I snickered.  "I can see that, you guys sitting around drinking beer and watching Dr. Phil."

"Nah, more Sex with Dr. Drew."

"That makes sense."

"Let's get you home, lush boy," he said clapping me on the shoulder and my head slammed down into the bar.  He chuckled, "You're going to hate yourself in the morning.”

“I already hurt,” I slurred, “Ash left me.” 

Ash

“So Devi, why are you hanging out with us?  I thought Seth leaves tomorrow for his tour,” Jules asked.

“He was supposed to, but they rescheduled shit.”

“They rescheduled the tour?” I asked gaping.

She giggled.  “No, they rescheduled the meetings he had.  They’re going to L.A. to meet up with their old label before going on tour, only the meeting was rescheduled.  So now he’s here until Monday.”

I looked around the room at the amazing women that were hanging out with me on a Friday night eating baked goods and watching Pitch Perfect all for me.

“So Mags, how’s married life?” Jules asked.

She groaned.  “It’d probably be better if he wasn’t injured, but Drake’s been a whiny bitch lately and to top it off, he’s bored, so all he wants to do is have sex.”

“Hey, no sex and Drake in the same sentence!” Devi yelled throwing a pillow at Mags.  She looked over at me.  “So what now?”

“Hmm?”

“So what now?  Are you going to just sit around watch movies, eat cookies until you’re ass expands?  Or are you going to for lack of a better term get back on the horse?”

“I haven’t really thought about it.”

“Well tomorrow is Saturday.”

“Uh huh.”

“So you and Jules need to go out, go to a club, get drunk, get laid and have some fun.”

“Hey why am I being volunteered?” Jules yelled.

I looked over and pouted at Jules.  Over the past year and a half, Jules and I had become close.  I knew she had some stuff going on with her ex, but she just wasn’t willing to share what that was yet.

“Sorry Ash, that’s not what I meant.”

“Well Devi and I can’t go,” grumbled Mags. “Devi’s stuck at home all weekend with Seth.  Drake needs me here, and someone has to watch the kids.”

I sighed.  “I’m not really in the mood to go clubbing.”

“It’s actually not a bad idea, Ash,” Jules said looking over at me.

I groaned.  “Fine, which club?”

“There’s that new one that just opened up, what’s it called?”

“The only new club I’ve heard about is… Oh hell no, you’re not going there.”

“Why not?” Devi fluttered her eyelashes at me.

“Because—” I was interrupted when my cell started going off.  I looked at the screen and quickly declined the call.

“Cris again?” Jules asked.

“Yep.”

“You ever going to talk to him?” asked Devi.

“Not sure yet.”

“More reason to go out.  Come on, I’ve always wanted to go to a BDSM club,” Jules whined.

“Fine, we can go,” I pointed a finger at Jules, “but you do not leave my side.  You don’t go off with anyone at all.”

She nodded.

“So I’ve been wondering how’d you get involved with that stuff?” Mags asked around a brownie.

“Don’t know, was just interested in it so I did some research, eventually went to a club and watched.  When I was like nineteen, I did my first scene.  I had a good Dom; he was patient with me and helped me through it.  Never came so hard in my life, it was amazing.  I just knew it was for me.”

“So it’s not something Cris got you to do?” she asked.

“No, I was into it before Cris.  We actually found out about each other at a party.  We’d actually been dating for a while and it came as a bit of a surprise.”

“Hold on, you’d been dating and neither knew the other was involved in that, yet you were at a party for that?” Mags asked her eyebrow quirked up.

“We weren’t exclusive or anything, but you can do a scene with a Dom or sub without sex being involved.”

“Then what’s the point?”  Jules asked.

“The endorphin release, it’s an amazing high.  The orgasm after all the endorphins have flooded your system is amazing, I won’t lie, but that doesn’t have to come from your Dom.”

“So what does the Dom get from this, I mean is it just being able to boss people around?”  Mags asked.

“No, well not usually, they get their own high from it, as well as it just turns them on.”

“Huh,” she murmured.

“So does Cris have a dungeon stashed someplace in his house, cause I’ve been there and I don’t remember ever seeing anything?” Jules asked.

I giggled.  “Not sure I should tell you about that, he’s your boss.”

“Ah come on, that’s not fair,” she whined.  “I won’t say anything to him.”

I stared up at the ceiling.  “His entire house is his playroom.  He has things rigged all around the place.  You’d just never know unless you know what you’re looking for and in some cases unless he showed you.”

“Seriously?” she asked gaping.

I nodded.

“Huh,” she mumbled.

“Okay, time for Pride and Prejudice, and not that long ass BBC version you like, Ash,” Devi declared effectively changing the conversation, which I appreciated.

Cris

I hung up my cell; I’d tried calling her and texting her last night and today and still nothing.  I didn’t know how to get her to talk to me, to let me explain.  I sighed and banged my head against my desk.  I needed to fix this.  I missed Ash.  I missed her random texts throughout the day, coming home on her days off to find her in shorts a tank top dancing around my kitchen.  I just missed her.

“You’re going to bruise your forehead doing that,” Devi said sitting in the chair across from me.

“When did you come in?” I mumbled against my desk.

“After the first thunk.”

“Ah.”

“You need to apologize and tell her what was going through that head of yours.”

“I would do that, if she’d answer her phone.”

“You can’t do that over the phone, you need to see her.”

“Yeah, if she won’t answer the phone, how do you expect me to see her?”

I watched as she put a card on my desk.  “She’ll be there tonight, now I am going home.”

I watched her walk out the door before pulling the card towards me.  My jaw clenched when I saw where she was going.  There was no way in hell I was going to let her do anything while there. 

Ash

I was upstairs in my room holding on to the back of a chair as Jules tightened the laces on my corset.  I’d already put on my short black skirt, ripped fish net stockings, with garter belt of course.  I just had to get my boots on and I was ready to head out.

“You look hot,” Jules murmured while tying the laces at the base of my spine.

“You’re not too bad yourself,” I told her eyeing her tight white tank top so you could see the spray of stars tattooed from behind her ear down her neck and back to her shoulder.  Her schoolgirl skirt and thigh high boots were going to break some hearts tonight.

“Thanks.”

I was zipping up my knee-high boots when I heard squealing coming from downstairs.  I looked up at Jules. “What the hell?”

“Don’t know.”

We grabbed our bags and headed downstairs where Jaks was running around the house chasing something.  When it ran passed us, I nearly had a heart attack, until I realized it was a puppy.  Oh hell, and by the look on Devi’s face she was about to kill someone.

Seth reached down when it ran back and grabbed him.  “What do you think?”

I looked at the cute grey puppy.  “It’s cute.”

“Jaks picked him out.”

“Oh,” I said eyeing Devi who was glaring at Seth.  “What’s his name?”

“Stradivarius, but I talked Jaks into calling him Strad for short.”

“Uh huh,” I said still eyeing Devi.  “Well, we’re heading out.”

I grabbed Jules arm and dragged her out quickly.  I didn’t want to be in the house tonight.  We opened the door and found Sam standing there.