Spank or Treat (3 page)

“You’re laughing,” Seth said.

She swatted at him. “Leah set us up.”

“Hey, don’t blame her. She’s under orders to steer as many victims as possible this way. I love Halloween. This is going to be a blast!”

They made it the rest of the way through the maze without further incidents. Leah met them on the lanai with an apologetic smirk.

“Sorry, but I couldn’t have resisted even if he hadn’t ordered me to set people up. He’s having too much fun.”

June gave her a big hug. “I understand.”

“Hey, is that a dildo poking me, Tinkerbell, or are you just happy to see me?”

June opened up her trench coat and shook her hips at Leah. “Yes, and yes.”

“I’ll go get our stuff,” Mark said as he stepped around them and headed back inside the house. A large, gauzy ghost figure hung from the ceiling by the front door, rigged to move up and down when the door opened and closed. Someone walking in and caught unawares would likely be startled by it.

As he was getting their bags, he spotted headlights sweeping up the driveway. “Leah,” he called out. “Your next victims are approaching.”

“Oh, goodie!” She hurried past him in her high heels, her short, ruffled maid’s skirt and her mostly exposed boobs flouncing and bouncing with every tottering step as she headed outside to meet Derrick and Marcia before they could bypass the ambush.

He got their bags put up and rejoined June on the lanai. She’d ditched the trench coat.

“You should see the ghost hanging right inside the front door,” he told her. “Seth’s really going all out.”

“Did Leah go to catch the next ones?”

“Yep. Is it just me, or does she seem a little down about all of this?”

“She’s so used to making a big deal over Christmas that I think, now that Halloween is a big deal, too, she’s feeling it. She’ll be okay. It’s just another first, more progress.”

“Ah. Very astute.”

“No, that’s what she told Tilly and Loren. They told me.”

“Smart ass.”

She smiled. “Yes,
Sir
.”

* * * *

Through the front windows, they saw Kel and Mallory’s truck turn into the driveway just as Marcia let out a shriek from the side yard, making both June and Scrye giggle like maniacs.

Okay, June would admit it was hysterical.

Especially when it happened to someone else.

Scrye walked out front to help Kel and Derrick unload Kel’s suspension frame from his truck.

June and Marcia were torn as to whether or not to let Mallory fall prey to the prank when they heard Leah tell her she was welcome to tour the display.

Then they decided misery loved company and huddled over by the side door on the lanai to await the opportunity for them to laugh their asses off at someone else getting pranked.

But instead of the expected terrified shriek, they heard a loud, pained, “Ow!”

A man’s voice.

Marcia and June glanced at each other before hurrying out the door and around the side of the house in time to hear Mallory sounding horror-stricken and apologetic. They found Seth standing there, bent over, holding his nose.

“Oh, my god, Seth, I’m so sorry!”

June couldn’t help laughing. “Let me guess, she decked you?”

“Fucking
ow
!” Seth moaned.

Leah came toddling up on her high heels. “What happened?”

“Seth almost became a real-life extra for
The Walking Dead
,” June said, barely able to contain her laughter.

“I’m sorry!” Poor Mallory looked like she wanted to crawl under one of the fake tombstones and pull the sod over the top of her. “Oh, my god, Seth, I’m so sorry!”

Marcia couldn’t help but snicker. “Don’t worry. He deserves it for scaring the crap out of the two of us.”

June held out a fist and Marcia bumped with her.

“I
warned
you, Sir,” Leah said. “I told you that might not be a good idea. This is not the right crowd to be grabbing and scaring people. They’re liable to hit back. Let’s get you inside and get a bag of frozen peas on it or something.”

Kel, Scrye, and Derrick ran up. “What happened?” Kel asked.

Leah waved them off. “I think Sir’s already had a little too much fun. He’ll be okay.”

Seth still clutched at his nose. “Ow!”

Kel walked over to Mallory, who looked near tears. “What happened?”

