Indebted Heart Read online

  Watching another submissive sexually satisfy her dominant excited him, he wouldn't deny that, but he saw nothing erotic in using a submissive for the ego trip. That was Travis. He liked the idea of being dominant, and used the label as a way to excuse his selfishness. He was a partner though, and his wife willingly submitted to his public displays. Maybe she got off on it. Alex didn't know, and unless he saw something that looked abusive, he wasn't going to enquire.

  "I hear we have a new staff member." John sipped his beer. "Bradley said she's fucking hot."

  "John." Alex gave a warning tone that was quickly laughed off.

  "I know. I know. I'm just telling you what he said." Alex didn't like the comment for two reasons. She was an employee and shouldn't be talked about that way by her employers. The other reason was personal. He tried to write off his protective inclination as a brotherly thing. She was friends with his father, so he should protect her. Unfortunately, the things his mind conjured up to do with her in private spoke of anything but brotherly affection.

  "Anyway, Sharon over there would scratch my eyes out if I even looked at another woman." John waved his hand to his wife who knelt in the corner of the room. Her forehead pressed against the wall, and her recently spanked ass facing the table. Sharon was only sent to the corner when she needed a break.

  Either the spanking had taken a toll on her, or she was recovering from a very hot scene that Alex had missed. John responded to the concern Alex was sure was written on his face by assuring him that she was okay. The submissives he played with didn’t like to be put in a corner as aftercare, but he remembered Sharon didn’t like cuddles when she was coming down. She wanted space.

  "We haven't played with the paddle in a while. I think it was more than she remembered. She'll be okay in a few minutes." Although John was just as bad at over indulgence of the club's resources as the rest of the men, he took special care of his wife, seeing to her needs not just his own. Alex wished Travis would take a few pointers from John in that regard.

  The doors to the room flew open and Alyssa sauntered in with two other waitresses in tow. Each carried a tray of appetizers and drinks and quickly began to distribute their items. Alyssa smiled gracefully as she maneuvered around the men and women in the room to place the stuffed mushrooms on the table.

  Alex watched her every move. She walked in the same manner as a ballerina would dance. Although it was her first night, she seemed to know exactly what she was doing. She even knew the names of the owners in the room and greeted them with a warm smile.

  "Bradley just hired you," Travis said while zipping up his pants then reaching for a mushroom, his wife crawling to his side.

  Alex watched Alyssa's eyes take in the scene, and he saw a flicker of emotion cross her eyes. Was it anger? Curiosity?

  "Yes. Tonight's my first night." She answered Travis as she placed a few of the dirty glasses onto her tray. "Is there anything I can get for you?" She balanced her tray on her left hand.

  "No, we're good for now." Travis waved her off. She nodded and turned to leave the room.

  "Uh. Alyssa." Alex found himself calling out to her, but hadn't come up with a reason to talk her yet. She paused at the door. "Excuse me gentlemen, I just want to see to a few details." Alex nodded his departure and joined Alyssa at the door. She looked at him quizzically as he opened the door for her. The other waitresses followed behind her.

  He caught up to her as she made her way to the kitchen to relinquish the dirty dishes. "How is your first night going?" He asked as he pushed the door to the kitchen open for her.

  She laughed. "I've been here twenty minutes. It's going fine."

  "Right. Good." Alex ran his fingers through his hair as she made her way back toward him and toward the main lounge. "I'll be in my office if you need anything."

  "Okay." She nodded.

  "I'll take you home when your shift is over." He continued as she began to walk into the lounge.

  "You don't have to do that." She turned to him. The tray stowed beneath her arm.

  "I know." He nodded. "Don't leave without me."

  "Alex."

  "Do not leave without me." He said again stepping toward her. She tilted her head slightly to look up at him. How he wanted to brush his lips against hers.

  "I don't—"

  "I hate repeating myself." He firmed his tone and immediately he saw the warmth in her eyes, the gentle flush of her cheeks. "When your shift is over, come to my office." He didn't give her time to respond or deny him, but rather walked past her toward his office. He needed space right away. Space to let his brain get out of his pants, and remind himself why doing any of the deliciously wicked things he had in mind would be the worst idea ever.

