Sure enough, the man’s lips curled into a smile that made her warm in other, far less innocent places. And that reaction scared her more than anything else. She’d come here to prove shedidn’twant this, right?
She needed to sit her body down and have a long talk with it about good choices and bad choices, but that would have to wait.
“Feeling better?”
Sunny nodded, the cup in her hands like a leash for her own bravery. “Yes. Thank you.”
His smile spread. “That’s a pretty voice you have. It’s a shame you don’t use it more often.”
She tried to tuck her hair behind her ear before remembering she’d braided it back.
“There you are,” came another voice, one that made Sunny cringe again. A new man walked up—no, wait, two men—in metallic masks identical to the one worn by the Dom she was already with, except for the color.
The original man had a silver mask, the new one who’d spoken was in a black mask, and the third man had a golden one.
Friends? Lovers?
Sunny knew better than to ask, so she stayed quiet to figure it out on her own. Men didn’t react well to a suggestion that they weren’t straight, in her experience. It was like questioning their masculinity, and the last thing she wanted was to piss off these three.
“Sorry,” Silver said. “I found a cornered fox who needed some rescuing.”
Black lifted his gaze to Sunny, his lips sliding into a teasing smile. “So I see. Quite the prize you found yourself.”
The words made her heart do that skipping-a-beat thing—not in a good way—but Silver was quick to come to her defense.
“She’s jumpy, so give her some space. Jordan wasn’t reading cues so well, didn’t realize this fox isn’t good at saying no with her words.”
Gold turned his head, revealing long blond hair that had curls in it that reached nearly to his shoulder blades. He twisted as if to go explain things to Jordan, thoughexplainprobably meantbeat some sense into.
Silver smacked Gold’s arm. “It’s fine. I told him we’d educate him later a little better—maybe we need another class on body language. He brought over some hot chocolate to help the fox get her breath back.” Silver turned back to Sunny. “This is—”
Sunny shook her head. She didn’twantto have their names. That had been her biggest rule when coming here, that no matter what happened, she could walk out, and no one would know it was her.
Well, no one except the owner, who’d marked down each person and their costume in case complaints were lodged later, but had assured her that information was confidential.
Sunny knew what happened when a person entangled their life with a Dom, when they welcomed such a person into their world—nothing good.Without names, without identities, Sunny could leave at the end of the night without worrying about turning into someone’s property, without fear that she’d lose everything.
Again.
Silver huffed a soft laugh. “No names, huh? Well, Fox works well enough, and I suppose you can use mask colors for us. These are my friends.” He gestured at the other two.
Black sat next to Silver, and Gold took a seat in the chair to the side of both couches. Strange that Sunny could feel so trapped even when none of them were right beside her.
There was something about the men that took up all the space, as if the rest of the world disappeared with them there. The music, the lights, the bodies of the other guests didn’t matter anymore, not with these three surrounding her.
“So, Fox, is this your first time? Pretty sure I’d have remembered you if you were here before,” Silver asked.
Sunny nodded, trying to act braver than she felt. She didn’t want to look like easy prey, like something they could pick off with little work. “I just wanted to check it out.”
“Doesn’t seem your style,” Black added, his voice not as deep, not as rough, and full of humor. “Sometimes this is all too much. No shame in being vanilla.”
The tone felt condescending, as though Sunny were a prude who had never experienced anything in her life. She’d long dealt with her youthful face and sweet disposition making people think she was some naïve fawn, especially when added to her name. “I’ve donethisbefore,” she said, waving at the club to explain what she refused to say.
She’d done the whole BDSM thing. She’d experienced it all and knew exactly how badly it always turned out.
“Really?” Silver asked. Even without seeing the top half of his face, she couldfeelhis lifted eyebrow.
“Yes.” The word was short, but try as she might, she knew it held all the years of terror it brought back. How couldn’t it?