She's All In: Club 3, Book 1 (2 page)

Her friends laughed with her. Daisy winced, a hand on her belly as her tired muscles protested.

“Okay, one more set and then we can go shower,” Sara said when they had control of themselves.

Carlie groaned. “I may not survive. Make sure I look good when the EMTs arrive. Those guys are usually hunks.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “You’ll make it, I promise.”

Daisy set her jaw and threw herself into the exercise. Her workouts were her lifeline. She was able to sublimate all her anxiety, anger and fear in hard, continued action. She didn’t have to think or feel here, just move. Besides, the better shape she was able to get in, the more at ease she’d feel with her body—at least that was her working theory.

Finished with their routine, the three of them stretched and then walked together to the women’s locker rooms a short distance away.

“Are we meeting for lunch?” Sara asked.

“Sure,” Daisy answered, working on her combination lock. “Zellaby’s?”

The popular restaurant was just down the block from the gym, and Daisy loved their chicken sandwiches. Although she should just have a salad today.

Nah, she’d throw together a salad for supper. She didn’t like to cook when it was hot. And she really wanted a Zellaby’s chicken sandwich. She was always starving after a workout. If she wanted a certain huge weightlifter to feed it to her bite by bite, that was her private business.

“Okay, see you at the restaurant,” Sara called over her shoulder as she opened the glass door to the shower room. “First one there gets a table.”

“That’ll be you, Ms. No Makeup,” Carlie teased, following her with shower bag in hand. “Get a table by the window, okay?”

Daisy collected the blue plasticized tote with her hair products, skin lotion and cosmetics. She stripped off her sweaty workout gear, stuffed it in her duffel, wrapped a towel loosely around herself and headed back for the showers.

The locker room had been split down the middle by a long partition, with banks of lockers and benches on one side and sinks on the opposite side of the room. Mirrors and long counters lined both sides of the middle partition, which T-ed at both ends, adding another layer of privacy to those using the mirrors.

Daisy skirted around two women chatting while they blow-dried their long hair at the mirrors nearest the lockers. They were both in their undies, skimpy lace garments that showcased their fit bodies. Daisy smiled at the pretty Asian when their eyes met in the mirror, and slipped around the stonework partition that shielded the entrance to the showers. The other one was the redhead who’d been hanging on Dack, so while Daisy glanced at her curiously as she passed, she avoided eye contact. Which probably made her a jealous bitch, but she couldn’t help her visceral reaction.

The Big Iron bathrooms and shower areas were well-built, with beige stone tiles and good lighting. It was one of the things that had helped her decide to pay for a membership here—bathrooms mattered to women, and whoever had built this place understood that.

Her favorite shower cubicle in the corner was empty, so she stepped in, drawing the curtain shut behind herself. She sighed with pleasure as the warm water sluiced the sticky perspiration from her skin and hair.

Most of the women dried off in the open area between the rows of showers, but Daisy wasn’t ready for that yet. She whisked her towel into the shower. After drying off, she applied her favorite almond lotion and then dressed in one of her new undies sets, this one raspberry lace. The bra had sturdy underwire, but was light and comfortable.

After stepping out of the shower, she pulled on a ribbed tank top that was nearly the same color, a short flowered skirt and her favorite flip-flops of beige leather. She regarded her toes with satisfaction—her new pedicure looked great, her nails gold with dainty flowers on her big toes.

On the way out of the showers, she negotiated the glass door, but dropped her wet towel. She scooped it off the tile floor, then froze with it in her hand as she heard a familiar name.

“Did you hear Dack wants to do theme nights at the club?” a woman asked in a hushed tone. The two were still at the mirrors.

“Seriously?” Her companion drew the word out in a tone of awe. “Oh my God, that’s so cool.”

“Yeah, I can totally see him in western wear.”

“Trace is the one I wanna see… In chaps and nothing else. That man is hot.”

The two giggled. Daisy frowned, bewildered. Theme night here at the gym? No way, they must be talking about some other club.