  But would he listen to himself? That was an entirely different matter.

  Chapter Six

  Travis Gerialds may have been an owner of Top Floor, but Alyssa found the man anything but top worthy. She waited on the small party for her entire shift and not once in the three hours she was in attendance did he speak a kind word to his wife. The woman sat huddled on a large cushion at his feet staring off into space. Alyssa wondered how she managed to stay upright and not curl up to take a nap. The other women in the room were allowed to mingle with each other when their men, who had begun playing cards, weren't in need of them.

  Alyssa was kept busy with trays of drinks and appetizers for the crowd, and she was glad for the distraction. Whenever her mind did wander, it drifted right down the hall to where Alex was closed up in his office. She hadn't seen another hair of his since he gave his order to meet him after her shift. Order? Did she take orders from him? On a personal level?

  It hadn't gotten past her that she was extremely attracted to him, drawn to him in more than the physical needs. When he dropped his voice and demanded that she meet him after her shift, she had no urge to argue with him. She wanted to do as he said, to obey. It was stupid. She'd only met him that evening. His father was like a father to her as well. She needed to get her head on straight and put him out of it.

  "Alyssa." Travis's grating voice carried through the room as he crooked a finger at her from his table. She made her way to the table, tucking her tray under her arm. "Mary here is thirsty. Bring her a bowl of water please."

  Alyssa nodded and turned to leave. She paused for a moment at the door, second-guessing what she had heard. "He said bowl." Kerri, the evening lead, whispered to her as she walked out of the room with her. "Apparently he finds her to be bitchy today. Travis gets off on the public display, much more than she does." Kerri rolled her eyes as they made their way to kitchens.

  "Ah, well." Alyssa shrugged. She'd known a few men like that back home, and had quickly tired of them. It was one thing to have a public scene at the club, but when they started acting like manly apes pounding their chests just for the benefit of their ego, she quickly lost interest.

  "Your first night has gone pretty well." Kerri remarked as they entered the kitchen. The night was shutting down and only the owners were left with any needs. The kitchen was pretty quiet other than the dishwashers and a few busboys.

  "Yeah, I think being tossed into the fire helped." Alyssa smiled.

  "Really? Most girls would be terrified."

  "Sometimes when things need to be done, you just do them. Don't think about it, just do it." Alyssa found a bowl near the drying rack. "I think she'd rather have the bottled stuff from the bar than tap water." She held up the bowl and nodded toward the lounge.

  "Alyssa." Alex's deep voice stilled her mid step. She looked up and found him standing in the doorway. The top two buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned, giving him a more casual look than before. His hair was more tussled, as though he'd been raking his fingers through it all night.

  "Oh. Hi." She tried to smile, to at least look casual and not the melting pot of emotions she was on the inside.

  "Your shift ended twenty minutes ago." He nodded at the clock on the wall.

  "I was just getting this last
item for the party." She held up the bowl to his line of view. "And since I wasn't really scheduled, I don't think I actually had an end time."

  "I'll get that. You had one hell of a first night." Kerri walked past, snatching the bowl from her hand as she walked by, and disappeared into the lounge. She turned back once behind Alex and gave Alyssa slow wink. If his tone, and expression, hadn't made her flush, Keri's insinuation did.

  "Did Travis give you any trouble?" Alex asked with concern, his eyes locked on hers.

  "What? No. No, it was fine. Just busy." She waved a hand through the air. "I wasn't avoiding you." She reached behind her waist and untied her apron. "I was busy." She said again when he remained silent.

  "Come to my office." He said simply and turned away from her. She held the apron in her hand and followed him down the hall to the office next to Bradley's. Alex held the door open for her and gestured to a small sitting area off to the side of the room where two brown leather chairs faced each other with a small round coffee table between them. She sank into the soft leather and sighed loudly as her aching feet lifted from the ground. The relief of pressure only lasted a moment before the slight burn replaced it. Alex shut the door behind them and walked over to the small bar behind his desk. "Would you like a drink?" He asked as he poured himself one.

