The Sub Club (18+, bxb, mxm)

Chapter 42 Two Dates

"What was that?" Payton calls out as he pops his head around the corner.

"Ask him if I can borrow his silver belt?" Tommy adds from somewhere further back.

"Nothing Pay, I was just talking to myself and tell Tommy he can borrow my belt. He knows the combination to my locker."

"Sweet!" Tommy yells back having heard my answer.

"See you out there," Payton says with a grin before disappearing back behind the lockers.

One last deep breath and I walk out the door into the hallway leading to the main room of the club. The music is playing, a cluster of subs are already dancing, the bar is half full, unattached Doms are making plays for free subs and free subs are strutting their goods hoping to secure the hottest Doms. All is in order in the kinky world of the Red Door.

I spot Lane talking to Chris at our table so I head over.

"No Ashton tonight?" I ask as I sit down, sadly not surprised that he's not here.

Chris shakes his head, sighing. "He made some excuse about helping Saxon at the garage, rebuilding an old classic Matchless G3."

"An old motorcycle," he adds when he sees my blank look.

"On a Friday night?"

"Believe me, the way he's been partying lately, taking a quiet night off, getting a little motorcycle grease under his nails instead of stale beer or dried puke, is a good thing," Lane says raising his brows as he takes a sip of his drink.

"True, but maybe he needs to get back on the horse. There are lots of sexy ass Doms here who would love to lick his wounds. Maybe he needs structure and direction right now. He won't listen to us and if he keeps going like he's been, he could get in real trouble... I mean, look what happened..."

"Enough Tai," a pissed off Chris interrupts me. Rude much?

"Let's not go there right now Tai, we're all hoping for the best," Lane says putting up a hand. He looks stricken as his eyes flash between the two of us. "Something you're not thinking about Tai, is that as much as we love Ashton and are behind him in this, he broke a rule of the club and he can't come back until...until his results are in. He had unprotected sex outside of the club...he had no clue about the sexual history of those guys."

"Oh, yeah. I didn't think of that. Shit." Reality check, usually not Lane's forte, but as the Head Sub he has to lead the rest of us.

"Daddy's pretty pissed with him right now and I'm doing the best I can to keep him from taking things into his own hands...fucking Ash! Maybe I should just let Daddy handle it his way. He always gets things resolved so quickly."

"Don't even want to know what 'his way' would be," Chris says.

"Mm, he keeps grumbling about all the drama here, and not wanting his club to turn into a bad reality show."

"Sex sells!"

Nice, Chris. I chuckle at him while Lane just shakes his head.

"Maybe we should be supporting Ashton better," I blurt out. "Really, what have we been doing to help him?"

"Have you met Ashton Raines?" Chris grumbles. "King of one word answers, stone face. That's if he even shows up when he's supposed to meet you."

"He stand you up too?" I ask.

"Sometimes just being there is the only thing you can do," Payton says as he and Tommy sit down at the table. "You can't make somebody talk about something they don't want to, but you can show them you care by sticking around. Help him keep his mind off of everything, keep the assholes away from him. We can be his shield, give him time to think and work through it all. When he's ready to talk about it he will...or he won't. That's Ashton and we have to take him as he is. We're all different, some of us get through hard times by talking and some of us do it inside."