“Are you going tonight?”

“Of course. I asked Jake if he’d…you know, play with me.”

“Seriously?” That seemed to be the chick’s favorite word. “You’re going to let him take you upstairs? That’s the only way he’ll do you.” Upstairs, where? Sounded ominous, the way she said it.

“Hey, I’ve always wanted him to spank me.” Spanking? What the hell?

“Sh-shhh.”

Daisy froze. Oh, geez, she was totally eavesdropping. Had they realized she was just around the corner?

To her intense relief, she heard voices growing louder from the other end of the locker room. The newcomers were the reason the two had stopped talking. They didn’t know she was here.

She tiptoed around the other side of the partition by the sinks and hurried to her locker. She tossed her things in her duffel, and then nearly ran out of the locker room.

Catching sight of herself in the mirrors that lined the hallway, she stopped. Her hair stuck up in short spikes on the top of her head like a rocker wannabe. She dropped her duffel and combed it with her fingertips. Fortunately, that was all it took to restore her chic hairdo.

Her eye makeup was waterproof, thank God, because she really didn’t think she could fix it without poking her eye out. Her hands were shaking.

Dack and his friends not only owned this gym, they were also involved in another club…and it sounded like an entirely different kind of workout went on there. Spanking? Leather? The mysterious “upstairs”? Holy freaking sex fantasies.

Oh God, if she had to look any of the three men in the eye right now, she’d probably trip over her own feet—or her tongue. She dug her sunglasses out of the side pocket of her duffel and thrust them onto her face. There, her expression was less of a giveaway. Worked for Dack, could work for her too. All she had to do was keep her mouth closed, and she was ally-ally-all’s in free. Or out.

The locker rooms were near the rear of the gym. As she walked the length of the big room, Daisy passed an attractive couple coming in. The guy had his hand on the woman’s ass, and they were leaning on each other, smiling. Definitely lovers. She repressed the urge to stare after them. Were they members of the other club too?

And, oh holy crap, Dack stood inside the open ellipse of the gym’s front desk, along with the perky blonde day receptionist, Brittany. He turned as Daisy neared the desk, and her hand tightened on the strap of her duffel.

He leaned his hands on the counter nearest her and smiled slowly, his teeth flashing white against his neatly trimmed facial hair. “Looks like you’re ready for the sunshine,” he said. His deep voice curled down inside her.

“Yup.” Her mind was a fizzing blank. Leather, on that big, brawny body? She could picture that all too well.

His heavy brows arched quizzically over his sunglasses and Daisy’s cheeks burned.

“How about you?” she managed. “Hot day planned? I mean…big day planned?” Oh, she sounded like a total idiot.

He chuckled, a deep huh-huh in his chest. “Nah, just working.”

“Dack, can you look at Joe’s key card here?” Brittany chirped from the other side of the enclosure. “I can’t get it to scan.”

“Sure.” He straightened. “You stay cool now,” he said to Daisy.

“Okay. You too.” As he turned away, she scurried past the man waiting to sign in and escaped into the parking lot.

Chapter Two

If it weren’t so hot, Daisy would have walked to the restaurant, but as she emerged from the gym, the sun slapped down on her head and shoulders like a heated blanket. She loved summer but preferred to be by a pool or a lake when it was this hot.

The air-conditioning barely had time to cool her car off before she rolled to a stop in the busy Zellaby’s parking lot. She grabbed her small turquoise purse and slung the long strap over her head and one shoulder before locking the car.

As always, she gave her new baby a pat before she walked away. The cocoa-hued Nissan Altima was a gift from her parents. She knew the purchase had sprung from the guilt and helplessness they felt at being unable to help her through her ordeal, but she hadn’t even tried to talk them out of it. She loved the sporty coupe too much.

The restaurant was busy. The small foyer was crowded with people waiting for a table. Air-conditioning, voices and pop music poured over Daisy. She sidled past a pair of small boys tussling while their seated mother ignored them in favor of her cell phone.