  "Uh. No. Thanks." She shook her head. Alcohol wasn't her thing. A glass of wine at dinner was fine, but anything stronger than that made her nervous. Her mother lived on Captain and cokes, and she was determined never to find out how much like her mother she might be.

  "Some water then." He opened the small refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. She took the bottle from him with another thank you and twisted off the top. She hadn't realized how thirsty she was until the first drop of liquid hit her tongue. She drank half the bottle before coming up for air. "Brandon usually keeps a spot clear behind the bar for the waitresses to keep some water or a drink there."

  She nodded. "I'll keep that in mind tomorrow night."

  "Right. You're working tomorrow." Alex sat in the seat across from her, his face filled with concern. "I'm not coming in tomorrow. That baseball game with the guys," he explained.

  "Yep." She nodded. "You know, I've gotten myself to work all by myself for the past several years. I'll be fine without you here." Although she said the words with a lighthearted tone, he looked as though she had just insulted him. "I mean, you don't need to worry." She amended. "I mean, it's not like you have any responsibility for me." His cell began to ring, and she was instantly in love with whoever the caller was that saved her from her own ramblings.

  He kept his eyes glued to her as he pulled the cell from his back pocket. "Hello? Hey Dad... Yes, she's here... We did... Yes, she did… No, Dad… Yes…" Alyssa watched his conversation with Paul with an internal grin. Many of her conversations with Paul had gone the same way. A firing squad of questions with only a short period of time given for answers. That usually meant that Paul was on a mission of some sort, there was a goal for the call and that it was not a leisurely chat. Then again, it was almost midnight, which seemed an odd time for a leisurely chat. "Okay, Dad… Yes... I got it. Three o'clock on Sunday. Yes, we will be there… Okay, I will, bye." Alex clicked off the call and took a deep breath.

  "He's up kind of late," Alyssa remarked when Alex continued to stare at her silently.

  "A night owl in his old age." Alex grinned. "He's invited us to a barbeque on Sunday." He slid the phone onto the coffee table and sat back in his chair, stretching his arms over his head before locking his fingers behind it. He gave the impression of a relaxed carefree guy, but something in his eyes told her otherwise. Something that warned her not to cross him. "He also said he expects a phone call from you tomorrow. He's not happy you didn't call him today."

  "I was really busy today and forgot all about calling him back. I'll call first thing tomorrow." She nodded sipping more of her water.

  "What would you have done if Bradley hadn't hired you yesterday?" he asked.

  "Well, I would have kept looking for a job," she answered, picking at the label on the bottle of water. Truth was, if Bradley hadn't hired her, she wasn't sure what she would have done. The apartment she rented was completely contingent on employment, without the job she would have lost it.

  "What about an apartment?" He was sounding more like Paul as the conversation continued.

  "I found one. I move in on Tuesday, once the landlord confirms my employment. What about you?" She sipped her water. "This isn't your day job. You do something else. Advertising? Is that it?" She knew damn well he was a VP at an advertising firm; Paul boasted of it often enough.

  "Yes." Alex nodded.

  "So why the double life?" she asked, balancing the water on her knee. His eyes moved from her face to the water and watched a drop of water slide down the bottle, drip onto her knee, and run down her bare leg. "Your dad doesn't know about this place." She continued when he didn't say anything else.

  "He wouldn't understand. Did you tell your mother about your lifestyle preferences?" She straightened in her seat at the mention of her mother.

  "My mother wasn't like most mothers." She hadn't meant to whisper, but she didn't want to give too much voice to her past.

  "I'm sorry." He dropped his hands to his lap and began to lean forward, but she shook her head to ward him off.

  "No, it's all right. She was what she was." Alyssa downed the rest of her water and stood from the chair. "I'm really beat." She looked around for a trash can.

