He stared at her. God, he hated her. She’d taken his balls long ago, and he couldn’t fucking look at himself in the mirror because all he could see was the man she’d made of him.
And yet, if Shelley McNamara Hughes really was dead, maybe it would be the end of the problem and then he wouldn’t need Steve Holder anymore.
He turned away from his wife with a sigh. Maybe sweet twenty-one-year-old Stephanie could take his mind off his troubles.
Chapter Eight
Wolf felt magnificent despite the fact that his dick was languishing in hell. He walked into the men’s locker room with a huge grin on his face. He’d kissed Shelley, those gorgeous, sensual lips pressing against his, and dropped her off at the women’s dressing room with strict instructions on how to dress and where to wait for him.
She’d smiled and called him bossy and agreed.
She was fucking perfect.
Wolf glanced around the locker room. It wasn’t some cruddy, poorly lit gym locker room. Oh, no. Everything at The Club was first-rate. Gleaming hardwood floor at his feet, and the lockers were engraved with the name of the holder. It was really more like a small closet.
This place was unlike any club he’d been in before, and he got to work here. He’d spent months trying to get back on the Teams, and he’d worked on a ranch, but when he’d walked into this club, he’d had the oddest feeling that he was coming home.
“You high-fived her? What? Are you still in fifth grade?”
He grinned as Leo marched into the locker room followed by Logan. Yes, his brother was bitching at him. It really did feel like home. “Hey, I thought Shelley and I made a great team. And she totally deserved that high five. I would have patted her on the ass, but I’d already spanked it earlier.”
Leo kicked off his boots. Naturally, someone had given Wolf the locker right next to his brother’s.
“Yeah. Not sure you should be spanking her when she doesn’t have a collar on yet, but that’s beside the point. Nowhere in all of the clubs I have been in have I ever seen a Dom high-five his sub after a scene,” Leo complained.
Wolf wasn’t stupid. Shelley might never have slept with Leo, but they’d had something serious going on. He’d spent the whole afternoon thinking about the problem. The minute he’d figured out that Shelley had something to do with Leo’s yearlong crappy mood, he’d wondered if he hadn’t made an enormous mistake.
And then he’d realized he had a choice. He could walk away and hope that Shelley and Leo found what they needed. Or he could be what they needed and bring them together. And all the while he could make a place for himself.
A family. That was what he really wanted, and he couldn’t think of anyone he’d trust more to share a family with than his brother.
It worked for his friends. Hell, he’d seen men who hated each other bond over a shared woman. Why couldn’t it work for him?
“Hey, she was hot, man. I would have high-fived her, too,” Logan said, giving Wolf a thumbs-up.
Leo turned back to his charge. “I told you to watch Julian’s form. You were supposed to be studying the scene.”
Logan shrugged. “When some hot chick has her cootch on display, I’m not going to be capable of studying two dudes. It ain’t happening.”
“I am surrounded by twelve-year-olds,” Leo said.
Leo had never been huggy with Wolf, but god, he hadn’t been this dried-up prune. Leo’s sarcastic, snarky self seemed to have been replaced with someone Wolf didn’t understand.
“Well, it worked. It took her mind off what happened this afternoon.” But Wolf’s mind was working overtime. He couldn’t help but follow his instincts. And he didn’t like the fact that Steve Holder had been there. “I don’t want her in that apartment alone.”
Leo untied the straps of his leathers. “You know about the trouble she had?”
Wolf shoved his leathers into his gym bag and pulled out a pair of jeans. He was going to need to buy another couple of pairs of leathers if he was going to be in The Club every night. And he needed to find a dry cleaner who wouldn’t mind some unsavory stain removal. “I read the file Julian sent me. Her husband seems like he was an asshole.”
“He put her through hell.”
Yes, he understood that. If he could, Wolf would love to have a little talk with Bryce Hughes. It seemed to Wolf that a single bullet to the head hadn’t been painful enough. “You’re worried that someone’s going to try to take revenge on her?”
“I don’t know.” Leo shoved his legs into a pair of boxers and sat down on the bench in front of his locker. “The feds cleared her, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of people out there who would love to get some revenge on someone, and Bryce is no longer available. It won’t work. She doesn’t know anything.”
“I believe you. You were around this guy. Why the hell did she marry him?” It surprised Wolf that she would be in a bad marriage. Shelley seemed so smart, so capable. Yes, she was submissive, but she knew what she wanted. He just couldn’t see her wanting this Bryce guy.
Leo sighed and leaned back against his locker. “Go away, Logan.”
Logan’s eyes lit up like a prisoner who had just realized he might get parole.
Leo frowned. “I find you in the bar and we’re going to have trouble. Go and find Ben and Chase. Follow them around for a while.”
“Cool. That Kitten chick seems like a trip.” Logan was out of the locker room in a flash.
Leo looked up at him, his eyes narrowing. “He doesn’t seem as broken as you said he was. I actually thought he would be a little unsettled by the scene, but he simply watched you get your sub off, paying no attention at all to the very intense scene going on onstage. I thought I would use it as a talking point, but I guess I’ll have to find another way.”
Wolf shook his head. Leo was barking up the wrong tree. “Logan isn’t going to be disturbed by a lot of this stuff. He grew up in Bliss. I’ve heard that most of the men of the town have spent some time in Stef Talbot’s playroom. I spent the last summer with him and his best friend, James. Logan is into some kinky shit, but don’t think for a minute that he’s not troubled. You just haven’t found his pressure point yet. Now, tell me about my sub.”
Wolf was satisfied with the way Leo’s eyes tightened at the word “my.” Leo wasn’t as remote as he liked to pretend. “I met her when I started treating Trev.”
“Yeah, I knew who her brother was. I probably should have put two and two together, but math was never my strong suit.”
Leo’s eyes rolled. “God, I wish you would stop the ‘I’m dumb’ shit. Anyway, I really liked her. It was obvious that she loved her brother and that her marriage sucked. You know me. I like to flirt.”
Wolf liked to flirt, too. He just preferred to flirt with women who he could actually have a relationship with. But then his brother wasn’t big on relationships. He’d had a few girlfriends in high school, and he’d married Janine, but other than that, as far as Wolf knew, he hadn’t even had a permanent sub. Having spent the day talking to other Doms and some of the subs who worked at The Club, he knew that Leo was a bit of an enigma. The Doms respected him, and the subs fought for his attention, each one desperate to be the one sub who finally caught him. But Leo was a hard case who never fell easy. “So you fell a little hard for her?”
Leo closed his eyes, his head against the door. “I guess so. I just know that I felt more for her than I’ve felt for anyone in a long time. I might flirt with my friends’ wives, but I wouldn’t touch them. They’re safe. So are the subs I work with.”