“I wasn’t expecting to be grabbed. I had my back to him, and he clamped a hand onto my shoulder, and I reflexively backhanded him.”

The three men burst into laughter as Kel pulled Mallory into his arms. “That’s my girl,” Kel said. “He’s fucking lucky it wasn’t Tilly. She would have killed him.”

“He’s lucky Sir doesn’t let me carry at parties,” June said. “He might have ended up shot.”

With that bit of excitement over, they all returned to the house, the men helping Kel get the frame set up on Seth and Leah’s lanai.

Well, all the men except Seth, who was now sitting at the kitchen counter with a bag of frozen peas stuck to his face like the Xenomorph from
Alien
.

“That’ll teach him,” June muttered to Marcia. “We subby women aren’t a bunch of pushovers. You might get away with that kind of shit with a bunch of kids, but not one of us.”

“Oh, he meant well. He was having fun.”

“It’s all fun and games until someone ends up in a cone of shame,” June said.

Marcia laughed. “I thought you guys didn’t do puppy play anymore?”

“I’m thinking about getting back into it. Tony’s going to be working with Shayla for both pup and pony. She’s got some nice pony tack, too. We just haven’t had time to get together.”

“There’s a human pets and primals group that meets at the club every month, you know.”

“Yeah, but I’ve never been able to make it,” June said. “Either our kids were home, or I was teaching gymnastics. Now I can give up my Saturday yoga classes to someone else who has a day job in addition to teaching, and maybe actually have a life again on the weekends.”

“I know
that
feeling.”

June caught something in her tone. “What’s going on?”

Marcia glanced around before leaning in. “We’re going to announce it tonight. Derrick asked Kel to be his partner in the club. After that health scare last month, I put my foot down. He’s not getting any younger, and running the club by himself is a full-time job in addition to his full-time job.”

“Congratulations!” June was glad Scrye hadn’t been asked. He likely would have said yes, and she would have had to play bad guy and put her foot down.

Playing at the club, sure.

Teaching at the club, sure.

Writing the books about rigging, sure.

Running a BDSM club?

Hell
, no. That was a liability she didn’t want, and an aggravation she didn’t need. Volunteer at the club when they wanted to and had the time? Absolutely.

But that was all she wanted them committed to doing. The time suck of running the club would stretch their already limited free time together to the point their relationship would hit critical mass, and that was something she would not allow to happen.

“Thanks,” Marcia said. “I’m really happy about this. You have
no
idea. It means less stress on him now. And, hey, it’ll be good for the club, too. They’ll be able to expand and keep up with growing demand.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

The ER trip had been scary. An acute gallbladder attack due to gallstones Derrick didn’t even know he had, and at first everyone had been worried it was a heart attack.

Now he was one gallbladder lighter, and his heart had checked out fine.

Except Marcia’s nerves were shot over the incident, understandably so.

They watched as the men finished assembling the suspension frame. Once the men had it set up and Kel had tested it, Scrye looked around the lanai, found June, and crooked a finger at her.

“That’s my cue,” June told Marcia.

“Have fun.”

June grinned. “I can only hope.”

At first, Derrick had been a little aggravated with Marcia for going behind his back to arrange for his night off.

Then he realized how much this night meant to her and he sucked it up. She was his wife. She had a right to attend events like this, private parties hosted by their friends.

It wasn’t fair to her to saddle her with working at the club every weekend.

“So are we telling everyone tonight?” Marcia asked as he drove them toward Seth and Leah’s house.

He noted how eager she sounded to get the news out there. “I’m thinking so. Kel and I got the paperwork signed on Wednesday. It’s official.”

“I’m glad you’re finally doing this. Now if I could just convince you to retire.”

“That’s a dirty thing to say to a guy.”

“Hey, I’m a masochist,” she shot back. “You think I think retirement will be easy on you? Think again. But having Kel as a partner in the club is a good thing. It means you can scale back and have some of your weekends back for a change.
We
can have them back.”