  Alex stood from his seat and stepped to her. "Hey. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pried." His voice was barely audible, his breath warm against her skin. She forced herself to look at his eyes. The heat she saw there made her step back.

  "It's fine. I'm fine. I am really tired though. I can catch a cab downstairs." She turned to head to the door, when his hand wrapped around her arm, pulling her back to him.

  "Give me a minute, and we'll head down together."

  "It's going to look weird, you taking me home. I'm a big girl." She pulled her arm free of him and headed to the door, ignoring him when he called her back.

  She made a quick stop at the bar to grab her purse and drop off her apron before heading to the elevator. Alex's footsteps were behind her, but she didn't look back, not even once she was in the elevator. She swiped her card, pressed the button for the lobby and stepped to the side so as not to see into the club. She needed to get away from Alex Tribelli before the heat she saw in his eyes and felt in her chest spread any further.

  As the elevator glided down to the lobby she placed her hand on her arm, where his hand had been. His skin against hers had lit a fire in her, a spark like no other she'd experienced. A simple touch of his fingers had her melting for him. She wondered what would happen if his beautiful mouth were to press against hers. Disaster.

  Chapter Seven

  Alex leaned against the buffet table staring at his phone. The afternoon was muggy, and his shirt was sticking to his skin, even in the air-conditioned viewing room. Royce stood with Kendrick at the railing watching the pitcher warm up before the second inning. Kendrick was complaining about the Cubs' losing streak, and Royce laughed because he couldn't care less about sports in general.

  "Hey, Alex. I thought Jonathan was going to meet us?" Royce walked over to him.

  "What? Oh. No. He texted me this morning, something came up."

  "What came up?" Kendrick asked plucking a chip from the bowl. "He's bailed the last two times we've tried to get him out."

  "He didn't say." Alex shrugged and jammed his phone back into his jeans pocket. Alyssa hadn't answered when he called her after getting home from the club the night before, nor had she responded to his text message. It didn't take any time to see that her mom was a tender spot. It became clear the minute he mentioned her. Alyssa had withdrawn rapidly at the mention of her.

  "You okay, man?" Kendrick asked, stuffing another tortilla chip doused in salsa into his mouth.

  "Yeah."
Alex shook his head and refocused on being with the guys. Alyssa would have to wait. He couldn't force her to answer her phone or to text him back, but later he would get answers as to why she shut him out so quickly. He knew it was all going too fast, his obsession with her had gripped him tightly from the first sight, but it didn't matter. He couldn't force her from his mind any more than he could get her to answer her damn phone.

  "No. I've seen that look before." Royce laughed. “It’s the girl from the other night, isn’t it? She avoiding you? What did you do?”

  "Nothing. I don't think. I don't know. Hell. I've never chased a woman before. Chased them away, begged them to leave, avoided my apartment for days at a time to be sure they've left, but never chased them down."

  Kendrick laughed and grabbed the bowl of chips as he made his way to his seat to watch the game. "I don't know man, you looked real comfy with her last night. I had to hear about it all the way home."

  "Kelly's a romantic, don't listen to her."

  "Nah, Jessica was going on about it, too."

  "Jessica? The editor for the romance division at her publishing house?" Alex threw him a glare and sat in his own seat. "This box is nice, but the view pretty much sucks." He complained as he looked out at the first base line.

  "Since when do you follow baseball?" Kendrick asked.

  "Since it means we don't have to talk about women." Alex pulled out his phone to check once more that no messages had come in.

  *

  Alyssa looked at herself in the hotel mirror with a heavy sigh. She needed new clothes. The black skirt she wore was starting to fray at the hem, and she hoped that the dimness of the club would keep that hidden. Her white blouse, that used to be her go-to for special occasions, was now her go to work shirt. Thankfully she hadn't stained it, and it could still be worn without a blazer or vest to cover it.

  Her phone buzzed on the dresser, and she shook her head. It had to be Alex again. She hadn't answered any of his text messages, and she wasn't going to start now. She'd spent the entire conversation with Paul that morning avoiding the topic of Alex.