,” Tatiana muttered as she watched her partner.
The hostess pinned Ben’s rings to his blazer’s lapel. Then she handed him the red and white rings. He clipped them to the chokers the ladies were wearing. Each grinned at him excitedly.
When he received the orange and white for Rain, he saw she had doubled one of her gold necklaces, making it almost as tight as a choker. She smiled up at him as he clipped the loops to the chain.
Liliya accepted hers in her hand and pinned it to her dress.
“Give me a blue and green,” Ben said as the hostess prepared Tatiana’s.
All eyes went to him then he turned to hand the loops to Tatiana. “If this makes you happy and others happy in their misery, who am I to judge.”
Tatiana’s eyes flared as she tried to stare him down, but he simply turned back to the Hostess and nodded to her. The woman smiled and gestured to the two men in straps guarding the door. They opened them, and Ben walked inside with the women falling into step behind him.
Once more, he took in the large room with its bar along the back wall, a large dance floor to the right, with tables and booths straight ahead and to the left. The lighting was intimate, and a sea of colored rings spread out before them. There were fewer yellow tourist circles this time. A majority of the intent rings were white, but there were still many green circles on display.
He spotted someone with a blue and white ring coming toward them, their submissive partner following.
As she got closer, Ben recognized Pepin Stiegerwald, the woman who operated an adult toy store downtown and ran a Dom/Sub Social Club. “Pepin! What a nice surprise!” He smiled and waved at Melody, her Sub, who grinned back at him.
Pepin stood before him with an astonished look on her face. “I saw a group enter with a surprising mix of rings, and I had to find out who it was!” Pepin said. She looked to Tatiana, the only other Dom in Ben’s group, but it was clear none of the Subs were with her. Pepin looked back to Ben. “Four?”
“Five,” Rain added with a grin and chuckled at Ben’s exasperated glance at her. She was loving this.
Ben turned to face Pepin. “Yes, I believe we talked about this. Tina was the first woman to begin this kind of relationship with me. I had no clue, so I’m grateful she was far smarter about it than I was. When I finally clued in, Lucy was next, then Lori and Lisa.”
Pepin glanced over to Rain, and Ben felt obligated to explain. “I met Rain in Costa Rica. She’s a brilliant psychologist and really helped me out. I brought her back home to live in my daughter’s house and work at the clinic downtown.
“I only occasionally share a bed with him,” Rain said politely and grinned at Pepin’s conflicted expression as she scanned the others for signs of jealousy.
“Tatiana and Liliya are my personal security detail,” Ben explained, and Melody burst into giggles.
Pepin glanced at her, and the young woman throttled down her laughter, but her eyes twinkled merrily.
“What? Can’t a man have security?” Ben asked Melody with a smile, and she nodded with a grin on her face.
-=-
Pepin struggled to get control over her emotions. To be in a polyamorous relationship was a dream of hers, but on the few attempts she made, each had failed spectacularly due to petty jealousy. When she spotted the outrageous cluster of rings entering the room, she had to admit that her temper flared.
When she got closer in the dimly lit room and recognized the tall, broad-shouldered man was Ben, she realized the grouping wasn’t a crass insult.
Seeing Ben successfully involved in such a relationship felt like proof that the fault for her failures was hers alone.
Her eyes moved to Liliya, whose rings matched those worn by Rain, but she hadn’t spoken for herself yet. Pepin caught the gorgeous blonde’s enigmatic smile, and she couldn’t shake the feeling this woman might be Ben’s as well.
Looking at the tall brunette, the only one wearing rings indicating she wasn’t with Ben, she saw a look in the woman’s eye that might refute that message.
She suppressed her emotional turmoil as she desperately wanted Ben to feel comfortable with her and her group. “Please, let’s join the others.”
“There won’t be another whipping demonstration, will there?” Ben asked seriously.
“No, we haven’t done that since the last incident,” Pepin assured him.
That had been another failure of her group leadership and one she would not allow to occur again. Her vetting process for new members was far more vigilant.
She guided Ben’s ensemble toward the bar where the rest of the club remained, watching with various levels of scorn and disbelief visible in their expressions. She had to get out in front of that immediately. She pitched her voice to be heard by everyone gathered by the bar.
“People, it’s my pleasure to introduce Ben Shepherd, his lovely partners, and his personal security detail.” For the last part, she gestured to Tatiana and Liliya to identify them as not part of Ben’s relationships. This seemed to reduce the tension among some of her members.
“Matching their successful polyamorous relationship is something many of us have strived for, but few have achieved. They are our greatly appreciated special guests, so I expect best behavior from all members of our group.” Pepin locked eyes with a few of her more contentious doms and dommes. Most nodded slightly, but not all.
Unsurprisingly, The Baron, as he called himself, was her biggest headache, and it looked like today wasn’t the day he remembered to bring his manners.
“You expect us to believe this neanderthal is in a stable Dom/Sub relationship with all these bitches?” the man said with a haughty expression on his flushed face.