Next she had to duck around one of the luxuriant ferns hanging from the restaurant’s low ceiling. The decor was cheerful and old-fashioned with everything from antique toys to vintage movie posters hanging on walls and support beams. Daisy wasn’t sure where the ferns fit in the theme, but she liked them.

Her friends were waiting at a table by the street-side windows. Sara wore another Lycra tank and shorts like the one she’d worked out in, these brown, her long auburn hair bundled up on her head. Carlie had taken the time to apply fresh makeup. She wore a sleeveless cotton blouse in her signature coral pink. Daisy couldn’t see the rest of her under the table, but she knew her friend, who considered herself fat, was probably wearing conservative capris despite the heat.

As Daisy slid in beside Sara, Carlie took one look at her and pushed a tall glass of iced tea toward her. “What’s wrong, Daise?”

“Yeah, you’re all…agitated.” Sara eyed her keenly.

Daisy took a sip of the cold tea. Should she tell them what she’d overheard? It was really just gossip at this point. But as she looked into their curious faces, she gave in to temptation.

“You’re not going to believe what I heard in the locker room,” she said, leaning forward to speak in hushed tones. There was a large, noisy family on the other side of them, and the booth behind her was still empty, so she felt sure she wouldn’t be overheard.

By the time she finished repeating the locker-room conversation, Sara’s and Carlie’s eyes were wide and their mouths open in identical O’s of astonishment.

Daisy stirred sweetener in her tea and took a long drink, enjoying their reactions. She was still shocked and, yeah, fascinated herself. It was a relief to share her turmoil with her friends.

“They own a…a sex club?” Carlie whispered. “Oh…my…God.”

“Picturing Jake in leather?” Daisy asked wickedly.

Carlie’s rounded cheeks flushed a dusky pink. She pressed manicured fingers to her full lips. Then she nodded, a nervous giggle bursting through her fingers. “With one of those floggers.” She mimed cracking a small whip.

Daisy looked at Sara, who was staring at her frosty glass of soda as if trying to remember what it was. Daisy nudged her with her elbow, and Sara flinched.

“So that’s why Trace is so scary,” the redhead blurted. “He’s into that kind of stuff.”

Daisy grinned. “They all are, evidently.”

“And why does that make you so happy, Ms. Don’t Touch Me?” Carlie’s words were teasing, but she appeared genuinely curious.

Daisy took a deep breath. “You want the truth? I’m so freaked out about my body image now and who I am sexually that it would just be nice…” She broke off, stirring her tea, not sure she could even vocalize her fantasies. Not without at least two margaritas inside her, anyway.

“Not to have to worry about what the guy wants, or whether you’re doing it right?” Sara finished for her. She took a long drink of her soda, looking like she too wished it were an alcoholic drink. “Not to be so busy figuring out how to please him that you miss out on all the fun yourself?”

“To let him teach you what feels good?” Carlie added, her blue eyes shadowed. “And have him make you feel special, maybe even treasured?”

Daisy found herself nodding, and Sara echoed the movement. Carlie picked up her own glass of iced tea. She looked at them over the rim, like a naughty little girl. “Maybe we should join their mysterious club.”

“Are you ladies ready to order?” asked a voice at Daisy’s elbow. She started violently, a tiny shriek escaping.

Sara and Carlie snickered. Daisy clapped a hand over her heart.

“Sorry I startled you,” said the young waiter, his eyes twinkling. He didn’t look sorry. His golden-skinned face was taut as if he were trying not to laugh out loud.

“’S okay,” Daisy said.

They ordered, and he strode away. She groaned. “That sneak. I thought I was going to have heart failure.”

“Do you think he heard anything?” Sara hissed.

“No, I saw him walk up,” Carlie assured her, snickering again. “He might have heard me about the club, but he couldn’t know what kind of club.”

“That’s good, ’cause I don’t think he’s out of high school,” said Sara.

“Okay, Teacher,” Daisy teased.