“I know.” Venture, the BDSM club he’d owned and operated for over ten years, was his baby. A labor of love, since it damn sure would never make him rich.

Combined with his CPA firm, he had too much stuff on his plate. And the health scare the previous month showed him he needed to work some free time into his schedule.

He was blessed with a lot of great volunteers, but he needed someone else helping behind the scenes to run the club.

His friend and landlord, Askel, had been the first one he’d thought of asking to come in as a partner. It would take off a lot of the stress, as well as give Derrick some free time.

Kel was out as kinky, so he didn’t have to worry about that. He was also self-employed as a photographer, another point in his favor. So when Derrick had formed his list trying to decide who to approach, Askel had hit the top of the page.

Fortunately, his friend had said yes to the plan.

There was even another unit adjacent to the club coming up vacant in the next three months. After crunching numbers, Derrick knew it was doable. Their attendance had been steadily growing, membership renewals were up, and every Saturday night, the place was packed. Even Friday nights, which were traditionally slower, had started picking up as some people switched over trying to take advantage of the lower attendance.

More space was needed before they burst at the seams. Even their classes had started filling up at a rapid pace.

It wasn’t a bad problem to have.

It was, however, a serious future problem, if it wasn’t addressed.

And quickly.

“Thank you,” she quietly said.

“For what?”

“For not fighting me about tonight. More than you did,” she added. “And for taking Kel on as a partner. I’m worried about you.”

He reached across the seat and squeezed her hand. “Thanks for putting up with me, sweetheart.”

* * * *

After they reached Seth and Leah’s—and had run the frighteningly funny gauntlet of Seth’s personal scare show—Marcia forced herself to relax. She couldn’t even stay mad at Seth for the scare.

She was lucky she’d even gotten Derrick to agree to come to the party tonight. She’d taken it upon herself to arrange several extra volunteers to staff the club so their boss could take the night off and spend it with her.

With their personal friends.

To be fair, she enjoyed the club, loved most of the people there. But the majority of people she knew from there were customers, not friends.

This small group was made up of her friends, the Suncoast Society munch people. They’d laughed and cried together, and hell, Tilly and Leah had been two of her first frantic calls while Derrick was being rushed to the ER via ambulance. They had been the first ones to race through the door to be with her, holding her hands and then laughing in relief with her when the doctor told them that not only was Derrick not dying, but his ticker was as strong as someone half his age.

Only his gallbladder was fried.

This
was where she wanted to be, not at the club every Saturday night. What use was it having the club if they couldn’t also still have a life to enjoy? Yes, they could see their friends at the club, but at the club they were working, running the office, emptying the garbage, cleaning the toilets, and all those other non-sexy kinds of tasks.

That was
work
.

Tonight was about
fun
. She was hoping for a turn on Max and Sean’s latest version of Doom, their portable bondage frame. They were supposed to be bringing one tonight for R&D.

After hearing the fallout of Mallory decking Seth, they went to go see what happened.

Marcia didn’t want to laugh at Seth, but she couldn’t help it. She could have predicted someone decking him over the joke. Only she would have put her money on it being Tilly doing the decking, not poor, sweet Mallory. Yes, his practical joke was funny, but this crowd was used to dishing out pain and potshots.

More of their friends were arriving, and pretty soon, everyone had heard about how poor mortified Mallory had decked Seth. The more praise she received, especially from the guys and Tilly, the worse she looked.

Finally, Seth put aside his latest bag of frozen peas and gave Mallory a hug.

“It’s okay. I’m sure I’ll be laughing about this when my nose doesn’t look like I got smacked by a girl.” He offered her a smile. “Seriously, we’re okay. It was my fault for scaring you.”

“Good thing it wasn’t Chelbie,” Tilly snarked from the other side of the kitchen. “She might have killed you.”

“Or
you
might have,” he said.

“
Duh
. I would hope you’d be smart enough not to scare me like that.”